The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set decarbonisation goals for the shipping industry. As a result, shipowners and operators are preparing to use low- or zero-carbon alternative fuels. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission performances are fundamental for choosing suitable marine fuels. However, the current regulations adopt tank-to-wake (TTW) emission assessment methods that could misrepresent the total climate impacts of fuels. To better understand the well-to-wake (WTW) GHG emission performances, this work applied the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to a very large crude carrier (VLCC) sailing between the Middle East and China to investigate the emissions. The life cycle GHG emission impacts of using alternative fuels, including liquified natural gas (LNG), methanol, and ammonia, were evaluated and compared with using marine gas oil (MGO). The bunkering site of the VLCC was in Zhoushan port, China. The MGO and LNG were imported from overseas, while methanol and ammonia were produced in China. Four production pathways for methanol and three production pathways for ammonia were examined. The results showed that, compared with MGO, using fossil energy-based methanol and ammonia has no positive effect in terms of annual WTW GHG emissions. The emission reduction effects of fuels ranking from highest to lowest were full solar and battery-based methanol, full solar and battery-based ammonia, and LNG. Because marine ammonia-fuelled engines have not been commercialised, laboratory data were used to evaluate the nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The GHG emission reduction potential of ammonia can be exploited more effectively if the N2O emitted from engines is captured and disposed of through after-treatment technologies. This paper discussed three scenarios of N2O emission abatement ratios of 30%, 50%, and 90%. The resulting emission reduction effects showed that using full solar and battery-based ammonia with 90% N2O abatement performs better than using full solar and battery-based methanol. The main innovation of this work is realising the LCA GHG emission assessment for a deep-sea ship.


Idiopathic scoliosis is a tridimensional (3D) deformation of the spine associated with postural geometry (PG) disorganisation. Conventional classification of scoliosis is primarily based on the analysis of PA X-rays. This is a descriptive classification that forms heterogeneous groups. Diagnosis, prognosis and treatments are then developed around partial information. The goal of this project was to divide the left thoracolumbar (TLG) class in two subgroups using exhaustive analysis of the PA and lateral X-rays, and the evaluation of postural deformations. The quantification of the PG of 14 control subjects and 20 scoliotic patients (TLG) was realised using a stereovideographic approach. For each patient, PA and lateral X-rays were done using a digital X-ray apparatus. The TLG group shows common pathological characteristics but is forming a relatively heterogeneous group. When this class is divided in two subgroups, 9 postural parameters appeared to be different from the control group, each subgroup showing specific postural characteristics. The 3D quantification of pertinent radiological parameters and the PG evaluation should allow the classification of idiopathic scoliosis patients. Furthermore, these groups of patients could be characterised, in order to improve the diagnosis, the prognosis and the treatment, with a brace or surgically.


Although urine has been used widely for the qualitative detection of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), serum is chosen conventionally for the serial quantification of the hormone to monitor trophoblastic activity. In response to requests from both clinicians and patients regarding the use of urine as an alternative specimen type, we designed this comparative study to evaluate the possibility, taking into account both laboratory technique and the distribution of hCG within different body fluids. Using the Access Chemiluminescent Immunoassay System, total beta-hCG was measured in serum and urine (n = 30) collected from patients hospitalised for first-trimester abnormal pregnancy. Results obtained with normalised urine (corrected with urinary creatinine) and serum total beta-hCG correlated well (r = 0.98, P < 0.001), and we concluded that urine could be used as an alternative specimen type for the serial quantitation of hCG to monitor trophoblastic activity. However, the assay used must detect the common beta 2 epitope.


Distinct increase in activity of uridine kinase and pronounced decrease in thymidine kinase activity were observed in cell-free extracts of rat liver tissue at early stages of hepatocarcinogenesis caused by administration of N-nitrose diethylamine and 2-acetyl aminofluorene. Exogenous noradrepaline did not affect the altered activity of thymidine kinase but stimulated the effect of N-nitrose diethylamine and lowered the effect of 2-acetyl aminofluorene on the urindine kinase activity. Adrenergic neurotransmitters appear to influence the cell proliferation due to modification of the enzymes participating in the synthesis of nucleic acid precursors.


Packet switches may be scaled by spreading the traffic across packet switch elements that effectively operate in parallel. This can introduce mis-sequencing of packets within a flow, which is undesirable and degrades network performance. Most solutions require impractical complex central schedulers. We have conceived an architecture and method for load-balancing without mis-sequencing that builds on earlier research of Clos-like packet switches that are suitable for implementation in hybrid electronic/photonic technology. The architecture involves no central schedulers and is implemented by distributing cross-point queues over all elements of the switch and deploying pollers to select the queues to be served.


The paper presents the results of an experimental study of the exothermal and endothermal effects occurring on the dissolution of potassium nitrate KNO3, ammonium nitrate NH4NO3, potassium hydroxide KOH and sodium hydroxide NaOH, in distilled water with natural mixing and forced stirring. It is shown that for natural mixing, NH4NO3 and KOH are the most appropriate working substances for cooling and heat generation respectively, while for forced stirring, NH4NO3 and NaOH display better performance. The optimal concentrations of the liquid solutions for achieving extreme temperatures and maximal enthalpy changes are also defined. In addition, the regression function and regression coefficients describing correlations between the total enthalpy change of the calorimetric system and the solution concentration are found, for the most suitable liquid solutions. The experimental results obtained can be used to develop generating reactors for exothermal heating and endothermal cooling for a thermochemical seasonal storage system able to store solar heat or heat from combined heat and power (CHP) units of biogas plants in summer, for heating purposes in winter, while generating cooling to support air conditioning systems in summer.


Persea americana is a tropical plant commonly found in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. The fruit is mostly eaten as food. The fruits, leaves and seeds are used in folkoric medicine in the management of various ailments. However, there is paucity of information on the nutritional components and phytochemical constituents of the seeds. This study investigated the proximate composition, phytochemicals (qualitative and quantitative), Pro-vitamin A and vitamin C, minerals content, amino acid profile and anti-nutrients of Persea americana seeds. Phytochemical, nutritional, vitamin, mineral, amino acid analyses and anti-nutritive factor of P. americana seeds were carried out according to standard procedures. Qualitative phytochemical screening of P. americana seeds revealed the presence of saponin, cardiac glycosides, terpenoid, flavonoids, alkaloids and tannins. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of phytochemicals showed the presence of phenol (3.22mg/100g), alkaloids (1.86 mg/100g), saponins (0.95 mg/100g) and flavonoids (2.14 mg/100g). The proximate composition of P. americana seeds shows moisture (6.98%), ash (4.44%), fat (5.30%), crude fibre (3.31%), crude protein (11.20%) and carbohydrate (68.77%). The result for vitamin reveals the presence of vitamin C (24.1mg) and Pro-vitamin A (12.3IU). Also, mineral analysis showed the presence of sodium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, calcium, chromium, potassium and lead in varying concentration. Amino acid analysis of the seed showed that the concentration of total amino acid was 54.53g/100g protein while, the total essential amino acid was 26.33g/100g protein. The total non-essential amino acid present in the seed was 28.20g/100g protein with a very high proline concentration (6.50g/100g). The anti-nutrient contents of the seeds revealed the presence of tannin, oxalate, saponins, alkaloids, cyanogenic glycosides and phytate. The results obtained from this study indicated that P. americana seeds is rich in nutrients and phytochemicals. This study therefore suggests that the seeds of P. americana may be developed in to supplements that may have beneficial effects on the nutrition and health of humans.


The following notes are a preliminary record of geological results of work in the Yukon-Alaska boundary region by the writer with the expedition of the Arctic Institute of North America (project " Snow Cornice ") during the summer of 1949. Field-work was mainly along the northern border of the great inter-montane basin occupied by the Seward Glacier (or firn-field), which lies intrenched behind, and immediately north of, the main St. Elias Range, of which Mt. St. Elias itself, 18,008 feet, is the dominant peak. During flights from the coast at Yakutat to and from this basin, and on other occasions over neighbouring localities, visual observations of structure and morphology were also made. Chiefly, however, field-work was a matter of climbing (as in the case of a pioneer ascent of Mt. Vancouver, 15,800 feet), or of skiing over the immense spaces of the Seward firn-field (750 square miles in area) in order to visit scattered island outcrops or mountain cliffs flanking the firn-field. The region is underlain by a metamorphic series of sedimentary origin, mainly pelitic, with subordinate psammitic elements and marked calc beds. The pelitic series consists mostly of biotite-schists and gneisses, rarely garnetiferous; the calc beds are composed of fairly pure marbles, which occupy no regular stratigraphical position within the pelites, but occur in mountain walls as conspicuous elongated or irregular masses, having suffered severe deformation during orogenesis. The thickness of this whole series, whose dip is variable and locally vertical, was not determinable. Into the series has been


ID24 is the energy dispersive beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility dedicated to X‐ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS). Since 2000, a complete refurbishment program has started, including source upgrade, mirrors replacement, polychromator optimization and detection improvements. These have made possible the development of new applications in a variety of different fields, ranging from the measurement of tiny atom displacements to time resolved techniques, from measurements under extreme conditions to micro‐XAS studies.


To ascertain the molecular basis of Ca2+-mediated activation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), we determined the accessibility of tryptophan residues to externally added acrylamide as quencher in the absence and presence of the metal ion. The steady-state and time resolved fluorescence data revealed that MMP-9 possesses two classes of tryptophan residues, "exposed" and "buried" which are quenched by the collisional rate constants (kq) of 3.2′ 109M-1.s-1 and 7.5′ 108M-1.s-1, respectively. These values are impaired by approximately two and three-fold, respectively, in the presence of 10 mM Ca2+. The Stern-Volmer constants (Ksv values) predicted from the time resolved fluorescence data (in the absence of Ca2+ ) satisfied the dynamic quenching model of the enzyme's tryptophan residues. This was not the case in the presence of Ca2+ ; the steady-state acrylamide quenching data could only be explained by a combination of "dynamic" and "static" quenching models. A cumulative account of these data led to the suggestion that the binding of Ca2+ modulated the tertiary structure of the protein by decreasing the dynamic flexibility of the enzyme, which is manifested in further structuring of the enzyme's active site pocket toward facilitating catalysis. Arguments are presented that the binding of Ca2+ at distal sites "dynamically" communicates with the
active site residues of MMP-9 during catalysis.


