Clarifying the influence of the dress process parameters of the abrasive water jet on the dressing effect of fixed-abrasive pads (FAPs) is a prerequisite for online controllable dressing of abrasive water jets. This paper uses three factors and three horizontal response surface methods to explore the influence of jet pressure, abrasive concentration, and nozzle angle on FAP dressing quality. The prediction model of the material removal rate of a FAP machined using three process parameters is established. The influence of pairwise interactions of the three process parameter variables on the dressing effect and the optimal process parameters under each target is analyzed. Finally, the optimal process parameters predicted by the model are verified by experiments. The results show that the best dressing parameters with the MRR of the workpiece as the response value are as follows: jet pressure 3.8 MPa, abrasive concentration 3%, and nozzle angle 73°. The predicted value of the optimal process performance is 464.574 nm/min, and the experimental verification result is 469.136 nm/min; the error between the experimental value and the predicted value is within a reasonable range.


We suggest that the measurement of electroabsorption be improved by observations of electrotransmittance and electroreflectance for amorphous silicon-based solar cells. The measurement is based on a model in which electroabsorption depends on the internal reflection and transmission and reflection are ultimately entangled to each other. Thus the model indicates that the electroabsorption is completely obtained at the condition, so called "the zero interference effect," in which the interference effect is nulled. The condition of the zero interference effect is directly observed with a simultaneous measurement of electrotransmittance and electroreflectance, and determines the built-in potential for a transparent back-surfaced solar cell, but it is inconclusive, because of the absence of electrotransmittance, for a reflecting back-surfaced solar cell. But the built-in potential for the solar cell would rather be estimated with the offset potential at the photon energy near the absorber layer band gap (i.e.,...


The synthesis, characterization, electrochemical and photophysical properties of a novel D–π–A indoline organic dye, VCL01, are described. Its performance characteristics in dye sensitized solar cell (DSC) devices under standard AM 1.5G illumination are also investigated. VCL01 incorporates a cyclopentadithiophene unit as the π-bridge between the indoline donor and cyanoacetic acceptor units. In comparison with the reference dye LS-1 containing only one thiophene unit in the π-bridge, VCL01 shows a 40 nm red shift in adsorption, an increase in molar absorptivity and a 0.17 V lower oxidation potential, all consistent with the more conjugated nature of this sensitizer. The efficiencies of VCL01 and LS-1 DSC devices were 4.81% and 6.23%, respectively, which upon >100 min continuous light soaking under AM 1.5G illumination rose to 7.21% and 6.95%, representing an unprecedented 50% increase in efficiency for the VCL01 device. This increase is overwhelmingly due to an increase in photocurrent but, remarkably, Voc also increases by 50 mV upon illumination reflected in transient photovoltage data which indicate that electron lifetime increases considerably also. Time-correlated single photon counting data indicate that the light soaking effect can be partly attributed to improved TiO2/dye interaction leading to enhanced electron injection.


Stretches of cytosine-rich DNA are capable of adopting a dynamic secondary structure, the i-motif. When within promoter regions, the i-motif has the potential to act as a molecular switch for controlling gene expression. However, i-motif structures in genomic areas of repetitive nucleotide sequences may play a role in facilitating or hindering expansion of these DNA elements. Despite research on the i-motif trailing behind the complementary G-quadruplex structure, recent discoveries including the identification of a specific i-motif antibody are pushing this field forward. This perspective reviews initial and current work characterizing the i-motif and providing insight into the biological function of this DNA structure, with a focus on how the i-motif can serve as a molecular target for developing new therapeutic approaches to modulate gene expression and extension of repetitive DNA.


In this experiment work, Cerium Oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles have been synthesized by Co-Precipitation technique from the powder mixture of Cerium Nitrate and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) obtained from a chemical route synthesis. Synthesized nanoparticle characterization measured by using XRD and SEM analysis. CeO2/water nanofluids with volume concentrations from 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% were then prepared by dispersing the synthesized nanopowder in distilled water. The experimental results have shown that thermal conductivity of the prepared nanofluids increase with the nanoparticles volume concentration. The thermal conductivity of prepared nanofluids has been measured. The experimental measurement of thermal conductivity showed a maximum enhancement of 18.10% for a volume concentration of 0.3%. The experimental results have been compared with the base fluid.


The nucleation rate from classical nucleation theory is independent of sample size. In the past decades, several experimental and theoretical studies argued that the homogeneous nucleation rate of ice in supercooled droplets increases when the drop size is decreased. In this paper, we investigate the nucleation of ice in nanoscale water films using molecular dynamics simulations. We found that the nucleation rate of ice actually decreases when the film thickness decreases in the nanoscale regime. A theoretical model is presented to interpret the mechanism of nucleation rate decrease, which agrees well with the simulation results. The model divides films into the near-surface and the middle regions that are characterized by relatively low and high nucleation rates, respectively. The middle region dominates the nucleation process of films, whereas its effect is continuously weakened when increasing volume fraction of the near-surface region by decreasing the film size, leading to a decrease of the total nucleation rate. The structural and thermodynamic analyses indicate that the high stress induced by the surface layering slows down the diffusion and increases the nucleation barrier in the near-surface region, which is responsible for the low nucleation rate and eventually the decrease of the total nucleation rate.


In recent years Ur has figured prominently and often as an important witness of the Great Flood of prehistoric times. But whatever may have been the cause and extent of that particular upheaval, it appears that the ancient city perished, paradoxically enough, for lack of water. A sudden shift in the course of the Euphrates probably doomed to desiccation the strip of land on which Ur had risen to become at length a powerful royal centre. That fitful whim of a lazy river may be placed at some period near the end of the pre-that time, however, Ur had endured for perhaps apsr leo-nCgh arsis ftiivaen m eirlale. nnBiay. Nothing short of a natural catastrophe, it would appear, could bring to a close a career of such heroic proportions.


Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy and the second most common cause of cancer-related mortality in women. Early detection of BC using different biomarkers is a key factor for successful BC therapy. Many studies have shown that serum antibodies (Ab) against tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) could be used as potential biomarkers in the detection of BC. However in some cases the most of informative TAAs for circulating Ab detection, at early stages of BC, might be unknown. Even if informative Ab targets are currently unknown it is possible to analyze Ab repertoire (immunosignature) using random peptide arrays. In the present study, we probe a custom 330,000 random 12-mer peptide microarray with sera from 42 BC cases and 41 controls to develop a diagnostic signature. We determined that differentiation of BC cases from controls with high sensitivity and specificity requires a panel of at least 100–150 peptides. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) searches suggest that the identified peptides have no similarity with known TAAs. However, despite the random nature of the amino acid sequence that were used in microchip design, common amino acid motif is present in the groups of peptides that react with sera Ab from patients with BC but not healthy control. Thus the evaluation of Ab repertoire (immunosignature) using microarray containing peptides with random amino acid sequences has a potential value in the early diagnosis of cancer.


Absfruct-This paper is concerned with the digital estimation of the frequency response of a two-dimensional spatially invariant linear system through which an image has been passed and blurred. For the cases of uniform linear camera motion and an out-of-focus lens system it is shown that the power cepstrum of the image contains sufficient information to identify the blur. Methods for deblumng are presented, including restoration of the density version of the image. The restoration procedure consumes only a modest amount of computation time. Results are demonstrated on images blurred in the camera.


Several recent studies have provided substantial support for the proposal that a decrease in inhibitory processing may play an important role in cognitive changes occurring in the early stages of Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT). The question addressed by the present study was whether these deficits are the result of the failure of a general inhibitory mechanism, or whether DAT is associated with selective decreases in a subset of inhibitory processes. For this, a computerized battery of tasks assessing several inhibitory mechanisms was administered to 28 mild DAT patients and 28 matched elderly adults. The results showed that DAT patients failed to produce Negative Priming effects and were severely impaired in the Stroop task. However, no evidence was found for an impairment on the Go–No go task and only limited impairment on the Stop Signal task, suggesting that in the early stages of the disease, not all inhibitory mechanisms are uniformly impaired.


The purpose of this study is to analyze the communication competence of village midwives and TBAs in supporting the decrease of maternal and infant mortality rate and to analyze the efforts of village midwives and TBAs in maintaining partnership in Singkohor sub-district of Aceh Singkil district. The method used is qualitative method with constructivist paradigm. Data were collected based on in-depth interviews on 6 informants consisting of 3 village midwives and 3 dukun bayi. The results showed that the midwives 'midwives' partnership and midwife communications process worked well. The communication competence of village midwives and midwives is seen from the motivation, knowledge and skills indicate that the motivation of the village midwife to partner with the dukun baby is due to the belief and closeness of the community to the midwife whose knowledge is gained from the experience passed down from generation to generation while the shaman has motivation partnering with the village midwife because the TBA believes in the credibility of midwives in handling childbirth where knowledge is gained from the learning process.


