Abstract Objective National organisations in several countries have recently released more restrictive guidelines for infective endocarditis prophylaxis, including the American Heart Association 2007 guidelines. Initial studies demonstrated no change in infective endocarditis rates over time; however, a recent United Kingdom study suggested an increase; current paediatric trends are unknown. Methods Children (<18 years) hospitalised with infective endocarditis at 29 centres participating in the Pediatric Health Information Systems Database from 2003 to 2014 were eligible for inclusion. Our primary analysis focussed on infective endocarditis most directly related to the change in guidelines and included community-acquired cases in those >5 years of age. Interrupted time series analysis was used to evaluate rates over time indexed to total hospitalisations. Results A total of 841 cases were identified. The median age was 13 years (interquartile range 9–15 years). In the pre-guideline period, there was a slight increase in the rate of infective endocarditis by 0.13 cases/10,000 hospitalisations per semi-annual period. In the post-guideline period, the rate of infective endocarditis increased by 0.12 cases/10,000 hospitalisations per semi-annual period. There was no significant difference in the rate of change in the pre- versus post-guidelines period (p=0.895). Secondary analyses in children >5 years of age with CHD and in children hospitalised with any type of infective endocarditis at any age revealed similar results. Conclusions We found no significant change in infective endocarditis hospitalisation rates associated with revised prophylaxis guidelines over 11 years across 29 United States children's hospitals.


Climate change is occurring more rapidly in the Arctic than other places in the world, which is likely to alter the distribution and abundance of migratory birds breeding there. A warming climate can provide benefits to birds by decreasing spring snow cover, but increases in the frequency of summer rainstorms, another product of climate change, may reduce foraging opportunities for insectivorous birds. Cyclic lemming populations in the Arctic also influence bird abundance because Arctic foxes begin consuming bird eggs when lemmings decline. The complex interaction between summer temperature, precipitation, and the lemming cycle hinder our ability to predict how Arctic-breeding birds will respond to climate change. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between annual variation in weather, spring snow cover, lemming abundance and spatiotemporal variation in the abundance of multiple avian guilds in a tundra ecosystem in central Nunavut, Canada: songbirds, shorebirds, gulls, loons, and geese. We spatially stratified our study area based on vegetation productivity, terrain ruggedness, and freshwater abundance, and conducted distance sampling to estimate strata-specific densities of each guild during the summers of 2010–2012. We also monitored temperature, rainfall, spring snow cover, and lemming abundance each year. Spatial variation in bird abundance matched what was expected based on previous ecological knowledge, but weather and lemming abundance also significantly influenced the abundance of some guilds. In particular, songbirds were less abundant during the cool, wet summer with moderate snow cover, and shorebirds and gulls declined with lemming abundance. The abundance of geese did not vary over time, possibly because benefits created by moderate spring snow cover were offset by increased fox predation when lemmings were scarce. Our study provides an example of a simple way to monitor the correlation between weather, spring snow cover, lemming abundance, and spatiotemporal variations in Arctic-breeding birds.


: JUDÁK, Viliam – HLAD, Ľubomír– ĎATELINKA, Anton. The Cultural-Historical Dimension of the Cyril and Methodius Mission in the Context of Later Ecclesiastical Works in Slovakia (Rituale Strigoniense, Rituale Slovacchiæ and Cantus Catholici). The Cyril and Methodius mission, which took place on the territory of Great Moravia, was not only of political but also of ecclesiastical significance, especially because of the work done by the Thessalonian brothers in the field of language and liturgy. Their translations of liturgical books into Old Slavonic brought with them important milestones that played a significant role in later centuries. In the period of recatholization, the Archbishop of Esztergom, Peter Pázmaň, was instrumental in the publication of the Esztergom Ritual, which brought with it a language that was understandable to the people and to the celebration of the liturgy, and this was preserved in later editions, even down to the publication of the Rituale Slovacchiæ. The publication of the Slovak Catholic hymnal Cantus Catholici was also an important act of encouragement to the Slovak people in the religious and national spheres, and these facts touch on an environment that goes beyond the ecclesiastical sphere, in the context of society and culture as a whole.


A transvaginal, ultrasound-guided in situ technique was developed for sampling follicular fluid from 6.0-12.5 mm follicles in cattle, with minimal interference with the subsequent development of the sampled follicle. Each follicle was sampled only once and the status of the follicle (future dominant or subordinate) was determined retrospectively. A sample (20 microliters) was successfully obtained from 77% of 132 targeted follicles. Reasons for considering an attempt unsuccessful were as follows: (1) ovaries difficult to manipulate in two heifers (eight follicles), (2) samples contaminated with blood (11 samples), and (3) follicles sampled but the antrum subsequently developed an apparent blood clot (11 follicles). Only the 102 successful collections were used in the statistical analyses for evaluating oestradiol concentrations in the follicular fluid and the follicle growth profiles before and after sampling. The follicles were sampled once on days 1, 2, 3, or 4 after the emerging dominant follicle was 4 mm in diameter. On day 1, there were no differences in the oestradiol concentrations among follicles that later became the dominant follicle, largest subordinate follicle, or smaller subordinate follicles (means for diameters, 6.7-6.9 mm; means for oestradiol, 30-42 ng ml-1). The mean diameter of the dominant follicle increased linearly over the 4 days. Concentrations of oestradiol in the dominant follicle increased curvilinearly, resulting from a slower increase between days 1 (mean, 42 ng ml-1) and 2 (110 ng ml-1) than between days 2 and 3 (313 ng ml-1) and 3 and 4 (554 ng ml-1). Neither mean diameter nor mean oestradiol concentration of the largest subordinate follicle increased after day 2. Data were available from 19 follicular waves in which both the dominant and largest subordinate follicles were sampled on the same day. Oestradiol concentrations were not higher in the dominant follicle than in the largest subordinate follicle until the day after the two follicles began to deviate in growth rates (mean day of deviation, 2.5 +/- 0.2 days after emergence). These observations indicate that the future dominant follicle cannot be identified reliably by either its diameter or oestradiol production before the deviation in growth rates between the two largest follicles.


Does theology have a legitimate role to play in the psychology of the Christian religion? Several strands of thought within scholarly disciplines which study religion say "Yes." Those perspectives are reviewed and a particular theological perspective on the definition of the Christian religion is set forth. In light of that perspective, an argument for the appropriate limits of psychology's attempts to provide knowledge about the Christian religion is made. It is concluded that, although a psychology of religious experience and behavior can and ought to be pursued, it is, in several regards, impossible to construct a psychology of the Christian religion.


In 2001 we introduced the notions of possibilistic mean value and variance of fuzzy numbers. In this paper we list some works that use these notions. We shall mention some application areas as well. A fuzzy number A is a fuzzy set R with a normal, fuzzy convex and continuous membership function of bounded support. The family of fuzzy numbers is denoted by F. Fuzzy numbers can be considered as possibility distributions [11, 15]. A fuzzy set C in R 2 is said to be a joint possibility distribution of fuzzy numbers A, B ∈ F, if it satisfies the relationships max{x | C(x, y)} = B(y) and max{y | C(x, y)} = A(x) for all x, y ∈ R. Furthermore, A and B are called the marginal possibility distributions of C. Let A ∈ F be fuzzy number with a γ-level set denoted by [A] γ = [a 1 (γ), a 2 (γ)], γ ∈ [0, 1]. A function f : [0, 1] → R is said to be a weighting function if f is non-negative, monoton increasing and satisfies the following normalization condition 1 0 f (γ)dγ = 1.


We have developed a promising new technique for jointly analyzing BATSE hard X-ray observations of solar flares with simultaneous soft X-ray observations. The technique is based upon a model in which electric currents and associated electric fields are responsible for the respective heating and particle acceleration that occur in solar flares. A useful by-product of this technique is the strength and evolution of the coronal electric field. The latter permits one to derive important flare parameters such as the current density, the number of current filaments composing the loop, and ultimately the hard X-ray spectrum produced by the runaway electrons. We are continuing to explore the technique by applying it to additional flares for which we have joint BATSE/Yohkoh observations. A central assumption of our analysis is the constant of proportionality alpha relating the hard X-ray flux above 50 keV and the rate of electron acceleration. For a thick-target model of hard X-ray production, it can be shown that cv is in fact related to the spectral index and low-energy cutoff of precipitating electrons. The next step in our analysis is to place observational constraints on the latter parameters using the joint BATSE/Yohkoh data.


Local fractional calculus (LFC) handles everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable functions in fractal space. This note investigates the theory of local fractional derivative and integral of function of one variable. We first introduce the theory of local fractional continuity of function and history of local fractional calculus. We then consider the basic theory of local fractional derivative and integral, containing the local fractional Rolle's theorem, L'Hospital's rule, mean value theorem, anti-differentiation and related theorems, integration by parts and Taylor' theorem. Finally, we study the efficient application of local fractional derivative to local fractional extreme value of non-differentiable functions, and give the theory of local fractional extreme value, containing local fractional extreme value theorem, Fermat's theorem, increasing/decreasing test and the derivative test. It is of great significances for us to process optimization problems of the non-differentiable functions on Cantor set.


