This book is part of a series of three; Sunier is part author of the preceeding works on the Holocaust and problem patients. The title itself is chilling. Before we reach the list of contents, we are offered "¿ guidance―: the need becomes increasingly apparent with each page. Despite the obviously diligent research and effort involved in producing this book, it reads like an inad equate translation of an over-inclusive work. There are frequent irritating spelling errors, and an awkward use of language which at times verges on incoherence. The style is idiosyncratic, dogmatic, and occasionally impenetrable. What of the contents? The book is divided into two parts. The first two-thirds comprises an unhappy mix ture of philosophy and the past findings in dementia. These are loosely woven together. In the second part, the author turns to a group of 70 of his own patients and presents a series of data with an attempt to relate the preceeding discussion with his results, setting himself the immense task of studying "¿ the roots of our knowl edge about the body of human subjects―,including "¿ molecular biology, cognitive psychology, sociology, and psychoanalysis―, to examine the possiblecausation of dementia. "¿ Our knowledge of the living system― should, he says, be expressed in "¿ a homologous language of growth and decay of structures―. There must be a simpler way... The pathological process of dementia and the result ing adaptation will find expression in a multitude of patterns: so much is evident. Sadly, Sunier, despite his altruistic objectives, takes us little further.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) in the primary dentition that presented to the emergency department (ED) of a level-one trauma center at a children's teaching hospital. Methods: Electronic health records of 1,170 patients with 2,746 traumatic dental injuries who presented to the ED over a 55-month period were reviewed in this retrospective cohort study. A subset of these (541 patients) with multiple injuries in primary teeth were examined. Results: The prevalence of primary tooth injury was 41 percent (1,120 out of 2,746). Most injuries were sustained by males (N equals 311; 57 percent); lateral luxations (N equals 341; 30 percent) were the most common injuries to the primary dentition. The primary maxillary central incisors were the most common teeth to be injured. Concomitant injuries were reported in 50 (4.5 percent) primary teeth. Conclusions: Traumatic dental injuries occurred frequently in the primary dentition, with lateral luxations being reported most often. Over 40 percent of all reported TDIs occurred in the primary dentition. Emergency room providers should be prepared to manage primary tooth TDIs.


This perspective discusses the principles of the multistate scenario often encountered in transition metal catalyzed reactions, and is organized as follows. First, several important theoretical concepts (physical versus formal oxidation states, orbital interactions, use of (spin) natural and corresponding orbitals, exchange enhanced reactivity and the connection between valence bond and molecular orbital based electronic structure analysis) are presented. These concepts are then used to analyze the electronic structure changes occurring in the reaction of C-H bond oxidation by Fe(IV)oxo species. The analysis reveals that the energy separation and the overlap between the electron donating orbitals and electron accepting orbitals of the Fe(IV)oxo complexes dictate the reaction stereochemistry, and that the manner in which the exchange interaction changes depends on the identity of these orbitals. The electronic reorganization of the Fe(IV)oxo species during the reaction is thoroughly analyzed and it is shown that the Fe(IV)oxo reactant develops oxyl radical character, which interacts effectively with the σCH orbital of the alkane. The factors that determine the energy barrier for the reaction are discussed in terms of molecular orbital and valence bond concepts.


The massive expansion of central-bank balance sheets in response to recent crises raises important questions about the effects of such "quantitative easing" policies, both their effects on financial conditions and on aggregate demand (the intended effects of the policies), and their possible collateral effects on financial stability. The present paper compares three alternative dimensions of central bank policy — conventional interest-rate policy, increases in the central bank's supply of safe (monetary) liabilities, and macroprudential policy (possibly implemented through discretionary changes in reserve requirements) — showing in the context of a simple intertemporal general-equilibrium model why they are logically independent dimensions of variation in policy, and how they jointly determine financial conditions, aggregate demand, and the severity of the risks associated with a funding crisis in the banking sector. In the proposed model, each of the three dimensions of policy can be used independently to influence aggregate demand, and in each case a more stimulative policy also increases financial stability risk. However, the policies are not equivalent, and in particular the relative magnitudes of the two kinds of effects are not the same. Quantitative easing policies increase financial stability risk (in the absence of an offsetting tightening of macroprudential policy), but they actually increase such risk less than either of the other two policies, relative to the magnitude of aggregate demand stimulus; and a combination of expansion of the central bank's balance sheet with a suitable tightening of macroprudential policy can have a net expansionary effect on aggregate demand with no increased risk to financial stability. This suggests that quantitative easing policies may be useful as an approach to aggregate demand management not only when the zero lower bound precludes further use of conventional interest-rate policy, but also when it is not desirable to further reduce interest rates because of financial stability concerns.


Hernias were prevalent among servicemen, typically recruited from amongst the malnourished. Civilian medical practice deemed the rupture incurable, taking a palliative approach. For the military this was unacceptable: wastage rates due to ruptures were high, servicemen were valuable commodities. Examples here are used to illustrate that experimentation was a contentious activity, reliant on the whims of patronage and war-time budgets. Although military hospitals provided a good venue to engage in experimentation it was contested.


SIR,-I read the articles of Dr. A. Rae Gilchrist (February 11, p. 327) and Dr. D. Rhodes Allison (p. 332) with interest. Both deal with the sometimes difficult differential diagnosis of intrinsic (or organic) and extrinsic heart pain. The former author states that it is most important to pay close attention to the patient's own account of the details of his difficulties. The latter is of the definite opinion that pain induced by excitement and anger is most unlikely to be of chest-wall origin, which in his opinion is a most important differential point. Both statements appear to be open to controversy. In my experience these subjective signs and complaints cannot be relied upon as a basis of an exact diagnosis. In scientific medicine it must be our endeavour to base the diagnosis on objective criteria as far as possible. Actually this is possible in regard to extrinsic cardiac pain. Under the term " idiopathic myalgia " a frequent muscular disease-not"fibrositis "-was described which mimics visceral and nervous diseases, especially also a cardiac lesion.' In the majority of cases the muscle giving rise to heart pain is the pectoralis major. In a few cases the dorsal part of the sacrospinalis causes pain referred to the heart.2 The characteristic " myalgic spots " present in idiopathic pectoral myalgia are located at the origin of the sternocostal portion of the muscle close to the sternum in the 3rd-7th intercostal spaces. The myalgic areas can be, and have to be, objectively localized by the fact that on pressure an involuntary, reflex-like movement is elicited in addition to agonizing pain. This sign is pathognomonic'. The diagnosis of pectoral myalgia responsible for the complaint of heart pain can be further confirmed by procaine injection, which relieves it almost instantaneously. In this way procaine, if each myalgic spot is accurately and thoroughly injected with 1-2 ml., can be used as a most reliable differential diagnostic test. A point of great scientific as well as practical importance is that even in cases of typical angina of effort an idiopathic pectoral myalgia may be responsible for the symptom of pain, as proved by the permanent relief obtained by procaine injection. This fact is not as surprising as might appear, since pain is a frequent but not an indispensable sign of organic cardiac lesions. If this fact that idiopathic myalgia is present in and responsible for extrinsic cardiac pain is kept in mind it will be possible to confine the diagnosis of heart lesions to those patients who are in fact organically ill.-I am, etc.,


The competitive strategy and advantage of building contractors is examined. In Hong Kong, just a few contractors have dominated the market of public housing construction, where prefabrication is mandatory. Does prefabrication technology lead to business success? Based on quantitative analysis of a questionnaire survey and its validation with interviews, we find that prefabrication by itself is not regarded as a sustainable source of competitive advantage. Instead, market share is the most statistically significant factor related to business growth. The experience curve theory suggests that, upon acquiring a critical volume of business, contractors have the opportunity to exploit economies of scale, bargaining power and learning to reduce costs to get more business. Through this iterative process, some contractors would manage to innovate their building process to make their supply chain management more efficient and effective than others', thus attaining competitive advantage in cost leadership and getting more business in return to sustain their volume building strategy. The findings suggest that, to succeed in a mature industry such as building construction, it takes clever harnessing of the construction process rather than simply the mastery of prefabrication technology itself.


Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is an infection of the deeper tissues that results in progressive destruction of muscle fascia and overlying subcutaneous fat. It has a fast and destructive course. Moreover, it is related to immunosuppression and could be fatal. The aim of this study is to report a clinical case of a young patient, without immunosuppression, who developed NF evolution due to an erroneous diagnosis of abscess at the beginning of the disease. Patient was submitted to broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy and aggressive surgical treatment. Adequate treatment led to a satisfactory evolution in a short period of time. Early recognition and adequate treatment are essential for a favorable prognosis.


INTRODUCTION
Our aim was to conduct a follow-up of a cohort of women screened for GDM with a normal oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) during pregnancy to investigate the incidence and time of diagnosis of manifest diabetes mellitus and identify risk factors for subsequent development of diabetes.

METHODS
This was a follow-up study of a cohort with normal and borderline OGTT in 1991/1992. Among the original 352 women, only five were lost to follow-up.

RESULTS
In total, 64 women (18%) had manifest diabetes. Their median age was 57 years after 28 years of follow-up. This amounts to three times the expected rate compared with the background population. The rate of manifest diabetes rises 10-20 years after pregnancy and after the age of 40 years. A normal fasting glucose and also a borderline fasting glucose at OGTT during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of manifest diabetes (p less-than 0.001), also after adjustment for age, Body Mass Index, non-Danish origin and smoking during pregnancy (p less-than 0.002).

