This extremely interesting monograph should be of value to students of the classics, patristics, and ecclesiastical history. Originally written as a doctoral thesis at Gregorian University's Theological Faculty, it was published in the Analecta Gregoriana series. The book is more accurately described in the subtitle rather than the title: a study of "the conflict between Hellenic and Christian wisdom in the Contra Galilaeos of Julian the Apostate and the Contra Julianum of Saint Cyril of Alexandria." However, in selecting for analysis Julian's views of Christianity and Cyril's refutation of Julian, the author was able to analyze the struggle between Hellenism and Christianity, the two worlds of thought which in the fourth century shared the same language and the same culture. In his comparison of Julian's and Cyril's portraits, the author provides the ground for an understanding of the motives that prompted the writing of the Contra Galilaeos and the Contra Julianum, as well as the causes behind the clash between Hellenism and Christianity. Julian was committed to the revival of Hellenism as an ideology and system of values, a commitment which led him to the composition of Contra Galilaeos. Cyril's Contra Julianum was written not against Hellenism per se, but to refute Julian's indictment of Christianity and Julian himself as a double apostate—an apostate from Christianity and an apostate "from the best thinkers of Hellenic tradition." The author has afforded his protagonists equal time. First, Malley presents a detailed analysis of Julian's anti-Christian language and his indictment of the Galileans as evil myth-makers, perverters of Hellenic paideia and apostates from true Judaism. Julian's appreciation of Hellenic thought, which he finds superior to Jewish theology, and his portrayal of the Hellenic wise man are treated extensively. Second, following a section on the background for Cyril's Contra Julianum, the author analyzes Cyril's rebuttal of Julian's anti-Christian arguments and Cyril's views on the Christian wise man. Filled with insights and vigorous observations, the book possesses three important virtues: it is thorough—a very model of a monograph; it stays close to the sources; and it is lucid and very readable. I highly recommend it.


The attitude tracking control problem of a rigid spacecraft with external disturbances and an uncertain inertia matrix is addressed using the adaptive control method. The adaptive control laws proposed in this paper are optimal with respect to a family of cost functionals. This is achieved by the inverse optimality approach, without solving the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs partial differential (HJIPD) equation directly. The design of the optimal adaptive controllers is separated into two stages by means of integrator backstepping, and a control Lyapunov argument is constructed to show that the inverse optimal adaptive controllers achieve H/sub /spl infin// disturbance attenuation with respect to external disturbances and global asymptotic convergence of tracking errors to zero for disturbances with bounded energy. The convergence of adaptive parameters is also analyzed in terms of invariant manifold. Numerical simulations illustrate the performance of the proposed control algorithms.


This study by Williams et al., detailing 14 years of experience treating transverse vaginal septae (TVS) is the largest series published to date. Previously published data include a case series of 26 women (Rock et al. Obstet Gynecol 1982;59:448–51) and a literature review describing multiple case reports (Levy et al. Int Urogynecol J 1997;8:173–6). Not only is the size of this series favourable, but the findings reported by Williams et al. provide new postoperative outcomes data on women undergoing surgical management of TVS, as they relate to septum location, thickness, perforation and surgical approach. These findings are novel and have not been previously reported. Several findings in this study merit additional comment. First, the location distribution of TVS differs between this study and the previously published series by Rock et al. Although this can be attributed to referral patterns or classification methods, it highlights the need for a standardised classification system for TVS. This will help to improve communication regarding these anomalies. Second, treatment of these disorders is necessary and should not be delayed. This study supports previous findings of endometriosis at the time of operative treatment (which often improves after septum resection). In women who are not amenable to surgical treatment or postoperative dilatation (if required), chemical suppression of the menstrual cycle should be instituted. Third, 30% of women in this series had already undergone previous unsuccessful surgical management (mostly incision and drainage). Of these women, nearly half required an abdomino-peritoneal resection with one-third of women re-obstructing postoperatively. These findings emphasise that the best chance of a successful surgical repair is with the first intervention. As such, referral to a tertiary-care centre specialising in the surgical treatment of congenital anomalies is recommended. Fourth, short-term outcomes for low and perforate TVS are good compared with high, thick septae, which are associated with the need for retreatment and major surgical complications like fistula. Preoperative counselling detailing outcome expectations based on septum location and thickness should be provided to the woman. Fifth, vaginal surgery may be safer and associated with fewer complications. These findings may be related to selection bias: TVS resection was performed in a nonrandomised fashion by either a vaginal or abdominal route, probably based on TVS characteristics. However, the findings are compelling enough that the risks associated with a surgical approach should be strongly considered when choosing a route of surgery. Additionally, though septum resection led to regular menses and the ability to have intercourse for a majority of women, dyspareunia and dysmenorrhoea were described by 59% and 36% of women, suggesting that perfect functional outcomes are rare. Finally, the major weakness of this study is related to design. There are inherent biases in studies that are retrospective in nature as well as those that rely on postal survey response. A prospective study designed to confirm the findings of this series would be beneficial. Because these anomalies are rare, tertiary-care centres should aim to maintain prospective databases on women with congenital anomalies to better study and share their outcomes.


Abstract The responses of women and men in two Russian surveys of divorced persons taken in 1993 and 1998 respectively are compared here. The sample does not include men and women who can be matched individually, but independent sets of respondents drawn from the same sampling frame so as to make a statistical comparison possible.
The consistency of men's and women's responses is generally good, especially for factual questions, whether they relate to the period before or after the marriage breakdown. Discrepancies regarding the number of children of the dissolved marriage indicate, surprisingly, that men's responses were more reliable than women's.There is systematic disagreement for all questions on the respective share of each spouse (and their parents). It is always inflated when reported by the respondent, in comparison with the share reported by the former husband or wife. This may well reflect the aftermath of conflict.


Posidonia oceanica (PO) is the most plentiful seaweed of the Mediterranean Sea, which grows all along the coastal areas, forming widespread meadows. The leaf rejuvenation process of Posidonia oceanica typically occurs in fall when an increase in wave action causes the dead seaweeds to be transported and usually piled up along the coastal areas. This paper investigates the effect of PO ash stabilization on behaviour of an expansive clay. The ash was obtained by combustion of crushed PO pieces in a muffle furnace at 550°C. Atterberg limits, linear shrinkage, particle size distribution, one-dimensional swell, and unconfined compression tests have been carried out on natural soil as well as soil mixtures with 5% and 10% PO ash. There has been no significant improvement in the soil properties with 5% ash inclusion, whereas 10% ash has noticeably reduced the swell amount and increased the compressive strength. It is therefore concluded that there is a potential for the use of PO ash in geotechnical engineering applications.


Timely identification of the size and location of loss of generation (LoG) events improves the effectiveness of remedial actions taken against this type of disturbances. This paper sets forth a novel method for LoG localization and size estimation by phasor measurements received in the control center within a reasonable wait time following the event inception. The bus impedance matrix is utilized to obtain a transfer function from the LoG location to variations of voltage and current phasors following the event. This results in an overdetermined system of linear equations whose closed-form solution provides the LoG location and size based upon the sum of squared residuals concept. The proposed method removes the need for the reception of specific measurements in the control center, and/or knowing the system inertia. This is in contrast with previous methods resorting to the swing equation of the center of inertia. The method lends itself to real-time applications for its robustness against partial communication network failures and losses of the time synchronization signal. Extensive simulations conducted on the IEEE 39-bus and 118-bus test systems verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method over existing ones.


Session of Wednesday, December 27 The first session of the Society was called to order at 10 o'clock a. m., Wednesday, December 27, at the new National Museum, Washington, D. C., by President Davis, who referred to the pleasure and interest with which the Society met from time to time at the capital, previous meetings having been held there in 1890, 1899, and 1902. The Secretary then presented the printed report of the Council, which, by vote of Council, was laid on the table till Thursday morning. ELECTION OF AUDITING COMMITTEE The Auditing Committee was then elected, consisting of George P. Merrill and B. H. Kraus, and the Treasurer's report was referred to it. At the afternoon session E. B. Mathews was added to this committee. ELECTION OF OFFICERS The Secretary declared the vote for officers for 1912, the regular ticket as prepared by the Council being elected, as follows: . . .


