In this work we compare tow methods for the identification of non-linear systems. The first one uses a quadratic non linear model of which parameters are estimated using a new algorithm based on the fourth order cumulants. The second one is based on the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models. The simulation results show that the fuzzy models give the good results in noiseless and weak noise environment. However the quadratic model of which parameters are identified using the proposed algorithm works well in the high noise environment case.


This paper presents research investigating how creative practice can complement scientific discourses in engaging the public with environmental issues. Focusing on the Floating Land environmental art festival and The People's Garden eco-visualization, this enquiry examines how participatory creative projects can engender social learning and reflection on environmental values that operate as catalysts for change.


The dynamic behavior of metal matrix composite (MMC) plates is considered. In particular, the influence of inelastic deformations and delamination at the interfaces of the lamina on the macroscopic and local response of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Al plates are studied. The work is carried out using a recently developed plate theory which models both delamination and localized history-dependent effects such, as inelasticity. A linear debonding model for the interface is employed for the current work. The theory models both the initiation and growth of delaminations without imposing any restrictions on the location, size, or direction of growth of the delamination. In the current work the response of the individual lamina in the plate are modeled using the Method of Cells (MOC) micromechanical model. The inelastic behavior in the matrix is modeled using the unified viscoplastic theory of Bodner and Partom. The behavior of a Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Al plate under dynamic cylindrical bending subjected to a ramp and hold type of loading is examined. For simplicity, the plate is assumed to be composed of a cross-ply layup. It is shown that both inelastic deformations and delamination have a strong influence on dynamic plate behavior. The inelastic deformations have strong effect on themore » axial displacement while delamination has greater influence on the deflection.« less


Many noteworthy contributions were reported in 2005. Among them were the determinations of the complexation energy of dialane and the heat of hydrogenation of phenylcyclobutadiene, two transient species that can be observed only at very low temperatures in cryogenic matrices. Infrared spectra on organometallic compounds, cationized amino acids and peptides, and cluster ions represent spectacular achievements as do photoelectron spectra studies on dipole bound anions, dicarboxylates, and small clusters. The chiral recognition work of Speranza and coworkers is exciting as is the prediction of observable anion–anion clusters which are not held together by covalent bonds.


Nonlinear dielectric response in relaxor systems was studied as a function of the ac and dc electric field. Significant frequency dependence was found in the nonlinearity a3. The crossover temperature dependence of a3 -a fingerprint of the spherical glass freezing-was confirmed to exist even in the static limit. Beside the expected reflection of the third harmonic component e3(3ω) additional nonlinear contribution was found in the nonlinear dependence of the first harmonic response e1(ω). It is shown that this second contribution to the field dependence of e1(ω) and also the quasistatic measurements of the nonlinear dielectric response throughout the glassy-to-ferroelectric crossover region can be described by the spherical random-bond-random-field model of relaxor ferroelectrics.


In recent years, searching for new and cost-effective methods of recycling waste tires has been a subject of research in many laboratories worldwide. This is due to regulations in the law and environmental factors, which have both stimulated industry to re-use high quality rubber found in ground tire rubber (GTR). One of the most promising solutions in this area seems to be thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) filled with GTR, which are economical and a pro-ecological alternative for commercially available TPEs. This chapter describes the recent advances in processing and characterization of thermoplastic elastomers filled with GTR. Special attention has been focused on the structure–properties relationships and compatibilization strategies of the studied TPEs. Moreover, the future trends in the development of TPEs filled with GTR are proposed and discussed.


This invaluable book provides the foundations for a new theory of the firm, drawing on Birger Wernerfelt's landmark work on economic theory and the resource-based view of the firm. It addresses a vigorous and long-standing academic debate over what exactly a 'firm' is, both in the field of management and economics. Wernerfelt revisits his classic articles, including an extensively revised 'A Resource-Based View of the Firm' (1984), which have been updated and synthesized to provide precise and accessible concepts and predictions. By offering future directions for research and practice, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of management and economics alike.


This article examines implications of the MOX Plant European Court of Justice (ECJ) case for dispute settlement between Member States that are parties to mixed environmental agreements. In 2006, the ECJ held Ireland in breach of EC law for failing to consult the Commission about its dispute with the UK and for instituting proceedings under an international treaty rather than through EC law; this was held necessary because it concerned two Member States and EC law which the ECJ was competent to determine. The completed litigation illustrates the operation of autonomous legal systems in public international law and the proliferation of overlapping courts and tribunals. Although it clarifies the relationship between international and EC law, it leaves some questions unanswered, in particular regarding dispute settlement by Member States that are parties to mixed agreements outside EC law. Is non-EC dispute settlement still possible, and if so how? Is this limited to judicial processes? Viewing the dispute primarily as relating to transboundary environmental impact assessement (EIA), the article examines the role of the Espoo Convention, in particular the Inquiry Commission. The failure of Ireland to challenge the UK under the EIA Directive implementing the Convention was noted by the ECJ and some commentators. What is not clear is whether the Inquiry Procedure, which is a scientific process for determining effect significance when parties dispute this, can still be used. It has not been incorporated into the EIA Directive and there is nothing comparable under EC law. Its recent application in the Danube Delta case is considered and the options for Member States outlined. It is concluded that EC Member States that use this procedure against other Member States are likely to be found in breach of EC law.


From the Publisher:
Simulation modeling is becoming increasingly popular as a technique for evaluating the performance of resource allocation and alternate operating policies. It is a cost-effective method for improving process performance and can be used to evaluate the performance of capital equipment before making an investment. This handbook is a practical, easy-to-follow reference that provides up-to-date knowledge and offers step-by-step procedures for conducting simulation studies that help decision-makers find the optimal courses of action. Unlike most other books on the subject, this presentation is independent of any particular simulation software, allowing readers to use any commercial package or general purpose programming language.


Abstract Xeno-nucleic acids (XNAs) have gained significant interest as synthetic genetic polymers for practical applications in biomedicine, but very little is known about their biophysical properties. Here, we compare the stability and mechanism of acid-mediated degradation of α-l-threose nucleic acid (TNA) to that of natural DNA and RNA. Under acidic conditions and elevated temperature (pH 3.3 at 90°C), TNA was found to be significantly more resistant to acid-mediated degradation than DNA and RNA. Mechanistic insights gained by reverse-phase HPLC and mass spectrometry indicate that the resilience of TNA toward low pH environments is due to a slower rate of depurination caused by induction of the 2′-phosphodiester linkage. Similar results observed for 2′,5′-linked DNA and 2′-O-methoxy-RNA implicate the position of the phosphodiester group as a key factor in destabilizing the formation of the oxocarbenium intermediate responsible for depurination and strand cleavage of TNA. Biochemical analysis indicates that strand cleavage occurs by β-elimination of the 2′-phosphodiester linkage to produce an upstream cleavage product with a 2′-threose sugar and a downstream cleavage product with a 3′ terminal phosphate. This work highlights the unique physicochemical properties available to evolvable non-natural genetic polymers currently in development for biomedical applications.


The MET oncogene encodes the receptor for HGF/Scatter Factor, known to control cell motility and invasion in epithelial cells. We report that the Met/HGF receptor, absent in differentiated adult skeletal muscles, is aberrantly expressed in clinical samples and in established cell lines of human rhadbomyosarcomas. In both the embryonal and alveolar histotypes the oncogene is overexpressed and, in some cases, amplified. The Met receptor is exposed at the cell surface and is functionally active in response to HGF/Scatter Factor. Accordingly, rhabdomyosarcoma cells exhibit an invasive phenotype in vitro in response to exogenous HGF/Scatter factor. As the factor is known to be produced by connective tissues, a paracrine stimulation of rhabdomyosarcoma invasiveness in vivo is hypothesized. Two alveolar rhabdomyosarcomas were found in co-express the ¿two-kringle' alternatively-spliced HGF/Scatter Factor variant, which has been previously shown to stimulate cell motility and matrix invasion in vitro. These cells displayed the invasive phenotype in the absence of exogenous HGF/Scatter Factor, suggesting an autocrine mechanism in vivo. These data indicate that aberrant expression of the MET proto-oncogene provides rhabdomyosarcoma cells with the same property as embryonal myoblasts to migrate into the surrounding connective tissues.


Accessory pathways represent abnormalities of atrioventricular conduction. According to the course and the site of insertion they can be divided into atrioventricular (AV), atrio-His, atriofascicular, nodoventricular, nodofascicular and fasciculoventricular. AV accessory pathways are the most common form. An anterior, lateral and posterior localisation of AV accessory pathways can be distinguished in the left and right free wall. Atriofascicular accessory pathways usually exhibit antegrade conduction with AV node-like decremental properties. Right atriofascicular accessory pathways are involved in most cases of Mahaim-type tachycardias. AV re-entrant tachycardia based on the presence of AV accessory pathway is mostly orthodromic, less commonly antidromic. The orthodromic AV re-entrant tachycardia based on the pathway exhibiting decremental retrograde conduction is known as permanent junctional reciprocating tachycardia. Patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome often demonstrate an atrial fibrillation. As conduction over an accessory pathway during atrial fibrillation can be rapid, some of them are at a high risk of ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death. (Ref. 26.)


The evergreen versus deciduous leaf habit is an important functional trait for adaptation of forest trees and has been hypothesized to be related to the evolutionary processes of the component species under paleoclimatic change, and potentially reflected in the dynamic history of evergreen broadleaved forests (EBLFs) in East Asia. However, knowledge about the shift of evergreen versus deciduous leaf with the impact of paleoclimatic change using genomic data remains rare. Here, we focus on the Litsea complex (Lauraceae), a key lineage with dominant species of EBLFs, to gain insights into how evergreen versus deciduous trait shifted, providing insights into the origin and historical dynamics of EBLFs in East Asia under Cenozoic climate change. We reconstructed a robust phylogeny of the Litsea complex using genome‐wide single‐nucleotide variants (SNVs) with eight clades resolved. Fossil‐calibrated analyses, diversification rate shifts, ancestral habit, ecological niche modelling and climate niche reconstruction were employed to estimate its origin and diversification pattern. Taking into account studies on other plant lineages dominating EBLFs of East Asia, it was revealed that the prototype of EBLFs in East Asia probably emerged in the Early Eocene (55–50 million years ago [Ma]), facilitated by the greenhouse warming. As a response to the cooling and drying climate in the Middle to Late Eocene (48–38 Ma), deciduous habits were evolved in the dominant lineages of the EBLFs in East Asia. Up to the Early Miocene (23 Ma), the prevailing of East Asian monsoon increased the extreme seasonal precipitation and accelerated the emergence of evergreen habits of the dominant lineages, and ultimately shaped the vegetation resembling that of today.