Objective: Concerns regarding the high-level risk of infection among healthcare workers (HCWs) increased after COVID19 was declared as a pandemic in March 2020. Inadequate infection control owing to a shortage of personal protective equipment or an inconvenient usage of infection control measures may play a significant role in transmission to/among healthcare personnel. The study aimed to determine the characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients who are healthcare workers along with possible transmission routes of COVID-19 in four different healthcare facilities in Istanbul.
Methods: All hospital records were reviewed retrospectively. Demographic and clinical characteristics of HCWs were documented, and all infected HCWs were subjected to a phone-based mini-questionnaire and three-dimensional test (TDT). All statistical analyses were done using statistical packages SPSS Demo Ver 22 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA).
Results: Clinical features of COVID-19 were similar to the general public's characteristics. The most frequent symptoms were cough, fever, and headache. HCWs with the O blood group tend to have asymptomatic COVID-19 infection. Hospital workers other than medical professionals have a lack of convenience of infection control measures. The median duration of PCR negativity was 9 days. HCWs who had a sore throat at the beginning of COVID-19 have a longer PCR-positive duration.
Conclusion: Understanding the clinical features or characteristics of asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers may aid in the implementation of a feasible screening program for early detection. It is strongly advised that proper infection control precautions, education, and auditing of nonclinical staff be implemented. As a result, transmission among healthcare workers can be avoided.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate ultrasonographic and clinical variables such as the presence or absence of bile sludge, thickness of the gallbladder wall, transverse measurement of the gallbladder, age, parity, and presence or absence of diabetes mellitus, and to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic gallstones in female patients submitted to ultrasonographic examination. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a prospective study involving 265 female patients attending at the "Escola de Ultra-sonografia e Reciclagem Medica de Ribeirao Preto", Sao Paulo, Brazil, during the period from January to September, 2001. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in gallstones and gallbladder wall thickness, bile sludge, transverse gallbladder diameter, age, parity, with a 4.1% among nulliparous women and a 39.1% in multiparous women and diabetic women. The prevalence of gallstones in asymptomatic patients was 14.7%. CONCLUSION: Asymptomatic gallstones in women were mainly related to age and parity. The most frequently detected ultrasonographic findings were the presence of bile sludge and thickening of the gallbladder wall.


Obesity is increasing worldwide and has become a public health concern due to associated degenerative diseases and morbidity. Even though overweight and obesity are not life threatening, they qualify themselves as a disease entity. The bulk of literature on obesity says that the external environment largely influences the increase in food intake and is termed scientifically as "obesogenic environment". A "dual approach" that uses both traditional and holistic health can be used to curb this rising trend. Dietary approaches like low calorie diets and increased physical activity are recommended for weight management and prevention of diseases. A number of studies indicate that there is an increased interest in enhancing the use of herbs, bioactive components of foods, traditional diets; owing to their wide spectrum of therapeutic properties for obesity and for the armed forces personnel (under the hypocaloric rations in the field). Therefore, taking the existing scenario of obesity into consideration and the protective role of calorie restriction, this paper provides an insight into the highly convoluted process of dietary restriction and highlights the implications of hypocaloric diets.


The paper presents two statistics for testing gammality based on complete and incomplete random samples with unknown scale parameter. The distributions of the test statistics were approximated by using Monte Carlo simulation. The power of the statistics is investigated with respect to several altematives. The paper also presents statistical methods for reliability measurement from grouped data on items from a gamma life distribution. The maximum method is used to estimate reliability, tables are given for asymptotically optimal inspection time of the life tests which are moniitored only periodically.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of interest rate in emerging markets, focusing on banking financial institutions in Uganda. Design/methodology/approach – Using the net interest margin model, interest rate was estimated by applying a panel random effects regression method on 24 banks, while controlling for bank-specific factors, industry and macroeconomic indicators. Data were drawn from annual reports provided by Bank of Uganda Depository Corporation survey from 2008 to 2016. Findings – The results indicate that liquidity, equity capital, market power and reserve requirement have a positive effect on interest rate. The study further finds that operational efficiency, lending out ratio, concentration, public sector borrowing and private sector credit have a negative effect on interest rate. However, credit risk does not influence interest rate. Research limitations/implications – Studied banks are grouped in one panel data set; future studies would focus on the differences in banks and establish how these differences affect interest rate. Future study would also focus on how the determinants of interest rate in Uganda are compared with those of other banks in other emerging market countries. Practical implications – Bank managers need to take interest in equity mobilization because it is a reliable and cheaper source of funding bank operations. Banks should emphasize efficient operations to reduce on the cost of doing business. Government should utilize funds borrowed from banks in efficient ways to improve economic growth. The central bank should minimize the use of reserve requirement as a means of controlling money in circulation. Originality/value – This is the first paper that uses annual report data from several banks and periods to investigate the determinants of interest rate in an emerging country.


Managed care has decreased the frequency of hospitalization for psychiatric disorders, and it may have an especially strong impact on neuropsychiatric patients. The use of targeted, cost-effective interventions improves the quality of patient care and can assist with approval of funding for inpatient care by utilization review agencies.


In this study, deep learning will be used to test the predictability of stock trends. Stock markets are known to be volatile, prices fluctuate, and there are many complicated financial indicators involved. Various data including news or financial indicators can be used to predict stock prices. In this study, the focus will be on using past stock prices and using technical indicators to increase the performance of the results. The goal of this study is to measure the accuracy of predictions and evaluate the results. Historical data is gathered for Apple, Microsoft, Google and Intel stocks. A prediction model is created by using past data and technical indicators were used as features in the model. The experiments were performed by using long short-term memory networks. Different approaches and techniques were tested to boost the performance of the results. To prove the usability of the final model in the real world and measure the profitability of results backtesting was performed. The final results show that while it is not possible to predict the exact price of a stock in the future to gain profitable results, deep learning can be used to predict the trend of stock markets to generate buy and sell signals.


Estrogen is the major hormonal stimulus for growth of the hormonal-dependent type of breast cancer. The rate-limiting step in the conversion of androgens to estrogens in breast tumors is catalyzed by aromatase, one of a series of related P-450 enzymes involved in the production of steroid hormones. An interesting correlation has been found between KGF mRNA and aromatase mRNA expression in human breast tumors. Tumors that express aromatase mRNA exhibit strong KGF expression, while tumors that do not express aromatase are weak or negative for KGF expression. Thus, it is reasonable to theorize that a possible association between KGF and aromatase in controlling human breast tumor growth exists. The purpose of the current study was to establish whether there is any interaction between KGF, which is known to have epithelial-specific mitogenic activity on breast cancer cells in vitro, and the synthesis of estradiol within the hormone-dependent breast cancer epithelial cells. In the present study, we have demonstrated that KGF stimulates aromatase activity in human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) in a dose-dependent manner. Our data shows that recombinant human KGF, at a dose as low as 10 ng/ml, can significantly increase aromatase activity 2-fold over controls. In agreement with this observation, we also found that aromatase mRNA levels were increased after 10 ng/ml KGF treatment in MCF-7 cells. These results indicate that the stimulatory effect of KGF on aromatase activity may be mediated by alterations in aromatase mRNA levels or in the efficiency of the translation of the message in MCF-7 cells. In addition, our results have demonstrated that modulation of aromatase activity appears to correlate with the stimulation of proliferative activity by KGF in MCF-7 cells. These results are consistent with our previous observations that estradiol-17 beta stimulates KGF expression in human breast cancer stromal cells, leading to the speculation that breast malignant transformation is associated with a positive feedback stimulation, whereby estradiol-17 beta stimulates breast cancer stromal cell production of KGF, and KGF subsequently stimulates aromatase activity in breast cancer cells, consequently raising levels of estradiol-17 beta, in turn acts on breast stromal cells to yield more KGF. Such a positive feedback loop could play an important role in the loss of growth control in human breast cancer cells.


Stankov's work on attention and intelligence suggests that the dual task paradigm, requiring the division of attention, is a better measure of general intellectual ability than the single task paradigm which does not make this demand. Sixty right handed undergraduates remembered digit and visual-spatial sequences alone and in two dual task conditions involving lateralized key tapping as the primary task. R gher intercorrelations were found under dual task conditions in which the tasks competed for the same hemisphere's resources. Better memory performance resulted when both tasks were lateralized to the same hemisphere. Hierarchical models combining general attention resources with ,lateralized hemispheric resources best account for these resutsi


Water researchers in developing countries have yet to take full advantage of the funding and collaborative research opportunities presented by the EU Framework Programme. There are a variety of reasons for this, such as insufficient information and a lack of previous experience. The African Water initiative aims to increase the involvement of African water researchers through a range of activities including communication and dissemination, capacity building and development, and complementary initiatives. The project has demonstrated that there is a demand for such sector-specific support activities. However, African Water is a small component of a much larger process of partnership between the developed and the less-developed countries of the world, involving many different European and African organisations working across political, institutional and technical domains, and complementing the wide range of actions already being undertaken.


Rickettsia felis, formerly called ELB agent, was identified by using molecular biology techniques in the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis felis) from southwestern Spain. For the first time this flea-transmitted rickettsia has been detected within its vector in Eurasia.


The main objective of this paper is to present some algorithms to fuse information about obstacles, whose dynamics are a-priori unknown, in a helicopter's environment, provided by multiple spatially separate sensors. The fused information can then be used to help helicopters locate obstacles in hazardous conditions so that it can avoid them. Obstacle track estimation has been commonly carried out using the Kalman filter (KF), a linear estimator, or one of its variations. The extended Kalman filter, one such variation designed for use on non-linear problems, produces the best linear approximation to the object track. However certain assumptions made in the derivation of these algorithms render them suboptimal for aerial obstacle track estimation. Work produced by the University of Southampton has highlighted a link between fuzzy networks and associative memory neural networks. This link is important as it allows new learning rules to be developed for training fuzzy rules, and the conditions under which convergence can be proved to be derived. This paper explores methods for the fusion of estimates using these neurofuzzy models, and also addresses some of the weaknesses of the Kalman filter approximation introduced by the assumptions made in its derivation.


The middleware for robotics ROS has become the de-facto standard for developing robot applications. Thanks to our experience using ROS we conjectured that the quality of code of ROS is low, yielding a poor user experience for ROS users and posing important barriers to robot software development. In this work we present a first quantification of code quality of the ROS ecosystem through an analysis of code duplication in launchfiles. Our experience led us to believe that these configuration files exhibit a significant amount of code duplication, and this study shows that it is indeed the case. We find that 25% of packages with multiple launchfiles have duplicated code, and that clones are highly similar.


