Background: Picibanil (OK-432) is a lyophilized mixture of group A Streptococcus pyogenes with antineoplastic activity. Because of its capacity to produce a selective fibrosis of lymphangiomas (LMs), it has been approved by Japanese administration in 1995 for the treatment of LMs. Materials and Methods: We treated 15 children (age range: 6-60 months) affected by head and neck macrocystic LMs with intracystic injections (single dose of 0.2 mL) of Picibanil (1-3 injections). Results: Complete disappearance of the lesion was noticed in eight (53.33%) cases, a marked (>50%) reduction of LMs was found five (33.33%) cases, while a moderate (<50%) response was recorded in two (13.33%) cases. Picibanil side effects included fever, local inflammation, and transitory increase of blood platelets' concentration; a single case of anemia was resolved with concentrated red blood cells transfusion. Conclusions: Intracystic injection of Picibanil is an effective and safe treatment for macrocystic LMs in pediatric patients and may represent the treatment of choice in such cases, especially where surgical excision is associated with the risk of functional/cosmetic side effects.


We study Lorentz violation effects to flavor transitions of high energy astrophysical neutrinos. It is shown that the appearance of Lorentz violating Hamiltonian can drastically change the flavor transition probabilities of astrophysical neutrinos. Predictions of Lorentz violation effects to flavor compositions of astrophysical neutrinos arriving on Earth are compared with IceCube flavor composition measurement which analyzes astrophysical neutrino events in the energy range between $25~{\rm TeV}$ and $2.8~{\rm PeV}$. Such a comparison indicates that the future IceCube-Gen2 will be able to place stringent constraints on Lorentz violating Hamiltonian in the neutrino sector. We work out these expected constraints for different flavor structures of Lorentz violating Hamiltonian. In some cases these expected constraints can improve upon the current constraints obtained from other types of experiments by more than two orders of magnitudes.


This study reports the results of 3 cross-sectional surveys and demonstrates a birth cohort effect for pulmonary functions in students admitted to our Institute in 1974, 1986 and 1991. Improvement in height, weight and haemoglobin of students was accompanied with improvement in ventilatory (FVC, FEV1/FVC%,FEF25-75%) as well as diffusion functions (TLCO(SB), Dm, VC), specially in Group 2 and 3. Study of some vital statistics of state of Haryana from 1974 to 1992 significantly visualizes this period as period of green revolution and industrialization of the state. These quantitative indices are responsible for improvement of physical parameters and pulmonary functions of younger subjects. It is concluded that in view of the expected improvement in socio-economical status of developing countries and health of their individuals, physical and functional norms reported by different laboratories must be periodically reviewed.


Progress during the sixth quarter of a three-year study was made in two task areas: (1) parametric testing of the target coals, and (2) analysis of samples from the combustion tests. A new microanalysis system was acquired (no cost to DOE) and is now functional, although development of analysis routines for the system is still in progress. This system has significantly increased our analytical throughput and has provided increased reliability. Parametric testing of the Pittsburgh No. 8 coal (weathered) was initiated this quarter. Initial analytical results from these tests show sulfur release and iron transformations as a function of test conditions and sampling location. A new supply of Pittsburgh No. 8 coal has been shipped and will be used to contrast behavior between the oxidized (weathered) and unoxidized Pittsburgh fuels. Finally, specific tasks for the next quarter have been identified and reported.


The problem of global finite-time convergent observer design for a class of nonlinear systems with time-varying coefficients is investigated in this paper. To solve this problem, a new time-varying finite-time convergent observer is first designed for the nominal system without nonlinearities. Using a recursive argument, an explicitly homogeneous Lyapunov function is constructed to prove the finite-time convergence of the error dynamic system. Then, using the homogeneous domination approach, we scale the finite-time observer with an appropriate choice of gain to obtain a global finite-time convergent observer for the nonlinear system.


Noncovalent chemical modification by initiated chemical vapor deposition technique is applied to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to reduce average agglomerate size of the nanoparticles in the polymer matrix and to improve surface interaction between the composite constituents. CNT surfaces are coated conformally with thin poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) polymer film and coated nanoparticles are incorporated in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer matrix using solvent casting technique. Conformal PGMA coatings around individual nanotubes were identified by scanning electron microscopy analysis. Transmission electron microscopy and optical microscopy analyses show homogeneous composite morphology for composites prepared by using PGMA coated nanotubes. Fourier Transform Infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses show the successful deposition of polymer with high retention of epoxide functionality. PGMA coating of CNTs exhibits improvement in electrical conductivity and tensile properties of PGMA-CNT/PMMA systems when compared with uncoated nanoparticles. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013


Summary.

The food of salmon parr in the Dee and its tributaries has been studied for two years. Comparison of stomach-contents with the results of field collections shows that the fishes are indiscriminately carnivorous, and that their diet varies strictly in accordance with the number and relative accessibility of species present in the rivers. The sub-aerial element in the food is important, especially in autumn, when leaf-eating tree-parasites fall into the rivers as the leaves decay and are swallowed in considerable numbers. Encouragement of the growth of riparian trees and shrubs is thus desirable.

There is a marked seasonal cycle in feeding, which accurately corresponds with the records of fluctuations in growth derived from scale-readings. This seasonal cycle seems to be directly dependent upon the life-histories of the various food-organisms, which determine their availability to the fishes: in the opinion of the writer there is no evidence of loss of appetite at any season, but merely of variations in opportunity.


The objective of this study is to estimate the long term mean earnings of the male Brazilian population, taking into account the ageing process of the population and the increase in educational attainment. Using census data, household sample surveys, as well as population and education projections, estimates indicate that an ageing population and an increase in education will have a 2 percent impact on the annual growth of an average income in Brazil by 2050. The challenge for the future is to improve the proportion of the Brazilian population with completed college degrees.


In recent years, with the development of Internet of Things, a new challenge is posed on data access. Focusing on the database management problems of internet of things, a design method of database system for Internet of Things was proposed by means of DPT and P2P point cloud. An example of Internet of Things for medical health system verifies the method can solve the problem of database management of Internet of Things to a certain extent and provide technical support for Internet of Things combining distributed processing technology, network technology, and middleware technology.


Tryptophan hydroxylase isoform 2 (TPH2) is a rate‐limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of serotonin (5‐HT) and is predominantly localized in the brain. Previous studies have suggested that there is an association between serotonergic dysfunction in the brain and suicidality. This study was designed to examine whether the −473T > A and −8396G > C polymorphisms of the TPH2 gene may be associated with completed suicide in subjects with major psychoses from the Stanley Foundation Brain Bank sample. TPH2 genotypes were determined in 69 subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, among which 22 died by suicide. Genomic DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and typed by automated methods. Both markers were found to be in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and in strong linkage disequilibrium. No association with history of suicide was found for either polymorphism. Haplotype analysis with ehap showed no association between completed suicide and haplotype distribution (χ2 = 1.877; 3 df; P = 0.598). Nor was there any association between suicide and these genetic markers even when clinical–demographic factors were considered as covariates in the haplotype analysis. These findings suggest that these 5′ marker haplotypes in the TPH2 gene do not influence suicidal behaviour.


ObjectiveTo determine whether surgical intervention prevents recurrent acute exacerbations in chronic pancreatitis (CP). Summary Background DataThe primary goal of surgical intervention in the treatment of CP has been relief of chronic unrelenting abdominal pain. A subset of patients with CP have intermittent acute exacerbations, often with increasing frequency and often unrelated to ongoing ethanol abuse. Little data exist regarding the effectiveness of surgery to prevent acute attacks. MethodsFrom 1985 to 1999, all patients identified with a diagnosis of CP were recruited to participate in an ongoing program of serial clinic visits and functional and clinical evaluations. Patients were offered surgery using standard criteria. Data were gathered regarding ethanol abuse, pain, narcotic use, and recurrent acute exacerbations requiring hospital admission before and after surgery. Patients were broadly categorized as having severe unrelenting pain alone (group 1), severe pain with intermittent acute exacerbations (group 2), and intermittent acute exacerbations only (group 3). ResultsTwo hundred fifty-nine patients were recruited. One hundred eighty-five patients underwent 199 surgical procedures (124 modified Puestow procedure [LPJ], 29 distal pancreatectomies [DP], and 46 pancreatic head resections [PHR; 14 performed after failure of LPJ]). There were no deaths. The complication rate was 4% for LPJ, 15% for DP, and 27% for PHR. Ethanol abuse was causative in 238 patients (92%). Mean follow-up was 81 months. There were 104 patients in group 1 (86 who underwent surgery), 71 patients in group 2 (64 who underwent surgery), and 84 in group 3 (49 who underwent surgery). No patient without surgery had spontaneous resolution of symptoms. Postoperative pain relief (freedom from narcotic analgesics) was achieved in 153 of 185 patients (83%) overall: 106 of 124 (86%) for LPJ, 19 of 29 (67%) for DP, and 42 of 46 (91%) for PHR. The mean rate of acute exacerbations was 6.3 ± 2.1 events per year before surgery in group 2 and 7.8 ± 1.8 events per year in group 3. After surgery, no acute exacerbations occurred in 42 of 64 (66%) group 2 patients and in 40 of 49 (82%) group 3 patients. The mean number of episodes of acute exacerbation after surgery was 1.6 ± 2.3 events in group 2 and 1.1 ± 1.9 events in group 3. Only four patients in group 2 and one patient in group 3 had an equal or increased frequency of attacks after surgery. Preventing attacks was most effective with LPJ (58/64, 91%) and least effective for DP (6/18, 33%). ConclusionsSurgical intervention prevents recurrent acute exacerbations. The overall frequency of events was reduced in nearly all patients. Therefore, surgical intervention is indicated in patients with CP whose disease is characterized by recurrent acute exacerbations.


