3198 Precision-cut tissue slices in dynamic organ culture retain their cellular architecture and metabolic activity for several hours, suggesting that organ slices are a suitable in vitro model for studying tissue metabolism of xenobiotics. N'-Nitrosonornicotine (NNN) is reported to induce tumors of the lung in A/J mice, and esophagus and nasal mucosa in the F344 rat. The major routes of NNN metabolism are α-hydroxylation to yield either 2'-hydroxyNNN or 5'-hydroxyNNN, pyridine-N-oxidation, and concerted denitrosation and oxidation to norcotinine. Minor pathways of metabolism include β-hydroxylation to yield either 3'-hydroxyNNN or 4'-hydroxyNNN. Of all the potential routes of NNN metabolism, 2'-hydroxylation is thought to be the major activation pathway yielding target tissue DNA adducts, and the ratio of 2'-hydroxylation to 5'-hydroxylation is often considered to indicate the extent of NNN activation. 2'-Hydroxylation of 0.004 to 1.2 μM [5-3H]NNN (27 Ci/mmol) in precision-cut A/J mouse lung tissue slices (6 h at 37 °C) proceeded on average 8.6±1.4 fold faster (Km: 3.09±5.19 μmol, Vmax: 3178±4104 fmol/min/mg protein) than 2'-hydroxylation of [5-3H]NNN in precision-cut F344 rat lung tissue slices under identical experimental conditions (Km: 0.08±0.07 μmol, Vmax: 60±12 fmol/min/mg protein). In the same concentration range the difference for 5'-hydroxylation was less pronounced, 4.5±0.8 fold higher turnover in mouse lung slices (Km: 1.42±1.63 μmol, Vmax: 792±567 fmol/min/mg protein) compared to rat lung slices (Km: 0.14±0.11 μmol, Vmax: 61±13 fmol/min/mg protein). The ratio of 2'-hydroxylation to 5'-hydroxylation was significantly higher in A/J mouse lung (2.3±0.1) compared to in F344 rat lung (1.2±0.1) over the whole concentration range. These results, which support increased metabolic activation of NNN in the A/J mouse lung compared to in the F344 rat lung, are also consistent with the reported target organ specificity of NNN in both rodent species.


Haemodynamic monitoring was performed within the first 48 hours after the onset of symptoms in basal conditions, during volume loading, and during infusion of glyceryl trinitrate in 41 patients who fulfilled the diagnostic electrocardiographic and haemodynamic criteria of right ventricular infarction. In most patients an increase of mean right atrial pressure up to 10-14 mm Hg was followed by an increase in right ventricular stroke work index. But raising the mean right atrial pressure above 14 mm Hg was almost always accompanied by a reduction in right ventricular stroke work index. When the mean right atrial pressure was reduced by intravenous glyceryl trinitrate to less than 14 mm Hg the right ventricular stroke index increased. The same response was seen with cardiac and stroke index. The mean (SD) values of optimal right atrial and pulmonary capillary pressures were 11.7 (2.1) and 16.5 (2.7) mm Hg respectively. Thus cardiac and stroke index increased and the right ventricle reached its maximum stroke work index when the filling pressure was 10-14 mm Hg. These values may be regarded as the optimal level of right ventricular filling pressure in patients with right ventricular infarction.


In the past 20 years, reports on micropropagation and rooting in vitro of avocado shoots, with diverse origins and treatments, have been published. However, none of them reached the level required for large scale propagation of the species. It is considered that, in the first place, the micropropagation of avocado requires an efficient system of rooting. Therefore, a system to induce the rooting in vitro of avocado shoots, based on indole-3 -butyric acid (IBA) pulses and some treatments based on thidiazuron (TDZ) was tested, using 40 explants per treatment. The treatments with TDZ did not succeed in rooting shoots. Some treatments with pulses of IBA induced the following rooting results: without growth regulators, 16%; 4,000 mg L' 1 of IBA for 5 seconds, 8.3% rooted; 100 mg L" 1 for 72 hours, 20%; 50 mg L" 1 for 72 hours, 15.4%; 150 mg L" 1 for 24 hours, 5% rooted. It is considered possible to improve these results by adjusting the range of IBA concentrations as well as in the time range of pulse applications. Finally, it is easier to establish in vitro explants derived from mature seeds or embryos germinated in vitro.


Abstract. Shabkola is a village located in Mazandaran province of northern Iran that suffers from the mass movement happening in the upstream. Deforestation and changes to land use are the main reasons for the soil instability in this region, which together with steep slope, relatively high precipitation rate and natural erosion has led to such a condition. The area of mass movement is approximately 90 hectares which is a big threat for people living in the region. In this study, we have utilized two different geodetic techniques including InSAR time-series analysis and GPS measurements to assess slope stability in Shabkola. The SAR dataset includes 19 ALOS/PALSAR images spanning from July 2007 to February 2011 while GPS observations are collected in 5 campaigns from September 2011 to May 2014. Displacement as much as approximately 11.7 m in slope direction was detected by GPS observations for the 2011-2014 time period. Most of the slope geometry is in north-south direction, for which the sensitivity of InSAR for displacement detection is low. However, ALOS PALSAR data analysis revealed a previously unknown landslide, covered by dense vegetation in the northern part of main Shabkola landslide, showing line-of-sight velocity of approximately 2cm/year in the time period 2007-2011.


This article aims to identify the influences of a variety of factors on the practice of agricultural direct-to-consumer sales activities. Using data from the 2007 Farm Structure Survey, representative of the all the farms in France, it shows that the propensity to sell directly to consumers is significantly influenced by several factors both internal to the agricultural sector (farms' economic size and farm type, product quality, agrotourism and contract work activities, and the work team characteristics of family and hired labour, gender, educational level, farm-head age) and external to it (market characteristics, including local markets). It makes an original contribution to the literature on the subject, highlighting that beyond the traits they have in common, farms in direct-to-consumer sales present differentiated characteristics depending on the type of product they produce.


This article sketches local debates about the religious legitimacy and cultural authenticity of video film production in Muslim northern Nigeria. After the introduction of shari'a in December 2000 the government of Kano State established a new board for film and video censorship charged with the responsibility to "sanitize" the video industry and enforce the compliance of video films with moral standards of Islam. Some stakeholders of the industry took up the challenge and responded by propagating religion with a new feature genre of conversion to Islam. This genre is characterized by (sometimes violent) Muslim / pagan encounters culminating in the conversion of the pagans. The discussion of some video films of this genre focuses on i) videomakers' negotiation between the opposing notions of religious education and secular escapism; ii) special effects as a means to make the power of transcendental forces visible; and iii) political subtexts to the narratives, which relate such figures as Muslim martyrs and pagan vampires to the current project of cultural and religious revitalization.


Background: Tiotropium Respimat (tioR) add-on to ICS therapy improves lung function in adult patients. Here we examine the efficacy and safety of tioR in adolescents.

Methods: 48-wk Phase III, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial ([NCT01257230][1]) in asthmatic adolescents (12–17 yrs). Inclusion criteria: ≥3-month asthma history; pre-bronchodilator FEV1 ≥60% and ≤90% of predicted; screening ACQ-7 ≥1.5. Patients were randomised to once-daily tioR 5μg, tioR 2.5μg or placebo Respimat (pboR) add-on to ICS (12–14 yrs: 200–400µg; >14 yrs: 400–800µg budesonide or equivalent). Primary end point at wk 24: peak FEV1(0–3h). Additional end points: trough FEV1 and PEFam/pm (wks 24 and 48), and AE data.

Results: 397 patients treated. Mean age: 14.3 yrs (range 11–17 yrs); 65% male; mean FEV1 % predicted at baseline: 82.8. TioR 5µg significantly improved all end points vs pboR at 24 and 48 wks; tioR 2.5µg significantly improved some end points, eg peak FEV1(0–3h) at 24 and 48 wks and trough FEV1 at 48 wks (Table). AEs were comparable across all treatment groups; a small number of drug-related AEs (tioR 5µg=4, tioR 2.5µg=1, pboR=1) and no fatal AEs were reported.

![Figure][2]

Conclusion: Tiotropium Respimat add-on to ICS significantly improves lung function, has a safety profile comparable with placebo and is well tolerated in adolescent patients with symptomatic asthma.

 [1]: /lookup/external-ref?link_type=CLINTRIALGOV&access_num=NCT01257230&atom=%2Ferj%2F44%2FSuppl_58%2F1889.atom
 [2]: pending:yes


Atherosclerotic vascular disease and its related complications are the major cause of mortality in Western societies. Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial wall triggered by traditional and nontraditional risk factors and mediated by inflammatory and immune responses. Recent clinical trials provided compelling evidence corroborating that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease and demonstrated efficacy of anti-inflammatory interventions in reducing cardiovascular events and mortality. Traditional risk factors drive vascular inflammation, further justifying the instrumental role of intensified risk factor management in attenuating and preventing atherosclerotic disease and complications. Promising therapeutic approaches specifically related to inhibition of inflammation span traditional anti-inflammatory drugs, specific immunomodulation, and development of vaccination against atherosclerotic disease. Here, we review the inflammatory component in atherogenesis, the available evidence from clinical trials evaluating efficacy of therapeutic anti-inflammatory interventions in patients with high cardiovascular risk, and discuss potential future targets for anti-inflammatory or immune modulatory treatment in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.