CONCLUSION
The incidence of diabetes is higher in women with various risk factors for DM and a previously normal OGTT in pregnancy than in the background population. Our results are useful in identifying the time during which women may benefit from effective implementation of evidence-based treatment to postpone and avert manifest DM, even though they had a normal OGTT during pregnancy.

FUNDING
none.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
The trial was registered with the the Regional Ethics Committee and the Data Protection Agency, nos. 2014-41-3433, 1-16-02-824-17 (under running permission no. 621549), 1-16-02-825-17, and 1-16-02-180-17, all under the cover of data handling agreement no. 509 with the Danish Health Authority.


s: Ultrasonic detection is a new method to detect the porcelain insulator in recent years. We can find the deficiencies of porcelain insulator which used in grid in the early stage to avoid the heavy accidents caused by the abruption of porcelain insulator. Discriminate methods of deficiencies and several common problems in detection of ultrasonic detection of porcelain insulator were analyzed and discussed. The paths and suggestion of increasing the reliability of detection results are extracted establishing in work experience.


Electrical energy is generally used for heat source on infant incubator. The infant incubator operation is dependent on electrical energy. Infant incubator is primary required by hospital patients particularly for the mother who just giving birth the premature infant. When electrical energy is shutdown, the infant incubator cannot operate to fulfill that need. The solution is by creating new technology to look for material, which is capable to keep the heat energy to warm the infant body if there is no electrical source. Paraffin and beeswax are phase change materials (PCMs) that are able to give heat energy to warm up infant incubator. Paraffin and beeswax have high latent heat to keep and release the heat at constant temperature. This study was focused on the utilization of the comparison of paraffin and beeswax materials as the sources of heat energy on infant incubator. The results showed that the PCMs can maintain heat energy at the temperature above 32°C for more than 8 hours in the infant incubator room. However, it was observed that beeswax performed better in heat energy storage than paraffin. This study suggests the utilization of beeswax as the PCM for infant incubator, and possibly for any other practical application.


In Bangladesh, secondary school curricula have made Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education compulsory considering the importance of technology and innovation. Students' performance varies highly across schools compared to within school. This study is conducted in an effort to know what teachers accomplish in ICT classes. The study follows a qualitative research design. 5 ICT teachers and 250 students from 5 secondary schools of Dhaka city were chosen as sample. Data were collected from students and teachers through semi-structured questionnaire, interviews and classroom observations. The major findings of this study reveal that teachers practice mostly lecture, demonstration and book reading method in ICT classes to engage the students in teaching-learning process. Moreover, students are given feedback based on individual assessment. Furthermore, most of the schools have sufficient infrastructure to conduct laboratory work and sometimes practical classes are taken in ICT labs. It is asserted that ICT teachers are punctual to prepare lesson plans and use text books as well as e-learning resources for preparation. However, further study is suggested to explore the overall scenario of ICT teaching learning practices in secondary level education of Bangladesh by comparing rural and urban secondary schools in large scale. Keywords: teaching-learning, ICT, secondary schools DOI : 10.7176/IKM/9-8-04 Publication date :September 30 th 2019


Creep behaviors of the aluminum composites containing 3 vol% of TiO2 nanoparticles (15 nm in size) are studied at 523 K. In the high stress region, the composites show enhanced creep resistance exhibiting high value of the apparent stress exponent and the high threshold stress, which is determined to be 162 MPa. The true stress exponent of minimum creep strain rate is found to be 5 implying the creep is controlled by lattice diffusion. Negligible stress dependence in the creep rate is found when the applied stresses are <200 MPa, since the creep behavior depends dominantly on the diffusional flows of the matrix that are strictly limited by the nanoparticles.


We present Bayesian Team Imitation Learner (BTIL), an imitation learning algorithm to model the behavior of teams performing sequential tasks in Markovian domains. In contrast to existing multi-agent imitation learning techniques, BTIL explicitly models and infers the time-varying mental states of team members, thereby enabling learning of decentralized team policies from demonstrations of suboptimal teamwork. Further, to allow for sample- and label-efficient policy learning from small datasets, BTIL employs a Bayesian perspective and is capable of learning from semi-supervised demonstrations. We demonstrate and benchmark the performance of BTIL on synthetic multi-agent tasks as well as a novel dataset of human-agent teamwork. Our experiments show that BTIL can successfully learn team policies from demonstrations despite the influence of team members' (time-varying and potentially misaligned) mental states on their behavior.


Seed removal by rodents was investigated for Manilkara huberi and Chrysophyllum lucentifolium in a French Guianan forest. According to the escape hypothesis, seed survival was expected to be greater in populations of low conspecific adult density, while on the contrary, under the satiation hypothesis, it was expected to be greater in populations of high density. The two plots under study showed opposite densities for the two studied tree species. Therefore, according to both hypotheses, seed survival at each plot was expected to be opposite between species. To assess seed fate, seeds were thread-marked in order to relocate them after removal and to determine whether they were consumed or scatterhoarded by rodents. Contrary to what was expected, our results showed that both M. huberi and C. lucentifoliumhad better survival in the same plot. This suggests that seed fate for both study species was not influenced by the density of conspecific adult trees, but was rather affected by other habitat characteristics, likely the global resource abundance. Variation in seed predation rates of both species seemed largely related to their respective fruiting period, while scatterhoarding rate seemed more affected by intrinsic seed characteristics.


Cellulite, (Ganoid Lipodystrophy, GLD), often confused with Cellulitis, presently is one of the most common skin defects.The ailment is dependent on numerous factors, that is why treatment of GLD means treatment of the whole body. Up to the present day no effective method of cellulite complete and permanent reduction has been developed, that is why this thesis attempts to establish whether radio waves can be an effective method of elimination or reduction of cellulite.At the first stage of the research a questionnaire survey was conducted among 340 women, aged 16 to 68. The women most often diagnosed themselves with 1st and 2nd degree of GLD, mostly on thighs, buttocks and belly.30 women, who volunteered to undergo a therapy with the application of radio waves, were covered with the second stage of the research. After conducting all examinations it was concluded that knowledge on Cellulite among the surveyed is minimal and not sufficient for its effective prevention, which leads to the conclusion that the necessity of increasing awareness of widely understood GLD initial prevention mechanisms is vital.Therapy with the application of radio waves as secondary prevention improves the skin elasticity and its looks, however, it is not an efficient method of reducing more advanced changes caused by the cellulite development, while the applied frequencies do not bring about any side effects. Tangible results of the radio waves application is inversely proportional to the degree of skin changes advancement.


Purpose

Momentum around the institutionalization of Ethnic Studies in US K-12 classrooms is increasing. Opponents have argued that Ethnic Studies does not challenge students academically and prepare them for high stakes testing (Planas, 2012; Sanchez, 2007). Conversely, research continues to show ways Ethnic Studies contribute to students' academic achievement, especially for students from marginalized and vulnerable communities (Cabrera et al., 2014; Halagao, 2010; Tintiangco-Cubales et al., 2015). This study aims to demonstrate the possibilities and potential of Ethnic Studies-framed tools for English and Language arts teachers. This moment concerning Ethnic Studies in schools illuminates an important opportunity to demonstrate how Ethnic Studies-framed tools positively affect learning mainstream school content, namely, English and Language Arts. The authors consider the following point: To what extent can Ethnic Studies-framed tools affect approaches for learning English, writing and reading while simultaneously being responsive to a community's needs? The authors maintain the importance of such tools that exist in how they support the development of community responsive literacies (CRLs).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper examines CRLs through the Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot (ESPSP). The authors begin by exploring the development of the ESPSP, first used in Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP), an innovative K-college Ethnic Studies teaching pipeline. Next, the authors examine each coordinate of the ESPSP, examining their purpose, theoretical underpinnings and ways the ESPSP offers nuanced approaches for learning literacies.

Findings

The authors then discuss how CRLs emerged to support PEP teachers and students' reading and writing skills using the ESPSP.

Originality/value

Finally, the authors learn from students' experiences with the ESPSP and offer implications for English and Language Arts teachers in the pursuit of teaching and serving students in more socially just and community responsive ways.


Abstract The Madden-Julian oscillations are quite prominent over the Indian monsoon region and they are related with the large-scale active-break phases of the monsoon. These oscillations, however, show considerable inter-annual variability in period and intensity. In this study interannual variability of these oscillations has been studied by using daily rainfall data of 365 stations for 80 years (1901–80). It is found that the intensity of these oscillations is not related with the overall performance of the monsoon and the El Nino–Southern Oscillation phenomenon.


In fundamental research, gas detectors of single photons are a must in the field of Cherenkov imaging techniques (RICH counters) for particle identification in large momentum ranges and with wide coverage of the phase space domain. These counters, already extensively used, are foreseen in the setups of future experiments in a large variety of fields in nuclear and particle physics. The quest of novel gaseous photon detector is dictated by the fact that the present generation of detectors has unique characteristics concerning operation in magnetic field, low material budget and cost, but it suffers of severe limitations in effective efficiency, rates, life time and stability, discouraging their use in high precision and high rate experiments. We are developing large size THick GEM (THGEM)-based detector of single photons. The R&D program includes the complete characterization of the THGEM electron multipliers, the study of the aspects related to the detection of single photons and the engineering towards large size detector prototype. Our most recent achievements include: dedicated studies concerning the ion back-flow to the photo-cathode; relevant progress in the engineering aspects, in particular related to the production of large-size THGEMs, where the strict correlation between the local gain-value and the local thickness-value has been demonstrated the operation of a 300 mm × 300 mm2 active area detector at the CERN PS T10 test beam; the introduction of a new hybrid detector architecture offering promising indication, which is formed by a THGEM layer which acts as CsI support and pre-amplification device followed by a MICROMEGAS multiplication stage. The general status of the R&D program and the recent progress are reported


An injectable ultrasound contrast media formulation composed of microbubbles of stabilized sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in sodium chloride solution. With stabilized sulphur hexafluoride microbubble-based contrast agent, ultrasound waves are scattered and reflected at the microbubble-blood interface during ultrasound imaging, thereby enhancing blood vessel visualization and the contrast between blood vessels and adjacent tissues.