RSRC1, whose polymorphism is associated with altered brain function in schizophrenia, is a member of the serine and arginine rich-related protein family. Through homozygosity mapping and whole exome sequencing we show that RSRC1 mutation causes an autosomal recessive syndrome of intellectual disability, aberrant behaviour, hypotonia and mild facial dysmorphism with normal brain MRI. Further, we show that RSRC1 is ubiquitously expressed, and that the RSRC1 mutation triggers nonsense-mediated mRNA decay of the RSRC1 transcript in patients' fibroblasts. Short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated lentiviral silencing and overexpression of RSRC1 in SH-SY5Y cells demonstrated that RSRC1 has a role in alternative splicing and transcription regulation. Transcriptome profiling of RSRC1-silenced cells unravelled specific differentially expressed genes previously associated with intellectual disability, hypotonia and schizophrenia, relevant to the disease phenotype. Protein-protein interaction network modelling suggested possible intermediate interactions by which RSRC1 affects gene-specific differential expression. Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells, differentiated into neural progenitor cells, showed expression dynamics similar to the RSRC1-silenced SH-SY5Y model. Notably, patient neural progenitor cells had 9.6-fold downregulated expression of IGFBP3, whose brain expression is affected by MECP2, aberrant in Rett syndrome. Interestingly, Igfbp3-null mice have behavioural impairment, abnormal synaptic function and monoaminergic neurotransmission, likely correlating with the disease phenotype.


Temporal lobe epilepsy(TLE)often presents bilateral epileptiform discharges on an electroencephalogram (EEG). Epileptic seizures originating in the hippocampus can be propagated to the contralateral hippocampus earlier than to the ipsilateral temporal neocortex, so that careful investigation is necessary to determine the side of epileptic focus in TLE. A 35-year-old right-handed male was referred for surgical treatment of epilepsy. He started to have complex partial seizures at age 20, which were resistant to multiple antiepileptic medications. Brain MRI and interictal FDG-PET were both normal. Long-term video-EEG monitoring revealed bilateral temporal spikes interictally with ictal EEG changes starting in the right temporal region. Depth and subdural electrodes were implanted to the bilateral hippocampi and temporal neocortices to determine the laterality of the seizures. The invasive EEG revealed epileptic seizures originating in the left medial temporal structures with secondary propagation to the contralateral hippocampus. Left anterior temporal lobectomy and amygdalohippocampectomy rendered him seizure free for 12 months. Histopathological diagnosis was typeI cortical dysplasia associated with mild hippocampal sclerosis. Scalp EEG occasionally presents the first ictal changes in the contralateral side to the epileptic focus in TLE. There fore careful presurgical evaluation with bilateral depth and subdural electrodes is important to determine the laterality of the epileptic focus in TLE, especially when the neuroimaging study shows no obvious abnormalities. (Received March 26, 2014;accepted April 7, 2014)


The dorsal lingual surface of a bush dog (Speothos venaticus) was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The tongue was about 7 cm in length. Filiform, fungiform and vallate papillae were found. The filiform papillae were distributed over the entire dorsal surface of the tongue. Each filiform papillae on the apical surface of the tongue had several conical processes, in the midportion were larger than those on the apex in size. In the region of the vallate papillae, the filiform papillae had not the conical processes and more larger than those on the midportion of the tongue. The fungiform papillae were present rounded bodies and more densely distributed on the tip of the lingual apex. There were 5 vallate papillae on both sides. The vallate papillae were located on both sides of the posterior end of the lingual body. Each papilla was surrounded by a groove and a crescent pad. In the dorsal surfaces of the papillae, small conical papillae were observed.


A new linker system has been designed and applied to neoglycoprotein synthesis. Reaction of oligosaccharide omega-aminoalkyl glycosides with homobifunctional adipic acid p-nitrophenyl diesters in dry DMF gave the corresponding amide half ester in good yields and of sufficient stability to permit chromatographic purification. Subsequent conjugation with bovine serum albumin under very mild conditions afforded the corresponding neoglycoproteins with good efficiency. The method is well suited for the coupling of very small amounts (mg) of oligosaccharide and protein. [structure: see text]


Discovering the role of negative attitudes in the social functioning of people with disabilities, tools were developed to measure these attitudes, of which the Multidimensional Attitude Scale of People with Disabilities (MAS) is a good one. It is particularly important to study the attitudes of people who are professionally involved in meeting the needs of people with disabilities. The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes towards people with physical disabilities among medical and health sciences students regarding gender, year of study, field of study, and place of residence. The study was conducted among 625 students in Poland with the use of the MAS-PL scale. The results obtained indicate that women display more positive attitudes towards people with disabilities than men in the cognition and behavioural domains. In the emotional domain, these attitudes were more negative than in the other domains and almost identical for both genders. The year of study, field of study, and place of residence did not differentiate students in terms of their MAS score. Since the sociodemographic variables studied do not determine a positive attitude, educational interventions to increase contact with people with disabilities should be undertaken in future research, and this factor should be investigated as an element of attitude modulation.


The resources used for WSNs are typically limited, and it is essential for these limited resources to be used effectively within scope of the architectural structure. This study suggests an efficient routing architecture. Two environments, consisting of a simulation program and an experimental set, were used in order to demonstrate the performance offered by the suggested routing architecture. The first step to developing applications on WSNs is acquisition of results through implementation of the work on a simulation program. Following a successful outcome from the work carried out on the simulation program, it is essential for the system to be tested on an experimental set in order to confirm the validity of the results. The accuracy of the results yielded by the suggested routing architecture's design is tested in two stages. The first stage involves acquisition of results through the experimental setup. The second stage consists of acquisition of simulation program results for the same number of nodes, followed by a comparison of both result sets.


Most synthesis systems generate designs from hardware descriptions by relating each lan guage construct to a particular hardware structure. Thus, designs obtained from these systems are dependent on description styles. In other words, semantically equivalent descriptions with different ordering or grouping of conditional and assignment state ments, could generate designs with distinctively diff erent cost and performance. This paper introduces a new representation that minimizes the syntactic variance of diff erent description styles. We also propose an algorithm for conversion of hardware descrip tions into this new representation. In addition, using this representation for scheduling results in a drastic reduction on the number of control steps required to synthesize the description. Experimental data on severa[ examples show effectiveness ofthe proposed approach.


The Descriptive Tests of Language Skills (dtls)—comprising tests of reading comprehension, logical relationships, vocabulary, usage, and sentence structure developed by the College Board—are designed to help colleges assess the language skills of entering students for placement and instructional planning purposes. A complete description of the dtls and of field trials of the tests may be found in the Guide to the Use of the Descriptive Tests of Language Skills (College Entrance Examination Board, 1978).

Performance data on the dtls for entering college students were collected through a pilot study of 4,234 students in 16 colleges (see Table 1).


Chapter 1. The Field of Remote Sensing Chapter 2. Electromagnetic Radiation Principles Chapter 3. Characteristics of Remotely Sensed Data Chapter 4. Aerial Photo Interpretation Chapter 5. Photogrammetry Basics Chapter 6. Remote Sensors Chapter 7. Earth Observation Satellites Chapter 8. Digital Image Analysis Chapter 9. Thermal Remote Sensing Chapter 10. Active Remote Sensing Index


2009, Istiqomah. Application Mobile Dictionary of Indonesia-Java & Java-
Indonesia Based on J2ME, Diploma Degree Computer Science, Information
Management, Faculty Mathematics and Science, Universitas Sebelas Maret Surakarta.
Handphone is an effective media for communication. Nowadays in information
era and technology, besides as a media for communication handphone, it has multi
function. Feature which can be taken and used anywhere such as (camera, games, internet
whit GPRS and many more). Based on the aspects above, there is an idea to make and
educative application for learning language it is Dictionary Mobile for Indonesia-Java &
Java-Indonesia, which we use it to find out Indonesian word and translated to Javanese or
Javanese translated to Indonesian we can use it eveywhere and anywhere,it is called a
Dictionary Mobile. As last project we made an application Dictionary Mobile Indonesia-
Java & Java-Indonesia based on J2ME, which can be used as educative application.
Development of aplication Dictionary Mobile uses a lot of method. The first
method is primer data and secondary data as a kind of method and data source. Second
method referes as colleting data. Third method is to analyze the system. Forth method is
to set up of system. Setting amplication of Dictionary Mobile also uses UML(Unified
Modelling Language) as visulization and it can be the document of the system to
software.
The system which is from which is from the method above can make the
apllication Dictionary Mobile Indonesia-Java and Java-Indonesia based on J2ME, we
hope it will increase knowledge and be educative.
Keyword: Dictionary, Mobile, J2ME.


Studies among children and adults showed that valid syllogistic problems (Modus Tollens and Modus Ponens) are easier to solve than invalid ones (Affirmation of Consequent and Negation of Antecedent) where subjectsi performance is very low. In this study we tried to diminish the great number of errors in the invalid problems using another alternative for the responses and counter-example. University subjects obtained a great number of correct responses in the invalid forms, however their performance was low in the valid forms. The adults with low education and the illiterates did not seem to be influenced by the control variables introduced, showing a better level of performance in the valid forms then in the invalid ones, as others studies had shown.


Certain streaming applications are required to perform sophisticated analytics within bounded time on arriving streams of data. Such applications have the interesting characteristic that the total amount of work that could be performed is unbounded. We show how recent result from algorithmic theory are useful in scheduling such applications as they allow the efficient creation of synopses of unprocessed data. These synopses can then be used to schedule the processing of the stream. In particular, we describe a scheduler that optimizes the information rate available to applications by estimating the entropy of arriving streams. We describe the theory underlying such a scheduler and show how existing programming models can be extended to accommodate it.