We read with interest the article by Dr Teoh et al. comparing three videolaryngoscopes (Pentax Airway Scope (AWS; Pentax Corporation, Tokyo, Japan), C-MAC (Karl Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany) and Glidescope (Verathon, Bothell, WA, USA)) with the Macintosh laryngoscope for tracheal intubation during anaesthesia in patients without predictors of difficult intubation. The Pentax Airway Scope performed well in their study for intubating times, ease of intubation and laryngeal views obtained [1]. The Pentax Airway Scope has also previously been used for awake intubation [2, 3]. We would like to share our experience of using this device. We have been using a variety of videolaryngoscopes regularly in our institution. We have found the Pentax Airway Scope useful in difficult intubations as well, and have therefore started using the device as an alternative to awake fibreoptic intubation in patients with adequate mouth opening. The sedation and local anaesthetic regime we use are the same as for an oral awake fibreoptic intubation. We have found several advantages in using the Pentax Airway Scope compared with the fibreoptic bronchoscope. In our experience, it is quicker and easier to set up, is battery-operated, comes with an attached screen and has a single-use disposable blade, and proficiency in its use requires less training and practice. Grade-1 Cormack and Lehane laryngoscopic views are typically obtained even in patients with grade-3 and -4 views with conventional laryngoscopy [4]. Anaesthetists encountering difficult airways on a sporadic basis may prefer to use the Pentax Airway Scope for awake intubation. The main disadvantage is that approximately 25 mm of mouth opening is required for its insertion. K. Jarvi C. Hillermann R. Danha C. Mendonca University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Coventry, UK Email: firstname.lastname@example.com No external funding and no competing interests declared. Previously posted at the Anaesthesia Correspondence website: http://www.anaes thesiacorrespondence.com.


Reliability assessment of conductive adhesive bonds by thermo-cycling up to 830 cycles is time consuming, and does not give much information about the details of the onset of degradation. There is a need for faster tests giving more details about degradation. In this paper, low frequency noise of such contacts is investigated. 1/f Noise stems from conductance fluctuations. The observed voltage noise is enhanced due to current crowding in the electrical contacts on a microscopic scale. In this research contact bonds were made and compared of isotropic conductive adhesives from three suppliers. The 1/f noise of the contact resistance can be interpreted in terms of a multispot contact behavior. We investigated the relative noise C versus contact resistance R in two ways: (1) after an increasing number of thermo-cycles; (2) after increasing mechanical stress. The results often show an increase in relative noise of three orders of magnitude for poor quality polymer bonds. A maximum increase of one order of magnitude is observed for the best quality conductive adhesive. The contact resistance increases by a factor 1.7 and not more than 1.14 for the poor and best quality bonds, respectively. From the analysis based on a noise model for multispot contact, the onset of delamination can be characterized as a reduction in electrical contact area A/sub e/. The relative noise is proportional to A/sub e//sup -5/2/. The surprising result is that samples submitted to a mechanical stress show pictures similar to thermocycled samples. Thermo-cycling with less than 200 cycles leads to less noise, an increase in electrical contact area, and hence a contact improvement. This behavior is understood. Noise analysis under mechanical stress on nondegraded or slightly cycled bonds is a fast diagnostic tool for reliability characterization. The degree of delamination is expressed quantitatively by the D-factor D=A/sub emax//A/sub emin//spl cong/(C/sub max//C/sub min/)/sup 2/5/.


A fusion reactor requires plasma pre-heating before the rate of deuterium-tritium fusion reactions becomes significant. In ITER, radio frequency (RF) heating of 3He ions, additionally puffed into the plasma, is one of the main options considered for increasing bulk ion temperature during the ramp-up phase of the pulse. In this paper, we propose an alternative scenario for bulk ion heating with RF waves, which requires no extra 3He puff and profits from the presence of intrinsic Beryllium impurities in the plasma. The discussed method to heat Be impurities in D-T plasmas is shown to provide an even larger fraction of fuel ion heating.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a movement-associated disorder that specifically affects dopamine-producing neurons. The disease causes demyelation that adversely impacts upon the motor activity of the brain. Currently there are no promising biomarkers for PD; improved understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the different pathological stages of PD are required to enable identification of a novel biomarker. The present study successfully established a PD mouse model via nasal injection of 1‑methyl-4‑phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. The expression of c‑Jun N‑termal kinase 3 (JNK3) and caspase‑3 in two different pathological stages of PD were analysed using immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. The results inidcated that the initial PD pathogenesis recovers on response to rasagiline. Immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis revealed that treatment with rasagiline positively regulated early‑stage PD pathogenesis by downregulating the expression of JNK3 and upregulating caspase‑3; however, there was no positive effect on the advanced stages of PD. Overall, these results concluded that rasagiline has the ability to inhibit the expression of JNK3 and upregulate caspase‑3 in early stages of PD; however, rasagline appears to have no impact on JNK3 and caspase‑3 levels in the advanced stages of PD.


Dourine is a deadly protozoan disease in equids caused by infection with Trypanosoma equiperdum. Neurological signs in the later stage of infection may be caused by peripheral polyneuritis and related axonal degeneration. This neuritis involves T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and macrophages, and is observed in cases without obvious neurological signs. However, the pathogenesis of neuritis remains unclear. We identified M2 macrophages and CD8 T cells as the predominant phenotypes in neuritis of dourine-affected horses with or without neurological signs. In contrast, the populations of M1 macrophages and CD4 T cells were small. This result indicates that inflammation was chronic and suggests that dourine-associated neuritis occurs at the early stage of infection.


Printed electronics is a technology in which conductive ink or functional materials are printed as a flexible material passes between rolls. It is possible to apply various applications such as solar cell, sensor, and display, and it is the next generation process that can mass-produce eco-friendly within a short time. However, if the printing pressure between rolls cannot be made uniform in a roll-to-roll process, it is difficult to commercialize printed electronics due to the deterioration of print quality. In our previous work, initial conditions were selected using pre-measured roll shape information to minimize printing pressure variations, and the printing pressure unevenness due to repeated runout was reduced. In order to equalize the contact printing pressure, this paper designs a controller model similar to the half car model considering the relationship between the two servomotors of the two degree of freedom individual drive system and the pressures at both ends of the impression roll. In addition, the control system to uniform the contact printing pressure using the roll-to-roll two degree of freedom individual drive system was confirmed by simulation and experiment.


Rice seed-based edible vaccines expressing T-cell epitope peptides derived from Japanese cedar major pollen allergens have been used to successfully suppress allergen-specific Th2-mediated immunoglobulin E (IgE) responses in mouse experiments. In order to further expand the application of seed-based allergen-specific immunotherapy for controlling Japanese cedar pollinosis, we generated transgenic rice plants that specifically express recombinant Cry j 1 allergens in seeds. Cry j 1 allergens give low specific IgE-binding activity but contain all of the T-cell epitopes. The allergens were expressed directly or as a protein fusion with the major rice storage protein glutelin. Fusion proteins expressed under the control of the strong rice endosperm-specific GluB-1 promoter accumulated in rice endosperm tissue up to 15% of total seed protein. The fusion proteins aggregated with cysteine-rich prolamin and were deposited in endoplasmic reticulum-derived protein body I. The production of transgenic rice expressing structurally disrupted Cry j 1 peptides with low IgE binding activity but spanning the entire Cry j1 region can be used as a universal, safe and effective tolerogen for rice seed-based oral immunotherapy for cedar pollen allergy in humans and other mammals.


Body contouring following massive weight loss (MWL) has gained in popularity. The demand for upper arm contouring procedures has increased, and we elected to evaluate our results, complications, and patient satisfaction with brachioplasty techniques in MWL patients.A retrospective review was performed on all patients who underwent a brachioplasty procedure. Patient demographics and risk factors were queried. We evaluated surgical techniques and outcomes.Thirty-one patients underwent a bilateral brachioplasty, with an average follow-up of 16 months. The surgical technique included double ellipse n = 16, and L-shaped n = 15. The average weight loss before the procedure was 146 pounds, and the average body mass index at the time of the surgery was 30. Risk factors were present in 68% of the patients. The complication rate was 22%, including cellulitis, hematoma, infection, delayed healing, and lymphocele. The revision rate was 16%, most being minor scar revisions for contour improvement. Patient satisfaction scores included overall satisfaction 4.3/5, contour improvement 4.3/5, symptomatic improvement 4.9/5, and scar appearance 3.9/5. Most patients (94%) reported improved self-esteem, 94% being more comfortable wearing short sleeve shirts, and 94% would undergo the procedure again.Brachioplasty is a relatively safe and effective procedure for upper body contouring in the MWL patient. Complications are minor, and small revisions in contour are not uncommon. Patients report improvement in contour and self-esteem, and a high level of satisfaction with this procedure, despite the potential for an unfavorable scar.