Asphalt and concrete pavements cover a high percentage of urban area. In the summer season, the surface temperature of asphalt pavements exposed to the solar radiation increases to 60°C or more. This is one cause of the urban heat island phenomenon. In the field of road engineering, cool pavements have been constructed to decrease the surface temperature and to improve the road environment. We have previously studied the cement-based grouting material containing cement, ceramic waste powder, and natural zeolite for cool pavements. This cool material is poured into voids in porous asphalt pavements. The construction method for this cool pavement is the same as that for water retaining pavements. The temperature measurements show that the surface temperature was lower by 15-20°C than the conventional porous asphalt pavement temperature of 60°C. On the other hand, the accumulation of permanent strain in the asphalt pavements causes rutting under passing traffic loads in the hot summer season. In this study, the fatigue tests under a fixed-point load were conducted to evaluate the fatigue resistance of the surface temperature reducing pavement at 40°C. The fatigue resistance of pavements under various loading levels is evaluated at sinking displacements of 15 and 20 mm. The test results show that the surface temperature reducing pavement has a higher fatigue resistance than conventional porous asphalt pavements.


Abstract Motivation Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are essential components of therapeutic peptides for innate immunity. Researchers have developed several computational methods to predict the potential AMPs from many candidate peptides. With the development of artificial intelligent techniques, the protein structures can be accurately predicted, which are useful for protein sequence and function analysis. Unfortunately, the predicted peptide structure information has not been applied to the field of AMP prediction so as to improve the predictive performance. Results In this study, we proposed a computational predictor called sAMPpred-GAT for AMP identification. To the best of our knowledge, sAMPpred-GAT is the first approach based on the predicted peptide structures for AMP prediction. The sAMPpred-GAT predictor constructs the graphs based on the predicted peptide structures, sequence information and evolutionary information. The Graph Attention Network (GAT) is then performed on the graphs to learn the discriminative features. Finally, the full connection networks are utilized as the output module to predict whether the peptides are AMP or not. Experimental results show that sAMPpred-GAT outperforms the other state-of-the-art methods in terms of AUC, and achieves better or highly comparable performance in terms of the other metrics on the eight independent test datasets, demonstrating that the predicted peptide structure information is important for AMP prediction. Availability and implementation A user-friendly webserver of sAMPpred-GAT can be accessed at http://bliulab.net/sAMPpred-GAT and the source code is available at https://github.com/HongWuL/sAMPpred-GAT/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


A set of tools have been developed to ensure the Data Management operations (deletion, consistency checks) within the German cloud for ATLAS. These tools are described hereafter and presented in the context of the operational procedures of the German cloud. A particular emphasis is put on the consistency checks between the different catalogs (LFC, DQ2 Central Catalogs) and the files stored on the Storage Element. These consistency checks are crucial to be sure that all the data stored in the sites are actually available for the users and to get rid of non registered files also known as Dark Data.


Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of radix Sophorae flavescentis on the trophozoites of Giardia lamblia in vitro. Methods Trophozoites of G. lamblia were exposed to aqueous extracts of radix S. flavescentis and then the detachment from the tube wall, the death rate and the morphological changes under light and transmission electron microscope of trophozoites were studied. Results After exposure to 1.6% aqueous extracts of radix S, flarescentis for 6, 8 and 24 h, the detachment rates were 47. 4%, 70. 9% and 80. 2%, and the death rates were 24. 5%,36.1% and 54.2%, respectively. The radix S, flavescentis-treated trophozoites shrinked and became roundish. The rewere also changes in ultrastructure, such as depletion of the contents of cytoplasm, separation of adhesive disk from the cell body and appearance of pit in cell membrane of some treated trophozoites, Conclusion Radix S, flavescentis can kill trophozoites of G, lamblia and lead them to detach from the tube wall in vitro. The induced morphological changes may be partially responsible for the effects of radix S, flavescentis on giardiasis.


Over the last two decades, the European Union has put in place various policy and regulatory instruments to address climate change and ensure environmental protection. These European efforts, however, have been far from fully successful for a number of reasons, including the difficulty of achieving simultaneously the objectives set by the "2020 Climate and Energy Package" and the inefficient governance mechanisms to pursue them. For this reason, the 2030 policy framework for climate and energy agreed by the European Council in October 2014 proposes a new governance structure which introduces greater flexibility for governments in reaching the targets. While the new structure allows Member States to choose policies that are best-suited to their national energy mix and preferences, it will have to ensure that the commitments undersigned at EU level are respected and the overall targets set by the Commission are met.


Tregs play a crucial role in modulating the inflammatory response and participated in the sepsis-related immune dysfunctions. However, little is known about the regulatory mechanisms by which Tregs are kept in check during immune responses. Here, we verified the simultaneous expression of IL-3 and its receptor (IL-3R) on Tregs. Then, by modulation of IL-3 expression via lentiviral transduction mediated siRNA, we demonstrated that IL-3 negatively regulated Tregs activity via an autocrine mechanism. Furthermore, we found that anti-IL-3 antibody treatment significantly diminished inflammatory cytokines and organ injury, and improved the survival in septic mice, which was associated with enhanced Tregs percentage and functions. Collectively, these results suggest that IL-3 negatively regulates the activity of Tregs by a previously unrevealed autocrine manner, and plays an important role in the excessive inflammatory response in sepsis, which might be utilized as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of septic complications.


Our paper provides new evidence on earnings management of cross-listed firms by exploiting a natural experiment in China. Around 2000, regulators introduced stringent delisting requirements that firms with consecutive earnings losses for more than two years would be delisted from the mainland Chinese exchanges. No such delisting requirement was imposed in the Hong Kong exchange. We examine whether listed firms in Chinese market manage earnings to avoid delisting and whether mainland Chinese firms cross-listed in Hong Kong manage earnings the same way. Using a difference-in-difference methodology, we compare cross-listed and noncross-listed firms' earnings management incentives before and after the policy change. We find that the new delisting threats induce rampant earnings management on mainland markets but cross listing in Hong Kong has a strong curbing effect on earnings management. The evidence suggests that bonding hypothesis of cross listing is at work in the Hong Kong exchange.


Nowadays, the computational devices are everywhere. In malls, offices, streets, cars, and even homes, we can find devices providing and consuming functionality to improve the user satisfaction. These devices include sensors that provide information about the environment state (e.g., temperature, occupancy, light levels), service providers (e.g., Internet TVs, GPS), smartphones (that contain user preferences), and actuators that act on the environment (e.g., closing the blinds, activating the alarm, changing the temperature). Although these devices exhibit communication capabilities, their integration into a larger monitoring system remains a challenging task, partly because of the strong heterogeneity of technologies and protocols. Therefore, in this article, we focus on home environments and propose a middleware solution, called DigiHome, that applies the Service Component Architecture (SCA) component model to integrate data and events generated by heterogeneous devices in this kind of environments. DigiHome exploits the SCA extensibility to incorporate the REpresentational State Transfer (REST) architectural style and, in this way, leverages on the integration of multiscale systems‐of‐systems (from wireless sensor networks to the Internet). Additionally, the platform applies Complex Event Processing technology that detects application‐specific situations. We claim that the modularization of concerns fostered by DigiHome and materialized in a service‐oriented architecture, makes it easier to incorporate new services and devices in smart home environments. The benefits of the DigiHome platform are demonstrated on smart home scenarios covering home automation, emergency detection, and energy saving situations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The professional responsibility of teachers has been primarily understood in international literature in terms of external obligations, primarily from an accountability perspective. Alternatively, more recent approaches have begun to propose that teacher responsibility is more appropriately understood as an internal drive toward their work and its contribution to broader social development, which is seen as crucial to the design of effective pedagogical practices. However, within this continuing dialogue, limited attention has been given to how professional responsibility develops and is nurtured within the unique contexts of English language teacher education. This mixed-method study investigated the sense of professional responsibility held by pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) context, framed by an online survey ( n = 611) based on a teacher responsibility scale and a series of semi-structured interviews ( n = 17). Results demonstrated that there was a comparatively higher sense of responsibility felt in two critical areas: building positive student relationships and ensuring an equitable classroom and society. However, lower levels of responsibility were demonstrated toward the discipline-specific issues of encouraging student engagement, student motivation or success in learning English. This suggests a critical tension that develops in the sense of pre-service teacher responsibility between the abstract and affective notion of being the 'good teacher' and the more concrete objectives of building learning environments for language development.