Paper presents the results from development and successful testing of a 200 kW POGT prototype. There are two major design features that distinguish POGT from a conventional gas turbine: a POGT utilizes a partial oxidation reactor (POR) in place of a conventional combustor which leads to a much smaller compressor requirement versus comparably rated conventional gas turbine. From a thermodynamic perspective, the working fluid provided by the POR has higher specific heat than lean combustion products enabling the POGT expander to extract more energy per unit mass of fluid. The POGT exhaust is actually a secondary fuel gas that can be combusted in different bottoming cycles or used as synthesis gas for hydrogen or other chemicals production. Conversion steps for modifying a 200 kW radial turbine to POGT duty are described including: utilization of the existing (unmodified) expander; replacement of the combustor with a POR unit; introduction of steam for cooling of the internal turbine structure; and installation of a bypass air port for bleeding excess air from the compressor discharge because of 45% reduction in combustion air requirements. The engine controls that were re-configured for start-up and operation are reviewed including automation of POGT start-up and loading during light-off at lean condition, transition from lean to rich combustion during acceleration, speed control and stabilization under rich operation. Changes were implemented in microprocessor-based controllers. The fully-integrated POGT unit was installed and operated in a dedicated test cell at GTI equipped with extensive process instrumentation and data acquisition systems. Results from a parametric experimental study of POGT operation for co-production of power and H2-enriched synthesis gas are provided.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


Uganda is experiencing a significant decline in the incidence of AIDS and it is one of the few developing countries where the AIDS epidemic shows signs of a turning point. The greatest declines are in the youngest age groups. Surveys indicate that an important reason for the declining incidence, particularly among young adults, is a change in sexual behavior. This article describes how the country, through the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), has successfully attacked the AIDS epidemic. The UAC is charged with containing the spread of the epidemic as well as finding a cure for the disease. Research monitoring is one of its programs. In addition, traditional healers have also been brought into the program and, through the organization Traditional Health and Modern Doctors Against AIDS, have developed herbal treatments against many opportunistic infections. A combination of a multisectoral approach and enormous political will to deal with the issue also plays a critical role in Uganda's success. Of particular relevance is the success of its aggressive AIDS education campaign, which is attributed to efforts of the government to increase awareness and promote condom use. A campaign to eliminate sexually transmitted diseases, which is also known to increase the risk of HIV transmission, is also underway.


on a broad, occasionally literally interpreted theme. Part of the issue seems to be the linguistic and regional ghettoization of Africa. The book relies heavily on Ghanaian researchers associated with the Centre of African Studies. Their work dominates the debate on modernization, with other contributors' chapters being loosely fitted into the collection. Given the book's focus on modernity, it is also curious to see little reference to the everyday buildings that heralded modernization. In Ghana, these included the school buildings project, which signalled the upgrading of hundreds of primary and secondary schools, and the building of new educational institutions across Ghana. Indeed, the University of Science and Technology at Kumasi's foundation and campus architecture were symbolic contributions to this new-built modernity. The Akosombo and Kariba dam infrastructure projects make up for this partially, although technical infrastructure played a different role in the spectacle of modernization. The isolation of many contributions to this volume is unfortunate, as there are several instances – such as the dam projects, radio broadcasting, and indeed music –where more comparisons and interweaving of narratives would have greatly strengthened the book and probably widened its appeal. This is particularly true with regard to francophone Africa and its encounter with modernity, which could have been better explored, as the two sole francophone research contributions, as discussed, demonstrate this wider relevance. Modernization as Spectacle in Africa holds much potential in its ambition to explore themes that have had little research coverage in African studies. Unfortunately, it ultimately falls short of fulfilling this potential because of its lack of editorial control, leading to a failure to thread a consistent thematic narrative through its contributions or to deliver a conclusion. However, as a collection of essays on modernization-inspired themes in Africa, with a focus on Ghana, this is nonetheless a good read.


In a 15N labelling experiment 12 colostomized laying hens received 15N labelled wheat with 14.37 atom-% 15N excess (15N') over 4 days. 3 hens each were butchered after 12 h, 36 h, 60 h and 108 h after the last 15N' application. The gastro-intestinal tract was divided into 3 parts (oesophagus with crop and gizzard as well as glandular stomach, small intestine, large intestine). These parts and the pancreas were hydrolysed with 6 N HCl and the individual basic as well as the sum of acid and neutral amino acids were determined in the hydrolysed fractions. In addition, the amino acids and peptides were determined in the TCA soluble N fraction. The atom-% 15N' was determined in the individual amino acid and peptide fractions. The labelling of the basic amino acids in the individual tract segments was lower than in the acid and neutral amino acids. In comparison to the peptides, a higher atom-% 15N' could be determined in the free amino acids.


Rat pronuclear embryos were cultured in hamster embryo culture medium-1 (HECM-1) or a modified Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate solution (mKRB). Embryo cultures in HECM-1 were also challenged with low oxygen concentrations. In HECM-1, 57.9% (70/121) of the pronuclear embryos developed into the 4-cell stage after 48 h of culture. The rates of 8-cell, morula and blastocyst formation were 32.2% (39/121), 17.4% (21/121) and 9.9% (12/121), respectively. On the other hand, in mKRB, rat pronuclear embryos showed developmental blockages at the 2-cell and 4-cell stages, and never developed beyond the 4-cell stage. The rate of blastocyst formation under a low oxygen concentration was 20.1% (43/214), showing a significant difference from the value of 5.5% (11/201) obtained under a standard oxygen concentration (P less than 0.005). This is the first report of successful culture of rat pronuclear embryos to the blastocyst stage. Furthermore, it is suggested that protection from oxidation stress is a prerequisite for rat embryo development in vitro.


A formula constituting the non-Abelian Stokes theorem for general semi-simple compact gauge groups is presented. The formula involves a path integral over a group space and is applicable to Wilson loop variables irrespective of the topology of loops. Some simple expressions analogous to the 't Hooft tensor of a magnetic monopole are given for the 2-form of interest. A special property in the case of the fundamental representation of the group SU(N) is pointed out.


The dual Schrodinger equation for x in terms of psi derived by Faraggi and Matone [hep-th/9606063] with techniques inspired by field theory duality can be derived almost trivially from differential calculus.


We consider noncommutative elliptic operators over C*-algebras, associated with a discrete group of isometries of a manifold. The main result of the paper is a formula expressing the Chern characters of the index (Connes invariants) in topological terms. As a corollary to this formula a simple proof of higher index formulae for noncommutative elliptic operators is obtained. Bibliography: 36 titles.


Healthcare has become one of the most important emerging application areas of blockchain technology.[1] Although the use of a cryptographic ledger within Anesthesia Information Management Systems (AIMS) remains uncertain. The need for a truly immutable anesthesia record is yet to be established, given that the current AIMS database systems have reliable audit capabilities. Adoption of AIMS has followed Roger's 1962 formulation of the theory of diffusion of innovation. Between 2018 and 2020, adoption was expected to be the 84% of U.S. academic anesthesiology departments.[2] Larger anesthesiology groups with large caseloads, urban settings, and government affiliated or academic institutions are more likely to adopt and implement AIMS solutions, due to the substantial amount of financial resources and dedicated staff to support both the implementation and maintenance that are required. As health care dollars become more scarce, this is the most frequently cited constraint in the adoption and implementation of AIMS.[3] We propose the use of a blockchain database for saving all incoming data from multiparametric monitors at the operating theatre. We present a proof of concept of the use of this technology for electronic anesthesia records even in the absence of an AIMS at site. In this paper we shall discuss its plausibility as well as its feasibility. The Electronic medical records (EMR) in AIMS might contain errors and artifacts that may (or may not) have to be dealt with. Making them immutable is a scary concept. The use of the blockchain for saving raw data directly from medical monitoring equipment and devices in the operating theatre has to be further investigated.


In this paper we analyze the power characteristics of Feedback Shift Registers (FSRs) and their e ect on FSR-based stream ciphers. We introduce a technique to isolate the switching activity of a stream cipher by equalizing the current drawn from the cipher with lower power overhead compared to previously introduced countermeasures. By re-implementing the Grain-80 and the Grain-128 ciphers with the presented approach, we lower their power consumption respectively by 20% and 25% compared to previously proposed countermeasures.


While keystream reuse in stream ciphers and one-time pads has been a well known problem for several decades, the risk to real systems has been underappreciated. Previous techniques have relied on being able to accurately guess words and phrases that appear in one of the plaintext messages, making it far easier to claim that "an attacker would never be able to do that." In this paper, we show how an adversary can automatically recover messages encrypted under the same keystream if only the type of each message is known (e.g. an HTML page in English). Our method, which is related to HMMs, recovers the most probable plaintext of this type by using a statistical language model and a dynamic programming algorithm. It produces up to 99% accuracy on realistic data and can process ciphertexts at 200ms per byte on a $2,000 PC. To further demonstrate the practical effectiveness of the method, we show that our tool can recover documents encrypted by Microsoft Word 2002 [22].


Wetland restoration is commonly presented as an important strategy for maintaining and enhancing water quality and ecosystem capital. Artificial floating island (AFI) with  softstem bulrush ( Scirpus validus Vahl ), spiked loosestrlfe ( Lythrum salicaria Linn.), yellow-flowered iris ( Iris wilsonii ) and dwarf cattail (Typha minima ) were monitored on an experimental scale from June to July 2011. The objectives were to identify major types of AFI based on plants, and to evaluate chemical and vegetative characteristics of each type. The result shows that AFI with plants had a strong capacity for the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. In particular, softstem bulrush (S. validus Vahl) and spiked loosestrlfe ( L. salicaria Linn.) were excellent aquatic plants in Beijing wetland restoration. Key words : Artificial island, emergent plant, removal efficiency.


Cladoniamides A-G (3- 9) have been isolated from cultures of Streptomyces uncialis, and their structures have been elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic analysis and an X-ray diffraction analysis of cladoniamide A (3). The cladoniamides have unprecedented rearranged and degraded alkaloid skeletons with putative biogenetic origins from indolocarbazole precursors. Cladoniamide G (9) is cytotoxic to MCF-7 cells in vitro at 10 microg/mL.


