Pain is a common complaint of many patients that ambulance officers encounter. The prevalence of pain in Auckland is unknown. Little is known about how ambulance officers and paramedics assess and treat pain. More options exist for treating pain than previously, but frequency of use is uncertain. A retrospective review of ambulance officer patient report forms was carried out (n=371). Patient information including age, gender, chief complaint, and acuity status were recorded. Presence, location and pain assessment variables, including pain scores were abstracted. Documented treatment of pain was also recorded. Crew qualifications were abstracted. Research questions were targeted towards the prevalence of pain, methods and frequency of pain assessment used, pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of pain, and if differences existed in how ambulance officers of different qualifications assessed and treated pain. Pain was reported in 49% of patients. Chest (21%) and abdominal (19%) pain were most common. Ten percent of patients had an initial pain scores documented, the mean pain score being 6.04. Mean followup pain score was 2.83. Poor documentation of onset, provokes, quality, radiation, severity, timing and pain scores was evident. Paracetamol was the most frequently administered analgesic (19%). Poor documentation of non-pharmacological treatment noted. Basic life support officers recorded some pain assessments more frequently than other qualifications, but intermediate life support officers recorded pain scores more than others did. Poor documentation about pain assessment and treatment of pain exists. There are opportunities for further education of ambulance officers, especially assessment of pain in paediatric and cognitively impaired patients. Consideration should be given to assessing the patient's desire for analgesia. This study provides a baseline for future comparison.


The chip design in the 21st century has undergone various changes due to the increased customer demands and this lead to design complexity in systems-on-chip (SoC), network-on-chip (NoC), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) designs. This creates a situation to develop an advanced system to resolve the complexity issue in meantime. The verification step consumes the major portion of the VDHL time and transaction-level modeling (TLM) and Bus Functional modeling (BFM) are used in order to reduce this effort. Transaction-level modeling (TLM) is a technique used to describe the system by using the standard function calls which defines all the transactions which are required to verify the functionality of the system at the architecture level. The usage of the transaction based techniques are designed for the software analysis and for the first time, in this research work it is used for the physical hardware design and its analysis based on the AMBA ace-lite architecture. In past AMBA AXI4 Bus Interconnects is used for the hardware system design but it fails to meet the practical design requirements and the proposed AMBA ace-lite architecture has yielded the desired results with low complexity. With the proposed AMBA ace-lite architectural design for hardware system design, several SoC/NoC subsystems can easily be interconnected in basically the same manner as how transaction-based simulation models are being written. The proposed methodology is useful for the hardware design engineers to deal with the complexity simplification issues by bringing the benefits of transaction-based verification (TBV) to it approach.


Pain is one of the most common complaints of patients admitted to intensive care units. Various analgesic medications and multimodal approaches have been used in pain management.In this study, we tried to compare the efficacy of intravenous morphine and acetaminophen for pain control in patients admitted to intensive care unit of Urmia Emam hospital. Sixty patients aged between 20 and 70 years who were scheduled to have major abdominal surgery enrolled in this prospective clinical trial in two equal groups of 30 each. Demographic data, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and pain scores [visual analogue score (VAS) and behavioural pain scale (BPS )] along with drug cost in both groups were recorded and assessed. Spss software version 18 was used to analyze the data collected and the required statistical tests were used in data analysis. Our study showed that systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressure, heart rate and VAS pain score between the two groups were almost similar.Mann-Whitney test indicated that difference between scores ofbehavioralpain scale in both groups was statistically significant. (P value =0/0001).Intravenous acetaminophen is more effective than morphine in relieving pain in intubated patients. Intravenous Acetaminophen is more expensive than morphine, the difference was statistically significant.(P value = 0/01). Our study showed that both drugs (morphine and IV acetaminophen) are equally effective for postoperative pain control in patients hospitalized in intensive care units, but IV acetaminophen is more expensive than morphine. Further studies are recommended.


In spite of great efforts, the mechanisms for postovulatory oocyte aging are not fully understood. Although our previous work showed that the FasL/Fas signaling facilitated oocyte aging, the intra-oocyte signaling pathways are unknown. Furthermore, the mechanisms by which oxidative stress facilitates oocyte aging and the causal relationship between Ca2+ rises and caspase-3 activation and between the cell cycle and apoptosis during oocyte aging need detailed investigations. Our aim was to address these issues by studying the intra-oocyte signaling pathways for Fas/FasL to accelerate oocyte aging. The results indicated that sFasL released by cumulus cells activated Fas on the oocyte by increasing reactive oxygen species via activating NADPH oxidase. The activated Fas triggered Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum by activating phospholipase C-γ pathway and cytochrome c pathway. The cytoplasmic Ca2+ rises activated calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and caspase-3. While activated CaMKII increased oocyte susceptibility to activation by inactivating maturation-promoting factor (MPF) through cyclin B degradation, the activated caspase-3 facilitated further Ca2+ releasing that activates more caspase-3 leading to oocyte fragmentation. Furthermore, caspase-3 activation and fragmentation were prevented in oocytes with a high MPF activity, suggesting that an oocyte must be in interphase to undergo apoptosis.


Nationally, the causes and extent of fire on lands administrated by the United States Forest Service varied significantly from 1940 to 2000, with California experiencing the largest relative annual burned areas. The south-east and California experienced the largest relative area burned by fires from human ignitions. No significant differences were detected in the relative area burned by lightning in California, the upper and central Rocky Mountains, and the south-west, which all experienced the highest levels. The north-west and Rocky Mountains have experienced significant increases in the relative total area burned; the north-east, south-east, California, and coastal Alaska all remained unchanged. The northern Rocky Mountains, south-west, and north-east have all experienced significant increases in the amount of area burned by lightning without significant increases in lightning ignitions. Increasing fuel hazards in these areas probably contributed to the increasing area burned by lightning fires; changing climate could have also contributed to the increase in wildfire area from 1940 to 2000. To be effective across the diverse forest types and conditions in the USA, fire policy should better recognize and respond to the diversity of US forests and how they have burned in the past. This analysis determined that there is high geographical diversity on wildfire occurrence and causes. Local input is therefore important in designing diverse, ground-based solutions to address fire management challenges in the United States.


We use data from time-use surveys and the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) to analyze the relationship between family long-term care (LTC) and female labor supply in four Latin American countries. Time-use survey data from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico shows that: (i) women provide the vast majority of family LTC; (ii) consistently across countries, women who provide LTC are less likely to work, and those who do work less hours per week and have a double burden of work and LTC. Multivariate analysis of longitudinal MHAS data shows that, after accounting for both individual and time fixed effects, parents' need for LTC is associated with both a significant drop in the likelihood of working (by 2.42 percentage points) and a reduction in the number of hours worked among women ages 50–64 who remain employed (by 7.03%). This finding has important gender equality implications. Also, in a region that is aging faster than any other in the world, social trends make this family provision of LTC unsustainable, increasing the need for policy action.


Collaboration in Medicaid solves providers' data reporting troubles. If you're looking for effective ways to give plans the information they want on pregnant Medicaid members and you want good programs for your high-risk patients, see how plans and providers in Philadelphia collaborated to improve birth outcomes.


Microfinance plays a vital role to alleviate poverty through the development of micro enterprises. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) provide services such as micro credit, savings, insurance, and business development services (BDS) to its clients. BDS are non-financial services such as business training, market linkages, and information services which are provided by Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to its clients. BDS help owner managers improve sales and profits and enable MFIs to achieve higher loan repayment rates and higher potential for client retention. The counsellors of MFIs provide BDS to owner managers of micro enterprises. This study focuses on the co-production of BDS where a counsellor of MFI and the owner manager of a microenterprise engage in the co-production of services. For a successful co-production, the client (i.e. owner manager in this study) has to a play an active role by exercising three client factors, namely ability, clarity of the role, and motivation. Thus, the objective of this study is to explore how the client/owner manager motivation (i.e. willingness) affects the co-production of BDS in counselling within a microfinance setting. A multiple case study method was used to conduct the present study by choosing six Sri Lankan MFIs as cases, where the selection of cases and respondents was based on a purposive sampling method. A counsellor and an owner manager representing each MFI were interviewed for data collection and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings show that economic factors, sanctions, and contextual factors influence the willingness of owner managers to co-produce BDS with counsellors of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The findings contribute to knowledge and practice domains related to microfinance.


This review article examines the essential literature concerning isolated systolic hypertension in the elderly (ISH). The prevalence of ISH rises curvilinearly with age from approximately 3% at 30 years of age to 25% at 80 years of age, and is more common in women. The pathophysiology of ISH is not yet completely investigated. It seems that the haemodynamics of ISH differ from those of essential hypertension by showing considerably decreased arterial compliance and lack of elevated peripheral resistance. Humoral changes seem very insufficiently investigated. Several studies have shown that ISH is difficult to diagnose because of a high prevalence of white coat hypertension, perhaps in the area of 40%. The treatment of ISH has formerly been debated. Recently published studies have shown beneficial effects of medical antihypertensive treatment in ISH. First choice drugs should be low-dose thiazides and beta-blockers.


We try to create a wise definition of 'angle spaces'. Based on an idea of Ivan Singer, we introduce a new concept of an angle in real Banach spaces, which generalizes the euclidean angle in Hilbert spaces. With this angle it is shown that in every two-dimensional subspace of a real Banach space we can describe elements uniquely by polar coordinates.