The origin of water in the inner solar system is not yet well understood. Because of the coexistence of water and small solid particulates in the accretion disk from which our planetary system formed, we propose that adsorption of water onto the surfaces/pores of forsterite could play and important role in the delivery of water to the rocky planets. In this work we employ energy minimization techniques to understand the surface energy structure and the distribution of surface adsorption sites for the {0 1 0} and {1 0 0} planes in forsterite. This study indicates that most of the surface area is not involved in the initial adsorption of water molecules and that the stronger adsorption sites coincide with the most underbonded surface Mg atoms. r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) have been extensively used as a major tool for exploring quantum chaos, and recently there has been a classical analog. Studies have been limited to closed systems. In this work, we probe an open classical many-body system, more specifically, a spatially extended driven dissipative chain of coupled Duffing oscillators using the classical OTOC to investigate the spread and growth (decay) of an initially localized perturbation in the chain. Correspondingly, we find three distinct types of dynamical behavior: the sustained chaos, transient chaos, and nonchaotic region, as clearly exhibited by different geometrical shapes in the OTOC heat map. To quantify such differences, we look at instantaneous speed (IS), finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLEs), and velocity-dependent Lyapunov exponents (VDLEs) extracted from OTOCs. Introduction of these quantities turns out to be instrumental in diagnosing and demarcating different regimes of dynamical behavior. To gain control over open nonlinear systems, it is important to look at the variation of these quantities with respect to parameters. As we tune drive, dissipation, and coupling, FTLEs and IS exhibit transition between sustained chaos and nonchaotic regimes with intermediate transient chaos regimes and highly intermittent sustained chaos points. In the limit of zero nonlinearity, we present exact analytical results for the driven dissipative harmonic system, and we find that our analytical results can very well describe the nonchaotic regime as well as the late-time behavior in the transient regime of the Duffing chain. We believe that this analysis is an important step forward towards understanding nonlinear dynamics, chaos, and spatiotemporal spread of perturbations in many-particle open systems.


Study Design. A test‐retest design was used to assess the reproducibility of position sense measurements of the spine recorded at T1, T7, L1, and S2. Objectives. To measure position sense at four spinal levels in healthy volunteers and to determine if this varies on a day‐to‐day basis. The overall purpose is to provide baseline data for studying position sense of the spine in patients with spinal lesions. Summary of Background Data. Position sense, which is one component of proprioception, is assessed by the ability to reposition the body after displacement. In peripheral joints, position sense is accurate to within a few degrees. Studies on the spine suggest similar accuracy, but most have used indirect methods of measurement that often incorporate unusual extraneous cues. Methods. Spinal position sense was assessed in 20 healthy volunteers using an electromagnetic movement sensor system, the 3‐Space Fastrak (Polhemus, Colchester, VT), to measure absolute error in actively reproducing upright and flexed positions during movements in both coronal and sagittal planes. Three randomized measurements were taken for each position in one testing session, and measurements were repeated in all participants 2 weeks later. Results. Same‐day measurements indicate that spinal position sense is reproducible in upright postures to within a mean of 3.79 ± 2.56 for movements in the sagittal plane and 2.26 ± 1.59° for movements in the coronal plane. Corresponding measurements for flexed postures are 5.27° ± 3.47° and 3.70 ± 2.62°, respectively. Intraclass correlation coefficients between repeated measurements are generally good in the sagittal plane but are affected by side dominance in the coronal plane. Also, repositioning errors tend to increase on ascending the spine. Repeat measurements taken 2 weeks later show similar values. Conclusion. 1) Healthy volunteers were able to reposition their spine with considerable accuracy as measured with the 3‐Space Fastrak; 2) this ability does not change significantly on a day‐to‐day basis; and 3) the 3‐Space Fastrak offers a noninvasive and accurate method for the measurement of spinal position sense.


Background: Several studies have suggested that stroke patients with an ASPECT score (ASPECTS) ≥7 benefit from endovascular recanalization. Objective: The purpose of the study was to examine the benefit of endovascular recanalization for stroke patients with low ASPECTS. Materials and Methods: Among 373 consecutive stroke patients treated with endovascular recanalization at our hospital from March 2007 to March 2017, those with ASPECTS ≤6 were included in the study and classified into three groups based on ASPECTS of 6 (APS6), 5 (APS5), and ≤4 (APS4). Preprocedural factors, procedures, and angiographic and clinical outcomes were compared among the three groups. Results: A total of 111 patients were included in the analysis, with 41, 37, and 33 in the APS6, APS5, and APS4 groups, respectively. Median age (74, 76, and 80 years, respectively), median baseline NIHSS (21, 21, and 24), occluded site (ICA-MCA: 14-27, 14-23, and 21-12), intravenous rt-PA (5, 3, and 4), complete recanalization (TICI 2b/3: 34, 25, and 19), and median onset to recanalization time (329, 385, and 360 min) did not differ significantly among the three groups. However, the APS4 group had a lower favorable outcome rate (mRS 0-2 at 3 months: 27%, 16%, and 6%) and higher 3-month mortality (12%, 11%, and 21%). Conclusions: In stoke patients with low ASPECTS, endovascular recanalization is beneficial in those with ASPECTS of 6. Results were equivocal in those with ASPECTS of 4, suggesting a need for caution with the indication for recanalization in these patients.


The Korean government established Haeparang Trail, a 770-km paved trail that intersects 10 cities in Korea's eastern region. The trail is frequented by residents, domestic visitors, and international tourists, which has enhanced the local and regional economies. The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationship among host community residents' attitudes toward the government's tourism planning, perception of tourism impact, quality of life, and support for environmental development within the context of this trail. A conceptual model was empirically tested based on data collected from 496 residents in four cities. Findings indicate that residents' attitudes toward the government's tourism planning positively enhance their perceptions of tourism's impact and quality of life. Consequently, residents' support for environmental development is significantly influenced by their perceptions of tourism's impact and quality of life. Overall, the results identify the factors that influence community residents' support for environmental development initiatives, which can assist the government in planning and policy formulation. Subscribe to JPRA


Pressure, density and temperature ( p , ρ , T ) data and apparent molar volumes, V f o , of aqueous calcium acetate solutions Ca(CH3COO)2 (aq) over a wide range of temperatures from 273.15 to 353.15 K, pressures up to p = 100 MPa and molalities m , of 0.04918, 0.09367, 0.23797, 0.36365, 0.85923, 1.06930, 1.35223 and 1.81668 mol×kg-1 of Ca(CH3COO)2 are reported. The combined expanded uncertainty of the density ( ρ ) measurements at the 95 % confidence level with a coverage factor of k = 2 was estimated to be U c( ρ ) = ±0.3 kg∙m‐3. The measurements were realized with an Anton Paar DMA HPM vibration tube density meter. The system was calibrated using double-distilled water, aqueous NaCl solutions, methanol, toluene and acetone. An equation of state for fitting of the ( p , ρ , T ) data of aqueous calcium acetate was developed as a function of pressure, temperature and molality. After a thorough analysis of literature values and validity of the constructed equation of state, various thermophysical properties, such as isothermal compressibility, isobaric thermal expansibility, differences in isobaric and isochoric heat capacities, thermal pressure coefficient and internal pressure at the investigated state parameter intervals were calculated.


Abstract. Advancement of spring migration in response to recent global climate change is well documented for a variety of bird species, but the pattern for autumn migration is rather equivocal. During a 42-year period (1964–2005) the changes in timing of spring and autumn migration of eight wader species were studied at multiple inland sites in Central Europe (Czech Republic and Slovakia) using ringing data. While a clear pattern was found for the advancement of the spring passage, there were variable trends in the timing of the autumn passage. Three species significantly advanced (Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper and Dunlin), three species delayed (Ruff, Snipe and Little Ringed Plover), and two species did not change the timing of the autumn passage (Little Stint and Green Sandpiper). Earlier studies had predicted that long-distance migrants wintering south of the Sahara would advance the timing of autumn migration, while short-distance migrants would postpone it. However, our findings do not fully conform to these predictions. Across species, the timing of both the spring and autumn passages was negatively associated with the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, suggesting that even in long-distance migrants the timing of migration might be under direct environmental control. In conclusion, phenological responses of birds to recent changes in climate are quite coherent for the early phenological phases; however, the responses to later phases are not so straightforward, and the present study contributes to this diverse pattern.


We have characterized the new Hamamatsu R5900-L16 multianode photomultiplier with regard to its suitability for position-sensitive readout with just two analog channels for each 16-anode PMT. Because of the low capacitance of the anode structure of the PMT, we obtain an output pulse width of less than 20 ns for narrow input pulses. We were able to obtain position-sensitive readout of single photoelectron pulses with a spatial width of less than 1 mm FWHM for a collimated light source and about 2 mm FWHM for single fiber. Combined with the good single photoelectron peak for R5900-L16, this provides excellent performance at very low light levels. We discuss application of this device to the precise determination of gamma-ray interaction position within thin crystal scintillators.


This paper attempts to analyse the historical development of the Malaysia-Vietnam relationship from the 15th to the 19th century with reference to the works of researchers in Malaysia. This particular period was chosen for review as the Southeast Asian at this time was the theatre of radical unrest following the growth of capitalist trade which sparked an influx of Europeans to this part of the world. By providing the background and a general overview of the research done on the history of Malaysia-Vietnam relations, it is hoped that this study can serve as a platform for other researchers to further explore this relationship.


Results of the search of the periodic changes of the 530.3 nm line intensity emitted by selected structures of the solar corona in the frequency range 1-10 Hz are presented. A set of 12 728 images of the section of the solar corona extending from near the north pole to the south-west were taken simultaneously in the 530.3 nm ("green") line and white-light with the Solar Eclipse Coronal Imaging System (SECIS) during the 143-seconds-long totality of the 1999 August 11 solar eclipse observed in Shabla, Bulgaria. The time resolution of the collected data is better than 0.05 s and the pixel size is approximately 4 arcsec. Using classical Fourier spectral analysis tools, we investigated temporal changes of the local 530.3 nm coronal line brightness in the frequency range 1-10 Hz of thousands of points within the field of view. The various photometric and instrumental effects have been extensively considered. We did not find any indisputable, statistically significant evidence of periodicities in any of the investigated points (at significance level α = 0.05).