Community-based participant-observation purposefully combines participant-observation and community-based participatory research. While participant-observation is the core method of ethnography and foundational to cultural anthropology, community-based participatory research initially emerged from health and related applied sciences to align researchers' and communities' agendas through focused collaboration. Participant-observation and community-based participatory research have different scholarly origins and norms but are united in centering communities' understandings on their terms. Combining the strengths of both, we provide a step-by-step explanation of community-based participant-observation, with examples from a study of water insecurity in colonias north of the U.S.–Mexico border. Using community-based participant-observation, researchers can facilitate the co-production of knowledge and community benefit by analyzing high-quality data that inform theory building and basic research.


This paper presents Fauno, the first and largest open-source Italian conversational Large Language Model (LLM). Our goal with Fauno is to democratize the study of LLMs in Italian, demonstrating that obtaining a fine-tuned conversational bot with a single GPU is possible. In addition, we release a collection of datasets for conversational AI in Italian. The datasets on which we fine-tuned Fauno include various topics such as general question answering, computer science, and medical questions. We release our code and datasets on \url{https://github.com/RSTLess-research/Fauno-Italian-LLM}


The physicians counseling role in sterilization is discussed. Changing attitudes and technologic innovations have caused the demand for sterilization to increase dramatically. It is generally accepted that oral contraception should rarely be used by women beyond their mid-30s. Physicians should explain the procedure its risks and fallibility to couples contemplating sterilization. Concern about litigation need be no greater than in any other elective operation if this is done properly. Counseling should include the following areas: 1) Should sterilization be performed? 2) Which partner should have it done? 3) What method should be used? 4) When should it be done?


In many bargaining situations a third party is authorized to impose a backstop position on the bargainers. Prominent examples include governments who use collaborative policymaking between stakeholders to set public policy, but also compulsory arbitration in labour negotiations. Axiomatic models of cooperative bargaining, such as the Nash bargain, presume that the status quo allocation will have no effect on the outcome parties reach if it differs from the backstop set by the third party. In contrast, experimental findings have suggested that both equality of outcomes and entitlement (where the status quo establishes a focal point) may affect the agreements bargainers reach, at least under full information. This paper extends the investigation of the effect of equality and entitlement on cooperative bargaining to the case where parties have private, unverifiable information concerning the value of outcomes. We use a two-party, two-attribute experimental design in which subjects take part in unstructured, face-to-face bargaining to jointly select from among approximately 200 potential outcomes. We find that, relative to full information, parties who bargain under private information are almost as likely to reach agreements as those under full information, and that these agreements are still approximately Pareto efficient. Further, the effect of the status quo (rather than backstop) allocation seems amplified under private information, while the effect of equality is dampened, but not eliminated.


The problem with many contemporary criticisms of Chomsky and linguistic nativism is that they are based upon features of the theory that are no longer germane; aspects that have either been superseded by more adequate proposals, or that have been dropped altogether under the weight of contravening evidence. In this paper, rather than rehashing old debates that are voluminously documented elsewhere, we intend to focus on more recent developments. To this end, we have put a premium on references from the 1990s and the latter half of the 1980s. First, we will describe exactly what is now thought to be innate about language, and why it is thought to be innate rather than learned. Second, we will examine the evidence that many people take to be the greatest challenge to the nativist claim: ape language. Third, we will briefly consider how an innate language organ might have evolved. Fourth we will look at how an organism might communicate without benefit of the innate language structure proposed by Chomsky, and examine a number of cases in which this seems to be happening. Finally we will try to sum up our claims and characterize what we believe will be the most fruitful course of debate for the immediate future.


Estimating epistemic uncertainty of models used in low-latency applications and Out-Of-Distribution samples detection is a challenge due to the computationally demanding nature of uncertainty estimation techniques. Estimating model uncertainty using approximation techniques like Monte Carlo Dropout (MCD), DropConnect (MCDC) requires a large number of forward passes through the network, rendering them inapt for low-latency applications. We propose Select-DC which uses a subset of layers in a neural network to model epistemic uncertainty with MCDC. Through our experiments, we show a significant reduction in the GFLOPS required to model uncertainty, compared to Monte Carlo DropConnect, with marginal trade-off in performance. We perform a suite of experiments on CIFAR 10, CIFAR 100, and SVHN datasets with ResNet and VGG models. We further show how applying DropConnect to various layers in the network with different drop probabilities affects the networks performance and the entropy of the predictive distribution.


This study is concerned with model selection of lifetime and survival distributions arising in engineering reliability or in the medical sciences. We compare various distributions—including the gamma, Weibull, and lognormal—with a new distribution called geometric extreme exponential. Except for the lognormal distribution, the other three distributions all have the exponential distribution as special cases. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed to determine sample sizes for which survival distributions can distinguish data generated by their own families. Two methods for decision are by maximum likelihood and by Kolmogorov distance. Neither method is uniformly best. The probability of correct selection with more than one alternative shows some surprising results when the choices are close to the exponential distribution.


No consensus exists on using a specific screening tool to assess malnutrition in critically ill patients. Thus, we assessed malnutrition in intensive care unit (ICU) patients by comparing similarity of results between the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) and Phase Angle (PhA) measured by Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis. A cross-sectional observational study of 321 patients examined their nutritional status at least 1 week after the ICU admission using MUST, PhA, and anthropometric measurements. Diagnoses and Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores were retrieved retrospectively. The mean of Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II score was 17.73, indicating moderate morbidity. The majority of patients (71.0%) were fed enterally while the remaining (29.0%) did not have any nutritional intervention. Although the average body mass index was normal, only 55.3% of patients received the prescribed calories up to the day of assessment (median day of assessment was 11 [interquartile range: 9-18]). The MUST and PhA results showed that patients fell consistently into 3 malnutrition levels. Hierarchical Multiple Regression revealed that MUST (risk of malnutrition) explained an additional 44.9% of the variance in PhA (&bgr;: −.449, P < .001, confidence interval: −1.25 to −0.740). Although MUST measures malnutrition subjectively, it demonstrated higher congruency with Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis in the screening of malnutrition in this sample of critically ill patients.


Satellite-based vegetation indices (VIs) and Apparent Thermal Inertia (ATI) derived from temperature change provide valuable information for estimating evapotranspiration (LE) and detecting the onset and severity of drought. The modified satellite-based Priestley-Taylor (MS-PT) algorithm that we developed earlier, coupling both VI and ATI, is validated based on observed data from 40 flux towers distributed across the world on all continents. The validation results illustrate that the daily LE can be estimated with the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) varying from 10.7 W/m2 to 87.6 W/m2, and with the square of correlation coefficient (R2) from 0.41 to 0.89 (p < 0.01). Compared with the Priestley-Taylor-based LE (PT-JPL) algorithm, the MS-PT algorithm improves the LE estimates at most flux tower sites. Importantly, the MS-PT algorithm is also satisfactory in reproducing the inter-annual variability at flux tower sites with at least five years of data. The R2 between measured and predicted annual LE anomalies is 0.42 (p = 0.02). The MS-PT algorithm is then applied to detect the variations of long-term terrestrial LE over Three-North Shelter Forest Region of China and to monitor global land surface drought. The MS-PT algorithm described here demonstrates the ability to map regional terrestrial LE and identify global soil moisture stress, without requiring precipitation information.


The ability of anti-heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) drugs to attenuate NF-κB-mediated transcription is the major basis for their anti-inflammatory properties. While the molecular mechanisms underlying this effect are not clear, they appear to be distinct in human endothelial cells. We now show for the first time that type 2 sirtuin (Sirt-2) histone deacetylase binds human NF-κB target gene promoter and prevents the recruitment of NF-κB proteins and subsequent assembly of RNA polymerase II complex in human lung microvascular endothelial cells. Hsp90 inhibitors stabilize the Sirt-2/promoter interaction and impose a "transcriptional block," which is reversed by either inhibition or downregulation of Sirt-2 protein expression. Furthermore, this process is independent of NF-κB (p65) Lysine 310 deacetylation, suggesting that it is distinct from known Sirt-2-dependent mechanisms. We demonstrate that Sirt-2 is recruited to NF-κB target gene promoter via interaction with core histones. Upon inflammatory challenge, chromatin remodeling and core histone H3 displacement from the promoter region removes Sirt-2 and allows NF-κB/coactivator recruitment essential for RNA Pol II-dependent mRNA induction. This novel mechanism may have important implications in pulmonary inflammation.


We present a new perspective to the classification of topological phases in free fermion insulators by generalizing the Jackiw-Rebbi model to arbitrary dimensions. We show that a generalized Jackiw-Rebbi model where the Dirac mass ($m$) satisfies $m(x)=-m(-x)$ is invariant under a parity transformation ($P$) that relates the $x>0$ half to the $x<0$ half. Determining the form of $P$ gives rise to a Clifford algebra that has been shown to give a complete topological classification of free fermion insulators. Gapless edge states are a natural consequence of our construction and their topological nature can be understood from the fact that all gapless edge states at a given interface transform similarly under $P$ (all odd or all even). A naive non-topological model for states confined to the interface will allow both even and odd states.