Objective: This study was aimed to assess comparative effectiveness of basal insulin vs. oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs) as 2nd-line added-on treatment to metformin monotherapy on macro- and microvascular complications, hypoglycemic events, and all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Methods: A population-based cohort study was conducted using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Study population was newly-diagnosed with T2DM in 1999-2011, and the new and stable users of basal insulin or OADs (i.e., sulphonylurea [SU], dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor [DPP-4i]) as 2nd-line add-on treatment to metformin during 2009-2011, and followed until death or the end of 2013. Propensity score matching was applied to achieve comparability in patient baseline characteristics at the time of 2nd-line treatment initiation between basal insulin and OAD users. Cox models were used to evaluate risks of study outcomes associated with use of basal insulin vs. OADs. Result: Our analyses included 1,064 and 951 basal insulin users 1:1 matched with SU and DPP-4i users, respectively. Compared to SU, use of basal insulin was associated with significantly higher risks of macrovascular events (hazard ratio: 1.36 [95% confidence interval: 1.08-1.71]), microvascular events (1.25 [1.21-1.40]), hypoglycemia (1.88 [1.44-2.46]), and all-cause death (1.50 [1.03-2.20]). Compared to DPP-4i, use of basal insulin yielded a greater risk increase in macrovascular events (1.52 [1.18-1.97]), microvascular events (1.43 [1.27-1.61]), hypoglycemia (3.28 [2.33-4.64]), and all-cause death (2.58 [1.59-4.19]). Conclusion: T2DM patients who initiated basal insulin vs. SU or DPP-4i as 2nd-line added-on treatment to metformin had higher risks of vascular complications, hypoglycemia, and all-cause death. Disclosure P. Chen: None. S. Kuo: None. H. Ou: None. Funding National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P30DK092926)


The aim of the present study was to develop the mucoadhesive buccal film of Betamethasone sodium phosphate
(BSP) by solvent casting method using Hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) E5 LV and carbopol (CP) 940P as
polymer, Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 1000 as plasticizer. All the formulations were examined for film thickness,
weight variation, drug content, percentage moisture loss, percentage moisture absorption, surface pH, folding
endurance, tensile strength, in vitro and in vivo residence time and in vitro release. The all prepared buccal patches
were transparent, smooth, consistent and flexible. The percentage moisture loss and percentage moisture absorption
of optimised formulation (F3) were found to be 6.59 ± 0.54 and 5.74 ± 0.21 respectively. The surface pH of all
formulation showed to be neutral. In vitro and in vivo residence time of all patches showed above 30 minutes. The
formulation F3 showed optimum tensile strength (7.72 ± 0.41 kg/mm2) which indicates less probability of rupture. In
vitro drug release of optimised formulation (F3) was found to be 88.59 ± 2.74 at the end of 30 min. Stability studies
were performed for optimised formulation (F3) and showed no appreciable change in physical structure and in drug
content. The optimized formulation was given for Clinical study at Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore.


Radio connectivity in wireless sensor networks is highly intermittent due to unpredictable and time-varying noise and interference patterns in the environment. Because link qualities are not predictable prior to deployment, current deterministic solutions to unreliable links, such as increasing network density or transmission power, require overprovisioning of network resources and do not always improve reliability.
 We propose a new dual-radio network architecture to improve communication reliability in wireless sensor networks. Specifically, we show that radio transceivers operating at well-separated frequencies and spatially separated antennas offer robust communication, high link diversity, and better interference mitigation. We derive the optimal parameters for the dual-transceiver setup from frequency and space diversity in theory. We observe that frequency diversity holds the most benefits as long as the antennas are sufficiently separated to prevent coupling. Our experiments on an indoor/outdoor testbed confirm the theoretical predictions and show that radio diversity can significantly improve end-to-end delivery rates and network stability at only a small increase in energy cost over a single radio. Simulation experiments further validate the improvements in multiple topology configurations, but also reveal that the benefits of radio diversity are coupled to the number of available routing paths to the destination.


The visible/near infrared reflectance properties of leaves from several Eucalyptus species were studied to determine appropriate indices for remote sensing of chlorophyll content. A scatter correction technique was applied to the reflectance spectra to reduce the additive and multiplicative scattering effects of leaf surface and internal structure. This method gave improved calibrations for the estimation of chlorophyll content. Reflectance near 710nm wavelength showed maximum sensitivity to chlorophyll content. Reflectance near 550nm was a less sensitive indicator of chlorophyll content. Among several reflectance indices tested, the ratio (R850-R710)/(R850-R680) performed best, and is proposed as a new index for the remote estimation of chlorophyll content in higher plants. From the first derivative of reflectance, the ratio D1(754)/D1(704) and the wavelength position of the red edge were best correlated to chlorophyll content. The ratio D2(712)/D2(688) from the second derivative of reflectance was also ...


Pregroups and pregroup grammars were introduced by Lambek in 1999 [14] as an algebraic tool for the syntactic analysis of natural lan-guages. The main focus in that paper was on certain extended pregroup grammars such as pregroups with modalities, product pregroup grammars and tupled pregroup grammars. Their applications to different syntactic structures of natural languages, mainly Polish, are explored/shown here.


This study investigates the process of the construction of a system of corporate governance in China's banking sector, with particular reference to the reforms of the SOBs since the late 1990s. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of both external and internal governance mechanisms of the banks. The study shows that the Chinese SOBs have been undergoing a profound transformation since 1998 from a qualitative point of view. A new governance structure of the SOBs has been established through institutional reforms, which have mainly focused on three aspects aiming at addressing the ownership, asset quality and governance issues of the banks. The study demonstrates that the Chinese government has emerged as still in 'control of the SOBs, which has seen little change throughout the reforms process. The reform efforts, however, have made significant changes in the ways that the government conducts its control over the SOBs. This has seen shifting from a system of direct influence and control of management to control through indirect forms. The study shows that corporate governance reforms of the SOBs have all been a strategic choice in the whole process of the Chinese economic reform. The forms, approaches and pace are all subject to the country's dynamic political and economic institutions. The major steps of the reform have been motivated by the improvement of the efficiency of state ownership and interference.


Background: Approximately 30% of patients who suffer cirrhosis maybe diabetic, called hepatogenous diabetes (HD). Insulin resistance seems to be the pathophysiologic basis for HD. Aims of this study were to evaluate the glucose metabolism disorders in liver cirrhosis patients and to observe the insulin resistance in HD. Method: This study was conducted from February-July 2013 in Koja Hospital Jakarta. In the first phase, with observational design, inclusion criteria were liver cirrhosis and exclusion was an acute complication. We recorded their oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Patients who met the HD criteria were continued to the second phase, using analytic design, and were compared with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients as control. Mean differences of 2-hours postprandial plasma glucose/fasting plasma glucose (2hPPG/FPG) ratio, as well as fasting insulin levels between both groups were assessed. Results: Twenty four patients were included in our study. Normal glucose tolerance test were noted in 7 (29%) patients, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in 6 (25%) patients and HD in other 11 (46%) patients. In the second phase, we obtained the ratio of 2hPPG/FPG in HD was 2 ± 0.5 and T2DM was 1.5 ± 0.4 (p = 0.01). Mean fasting insulin levels in HD was 10.8 ± 4.2 μIU/mL, while T2DM was 9.3 ± 5.3 μIU/mL (p = 0.5). The ratio of 2hPPG/FPG was higher in HD compared to T2DM, assuming the role of insulin resistance in HD. Conclusion: There were impaired glucose metabolism in liver cirrhosis patients, as well as hepatogenous diabetes. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia appeared to play role in HD. Keywords: hepatogenous diabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus, 2hPP/FPG ratio, fasting insulin level


The detection of bacteremia in children less than 24 months of age with fever, is very important, since these patients are at serious risk pyogenic complication. The administration of antibiotics in accordance with the results of cultures is too time consuming. So, several laboratory detection bacteremia must be carried out. In this study, blood cultures, the elevation of white blood cell count, toxic granulation and vacuolization in neutrophils were investigated in 56 children with suspicion of bacteremia. 32 of them were males and 24 females. The positive results were obtained in 41.1% in blood cultures. Positive predictive accuracy were 66.6% and 52.3% for vacuolization and toxic granulation respectively. The presence of these were considered as adjunctive procedures in the early diagnosis of bacteremia.


The paper presents the test results of a computerized control system the sequential cooling process of permanent mold with use of water mist in the gravity die casting process. It describes the process for preparing high-quality casts made of AlSi7Mg alloy that achieves enhanced mechanical properties. A scheme of developed device and drivers for selected methods of sequence cooling for manufacturing of castings made in permanent steel mold was presented here. Also the microstructure and mechanical properties of received aluminium casts were described. It was shown that the use of a computer system to control the water mist cooling point of the mold not only accelerates the cooling of the cast and the gravity die casting cycle shortens, but also it has a positive effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties of castings made of unmodified AlSi7Mg alloy in a raw state.


SUMMARYExtensive karyotype analysis including determination of somatic chromosome number, total chromosome length and volume and estimation of 4C DNA content were carried out on three species of Pachypodium namely P. lamerei, P. namaquanum and P. rosulatum 'horomhense' for the first time. A significant variation in nuclear DNA amount was recorded at interspecific level. The somatic chromosome number 2n=18 was recorded in all the species. The 4C DNA amount varied with 8.425 pg in P. lamerei, to 10.918 pg in P. rosulatum 'horomhense' and 11.928 pg in P. namaquanum. The correlation coefficient studies showed that the 4C DNA content and genomic chromosome volume were interdependent. The structural alteration of chromosomes as well as loss or addition of highly repetitive sequences in the genome showed a variation in the DNA amount at species level indicated a close relationship between them.