Inverter flux control methods directly control the integral of the inverter output voltage vector, by means of the inverter switching. These methods have found applications in low- and medium-voltage industrial drives, and in inverters with outputs connected to the utility mains. This paper describes a new method for the direct control of the inverter flux vector, with the viewpoint of using this vector as the main forcing quantity in a closed loop control system. It illustrates the use of the inverter flux in the control of a utility-connected inverter.


Laryngeal tumors originating in the nerves are extremely rare, particularly in infants. Indeed, this type of neoplasm normally arises in adult males. Only 10 cases have been described in the 5 to 17 year age range. The present work reports a clinical case of granulous tumor of the larynx in an 11-year-old boy. Histologically this tumor showed cells which preserved their original structure and were in close relation with the nerve fibers, but not with the myocytes. Their metabolic activity was similar to that of the nerve cells. The neurogenic origin of the neoplastic granulous cells shows the presence of neuroectodermic cytoplasmic S-100 specific for cells derived from the neural crest. The boy manifested ingravescent dyspnea due to the presence of a myoblastoma in the right laryngeal ventricle. A thyrotomic approach was adopted because of the significant size of the neoplasm although it was possible to perform conservative surgery given that the lesion was benign. The authors underline the polymorphic histology of this neoplasm and the importance of the type of surgery which should both avoid widespread demolition since the neoplasm is benign and, at the same time, prevent recurrences.


A case of signet-ring cell carcinoma involving the urinary bladder, which is a rare variant of adenocarcinoma, is presented. 21 cases have so far been reported in the occidental and Japanese journals. In 13 patients (62%) the carcinomas were of urachal origin and 8 (38%) of bladder origin. The prognosis of signet-ring cell carcinoma originating in bladder is poorer compared to that in urachus; 2-year survival of 40% for the bladder cancer group and 70% for the urachus. A radical cystectomy with excision of adjacent tissues, which might improve the prognosis in this fatal malignancy, should be considered.


We studied the possible effects of atmospheric electric fields, generated in thunderstorms, on the cosmic ray intensity detected at the Earth's surface by investigating the variations of the counting rates of the cosmic-ray nucleonic component, obtained from the neutron monitor installed in Mexico City, for thunderstorms during 1996 and 1997. These were years of minimum solar activity. We compare our experimental results with the general theory of cosmic ray meteorological effects by Dorman (1995). The observed intensity variation is about 0.2%. According to Dorman (1995), the effect should be between 0.27% and 0.81% on the counting rate of the neutron monitor when the atmospheric electric field intensities are around 100 to 300 Vcm -1 . Our results show that either the electric field in Mexico City had less intensity than assumed by Dorman (1995), or the electric field is not uniform in time and height during the development of the thunderstorm.


This paper proposes a learning approach for discovering the semantic structure of web pages. The task includes partitioning the text on a web page into information blocks and identifying their semantic categories. We employed two machine learning techniques, Adaboost and SVMs, to learn from a labeled web page corpus. We evaluated our approach on general web pages from the World Wide Web and obtained encouraging results. This work can be beneficial to a number of web-driven applications such as search engines, web-based question answering, web-based data mining as well as voice enabled web navigation.


This report summarizes some of the recent HERA results obtained by studying hard processes in ep-scattering. By resolving the structure of the proton, hard ep-reactions provide information on the parton content of the proton and may give insight into the dynamics of the exchanged parton cascade. In addition, their study offers the possibility to test the Standard Model, in particular perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, on which the theoretical predictions on ep-scattering cross sections are generally based. Any observed deviation between the data and existing theoretical models would either indicate the need to calculate higher order contributions or hint at signs of new physics.


Based on quantitative X‐ray diffraction mineralogical analysis of cores HU2008029‐0006/0008 (857‐m water depth) located south of the Davis Strait sill, we seek answers to two questions: (i) the temporal correlation of NW Labrador Shelf Sea Heinrich (H‐) and Baffin Bay detrital carbonate (BBDC) events, and (ii) the provenance of the sediments? A sediment‐unmixing model (SedUnMix) is used to determine provenance variations. Although 12 radiocarbon dates were obtained there were many age reversals and we favour a depth/age model for HU2008029‐0008PC based on correlations to well‐dated neighbouring cores north and south of Davis Strait. We find no correlation between H‐ and BBDC events except for H‐0, which appears to be a broadly synchronous event along the NE Canadian margin and is correlative with an episode of major moraine building along this flank of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Unmixing of the sediment composition based on six potential glacial source regions indicates that the bulk of the sediment in 0008PC is derived from glacial erosion of West Greenland, but is punctuated by intervals when dolomite‐rich sediments, derived from outcrops north of Baffin Bay, dominate the composition. Estimated dates on these BBDC events are ∼13, 25 and 30–38 cal ka BP.


The killing of one's parents is a neglected area in criminological scholarship, particularly in the UK, and this article presents the first national analysis of parricide in England and Wales. It draws on data from the Home Office Homicide Index to examine all recorded cases of parricide over a 36-year period and examines the characteristics of offenders, victims, incidents and court outcomes. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to two particular dominant theoretical ideas within the field: the role of mental illness in parricide, and the notion that there are distinct forms of violence against parents that can be organized along dimensions of chronological age (i.e. juvenile/adult offender) and whether the violence is fatal (i.e. parricide) or non-fatal. The article concludes with a discussion of its wider implications for future research.


Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and associated conditions are an important problem in modern medicine. The onset of IDD may be in childhood and adolescence in patients with a genetic predisposition. With age, IDD progresses, leading to spondylosis, spondylarthrosis, herniated disc, spinal canal stenosis. One of the leading mechanisms in the development of IDD and chronic back pain is an imbalance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. However, classical therapeutic strategies for correcting cytokine imbalance in IDD do not give the expected response in more than half of the cases. The purpose of this review is to update knowledge about new and promising therapeutic strategies based on the correction of the molecular mechanisms of cytokine imbalance in patients with IDD. This review demonstrates that knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of the imbalance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines may be a new key to finding more effective drugs for the treatment of IDD in the setting of acute and chronic inflammation.


Listeria monocytogenes (LM) is an enteroinvasive pathogen and the cause of listeriosis, a highly fatal foodborne infection. Using an oral LM infection model, we show that a subset of blood-borne listeriolysin O (LLO)-specific CD4 T cells transiently expressed the α4β7 integrin early after infection. Antigen-specific CD4 T cells rapidly accumulated in the mucosa and mounted a robust recall response following secondary infection. On day 9 post LM infection, LLO-specific CD4 T cells in the mucosa are almost exclusively Ly6Clow/CD27low and this population persists throughout memory. In contrast, LLO-specific CD4 T cells isolated from the spleen and MLN were heterogenous for CD27 and Ly6C expression. Mucosal LLO-specific CD27lowLy6ClowCD4 T cells produced IFN-γ and IL-2 and a small subset also produced IL-17. Interestingly, IL-17 production increased in mucosal memory CD4 T cells. Furthermore, IL-17 production was increased in mucosal CD4 T cells in CD69-deficient mice. However, mixed bone marrow chimera studies indicated that this phenomenon is independent ofCD69 expression on responding CD4 T cells. Depletion of CD4 T cells during memory led to higher bacterial burden in the gut and spleen. These results indicate that mucosal effector and memory CD4 T cells are phenotypically and functionally distinct from their splenic counterparts. Thus, our findings demonstrate an important role for mucosal memory CD4 T cells in protection against oral infection.