Transcutaneous oxygen tension response to transient arterial occlusion (tcPO2T/2) was examined at the medial mid-calf and dorsum of the foot in 20 patients with thromboangiitis obliterans or arteriosclerosis obliterans, and in normal subjects in order to accurately assess the rate of skin oxygenation. Though the mean value of transcutaneous oxygen tension (tcPO2) correlated with the mean value of tcPO2T/2 before and after arterial reconstruction, a discrepancy between the tcPO2 and tcPO2T/2 values was demonstrated in some cases. The tcPO2T/2 values manifested the severity of the peripheral skin oxygenation more clearly than tcPO2 values because changes in the tcPO2T/2 value paralleled improvement in symptoms after arterial reconstruction. It was concluded that the tcPO2T/2 value was useful in grading the severity of disease, in detecting the site of the arterial occlusion and in evaluating changes in symptoms before and after arterial reconstruction.


In this paper, we address the problem of joining ranked results produced by two or more services on the web. We consider services endowed with two kinds of access that are often available: 1) sorted access, which returns tuples sorted by score; 2) random access, which returns tuples matching a given join attribute value. Rank join operators combine objects of two or more relations and output the k combinations with the highest aggregate score. While the past literature has studied suitable bounding schemes for this setting, in this paper we focus on the definition of a pulling strategy, which determines the order of invocation of the joined services. We propose the Cost-Aware with Random and Sorted access (CARS) pulling strategy, which is derived at compile-time and is oblivious of the query-dependent score distributions. We cast CARS as the solution of an optimization problem based on a small set of parameters characterizing the joined services. We validate the proposed strategy with experiments on both real and synthetic data sets. We show that CARS outperforms prior proposals and that its overall access cost is always within a very short margin from that of an oracle-based optimal strategy. In addition, CARS is shown to be robust w.r.t. the uncertainty that may characterize the estimated parameters.


Blocking, much discussed since the early days of generative grammar, is a phenomenon where an expected input–output mapping is not active in a welldefined set of contexts because some other input–output mapping takes place.1 In his book, Eric Bakovi« takes the phenomenon apart, examines its pieces, reports the details of previous discussion and, most importantly, compares the predictions that different theoretical approaches make with respect to the different types of blocking. Bakovi« presents an in-depth comparison of two such theories, rule-based SPE-style approaches (Chomsky & Halle 1968) and Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993). His conclusion (building on a remark in Prince 1997) is that DISJUNCTIVE APPLICATION is predicted by the most basic assumptions of OT, while it necessitates additional machinery (the ELSEWHERE CONDITION) in rule-based frameworks. This book will be enjoyable for a wide variety of readers: the theorist will find a comparison, rarely attempted in such thoroughness, of the predictions of two theoretical approaches with respect to a certain linguistic phenomenon; the scholar interested in the history of linguistics will find a meticulous description of the history of the discussion of blocking effects and the various attempts to solve the knots; the student of linguistics, finally, will get an excellent and extremely clearly written overview of what the discussion in the literature is about. After a useful introduction to the topic of the book, Chapter 2 provides a history of the analysis of blocking phenomena discussed in the literature since the 1960s. In a rule-based framework, some blocking phenomena can simply be analysed as the result of rule ordering. This is the case, for example, where a BLEEDING relationship between rules can be proposed, such that the structural description which is necessary for rule 2 to apply is changed by a rule 1, applying earlier in the derivation, thus blocking the application of rule 2. COUNTERFEEDING is another example of relationship between rules which can explain certain blocking effects. The application of rules in a bleeding or counterfeeding relationship is straightforwardly serial ('conjunctive'), but in an order which leads to blocking. However, since the very beginning of generative phonology it has been assumed that there are cases where rules seem to apply disjunctively, one blocking the application of the other even in the presence of a context suitable


A piece of Baltic amber (Tertiary, Eocene) contains a sporocarp of a slime mould which is assigned to the recent genus Arcyria and described as A. sulcata sp. nov. Apart from a fossil stemonitoid myxomycete, there are no further unambiguous fossil records of slime moulds and therefore the fossil gives new insights into the evolutionary history of the Myxomycetes.


This article describes the lived experience of informal caregivers who accompany loved ones as the loved ones receive a diagnosis of dementia. Each of 12 informal caregivers participated in a face-to-face interview that was audiotaped and transcribed. Analysis of the interview text revealed seven constituents as central to the general structure of this experience: (a) having anticipated the diagnosis; (b) feeling relief; (c) feeling the gravitas of the words; (d) grieving the loss; (e) watching for the patient's reaction; (f) accepting the diagnosis and taking action; and (g) committing to care. Implications for healthcare providers are discussed, with an emphasis on the need to be sensitive to the experience of both patients and informal caregivers when disclosing a diagnosis of dementia.


The phenotype, DNA-binding activities of NF-kappaB, cytokine production, endocytosis and stimulatory capacity of spleen OX-62-positive dendritc cells (SDCs) from Fischer rats were compared with those from Lewis rats. Results showed that the expressions of CD11b, MHC-II, CD8, CD45RA, CD54 and CD86 on SDCs were significantly higher in Fischer than those in Lewis rats. The levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-10 and IFN-gamma in SDCs from Fischer rats were distinctly higher than those from Lewis. Both stimulatory capacity and DNA-binding activities of NF-kappaB in SDCs were all lower in Fischer than those in Lewis rats. These differences may partly contribute to rat strain-specificity in susceptibility to chronic inflammatory stimuli.


QUESTIONS UNDER STUDY
Completeness is important in cancer registration. Identifying areas to improve registry procedures might help to maximise completeness. We examined characteristics of childhood cancer cases that were registered via death certificate notification (DCN) rather than during life, and estimated completeness of the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (SCCR).

METHODS
We analysed data from all children who died from cancer in Switzerland between 1985-2009 at age <16 years (n = 978), and checked whether they had been registered in the SCCR. We used multivariable logistic regression to compare characteristics of DCN cases with deceased SCCR cases, and the DCN-to-incidence and mortality-to-incidence ratio method to estimate completeness for different diagnostic periods.

RESULTS
Among 978 deceased children with cancer, 126 (12.9%) were registered via DCN. Those with tumours of digestive organs (odds ratio [OR] 5.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.9-13.7), tumours of endocrine glands (OR 4.5; 95% CI 1.6-12.3), and brain tumours (OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.7-5.5) were more likely to be DCN cases than those with leukaemia. Neonates (OR 14.1, 95% CI 5.3-37.3), infants (OR 7.5; 95% CI 3.1-18.0) and 14-15 year olds (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.2-4.9) were more likely to be DCN cases than 1-4 year olds. The DCN proportion was particularly high in infants who lived in rural regions. Estimated completeness of the SCCR increased from 85% for 1985-89 to ≥ 95% for 1995-2009.

CONCLUSIONS
Childhood cancer registration in Switzerland was quite complete, but registration must improve for infants, particularly neonates, and children diagnosed with hepatic, endocrine and brain tumours.


As the research of grid goes on, users demand increasingly high quality of task completion and high-quality scientific computing tasks continue to increase. This renders QoS a new problem that is to be considered in the grid scheduling algorithm. In this paper, a grid tasks scheduling strategy based on QoS priority grouping is proposed. In this algorithm, the deadline property of task, acceptation rate of tasks and makespan of systems are comprehensively considered. And QD-Sufferage, a grid task scheduling based on task priority grouping and deadline, is presented subsequently. The experiments show that the algorithm overweighs traditional algorithms a lot in makespan, throughout parameters