The variety of performance measures available for information retrieval systems, search engines, and network filtering agents can be confusing to both practitioners and scholars. Most discussions about these measures address their theoretical foundations and the characteristics of a measure that make it desirable for a particular application. In this work, we consider how measures of performance at a point in a search may be formally compared. Criteria are developed that allow one to determine the percent of time or conditions under which two different performance measures suggest that one document ordering is superior to another ordering, or when the two measures disagree about the relative value of document orderings. As an example, graphs provide illustrations of the relationships between precision and F.


Acromegaly remains a therapeutic challenge for the endocrinologist. Among the available therapeutic options, octreotide long-acting repeatable (Sandostatin® LAR®, Novartis) plays a chief role, both as a primary therapy and as an adjuvant treatment after unsuccessful surgery. A plethora of papers and a meta-analysis have demonstrated its efficacy in: control of clinical picture; achievement of safe growth hormone and normal age-matched IGF-I levels (both factors associated with restoration of normal life expectancy) in 60–70% of patients; control of tumor volume (with real shrinkage in over half of cases); and halt or reversal of most acromegaly-associated comorbidities. Treatment is well tolerated in most patients and can be safely prolonged for many years if required.


A model is developed which may be used to determine the expected total cost of quality control per inspection lot under acceptance sampling by variables where several characteristics are to be simultaneously controlled. Optimization of the model is accomplished through the application of a conventional search procedure. The sensitivity of the model and the optimum solution to the shape of the underlying probability distributions is discussed and associated analyses are presented through an example.


It is now common knowledge that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) takes too long to process patent applications and that examiners make too many errors in the patent approval process. Given these twin concerns, we study the following question in this paper. Should the director of an organization such as the USPTO have a small number of examiners examine incoming patent applications less stringently or should this director have a large number of examiners examine the same patent applications more stringently? We employ a simple queuing model and show that if decreasing the average patent pendency is crucial then it makes more sense for the director to select the less stringent patent examination regime. In contrast, if reducing the number of examination errors in the patent approval process is more important then the director ought to choose the more stringent patent examination regime.


Albeit often being considered as ugly duckling or stepchild of intellectual property in the past, the subject of trade secret protection has increasingly gained more and more importance. The desire to guard the sweeping economic value of intellectual property, and especially of trade secrets, prompted action by the European legislator. The recently adopted Trade Secrets Directive is aimed at harmonizing key aspects of civil trade secret protection in the EU by providing uniform definitions and requirements as well as minimum standards for procedures and remedies. In a first step, this Thesis evaluates whether this harmonization is necessary at all given the existing domestic legal regimes and the minimum requirements enshrined in TRIPS. After identifying that there is indeed a detrimental fragmentation in the EU with respect to trade secret protection, harmonization on European level proves to be desirable and imperative for advancing the internal market and cross-border activities. To be successful, however, the Trade Secrets Directive must be capable of adequately and effectively introducing an improved and comprehensive European regime on trade secrets. Therefore, the scope and content of the Trade Secrets Directive are critically assessed. Particularly, the limited reach of harmonization is highlighted. Furthermore, key substantive elements of the Trade Secrets Directive are examined with a focus on their impact on the approximation of national laws. In the end, the European legislator did create a level playing field for trade secret protection in the EU – but it is a flawed one.


The European Union (EU) aims to develop an integrated electricity market as an efficient instrument to achieve the energy policy targets of security, affordability, and sustainability. Many milestones have already been reached, including the implementation of a European platform for the simultaneous clearing of day-ahead markets, the design of several platforms for coordinating intraday and regional balancing markets, and the enforcement of guidelines for the design of capacity mechanisms (CMs). There are still many challenges ahead for this market: the integration of large amounts of renewable energy, the proliferation of distributed resources, higher consumer engagement, and the sheer scale and complexity of a market serving 500 million citizens. This is a fascinating task that will keep us busy in the coming years.


This article aims to present an approach to the issue of farm or rural zone workers, including a labour law study of agrarian legal decisions, so as to demonstrate their importance in respect to social, economic and cultural rights in Colombia. The study will serve to illustrate through the history, the applicable law and the jurisprudence, the different ways in which farmers have been treated from the time of the origin until the arrival of modern systems of industrialization. It calls into question the effectiveness of existing laws and the role of the courts, in spite of globalization, to maintain the minimum rights and guarantees of farm workers who are considered to be a vulnerable population. In conclusion, this study seeks to illustrate the current role of the Labor law and the National Health Service in the area of demonstrating of the existence or absence of mechanisms to protect workers in rural areas and the need to create some mechanisms that involve social justice given its prime importance in the Constitution of 1991.


Purpose Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC) whose pathogenesis is strictly related to RET proto-oncogene alterations, has been shown to have a heterogenic RET mutation profile in subpopulations of MTC. The aim of our study was to investigate the RET somatic mutation profile in primary MTC and in the corresponding metastatic tissues in a series of advanced metastatic cases. Results This study demonstrated that in about 20% of cases a different RET mutation profile can be found when comparing primary tumor and its corresponding metastases. Furthermore in 8% of tumors, RET intratumor heterogeneity was observed We also showed that in some cases an imbalance of RET copy number was present. We confirmed a high prevalence (90%) of RET somatic mutations in advanced tumors. Materials and Methods Fifty-six MTC patients (50 somatic and 6 hereditary cases) have been included in the study and a total of 209 specimens have been analysed by direct sequencing. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) has been used to investigate amplification/deletion of RET alleles. Conclusions In conclusion, this study showed a genetic intra- and intertumor heterogeneity in MTC, But in only 20% of CASES These results could justify the relatively moderate level of aggressiveness of the disease with respect to more aggressive human tumors that are characterized by a high rate of mutation and heterogeneity.


Agriculture is the backbone of India and it is the second largest producer of Pepper in the world. Pepper is known as the "King of Spices". Traditionally, Pepper which is located at a height of 20ft to 30ft, is harvested manually by the aid of a bamboo ladder. Improvisations done to make the ladder more efficient have failed practically and could not solve the farmer's problems. The driving force behind this work is to eliminate the tedious and risk bearing task of plucking pepper seeds in the clusters of pepper at such heights without any protection. In this regard, a static automated device is designed that would detect the pepper, cut the Pepper and collect it simultaneously. The Device goes to that height by means of a Telescopic stick. The device would detect the Pepper that is ready for harvesting by a Camera through Image Processing. It would then adjust the Horizontal position for the scissor to place itself. It would then cut the Pepper. The Pepper seeds from the cluster are drawn to the sac through the funnel. This funnel is attached to the Telescopic stick that bears the Mainframe.  The device would start operation when the switch at the bottom of the telescopic stick is turned on and the same switch is used to off the device. This device would provide a solution to the pepper harvesting method and improvise the production of pepper by reducing the time to harvest them and most importantly, by avoiding the risk bearing tasks that the farmers go through during the harvesting of pepper at such altitudes.


ABSTRACT We studied the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 phenotypic and genotypic profiles of a dual drug-resistant isolate (isolate 14aPost-DR) selected for zidovudine (ZDV) and lamivudine (3TC) resistance and then cultured in the presence of 3TC and a protease inhibitor: indinavir (IDV), ritonavir, or KNI-272. The IDV-treated virus was highly resistant to 3TC, ZDV, and IDV and accumulated protease mutations at positions M46I and V82F. A change from alanine to valine was observed in 4 of 10 clones in the P2 position of the p7-p1 Gag-protease cleavage site, linked to position M46I in the dominant viral quasispecies. Previous 3TC resistance did not impair the development of additional mutations in the protease and Gag-protease cleavage regions.


A computer-tool was created based on non-immersive virtual environments that can run online or with out an Internet connection. This software pretends to be an assistant tool in the teaching-learning process of Human senses and the therapy of lateral disorder and space location. The experiments lasted more than a week for group. The first sample was integrated by 20 children between 6 to 8 years old who have learning problems. They are receiving Euclidian Space therapy and studying human senses. The second group was integrated by 20 children without learning disabilities. This research suggests that virtual reality, nultimedia and Piaget's method helps the teaching- learning process and therapy of lateral and space location of their body.


Current freehand interactions with large displays rely on point & select as the dominant paradigm. However, constant hand movement in air for pointer navigation leads to hand fatigue quickly. We introduce summon & select, a new model for freehand interaction where, instead of navigating to the control, the user summons it into focus and then manipulates it. Summon & select solves the problems of constant pointer navigation, need for precise selection, and out-of-bounds gestures that plague point & select. We describe the design and conduct two studies to evaluate the design and compare it against point & select in a multi-button selection study. The results show that summon & select is significantly faster and has less physical and mental demand than point & select.


Published information on the synthesis and reactivity of chloro-derivatives of nitriles is summarised, and methods are examined for the preparation of such derivatives of acetonitrile, acrylonitrile, methacrylonitrile, crotononitrile, and benzonitrile. Research on the mechanism of reactions undergone by the derivatives is reported. A list of 113 references is included.