Multiple pathogenic agents, such as dirofilariasis and ehrlichiosis coinfection in the dog, cause coinfection disease. This paper aims to elucidate the diagnosis and therapy technique of dirofilariasis and ehrlichiosis coinfection disease in a dog. The owner brought a 4-year-old female dog named Lua to Rvet Clinic Tajur Halang Bogor with complaints of always painting when doing activities and lying down. The dog was just adopted one month from the shelter with many ticks and mosquitoes in the cage. The dog was diagnosed with dirofilariasis and ehrlichiosis by physical examination and laboratory tests. The laboratory tests included radiography, hematology, blood smear, and antigen test by SNAP® 4Dx® Plus Test (IDEXX, US). The dog was given doxycycline 10 mg/kg BW BID orally for three weeks, vitamin B12 0.025mg/kg BW BID orally for three weeks, furosemide 2 mg/kg BW SID orally for one week, Coenzyme-Q10 SID orally for three weeks, and selamectine topical drop every month for three months. A blood smear on the 21st day after therapy did not show microfilariae in 20 hpf with three repetitions. It means the therapy combinations are used effectively to reduce microfilariae and maintain the clinical sign of a dog due to dirofilariasis accompanied by ehrlichiosis.


A man, aged 68, had for a year been greatly troubled by conistipation. Three days prior to admission to hospital he had taken a large dose of purgative, and the bowe!s had acted once; there had been no action since, but Dain in the rectum and copious discharge of blood-stained mucus. Vomiting had not occurred. The abdomen was considerably distended, and peristalsis was obvious. Onexmining the rectum the anal sphincters were found to be very lax, and a tense smooth mass was discovered reaching to within half an inob of the external orifice. The patient on overhearingaremark that " there was something to be felt" volunteered the fact that he himself had made that d iscovery over a year previously, and had noticed something inside tle rectum constantly, this discovery coinciding in point of time with the onset of his constipation. Immediate operation was advised; this the patient refused, but changed his mind on the following day, when the symptoms of intestinal obstruction had become more distressing. 'The patient was anaesthetized and placed in the lithotomy position, to facilitate a more tthorough -examination. On passing a speculum it was found that the rectal mass was trunk-shaped, aud digital examination failed to reach any attachment to the rectal wall. The ouly possible diagnosis seemed to be chronic intussuseeption causing obstruction, through engorgement brought about by purgation. The patient was placed flat on the operating table and the abdomen opened by retracting the left lower rectus outwards. An intussusception of the sigmoid into the rectum was found, the ensheathing joining the entering layer, at a point about one inch above the recto-sigmoid j unction. All the iutestines were greatly distended, the large intestine, as far back as the caecum, being a solid mas of faecal material; this seemed to bear out the patient's statement of the duration of the trouble. All attempts to reduce the intussusception proved of no avail, even thtough one band was placed in the rectum to manipulate its apex. In these circumstances some palliative measure had to be decided on, the choice lying between caecostomy and colostomy. Eventually colostomy was performed through the outer left rectus with the idea that it would give more efficient drainage to the overloaded intestine, and in the event of the patient refusing furtheroperative measures allow him to get about. The colostomy was opened at the end of twenty-four hours by simply cutting across one of the longitudinal bands. The patient got on well, but the discharge of blood-stained mucus from the rectum continued. Six weeks: after operation rectal examination sbowed that the intussusceptum hd consklerably decreased in bulk, but still reacled to within three-quarters of an inchof -the anus. It was decided to open the abdomen again to see if the initussuseeption could be dealt with in any way. The patient wa put in the Trendelenburg position, and the abdomen opened by displacing the left rectus outwards. Contrary to expectation, it was found that the intussusception was now easily reducible, and tbat a hard mass was present in the sigmoid about seven inches from the rectos;gmold junction. Nothing suggestive of this mass had been felt at the first operation, presumably because of the large amount of oedemsa present. No glands were discovered in the sigmoid mesentery. After careful packing off of surrounding structures the suspicious portion of the sigmoid was excised, togetber with its mesentery, and au end-to-end anastomosis performed with Dulox catgut. The abdomen was closed without drainage. The patient got on well, and three weeks later, having changed bis mind as regards surgery, expressed a wish that his colostomy should be closed. This was done by Greig Smith's method, without opening the peritoneal cavity. Flavine solution was used at the operation to prevent infection of the tissues. The wound kept clean, but at the end of eight days a small faecal fistula made its appearance, wbich has since closed. Since the closure of the colostomy the bowels have been regularly opened without any griping pain, and for some time past without any purgativey. lExamination by my colleague Dr. Donaldson of a portion of the mass in the sigmoid shows a typical colamnar-celled carcinoma.


A semi-empirical new model for steady blood flow in microvessels is proposed. In the model, a peripheral layer devoid of blood cells (called the plasma layer) is taken into account and the central core of blood surrounded by the plasma layer is assumed to obey the Herschel-Bulkley equation. The velocity distribution and the pressure-flow relation have been derived for the model. To study the rheological condition of the blood flow in arterioles, the model is compared with the experimental data obtained by Einav et al., using the Laser Doppler anemometry. It is found that the experimental data for velocity profiles are explained fairly well by this model, if appropriate values are chosen for parameters. A careful investigation of these data reveals that the blood flow in microvessels can be regarded apparently as a Newtonian flow owing to the presence of the plasma layer.


The interaction of an energetic He plasma beam with a quasi step-like transverse magnetic barrier is reported. When the rate of flow of momentum in the incident beam is less than the pressure of the magnetic field, a collisionless electrostatic shock is observed to form in front of the barrier as a result of the drastic compression of the plasma. The initially cold plasma is substantially thermalized by the shock and the electron density is increased by a factor of four. In the opposite limit the plasma penetrates the barrier in a flute-like manner.


Nontextured gamma -Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/ polycrystalline films have been obtained by oxidation of magnetic films deposited by a modified OMCVD (organometallic chemical vapor deposition) technique. The influence of the stress on the crystallographic and magnetic properties of the films has been studied in regard to the experimental deposition conditions. The sin/sup 2/ Psi method has been used to determine the origin of these stresses. Two kinds of stresses affect the iron oxide films: thermal stress and oxidation stress. The completely oxidized gamma -Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/ films are shown to be in a tensile planar state that leads to an induced perpendicular anisotropy through magnetostrictive coupling. Controlling the experimental parameters (substrate temperature, annealing conditions, grain size) makes it possible to obtain perpendicular coercive force values of about 90 Oe. This high coercive force is associated with a stress of 10/sup 10/ dyne/cm/sup 2/, which does not seem to affect the film adherence. >


In this paper, we propose an active scanning system using multiple projectors and cameras to acquire a dense entire shape of the object with a single scan (a.k.a. ones hot scan). One of the potential application of the system is to capture a moving object with high frame-rate. Since the pattern used for ones hot scan is usually complicated and those patterns interfere each other if they are projected on the same object, it is difficult to use multiple sets of them for entire shape acquisition. In addition, at the end of the closed loop, errors on each scan are accumulated, resulting in large gaps between shapes. To solve the problem, we propose a ones hot shape reconstruction method using a projector projecting a static pattern of parallel lines with one or two colors. Since each projector projects just parallel lines with a small number of colors, those patterns are easily decomposed and detected even if those patterns are projected multiple times on the same object. We also propose a kind of multi-view reconstruction algorithm for the proposed projector-camera system. In the experiment, we actually built a system which consists of six projectors and six cameras and dense shapes of entire objects were successfully reconstructed.


Here, we report a breast tumour-on-a-chip platform to evaluate the penetration of nanomedicines in 3D tumour spheroids, as a function of the tumour spheroid cellular composition. Mouse multicellular tumour mono-culture spheroids and cancer cell-fibroblast co-culture spheroids were exposed to silica nanoparticles (NPs) (30 or 100nm) or liposomes (100nm) at various flowrates, mimicking the shear stress levels found in vivo. Results revealed that the NP penetration was influenced by the shear stress, and that the presence of fibroblasts in the tumour spheroids greatly reduced the penetration depth of the nanoparticles.


N-Acetylchitooligosaccharides ((GlcNAc)(n)) with different degrees of polymerization (n=1-6) were prepared as the main carbon sources in media for evaluating the growth of nine intestinal bacteria. A chitohydrolysate was prepared by hydrolyzing shrimp-shell chitin using HCl. After purification, the purity of each (GlcNAc)(1-6) was >86%. The growth of intestinal bacteria was carried out in a basal medium (BM) containing 0.2% (w/v) of each sugar or glucose as the main carbon source and was evaluated using maximum cell densities and specific growth rates. Bacteroides fragilis and Clostridium perfringens could respectively utilize GlcNAc and (GlcNAc)(2) more efficiently for growth than glucose. Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Eubacterium limosum could use (GlcNAc)(1-6) slightly as their main carbon source. Escherichia coli, Lactococcus lactis and Proteus vulgaris could utilize glucose more efficiently than (GlcNac)(1-6). GlcNAc was used more readily than (GlcNAc)(2-6) by Staphylococcus aureus, exhibiting almost the same specific growth rates. In BM, Streptococcus faecalis grew well even without adding each of the sugars tested.