Sharding is a prominent technique for scaling blockchains. By dividing the network into smaller components known as shards, a sharded blockchain can process transactions in parallel without introducing inconsistencies through the coordination of intra-shard and cross-shard consensus protocols. However, we observe a critical security issue with sharded systems: transaction ordering manipulations can occur when coordinating intra-shard and cross-shard consensus protocols, leaving the system vulnerable to attack. Specifically, we identify a novel security issue known as finalization fairness, which can be exploited through a front-running attack. This attack allows an attacker to manipulate the execution order of transactions, even if the victim's transaction has already been processed and added to the blockchain by a fair intra-shard consensus. To address the issue, we offer Haechi, a novel cross-shard protocol that is immune to front-running attacks. Haechi introduces an ordering phase between transaction processing and execution, ensuring that the execution order of transactions is the same as the processing order and achieving finalization fairness. To accommodate different consensus speeds among shards, Haechi incorporates a finalization fairness algorithm to achieve a globally fair order with minimal performance loss. By providing a global order, Haechi ensures strong consistency among shards, enabling better parallelism in handling conflicting transactions across shards. These features make Haechi a promising solution for supporting popular smart contracts in the real world. To evaluate Haechi's performance, we implemented the protocol using Tendermint and conducted extensive experiments on a geo-distributed AWS environment. Our results demonstrate that Haechi achieves finalization fairness with little performance sacrifice compared to existing cross-shard consensus protocols.


With their unique optical properties and distinct Raman signatures, graphitic nanomaterials can serve as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) or provide signal amplification for bioanalysis and detection. However, a relatively weak Raman signal has limited further biomedical applications. This has been addressed by encapsulating gold nanorods (AuNRs) in a thin graphitic shell to form gold graphitic nanocapsules. This step improves plasmon resonance, which enhances Raman intensity, and has the potential for integrating two-photon luminescence (TPL) imaging capability. However, changing the morphology of gold graphitic nanocapsules such that high quality and stability are achieved remains a challenge. To address this task, we herein report a confinement chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to prepare the construction of AuNR-encapsulated graphitic nanocapsules with these properties. Specifically, through morphological modulation, we (1) achieved higher plasmon resonance with near-IR incident light, thus achieving greater Raman intensity, and (2) successfully integrated two-photon luminescence dual-modal (Raman/TPL) bioimaging capabilities. Cancer-cell-specific aptamers were further modified on the AuNR@G graphitic surface through simple, but strong, π-π interactions to achieve imaging selectivity through differential cancer cell recognition.


Cryptodome and dome collapse is associated with volcanic hazards, such as explosive eruptions, pyroclastic density currents, and volcanic edifice collapse. The study of the growth and evolution of volcanic domes provides vital information on the link between dome growth and the development of weakness zones that may cause collapse. The Cerro Bayo cryptodome is superbly exposed in the eroded Miocene Chachahuén volcano in the Neuquén basin, Argentina. Cerro Bayo is a >0.3‐km3 trachyandesitic cryptodome that intruded within the uppermost kilometer of the Chachahuén volcano. Here we investigate the emplacement of the Cerro Bayo cryptodome using structural mapping, photogrammetry and measurement of magma flow indicators, brittle deformation features, and magnetic fabrics with anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility. Magma flow fabrics near the margin are concentric and indicate contact‐parallel flow and internal inflation of the body. Magmatic and magnetic fabrics and fracture patterns in the interior of the cryptodome are more complex and outline several structural domains. These domains are separated by magmatic shear zones that accommodated intrusion growth. The shear zones locally overprint the earlier formed concentric fabric. The nature of the structural domains shows that the emplacement of Cerro Bayo occurred in three stages that resemble the endogenous to exogenous growth of volcanic domes. The formation of magmatic shear zones during cryptodome formation may have a profound effect on cryptodome stability by creating weakness zones that increase the risk of collapse.


Motivated by a problem commonly found in electronic assembly lines, this paper deals with the problem of scheduling jobs and a rate-modifying activity on a single machine. A rate-modifying activity is an activity that changes the production rate of the equipment under consideration. Hence the processing times of jobs vary depending on whether the job is scheduled before or after the rate-modifying activity. The decisions under consideration are when to schedule the rate-modifying activity and the sequence of jobs to optimize some performance measure. In this paper, we develop polynomial algorithms for solving problems of minimizing makespan, and total completion time respectively. We also develop pseudo-polynomial algorithms for solving problems of total weighted completion time under the agreeable ratio assumption. We prove that the problem of minimizing maximum lateness is NP-hard and also provide a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm to solve it optimally. " 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


In this paper, we propose a mask estimation method for a computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) based speech recognition front-end using speech obtained from two microphones. The proposed mask estimation method incorporates the observation that the mask information should be correlated over contiguous analysis time frames and adjacent frequency channels. To this end, two different hidden Markov models (HMMs), time HMM and frequency HMM, representing the time and frequency trajectories respectively, are trained using features such as the interaural time difference and the interaural level difference of two-channel signals. A mask for the given timefrequency bin is estimated by combining the likelihoods estimated from the two HMMs, and used to separate the desired speech from noisy speech. To show the effectiveness of the proposed mask estimation, we first measure the root mean square error between the ideal mask and that estimated by the proposed method. Then, we compare the performance of a speech recognition system using the proposed mask estimation method to those using conventional methods. Consequently, the proposed method provides an average word error rate reduction of 63.2% and 3.1% when compared with the Gaussian kernel-based and time HMM-based mask estimation methods, respectively.


This study was conducted to determine the effects of rate and timing of vermicompost application on: root collar diameter; height increment; number of leaves; and root – shoot ratio of Jatropha curcas L. planted in degraded soil. The generative characteristics of Jatropha in response to the treatments were evaluated under field conditions. The results showed that addition of vermicompost significantly increased root collar diameter, number of leaves and height increment while, timing of application has also increased the root collar diameter and number of leaves but not the height increment. Both treatments had no significant effect on the root – shoot ratio. Based on the study, Jatropha pits filled with vermicompost during outplanting will performed better than those applied 10 to 20 days after planting in degraded soil.


We compare our optical data collected for two families of low-dimensional correlated electron systems: the ladders and the organic Bechgaard salts. Our data display a remarkable optical anisotropy between the spectra along the three crystallographic axes, indicative of the low dimensionality in the electronic band structure. Moreover, we optically identify a dimensionality crossover, induced by Ca doping in the ladders and by chemical pressure in the Bechgaard salts. An outlook on the ongoing research on carbon and MoS2 nanotubes, as novel one-dimensional quantum wires, is also addressed.


Methods of applying median filtering for three-dimensional video signals were studied and are compared. Median operation and RGB- versus YUV-domain processing are discussed. An introduction to various ordering methods in median-based multidimensional filtering is given. The various 3-D median processing methods and the effect of the conversion from the RGB to the YUV domain were tested. The signal processing methods used for testing were noise reduction and interlaced-to-progressive conversion. The test results are given. >


Background Metabolic syndrome and shift workers are on the rise. There is conflicting evidence whether shift work predisposes to development of metabolic syndrome. Objectives To study the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among shift and daytime workers in a South Indian hospital and to assess the association between shift work and metabolic syndrome. Methodology The study had 2 groups: shift and daytime workers between ages 25–50 years. The sample size calculated was 79 in each group to demonstrate 12.5% difference in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome with a power of 80% and α error of 5%. The primary outcome studied was the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and secondary outcomes studied were the odds of developing metabolic syndrome among shift workers. Chi square test was used to measure the difference in the categorical variables; independent student t test for mean difference in the continuous variables. Univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression were used to test the significance of relevant variables on metabolic syndrome. Results We studied 80 shift and 80 daytime workers. Baseline characteristics were different for the following parameters: daytime workers were older, had more vegetarians, better sleep and were less physically active. Metabolic syndrome prevalence was 33.1% among the participants. The adjusted odds ratio for the shift workers to develop metabolic syndrome was 0.55 (95% CI 0.24–1.29) with a P value of 0.17. Conclusion Metabolic syndrome was present in every third person among the study participants and there was no significant association with shift work.


We are developing enhanced volume rendering techniques for color image data. One target application is cryo-imaging, which provides whole-mouse, micron-scale, anatomical color, and molecular fluorescence image volumes by alternatively sectioning and imaging the frozen tissue block face. With the rich color images provided by cryo-imaging, we use true-color volume rendering and visually enhance anatomical regions by proper selection of voxel opacity. To compute opacity, we use color and/or gradient feature detection followed by suitable opacity transfer functions (OTF). An interactive user interface allows one to select from among multiple color and gradient feature detectors, OTF's, and their associated parameters, and to compute in live time new volume visualizations from within the Amira platform. We are also developing multi-resolution volume rendering techniques to accommodate extremely large (⪆60GB) cryo-image data sets. Together, these enhancements enable us to interactively interrogate cryo-image volume data and create useful renderings with "implicit segmentation" of organs.


Cross-cultural training (CCT) is a form of people skills training aimed at facilitating the development of intercultural communicative competence and cultural sensitivity. Since the 1960s, cross-cultural training has developed into the product of a small, multinational, commercial industry. CCT workshops attempt to provide trainees with an understanding of culture that will encourage cultural sensitivity and appropriate behaviors during intercultural encounters. However, 'culture' is a contested concept; there is no universally accepted definition or theory of culture. The existence of a plethora of theories on the nature and influences of 'culture' raises questions as to which conceptions of culture CCT courses are adhering to and promoting. This book addresses these questions through a critical analysis of the contents and influences of cross-cultural training courses in comparison to anthropological theories of culture.