Abstract The pharmacokinetic parameters of phenylbutazone were determined in 18 elephants (Loxodonta africana and Elephas maximus) after single-dose oral administration of 2, 3, and 4 mg/kg phenylbutazone, as well as multiple-dose administrations with a 4-wk washout period between trials. After administration of 2 mg/kg phenylbutazone, mean serum concentrations peaked in approximately 7.5 hr at 4.3 ± 2.02 μg/ml and 9.7 hr at 7.1 ± 2.36 μg/ml for African and Asian elephants, respectively, while 3 mg/kg dosages resulted in peak serum concentrations of 7.2 ± 4.06 μg/ml in 8.4 hr and 12.1 ± 3.13 μg/ml in 14 hr. The harmonic mean half-life was long, ranging between 13 and 15 hr and 39 and 45 hr for African and Asian elephants, respectively. There was evidence of enterohepatic cycling of phenylbutazone in Asian elephants. Significant differences (P < 0.0001) in pharmacokinetic values occurred between African and Asian elephants for clearance (27.9 and 7.6 ml/hr/kg, respectively), terminal half-life (15.0 and 38.7 hr, respectively), and mean residence time (22.5 and 55.5 hr, respectively) using 2-mg/kg dosages as an example. This suggests that different treatment regimens for Asian and African elephants should be used. There were no apparent gender differences in these parameters for either elephant species.


The influence of silver nanoparticles on Er3+ up-conversion in CaF2 precipitated oxyfluoride glass-ceramics is investigated. After heat-treatments, transmission electron microscopy images show that CaF2 nanocrystals precipitate in the glass matrix uniformity, and sliver nanoparticles are spread around the CaF2 nano-crystals simultaneously. Comparing with the samples without Ag doped, high efficiency up-conversion luminescences of Er3+ at 540 and 658 nm are distinctly observed in the silver nanoparticles containing glass-ceramics by the 980-nm excitation. Moreover, since the intensity ratio of green and red emissions changes after silver nanoparticles precipitation, the up-conversion mechanism of Er3+ is discussed.


Recent observations of the stellar halo have uncovered the debris of an ancient merger, Gaia–Sausage–Enceladus (GSE), estimated to have occurred ≳8 Gyr ago. Follow-up studies have associated GSE with a large-scale tilt in the stellar halo that links two well-known stellar overdensities in diagonally opposing octants of the Galaxy (the Hercules–Aquila Cloud and Virgo Overdensity; HAC and VOD). In this paper, we study the plausibility of such unmixed merger debris persisting over several gigayears in the Galactic halo. We employ the simulated stellar halo from Naidu et al., which reproduces several key properties of the merger remnant, including the large-scale tilt. By integrating the orbits of these simulated stellar halo particles, we show that adoption of a spherical halo potential results in rapid phase mixing of the asymmetry. However, adopting a tilted halo potential preserves the initial asymmetry in the stellar halo for many gigayears. The asymmetry is preserved even when a realistic growing disk is added to the potential. These results suggest that HAC and VOD are long-lived structures that are associated with GSE and that the dark matter halo of the Galaxy is tilted with respect to the disk and aligned in the direction of HAC–VOD. Such halo–disk misalignment is common in modern cosmological simulations. Lastly, we study the relationship between the local and global stellar halo in light of a tilted global halo comprised of highly radial orbits. We find that the local halo offers a dynamically biased view of the global halo due to its displacement from the Galactic center.


Four iridium(III) complexes (Ir1 to Ir4) containing 2,3-diphenylquinoxaline derivatives with or without fluoro-substituted on different positions (L1: 2,3-diphenylquinoxaline; L2: 6,7-difluoro-2,3-diphenylquinoxaline; L3: 2,3-bis(4-fluorophenyl)quinoxaline; L4: 6,7-difluoro-2,3-bis(4-fluorophenyl)quinoxaline) as main ligands and 2-(5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)phenol (HPOP) as ancillary ligand were synthesized and investigated. All the complexes emit deep red photoluminescence (PL) (Ir1: λmax: 645 nm; Ir2: λmax: 650 nm; Ir3: λmax: 634 nm; Ir4: λmax: 639 nm). Moreover, the electron mobility of the complexes Ir3 and Ir4 is higher than that of the electron transport material Alq3 (tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminium), which is beneficial for their performances in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The OLEDs with single- or double-emitting layers (EML) were fabricated using Ir3 or Ir4 as the emitter. The double-EML device using Ir4 with the structure of ITO (indium-tin-oxide)/MoO3 (molybdenum oxide, 5 nm)/TAPC (di-[4-(N,N-ditolyl-amino)-phenyl]cyclohexane, 30 nm)/TcTa (4,4′,4′′-tris(carbazol-9-yl) triphenylamine): Ir4 (2 wt%, 10 nm)/26DCzPPy (2,6-bis(3-(carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)pyridine): Ir4 (2 wt%, 10 nm)/TmPyPB (1,3,5-tri(m-pyrid-3-yl-phenyl)benzene, 40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm) displays good electroluminescence (EL) performances with maximum luminance, current efficiency, power efficiency and external quantum efficiency of up to 20 676 cd m−2, 14.0 cd A−1, 12.0 lm W−1 and 17.8%, respectively, and the efficiency roll-off ratio is mild. The results suggest that the number and position of fluoro-substituents can affect photophysical, electrochemical and electroluminescent properties of the Ir(III) complexes, which are potential deep red phosphorescent materials for specific OLED applications.


The case of a middle aged(39 years) man admitted with severe malaria in the male ward of the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria is reported. The infecting species was Plasmodium falciparum and the patient was febrile, developed acute renal failure, severe thrombocytopenia and hepatic failure. Treatment with E-mal (an arthemeter), combined with fansidar was followed by a slow, but complete recovering of renal function.


A proliferative endothelial cell phenotype, inflammation, and pulmonary vascular remodeling are prominent features of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Bone morphogenetic protein type II receptor (BMPR2) loss-of-function is the most common cause of heritable PAH and has been closely linked to the formation of pathological plexiform lesions. Although some BMPR2 mutations leave ligand-dependent responses intact, the disruption of ligand-independent, noncanonical functions are universal among PAH-associated BMPR2 genotypes, but incompletely understood. This study examined the noncanonical signaling consequences of BMPR2 silencing in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells to identify potential therapeutic targets. BMPR2 siRNA silencing resulted in a proliferative, promigratory pulmonary artery endothelial cell phenotype and disruption of cytoskeletal architecture. Expression profiling closely reflected these phenotypic changes. Gene set enrichment and promoter analyses, as well as the differential expression of pathway components identified Ras/Raf/ERK signaling as an important consequence of BMPR2 silencing. Raf family members and ERK1/2 were constitutively activated after BMPR2 knockdown. Two Raf inhibitors, sorafenib and AZ628, and low-dose nintedanib, a triple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor upstream from Ras, reversed the abnormal proliferation and hypermotility of BMPR2 deficiency. Inhibition of dysregulated Ras/Raf/ERK signaling may be useful in reversing vascular remodeling in PAH.


Background: Proliferating trichilemmal tumors are slow-growing lobulated masses most commonly found on the scalp of elderly women. Due to the locally invasive nature of the lesion, the treatment is complete excision of the tumor with tumor-free margins. Methods: We present two cases of trichilemmal tumors that exhibited aggressive local invasion across tissue planes. The first case had dural invasion, which needed dural reconstruction. The second case had muscle invasion, which required wide resection. Results: Sixteen months after their surgeries, the patients are in good health without any recurrence of tumors. Conclusion: Trichilemmal tumors may exhibit aggressive local invasion across tissue planes and even penetrate intracranially, causing considerable morbidity and mortality. The possibility of dural and muscle invasion must be kept in mind in order to achieve successful treatment results. A close clinical follow-up is judicious for detecting recurrences or metastases.


Current theoretical speculation and research evidence suggest that elevated anxiety levels and poor anxiety coping skills may be important aspects of the schizophrenic process. Despite the success of various behaviorally oriented stress management techniques with nonpsychotic individuals, research on the effects of these programs as applied to schizophrenics has been scarce. The present study examined the effects of two such techniques, Anxiety Management Training (AMT) and Applied Relaxation Training (R), on schizophrenic outpatients. After 6 weeks of training, both the AMT and R Ss (N = 27) reported significantly lower levels of generalized anxiety on a standard measure, as contrasted to non-treated Wait-List (WL) group Ss (N = 12). In addition, significant positive changes were reported by the Ss' regular outpatient therapists on a number of related, non-targeted behaviors. The results of this study support the idea that short-term anxiety management interventions may be useful in the treatment of schizophrenic patients.