Advances in food biotechnology and food science in the early 1990s have opened the gates of new markets for genetically modified foods. A broad dispute over the use of foods derived from genetically modified organisms and other uses of genetic engineering in food production in terms of key scientific researches, their impact on health and eco-systems, food safety and food security, labelling and regulations, traceability is still lasting. Beside the scientifically, technical, ethical and regulators arguments, the economical aspects of the genetically modified food market is influenced by the social acceptance of it. Consumers' perception and their attitudes are different and depending on many factors. A survey of youth as undergraduate students of Constantin Brancoveanu University from Romania revealed certain differences in attitudes regarding the genetically modified foods that may be partially explained by the consumers' information. Referring the consumer behaviour, this study showed rather a tacit attitude of acceptance of the genetically modified food goods than a vehement rejection.


Considering the flexibility characteristic of advanced reservation (AR) requests, the problem of static routing, modulation, spectrum, and time assignment (RMSTA) of AR requests in elastic optical networks is studied in this paper, in order to deploy the spectrum resource economically and enable more requests to be served. The multi-objective integer linear program (ILP) model, which can minimize the maximum utilized frequency and time slot indices as well as find a trade-off between them, is used to formulate the RMSTA problem. Then the proportion optimal RMSTA (PO-RMSTA) heuristic algorithm with three sorting strategies is proposed to get the sub-optimal solutions. The PO-RMSTA algorithm and sorting strategies, ascending order of elastic time (AET), descending order of data volume (DDV), and ascending order of alternative schemes (AAS), are simulated in our work and proved to obtain the approximate optimal solutions. The sorting policy AET achieved the best performance when minimizing the maximum utilized frequency slot index, whereas the sorting policy DDV worked best when minimizing the maximum utilized time slot index. As for the compromise between two indices, both AET and AAS provided satisfying results.


A new global wellness paradigm is gradually emerging, the spiritual well-being of an individual. The article takes a close and meticulous look at real happiness and spiritual well being. It conceptualizes that people can obtain real happiness by being more compassionate and caring instead of always comparing and competing themselves with others. One can have comparison and competition with one's true self as one will always find that one's true self is always more caring and compassionate and thus in the process one can achieve congruence with one's true self i.e., the state of 'sachchidananda'.The lessons of wellness can be seen and learnt from Indian Epics too. Our epics are full of evidences and shlokas which give us direction for spiritual wellness. The article is concluded by saying that aiming for spiritual well-being not only makes a better human being but also a better society.


Recent research has examined overall trends in the experimental literature relating to students with emotional disturbance (ED). The current review was conducted to examine both the status of and trends in interventions designed to improve the academic functioning of students with ED. Fifty-five studies were included in the descriptive analysis, which spanned the years from 1975 to 2002. Descriptive dimensions of the research included participant demographics, settings, research designs, and dependent and independent variables. Results indicated (a) complete demographic information, especially race and socioeconomic status, was difficult to ascertain for many of the participants; (b) settings were generally special education classrooms; (c) researchers used predominantly single-subject designs; (d) treatment fidelity data were often absent; (e) few studies focused on women and girls or minorities; and (f) there has been a recent decline in both the number and type of studies published, particularly in the areas of self-management and peer tutoring. Limitations of the analysis and future research directions are examined.


In the present review, we give a short introduction into the history, philosophy and traditional diagnosis and therapy of Kampo, which has its origins in traditional Chinese medicine. The main focus is on pharmacogenomics of natural products derived from Kampo medicinal plants, with special emphasis on cancer treatment. One of these natural products with profound cytotoxicity against tumor cell lines is shikonin from the medicinal plant Lithospermum erythrorhizon. This compound has been selected to demonstrate how molecular determinants of response of tumor cells to Kampo-derived natural products can be investigated by microarray-based approaches. Synthetic or semi-synthetic derivatives of natural products from Kampo medicine may lead to novel drugs with improved features for cancer treatment. Kampo-derived natural products represent a valuable reservoir for individual tumour treatment strategies in the future.


Compound action potential (AP) thresholds and tuning curves were measured in the alligator lizard using techniques similar to those used with the mammal. For tone burst stimuli, the AP was a major component of the gross response, the electrical response to sound recorded by a wire electrode near the cochlea. The AP thresholds agreed well with threshold estimates based on single-fiber data. A forward masking paradigm produced AP tuning curves which resemble single-fiber tuning curves. A simultaneous masking paradigm produced curves which match the boundaries of single-fiber two-tone rate suppression. The AP thresholds and tuning curves provide useful information about the peripheral physiology of the ear of the alligator lizard.


This trial aimed to study the changes in the yield, composition, and fatty acid (FA) profile of ewes' milk during suckling and milking periods. Nineteen multiparous Najdi ewes were kept under identical management and feeding conditions during a 12-week trial that was divided into two periods. Milk samples were collected on each sampling day from the total yield during the suckling (3rd, 6th, and 9th week) and milking (12th week) periods. The milk yield and the total solids, fat, protein, and lactose contents of the milk remained constant throughout the suckling weeks, but the protein content increased and milk yield and lactose content decreased after weaning. There were no differences in milk saturated FA (SFA), unsaturated FA (UFA), and monounsaturated FA (MUFA) contents during the suckling and milking periods, whereas the polyunsaturated FA content increased during the milking period. There were no differences in the individual milk SFA during the weeks of suckling, but the contents of caproic acid (C6:0), caprylic acid (C8:0), margaric acid (C17:0), and stearic acid (C18:0) decreased. However, myristic acid (C14:0), lauric acid (C12:0), and isomers of pentadecanoic (C15:0) acid increased during the milking period. The percentage of vaccenic acid (C18:1 △ 11 t ), rumenic acid (C18:2 △ 9 c ,11 t ; conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)), ω-3 FA group, and the atherogenicity index did not differ during the suckling period, but increased after weaning in the 12th week of lactation. This study demonstrated that weaning lambs in Najdi ewes is probably a factor that strongly affects milk traits by changing yield, composition, and FA profile. Keywords: CLA, dairy ewes, milk fat, milk yield, stage of lactation


Vulval problems are common in gynaecological practice. Pain syndromes of the vulva should be considered once infection and dermatological causes of vulval symptoms have been excluded. This article covers vulval vestibulitis and dysaesthetic vulvodynia, the two subgroups of vulval pain syndromes.


Molecular reactors are miniature vessels for the assembly of reactants at the molecular level, in order to change the nature of chemical transformations. It seems probable that those that will find most immediate applications are those that change product ratios or give products which would not readily form in the absence of the reactors, and thereby afford easy access to materials that are otherwise difficult to obtain. Molecular machines consist of interrelated parts with separate functions and perform some kind of work, at the molecular level. Practical examples are likely to be relatively uncomplicated and not based on individual functions of single-molecule devices. Instead they will probably rely on extensive redundancy of the molecular components and their interactions and reactions, as well as of the machines themselves.


Direct in situ studies of the surface diffusion of isolated adsorbates at an electrochemical interface by high-speed scanning tunneling microscopy (video STM) are presented for sulfide adsorbates on Cu(100) in HCl solution. As revealed by a quantitative statistical analysis, the adsorbate motion can be described by thermally activated hopping between neighboring adsorption sites with an activation energy that increases linearly with electrode potential by 0.50 eV per V. This can be explained by changes in the adsorbate dipole moment during the hopping process and contributions from coadsorbates.


Nineteenth Century novelists frequently picture life beyond and across the edges of humanity—figuratively moving the 'posts' of humanity—a practice that this article calls 'posthumanisation'. Inspired by the accelerating as well as mutually reinforcing dynamics of colonial expansion, empiricism, new biological and scientific findings (Darwin, paleontology, and psychology), and the rise of industrialisation, prominent writers such as Mary Shelley, the Bronte sisters, and Joseph Conrad habitually blur human-animal boundaries. This article engages with versions of posthumanisation in selected novels by these authors—Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847), and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1898)—and the anonymously published The Woman of Colour (1808), examining how they engage either in critiquing the perfidious overlaps between posthumanisation and colonial discourse ( The Woman of Colour ; Frankenstein ) or blur Cartesian binaries between humans and animals to reinforce colonialism's narcissistic politics of non-relation (for example, see Gandhi, 2006 ; Simmons, 2007 ; and Drichel, 2018 ). The article foregrounds the extent to which a thriving colonial discourse and biological racism do not (necessarily) result in a 'fixing' of racial others on the side of 'animal' (and, as such, in their 'dehumanisation'), but rather in a strategic 'flexibilisation' of 'hum-animality' (see Ellis, 2018 ) in the interest of plausibilising white supremacy and the slavery system. Arguing for the merit of historicizing literary analysis as posthumanist scholarship directs its gaze to the past; building on race-critical contributions to posthumanist discourse (see, for example, Malm and Hornborg, 2014 ; Jackson, 2015 ; Jackson, 2020 ; Davis et al., 2019 ; and Yussof, 2019); and also engaging with the still-scarce scholarship on the overlaps of posthuman being and race relations in the context of Britain's 'imperial century' (see Ellis, 2018 ; and Jackson, 2020 ), this essay contributes to setting on a more solid, historical foundation a discourse that has repeatedly been criticised for engaging a 'racial' 'wilful blindness' ( Yusoff, 2018 ). The article thus contributes to diversifying not only historical approaches to 'proto-posthumanisms' as they are currently proliferating in the field but also, and by implication, current posthumanist self-understandings and research ethics.