The paper deals with the problem of radar detection of a target echo embedded in log-normal clutter and white Gaussian noise. Relevant features of this article, with respect to previous papers on the same subject, refer to the coherent model assumed for the clutter and the processing chain. In more detail, the in-phase and quadrature components of clutter have been modelled to give a log-normal amplitude distribution and a near uniform distribution of the phase. Any shape of the correlation among consecutive clutter samples is also allowed in the model. At the same time, the processing chain is also coherent, i.e. it operates on the two components of the signals. Two architectures have been considered for the processor. The first, used in current practice, is formed of a linear transversal filter (for the clutter attenuation and the target echo enhancement) cascaded with a quadratic envelope detector and a comparison with a suitable threshold. The second processor considered differs from the previous one in the filter for clutter cancellation. A nonlinear homomorphic filter has been conceived to obtain a better suppression of clutter. The detection performance of the two processing chains have been evaluated, by means of computer simulation, in a number of operational cases of intrest. The paper gives a first contribution to the problem of finding better models of disturbance and of deriving more efficient processing chains.


Most of the current research and commercial reservoir simulators lack the capability to handle complex com- pletion details like perforation tunnels in a simulation study. In most common applications, the simplified handling of completion complexity in reservoir simulations is not expected to introduce significant error in simulation results. How- ever, it has been found that under certain circumstances, especially in high rate wells that have become more and more common in deepwater oil and profilic gas development, exclusion of the complex completion details in a reservoir simula- tion model would lead to nontrivial errors. New equations have been proposed to assess the needs to incorporate comple- tion details in a reservoir simulation study based on the understanding of the fluid flow in a formation, the fluid flow along a wellbore and the fluid flow through perforation tunnels if exist. A series of sensitivity studies with different com- pletion options under different flow and reservoir environments has been conducted to provide some guidance to improve well performance prediction through reservoir simulation. Impacts of key parameters like perforation density, perforation diameter, perforation length, wellbore length, borehole diameter, well completion configuration, well placement, reservoir permeability, reservoir heterogeneity, pressure drawdown, etc, have also been investigated.


25 Abstract— This paper presents the results of investigations in speech emotion recognition in Hindi, using only the first four formants and their bandwidths. This research work was done on female speech data base of nearly 1600 utterances comprising neutral, happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear and disgust as the elicited emotions. The best of the statistically preprocessed formant and bandwidth features were first identified by the KMeans, K nearest Neighbour and Naive Bayes classification of individual features. This was followed by artificial neural network classification based on the combination of the best formants and bandwidths. The highest overall emotion recognition accuracy obtained by the ANN method was 97.14%, based on the first four values of formants and bandwidths. A striking increase in the recognition accuracy was observed when the number of emotion classes was reduced from seven. The obtained results presented in this paper, have not been reported so far for Hindi, using the proposed spectral features as well as with the adopted preprocessing and classification methods.


An effective methodology to determine the optimal operational strategy for a complex CHCP plant is presented. The model is based on the minimization of a chosen variable and it is organically developed integrating thermodynamics and economics. The graph-based optimization algorithm is developed in order to find the optimal set-points of the energy system components in a sufficiently short-time. By this way the model is applicable to real industrial problems, especially when the energy is sold to the electricity market. The problem in study is discretized in time and plant states, represented as weighted graph, and the strategy that minimizes the total cost is determined using backward dynamic programming. The proposed methodology has been applied to the optimization of the set-point of an internal combustion engine based plant used to satisfy an hospital energy load, under different seasonal load conditions (winter, summer and transitional seasons) and energy prices. Two different optimization criteria are considered, namely economical optimization and primary energy consumption minimization. It is then demonstrated that the model can be effectively applied to analyze the cost and profit in energy conversion in power plants, related to electricity price, fuel price, running of turbine and auxiliary equipment, service power consumption. In particular, the chosen test case demonstrates not only the model reliability but also the economical and thermodynamic convenience of using the model itself to optimize the plant.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Object re-identification in non-overlapping cameras is a challenging problem due to variation of the object, linked to the different view angle, distance and color calibration of different cameras. We propose a computationally efficient real time human re-identification algorithm, which can track objects inside the field of view (FOV) of a camera, re-identify objects that exit and then return in a same or in a different camera FOV. This paper is based on our 1-D appearance model proposed in previous works, called vertical feature (VF), which is view and size invariant and that is used for object recognition and re-identification. But the object appearance in several cameras may be very different due to illumination conditions, camera gain, focus, focal length etc. Therefore inter-camera color calibration is important for object re-identification before applying object recognition features. We compare different existing color calibration methods and evaluate their color Brightness Function (BTF) and propose some modification in cumulative Brightness Transfer Function (CBTF), which improves the objects re-identification significantly in non-overlapping multi camera environments.


Abstract  The variation of sulphur isotopic composition during the 2000 eruption of the Miyakejima Volcano was examined in order to monitor the temporal change of the volcanic activity. The δ34S values of water‐soluble sulphate leached from volcanic ash effused during intermittent eruptions from July to September 2005 range from +5 to +11‰ with a fluctuation of ca 3‰ within a single eruption. The δ34S value of sulphuric acid mist collected with 'Cu‐metal trap' placed on the flank of the volcano from December 2000 to January 2001 is +6.2‰. These sulphur isotopic compositions of sulphate, which were isotopically equilibrated in the subvolcanic hydrothermal system, indicate that the temperature of the hydrothermal system beneath the caldera increased after the period of intermittent phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions. Then, the δ34S value of sulphuric acid trapped from January to March 2001 was +9.0‰ and the δ34S value of water‐soluble sulphate on volcanic ash emitted with minor eruption in May 2001 was +11.0‰, suggesting a decrease in temperature of the subvolcanic hydrothermal system.


Assessment of continuing competence of staff is a challenge for many healthcare organizations. There is no clear consensus as to what constitutes continuing competence or how to measure that competence. Methods for assessing continued competence of nurses are varied. A novel method, simulation and virtual reality technology, was used to assess the competency of nurses employed in long-term acute care hospitals in Louisiana. This article will describe the project which was the result of a collaborative effort between a large healthcare organization and a school of nursing.


This paper investigates the single and combined impacts of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) on precipitation and streamflow in China over the last century. Results indicate that the precipitation and streamflow overall decrease during El Nino/PDO warm phase periods and increase during La Nina/PDO cool phase periods in the majority of China, although there are regional and seasonal differences. Precipitation and streamflow in the Yellow River basin, Yangtze River basin and Pearl River basin are more significantly influenced by El Nino and La Nina events than is precipitation and streamflow in the Songhua River basin, especially in October and November. Moreover, significant influence of ENSO on streamflow in the Yangtze River mainly occurs in summer and autumn while in the Pearl River influence primarily occurs in the winter and spring. The precipitation and streamflow are relatively greater in the warm PDO phase in the Songhua River basin and several parts of the Yellow River basin and relatively less in the Pearl River basin and most parts of Northwest China compared to those in the cool PDO phase, though there is little significance detected by Wilcoxon signed-rank test. When considering the combined influence of ENSO and PDO, the responses of precipitation/streamflow are shown to be opposite in northern China and southern China, with ENSO-related precipitation/streamflow enhanced in northern China and decreased in southern China during the warm PDO phases, and enhanced in southern China and decreased in northern China during the cool PDO phases. It is hoped that this study will be beneficial for understanding the precipitation/streamflow responses to the changing climate and will correspondingly provide valuable reference for water resources prediction and management across China.


The main aim of this paper was to model the behavior of red soil and black cotton soil along with fly ash mixture to sorption of chromium at different ranges of pH. Visual MINTEQ version 3.0 was used; it was found that the model predicted the behavior accurately and this was compared with an experimental work done earlier. By conducting this simulation study, it was found that surface complexation and reduction played an important role in the sorption process, which gave a new impetus for the reactions taking place at various pH ranges. As most of the landfill leachates have a pH range of 3 to 8, it was concluded that these model-generated data will help landfill designers make informed decisions in dealing with hazardous waste.


In July 2000 and 2001, we sampled adjacent screened and unscreened agricul- tural irrigation diversions in the Sacramento River, California to (1) evaluate the effec- tiveness of a custom fish screen for excluding four open-water fishes: native delta smelt Hypomesus transpacificus and alien threadfin shad Dorosoma petenense, inland silverside Menidia beryllina, and striped bass Morone saxatilis; and (2) examine factors affecting entrainment of each species. We also compiled trawl and beach seine data from contem- poraneous monitoring programs to make inferences about microhabitat use by these fishes and its implications for entrainment vulnerability. The fish screen reduced en- trainment of each species by 99% or more and excluded many fish less than 25 mm, the approximate minimum length it was designed to exclude. Tidal and diel influences on entrainment through the unscreened diversion were observed, but diel cycles appeared to be more important, as most entrainment occurred at night or during crepuscular periods. Except for delta smelt, our results suggested that open-water fishes may un- dergo ontogenetic changes in vulnerability to unscreened irrigation diversions. Fishes entrained during daylight (threadfin shad and striped bass) averaged only 15-16 mm in length. At night, average lengths of entrained threadfin shad and inland silverside were 22-25 mm, even though larvae continued to be entrained. Similarly, a diel influence on striped bass entrainment was observed only in 2000, when individuals larger than 20 mm were consistently collected. No striped bass were collected at sizes greater than 35 mm, even though larger individuals occupied the study area. We found no evidence of size-related changes in delta smelt vulnerability to entrainment, but the monitoring data indicated that delta smelt were abundant offshore, whereas the other three species were most abundant nearshore. We think that low and inconsistent entrainment of delta smelt reflected (1) predominantly offshore habitat use by delta smelt, and (2) the relatively small hydrodynamic influence of the diversion.