A Hellenistic Terra-Cotta Workshop in the Persian Gulf.In the foregoing article Erling Albrectsen has described the historical background to the archeological investigations commenced on the island of Failaka. The area which became my particular excavation object, numbered F4 in our records, was a very low rise of ground close to high-water mark about midway between the two tells known as Sa'ad wa Sa'aid, F3 and F5.Before digging commenced the site was marked by numerous scattered potsherds, appearing to me to be of many different periods, and - a very tempting sign - a large number of fragments of the tile-like baked bricks, measuring about 30 X 30 cms., which are so well known from ancient sites of Iraq and Persia. Admittedly it was somewhat suspicious that these titbits lay so openly upon the surface, but there must, it seemed, have been a brick-walled house in the immediate neighbourhood, and excavation was begun with high hopes. Which immediately afterwards were succeeded by disappointment. At the point where the bricks lay thickest trial trenches revealed immediately below the surface completely sterile sand, and at a meter's depth there was still no change. There were no ruins here. But a short distance away lay more bricks, and the second trial trench here soon encountered the side of a wall standing to a height of 50 cms. This was, however, not of brick but consisted of the natural limestone of the region, roughly shaped into rectangular form and set finely in clay to a height of four courses.During the following weeks we excavated here a handsome rectangular house consisting of ten rooms and two open courtyards (Fig. 2). At most points the walls reached up to immediately below the present ground surface, but they also bore traces of the stonerobbery which is usually met with in these areas, some portions having been removed completely or as far as the foundation course. As no foundation trench had been dug it was quite impossible at these points to determine the original run of the walls. At first sight it appears remarkable that the walls were built upon the actual ground surface, but in an area where frost is unknown and the surface of the site is hard sand a foundation is in actuality superfluous for small buildings.Later generations, perhaps right up to our day, have also exploited the ruins in another way. At several points along the inner face of the walls hearths had been built, consisting of piles of old bricks or of large, badly fired jars, a hearth type which the inhabitants of the island still employ.But where did the bricks then come from? There were actually found portions of walling in the ruin, which measured 28.5 X 27.5 meters, which were brick-built (Fig. 3), and it may be assumed that large parts of the lacunae in the walls were of brick, which was later removed. The scattered fragments can therefore be explained as deriving from this removal, while the sterile area was the collecting point besides the ruin. The bricks showed clear traces of having been dried on a bed of twigs and coarse straw, which had set deep impressions in the surface and may even have been mixed with the clay. The superficial likeness of these impressions with cuneiform writing was the cause of many disappointments; no inscribed bricks were found. Probably the stone walling had never been higher than it was found on excavation. It should rather be regarded as a base for walling of sun-dried brick, small portions of which were found in situ, while these bricks, now returned to earth, formed the greater part of the earth filling the rooms.The meagre furnishing of the house makes it difficult to attribute functions to the individual rooms. An exception is, however, provided by the little central room (7), whose floor is covered by an irregular tiling and which has in one corner a stone-set oven, presumably for industrial use. And the presence of this firing room makes it permissible to regard at least some of the surrounding rooms as workshops.A series of interesting discoveries in the house explain the character of the industry carried on there. They consist of moulds, for the most part in fragments, of a light yellow terra-cotta. We took impressions from these moulds on the spot in plasticine, and impressions in plaster of paris have been taken in Aarhus after complete cleaning and partial reassembling of the fragments. A little mould produces a quite naturalistic rendering of a fish in high relief (Fig. 5), with no very definite period style. But the remainder of the moulds supplied a surprise in the form of human figures in unmistakable Hellenistic style. The most artistically valuable is 17.5 cms. high (Fig. 6). The mould lacks the lower part of the legs and the stomach portion, but both the stumps of the arms and the neck are intact, and rounded off in a way that shows either that it was only desired to produce a torso, or that arms and head were to be attached later after the joining surfaces had been cut to fit. - This female figure is clad only in a chiton, held up over the shoulder by a thin cord and leaving the breasts bare. Other fragments show draped women of very wellknown types. Particularly the largest of these (Fig. 4), 26 cms. high and tightly draped in a himation with the left arm and hand covered, is wellknown in Hellenistic art 1), though an identification would only be guesswork.The case is different with the figure, 9.8 cms. high, whose mould it has proved possible to assemble from several fragments, though the head is unfortunately missing (Fig. 7). lts resemblance to the Nike from Olympia, carved by Paionios about 420 BC 2), is immediately apparent, though this badly damaged figure has been reconstructed with the left arm, raised, whereas our reproduction has its arm by its side, in agreement with terracotta figures found elsewhere 3). Completely preserved is a mould producing a relief of a male head, 6 cms. high, whose likeness to the usual portraits of Alexander is striking (Fig. 8). The head is surrounded by a remarkable rudimentary ring of ribs, suggesting a laurel wreath or more closely a halo of flames, and it is therefore possible that we should view the relief as a portrayal of Helios.Despite its paucity of objects the terracotta material excavated here, of which the most characteristic pieces are described above, shows that this industry was carried on in this little island in the Persian Gulf in Hellenistic times. While it is disappointing to find the greater number of the moulds in fragments there is a natural explanation, as it is true of the majority, even of the little fish, that the moulds do not allow of removal of the casting without shattering the mould. While slight traces of bronze were found in the firing kiln it is most natural to imagine the figures as produced in plaster or clay, which would then, like the moulds, be fired to terracotta in the kiln.Was it then to avoid the risk of carrying on this firing within the city that the workshop building was erected in isolation by the shore? And was it a little colony of Greek craftsmen and traders, who had established booths with souvenirs and perhaps articles of practical utility for sale to the crews of the ships which called in at the landing place? For no skipper of common sense could afford to pass by without calling in at the clear fresh-water springs of Failaka.The longshore trade may have been based on barter, but we have also found a coin, struck in Susa for Alexander about 310--300 BC, showing on its obverse Alexander's head bearing an elephant skin 4). Taking everything into account, the date of Alexander's death, 323 BC, gives a good point for the dating of the whole site.Two interesting small objects discovered here show that Hellenistic art was not the only art form in production at the site. On a fragment of a thin slate slab, 6.9 cms. high, is shown a richly clad man, sitting crosslegged, with either naked, hairy legs or more probably embroidered Persian trousers. He seems to be holding a fruit up before his face (Fig. 9). This little relief finds its closest parallel in a relief found at Dailem, south of Babylon 5). Also of non-Hellenistic origin is a little terracotta head (Fig. 10), 4 cms. tall, which can scarcely represent other than an Assyrian prince or warrior 6).The excavation on Failaka in 1958 must only be regarded as a reconnaissance, aimed at determining whether the principality of Kuwait, so rich in other respects, also possessed an historic past. The results appear to promise well, and the Ruler, His Highness the Emir Abdulla Al-Salim Al-Sabah, has hospitably agreed to the continuation of the work of the Danish team in 1959. We hope that the result will be many years of fruitful work on this pleasant location.Aage Roussell.


SUMMARY The life of every eukaryotic cell depends on the function of vacuolar H+-ATPase (V-ATPase). Today we know that V-ATPase is vital for many more physiological and biochemical processes than it was expected three decades ago when the enzyme was discovered. These range from a crucial role in the function of internal organelles such as vacuoles, lysosomes, synaptic vesicles, endosomes, secretory granules and the Golgi apparatus to the plasma membrane of several organisms and specific tissues, and specialized cells. The overall structure and mechanism of action of the V-ATPase is supposed to be similar to that of the well-characterized F-type ATP synthase (F-ATPase). Both consist of a soluble catalytic domain (V1 or F1) that is coupled to a membrane-spanning domain (Vo or Fo) by one or more `stalk' components. Owing to the complexity and challenging properties of V-ATPase its study is lagging behind that of its relative F-ATPase. Time will tell whether V-ATPase shares an identical mechanism of action with F-ATPase or its mode of operation is unique.


Environmental pollution is a worldwide problem, with toxic metals being among the most noxious pollutants. Aquatic organisms can accumulate toxic elements from their environment through different pathways, including water, diet and sediments. The aim of the study was to determine the distribution of toxic metals (Cd and Pb) in tissues of three species of flatfish (Platichthys flesus, Pleuronectes platessa, Scophthalmus maximus), and in their environment (water, sediment and their prey mollusc Macoma balthica) in four regions of the southern Baltic Sea, in order to identify the most important pathways of metal uptake in these fish. The concentrations of toxic metal were measured in a graphite furnace by atomic absorption spectrometry. Toxic metal concentrations in flatfish liver were significantly higher than in the muscle tissue. The liver was the target organ for Cd and Pb accumulation. The flatfish liver, M. balthica, sediment, and water from the Gulf of Gdansk contained higher level of Pb than did the samples from the central Baltic Sea coast. The Pb concentrations in the liver of P. flesus and P. platessa showed positive correlations with Pb in the soft tissue of M. balthica, sediment and sea water. The high correlation coefficient values for Pb suggest that flatfish took up this metal through the food chain from molluscs. In turn, M. balthica took up Pb and Cd from sediment and water, which was confirmed by the high correlation coefficients for these metals between this mollusc and sediment and water. The positive correlations for concentrations Pb and Cd in sediment and in water indicate the next stage of the pathway along which the metals travel in the Baltic Sea environment.


The work presented in this thesis is part of and continuation of the work carried out by the author on the Mechanics of Power Hacksawing, on behalf of a hacksaw blade manufacturer. Process parameters which influence the metal. removal rate during power hacksawing have been identified and thus a
detailed explanation of the basic sawing mechanism-suggested. Power hacksaw machine characteristics have also been investigated. The problem of blade testing is discussed. A method for
assessing the blade performance is proposed which is based
on metal removal rate but is independent of the machine
characteristics. This could be 'used as a quality index for
power hacksaw blades. This performance index is found to
vary with workpiece breadth and tooth pitch. A theoretical
model is used to give some explanation of this variation.
iiowever, there is evidence that the gullet size and goemetry arc, more significant factors influencing the variation in blade performance with changes in the breadth of the workpiece and pitch of the blade teeth. Examinations of saw blade teeth have revealed that they have large cutting edge radii compared to the layer of metal
removed, indicating that saw blades are basically blunt
tools. The cutting action of tools with large cutting edge
radii has been investigated and extensive simulation tests
have been undertaken. From the observations of the chip
formation mechanism and measurements of the relative
position of the tool and machined surface during cutting,
some new light is thrown upon the ploughing process. A slip-line field is proposed which qualitatively represents the assumed chip formation mechanism under steady state cutting conditions. The application of an empirical relationship between the chip tool contact length and the undeformed chip thickness in conjunction with the
slipline field, provides quantitative correlation with
the test results of a single point tool and qualitative
correlation with a hacksaw blade.


Background: A number of clinical research studies have found evidence that patients from Western and non-Western countries express both somatic and psychological symptoms. Although somatic and psychological symptoms appear to coexist, patients may express more of one type of symptom, somatic or psychological, over the other depending upon the nature of the illness and the patients' psychosocial contexts. Sampling and Methods: The present study investigated the influence of Westernization, stigma, severity of symptoms, and other factors on the symptom presentation of 60 South Indian psychiatric patients, using both open-ended and symptom-directed interviewing methods. Symptom presentation was explored in terms of a balance of psychological and somatic symptoms. Results: Participants predominantly emphasized somatic symptoms as their first spontaneously reported symptom. More Westernized participants and those with higher symptom severity scores tended to present a more psychological balance of symptoms. Participants with a greater concern about stigma tended to present a more somatic balance of symptoms. Conclusions: The findings suggest that several factors, including the Westernization that occurs in non-Western countries as a result of globalization, can impact an individual's expression of distress.