The authors report the case of a 60-year-old male patient. In November 2001 he developed intestinal symptoms of bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain. Colononoscopy and biopsy established the diagnosis of ulcerative colitis (proctosigmoiditis). The disease activity was moderate at the beginning. No significant laboratory alterations were found (including CEA, CA19-9), and mesalazine was started orally. He was in remission until November 2003, when he was admitted to our Outpatient Clinic for upper and right lower abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Colonoscopy found proctosigmoiditis with a moderate activity, gastroscopy revealed chronic gastritis, laboratory data was normal. Treatment was amended with mesalazine clysma and methylprednisolone (16 mg) orally. Symptoms ameliorated; however, right lower abdominal pain persisted. US and CT examination demonstrated a pericecal cystic mass (11 cm x 3.5 cm). At first pericecal abscess was suspected, as the previous US examination (6 mo earlier) had revealed normal findings. Fine needle aspiration was performed. Cytology confirmed the diagnosis of mucocele. The patient underwent partial cecum resection and extirpation of the mucocele. He recovered well and the final histology revealed a cystadenoma of the appendix. Follow up was started. The patient is now free of symptoms. Although primary adenocarcinoma of the appendix is uncommon, the authors emphasize that preoperative diagnosis of an underlying malignancy in a mucocele is important for patient management; however, it is difficult on imaging studies.


We present a detailed study of the Planck-selected binary galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0 (G165; z = 0.348). A multiband photometric catalog is generated incorporating new imaging from the Large Binocular Telescope/Large Binocular Camera and Spitzer/IRAC to existing imaging. To cope with the different image characteristics, robust methods are applied in the extraction of the matched-aperture photometry. Photometric redshifts are estimated for 143 galaxies in the 4 arcmin2 field of overlap covered by these data. We confirm that strong-lensing effects yield 30 images of 11 background galaxies, of which we contribute new photometric redshift estimates for three image multiplicities. These constraints enable the construction of a revised lens model with a total mass of M 600 kpc = (2.36 ± 0.23) × 1014 M ⊙. In parallel, new spectroscopy using MMT/Binospec and archival data contributes thirteen galaxies that meet our velocity and transverse radius criteria for cluster membership. The two cluster components have a pair-wise velocity of ≲100 km s−1, favoring an orientation in the plane of the sky with a transverse velocity of 100–1700 km s−1. At the same time, the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is offset in velocity from the systemic mean value, suggesting dynamical disturbance. New LOFAR and Very Large Array data uncover head-tail radio galaxies in the BCG and a large red galaxy in the northeast component. From the orientation and alignment of the four radio trails, we infer that the two cluster components have already traversed each other, and are now exiting the cluster.


This paper investigates the use of the model reference control strategy for induction motor drive systems based on indirect field oriented control principles. The proposed control scheme does not require the use of any electromechanical sensor and is fairly independent of the rotor time constant. For example, this scheme is well suited for applications where there is no speed control but it is required to keep the indirect field oriented controller permanently tuned to obtain a high performance torque control. The parameter sensitivity of the control scheme to changes in rs and sls is also investigated in this paper. Experimental results are presented and demonstrate the correctness and feasibility of the proposed methodology.


The ultimate goal of strategic plan in Chai Nat Province is to improve quality of life among Thai older persons.  Chai Nat Province as agriculture community is approaching aged society before other provinces in Thailand.  The increasing number of aging population is very challenging for Thai government and its alliance to enhance the life quality of this population and the sustainable development of the country. The objective of this descriptive research was to study quality of life among Thai older persons in Chai Nat Province, central region of Thailand.  The samples comprised of 628 Thai older persons who were randomly selected from all 8 districts area of Chai Nat province using multi-stage sampling method. Data were collected using demographic data form and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale for Thai versions (WHOQOL-BREF-THAI). Percentage, mean, standard deviation, independence t-test and F-test were used for data analysis.
The results of the study revealed that the overall quality of life among Thai older persons in Chai Nat Province was at moderate level ( X   = 93.72, S.D. = 13.92). Regarding the dimension of quality of life, physical, psychological, and social relation were at moderate level ( X = 24.57, 21.55, 10.63, S.D. = 3.86, 3.52, 2.30 respectively). Whereas the environmental dimension was at high level ( X  = 29.67, S.D. = 4.95). When comparing the quality of life by age (early age, middle age, old age), gender, educational level (non-educated and educated), income (sufficiency and insufficiency) and living area (urban, seri-rual, rural), it was found that the overall quality of life of Thai older persons were significantly different by age and living areas. Thai older persons living in semi-rural community had higher level of quality of life than those living in urban and rural community. However, the quality of life of Thai older persons was not significantly different by gender, educational level (non-educated and educated), income (sufficiency and insufficiency).
The results of this study suggested that the quality of life among Thai older persons, especially the dimension of physical, psychological, and social relation should be enhanced.  The older persons who lived in rural and urban community should be priority for quality of life improvement implementation.


Given a large graph,the densest-subgraph problem asks to find a subgraph with maximum average degree. When considering the top-k version of this problem, a naïve solution is to iteratively find the densest subgraph and remove it in each iteration. However, such a solution is impractical due to high processing cost. The problem is further complicated when dealing with dynamic graphs, since adding or removing an edge requires re-running the algorithm. In this paper, we study the top-k densest-subgraph problem in the sliding-window model and propose an efficient fully-dynamic algorithm. The input of our algorithm consists of an edge stream, and the goal is to find the node-disjoint subgraphs that maximize the sum of their densities. In contrast to existing state-of-the-art solutions that require iterating over the entire graph upon any update, our algorithm profits from the observation that updates only affect a limited region of the graph. Therefore, the top-k densest subgraphs are maintained by only applying local updates. We provide a theoretical analysis of the proposed algorithm and show empirically that the algorithm often generates denser subgraphs than state-of-the-art competitors. Experiments show an improvement in efficiency of up to five orders of magnitude compared to state-of-the-art solutions.


Abstract. This study aim is to explain how to implement the 2013 curriculum to teach English and describe English teacher obstacle on the curriculum implementation. The research method is a library study. The research finding shows that the English teachers are not able to apply 2013 curriculum well in the class. They get confused to use it in teaching and learning process, they are not able to apply the scientific approach in teaching and learning process well too. It because the teacher has a lack of knowledge about the 2013 curriculum itself and the scientific approach is a new approach in teaching and learning English. So, the implementation of the 2013 curriculum is not maximum especially in applying the scientific approach to the class. In analyzing the data, the writer uses content analyzes technique. Therefore, the English teacher has to learn and work hard to handle the obstacle in implementing the 2013 curriculum well like the following more socialization, more workshops of 2013 curriculum and also need support from the stakeholders like government, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Headmaster, and so on in realizing 2013 curriculum.

Keywords: Implementing, 2013 curriculum, English teacher.


With the growing importance of the robotic manipulators in the area of industrial automation, there is an increase in demand for their position accuracy. To control such robotic systems effectively, more complex forms of control than the simple constant gain linear feedback control is required. Two adaptive control schemes, namely the adaptive PID controller and the self-tuning controller, are implemented in the system. To provide for fast control actions in the robotic system, a real-time approach is adopted. Such operation requires large computing power in a relatively short period of time. A digital signal processor (DSP) whose architecture is optimized to process sampled data at high rate is well suited to this purpose. Its architecture is designed to exploit the repetitive nature of signal processing by pipelining the data flow for extra speed. The TMS320C25 DSP chip is chosen for this purpose. From extensive experimental testing, it is shown that the position accuracy of the robotic manipulator using the given adaptive control schemes is within the 0.5 mm range.<<ETX>>


This article considers the factors that are likely to continue to shape the future of clinical legal education. Drawing on the history of clinical legal education, both in Australia and more broadly, the article considers how those involved in clinical programs might best promote program sustainability. The article examines the continuing creative tension between goals related to student learning and those related to community service, as well as considering the emergence of new forms of clinical lawyering. It recognises the importance of utilising clinical insights across the broader law program, and advocates for an emphasis on the natural strengths of clinic-based learning in terms of students developing effective frameworks for addressing ethical issues and developing strong links with the practising profession. The article also calls for close attention to be paid to developing effective practices in student supervision. Such endeavours can be advanced through developing the awareness of supervisors regarding the range of matters that can impact on their work with students, including a better understanding of the supervision practices used in other disciplines. The article also addresses the prospect of an increasing focus on graduate clinical programs designed to prepare law graduates for their entry to the legal profession.


Background Tablets and capsules are the most common dosage forms. However, ease of use and/or swallowing influences patients' compliance. Objective To identify patients' preferences regarding the three-dimensional size of medical tablets/capsules. Methods Eighteen cylindrical-, oblong-, and oval-shaped model formulations having different sizes were prepared by three-dimensional printing using polylactic acid. Participants (40 patients visiting a pharmacy in Japan) evaluated the difficulty of picking up and swallowing these model formulations by touching/observing them, and completed a questionnaire. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate each sample, and the relationship of VAS scores to the major axis, thickness, I2 (the sum of major/minor axes) and I3 (the sum of major/minor axes and thickness) of the model formulations was evaluated by ANOVA followed by Tukey's test. Results Female participants showed lower VAS scores (less difficult) for picking difficulty compared with male participants, and those taking many drugs showed higher VAS scores (more difficult) for swallowing difficulty compared with those taking fewer drugs. Otherwise, age, gender, disease status, number of drugs usually taken, and ingestion problems did not greatly influence the evaluation. Overall, larger model formulations showed less picking difficulty, but greater swallowing difficulty. Model formulations 2 mm thick or less were harder to pick up, whereas those 6 mm thick or more were harder to swallow. I3 values greater than 20–22 mm were associated with a negative evaluation by participants. Conclusion Participants in this study preferred model formulations with an I3 value below 22 mm and a thickness of 2–6 mm.