Choosing the site for a new water well in rural southern Malawi is essentially a political process with competing priorities and stakeholders. For a new well (or borehole) to be sustainably used and maintained, the relevant stakeholders must be fully engaged in the siting process and given meaningful responsibility for the final siting decision. However, without sound technical information, a siting decision based solely on stakeholder priorities such as proximity to the headman's compound or accessibility to the center of population, may not result in a satisfactory borehole. Instead, in addition to stakeholder interests, we used a process that includes electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) as a tool to guide and constrain the local decision-making process. Within the region of the crystalline-basement aquifer, ERT profiles indicate variations in weathering thickness, hence aquifer storage. In a lacustrine setting, the ERT profile delineated a zone of moderately large resistivity associated with a deposit of fresh-water saturated sand. This ERT-derived technical information becomes one element in a comprehensive sociotechnical approach to the location of sustainable water resources. We used this sociotechnical approach to complete boreholes for all four villages in our project and have a high confidence that the villagers will be motivated to use and maintain these resources.


Several studies have shown that International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption is associated with higher audit fees. We provide additional evidence on this issue by analyzing the Swiss context, which is particularly suitable for two reasons. First, it allows a better estimation of the impact of IFRS adoption on audit fees because the choice of accounting standards (IFRS, US generally accepted accounting principles [GAAPs] or Swiss GAAPs) is left to companies. Accordingly, comparisons can be made within the same institutional context. Second, it is also possible to measure the impact of IFRS renouncement on audit fees because Swiss companies following IFRS can switch back to Swiss GAAPs at any time. Based on a hand‐collected database including 1,651 firm‐year observations over 15 years, we show that, with the exception of very large companies, firms using IFRS pay higher audit fees. We also find that firms switching to IFRS incur additional audit fees in the year preceding the change. By contrast, the return to local GAAPs does not result in lower audit fees, which confirms the stickiness of audit fees reported by several prior studies.


In a prospective study by the Scoliosis Research Society, 286 girls who had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, a thoracic or thoracolumbar curve of 25 to 35 degrees, and a mean age of twelve years and seven months (range, ten to fifteen years) were followed to determine the effect of treatment with observation only (129 patients), an underarm plastic brace (111 patients), and nighttime surface electrical stimulation (forty-six patients). Thirty-nine patients were lost to follow-up, leaving 247 (86 per cent) who were followed until maturity or who were dropped from the study because of failure of the assigned treatment. The end point of failure of treatment was defined as an increase in the curve of at least 6 degrees, from the time of the first roentgenogram, on two consecutive roentgenograms. As determined with use of this end point, treatment with a brace failed in seventeen of the 111 patients; observation only, in fifty-eight of the 129 patients; and electrical stimulation, in twenty-two of the forty-six patients. According to survivorship analysis, treatment with a brace was associated with a success rate of 74 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 52 to 84) at four years; observation only, with a success rate of 34 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 16 to 49); and electrical stimulation, with a success rate of 33 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 12 to 60).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


: Inventory modeling or policies are the necessity of every business or a new oil for any industry. In other words, inventory control and management are needed by businessmen or entrepreneurs to make effective strategies, i.e., for making their business profitable. It becomes a lot and a lot of vital for enterprises within the real-life things like producing sector like industry, food trade, etc. Inventory issues common in producing, remanufacturing, and lots of helpful applications like pharmaceutical. An associate improvement model for internal control of circulation enterprises was established to minimize the typical total price in the unit time of the inventory system. As we have seen, lot of researchers have made several attempts in the previous decade for improving inventory control/inventory policies, but due to the dynamic nature of human beings, it is difficult to make perfect and unique inventory for all business sectors. So, in this study, we will use collected data (from several research works done by the researchers, questionnaires, interviews) and then will apply an artificial neural network (ANN) concept to provide an optimized solution. Finally, our model shows economical, correct results, which can be additionally helpful for the inventory researchers to seek out the acceptable technique for determining the economic order quantity systems or creating AN assumption for making new inventory policies. Hence, this study provides helpful algorithms, economical inventory models for producing sectors, and future analysis direction toward our planned work.


Ontologies are becoming a key component of numerous applications and research fields. But knowledge captured within ontologies is not static. Some ontology updates potentially have a wide ranging impact; others only affect very localised parts of the ontology and their applications. Investigating the impact of the evolution gives us insight into the editing behaviour but also signals ontology engineers and users how the ontology evolution is affecting other applications. However, such research is in its infancy. Hence, we need to investigate the evolution itself and its impact on the simplest of applications: the materialisation. In this work, we define impact measures that capture the effect of changes on the materialisation. In the future, the impact measures introduced in this work can be used to investigate how aware the ontology editors are about consequences of changes. By introducing five different measures, which focus either on the change in the materialisation with respect to the size or on the number of changes applied, we are able to quantify the consequences of ontology changes. To see these measures in action, we investigate the evolution and its impact on materialisation for nine open biomedical ontologies, most of which adhere to the EL description logic. Our results show that these ontologies evolve at varying paces but no statistically significant difference between the ontologies with respect to their evolution could be identified. We identify three types of ontologies based on the types of complex changes which are applied to them throughout their evolution. The impact on the materialisation is the same for the investigated ontologies, bringing us to the conclusion that the effect of changes on the materialisation can be generalised to other similar ontologies. Further, we found that the materialised concept inclusion axioms experience most of the impact induced by changes to the class inheritance of the ontology and other changes only marginally touch the materialisation. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).


The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) opened on January 11, 1954. It was the work of a single individual, a young cardiologist with a vision. Paul David (1919-1999) trained in the late 1940s -- first, in Boston with Paul Dudley White and, second, in Paris with Jean Lenègre, two of the well-known cardiologists of the times. In the early 1950s, the only heart institute in the world was the one that Ignacio Chavez had founded in Mexico in 1944. Montreal had a medical institute of its own, the Montreal Neurological Institute, which Wilder Penfield had established in 1934. David probably got his inspiration from these two institutions. Two events also coincided somewhat at the time. In 1950, David attended the first meeting of the International Society of Cardiology in Paris where Alfred Blalock presented his experience with his operation for blue babies and Charles Bailey discussed valvular commissurotomy for mitral stenosis. Shortly after he returned from France, David was approached by the Sisters of Charity to lead the cardiology division of a new hospital under construction in Montreal. The young man, barely out of residency, insisted on having a full floor of the hospital to himself with complete administrative independence from the main hospital. He also indicated that he would call the place a Heart Institute, no less. The nuns took him seriously and, after two or three encounters, agreed with his requests, perhaps much to his surprise. The rest, as they say, is history.


Abstract 1553

Poster Board I-576

We evaluated survival for all patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in Sweden 1973-2005 (n=6,136; 3,515 men and 2,621 women; median age 40 years). Patients were categorized into six age groups and four calendar periods (1973-1980, 1981-1988, 1989-1996, and 1997-2005). Relative survival ratios (RSRs) were computed as measures of patient survival. Cumulative relative survival improved over time in all age groups with the greatest improvement in patients 51-65 years. Also in patients 66-80 years, significant improvements were recorded in both five- and ten year RSRs. Importantly, a plateau in relative survival was observed after 5 years in patients below ≤ 35 years of age during the last calendar period suggesting a lack of long-term treatment-related mortality. The ten-year RSRs in this calendar period were 0.95, 0.95, 0.92, 0.80, and 0.51 for the age groups 0-18, 19-35, 36-50, 51-65, and 66-80, respectively. Thus, despite this progress, age at diagnosis remains an important predictor of outcome. We also found a significantly better survival for women when adjusted for age and calendar period. During the study period, refined treatment options for patients with limited and advanced-stage HL have contributed to an increasing cure rate. In addition, our findings support that long-term mortality of HL therapy has decreased. Elderly patients still do poorly and targeted treatment options associated with fewer side effects will advance the clinical HL field.

![][1]
Cumulative relative survival stratified by age at diagnosis and calendar period of diagnosis

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


This paper describes a low-power BiCMOS A/D converter using a "differential voltage subconverter", which directly converts a voltage difference of complementary analog inputs to a digital code. This conversion technique reduces power consumption and signal delay in the A/D converter. Several circuit techniques have also been newly developed to achieve high-accuracy conversion with single 5 V power supply. The 10-bit A/D converter is fabricated in a 0.8 /spl mu/m BiCMOS process and it operates at 50 MS/s with 500 mW.


It is known that wounding systemically activates the expression of various defense-related genes in plants. However, most studies of wound-induced systemic response are concerned with a leaf-to-leaf response. We have recently reported that the long distance signaling was also observed in the shoots of Arabidopsis seedling with wounded roots. We identified early and late root-to-shoot responsive (RtS) genes that were up-regulated in the shoots of root-wounded seedlings at 30 min and 6 h post-injury, respectively. It is likely that the primary signals were rapidly transfered from injured roots to shoots, and then these signals were converted into chemical signals. In fact, increase of JA and OPDA content activated the expression of early and late RtS genes in shoots, respectively. In addition, we visualized wound-induced root-to-shoot response by using RtS promoter-luciferase (Luc) transgenic plants. Analysis of the AtERF13 promoter::Luc transgenic plants clearly shows that the wound-induced root-to-shoot signaling was rapidly activated via the vascular systems.