A compact, robust and high performance front-end of a radar receiver is designed and demonstrated in this paper. The important parameters like noise figure, sensitivity, selectivity, dynamic range and tracking range are superior to that of the existing systems and facilitate online monitoring of the above important parameters. The gain and phase matching facility are incorporated. The local oscillator is integrated within the module which in turn reduces the losses as compare with the existing local oscillator, placed in the instrumentation cabin. The frequency, amplitude, delay between skin and transponder frequency can be controlled remotely by computer program. Therefore, the mixed mode operation (skin and transponder) of radar receiver is possible. Moreover, the SPDT switch is integrated in the same module for RF simulation to facilitate the three channel mono-pulse receiver calibration, receiver health monitoring and range calibration of precision coherent mono-pulse C-band radar. The components used are monolithic microwave integrated circuit based technologies with superior specifications, makes the total module miniaturized and reduced the hardware complications. The total power consumption is much less and improves the overall performance than the existing front-end. Defence Science Journal, Vol. 64, No. 4, July 2014, pp. 358-365, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.64.4245


Efficient communication in a NOW environment can be a challenging task. Depending on the application, the architecture of the nodes and the characteristics of other processes running on the nodes, different communication strategies can be appropriate. In this paper, we evaluate an adaptive scheme which selects between multiple communication strategies depending on the current situation. We focus on strategies for receiver notification under varying load conditions. Previous research has shown that in a non-dedicated environment, spin-block strategies can avoid scheduling anomalies which can cause several orders of magnitude of performance degradation. However, research on these strategies has focused on a fixed spin-delay. Our scheme achieves better performance than static spin-block schemes on workstation clusters with varying load.


This article describes the adaptation and validation of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) for use in investigating the qualities found in distance and hybrid education psycho-social learning environments in Spain. As Europe moves toward post-secondary student mobility, equanimity in access to higher education, and more standardised degree programs across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) the need for a high quality method for continually assessing the excellence of distance and hybrid learning environments has arisen. This study outlines how the English language DELES was adapted into the new Spanish-Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (S-DELES) for use with a Bachelor of Psychology and Criminology degree program offering both distance and hybrid education classes. We present the relationships between psycho-social learning environment perceptions and those of student affect. We also present the asynchronous aspects of the environment, scale means, and a comparison between the perceptions of distance education students and their hybrid education counterparts that inform the university about the baseline health of the information and communication technologies (ICT) environment within which the study was conducted.


Oedema was induced in one ear Of male mice of the CFLP strain with capsaicin solution (I0 gl/40 gg/ear). The development in time and the extent of the oedema were determined by the oedema-disk gravimetric technique. The maximum oedema was attained in less than 1 h, and there was, subsequently, a gradual decrease. The extent of the mouse ear oedema induced in this way and measured after 60 min was inhibited to a statistically significant degree and in a dose-dependent manner by the antihistamine chloropyramine, the antihistamine-antiserotonin cyproheptadine, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent piroxicam, the prostaglandin antagonist di-4-phloretin phosphate, and the lipoxygenase inhibitor nordihydroguairetic acid. The method proved suitable for the detection of oedema and for the biologically quantitative determination of the state of desensitization induced with capsaicin.


Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) was introduced into the microbiological routine more than 10 years ago. Since then it has almost replaced biochemical identification. It is unrivaled in terms of accuracy and cost. From a laboratory's perspective it would be an ideal method to replace classic susceptibility testing, that is Kirby-Baur agardiffusion or determination of minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs). First reports on possible assays for susceptibility testing are more than 10 years old. However, the developments during the last 5 years were substantial. This review focuses with some exceptions on the progress, which was achieved during the last decade.


Entrepreneurship studies have attributed to over-confidence decisions to start a new venture. Many decision situations, through which over-confidence is measured, entail some degrees of uncertainty, (e.g., related to own skill or to competition). The aspect of uncertainty is largely neglected in over-confidence studies or entrepreneurial research. Both uncertainty and over-confidence influence individuals' likelihood perceptions. Nevertheless, these two aspects are seldom jointly investigated, and the little evidence provides inconclusive results. In this study, we experimentally investigate how uncertainty, as a property of the situation, and over-confidence, as a characteristic of decision makers' beliefs, influence choice behavior. Our findings with Executive MBA participants show that over-confident decision makers choose less uncertain options for low likelihood outcomes and more uncertain options for high likelihood outcomes, contrary to neutral confidence decision makers, whose choices are in line with standard Prospect Theory predictions


!:..~ 30s ribosomal subunits and protein-free 168 RNA have been mildly hydrolyzed with pancreatic ribonuclease and the RNA fragments analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The protein-free RNA gives nine discrete fragments and the 308 subunits give six discrete fragments. A comparison of electrophoretic mobilities, indicates that at least three fragments from 168 RNA are distinct from the fragments from 308. The kinetics of the hydrolysis reaction is pseudo first-order for the protein-free 168 RNA and pseudo secondorder for the 308 ribosomes. The rate of hydrolysis of the proteinfree 168 RNA is much faster than that of the 308 subunit. These data suggest that in the protein-free 168 RNA there are certain regions exposed to the ribonuclease which are not exposed in the ribosome, and that this is due to either some shielding by the specific proteins or to a different conformation of the RNA in the ribosome.


I start with the inclusion of jazz in the category of new music in the transition phenomenon from Romanticism to the polystylism of the 20th century and until contemporary times. The work Collision in new music. Cross-border perspectives in the study, research and manifestation of jazz aims to identify some of the general approaches regarding the scientific investigation of jazz in universities around the world, study methods, means of promoting jazz musicians, etc. The work will also bring several personal opinions from some Romanian musicians on the study and research of jazz abroad: pianist Ion Baciu Jr. (Sweden), trombonist Robert Cozma (Germany), trumpeter Emil Bîzgă (U.S.A.) and others.


The objective of this study was to estimate differences in growth, plasma progesterone (P4) and age at puberty between white and natural colored Corriedale ewe lambs. Thirty ewe lambs with average age of 12 months were randomly allocated to genetic groups: white (WC, n = 15) and natural colored (NC, n = 15). Ewes were maintained under extensive grazing conditions on natural pasture, and herbage mass was estimated over a 28-day experimental period. Morphometric measurements (front and hind height, body length, thoracic perimeter, rump length and width, wool fiber length), body condition score (CC) and weight were taken at 28-day intervals. There was no effect of genetic group on body weight, average daily gain and morphometric measurements (P > 0.05). The WC ewe lambs had longer fiber length (P 0.05); however, it increased above 1ng ml-1 in NC from January onward and in WC from March onwards. Estrus was detected at the same time in both groups. The results of this study indicate that both genetic groups have similar growth patterns and ovarian activities.


INTRODUCTION
HIV/AIDS is a major global public health concern. In Pernambuco state, Brazil, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is among the highest in the country. Herein, a cross-sectional retrospective observational study was carried out with 811 PLWHA followed up at the Clinical Hospital, Pernambuco, Brazil, between 2013 and 2017.

METHODOLOGY
The patients' sociodemographic and behavioral data were obtained by interview. Information about HIV load and CD4 T lymphocyte count were obtained from patients' records. Data were analyzed for both the total number of PLWHA and gender.

RESULTS
Recife municipality had the highest number of PLWHA. Most PLWHA were 40-44 years old, male, brown ethnicity, heterosexual, single, with elementary education, used condoms regularly, shared sharp objects, had surgery, had no non-HIV sexual infection, did not receive transfusions, did not use injectable drugs, and had no tattoo. The median of first and last CD4 T lymphocyte counts were 241 and 549.5 cells/mm³, respectively. The first HIV load had a median of 14,882 copies/mL (IQR = 613-109,750 copies/mL). Regarding the last viral load, 63.74% had an undetectable load. All patients were using antiretroviral therapy, mean time of 5.9 (± 5.5) years. This epidemiological and medical profile was maintained when PLWHA were analyzed according to gender, except for the report of another sexually transmitted infection, in which 51.4% of men (268/521) reported having/or having had it.

CONCLUSIONS
The epidemiological profile of PLWHA in Pernambuco, Brazil, was described. This regional characterization is useful for directing public health policies, contributing to population-directed decision making.


Rejoinder to reaction by Stones et.al. (SIR 36) on Veenhoven's "Is happiness a trait?" (SIR 32). It is argued that the criticism pertains to another issue, another concept of happiness and another notion of trait. The initial question was whether a better society breeds happier people, and concerned fixedness of the 'absolute' happiness-level. The criticism is about permanence in 'relative' happiness-rank. These are different things: constancy in happiness-ranks in a population does not imply that average happiness-level remains the same. The question concerned happiness in the sense of life-satisfaction. The critics conceive happiness as a broader 'personality' syndrome. Personality may be fairly invariant, but the question was whether lifesatisfaction is. The initial notion of happiness 'trait' was quite specific, and concerned a disposition to judge life positively or negatively. The critics refer to 'trait' as continuity in all personal characteristics, including health. Again that is an other matter, with different implications for the question at stake. The criticism is framed in notions of psychological personality research. That approach may bear relevance for the question whether differences in happiness can be reduced. Yet it is not appropriate for answering the question at stake: that is, whether it is possible to raise the average level of happiness.