In control theory, we are often interested in robust <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {D}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-stability analysis, which aims at verifying if all the eigenvalues of an uncertain matrix lie in a given region <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {D}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. Although many algorithms have been developed to provide conditions for an uncertain matrix to be robustly <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {D}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-stable, the problem of computing the probability of an uncertain matrix to be <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {D}$</tex-math></inline-formula> -stable is still unexplored. The goal of this paper is to fill this gap in two directions. First, the only constraint on the stability region <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {D}$</tex-math></inline-formula> that we impose is that its complement is a semialgebraic set. This comprises many important cases in robust control theory. Second, the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {D}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-stability analysis problem is formulated in a probabilistic framework, by assuming that only few probabilistic information is available on the uncertain parameters, such as support and some moments. We will show how to compute the minimum probability that the matrix is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathscr {D}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-stable by using convex relaxations based on the theory of moments.


Bedtime. I tell stories, tales of Robert Rattlesnake, Bennie Beaver, Yolanda Panda Bear, Jerry Giraffe and Danny the Dog. And then it's Elisa's turn. She begins "Once upanza time. . ." "; Panza!" I say. "It's not upanza, it's once upon a time. This is a panza," and grab her stomach, tickle her until she can laugh no more. "Once upanza time." "No No No No No!" I scream, "It's once upon a time, not upanza time. This is a panza," and I grab her stomach, tickle her again until she's weak from laughter. "Please tell me a real story," I plead, "and please don't say panza." "Once upanza time. . ." she begins. "O.K.," I say, resigned. "You can say panza." "Once upanza time there lived a panza and it lived happily ever after. Good night, Daddy."


The manual Heptest for measuring low-molecular-weight heparin fractions was applied to a fully automated, coagulation-dedicated analyzer, the Automated Coagulation Laboratory 300 Plus. The clot-based assay mode of the instrument was used, which operates on the principle of light scattering. Undiluted plasmas and the original reagents of the Heptest kit were used. Also, the 2-minute incubation time of the manual procedure was maintained. Automation reduced plasma and reagent volumes by about one half. As a result of the high precision of the automated procedure, single determinations suffice, and 18 plasma samples can be analyzed in about 8 minutes. Coefficients of variation were 1.0% to 3.2% for within-run and 1.9% to 6.0% for inter-run analyses. Analytical recovery was 98% to 104%. Comparisons of 132 samples between the two procedures yielded an R value of 0.974 for activity expression in seconds and 0.945 for U/mL. Several low-molecular-weight heparin fractions were tested.


Delivering multimedia services to roaming subscribers raises significant challenges for content providers. There are a number of reasons for this; however, the principal difficulties arise from the inherent differences between the nature of mobile computing usage, and that of its static counterpart. The harnessing of appropriate contextual elements pertaining to a mobile subscriber at any given time offers significant opportunities for enhancing and customising service delivery. Dynamic content provision is a case in point. The versatile nature of the mobile subscriber offers opportunities for the delivery of content that is most appropriate to the subscriber's prevailing context, and hence is most likely to be welcomed. To succeed in this endeavour requires an innate understanding of the technologies, the mobile usage paradigm and the application domain in question, such that conflicting demands may be reconciled to the subscriber's benefit. In this paper, multimedia-augmented service provision for mobile subscribers is considered in light of the availability of contextual information. In particular, context-aware pre-caching is advocated as a means of maximising the possibilities for delivering context-aware services to mobile subscribers in scenarios of dynamic contexts.


Background: MYCN is the most commonly amplified gene in human neuroblastomas. This proto-oncogene has been overexpressed in a mouse model of the disease in order to explore the role of MYCN in this tumour. Aims: To report the histopathological features of neuroblastomas from MYCN transgenic mice. Methods: 27 neuroblastomas from hemizygous transgenic mice and four tumours from homozygous mice were examined histologically; Ki67 and MYCN immunocytochemistry was performed in 24 tumours. Results: Tumours obtained from MYCN transgenic mice resembled human neuroblastomas, displaying many of the features associated with stroma-poor neuroblastoma, including heterogeneity of differentiation (but no overt ganglionic differentiation was seen), low levels of Schwannian stroma and a high mitosis karyorrhexis index. The tumours had a median Ki67 labelling index of 70%; all tumours expressed MYCN with a median labelling index of 68%. The most striking difference between the murine and human neuroblastomas was the presence of tingible body macrophages in the transgenic mouse tumours reflecting high levels of apoptosis. This has not previously been described in human or other murine neuroblastoma models. Conclusions: These studies highlight the histological similarities between tumours from MYCN transgenic mice and human neuroblastomas, and reaffirm their role as a valuable model to study the biology of aggressive human neuroblastoma.


Central banks control and manage the amount of money in the economy by steering short-term interest rates. Conventional short-term interest rate monetary policy has its limitations and the limit is zero lower bound. Zero lower bound means that the short-term interest rate cannot be set below 0%. Managing the level of short-term interest rate a central bank can influence the overall availability and cost of credits and control the quantity of money in economy. If the level of the inflation rates are low and economic growth is weak a central bank can lower short-term interest rate to increase money supply in the economy. After the 2008 financial crisis, the European Central Bank reduced short-term interest rates to zero or near zero to stimulate spending and investing with the expectations that this measure would be enough to induce economic growth in the euro area. Contrary to expectations, lowering short-term interest rates had little effects on economy in the euro area. Economic growth stagnated, inflation rates were very low with a tendency to deflation and the rate of the employment was low. Similar effects occurred in other countries where central banks also lowered short-term interest rates to zero or near zero. Since then, the European Central Bank and other central banks did not achieve expected results using conventional short-term interest rates monetary policy so they had to use some other unconventional and non-standard monetary policy measures. The European Central Bank conducted Asset purchases programme (APP) and Longer-term refinancing operations (LTRO) as non-standard monetary policy measures and unconventional balance sheet monetary policy. In this paper, these non-standard measures of the European Central Bank monetary policy will be explained. Characteristics of each measure will be provided and the measures will be compered. The European Central Bank has adopted a decision for each of the measures and those decisions as a legal basis for each of the measure will be given and explained. The European Central Bank expected some results and those expected results will be compared with achieved results of these non-standard measures. Alternative measures and other policies that can improve effectiveness of the unconventional monetary policy measures will be suggested and explained.


With the number of musculoskeletal disorders increasing in the workplace, the potential exists for multiple injuries due to compensations. The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of non-lower back injuries on the trunk motions adopted by the individual during typical lifting tasks. A total of 32 injured subjects (eight for each injury group—shoulder, hand/wrist, knee and foot/ankle) and 32 matched (gender, height and weight) healthy subjects performed laboratory lifting tasks. The independent variables were task asymmetry (clockwise, sagittally symmetric and counter-clockwise), lift origin (waist, knee and floor) and box weight (2.27 and 6.82 kg). The dependent variables were peak trunk kinematics (as measured by the lumbar motion monitor) and moment arm between the box and lower back. The two injuries that had the greatest impact on the lower back kinematics were foot/ankle and hand/wrist. Individuals who suffered a foot/ankle injury produced greater three-dimensional trunk velocities (up to 10°/s) while individuals with hand/wrist injuries slowed down in the sagittal plane but increased the twisting velocity—specifically when lifting from the asymmetric shelves. Knee and shoulder injuries had limited impact on the trunk motions. Overall, the results indicate workplace design must take into account non-lower back injuries.


In 103 diabetics simultaneous measurements of serum copper and ceruloplasmin were made, together with the determination of glucose, cholesterol and monoamine oxidase. These diabetics were divided in two groups: 53 had a diagnosis made less than two years ago, and 50 had diabetes diagnosed for more than 10 years. A control group consisted in 50 normal individuals. Copper and ceruloplasmin of diabetic sera are more elevated than in normal individuals. This elevation is statistically significant. There is a positive correlation between copper and ceruloplasmin, both in normal individuals and in diabetics. Serum copper is more elevated in diabetics with less than two years of evolution than in diabetics with more than 10 years of evolution. The opposite happens with serum monoamine oxidase. Serum cholesterol is not significantly elevated in diabetics.


A new method is proposed to produce sheet- or ribbon-like silicon from the melt using a contactless electromagnetic shaping action based on the cold-crucible principle. The ribbon shaping by magnetic repulsion may be limited to a single-side application and used in conjunction with other ribbon growth techniques such as the ribbon growth on substrate method. A growth experiment in a cold crucible resulted in some extrusion of sheet-like shaped silicon in the container openings. This experimental finding supports the view that the proposed ribbon growth technique is indeed feasible.


This article examines the actions of the British Colonial Office and British business interests in the international marketing of cocoa from Ghana and Nigeria in the later 1930s, when problems in cocoa marketing were brought to head by the expatriate firms forming a 'Pool' and the farmers responding to this — and to a sudden fall in their terms of trade — with a 'hold-up', which was followed by a British commission of inquiry, and during the second world war and immediate post-war era, when the C.O. imposed a marketing system designed by the expatriate merchant firms and subsequently decided to make it into a permanent peacetime reorganization. The close contact between the CO. and British firms such as the United Africa Company and Cadbury Bros. is brought out, as is the support given by the officials to these companies before and during the war. A further theme is a certain antipathy displayed by the officials for African capitalists in general and cocoa traders in particular and the way in which the war-time scheme squeezed African and other non-British small cocoa-export firms in many cases out of business. The war-time scheme convinced the C.O. that a peacetime system of fixed buying prices which were set well below the world price was desirable as a means of eradicating 'middleman abuses' and of building up large 'stabilization funds' to protect the cocoa farmers in future years when prices might fall. Continuation of the scheme was thus seen as an act of trusteeship. It was also attractive to the British Treasury because it maximized U.S. dollar earnings for Britain from the sale of West African cocoa. In contrast to interpretations put forward by some other historians, this article argues that the Colonial Office had close, day-to-day contact with the leading British firms involved, that it strongly supported the 'Pool' system before and during the early stages of the war, and that the post-war marketing structure was an outcome of the war-time scheme and not of the Nowell Commission report of 1938. Finally, having lost in an unequal struggle with the expatriate firms and the Colonial Office between 1937 and 1944, African international shippers of cocoa were permanently excluded.