In multilayer printed circuit boards, the noise on the power bus is influenced by the impedance between the power and ground planes. Power-bus noise estimates require an accurate estimate of the power-bus input impedance. This paper develops a closed-form estimate of the input impedance for circular power-return plane structures. When the structure is lossy (e.g., boards employing embedded capacitance or densely populated boards), the energy reflected from the board edge does not significantly affect the input impedance. In general, the expressions developed here for circular structures can be used to estimate the impedance of lossy power-return plane structures of any shape.


BACKGROUND
We explored the potential of emerging and conventional urinary kidney injury biomarkers in recipients of living donor (LD) or donation after circulatory death (DCD) kidney transplantation, patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and individuals from the general population.

METHODS
Urine samples from kidney allograft recipients with mild (LD; n = 199) or severe (DCD; n = 71) ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) were analyzed for neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7 (IGFBP7), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2), kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), chemokine C-X-C motif (CXCL9), solute carrier family 22 member 2 (SLC22A2), nephrin, and uromodulin (UMOD) by quantitative multiplex LC-MS/MS analysis. The fold-change in biomarker levels was determined in mild and severe IRI and in patients with CKD stage 1-2 (n = 127) or stage ≥3 (n = 132) in comparison to the general population (n = 1438). Relationships between the biomarkers and total protein, β2-microglobulin (B2M), creatinine, and osmolality were assessed.

RESULTS
NGAL, IGFBP7, TIMP2, KIM-1, CXCL9, and UMOD were quantifiable, whereas nephrin and SLC22A2 were below the limit of detection. Kidney injury biomarkers were increased up to 6.2-fold in allograft recipients with mild IRI and 8.3-fold in recipients with severe IRI, compared to the reference population, with the strongest response observed for NGAL and B2M. In CKD stage 1-2, B2M, NGAL, IGFBP7, TIMP2, KIM-1, UMOD, and CXCL9 were not altered, but in individuals with CKD stage ≥3, B2M, NGAL, and KIM-1 were increased up to 1.3-fold. IGFBP7, TIMP2, NGAL, and CXCL9 were strongly correlated (all r ≥ 0.8); correlations with B2M and TP were smaller (all r ≤ 0.6).

CONCLUSIONS
IRI, but not stable CKD, was associated with increased urinary levels of kidney injury biomarkers determined by LC-MS/MS. Absolute and multiplexed protein quantitation by LC-MS/MS is an effective strategy for biomarker panel evaluation for translation toward the clinical laboratory.


This paper describes process characterization techniques and key structural dependencies of chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) planarization. Also presented are a closed-solution model for simple analysis and a differential model for more complex analysis of CMP planarization and its pattern and polishing pad dependencies. The modelling and characterization give insights into and quantify the effects of "down" area dimensions, "up" area patterning, and feature step heights. Differentially modelled results predict corner-rounding and, in doing so, suggest a mechanism.


Integrin-linked kinase (ILK) is an ankyrin-repeat containing serine-threonine protein kinase capable of interacting with the cytoplasmic domains of integrin beta1, beta2, and beta3 subunits. Overexpression of ILK in epithelial cells disrupts cell-extracellular matrix as well as cell-cell interactions, suppresses suspension-induced apoptosis (also called Anoikis), and stimulates anchorage-independent cell cycle progression. In addition, ILK induces nuclear translocation of beta-catenin, where the latter associates with a T cell factor/lymphocyte enhancer-binding factor 1 (TCF/LEF-1) to form an activated transcription factor. We now demonstrate that ILK activity is rapidly, but transiently, stimulated upon attachment of cells to fibronectin, as well as by insulin, in a phosphoinositide-3-OH kinase [Pi(3)K]-dependent manner. Furthermore, phosphatidylinositol(3,4,5)trisphosphate specifically stimulates the activity of ILK in vitro, and in addition, membrane targetted constitutively active Pi(3)K activates ILK in vivo. We also demonstrate here that ILK is an upstream effector of the Pi(3)K-dependent regulation of both protein kinase B (PKB/AKT) and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3). Specifically, ILK can directly phosphorylate GSK-3 in vitro and when stably, or transiently, overexpressed in cells can inhibit GSK-3 activity, whereas the overexpression of kinase-deficient ILK enhances GSK-3 activity. In addition, kinase-active ILK can phosphorylate PKB/AKT on serine-473, whereas kinase-deficient ILK severely inhibits endogenous phosphorylation of PKB/AKT on serine-473, demonstrating that ILK is involved in agonist stimulated, Pi(3)K-dependent, PKB/AKT activation. ILK is thus a receptor-proximal effector for the Pi(3)K-dependent, extracellular matrix and growth factor mediated, activation of PKB/AKT, and inhibition of GSK-3.


This paper looks closely at the relationship existing between entrepreneurial activity, innovations and the development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Most SMEs result from implementing the entrepreneurial spirit, through which the entrepreneurs' activity which is conducted in different domains. One of the most important aspect is the innovation in SMEs as an indicator of the entrepreneurial activity, on the one hand and as a contributor to the organization's performance, on the other hand. This study therefore analyses the SMEs innovation activity over a period of time as an indication of entrepreneurship evolvement and manifested in Kenya as an East African country that integrated relatively recently into the East African Community Common market (EAC). The paper envisages looking at how innovations in SMEs from Kenya have evolved in the period 2010 to date. The innovative activities in SMEs are examined from a dynamic perspective and the analysis is based on the study of a number of aspects related to innovations, such as: types of innovative activities, investments in innovations, the intensity of renewing the existing products, the use of IT, the use of the Internet, etc. Based on these findings, the paper attempts to characterize the innovative activities in Kenyan SMEs and their evolution in time with emphasis on the recent times.


Providing safe pharmacotherapy for pregnant women is challenging. Nearly all pregnant women are prescribed or inadvertently receive medication during their pregnancy. We reviewed the scientific literature to identify the specific medications and vaccines that are most often used during pregnancy and described them by category and indication. Our interest was to update the research before the implementation of the recently released FDA labeling rule for pregnancy and lactation that eliminates the use of pregnancy categories in product labels. Our results confirm that most products taken during pregnancy are over-the-counter or in the former FDA pregnancy categories A or B. However, medications taken prior to pregnancy recognition (inadvertent exposures) and those prescribed for chronic illness such as allergies, depression, and pain are of concern. A better understanding of medication and vaccine utilization during pregnancy may help clinicians reduce inadvertent first trimester exposures and improve the safe and effective treatment of pregnant women.


Crude oil transportation is a central logistics operation in the petrochemical industry because the transportation cost of the crude oil represents a significant part in the cost of petrochemical products. In this paper, we consider the transportation by tankers or trucks. We show that under some realistic assumptions, this problem can be transformed into a single item lot sizing problem with limited production and inventory capacities. We develop a strongly polynomial dynamic programming algorithm to solve this latter problem. The main contribution of the paper are: 1) application of lot sizing models to the transportation problem; 2) an O(T3) algorithm is proposed to solve this problem; 3) the results obtained are not limited to the maritime transportation problem and can also be applied to the vehicle transportation problem in direct delivery case.


The present research investigated factors related to the health care choices seniors anticipated making in response to hypothetical illness symptoms (e.g. rectal bleeding). After collecting demographic data, 80 seniors were presented various illness symptoms. Directly following each symptom they were asked whether they anticipated using self-, informal, or formal care to deal with the potential problem. In general, seniors with higher perceived health status anticipated using self-care. Being male and having a lower perceived health status was predictive of choosing informal care, whereas being female was predictive of anticipating using formal care. When individual symptoms were analyzed, additional predictors were identified. Judged seriousness of a symptom, experience with a symptom, and social network status were related to different anticipated health care choices for some, but not all, symptoms. Perhaps the most striking finding was the difference between males and females. Since health status between males and females was not significantly different, this difference in anticipated choice of care seemed to be linked to personal preference rather than health status per se.


The compound Rh(CO)(4)GePh(3), 3, was obtained in a high yield (95%) from the reaction of [Rh(CO)(2)Cl](2) with LiGePh(3) under a CO atmosphere. Reaction of 3 with HGePh(3) yielded the new dirhodium compound Rh(2)(CO)(6)(GePh(3))(2)(mu-GePh(2)), 4 (55% yield), by a loss of CO and the combination of one equivalent of HGePh(3) with two equivalents of 3. Compound 4 contains contains a Rh-Rh bond and a bridging GePh(2) ligand formed by cleavage of a phenyl group from a GePh(3) ligand. Compound 4 reacts with Pt(PBu(t)(3))(2) to add a Pt(PBu(t)(3)) to the Rh-Rh bond to form the compound PtRh(2)(CO)(6)(GePh(3))(2)(PBu(t)(3))(mu-GePh(2)), 5 (42% yield). Fenske-Hall molecular orbitals were calculated for compounds 4 and 5 to explain the nature of the metal-metal bonding in these compounds. Compounds 3-5 were fully characterized by IR, NMR, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses.


Melanoma involving the nasal and paranasal sinus mucosa is a rare disease that is difficult to treat and generally has a poor prognosis. Data on 17 patients treated at the UCLA Medical Center during the period 1970 to 1985 were reviewed in a retrospective manner. The five-year disease-free survival was 25% (3/12). Surgery, with or without radiation therapy, is the mode of treatment to control disease in most patients. Treatment failures, which include both local recurrence and distant metastases, may occur many years after initial therapy. We found a correlation between the thickness of tumor and the clinical outcome.