Software engineering as a discipline has for the last few decades tried to tackle the problem of software project failures. A software engineer's arsenal consists of various methods and techniques applicable to the plethora of different software projects. Initially the field focused on a rigid methodology where the methods follow a similar work-flow and focus on delivering a product based on the customer's requirements. This methodology, what can be called classic software development, is to a large extent based on academic research and observations. Lately another methodology, agile software development, has has garnered much traction. Agile software development, which is a collection of methods and techniques used in practice by experienced developers, puts more emphasis on individuals and delivering constantly changing software. Free and open source software has received a lot of attention in the recent years and is usually developed using a method that strongly resembles those of the agile software development methodology. However, unlike both agile and classic software development where the motivation for the development is extrinsic, free and open source development has traditionally been based on an intrinsic motivation of the developers themselves. The need to solve a personal problem is usually what sparks off development of free and open source software. The software and its development is opened up to others who can use it as a base to solve their own problems. This leads to general software that solves the needs of many. Usually user solve their problems by hiring contractors to develop bespoke software. This opens the question of whether open source software can benefit users who do not possess any development skills. The ideological foundation of open source software is free software. Therefore, when we look at it more closely, the question revolves around the four freedoms of


This thesis unveils the potential and utilization of similarity measure for forest change detection. A new simple similarity approach based on local mutual information is used to detect any significant changes in the image of forest areas. Point similarity measure is
defined as a measure which is used to calculate the similarity of individual pixels. The basic idea of the proposed method is that any change pixel will be maximally dissimilar, i.e. the value of similarity of these pixels will be low. The method has been tested to detect and identify changes caused by plant growth and plant loss in four sub-areas of Matang Mangrove Forest, Perak. Image of SPOT 5 satellite taken from band 1, band 2,band 3, and band 4 with the resolution of 10meter dated on 5 August 2005 and 13 June 2007 has been used to test the method. It is then compared with the results of Principal Component Analysis 1 (PCA 1). The plant loss areas has been successfully identified as any pixel with the value of local mutual information less than and equals to zero. The method has been refined to accurately detect changes caused by the growth areas by thresholding the histogram of the average percentage of difference between joint probability and marginal probability. Results from the experiment showed that a threshold value of zero is the best threshold value to identify between changed and unchanged areas in all cases of the images. In overall, band 3 gives the best results of forest change detection compared to the other bands in all cases. Compared to the image differencing and normalized differenced vegetation index (NDVI), the proposed method not only can solve the problem on selecting the threshold value but also provides the highest percentage of successful classification at the fourth, second and first study area with the value of 95.07%, 89.47% and 87.66% respectively. From the results, it has
been concluded that local mutual information is not only can be effectively used for change detection technique but also can be used to classify the plant growth and plant
loss areas.


Abstract : MOPAC is a general-purpose, semi-empirical molecular orbital program for the study of chemical reactions involving molecules, ions, and linear polymers. It implements the semi-empirical Hamiltonians MNDO, AM1 and MINDO/3 and combines the calculations of vibrational spectra, thermodynamic quantities, isotopic substitution effects, and force constants in a fully integrated program. Elements parametrized at the MNDO level include H, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Al, Si, P, S, C1, Cr, Ge, Br, Sn, Hg, Pb, and I. Within the electronic part of the calculation, molecular and localized orbitals excited states up to sextets, chemical bond indices, charges, etc. are computed. Both intrinsic and dynamic reaction coordinates can be calculated. A transition-state location routine and two transition-state optimizing routines are available for studying chemical reactions.


Study Design. Rat lumbar discs comprising nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus, and cartilaginous endplates were cultured for 1 week in a specialized media containing either TGF-β1 or TGF-β3. Role of TGF-β isoforms on cell function was evaluated. Objective. To develop an in vitro organ culture of rat intervertebral disc and evaluate effects of TGF-β3 on disc cell function. Summary of Background Data. An in vitro model system is of considerable value in understanding the cell biology of the intervertebral disc. Development of a useful organ culture model would enhance understanding of disc function in health and disease. Materials and Methods. Rat lumbar intervertebral discs were maintained in organ culture in media supplemented with TGF-β3 or TGF-β1 for 1 week. Tissue morphology was studied using routine histologic, histochemical and immunohistochemical techniques. Cell function was assessed by gene expression, sulfate incorporation, and Western blot analysis. Results. After 1 week in culture with TGF-β3 and TGF-β1, the gross morphology and tissue architecture of the disc were preserved. TUNEL analysis indicated that there was no evidence of cell death in the nucleus pulposus or the anulus fibrosus. The level of Alcian blue staining in the nucleus pulposus was similar to that of the freshly isolated disc. However, when compared with TGF-β1, TGF-β3 elevated the expression of critical matrix genes, enhanced [35S] incorporation into proteoglycans, preserved the expression of TGF-β receptors, and decreased aggrecan turnover. There was also increased activation (phosphorylation) of ERK, a critical signaling protein. Moreover, inhibition of ERK activity, in the presence TGF-β3, resulted in suppression of collagen Type II, aggrecan, TGF-β-RI, TGF-β-RII and TGF-β-RIII mRNA expression. Conclusions. TGF-β3 maintains the phenotype of disc cells in organ culture. It exerts this effect, in part, by elevating the levels of activated ERK1/2, which in turn regulates the expression of TGF-β-RI and TGF-β-RII.


Building on the results of two demonstration projects carried out in the UK, this paper develops the notion of 'work clusters' as an organizational approach to supply chain integration and the application of concurrent engineering principles. The organizational design principles are presented together with the process used to set up clusters at project level, and the impact of the clustering arrangement on the re-engineering of the design and construction process is discussed. It is argued that the clustering arrangement successfully supported efforts to improve value, eliminate inefficiencies, and reduce costs in the project. Evidence concerning the difficulties, barriers and costs associated with the implementation of the clustering approach is also addressed. The paper concludes with some reflections on the use of clusters and on issues for future research.


The FLIMFLAM survey is collecting spectroscopic data of field galaxies near fast radio burst (FRB) sight lines to constrain key parameters describing the distribution of matter in the Universe. In this work, we leverage the survey data to determine the source of the excess extragalactic dispersion measure (DM), compared to Macquart relation estimates of four FRBs: FRB20190714A, FRB20200906A, FRB20200430A, and FRB20210117A. By modeling the gas distribution around the foreground galaxy halos and galaxy groups of the sight lines, we estimate DMhalos, their contribution to the FRB DMs. The FRB20190714A sight line shows a clear excess of foreground halos which contribute roughly two-thirds of the observed excess DM, thus implying a sight line that is baryon dense. FRB20200906A shows a smaller but nonnegligible foreground halo contribution, and further analysis of the intergalactic medium is necessary to ascertain the true cosmic contribution to its DM. FRB20200430A and FRB20210117A show negligible foreground contributions, implying a large host galaxy excess and/or progenitor environment excess.


Monitoring wheat growth under different weather and ecological conditions is vital for a reliable supply of wheat yield estimations. Remote sensing techniques have been applied in the agricultural sector for monitoring crop biophysical properties and predicting crop yields. This study explored the application of Land Surface Temperature (LST)-vegetation index relationships for winter wheat in order to determine indices that are sensitive to changes in the wheat health status. The indices were derived from Landsat 8 scenes over the wheat growing area across Bloemfontein, South Africa. The vegetation abundance indices evaluated were the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Green Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI). The moisture indices evaluated were the Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) and the Normalised Difference Moisture Index (NDMI). The results demonstrated that LST exhibited an opposing trend with the vegetation abundance indices and an analogous trend with the moisture indices. Furthermore, NDVI proved to be a better index for winter wheat abundance as compared to the GNDVI. The NDWI proved to be a better index for determining water stress in winter wheat as compared to the NDMI. These results indicate that NDVI and NDWI are very sensitive to LST. These indices can be comprehensive indicators for winter wheat health status. These pilot results prove that LST-vegetation index relationships can be used for agricultural applications with a high level of accuracy.


OBJECTIVES
To develop and evaluate time series models to predict the daily number of patients visiting the Emergency Department (ED) of a Korean hospital.

METHODS
Data were collected from the hospital information system database. In order to develop a forecasting model, we used, 2 years of data from January 2007 to December 2008 data for the following 3 consecutive months were processed for validation. To establish a Forecasting Model, calendar and weather variables were utilized. Three forecasting models were established: 1) average; 2) univariate seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average (SARIMA); and 3) multivariate SARIMA. To evaluate goodness-of-fit, residual analysis, Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion were compared. The forecast accuracy for each model was evaluated via mean absolute percentage error (MAPE).

RESULTS
The multivariate SARIMA model was the most appropriate for forecasting the daily number of patients visiting the ED. Because it's MAPE was 7.4%, this was the smallest among the models, and for this reason was selected as the final model.

CONCLUSIONS
This study applied explanatory variables to a multivariate SARIMA model. The multivariate SARIMA model exhibits relativelyhigh reliability and forecasting accuracy. The weather variables play a part in predicting daily ED patient volume.


This work has been financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.


Background Dementia Friends is a very successful and influential social campaign. The University of Manchester, Greene King and EasyJet have all supported this initiative. The first annual report on The Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia DH (May 2013) cites the formal launch of the Dementia Friends initiative (February 2013) with the stated aim of there being 1 million Dementia Friends by March 2015, this target was recently achieved. The Dementia Friends programme aims to increase awareness and understanding of dementia. Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group Intentions (2014) has identified dementia care as a priority in the CCG's plans for 2015–16 with several significant initiatives Aim We saw an opportunity as a hospice to be part ofa national initiative which helps address a local healthcare priority and would increase numbers of the general public crossing our threshold. Approach used Three members of the education team, a volunteer and Vice President all committed to the Dementia Friends mission, trained to become Dementia Friends Champions and started to deliver sessions both to staff and the general public. The project has the firm backing of our Hospice Board. Outcomes We have now delivered 44 sessions. We have not kept formal records of attendance as per Alzheimer's Society data protection guidance but would envisage that we have had over 600 attendees with at least 250 members of the public attending. Conclusions We have helped to break down several taboos: You can live well with dementia with support and understanding, hospices are not just about cancer and it is safe for members of the public to step over the threshold. Application to hospice practice Help the Hospices (2013) set out some priorities, engaging more with the community and being at the heart of community are one: this project has helped achieved this.