In this paper, new aspherical surface polishing mechanism is suggested to polish aspherical glass lens mold by both airbag polishing tool and reverse-rotational eccentric motion. Up to now, conventional aspherical lens polishing method by the small tool polishing uses the aspherical surface profile and the trajectory of the polishing tool is also controlled. However, full contact concept by airbag polishing tool and no position control make the easy polishing setup and does not need aspherical design profile. An aspherical lens polishing machine was made for this study and a tool mark removal experiment for the fine-grounded lens mold was successfully performed.


Brushless DC (BLDC) motors are widely used for many industrial applications because of their high efficiency, high torque and low volume. The aim of this research is to develop a complete model of the BLDC motor and to design an optimal controller for its position control. Generally PID controller is used for many control problems because of its simple structure and easy implementation. However in practice, we often do not get the optimum performance with the conventionally tuned PID controllers. For this purpose, Genetic Algorithm is proposed as a global optimizer to find the optimized PID gains for position control of BLDC motor. The efficiency of this method is compared with that of traditional method. Simulation results showed that PID control tuned by GA provides more efficient closed loop response for position control of BLDC motor. The modeling, control and simulation of the BLDC motor have been done using the software package MATLAB/SIMULINK.


SUMMARY: The base compositions of the deoxyribonucleic acids extracted from 93 cultures of flexibacteria classified in the genera Cytophaga, Flexibacter, Microscilla, Saprospira, Herpetosiphon, Vitreoscilla and Beggiatoa have been determined. The data demonstrate that the guanine plus cytosine contents (GC values) of the representative cultures ranged from 30 to 53 %. A number of the recently proposed nomen species are shown to contain representatives with different GC values.


In this paper we report on both experimental and theoretical studies of the voltage drop across the source contact in the quantum Hall effect regime at high currents. Our investigations have been performed on the plateau ν = 2 using two Hall bars of different widths, processed on the same sample. A steep increase of the voltage drop across the source contact is observed experimentally well before the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect. This behaviour is analysed in the framework of inter and intra Landau level scatterings. The theoretical curves reproduce correctly the main aspects of the experimental data. Our work corroborates the results published recently by the group of Komiyama upon the Landau emission of two-dimensional electron gas.


Brucellosis, a common zoonosis, is under reported in India despite its endemicity and increased exposure to livestock among the population. This study was conducted to determine the clinical manifestations, antibiotic susceptibility pattern, treatment and outcome of culture confirmed brucellosis. Adult patients with culture confirmed brucellosis who presented to a large teaching hospital in South India between 2009 and 2015 were included. A diagnosis of brucellosis was confirmed on automated culture. Clinical profile, laboratory parameters, drug susceptibility, treatment and outcome were documented by reviewing the medical records. The cohort comprised of 22 patients with mean ± SD age of 42 ± 13 years. Twenty one (95.5%) was male. Thirteen (59%) patients were from rural area and risk of acquisition of brucellosis including occupational exposure or consumption of unpasteurized milk was evident in 16 (72.7%) patients. The mean duration of symptoms before presentation was 54.5 ± 52 days. The commonest clinical presentation was prolonged fever without a definite focus in 18 patients (82%), whereas 2 (9%) patients had osteoarticular involvement and one patient (4.5%) each had genital involvement and endocarditis. Eighteen patients (82%) with uncomplicated brucellosis were treated with aminoglycoside and doxycycline for 6 weeks. There was no relapse or mortality at 18 ± 9 months of follow up. Brucellosis in this cohort had acute or subacute presentation with prolonged fever and bacteremia. High index of clinical suspicion based on significant epidemiological history along with automated blood culture improves the efficiency of diagnosis. Cure with lack of relapse among these cases suggests a combination therapy with doxycycline and aminoglycoside is highly effective for the treatment.


Abstract Background: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a common and sometimes life-threatening illness. Patient-, care-, and room hygiene-specific factors are known to impact CDI genesis, but care provider training and room topography have not been explored. We sought to determine if care in specific intensive care unit (ICU) rooms asymmetrically harbored CDI cases. Patients and Methods: Surgical intensive care unit (SICU) patients developing CDI (July 2009 to June 2018) were identified and separated by service (green/gold). Each service cared for their respective 12 rooms, otherwise differing only in resident team composition (July 2009 to August 2017: green, anesthesia; gold, surgery; August 2017 to June 2018: mixed for both). Fixed/mobile room features and provider traffic in three room zones (far/middle/near in relation to the toilet) were compared between high-/low-incidence rooms using observation via telecritical care video cameras. Results: Seventy-four new CDI cases occurred in 7,834 consecutive SICU admissions. In period one, green CDI cases were almost double gold cases (39 vs. 21; p = 0.02) but were similar in period two in which trainee service allocation intermixed. High-incidence rooms had closer toilet-to-intravenous pole proximity than low-incidence rooms (7.7 + 1.8 feet vs. 3.9 + 1.5 feet; p = 0.02). High-incidence rooms consistently housed mobile objects (patient bed, table-on-wheels) farther away from the toilet. Although physician time spent in each zone was similar, nurses spending more than 15 minutes in-room more frequently stayed in the far/middle zones in high-incidence rooms. Conclusions: Distinct SICU room features relative to toilet location and bedside clinician behaviors interact to alter patient CDI acquisition risk. This suggests that CDI risk occurs as a structural aspect of ICU care, offering the potential to reduce patient risk through deliberate room redesign.


The main objective of this study is to present advances in understanding the relationship between nutrition and health that lead to the development of the concept of functional foods, which means a practical and new approach to achieve optimal health status by promoting the state of well-being and possibly reducing the risk of desease. For this purpose, the paper will look into the factors that influence consumers' awareness of functional foods and their purchasing decisions of functional food products in the Republic of Macedonia. The challenge of understanding the connection between diet and health has resulted in the creation of a new concept of functional products, which means a new practical approach to balance the diet with the aim to achieve optimal health and possibility to reduce the risk of deseases. Functional foods are foods that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition ones. Biologically active compounds in functional foods may impart health benefits or desirable physiological effects. Increasing awareness of healthier food choices, its possibilities and advantages, provides higher quality of life. However, for a functional food product  to be good and widely accepted, it is necessary to link research, marketing and relevant feedback information obtained by monitoring consumers' attitudes towards functional product, in order to meet consumers' expectations. One  important fact in the whole concept of functional foods is informing consumers about the possibilities of functional foods, but any  information relating to health must necessarily be true, attractive, simple and intelligible to the consumer so that the concept of  functional foods being able in continuing to get developped.


Transoesophageal echocardiography disclosed a localized pericardial blood clot compressing the right atrium (RA) and/or right ventricle (RV) in 15 patients suffering from low cardiac output failure soon after open-heart surgery. The left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was small (38.4 +/- 10.1 mm) and its fractional shortening normal (34.9 +/- 10.2%). These findings suggested cardiac tamponade as a result of pericardial clot. However, the 'y' trough of the RA pressure tracing was prominent, which is not characteristic of typical cardiac tamponade, but rather of constrictive pericarditis. This implies therefore that the pathophysiology of cardiac tamponade by pericardial clot differs from that of tamponade by fluid. Emergency open-chest removal of the pericardial clot was performed in seven patients, with good results. Pericardial clot produces low cardiac output soon after open-heart surgery, but its location is specific and its haemodynamics are not characteristic of cardiac tamponade.


Through phase 1 and phase 2 SBIR grants, s fully functional I/O Controller and communication protocol for version 4 of EPICS is completed. This new software architecture provides a flexible and extendible architecture. Version 4 is implemented fully in Java. The performance metrics look promising. The final portion of phase 2 is to optimize the communication mechanisms. Subsequent work on different aspects of this are required to provide a viable solutions in various areas. Version 3 of EPICS is able to provide a platform for implementing channel based control, because the channel and attributes for time stamping, alarm, display and control were narrow, well defined, and complete. To extend EPICS functionality beyond this, it is necessary to define attributes needed for archive data, array, image data, and directory services. The proper handling of several array types enables the development of middle layer servers such as orbit and bump control in accelerators. Phase 1 should produce a well defined, reviewed, and agreed upon definition of the metadata required for these services. A Phase 2 grant would provide tools that implemented archiving, general array, imaging, and directory applications.