Sentiment analysis on social media data such as tweets and weibo has become a very important and challenging task. Due to the intrinsic properties of such data, tweets are short, noisy, and of divergent topics, and sentiment classification on these data requires to modeling various contexts such as the retweet/reply history of a tweet, and the social context about authors and relationships. While few prior study has approached the issue of modeling contexts in tweet, this paper proposes to use a hierarchical LSTM to model rich contexts in tweet, particularly long-range context. Experimental results show that contexts can help us to perform sentiment classification remarkably better.


To investigate the molecular characteristics and formation mechanisms of biogenic secondary organic aerosol (BSOA), daytime and nighttime PM2.5 samples were collected at the summit of Mt. Tai during the summer of 2016. The critical indicators of primary sources, such as elemental carbon (EC) and levoglucosan, displayed similar values during the daytime and nighttime, suggesting that changes in the boundary layer heights (BLHs) produced only inconsequential effects during the observation campaign. The molecular distributions of the BSOA were dominated by isoprene SOA tracers (68.5 ± 42.6 ng m–3), followed by monoterpene (43.5 ± 24.4 ng m–3) and β-caryophyllene (16.3 ± 8.6 ng m–3) SOA tracers. Due to the higher diurnal temperatures and solar radiation, the concentrations of all of the tracers were higher during the day than at night. The ratio of the combined cis-pinonic and cis-pinic acid to the MBTCA (P/M) was much lower than in Chinese cities and at the Tibetan background site, indicating that the monoterpene SOA was relatively aged in the mountainous atmosphere, in large part because of the stronger solar radiation at the peak of Mt. Tai. The concentrations of the BSOA products exhibited a significantly positive correlation with the level of ozone during the daytime (R2 = 0.58–0.86) and the temperature over the whole sampling period (R2 = 0.37–0.75), as higher temperatures can accelerate the emission of biogenic volatile organic compounds and the formation of SOA. By contrast, the BSOA tracers displayed a negative linear correlation with the relative humidity (RH) (R2 = 0.43–0.84) and the in situ particle pH (pHis) (R2 = 0.55–0.70) because high RH can inhibit the acid-catalyzed formation of BSOA due to the dilution of the aerosol acidity. No correlation between the BSOA tracers and anthropogenic pollutants (e.g., levoglucosan, SO42–, NO3– and EC) was observed during the daytime or nighttime, suggesting that BSOA tracers in the atmosphere of Mt. Tai during summer were primarily derived from the local oxidation of BVOCs rather than long-distance-transported anthropogenic emissions from the lowlands.


This paper presents the design of a fully integrated ultra-low-power Ultra Wide Band (UWB) pulse generator. The circuit is designed and optimized for low rate and localization applications. This UWB transmitter is based on the impulse response filter method in order to achieve high energy sub-nanosecond pulses. The circuit has been integrated in a ST-Microelectronics CMOS 0.13 μm technology with a supply voltage of 1.2 V on a die area of 0.56 mm2. A power manager is used to reduce the power leakages to 3.91 μW which gives a power consumption of 3.98 Mw at 10 kb/s. The measured dynamic energy consumed per pulse is 68 pJ and the measured energy of the emitted pulse is 2.15 pJ.


By means of the Eims test it was shown that 4 of 8 anthraquinone dyes had low mutagenicity and that of 3 dyes was doubtful. Damaging effect on DNA (alkaline elution test) was not detected. The test of sister chromatids' metabolism in mice bone marrow revealed no mutagenicity in any substance. During the Eims tests alizarin acidic blue had no activity and there were also no dominant lethal mutations but it was active during micronuclear test.


Background. Procedural sedation (PS) is a condition that allows patients to avoid discomfort when undergoing certain painful manipulations on the background of stable hemodynamics and respiration and maintaining the ability to respond adequately to verbal commands or tactile stimulation. PS is most often used in dentistry, maxillofacial surgery, endoscopy, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology.
Objective. Describe the main features of the PS.
Materials and methods. Analysis of literature data on this topic.
Results and discussion. Risk groups during PS include patients with cardiovascular decompensation, morbid obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, grade III-IV chronic renal failure, liver decompensation, as well as age over 70. The conditions for safe PS are as follows: all medical staff are trained to provide cardiorespiratory resuscitation; there is a constant quick access to resuscitation equipment; a routine pre-procedure assessment of the patient's condition (especially the upper respiratory tract) was carried out; pre-procedure fasting was prescribed; careful monitoring of the patient's condition is provided. The main scales for sedation assessment include Ramsay Sedation Scale, Sedation Agitation Scale, Motor Activity Assessment Scale, Vancouver Interactive and Calmness Scale, Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale, Adaptation to Intensive Care Environment, Minnesota Sedation Assessment Tool. Midazolam, propofol, dexmedetomidine can be used for PS. Minimal sedation (anxiolysis) is a medical condition in which the patient responds normally to voice commands. Cognitive function and coordination in this condition may be impaired, however, cardiorespiratory function remains unchanged. Such sedation is prescribed in traumatology, maxillofacial surgery, urology, gynecology, plastic surgery. Moderate sedation is a medical suppression of consciousness in which the patient responds to voice commands accompanied by light tactile stimulation. Adequate respiration and functioning of the cardiovascular system is maintained. Diazepam/sibazone, midazolam, dexmedetomidine are prescribed for this purpose. The latter is recommended for fiber-optic intubation in a state of complete consciousness. The dangers of PS include passive aspiration and ventilation disorders, which leads to hypoxia and hypercapnia. Caution should be taken with propofol due to the possible development of respiratory depression and hemodynamics, pain in the vein during administration. Dexmedetomidine does not cause respiratory depression, however, this does not eliminate the need for monitoring.
Conclusions. 1. Adequate sedation during surgery is a logical component of the intervention if the regional methods of anesthesia are applicated. 2. Sedation outside the operating room will account for more and more of the use of anesthetics. 3. There is a need for clear regulation of PS. 4. When choosing a drug one should take into account the purpose of its administration, curability of complications, comfort and safety of the patient.


This paper presents technical solutions, which implements a new model for creation of online educational resources and associated e-Learning activities on a web platform aimed to support training on environmental field. The innovative pedagogical model has been technologically implemented as a dynamic system, able to offer the following educational services: online creation of the contents and of the self-learning activities, resources uploading according to a classification tree, personalised access to educational material, advanced tools for information retrieval, communication tools to facilitate collaborative training, facilities to support multilingual information presentation. The adopted technical solutions fits into the pedagogical model and their presentation will reflect the conceptual and architectural design as well as several specific functionalities.


Alternative oxidase (AOX) and plastid terminal oxidase (PTOX) are terminal oxidases of electron transfer in mitochondria and chloroplasts, respectively. Here, taking advantage of the variegation phenotype of the Arabidopsis PTOX deficient mutant (im), we examined the functional relationship between PTOX and its five distantly related homologs (AOX1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, and AOX2). When engineered into chloroplasts, AOX1b, 1c, 1d, and AOX2 rescued the im defect, while AOX1a partially suppressed the mutant phenotype, indicating that AOXs could function as PQH2 oxidases. When the full length AOXs were overexpressed in im, only AOX1b and AOX2 rescued its variegation phenotype. In vivo fluorescence analysis of GFP-tagged AOXs and subcellular fractionation assays showed that AOX1b and AOX2 could partially enter chloroplasts while AOX1c and AOX1d were exclusively present in mitochondria. Surprisingly, the subcellular fractionation, but not the fluorescence analysis of GFP-tagged AOX1a, revealed that a small portion of AOX1a could sort into chloroplasts. We further fused and expressed the targeting peptides of AOXs with the mature form of PTOX in im individually; and found that targeting peptides of AOX1a, AOX1b, and AOX2, but not that of AOX1c or AOX1d, could direct PTOX into chloroplasts. It demonstrated that chloroplast-localized AOXs, but not mitochondria-localized AOXs, can functionally compensate for the PTOX deficiency in chloroplasts, providing a direct evidence for the functional relevance of AOX and PTOX, shedding light on the interaction between mitochondria and chloroplasts and the complex mechanisms of protein dual targeting in plant cells.


-Medical image interpretation is facing an important challenge resulting from the continuously increasing amount of imaging data. To meet the demand for high speed transmission of image in efficient image storage and remote treatment, the efficient image compression is essential. The contourlet transform along with wavelet theory has great potential in medical image compression. The proposed technique aims at reducing the transmission cost while preserving the diagnostic integrity. In this paper we propose a wavelet based contourlet image compression algorithm. Recent reports on natural image compression have shown superior performance of contourlet transform, a new extension to the wavelet transform in two dimensions using Laplacian Pyramid (LP) and directional filter banks. In the diagnosis of medical images, the significant part (ROI) is separated out from the rest of the image using fuzzy C-means algorithm and then to the resultant image optimized contourlet transform is applied to enhance the visual quality. The region of less significance are compressed using Discrete Wavelet Transform and finally modified embedded zerotree wavelet algorithm is applied which uses six symbols instead of four symbols used in Shapiro's EZW which shows better PSNR and high compression ratio. To the resultant image Huffman coding is applied to get the compressed


: The mind-body problem is a perennial philosophical problem that seeks to uncover the relationship or causal interaction that exists between the corporeal and incorporeal aspects of the human person. It thrives under the assumption that the human person is made up of two distinct entities, that is, mind and body, which explains their assumed causal relation. As attractive as this may seem, not all philosophers agree to this feigned idea of interaction and bifurcation of the human person. One philosopher of note, who sorts to address this problem in the 17th century, is René Descartes. For Descartes, minds and bodies are distinct kinds of substance, where bodies are spatially extended substances (a res extensa) and minds are unexpended substances characterised primarily by thought (a res cogitans). But, if minds and bodies are radically dissimilar, how could they causally interact? This paper therefore attempts to examine the philosophical foundations of Cartesian dualism. It also articulates the major arguments adopted by Descartes through his methodic doubts to address the mind-body problem. The paper concludes by highlighting some fundamental criticisms of Cartesian Interactionism in the light of recent trends in parapsychology and neuro-scientific research.


