We report a case of a 7-year-old boy with neurofibromatosis 2 who was referred to our pediatric retina clinic for deteriorating vision of his left eye. Fundoscopy revealed a gray epiretinal and vitreous opacity extending to the fovea in the left eye. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) demonstrated an epiretinal membrane (ERM) with a distinct tissue plane and overlying vitreoretinal strands, consistent with combined hamartoma of the retina and retinal pigment epithelium (CHRRPE). Intraoperative OCT-guided pars plana vitrectomy and membrane peel were performed and the tissue was sent for histopathologic evaluation. Intraoperative scleral-depressed examination also revealed multiple elevated, white-gray, semitranslucent masses near the ora serrata, consistent with astrocytic hamartomas. Histopathologic analysis of the epiretinal tissue revealed glial origin. Recognition of any of these lesions in a young patient should prompt neurologic and genetic evaluation.


This book is particularly concerned with examining the creation of the Oresund region, a process that represents the internationalization and geopolitical changes in the world, where new industrial regions emerge in competition for growth and wealth. The emerging Oresund region is a new type of industrial region – a transnational region that is difficult to analyze in a traditional way, for example, by a structural economic analysis. Instead, its main concern is to systematically examine the strategic process that determines the characteristics of a future industrial region in terms of local resource bases, knowledge integration, collective learning and regional core competencies. This book addresses several important questions. How are industrial regions created today? How are they defined? How is their international competitiveness achieved? What problems and opportunities follow in the wake of industrial regional development across national borders? How do cultures and traditional activity patterns influence such processes? How is a regional industrial strategy developed? A comprehensive in-depth analysis of the Oresund region, mainly based on an extensive amount of data covering the development from the 17th century until today, is used to explore the creation process of this new transnational industrial region. A comparison with the Hong Kong-Guangdong and the Singapore-Johor-Riau regions is made in order to develop a new conceptual framework – the RIP- (regional industrial platform) perspective. This is done as an abductive case study where the analytical approach has focused on intentions and activity patterns of institutional agents and the use of metaphors as central elements in the social construction of the region. By viewing the regionalization process as the strategic formation process of an industrial platform, a methodological and conceptual understanding is reached of how the industrial region as a whole is created over time. Thus, this study provides important insights into the development of transnational industrial regions. It is shown that transnational regionalization processes in general are not only driven by market forces and strong policies, but that they can also be conceptdriven and that these region concepts in particular have a persuasive effect on local industry-related activities – they become the soil of the industrial region. (Less)


Qualitative data are presented following a series of four studies where participants completed a quantitative reasoning task followed by either an interview or an audio
diary. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006)with three main themes emerging: emotions; reasoning approach; and justifications. High schizotypal scorers demonstrated limited emotional responses compared with low scorers,and where emotions were expressed, individuals made these in relation to themselves rather than the presented scenario. Results contribute to a better understanding of the biases that high-scoring individuals experience and provide further evidence for 'jump to conclusions' biases in reasoning about crime.


The Sea brings together a group of noted contributors to evaluate the different ways in which seas have served as subjects in historiography and asks how this has changed---and will change---the way history is written. The essays in this volume provide exemplary demonstrations of how a sea-based history-writing that focuses on connectivity, networks, and individuals describes the horizons and the potential of thalassography---the study of the world made by individuals embedded in networks of motion. As Peter N. Miller contends in his introduction, writing about the sea, today, is a way of partaking in the wider historiographical shift toward microhistory; exchange relations; networks; and, above all, materiality, both literally and figuratively. The Sea focuses not on questions of discipline and professionalization as much as on the practice of scholarship: the writing, and therefore the planning and organizing, of histories of the sea.


In every century, there are different apparatuses that are redefining and refining the notion of immersion. After experiencing panoramas, planetariums or even IMAX movies, we are now longing to see whether VR can really fulfil our expectations. We are ready to offer all our senses and to experience new situations and to be present somewhere else. But is the virtual reality's medium prepared for these expectations? Meanwhile the immersive theatre's genre is spreading and engaging the audience for couple of hours into their very peculiar environments. The aim of my research is to point out different features of live theatre that, when combined with or added to VRexperiences, can enhance the immersion and create more realistic illusions. My investigation is related to narratology and reception studies, and is based on recent findings related to VR. First I'm going to present through some examples how 360-degree fictional movies are exploring their specialties by transferring the narrative literally into the viewers head (e.g. Alteration by Jerome Blanquet, or Rhizomat VR by Mona el Gammal) as a way to capture the viewers empathy more. In immersive performances the audience is considered a participant with a given role. This way the narrative environment is constructed in such a way that allows the participants to unfold the story by directing their focus to carefully planned details. This does not make the participants the story's protagonist, but they can become the protagonist of the experience itself. They can have a variety of experiences that are directly addressing all of their senses creating more suspense. Based on different examples, I will point out various tactics that VR-movie creators can use to draft their own language and offer more inputs for their viewers. I will also point out how to create such environments for using the VR HMD that can dramatically be built into a viewing situation, without having the forced isolation feeling. My research is based on an audience survey made in June 2017 in Mannheim following a performance by SIGNA, on several interviews conducted with immersive theatre makers, and also on hermeneutical analysis of different VR creations.


With the rise in sophisticated cyber threats, traditional authentication methods are no longer sufficient. Risk-based authentication (RBA) plays a critical role in the context of the zero trust framework—a paradigm shift that assumes no trust within or outside the network. This research introduces a novel proposal as its core: utilization of the time required by OpenID Connect (OIDC) token exchanges as a new RBA feature. This innovative approach enables the detection of tunneled connections without any intervention from the user's browser or device. By analyzing the duration of OIDC token exchanges, the system can identify any irregularities that may signify unauthorized access attempts. This approach not only improves upon existing RBA frameworks but is also in alignment with the broader movement toward intelligent and responsive security systems.


Connectivity between water source and demand node can be served as a critical system performance indicator of the degree of water distribution network (WDN)' failure severity under abnormal conditions. Graph theory-based approaches have been widely applied to quantify the connectivity due to WDN's graph-like topological feature. However, most previous studies used undirected-unweighted graph theory which is not proper to WDN. In this study, the directed-weighted graph theory was applied for WDN connectivity analyses. We also proposed novel connectivity indicators, Source-to-Node Shortest Pathway (SNSP) and SNSP-Degree (SNSP-D) which is an inverse of the SNSP value, that does not require complicate hydraulic simulation of a WDN of interest. The proposed SNSP-D index was demonstrated in total 42 networks in J City, South Korea in which Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) between the proposed SNSP-D and four other system performance indicators was computed: three resilience indexes and an energy efficiency metric. It was confirmed that a system representative value of the SNSP-D has strong correlation with all resilience and energy efficiency indexes (PCC = 0.87 on average). Especially, PCC was higher than 0.93 with modified resilience index (MRI) and energy efficiency indicator. In addition, a multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify the system hydraulic characteristic factors that affect the correlation between SNSP-D and other system performance indicators. The proposed SNSP is expected to be served as a useful surrogate measure of resilience and/or energy efficiency indexes in practice.


Introduction: Studies in healthy individuals have described a
clear sequence of head and trunk coordination during horizontal
gaze transfers that require whole body movements. For
patients after stroke, there is evidence to suggest that sensorimotor
integration of postural adjustments and voluntarily head
movements may have been modified. The aim of our study was
to examine head and trunk coordination, in particular movement
initiation in people early after stroke. Methods: We evaluated 6 people with stroke and 6 healthy controls.
Subjects with stroke were assessed clinically and in a laboratory
setting at three, six and 12 weeks after stroke. Control
subjects were also examined at three consecutive time points with
the same weekly interval as the stroke group. Participants were
asked verbally to rotate their head to the side of preference and
look at a visual signal placed at 90° left and right from centre.
Markers were attached at standardised positions of the body and
3-D motion recordings were made using CODAmotion. Data
analysis consisted of examining the sequence of head and trunk
rotation in both groups separately using Wilcoxon signed rank
test. Differences in degree of head rotation, shoulder rotation
and delay in rotation were analysed between groups and over
time by means ofWilcoxon ranked sum test and Friedman analysis
respectively. Results: The pattern of movement demonstrated by the healthy
controls (2 females, 4 males, median (IQR) age 64 (62-70) years)
at all three time points showed rotation of the head before rotation
of the shoulders (p=0.028). In comparison, the mildly
impaired stroke group (1 female, 5 males; median (IQR) age 70
(65-79) years) showed no significant difference between rotation
of the head and shoulder at three weeks after stroke (p=0.075).
This pattern changed over time, reflecting the sequence demonstrated
by the healthy controls, with a significant start of rotating
the head before the shoulders both at six weeks (p=0.046) and
at 12 weeks (p=0.028) after stroke.When comparing both groups
at the three time points, there was no significant difference in
degree of head rotation, shoulder rotation or in delay in rotation.
However the stroke group had a relatively smaller variability in
degree of head rotation and a larger variability in degree of shoulder
rotation in comparison to the healthy controls. The results
of the Friedman test with post-hoc analysis showed a significant
decrease in degree of head rotation for stroke patients between
three and 12 weeks after stroke (p=0.028). Conclusions: We believe this is the first study to evaluate recovery
of the sequence of head and trunk coordination during the
acute stages following stroke. Our results suggest that people with
stroke show a modified coordination pattern early after stroke
but recover over time towards the level of healthy subjects. Future
research should include more impaired stroke patients as well as
evaluate the relation with clinical measures and thus importance
in everyday activities.