A number of large-scale high energy physics experiments loom on the horizon, several of which will generate many petabytes of scientific data annually. A variety of exploratory projects are underway within the physics computing community to investigate approaches to managing the data. There are conflicting views of this massive data problem: (1) there is far too much data to manage effectively within a genuine database; (2) there is far too much data to manage effectively without a genuine database; and many people hold both views. The purpose of this paper is to begin a dialog between the computational physics and very large database community on such problems, and to simulate research in directions that will be of benefit to both groups. This paper will attempt to outline the nature and scope of these massive data problems, survey several of the approaches being explored by the physics community, and suggest areas in which high energy physicists hope to look to the database community for assistance.


As with any shared format for serializing data, Primo's PNX records have limits on the types of data which they pass along from the source records and into the Primo tool. As a result of these limitations, PNX records do not currently have a provision for harvesting and transferring rights information about HathiTrust holdings that the Kansas State University (KSU) Library system indexes through Primo. This created a problem, since Primo was defaulting to indicate that all HathiTrust materials were available to KSU Libraries (K-State Libraries) patrons, when only a limited portion of them actually were. This disconnect was infuriating some library users, and creating difficulties for the public services librarians. There was a library-wide discussion about removing HathiTrust holdings from Primo altogether, but it was decided that such a solution was an overreaction. As a consequence, the library IT department began a crash program to attempt to find a solution to the problem. The result was an application called hathiGenius.


Introduction Impairment of the mucosal barrier plays an important role in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis. The myosin IXB (MYO9B) gene and the two tight-junction adaptor genes, PARD3 and MAGI2, have been linked to gastrointestinal permeability. Common variants of these genes are associated with celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease, two other conditions in which intestinal permeability plays a role. We investigated genetic variation in MYO9B, PARD3 and MAGI2 for association with acute pancreatitis. Methods Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in MYO9B, two SNPs in PARD3, and three SNPs in MAGI2 were studied in a Dutch cohort of 387 patients with acute pancreatitis and over 800 controls, and in a German cohort of 235 patients and 250 controls. Results Association to MYO9B and PARD3 was observed in the Dutch cohort, but only one SNP in MYO9B and one in MAGI2 showed association in the German cohort (p < 0.05). Joint analysis of the combined cohorts showed that, after correcting for multiple testing, only two SNPs in MYO9B remained associated (rs7259292, p = 0.0031, odds ratio (OR) 1.94, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.35-2.78; rs1545620, p = 0.0006, OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.16-1.53). SNP rs1545620 is a non-synonymous SNP previously suspected to impact on ulcerative colitis. None of the SNPs showed association to disease severity or etiology. Conclusion Variants in MYO9B may be involved in acute pancreatitis, but we found no evidence for involvement of PARD3 or MAGI2.


We report a case of isolated ossification of iliopsoas with ankylosis of the left hip in a 27-year-old female. The patient was diagnosed to have Moyamoya disease, a rare chronic occlusive disorder of cerebrovascular circulation following an acute onset of hemiplegia. The patient presented 9 months later to us with ankylosis of left hip which was successfully treated by surgical excision of the heterotopic bone and there was no recurrence at the end of 5 years. A review of literature failed to reveal a similar case with isolated and complete ossification of iliopsoas muscle associated with Moyamoya disease which required surgical intervention. Surgical excision resulted in dramatic improvement in the quality of life. Surgical excision of neurogenic type of heterotopic ossification is a very successful procedure and timely intervention after maturity of mass is very important to prevent the onset of secondary complications and to avoid recurrence.


The ruling of the Court of Justice in Asociaţia ACCEPT [2013] put homophobia in the spotlight of EU law. The case illustrates the success of efficient cause lawyering for the benefit of a disempowered minority. This note offers a detailed scrutiny of the judgment in a wider paradigm of EU non-discrimination law and effective modes of challenging homophobia via employment policies. The preliminary ruling on this Romanian case opens an innovative European track of legal mobilization for LGBT and other social movements. In light of the latest developments within the Council of Europe and European Union, this note identifies the scope of available legal protection against homophobia in Europe.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the antibacterial activity and the cytotoxicity of polypeptide dhvar4.

METHODS
Solid-phase synthesized dhvar4 was manufactured by MeiLian Biotech Co. Ltd.; we evaluated its antibacterial effect, using the growth curve of bacteria after the bacteria being treated with different concentration of dhvar4. The cytotoxicity of dhvar4 on L-02, ECV-304, 293, 3T3 cells was investigated by MTT assay, and human erythrocytes were subimitted to hemolytic assay.

RESULTS
dhvar4 inhibited the growth of Enterococcus faecium 36418 and Staphylococcus aureus BAA42 only at the concentration of 4 microg/ml. The viability of mammalian cells remained 68%-92% even when the concentration of dhvar4 reached 150 microg/ml. The LD50 (median lethal dose) was determined to be higher than 150 microg/ml. And very low hemolytic activity of dhvar4 was detected even at the highest protein concentration tested (180 microg/ml).

CONCLUSION
dhvar4 possesses antibacterial activity and has little cytotoxicity to mammalian cells. These results suggest that dhvar4 has great potential in the development of


We performed the characterization of the type II water production for cosmetic industry, monitoring four sampling points established: Cl2 Point, pretreatment Point, UV Point and process Point. It took a team Helix 70, with ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis to obtain final product that is optimal for the cosmetic and the stability of the products. Were followed for 6 months, weekly for each point, yielding stable results for microbiological and physicochemical results. For microbiological parameters: Aerobic Count, Total Coliforms, E. Coli and Pseudomonas. We assessed the following physicochemical parameters: pH, conductivity, hardness, Cl 2, total Fe. It was established that the product obtained is as specified and recorded data are consistent for each type of water


An observational study of S from near earthquakes in western central California has been conducted. The average velocity of a single direct S arrival at Berkeley (BRK) from 25 earthquakes within 108 km is 3.60 ± .05 km/sec. At Vineyard (VIN) the clearest arrival from 12 earthquakes within 97 km has a velocity of 3.00 ± .06 km/sec. A weaker, earlier arrival is observed at VIN for 50 km < Δ < 100 km indicating a velocity of 3.51 ± .06 km/sec. The two arrivals at VIN may be due to either a lateral or vertical rustal velocity contrast. The greater attenuation of the higher velocity arrival at VIN with respect to BRK may indicate the dimension of an anelastic zone associated with regional faulting. SH arrivals identified on records from an instrument with extended long-period response have been identified as SHn with a velocity of 4.5 ± .2 km/sec. Source motions inferred from S-particle motion at BRK show a strong orientation with the trend of the regional faulting.


Liver cirrhosis is associated with various complications
such as ascites and fluid retention, progressing to development of
hepatorenal syndrome, further compromising fluid elimination.
Frusemide, a loop diuretic is normally administered to relieve fluid
retentions. The kinetics of frusemide has not been conclusively
reported in the three types of cirrhosis and among Indian subjects. The
aim of the current study was to evaluate the kinetics of frusemide
among healthy and Child's A, B and C cirrhosis and compare with
earlier data.
24 cirrhotic were selected and classified according to the Child's-Pugh
classification. 12 healthy male volunteers were screened and included
in the study. 40 mg of frusemide was administered orally to both
groups and blood samples were withdrawn at various intervals of time
for a duration of 8 hrs. The amount of frusemide present in plasma was
analyzed using HPLC. The volumes of distribution (Vd), area under
curve (AUC), systemic clearance (CL), maximum concentration (Cmax),
time for maximum concentration (tmax) in healthy volunteers were
respectively 4.56 ± 0.15 L, 2258 ± 530.7, 4.97 ± 1.67 L/h, 892 ± 49.4
ng/ml, 85.20± 7.49 mins. Corresponding values in Group A were 5.00
± 0.31 L, 2471 ± 228.6, 6.60 ± 2.90L/h, 1021 ± 47.97 ng/ml and 88.25
V 2.12 mins; in Group B 7.73 ± 1.10 L, 4038 ± 154.7, 8.84 ± 0.45 L/h,
1448 ± 43.20 ng/ml and 120 ± 1.89 mins; In group C cirrhosis 9.69 ±
1.32 L, 4085 ± 131.75, 3.49 ± 1.40 L/h, 1551± 59.02 ng/ml and 185.7
± 2.68 mins respectively. Significant differences at 1% and 5% were
observed among the cirrhotic groups and between healthy v/s cirrhotic
patients.
Data from current study do not correlate with earlier reports, carried
mainly in Western population, due to possibly differences in
instrumentation, etc but a possible genetic interplay should not be ruled
out. Data from cirrhotic patients could not be effectively compared with
earlier studies as kinetics of frusemide has not been conclusively been
reported in the three categories of cirrhosis. Keywords : Pharmacokinetic, Frusemide, Liver cirrhosis. Internet Journal of Medical Update Vol. 3 (1) 2008: pp. 2-10