The study presented in this thesis investigates the causal relationship between Internet governance and economic output in Lebanon. It addresses the controversy surrounding concepts of multistakeholder Internet governance and the Lebanese government's monopoly regime. It seeks to investigate and engage with issues that are of rising importance to the vitality of the Internet, which is becoming more central to economic and social development around the world. Specifically, it highlights the importance of multistakeholder participation in Internet governance and examines the implementation of such an approach in practice.

The purpose of this study is twofold. On one hand, it attempts to answer a relatively straightforward question: does Internet governance spur Internet development and economic advancement? Intuitively, it seems clear that broadband Internet with good governance engenders economic growth. Here, the researcher presents the evidence generated by the literature regarding the debate over Internet governance and the impact of the Internet on the economy, examining some empirical studies and investigating case studies that illustrate how multistakeholderism is applied in practice at a national level.

On the other hand, this study examines empirical evidence the researcher has gathered in Lebanon; this evidence addresses current Internet infrastructure and Lebanese stakeholders' views on the process of multistakeholder Internet governance. Some researchers in this area have focused on a direct relationship between broad Internet and economic growth, however, no study has investigated the effect of Internet governance on economic performance. This study attempts to develop a model of multistakeholder Internet governance, (MIG-L), that helps explain the origin of Internet governance and points toward theories linking the structure of the proposed model to the performance of the Internet and the economy.

The literature on governing the Internet suffers from insufficient attention to the governance dynamics and influences within countries and limited appreciation for the micro-level political and social roots of governance. By raising some yet unexplored issues in the debate, this thesis aims to contribute to efforts to better understand the dynamics of multistakeholderism at a national level and to leverage a more pragmatic model of multistakeholder Internet governance.

The pragmatic epistemological approach offered in this mixed-methods research is consistent with interpretations of contemporary institutional scholars like Coase as well as those of liberal economists like Stigler, Posner and Peltzman.


Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric age group. The spectrum of etiologic agents causing UTI and their antimicrobial resistance pattern has been continuously changing over the years. It varies among geographical locations, hospitals and also in different age groups. Objective: The aim of this study was to find out the causative agents of UTI and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern in paediatric patients in CMH, Dhaka. Methodology: This is an observational cross sectional study. A total of 180 children aged 0 months to 15 years attending pediatric outpatient department or admitted in Department of Paediatrics CMH, Dhaka with suspected UTI were subjected for urine routine and microscopic examination between June 2015 to May 2016. Those having pyuria (n=120) were then sent for urine culture and sensitivity to the laboratory of Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). Patients having significant growth of organism were enrolled as cases of confirmed UTI. After enrollment, relevant information such as age, sex, sociodemographic profile was obtained and recorded in case record form. Result: In the present study, urine routine microscopy was done in all 180 cases of suspected UTI. Among all urine analysis 67% had significant pyuria (n=120). Of the 120 cases with pyuria, 58 cases were having culture positive accounting 48.3% of the total sample studied. Occurrence of urinary tract infections was highest in the age group below 5 year (62.5%). UTI was more prevalent in girls (63.3%) with male to female ratio 1:1.7. E. coli was the commonest isolate (62.1%) followed by Enterococcus (19.2%) and Klebsiella (10.2%). E. coli was found to be most sensitive to Ciprofloxacin, Nitrofurantoin, Amikacin, and Levofloxacin in descending order. There was a generally high level of resistance of isolates to Cotrimoxazole, Amoxycillin, Aminoglycosides, Azythromycin and the Cephalosporins like Cefuroxime, Ceftazidime, Cefixime and Ceftriaxone compared to Ciprofloxacin, Nitrofurantoin and Levofloxacin. Conclusion: Based on our findings, Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin and Nitrofurantoin are appropriate for initial empirical therapy for UTI among Bangladeshi children. Bangladesh J Child Health 2017; VOL 41 (2) :77-83


Sir, The recently published RCOG Guideline for the management of induced abortion' suggests per-abortdl treatment with metronidazole and post-abortal treatment with doqccycline as prophylaxis for prevention of post-abortal pelvic infection, Supporting this, reference is made to what was, at the time, a study in progress2 that chose this particular prophylactic regimen for the purpose of comparison with a screen-and-treat strategy, but not the timing of either antibiotic intervention. Confusingly, reference is also made to the published final report of the same study3 earlier in this section of the Guideline. Other material referenced, apparently in support of this regimen, include other studies comparing different management strategies, as ~ e l l as Saw-aya's nieta-analysis' of various antibiotic regimens delivered at various times during the per-abortal period (including one tetracyclinebased regimen beginning 48 hours pre-abortion). None of the reference material includes studies that compare pre-, perand post-abortal antibiotic treatment, and do not support the timing of the antibiotic regimen suggested by the Guideline. In particular, with regards to antichlamydial treatment, two prospective ~ t u d i e s ~ , ~ appear to have been missed, which compared preo r per-abortal treatment to postabortal treatment with tetracyclines, and which do not support post-abortal treatment with tetracyclines to prevent pelvic infection. It i s important that groups developing guidelines involve a wide range of expertise, and this is particularly important with regards to the management of chlamydia1 infection where a range of health professionals are involved in care.


This mixed methodology study examines public attitudes to risk and its management during the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic in Britain. A quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups were conducted to examine how two communities (Norwich and Bude) responded to the crisis. People were more concerned about a broad range of indirect consequences than about the direct (health) impacts of the disease, especially about the effects on the livelihood and future of rural economies. Moreover, people detected a complex of causes underlying the emergence of FMD, which suggests that the outbreak of FMD was considered a system failure, rather than something that could be blamed on one specific cause or actor. In general, people appeared to be critical about governmental handling of the FMD epidemic. Although there was some support for the government policy of slaughtering infected animals, the government was widely criticized for the way they carried out their policies. Only minor differences between the two communities Norwich and Bude were found. In particular, differences were found related to the government handling of the disease, reflected most notably in people's trust judgements. It is argued that these were the result of contextual differences in local experience, and debate on the crisis, in the two communities.


Glucose represents an important source of energy for the cells. Proliferating cancer cells consume elevated quantity of glucose, which is converted into lactate regardless of the presence of oxygen. This phenomenon, known as the Warburg effect, has been proven to be useful for imaging metabolically active tumours in cancer patients by (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Glucose is internalised in the cells by glucose transporters (GLUTs) belonging to the GLUT family. GLUT1 (SLC2A1) is the most prevalent isoform in more aggressive and less differentiated thyroid cancer histotypes. In a previous work, we found that loss of expression of PTEN was associated with increased expression of GLUT1 on the plasma membrane (PM) and probability of detecting thyroid incidentalomas by FDG-PET. Herein, we investigated the molecular pathways that govern the expression of GLUT1 on the PM and the glucose uptake in WRO (expressing WT PTEN) and FTC133 (PTEN null) follicular thyroid cancer cells cultured under glucose-depleted conditions. The membrane expression of GLUT1 was enhanced in glucose-deprived cells. Through genetic manipulations of PTEN expression, we could demonstrate that the lack of this oncosuppressor has a dominant effect on the membrane expression of GLUT1 and glucose uptake. We conclude that loss of function of PTEN increases the probability of cancer detection by FDG-PET or other glucose-based imaging diagnosis.


Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were dispersed in mineral oil and epoxy resin. The magnetorheological properties of these dispersions were studied using a parallel plate rheometer. Strain sweeps, frequency sweeps, magneto sweeps and steady shear tests were conducted in various magnetic fields. G', G", h* and ty increased with increasing magnetic field, which was partially attributed to the increasing degree of the alignment of nanotubes in a stronger magnetic field. The SWNT/mo dispersions exhibited more pronounced magnetic field dependence than SWNT/ep and MWNT/mo counterparts due to their much lower viscosity. The alignment of SWNTs in mineral oil increased with rising nanotube concentration up to 2.5vol% but were significantly restricted at 6.41vol% due to nanotube flocculation.


This essay explores TV photography as a common and strategic storage practice with archival implications for postwar American television. TV photography represented a type of image recording in which viewers photographed images off their TV sets, with many learning to do so via features in popular magazines and newspapers during the late 1940s and 1950s. The author begins by analyzing these postwar columns on TV photography as exercises in tinkering with and storage of the transmitted image. Tinkering with the camera offered male hobbyists one way to safely explore and control the new medium, one set in distinction from the "feminizing" activity of postwar TV viewing. As men photographed television into the 1950s, they not only remained tinkerers but also became invested viewers and custodians of stored broadcast content. Parents displayed their photos in albums ideologically linking family life with discourses of preservation, sociality, and history in 1950s America. Through these historical and ideological inflections, the archive of television photography as a practice and set of discourses articulated through the popular and trade press productively opens to further versatile explorations in the areas of artistic production, collection, and television preservation.


An expression system utilizing specialized ribosomes has been constructed with β‐galactosidase as the product. Ribosomes specific for lacZ mRNA are generated due to a mutation within the anti‐Shine‐Dalgarno region of a plasmidborne 16S rRNA gene that is complementary to a mutation within the ribosome‐binding site of lacZ. Hence, a subpopulation of ribsomes specific for translation of the cloned gene mRNA is produced. Transcription of the lacZ gene is regulated by the tac promoter, while transcription of the mutated rrnB locus is controlled by the λPL promoter. Batch experiments indicate that full induction of both operons (2 mM IPTG, 42°C) leads to maximal β‐galactosidase activity per cell at levels 35% higher than that obtained using a wild‐type ribosome expression system. Using a novel, site‐directed mutagenesis technique, construction of the specialized ribosome vector is outlined, and the results of lacZ expression are presented as transcription of both the cloned‐gene and the specialized‐ribosome locus are induced.


Due to an increase in the consumption of food, feed, fuel and to meet global food security needs for the rapidly growing human population, there is a necessity to breed high yielding crops that can adapt to the future climate changes, particularly in developing countries. To solve these global challenges, novel approaches are required to identify quantitative phenotypes and to explain the genetic basis of agriculturally important traits. These advances will facilitate the screening of germplasm with high performance characteristics in resource-limited environments. Recently, plant phenomics has offered and integrated a suite of new technologies, and we are on a path to improve the description of complex plant phenotypes. High-throughput phenotyping platforms have also been developed that capture phenotype data from plants in a non-destructive manner. In this review, we discuss recent developments of high-throughput plant phenotyping infrastructure including imaging techniques and corresponding principles for phenotype data analysis.


Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is a developing technology that increases user benefits in various areas. In this study, the system parameters of WPT technology for small home appliances were examined. Accordingly, computer-aided modeling studies of the coil and electronic circuit structure that enable the wireless transmission of energy with WPT have been carried out. ANSYS Maxwell 3D and Simplorer have been used for coil analysis and electronic circuit simulation, respectively. To shorten the simulation time for the coil analysis, a simplified coil design has been proposed. Variables such as air gap and operating frequency, which are very critical for energy transfer, have been parameterized through this model. Coil and system efficiency can be calculated with the dynamic WPT model obtained, the results are compared with the real system.


The breeding success of White-fronted Geese has been inferred from the age composition of flocks wintering at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, since 1947. These Whitefronts breed in the north east of European Russia. Annual variations in brood-size (average 3.24) have been comparatively slight, though there were unusual numbers of small broods in 1950 and 1958 and of large broods in 1951 and 1956. The proportion of first-winter geese has varied widely about a mean of 33.3%. The fluctuations seem to have reflected changes in output rather than in adult mortality. Attempts to relate production to the limited weather data from the breeding areas by means of correlation methods suggest that wet weather in July has markedly reduced production. Snow in late May and early June has been less important, while low temperatures without snow have had no perceptible effect. Marked geese breeding for the first time, at nearly three years old, have had smaller families than parents four to six years old. So have those more than seven years old.


From 1995 through 2014, 15 percent of school districts nationwide closed at least one school without opening any new school. Although budgetary constraints have been claimed as a major reason to close a public school, no empirical study has examined the financial benefits of school closures. This study finds that Ohio school closures reduce an average district's total operating expenditures by $278–$285 per pupil, and that savings come primarily from cuts in classroom instructional services, including teachers. This study provides empirical evidence on the financial implications of school closings needed for stakeholders involved in a school closing process.


Mental health disorders provoke important changes on children behavior. The incidence of these pathologies has increased worldwide and they are diagnosed earlier, what start a discussion about their influence on psychosocial development of carrier children. We wanted to describe how depression affects child cognitive development, with changes in cognitive psycho-sphere. Two databases (SciELO and BVS) were surveyed between 2006 and 2011, using the keywords "depression", "children" and "development". After analysis, eight articles were selected and used to construct this work. Results disclose that childhood depression is a negative influence to children cognitive development. In case of illness, child recognizes itself as unable to achieve demands which are betting on it, with feelings of shame, doubt, lack of self-confidence and learning problems, being unable to "make their best". Education professional must be able to recognize these changes manifest in the school environment. Studies showed that a healthy external environment allows for a proper maturation of the cognitive system protects children and childhood depression. While most studies suggest a causal relationship between depression and cognitive impairment, other studies show the inverse relationship in the low cognition generates symptoms of depression. However, it should also be noted that difficulty of learning and childhood depression can coexist without there necessarily a causal relationship between them. It is necessary to diagnose earlier these disorders, making possible to repair injuries in children development.


The objective of this study is to develop a good risk model for classifying business delinquency by simultaneously exploring several machine learning based methods including regularization, hyper-parameter optimization, and model ensembling algorithms. The rationale under the analyses is firstly to obtain good base binary classifiers (include Logistic Regression (LR), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Decision Tree (DT), and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)) via regularization and appropriate settings of hyper-parameters. Then two model ensembling algorithms including bagging and boosting are performed on the good base classifiers for further model improvement. The models are evaluated using accuracy, Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC of ROC), recall, and F1 score via repeating 10-fold cross-validation 10 times. The results show the optimal base classifiers along with the hyper-parameter settings are LR without regularization, KNN by using 9 nearest neighbors, DT by setting the maximum level of the tree to be 7, and ANN with three hidden layers. Bagging on KNN with K valued 9 is the optimal model we can get for risk classification as it reaches the average accuracy, AUC, recall, and F1 score valued 0.90, 0.93, 0.82, and 0.89, respectively.


1. The interference of resins and activated charcoal with the absorption of digoxin, carbamazepine and frusemide was studied. 2. In a cross-over study consisting of four phases, single doses of colestipol hydrochloride (10 g), cholestyramine (8 g), activated charcoal (8 g) or water only were given to six healthy volunteers immediately after the simultaneous ingestion of digoxin (0.25 mg), carbamazepine (400 mg) and frusemide (40 mg). Plasma and urine concentrations of the test drugs and the urine volumes were determined up to 72 h. 3. The absorption of digoxin was not reduced by colestipol, moderately (30-40%, P less than 0.05) reduced by cholestyramine and greatly (96%) by charcoal. 4. The absorption of carbamazepine was not decreased by cholestyramine, slightly (10%) by colestipol and greatly (90%) by activated charcoal. 5. The absorption and the diuretic effect of frusemide were significantly diminished by all agents. The bioavailability was reduced by colestipol 80%, by cholestyramine 95% and by activated charcoal 99.5%. 6. The interference with the gastrointestinal absorption of most of the basic drugs by colestipol and cholestyramine seems to be minimal. On the other hand, the resins may seriously impair the absorption of certain acidic drugs, for example frusemide.


Optimizing the health of populations, whether defined as persons receiving care from a health care delivery system or more broadly as persons in a region, is emerging as a core focus in the era of health care reform. To achieve this goal requires an approach in which preventive care is valued and "nonmedical" determinants of patients' health are engaged. For large, multimission systems such as academic medical centers, navigating the evolution to a population-oriented paradigm across the domains of patient care, education, and research poses real challenges but also offers tremendous opportunities, as important objectives across each mission begin to align with external trends and incentives. In clinical care, opportunities exist to improve capacity for assuming risk, optimize community benefit, and make innovative use of advances in health information technology. Education must equip the next generation of leaders to understand and address population-level goals in addition to patient-level needs. And the prospects for research to define strategies for measuring and optimizing the health of populations have never been stronger. A remarkable convergence of trends has created compelling opportunities for academic medical centers to advance their core goals by endorsing and committing to advancing the health of populations.


1. Introduction Christine Trampusch and Andre Mach Part 1: Political Economy, Political System and Relationship with the EU 2. The Swiss Political Economy in Comparative Perspective Christine Trampusch and Andre Mach 3. The Swiss Political System in a Comparative Perspective Fritz Sager and Christine Zollinger 4. Europe and Switzerland Wolf Linder Part 2: Economic Actors 5. Organized Capital and Coordinated Market Economy Pierre Eichenberger and Andre Mach 6. Swiss Trade Unions and Industrial Relations after 1990 Daniel Oesch Part 3: Major Socio-Economic Institutions 7. Swiss Corporate Governance Gerhard Schnyder and Frederic Widmer 8. Ever More Liberal? The Regulation of Job Security and Working Time in Switzerland Patrick Emmenegger 9. Continuity and Change in the Swiss Vocational Training System Christine Trampusch and Linda Rohrer Part 4: Economic and Social Policies 12. A Prematurely Announced Death? Swiss Corporatism in Comparative Perspective Klaus Armingeon 11. Swiss Welfare Reforms in a Comparative European Perspective Giuliano Bonoli and Silja Hausermann 12. The More It Changes, the More It Stays the Same? Swiss Liberalization and Regulatory Policies in Comparative Perspective Martino Maggetti, Alexandre Afonso and Marie-Christine Fontana 13. How Much, and in what Ways is Switzerland Changing? Yannis Papadopoulos


Background: Preeclampsia (PE), a life-threatening hypertensive pregnancy disorder, has long been speculated to be associated with placental hypoxia. Adenosine (Ado) is a signaling molecule well known to be induced by hypoxia. Ado levels are increased in the fetomaternal circulation of PE patients and correlated to its severity. However, the causative factors for its induction and pathophysiologic role of elevated Ado in PE are undetermined. Methods & Results: Using RT-PCR profiling of purinergic components in the human placentas, we found that CD73, a key enzyme producing extracellular Ado, was elevated most in the placentas of PE patients. To determine the exact role of elevated CD73 in Ado production, we took advantage of a well-established PE model: pregnant mice infused with angiotensin type 1 receptor agonistic antibody (AT1-AA), an emerging pathogenic factor known to contribute to PE. Similar to human studies, we found that both CD73 expression and Ado levels were significantly increased in the placentas of AT1-AA-injected pregnant mice compared to the controls. To determine whether elevated placental Ado is dependent on increased placental CD73 and contributes to pathophysiology of PE, we took both genetic and pharmacological approaches. We found that AT1-AA-mediated placental Ado production was reduced in CD73-deficient pregnant mice. As such, AT1-AA-induced features of PE including hypertension and proteinuria also significantly reduced (BP: 166 to 144 mmHg, proteinuria: 42 to 31 mg/g creatinine). Similarly, we found polyethylene glycol-linked adenosine deaminase (PEG-ADA), a drug that has successfully treated ADA-deficient patients by lowering Ado, ameliorated PE features significantly (BP: 170 to 141 mmHg, proteinuria: 39 to 28 mg/g creatinine). Mechanistically, we further revealed that HIF-1a is a key transcription factor underlying increased CD73 expression, Ado elevation, and subsequent sFlt-1 induction and disease development. Conclusions: Our studies revealed i) a pathologic nature of chronic elevated placental Ado in PE; ii) HIF-1a-dependent CD73 upregulation in placenta underlying Ado induction, sFlt-1 elevation and PE features; and iii) novel diagnostic markers and therapeutic possibilities for the disease.


Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition reduces proteinuria in established adriamycin nephrosis. To investigate whether the reduction in proteinuria is due to decreased generation of angiotensin II (AngII) or to decreased degradation of bradykinin, four series of experiments in established adriamycin nephrosis were performed. In the first series, 2 mg/kg lisinopril reduced BP from 117 +/- 4 to 67 +/- 2 mmHg and proteinuria from 335 +/- 66 to 57 +/- 10 mg/24 h after 2 wk of treatment. Subsequent continuous intraperitoneal infusion of AngII (250 ng/kg per min) for 2 wk partially restored proteinuria to 180 +/- 42 mg/24 h, whereas BP increased to 97 +/- 3 mmHg. Subsequent withdrawal of AngII restored the antiproteinuric effects of lisinopril, whereas subsequent withdrawal of lisinopril restored proteinuria to pretreatment values. In the second series, AT1 receptor blockade induced a fall in BP and proteinuria similar to that by lisinopril. In the third series, lisinopril reduced BP from 121 +/- 5 to 68 +/- 2 mmHg and proteinuria from 355 +/- 90 to 101 +/- 10 mg/24 h. Subsequent intraperitoneal infusion of bradykinin antagonist (HOE 140; 1 mg/kg per 24 h) for 2 wk did not affect BP (72 +/- 2 mmHg) or proteinuria (92 +/- 15 mg/24 h). In the fourth series, bradykinin (3 mg/kg per 24 h) was infused for 2 wk to mimic decreased bradykinin breakdown. This did not affect proteinuria, but induced a fall in BP from 114 +/- 3 to 93 +/- 4 mmHg. The BP-lowering effect of exogenous bradykinin was completely reversed by 1 wk infusion of HOE 140 (93 +/- 4 to 113 +/- 4 mmHg), while proteinuria remained unchanged. In conclusion, the antiproteinuric effect of ACE inhibition appears to be independent of bradykinin in this model, supporting a main role for reduction of AngII in the antiproteinuric action of ACE inhibition.


The study aimed to investigate potential in vitro anthelmintic activity of methanolic extract of roots of Imperata cylindrica (Poaceae) against Indian earthworms Pheretima posthuma. Various concentrations (10-80 mg/50ml) of the extract were tested, which involved determination of time of paralysis and time of death of the worms. The methanolic extract exhibited a maximum anthelmintic activity (p<0.01) comparable to standard drug albendazole (1000 mg/50ml). The extract showed anthelmintic activity in dose dependant manner giving shortest time of paralysis (P) and death (D) with 80mg/ml concentration and caused paralysis in 3.3 min and death in 6.0 min. The Preliminary phytochemical analysis indicated the presence of various phytoconstituents in the extract of which tannins and saponins might have contributed for the potent anthelmintic activity.


This article explores the theoretical and practical considerations of developing cooperative communities to reduce the stigma of mental disorders and achieve meaningful structural and systemic change. A cooperative community is conceptualized as an alliance of people from differing backgrounds who work together to achieve a positive social change desired by all members of the community but not necessarily for the material benefit of all. In defining the social psychological processes involved in the development of a cooperative community—comprising (1) people with mental disorders, (2) members of the broader public, and (3) health professionals—we reconcile the evidence of disparate psychological theories of stigma and prejudice reduction, intergroup relations, identity formation and social change to show that techniques drawn from each of those theories are required to create positive change and effectively address the stigma of mental disorders. We then explore practical considerations for developing cooperative communities in the mental health sector and consider future directions for health and public policy in this area.


Letter from Frank N. Johnson to Julia Zavala with handwritten copy of Captain R.M. Potter's account of Zavala's life taken from a paper furnished by Captain Potter himself. This biography of Zavala that Potter sketches deals mostly with his political life.


A methodical procedure for organization of fault detection experiments for synchronous sequential machines possessing distinguishing sequences (DS) is given. The organization is based on the transition checking approach. The checking experiment is considered in three concatenative parts: 1) the initial sequence which brings the machine under test into a specific state, 2) the α-sequence to recognize all the states and to establish the information about the next states under the input DS, and 3) the β-sequence to check all the individual transitions in the state table.


Plasma technology is the most widely researched technology. Research on various types of plasma reactors began much done in order to obtain plasma which has high homogeneity. This study aims to obtain plasma discharge characteristic I-V relations in the plasma reactor wire-plate electrode configuration. This study uses nine electrodes wire with a length of 12 cm and a diameter of 0.38 mm as the positive electrode and PCB as a negative electrode plates. Characterization of plasma corona wire-plate is done by adjusting the distance between the electrodes of 1.8 cm, 2.1 cm, 2.4 cm, 2.7 cm, 3.0 cm, 3.3 cm, 3.6 cm, 3.9 cm, 4.2 cm, and 4.5 cm. The results showed that the current increases with the applied voltage and inversely proportional to the distance between the electrodes. In the future this method it is possible to be applied on an industrial scale.


In 2018, my research activities continue to investigate the
diversity of dactylogyrids parasitizing African tetras. Herein,
the most important results are briefly summarized.
Morphological and molecular characterizations of seven (three
new) species of Characidotrema (C. auritum n. sp., C.
brevipenis, C. nursei, C. pollex n. sp., C. spinivaginus, C.
vespertilio n. sp., and C. zelotes) from Brycinus nurse and B.
imberi have been provided [1]. Morphological analysis confirmed
that the most apparent character distinguishing species in the
genus is morphology of the male copulatory organ and vagina.
Observations on the haptoral sclerotized structures of these
parasites by employing phase contrast microscopy revealed the
presence of an accessory structure relating to the ventral
anchor, a feature that improves generic diagnosis of
Characidotrema. Phylogenetic analyses based on 28S rDNA
sequences supported the monophyly of Characidotrema spp., and
indicated a closer relationship of this genus to monogeneans
parasitizing African cyprinids (Dactylogyrus spp.) and cichlids
(species of Cichlidogyrus, Scutogyrus, and Onchobdella) rather
than to those parasitizing catfishes (species of
Quadriacanthus, Schilbetrema, and Synodontella). The overall
agreement between the morphological diversification of the MCOs
and molecular tree observed in our study indicates that
significant phylogenetic signals for clarifying relationships
among species of Characidotrema are present in characteristics
of the MCO. Morphological and molecular evaluation of 16
species of Annulotrema collected from nine species of African
tetras (Alestes baremoze, A. dentex, Brycinus imberi, B. nurse,
Hydrocynus forskahlii, H. brevis, H. vittatus, Micralestes
acutidens, and M. elongatus) revealed the presence of nine
undescribed species. The obtained molecular data will be used
for phylogenetic reconstruction of monogeneans parasitizing
African tetras. Finally, preliminary phylogenetic analyses of
monogeneans parasitizing alestids showed that Afrocleidodiscus
hydrocynuous from Hydrocynus forskahlii and representatives of
Annulotrema clustered together, while A. paracleidodiscus from
Distichodus rostratus (Characiformes: Distichodontidae) forms
separate cluster close to the Characidotrema species. Division
of the both species of Afrocleidodiscus highlights the
necessity of a revision of the genus [2].


Immune monitoring enables a better understanding of disease processes and response to therapy, but has been challenging in the setting of chronic autoimmunity because of unknown etiology, variable and protracted kinetics of the disease process, heterogeneity across patients and the complexity of immune interactions. To begin to parse this complexity, we focus here on type 1 diabetes (T1D) and CD8 T cells as a cell type that has features that are associated with different stages of disease, rates of progression and response to therapy. Specifically, we discuss the current understanding of the role of autoreactive CD8 T cells in disease outcome, which implicates particular CD8 functional subsets, rather than unique antigens or total number of autoreactive T cells. Next, we discuss how autoreactive CD8 T‐cell features can be reflected in measures of global CD8 T cells, and then pull these concepts together by highlighting immune therapies recently shown to modulate both CD8 T cells and disease progression. We end by discussing outstanding questions about the role of specific subsets of autoreactive CD8 T cells in disease progression and how they may be optimally modulated to treat and prevent T1D.


Managerial decision making problems in the healthcare industry often involve considerations of customer occupancy by time of day and day of week. We describe an occupancy analysis tool called Hillmaker which has been used in numerous healthcare operations studies. It is being released as a free and open source software project.


The human invariant NK (iNK) TCR is largely composed of the invariant TCR Vα24-Jα18 chain and semivariant TCR Vβ11 chains with variable CDR3β sequences. The direct role of CDR3β in Ag recognition has been studied extensively. Although it was noted that CDR3β can interact with CDR3α, how this interaction might indirectly influence Ag recognition is not fully elucidated. We observed that the third position of Vβ11 CDR3 can encode an Arg or Ser residue as a result of somatic rearrangement. Clonotypic analysis of the two iNK TCR types with a single amino acid substitution revealed that the staining intensity by anti-Vα24 Abs depends on whether Ser or Arg is encoded. When stained with an anti–Vα24-Jα18 Ab, human primary invariant NKT cells could be divided into Vα24 low- and high-intensity subsets, and Arg-encoding TCR Vβ11 chains were more frequently isolated from the Vα24 low-intensity subpopulation compared with the Vα24 high-intensity subpopulation. The Arg/Ser substitution also influenced Ag recognition as determined by CD1d multimer staining and CD1d-restricted functional responses. Importantly, in silico modeling validated that this Ser-to-Arg mutation could alter the structure of the CDR3β loop, as well as the CDR3α loop. Collectively, these results indicate that the Arg/Ser encoded at the third CDR3β residue can effectively modulate the overall structure of, and Ag recognition by, human iNK TCRs.


Background: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children has increased dramatically in recent decades. The survey examined overweight and obesity in the population of boys and girls from Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, aged seven through fourteen from 1991 to 2011. Methods: An annually repeated cross-sectional study of data from the national SLOFIT monitoring system was used. The body mass index cut-off points of the International Obesity Task Force were used to identify the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Multinomial logistic regression was used for modelling the probability of overweight and obesity as a function of time (year of measurement), sex and age of subjects. Results: In 1991-2011 period, the odds for overweight and obesity among primary school children (n = 376,719) increased every year by 1.7% (95% CI: 1.6-1.9) and 3.7% (3.4-4%) respectively. Boys have 1.17 (95% CI: 1.15-1.20) times higher odds of becoming overweight and 1.39 (95% CI: 1.35-1.44) times higher odds of becoming obese than girls. In comparison to the reference group (age of 14), the highest odds for overweight were found at the ages of nine and ten (1.39; 95% CI: 1.34-1.44), while for the obesity the highest odds were at the age of eight (2.01; 95% CI: 1.86-2.16). Conclusion: From 1991 to 2011, overweight and obesity clearly became more prevalent in children from Ljubljana. This trend has been more obvious among boys than girls. In comparison to 14-year-old boys and girls, the highest odds for excessive weight were found below the age of 10.