The electromigration performance of Cu lines patterned by a Cl 2 plasma-based etch process has been studied with the accelerated isothermal lifetime test. An electromigration activation energy of 0.6 eV and a current density acceleration exponent of 2.7 were obtained. Both the copper-silicon nitride cap layer interface and the copper grain boundary were active diffusion paths. The applied mechanical bending stress changed the electromigration void distribution in the film, which leaded to the shorter lifetime and lower activation energy.


Traditional artificial-star tests are widely applied to photometry in crowded stellar fields. However, to obtain reliable binary fractions (and their uncertainties) of remote, dense, and rich star clusters, one needs to recover huge numbers of artificial stars. Hence, this will consume much computation time for data reduction of the images to which the artificial stars must be added. In this article, we present a new method applicable to data sets characterized by stable, well-defined, point-spread functions, in which we add artificial stars to the retrieved-data catalog instead of to the raw images. Taking the young Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1818 as an example, we compare results from both methods and show that they are equivalent, while our new method saves significant computational time.


It is desirable to know the factors determining the large interindividual and interindividual variation of urinary enzyme excretion rates among normal individuals to allow a better understanding of pathological states. The following factors seems to play a significant role in influencing total enzyme efflux rates: urinary flow, age, sex, biorhythms, genetic factors, hormonal situation (including pregnancy), nutrition, and physical activity.


Input-output models were constructed to describe the economic impacts of timber product outputs in Ohio and its three timber market regions - the Northeast, West, and Southeast - for 2012. Impact Analysis for PLANning was used to describe these impacts in terms of employment, output, and value added based on 1) the total value of outputs delivered to market by each region's logging sector and 2) a per-unit change in the regionalized delivered value of one million board feet (MMBF) of hardwood sawtimber. Direct impacts of timber products were greatest in the Northeast (for output and value added) and Southeast (for employment). The total economic impacts of timber products in Ohio were 2,880 employees, $287 million in output, and $147 million in value added. The per-unit impact results were more varied due to regional differences in economies and timber price determinants. Employment and output economic impacts per MMBF were both highest in the Southeast. The employment levels directly and indirectly associated with each MMBF in the West were higher than the Northeast. Value added per MMBF was highest in the Northeast across impacts.


Lithium-bearing tosudite was found from a brittle clayey part of the Tooho "roseki" deposit, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The chemical composition of the Li bearing tosudite was estimated as SiO2 41·60%, A12O3 36·40%, Fe2O3 1·82%, MgO 0·29%, CaO 0·38%, Li2O 1·04%, Na2O 0·14%, K2O 0·38%, H2O+ 11·12% and H2O− 6·87% from the chemical composition of a specimen with associated impurities. The Li-bearing tosudite has the regularly interstratified structure of montmorillonite and dioctahedral chlorite in which Li is present in a gibbsite sheet as shown in the structural formula of interlayer cations K0·16, Na0·09, Ca0.13 + 9·60 H2O; gibbsite sheet Li1·36, Mg0·14, Fe0·45, Al3·59 (OH)12·00; silicate layer Al8·00 (Si13·60, Al2·40) O40·00 (OH)8·00. The 29·48 Å reflection series of the Li-bearing tosudite moves to 31·3 Å after ethylene glycol treatment and to 23·3 Å on heating to 500°C for 1 hr.


Musical instruments and musicians depicted on several Roman and Byzantine mosaics of Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) figure in various scenes, some having a sacred context and others an earthly one. The meaning of each instrument is determined by the character of the scenes, and also by the location in which they appear. In this article I studied the ancient local musical culture, the precursors, as well as literary and philosophical sources in order to clarify the role and significance of the images. The archaeological findings were examined with the aim to define the accessible iconographical sources and to establish the genre and the context in which the motifs are presented.


The spontaneous generation of large-scale flows by the rectification of small-scale turbulent fluctuations is of great importance both in geophysical flows and in magnetically confined plasmas. These flows regulate the turbulence and may set up effective transport barriers. In the present contribution the generation of zonal flows will be illustrated in a simple fluid experiment performed in a rotating container with radial symmetric bottom topography. An effective mixing that homogenizes the potential vorticity in the fluid layer will lead to the replacement of the high-potential vorticity near the centre with low potential vorticity from the outside, which will imply the formation of a large-scale flow. The experimental results are supported by direct numerical solutions of the quasi-geostrophic vorticity equation in the β-plane approximation modelling the experimental situation. The analogy to large-scale flow generation in drift-wave turbulence dynamics in magnetized plasma is briefly discussed.


Feed is the largest input in any livestock enterprise and the rapid increase in feed prices and shortage of feed resources has been one of the major constraints for farmers, livestock industries, planners and the policy makers. This calls for prudent management of available resources and application of computing techniques can be one of the possible potential approaches. India is endowed with a wide range of feed resources varying widely in their composition and utility for different livestock species. Clustering of feed resource into different groups based on the composition can help in better feed management. To evaluate and to suggest a best technique for clustering feed resources, we have evaluated three clustering techniques viz. K-means, spectral k-means and auto spectral on two different data sets containing 236 and 106 feed resources with major constituents like crude protein, crude fiber ash, fat etc., . The composition of commonly used feed resources (236 and 106) were sourced from the published articles in various scientific journals and based on the composition of the feeds, they were subjected to clustering techniques. A total of three clustering techniques – k means, spectral k means and auto spectral were employed and the outputs were compared against the grouping done by subject matter experts. The outputs of different clustering techniques were validated with the expert grouping using precision, recall and F-measure. Of the three methods used it was found that k-means was the best and closest to the experts classification. Clustering of feeds into different groups based on their composition will form a sound basis to select different feeds for formulating economic and nutritionally balanced diets leading to better feed management.


Ricci flow is a powerful curvature flow method in geometric analysis. This work is the first application of surface Ricci flow in computer vision. We show that previous methods based on conformal geometries, such as harmonic maps and least-square conformal maps, which can only handle 3D shapes with simple topology are subsumed by our Ricci flow based method which can handle surfaces with arbitrary topology. Because the Ricci flow method is intrinsic and depends on the surface metric only, it is invariant to rigid motion, scaling, and isometric and conformal deformations. The solution to Ricci flow is unique and its computation is robust to noise. Our Ricci flow based method can convert all 3D problems into 2D domains and offers a general framework for 3D surface analysis. Large non-rigid deformations can be registered with feature constraints, hence we introduce a method that constrains Ricci flow computation using feature points and feature curves. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of this intrinsic shape representation through standard shape analysis problems, such as 3D shape matching and registration.


An essential, respected, and critical aspect of the modern practice of science and scientific publishing is peer review. The process of peer review facilitates best practices in scientific conduct and communication, ensuring that manuscripts published are as accurate, valuable, and clearly communicated. The over 216 papers published in Tectonics in 2018 benefit from the time, effort, and expertise of our reviewers who have provided thoughtfully considered advice on each manuscript. This role is critical to advancing our understanding of the evolution of the continents and their margins, as these reviews lead to even clearer and higher‐quality papers. In 2018, the over 443 papers submitted to Tectonics were the beneficiaries of more than 1,010 reviews provided by 668 members of the tectonics community and related disciplines. To everyone who has volunteered their time and intellect to peer reviewing, thank you for helping Tectonics and all other AGU Publications provide the best science possible.


Given two sets of vertices in a graph, it is often of a great interest to find out how these vertices are connected, especially to identify the vertices of high prominence defined on the topological structure. In this work, we formally define a Vertex Set Bonding query (shorted as VSB), which returns a minimum set of vertices with the maximum importance w.r.t total betweenness and shortest path reachability in connecting two sets of input vertices. We find that such a kind of query is representative and could be widely applied in many real world scenarios, e.g., logistic planning, social community bonding and etc. Challenges are that many of such applications are constructed on graphs that are too large to fit in single server, and the VSB query evaluation turns to be NP-hard. To cope with the scalability issue and return the near optimal result in almost real time, we propose a generic solution framework on a shared nothing distributed environment. With the development of two novel techniques, guided graph exploration and betweenness ranking on exploration, we are able to efficiently evaluate queries for error bounded results with bounded space cost. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution with extensive experiments over both real and synthetic large graphs on the Google's Cloud platform. Comparing to the exploration only baseline method, our method achieves several times of speedup.


A new low-power object-recognition processor achieves real-time robust recognition, satisfying modern mobile vision systems' requirements. The authors introduce an attention-based object-recognition algorithm for energy efficiency, a heterogeneous multicore architecture for data- and thread-level parallelism, and a network on a chip for high on-chip bandwidth. The fabricated chip achieves 30 frames/second throughput and an average 320 mW power consumption on test 720p video sequences, yielding 640 GOPS/W and 10.5 NJ/pixel energy efficiency.


Nedeva, I., Slavov, T., Radev, V., Panayotov, D. & Varlyakov, I. (2020) Adaptation potential of imported Lacaune rams evaluated by haematological parameters. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 26 (Suppl. 1), 107-112 The adaptation potential and resistance to stress of Lacaune rams, imported from southern France to environmental and climatic conditions in Bulgaria were investigated. The following blood parameters were assayed on day 15, month 2 and one year after the import: complete blood counts, total cholesterol, aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase, total protein, albumin, globulins, cortisol, triiodothyronine (Т3) and thyroxine (Т4). Blood serum concentrations of hormones were determined by enzymatic microimmune assay on an AccuBindTM ELISA Test System. It was found out that adaptation potential of rams was good – the values of most of analysed parameters were regained with period of adaptation that lasted more than 2 months after the import and ended within a year after that. Adaptation was accompanied by metabolic changes – reduction of blood serum glucose (p<0.001), cholesterol (р<0.01), albumins (р<0.01) and alkaline phosphatase (p<0.001), and increase in ALAT (р<0.01) and GGT (р<0.05) activities. The elevation (р<0.001) in serum cortisol, triiodothyronine (Т3) and thyroxine (Т4) corresponded to presence of idiopathic stress, while the lack of negative health and behavioural signs indicated good resistance to stress, making Lacaune sheep breed appropriate for raising in conditions specific for the Republic of Bulgaria.