It is suddenly fashionable in political circles in the United Kingdom (and elsewhere) to talk about lifelong learning and lifelong education. This seems to be the direct result of the present economic climate which has called into question many previous assumptions: job security has become an effective myth for most of those who can actually get work; long?term unemployment seems to have become structural and permanent. Consequently, the notions of lifelong learning and lifelong education have taken on dimensions far removed from the almost Utopian ideals of their supporters in the years following the publication of the report Learning to Be. Given the current economic gloom, the popularity of the terms with politicians and the fact of being in the European Year of Lifelong Learning, it is perhaps appropriate to take stock of the whole notion of lifelong learning and lifelong education and to see just what meaning (if any) lies behind these words and where they might take us in the future. This essay lays its foundations in the historical background to the ideas of lifelong learning and lifelong education before moving onto a critique of the post?Faure advocates of the principles. It discusses various problems inherent in the concepts (such as lifelong inadequacy) before concluding that, although many of the difficulties in the concepts are due to the confused nature of adult education itself (e.g. is it education or leisure?), there is a greater need than ever for sustained efforts in favour of lifelong education to help to restore the hope which seems to have become a rare commodity among an all too large section of society.


Relational databases benefit significantly from elasticity, whereby they execute on a set of changing hardware resources provisioned to match their storage and processing requirements. Such flexibility is especially attractive for scientific databases because their users often have a no-overwrite storage model, in which they delete data only when their available space is exhausted. This results in a database that is regularly growing and expanding its hardware proportionally. Also, scientific databases frequently store their data as multidimensional arrays optimized for spatial querying. This brings about several novel challenges in clustered, skewaware data placement on an elastic shared-nothing database. In this work, we design and implement elasticity for an array database. We address this challenge on two fronts: determining when to expand a database cluster and how to partition the data within it. In both steps we propose incremental approaches, affecting a minimum set of data and nodes, while maintaining high performance. We introduce an algorithm for gradually augmenting an array database's hardware using a closed-loop control system. After the cluster adds nodes, we optimize data placement for n-dimensional arrays. Many of our elastic partitioners incrementally reorganize an array, redistributing data only to new nodes. By combining these two tools, the scientific database efficiently and seamlessly manages its monotonically increasing hardware resources.


A small coil (35 mm bore) was made by winding a superconducting Ag/Bi-2223 multifilamentary tape. The coil, composed of eight pancakes, showed reduced performance in the pancakes placed at the sides with respect to central ones. This effect was attributed to the radial field at the coil ends. In order to explain this behaviour, a general method for predicting the critical current of a coil, starting from basic information on short samples, was developed. The method was used to understand the possible advantages from a reduction of radial field in the coil through a suitable iron yoke for flux return. The measured performance (in terms of critical current) of the coil with iron improved by 10%. The central field at 77 K was 1100 Gauss and 6000 Gauss at 4.2 K.


Management of advanced bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw, particularly in cases of pathological fractures with extraoral fistulas, is a challenging responsibility for craniomaxillofacial specialists. Although a periosteal reaction is occasionally observed in cases with extensive sequestra, few reports have documented circumferential periosteal osseous formation resulting in bone repair. We present the case of a 78-year-old woman who was treated for breast cancer and received intravenous bisphosphonates. She had bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw with bilateral pathological fractures of the mandible. During the course of minimally invasive treatment, the necrotic segment was separated with circumferential exposure, and new bone spontaneously formed with osseous union to the unilateral fractured stump. The present case typically highlights the potential of periosteal osteogenesis to regain an acceptable state even for patients with severe "bis-phossy jaw," particularly those with pathological fractures, although we do not advocate the universality of the phenomenon presented as "phoenix jaw."


Using arterioles dissected from rat cerebral pial membrane, we investigated cell-to-cell communication by means of the amphotericin-B-perforated whole-cell patch clamp technique. During a brief voltage step or ramp in voltage clamp mode, the leak current through the membrane of a smooth muscle cell in situ in an arteriole was attenuated by different types of gap junction inhibitors. Macroscopic current recording via two electrodes attached to adjacent smooth muscle cells or to a smooth muscle cell and a nearby endothelial cell revealed transjunctional current flow between cells of the same or different types. The pseudo-junctional conductance-voltage relationship obtained from adjacent smooth muscle cells differed from that obtained from a smooth muscle cell and an endothelial cell (symmetrical for the former and asymmetrical for the latter). Single- or multiple-channel events could be recorded from weakly coupled cells of the two types: simultaneous, equal-sized events in opposite directions were recorded via two electrodes, demonstrating electrical coupling directly between cell pairs. The single-channel conductance observed most frequently varied: 200–230 pS for pairs of two smooth muscle cells and 240–260 pS for mixed pairs. These data suggest the existence of differential patterns of electrical communication in vascular cells present in rat intact cerebral arterioles.


Colloidal cadmium chalcogenide nanosheets with atomically precise thickness of a few atomic layers and size of 10-100 nm are two-dimensional (2D) quantum well materials with strong and precise quantum confinement in the thickness direction. Despite their many advantageous properties, excitons in these and other 2D metal chalcogenide materials are short-lived due to large radiative and nonradiative recombination rates, hindering their applications as light harvesting and charge separation/transport materials for solar energy conversion. We showed that these problems could be overcome in type-II CdSe/CdTe core/crown heteronanosheets (with CdTe crown laterally extending on the CdSe nanosheet core). Photoluminesence excitation measurement revealed that nearly all excitons generated in the CdSe and CdTe domains localized to the CdSe/CdTe interface to form long-lived charge transfer excitons (with electrons in the CdSe domain and hole in the CdTe domain). By ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy, we showed that the efficient exciton localization efficiency could be attributed to ultrafast exciton localization (0.64 ± 0.07 ps), which was facilitated by large in-plane exciton mobility in these 2D materials and competed effectively with exiton trapping at the CdSe or CdTe domains. The spatial separation of electrons and holes across the CdSe/CdTe heterojunction effectively suppressed radiative and nonradiative recombination processes, leading to a long-lived charge transfer exciton state with a half-life of ∼ 41.7 ± 2.5 ns, ∼ 30 times longer than core-only CdSe nanosheets.


Banana and maize starches were acetylated with acetic anhydride in the presence of different levels of catalytic agent (iodine) using microwave heating. Degree substitution, he Fourier transforms infrared (FT-IR) spectra, the morphological properties, the gelatinization and retrogradation characteristics, the pasting property and X-ray diffraction pattern were evaluated. The FT-IR study showed that acetylation was produced in both starches, a strong absorption band at 1740 cm−1, and this signal rose when the concentration of iodine increased; this pattern was corroborated with degree substitution of both starches. SEM revealed more exo-corrosion and fusion in acetylated maize starch granules. Acetylated banana starch had higher crystallinity level than maize starch, and the crystallinity level decreased when the catalyst concentration increased. Similar pattern was show for the average temperature and enthalpy of gelatinization. In general, the acetylation retards the starch retrogradation, but at longer storage time this effect was minimized. Difference in the retrogradation level was found between both starches. Using microwave heating and different iodine concentrations as catalyst is possible produce acetylation of starch with specific physicochemical characteristics.


This study quantifies the relationship between the perceived and actual waiting times experienced by passengers at a bus stop. Understanding such a relationship would be useful in quantifying the value of providing real-time information to passengers on the time until the next bus is expected to arrive at a bus stop. Data on perceived and actual passenger waiting times, along with socioeconomic characteristics, were collected at bus stops where no real-time bus arrival information is provided, and relationships between perceived and actual waiting times are estimated. The results indicate that passengers do perceive time to be greater than the actual amount of time waited. However, the hypothesis that the rate of change of perceived time does not vary with respect to the actual waiting time could not be rejected (over a range of 3 to 15 minutes). Assuming that a passenger's perceived waiting time is equal to the actual time when presented with accurate real-time bus arrival information, the value of the eliminated additional time is assessed in the form of reduced vehicle hours per day resulting from a longer headway that produces the same mean passenger waiting time. The eliminated additional time is also assessed in the form of uncertainty in the headway resulting in the same extra waiting time. Naturally, such benefits of passenger information can only be confirmed when the actual effect of information on the perception of waiting time is quantified.


The bacterial mutagenicity of runoff water from soils contaminated with hazardous industrial waste was monitored for a three-year period using Salmonella typhimurium strain TA98 with and without metabolic activation. The wastes included a wood-preserving waste, a combined American Petroleum Institute (API) separator/slop oil emulsion sludge and a storm-water runoff impoundment waste. The wastes were applied to a Weswood silt loam soil (Fluventic Ustochrept) and a Bastrop clay loam soil (Udic Paleustalf) at a rate of 3.1% (wt./wt.) for the wood-preserving waste and of 4.5% for the two refinery wastes.

The results indicate that the runoff water from each of the waste-amended soils contained mutagenic constituents. The maximum specific activity was 783 net revertants per milligram residue, which was induced by the runoff water collected from the storm-water runoff impoundment-amended Weswood soil 360 d after application and assayed with metabolic activation. This sample also yielded the maximum weighted activity of 6,554 revertants per liter of runoff water. The mutagenic activities of the runoff water from all waste-amended soils displayed significant increases through 360 d after application and, in most cases, significant decreases in the samples collected approximately three years after application. The mutagenic activities of the runoff water from the Weswood soil were consistently greater than the activities of the runoff water from the Bastrop soil. These results indicate that three years or more may be required for the mutagenic activity of runoff water to return to background level, and that different soils will differ in their capacities to retain mutagenic chemicals during rainfall events.