The prevention of solids formation and their deposition are major challenges to design and operate any subsea hydrocarbon production systems. One of the most challenging issues is the management of paraffin/wax. As the water depth increases, at the low temperatures of subsea conditions, hydrocarbons may precipitate as wax, which can solidify and restrict the flow. During shutdown of a subsea production system wax gel may form and solidify when a crude oil cools below its pour point causing operational problems from downhole to the processing facilities. The pur-pose of this chapter is to address the paraffin/wax formation and deposition issues to properly design a subsea production system consisting of pipe-in-pipe flowline and flexible riser under deepwater environment. A field specific example is presented to manage the wax formation/deposition and prevent paraffin/wax deposition risks in an effective way during the normal and the shut-in operations of the subsea production system. This study illustrates that the subsea hardware, such as water stop and equipment valves, along with the flowline, riser and jumper should be sufficiently insulated in order to prevent any cold spots in the production system, and achieve sufficient cooldown time for the shut-in operations.


An overview of the formation of calcium phosphate under in vitro environment on the surface of a range of bioactive materials (e.g. from silicate, borate, and phosphate glasses, glass-ceramics, bioceramics to metals) based on recent literature is presented in this review. The mechanism of bone-like calcium phosphate (i.e. hydroxyapatite) formation and the test protocols that are either already in use or currently being investigated for the evaluation of the bioactivity of biomaterials are discussed. This review also highlights the effect of chemical composition and surface charge of materials, types of medium (e.g. simulated body fluid, phosphate-buffered saline and cell culture medium) and test parameters on their bioactivity performance. Finally, a brief summary of the biomedical applications of these newly formed calcium phosphate (either in the form of amorphous or apatite) is presented.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify issues that are critical to developing complex, business-to-business products and discuss implications for vendor firms. Design/methodology/approach - This paper employs the critical review approach to current complex product literature and draws from relevant literature streams in engineering, management, and marketing to propose a conceptual framework. Findings - The critical review of the complex products research reveals the following as critical issues for research and practice in the development of complex products: definition, internal and external complexity, product and process complexity, standardized to customized complex products continuum, component and process modularity, and operant resources. Research limitations/implications - This paper identifies six specific operant resources that are critical to the development of complex products and proposes a conceptual framework. Clearly, more needs to be done in terms of theoretical and empirical research with reference to the development of complex, business-to-business products. For example, researchers could empirically test the proposed framework; identify other relevant operant resources; and critique the proposed framework and develop a new, more comprehensive framework. Practical implications - Firms that develop complex products could focus on developing the six operant resources that can help them become competent in developing complex products; and developing organizational structures and policies and providing an organizational environment that is conducive to developing robust internal and external social capital. Originality/value - The proposed conceptual framework provides a theoretical foundation for practitioners and researchers to build on.


There is a move towards partnership working across the global north and south but there remain questions about how to do it most effectively. This paper reports on the findings from a project that built a partnership between women in Scotland and India in order to transfer knowledge about Indian Self Help Groups. By creating peer to peer relationships that challenged traditional roles of 'teacher' and 'learner', the project was effective in transferring learning from south to north and generating meaningful outcomes for those involved. Despite the contextual differences, the successful transfer of key components of the model, savings, and loans, has led to a sense of empowerment in the Scottish women that is comparable to their Indian counterparts. As the project continues, it will be important that the dialogue between the partners continues, so there is ongoing learning as the Scottish groups expand and develop.


Without being informed of financial management skills, many people are struggling financially as they are unaware of how to plan and manage money to make wise decisions regarding their finances. They are usually careless with spending money and do not plan effectively for their future. Most times, they would rely on cash in hand rather than doing effective planning to save or invest. Improper and inadequate planning can be a result of lacking financial knowledge and low literacy. This study investigates several factors of education, income, marital status, upbringing and influence, as well as its impacts toward financial literacy rate among millennials in Malaysia. This study employs quantitative research with primary data gathered using questionnaire from millennials residing in Malaysia. Results and findings of this study indicates that there is positive and significant relationship between education level and level of income with financial literacy rate of millennials in Malaysia.


Hydraulic fracturing, used to economically produce natural gas from shale formations, has raised environmental concerns. The objective of this study is to assess one of the largely unexamined issues, which is the potential for slow contamination of shallow groundwater due to hydraulic fracturing at depth via fluid migration along conductive faults. We compiled publically available data of shale gas basins and hydraulic fracturing operations to develop a two‐dimensional, single‐phase, multispecies, density‐dependent, finite‐element numerical groundwater flow and mass transport model. The model simulates hydraulic fracturing in the vicinity of a permeable fault zone in a generic, low‐recharge, regional sedimentary basin in which shallow, active groundwater flow occurs above nearly stagnant brine. A sensitivity analysis of contaminant migration along the fault considered basin, fault and hydraulic fracturing parameters. Results show that specific conditions are needed for the slow contamination of a shallow aquifer: a high permeability fault, high overpressure in the shale unit, and hydrofracturing in the upper portion of the shale near the fault. Under such conditions, contaminants from the shale unit reach the shallow aquifer in less than 1000 years following hydraulic fracturing, at concentrations of solutes up to 90% of their initial concentration in the shale, indicating that the impact on groundwater quality could be significant. Important implications of this result are that hydraulic fracturing should not be carried out near potentially conductive faults, and that impacts should be monitored for long timespans. Further work is needed to assess the impact of multiphase flow on contaminant transport along natural preferential pathways.


Biophotonics is a subject related to photonic phenomena in biological media, e.g. living tissues; it can be regarded as a parallel term to "Biomedical Optics" or "Biooptics", also frequently used in scientific community. A Master level sub-program "Biomedical Optics" was originally developed at University of Latvia and started in Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in year 1995. The Curriculum (total 80 credits) includes special subjects "Biomedical Optics – 1" (tissue optics and optical bio-sensing), "Biomedical Optics – 2"(lasers in medicine), "Medical Lightguides", "Anatomy", "Physiology", "English Terminology of Biomedical Optics" etc., as well as laboratory training (6 student labs) and Master project. The studies take four semesters – three for lectures and practical training, and one for the Master project. Details of the study programs and the practical experience gained over 12 years will be discussed in this presentation. The main conclusions are: Biophotonics is a rapidly developing area, therefore every-year updates of the program content are necessary; The students are enthusiastic about their studies, but the lack of any textbook in this field makes studies difficult; considerable self-efforts of the students are requested; Internet resources may be useful in many cases; however, some of the Biophotonics items are presented there incompletely or even totally wrong; how to get rid of them? WebCT has proved to be a useful tool for Biophotonics studies; Specialized student laboratories are very helpful, but expensive; the experience gained so far indicates to need of a professional inter-university metodology; More efficient international collaboration in the field of education and training on Biophotonics is needed in future.


Established anatomical morphometric characteristics of Sertoli cells in the simulation of varicocele and after treatment. After modeling varicocele perimeter and diameter of the cells and their nuclei was significantly decreased with increasing periods of varicocele. After undergoing surgery to Ivanissevich increased performance area, perimeter and diameter of Sertoli cells and their nuclei, but not enough to normalize their function. Forming operation between veins microvascular anastomosis using the method gives better results Sertoli cell regeneration compared to traditional obstructive operations because it normalizes the nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio and thereby creating more favorable conditions for the restoration of spermatogenic function.


Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is marked by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Experimental studies have reported increased theta activity and reduced beta activity on electroencephalography (EEG), although theta wave tends to appear during meditative, drowsy, hypnotic, or sleeping states. Aims: We aimed to study EEG changes in children with significant severity of ADHD. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was designed for the children with ADHD presenting to the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Department (OPD) of IHBAS. Methodology: A total of 33 ADHD children in the age group of 5–12 years attending OPD were included in the study after qualifying the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study. DSM-5 criteria were used to make the diagnosis of ADHD and severity was assessed using Conners' Rating Scale-Revised Parent short version. The children with more than 50% score on the Conners Scale were included in the study. The quantification of the recorded EEG was done using Fast Fourier Transformation by New Natus NeuroWorks computer software. Statistical Analysis: The data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Results: Around 3/4th of participants in the study showed elevated theta: beta ratio results on qEEG. Conclusions: Although ADHD is marked by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, children with ADHD showed marked elevated theta: beta ratio indicating raised slow-wave changes in cortical activity, thus concluding quantitative EEG as a promising biomarker in children with ADHD.


The aim of this review is to provide biocrystallographers who intend to tackle protein-crystallization with theory and practical examples. Crystallization involves two separate processes, nucleation and growth, which are rarely completely unconnected. Here we give theoretical background and concrete examples illustrating protein crystallization. We describe the nucleation of a new phase, solid or liquid, and the growth and transformation of existing crystals obtained by primary or secondary nucleation or by seeding. Above all, we believe that a thorough knowledge of the phase diagram is vital to the selection of starting position and path for any crystallization experiment.


Transfer of digital medical images between multiple parties requires the assurance of image identity and integrity, which can be achieved through image watermarking. This raises concerns for loss in viewer performance due to degradation of image quality. Here we describe an approach to ensure that impact on the image quality is well below the threshold of visual perceptibility. The principles on which this approach rests are the choice of a suitably light payload, and the use of different watermarking methods and parameters for different medical image types. We provide examples of this approach applied to MR, CT and CR images


OBJECTIVE
Cytomorphologic differentiation of metastatic breast carcinoma from non breast metastases in cytological materials can be difficult. Current breast immunocytochemical markers have low sensitivities. Transcription factor GATA 3 is a promising marker for detecting breast differentiation in cytological materials. The aim of the study was to assess the diagnostic value of GATA 3 as a breast differentiation marker in metastatic cytological materials and to compare it with expression of mammaglobin and gross cystic disease fluid protein-15 (GCDFP-15).