Deep space exploration with surface based robotic elements presents a number of significant challenges, not least of which is the lack of real-time, high bandwidth communication between a surface element and mission control. The lack of timely data combined with the unstructured and potentially hazardous nature of the terrain creates a difficult mission planning environment. Given the paucity of up-to-date data it is difficult to construct robust timelines at the task level. As a consequence such missions can be characterised by recurrent safe-modes, significant downtime and reduced science return. Lag in the communications cycle exacerbates this problem by increasing operational workload and delaying return to active science operations. It is worth noting that even in mid 2005 with a reduced and mature approach for the NASA MER rovers, operations costs are in the region of $2.5M/month. A conservative planning approach is often adopted to improve timeline robustness but inevitably science return is lower as a result. The use of greater on-board autonomy is therefore a critical consideration for such a mission. In particular it is essential to determine just what level of autonomy is appropriate, whether a suitably mature technology implementation exists and to validate these conclusions in a representative way. The current suite of Packet Utilisation Services (PUS) as defined in ECCS-E-70-41 [1] provides an appropriate starting point for the development of an operational autonomy concept for the forthcoming ExoMars mission. Although PUS services such as event monitoring, event action coupling and OBCP's provide the backbone implementation for FDIR and operational autonomy concept, additional functionality is required to meet the requirements of deep space operations. In particular there is a need to accommodate timeline management from a global perspective in response to variability (during execution) and uncertainty (at mission planning time) with regard to on-board resources such as memory and power. For example the actual power or memory used during payload activity will often be different from that predicted by mission planners. In the pessimistic case this will halt the timeline as there will be insufficient resources to carry out the planned tasks which remain. Alternatively execution may result in a relative abundance of resources if estimates were overly conservative. These could of course be used to carry out additional science. Greater on-board autonomy, which extends the level currently supported by existing PUS services, has been proposed as a means of alleviating this inefficiency. Autonomy in this sense is defined as having software element which can modify or create a rover timeline. The motivation being that an on-board element, with access to actual on-board state is


Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry data have been used to suggest underuse and disparities in receipt of radiotherapy. Prior studies have cautioned that SEER may underascertain radiotherapy but lacked adequate representation to assess whether underascertainment varies by geography or patient sociodemographic characteristics. The authors sought to determine rates and correlates of underascertainment of radiotherapy in recent SEER data.


Naphthalene is a widely used industrial and household chemical in the form of mothballs. But it has rarely been an agent of poisoning worldwide. We describe a case of ingestional naphthalene poisoning with a good outcome after proper management. A 29-year-old girl ingested 8 mothballs, and presented two days later with haemolysis and methaemoglobinaemia. She was given intravenous methylene blue, N-acetylcysteine and ascorbic acid, besides supportive treatment. Renal replacement therapy in the form of SLED of 8 hours was done on a daily basis. She was discharged after ten days on twice a week outpatient follow-up haemodialysis.


ABSTRACT The Earth's iron-rich core contains light elements. Studying the interaction of multiple light elements with iron and silicates during core–mantle segregation process in early Earth evolution has become important. In-situ X-ray diffraction and imaging observations of the iron–silicate–water–sulfur system at 5–10 GPa, up to approximately 1900°C, were used to elucidate sequential reactions: phase transformation and hydrogenation of iron, and formation of iron sulfide and silicates. The newly constructed X-ray imaging system achieved spatial resolution of approx. 10 μm for this study to show iron blob formation and motion. Sulfur distorted the iron blob shape and affected blob growth during heating by reducing the interfacial energy between molten iron and silicates. Light elements in the molten iron and the remaining silicate grains affected core–mantle segregation in the primitive Earth as temperatures increased. Carbon and silicon were incorporated into liquid Fe during later processes at higher temperatures.


AbstractExposure to ionizing radiation alone (radiation injury, RI) or combined with traumatic tissue injury (radiation combined injury, CI) is a crucial life-threatening factor in nuclear and radiological accidents. It is well documented that RI and CI occur at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and system levels. However, their mechanisms remain largely unclear. It has been observed in dogs, pigs, rats, guinea pigs, and mice that radiation exposure combined with burns, wounds, or bacterial infection results in greater mortality than radiation exposure alone. In this laboratory, the authors found that B6D2F1/J female mice exposed to 9.75 Gy 60Co-&ggr; photon radiation followed by 15% total body surface area wounds experienced 50% higher mortality (over a 30‐d observation period) compared to irradiation alone. CI enhanced DNA damages, amplified iNOS activation, induced massive release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, overexpressed MMPs and TLRs, and aggravated sepsis that led to cell death. In the present study, B6D2F1/J mice that received CI were treated with ciprofloxacin (CIP, 90 mg/kg p.o., q.d. within 2 h after CI through day 21). At day 1, CIP treatment reduced CI-induced &ggr;-H2AX formation significantly. At day 10, CIP treatment not only reduced cytokine/chemokine concentrations significantly, including IL‐6 and KC (i.e., IL‐8 in humans), but also enhanced IL‐3 production compared to vehicle-treated controls. CIP also elevated red blood cell counts, hemoglobin levels, and hematocrits. At day 30, CIP treatment increased 45% survival after CI (i.e., 2.3‐fold increase over vehicle treatment). The results suggest that CIP may prove to be an effective therapeutic drug for CI.


With the departure in emotion sociology and caring science the aim of this article is to elucidate the emotion work as experienced by a group of nurses who tried out a customised form of a person-centred care model. Ten semi-structured interviews with following go-along were conducted. The most important empirical finding is the identifying of emotional caring as a specific part of the nurses' emotion management, comprising such knowledge that is specific to the competence of nurses. Emotional caring thus forms part of caring science, affected by the organisational structure, with bearing on the nurses' room for caring actions, that is, how, when and in what way emotional caring can be carried out. Moreover, in practice, person-centredness was compatible with the commonly shared values in caring science. The empirical material also shows that emotion management can be tied to profession, positions, status and power. The article contributes with an understanding of how working in a person-centred care model made it possible for the nurses to come closer to the patient's life world. Qualitative descriptions of the emotion management of a group of nurses in a certain caring context constitute another contribution, something that has not been investigated before.


Consider the Ising model at low temperatures and positive external field λ on an N×N box with Dobrushin boundary conditions that are plus on the north, east and west boundaries and minus on the south boundary. If λ=0, the interface separating the plus and minus phases is diffusive, having O( N) height fluctuations, and the model is fully wetted. Under an order one field, the interface fluctuations are O(1), and the interface is only partially wetted, being pinned to its southern boundary. We study the critical prewetting regime of λN↓0, where the height fluctuations are expected to scale as λ−1/3 and the rescaled interface is predicted to converge to the Ferrari–Spohn diffusion. Velenik (Probab. Theory Related Fields 129 (2004) 83–112) identified the order of the area under the interface up to logarithmic corrections. Since then, more refined features of such interfaces have only been identified in simpler models of random walks under area tilts.
In this paper we resolve several conjectures of Velenik regarding the refined features of the Ising interface in the critical prewetting regime. Our main result is a sharp bound on the one-point height fluctuation, proving e−Θ(x3/2) upper tails reminiscent of the Tracy–Widom distribution, capturing a tradeoff between the locally Brownian oscillations and the global field effect. We further prove a concentration estimate for the number of points above which the interface attains a large height. These are used to deduce various geometric properties of the interface, including the order and tails of the area it confines and the polylogarithmic prefactor governing its maximum height fluctuation. Our arguments combine classical inputs from the random-line representation of the Ising interface with novel local resampling and coupling schemes.