Puerariae radix, the dried root of Pueraria lobata Ohwi, is one of the earliest and most important edible crude herbs used for various medical purposes in oriental medicine. This study evaluated the metabolic effects of total isoflavones from P. lobata (PTIF) in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. The OVX rats were divided into four groups treated with distilled water, 17β-estradiol (E2 10 μg/kg, once daily, i.p.) and PTIF (30 and 100 mg/kg, once daily, p.o.) for eight weeks. The treatments with high-dose PTIF significantly decreased the bone mineral density (BMD) loss in the femur and inhibited the increase in body weight and lipoprotein levels compared to the OVX-control group without elevating the serum levels of the liver enzymes, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT). Furthermore, PTIF exhibits a hepatoprotective effect in OVX-induced hepatic steatosis, indicated with reduced hepatic lipid contents. Taken together, our findings suggest that PTIF may be useful for controlling lipid and bone metabolism, at least in OVX rats. Further research is necessary to determine whether PTIF will have the same effects in humans.


A cluster tool for semiconductor manufacturing consists of several single-wafer processing chambers and a wafer-handling robot in a closed environment. The use of cluster tools is extended to reentrant processes such as atomic layer deposition, where a wafer visits a processing chamber more than once. Such a reentrant wafer How complicates scheduling and control of the cluster tool and often causes deadlocks. We examine the scheduling problem for a single-armed cluster tool with various reentrant wafer flows. We develop a convenient method of modeling tool operational behavior with reentrant wafer flows using Petri nets. By examining the net model, we then develop a necessary and sufficient condition for preventing a deadlock. We also show that the cycle time for the asymmetric choice Petri net model for a reentrant wafer How can be easily computed by using the equivalent event graph model. From the results, we systematically develop a mixed integer programming model for determining the optimal tool operation sequence, schedule, and cycle time. We also extend a workload measure for cluster tools with reentrant wafer flows. Finally, we discuss how our results can be used for engineering a cluster tool. We compare two proposed strategies, sharing and dedicating, of operating the parallel processing chambers for identical process steps.


Abstract: Clustering is a form of learning by observations. It is an unsupervised learning method and does not require training data set to generate a model. Clustering can lead to the discovery of previously unknown groups within the data. It is a common method of data mining in which similar and dissimilar type of data would be clustered into different clusters for better analysis of the data. In this paper the DBSCAN algorithm has been applied to compute the EPS value and Euclidian distance on the basis of similarity or dissimilarity of the input data. Also back propagation algorithm is applied to calculate Euclidian distance dynamically and simulation study is conducted that shows improvement to increase accuracy and reduce execution time. Keywords: Clustering; DBSCAN; Back-propagation; Accuracy; Execution time


The solar wind, when measured close to 1 au, is found to flow mostly radially outward. There are, however, periods when the flow makes angles up to 15° away from the radial direction, both in the east–west and north–south directions. Stream interaction regions (SIRs) are a common cause of east–west flow deflections. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) may be associated with nonradial flows in at least two different ways: (1) the deflection of the solar wind in the sheath region, especially close to the magnetic ejecta front boundary, may result in large nonradial flows; and (2) the expansion of the magnetic ejecta may include a nonradial component, which should be easily measured when the ejecta is crossed away from its central axis. In this work, we first present general statistics of nonradial solar wind flows as measured by STEREO/PLASTIC throughout the first 13 yr of the mission, focusing on solar cycle variation. We then focus on the larger deflection flow angles and determine that most of these are associated with SIRs near solar minimum and with CMEs near solar maximum. However, we find no clear evidence of strongly deflected flows, as would be expected if large deflections around the magnetic ejecta or ejecta with elliptical cross sections with large eccentricities were common. We use these results to develop a better understanding of CME expansion and the nature of magnetic ejecta, and point to shortcomings in our understanding of CMEs.


Growing urbanization poses an enormous challenge to city planners. Noticeable effects of the increased population density in cities include housing shortages, rising real estate prices, increased traffic, air pollution, shortages of green spaces and attractive public spaces, the rising cost of urban infrastructure and the risk of social tensions. Especially in dense urban areas, public open spaces (squares and streets, urban parks and spacious recreational areas) have become increasing important. Their design, functionality and the adaption to the needs of the residents significantly influences the quality and atmosphere of urban coexistence. The consideration of quality criteria is essential for the creation of sustainable, livable and smart open spaces. Modern approaches to sustainable planning in urban areas and the versatile aspects of state-of-the-art open space design are the core themes of this article. General aspects of landscape planning in Austria and selected best practice projects in the context of urban development are presented.This article gives an overview of open space planning in Austria. To be successful, projects must consider the specific needs of city districts, which requires tailor-made approaches and an interdisciplinary planning team. To be accepted and adequately used by the public, projects must be based on a detailed analyses of the spatial, natural and social conditions.The complex and diverse challenges of open space planning in Austrian cities can be seen as representative for other cities, as certain urban trends occur (in slightly altered dimensions) all over Europe or on an even bigger scale. Selected best practice urban planning projects, which have been realized by freiland Environmental Consulting CE Ltd, based on state-of-the-art principles, demonstrate modern planning approaches to tackling these challenges.


Respiration is a widely used biosignal which is combined with other biosignals in order to extract information about the physiological or pathological conditions that may occur in the development of a treatment. Acquisition of respiration in a clinical environment is usually accomplished by standard hospital equipment and minimum invasive techniques. In this paper a non invasive technique is used for respiration monitoring based on accelerometers. The acquired signal is sampled and transmitted through a wireless sensor network to the gateway point (sink) where it is processed. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is considered as a method of processing of biosignals such as respiration and the application of the decomposition method in experimental signals acquired by means of a wireless sensor network is evaluated. The processing technique covered in this paper is based on selecting the appropriate signals (IMF) in which respiration is decomposed, by their spectral characteristics that correspond to respiration.


Abstract Subjective interpretation of cloud imagery is commonly used to identify mesoscale cyclones in cold air streams (mesocyclones) over the southern oceans. To determine mesocyclone attributes, and evaluate the classification of their cloud vortex signatures, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program ( DMSP) Infrared (IR) imagery is analysed for selected transition and winter season months of 1988 and 1989. Mesocyclones occupy a statistically smaller size range compared with synoptic scale ( frontal) vortices, and have maximum frequencies of occurrence in transition season months. The mesocyclone classification scheme separates the different signature types most reliably in winter, which is also the season when they are most frequently represented on hemispheric-scale synoptic chart analyses. Characteristic patterns of cloud form and level associated with vortex types, provide insights into mesocyclone dynamics that are now being evaluated using microwave techniques.


We analysed the patterns of occupancy of five threatened invertebrates in a highly fragmented dynamic grey dune landscape. During two years (2003–2004), 133 dune patches between Nieuwpoort (Belgium) and Bray-Dunes (France) varying in area, connectivity, eolian sand dynamics and trampling disturbance were sampled for five focal species: two spiders (Alopecosa fabrilis and Xysticus sabulosus), two butterflies (Issoria lathonia and Hipparchia semele) and one grasshopper (Oedipoda caerulescens). Overall diversity was highest in large and well connected patches that were characterised by high eolian sand dynamics and an intermediate trampling intensity. Patch occupancy differed greatly among species: all species significantly occurred more often in large and connected patches. High trampling intensity (by cattle and/or tourists) negatively affected the two ground dwelling spiders, but not the grasshopper or the butterfly species. High eolian sand dynamics positively affected the presence of the spider X. sabulosus, the grasshopper O. caerulescens and the butterfly H. semele, but had no significant effect on both other species. Colonisation was mainly explained by connectivity and never by patch area, while extinction events in H. semele were explained by small patch area. We discuss the implications of using a suite of focal species for management and restoration purposes in the highly fragmented dune area in Belgium and we promote the use of a multispecies approach for evaluating and monitoring conservation efforts in general. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


This article examines Jesuit-signed texts written in the Brasilica lingua franca and used in the religious conversion of native peoples in colonial Portuguese America (1549-1759). I study translation strategies for conveying the sacrament of Communion, arguing that doctrinal explanations and word choices recorded in catechisms and dictionaries reflect Tupi-Guarani beliefs that shaped Christianity. These translations merged the theophagous doctrine of the Eucharist with Tupinamba vengeance and exocannibalism, which were central to rituals enacted to bring about that earthly utopia that the Indians called the Land Without Evil. Thus did a distinct eschatology form, compressed with thick layers of Tupi-Guarani and Iberian Catholicism in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In late colony, these became reinterpreted by non-Tupi-Guarani Indians who renamed the Eucharist. But in every telling, the promise of the Eucharist remained the same: that the eating of an other gave access to salvation and eternal bliss.


Chronic kidney disease is growing as a global public health problem throughout the world. In Italy, CKD is becoming increasingly common with 52,777 patients treated with dialysis in 2010, about 10,000 new patients/years in dialysis from 2010.  The impact on the health care system includes € 2.1 billion/year for dialysis plus € 338 million for indirect costs. Aim of the present analysis was to explore socio-economical variables in the management of CKD, and assess direct and indirect health costs and NHS resources consumption. The overall cost for patients in dialysis is about 44,000 €/years for hemodialysis and 30,000 €/years for peritoneal dialysis with different resources consumption over the different stage disease. The possibility of reducing the progression of renal damaging and beginning of dialysis may induce a low expenditure for the Italian NHS.


Purpose: Spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is not an uncommon cause of cardiac arrest. The purpose of this study was to identify the prognosis of patients with ICH for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac arrest (OHCA). Methods: From January 2008 to December 2010, a total of 214 patients were checked brain computed tomography (CT) in OHCA. The majority of patients were male (136, 63.8%), and the median age was 55.0 (±16.7). We included all patients who were checked through brain CT for nontraumatic OHCA. Data were collected from electronic medical records and pre-hospital records. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data were compared between the ICH and non-ICH group. Results: The detection of ICH by clinical manifestations and laboratory data was difficult. Out of 214 patients, 21 (9.8%) patients were positive for ICH and 193(90.2%) patients had a normal brain CT. In demographic and clinical data, the neurological outcome (CPC score, p=0.009) and 30-day survival rate (p<0.001) were statistically different between the two groups. Using the Cox proportional hazards model, the ICH group had a 3.54 hazard ratio compared with non-ICH group. In addition, pH (p=0.033), lactate (p=0.023) in ABGA, potassium (p=0.008), glucose (p=0.026), and S-100 (p=0.047) showed significant results. Conclusion: The prognosis of ICH patients in OHCA is poor; further studies are needed to improve the prognosis of ICH patients after ROSC in OHCA.