In today's world, sustainable development has become the consensus of the international community. With the development and progress of the world economy and the launch of the wave of environmental protection in the world, market trade and environmental protection issues have gradually gained the full attention of government departments and people in many countries around the world, and gradually developed into one of the core issues in the global political, economic and multi-industry fields. The laws and regulations on environmental protection adopted by international organizations and countries and the basic rules of market trade constitute the basis for applying environmental control supervision. The researchers adopted a systematic online search to identify journal articles, reports, and other relevant documents related to the market trade and environmental protection. The online search was done mainly on Google, Google Scholar and Bing to retrieve related documents on market trade and environmental protection. The study unraveled a complex relationship between market trade and environmental protection, and the international community has paid too much attention. Foreign trade policy aims to avoid the development of a new market trade restriction and implementation program, protect market trade, eliminate the existing barriers to the market trade, restrict market trade laws and regulations, and finally achieve the way to increase the effectiveness of market trade. Therefore, environmental protection and market trade are two systems, and it is a core contradiction to abide by which fundamental principles are observed. To solve and deal with the relationship between market trade and the environment, it must redefine the relevant influencing factors in these two systems. The researchers suggested that through the coordination of management, there should be a careful study from the experience of relevant organizations, such as the European Union, NAFTA, OECD and then put forward specific ideas for coordinated management.


This volume is dedicated to Malcolm Ross, a prolific scholar who started in linguistics later in life and who has made significant contributions to Austronesian (AN) and Papuan linguistics. The volume starts out with an overview of Ross's life written by his former student (and volume editor) Bethwyn Evans, beginning with Ross's early interest in language. His first career as an English teacher took him to Papua New Guinea, where he became interested in AN and Papuan linguistics. Although he began his PhD at the age of 40, Ross has become a very influential scholar in the studies of AN and Papuan languages, particularly in historical linguistics. The second chapter of the book is a complete listing of his works, including unpublished papers. There are two main sections in this volume. The first, entitled "Historical relationships amongst languages," contains ten chapters dealing with subgrouping and classification, mostly on AN and Papuan languages. The second section, entitled "Historical development of languages across time," contains twelve chapters, mostly dealing with reconstruction and language change, and primarily focused on AN languages. Because of the number and varied content of the chapters, this review can only touch briefly on each chapter. The first main section begins with a chapter by Roger Blench, who examines various kinds of evidence (linguistic, archaeological, zoological) for early presence of AN peoples in areas where AN languages are not spoken today, including Japan, China, Thailand, Australia, Africa, and the Americas. Some hypotheses he rejects, such as those linking Austronesians with the main Japanese islands, but others he considers more convincing, such as the presence of Austronesians in the Americas before European contact. The next contribution is from Robert Blust, who brings together six different Austronesian etymologies to show how single words, or more accurately, single cognate sets, can shed light on questions of linguistic subgrouping. For example, Chamorro retains ProtoAustronesian (PAN) *baRiuS 'typhoon' as pakyo with the original meaning. This etymon is often retained with the meaning 'wind' or 'strong wind' in areas that do not have typhoons. The simplest explanation for the Chamorro reflex, however, is that it never lost its original meaning 'typhoon', implying that the ancestors of today's Chamorro speakers never migrated through an area without typhoons. This single word points strongly, then, to the northern or central Philippines as a source area for the Chamorro language. The next two chapters follow up on genealogical subgroupings originally proposed by Ross. Bethwyn Evans's paper is a first attempt to show the relatedness of the South Bougainville languages using the comparative method. This small family of Papuan languages was proposed by Ross (2001, 2005) based on lexicostatistical, structural, and pronominal evidence. Evans examines published and unpublished lexical data and proposes correspondence sets and reconstructs lexical items in various semantic domains. Evans herself acknowledges that it is a first attempt, one that is hindered by gathering data from various sources and a lack of documentation, particularly of the phonologies and lexicons


An intriguing alternative to traditional methods for regulating externalities is the provision of information about firms' environmental attributes. An increasingly important example of this approach is "eco-labeling," where a third party certifies firms' products. This sort of approach can also be used in similar circumstances, for example providing consumers with information on the techniques used to produce the good in question (e.g., shade-grown coffee) or the nature of rent-sharing arrangements that govern the transaction (e.g., fair trade coffee). I present a model of this phenomenon. An important aspect of this scheme is that the product in question is typically a credence good (buyers cannot infer product quality from search or consumption), and hence must rely on a third-party for information about the product. But the very fact that consumers cannot infer quality from consumption implies they cannot infer accuracy about the signal; indeed, the certifying agency may not be able to perfectly determine quality at a reasonable cost. As such, the certification process is potentially noisy, albeit with green firms more likely to pass than brown firms. While it is likely to increase the fraction of green units in the market, the introduction of eco-labeling can either increase or decrease welfare. In addition, expected profits earned by green sellers are likely to be more variable in an equilibrium with certification. The paper provides some casual empirical evidence from Latin American coffee markets as a backdrop to the theoretical results.


Introduction The need for liver biopsy to diagnose alcoholic hepatitis (AH) in the clinical setting remains controversial. Coagulopathy and/or ascites may preclude percutaneous biopsy and facilities for transjugular biopsy are not universally available. Despite this, some experts still advocate that biopsy confirmation of AH is a prerequisite for determining diagnosis, prognosis and treatment strategy for this condition. Aim The authors aimed to review the already published literature in the form of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of therapy for AH. This was primarily to determine if these data could determine the need for histology in the selection of patients for study. Methods Studies published from 1970 to 2010 were identified through a MEDLINE computer search and manual search of the bibliographies of identified articles. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for each study were determined. The number of biopsies performed and the patients excluded as a consequence of incompatible histology were recorded. Results The authors identified 43 published RCTs trials, with adequate data available in 39. 11 of the trials required 'biopsy proven' AH prior to randomisation of patients, however the histological criteria for the diagnosis of AH varied widely between studies. Where figures were provided, it appears 1668 liver biopsies were undertaken in these trials with 1409 showing evidence of AH (84.5%). However if studies defined a minimum value of bilirubin (usually >80–85 μmol/l) as an entry criterion, or the minimum value of bilirubin described was >80 μmol/l, 96% of biopsies confirmed AH (405 of 422 biopsies: p<0.0001 (95% CI 12.2% to 18.2% compared with studies without such stipulations). Where co-existent cirrhosis was mentioned, 839 of 1187 (70.7%) of biopsies had evidence of this. There was no correlation between the proportion of patients with cirrhosis and the mortality in the placebo treated patients (p=0.81; 95% CI −0.54 to 0.44). Conclusion Overall the diagnosis of AH is confirmed in over 80% of cases, but this clinical diagnostic accuracy increases to over 95% with a minimum value of bilirubin. Co-existent cirrhosis does not influence short-term prognosis. These data indicate that in most cases histology is not necessary for the diagnosis and management of AH.


Reduction of pathogenic bacteria: Salmonella, enterococci and Escherichia coli was investigated using the sludge reed bed system. The system at Helsinge was established in 1996 and has a capacity of 630 tonnes dry solids per year and consists of 10 basins. Since 2000 the individual basins have been subjected to an average area-specific loading rate of 46-56 kg dry solids/m2/year. The total sludge residue height in April 2006 was approximately 1.40 m. The sludge (approximately 0.5-0.8% dry solids), with which the individual basins were loaded, contained a large number of bacteria. Salmonella, enterococci and E. coli were found in the sludge in the following quantities: 10-300/100 g (wet weight), 7,000-25,000 CFU/g (wet weight) and 800,000-10,000,000 CFU/100 g (wet weight), respectively. The analysis of the reduction in pathogens in the sludge residue through a period of 3-4 months after the last loading indicated that the pathogen content was reduced down to < 2/100 g (Salmonella), < 10 CFU/g (enterococci) and < 200 number/100 g (E. coli). For enterococci and E. coli the reduction was approximately log 5 and log 6-7, respectively. In the same period the sludge residue achieved a dry solids content of approximately 20-35%.


Resonant inductive coupling wireless power transfer (RIC-WPT) is the promising wireless power supply method to mobile applications. It is well-known that the efficiency and the power transfer capability of RIC-WPT systems deeply depend on the quality factor of the receiver-side resonator, which tends to decline by the conduction loss at rectifying diodes. Therefore, the synchronous rectification is one of the effective solutions. However, the unique characteristics of RIC-WPT, that is the weak magnetic coupling between the transmitter-side and the receiver-side resonator, tend to make the introduction of the synchronous rectification difficult. In order to address this issue, this paper newly proposes a self-driven synchronous rectifier controller suitable for RIC-WPT. This synchronous rectifier controller consists of basic analog elements and gate drivers, and no additional power supply is necessary for driving itself. In addition, the controller doesn't require any information from the transmitter-side resonator. Experiments successfully verified the operating principle as well as the efficiency improvement and clarified the usefulness of the synchronous rectifier with proposed controller for practical application of RIC-WPT.


This presentation is a dermatology case in quiz form with a 4-point differential. The patient, a 44-year-old man admitted to Psychiatry Service for management of chronic psychosis, was noted to have multiple, circular, well-circumscribed violaceous cutaneous plaques resembling various dermatological conditions. This case underscores the importance of careful historical, clinical, and laboratory investigation to establish the correct diagnosis when evaluating skin lesions. Judicious laboratory testing may be helpful in excluding diseases such as syphilis and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which may mimic other dermatological conditions. Test your clinical acumen by deciding on a diagnosis. The correct answer is revealed in the discussion.


An electron beam (e-beam) controlled switch makes use of the low-energy secondary electrons in a diffuse e-beam sustained discharge as the conducting medium which carries the switched current. The conductivity of the gas in the switch is negligible before the e-beam is turned on because the circuit parameters are chosen so that the open circuit voltage which appears across the switch electrodes is well below the static breakdown voltage of the gas in the switch gap. The e-beam switch can interrupt direct current because the density of the electrons in the switch decays by recombination and attachment when the e-beam is turned off and the switch conductivity decreases. In typical circuits, this decay in conductivity causes the switch voltage to rise and the switch current to fall, i.e., the switch "turns off." This paper presents the results of a series of theoretical calculations which were performed in order to: 1) identify the electron transport and other gas properties which optimize the performance of e-beam switches, 2) evaluate the performance of several real gases for use in e-beam switches, and 3) determine the laws which predict the scaling properties of e-beam switches. Results are presented for N2, Ar, a N2:Ar = 1:9 mixture, and CH4. These results show that CH4 provides the best e-beam switch performance. Comparison of experimental results and theoretical predictions for CH4 supports both the theory and the predicted good e-beam switch performance for CH4.