Lives Remembered is the second anthology of older people's reminiscences published by the University of York. Using a creative writing approach, third-year nursing students interviewed a number of nursing home residents and have written up their stories in a sympathetic and respectful manner.


The article is devoted to the analysis of anaphoric expression of pragmatic text correlation of genre of autobiography. The prose by French writer Andre Gide is chosen as a material for this research. The correlation of his works with the genre of autobiography is based on anaphoric links.


Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in behavioral trends in both economic theory and practical applications. As a science with vast potential for explaining complex market behaviors, behavioral economics is drifting away from the classical model of homo oeconomicus deployed by mainstream economics. This paper discusses the significance and role of the homo oeconomicus model in light of behavioral economics. It analyzes the direction of changes affecting homo oeconomicus, examines the definition of anomalies within the context of behavioral economics and discusses the anomalous status of homo oeconomicus. The paper proposes a hypothesis that the attitude characterizing homo oeconomicus is unique and incidental. The presented interdisciplinary analysis relies on economics, behavioral economics, economic psychology, behavioral finance and the methodology of science to discuss the homo oeconomicus model. The paper reviews change trends in economics, which are largely propelled by advancements in behavioral economics. The key methodological tools deployed in this paper are theoretical analysis and a compilation of extensive research findings. The results were used to formulate new theories advocating the development of a modern approach to the homo oeconomicus model, recognizing its significance and the growing importance of behavioral economics.


SiC/SiC composite material is one of the candidates of plasma facing and structural materials for a fusion reactor. In an inertial fusion reactor and a magnetic confinement fusion reactor, interactions of solid and liquid breeder materials as well as coolant materials with various structural materials are considered to be very important. Therefore, corrosion tests of SiC/SiC composite materials with molten lithium and Li16-Pb84 alloy were performed. SiC/SiC specimens of five kinds, different in fiber/matrix interface, manufacturers and manufacturing methods, were used. In the case of lithium, the corrosion temperature was 500 K, and it was 573 K in the case of Lil6-Pb84 alloy. Duration for the compatibility tests were about 2.5 Ms (29 days). During the heating of corrosion test, argon gas was made to flow over the liquid metal. The SiC/SiC composite sample, which had a free silicon component within its matrix, was corroded by molten lithium and came to each plane fabrics of fiber. The monolithic specimen that contained a silicon phase was also entirely broken by lithium. While, the attack by Li16-Pb84 alloy was not observed.


For the first time, a systematic overview deals with the advantages and disadvantages of several stationary phases (polar and non-polar) and gas chromatographic detectors (flame ionization detector, nitrogen-phosphorus detector and MS) for the determination of 27 amines (aliphatic and aromatic amines and N-nitrosamines) in water samples. To increase sensitivity (250 mL of sample was eluted with 150 μL of solvent) and matrix elimination, an automatic SPE system was employed prior to GC determination. The best results in terms of resolution and retention times were achieved using a column coated with 5% phenyl-dimethylpolysiloxane (DB-5). Capacity factor (k) values for the 27 amines increased with the rise in the polarity of the stationary phase, ranging from 3.0-27.7 and 2.2-14.4 for polar (polyethylene glycol) and non-polar (DB-5) columns, respectively. The detection limits of the method were 0.9-9 μg/L for flame ionization detector, 8-95 ng/L for nitrogen-phosphorus detector and 0.2-6.3 ng/L for MS. The precision was similar for the three detectors (RSD, 3.7-6.0%). The GC-MS method was applied with a high degree of accuracy and precision to determine amines in real samples including tap, river, pond, well, swimming pool and wastewaters.


Bistable mechanisms can be used for performing specific functions such as locking or negative stiffness generation. These compliant structures are then of interest at different scales, with different corresponding manufacturing technologies. One of them is additive manufacturing, which is interesting for the integration of such structures. Although this technology has undergone a revolution with the development of high-accuracy machines, the manufacturing of small-sized compliant structures is still quite a challenge especially for bistable mechanisms, which was not yet finely characterized. This is the focus of this paper, with presentation of an experimental and analytical confrontation in the case of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM).


Concurrent acute onset of night terrors, somnambulism, and spontaneous daytime panic attacks meeting the criteria for panic disorder is reported in a 10-year-old boy with a family history of panic disorder. Both the parasomnias and the panic disorder were fully responsive to therapeutic doses of imipramine. A second case of night terrors and infrequent full symptom panic attacks is noted in another 10-year-old boy whose mother has panic disorder with agoraphobia. The clinical resemblance and reported differences between night terrors and panic attacks are described. The absence of previous reports of this comorbidity is notable. It is hypothesized that night terror disorder and panic disorder involve a similar constitutional vulnerability to dysregulation of brainstem altering systems.


Scientific collaborations are among the main enablers of development in small national science systems. Although analysing scientific collaborations is a well-established subject in scientometrics, evaluations of scientific collaborations within a country remains speculative with studies based on a limited number of fields or using data too inadequate to be representative of collaborations at a national level. This study represents a unique view on the collaborative aspect of scientific activities in New Zealand. We perform a quantitative study based on all Scopus publications in all subjects for more than 1500 New Zealand institutions over a period of 6 years to generates an extensive mapping of scientific collaboration at a national level. The comparative results reveal the level of collaboration between New Zealand institutions and business enterprises, government institutions, higher education providers, and private not for profit organisations in 2010-2015. Constructing a collaboration network of institutions, we observe a power-law distribution indicating that a small number of New Zealand institutions account for a large proportion of national collaborations. Network centrality concepts are deployed to identify the most central institutions of the country in terms of collaboration. We also provide comparative results on 15 universities and Crown research institutes based on 27 subject classifications.


: Human development is defined as the process of accessing resources necessary for a healthy and good level of life of individuals. A country's level of human development is measured by the Human Development Index, which is used as a summary measure of health, education, and income indicators representing three dimensions of human well-being. Human development, which is an important factor in measuring human well-being, is also considered an important input in economic growth. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of human development on economic growth using the panel data from 25 transition economy countries for the period 2002-2018. In the study, two different models were established on which the economic growth series depended. In the first model, only human development series is the independent variable. In the empirical findings obtained, it was found that economic growth increased as human development increased. In the second model, the unemployment series with human development are independent variables. In the second model findings, it is understood that economic growth increases as human development increases, similar to the first model. In addition, an inverse relationship between unemployment and economic growth has been identified in this model.


NMR spectroscopy provides valuable data for metabolomics, but the information sought can be partly obscured by errors from hardware imperfection, causing frequency, phase, and spectral lineshape to change significantly between measurements. Clearly, this is a highly undesirable source of variation in multivariate quantitative studies such as metabolomics. Fortunately, many hardware imperfections affect all resonances in the same way. They can therefore be corrected for by comparing an experimental reference peak with the known correct peak shape, in a procedure known as reference deconvolution. This post‐measurement processing method can correct many systematic errors in data. The aim of this study is to investigate how reference deconvolution can improve the results obtained by multivariate analysis of NMR data. For this purpose, 1H NMR data were recorded for a set of 136 mixture samples. Spectra were then produced with and without reference deconvolution and analyzed by principal component analysis and partial least squares methods. The results showed that reference deconvolution resulted in simpler and improved models, requiring fewer latent variables to explain the same or higher percentage of the variance. It was also evident that the recovery of the design concentrations was significantly enhanced. This confirms that reference deconvolution can significantly improve multivariate data analysis and should be considered as a standard tool in high throughput quantitative NMR spectroscopy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Introduction: The Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB) published the training curriculum for Respiratory Medicine in August 2010. It identified areas of special interest enabling the trainees to undertake additional training. However, this is not formally recognized and there is no centrally agreed funding. Current options available for such training include as Out Of Programme Experience (OOPE) or during research into the subject area concerned. Aim: To understand the current special areas of interest among trainees in Respiratory Medicine across Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Method: A web-based questionnaire was designed and all the trainees (n-75) in the Yorkshire region were invited to complete the survey. Results: The response rate was 52% (n-39). 69.2% (n-27) had a special area of interest. 15/27 (55.5%) agreed that a compulsory module should be implemented in the training curriculum towards pursuing a special area of interest, whilst 12/27 (44.5%) disagreed. 15/27 trainees considered 12 months as the ideal period for training, whilst 8/27 chose 6 months and 4/27 opted 3 months. Conclusion: Majority of the trainees wish to specialize in a specific area of interest but there seems to be a lack of funding and training opportunities in the form of fellowships. Improving the current training curriculum will lead to better patient care and service provision in the National Health Service.


It is shown that in a space–time that admits a Killing spinor any solution of the Weyl or of the Maxwell equations can be used as a potential for another solution of the corresponding equation. Furthermore, it is shown that the new solution can be generated by a single component of the given one, which satisfies a decoupled equation. For the Kerr metric, the connection between the procedure presented here and several results previously known is established.