When surgery of the colon must be carried out for special indications and emergencies, it is not possible to make diagnosis with Ba SO4 contrast mediums. In these cases, reasonable success can be expected with substitution of three-iodized water-soluble contrast enemas. Through perforations and discharge from the colon they are absorbed into the free peritoneal cavity and enable diagnoses which are nearly comparable in quality to those done with Ba SO4 contrast mediums. In double contrast radiography according to the Malmö technique recognition of surface detail can be considered sufficient. Advantages and disadvantages as well as indications are listed in table form. Examples are documented to complete the chapter on results.


The aim of this article is to adjust the technique of comparing the standard of living in 11 countries of Central and Eastern Europe that became members of the European Union (EU) during 2004-2013 (EU-11) and 15 countries of Western, Northern and Southern Europe – member states of the EU by 1995 (EU-15). We reveal that outright home ownership in the EU-11 countries exceeds on average 75%, while almost two-thirds of households in the EU-15 countries have a mortgage or pay rent spending on housing on average up to one quarter of their income. Despite 30 years of transition to a market economy, the EU-11 countries largely inherited such home ownership structure from the centrally planned economy institutions, i.e. individually-owned and cooperative housing, as well as subsidized state-owned housing stock that became the private property of tenants at the start of market reforms. We propose a technique of taking into account households' income and housing costs (mortgage and rent) in one indicator given the current home ownership structure in an economy. After the purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustment, our calculations reveal that the standard of living disparities between the EU-11 and EU-15 states are less significant than when compared at nominal prices or PPP alone. Moreover, the disparity in average living standards between these two groups of countries turns out to be narrower than cross-regional differences within seven EU member states at the Eurostat's NUTS 2 level.


With the wide use of deep neural networks (DNN), model interpretability has become a critical concern, since explainable decisions are preferred in high-stake scenarios. Current interpretation techniques mainly focus on the feature attribution perspective, which are limited in indicating why and how particular explanations are related to the prediction. To this end, an intriguing class of explanations, named counterfactuals, has been developed to further explore the "what-if" circumstances for interpretation, and enables the reasoning capability on black-box models. However, generating counterfactuals for raw data instances (i.e., text and image) is still in the early stage due to its challenges on high data dimensionality and unsemantic raw features. In this paper, we design a framework to generate counterfactuals specifically for raw data instances with the proposed Attribute-Informed Perturbation (AIP). By utilizing generative models conditioned with different attributes, counterfactuals with desired labels can be obtained effectively and efficiently. Instead of directly modifying instances in the data space, we iteratively optimize the constructed attributeinformed latent space, where features are more robust and semantic. Experimental results on real-world texts and images demonstrate the effectiveness, sample quality as well as efficiency of our designed framework, and show the superiority over other alternatives. Besides, we also introduce some practical applications based on our framework, indicating its potential beyond the model interpretability aspect.


An aortic aneurism is a localized dilation of the aorta in a weakened area [1, 2]. The increase of aneurism size may result in rupture, which will be a life threatening emergency. The mechanism of failure in aneurysms is now relatively well understood. However, only limited research has provided quantitative values for the stresses that cause the failure of pathologic arterial tissue. Th e evaluation of the local failure stress remains an open problem. In this study we apply digital image correlation (DIC) to excised pieces of tissue that we test in a bulge inflation test. The tissue is taken  from the ascending aorta in diseased patients requiring an excision for removing an aneurysm. All procedures are carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the Institutional Review Board of  the University Hospital of Saint-Etienne, France.


Background Stent underexpansion has been known to be associated with worse outcomes. We sought to define optical coherence tomography assessed optimal stent expansion index (SEI), which associates with lower incidence of follow‐up major adverse cardiac events (MACEs). Methods and Results A total of 315 patients (involving 370 lesions) who underwent optical coherence tomography–aided coronary stenting were retrospectively included. SEI was calculated separately for equal halves of each stented segment using minimum stent area/mean reference lumen area ([proximal reference area+distal reference area]/2). The smaller of the 2 was considered to be the SEI of that case. Follow‐up MACE was defined as a composite of all‐cause death, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, and target lesion revascularization. Average minimum stent area was 6.02 (interquartile range, 4.65–7.92) mm2, while SEI was 0.79 (interquartile range, 0.71–0.86). Forty‐seven (12.7%) incidences of MACE were recorded for 370 included lesions during a median follow‐up duration of 557 (interquartile range, 323–1103) days. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified 0.85 as the best SEI cutoff (<0.85) to predict follow‐up MACE (area under the curve, 0.60; sensitivity, 0.85; specificity, 0.34). MACE was observed in 40 of 260 (15.4%) lesions with SEI <0.85 and in 7 of 110 (6.4%) lesions with SEI ≥0.85 (P=0.02). Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression identified SEI <0.85 (odds ratio, 3.55; 95% CI, 1.40–9.05; P<0.01) and coronary calcification (odds ratio, 2.47; 95% CI, 1.00–6.10; P=0.05) as independent predictors of follow‐up MACE. Conclusions The present study identified SEI <0.85, associated with increased incidence of MACE, as the optimal cutoff in daily practice. Along with suboptimal SEI (<0.85), coronary calcification was also found to be a significant predictor of follow‐up MACE.


Abstract The purpose of this article is to investigate whether (evolutionary informed) research in behavioral economics can be of use to reinvigorate comparative legal research. The article is structured as follows. After a brief introduction, the second section identifies two overarching (and closely related) deficiencies that seem to permeate the various contemporary comparative law methodologies: first, their widespread disinterest in empirical support that would substantiate or refute their distinct working assumptions and often sweeping claims, and second, the lack of specification of the otherwise oft-invoked notion of culture. The third section then explores whether research in behavioral economics can be put to use to address these deficiencies. First, it is submitted that the behavioral patterns that form the subject matter of behavioral economics offer an interesting avenue for developing empirically better underpinned and legally sufficiently neutral comparative standards. Subsequently, the article examines research that is collecting data on cross-cultural differences in behavior, attempting to relate the observed behavioral variability to more specified macro-level variables. Although clearly much work remains to be done, it is argued that this type of research can be instructive for comparative legal scholars who take an interest in developing an alternative to the (use of a) fourre-tout concept of culture in comparative law.


Purpose To evaluate the clinical characteristics of the unusual late postoperative capsular block syndrome (CBS) and the effect of Nd:YAG laser posterior capsulotomy on visual acuity and refractive error as well as its possible complications. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, 12 eyes of 11 patients with late CBS who had undergone Nd:YAG laser posterior capsulotomy were reviewed. A complete ophthalmic examination including Scheimpflug camera and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) imaging had been performed before and after posterior capsulotomy. Results The mean time between cataract surgery and posterior capsulotomy was 4.7 ± 1.5 years (range 3-9 years). Best-corrected visual acuity increased in 11 cases (91.7%). Only one eye showed a 0.5-D hyperopic shift following posterior capsulotomy. There were no postlaser complications such as increased intraocular pressure (IOP), severe inflammation, cystoid macular edema, or retinal detachment. In all patients, the posterior capsule was vaulted posteriorly and could not be seen clearly. The AS-OCT confirmed CBS in the studied cases, demonstrating a distended capsular bag. Rotating Scheimpflug imaging examination showed the white substance located behind the intraocular lens (IOL). Conclusions Late CBS is usually not accompanied by shallow anterior chamber, forward IOL displacement, or raised IOP. Nd:YAG laser posterior capsulotomy is a useful treatment and the prognosis of patients with this complication appears favorable. Furthermore, although AS-OCT measurements are easier to obtain than rotating Scheimpflug imaging examination, both are useful to visualize the distended capsular bag containing the white material and the IOL position.


Acidic and osmotic treatments are part of hurdle systems to control pathogens such as Salmonella in food. In the current study, Salmonella enterica isolates previously shown to differ in their ability to form biofilms were grown in diluted tryptic soy broth (TSB) (1:5 dilution in distilled water) and subsequently exposed to phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) adjusted to pH 3.0 with HCl, PBS adjusted to pH 3.9 with acetic acid or rice vinegar diluted 1:15 with distilled water (pH 3.9). Cells grown in diluted TSB were also exposed to distilled water, pH 7.6, containing 5 M NaCl. No differences in survival upon exposure to PBS adjusted to pH 3.0 with HCl or distilled water containing high salt were observed between the isolates; however, exposure to acetic acid and rice vinegar resulted in lower survival levels of isolates previously shown to be poor biofilm formers. The numbers (log(10) cfu/ml) of surviving cells after exposure for 36 hr to acetic acid and rice vinegar were 4.43 ± 0.24 vs. 2.27 ± 0.87 (P<0.05) and 5.19 ± 0.12 vs. 2.33 ± 0.93 (P<0.05) for isolates with a high vs. low biofilm-forming ability. The survival data could be fitted with the Weibull model. The data suggest that the ability of Salmonella strains to survive in the presence of acetic acid and rice vinegar parallels their ability to form biofilms. Thus, Salmonella with a high biofilm-formation capability might be more difficult to kill with acetic acid found in foods or cleaning solutions.