MATERIAL AND METHOD
We retrospectively retrieved 133 cases of metastatic breast carcinoma from the archive the of Cytology Unit between December 2013 and June 2015. They included 77 fine needle aspiration and 56 serous effusion samples. Forty-five cytological materials from non mammary metastatic tumors were used as a control. Immunostaining was performed on cell blocks for the presence of GATA 3, mammaglobin and GCDFP-15.

RESULTS
GATA 3 nuclear staining was detected in 82.7% of metastatic breast carcinomas, and 11.1% of metastatic non mammary adenocarcinomas (p < 0.001). GATA 3 sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy were 82.7%, 88.9%, 95.7%, 63.5% and 84.3%, respectively. Mammaglobin and GCDFP-15 staining of metastatic breast carcinoma cases was positive in 70.7% and 47.1%, respectively. GATA 3 staining was significantly higher compared with mammaglobin and GCDFP-15 (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
GATA 3 is more sensitive marker than mammaglobin and GCDFP-15 for diagnosing metastatic breast carcinoma in cytological cell block materials. Adding mammaglobin to GATA 3 resulted in improvement in its sensitivity. GATA 3 was occasionally positive in some metastatic non mammary carcinoma that may cause misdiagnosis.


This is a six months prospective study of rape cases seen in the study centre. Rape cases are relatively common with an average of 17 cases seen monthly. Children from poor parents are the most vulnerable group affected with peak occurring between 11-15 years. Late reporting of these cases in health facilities often undermines the quality of care and the quality of forensic evidences generated from such consultations. There is therefore a need for a more holistic approach in tackling the menace of this evil in the society Keywords : Rape, Victims, Benin City.


The flow of polymeric liquids in narrow confinements with a rectangular cross section, in the presence of electrical double layers is analyzed here. Our analysis is motivated by the fact that many of the previous studies on the flow of complex fluids tend to focus on highly idealized parallel plate channels, which are markedly different from the rectangular ducts, used in many experiments and devices. We consider the combined electroosmotic and pressure driven flows as well as the streaming potential resulting from a mechanically driven flow. We use two distinct constitutive relations to model the polymeric liquids, namely the simplified exponential Phan-Thien-Tanner (sePTT) model and the Giesekus model, both of which are non-linear viscoelastic models, capable of capturing the shear thinning behavior. We establish that the applied electric field may have a strong influence on the overall flow rate, which rapidly increases with the field strength as well as the extent of viscoelasticity of the fluid. Viscoelasticity and shear thinning behavior also enhance the streaming potential by several fold as compared to a Newtonian medium. We demonstrate that the aspect ratio of a channel has a bigger influence on the net throughput and the streaming potential, when the extent of viscoelasticity is relatively large. We illustrate that for sePTT fluids, the flow is strictly unidirectional, while for Giesekus fluids, secondary flows are inevitably present on account of their non-zero second normal stress coefficient. Although the electric field does not change the overall patterns of these secondary flows, their magnitude does depend on the imposed field strength for combined flows.


The objective was to evaluate the effect of feeding increasing amounts of essential fatty acids (FA) in milk replacer (MR) during the first 60 d of life on growth, health, and immunity of Holstein calves. Calves were born from dams fed low concentrations of total and essential FA during the lasT2 mo of pregnancy. Newborn calves were blocked by sex and parity of the dam and assigned randomly to receive 1 of 4 MR treatments (T). Hydrogenated coconut oil and soybean oil were mixed with emulsifier and commercial MR powder to prepare the following 4 MR containing 0.119 and 0.007 (T1), 0.187 and 0.017 (T2), 0.321 and 0.036 (T3), and 0.593 and 0.076 (T4) g of intake per kg of metabolic body weight (BW(0.75)) of linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid, respectively. At 30 d of life, concentrations of essential FA (linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid) in liver increased, whereas concentrations of C12:0, C14:0, C16:0, and C20:3n-9 decreased linearly with increasing intake of essential FA. Body weight gain and feed efficiency were optimized when male calves consumed T2, whereas gain by female calves tended to increase linearly with increasing intake of essential FA during the first 30 d of age. However, these responses to treatment were not maintained after initiation of concentrate feeding at 31 d of life. Over the 60-d preweaning period, wither and hip heights were improved in both sexes as intake of essential FA increased up to T3. Some measures of health and immunity were affected by replacing some coconut oil with soybean oil. Severity of diarrhea tended to decrease linearly; plasma concentrations of haptoglobin during diarrhea were lower in T2, T3, and T4; phagocytosis by blood neutrophils tended to peak for calves fed T2; in vitro proliferation of stimulated blood lymphocytes was greater for calves fed T2; in vitro stimulated blood cells produced more IFN-γ (up to T3 for males and T2 for females), concentrations of serum IgG against ovalbumin injections were increased in males fed T2 or T3; and skin-fold thickness increased in response to an intradermal antigen injection of all calves fed up to T4. Across sex and under the conditions of the present study, mean daily intakes of linoleic acid between 3 to 5g/d and intakes of α-linolenic acid between 0.3 and 0.6g/d during the first 30 d of life promoted growth of preweaned Holstein calves, possibly by improving their immune status.


It is useful to place John Fedders' imaginative proposal of "waiver by conduct" in the broader context of increasing interaction among national regulatory systems. This increase in interaction is the inevitable consequence of the internationalization of business, with its intensive use of fast transportation and telecommunication. It has exhibited itself in a variety of areas. For example, in the more traditional area of conflict of laws, legal orders tend to implement each others' public policy rules with greater frequency. Art. VIII, 2(b) of the IMF Treaty, and Art. 7 of the EEC Treaty of 1980 concerning the private international law of obligations [1], illustrate a growing awareness of the interdependence of legal systems. In criminal law, however, treaties of mutual assistance are often inapplicable to violations concerning the economic policies of other states, despite the fact that they have been in force for a long time. This is due to the fact that the violated rules are often too specific, transient, and alien, if not antagonistic in their aims, to the policies of the enforcing state. Understandably, states are loath to assist in the implementation of other states' economic or foreign relations policies, especially when those are at variance with their own. Insider trading is a good example in point. Whereas in the United States it constitutes a serious violation of important public policy rules, in many West European states it is a mere violation of the rules of ethics or of market-place fairness. Thus, in those states, even today, a violation of these rules is not generally frowned upon by the law. In fact, it would be considered quite unacceptable for a judge in such jurisdictions to set aside the jurisdiction's public policy, such as the one concerning bank secrecy, and give precedence to rules which in his system belong to an inferior non-legal order. Conflicts between legal systems, arising from differing public policy rules, have been solved mainly in one of two ways: by treaty or by extraterritorial application of these rules. The latter alternative is often used against the will of


In this paper, we investigate the application of the concatenated orthogonal/PN spreading scheme for a cellular direct sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system with integrated traffic. The performance of the system is evaluated in terms of user capacity. In order to incorporate traffic with a wide range of source rates, line rates (adjusted data rates before spreading) have to be selected for transmission. For traffic with source rates higher than the line rate of concern, we propose the use of concatenated orthogonal/PN spreading sequences to subdivide a high rate stream into parallel line rate streams. Therefore, in this paper, we first analyze the properties of the concatenated orthogonal/PN spreading sequences. The results are used to evaluate their performance for homogenous voice traffic in various cellular mobile environments with multipath fading, lognormal shadowing, and path loss. Our results show that the proposed spreading scheme offers a significant improvement in the forward link capacity as compared to using the conventional nonconcatenated long PN sequence, especially if the multipath fading is Rician (e.g., microcellular and indoor picocellular systems). Incorporating the notion of line rate, we then evaluate the performance of a system with integrated voice and video traffic. Special emphasis is placed on the effect of line rate selection on the overall capacity which leads to the optimal selection of line rates.


We analyze TESS photometry of DMPP-1 (HD 38677; TIC 66560666), a nearby F8V star hosting hot super-Earth planets and a warm Neptune. Using the Transit Least Squares algorithm and other methods we find a transit signal at days with depth ppm and false alarm probability 1.6%. This is shallower than hitherto published TESS discoveries. The 3.285 day signal is recovered for several, but not all, methods for detrending stellar astrophysical variability. Further observations are needed to improve the significance of the detection. If this transit were due to an Earth-like rocky planet it would have been detected in the RV data, but it is not. The TESS data cover seven individual transits, one of which is consistent with zero depth. The insolation of the putative planet is 990 S⊕, typical of fluxes experienced by the three known catastrophically disintegrating exoplanets (CDEs). The transits can be self-consistently attributed to a CDE with a mass below the RV detection threshold. We searched for transits of the known RV planets, finding null results and detection thresholds of <100 ppm, which we quantify for each. The DMPP-1 planetary system was discovered as a consequence of circumstellar gas attributed to ablation of hot planets. The RV planets may have been ablated to near-pure iron cores. We place limits on the orbital inclinations of the RV planets where the expected transit depth exceeds the detection threshold. If the 3.2854 day transit detection is confirmed, e.g., with CHEOPS photometry, DMPP-1 would be a first-rate target for James Webb Space Telescope spectroscopy.


A new method to design microwave filter with multiple-band/multiple-level response is proposed. The modified Yule-Walker equation is used to define the frequency-domain response of filter in the Z domain. To implement a filter having transfer function in the Z domain, an equal-length transmission-line configuration is employed to emulate the filter. A band-pass filter a dual-band band-pass filter and a dual-level band-pass filter are implemented and their frequency responses are measured to illustrate the validity of this design method.