Poplar is a very prominent taxonomical group of tree species in plantation forestry in India. It occurs in natural forests also. However, its population in natural stands is small and is gradually declining. Bu1k of the plantations are composed of populous deltoids, an exotic species. The area coverage and productivity of this species is bound to increase further, due to concerted research and development efforts aiming at its genetic improvement. Indigenous poplars occur only in the mountains and are still to acquire greater role and share in afforestation/reforestation programmes and conservation. Poplar, the common name for trees of the genus Populous, is a common sight in forests along waterways, around agricultural lands, throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is species of trees which is mainly used for wood production and also for paper production. Poplar species is found in the Northern region of India. Today Poplar is main component in the farmer's life of Punjab and Haryana state. Popular plantations are done in various aspects of farming. Income dependency of farmers life is depends on also agriculture based technology. To Identify Poplar species in Haryana and Punjab state, remote-sensing and GIS based technology is used. Identification of Poplar species is done through State level and district level. For district level LISS - 4 image is used. Poplar species mapping are prepared for the 4 districts of Punjab state i.e. Rupnagar, ShaheedBhagatsingh Nagar, Nawashahr and Ludhiana and 3 districts of Haryana i.e. Yamunanagar, Karnal and Kurushetra. For state level Sentinel-2 image is used.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the effect of using tissue engineered oral mucosa lamina proprias to repair buccal mucosal full-thickness defects in rats.

METHODS
Cultured oral mucosal fibroblasts(OMF) of Wistar rat were incorporated into chitosan-collagen to construct tissue engineered oral mucosa lamina proprias, then the OMFs were labeled with 5-BrdU. Full-thickness round mucosal defects were made with round knife (diameter of 0.8 cm) on the buccal mucosas of 21 Wistar rats(21-25 weeks old) which were divided in fibroblast-populated chitosan collagen lattices(FPCCL) group with FPCCLs transplantation and control group covered with gauges alone. All wounds were observed by macrograph or under optical microscopy and measured on 4th, 7th, 14th and/or 21st day postoperatively. The data were analyzed by SPSS11.5 software package for Student's t test.

RESULTS
There were no infection through the wound healing process. On the 7th day after grafting, the wounds of two groups were covered by yellow membrane, on the 14th, 21st day, the wounds of two groups were covered by new epidermis thoroughly, the color of new epidermis was similar to the normal one. On the 7th day, the wound diameter of control group was significantly smaller than that of FPCCL group (P<0.05). Under optical microscopy each mucosal wound in two groups was only partly keratinocyted with new granular tissue rich in inflammatory cells, fibroblasts, new vessels on the 7th day postoperatively. The wounds in two groups were keratinocyted thoroughly with rete ridges and horny layer on 14th and 21st day. OMFs with 5-BrdU appeared in the granular tissue and new lamina propria on 7th, 14th and 21st day postoperatively by immunohistochemical staining, OMFs together with granular tissue were joined in the repair of buccal mucosal defects without allergic reaction through the whole wound healing process.

CONCLUSIONS
It is suggested that OMFs as the seed cells can join in the repair of buccal mucosa defects effectively; chitosan-collagen lattices have good histocompatibility; Limitation of contraction of recipient wounds will be closely related to FPCCLs; therefore, FPCCLs can repair buccal mucosal defects effectively.


The concept of "Indian Ocean Common Watermass" is introduced and its  characteristics are defined. The temperature-salinity structures which would result when one, two or  more watermasses of different temperature and salinity characteristics penetrate into the layer of the Indian Ocean Common Water are discussed. The thermohaline indices of different watermasses in the western Indian Ocean are derived and tabulated.


It is shown that the non group-subgroup transition Pnam ↔ P21/b which the compound bis(propylammonium) lead tetrachloride, (C3H7NH3)2PbCl4, undergoes must lead to domain structures on each side of the transition point. In both of them, the boundary operators are anticipated.


Abstract The Thomas's horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus thomasi) is restricted to southeast Asia and few studies have been conducted on this species. Here we characterized the complete mitochondrial genome of R. thomasi using next-generation sequencing and Sanger sequencing. The whole mitogenome is 16,899 bp in length and contains 22 tRNA, 2 rRNA, 13 protein-coding genes and a non-coding control region. The tissue used in this study was taken from a sample collected 13 years ago and the genomic DNA was seriously degraded. Our study adds to a growing number of studies indicating that next-generation sequencing is powerful in generating genetic/genomic resources from museum samples.


Kerr-McGee's Galatia preparation plant in Illinois processes 1000 ton/h of raw coal. It cleans a 4 x 28 mesh feed by heavy media separation and a 28 mesh x 0 raw coal by froth flotation. The design of the plant, which was planned for ease of maintenance, is described.


Ontological separation plays a key role in Aristotle's metaphysical project: substances alone are ontologically χωριστόν. The standard view identifies Aristotelian ontological separation with ontological independence, so that ontological separation is a non-symmetric relation. I argue that there is strong textual evidence that Aristotle employs an asymmetric notion of separation in the Metaphysics —one that involves the dependence of other entities on the independent entity. I argue that this notion allows Aristotle to prevent the proliferation of substance-kinds and thus to secure the unity of his metaphysical system.


Sheffield Children's Hospital, Sheffield A 7 month old baby seen in respiratory clinic following referral by local hospital for persistent chestiness and chronic lung collapse on CXR. He was born at 36 weeks, was well and thriving. He started with chesty cough and occasional grunting from 3 months of age, admitted at 4 months with bronchiolitis type illness, and reduced feeding. O/E had mild temperature (37.8), reduced air-entry on left lower lobe, and raised CRP of 73, CXR showed complete collapse/consolidation of left lung, over inflation of right lung with mediastinal shift. He made reasonable recovery after short course of iv antibiotics and physiotherapy. On follow up he continued to have mild respiratory distress, repeat X-rays showed persistent left lower lobe collapse. In view if this he was referred to respiratory for bronchoscopy. On respiratory review he was noted be intermittently grunting and reduced air-entry on left lung. Cardiac examination showed a soft systolic murmur (gr 2/6) along left upper sternal edge, femorals good volume, no organomegaly. Cardiac work up done, echo- showed severe dilated left heart, mitral regurgitation, severely impaired function and abnormal origin of left Coronary artery from Pulmonary artery. ECG- showed ST elevation, T wave inversion and Deep Q waves in lateral leads. CT showed complete collapse of left lung due to compression by the enlarged heart. He was urgently transferred to cardiac centre for repair of ALCAPA. What was thought to be a primary respiratory problem in this infant turned out to be a significant cardiac anomaly.


A 6.2-cc MU interface optical transmitter module has been developed in a compact packaging configuration that allows modules to be mounted side by side on a system board. The module employs an MU receptacle for optical output and miniature coaxial receptacles for electrical input. An L-shaped high-speed wiring substrate in a package cavity allows thermal isolation of a laser-diode driver IC (LD-DR) from the 1.55-/spl mu/m distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD) mounted on a thermoelectric (TE) cooler. A confocal two-aspheric-lens circuit is used for high-performance coupling of the DFB-LD to a dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF). A module using the proposed configuration has been evaluated at temperatures from 10-65/spl deg/C. Experiments with the module showed good electrical performance at a bit rate of 2.5 Gb/s, low power dissipation (less than 1.8 W; only 0.33 W for the LD-DR), and high optical coupling efficiency (over 50%).


The size of the motor evoked potential (MEP) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation increases soon after a nonexhaustive voluntary contraction of the target muscle (postexercise facilitation). Our aim was to determine whether the duration or intensity of voluntary muscle contraction influenced postexercise facilitation in normal subjects. We recorded the MEP from the thenar muscles following contractions of different durations (5, 15, and 30 s) and intensities (10%, 25%, and 50% of maximal voluntary contraction). We found that every combination of the tested intensities and durations of physical effort could induce postexercise MEP facilitation. Although the degree of postexercise MEP facilitation was comparable across the different durations and intensities, the maximal facilitation was observed with the shortest and strongest muscle contraction. Our study thus defines the optimal setting to study postexercise facilitation for clinical purposes. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Muscle Nerve 25: 000–000, 2002


A summary restatement of the present condition of the "proper law of international organizations," pitfalls, and the necessity to evolve a common law of mankind of a wider breadth and scope than seems possible under a narrow, tradition-governed international law, comprises the final stage of the study. The political scientist specialist in international relations will find that this volume desirably embellishes his professional knowledge. Many of the ideas and much of the information presented should have a place within the structure of courses in international law and organization, and are worth further thought, evaluation, and research. At the same time, a mixed reaction is not at all unlikely: an appreciation that a "seamless web of law" has more meaning and validity for now and the future; and an uneasy feeling that the interweaving of various bodies of law may limit the prospect of growth through a stifling admixture of their respective and classical western positions. Moreover, the overweight understandably given by the author to the role of law will elicit concern among those who see and appreciate the value of a multiplicity of forces shaping the structure and courses of international institutions. Finally, Mr. Jenks' useful work illustrates the problem presented by all too many political scientists and legal publicists, for while learned, it is dry, dull, and ponderous even to one devoted to the subject. Why must we punish ourselves?— BROWNLEE SANDS CORRTN, Goucher College.