The emergence and re-emergence of diseases pose serious challenges to the global community, giving a wake-up call for the entire scientific community to collaborate to understand the nature of microorganisms and control pathogens that threaten humans, animals, and the ecosystem. Dissemination and globalization of scientific research in microbiology contribute to scientific community development and subsequently to scientific progress. Therefore, it is a privilege to announce the birth of the "German Journal of Microbiology, an open-access journal to publish different research articles pertained to microbiology. To empower the disclosure of scientific information, the payment capability will not be a barrier for the publication of excellent works; therefore, a complete or partial waiver may be provided upon request


Based on an ethnomethodologically informed ethnography of further education college principals, this paper explores the nature and accomplishment of strategic leadership work as an ongoing, processual activity. In particular, the paper focuses on the 'pre-implementation' phase of the strategizing process, and suggests how the practices of clarifying, rehearsing, upholding, adapting and elaborating are integral to maintaining the spirit of the strategy in the face of unforeseen events. In so doing, it adopts the notion of strategy as a 'perennially unfinished project' (Knights and Mueller, 2004: 55), and explicates the constant need for improvisation and adjustment in order to successfully implement, not the letter of a strategic plan, but its intent. It also echoes Suchman's seminal thesis on plans as 'resources for situated action [that] do not in any strong sense determine its course' (Suchman, 1987: 52).


associated with older age (p < 0.0001), and receipt of NAC (p [ 0.03). On univariable analysis, having preoperative SMG in the lowest quartile strati fi ed by sex was associated with decreased OS (HR: 1.55, 95% CI 1.06-2.27, Figure); however, SMG trended toward, but did not retain signi fi cance when adjusted for other important covariates (HR: 1.35, 95% CI 0.89-2.04). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative SMG is a novel composite body composition metric that re fl ects both skeletal muscle mass and quality. In our study, it was associated with receipt of NAC and older age and demonstrated a trend toward association with decreased OS. Limita-tions include modest sample size, retrospective nature, possible se- lection and confounding biases. Future work with larger cohorts will investigate the clinical validity and utility of SMG compared with or added to other measures of muscle mass. INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder (SqCC) is a rare disease with limited management data. We sought to characterize the clinicopathologic and survival outcomes amongst patients with SqCC, and the effect of squamous differentiation within urothelial carcinoma (UCC w/ Squam) in comparison to muscle invasive pure urothelial carcinoma (UCC). METHODS: A retrospective single institutional analysis identi- fi ed patients who underwent a cystectomy and diagnosed with SqCC, pure UCC, or UCC w/Squam (any %Sq. differentiation) histology of the from 2000 to 2020. Clinicopathology was compared by histology. Overall survival (OS), cancer-speci fi c survival (CSS), and recurrence free survival (RFS) were assessed using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox regression. w/ conventional NAC for may be ineffective for in delay of contrary to the S8710 data on MVAC indication. Additional translational studies in these cohorts are planned to examine biologic mechanisms contributing to inferior clinical outcomes in the high-risk cohort.


Methodist Medical Center of Illinois Medical Library, a "basic-unit" medical library (i.e., not a resource library) in the Regional Medical Library Program recently completed one year of borrowing and lending books using OCLC. Of the books successfully borrowed through OCLC, 79% were obtained from nonmedical libraries. Forming cost-sharing OCLC clusters among basic units makes OCLC an affordable alternative to borrowing books from overburdened medical resource libraries.


A fundamental problem challenging natural scientists is to understand how macroscopic patterns, such as population abundance distributions and element ratios, emerge and are sustained in ecosystems, given that evolution typically operates most strongly at the level of individuals and their genomes. How do such patterns persist in the face of evolutionary innovation? In this paper, we explore this issue through dynamical models of community assembly and metapopulation dynamics in dynamic landscapes, and discuss individual-based approaches to the control of element cycles.


It actually cell death. Crute and point out that a refined understanding of these genes is essential if they are to be manipulated for the introduction of broader pathogen resistance into a wide range of transgenic crop species. bio-COntlol


Musical education belongs to significant spheres of personality development and human expression. Music develops human imagination, enhances the emotional experience, evokes the human ability to perceive the organised world of sounds and stimulates the esthetical experience of this world. Many studies have shown that the importance of musical education is more important for primary school pupils than in later years. If before this age, in the families or schools the music education is not given enough attention, the child loses a lot (musical receptiveness, specific visual thinking), and later this kind of abilities for various reasons (disharmony of physical, emotional development, etc.) are more suppressed. Therefore, much of significance must be devoted to the musical education of future primary school teachers. The research data from qualitative and quantitative study analysis have highlighted the peculiarities of musical and pedagogical psychological competencies of primary school teachers.


This paper focuses on modeling of errors like ionospheric delays, dilution of precision and multipath effects etc., affecting the GPS signals as they travel from satellite to user on Earth. These errors degrade the accuracy of GPS position. An attempt is made to improve the accuracy in locating the GPS receiver by filtering the range measurements. This study emphasizes the coordinate conversion between World Geodetic System (WGS - 84) and Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) using single frequency ML-250 hand held GPS receiver and smoothening of these coordinates using Kalman filter. A recursive filtering technique, Kalman filter is used for greater accuracy in estimating the position of the user by considering the initial state of the system, statistics of system noise and measurement errors. The results of the proposed Kalman filter technique give better accuracy with more consistency and are found superior to the standard one.


Summary The paper describes the preparation and major features of the National Food and Nutrition Strategy for Ethiopia; and discusses current policy issues, including the impact of the liberalisation announced in March 1990. The country produces only 70 per cent of food requirements and has at least 9m food insecure people. The NFNS addresses these problems with a conservation-based strategy to increase production and marketed surplus in high potential as well as food deficit areas. Population growth, environmental pressure and the risks of input-intensive growth packages are the main issues of concern. The abolition of producer grain quotas may also be inflationary if urban price subsidies are to be maintained.


In this paper, we develop a family of indexes to measure the social irresponsibility of firms. We define corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) on the basis of firms' alleged involvement in human rights abuses. After a critical appraisal of the existing CSIR raw data and measures/indexes, we take a M-quantile regression approach to develop a family of CSIR indexes that overcome the limitations of existing measures. We apply our methodology to a sample of 380 large publicly-listed firms, observed over the period 2004-2012. Our analysis develops a family of CSIR indexes robust to firms' media exposure, size and industry specificities, and provides a measure of their accuracy..


ABSTRACT The definition of who has epilepsy, classification of seizure types, and types of epilepsy have all recently been revised. The classical definition of epilepsy as a person having two or more unprovoked seizures more than 24 hours apart has been expanded also to include those with one seizure and a high likelihood (more than 60%) of having another. In the new definition, epilepsy is considered to be resolved when a person is seizure-free for 10 years, the terminal 5 being off seizure medicines, or when an age-dependent syndrome has been outgrown. The new seizure type classification revises the 1981 system but maintains the primary distinction of focal- versus generalized-onset seizures. Seizures also can be of unknown onset. Focal seizures may demonstrate retention or impairment of awareness, resulting in focal-aware or focal-impaired awareness seizures. Several new focal and generalized seizure types are introduced. Classification of the epilepsies is now by grouping of seizure types, etiologies, comorbidities, and epilepsy syndromes. The goal of the new terminology is greater clarity of communication and more accurate grouping of seizure types for research. Neurodiagnostic technologists can be of great help in observing clinical and electrographic features that will define the type of seizure.


The trypanocidal activity of crude hydro alcoholic extracts and several fractions of 13 plants from Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest were tested in vitro against epimastigote and trypomastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease. Crude ethanol extracts with promising in vitro activity (DL50 between 5-10 microg/ml) against epimastigotes were fractionated by solvent partition and further tested against bloodstream form of the parasite. Activity against bloodstream parasites was observed in both dichloromethane and hexane fractions of Polygala sabulosa and P. paniculata.


: Introduction : Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) happens in cases throughout 1 st day of operation. Numerous medicines were practiced for deterrence in healing of Postoperative nausea and vomiting. In our current research, authors practiced gabapentin to assess their prophylactic outcome in dipping harshness in occurrence of Postoperative nausea and vomiting in cases experiencing analytical laparoscopic gynecological operation. Methodology : Our current research was conducted in Services Hospital Lahore from July 2018 to January 2019. The current, dual blind randomized measured research remained completed in OT compound for the time phase of six months. One hundred and fifty respondents experiencing analytical gynecological laparoscopic operation remained designated. 2 sets remained designed in 75 respondents remained employed in every set by means of technique of randomization. Set C (controller set) remained assumed control medicine verbally 2 hrz beforehand operation also set G (gabapentin set) established 610 mg of gabapentin vocally 2 hrz beforehand process. Normal GA method remained exercised in altogether cases in addition occurrence in harshness of postoperatively vomiting in nausea remained noted in those cases till 1 day of laparoscopy. Results : Harshness of Postoperative nausea and vomiting remained categorized from slight to Spartan. Here remained not any Postoperative nausea and vomiting in 27 cases (37.9%) in set C also 48 cases (69.2 %) in set G. This remained slight in harshness in 9 cases (12.6 %) in set C also 6 cases (8.2 %) in set G, reasonable in 32 cases (45.4 %) in set C also 16 cases (22.5 %) in set G also Spartan Postoperative nausea and vomiting remained realized in 7 cases (9.5%) in set C also 4 cases (5.4 %) in set G (P=0.004). Postoperatively vomiting also nausea inside 1 day afterwards technique remained present in 47 cases (65.4%) in set C also 24 cases (33.6%) in set G. Outcomes remained substantial among 2 sets afterwards statistical investigation by p value of 0.002. Conclusion : Management of 610 mg of gabapentin 2 hours beforehand indicative gynecological laparoscopy reduces occurrence in harshness of Postoperative nausea and vomiting.


Novel digital data sources and tools like machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to revolutionize data about development and can contribute to monitoring and mitigating humanitarian problems. The potential of applying novel technologies to solving some of humanity's most pressing issues has garnered interest outside the traditional disciplines studying and working on international development. Today, scientific communities in fields like Computational Social Science, Network Science, Complex Systems, Human Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, and the broader AI field are increasingly starting to pay attention to these pressing issues. However, are sophisticated data driven tools ready to be used for solving real-world problems with imperfect data and of staggering complexity? We outline the current state-of-the-art and identify barriers, which need to be surmounted in order for data-driven technologies to become useful in humanitarian and development contexts. We argue that, without organized and purposeful efforts, these new technologies risk at best falling short of promised goals, at worst they can increase inequality, amplify discrimination, and infringe upon human rights.