Background
18F-fluorocholine positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F-choline PET/CT) is considered a cornerstone in the staging and restaging of patients with prostate cancer (PCa). The aim of this study was to retrospectively assess unusual uptakes in patients who underwent a F-choline PET/CT for the initial staging or for the restaging of a relapsing PCa.

Methods
Three hundred and sixty-eight PCa patients were staged or restaged using F-choline PET/CT. Unusual uptakes were defined as uptakes occurring outside the usual paths of diffusion of PCa or as uptake in bone with a clear morphological evidence of nonmetastatic lesion.

Results
We found unusual uptakes in 47/368 patients (12.8%). Among them, 41/47 presented with benign F-choline uptake, usually within lymph nodes, due to inflammatory processes (22/47). Other benign processes were found in: thyroid (3/47), adrenal gland (3/47), brain (2/47), liver (1/47), bowel (3/47), frontal sinus (1/47), lungs (4/47), parotid gland (1/47) and bone (1/47). The six remaining patients presented with a second cancer, including lymphoma (1/47), non-small cell lung cancer (4/47) and neuroendocrine tumor (1/47).

Conclusions
unusual uptakes on F-choline PET/CT are quite frequent and should be explored since they may correspond to non-PCa.


Abstract Within the popular memory of the partition of India, the division of Bengal continues to evoke themes of political rupture, social tragedy, and nostalgia. The refugees or, more broadly speaking, Hindu migrants from East Bengal, are often the central agents of such narratives. This paper explores how the scholarship on East Bengali refugees portrays them either as hapless and passive victims of the regime of rehabilitation, which was designed to integrate refugees into the socio-economic fabric of India, or eulogizes them as heroic protagonists who successfully battled overwhelming adversity to wrest resettlement from a reluctant state. This split image of the Bengali refugee as both victim and victor obscures the complex nature of refugee agency. Through a case-study of the foundation and development of Bijoygarh colony, an illegal settlement of refugee-squatters on the outskirts of Calcutta, this paper will argue that refugee agency in post-partition West Bengal was inevitably moulded by social status and cultural capital. However, the collective memory of the establishment of squatters' colonies systematically ignores the role of caste and class affiliations in fracturing the refugee experience. Instead, it retells the refugees' quest for rehabilitation along the mythic trope of heroic and masculine struggle. This paper interrogates refugee reminiscences to illuminate their erasures and silences, delineating the mythic structure common to both popular and academic refugee histories and exploring its significance in constructing a specific cultural identity for Bengali refugees.


The impact of two different types of floating patterns on spiral inductors was investigated. Both patterned trench isolation with a floating p/n junction and floating metal poles were implemented underneath reference spiral inductors. All three types of inductors have an identical spiral geometry. Combination of patterned trench isolation with a floating p/n junction increases maximum quality factor (Q/sub max/) by 17% compared to the reference inductors. The floating metal poles enable adjustment of the frequency at Q/sub max/ (f/sub max/) without hampering the Q/sub max/. A ladder-type lump-element model was employed to analyze inductor performance after it was demonstrated to precisely capture behavior of all three inductors. Enhancement of the quality factor due to patterned trench isolation with a floating p/n junction was found to result from an increment of effective resistivity in substrates. Reduction of the frequency f/sub max/ due to the floating metal poles was caused by increasing effective coupling capacitance between the spiral inductors and substrate.


Microbeam Radiation Therapy as a cancer treatment is developing fast due to its high therapeutic effect. This work simulates the MRT setup and the multi-slit collimator used in the creation of microbeams with the aid of TOPAS. TOPAS is a Geant4-based Monte Carlo extension developed to make simulations more readily available to both research and clinical medical physicists, as well as to extend its functionality. A multi-slit collimator is modelled to produce x-ray microbeams with a width of 50 µm and a centre to centre spacing of 400 µm. The energies range from 0 to 600 keV, and they are sampled using the synchrotron-wiggler generated spectrum employed at the biomedical facility of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France. This work aims to identify the accuracy of the dose deposition curves and peak to valley dose ratios (PVDRs) obtained with TOPAS. The PVDRs decreased with depth but increased prior to phantom exit due to the absence of back scattering. The simulated results are in line with published simulated and empirical findings, which suggest that TOPAS can be satisfactorily used as a tool for the calculation of the percentage depth dose and PVDRs at the energies considered in this study.


Background: Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) who take Ritalin may be faced with appetite reduction and weight loss. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the effects of a high-protein diet on weight and height growth in children with ADHD receiving Ritalin.
Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, performed during 2016-2018 in Tehran, 50 children with ADHD treated with Ritalin were randomly assigned to the high-protein diet (HPD) group (35% of the total calories intake from protein) or the control group receiving a standard diet (STD) (15% of the total calories from protein). The height and weight were measured in the standard mode and three-day food record was completed at baseline. The measurements were repeated on a monthly basis for 5 months. We used independent sample t-test to analyze the data. The study protocol was registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials with the code of IRCT2014062116465N4.
Results: A total of 40 children and adolescents (19 in HPD and 21 in STD) completed the study. Baseline characteristics between the trial arms were equal. After 5 months, the protein intake of HPD group was significantly higher based on a seven-day food record. In girls' subgroup, after 5 months, the mean difference concerning height, weight, and BMI change in HPD group compared to the control group were respectively +0.5 cm (P =0.41), -2.5 kg (P=0.04), and -1.6 kg/m2 (P=0.01) while in boys' subgroup, they were +0.4 cm (P=0.59),+0.3 kg (P =0.37), and+0.02 kg/m2 (P=0.51).
Conclusion: Girls responded differently to the HPD. The BMI in the girls decreased significantly after 5 months of HPD consumption as a result of weight loss. This effect was not observed in the boys. This may be due to different patterns of growth and puberty in the two genders.


Background: Robotic-assisted colorectal surgery is gaining popularity, but limited data are available on the safety, efficacy, and cost of robotic-assisted restorative proctectomy with the construction of an ileal pouch and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) for ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods: A retrospective study was conducted comparing consecutively performed robotic-assisted and laparoscopic proctectomy with IPAA between 1 January 2016 and 31 September 2021. In total, 67 adult patients with medically refractory UC without proven dysplasia or carcinoma underwent surgery: 29 operated robotically and 38 laparoscopically. Results: There were no differences between both groups regarding postoperative complications within 30 days according to Clavien-Dindo classification' grades 1–5 (51.7% vs. 42.1%, p = 0.468) and severe grades 3b–5 (17.2% vs. 10.5%, p = 0.485). Robotic-assisted surgery was associated with an increased urinary tract infection rate (n = 7, 24.1% vs. n = 1, 2.6%; p = 0.010) and longer operative time (346 ± 65 min vs. 281 ± 66 min; p < 0.0001). Surgery costs were higher when operated robotically (median EUR 10.377 [IQR EUR 4.727] vs. median EUR 6.689 [IQR EUR 3.170]; p < 0.0001), resulting in reduced total inpatient profits (median EUR 110 [IQR EUR 4.971] vs. median EUR 2.853 [IQR EUR 5.386]; p = 0.001). Conclusion: Robotic-assisted proctectomy with IPAA can be performed with comparable short-term clinical outcomes to laparoscopy but is associated with a longer duration of surgery and higher surgery costs. As experience increases, some advantages may become evident regarding operative time, postoperative recovery, and length of stay. The robotic procedure might then become cost-efficient.


Cases received for anthropological examination by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Laboratory for a 4-year period (2013–2017) were reviewed for the context of the discovery of remains. The assessment was compared with a previous similar review of cases received by the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), with particular attention to whether remains were initially discovered through deliberate law enforcement searches or inadvertently discovered by others. Results show that 52.9% of FBI Laboratory anthropology cases were initially discovered by law enforcement, compared to only 3.6% of Massachusetts OCME cases. Reasons for this difference are discussed, as well as other similarities and differences in discovery mode and context for anthropology cases between these two laboratories.


The study examined the relationship between open reporting system of performance evaluation and teachers' perceived productivity in Lagos State. The descriptive survey design was used for the study. The sample comprises of three hundred teachers randomly selected from five secondary schools in each of the six Education Districts of Lagos State. A modified Likert type questionnaire was prepared and used to collect data for the study. Pearson product moment correlation co-efficient was used for data analysis. The result of the analysis shows that there existed a significant relationship (P =0.05) between the open reporting system of performance appraisal, on the one hand, perceived teachers' productivity and teachers' potential for advancement on the other. Consequently, it was suggested among other things, that teachers performance appraisal system should be based on objectivity and be devoid of prejudices and biases.


Wireless information and power transfer (WIPT) enables more sustainable and resilient communications due to the fact that it avoids frequent battery charging and replacement. However, it also suffers from possible information interception due to the open nature of wireless channels. Compared to traditional secure communications, secrecy wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) has several distinct characteristic features. Wireless power transfer may increase vulnerability to eavesdropping, since a power receiver as a potential eavesdropper usually has a shorter access distance than an information receiver. On the other hand, wireless power transfer can be exploited to enhance wireless security. This article reviews the security issues in various SWIPT scenarios, with an emphasis on revealing the challenges and opportunities for implementing SWIPT. Furthermore, we provide a survey on a variety of physical layer security techniques to improve secrecy performance. In particular, we propose to use massive MIMO techniques to enhance power transfer efficiency and secure information transmission simultaneously. Finally, we discuss several potential research directions to further enhance the security in SWIPT systems.