Abstract This article analyzes data collected in an empirical study of citation metrics. Between February 1, 2019 and April 30, 2019, the authors collected citation data from Google Scholar, HeinOnline, Westlaw, Lexis, SSRN, and Digital Commons repositories on randomly selected faculty members at U.S. law schools for the purpose of answering questions regarding fit and utility of citation metrics. Analysis of the citation data examines the impact of adoption of scholarly profiles, gender, stage in the profession, and discipline on exposure on citation with the conclusion that exposure results in increased citations.


Can a reward of an uncertain magnitude be more motivating than a reward of a certain magnitude? This research documents the motivating-uncertainty effect and specifies when this effect occurs. People invest more effort, time, and money to qualify for an uncertain reward (e.g., a 50% chance at $2 and a 50% chance at $1) than a certain reward of a higher expected value (e.g., a 100% chance at $2). This effect arises only when people focus on the process of pursuing a reward, not when they focus on the outcome (the reward itself). When the focus is on the process of reward pursuit, uncertainty generates positive experience such as excitement and hence increases motivation. Four studies involving real rewards lend support to the motivating-uncertainty effect. This research carries theoretical implications for research on risk preference and motivation and practical implications for how to devise cost-efficient consumer incentive systems.


Based on interviews with pension scheme CEOs, senior trustees, senior policy advisers, actuaries and industry association leaders, our research applies Black Box Thinking to the UK defined benefit pensions sector and finds strong evidence that many schemes have a closed loop mindset towards failure.

Although some DB schemes follow many of the best practices outlined in Black Box Thinking, by systematically attempting to identify and evaluate mistakes, interviewees report a wide divergence in the ability of boards to learn from past mistakes – because it depends so much on a particular scheme's good fortune in forming the right constellation of board members and advisers.

Less fortunate schemes exhibit the typical behavior of a closed loop mindset, including not setting strong measurable targets, inertia in decision making, herding behavior, shifting goal posts, failing to take ownership of mistakes and blaming others. Such schemes do not enjoy Black Box Thinking's virtuous cycle whereby errors are reported and measured, the scheme's culture allows introspection about mistakes, feedback loops are applied and processes to combat human biases are established – leading over time to better outcomes involving fewer errors.


We investigate the chemical freeze-out in heavy-ion collisions (HICs) and the impact of the hadronic spectrum on thermal model analyses [1, 2]. Detailed knowledge of the hadronic spectrum is still an open question, which has phenomenological consequences on the study of HICs. By varying the number of resonances included in Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) Model calculations, we can shed light on which particles may be produced. Furthermore, we study the influence of the number of states on the so-called two flavor freezeout scenario, in which strange and light particles can freeze-out separately. We consider results for the chemical freeze-out parameters obtained from thermal model fits and from calculating net-particle fluctuations. We will show the effect of using one global temperature to fit all particles and alternatively, allowing particles with and without strange quarks to freeze-out separately.


The phreatophytic tree; Prosopis juliflora (P. juliflora), of the Fabaceae family is a widespread invasive plant. The present study aimed to examine the characteristics of the anti-cancer effects potentially induced by P. juliflora leaves extracts, and to compare
 the bioactivity of its chemical composition in methanolic and butanolic solvents. MCF-7/breast, LS-174T/colorectal, and HepG2/liver, cancer cell lines were cultivated and incubated with various concentrations of the methanolic and butanolic extracts of the plant leaves, and hence the impact
 on cell viability, proliferation, and cell cycle stages have been investigated. Both extracts of P. juliflora leave induced concentration-dependent cytotoxicity against the previously mentioned cancer cell lines. The calculated IC50 averaged 16.7, 18.04 and, 8.10 μg/ml for
 methanolic extract, and 12.5, 32.8 and 5.17 μg/ml for butanolic extract of P. juliflora leaves on MCF-7, LS-174T and, HePG2, respectively. Detailed cellular analyses revealed that the cytotoxic action of P. juliflora extracts was mainly via apoptosis but not necrosis
 for MCF7 in both extracts, either. However, apoptosis and necrosis reciprocally detected for LS-174T and HePG2 in response to the methanolic and butanolic extracts, either. The DNA-flow cytometry analysis showed cells specific antiproliferative action and cell cycle stages arrest in the tested
 cancer cell lines. The antiproliferative action has detected mostly at the G0/G1 rather than the S-phase of the cell cycle in both extracts. For identifying the chemical composition of the plant and evaluating the anticancer potency, both the methanolic and butanolic extracts were analyzed
 by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Betaine and nicotinamide were the major constituents detected for both extracts showing potential anti-cancer effects against breast, hepatic, and colorectal cancerous cells.


We present four ab initio axisymmetric core-collapse supernova simulations initiated from 12, 15, 20, and 25 M ⊙ ?> zero-age main sequence progenitors. All of the simulations yield explosions and have been evolved for at least 1.2 s after core bounce and 1 s after material first becomes unbound. These simulations were computed with our Chimera code employing RbR spectral neutrino transport, special and general relativistic transport effects, and state-of-the-art neutrino interactions. Continuing the evolution beyond 1 s after core bounce allows the explosions to develop more fully and the processes involved in powering the explosions to become more clearly evident. We compute explosion energy estimates, including the negative gravitational binding energy of the stellar envelope outside the expanding shock, of 0.34, 0.88, 0.38, and 0.70 Bethe (B ≡ 10 51 ?> erg) and increasing at 0.03, 0.15, 0.19, and 0.52 B s - 1 ?> , respectively, for the 12, 15, 20, and 25 M ⊙ ?> models at the endpoint of this report. We examine the growth of the explosion energy in our models through detailed analyses of the energy sources and flows. We discuss how the explosion energies may be subject to stochastic variations as exemplfied by the effect of the explosion geometry of the 20 M ⊙ ?> model in reducing its explosion energy. We compute the proto-neutron star masses and kick velocities. We compare our results for the explosion energies and ejected 56 Ni ?> masses against some observational standards despite the large error bars in both models and observations.


The reflection and transmission functions of an inhomogeneous slab are calculated by labeling the wave by the number of reflections it has undergone in the medium. The Riccati equation, satisfied by the reflected amplitude, is decomposed into an infinite set of linear equations by taking into account the number of scatterings taking place inside the medium and is solved by a novel iterative approach. The order-of-scattering reflection functions method presented here and the coupled integral equation approach of the Bremmer solutions for the internal fluxes are set in a unified frame. The solutions of the Riccati equation are computed numerically for the reflection function using the order-of-scattering technique, and it is demonstrated that the method leads to better convergence and stability as compared to usual linearization methods.


During the last century, Nunavik's Inuit population has experienced social transformations which have manifested themselves in a range of social issues. Nunavik lies north of the 55th parallel in Quebec, Canada and is one of four regions in Canada that comprise Inuit Nunaat (Inuvialuit, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, and Nunavut) – Inuit homeland. The Inuit are one of three distinct Indigenous groups in Canada as defined by the Constitution Act, 1982, with distinct cultural heritage and language. Community Capability and Development in Nunavik, a collaborative project between McGill School of Social Work researchers and an Advisory Committee composed of representatives from key Inuit institutions, explored social issues and community assets in Nunavik. This study sought to (a) provide a forum for community members to voice issues important to them; (b) inform policy development prior to the vote on regional government; and (c) increase the growth of community linkages that support research dissemination via a network of researchers, community members and organizations.


It is impossible to resist comparisons when the written text is converted to a cinematic medium, and thereby transformed into a new and independent text. Most of these comparisons are super ficial and linked to value judgments: whether or not the film is faithful to the original, which version is aesthetically more pleas ing to the audience, and which is ultimately "better" at communi cating the essential meaning of the text. In most such compari sons, the film usually ends up on the negative side: it is perceived as having overlooked essential passages of the written text, or, conversely as Iser laments (qtd. in Chatman 161), of having filled in too many gaps that were intended to be elaborated by the end less wealth of possibilities of the reader's own imagination. At the very least, cinematic versions have been accused of failing to capture and express the author's original intent, as if that were something which could be objectively determined. What needs to be considered, however, is that every film version is an interpre tation, a re-vision, a new reading, as it were, of the original docu ment, projected to the audience. The director simply assumes the place of the critic and provides one possible exegesis which is not different in essence from any other critical analysis. Such is clearly the case with Busi Cortes' film El Secreto de Romelia (1988), based on the short novel "El viudo Roman" writ ten in 1964 by the Mexican feminist writer, Rosario Castellanos. There is little doubt that Castellanos's work is an exposition and critique of different facets of women's role in the social environ ment of rural Mexico in the first half of this century. A tale of machista honor and vengeance, it portrays the commodification of women in a patriarchal society, and the abuses they are forced to


A connection between the theory of neural networks and cryptography is presented. A new phenomenon, namely synchronization of neural networks is leading to a new method of exchange of secret messages. Numerical simulations show that two artificial networks being trained by Hebbian learning rule on their mutual outputs develop an antiparallel state of their synaptic weights. The synchronized weights are used to construct an ephemeral key exchange protocol for a secure transmission of secret data. It is shown that an opponent who knows the protocol and all details of any transmission of the data has no chance to decrypt the secret message, since tracking the weights is a hard problem compared to synchronization. The complexity of the generation of the secure channel is linear with the size of the network.