Detecting and classifying the modulation type of the intercepted noisy LPI (low probability of intercept) radar signals in real-time is a necessary survival technique in the electronic intelligence systems. Most radar signals have been designed to have LPI properties; therefore, the LPI radar waveform recognition technique (LWRT) has recently gained increasing attention. In this paper, we propose a multiple feature images joint decision (MFIJD) model with two different feature extraction structures that fully extract the pixel feature to obtain the pre-classification results of each feature image for the non-stationary characteristics of most LPI radar signals. The core technology of this model is combining the short-time autocorrelation feature image, double short-time autocorrelation feature image and the original signal time-frequency image (TFI) simultaneously input into the hybrid model classifier, which is suitable for non-stationary signals, and it has higher universality. We demonstrate the performance of MFIJD by simulating 11 types of the signals defined in this paper and generating training sets and test sets. The comparison with the literature shows that the proposed methods not only has a high universality for LPI radar signals, but also better adapts to LPI radar waveform recognition at low SNR (signal to noise ratio) environment. The overall recognition rate of the method reaches 87.7% when the SNR is −6 dB.


This 3-wave longitudinal study examined the natural course of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms using data collected from young adult survivors of community violence. Three key findings emerged. 1. Mean levels of distress for each symptom cluster decreased over time, with reexperiencing decreasing most rapidly. 2. Cross-lagged panel analysis revealed that hyperarousal strongly influences, but is not generally influenced by, other symptoms clusters. 3. Trajectory analysis demonstrated that respondents for whom hyperarousal was the most pronounced baseline symptom showed lower overall symptom improvement relative to trauma exposed counterparts for whom hyperarousal was a less prominent early symptom. Implications for theory, research, and clinical practice are discussed.


Tidal swamp rice is a valuable source for developing new rice cultivars in the future because they possess some important traits for, adapted to a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses. In this study, twenty-seven cultivars of the tidal swamp rice, comprising 26 from the South Kalimantan and one of Sumatera Island, Indonesia (an outgroup), were characterized phenotypically. Following Biodiversity International procedure, 14 qualitative and 15 quantitative traits were observed. The results show that this germplasm has a unique diversity in phenotypic traits. The secondary branch of panicle was the highest diversity of qualitative traits with an index of 0.93. Similarly, the plant height was the highest for quantitative traits (0.70). The correlation analysis confirmed that plant height, strongly correlated to culm diameter, the number of tillers and grain ratio. The PCA indicated that several independent traits, such as coleoptile anthocyanin coloration, basal leaf sheath color, and grain length, have positively contributed to the diversity, accounting 62.99%. Based on PCA analysis, the tidal swamp rice were clustered into four groups. According to UPGMA, this germplasm separated into six main groups, where Sardani (an outgroup) was very closely related to Lakatan Pacar and most distantly to Siam Perak. This information would be useful for the future rice breeding program, particularly in developing new rice cultivars in the tidal swamp areas.


Background This study investigated the gene expression of TCR Vβ subfamily T cells and clonality in peripheral blood from patients with DLBCL and discussed the relation between TCR VB subfamily and clinical characters, prognosis, T Cell Subgroup, et al. this study include 14 patients with DLBCL, to analyzed TCR Vβclonality of their blood samples and to comprehend the CDR3 sequence. Methods The complementarity determining region 3(CDR3)of TCR Vβ subfamily genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cels(PBMCs) from 14 DLBCL patients were amplified using RT-PCR, and the products of PCR were further analyzed by genescan technique for detection of the CDR3 size,to evaluate clonality of TCR Vβ T cells. After that, analyzing the data with statistics software SPSS 17.0, to find out the relationshop between clonality of TCR Vβ(oligoclon, oligoclone trendenc, monoclonal bioclone or polyclon ) and laboratory features, immunophenotype, period, efficacy of chemotherapy, prognosis, et al. Result This study magnified samples and comprehensively analized characteristics of TCR Vβ subfamily in patients with DLBCL patients, confirming the unbalance distribution and clonal expansion of TCR Vβ subfamily. Several cases showed clonal proliferation in Vβ3, Vβ6, Vβ7, Vβ9, Vβ14, Vβ15 and Vβ22, especially in Vβ15 and Vβ22.These clonal proliferation and deletion of Vβ16, Vβ18, Vβ24 may be considered DLBCL related. Several TCR Vβ subfamily appeared 3-polyclonal. Through number of clonal proliferation, gender, age, time since diagnosis, LDH, germinal center type or nongerminal center type, period, autologous transplantation or not, initial treatment / relapse of 14 cases were analized using two independent samples t-test. initial treatment / relapse was statistically significant (p = 0.027): number of clonal proliferation in patients with relapse-DLBCL compared to the number of untreated patients is high than patients with initial treatment. Pearson correlation analysis illustrated the number of clonal proliferation and ki-67 was negatively correlated, while CD3 + CD8 + lymphocytes showed a positive correlation. for the first time discriminant analysis was applied to gene scan results in the patients with DLBCL. Conclusion This study confirmed the unbalance distribution and clonal expansion of TCR Vβ subfamily in patients with DLBCL. Further studies may pay attention to Vβ15, Vβ22 and 3-polyclonal which may relate to DLBCL. Several indicators of TCR Vβ subfamily are closely linked with clinical data, that TCR Vβ may be considered to use in clinical diagnosis and prognosis. It's the first time that Discriminant analysis was applied to gene scan results, so discriminant analysis may be considered to clinical application after perfecting. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Seismic data from explosions and local earthquakes are used to determine shallow crustal structure near Managua, Nicaragua, and to derive a complete crustal model for northern Costa Rica. A new method, referred to as the minimum apparent velocity (MAV) method, has been developed and applied in the analysis of local earthquake data. The results indicate that the MAV method of multilayer analysis, when combined with well-determined station corrections, can be quite useful in regions of high seismicity. Based upon the analysis presented here, the total thickness of the crust beneath the central volcanic province of northern Costa Rica is about 43 km. Four crustal layers are identified with compressional-wave velocities of 2.6, 5.1, 6.2, and 6.6 km/sec. The upper mantle velocity is 7.9 km/sec. The major features of this model closely resemble those of other seismically active, marginal zones of the Pacific.


Summary —Previous reports of sexual orientation and gender identity in subjects with XYY karyotype are reviewed. Two patients seeking a change of sex operation and found to have an XYY karyotype are described. It is argued that an XYY karyotype may predispose to a disturbed gender identity and possibly to the development of the transsexual syndrome.


In this research work, a deep learning algorithm is applied to the medical domain to deliver a better healthcare system. For this, a deep learning framework for classification the region of interest pattern of complex hyperspectral medical images is proposed. The performance of computer-aided diagnosis by verifying the region in hyperspectral image by pre and post-cancerous region classification is enhanced. For this a deep Boltzmann machine (DBM) architecture of the bipartite structure as an unsupervised generative model was developed. The performance of DBM is compared with deep convolutional neural network architecture. For implementation, a three-layer unsupervised network with a backpropagation structure is used. From the presented dataset, image patches are collected and classified into two classes, namely non-informative and discriminative classes as labelled classes. The spatial information is used for classification and spectral-spatial representation of class labels is formed. In the labelled classes, the accuracy, false-positive predictions, sensitivity are obtained for the proposed fully-connected network. By the proposed cognitive computation technique an accuracy of 95.5% with 93.5% sensitivity was obtained. From the obtained classification, accuracy and success rate DBM provide a better classification of complex images compared to traditional convolution network.


Background: Few studies are available on the non-linear association between serum albumin (S-Alb) level and prognosis in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. Methods: All stable MHD patients treated in our center from 2007 to 2011 were enrolled into this study. Demographics, laboratory data, hospitalization and mortality were collected; Cox regressive models were fitted to investigate predicting outcomes, restricted cubic splines (RCS) were allowing for non-linear association between S-Alb and prognosis. Results: S-Alb was independent protective factor for mortality, all-cause hospitalization, hospitalization for cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease and hospitalization for infection. The relationships between S-Alb and mortality, all-cause hospitalization, hospitalization for cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease were U-shaped; relationships between S-Alb and hospitalization for infection were negative linear relationships both in univariable Cox regression models and in multivariable Cox regression. Conclusions: In MHD population, there were "U-shaped" relationships between serum albumin level and mortality or hospitalization; the potential risks associated with excessive S-Alb should been taken into consideration. There was negative linear relationship between S-Alb and hospitalization for infection, S-Alb may be even more important in preventing infection in MHD population.


Direction-finding of radio transmitters is considered and in particular correlation-based time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) estimation between a pair of intercept receivers. In the target application, the received and down-converted signals are corrupted by a frequency error due to a receiver frequency tuning offset which degrades the performance of the TDOA estimation. Traditionally, the cross-ambiguity function (CAF) is used in a 2D scheme for joint TDOA and frequency error estimation. In this paper, sequential 1D frequency error and TDOA estimators are introduced and compared to the 2D method. The 2D method attains the CRLB for both the TDOA and frequency error estimates, but have high computational and memory complexity. The proposed frequency error estimator is outperformed by the 2D method. However, the main objective is to estimate the TDOA and the proposed TDOA estimator have a performance similar to that of the 2D method. The main advantage of the proposed method is a reduction in both computational and memory complexity.