This paper presents a comparative analysis of the determinants of the Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Ghana National System of Innovation (GNSI) and the Kenya National System of Innovation (KNSI). Two regression analyses is performed on the level of innovativeness of Business Enterprises (BE) (Effectiveness) and of the strength of linkages between Research institutes (RI) and the Production System (Efficiency) with respect to an array of independent variables of the National System of Innovation (NSI). We find that the GNSI and the KNSI are conformed by actor linkages and ICT positively with respect to Ghana and negatively in the case of Kenya. Lack of Finance is a significant determinant in the GNSI whereas adequacy of Human Resources is a significant determinant for the KNSI. In both countries Level of Innovativeness of BEs and Strength of RI Linkages with the Production System are significant in the modeling.


Mitochondria play multifaceted roles in malignant tumor progression. Beyond their bioenergetic role, mitochondria are essential for providing malignant cells a higher plasticity to face the harsh environmental conditions. Cell-autonomous metabolic deregulation of cancer cells, or metabolic adaptation to microenvironmental cues (lack of nutrients, stromal supply, hypoxia, etc.), represent the triggering event of mitochondria overexploitation to orchestrate nutrient sensing and upload, signaling, and redox circuits. As readout of their higher function, mitochondria produce high amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are functional for multiple signaling networks underlying tumor proliferation, survival, and metastatic process. To compensate for the higher rate of mitochondrial ROS production, cancer cells have evolved adaptive mechanisms to increase their antioxidant systems and to address ROS activating pathways useful for the tumor cell adaptation to environmental changes. As these properties are critical for cancer progression, mitochondrial ROS have recently become an attractive target for anti-cancer therapies. We discuss how understanding of mitochondrial function in the tumor-specific generation of ROS will impact on the development of novel redox-based targeted therapeutic strategies.


Background Research has shown depression to result in poorer educational attainment among children. However, comparatively little is known about the relationship between depression and attainment over time, and the role that children's socio-demographic characteristics might play.
 Aim To describe the educational attainment trajectory profiles of children with a clinical diagnosis of depression, and to explore whether these trajectory profiles vary by gender, ethnicity, area-level deprivation and age at diagnosis.
 Methods This is a historical, longitudinal cohort study, making use of two linked administrative datasets. First, a cohort of children (<18 years) were identified who had received a first diagnosis of depression from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust between 2007 and 2013 (n=1490). Their pseudonymised secondary mental healthcare records were extracted via the Clinical Record Interactive Search application at the Trust's Biomedical Research Centre. These records were then linked to England's National Pupil Database, which contains attainment data for these children at three timepoints of interest: Key Stage 1 (ages 5 to 7 years), Key Stage 2 (7 to 11 years) and Key Stage 4 (14 to 16 years). Longitudinal mixed models for repeated measures will be conducted to model changes in attainment over these three timepoints according to gender, ethnicity, area-level deprivation and age at diagnosis.
 Results Preliminary results are suggestive of attainment trajectories in this cohort varying according to their socio-demographic characteristics. Analysis will be completed August 2019.
 Conclusion The findings from this study will identify whether some groups of depressed children experience better or worse patterns of educational attainment over time. This could highlight priorities for intervention in England's ongoing efforts to improve child mental health provision in schools.


Biological regulatory networks often give rise to new mathematical problems for which classical methods do not apply. Challenging problems include model assembly or model reduction, network inference, parameter estimation, and control of a system towards a desired state. More recently, questions related to the coupling of basic biochemical components, their regulation and control have arised in the context of ``synthetic biology'', a discipline which aims at designing and constructing cellular networks from individual components. The difficulties in the analysis and control of biological models are typically related to insufficient knowledge of the complex network of interactions and the limitations in experimental techniques for the measurement and control of the biochemical species involved.Hybrid modeling frameworks, such as piecewise affine systems or an appropriate combination of discrete and continuous techniques, can be very helpful to deal with these problems, as they facilitate the development of intuitive algorithms, computationally amenable, but still mathematically rigorous, methods of analysis. For example, piecewise affine models generate a partition of the state space into a finite number of regular regions, and the dynamics of the system can then be represented by a discrete ``state transition graph''. This is an object that provides a useful link between detailed quantitative models and the qualitative dynamics in general discrete models. To explore the link between continuous and discrete models, we will discuss the computation of probabilities of transition between two discrete states (or two regular regions) in the graph, in terms of the parameters of the continuous dynamics. This can be applied for parameter estimation and analysis of the possible dynamical behaviors of the system. We will also discuss the construction of qualitative control strategies, by restricting the inputs to take only a finite number of vales and to be constant in each regular region. These ideas will be applied to the qualitative control of a bistable switch and to models of cellular growth of bacteria E.coli, to illustrate how a combination of different mathematical formalisms leads to gaining quantitative knowledge and predictive power for biological systems.


The coupled Delft3D Flexible Mesh (D3D FM) - SWAN model with an unstructured grid has been developed recently to simulate storm surge and waves; and another open source model, Telemac-Tomawac, has been widely used for storm surge and wave propagation simulation in coastal areas for more than 20 years. However, the choice of a hydrodynamic model for a specific area in terms of cost, efficiency and accuracy is often a dilemma at the beginning of a modeling project. The objective of this research is to examine the effects of two software packages in terms of accuracy and performance with a case study in the Shanghai area of China. Model performance has been assessed based on model configuration, model calibration, grid generation and computational efficiency. Comparing measured water levels with model results, both approaches were able to accurately predict hydrodynamic conditions in a complex estuarine environment. Both models showed that it can efficiently simulate hydrodynamics in the coastal area under various scenarios for further climate adaptation research. Additionally, both models were used to simulate inundation propagation due to hypothetical failures of flood defenses in the coastal area. A comparison of inundation extent and maximum inundation depth showed that they were equally well-suited for overtopping and inundation simulation.


The behavior of molecules at surfaces directly influences important technologies such as the fabrication of microchips. In his commentary, King discusses results reported by McEllistrem et al . and by Brown et al . in this issue of Science in which scanning tunneling microscopy was used to image surfaces. [ McEllistrem et al .][1] have been able to take snapshots of dangling bonds on a silicon surface, while [ Brown et al .][2] have directly imaged a precursor state on silicon. According to King, these studies represent a new level of maturity in the ability of scanning probe microscopies to aid surface scientists.

 [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/279/5350/545
 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/279/5350/542


Objective We studied the transport of oxygen in patients with hyperlactatemia (lactate over 2 mmol/L) and lactic acidosis (lactate over 5 mmol/L) in the immediate postoperative period after cardiac surgery with CPB. Methods The study included 105 patients after CABG with CPB. All patients had blood lactate levels increase of more than 2 mmol/L. We measured oxygen delivery index (DO2I) at the time when the maximal lactate levels are recorded. The patients were divided into 2 groups: group 1 – patients with DO2I less than 300 ml/min/m2 (n = 8), group 2 – the patients with oxygen delivery more than 600 ml/min/m2 (n = 7). We supported parameters at all patients: the haemoglobin more than 90 g/l, SaO2 was higher than 96%. We examined parameters of oxygen delivery, oxygen consumption, acid-base status in the early postoperative period. Quantitative data were presented as median (25th–75th percentile). Results The cardiac index was 2.10 ± 0.16 l/min/m2 in 1th group and 4.33 ± 0.58 l/min/m2 in the 2nd group (P < 0.05). Patients in the 2nd group had low systemic vascular resistance (SVR): 642.3 ± 180.4 dyn s/cm5, and in group 1 – 1508 ± 312.4 dyn s/cm5 (p = 0.0048). In the first group of patients oxygen extraction ratio was found 26.3 ± 5.2%, in the second one it was 17.4 ± 9.9% (p = 0.044). Hemoglobin oxygen saturation in the mixed venous blood (SvO2) was 72.9 ± 4.8% and 81.9 ± 9.8% (p = 0.038) in the two groups respectively. Unexpectedly we found significantly more severe lactic acidosis was in the second group. The blood lactate levels were 5.44 ± 2.97 mmol/L in the first group and 9.14 ± 2.38 mmol/L in the 2nd group (P < 0.05). Blood lactate over 5 mmol/L was 4/50% in the first group and 7/100% in the second group (P < 0.05). Metabolic acidosis (p < 7.35) was 2/25% in the 1st group and 6/85.7% in the 2nd group (P < 0.05). Conclusions Lactate can increase at any level of oxygen delivery after cardiac surgery with CPB. Lactic acidosis developed not always, but it developed in all the patients with the high oxygen delivery and the decreased oxygen extraction. This condition is accompanied by severe metabolic acidosis, low oxygen extraction and the venous hyperoxia, decreased SVR. These are the signs of tissue hypoxia, which may be associated with a mitochondrial distress syndrome the same as in the SIRS.


Breast milk is the best natural fluid that is needed by babies. Based on exclusive breast milk coverage in Indonesia on 2018 in the amount of 65,16 percent. The breast milk that came out a little will affect the breastfeeding process which will make exclusive breast milk unsuccessful. One effort that can be done to expedite breastfeeding in postpartum mothers is with oxytocin massage. The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of oxytocin message to the improvement of breastmilk production in postpartum mothers in PMB Langgeng Sri Asih on 2020. The type of this research uses a Quasi Experiment with the expansion of the non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest. The population of this research is postpartum mother 3-10 days in PMB Langgeng Sri Asih which amounted to 26 respondents. The sampling technique uses total sampling which is divided into 2 groups, namely 13 treatment group respondents and 13 control group respondents. This research is implemented on February 25 – March 25, 2020. The data analysis method uses a statistic analysis technique paired t-test and independent t-test. The result of this research obtained from 13 respondent carried out oxytocin message the average of milk production is 24,0 ml while 13 respondent did not do oxytocin message the average of milk production is 11,7 ml with significance (p = 0,001 less than 0,005), The conclusion of this study is that there is an effect of oxytocin massage on increasing milk production in postpartum mothers.