The exploratory study aims to explore mental health representations in workers of two specialized institutions, through qualitative methodology. A total of ten members of two specialized institutions were selected, five from each, who comprise the interdisciplinary team in the area: A psychiatrist, a psychologist, a nurse, a nursing technician and a social worker. A semi-structured interview was developed to access the speech of the workers. Results show the representational world of the workers, their general conceptions about mental health, the factors that promote or interfere with it, as well as the reactions that a person that suffers mental illness generates, as well as expectations of improvement.


The results of microvascular decompression (MVD) in 68 patients with trigeminal neuralgia followed for 1 to 5 years were compared with the clinical and operative findings and with the surgical modalities. Among 20 factors analyzed, the mode of pain manifestation proved to be the only factor significantly related to prognosis (p less than 0.001). In patients with paroxysmal pain only, a cure was obtained in 95%, whereas in those with paroxysmal and permanent pain, 58% were cured. None of the remaining factors showed any unfavorable influence on the results of MVD in cases of paroxysmal pain only. Some factors seemed to be related to prognosis in patients with a permanent pain component, and the following conclusions concern this group of patients only. Two factors proved to be statistically significant. First, patients with pain extending to two or three branches responded to MVD less favorably than those with pain in one branch only. The interposition of a piece of periosteum to separate a conflicting artery from the root led to worse results than the use of a square of Dacron. Other conclusions were based on small numbers and should be verified. A sensory deficit extending to two or three branches was related to worse results that a sensory deficit in one branch or its absence; a prior surgical procedure plays an additional unfavorable role. The patients with the least advanced degree of vasculonervous conflict (VNC) responded to MVD less favorably than those with severe cross compression; a posterosuperior site of VNC seems to play an additional unfavorable role. The distribution of some factors among types of pain manifestation showed marked differences, which seem to relate to results. The clinical and operative findings indicate that the sensory deficit corresponds to the extent of compression by the conflicting vessel. The necessity of distinguishing various clinical forms of trigeminal neuralgia for practical and cognitive reasons is emphasized.


In 3 experiments carried out near Orange, N.S.W., we assessed the tolerance of grazed and ungrazed Phalaris aquatica to glyphosate, tetrapion and 2,2-DPA each applied at 3 rates. P. aquatica, when maturing, or when dormant during summer, or at any time of the year after heavy grazing had removed almost all green leaves, was tolerant to glyphosate (0.54, 0.72, 1.08 kg/ha a.i.). At any time of the year, ungrazed P. aquatica tolerated low rates of tetrapion (1.5 and 2.25 kg/ha a.i.) or 2,2-DPA (4.4 and 11.1 kg/ha a.i.). It was most tolerant to the high rate of tetrapion (3.0 kg/ha a.i.) in winter and the high rate of 2,2-DPA (22.2 kg/ha a.i.) in spring, summer or autumn. Grazing before or after spraying did not improve the tolerance of P. aquatica to 2,2-DPA but grazing after spraying improved its tolerance to tetrapion. Maximum selective effect, on taking into account the optimum time for killing weeds and retaining pasture (P. aquatica and Trifolium subterraneum), could be achieved by applying: tetrapion to Nassella trichotoma, Eragrostis curvula or Sporobolus africanus in late spring or summer; 2,2-DPA to N. trichotoma in summer; and glyphosate to Poa labillardieri and heavily grazed pasture in summer, provided the weed was actively growing.


This thesis studies singularly perturbed Volterra integral equations of the form
eu(t)=/(t,e)+fg(t,s,11(5)) ds, 0 0 is a small parameter The function f(t,e) is defined for 0 0. The aim is to find asymptotic approximations l to these solutions. This work is restricted to problems where there is an imtial-layer, various hypotheses are placed on g(tts,u) to exclude other behaviour. A major part of this work is that formal solutions of the nonlinear problem are determined and rigorously proved to be asymptotic approximations to the exact solutions Formal approximate solutions:

£Mi,e) NEn-0 Enu(t,E,),=un(t,e)=0(1) as e->0,

are obtained using the additive decomposition method Algorithms which improve the method used m Angell and Olmstead (1987), are presented for obtaining these solutions Assuming a stability condition in the boundary layer, it shown that there is a constant Cjv such ,that

\u(t,e)-Ujsf{t,e)\ <cN eN+1 as e 0,

uniformly for t € [0,T], thus establishing that £/jv(i,£) is an asymptotic solution SIkinner (1995) has proved similar results, but almost all the theorems here were discovered before Skinner's work was found and are largely independent of it Lange and Smith (1988) prove results for the case g(t, syu) = k(tys)u, where k(t, s) is continuous and satisfies a stability condition in the boundary layer These results are carefully developed here and similar results for linear integrodifferential equations The problem of extending these to the class of weakly singular equations with

g(t,s,u)= k(t,s)/(t-s)BU-0</3<1

is discussed An interesting aspect of this problem and others for which the boundary 1 layer stability condition fails, is that the solutions decay algebraically rather exponentially within ithe boundary layer.


Efforts to develop alternatives to blood as an oxygen carrier date back well over half a century with increased efforts in recent years being partly motivated by fears of potential contamination with the viruses responsible for AIDS and hepatitis (1-4). An additional impetus rests in the recognition that wide availability of properly banked blood is absent in many parts of the world. An efficient acellular oxygen carrier could have several distinct advantages over intact red blood cells, including elimination of the need for typing and cross-matching before transfusion and a useful shelf-life greater than the current six weeks or less for packed red blood cells (1). While a number of other alternatives have been explored over the years (1-4), the use of cell-free hemoglobins for an oxygen-carrying resuscitation fluid has excellent prospects since (a) hemoglobin solutions are completely metabolizable and are well tolerated by the body, and (b) hemoglobin is available in virtually unlimited amounts and is relatively inexpensive, (c) hemoglobin is fully saturated with oxygen under ambient conditions, has oncotic activity, and exhibits cooperative oxygen binding behavior. However, there are two major problems associated with using cell-free hemoglobins for transfusions. First, the retention time of cell-free hemoglobins in circulation after infusion is very short (4), and most of the infused hemoglobin is rapidly filtered and eliminated by kidneys in 1-4 hours; second, cell-free hemoglobins have too high oxygen affinity that prevents them from adequately unloading the oxygen acquired from lungs to tissues. Both of these problems have their roots in 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG) and other polyanionic species which are conspicuously absent in cell-free hemoglobins, but are known to be essential co-factors in intact red blood cells. Efforts have since been focused on covalently cross-linking hemoglobin between the two like subunits, e.g., alpha-1 to alpha-2 or beta-1 to beta-2. Such a cross-link is believed to substitute for the native allosteric modifier DPG to lower the oxygen affinity, while at the same time preventing dissociation of the tetramer (1).


Objectives: To assess the improvement of symptoms by sacral neuromodulation (SNM) in an objective way by carrying out an ambulatory urodynamic study (ambulatory-UDS). Until now, successful treatment has been defined as a ≥50% improvement recorded on voiding diaries. Voiding diaries are a patient reported outcome tool. A tool with less bias is desired to evaluate the treatment results before an expensive permanent system is implanted. Methods: Between 2002 and 2015, a total of 334 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms were included consecutively in an ambulatory-UDS database. From this database, a subgroup of patients was selected which underwent SNM. Results: In 51 patients, an ambulatory-UDS was performed both at baseline and during the SNM test period. A positive treatment outcome after test stimulation based on the patients' voiding diary, correlated (p < 0.0001) with an improvement on ambulatory-UDS. Twenty-six of the 30 patients, who have showed improvement of more than 50% on voiding diary parameters and who had subjective improvement of their symptoms, showed an early improvement on ambulatory-UDS. Conclusions: Ambulatory-UDS can be used in clinical decision making, as it is associated with voiding diary improvement during the SNM test period. Using ambulatory-UDS to confirm success could in the future justify the shortening of the test period.


Mushroom poisoning with amatoxins can cause liver dysfunction in patients, and death in severe cases. The amatoxins detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) can help early clinical diagnosis. Three patients were identified as α-amatoxin containing mushroom poisoning by ELISA. The first symptoms of patients was gastrointestinal symptoms, and liver function damage occured later. One patient gave up treatment and died. After received supportive treatments such as adsorption of toxins, catharsis, fluid supplementation to promote toxin metabolism and liver protection, 2 patients were recovered and discharged.


The dynamics of fast fracture in brittle amorphous materials are reviewed. We first present a picture of fracture in which numerous effects commonly observed in dynamic fracture may be understood as resulting from an intrinsic (micro-branching) instability of a rapidly moving crack. The instability, when a single crack state undergoes frustrated microscopic crack branching, occurs at a critical propagation velocity. This micro-branching instability gives rise to large velocity oscillations, the formation of nontrivial fracture surface structure, a large increase in the overall fracture surface area, and a corresponding sharp increase of the fracture energy with the mean crack velocity. We present experimental evidence, obtained in a variety of different materials, in support of this picture. The dynamics of crack-front interactions with localized material inhomogeneities are then described. We demonstrate that the loss of translational invariance resulting from this interaction gives rise to both localized waves that propagate along the crack front and the acquisition of an effective inertia by the crack. Crack-front inertia, when coupled with the micro-branching instability, leads to an understanding of the chain-like form of the micro-branch induced patterns observed both on and beneath the fracture surface.