We present ?CDM N-body cosmological simulations in the framework of of a static general scalar-tensor theory of gravity. Due to the influence of the non-minimally coupled scalar field, the gravitational potential is modified by a Yukawa type term, yielding a new structure formation dynamics. We present some preliminary results and, in particular, we compute the density and velocity profiles of the most massive group.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the effects of two different analgesia methods on postoperative pain of patients with moderate and severe craniocerebral injury who had an emergency operation.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
In this study, 64 patients who were treated in our hospital from January 2015 to January 2016 and diagnosed with acute craniocerebral injury, were consecutively selected. The patients were divided into the propofol total intravenous anesthesia group (the observation group) and the isoflurane intravenous-inhalation combined anesthesia group (the control group) randomly with 32 cases each. Mean arterial pressure (MAP), partial pressure of oxygen (SpO2), and heart rate (HR) were compared and analyzed before and after anesthesia. At the first, second, and third day after the operation, adopt visual analogue scale (VAS), and sedation-agitation scale (GCS) were used to evaluate sedative and analgesic effects of patients.

RESULTS
After anesthesia had succeeded, HR, SpO2, and MAP of patients in these two groups decreased, but the decrease in the observation group was less than that in the control group. The differences had statistical differences (p<0.05). At the first, second, and third day after the operation, scores of VAS and GCS in the observation group were obviously lower than those in the control group, and the differences had statistical differences (p<0.05). The total effective rate of anesthesia in the observation group was higher than that in the control group, and the differences had statistical differences (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
For patients with moderate and severe craniocerebral injury who had an emergency operation, propofol total intravenous anesthesia is more stable and has a better postoperative pain comparing with isoflurane intravenous-inhalation combined anesthesia.


We proposed an end-to-end deep learning-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system following conventional visual odometry (VO) pipelines. The proposed method completes the SLAM framework by including tracking, mapping, and sequential optimization networks while training them in an unsupervised manner. Together with the camera pose and depth map, we estimated the observational uncertainty to make our system robust to noises such as dynamic objects. We evaluated our method using public indoor and outdoor datasets. The experiment demonstrated that our method works well in tracking and mapping tasks and performs comparably with other learning-based VO approaches. Notably, the proposed uncertainty modeling and sequential training yielded improved generality in a variety of environments.


Tumor dormancy has been a very real problem in breast cancer survivors where recurrences are common and usually fatal. Molecular mechanisms involved in this process are often poorly understood and are a hot spotin breast cancer research today. We have found that Rho GTPases, specifically RhoC, is hyperactivated in low metastatic dormant breast tumor cells while RhoA is downregulated. We also found RhoC causes phosphorylation of c-jun NH2 terminal kinase (JNK) in these cells which in turn activates the process of autophagy, a possible mode of cell survival in dormant tumor cells. Modulating RhoC affected phosphorylation of JNK. Also, abrogating JNK by a pharmacological inhibitor SP600125 inhibited expression of the autophagy marker LC3B-II. Autophagy genes like Atg 5 and Atg 12 were expressed along with the autophagy marker LC3B-II. On inhibiting autophagy by a specific inhibitor 3-Methyladenine (3-MA), cells did not readily undergo apoptosis but on stressing them doubly with LY294002, an inhibitor of Class I PI3K, along with 3-MA (inhibitor of Class III PI3K), significant number of dormant cells underwent apoptosis as observed by TUNEL staining. We also found that p190RhoGAP was activated in these dormant cells which may lead to the observed downregulation of RhoA activation levels. Involvement of beta-1 integrin along with c-src in activation of RhoC was observed in these dormant cells. We are in the process of further elucidating these signal transduction processes that might be involved in cellular dormancy of breast cancer. A better understanding of some of the cellular mechanisms of induction and sustenance of dormancy may aid in formulating therapies for annihilating these dormant tumor cells thus preventing the often fatal relapses in breast cancer survivors. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-01-16.


A new heterogeneous multiprocessor system with dynamic memory and power management for improved performance and power consumption is presented. Increased data locality is automatically revealed leading to enhanced memory access capabilities. Several applications can run in parallel sharing processing elements, memories as well as the interconnection network. Real time constraints are regarded by prioritization of processing element allocation, scheduling and data transfers. Scheduling and allocation is done dynamically according to runtime data dependency checking. We are able to show that execution times, bandwidth demands and power consumption are decreased. A tool flow is introduced for an easy generation of the hardware platform and software binaries for cycle accurate simulations. Further newly developed tools are available for power analysis, data transfer observation and task execution visualization.


A new type of logic family, Multiple-Output Shared Transistor Logic (MOSTL) family, is defined and a synthesis method for generating MOSTL is described. The MOSTL implements a logic function not by combining logic gates such as NAND''s and OR''s, but by combining transistors directly as switches. Since the MOSTL has more freedom in realizing a logic function, it offers a smaller and faster circuit than the standard cell based approach. More concretely speaking, in the MOSTL, transistors are shared among several logic functions and thus the number of MOSFET''s are reduced and this in turn may reduce delay time. It is best suited for the Sea-Of-Gates designs and a full manual design where designers are permitted to build a circuit at a transistor level. A synthesis method presented is based on Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) and usually gives a good solution. The method is demonstrated to generate a sneak-path free circuit and in this sense never fails to produce a solution, which is an important feature when applied to real designs. A MOSTL together with the synthesis method will provide a systematic way to generate a ''clever'' circuit, which could only have been built by the ingenuity of experienced circuit designers otherwise.


For the cost-effective realisation of the next-generation wavelengthdivision-multiplexed passive optical network (WDM PON), the possibility is evaluated of using the 4-ary pulse-amplitude-modulated (PAM) signal for the high-speed (> 10 Gbit/s) operation of the TOcan packaged reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) having a 3 dB bandwidth of only about 2.2 GHz. The results show that, owing to the compact spectrum of the 4-ary PAM signal, the deleterious effects of this limited bandwidth as well as the sensitivity degradations caused by the chromatic dispersion can be significantly alleviated. As a result, an error-free transmission of 11 Gbit/s, 4-ary PAM signal over 20 km of singlemode fibre can be demonstrated.


Reinforcement learning was carried out in a simulated environment to learn continuous velocity control over multiple motor axes. This was then applied to a real-world optical tweezers experiment with the objective of moving a laser-trapped microsphere to a target location whilst avoiding collisions with other free-moving microspheres. The concept of training a neural network in a virtual environment has significant potential in the application of machine learning for experimental optimization and control, as the neural network can discover optimal methods for problem solving without the risk of damage to equipment, and at a speed not limited by movement in the physical environment. As the neural network treats both virtual and physical environments equivalently, we show that the network can also be applied to an augmented environment, where a virtual environment is combined with the physical environment. This technique may have the potential to unlock capabilities associated with mixed and augmented reality, such as enforcing safety limits for machine motion or as a method of inputting observations from additional sensors.


The recorded geological hazards in different parts of Iraq are of 15 types. Although they are not well recorded and documented, but still a s erie of Geological Hazard Maps at scale of 1: 250 000 is compiled in the State Company of Geol ogical Survey and Mining (GEOSURV) that covers the whole Iraqi territory in 39 quadran gles. Moreover, Geological Hazards Map of Iraq at scale of 1: 1000 000 is compiled too. Each of those maps is enclosed by a report in which the existing geological hazards are documente d, zoned and ranked. Except the data of GEOSURV, and seismicity and meteorology, almost no other geological hazards data are available, in Iraq. This study depends mainly on the aforementioned map s, beside the available data concerning the geological hazards, like historical books, journals and field observation. Each type is zoned according to its Time of Occurrence a nd Intensity of Damages caused, consequently a weight is given, which differs in di fferent areas, in Iraq, for the same type. The geological hazards are ranked according to the give n w ights, their distribution and total scored weights, in different parts of Iraq are demo nstrated statistically. For each of the 15 recorded types of the geological hazards, examples are given, with documented damages in properties and lives lost. Th e damages and lives loss are also statistically demonstrated. Many hot spots were fou nd in different parts of Iraq. The most dangerous and effective geological hazard was found to be the floods, in rivers and valleys, whereas the least effective one was found to be the Tectonic active areas. Two new classifications for the geological hazards are intr oduced. The natural radiation hazards are excluded from this study. ،قارعلا يف ةيجولويجلا رطاخملا يفارغجلا اهعيزوتو اهفينصت ،نايكاسيس كيجاخ ناجوراف دبع ناركيد ةديآ و دحلأا دماح يكرت لمأ


We examined the influence of time from donor death to graft harvest on conduit function of aortic allografts in the thoracic aortic position in 18 lambs (mean weight, 11.4 kg). Five grafts were harvested immediately after donor death (fresh), seven at 24 hours, and six at 48 hours following cadaver storage at 4 degrees C. All grafts were treated with antibiotics and were stored by cryopreservation. All animals were catheterized postoperatively and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. One animal in the 24-hour group developed an allograft aneurysm, and another one died from a ruptured allograft; one graft in the fresh group occluded by nine months. No animal, however, in the 48-hour group either developed an aneurysm or occluded. There was in fact minimal change in graft diameter over time (p greater than 0.05), while the native aorta grew appropriately (greater than 50%, p less than 0.01). Forty-eight hour delay from donor death to graft harvest did not have significant effect on conduit function. This information may expand the donor pool for allografts.


Generation Z nursing students have a distinctive combination of attitudes, beliefs, social norms, and behaviors that will modify education and the nursing profession. This cross-sectional research study aimed to explore the social media use and characteristics of Generation Z in nursing students and to identify what were the most useful and preferred teaching methods during clinical training. Participants were Generation Z nursing degree students from a Spanish Higher Education Institution. A 41-item survey was developed and validated by an expert panel. The consecutive sample consisted of 120 students. Participants used social media for an average of 1.37 h (SD = 1.15) for clinical learning. They preferred, as teaching methods, linking mentorship learning to clinical experiences (x¯ = 3.51, SD = 0.88), online tutorials or videos (x¯ = 3.22, SD = 0.78), interactive gaming (x¯ = 3.09, SD = 1.14), and virtual learning environments (x¯ = 3, SD = 1.05). Regarding generational characteristics, the majority either strongly agreed or agreed with being high consumers of technology and cravers of the digital world (90.1%, n = 108 and 80%, n = 96). The authors consider it essential to expand our knowledge about the usefulness or possible use of teaching methods during clinical learning, which is essential at this moment because of the rapidly changing situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.