Stability for the manifolds of equilibrium states of a generalized Birkhoff system is studied. A theorem for the stability of the manifolds of equilibrium states of the general autonomous system is used to the generalized Birkhoffian system and two propositions on the stability of the manifolds of equilibrium states of the system are obtained. An example is given to illustrate the application of the results.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate neurosensory disturbance associated with implant surgery performed by implant practitioner (n=47) composed of trained oral surgeon, periodontist, prosthodontist. The incidence, type and duration of sensory disorder were investigated. Anatomical factor of the patient and experience of operator were also evaluated. The result revealed high incidence of inferior alveolar nerve damage (45%) regardless of experience of implant practitioner. The sensory disturbance sustained within 6 months for 61% of cases, which revealed almost normal recovery of nerve function. Initial neurologic sign after nerve damage was not coincide with their consequence of recovery. Half of the practitioners tried surgical intervention to the implants such as removing the fixture, partial unscrewing or re-implant shorter fixture, of which trial regarded as effective measure for 53% of cases. The result indicates that the objective method of sensory nerve evaluation should he introduced to the implant practitioners and the importance of informed consent for possibility of nerve damage in mandibular implant fixation.


THE IMPACT OF TELECOMMUTING ON THE SUPERVISORY PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL PROCESS Margaret A. Klayton, Ph.D. School of Business--Virginia Commonwealth University, 1994 Major Director: Darrel R. Brown, Ph.D. The problem studied was whether supervisors evaluated telecommuters differently than their on-site co-workers and, if they did, was this difference explainable by the models on performance ratings by Landy and Farr (1980, 1983, 1989)? For this study, telecommuting referred to employees who are full-time employees, but work off-site using electronic communication devices and telecommuted at least one day per week. Twenty organizations nation-wide were surveyed. Hypotheses stated that there was no difference in supervisory performance appraisal criteria, supervisory performance ratings whether the supervisor selected employees to telecommute or the supervisor telecommuted or not, and the frequency between formal performance appraisals for telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Performance appraisal criteria and other questions concerning the evaluation process were analyzed. The data supported the first hypothesis of no difference in viii performance appraisal criteria used to evaluate telecommuters and non-telecommuters. The second hypothesis was not supported by the data. The three groups disagreed that telecommuters were generally better performers than their on-site co-workers. Supervisors and telecommuters disagreed on their perceptions of telecommuters as rated as better employees. It was assumed in the third hypothesis that supervisors who themselves telecommuted would not rate telecommuters as better employees than their co-workers. Due to the small sample size, the results were inconclusive. In the fourth hypothesis, it was assumed that supervisors who had the final say about who would be eligible to telecommute would not perceive telecommuters as better employees. Based on the analysis, the hypothesis could not be supported or refuted due to the small sample size. Finally, the fifth hypothesis relied on measuring the number of months between formal reviews to determine if telecommuters were evaluated more frequently than their onsi te co-workers. The analysis verified that there was no difference between the two groups. Because no prior research has been conducted about differences in evaluating telecommuting and nontelecommuting employees, there is no data available for comparison purposes to discover any trends or changes.


Partitioning coefficients (KMe) for Fe (1.2), Co (7), Ni (150), Cu (50), and Zn (0.5) were determined for conjugate iron sulfide/iron silicate liquids in the FeS-FeO-SiO2 system at 1,150 degrees C and 1 bar pressure. The partitioning is probably controlled by differences in crystal field energy splitting for these elements between sulfur- and oxygen-coordinated sites in the liquids. The coefficients agree with the geological observation that Fe, Ni, and Cu are the main metals of magmatic sulfide ores. Fe is concentrated because it is a major element in basic and ultramafic rocks and magmas; Ni and Cu are minor or trace elements in magmas but are concentrated in ores due to high KMe's. Co and Zn are trace elements in both magmas and ores, reflecting their low values of KMe's. Changes in Ni/Cu ratios in magmatic sulfide ores reflect Ni/Cu ratios in parent silicate magmas; high ratios are indicative of ultramafic magmas.


Following the idea of Subexponential Linear Logic and Stratified Bounded Linear Logic, we propose a new parameterized version of Linear Logic which subsumes other systems like ELL, LLL or SLL, by including variants of the exponential rules. We call this system Superexponential Linear Logic (superLL). Assuming some appropriate constraints on the parameters of superLL, we give a generic proof of cut elimination. This implies that each variant of Linear Logic which appears as a valid instance of superLL also satisfies cut elimination.


ABSTRACT Conspiracy theories have become a ubiquitous feature of contemporary culture. From a communication studies perspective, conspiracy theories undermine democratic communication by misleading the public. However, the normative concept of a democratic public sphere also upholds the values of giving visibility to diverse perspectives and facilitating reasoned debate. Thus, academics can acknowledge the harms of conspiracy claims while being open, in principle, to their potential contribution to public debate. The challenge, of course, is to evaluate the public sphere implications of conspiracy claims; implications that may be difficult to ascertain and may change over time as new evidence emerges. This position is elucidated through an analysis of the conspiracy claims found in mainstream and alternative media coverage of the Syrian conflict. Much of the debate centres on ideas about the trustworthiness and impartiality of journalists and experts whereby efforts to establish the facts are superseded by received ideas about the credibility of sources. Ultimately, the Syrian conflict indicates that conspiracy claims can be valuable for the public sphere provided there are impartial actors willing to investigate conspiracy claims and provide clarification to the public.


Strength of cryptographic cipher depends on the statistical performance of its generated keystream. Generation of high quality keystream is a challenging task, which decides the level of security offered by the cipher. A lot of key generation techniques based on linear feedback shift registers for stream ciphering have been suggested in the literature. In this paper, the features of one-dimensional chaotic systems are exploited to construct a PN sequence generator. The integration of chaotic Logistic maps and Cubic maps is done in novel manner to generate strong cryptographic sequence. The proposed system includes the preprocessing and quantization of the real-valued chaotic sequences. The statistical performance of the proposed generator is performed which ascertain that the generated PN sequence has noise-like characteristics. In addition, it is also examined that the proposed chaos-based generator has better statistical and encryption performance than the existing LFSR-based generator.


Intravascular ultrasound with 20 MHz/6.2-French transducer systems was used for arterial imaging via a transvenous approach. In 20 patients suffering from chronic arterial occlusive disease, 15 iliac arteries were evaluated during diagnostic angiography and 5 femoropopliteal arteries during balloon angioplasty (n = 3) and laser-assisted angioplasty (n = 2), respectively. Transvenous sonography did not allow differentiation of arterial wall layers and determination of vessel diameters as is usually possible during intraarterial sonography. Visualisation of iliac arteries was incomplete. In femoropopliteal vessels, guide wires could be detected within the arterial lumen but not in complete occlusions. Delivery of pulsed laser energy induced bright echoes near the catheter tip within a distance of 1-2 cm. Transvenous sonography is insufficient for monitoring of peripheral angioplasty; however, improved imaging quality might be possible at lower frequencies.


An unequal channel protection technique for JPEG2000 encoded images is proposed. The proposed technique takes advantage of the hierarchical organization of the JPEG2000 bit-stream and protects only the most important part of the compressed bit-stream, by means of a rate compatible punctured convolutional code. Both single-quality-layer and multiple-quality-layer compressions are considered. The performance of this technique is evaluated under various noisy channel conditions. Simulation results show that the probability of correct decoding the received information and the quality of the reconstructed image are improved by the proposed technique.


The effects of two anesthetics, halothane and alpha-chloralose, on induction of spreading depression and on extracellular glutamate elevation after intracortical potassium administration were investigated in artificially ventilated (30% oxygen/70% nitrous oxide) cats. High potassium concentrations were achieved using either direct KCl injections (7 microliters, 150 mM via a micropipette) or microdialysis by supplementing 100, 300 or 500 mM KCl, respectively, for 10 min to the perfusion solution (Ringer's). Changes of the cortical DC potential were recorded adjacent (1-2 mm: electrode DC1) and distant (6-7 mm: electrode DC2) to the injection site. Either under halothane (0.75% in the respiratory gas mixture) or under alpha-chloralose (60 mg/kg i.v.) anesthesia, prolonged negative shifts of the DC potential reflecting the elevated potassium levels after KCl injection were measured near the injection site (electrode DC1). In contrast, spreading depressions (transient short DC deflections) were almost exclusively observed under alpha-chloralose. Spreading depressions recorded with electrode DC1 were superimposed on the prolonged negative DC shifts and they propagated frequently to the more distant site (DC2). Upon KCl administration, dose dependent elevations of extracellular glutamate were measured. These elevations were not significantly altered by the type of anesthesia. Our results suggest that in cats, spreading depression induction is affected by anesthesia, i.e., spreading depression induction is inhibited by halothane as compared to alpha-chloralose. Furthermore, factors other than glutamate or high potassium seem to contribute to spreading depression induction.


The use of inorganic species as assisting materials in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) analysis is an alternative approach to avoid interfering matrix ions in the low-mass region of the mass spectra. Reports of the application of inorganic species as matrices in MALDI analysis of small molecules are, however, scarce. Nevertheless, titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) powder has been reported to be a promising matrix medium. In this study we further explore the use of TiO(2) as a matrix for the MALDI analysis of low molecular weight compounds. We present results showing that nanosized TiO(2) anatase and TiO(2) rutile perform better as MALDI matrices than a commercial TiO(2) anatase/rutile mixture. Moreover, when using nanosized TiO(2) anatase as a matrix, high-quality mass spectra can be obtained with strong analyte signals and weak or non-existing matrix interference ions. Furthermore, our results show that the phase type plays an important role in the application of TiO(2) as a MALDI matrix.