The role of affective states in cognitive performance has long been an area of interest in cognitive science. Recent research in game-based cognitive training suggest that cognitive games should incorporate real-time adaptive mechanisms. These adaptive mechanisms would change the game's difficulty according to the player's performance in order to provide appropriate challenges and thus, achieve a real cognitive improvement. However, these mechanisms currently ignore the effects of valence and arousal on the player's cognitive skills. In this paper we investigate how working memory (WM) performance is affected when playing a VR game, and the effects of valence and arousal in this context. To this aim, a custom video game was created for Desktop and VR. Three difficulty levels were designed to evoke different levels of arousal while maintaining the same memory load for each difficulty level. We found an improvement in WM performance when playing in VR compared to Desktop. This effect was particularly pronounced in those with a low WM capacity. Significantly higher levels of valence and arousal were self-reported when playing in VR. We explore the impact that reported affective states could have in the player's WM performance. We suggest that high levels of arousal and positive valence can lead players to a flow state [1] that may have a positive impact on the player's WM performance.


The subcooling effect on pool boiling heat transfer using a copper microporous coating was experimentally studied in water for subcoolings of 10 K, 20 K, and 30 K at atmospheric pressure and compared to that of a plain copper surface. A high-temperature thermally conductive microporous coating (HTCMC) was made by sintering copper powder with an average particle size of 67 μm onto a 1 cm × 1 cm plain copper surface with a coating thickness of ~300 μm. The HTCMC surface showed a two times higher critical heat flux (CHF), ~2,000 kW/m2, and up to seven times higher nucleate boiling heat transfer (NBHT) coefficient, ~350 kW/m2K, when compared with a plain copper surface at saturation. The results of the subcooling effect on pool boiling showed that the NBHT of both the HTCMC and the plain copper surface did not change much with subcooling. On the other hand, the CHF increased linearly with the degree of subcooling for both the HTCMC and the plain copper surface. The increase in the CHF was measured to be ~60 kW/m2for every degree of subcooling for both the HTCMC and the plain surface, so that the difference of the CHF between the HTCMC and the plain copper surface was maintained at ~1,000 kW/m2throughout the tested subcooling range. The CHFs for the HTCMC and the plain copper surface at 30 K subcooling were 3,820 kW/m2and 2,820 kW/m2, respectively. The experimental results were compared with existing CHF correlations and appeared to match well with Zuber's formula for the plain surface. The combined effect of subcooling and orientation of the HTCMC on pool boiling heat transfer was studied as well.


Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance and the impact on laboratory workflow of Cepheid Xpert CT, a new generation of Real Time PCR test that provides results in 90 min, with only 2 min of hands on time in comparison with traditional molecular method used (Alert q-PCR ELItech, Nanogen). Methods 101 selected women (< 25 and; 15% > 25 years old with risk factors) have been enrolled for this evaluation. Performances and laboratory workflow were compared: Xpert CT was run on GeneXpert System and Alert q-PCR on ABI 7300 (Life Technologies). Residual samples (500 uL UTM endocervical swabs) previously tested with Alert q-PCR have been used for the Xpert CT assay. Results On a total of 101 samples, 98 were concordant and 3 were discordant: 2 were positive with Xpert CT and negative for Alert q-PCR and 1 was positive with Alert q-PCR and negative with Xpert CT. It was appreciated the value of Sample Adequacy Control (SAC) in Xpert CT, that presented low Ct value (below 20) in case of severe infection. Laboratory Workflow: GeneXpert® steps n = 23 for extraction, amplification and detection (the whole RT-PCR process happened inside the cartridge), TAT 90 min. Alert q-PCR for a run of 24 samples: extraction steps n = 253, amplification and detection steps n = 286, hands on time 70 min, extraction 55 min, amplification and detection 2h, TAT 4 h. Conclusions GX simplified the laboratory workflow ensuring standardisation, accuracy and reliability of analytical data. The value of SAC supports the quality of sampling to avoid false negative results due to insufficient cells detected. Need evaluation for discrepancy results.


This paper presents an overview of an exploratory case study collaboration between Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in support of an RNLI delivery programme for international community management of drowning prevention in low-resource environments. The study focuses on the development of low-volume public rescue throw-lines that can be community made and maintained, the assembly and use of which are supported by a set of RNLI-developed instruction manuals intended for universal dissemination. The study examines the clarity of the instructions in the context of the makers' interpretation of the manuals within the local constraints of Zanzibar. Preliminary findings indicate that these universally intended instruction manuals, in their current format, are open to interpretation, producing unsafe drowning prevention rescue lines that do not meet safety-critical standards. A re-design of the manuals through creative collaboration in a local context are the outcomes of this research. Discussion is also given as to whether a universal instruction manual should be the desirable outcome.


The Indonesian Maritime Continent (IMC) is located in the tropics and consists of a number of islands and seas. This particular arrangement of land masses and seas produces unique weather and climate characteristics. Various hydrometeorology studies have been conducted exploring the variability of stable isotopes in precipitation over the IMC. Stable isotopes (δ18O and δD) in precipitation can be used to obtain information about atmospheric processes (e.g., precipitation, temperature and hydrological cycle). The Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation, operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been conducting worldwide monthly surveys of isotope levels in precipitation since 1961. To better understand the isotopic variability in the IMC, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology began operating in the IMC region in 2001. There are three types of seasonal variation of stable isotopes in precipitation, depending on the level of precipitation amount and also stable isotopic value, namely, semiannual, anti-monsoonal and monsoonal. Negative correlations between the precipitation amount and stable isotope value (amount effect) were identified when using the monthly averages. The interannual variability of stable isotopes in precipitation was mainly because of El Niño Southern Oscillation activity, whereas intraseasonal variability was closely related to the Madden-Julian Oscillation. Stable isotope variability in short periods was found to be due to precipitation cloud types and post-condensation processes.


Spice can be seen as an herbal mixture that consists of synthetic cannabinoids, which are designed to provide a marijuana-like high. In Sweden and other countries there have been legal actions to ban the synthetic cannabinoids in Spice, but when a chemical becomes illegal the substances in Spice will be replaced with a new legal one. For that reason can Spice be seen as a drug placed in a so-called grey zone.

This paper aims to study how young adults aged 18 to 25 years who have tried or use Spice think about this drug. This paper will look at the social norms regarding Spice use and how the social norms among the young adults relate to the legal norms.

Qualitative method and an online survey have been used to collect the young adult's thoughts about their experiences from using Spice. The theoretical frameworks for this paper are theories of norms and normmodellen by Hakan Hyden. The findings indicate that the adolescents tried Spice for the first time mainly due to their friends and the amounting peer pressure. The social norm among the young adults was to use Spice together with friends. When the adolescents had tried this drug and experienced the effects of Spice, they gained more knowledge about Spice, which resulted in that the social norms among the young adults did change. This is because of a greater knowledge of Spice's negative side effects and the fear of informal sanctions such as, exclusion and bad reputation in the labour market, in which the adolescents chose to follow the norm of not using Spice. The results of this paper shows that the social norms regarding Spice usage among the young adults agree with the legal norms.


The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview on consumption and retail sector in China, with focus on leisure clothing retail chains. The problem more specifically addressed in this paper is employee high turnover rate, which directly negatively influences customer experience while shopping, sales performance, as well as brand image of the retailer. During the course of four months, we have visited numerous retail outlets of four major brands, in six major Chinese cities. The study mainly focuses on the relationship between salary level and employee turnover within the given industry.


By Monte Carlo simulations, the effect of the dispersion of particle size distribution on the spatial density distributions and correlations of a quasi one-dimensional polydisperse granular gas with fractal size distribution is investigated in the same inelasticity. The dispersive degree of the particle size distribution can be measured by a fractal dimension df, and the smooth particles are constrained to move along a circle of length L, colliding inelastically with each other and thermalized by a viscosity heat bath. When the typical relaxation time τ of the driving Brownian process is longer than the mean collision time τc, the system can reach a nonequilibrium steady state. The average energy of the system decays exponentially with time towards a stable asymptotic value, and the energy relaxation time τB to the steady state becomes shorter with increasing values of df. In the steady state, the spatial density distribution becomes more clusterized as df increases, which can be quantitatively characterized by statistical entropy of the system. Furthermore, the spatial correlation functions of density and velocities are found to be a power-law form for small separation distance of particles, and both of the correlations become stronger with the increase of df. Also, the density clusterization is explained from the correlations.


Background: Control of a pandemic is influenced considerably by practices followed by the general public which in turn is supposed to be influenced by the knowledge and its attitude. The study intended to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) among the general public of India towards transmission of COVID-19.Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was prepared from the awareness material available on the WHO and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India websites. The questionnaire contained 35 items (scored and un-scored both) in total ('9' from each viz KAP and '8' to collect demographic details) and was sent to 600 people through e-mail for convenience sampling. The scores for KAP for an individual could range from 0-9, -5 to 5 and 0-8 respectively. Demographic variables were compared for scores attained and an association among KAP was measured.Results: A total of 229 volunteers representing different states/union territories were included in the analysis. The mean+SD scores attained for KAP were 3.9+1.9, 2.6+2.1, and 5.9+1.9 respectively. Around 39.7% of the individuals had adequate knowledge (score >50% of the maximum), 82.1% showed positive attitude (score >0) and 82.9% revealed appropriate practices (score >50% of the maximum). The scores attained by different age groups and genders were comparable. A fair correlation between KA, KP, and a good correlation between AP was found. The associations of KAP with each other were statistically significant (p<0.001).Conclusion: A positive attitude and appropriate practices were seen in the majority whereas adequate knowledge was there in a fair number of participants. Overall awareness among the general public of India was satisfactory.