Informal policing has recently been on the rise in Europe: in several countries, "concerned citizens" have mobilized for the protection of their neighborhoods. This article examines the production and mobilization of vigilance in the negotiations around practices of informal policing in Italy and Germany and analyzes the relational way in which discourses and practices of vigilantism make and unmake the state. Grounded in research on practices of informal policing in Italy and Germany, the article argues that practices of vigilance manifested in informal policing are simultaneously and ambivalently state-(un)making practices. What is obtained in the process is an ambivalent regime of vigilance.


Social reproduction theory suggests that the educational system perpetuates inequality by rewarding the cultural capital of students from privileged social classes. This article reviews the empirical evidence for this view of education, highlighting debates in the field and directions for future research. Questions of exactly what cultural attributes constitute cultural capital, why cultural capital is linked to improved educational outcomes, and what kinds of students benefit from cultural capital are addressed.


Background Weight-change across parities and/or current BMI may influence maternal and fetal morbidity and requires to be differentiated to better inform weight-management guidance. Methods Direction, pattern and magnitude of weight-change across three consecutive parities and thereby two inter-pregnancy periods was described in 5079 women. The association between inter-pregnancy weight-change versus current BMI and adverse maternal events, SGA-birth and preterm delivery at second and third pregnancy were investigated by logistic regression. Results More women gained weight across the defined childbearing period than lost it, with ~35% of normal and overweight women gaining sufficient weight to move up a BMI-category. Nine patterns of weight-change were defined across two inter-pregnancy periods and 50% of women remained weight-stable throughout (within 2BMI units/period). Women who were overweight/obese at first pregnancy had higher risk of substantial weight-gain and loss (>10kg) during each of two inter-pregnancy periods. Inter-pregnancy weight-gain (> 2BMI units) between first and second pregnancy increased the risk of maternal morbidity (1or more event of hypertensive disease, caesarean-section, thromboembolism) at second pregnancy, while weight-loss (>2BMI units) increased the risk of SGA-birth. Similarly, increased risk of maternal morbidity at the third pregnancy was influenced by weight-gain during both inter-pregnancy periods but not by current BMI-category. Both weight-gain between first and second pregnancy, and being overweight/obese by third pregnancy protected the fetus against SGA-birth whereas weight-loss between second and third pregnancy doubled the SGA risk. Conclusion Half the women studied exhibited significant weight-fluctuations. This influenced their risk of maternal morbidity and SGA-birth at second and third pregnancy.


Editor's Note: I developed myectomy surgery more than 25 years ago, and this procedure has been confirmed to be the best surgical treatment for blepharospasm. I have performed more than 1,000 myectomy procedures, and while functional results (reduction in spasm) have not changed greatly in the past few years, cosmetic results have improved greatly and negative side effects and healing time have been reduced.


Houttuynia cordata Thunb., a traditional medicinal plant with a variety of pharmaceutical activities. In this study, antioxidant activities of extracts obtained from flower, leaf, stem, and root of two H. cordata accessions and their contents of phenolic compounds and flavonoids were evaluated. Results indicated that the total phenolic contents ranged from 1.90 to 10.26 mg gallic acid g-1 dw. The flavonoid contents were between 0.751 to 12.4 mg rutin g-1 dw. The results indicated that the total phenolic and flavonoid contents, as well as antioxidant activities, as observed in flower and leaf were generally higher than that in root and stem. The two H. cordata accessions tested showed no significant difference within antioxidant activities. Therefore, we recommend using the leaf and flower of H. cordata as potential natural antioxidant for food and medical products.

 Key words: Houttuynia cordata Thunb., phenolics, flavonoid, antioxidant activity.


Widely tunable InP lasers often require comb reflectors as an integral part of their design. It is desirable to achieve comb reflectors with as "top-hat" like a response as possible. There are several ways to do this, but one simple and practical way is by utilizing a phase grating. Previously these have been discussed theoretically, but here we will describe the fabrication of such gratings and how they can find application as the reflectors in widely tunable InP lasers. The example devices which we will discuss show that phase-grating-based distributed Bragg reflector lasers can have tuning ranges of around 35 nm combined with excellent sidemode suppression ratio of better than 45 dB at the mode centers.


In Argentina, as well as in many countries, indigenous people have been the target of prejudice for centuries. This situation mostly dates to the "Conquest of the Desert", a military campaign waged by the Argentine government against the indigenous population during the late 19th century. Although in the last three decades, indigenous groups' claims for reparation and equal social rights have increased in visibility, most are still victims of cultural segregation and poverty. This study analyzes the relations among social representations and prejudice against indigenous people in a small city, where the descendants of both military people and the European immigrants who arrived at the  beginning of the 20th century to settle in the "conquered" lands, live alongside descendants of the Mapuche indigenous groups who originally inhabited that same territory. Our analyses suggest a contradiction in the attempts to vindicate the indigenous people while maintaining their subordinated and segregated status in the community. That opposition is reinforced by imaginary frontiers created by the organization of urban spaces and representations of the relations between past and present that relegate indigenous people to the past and place them into the poorest and most violent neighborhood, implicitly marking them as criminals. Hence, social representations may be at the basis of the subtle expressions of prejudice that are very frequent. However, when the inhabitants of the city have to actually face indigenous people who are not clearly very different from them and when these indigenous people's claims become more visible, more blatant forms of prejudice become manifest.


The name of this new method of urographic visualization, which has become one of the most valuable aids in clinical diagnosis, deserves consideration. Since its inception it has been most often referred to by the term "intravenous urography," which was adopted to distinguish it from "cystoscopic" or "retrograde urography." It has also been referred to as "descending" or "excretion urography" by European observers. "Excretory urography" would seem the logical term, since it is physiologically descriptive and, in view of recent and portending advances in oral administration, would be quite acceptable. The members of the medical profession have been inexcusably slow in availing themselves of the opportunities offered by excretory urography in the diagnosis of abdominal lesions. Judging from the frequent requests made by patients for excretory urography rather than cystoscopy, it might be inferred that laymen are more familiar with the method than some physicians. It should and probably will


Abstract An experimental study of ice deformation at the confluence area of Unteraargletscher, Bernese Alps, Switzerland, has been carried out. Surface velocities were measured by repeatedly surveying stakes and with the use of remote-sensing methods. The variation of the vertical strain rates with depth was measured in boreholes. The confluence center line is subjected to longitudinal horizontal extension, which is exceeded in magnitude by a concomitant transverse compression. Vertical strain rates change from positive (extension) at the surface to negative (compression) in the lowest layers of the glacier.


BACKGROUND
Many rheumatic diseases may cause gastrointestinal manifestations. The goal of this study was to analyze the prevalence and predictors of gastrointestinal involvement in patients with rheumatic disorders.

METHODS
A retrospective chart review was performed for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and sys- temic sclerosis who have consulted due to gastrointestinal symptoms. The relationship between clinical symptoms, gastroscopic/colo- noscopic findings, and histopathological results with current drugs and disease duration was evaluated.

RESULTS
A total of 364 patients with rheumatic disorders and 740 people as control group were included in the study. Abdominal bloating followed by abdominal pain, regurgitation, and heartburn were reported as the main complaints by more than half of the patients. Most of the patients had gastric mucosal changes expressed as Lanza score, and the presence of major polypharmacy was the most important factor affecting Lanza score (odds ratio: 10, 95% CI: 1.882-54.111, P < .007) followed by disease duration (odds ratio: 1.559, 95% CI: 1.369-1.775, P < .001) and age (odds ratio: 1.069, 95% CI: 1.030-1.109, P < .001). In general, approximately 30% of the patients were posi- tive for Helicobacter pylori infection and 35% showed intestinal metaplasia in histopathological examination. Most of the colonoscopic findings were associated with colonic polyps (n = 81). In multivariate analysis, disease duration was the only factor that affected the pres- ence of colonic lesions (Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve (AUROC): 0.871, 95% CI: 0.824-0.918, P < .001).

CONCLUSION
Patients with rheumatologic diseases frequently have gastrointestinal manifestations. The most encountered gastrointes- tinal symptom was abdominal bloating, followed by abdominal pain. Being aware of gastrointestinal manifestations and their determi- nants may help physicians manage and follow patients with rheumatologic disorders.


We study generating series of Gromov-Witten invariants of $E\times\mathbb{P}^1$ and their tropical counterparts. Using tropical degeneration and floor diagram techniques, we can express the generating series as sums of Feynman integrals, where each summand corresponds to a certain type of graph which we call a pearl chain. The individual summands are - just as in the case of mirror symmetry of elliptic curves, where the generating series of Hurwitz numbers equals a sum of Feynman integrals - complex analytic path integrals involving a product of propagators (equal to the Weierstrass-$\wp$-function plus an Eisenstein series). We also use pearl chains to study generating functions of counts of tropical curves in a tropical sum of tropical Hirzebruch surfaces.


The investment in mutual funds has steadily increased in this decade. This growth has created a need for comprehensive and expandable financial decision support systems (DSS) that embody the knowledge of an expert in making investment decisions. This study illustrates the design and development of an intelligent, object-oriented decision support system: MFS -–Mutual Fund Selector. MFS takes into account an investor's unique requirements and personal characteristics, and recommends an investment strategy.