Confronted with a growing need for educational buildings and a significant lack of funds, Belgium's Flemish Community carried out an inquiry into building needs at all levels of education. This article concentrates on the methodology used for the inquiry, the findings and the consequences for Flemish educational building policy.


A new spintronics device with noninteger coding for information storage and processing is proposed. The device is constructed of paired trinucleotide sequences wound around the carbon nanotubes. The noninteger coding, working with a base of natural logarithm e, assumes operation with e-bits and e-bytes. These bits and bytes arise automatically in paired nucleotide sequences with strong spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The electron motion along the curved chains of trinucleotides (SpinHall Effect upon a laser excitation), e-bits, change their spin polarization. Signals are read out as phase shifts between the changed and unchanged spin orientations. The device is highly speedy and principallymay operate at 100 GHz or higher.


This article analyses the roles played by patronage and brokerage in an Indonesian district election by focusing on variation in village-level results. Through interviews with village elites, we found that highly uneven village voting patterns were strongly influenced by varying patterns of patronage distribution. The winning candidate (the son of the incumbent) used a state-centred form of patronage involving pork barrel and club goods that proved more effective than gifts distributed through social, specifically religious, networks. Also critical were effective and trustworthy community-level brokers to deliver patronage, with retail vote-buying especially vulnerable to broker predation. Among the four categories of brokers we identified, state brokers—notably village heads—were especially effective at marshalling votes. Our findings underline the importance of patronage in Indonesian elections and the centrality of brokers in clientelistic systems generally. They also help explain the domination of former bureaucrats in electoral contests in regional Indonesia.


A significant number of Canadians believe that climate change is the biggest threat facing the world today. Climate change is now more than a scientific debate; it is a matter urgently discussed in the realms of politics, geography, and economics. Rodney White, former Director of University of Toronto's Institute for Environmental Studies, is uniquely placed to write this short, accessible introduction to one of the most important issues facing us all. What is most likely to happen in Canada? From melting permafrost and falling water levels in the Great Lakes to extreme weather events, White guides us through the latest science and expert predictions. He also explores the politics involved, from the Kyoto process to the approach taken in the United States by the new Obama administration. He evaluates the probable future of business and economics: clean technology, carbon markets, and "weather" markets. What has been Canada's response to the challenges and the opportunities? And finally, looking forward to future solutions-from the international to the personal-White reminds us of the price of inaction. Up to date and engaging, this is perhaps the most important book for Canadians to read this year.


Geospatial interpolation is a challenging task due to real world data often being sparse, heterogeneous and inconsistent. For that matter, this work presents SkNNI, a spherical interpolation algorithm capable of working with such challenging geospatial data. This work also presents NDDNISD an accurate and efficient interpolation function for SkNNI which shines due to its spatial awareness in terms of proximity and distribution of observation neighbors. SkNNI's open source implementation is also discussed and illustrated with a simple usage example.


Assistance to crime victims and witnesses over the past six decades is reviewed, and data from a national sample of victim/witness assistance programs are examined in terms of functions and services. Types of services available to victims and witnesses are identified and discussed, as are fiscal characteristics and staffing patterns of the programs. The critical need for research and evaluation studies is examined.


During the past six years, we have treated eight patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) for nephrolithiasis. In seven patients, the stones were comprised of calcium oxalate. Another six patients had calcium oxalate crystalluria. In our CF population of 140 patients, this represents a cumulative incidence of calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis of 5.7 percent and an additional 4.2 percent incidence of crystalluria. Experience with these patients is reviewed. Pancreatic insufficiency was universally associated with nephrolithiasis or crystalluria. Diabetes and cirrhosis were also common. Predisposing factors and potential mechanisms of stone disease in pancreatic insufficient CF patients are discussed, focusing on the relationship between fat malabsorption in CF to oxalate metabolism.


Combined Brillouin spectra collected at visible, ultraviolet, and x-ray frequencies are used to reconstruct the imaginary part of the acoustic compliance J'' over a wide frequency range between 0.5 GHz and 5 THz. For liquid, supercooled, and glassy glycerol, J'' is found to be linearly dependent on the tagged-particle susceptibility measured by incoherent neutron scattering up to ≃1  THz, giving evidence of a clear relation between acoustic power dissipation and density of states. A simple but general formalism is presented to quantitatively explain this relation, thus clarifying the connection between the quasielastic component observed in neutron scattering experiments and the fast relaxation dynamics probed by Brillouin scattering.


The physics of systems that cannot be described by a Hermitian Hamiltonian, has been attracting a great deal of attention in recent years, motivated by their nontrivial responses and by a plethora of applications for sensing, lasing, energy transfer/harvesting, topology and quantum networks. Electromagnetics is an inherently non-Hermitian research area because all materials are lossy, loss and gain distributions can be controlled with various mechanisms, and the underlying systems are open to radiation. Therefore, the recent developments in non-Hermitian physics offer exciting opportunities for a broad range of basic research and engineering applications relevant to the antennas and propagation community. In this work, we offer a tutorial geared at introducing the unusual electromagnetic phenomena emerging in non-Hermitian systems, with particular emphasis on a sub-class of these systems that obey parity-time (PT) symmetry. We discuss the basic concepts behind this topic and explore their implications for various phenomena. We first discuss the basic features of P̂ , T̂ and ˆ ˆ PT operators applied to electromagnetic and quantum mechanical phenomena. We then discuss the exotic response of PT-symmetric electromagnetic structures and their opportunities, with particular attention to singularities, known as exceptional points, emerging in these systems, and their unusual scattering response.


Rahman M. H., Calatharan K., Lund T., Tveiten I. and Bloomquist M. 2008. Influence of Wekembe Mixed Group Credit Schemes on Small to Medium Scale Farmers in Bukolwa, Luweero District, Uganda. Int. J. Sustain. Crop Prod. 3(1):13-18 This fieldwork was carried out in the Bukolwa village in the district of Luweero, Uganda to assess the functionality of the Wekembe mixed group credit scheme and how it affected individual and group activities within the context of livelihoods and food security. Data were through combination of different methods including informal conversations with villagers and people working with the non governmental organization (NGO), VEDCO, participatory resource mapping with the members of the Wekembe mixed group, and structured and semi-structured interviews of thirty randomly selected member households. This study reveals that the Wekembe mixed group formed in order to receive loans from a microfinance institution run by the Catholic Church. It offered the same terms and conditions to all of its loan-takers, and utilized a progressive credit granting formula. Participation in the credit scheme educated Bukolwa residents on how to manage an organization, how to handle loans and working together in groups and sharing the responsibility for one another's loans helps to build social capital. The Bukolwa sustainable agriculture group was one outcome of the social capital generated within the Wekembe group.


As interest in hybrid computing systems increases, people are eager to find new ways to exploit the unique and efficient computational power of the heterogeneous multi-core systems. Although there has been much interest in implementing high-performance fast Fourier transform (FFT) libraries on this kind of system, most existing libraries focus on small-scale FFTs whose data can fit in the local storage of a single accelerator. Real-world FFT applications often require much larger scale FFTs, but it is extremely challenging for heterogeneous multi-core system with distributed architectures to make efficient large FFT implementations. In this paper, we introduce the first known FFT library for the heterogeneous multi-core system with distributed architecture that can solve one-dimensional FFTs larger than what fits in a single accelerator. Our implementation achieves 67% performance improvement of FFTW 3.2.2 (Fastest Fourier Transform in the West) and sustains over 36 single precision FFT GFLOPs 'end-to-end' Achieving such high performance requires novel schemes for large-scale FFT factorization, data permutation and all-to-all exchanges, and buffer designs to maximize use of the local storage while minimizing communication overhead. One important finding in this paper is that large-scale FFT on this kind of architecture behaves as data transfer bound which is quite different from other architectures. A significant contribution of this paper is that for each major component of our algorithm, we explore many possible design options and present quantitative performance comparisons. This provides value beyond specific architecture, as it illustrates the fundamental features associated with different communication paradigms and mechanisms for the heterogeneous multi-core system. Today's computer systems are increasingly being designed to include general purpose accelerators. The techniques in this paper can also be applied to these architectures especially when they have limited local storage or steep cache hierarchies. We also provide insights on applying techniques in this paper to similar architectures.


Plants have evolved precise mechanisms to optimize immune responses against pathogens. ENHANCED DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY 1 (EDS1) plays a vital role in plant innate immunity by regulating basal resistance and effector-triggered immunity. Nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of EDS1 is required for resistance reinforcement, but the molecular mechanism remains elusive. Here, we show that EDS1-INTERACTING J PROTEIN1 (EIJ1), which acts as a DnaJ protein-like chaperone in response to pathogen infection, functions as an essential negative regulator of plant immunity by interacting with EDS1. The loss-of-function mutation of EIJ1 did not affect plant growth but significantly enhanced pathogen resistance. Upon pathogen infection, EIJ1 relocalized from the chloroplast to the cytoplasm, where it interacted with EDS1, thereby restricting pathogen-triggered trafficking of EDS1 to the nucleus and compromising resistance at an early infection stage. During disease development, EIJ1 was gradually degraded, allowing the nuclear accumulation of EDS1 for transcriptional resistance reinforcement. The avirulent strain Pst DC3000 (AvrRps4) abolished the repressive action of EIJ1 by rapidly inducing its degradation in the effector-triggered immunity response. Thus, our findings show that EIJ1 is an essential EDS1-dependent negative regulator of innate plant immunity and provide a mechanistic understanding of how the nuclear versus cytoplasmic distribution of EDS1 is regulated during the immune response.