The paper presents results from an ongoing agricultural project where the Internet is used for efficient transfer of knowledge and technology between Denmark and the Baltic countries. Danish weather-based models for risk of crop diseases and pests have been validated under Baltic conditions and small weather stations have been installed in agricultural areas in the three countries. Web technology has being implemented for the presentation of weather and daily risk values of diseases and pests. The results of the project demonstrate that the Internet makes it possible to transfer knowledge and technology between countries with different stages of technological or economical development.


BACKGROUND
Although advance directives (ADs) are already exercised in many Western countries, cultural differences surrounding death and dying may potentially pose challenges to the implementation of ADs in a Chinese community. It is therefore relevant to explore the experience with and attitudes towards ADs of health care professionals, who are trained in Western medicine but working in a Chinese cultural setting. Hong Kong represents a unique setting for this.

OBJECTIVE
The study objective was to evaluate clinicians' experience with and attitudes towards discussing ADs with terminally ill patients and their families.

METHODS
In this descriptive pilot study, we conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey among doctors working in the largest teaching hospital at the University of Hong Kong.

RESULTS
Seventy-seven out of 269 doctors working in the surveyed departments completed the questionnaire. The majority of participants (n=72; 94%) indicated willingness to initiate discussions about ADs and 62% (n=48) supported the AD to be recognized as a legally binding document but only 49% (n=38) had past experience of such discussions.

CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians were generally receptive of the concept of the AD, willing to practice it clinically, and supported its legal recognition. However, AD discussions were an infrequent encounter, hence many clinicians lack experience and are unfamiliar with relevant guidelines. Large-scale studies within the health care professions as well as qualitative studies further exploring potential barriers should follow.


Dr. Oliver: Quoted from the studies conducted at Ohio State in 1954-55 in which hexachlorophene bath gave a striking reduction in colonization with staph in the umbilicus and nares. No special attention was given to cleansing of the umbilical cord. In Pittsburgh, he noted high colonization rates which fell from 40% to almost zero, when hexachlorophene bathing was employed, supporting Dr. Gezon's findings.
 Moderator: In Dr. Gezon's paper he stated that after studying hexachlorophene he felt he should look for some other agent to suppress colonization of staph. Was this because he had worries about hexachlorophene?
 Dr. Gezon: Replied that he assumed that hexachlorophene resistance might occur. Perhaps it can, he stated, but there is no evidence of such resistance.
 Dr. Gluck: Discussed his experience at Stanford with 5,500 newborn infants. He found that with hexachlorophene bathing one of every 70 babies was colonized with staph. He paid great attention to the washing of the cord, feeling that this is the most important reservoir for staph. When he moved to Yale, newborn infants received water baths only. Skin pustules were always endemic but there was no fulminating staph epidemic. The colonization rate, which was 30% before hexachlorophene bathing was instituted, dropped to 3%. When hexachlorophene was discontinued, the rate rose again to 30%. He feels strongly that hexachlorophene is very effective in reducing colonization by staph. He pointed to his New Haven study as an indicator of the benefits gained by having a newborn go home without colonization by staph.


A one-stage release of circumferential congenital constriction bands was performed in four extremities (three patients). No wound problems occurred, even when there had been marked swelling of the extremity distal to the band. The one-stage release facilitated postoperative care, and there was no need for additional periods of anesthesia or for additional operations, which are necessary when this problem is treated with a release performed in two or three stages.


Patient safety culture is a key component of the organizational culture and a critical measure of the quality of healthcare. The aim of this study was to gain an insight into the problems concerning patient safety culture, based on the analysis of data, collected after interviewing healthcare specialists working in surgical and nonsurgical units in selected Bulgarian hospitals. This was a cross-sectional online study using a web-platform and the Bulgarian Version of Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. It was conducted among healthcare workers (n = 620) in 2021. The B-HSOPSC incudes 42 scales grouped in 12 different domains. We compared the percentage of positive ratings and outcome dimensions between surgical and other hospital departments with the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test, χ2 tests, Fisher's Exact Test, and OR. The results showed that there are no statistically significant differences between the ratings on Patient Safety Culture given by the surgical and the nonsurgical staff except for the dimension "Hospital management support for patient safety". Results from the study highlighted that the most important aspect of hospital patient safety is the shortage of medical staff in both surgical and nonsurgical hospital units. Communication, work shift organization, handoffs and transitions between shifts and among different hospital units, as well as communication with line managers were rated as satisfactory in Bulgarian hospitals.


Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration is a vital parameter that indicates water quality. We present here DO short term forecasting using time series analysis on data collected from an aquaculture pond. This can provide the basis of data support for an early warning system, for an improved management of the aquaculture farm. The conventional forecasting approaches are commonly characterized by low accuracy and poor generalization problems. In this article, we present a novel hybrid DO concentration forecasting method with ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)-based LSTM (long short-term memory) neural network (NN). With this method, first, the sensor data integrity is improved through linear interpolation and moving average filtering methods of data preprocessing. Next, the EEMD algorithm is applied to decompose the original sensor data into multiple intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Finally, the feature selection is used to carefully select IMFs that strongly correlate with the original sensor data, and integrate into both inputs for the NN. The hybrid EEMD-based LSTM forecasting model is then constructed. The performance of this proposed model in training and validation sets was compared with the observed real sensor data. To obtain the exact evaluation accuracy of the forecasted results of the hybrid EEMD-based LSTM forecasting model, four statistical performance indices were adopted: mean absolute error (MAE), mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Results are presented for the short term (12-h) and the long term (1-month) that are encouraging, indicating suitability of this technique for forecasting DO values.


Recent wor [1] has utilized Moore-Penrose (MP) inverse in deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) training, which achieves better generalization performance over the DCNN with a stochastic gradient descent (SGD) pipeline. However, the MP technique cannot be processed in the GPU environment due to its high demands of computational resources. This paper proposes a fast DCNN learning strategy with MP inverse to achieve better testing performance without introducing a large calculation burden. We achieve this goal through an SGD and MP inverse-based two-stage training procedure. In each training epoch, a random learning strategy that controls the number of convolutional layers trained in backward pass is utilized, and an MP inverse-based batch-by-batch learning strategy is developed that enables the network to be implemented with GPU acceleration and to refine the parameters in dense layer. Through experiments on image classification datasets with various training images ranging in amount from 3,060 (Caltech101) to 1,803,460 (Place365), we empirically demonstrate that the fast retraining is a unified strategy that can be utilized in all DCNNs. Our method obtains up to 1% Top-1 testing accuracy boosts over the state-of-the-art DCNN learning pipeline, yielding a savings in training time of 15% to 25% over the work in [1]. [1] Y. Yang, J. Wu, X. Feng, and A. Thangarajah, "Recomputation of dense layers for the perfor-238mance improvement of dcnn," IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., 2019.


We briefly review the basic structure of modern–day technicolor theories. We then discuss the signatures for technicolor as they were in its early days, the searches that have been recently performed at the Tevatron and LEP colliders, and the prospects for testing technicolor in Tevatron Run II and at the LHC.


The restricted isometry property (RIP) is an integral tool in the analysis of various inverse problems with sparsity models. Motivated by the applications of compressed sensing and dimensionality reduction of low-rank tensors, we propose generalized notions of sparsity and provide a unified framework for the corresponding RIP, in particular when combined with isotropic group actions. Our results extend an approach by Rudelson and Vershynin to a much broader context including commutative and non-commutative function spaces. Moreover, our Banach space notion of sparsity applies to affine group actions. The generalized approach in particular applies to high-order tensor products.


The adopted child is an explosive story of an unrepentant, ungrateful and wicked Egbule , a man whose eccentric and wild passion for materialism led to the death of his only brother Chuba. however, the twins of Chuba;almost got married unknowingly at the peril of Egbule's noxious, uncanny and gloomy ambitious reasons. the bumpy drama that ensued grips the mind with an irresistible fascination, written in a lively blend of fact, it is a compelling page-turner you will not put down till the last page.


Mexican-American men experience reduced cardiovascular mortality compared with nonHispanic white men. There is no corresponding ethnic difference in cardiovascular mortality in women. The difference in men could result either from a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease or a lower case fatality rate among Mexican-Americans. Although the incidence of cardiovascular disease in Mexican-Americans is unknown, we have collected data on prevalence of myocardial infarction in 5,148 individuals examined in the San Antonio Heart Study,


Human being is a creature that is able to know, sense, feel, think, perceive and mean all the things within his field of perception. For this reason, he has started to quest the reason of the fact, himself and the thing since the beginning of his existence. As a result of this process, human being has believed the fact that he has another quality apart from his wordly existence but, since he has not been able to define this quality precisely he has put some thoughts forward in order to clarify what this quality is in different languages and cultures. In this study, apart from defining or telling what spirit is, we will handle the opinions of Plato (M.O. 427-347) - one of the leading philosophers of the philosophical thought- and Ibn Kayyim el-Cevziyye (1292-1350) - one of the most important representatives of sufism- about what spirit is and then compare them.