The Ni-base superalloy GTD111 DS is used in the first stage blade of high power land-based gas turbines. Advanced repair technologies of the blade have been introduced to the gas turbine industry over recent years. The effect of the filler metal powder on Transient Liquid Phase bonding phenomenon and tensile mechanical properties was investigated on the GTD111 DS superalloy. At the filler metal powder N series, the base metal powders fully melted at the initial time and a large amount of the base metal near the bonded interlayer was dissolved by liquid inter metal. Liquid filler metal powder was eliminated by isothermal solidification which was controlled by the diffusion of B into the base metal. The solids in the bonded interlayer grew from the base metal near the bonded interlayer inward the insert metal during the isothermal solidification. The bond strength of N series filler metal powder was over 1000 MPa. and phase size of N series TLP bonded region was similar with base metal by influence of Ti, Al elements. At the insert metal powder M series, the Si element fluidity of the filler metal was good but microstructure irregularity on bonded region because of excessive Si element. Nuclear of solids formed not only from the base metal near the bonded interlayer but also from the remained filler metal powder in the bonded interlayer. When the isothermal solidification was finished, the content of the elements in the boned interlayer was approximately equal to that of the base metal. But boride and silicide formed in the base metal near the bonded interlayer. And these boride decreased with the increasing of holding time. The bond strength of M series filler metal powder was about 400 MPa.


BackgroundPerioperative activation of hemostasis could play an important role in the occurrence of postoperative cardiac events. The authors conducted a prospective study to assess platelet function, coagulation, and fibrinolysis status during and after infrarenal aortic surgery. MethodsSeventeen patients were studied. Excluded were patients with preoperative coagulopathies or liver disease, or cardiac or renal insufficiency; patients receiving anticoagulant treatment, antiplatelet agents, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents, fresh frozen plasma, or platelet concentrates; and patients undergoing reoperation and septic patients. Blood samples were drawn before induction (T1), 1 h after incision (T2), 1 h after extubation (T3), 24 h postoperatively (T4), 48 h postoperatively (T5), and at day 7 (T6). The following tests were performed: platelet count, platelet aggregation, platelet flow cytometry for CD62 and CD63, usual coagulation tests, thrombin–antithrombin complexes, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1. ResultsA significant increase of adenosine diphosphate–induced platelet aggregation was observed postoperatively at T4 and T5. This was not associated with a change of flow cytometry profile. No increase of thrombin–antithrombin complex levels was observed. A higher fibrinogen rate was detected at T5 and T6. Greater amounts of plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 were detected at T3 and T4. Thus, thrombin generation was limited and fibrinolysis was impaired postoperatively. Platelets were not activated in the postoperative period, as shown by flow cytometry, but were prone to be activated, as shown by aggregation studies. ConclusionThe association of more easily activated platelets with a higher fibrinogen rate and a temporary shut down of fibrinolysis during the early postoperative period may indicate an increased thrombotic risk in patients undergoing major vascular surgery.


Hypoxic/necrotic regions, absent in normal tissues, can be exploited to target tumours in cancer therapy using nonpathogenic strains of the bacterial genus Clostridium. Following administration of Clostridium spores to tumour‐bearing organisms, these spores can only germinate within the hypoxic/necrotic regions of solid tumours, proving their exquisite selectivity. Low oxygen tension is a common feature of solid tumours, which may arise from the unique physiological environment, generated to a large extent by the abnormal tumour vasculature, and provides as such a niche for anaerobic bacteria. Some clostridia tested clearly showed innate oncolytic activity, but they could not completely eradicate the tumour. Recombinant clostridia producing prodrug‐converting enzymes or cytokines resulted in the production of such proteins solely within the tumour, and where applicable, could convert the prodrug in a toxic compound. Moreover, in some cases, tumour eradication or tumour control could be observed. This review brings an overview of the relative successes and failures of the Clostridium‐directed tumour therapy with both wild‐type strains and strains producing proteins useful in antitumour therapy.


This paper studies the adaptive event-triggered finite-time tracking of output-constrained high-order nonlinear systems with time-varying powers. Due to the presence of multiple unknown powers and the consideration of event-triggered control, all the existing control methods of output-constrained nonlinear systems are inapplicable. By introducing nonlinear mappings, finite-time performance functions, and low-power and high-power terms into adding a power integrator technique and the relative threshold strategy, an adaptive state-feedback controller is designed to eliminate the effects caused by the output constraint and time-varying powers. It is proved that all the closed-loop signals are bounded, the asymmetric time-varying output constraint is not violated, and the tracking error converges to a prescribed arbitrarily small region around zero in a preassigned finite time. Furthermore, the Zeno phenomenon can be avoided. Two simulation examples demonstrate the effectiveness of this control scheme.


An ionic liquid (IL) laden metal-organic framework (MOF) sodium-ion electrolyte has been developed for ambient-temperature quasi-solid-state sodium batteries. The MOF skeleton is designed according to a UIO-66 (Universitetet i Oslo) structure. A sodium sulfonic (-SO3Na) group grafted to the UIO-based MOF ligand improves the Na+-ion conductivity. Upon lading with a sodium-based ionic liquid (Na-IL), sodium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (NaTFSI) in 1-n-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (Bmpyr-TFSI), the Na-IL laden sulfonated UIO-66 (UIOSNa) quasi-solid electrolyte exhibits a Na+-ion conductivity of 3.6 × 10-4 S cm-1 at ambient temperature. Quasi-solid-state sodium batteries with the Na-IL/UIOSNa electrolyte are demonstrated with a layered Na3Ni1.5TeO6 cathode and sodium-metal anode. The quasi-solid-state Na∥Na-IL/UIOSNa∥Na3Ni1.5TeO6 cells show remarkable cycling performance.


The present study investigated the effects of malic acid, sucrose, and their mixture on the fermentation parameters, Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) nitrogen fractions, and bacterial community of Moringa oleifera leaves (MOL) silages. The trial was divided into four treatments and labeled as CON (control group) and MLA, SUC, and MIX (respectively denoting the addition of 1% malic acid, 1% sucrose, and 1% malic acid + 1% sucrose to the fresh weight basis). The silage packages were opened on the 2nd, 5th, 10th, 20th, and 40th days of ensiling for subsequent determination. Malic acid and sucrose increased the lactic acid content (p < 0.05) and pH value, and the acetic acid contents of MLA and MIX were lower than those in CON (p < 0.05). Compared with sucrose, malic acid had a better capacity to preserve nutrients and inhibit proteolysis, and thus exerted better effects on the CNCPS nitrogen fractions. The results of 16S rRNA showed that the dominant phyla were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria and that the dominant genera were Lactobacillus and Weissella. With the application of silage additives and the processing of fermentation, there was a remarkable change in the composition and function of the bacterial community. The variation of the fermentation parameters and CNCPS nitrogen fractions in the MOL silages caused by malic acid and sucrose might be attributed to the dynamic and dramatic changes of the bacterial community.


A microcomputer-based controller for a digital cartridge tape drive is developed. Minimum interface hardware is used to achieve the required control by making the best use of the I/O ports available on a single board computer. The software-intensive approach gives increased reliability and flexibility to the control scheme while keeping the development time short. A simple two-processor multiprocessing configuration is implemented and tested for a real-time data-acquisition system where the digital cartridge tape serves as the mass storage medium. Test/reset semaphores are used to coordinate the operation of the two processors. An initial application to real-time acquisition of aircraft flight data is described.


This article constructs an empirical measure of uncertainty about short-term inflation forecasts and finds the long bond rate to be positively correlated with this empirical measure over 1984Q1 to 2004Q3. The positive correlation suggests that an increase in uncertainty about short-term inflation forecasts raises uncertainty about long-term inflation forecasts and hence may account for the presence of inflation risk premiums in bond yields. The results also indicate that, in recent years, the correlation of the long bond rate with short-term inflation uncertainty has weakened, which reflects increased confidence that inflation will remain low and stable, leading to lower inflation risk premiums and thereby explaining the current low level of the long bond rate.


This paper deals with the basic design and implementation of the mathematical motion model of an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle. This model comes from the specific construction of the vehicle, which was designed in order to verify and demonstrate its autonomous motion possibilities indoors and outdoors. This article presents two different issues of the basic model: a) computing vehicle position depending on values of parameters of its motion system and b) deriving values of these parameters according to current demands for movement of the vehicle from a current position to a new position. Key-Words: model, unmanned vehicle, autonomous motion, manual control, autonomous control


This article provides conceptual foundations for analyzing organizations comprising multiple legally autonomous entities, which we call meta-organizations. We assess the antecedents of the emergence of such collectives and the design choices they entail. The article identifies key parameters on which such meta-organizations' designs differ from each other. It also presents a taxonomy that elucidates how such forms of collective action vary and the constraints they must address to be successful. We conclude with implications for research on meta-organizational design. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The use of confocal and multiphoton microscopy for in vivo studies in animals continues to be an area of exciting technical and commercial development. However the application of these technologies at high resolution, such that molecular and subcellular information is collected, remains an elusive goal. This review discusses the practical and performance limitations and the potential uses of currently available systems. We also highlight the ongoing developments in both miniaturized and bench-mounted systems for single and multiphoton optical sectioning studies in animals and in human clinical trials.


In this work, the concept of federated Learning is applied on medical records of CT scans images for detection of pulmonary lung nodules. Instead of using the naive ways, the authors have come up with decentralizing the training technique by bringing the model to the data rather than accumulating the data at a central place and thus maintaining differential privacy of the records. The training on distributed electronic medical records includes two models: detection of location of nodules and its confirmation. The experiments have been carried out on CT scan images from LIDC dataset and the results shows that the proposed method outperformed the existing methods in terms of detection accuracy.