Over the past two decades, it has been demonstrated that the instantaneous spatial pressure distribution in a turbulent flow field can be reconstructed from the pressure gradient field non-intrusively measured by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Representative pressure reconstruction methods include the omnidirectional integration (Liu and Katz, 2006; Liu et al., 2016; Liu and Moreto, 2020), the Poisson equation approach (Violato et al., 2011; De Kat and Van Oudheusden, 2012), the least-square method (Jeon et al., 2015), and most recently, the adjoint-based sequential data assimilation method, which also essentially utilizes the Poisson equation to reconstruct the pressure(He et al., 2020). Most of these previous pressure reconstruction examples, however, were applied to simply-connected domains (Gluzman et al., 2017) only. None of these previous studies have discussed how to apply the pressure reconstruction procedures to a multiply-connected domain (Gluzman et al., 2017). To fill in this gap, this paper presents a detailed report for the first time documenting the implementation procedures and validation results for pressure reconstruction of a planar turbulent flow field within a multiply-connected domain that has arbitrary inner and outer boundary shapes. The pressure reconstruction algorithm used in the current study is the rotating parallelray omni-directional integration algorithm, which, as demonstrated in reference (Liu and Moreto, 2020) based on simply-connected flow domains, offers high-level of accuracy in the reconstructed pressure. While preserving the nature and advantage of the parallel ray omni-directional pressure reconstruction at places with flow data, the new implementation of the algorithm is capable of processing an arbitrary number of inner void areas with arbitrary boundary shapes. Validation of the multiply-connected domain pressure reconstruction code is conducted using the DNS (Direct Numerical Simulation) isotropic turbulence field available at the Johns Hopkins Turbulence Databases, with 1000 statistically independent pressure gradient field realizations embedded with random noise used to gauge the code performance. For further validation, the code is also applied for pressure reconstruction from the DNS pressure gradient in the ambient flow field of a shock-induced non-spherical bubble collapse in water (Johnsen and Colonius, 2009). The successful implementation of the parallel ray pressure reconstruction method to multiply-connected domains paves the way for a variety of important applications including, for example, experimental characterization of pressure field changes during the process of cavitation bubble inception, growth and collapse, non-intrusive unsteady aerodynamic force assessment for an arbitrary body shape immersed in flows, and multi-phase flow investigations, etc. In particular, as an immediate follow-up effort, the parallel ray pressure code will be used for the instantaneous pressure distribution reconstruction of the turbulent flow surrounding cavitation inception bubbles occurring on top of a cavity trailing corner based on high-speed PIV measurements.


In the European research project CESAR, requirements can be specified using templates called boilerplates. Each statement of a requirement consists of a boilerplate with inserted values for the attributes of the boilerplate. By choosing attribute values from a domain ontology, a consistent language can be achieved. This thesis seeks to use the combination of boilerplates and a domain ontology in a semi-automatic test generation process. There are multiple ways to automate the test generation process, with various degrees of automation involved. One option is to use the boilerplates and the domain ontology to create a test model that can be used to generate tests. Another option is to use the information from the domain ontology to assist the user when he creates tests. In this thesis, the latter option is investigated and a tool named WikiTest is developed. WikiTest uses Semantic MediaWiki and Semantic Forms to utilize the ontology and assist the user in the test creation process. Using a Cucumber syntax, the tests can be specified in a relatively free format that does not sacrifice the ability to automate test execution. An experiment is conducted, where the results show that WikiTest is easier to use and leads to a higher test case quality than the alternatives can do. Being able to inspect the domain ontology while creating tests did not give the same results as when the ontology was integrated directly in the tool.


Commercial real-time operating systems are complex and feature-laden. Size and complexity require extensive adaptation and long learning times. For the most common real-life requirements, one can write a real-time executive in one afiernoon in any language. Figures 1 and 2 contrast two views of the world of real time systems that of the operating system salesman and that of the author. Commercial products must have every known feature: pre-emptive scheduler, native OS file access, time slicing, message passing, dynamic task creation, priorities, memory allocation, event queues and flags, semaphores, mailboxes, time and calendar functions, etc. Adaptation to your system is required to prevent the kernel from occupying all available memory. This means sysgening and mastering yards of documentation in which ordinary words are used with extraordinary precision and there are significant penalties for misunderstanding. Contempcmq products may have over 50 "system calls" each requiring register setups and/or a communication block with manifold parameters and options. Horror stories abound of hundreds of man-hours spent in study of manuals, adaptation and cusPermisaion h. copy without fee ail or part of this material is granted, provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by p+mniasion of the Association for Computing Machine~. To copy otherwise, or to repubhsh, rquires a fee and/or spec~lc perndasion. @1991 ACM 0-89791-462-7/90/0200-0001 $1.50 tomizing without reaching a stable, useful foundation for development of the real system. The principal gain we seek from the employment of a real time executive is multi-tasking. I suspect that this term is poorly understood even among programmers. If you have a uniprocessor, its program location counter can be at only one location at any time. Consequently, for some people multi-tasking is a deep mystery. Stripped to its simplest terms, multi-tasking is the ability of a computer program to do more than one thing at a time whe,n observed from outside the computer using human time scale, Consider, for example, a simple multi-tasking system which polls a telemetry link, prints alarms on a logging printer and updates a wallboard display. When the telemetry link doesn't have input ready, the CPU must be made available to the part of the program which sends characters to the logger. When the printer is busy printing a line, the CPU must be available to update the wallboard. Now, to a human watching the system, all three things seem to be progressing at once even though in a microsecond time scale only one task is occupying the CPU. If this is the only reason you need a real time executive, you can write your own in one afternoon in any language.


The relation between religion and politics is a question of extended background having received a variety of responses. The issue of the epistemological foundations of the issue and the logical possibility of the formation of Islamic politics is, however, a quite recent topic which has drawn the attention of a lot of contemporary analysts. Two main approaches can be distinguished in the field of the Islamic political discourse which believes in the integration of religion and politics. One is the rejection of secular arguments altogether towards deducing the possibility of "Islamic Politics". The other goes beyond the criticism of secularism and talks of the necessity of establishing "Islamic politics". This article deals with the second approach explaining the epistemological foundations of the Islamic politics and introducing the idea of how to make politics accord with religious law. Thus, understanding and practice of politics in a religious society is essentially impossible without reference to its initial foundations.


This article sketches out the parallel history of two words that have been used successively to designate the ill-reputed outskirts of cities in contemporary times. These names were long considered neutral terms, but they later took on a pejorative connotation, faubourg (outskirts) during the 18th century, and banlieue (suburb) at the end of the 19th century. As this flouted social realities, scholars today are careful not to provide any precise definition of les banlieues, a words which does not designate anything, but says everything. The opprobrium attached to the word has always been returned, in an burst of dignity, by the populations concerned, including in their insulting adjectival forms such as banlieusard or faubourien. Today, the word banlieue seems to be worn out after being abused for so long, and now tends to be replaced by the odd expression quartiers (quarters).


A new method of power pulse modulation with internal frequencies of tens of kHz and suited for multikilowatt power levels is applied to a series-resonant converter system for generating synthesized unipolar and bipolar waveforms. The high pulse frequency allows the principle of modulation and demodulation to be applied for fast system response, output waveforms with low distortion and prevents excessive stresses on components. Natural current commutation of the thyristors is obtained by the use of a series-resonant circuit for power transfer and control. Test results of a 4 kW thyristor converter system generating sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal waveforms independently of the load characteristics demonstrate the significane aspects for this class of power conversion. The material presented indicates the capability of the system to avoid excessive component stresses as well as the possibilities for fast acting four-quadrant dc to dc, single-phase or polyphase dc to ac and ac to ac converter systems.


This study analyses sequences where people with dementia are positioned as third parties in stories about their own lives. Previous research emphasises how people with dementia are frequently excluded from social encounters, and how others tend to speak for or about them in their co-presence. Drawing on conversation analytic methods when analysing 15 video recorded interviews with Swedish couples living with dementia, we argue that telling stories in which a spouse with dementia is positioned as a third party in his or her co-presence does not have to be an activity of exclusion. Rather, among couples, third-party positioning is a multifaceted activity where couples employ different practices to organise participation frameworks and manage both inclusion and exclusion in talk-in-interaction. Furthermore, we show how participants display joint speakership and counteract actions of exclusion by making use of various communicative resources such as gaze, touch and bodily orientation.


We have investigated the detailed features of photoluminescence (PL) in vertically aligned ZnO nanotube (NT) arrays as a function of temperature, pumping power, and experimental geometries. In samples with different wall thickness (15 or 60 nm), the temperature-dependent PL energy followed the Varshni's formula whose fitting parameters were found to be rather close to zero-dimensional case in the 15 nm-thick NTs with much larger intensity. In reflective geometry with circular excitation beam shape, the emission gradually evolved from spontaneous to stimulated regime, inferred from amplitude and line-width variation. On the other hand, in the edge-emission geometry with needle-like excitation shape, the interaction length dependence was directly traced by using an adjustable slit.