The demands on accuracy of measured apparent zenith distances and the necessity of elimination of systematic errors during the time of determining the astronomical refraction and building the radio wave refractive delay corrective model are described concisely. According to the new instrumental error theory, compared with error determination techniques used in foreign high accuracy measurment instruments, measurement techniques of all kinds of major errors used in the special measurment instrument and their achievable accuracies are described. Distribution of stars in video CCD images when observed in different azimuths is also presented.


The understanding of solvent ingress into polymers is of vital importance in a plethora of applications that embrace such diverse technologies as dental resins and food systems. Two limiting regimes of small molecule diffusion in polymers are widely acknowledged: Fickian and Case II. Fickian diffusion is associated with solvent uptake proceeding with the square root of time and with smooth concentration profiles. Case II ingress is characterised by uptake that is linear with time and by concentration profiles with sharp fronts. This thesis describes new insight into both these transport mechanisms. Binary mixtures of good (methyl ethyl ketone) and bad (ethanol) solvents ingressing polystyrene with Fickian dynamics are investigated. Using both 2H magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with selectively deuterated solvents and 13C-1H cyclic cross-polarisation chemically selective imaging of normal solvents, the individual components are separately measured. The two solvents are found to ingress together but they have different spatial concentration profiles. These results are explained in terms of a simple model. In a further study using both MRI and ellipsometry, no polymer molecular weight dependence is observed for Fickian solvent ingress. Powerful evidence of a new rate-limiting step to give Case II diffusion is demonstrated. We show that the rate-limiting step can be the solvent flux at the polymer surface as well as the visco-elastic polymer swelling. Numerical simulations of a simple phenomenological model demonstrating these effects are presented. They are supported by experimental measurements of liquid and vapour toluene ingress into polystyrene using MRI and stray field imaging. One problem with ellipsometry for measuring Fickian ingress is that it is difficult to unambiguously fit the and data to the smooth refractive index profile through the swelling sample. Two methods have been implemented to overcome this problem: a Born approximation and a Bayesian inference technique. The latter has shown that ellipsometry can now, in theory, be described as a model independent technique.


Traffic congestion problems in intersections are usually solved by building infrastructures such as roundabouts. Several variables influence its performance, e.g. geometry, size and driving behaviour. Thus, it becomes necessary to compare these variables. This paper proposes a simulation model, developed to compare the performance of roundabouts, employing the object and agent modelling paradigms of Simio, to model the individual behaviour of vehicles. The results indicate the optimum size of roundabouts is around 40 meters of diameter and that the driving style has a greater influence on the performance of the roundabout than its unbalancing. In addition, it was found that roundabouts considering unbalancing and human behaviour decreased: the flow of vehicles in 8%, the waiting time per vehicle in 3 minutes, the queue size in 90%, the number of stops per vehicle in 88% and vehicles spent three times more fuel, than the roundabouts that did not consider these variables.


Bonding interactions between an electron-deficient region (a sigma-hole) on M and electron donors in MF4-Base complexes, where M = C, Si, Ge, Sn, and Pb, are examined and rationalized. These interactions are seen to transition from weak primarily noncovalent interactions for all bases when M = C to stronger primarily covalent bonds in adducts as the valence shell expands for the heavier M atoms. For M = Ge, Sn, and Pb, the complexes are particularly stable. The consistent axial preference in these systems is anticipated by previous studies and is readily explained from the vantage point of sigma-hole interactions. A series of bound complexes of common bases such as pyridine, tetrahydrofuran, and water are identified, some of which are even more stable than the SiF4·NH3 and SiF4·N(CH3)3 complexes that have already been identified experimentally. Sigma-hole bonding to di- and poly-substituted central atoms, perhaps on par with halogen bonding, is expected to become increasingly important as an ordering interaction in materials science and engineering. Group 14 compounds have distinct advantages in this respect.


Engineers are becoming more aware of the usefulness of convolution in solving engineering problems. The methods used to explain and motivate convolution in the past are not adequate to instill in the student the value of convolution. This paper poses the problems associated with the present teaching methods and suggests other approaches and examples which can be used to accomplish the desired goal.


Robot manipulators perform a point-point task under kinematic and dynamic constraints. Due to multi-degree-of-freedom coupling characteristics, it is difficult to find a better desired trajectory. In this paper, a multi-objective trajectory planning approach based on an improved elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (INSGA-II) is proposed. Trajectory function is planned with a new composite polynomial that by combining of quintic polynomials with cubic Bezier curves. Then, an INSGA-II, by introducing three genetic operators: ranking group selection (RGS), direction-based crossover (DBX) and adaptive precision-controllable mutation (APCM), is developed to optimize travelling time and torque fluctuation. Inverted generational distance, hypervolume and optimizer overhead are selected to evaluate the convergence, diversity and computational effort of algorithms. The optimal solution is determined via fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to obtain the optimal trajectory. Taking a serial-parallel hybrid manipulator as instance, the velocity and acceleration profiles obtained using this composite polynomial are compared with those obtained using a quintic B-spline method. The effectiveness and practicability of the proposed method are verified by simulation results. This research proposes a trajectory optimization method which can offer a better solution with efficiency and stability for a point-to-point task of robot manipulators.


A new, rapid, sensitive and specific LC-MS/MS method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of tenofovir and lamivudine in human plasma using abacavir as an internal standard. An API-4000 LC-MS/MS with electrospray ionization was operated in multiple-reaction monitoring mode for the analysis. The analytes were extracted from plasma by solid-phase extraction technique using an Oasis HLB cartridge. The reconstituted samples were chromatographed on a Chromolith ROD speed C(18) column using a mixture of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile (90:10 v/v) at a flow-rate of 1 mL/min. The method was validated as per the FDA guidelines. The calibration curves were found to be linear in the range of 5-600 ng/mL for tenofovir and 25- 4000 ng/mL for lamivudine. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy results were well within the acceptable limits. A run time of 2.8 min consumed for each sample made it possible to analyze more samples per day. The proposed assay method was found to be applicable to a pharmacokinetic study in human male volunteers.


In Dy1-xHoxMnO3 single crystals with the orthorhombic space group Pbnm, ferroelectric hysteresis loops were measured for compositions with x=0 and 0.3. As the content of Ho3+ ions increases, the hysteresis loop narrows and for x=0.3 it no longer manifests itself. An analysis of the signal corresponding to the hysteretic behavior of a ferroelectric showed that even harmonics can be obtained only if the hysteresis loop is not symmetric about the abscissa axis. In view of the latter, the hypothesis that the second harmonic of the magnetoelectric effect is a consequence of the complex dependence of the polarization on time due to its hysteresis becomes doubtful. Measurements of the dependence of the inverse magnetoelectric effect on the amplitude of the applied electric field Delta M(E) showed that the first harmonic remains linear with respect to the electric field even in the electric field strength region where the domain structure of the ferroelectric is rearranged. Keywords: multiferroics, ferroelectricity, hysteresis.


The article compares the results of calculation of the finite element simulation of current and temperature distribution in the scale model of the DC catenary with the data of laboratory tests. Researches were carried on various versions of the structural design of catenary model, reflecting the topological features of the wire connection, characteristic of the DC contact network. The proportions of the cross-sectional area of the scaled model wires are comparable to each other with the corresponding values for real DC catenary. The article deals with the operating conditions of the catenary model in the modes of transit and current collection. When studying the operation of the scale catenary model in the transit mode, the effect of the structural elements on the current distribution and heating of the wires was obtained. Within the framework of the scale model, theoretical assumptions about the current overload of the supporting cable near the middle anchoring have been confirmed. In the current collection mode, the experimental dependences of the current in the transverse wires of the scale model are obtained from the coordinate of the current collection point. Using the model it was experimentally confirmed that in the section of the contact wire with local wear, not only the temperature rise occurs but also the current redistribution due to the smaller cross section. Thus, the current share in other longitudinal wires of the scale model increases and their temperature rises. Scale and mathematical models are constructed with allowance for laboratory clamps and supporting elements that participate in the removal of heat from the investigated wires. Obtained study results of the scale model allow to draw a conclusion about the adequacy of the mathematical model and its correspondence to the real physical process. These conclusions indicate the possibility of applying mathematical model for calculating real catenary, taking into account the uneven contact wear wire and the armature of the contact network.


In June 2010, the Thai government proposed improved investment tax incentive schemes to attract more foreign companies to establish Regional Operating Headquarters (ROH) in Thailand. The major theme of incentive packages has historically been the waiving of income tax on ROHs locating in the Kingdom. In the wake of recent political crises, these tax benefits are considered as important measures in reinforcing the Kingdom's position as an important manufacturing and service hub for the ASEAN region. While investor confidence was wavering because of the unstable political environment that has appertained since 2006, investors are weighing business continuity and safety concerns against the provided and proposed incentives. This paper briefly compares the original ROH tax incentives from 2002 with the new ones, examines the factors contributing to the establishment of Thailand as a hub for ROHs and analyzes the competitiveness of Thailand in comparison with Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in the context of national competitiveness for establishing ROH. National competitiveness is measured by using the Double Diamond-based nine factor model (IPS Model) from the IPS national competitiveness research study.


New mixed-valence Cu(I)-Cu(II) coordination polymers with one-dimensional, infinite-chain structures, [Cu(I)(2)Cu(II)X(2)(Hm-dtc)(2)(CH(3)CN)(2)](n) [Hm-dtc(-) = hexamethylene dithiocarbamate; X = Br(-) (1), I(-) (2)], have been prepared and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction. These complexes consist of a mononuclear copper(II) unit Cu(II)(Hm-dtc)(2) and dinuclear copper(I) units Cu(I)(2)(CH(3)CN)(2)X(2). Magnetic studies have revealed that these complexes have a relatively strong antiferromagnetic interaction [J = -26.9 cm(-1) (1) and J = -22.2 cm(-1) (2)] between the unpaired electrons of the Cu(II) ions through the dinuclear copper(I) halide unit of Cu(I)(2)X(2) in the chain. The electrical properties of 1 and 2 are investigated using an impedance spectroscopy technique, and it is revealed that these complexes exhibit intriguing semiconducting properties with small activation energies [E(a) = 0.562 eV (1) and E(a) = 0.479 eV (2)].