Akt/mTOR signaling influences CD4+ T cell differentiation; low levels favor Treg induction and high levels favor Th induction. Here, we identify several key elements in this pathway that are differentially regulated by TCR signal strength, including Akt, mTORC2 and the lipid phosphatase PTEN. The control of PTEN is poorly studied in T cells. Here, we identify multiple mechanisms that regulate PTEN. During Th induction, PTEN function is suppressed via lower mRNA levels, lower protein levels and an increase in phosphorylation. During Treg induction, PTEN function is maintained through the stabilization of PTEN mRNA transcription and sustained protein levels. Differential Akt/mTOR signaling regulates PTEN transcription via FoxO1. Additionally, Akt is controlled by the TCR signal. Phosphorylation of FoxO1 by Akt requires that Akt is phosphorylated on Thr308 and Ser473 by PDK1 and mTORC2 respectively. Different TCR signal strengths resulted in alternate phosphorylation on Akt where low TCR signal strength only induces phosphorylation of Thr308 on Akt. Low TCR signals result in the phosphorylation of an inhibitory site on Rictor, a subunit of mTORC2, thus providing a mechanism by which Akt activity is controlled by TCR signal strength. Proteomic data suggests that low and high TCR signal strength induce non-overlapping sets of phosphorylated Akt substrates. This work reveals how differential regulation of the Akt/mTOR pathway drives alternate CD4+ T cell fate outcomes.


Increasing evidence suggests that disorders of inflammation, oxidative stress, and autophagy contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). This study attempted to clarify the effect of allograft inflammatory factor-1 (AIF-1), miR-34a, and ATG4B on inflammation, oxidative stress, and autophagy in DKD both in vitro and in vivo experiments. In vivo, it was found that the levels of AIF-1, miR-34a, oxidative stress, and inflammatory factors were significantly increased in blood and urine samples of DKD patients and mouse models and correlated with the level of urinary protein. In vitro, it was also found that the expressions of AIF-1, miR-34a, ROS, and inflammatory factors were increased, while ATG4B and other autophagy related proteins were decreased in human renal glomerular endothelial cells (HRGECs) cultured with high concentration glucose medium (30 mmol/L). When AIF-1 gene was overexpressed, the levels of miR-34a, ROS, and inflammatory factors were significantly upregulated, and autophagy-related proteins such as ATG4B were downregulated, while downregulation of AIF-1 gene had the opposite effect. In addition, miR-34a inhibited the expression of ATG4B and autophagy-related proteins and increased the levels of ROS and inflammation. Furthermore, the result of luciferase reporter assay suggested that ATG4B was the target gene of miR-34a. When ATG4B gene was overexpressed, the level of autophagy was upregulated, and inflammatory factors were downregulated. Conversely, when ATG4B gene was inhibited, the level of autophagy was downregulated, and inflammatory factors were upregulated. Then, autophagy inducers inhibited the levels of inflammation and ROS, whereas autophagy inhibitors had the opposite function in HRGECs induced by glucose (30 mmol/L). In conclusion, the above data suggested that AIF-1 regulated the levels of inflammation, oxidative stress, and autophagy in HRGECs via miR-34a/ATG4B pathway to contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease.


Objective: Blood platelets store within their α-granules a variety of substances that are involved in blood clotting, inflammation, and repair processes after a lesion of the vessel wall. Not all of these substances are synthesized within the megakaryocytes or platelets themselves, but some of them are taken up from the blood plasma by the circulating platelet. This article summarizes recent investigations on the internalization capabilities of platelets and the mechanism of endocytosis. Results: By means of immunoelectron microscopy and by incubations with gold-labeled peptides the uptake of fibrinogen, IgG, IgE, and the chemokine RANTES by the platelet can be demonstrated. Two different mechanisms of internalization are discerned: In resting platelets, the gold-labeled peptides are endocytosed and transferred to α-granules, whereas in platelets stimulated by ADP or thrombin the gold particles appear within the open canalicular system and not within granules. Conclusion: Platelets store and release not only proinflammatory mediators that are typical for the megakaryocyte-platelet lineage, but also blood-borne substances from other cellular sources. Due to activation and disintegration of platelets that are stored as concentrates for usage in transfusion medicine, these substances can accumulate in the platelet concentrate and might be responsible for transfusion-associated reactions. Further investigation in this field of platelet immunobiology is warranted.


A continuous-time portfolio selection with options based on risk aversion utility function in financial market is studied. The different price between sale and purchase of options is introduced in this paper. The optimal investment-consumption problem is formulated as a continuous-time mathematical model with stochastic differential equations. The prices processes follow jump-diffusion processes (Weiner process and Poisson process). Then the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation of the problem is represented and its solution is obtained in different conditions. The above results are applied to a special case under a Hyperbolic Absolute Risk Aversion (HARA) utility function. The optimal investment-consumption strategies about HARA utility function are also derived. Finally, an example and some discussions illustrating these results are also presented.


The objective of this study was to examine the impact of the perception of risk and of trust in the government on people's decision to get vaccinated. 329 people from all over Indonesia participated. The research instrument used was the scale of risk perception, scale of trust in the government and scale of vaccination. The scales were distributed online via social media for 10 days in June. Pearson correlation was used to analyze the data on the correlations between risk perception and vaccination and between trust in government and vaccination. There was a significant correlation between risk perception and vaccination (r = 0.361; p < 0.05). Likewise, there was a correlation between trust in government and vaccination (r = 0.436; p < 0.05). A multiple correlation test was used to test the correlation simultaneously resulting in a correlation coefficient of 0.511 (p < 0.05) meaning that there was a simultaneous correlation between risk perception and trust in the government in the decision to vaccinate.
Keywords: risk perception, trust in government, vaccination taking, Indonesia


This study explores the cognitive structures, understood as construct systems, of patients suffering from bulimia nervosa (BN). Previous studies investigated the construct systems of disordered eaters suggesting that they had a higher distance between their construction of the self and the «ideal self», and also more rigidity. In addition to these aspects, this study explored the presence of implicative dilemmas (ID). Thirty two women who met criteria for BN and were treated in a specialized center were compared to a non clinical group composed by 32 women matched by age. All participants were assessed using Repertory Grid Technique (RGT). In BN patients it was more common (71.9%) to find IDs than in controls (18.8%). They also showed higher polarization and higher self-ideal discrepancies (even more for those with a long history of BN). The measures provided by the RGT can be useful for the assessment of self-construction and cognitive conflicts in BN patients and to appreciate their role in this disorder. In addition, this technique could be helpful for clinicians to explore the patient's constructs system, and specially to identify IDs that could be maintaining the symptoms or hindering change in order to focus on them to facilitate improvement.


The phenomenon of noise enhanced signal transfer, or stochastic resonance, has been observed in many nonlinear systems such as neurons and ion channels. Initial studies of stochastic resonance focused on systems driven by a periodic signal, and hence used a signal to noise ratio based measure for comparison between the input and output of the system. It has been pointed out that for the more general case of aperiodic signals other measures are required, such as cross-correlation or information theoretical tools. In this paper we present simulation results obtained in a model neural system driven by a broadband aperiodic signal, and producing a signal imitating neural spikes. The system is analyzed by using cross-spectral measures.


Intensity and variability of droughts are considered inIranduring the period 1951 to 2005. Four variables are considered:
the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), the soil moisture, the temperature
and the precipitation (products used for the analysis are downloaded from the
NCAR website). Link with the climatic indexLa Ninais also considered (NOAA downloadable
products is used). The analysis is based on basic statistical approaches
(correlation, linear regressions and Principal Component Analysis).
The analysis shows that PDSI is highly correlated to the soil moisture and
poorly correlated to the other variables—although the temperature in the warm
season shows high correlation to the PDSI and that a severe drought was
experienced during 1999-2002 inthe country.


Reflectance-converted imagery is a requirement for establishing remote sensing algorithms for mapping vegetation species using their specific absorption and reflectance spectra. The differences among the spectral signatures, the unique patterns of absorption and reflection of visible and infrared energy help the researcher to identify types of plants. During the last few decades remote sensing technology has become increasingly important tool for mapping and inventorying forest resources around the world. Jharkhand state has a vast forest area and a rich biodiversity. The ability to map vegetation and in particular individual trees is a key component in forest management and long-term forest monitoring. The aim of this study is to analyze the ASTER derived spectral informations on which it is possible to discriminate species spectrally from each other. An ASTER image based spectral classification method such as SAM and SID has demonstrated its capability to map the dominant vegetation species found in the study area. Keywords: ASTER imagery, SAM, SID, vegetation species, spectral analysis Cite this Article Somnath Maiti, Rajat Satpathy, Jatisankar Bandyopadhyay, Ayyeum Perumal Thillai Jeyaseelan. ASTER Spectral Analysis Based Vegetation Species Identification of the Forest areas situated in Ghatsila, Musabani and Dhalbhumgarh. Journal of Remote Sensing & GI. 2015; 6(2): 41–50p.


In the hope of devising a method for prestaining tissues en bloc for electron microscopic radioautography, pieces of radioiodine-labeled liver were taken through various combinations of ferrocyanide-reduced osmium tetroxide, lead aspartate, and aqueous uranyl acetate at room temperature or at 60 degrees C. Following the tests, the method adopted for routine use was to block-stain tissues for 2 hr in potassium ferrocyanide-reduced osmium tetroxide at 4 degrees C followed by 1 hr in Walton's lead aspartate at room temperature. This simple method, which requires no manipulation before or after emulsion coating and development of the radioautographs, provides adequate contrast without inducing background fog or artifacts.


SOLID-STATE devices are providing solutions for many control problems in industrial and defense products. New semiconductors1 permit control techniques that previously were unavailable. Many control systems require amplifiers or function generators with insulation between the input signal and the output. Saturaable reactors2,3 have the needed insulated input. No semiconductor has an insulated input for d-c signals. The combination of semiconductors and saturable reactors provides the advantage of semiconductors and the advantage of insulated input.