In this work, we study the effect of different variables affecting elution profile distortion on the enantiomeric resolution eventually achievable when working with on-line coupled liquid chromatography to gas chromatography (LC-GC). Specifically, the proposed configuration combines achiral reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) and chiral gas chromatography (enantio-GC), with heptakis-(2,3,6-tri-O-methyl)-β-cyclodextrin as enantioselective stationary phase to analyse target fractions transferred (from LC to GC) via the through oven transfer adsorption desorption (TOTAD) interface. The high degree of orthogonality resulting from the combination of two chromatographic columns having very different separation mechanisms (and also requiring mobile phases in distinct physical states), as well as integration of the sample preparation step in the first dimension of the system, significantly contributed to exploit the performance of the proposed two-dimensional approach. Occasional adverse effects, which may result in severe peak distortions during LC-GC analysis and could be explained by flow instabilities due to viscous fingering, are circumvented by using the outstanding capacity of the TOTAD interface for achieving effective elimination of the eluent arriving from the LC preseparation.


The goal of this article is two-fold. First, we consider a class of hyperholomorphic functions, the so called B p, q (G) space in ℝ3. Then, we use the B p, q (G) space to characterize the hyperholomorphic α-Bloch space. Second, we obtain characterizations of the weighted hyperholomorphic B p, q (G)-functions by the coefficients of certain lacunary series expansions in Clifford Analysis.


We treated five patients with posterior chamber intraocular lenses that were dislocated into the vitreous cavity. Using a pars plana approach, a vitrectomy was performed, and the intraocular lens was grasped with forceps and repositioned behind the iris with the lens loops in the ciliary sulcus. The loops were sutured to the iris in four cases. Visual acuity returned to 20/25, or better, in each case.


This study analyzed the effect of 3-year athletic training on some physical and physiological parameters of female students; to orientate skilled students to athletics, and to investigate the development of athletics in girl students.
The study included 106 female pupils from Turkish state schools. All participants were aged 9 years; 56 participants were allocated to the experimental group and 50 to the control group. Test and measurements (height, body weight, flexibility, grip strength, 1 min push-up, 1min sit-up, 6 min run, 30 m sprint, anaerobic strength, reaction) were performed on the experimental group three times per year in September-January and May-June periods for three years, 2005 to 2007. The control group was tested once per year, to differentiate the effects of natural growth from those of training. The T-test was used to evaluate the differences between the base line and final measurements of the subjects.
Statistically significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups (p≤0.05, p≤0.01). It was found that the differences between the first and last measurements within experiment group and those of control group were high. These high values can be explained with the effect of exercise.
Key Words: Youth set up, Performance Test, Athletics


The capacity of water-soluble polymers (polyethylenimine, polyvinylpyrrolidone with copolymers) to induce posterior detachment of the vitreous by its rapid condensation (vitreosynerysis) was studied in experiments on 14 rabbits. Histological studies showed that water-soluble polymers specifically react forming complexes with components of the vitreous. The vitreous shrinks under the effect of polyelectrolytes (vitreosynerysis), which leads to its posterior detachment 1.5 h after injection of the polymer into the vitreous cavity: complete detachment was attained in 2 animals and partial in 8. The degree of vitreosynerysis depends on the complex-forming activity of polyelectrolytes towards the vitreous components. Polymers used in our study exerted no toxic or traction effects on the adjacent structures of the eye.


Abstract : Accurate and reliable prediction of macromolecular structures has eluded researchers for nearly 40 years. Prediction via energy minimization assumes the native conformation has the globally minimal energy potential. An exhaustive search is impossible since for molecules of normal size, the size of the search space exceeds the size of the universe. Domain knowledge sources, such as the Brookhaven PDB can be mined for constraints to limit the search space. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are stochastic, population based, search algorithms of polynomial (P) time complexity that can produce semi-optimal solutions for problems of nondeterministic polynomial (NP) time complexity such as PSP. Three three refined GAs are presented: A farming model parallel hybrid GA (PHGA) preserves the effectiveness of the serial algorithm with substantial speed up. Portability across distributed and MPP platforms is accomplished with the Message Passing Interface (MPI) communications standard. A Real-valved GA system, real-valued Genetic Algorithm, Limited by constraints (REGAL), exploiting domain knowledge. Experiments with the pentapeptide Met-enkephalin have identified conformers with lower energies (CHARMM) than the accepted optimal conformer (Scheraga, et al), -31.98 vs -28.96 kcals/mol. Analysis of exogenous parameters yields additional insight into performance. A parallel version (Para-REGAL), an island model modified to allow different active constraints in the distributed subpopulations and novel concepts of Probability of Migration and Probability of Complete Migration.


BACKGROUND/AIM
The oxazaphosphorines, ifosfamide and cyclophosphamide, represent a class of alkylating agents. The aim of the present in vitro study was to compare antileukemic activity of 4-hydroperoxyifosfamide (4-OOH-IF) and 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide (4-OOH-CP).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experiments were performed on MOLT-4 and ML-1 cells. The research was conducted using flow cytometry fluorescein diacetate/propidium iodide (PI), fluorescein-conjugated annexin V/PI, CaspGLOW Red Active Caspase-8 and -9, CellEvent™ Caspase-3/7 Green assays, and tetramethylrhodamine ethyl ester test.

RESULTS
4-OOH-IF and 4-OOH-CP distinctly reduced cell viability and triggered apoptosis and necrosis, causing changes in intracellular esterase activity, plasma membrane structure and integrity, caspase activation, and mitochondrial membrane potential. The oxazaphosphorines were responsible for the different antileukemic activities. 4-Hydroperoxyifosfamide appeared to be less cytotoxic against the leukemia cells than 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide. MOLT-4 cells were more sensitive to the action of the oxazaphosphorines than ML-1 cells.

CONCLUSION
The findings provide a new insight on the mechanisms of cytotoxic action of 4-OOH-IF and 4-OOH-CP on the human acute lymphoblastic and myeloblastic leukemia cells.


Gradient copolymers of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) having prescribed linear, parabolic, and hyperbolic composition profiles were synthesized with the guidance of a numerical model that determines the instantaneous comonomer feed rate. These materials exhibit low polydispersity indices (<1.1); the evolution of the overall DMAEMA content and the absolute molecular weight of the copolymers are all in good agreement with the quantities predicted by our model. Compared to random copolymers of HEMA and DMAEMA, the cloud points of dilute buffered aqueous solutions of gradient copolymers decrease with increasing gradient strength; where the gradient strength is defined as the largest difference in the instantaneous composition along the copolymer. The temperature range over which the solutions transition from transparent to turbid also broadens significantly with increasing gradient strength. Both observations suggest the onset of transition to be dictated by the least soluble ends of the polymer chains. These correlations point to the importance of monomer sequence distribution in determining the macroscopic physical properties of copolymers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011


Neuroendocrine tumors are a unique malignant neoplasm that can arise from the respiratory tree. Although well‐differentiated bronchial neuroendocrine tumors (also called carcinoid tumors) are reported to account for approximately 25% of all neuroendocrine tumors, they represent only 1% to 2% of all lung cancers. The epidemiology, clinical behavior, and treatment of neuroendocrine carcinoid tumors differ significantly from other lung malignancies. In this article, the recent data regarding these tumors were reviewed with attention to the treatment modalities used. Although conventional cytotoxic therapy has not been reported to demonstrate much promise in this entity over the past 4 decades, newer molecular targeted agents including those that targeted angiogenesis and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway have shown encouraging results in early phase trials for advanced carcinoid tumors. Cancer 2009. © 2009 American Cancer Society.


Hospital elevators make up a part of the public space of hospitals which is used by both employees, patients, and patients' relatives. We performed an observational study to ascertain the frequency of ethically problematic conversations between employees in the elevators of three Danish hospitals. We defined a conversation as problematic if it breached confidentiality or if it could raise doubts about the professional or ethical standard of the hospital or its employees. Based on this definition we found that problematic conversations occurred in 18 out of 201 elevator-trips where more than one member of the hospital staff was present in the elevator (9%, 95% confidence limits 5-14%). The most common types of problems were breaches of confidentiality (6 cases), complaints about stressful work (4 cases), and complaints about the organisation (3 cases).


Daughtry: Not especially in the daytime in England. This is the point I was going to make. They did not make daytime raids when I was there. I was there eight months before invasion. And they didn't do daytime raids in England. They'd start about, if it was in the wintertime, about 5:30 or 6:00 when darkness. Usually they would come in and whatever type airplane, bomber or whatever... I'm sure it was a bomber type, they would drop canisters of foil over their target areas, approaching their target areas.


As indicated by this book's arresting title, this book argues that Jesus was a &dquo;fatherless&dquo; child. Assuming that the boy Jesus would have experienced the painful hurts inflicted on such children by firstcentury Galilean society, van Aarde claims that this factor provides explanatory power for various aspects of Jesus' ministry, such as his identification of God as his heavenly Father, his non-patriarchal ethos, and his compassion for women, children, the sick, and other powerless people. Van Aarde is Professor of New Testament at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The argument begins with the fact that the figure of Joseph is absent from Paul, Mark, Q, and the Gospel of Thomas. Although many scholars suggest that Joseph's absence from these sources means that he must have died prior to Jesus' ministry, van Aarde argues that no known father played a role in the life of the histor-


Lead sulphide (PbS) modified with calix[6]arene was synthesised as an alternative and regenerative adsorbent for the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dye. The prepared calix[6]arene-modified PbS was characterised via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The response surface methodology (RSM) based on the central composite design (CCD) was employed to identify the most significant factors, such as the initial concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, and temperature, and to optimise the effects of the factors on the adsorptive efficiency as its response. The optimised initial concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, and temperature were 20.00 mg/L initial concentration, 44.00 mg calix[6]arene-modified PbS, pH 6, and a temperature of 31.00 °C. A good correlation between the values and well-fitted model was observed. The adsorption performance was evaluated based on the percentage removal of MB dye from the water system. The adsorption isotherm best fit the Langmuir isotherm model, and the adsorption rate was followed by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model, a single layer chemical adsorption with a maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) of 5.495 mg/g.