Abstract: The rapid advancements in the wireless communication networks have increased the popularity of portable or mobile devices and the network framed with these mobile devices. These mobile networks framed using the volunteering portable devices are decentralized and have dynamic topologies experiencing sudden changes in the network structure. The main reason causing the topology changes are the limited energy availability of the device and their mobility. Improper trafficking of the tasks and improper selection of the portable devices causes maximum energy consumption resulting in the link failures and changes in the topology of the network. So the paper puts forward the hybridized optimization technique to handle the multi-objective problem faced by these decentralized networks. The proposed method is validated using the network simulator-2 to evince throughput, energy consumption and the network longevity achieved by the proposed method.


We carried out this study to determine which symptoms women experienced according to menopause type and the relation of these symptoms to sexual functions. The patricipants of the study were 250 women who underwent natural menopause and 200 women who underwent surgical menopause. A questionnaire, the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS), and the Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS) provided data. According to the MRS, hot flushes and sweating problems were the most common experiences, and, according to the GRISS, sexual infrequency problems rated highest in both groups. There was a positive relationship between multiple sexual functioning problems and the perceived level of menopausal symptom intensity, especially in surgical menopause women.


The philosophy of community-oriented policing (COP) has been widely adopted by police departments around the world and has important benefits, such as improving community members' satisfaction with police and their perceptions of police legitimacy. However, implementing COP is challenging. Police departments report difficulties obtaining the support of officers on the ground and knowing how best to engage communities—which often contain multiple, overlapping, and sometimes competing groups within the same geographic area—in effective problem-solving and crime prevention.
This article describes Proactive Alliance, an innovative training program that draws from criminological theory andevidence-based principles in counselling psychology to teach police officers specific, immediately applicable techniques to establish rapport and long-term working relationships with community stakeholders. The training addresses two key challenges of COP: building meaningful collaboration across diverse communities and empowering frontline officers to become change agents in pursuit of the "co-production" of public safety. It builds on the original theory of broken windows policing, which emphasized the importance of harnessing police officers' personalities to facilitate successful community engagement and crime prevention, and provides practical tools based on those used by mental health professionals to enable officers to engage in active listening, to connect, and to problem-solve with the community while protecting their own well-being. We conclude by describing the potential of Proactive Alliance to strengthen COP and evidence-based policing more broadly.


4e paper researches financial history of Brod-Posavlje, the extent of economic development and its influence on financial sector from the middle of 18th century to the middle of 20th century. What we deal with are four most important institutions in the segments of the economic and later financial activities of this period. With the increasing needs of population the first to develop is craft while later intensive development of industry leads to the phenomenon of the first financial institutions (first of all, lower financial organizations level) and also to gradual development of banking that significantly influences the whole development of Slavonski Brod and its surroundings.


Ninety-four H & E-stained slides of malignant melanoma were circulated to 6 pathologists in 2 university departments. For each slide, the growth phase of the lesion, Breslow thickness, and Clark level were determined by each observer. The aims of the study were to evaluate agreement between nonspecialist pathologists in identifying the vertical growth phase in malignant melanoma and to compare agreement for the growth phase with agreement for Breslow thickness and the Clark level. Our results show that although overall agreement for the growth phase is moderate, agreement between experienced observers is good. In fact agreement for the growth phase among this group was equal to the agreement for Breslow thickness. Overall agreement for Breslow thickness also was good but for the Clark level was only fair. These findings suggest that if the predictive value of the vertical growth phase proves to be robust, it will be used with an acceptable level of accuracy in routine diagnostic practice.


Objective Measures exist to improve early recognition of and response to deteriorating patients in hospital. However, management of critical illness remains a problem globally; in the United Kingdom, 7% of the deaths reported to National Reporting and Learning System from acute hospitals in 2015 related to failure to recognize or respond to deterioration. The current study explored whether routinely recording patient-reported wellness is associated with objective measures of physiology to support early recognition of hospitalized deteriorating patients. Methods A prospective observation study design was used. Nurses on four inpatient wards were invited to participate and record patient-reported wellness during every routine observation (where possible) using an electronic observation system. Linear multilevel modeling was used to examine the relationship between patient-reported wellness, and national early warning scores (NEWS), and whether patient-reported wellness predicted subsequent NEWS. Results A significant positive relationship was found between patient-reported wellness and NEWS recorded at the next observation while controlling for baseline NEWS (β = 0.180, P = 0.033). A significant positive relationship between patient-reported wellness and NEWS (β = 0.229, P = 0.005) recorded during an observation 24 hours later while controlling for baseline NEWS was also found. Patient-reported wellness added to the predictive model for subsequent NEWS. Conclusions The preliminary findings suggest that patient-reported wellness may predict subsequent improvement or decline in their condition as indicated by objective measurements of physiology (NEWS). Routinely recording patient-reported wellness during observation shows promise for supporting the early recognition of clinical deterioration in practice, although confirmation in larger-scale studies is required.


Fifty consecutive elderly patients undergoing emergency hip surgry were assessed shortly after operation and again one year later. Depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, global physical ill‐health and activity of daily living (ADL) function were assessed and their predictive effect on outcome investigated. Mortality was predicted by the presence of both depression and dementia as well as by physical ill‐health. The effect of depression on mortality was independent of concurrent physical illness. Mortality was particularly high in subjects with both depression and dementia. Length of hospital stay was predicted by increased age and the presence of dementia. Psychiatric evaluation may thus be relevant to the postoperative management of elderly patients undergoing emergency hip surgery.


ABSTRACT The material disparity with the West, and the havoc wreaked in the period of Japanese imperial encroachment on Chinese territory and autonomy after the First Opium War, have shaped and guided China's collective memory and its shared desire of national rejuvenation to this day. In tracing the deeper historical roots of what Xi Jinping contemporarily frames as a "Chinese dream" of "wealth and power," the article discerns key actors, events, and organizing principles in a long process toward restoring China's deemed rightful place in the regional system. Taking into account the region-specific socio-historical complex of China and East Asia, and further exploring the parameters of an International Relations theory with "Chinese characteristics," the article's comparative historical analysis details how China's leaders have chosen to mobilize the nation's "domestic resources" in their common pursuit of national rejuvenation. Providing greater insight into how and according to which interlinked domestic and foreign explanatory markers this is attained, the article argues that we are currently in the last phase of rejuvenation and advances implications for China's further trajectory.


Cryoglobulins are immunoglobulins or immune complexes which precipitate at a temperature lower than 37 degrees C and re-dissolve when rewarmed. So their collection and processing are critical. We describe the methodology used in the biochemical laboratory of Military hospital Laveran (Marseille) for detection determination of type and quantitation of cryoglobulins. In this study, we have found cryoglobulins in 53% of healthy subjects and in 77% of patients with chronic hepatitis C.


The practices of architecture are influenced and shaped by building regulations, codes and rules that are formulated to provide specific and predictable outcomes for all aspects of architectural production, from conceptual design to urban form. Such regulations and codes are not necessarily enshrined in law but are systematic sets of rules characterised and differentiated by authorship, context and implementation. In all instances, rules and regulations pervade and influence, or codify, the practices of architecture, yet little is known about their impacts on, and implications for, the design and production of the built environment. This Special Issue of Urban Studies seeks to address this lacuna in knowledge by exploring the interrelationships between regulation and the design and production of urban space, with a focus on the practices of architecture.


"Nation-building" is an increasingly frequent activity of Western governments and the United Nations, with Kosovo an important recent example. This study examines the reconstruction by the United Nations of Kosovo's internal security infrastructure from 1999 to 2004. It analyzes United Nations and other activities to build democratic police and justice systems. Through a model of security reconstruction, it examines in detail the primary security challenges facing Kosovo, the specific efforts the United Nations made to address these challenges, the ultimate effectiveness of the reconstruction in establishing stability and rule of law, and the linkages between reconstruction efforts and democracy. It concludes with several lessons for improving the effectiveness of such efforts in the future.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the reference values of the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) among healthy, non-smoking male adults and its correlation with age, height, weight, and body mass index (BMI).

METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Departments of Physiology and Medicine, College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, from September 2007 to August 2008 on healthy non-atopic, non-smoking male Saudi subjects. The FENO was measured online using the single-breath technique according to recent guidelines of the American Thoracic Society (ATS).

RESULTS
We studied 121 subjects with a mean age of 31.00 +/- 12.24 years, BMI of 27.23 +/- 6.64, and FEV1/FVC 85% (81-92%). The FENO ranged between 7.66 parts per billion (ppb) and 46.6 ppb (mean 22.79 +/- 8.13), with >84% of subjects recording levels <30 ppb and >95% with levels <40 ppb. The FENO negatively correlated with body weight (r=0.3888, p=0.001) and BMI (r=0.238, p=0.009). No correlation was observed between FENO, FEV1/FVC ratio, age, and height.

CONCLUSION
The reference values of FENO for non-smoking, non-atopic male Saudi adults fall between 7.66 and 46.6 ppb (mean 22.79 +/- 8.13), similar to other populations. The FENO negatively correlates with body weight and BMI.