BACKGROUND
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a compact high-speed imaging technology which uses infrared light to acquire cross-sectional images of tissue on the micrometer scale. Because OCT images are based on the optical backscattering properties of tissue, changes in tissue optical properties due to surgical laser ablation should be detectable using this technique. In this work, we examine the feasibility of using real-time OCT imaging to guide the placement and observe the dynamics of surgical laser ablation in a variety of tissue types.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
More than 65 sites on five ex vivo rat organ tissue types were imaged at eight frames per second before, during, and after laser ablation. Ablation was performed with a coincident continuous wave argon laser operating at 514-nm wavelength and varying exposure powers and durations. Following imaging, tissue registration was achieved using microinjections of dye followed by routine histologic processing to confirm the morphology of the ablation site.

RESULTS
High-speed OCT imaging at eight frames per second permitted rapid tissue orientation and guided ablation in numerous organ specimens. Acquisition rates were fast enough to capture dynamic changes in optical backscatter which corresponded to thermal tissue damage during laser ablation.

CONCLUSIONS
The ability of high-resolution high-speed OCT to guide laser ablation and image the dynamic changes suggests a role in image-guided surgical procedures, such as the ablation of neoplasms. Future in vivo studies are necessary to demonstrate performance intraoperatively.


We propose a new shape-from-shading (SFS) algorithm which replaces the brightness constraint with an intensity gradient constraint. This is a global approach which obtains the solution by the minimization of an error function over the entire image. Through the linearization of the gradient of the reflectance map and the discretization of the surface gradient, the intensity gradient can be expressed as a linear function of the surface height. A quadratic error function, which involves the intensity gradient constraint and the traditional smoothness constraint, is minimized efficiently by solving a sparse linear system using the multigrid technique. Neither the information at singular points nor the information at occluding boundaries is needed for the initialization of the height. Results for real images are presented to show the robustness of the algorithm, and the execution time is demonstrated to prove its efficiency.


We investigate feedback laws used to control multiple robots moving together in a formation. We propose a method for controlling formations that uses only local sensor-based information, in a leader-follower motion. We use methods of feedback linearization to exponentially stabilize the relative distance and orientation of the follower, and show that the zero dynamics of the system are also (asymptotically) stable. We demonstrate in simulation the use of these algorithms to control six robots moving around an obstacle. These types of control laws can be used to control arbitrarily large numbers of robots moving in very general types of formations.


A 44-year-old male with type 2 diabetes mellitus presented with worsening nausea and vomiting day 3 post open right partial nephrectomy. His dapagliflozin (sodium-glucose linked transporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i)) was continued perioperatively. Initially, the patient recovered as expected; however, on day 3, he exhibited symptoms in keeping with post-operative ileus and was managed accordingly. Other than tachypnoea (respiratory rate 30), observations were unremarkable. Highest blood glucose level was 7.8 mmol/L. A blood gas revealed an acute metabolic acidosis (pH 7.28, bicarbonate 8 mmol/L, partial pressure of carbon dioxide 20 mmHg, base excess −15.1 mmol/L and anion gap 28 mmol/L) and the renal/endocrine team was consulted with a subsequent finding of a blood capillary ketone of 4.7 mmol/L. The patient was diagnosed with euglycaemic diabetic ketoacidosis (euDKA) on day 7. He was treated with standard DKA protocol and the patient normalized both symptomatically and biochemically within 12 h of initiation of treatment (Table 1). The patient was transitioned from intravenous to subcutaneous insulin, and was discharged day 11. The exact mechanism of euDKA caused by SGLT2i in perioperative patients is unknown. It may be associated with glucosuria blunting normal physiological stresses in surgical patients resulting in increased risk of lipolysis and ketogenesis. This mechanism results in normal or mildly elevated blood glucose levels which then masquerade the underlying DKA making recognition difficult. Multidisciplinary perioperative planning may be of benefit in surgical patients on an SGLT2i. euDKA requires a high index of suspicion and early detection with ketone testing may be appropriate. Standard DKA treatment can easily reverse this potentially lifethreatening condition. It is recommended that SGLT2i is ceased at least 3 days before an operation and restarted once the patient is eating and drinking. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first urological case reported in the literature. Reference


Portland cement (PC) is a ceramic hydraulic cement which has been used in construction for decades and more recently for dental applications. PCs possess high durability and compressive strength and demonstrate good biological responses, that are generating interest as a potential material for orthopaedic applications. The present study investigated the addition of porogens to induce large macropores e.g. > 100 µm to promote potential bone ingrowth, whilst retaining appropriate mechanical and physical properties for vertebroplasty used to stabilise fractured vertebral bodies.
The cements containing 20 wt% bismuth oxide (radiopacifying agent) and 5 wt% calcium chloride (setting accelerant) were prepared using a range of powder-to-liquid ratios and porogens (including mannitol, sucrose and sodium bicarbonate or foaming agents) were added from 1-20 wt% to induce macroporosity either after or during setting of the cement. Increasing the concentration of sugars increased the initial setting time 3-fold, whilst causing the cement paste to behave as a liquid. The compressive strengths of modified cements were reduced by up to 90 % after 7 days of storage through increasing flaws and porosity. The macrostructural analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed no major difference between the modified cements and controls. 10 wt% foamed gelatine (FG) was found to improve the viscosity of the paste so that it was readily injectable, and demonstrated sufficient cohesion after injection. FG doubled the setting time approximately and generated large interconnected pores ranging from 100-400 µm in diameter according to SEM images. The compressive strengths of foamed cements were sufficiently high after 7 and 30 days of storage to stabilise fractured vertebral bodies.
The addition of 10 wt% FG has shown the potential to modify PC by inducing large pores, whilst maintaining high injectability and compressive strength, which warrants further testing for clinical application in verterbroplasty.


An imaging mass spectrometer is an analytical instrument that can determine the spatial distribution of chemical compounds on complex surfaces. The output of the device is a multi-spectral datacube; a three-dimensional (3D) dataset in which the xy-dimension represents the surface position and the z-dimension represents the mass spectral distribution. Analysts try to discover correlations in spectral profiles and spatial distributions inside a datacube. New technological developments allow mass spectrometric imaging on a higher spatial and spectral resolution. In this paper we present a parametric visualization technique which allows an analyst to examine spectral and spatially correlated patterns on the highest possible resolution. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to decompose the datacube into several discriminating components. We represent these extracted features as abstract geometric shapes and use three parameters to allow for data exploration. The first parameter thresholds the spectral contribution at which an extracted component is visualized. The level of detail the shapes is controlled by a second parameter and a third parameter determines at which density-level the extracted feature is represented. This new visualization technique enables an analyst to select the most relevant spectral correlations and investigate their specific spatial distribution. With this method, less noise is included in the visualization of extracted features and by introducing various levels of detail the full spectral resolution can be utilized.


We analyse how a probing particle modifies infrared electromagnetic near fields. The particle, assimilated to both electric and magnetic dipoles, represents the tip of an apertureless scanning optical near-field microscope (SNOM). We show that the interaction can be accounted for by ascribing to the particle effective dipole polarizabilities that add the effect of retardation to the one of the image dipole. Apart from these polarizabilities, the SNOM signal expression depends only on the fields without tip perturbation, shown to be closely related to the electromagnetic density of states (EM-LDOS) and essentially linked to the sample's optical properties, so that measuring local spectra of heated samples is equivalent to performing a local surface spectroscopy. We also analyse the case where the probing particle is hotter. We evaluate in this case the impact of the effective polarizabilities on the tip-sample near-field radiative heat transfer. We also show that such an heated probe above a surface also performs a surface spectroscopy. The calculations agree well with available experimental data.


. Owing to the substantial traffic emissions in urban areas, especially near road areas, the concentrations of 10 pollutants, such as ozone (O 3 ) and its precursors, have a large gap with the regional averages and their distributions cannot be captured accurately by traditional single-scale air-quality models. In this study, a new version of a regional-urban-street-network model (IAQMS-street v2.0) is presented. An upscaling module is implemented in IAQMS-street v2.0 to calculate the impact of mass transfer to regional scale from street network. The influence of pollutants in street network is considered in the concentration calculation on regional scale, which is not considered in a previous version (IAQMS-street v1.0). In this 15 study, the simulated results in Beijing during August 2021 by using IAQMS-street v2.0, IAQMS-street v1.0, and the regional model (NAQPMS) are compared. On-road traffic emissions in Beijing, as the key model-input data, were established using intelligent image-recognition technology and real-time traffic big data from navigation applications. The simulated results showed that the O 3 and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) concentrations in Beijing were reproduced by using IAQMS-street v2.0 both on regional scale and street scale. The prediction fractions within a factor of two (FAC2s


An objective procedure and technical study has been carried out that measure the degree of oxidation of vegetable oil samples stabilized with phenolic antioxidants. Traditionally used antioxidants were added with in the maximum permissible limit (200 ppm) and samples of refined, bleached and deodorized Soybean oil were stored at ambient conditions for a period of one year. Analysis was performed periodically after each sixty days. Various chemical and instrumental methods were applied to test the oil deterioration that permit the distinction of oxidative alteration level during storage. Quantitative measurements revealed significantly higher rate of oxidative alteration and degradation in untreated samples during the early period of six to seven months as compare to the stabilized and treated samples. Treated samples were found to show more extensive degradative changes in the ending period of four to five months as compare to early period.