The synthetic potential of lithio 3-halo-1-azaallylic anions as building blocks in organic chemistry and especially in heterocyclic chemistry will be highlighted by the synthesis of functionalized imines, obtained after reaction of 3-halo-1-azaallylic anions with het- eroatom-substituted electrophiles. Thus, the latter generated functionalized imines are suitable building blocks for the synthesis of a whole range of heterocycles and physiologically active compounds, including agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. 3-Halo-1-azaallylic anions were used in the synthesis of N-alkyl-3,3-dichloroazetidines, 2,3-disubstituted pyrroles, piperidines, 2-substituted pyridines, 2-alkoxytetrahydrofurans,etc., from which a large range of useful and interesting chemicals can be produced, e.g., 2-azetines and 9-alkyl- 2-phenyl-3a-beta,4,6,7,8,9,9a-beta,9b-beta-octahydro-1H-pyrrolo [3,4,h]quinoline-1,3-diones. The utility of the present methodology is demonstrated by the synthesis of the pheromone (S)-manicone, the sulfur-containing flavor compound 2-[(methylthio)methyl ]-2-butenal, and some agrochemical and pharmaceutical compounds.


Background: Cardiovascular diseases have become a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in adult population of Indian sub-continent. Aim of the study was to compare the serum lipid patterns in patients with proven premature CAD and its first degree relative in a tertiary care hospital of South-eastern region of Rajasthan, India. Methods: 200 patients with the primary diagnosis of premature coronary artery disease were enrolled. These patients and their 643 first-degree relatives, who were in the coronary age group 25 years and above also enrolled for the purpose of the study. Fasting lipid profile was estimated. Results: 36.5% of the males and 4.5% female patients were having abnormal cholesterol levels. 30.5 % of male of premature CAD were having high LDL levels as compared to only 2.5% of the females (p<0.05). High LDL level was 33.0%. Low HDL cholesterol in CAD patients were in 36.0% of males and 4.0% of the females (p<0.05). High Triglyceride levels (53.5%) in the CAD patients were 46.5% males and 6.5% females. (p<0.05). Irrespective of sex, majority of relatives  (70.7%) were having desirable total cholesterol levels while high total cholesterol was there in only 10.1% of the relatives.21.4% of male relatives of CAD patients were having abnormal LDL levels as compared to 7.4% of the females (p<0.05). Conclusions: For hyper cholestolaemia, routine screening of all adults older than 20 years is recommended. Therapeutic targets for lipid levels are recommended depending on overall risk for patients with CAD or a CAD risk equivalent such as diabetes or peripheral arterial disease.


The process of becoming a physician-scientist is a long and often harrowing one. The author reflects on her own experience deciding to commit to a career as a physician-scientist and setting out on that career path. She identifies the largest challenges as the lack of clear direction to becoming a physician-scientist; the long lag time between the end of graduate medical education and becoming faculty, resulting in lower wages, less job security, and conflicts with personal goals; and a tension between traditional definitions of success and her own areas of interest. The author also reviews the advantages that led to her first faculty position as a physician-scientist: innovative educational programs that integrate medical and research training, financial support for physician investigators, a supportive educational milieu, and appropriately tailored promotion tracks. Advances on these three fronts could support increasing numbers of trainees pursuing careers as physician-scientists.


PURPOSE
To prospectively evaluate the sensitivity of ultrasonography (US) in diagnosing stenosis of hemodialysis access grafts and their drainage veins in patients clinically suspected of having graft dysfunction.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty-eight patients in whom dysfunction of their hemodialysis access grafts was suspected underwent both Doppler US and angiography. Gray-scale and color US were combined with spectral analysis of the graft, anastomoses, and venous outflow. Flow velocity at anastomoses and suspected stenotic areas was measured. The volume of flow in the graft was also measured. The prospective US criterion for diagnosis of stenosis was a focal twofold or higher elevation of peak systolic velocity (PSV) compared with the PSV immediately upstream. A blinded angiographic evaluation of the graft and drainage veins followed US. Angiographic diagnosis of stenosis required at least 50% narrowing in luminal diameter. US and angiographic results were then compared.

RESULTS
Angiography allowed diagnosis of 43 stenoses in 34 patients. US depicted 92% (37 of 40) of these stenoses, with a 94% positive predictive value for any individual patient. Focal 2- to 2.9-times PSV elevation was associated with 75% or greater stenosis. Graft flow volume and resistive index change did not correlate with stenosis.

CONCLUSION
US reliably depicts stenoses of hemodialysis access grafts and drainage veins in a clinically selected population when PSV criteria are used.


The authors evaluated dermal phototoxicity using the world smallest minipig (MMPig: Microminipig). MMPigs were administered 100 mg/kg ciprofloxacin hydrochloride with an infusion pump. The dorsal area of each animal was irradiated with ultraviolet-A irradiation. The left dorsal skin was irradiated at intensities of 5, 10, 15, and 20 J/cm2, and the right dorsal back skin was set as a nonirradiated site. Gross and histopathological examinations were conducted before irradiation and from 1 to 72 hr after irradiation. Initial changes in the skin were necrosis of the basal and/or prickle cell layer and cellular infiltration from 24 hr after irradiation. Vesicle formation observed from 48 hr after irradiation was considered similar to bullous eruptions, a known side effect of fluoroquinolones in humans. Therefore, the authors suggest that the MMPig may be a useful experimental animal model for dermal phototoxicity studies.


The indirect effect of radiation plays an important role in radio-induced biological damages. Monte Carlo codes have been widely used in recent years to study the chemical evolution of particle tracks. However, due to the large computational efforts required, their applicability is typically limited to simulations in pure water targets and to temporal scales up to the µs. In this work, a new extension of TRAX-CHEM is presented, namely TRAX-CHEMxt, able to predict the chemical yields at longer times, with the capability of exploring the homogeneous biochemical stage. Based on the species coordinates produced around one track, the set of reaction–diffusion equations is solved numerically with a computationally light approach based on concentration distributions. In the overlapping time scale (500 ns–1 µs), a very good agreement to standard TRAX-CHEM is found, with deviations below 6% for different beam qualities and oxygenations. Moreover, an improvement in the computational speed by more than three orders of magnitude is achieved. The results of this work are also compared with those from another Monte Carlo-based algorithm and a fully homogeneous code (Kinetiscope). TRAX-CHEMxt will allow for studying the variation in chemical endpoints at longer timescales with the introduction, as the next step, of biomolecules, for more realistic assessments of biological response under different radiation and environmental conditions.


1950 is a very special period for the development of feminism in both China and the West. The Peoples Republic of China was just established and the West was experiencing the second wave of feminist. However, the feminism in these two areas developed in different ways, that Chinses feminism is the state feminism while the West is liberal feminism. This kind of difference results from the different social environment, especially the political policy in China and the West. The Communist Party of China took feminism as a tool to consolidate socialist construction, so it launched the feminist movement from top to bottom. The second feminism in the West is a bottom-up movement for women to fight for their own rights and interests, and they use magazines and other mass media as a means of struggle. By comparing the difference of the feminism in China and the West, the flaws of these two kinds of development of feminism could also be shown.


Doxorubicin (Dox) is a chemotherapy drug used for treatment of wide variety of cancers. It known that, Dox may cause cardiotoxicity by producing free radicals and oxidative stress along the period of treatment. Catechin is considered one of the flavonoids which has powerful antioxidant properties and free radicals scavenger. The present work was designed to investigate the protective role of catechin on doxorubicin - induced cardiotoxicity in Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) bearing- mice and to test whether catechin has an effect on the antitumor properties of the Dox. Mice were divided into five groups as follows: (G1): Control group, (G2) Mice were injected with Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cells (2.5 x 10 6 EAC/ml) to form a solid tumor , (G3) Mice were inoculated with (2.5 x 10 6 EAC/ml) and injected (i.p.) with Doxorubicin (15 mg/kg), (G4) Mice were inoculated with (EAC) at the same dose and were injected (i.p.) with (200mg/kg) Catechin , Group5 (G5) Mice were injected (i.p.) with Doxorubicin 15mg/kg of and 200mg/kg of Catechin in addition to the inoculation with EAC (2.5 x 10 6 EAC/ml). Dox (15mg/kg) and /or Catechin (200mg/kg) were administrated after 10 days in EAC bearing- mice through a period of 2 weeks in six equal injections. Results showed that, EAC -bearing mice treated with Dox plus Catechin recorded decrease in the mean tumor weight and significant increase in the cumulative mean survival time as compared to the other treated groups. Biochemical studies of EAC inoculation showed decline in serum total protein and lactate dehydrogenase activities, while serum total lipid has significantly increased. The treatment of tumor-bearing mice with Dox plus Catechin (G5) improved these levels. Significant increase in cardiac lipid peroxidation and glutathione contents for both tumor-bearing mice (G2) and doxorubicin groups (G3) were recorded. Combined treatment of Dox and Catechin (G5) caused amelioration in these contents. Glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activities showed highly significant increase in all treated groups. Administration of Dox plus Catechin (G5) modulate these activities. In conclusion, the present study suggested that Catechin treatment may significantly reduce cardiotoxicity induced by doxorubicin in Ehrlich Carcinoma - bearing mice by the induction of the cardiac antioxidant enzymes and blocking lipid peroxidation. Also, Catechin enhances the antitumor properties of doxorubicin by increasing its inhibitory effect on tumor growth. (Journal of American Science 2010;6(4):146-152). (ISSN: 1545-1003).