Fertilizer as a common trading product due to functionality in agricultural sector such as Mushan Munandar's case where selling and distributing underated fertilizer. The research method that writer using is normative legal research. The purpose of this research is to understand legal protection toward farmers as the user of fertilizer and Judge's decision on selling and distributing underated fertilizer case refer to Court Decision Number 2640K/Pid.Sus/2016. The result of this research are one, legal protection toward farmers has been implemented practically. By drafting regulation and policy which protect farmers. However, the implementation was ineffective. There were loopholes that have been used by individuals for the sake of their own purposes. Second, Judge's decision on the case which writer brought up about violation of the consumers did not only refer to current regulation and policy. There were other considerations such as humanity and psychology wellbeing of the suspect become factors that influenced the weight of punishment.


Multi objective Job Shop scheduling is a difficult task in both theoretical and practical solving issues. Problem statement: In the present scenario the modern Engineering and Industrial manufacturing units are facing lot of problems in many aspects such as machining time, raw material movement, man power requirement, electricity demand and customer satisfaction. Approach: A triangular fuzzy membership function is used to represent customer priority and due date. Results: A fuzzy rule-based system is developed which determines the study to be allocated to N number of machines with M number of Jobs in the following premise variables: size of the job, workload on the shop floor and the priority of the job. Multi objective fuzzy job shop scheduling problems are formulated as three-objective ones which not only maximize the minimum agreement index but also maximize the average agreement index and minimize the maximum fuzzy completion time. Conclusion/Recommendations: The study is analyzed on real-world data obtained from a printing company and the results are found satisfactory.


The paper presents the research of the
presence of elements in traces Al, Ba, Ca,
Cu, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Sr, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Ni,
Pb, Zn in the soil of the Tikves area and the
wine which is produced from the grapevine
grown on those soil. The determination of the
presence of elements in traces is made
according to the method ICP-AES, ETASS.
Due to the quantity in the graphic
interpretation (maps of correlation between
wine/soil) in the paper only the graphic
interpretations


In this paper we analyze Gresham's Law, in particular, how the rate of inflow or outflow of currencies is affected by the demand elasticity of arbitrage and the difference in face value ratios inside and outside of a country under a bimetallic system. We find that these equations are very similar to those used to describe drift in systems of free charged particles. In addition, we look at how Gresham's Law would play out with multiple currencies and multiple countries under a variety of connecting topologies.


Abstract:  Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a major component of the outer membrane of Gram‐negative bacteria, activates a broad spectrum of signaling pathways in immune cells. In this article, RAW264.7 cells have been stimulated for 4 h with 1 μg/mL of LPS in the presence or not of specific inhibitors of the NF‐κB pathway (BAY 11‐7082) and the PI3K pathway (LY294002). Gene expression profiles were characterized using the DNA microarray "Dual Chip Mouse Inflammation." This array monitors the expression of 233 genes encoding proteins playing a role in inflammation. Both signaling pathways exert an important role in the response to LPS, but they are not completely overlapping. For example, genes encoding the PAF receptor, PAI‐1, PlA2 (group V), IL‐13 receptor (α2), and GTP cyclohydrolase 1, were upregulated after LPS treatment, but this upregulation was counteracted by LY294002. The same was observed for BAY 11‐7082: genes encoding the kit ligand, TLR2, or TNFRSF5 were mainly under the control of NF‐κB. NF‐κB plays an important role in the macrophage response to LPS, but we have also shown that the PI3K pathway partially contributes to it. Further experiments with the specific inhibitor of mTOR (rapamycin) will provide more information on the specific contribution of the PI3K/mTOR pathway in the inflammatory response in LPS‐stimulated macrophages.


Geriatric physiotherapy was defined as a medicine in 1989 and covers a broad area of concerns regarding people as they continue the method of aging, although it commonly focuses on older adults.

Among the conditions which will be treated through the employment of geriatric physiatrics are osteoporosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, joint replacement, hip replacement, and more. this type of therapy is employed so as to revive mobility, increase fitness levels, reduce pain, and to produce additional benefits.

Geriatric physiatrics could be a proven means for older adults from every level of ability to enhance their balance and strength, build their confidence, and remain active. variety of individuals are acquainted with therapy as a variety of treatment to pursue after an accident, or in relevancy a condition like a stroke. therapy is beneficial for several additional reasons, like improving balance, strength, mobility, and overall fitness. All of those are factors which older adults may take pleasure in, contributing to their physical abilities and helping to take care of their independence for extended periods of your time. physiatrics can even help older adults to avoid falls, something that's crucial to the current population.


The paper presents empirical data supporting the hypothesis that the systematic and guided use of academic writing prompts is a successful instructional strategy to improve the academic writing in Spanish of college students, mainly during their first semesters. A combined methodology, with pre- and post-tests, was used in this research project conducted from July 2009 to June 2010. The participants were freshmen students of different disciplines of the Human Sciences in a private university in Bogota, Colombia. The aim of this research project was twofold. First, it sought to identify the difficulties students faced in the writing process of academic texts when they are related to real communicative contexts. Second, it involved the design and application of the guided and systematic use of writing prompts for academic writing in a sequence called "The Cognitive Pedagogical Model of Writing for Higher Education". The results show empirical evidence supporting the use of writing prompts designed with specific academic purposes to improve the academic writing level of college students in their first stages of study. However, further research is needed to consolidate the results presented here.


Brain activity elicited by sine wave modulated light and spontaneous EEGs were obtained from 11 healthy adult males on two separate occasions. Within-subject correlations (test-retest correlation coefficients) for SML responses were high, and comparable to reliability estimates of spontaneous EEG activity in this sample. Reliability of the spontaneous EEG was evaluated using two measures: absolute and relative power. Although their magnitudes were comparable, the test-retest correlation coefficients for the right occipital were consistently higher than those of the left using absolute measures; this pattern was not reflected by test-retest correlations based on relative EEG measures. Finally, the SML responses to 5, 15, 18 and 24 Hz stimulation frequency rates correlated most highly with absolute measures of spontaneous EEG beta, whereas the SML response to 10 Hz stimulation yielded the highest correlations with spontaneous alpha activity.


Dopamine plays key roles in the processing of the olfactory information that takes place in the olfactory glomeruli. Previous studies using autoradiography demonstrate that, at the glomerular level, these actions are mainly mediated via activation of D2 dopamine receptors. Moreover, it has been suggested that D2 receptors could be present in the olfactory nerve, where they might modulate the entrance of olfactory input into the brain. Nevertheless, the precise subcellular localization of D2 receptors in the glomerular neuropil has not been investigated. In this report, we show the subcellular distribution of D2 receptors in the glomerular circuits of Wistar rats, using pre‐embedding immunogold‐silver labelling and electron microscopy. Present results demonstrate for the first time the presence of D2 dopamine receptors into the terminals of the olfactory axons. In addition, we demonstrate that D2 receptors are located into presynaptic elements of the glomerular neuropil other than the olfactory axons. These elements include the dendrites of the mitral/tufted cells and the dendrites of a subset of periglomerular cells that are GABAergic and dopaminergic. This distribution pattern provides anatomical support for a wide range of actions of dopamine in the glomerular circuits through presynaptic mechanisms mediated by D2 receptors. These actions would include: (i) modulation of the glutamate release from the olfactory axons to the dendrites of mitral/tufted cells and periglomerular cells; (ii) modulation of glutamatergic synapses from the dendrites of mitral/tufted cells to the dendrites of periglomerular cells and (iii) modulation of the neurotransmission from a subset of GABAergic/dopaminergic periglomerular cells to mitral/tufted cells.


We successfully demonstrate the effectiveness of a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) optical dispersion equalizer in a 2.5 Gb/s transmission experiment with a 40 km-long 1.3 /spl mu/m zero-dispersion fiber at 1.55 /spl mu/m. The dispersion equalizer consists of 5 Mach-Zehnder interferometers with asymmetrical arm lengths cascaded in series. The total insertion loss is 3.5 dB and the maximum dispersion value is 836 psec/nm in the 1.55 /spl mu/m region.<<ETX>>


Abstract Background: In the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 061 study, 8 (2.3%) of 348 HIV-infected participants identified as HIV uninfected at study enrollment using a single HIV rapid test for screening were found to be HIV infected after additional testing. Objectives: To evaluate the performance of different HIV assays for detection of HIV infection in HPTN 061 participants with missed infection and individuals with viral suppression. Methods: Plasma samples from 8 HPTN 061 participants, 17 elite controllers, and 101 individuals on antiretroviral treatment (ART) were tested for HIV with 3 rapid tests, 2 laboratory-based immunoassays, and a Western blot assay. The HPTN 061 samples were also tested with 2 HIV RNA assays and an antiretroviral drug assay. Results: Of the 8 HPTN 061 participants with missed infection, 1 was an elite controller, 1 was taking ART, 2 were missed because of testing or clerical errors, 1 had recent HIV infection (identified using a multi-assay algorithm), and 3 had acute HIV infection. Two (1.7%) of 118 individuals with viral suppression (both taking ART) had at least 1 false-negative test. Conclusions: In clinical trials, HIV infections can be missed for a variety of reasons. Using more than one assay to screen for HIV infection may reduce the number of missed infections.


Abstract : This thesis examines the effects of a digital excision filter (DEF) upon the error rates and detectability of a Direct Sequence Binary Phase Shift Keyed communication signal in the presence of both continuous wave (CW) and pulsed jammers. Simulations were performed using the Comdisco Signal Processing Worksystem. Detector models used were the wideband radiometer and two forms of the chip-rate detector. Twelve jamming scenarios were used to test the performance of the DEF in the presence of the CW and pulsed jammers. In addition, the effects of the CW jammer frequency, the pulsed jammer duty cycle, and the pulsed jammer PPF were also examined. LPI quality factors were then used to quantify the performance of the DEF. This research determined that the DEF was able to remove almost 100% of the CW jammer and allowed the communication receiver and interceptors to operate with little degradation. The DEF was less effective against the pulsed jammers; however, it still allowed the receivers to operate at an acceptable level for single jammers. When two or more pulsed jammers were present, the radiometer was still able to operate; however, the other interceptors' performance was unacceptable.