Collaborative E-learning (CE) is very famous nowadays. CE integration can become a very challenging process that requires large technology resources. Although CE can bring competitive advantage and increase performances, the high failure rate is a major concern. The majority of previous studies and research projects have been conducted in identifying applications of CE. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the applications of CE that are used and the framework that applied for implement CE. The method used is this paper is by performing a systematic literature review based on search on four digital libraries. The tools, framework and advantages of application CE are identified from the review of the previous paper. The identified of tools and framework in application CE which are can help other researcher to prevent failures in the implementation of CE projects.


A new gemini surfactant with a long and rigid spacer, O,O'-bis(sodium 2-dodecylcarboxylate)-p-dibenzenediol (referred to as C(12)φ(2)C(12)), has been synthesized. Its aggregation in aqueous solution has been studied using static and dynamic light scattering measurements. The homologue O,O'-bis(sodium 2-dodecylcarboxylate)-p-benzenediol (C(12)φC(12)) whose spacer only contains a single phenyl group was also examined for comparison. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) revealed the unexpected existence of large aggregates in the solution of C(12)φ(2)C(12). However, C(12)φC(12) showed rather normal aggregation behavior. Both the results of intrinsic viscosity and light scattering demonstrated a loose structure for the large aggregates of C(12)φ(2)C(12). This behavior was attributed to an extending configuration of C(12)φ(2)C(12) with the two alkyl tails stretching toward the solution due to the rigidity of the long spacer. The large network-like aggregate formation was an inevitable outcome of spontaneously reducing the energy of the system. Freeze-fracture transmission electron microscopy (FF-TEM) images and (1)H NMR measurements supported this speculation. Due to the columnar-like molecular geometry, the large network-like aggregates were directly transformed into rodlike micelles with increasing surfactant concentration. Depending on further micellar growth, the wormlike micelles were finally formed as confirmed by rheological measurements.


Recently it has been suggested that ploidy level of a plant population may have important effects on plant-animal interactions. Plant-animal interactions can also be strongly altered by factors such as plant population size and habitat conditions. It is, however, not known how these factors interact to shape the overall pattern of plant-animal interactions.

I studied the interaction between a perennial plant, Aster amellus, and a monophagous herbivorous moth, Coleophora obscenella, and investigated the effect of ploidy level of the plant population, plant population size, isolation and habitat conditions on density of the insect, damage by the insect, and plant performance.

Ploidy level, plant population size and habitat conditions, but not isolation, strongly influence plant-herbivore interactions. Furthermore, there are significant interactions between effects of ploidy level and plant population size and between ploidy level and isolation. Hexaploid plants suffer higher seed damage by the herbivore, but their seed production is still higher than that of diploids. Herbivores thus partly limit the evolutionary success of the hexaploid plants. Plant-animal interactions are also strongly determined by plant population size. Small populations of A. amellus (below forty flowering ramets) host no C. obscenella larvae, indicating a minimum A. amellus population size that can sustain a viable C. obscenella population. Negative and positive effects of plant population size balance and result in no relationship between plant population size and number of developed seeds per flower head. The results also show a significant interaction between ploidy level and plant population size, indicating that the increase in density of C. obscenella larvae with plant population size is greater in hexaploid than in diploid populations. The results also indicate that the effect of ploidy level on plant-herbivore interactions can be altered by plant population size, which suggests that plant-herbivore interactions are driven by a complex of interactions among different factors. Studying each factor separately could thus lead to biased conclusions about patterns of interactions in such systems.


Since 1997, an unprecedented amount of American philanthropy from both private and federal sources has been directed toward research and control programs for the major tropical infectious diseases of developing countries. The US and Canadian capacity to respond to these new initiatives might prove inadequate, however, as tropical disease research and training infrastructures have deteriorated at most North American academic health centers over the last three decades. Training opportunities in clinical tropical medicine, parasitology laboratory diagnostics, vector control, and public health practice are especially depleted and portend a lost generation of experts in these areas. In addition, unlike some of the European schools of tropical medicine, no North American medical or public health school currently boasts a comprehensive faculty in the global health sciences, with expertise that spans laboratory investigation, clinical and translational research, health policy, and international development. To meet the challenge presented by the new philanthropy targeting the global diseases of poverty, a North American school of global health sciences should be established. The North American school, possibly in association with one of the existing schools of medicine or public health, would provide interdisciplinary training to produce a new generation of global health scientists.


Optoelectronic devices impact many areas of society, from simple household appliances and multimedia systems to communications, computing, spatial scanning, optical monitoring, 3D measurements and medical instruments. This is the most complete book about optoelectromechanic systems and semiconductor optoelectronic devices; it provides an accessible, well-organized overview of optoelectronic devices and properties that emphasizes basic principles.


Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are highly conserved molecules and distributed widely in nature. They are also distributed in the skin, however, only limited information is available on the role of HSPs in the skin diseases. Immunohistochemical study of HSPs in the skin revealed that HSPs are differently expressed in the epidermal cells of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), atopic dermatitis, graft versus host disease (GVHD) and so on. In normal healthy skin HSPs are constantly expressed in the epidermal cells. HSPs are expressed in the skin according to the influence of both external and internal milieu of the diseased conditions. Cytokines released in the skin strongly affect to express HSPs in epidermal cells. HSPs expressed in the skin can be targets for infiltrated T cells to modulate immune response of skin diseases. Roles of HSPs in the pathogenesis of SLE, GVHD, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis are discussed in this review. HSPs play an important role in the pathogenesis of many inflammatory skin diseases. They can be the molecules to evaluate both diseased conditions and inflammatory process of the skin diseases.


Successful elementary and secondary educational reform requires analogous reform in teacher education; however, the standard undergraduate setting in schools of education poses considerable obstacles. In this paper, we describe the STEP environment for distributed problem-based learning (www.eSTEPweb.org), which represents one of many efforts to create a viable model for teacher education reform. Here, we describe our approach to creating a socio-technical infrastructure designed to help foster a knowledge-building community among preservice teachers, practicing teachers, and instructional staff. We highlight the online environment that supports student and staff coursework in the learning sciences component of a secondary teacher education curriculum.


BackgroundDural arteriovenous fistulas (DVAF) is a cerebrovascular disorder due to abnormal connections within meningeal arteries and cerebral veins. It is usually associated with sinus stenosis.Case PresentationWe describe a case of DAVF with bilateral sigmoid sinus stenosis successfully treated via transarterial embolization and unilateral stenting.ConclusionThe author reported a rare case of DAVF associated with with bilateral sigmoid sinus stenosis. Direct embolization with catheterization of contralateral MMA may by an alternative way to treat partial embolized DAVF, when main feeding arteries were occluded due to previous treatment. Unilateral sinus recanalization for bilateral sinus narrows could also obtain obvious benefit.


The purpose of the study was to compare the Explosive Strength between football and volleyball players. Thirty football & thirty volleyball male players were taken as the subjects for the Study from Jamboni block of Medinipur district. The age group of the subjects was ranged from (16-25) years. To measure Explosive Strength (vertical jump) between football and volley players, Sargent vertical jump test was conducted on the subjects for the present study. The data collected was subjected to descriptive statistic and student "t" test and level of significance was set at 0.05 level. There was significant difference found between football and volleyball players. Football players show having more explosive strength when compared to volleyball players.


Abstract This article describes the application of functional programming techniques to a problem previously studied by imperative programmers, that of drawing general trees automatically. We first consider the nature of the problem and the ideas behind its solution (due to Radack), independent of programming language implementation. We then describe a Standard ML program which reflects the structure of the abstract solution much better than an imperative language implementation. We conclude with an informal discussion on the correctness of the implementation and some changes which improve the algorithm's worst-case time complexity.


ABSTRACT Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) has been practiced for many years and there is now increasing interest in demonstrating its efficacy through research. To date, no known quantitative review of AAT studies has been published; our study sought to fill this gap. We conducted a comprehensive search of articles reporting on AAT in which we reviewed 250 studies, 49 of which met our inclusion criteria and were submitted to meta-analytic procedures. Overall, AAT was associated with moderate effect sizes in improving outcomes in four areas: Autism-spectrum symptoms, medical difficulties, behavioral problems, and emotional well-being. Contrary to expectations, characteristics of participants and studies did not produce differential outcomes. AAT shows promise as an additive to established interventions and future research should investigate the conditions under which AAT can be most helpful.


Learning problems commonly exhibit an interesting feedback mechanism wherein the population data reacts to competing decision makers' actions. This paper formulates a new game theoretic framework for this phe-nomenon, called multi-player performative prediction . We establish transparent sufficient conditions for strong monotonicity of the game and use them to develop algorithms for finding Nash equilibria. We investigate derivative free methods and adaptive gradient algorithms wherein each player alternates between learning a parametric description of their distribution and gradient steps on the empirical risk. Synthetic and semi-synthetic numerical experiments illustrate the results.


AbstractThe aim of this article is to discuss the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens with regard to its applicability to translation studies. Key concepts of Giddens' sociological theory as agent, agency, structure, system and structuration will be explored in terms of their applicability to translation. In this article, structuration theory will be examined on the basis of the author's observation of news production at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. It is argued that Giddens' structuration theory helps us see the complexity of the interaction between translation structure and translators as agents. It also helps us problematise the vision of translation and brings it back to its real-life practice when, in the newsroom, it functions not as a hermetically insulated activity, but in cooperation with editing, among other things. The role of translation in the developing context of South Africa is shown in terms of Giddens' notions of 'time' and 'space' with the emphasis on how translation,...