This paper describes the activities of a Computer Science doctoral student and a Secondary Education masters student in the design, development, and implementation of a lesson for a high school science class. The graduate students, called Fellows, worked in secondary classrooms in the Cincinnati Public School District as a part of Project STEP at the University of Cincinnati, which is funded by the National Science Foundation GK-12 Program. The Fellows formed partnerships with secondary math and science teachers to generate new lessons, activities, and resources to enhance the STEM skills of high school students. Additionally, the Fellows used their engineering expertise to bring authentic, inquiry-based learning experiences into the classroom and introduced engineering concepts to underserved student populations. This paper highlights a lesson that integrates data mining and software engineering into a physical science lesson that focuses on the periodic table. Included in the paper are techniques used by the Fellows, reactions and feedback from the students, and observations and reflections by the Fellows regarding aspects of the activity that had the most impact on student learning.


This brief essay offers thoughts about the so-called if value/then right principle in copyright, a principle often used to argue that authors must pay any time that they borrow from others before them. In particular, it uses the ultimatum game to explain why the principle has appeal despite its occasional negative effects on social welfare.

After this, the essay explores whether the if value/then right principle necessarily leads to broader copyright rights. The essay argues that principle could be used to justify limits on copyright rights once society recognizes that most authors derive benefit from others before them without paying. Because it is impossible to identify all of these borrowings or to arrange payment for them, society is better off forgiving (i.e. making non-actionable) certain borrowings.


The objective of this document is to provide guidance on the preparation of the Economic Analysis Annex that must be completed with Bank Proposals for Operational Development (PODs) and included as an electronic link to the POD. For the Economic Analysis, project teams have the option of conducting a cost benefit analysis (CBA) or a cost effectiveness analysis (CEA). The annex should use the Template for Economic Analysis — provided with the Guidelines for the Application of the DEM — as the basis for presenting the economic analysis following the CBA or CEA template as appropriate. If neither CBA nor CEA is done, the annex must include a justification for not employing either approach as well as a discussion of the alternatives that were considered in project preparation and the benefits and externalities of the project.


FERMI is a seeded Free Electron Laser (FEL) located in Trieste, Italy. The machine setup and optimization is a non-trivial problem due to the high sensitivity of the FEL process to several machine parameters. In particular, the electron bunch trajectory and its spatial overlap with the seed laser beam represent one of the key aspects to optimize and then preserve during machine operation. In order to ease the FEL tuning and to guarantee a long term stability of the photon beam, a software process integrated into the feedback systems performs automatic trajectory optimization of both the seed laser and the electron beams. The algorithm implementation, the results and the operational issues are presented.


Network slicing is considered to be the enabler for a coexistence of a multitude of services on a multi-tenant 5G infrastructure. It is supported through software-defined radio access networking (SD-RAN), bringing programmability to the network in order to enhance performance according to the needs of slice owners. However, SD-RAN so far remained limited to a mere reconfiguration of the base station. In this work, we demonstrate a prototype of a service-oriented RAN on top of the OpenAirInterface and Mosaic5G platforms that brings programmability and extensibility to the RAN with a range of network applications for the purpose of intelligent slicing. We implemented a slice control and management framework, and plug a traffic analysis application that significantly improves the performance of slice users. We observe an improvement of 30% in application round-trip time with negligible variability for the considered traffic. Further, we demonstrate how to extend control plane functionality from a network store to improve slice performance.


Reflects on how organizations that are acknowledged leaders in the field of risk management, have achieved pre‐eminent positions. Acknowledges risk‐based auditing is still in its formative stages and so identification of best practice is an inexact science — but there are three important trends: from control‐based to risk‐based auditing; use of scenario planning; and understanding that risks apply to soft assets. Uses a Table for extra emphasis and explanation.


Although there is emerging literature on social capital and disasters, little is known about the impact of disasters on social capital formation. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature through a case study of the city of Gölcük in the aftermath of the August 17, 1999 earthquake, which resulted in an official death toll of 17,480 in Turkey. The case study suggests that disasters can redefine disaster victims' attachment to the place (i.e., their city, neighborhood) and to their fellow residents (i.e., solidarity with other earthquake victims). Local leaders can play an important role in transforming these cognitive elements into structural components of social capital in the form of place-based networks during the disaster recovery process. In Gölcük, local leaders built on their pre-disaster civic and political experience to help disaster victims mobilize toward collective action after the earthquake. They also helped disaster victims find international and domestic donors to support the activities of their networks. Local leaders' efforts to form the networks came forth despite the lack of enabling state institutions and policies, especially at the central government level. The paper concludes with lessons for policy makers on how they could contribute to place-based social capital formation in disaster stricken communities.


Salmonella enterica serovar Agona has caused multiple food-borne outbreaks of gastroenteritis since it was first isolated in 1952. We analyzed the genomes of 73 isolates from global sources, comparing five distinct outbreaks with sporadic infections as well as food contamination and the environment. Agona consists of three lineages with minimal mutational diversity: only 846 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have accumulated in the non-repetitive, core genome since Agona evolved in 1932 and subsequently underwent a major population expansion in the 1960s. Homologous recombination with other serovars of S. enterica imported 42 recombinational tracts (360 kb) in 5/143 nodes within the genealogy, which resulted in 3,164 additional SNPs. In contrast to this paucity of genetic diversity, Agona is highly diverse according to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), which is used to assign isolates to outbreaks. PFGE diversity reflects a highly dynamic accessory genome associated with the gain or loss (indels) of 51 bacteriophages, 10 plasmids, and 6 integrative conjugational elements (ICE/IMEs), but did not correlate uniquely with outbreaks. Unlike the core genome, indels occurred repeatedly in independent nodes (homoplasies), resulting in inaccurate PFGE genealogies. The accessory genome contained only few cargo genes relevant to infection, other than antibiotic resistance. Thus, most of the genetic diversity within this recently emerged pathogen reflects changes in the accessory genome, or is due to recombination, but these changes seemed to reflect neutral processes rather than Darwinian selection. Each outbreak was caused by an independent clade, without universal, outbreak-associated genomic features, and none of the variable genes in the pan-genome seemed to be associated with an ability to cause outbreaks.


Abstract Surface discharge of dens jet as a common way for disposal of produced waste water in coastal areas is strongly influenced by the hydraulical and physical fissures of discharge stream and ambient water. In the current study, considering different mechanisms of flow in surface discharge of negative buoyant jets, dominated regimes are studied. Using Length Scale (L.S.) method and utilizing an experimental set up which are merely designed for this studies, different flow regimes were experimentally simulated and its behavior were investigated. As a result of this study, the observed criteria for free jet regime, shoreline attached jet regime and intruding upstream plume in the case of surface discharge of dens jets were précised and their ranges of diversity in the form of dimensionless diagram were developed. The axis's of this diagram are a couple of dimensionless parameters that formed by the flow variables where each shows classification criteria in the boundaries of diagram. Finally, extracted criteria as a separator of these regimes were used to develop a tree-like classification scheme in surface discharge of dens jets. In this method, through identifying the range of flow variables in occurrences of each regime and sub regimes, coming prediction of flow characteristics by empirical equations will easily be possible.


BACKGROUND
The small vessel size of infants and children makes interventional treatment of impaired coronary perfusion, such as stenoses, complete occlusions, and fistulae, demanding. Materials and techniques appropriate for this young age group have to demonstrate their ability to effectively treat these lesions.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Between 2004 and 2011, 14 patients with an age of 9 days to 25 years (median 4.6 years) and a bodyweight of 1.7-65 kg (median 14 kg) underwent coronary intervention. In 3 cases, emergency revascularization of the left coronary artery (CA) was performed successfully, followed by stent implantation in 1 patient. Embolization of coronary arterial fistulae with coils and vascular plugs was effective in 10 patients. An antegrade, retrograde or combined approach to achieve the most distal device placement preserved all side branches. One infant with pulmonary atresia and an intact ventricular septum was prepared for biventricular repair by step-by-step closure of the right ventricular to the CA connections. No procedure-related deaths occurred.

CONCLUSION
Congenital and post-procedural coronary obstructive lesions can be considered for effective treatment with balloon dilation at any age as a salvage procedure. In coronaries impaired by external compression, stent implantation can restore perfusion, but long-term results are missing. Interventional closure of coronary fistulae has shown improvement of coronary arterial perfusion. The latter techniques can be used to close right ventricular to CA connections in patients with pulmonary atresia to prepare for biventricular repair, but bail-out strategies should be planned in all coronary interventions.


We propose a fast and simple application system of 3D model reconstruction. We acquire range images by using a combination of a regular camera and two types of depth sensors. The reconstruction of a 3D model consists of four key steps: (i) Initial alignment either feature tracking or the 4-points congruent sets algorithm is used to align surfaces captured at different frames. (ii)The iterative closest point (ICP) method is applied to further align the piecewise surfaces from the last step. (iii) The surfaces are merged into a whole 3D model by the volumetric method. (iv) In the refinement step, we fill holes and produce a complete 3D model that approximates the original model with robust repair of polygonal models. At last, we present the experimental results which show that the errors between our reconstructed model and the ground truth are less than 1%.