This paper tests the hypothesis that the positive association between Free Cash Flow (FCF) and audit fees is stronger (weaker) for firms with low (high) levels of director equity ownership. Based on the debt monitoring hypothesis, we also test the hypothesis that the FCF/director equity ownership interaction is less (more) likely to exist for firms with high (low) levels of debt. OLS regression analyses of 157 and 140 low growth Australian firms audited by Big 6 auditors for the years 1992 and 1993 provide support for the hypotheses.


Objective: The aim of the study was to develop an easy, sensible and rapid method for the estimation of amikacin in both pure and marketed formulation using the spectrophotometric method. Methods: Due to lack of chromophoric group in the amikacin, it was derivatized with 0.1 mmol chloranillic acid reagent. For the estimation of amikacin, Shimadzu UV-1700 model spectrophotometer with UV probe software was used. The method was based on simple charge transfer complexation of the drug with a p-chloranillic acid reagent to give a purple coloured product which was measured at 524nm against blank solution. Results: The derivatised product of amikacin was detected at a wavelength of 524 nm. Linearity was observed with the concentration range of 20100 μg/ml with a regression coefficient of 0.9803. Results of all the parameters were within the acceptance criteria with % RSD less than 2. Conclusion: The spectroscopic method was validated as per ICH guidelines and was found to be applicable for routine quantitative analysis of amikacin in marketed formulations also. The results of linearity, precision, accuracy LOD and LOQ were within the specified limits. The method is highly sensitive, robust, reproducible and specific.


Acquiring knowledge has long been the major bottleneck preventing the rapid spread of AI systems. Manual approaches are slow and costly. Machine-learning approaches have limitations in the depth and breadth of knowledge they can acquire. The spread of the Internet has made possible a third solution: building knowledge bases by mass collaboration, with thousands of volunteers contributing simultaneously. While this approach promises large improvements in the speed and cost of knowledge base development, it can only succeed if the problem of ensuring the quality, relevance and consistency of the knowledge is addressed, if contributors are properly motivated, and if the underlying algorithms scale. In this paper we propose an architecture that meets all these desiderata. It uses first-order probabilistic reasoning techniques to combine potentially inconsistent knowledge sources of varying quality, and it uses machine-learning techniques to estimate the quality of knowledge. We evaluate the approach using a series of synthetic knowledge bases and a pilot study in the domain of printer troubleshooting.


Background: Metal screws are commonly used for fracture fixations. However, the high modulus of elasticity relative to bones and releasing metallic ions by the metal screw needed a second surgery to remove the implant after the healing period. Furthermore, the removal of metal screws following the healing of the bone is a serious problem that can lead to refracture due to the presence of holes in the screw. Bioresorbable screws can overcome most of the problems associated with metallic screws which motivated research on manufacturing nonmetallic screws. Methods: In this study, three-layer poly L-lactic acid/bioactive glass composite screws were manufactured according to functionally graded material theory, by the forging process. All of the physical and chemical parameters in the manufacturing stages from making composite layers to the forging process were optimized to obtain suitable mechanical properties and durability off the screw in load-bearing positions. Results: The tri-layer composite screw with unidirectional, ±20° angled, and random fibers orientation from core to shell shows a flexural load of 661.5 ± 20.3 (N) with a decrease about 31% after 4-week degradation. Furthermore, its pull-out force was 1.8 ± 0.1 (N) which is considerably more than the degradable polymeric screws. Moreover, the integrity of the composite screws was maintained during the degradation process. Conclusions: By optimizing the manufacturing process and composition of the composite and crystallinity, mechanical properties (flexural, torsion, and pull-out) were improved and making it a perfect candidate for load-bearing applications in orthopedic implants. Improving the fiber/matrix interface through the use of a coupling agent was also considered to preserve the initial mechanical properties. The manufactured screw is sufficiently robust enough to replace metals for orthopedic load-bearing applications.


Abstract. Our contribution presents a new perspective in the mathematical description of a rotating multi-beam LiDAR sensor, in a sense that we make use of projective geometry along with the "homogeneous general equation of the second degree" to parametrize scan lines. We describe the scan geometry of a typical multi-beam rotating 3D LiDAR by representing scan lines as pojective conics that represent a projective figure (a cone) in an embedding plane. This approach enables the parameterization of each scan line using a generic conic section equation. Most modeling approachs model spinning LiDAR sensors in terms of individual points sampled by a laser beam. On the contrary, we propose a model that provides a high-level geometric interpretation both for the environment and the laser scans. Possible application scenarios include exterior and interior calibration of multiple rotating multi-beam sensors, scan distortion correction and localization in planar maps.


High-dimensional local binary patterns [5] have been proved to be a useful feature for face recognition, which provides near-human performance in a widely used face verification benchmark. In this report, we first review the technical aspect of this promising feature, and then we provide our implementation details of the feature. Finally, we show some experimental results using this feature on two public datasets, LFW and CACD.


Assessments for acquired motor-speech disorders that look at movements of the articulators would appear at first glance to be universal. This may be true for the most basic non-speech aspects of movement. We argue that assessments for speech motor control must be attuned to language-specific variables to be fully valid. We describe the rationale for, and development of a motor-speech-disorder screening test for Swahili speakers which includes impairment measures as well as measures of intelligibility and speech-voice naturalness. We further describe its initial validation in terms of content validity, feasibility of administration and scoring without requirements for lengthy training and technical expertise and application to groups of people with and without Parkinson's disease in Tanzania. Results indicate that the protocol is ready to use in so far as it is acceptable to users (clinicians, patients), is feasible to use, shows good interrater reliability, and is capable of differentiating performance in healthy speakers and those whose speech is disordered. We highlight needs for further development, including issues around training, development of local norms for healthy speakers and for speakers with a variety of neurological disturbances, and extension of the tool to cover culturally valid assessment of impact of communication disorders.


Premature failure caused by inadequate lubrication of an artificial joint is a major problem. Inspired by engine lubrication, in which various additives are used to enforce the oil lubricant, here, a bench test of a biomimetic lubricating fluid containing different substances was carried out. Bovine serum albumin (BSA), in the form of both molecules and nanoparticles, was used as a functional additive. Compared with BSA molecules, BSA nanoparticles dispersed in HA solution served as more effective additives in the biomimetic lubrication fluid to minimize the friction and wear of ceramic orthopedic materials made of zirconium dioxide (ZrO2). Meanwhile, a tribo-acoustic study indicated that the "squeaking" problem associated with ZrO2 could be suppressed by the biomimetic fluid. Together with a cytotoxicity assessment, the BSA nanoparticle-incorporated biomimetic fluid was confirmed as a potential reagent for use in the clinic to maintain an even longer service life of artificial joints.


Following the endorsement of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2010, Viet Nam's National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP) began using GeneXpert instruments in NTP laboratories. In 2013, Viet Nam's NTP implemented an Xpert MTB/RIF external quality assurance (EQA) program in collaboration with the U.S. ABSTRACT Following the endorsement of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2010, Viet Nam's National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP) began using GeneXpert instruments in NTP laboratories. In 2013, Viet Nam's NTP implemented an Xpert MTB/RIF external quality assurance (EQA) program in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). Proficiency-testing (PT) panels comprising five dried tube specimens (DTS) were sent to participating sites approximately twice a year from October 2013 to July 2016. The number of enrolled laboratories increased from 22 to 39 during the study period. Testing accuracy was assessed by comparing reported and expected results; percentage scores were assigned; and feedback reports were provided to sites. On-site evaluation (OSE) was conducted for underperforming laboratories. The results from the first five rounds demonstrate the positive impact of PT and targeted OSE visits on testing quality. On average, for every additional round of feedback, the odds of achieving PT scores of ≥80% increased 2.04-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.39- to 3.00-fold). Future work will include scaling up PT to all sites and maintaining the performance of participating laboratories while developing local panel production capacity.


Abstract. Work abrasive dental rotary tool is associated with tissue damage teeth. In case of non‐observance of the thermal mode of preparation, it is possible the development traumatic pulpitis and violation of the local structure of hard tissues. To reduce unwanted consequences of preparation of teeth is mandatory, subject to such rules as the conduct of a stage of preparation of water‐air cooling, the correct selection tool to perform certain tasks, the use of qualitative new tools, etc. One of the recommendations which aim to reduce the undesirable effects of preparation of hard tooth tissues, is to limit the load on the tool. In the available literature found research dedicat‐ed to finding the optimal values load on the tool preparation. It is believed that the load on the tool preparation to be about 20 g. At various times, the authors developed several devices designed to bring the power supply dental rotary tool to the recommended values. However, in the available literature hasn't been met mention of using the proposed device. Thus, the problem of control load prepara‐tion remains unresolved. The authors developed a device that allows for preparation of teeth with preset effort. The article provides a technical description of the proposed device.


Surgical procedures for the correction of abomasal displacement are one of the most frequently performed in dairy cows, and many surgical techniques have been described since the first cases of this disease were reported in the 1950s. Although no report to date has described the use of one-step laparoscopy in Brazil, the technique has several advantages over the traditional techniques, e.g., better abdominal visualization and minor trauma resulting from the minimally invasive technique. Accordingly, one-step laparoscopy, as described by Christiansen and Barisani, was performed to treat left abomasal displacement in 21 high-yielding dairy cows from two dairy regions of Parana State. The technique was performed without complications in 12/21 (57.14%) cows. Ruminal (four animals), abomasal (two animals), both ruminal and abomasal (one animal), and splenic (one animal) perforations occurred during surgery but without any postoperative complication. One cow developed pyloric obstruction caused by the toggle bar suture, but early removal restored abomasal flux. Three animals died of different causes. One cow showed recurrence of displacement 1 month after surgery. A third access was necessary in cows that weighed more than 700 kg. One-step laparoscopy is an efficient, fast, and safe technique for the correction of left abomasal displacement.