Trace element abundance determinations were performed using synchrotron x-ray fluorescence on nine particles collected from the stratosphere and classified as ''cosmic''. Improvements to the Synchrotron Light Source allowed the detection of all elements between Cr and Mo, with the exceptions of Co and As, in our largest particle. The minor and trace element abundance patterns of three Ni-depleted particles were remarkably similar to those of extraterrestrial igneous rocks. Fe/Ni and Fe/Mn ratios suggest that one of these may be of lunar origin. All nine particles exhibited an enrichment in Br, ranging form 1.3 to 38 times the Cl concentration. Br concentrations were uncorrelated with particle size, as would be expected for a surface correlated component acquires from the stratosphere. 27 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs.


Any disease can be cured or get rid of from the severity, when on time treatment is given or proper medication on time is given. Rather than suffering, it is better to take care by preferring screening methods or doctor consult when little changes are seen doubtful. Cancers, probably show the symptoms almost in its middle stage and sometimes at last stage. Therefore, preventive measures are necessary, and those which come under cancer are named as active measures. As we know, most of the cancers are mainly caused due to the environmental risk factors. In the commentary article, a short notes on the different preventive measures for the life threatening disease i.e., cancer are discussed.


Ecomorphs result from divergent natural selection, leading to species-rich adaptive radiations. Identifying ecomorphs and the resulting adaptive radiations in frogs is challenging due to conserved morphology and high species diversity. In this study, we demonstrate the ecological and climate specializations that have driven the diversification of shrub frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus in Sri Lanka, a tropical continental island. We use a time-calibrated phylogeny, morphometric analyses, and climate-niche evolution, and identify five ecomorphological categories, including Tree-shrub, Rock-boulder, Leaf-litter, Habitat Generalists, and Canopy forms, and describe their evolution. Body size is the primary factor separating species, and specific body features correlate with habitat type. Ecomorphs likely evolved multiple times in disparate lineages, and in different regions and altitudes, during cold climatic periods owing to monsoon cycles resulting from the Himalayan-Tibetan orogeny. The common ancestor was a medium-sized, wet-adapted, tree-shrub habitat specialist which originated in the late Oligocene. Extreme size classes (diminutive leaf litter forms and large canopy forms) evolved recently and suggest that morphological disparity arose late in diversification, possibly aided by favorable climates. This work will facilitate understanding of adaptive radiations in frogs, which possibly will help uncover the prevalence of subtle adaptive radiations in frogs, just as in tailed-vertebrates.


A procedure for joint refinement of X-ray and neutron data is described in which structural, charge density and extinction parameters are adjusted simultaneously in order to arrive at the best least-squares solution with respect to all available diffraction data. This X + N refinement is applied to previously collected low-temperature data on oxalic acid dihydrate, C2H2O4.2H2O, and results are compared with the X-ray-only refinement, and an X-ray refinement with neutron values for the hydrogen structural parameters. The X + N model deformation density shows higher peak heights in the lone-pair regions than the X- ray-only model density and resembles more closely the X-N deformation maps. Though the X + N maps are more strongly model dependent, they contain less noise, provide an analytical description of the deformation density and, unlike the X-N density, can be obtained in principle with a less than complete data set. The estimate of the goodness-of-fit for each of the data sets requires an apportioning of the joint parameters, which in this study is based on the relative magnitude of the least-squares derivatives.


We have applied the spin dynamics technique to conducting polymers, in particular, with the ESR method, and investigated microscopic transport properties in a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) polymer chain. This technique is a unique method for obtaining microscopic information on intrinsic transport properties, because macroscopic resistivity is mainly limited by electrical properties of interfacial regions between microcrystals. In this article, the principles and applications of this method will be reviewed in detail. The difference between ESR applied here and 1H NMR will also be discussed, and each characteristic feature will be stressed.


Immunization with an inactivated whole-virus vaccine is highly effective in preventing lentivirus infection. The viral protein(s) essential to the induction of protective responses, however, have not been identified. To define the role of virion components in the induction of protective immunity, we evaluated the efficacy of glycoprotein-enriched and glycoprotein-depleted simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) subunit vaccines prepared by lentil-lectin affinity chromatography of gradient-purified virions using the immunization and challenge regimen previously found successful with an inactivated whole-virus vaccine. Infection was determined by successful recovery of virus, the induction of SIV-specific antibody responses, and infection of naive recipients by inoculation with lymph-node-derived lymphocytes from the vaccinates. Immunization with the glycoprotein-enriched preparation prevented infection in two out of four monkeys, whereas the glycoprotein-depleted vaccine failed to prevent infection in all four vaccinates tested. However, the glycoprotein-depleted vaccine appeared to moderate the progression of SIV-induced disease compared with non-immunized infected control monkeys inoculated with the same challenge dose. These data suggest that subunit vaccines containing sufficient quantities of viral glycoproteins can protect against SIV infection, whereas subunit vaccines composed predominantly of viral core proteins cannot. The development of effective vaccines against HIV infection should include studies on the optimum presentation of the viral envelope glycoproteins to produce long-term broadly protective immune responses.


Reader Enjoys Regulatory Watch I want to express my appreciation to the Journal for publishing the Legislation/Regulation column. As a Journal reader for 33 years, I think the columns by Frederick W. Pontius are an outstanding contribution to the water industry. Without his concise, clear, and well-organized writings about the Safe Drinking Water Act, none of us would ever understand it. Congratulations on a job well done and keep it up. Carl H. Carpenter Groundwater Consultant


Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is considered as one of the most important energy for specific chiral texture such as magnetic skyrmions. The key of generating DMI is absence of structural inversion symmetry and exchange energy with spin-orbit coupling. Therefore, a vast majority of researches about DMI is mainly limited to heavy metal/ferromagnet bilayer systems, only focusing on their interfaces. Here, we report that asymmetric band formation in an artificial superlattice arises from inversion symmetry breaking in stacking order of atomic layers, resulting in bulk DMI. Such bulk DMI is more than 300% larger than simple sum of interfacial contribution. Moreover, the asymmetric band is largely affected by strong spin-orbit coupling, showing crucial role of a heavy metal even in the non-interfacial origin of DMI. Such Rashba superlattices can be a new class of material design for spintronics applications.


The low-impedance loop coupling-transformer circuit is analyzed, expressing the transformer parameters in terms of the circuit and transformer coupling coefficients. Equations are developed which yield optimum design values for the transformer. It is shown that an ideal transformer-coupled loop has 38.4 per cent of the gain realizable from a direct-connected loop of the same area, assuming the same Q in the transformer secondary as in the direct-connected loop.


ABSTRACT: The copying of programming assignments is a widespread problem in academic institutions. Manual plagiarism detection is time-consuming, and current popular plagiarism detection systems are not scalable to large code repositories. While there are text-based plagiarism detection systems capable of handling millions of student papers, comparable systems for codebased plagiarism detection are in their infancy. In this paper, we propose and evaluate new techniques for code plagiarism detection. Using small and large collections of programs, we show that our approach is highly scalable while maintaining similar levels of effectiveness to that of JPlag.


Estrogen mediates fast signal responses or transcriptional events via G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER1). However, there is no data on the effect of GPER1 on lung cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis. The present study aimed to analyze the anticancer effects of the GPER1 agonist G-1 on A549 human lung cancer cells. A549 cells were treated with 17β-estradiol and G-1, and cell proliferation was analyzed using MTT and WST assays. In addition, the apoptotic effects induced by G-1 were investigated using acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining. A549 cells were treated with a half maximal inhibitory concentration of G-1 for 72 h, and nitric oxide (NO) levels and superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) enzyme activities were analyzed by spectrophotometry. The results revealed that G-1 significantly decreased cell proliferation. In addition to the antiproliferative effect of G-1, a marked increase in apoptotic activity was observed when cells were treated with 2×10-5 M G-1. Furthermore, G-1 increased NO levels, and SOD and GPx activity. These findings indicate that the GPER1 agonist G-1 is able to exert antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects on A549 cells, and that oxidant and antioxidant molecules may mediate these effects.


The present report outlines the results of a landscape survey of National Trust holdings and covenanted land in Buttermere, Cumbria, which comprise an area approximately
52.5km² in extent (centred on NY 170 170). This report incorporates survey work undertaken by The National Trust and the Lake District National Park Authority with teams of volunteer surveyors from the Lorton and Derwent Fells Local History Society during March and April 2008, in addition to landscape survey undertaken by Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) between March and May 2008 and documentary research undertaken by OA North.
The aim of the study was to produce a comprehensive record of the remains of archaeological interest within the valley and to provide analysis of the development of the landscape. The study also included an assessment of the survival and condition of the archaeological resource within the valley and this report provides management recommendations for the long-term preservation of the resource.


This paper presents results obtained from the application of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach to modelling of non-premixed turbulent ethylene sooting flame. The study focuses on comparing the two soot models available in the Fluent in predicting the soot level in the turbulent non-premixed ethylene flame. A standard k-ε model and Eddy Dissipation model are utilized for the representation of flow field and combustion of the flame being investigated. For performance comparison study, a single step soot model of Khan and Greeves and two-step soot model proposed by Tesner are tested. The results of calculations are compared with experimental data for a turbulent sooting flame taken from literature. The results of the study show that a combination of the standard k-ε turbulence model and eddy dissipation model is capable of producing reasonable predictions of temperature both in axial and radial profiles; although further downstream of the flame over-predicted temperatures are evidence. With regard to soot model performance study, it shows that the two-step model clearly performed far better than the single-step model in predicting the soot level in ethylene flame at both axial and radial profiles.


For years, fathers' groups have complained that restraining orders, intended as a shield against domestic violence, are often misused by unscrupulous pseudo-victims and over-zealous courts. However, whenever these groups request that fathers should have more time to spend with their children after divorce, feminist groups argue that those children will be exposed to more violence. Language: en