Waveguide phase matching of a frequency conversion process within an isotropic semiconductor is studied. The three-wave interaction involves pump and signal beams in the near infrared, and the idler at THz frequencies, i.e. with a wavelength greater than 50 µm in GaAs. Phase matching is obtained by exploiting modal dispersion and, for energies below the reststrahlen region, the semiconductor anomalous dispersion. This original phase matching scheme provides simultaneously a long interaction length, due to waveguide confinement, and efficient wave mixing because only the fundamental modes are involved in a modal phase matching process. Two different types of waveguides are studied: bulk semiconductor rods and plasmon waveguides.


Complex search tasks such as planning a vacation often comprise multiple queries and may span a number of search sessions. When engaged in such tasks, users may require holistic support in determining the required task activities. Unfortunately, current search engines do not offer such support to their users. In this paper, we propose methods to automatically generate task tours comprising a starting task and a set of relevant related tasks, some or all of which may be necessary to satisfy a user's information needs. Applications of the tours include helping users understand the required steps to complete a task, finding URLs related to the active task, and alerting users to activities they may have missed. We demonstrate through experimentation with human judges and large-scale search logs that our tours are of good quality and can benefit a significant fraction of search engine users.


The pressure of workforce to perform maximum output and enhance competitiveness caused the employees to experience stress at the workplace especially among support staff. Based on the Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT) approach, stresses among individuals are largely due to irrational beliefs of a person. The REBT is one of the cognitive behaviour therapy approaches that concentrates on cognitive, emotive and behaviour. However, the development of module that focuses on cognitive aspects in the REBT approach to lessen irrational beliefs and job stress among university support staff is yet to be fully developed. The study developed a REBT Module that has high validity and reliability, and investigated its effects on irrational beliefs and job stress among university support staff. An experimental research which used control group experimental design was employed in this research. The developed REBT Module and Staff Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ) were tested for their validity and reliability in this study. Using random sampling, 60 support staff from a private university in Perak answered the SBQ and Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI). Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science version 16.0. Inferential statistic, namely independent t-test and paired sample t-test were employed in order to test the hypotheses. The effect size was also used to determine the magnitude of REBT Module treatment. The findings indicated that the REBT Module which consists of four sub modules, namely Self-acceptance, Feelings, Beliefs and Disputation had high validity (.91) and reliability (.98) values. In addition, the results of the experimental study showed that there were significant differences between the pre-test and post-test of experimental group, and post-test between experimental group and control group for irrational beliefs, job stress, subscales of irrational beliefs and subscales of job stress. In conclusion, the module developed based on the REBT approach is suitable for support staff in the university to lessen irrational beliefs and job stress.


More than just a simple technique, touch-relaxation massage in the protected haematology unit of Nantes general hospital has become a real personalised act of care, in what are often difficult conditions of hospitalisation. It forms part of the global support of patients suffering from leukaemia.


____________________________________________________________ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out is an installation of four interrelated works that reflect on the ineffability of experience, of time and of intimacy. By representing the corporeal residue of memory through the gestures of writing, touching and breathing, these works are the traces and reflections of what remains after an intimate relationship has ended. Both the material and metaphorical dimensions of these traces are manifest as corporeal, as form, and as sound. This work evokes the possibility that the body's intrinsic link to language and sensual experience can illuminate how intimacy is remembered and embodied.


Abstract As a result of our previous research focussed on benzimidazoles, herein we present design, synthesis, QSAR analysis and biological activity of novel N-substituted benzimidazole derived carboxamides. Carboxamides were designed to study the influence of the number of methoxy groups, the type of the substituent placed at the benzimidazole core on biological activity. Pronounced antioxidative activity displayed unsubstituted 28 (IC50 ≈ 3.78 mM, 538.81 mmolFe2+/mmolC) and dimethoxy substituted derivative 34 (IC50 ≈ 5.68 mM, 618.10 mmolFe2+/mmolC). Trimethoxy substituted 43 and unsubstituted compound 40 with isobutyl side chain at N atom showed strong activity against HCT116 (IC50 ≈ 0.6 µM, both) and H 460 cells (IC50 ≈ 2.5 µM; 0.4 µM), being less cytotoxic towards non-tumour cell. Antioxidative activity in cell generally confirmed relatively modest antioxidant capacity obtained in DPPH/FRAP assays of derivatives 34 and 40. The 3D-QSAR models were generated to explore molecular properties that have the highest influence on antioxidative activity.


A silicone oil-in-water emulsion comprising 3 to 90% by volume of a silicone oil phase, characterized in that the emulsion is stabilized by a protein and/or peptide present at 0.25 to 20% by weight of the emulsion. The emulsion contains less than 25% by weight and preferably zero % by weight of non-polymeric amphiphilic surfactant based on the weight of protein or peptide. A process for preparing the emulsion is also described.


Cantilevered beams with piezoceramic (PZT) layers are the most commonly investigated type of vibration energy harvesters. A frequently used modeling approach is the single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) modeling of the harvester beam as it allows simple expressions for the electrical outputs. In the literature, since the base excitation on the harvester beam is assumed to be harmonic, the well known SDOF relation is employed for mathematical modeling. In this study, it is shown that the commonly accepted SDOF harmonic base excitation relation may yield highly inaccurate results for predicting the motion of cantilevered beams and bars. First, the response of a cantilevered Euler—Bernoulli beam to general base excitation given in terms of translation and small rotation is reviewed where more sophisticated damping models are considered. Then, the error in the SDOF model is shown and correction factors are derived for improving the SDOF harmonic base excitation model both for transverse and longitudinal vibrations. The formal way of treating the components of mechanical damping is also discussed. After deriving simple expressions for the electrical outputs of the PZT in open-circuit conditions, relevance of the electrical outputs to vibration mode shapes and the electrode locations is investigated and the issue of strain nodes is addressed.


Following an ongoing interest in the study of transition metal complexes with exotic bonding networks, we report herein the synthesis of a family of heterobimetallic triangular clusters involving Ru and Pd atoms. These are the first examples of trinuclear complexes combining these nuclei. Structural and bonding analyses revealed both analogies and unexpected differences for these [Pd2Ru]+ complexes compared to their parent [Pd3]+ peers. Noticeably, participation of the Ru atom in the π-aromaticity of the coordinated benzene ring makes the synthesized compound the second reported example of 'bottled' double aromaticity. This can also be referred to as spiroaromaticity due to the participation of Ru in two aromatic systems at a time. Moreover, the [Pd2Ru]+ kernel exhibits unprecedented orbital overlap of Ru dz2 AO and two Pd dxy or dx2−y2 AOs. The present findings reveal the possibility of synthesizing stable clusters with delocalized metal–metal bonding from the combination of non-adjacent elements of the periodic table which has not been reported previously.


Poor diet quality is a major risk factor for the development of anemia. An increased consumption of fortified ultra-processed food (UPF) among children presents a new contributor to micronutrient intake, one that could potentially improve anemia biomarkers despite having a concomitantly low diet quality. Our objective was to investigate the impact of fortified UPF consumption on the prevalence of anemia and diet quality among children from low-income families in Brazil.

 A cross-sectional analyses from a randomized field trial of children at 3 years of age (n = 432) from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Capillary blood samples were taken to measure hemoglobin concentration (Hb) and used to determine anemia status. Dietary data was assessed using two multiple-pass 24-h recalls and the consumption of UPF was classified according to the NOVA system.

 UPF account for 42.6% of total energy intake. Children in the highest tertile of UPF consumption had significantly lower risk of anemia (Hb < 110 g/L) compared to those in the lowest tertile (tertile 3 vs. tertile 1; OR 0.56 95% CI 0.39 to 0.82). Similarly, a 10% increase in the consumption of UPF was associated with a 22% lower risk of anemia (95% CI 0.64 to 0.94). Conversely, consumption of UPF was negatively associated with consumption of unprocessed/minimally processed foods. Finally, as the contribution of UPF to total energy intake increased, the intake of added sugars, total fats, and sodium increased, whereas the intake of proteins, fiber, and calcium decreased.

 The consumption of fortified UPF was associated with a lower risk of anemia and a poor diet quality in children from a low-income community in Brazil. The co-existence of normal Hb with poor diet quality suggests the need for a more nuanced assessment of dietary patterns in low-income settings to best address this paradoxical situation as the prevalence of the double burden of disease continues to increase throughout the world.

 Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES).


The aim of nuclear power plant ageing management and assessment is to maintain an adequate safety level throughout the life time of the plant and helps in determining the useful operation. Various factors involved in the insulation of polymeric cables such as continuous heat, radiation and atmosphere result in the alteration of chemical and physical properties as well as lowers the service life of material. PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) is the most commonly used insulation material in NPP (Nuclear Power Plant). Purpose of this work is to predict the service life of PVC insulation cable for which extrapolation ageing has been performed. Ageing mechanism proceeds in laboratory scale rig to provide temperature and radiation sources. The variation in temperature is regulated and monitored through thermocouple. At higher temperature, semi crystalline free radical may escape out resulting in the degradation of polymer. Different tests have been carried out like shore hardness testing, tensile testing, Differential Scanning Calorimeter and Thermo gravimetric Analysis before and after ageing to analyze the Ageing effect. The impact of ageing days upon yield strength of single stress ageing has been carried out in this research work and it is found that aging has significant effect on service life of cables used in power plants.


Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Islamic schools known as madrasah have been of increasing interest to analysts and to officials involved in formulating U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, Central, and Southeast Asia. Madrasah drew added attention when it became known that several Taliban leaders and Al-Qaeda members had developed radical political views at madrasah in Pakistan, some of which allegedly were built and partially financed through Saudi Arabian sources. These revelations have led to accusations that madrasah promote Islamic extremism and militancy, and are a recruiting ground for terrorism. Others maintain that most of these religious schools have been blamed unfairly for fostering anti-U.S. sentiments and argue that madrasah play an important role in countries where millions of Muslims live in poverty and the educational infrastructure is in decay. This paper aims to study a misconception of the role and functions of Islamic traditional religious schools which have been linked with the activities of terrorism. The study will be specifically focus on practice of the traditional Islamic school, which is locally called as 'madrasah system'.


The main aim of this study was to develop an objective Drug Evaluation Scoring System (DESS) by determining criteria for differentiation among 5 PPI drugs available in the market i.e. esomeprazole, lansoprazole, omeprazole, pantoprazole and rabeprazole. Secondly, was to assign weightage according to its importance of the criteria. Thirdly, was to determine the scores and rank the PPI drugs. In developing DESS, 200 points was assigned for the clinical documentation criterion, 300 points for the clinical efficacy criterion, 200 points for the safety criterion and 300 points for the cost criterion. The higher the assigned score, the higher importance the criterion is. The criteria were designed in the format of questionnaire to enable participants to allocate scores according to their perception on the importance of the criteria. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 165 specialists and medical officers. Study findings from the scoring system found that all PPI drugs have very negligible difference in clinical efficacy and clinical safety. Omeprazole was found to be the most cost economical PPI in the government hospitals. The DESS was able to compare and rank PPI drugs based on the scoring system and also assist in the selection of PPI drugs into the drug formulary.


The method of determination of factor VIII coagulation antigen (VIIICAg) here described is based on the well established factor VIII inhibitor test. Highly concentrated inhibitors to factor VIII in factor VIII substituted hemophiliacs are the most frequent among inhibitors to clotting factors. If such an inhibitor is used in an inhibitor assay its reaction depends on the VIIICAg concentration in the test system. The slope of the reaction curve is proportional to VIIICAg if the inhibitor titer is known. VIIICAg was measured in one cryoprecipitate and 5 different factor VIII concentrates of medium to high purity using this assay. In addition factor VIII related antigen and factor VIII ristocetin cofactor were determined by routine methods. VIIICAg fairly corresponded to factor VIII coagulation activity. Only cryoprecipitate contained significantly more VIIICAg.


The author presents his program for custom-designing face lifts. Recommendations for evaluation, indications for the various kinds of face lifts, and guidelines for setting up a face lift maintenance program are included.


In this study, two large pile load tests were performed in the deep sand gravel deposit of Nakdong river basin so that the characteristics of the load transfer was identified. The fully instrumented rectangular barrette pile in the size of 1.5×3.0 m and the circular bored pile of the diameter 1.5 m were placed into the ground below 50 m. Under the applied loads of 2,400 tonf and 4,000 tonf, the test results of the load transfer showed the portion of 83% and 93% of the applied loads on the barrette pile and the bored pile, respectively, were supported by the skin friction along the pile shaft. It was revealed that the most of these skin friction mobilized in sand layer underlying clay layer having N-value more than 30 and that the friction per unit area of the bored pile was larger than the friction of barrette pile. However, if embedded in the stiff sand graval layer, the both piles were proven to be sufficient for using as the friction piles.


This paper describes a proposed testbed named Illinois Wireless Wind Tunnel (iWWT). The goal of the testbed is to implement "scaled" versions of wireless networks for the purpose of accurate repeatable evaluation of wireless protocols. The testbed will be implemented in an electromagnetic anechoic chamber at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Although the iWWT testbed will be used primarily for evaluation of protocols above the physical layer, the design of the iWWT requires a careful attention to physical characteristics of the environment. This paper presents preliminary thoughts on scaling of wireless networks in the iWWT.


Background: Although medical students are expected to teach as soon as they begin residency, medical schools have just recently begun adding teacher training to their curricula. Student-run clinics (SRCs) may provide opportunities in clinical teaching before residency. Aim: The aim of this pilot study was to examine students' experiences in clinical teaching at Columbia Student Medical Outreach (CoSMO), Columbia University's SRC, during the 2009–2010 school year. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used. Data included closed and open-ended surveys (n = 34), combined interviews with preclinical and clinical student pairs (n = 5), individual interviews (n = 10), and focus groups (n = 3). The transcripts were analyzed using the principles of grounded theory. Results: Many students had their first clinical teaching experience while volunteering at CoSMO. Clinical students' ability to teach affected the quality of the learning experience for their preclinical peers. Preclinical students who asked questions and engaged in patient care challenged their clinical peers to balance teaching with patient care. Clinical students began to see themselves as teachers while volunteering at CoSMO. Conclusion: The practical experiences in clinical teaching that students have at SRCs can supplement classroom-based trainings. Medical schools might revisit their SRCs as places for exposure to clinical teaching.


Optical linewidth measurements on patterned wafers are complicated by the wide variety of materials and correspondingly wide variation in optical parameters, complex refractive index and thickness, used in the manufacture of integrated circuits. It has been shown that in addition to linewidth, two key parameters, the normalized local reflectance R and the optical phase difference Φ at the line edge, determine the characteristics of the optical image and, therefore, affect the accuracy and precision of linewidth measurements. Both of these parameters, R and Φ, are dependent upon the illuminating wavelength or spectral bandpass and the coherence parameter of the optical system. To achieve the measurement precision and accuracy required for VLSI dimensions (e.g., 10% tolerance for 1-μm linewidths), it is necessary to control coherence, spectral bandpass, and image integrity as well as to achieve reproducible edge detection and focus criteria. When a system can be operated without further operator intervention despite changes in the materials being mea-sured, it is possible to calibrate the linewidth measurement system using a standard fabri-cated from only a few materials representing a range of image characteristics. The desirable characteristics of such a standard are discussed with respect to durability, edge definition, and equivalence of the image characteristics to materials used in the manufacture of ICs. A prototype design consisting of combinations of SiO2 and chromium layers on a silicon substrate is presented.


A Modified Applied Element Model to simulate the behaviour of plain concrete continuum structures including discrete cracking is proposed in this study. In the classical Applied Element Model, Poisson effects are fully ignored. To remediate this issue, diagonal elements are introduced to include the Poisson effect and the constitutive parameters are rigorously determined using the Cauchy-Born rule and the hyper-elastic theory. The formulation is validated for linear elastic problems, and the consistency and convergence behaviour of the numerical approach is shown. Tensile softening formulation using the concept of fracture energy is utilized for the nonlinear range. In this range, the approach is validated using the classical benchmark tests with pure tensile, split-tensile, combined shear-tensile and bending dominated push-over loading. The load-displacement behaviour and crack response were captured successfully, showing the proposed methodology can be used to quantify discrete cracks on large systems like dam monoliths from initiation to significant damage levels.


The aim of the present study was the demonstration of a relationship between reduced liver microcirculation - after different periods of ischemia-reperfusion - and the number of neutrophils plugged to the microvasculature at reperfusion. Ninety male Wistar rats were included in the study. These were subdivided into control group, 30min ischemia and 60min ischemia groups as well as 30min ischemia - 60min reperfusion and 60min ischemia - 60min reperfusion groups. Samples of liver tissue were obtained for the assessment of the number of neutrophils entrapped within portal sinusoids, after histochemical staining and morphometry. Hepatic microcirculation was estimated by laser-Doppler flowmetry. Additionally, ALT serum levels were evaluated, as an established marker of liver ischemiareperfusion injury. A course of 60min ischemia - 60min reperfusion resulted to a statistically significant increase of neutrophils plugged within liver sinusoids in relation to the 30min ischemia 60min reperfusion [p=0.001]. Similarly, hepatic tissue microcirculation exhibited a flux recovery of 70% in 30min ischemia - 60min reperfusion group and only 57% in the 60min ischemia - 60min reperfusion group [p=0,001]. Serum ALT activities were found significantly increased during reperfusion, in both groups. It is thus concluded that capillary perfusion failure occurring during liver reperfusion depends on ischemia time and is associated with a significant increase of neutrophilsi accumulation into liver sinusoids.


Retrospective examination of weekly electrocardiograms of 13 patients on zero calorie intake for 97 +/- 25.4 d (mean +/- standard deviation) for morbid obesity demonstrated a significant progressive reduction in QRS voltage by the seventh week. There was a significant prolongation of the QTc interval in the group during the eighth week and in seven patients the QTc had lengthened beyond normal by the end of the fast. The importance of these changes is illustrated by one patient with QTc prolongation who sustained two cardiac arrests due to torsade de pointes. We recommend regular in-patient electrocardiographic monitoring for obese patients on therapeutic starvation.


In our empirical works, we find that there exists the equivalency of the cumulative degree distribution and edge-cumulative distribution. Furthermore, we employ three network models of the recursive graphs, Sierpinksi networks and Apollonian networks to verify our conjecture: \emph{Both the cumulative degree distribution and the edge-cumulative distribution are equivalent to each other in deterministic network models}