Serum surveys in Gharian and Derna, Libya, assessed by radioimmunoassay, indicated that 100% of children of seven years and older, were HAV immune, as were 60-70% of three-year old children revealing that infection occurs below the latter age. HBV infection occurs erratically in time and appears to be uncommon in young children, affects school children somewhat more frequently and adults more so. Non-A non-B hepatitis also occurs but in the absence of specific tests it is impossible to assess its incidence.


This paper has two interrelated aims. The primary aim is to specify the character of philosophical theories of mental content that are usually classified as 'Causal Theories of Intentionality', 'Causal Theories of Representation', or 'Causal Theories of Mental Content' (CTs). More specifically, the aim is to characterize the role and place of causation in philosophical reflections on the nature of mental content, as suggested by theories of this kind. Elucidation of the role of the concept of causation in CTs requires examining the philosophical background against which versions of CTs are proposed; therefore the second aim of this paper is to clarify the link between CTs and the two philosophical theories that accompany it: the doctrine of philosophical naturalism (PN) and the representational theory of mind (RTM). Clarification of the relationship between the three theories is not only necessary for an adequate specification of the causal component that plays a central role in CTs, and so for a better understanding of CTs themselves; it also shows how the role that causation plays in CTs implies a genuinely relational conception of intentionality.


The flow studied is that of a liquid film draining down a vertical or inclined plane surface, with the upper edge of the film at an edge of the solid surface. Similarity laws are derived governing the film profiles, with the effect of surface tension included, both for the vertical plate and for a case involving time-varying inclination. The vertical plate case has a practical application in viscometry, and an improved estimate of the surface tension correction for the gravitational viscometer is given. The theoretical analysis is confirmed by experimental measurement of time variation of the upper edge slope of the film.


This paper focuses on spirituality as part of a broad understanding of intelligence and the inquiry into human abilities. Based on a theistic approach, spiritual intelligence is perceived as an ability to understand the world and oneself through God-centeredness and to adapt one's life accordingly. It is a basic ability that shapes and directs all other abilities. Relying on the personal experience of known spiritual authors and lay people, several attributes of spiritual intelligence, such as faith, humility, gratitude, integrative ability, the ability to regulate emotions, morality and the ability for moral conduct, and the ability for forgiveness and love, are portrayed in a non- inclusive description. Spiritual intelligence is considered as developmental in nature, built through the accumulation of separate experiences, as manifestations of spiritual intelligence appear in an individual's life in an increasing manner. An illustrative example of spiritual intelligence in action is provided.


In the theoretical part of the present Bachelor of Arts work was explained the
essence of educative role of public relations, dangers to professional
communication management and the importance of media in communication. In
the second part of the work was represented a conducted empirical research, where
was pointed out unorganized relations dealt in journalism and in discussion were
drawn parallels between the results of the research and theoretical base.
The purpose of the work was to examine the reflection of unorganized relations in
Estonian journalism, searching, to what aspects of public relations are referred and
what are the seen solutions.
In the current work six research questions were raised:
1 Is the problem of unorganized relations emerged in journalism and
where it appears?
2 What are the subjects where unorganized relations emerge?
3 Who displays the problems of unorganized relations in media?
4 What is the role attached to publicity?
5 What the communicative problems consist of?
6 What are the solutions to organize the relations?
In the research three Estonian newspapers were analyzed - Eesti Ekspress, Eesti
Paevaleht and Postimees. Three months of newspapers (December 2004 - February
2005) were researched. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of media texts were
carried out. During the quantitative analysis all the mentioned newspapers were
examined and the articles that corresponded to four criteria were pointed out-unorganized relations appeared in the articles, directed to publicity, communicative
aspect and educative role.
During the quantitative analysis thirty articles corresponded to criteria were
selected out. Consequently qualitative analysis of selected articles was carried out
and all the criteria of the articles were generalized and the results were shared into
bigger groups.
In the process of research all the answers to the raised questions were found.
1 The problem of unorganized public relations can be found in journalism in
the aspect of absence of cooperation.
2 The main subject, where the unorganised relations appear, is government
(among them state, ministry, local government, state crisis committee).
3 About unorganized relations most are debating journalists, seldom politics,
specialists and the representatives of publicity.
4 Publicity is accounted mainly irresponsible and not cooperative, rarely is
positive position attached to publicity.
5 Communicative aspect is appeared through different communicative
aspects, which can be non- operating communication, disorder of
communication and misunderstanding.
6 Solutions to disorganized public relations can be in dialogue, honest,
understandable and clear communication, in educating publicity and
following the ethical principles.
The main conclusion is that in analyzed articles solutions offered originate from
the ideal communication model, which offers managers, public relation managers
and journalists many possibilities for cooperation. In the situation of real
competition the roles of public relations managers and journalist present a contrast.
Journalist takes a position of a watchdog and public relations managers protect
interests of the employer. The research showed that the third party - publicity, is
often ignored. Publicity is often not included and is explained through inefficiency
and incompetence, but which shows undone work of the public relation workers.
Here appears the educative role of public relations, the purpose of the organisation
is to inform publicity and direct through the dialogue, honest, clear and
understandable messages proceed from ethical principles.


In this technical note, the quadratic error-constrained filtering problem is formulated and investigated for discrete time-varying nonlinear systems with state delays and non-Gaussian noises. Both the Lipschitz-like and ellipsoid-bounded nonlinearities are considered. The non-Gaussian noises are assumed to be unknown, bounded, and confined to specified ellipsoidal sets. The aim of the addressed filtering problem is to develop a recursive algorithm based on the semi-definite programme method such that, for the admissible time-delays, nonlinear parameters and external bounded noise disturbances, the quadratic estimation error is not more than a certain optimized upper bound at every time step. The filter parameters are characterized in terms of the solution to a convex optimization problem that can be easily solved by using the semi-definite programme method. A simulation example is exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design procedures.


INTRODUCTION: Hyperhidrosis is a frequent disorder with an estimated prevalence of 3% in the general population. This condition carries relevant impairments in social relationships for patients. Hyperhidrosis can affect different anatomical areas with palmar region being the most disturbing for everyday activities and social relevance. Several conservative and topical treatments are available for the patients, but their efficacy is often limited and temporary. Video-assisted thoracoscopic sympathicotomy of T2 and T3 ganglia with a minimally invasive technique represent a definitive treatment for palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis.


Abstract The paper considers some possibilities to use pure time series analysis for damage diagnosis in vibrating structures. It introduces the basics of the state space methodology and discusses a number of possible methods to extract damage sensitive features from the state space representation of the attractor of a vibrating system. The discussed methods can be divided into two groups: methods that use non-linear dynamics characteristics and methods based on the statistical characteristics of the distribution of points on the attractor. Each possible damage feature is introduced separately and the advantages and shortfalls of its application are discussed. The application of the suggested techniques is demonstrated on a test case of a reinforced concrete plate.


Fast and accurate energy calibration of photon counting spectral detectors (PCSDs) is essential for their biomedical applications to identify and characterize bio-components or contrast agents in tissues. Using the x-ray tube voltage as a reference for energy calibration is known to be an efficient method, but there has been no consideration in the energy calibration of non-convergent behavior of PCSDs. We observed that a single pixel mode (SPM) CdTe PCSD based on Medipix-2 shows some non-convergent behaviors in turning off the detector elements when a high enough threshold is applied to the comparator that produces a binary photon count pulse. More specifically, the detector elements are supposed to stop producing photon count pulses once the threshold reaches a point of the highest photon energy determined by the tube voltage. However, as the x-ray exposure time increases, the threshold giving 50% of off pixels also increases without converging to a point. We established a method to take account of the non-convergent behavior in the energy calibration. With the threshold-to-photon energy mapping function established by the proposed method, we could better identify iodine component in a phantom consisting of iodine and other components.


This five-step metaphysical proof borrows from the metaphysical thought of Aquinas as well as from Bernard Lonergan's proof of God in Insight. It makes several advances to proofs of God. Most importantly, by showing that an unconditioned (uncaused) reality must be unrestrictedly intelligible, the second step of the proof is original and lays a stronger foundation than previous proofs for the uniqueness of an unconditioned reality as well as its identification with an unrestricted act of thinking. This point strengthens the argument that this unique reality is a creator of everything else in reality. In so doing, it responds to contemporary criticisms of proofs of God by Richard Dawkins and others. This proof also adapts metaphysical ideas and terms to those arising out of the contemporary scientific world view, so that it is relevant and applicable to quantum and relativity theory, quantum cosmology, and other contemporary cosmological ideas, such as a multiverse and multidimensional physical realities.


This paper proposes that the role of materiality in research on identity formation has been marginalized. We bring materiality to the fore of identity formation, through a posthumanist performative (Barad, 2007) reading of the way in which 'agential cuts' - specific material-discursive practices which determine particular boundaries and properties of 'entities', including of one's identities - are made within and through material and human intra-actions. Through analysis of interview texts of a disabled academic's everyday work experiences that refer to mundane material artefacts and practices such as box files, chairs, and standing in meetings, we intend to "critically reflect on ... the seemingly insignificant and all-too-mundane ... realities of everyday organizational life" (Ybema et al., 2015) for disabled people, to explore "the boundary-making practices that distinguish 'disabled and 'non-disabled' people.