The day my pain specialist told me I would never be pain-free again, I knew my music career was over. I was 21 years old, and had been in constant pain for about two years. I had experienced intermittent jaw pain for about 10 years, but having braces on my teeth, and later having my wisdom teeth removed was supposed to fix it. It did not. The day of my surgery was the last time I had been pain free, even for a second. The years that followed were horrible, and my life was turned upside down.


A 3-year-old boy was admitted to our hospital with complaints of left flank mass and growth retardation. Examinations with IVP (Fig. 1), retrograde pyelography (Fig. 4) and cystoscopic examination (Fig. 3) showed a left nonopacified kidney, and right hydroureteronephrosis due to stenosis of the midureter. Two large cystic patterns were found in the left kidney by ultrasonic scanning tomography (Fig. 2); and, the left kidney was found to be occupied by a round and homogeneously low density mass by CT scanning (Fig. 6). The left renal artery was not demonstrated on the aortogram (Fig. 5). The patient was diagnosed to have a left congenital unilateral multicystic kidney, and laparotomy was performed. The left kidney was easily removed, and the part with stenosis in the right ureter was removed, then end-to-end anastomosis was performed. Grossly, two large cysts (upper and lower part) and connective tissues were found in the left kidney (Fig. 7), and the vessels of the renal pedicle were filiform. No luminal formation of the renal pelvis or ureter was found. The epithelium of the cyst wall (Fig. 8) was deciduated leaving the connective tissue and smooth muscle, as shown by the histological examination. Histological examination of the parenchymal tissue (Fig. 9) between the two cysts showed primitive glomeruli and renal tubules among abundant connective tissue, but no cartilage tissue. Statistic examination and discussion have been made of 126 cases of congenital multicystic kidney reported in Japan.


Digital implant workflows are facilitating new and more accurate methods of implant treatment planning when compared to conventional analog techniques. The placement of implants using guided surgery presents multiple benefits for immediately restoring a patient functionally and esthetically with a provisional restoration. Although digital technology enables efficiency and enhanced accuracy for dental implant treatments, some cases may require the use of a hybrid workflow that employs both conventional and digital procedures, as some limitations to a fully digital approach exist depending on the clinical situation. This article presents several different implant treatment scenarios and discusses whether a fully digital workflow is possible and/or beneficial in each situation. The scenarios describe the full-treatment sequence for immediately loaded implants, allowing a direct comparison of various restorative and surgical implant workflows.


This study aims to measure the performance of the technical efficiency of the conventional commercial banks during the period 2008-2009 by using non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Test results showed that the total of all conventional commercial banks during the period 2008-2009 has not shown that optimal performance in which the level of technical efficiency is still below 100 percent. Appalling conditions, the efficiency of national banks experienced a decline of 73.50% in 2008 fell to 69.61% in 2009. With the advantages possessed in the management of banks, foreign-owned banks generate higher performance efficiency than domestically owned banks. For the whole bank, in 2008 there were 97 banks that have the performance of inefficiency and down to 96 banks in 2009. Key Words: bank efficiency, DEA, bank size, domestic bank, foreign bank


Abstract We show that a consistent fit to observed secondary eclipse data for several strongly irradiated transiting planets demands a temperature inversion (stratosphere) at altitude. Such a thermal inversion significantly influences the planet/star contrast ratios at the secondary eclipse, their wavelength dependences, and, importantly, the day-night flux contrast during a planetary orbit. The presence of the thermal inversion/stratosphere seems to roughly correlate with the stellar flux at the planet. Such temperature inversions might be caused by an upper-atmosphere absorber whose exact nature is still uncertain.


Introduction: Cell nuclei are important indicators of cellular processes and diseases. Segmentation is an essential stage in systems for quantitative analysis of nuclei extracted from microscopy images. Given the wide variety of nuclei appearance in different organs and staining procedures, a plethora of methods have been described in the literature to improve the segmentation accuracy and robustness. Materials and Methods: In this paper, we propose an unsupervised method for cell nuclei detection and segmentation in two-dimensional microscopy images. The nuclei in the image are detected automatically using a matching-based method. Next, edge maps are generated at multiple image blurring levels followed by edge selection performed in polar space. The nuclei contours are refined iteratively in the constructed edge pyramid. The validation study was conducted over two cell nuclei datasets with manual labeling, including 25 hematoxylin and eosin-stained liver histopathology images and 35 Papanicolaou-stained thyroid images. Results: The nuclei detection accuracy was measured by miss rate, and the segmentation accuracy was evaluated by two types of error metrics. Overall, the nuclei detection efficiency of the proposed method is similar to the supervised template matching method. In comparison to four existing state-of-the-art segmentation methods, the proposed method performed the best with average segmentation error 10.34% and 0.33 measured by area error rate and normalized sum of distances (×10). Conclusion: Quantitative analysis showed that the method is automatic and accurate when segmenting cell nuclei from microscopy images with noisy background and has the potential to be used in clinic settings.


Background: Many working-age individuals with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) are unable to work, or are only able to work at a reduced capacity and/or with a reduction in time at work, and receive disability payments, either from the Canadian government or from private insurers, but the magnitude of those payments is unknown. Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefit and private disability insurance benefits paid to Canadians with advanced kidney failure, and how feasible improvements in prevention, identification, and early treatment of CKD and increased use of kidney transplantation might mitigate those costs. Design: This study used an analytical model combining Canadian data from various sources. Setting and Patients: This study included all patients with advanced CKD in Canada, including those with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <30 mL/min/m2 and those on dialysis. Measurements: We combined disability estimates from a provincial kidney care program with the prevalence of advanced CKD and estimated disability payments from the Canada Pension Plan and private insurance plans to estimate overall disability benefit payments for Canadians with advanced CKD. Results: We estimate that Canadians with advanced kidney failure are receiving disability benefit payments of at least Can$217 million annually. These estimates are sensitive to the proportion of individuals with advanced kidney disease who are unable to work, and plausible variation in this estimate could mean patients with advanced kidney disease are receiving up to Can$260 million per year. Feasible strategies to reduce the proportion of individuals with advanced kidney disease, either through prevention, delay or reduction in severity, or increasing the rate of transplantation, could result in reductions in the cost of Canada Pension Plan and private disability insurance payments by Can$13.8 million per year within 5 years. Limitations: This study does not estimate how CKD prevention or increasing the rate of kidney transplantation might influence health care cost savings more broadly, and does not include the cost to provincial governments for programs that provide income for individuals without private insurance and who do not qualify for Canada Pension Plan disability payments. Conclusions: Private disability insurance providers and federal government programs incur high costs related to individuals with advanced kidney failure, highlighting the significance of kidney disease not only to patients, and their families, but also to these other important stakeholders. Improvements in care of individuals with kidney disease could reduce these costs.


Received for publication January' 2010 Purpose: This study was performed to determine the clinical presentation and histopathological types of basal cell carcinoma of eyelids and correlation with clinical behaviour. Material and Methods: The prospective study was carried out at the Department of Ophthalmology, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar from September 2001 to August 2002. Thirty patients (30) with suspected basal cell carcinoma were enrolled from the outpatient department. They were admitted to ward and worked out as detailed history, examination, Lab and radiological examination. In each case biopsy (incisional / excisional) were taken to study its histopathology. Using EPI info 2000 version SPSS program data was entered and analyzed. Results: Mean age of presentation was 55 years with Male: Female (57:43). Clinically the nodular ulcerative type was commonest presentation (36.7%) followed by the nodular type (33.3%) and the third commonest presentation was nodular pigmented (30%). The lower lid was the most frequently affected site (63.3%) followed by the medial canthus (23.33%). The upper lid and lateral canthus were the least involved (6.67%) each. On histological examination the commonest was solid or nodular (56.67%), the second commonest was keratotic (basosquamous) type (13.33%) followed by multifocal (10%), pigmented and adenoid (6.67%) each. Morphoea and the cystic type were the least common (3.33%) each. The margins were well defined in 80% of the solid tumour. Conclusion: Basal cell carcinoma commonly occurs in lower eyelid. Nodular ulcerative is the commonest clinical presentation and the commonest histological presentation was also nodular with peripheral palisading.


The effect of the complex vitamin-mineral preparation Hemobalance for the optimization of hematopoietic processes in animals during complex restorative therapy and the probiotic preparation Vetom 1, containing at least 1ˑ106 CFU / g of Bacillus subtillis microorganisms, strain DSM 32424, on the concentration of leukocytes and lymphocytes in the blood of Abyssinian cats was studied. 10 cats of the Abyssinian breed were involved in the study of this drug. They were kept at home, having the same diet as cats with liver and pancreas pathologies. The cats were divided into 2 groups (control and experimental), 5 animals each. The experimental group of cats was given the probiotic preparation Vetom 1 based on apathogenic bacilli at a dose of 50 mg / kg once a day every day for 30 days per os. Additionally, the cats of both groups were injected intramuscularly with the complex drug Hemobalance for 30 days at a dose of 0.25 ml. The study of hematological blood parameters was carried out on an automatic closed-type hematology analyzer Vet Auto Hematology Analyzer BC2800. In the course of our research, it was found that under the influence of the probiotic preparation Vetom 1, the concentration of blood leukocytes decreases within the physiological norm. Additional use of Hemobalance does not change this trend.