The spectacular advances in the surgery for congenital heart disease in children and infants have led to the appearance of a new pathology, late complications which warrant a systematic cardiological surveillance, to allow the patient to lead as normal a life as possible, compatible with the potential sequelae of this type of surgery. These complications arise essentially after ventricular open heart surgery, especially for tetralogy of Fallot and for interventricular communications. The ventricular function may be altered, even if the functional status appears to be good, so it must be systematically monitored, in particular by isotope methods. Arrhythmias and conduction disorders require special attention as they are often delayed in their appearance and can be serious, even causing sudden death, hence the value of electrophysiological investigations and, more especially, Holter monitoring and stress tests. The problems are even more complex when the operation was only aimed at a physiological correction, especially after operations for complete transposition of the great vessels and so-called "ortho-terminal" operations for tricuspid atresia or a single ventricle. In these cases, as well as ventricular dysfunction, we also see arrhythmias which can sometimes be severe, requiring anti-arrhythmic treatment and sometimes electro-systolic pacing.


This paper addresses the issue of flight control of high frequency time-varying dynamics of biologically motivated flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV). A control scheme based on time-averaging theory is presented for the control of longitudinal dynamics of FWMAV. The time averaging results in a simplified model which approximates the high frequency time varying dynamics of the original system. A differential flatness based non-linear controller is designed for the time-averaged system and successfully applied to the time-varying system for trajectory tracking.


Interferon-beta (IFN-B), transfer factor (TF), and glycine are agents that possess biomedical properties related to the modulation of the immune and the nervous systems, as well as to the inflammatory process. Therefore, safety evaluation of the compounds is necessary in regard to non genotoxic effect and safety use in human health. The present study evaluates their genotoxic and cytotoxic potential by determining the capacity of the compounds to induce sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), or to alter cellular proliferation kinetics (CPK) and the mitotic index (MI) in mouse bone marrow cells. Besides, it also determines their capacity to increase the rate of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MNPE) in peripheral mouse blood, and the relationship polychromatic erythrocytes /normochromatic erythrocytes (PE/NE) as an index of cytotoxicity. Two doses of each compound were tested. For the assays the mice received intraperitoneally (ip): 4x10 UI/ kg and 8x10 UI/kg of INF-B; 0.5 and 1 UI/kg of TF, 1 and 2 g/kg of glycine; 0.5 ml of distilled water (negative control group), and 5 mg/kg of cisplatin (positive control group) respectively. The results in regard to the agents showed no SCE increase induced by any of the tested doses, as well as no alteration in the CPK, or in the MI. With respect to the second assay, the results obtained with the tree agents were also negative for the MNPE and the PE/NE index along the daily evaluation made for four days. The results obtained establish that the studied agents have neither genotoxic nor cytotoxic effect on the model used. International Journal of Advance Research, IJOAR .org ISSN 2320-9186 2 IJOAR© 2015 http://www.ijoar.org


Cyclic linear codes of block length n over a finite field F/sub q/ are the linear subspaces of F/sub q//sup n/ that are invariant under a cyclic shift of their coordinates. A family of codes is good if all the codes in the family have constant rate and constant normalized distance (distance divided by block length). It is a long-standing open problem whether there exists a good family of cyclic linear codes based on F.J. MacWilliams and N.J.A. Sloane (1977). A code C is r-testable if there exist a randomized algorithm which, given a word x /spl isin/ F/sub q//sup n/, adaptively selects r positions, checks the entries of x in the selected positions, and makes a decision (accept or reject x) based on the positions selected and the numbers found, such that (i) if x /spl isin/ C then x is surely accepted; (ii) if dist(x,C) /spl ges/ /spl epsi/n then x is probably rejected (dist refers to Hamming distance). A family of codes is locally testable if all members of the family are r-testable for some constant r. This concept arose from holographic proofs/PCPs. O. Goldreich and M. Sudan (2002) asked whether there exist good, locally testable families of codes. In this paper we address the intersection of the two questions stated.


BaLu2−xF8:xLn3+ crystals have been synthesized via a one-step hydrothermal route without any surfactants. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and down-shift/up-conversion photoluminescence spectroscopy were used to characterize the samples. Pure monoclinic BaLu2F8 crystals were obtained at pH = 7 with NaBF4 as a fluoride source. Doping 0.06 mmol Ln3+ ions from Ho3+ to La3+ and doping Yb3+ ions from 0.1 to 0.4 mmol both have caused dramatic changes to the product's morphology from prismatic microrods of about 10 μm to particles of about 3 μm aggregated by flakes. The differences in the phase, size and shape of the final products were greatly related to the fluoride source and pH values, which have been studied in detail. In addition, surfactants also affected the phase and morphology of the BaLu2F8 crystals. Multicolor down-shift emission was achieved in the BaLu1.94F8:0.06Ln3+ (Ln = Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Er and Tm) crystals under UV lamp excitation at 365 nm, and multicolor UC luminescence has been achieved in BaLu2F8:Yb3+,Ln3+ (Ln = Er, Tm, Ho) systems. When the Yb3+–Er3+ ions are co-doped into the host, the mechanism for the red emission (4F9/2 → 4I15/2) retains the tri-photon process like the single-doped Er3+ ion, but the mechanism for the green emission (2H11/2/4S3/2 → 4I15/2) is a two-photon process. Furthermore, the UC luminescence mechanism for the co-doped Yb3+–Ho3+ pairs is also a tri-photon process in the BaLu2F8 matrix. The as-prepared BaLu2F8:Ln3+ phosphors have potential applications in the fields of light emitting devices, three-dimensional displays and backlights.


Summary.
1The current view that the pattern of the dermal bones of early fishes was determined primarily by the neuromasts of the lateral-liue system is considered to be unsatisfactory for three reasons. It results in the establishment of homologies which are suspect on general grounds, it fails to account for the established relations between dermal bones and lateral lines of early amphibia, and it is not in accordance with experimental evidence.
2It is maintained that developmental relations between the lateral-line system and dermal bones of at least the early fishes and early amphibia must be held to exist because in the majority of cases the lateral lines pass directly from one centre of ossification to the next, because lateral lines are in the majority of cases associated with bones which are apparently homologous, because bones associated with branches of the lateral-line system both develop and evolve ahead of those not so associated, and because in the case of certain modern fishes the earliest appearance of bone cells is known to be in the immediate neighbourhood of neuromasts.
3It is contended that if the assumption is made that precursors of dermal bones affect the courses of developing lateral-line primordia, the developmental association between lateral lines and dermal bones can be accounted for without introducing the difficulties engendered by the current hypotheses. Fields are hypothesized, with their centres at the points of future centres of ossification, which have the property of attracting growing lateral-line primordia towards them, and changes in either the spatial relations or the relative intensities of these fields are believed to account for changes in the courses of lateral lines. It is held that this conception does not invalidate the belief that the presence of neuromasts may be responsible for the early appearance of osteoblasts in their neighbourhood.
4The courses of certain branches of the lateral line system close to the sutures between dermal bones are accounted for as a result of lateral lines developing under the direction of gradient-fields through areas in which the bone-precursor fields are relatively weak.
5It is suggested that the lateral-line branches of certain labyrinthodonts which pass neither to centres of ossification nor along sutures indicate the presence of bone-precursor fields the areas of which were later swamped by neighbouring ossifications. They probably indicate the temporary survival of the precursors of the intertemporal bones.


In past studies, proponents of the CSI-Effect (Crime Scene Investigation Effect) proposed that jurors tend to acquit suspects when forensic evidence is not as prevalent as it is in television crime dramas. The newer "Tech-Effect" (Technology Effect) proponents argue that crime dramas do not influence jurors; rather, jurors have heightened expectations for technical and scientific evidence simply because technology is so prevalent. It is further argued that the heightened expectations for technological and digital evidence may increase a juror's tendency to acquit a suspect. This study surveyed 107 students in a mid-sized, Southeastern state college to determine if a Tech-Effect exists, and if so, could this effect have a negative impact on juror credibility? A follow-up to a 2011 study, the current research attempted to answer two questions: 1) Will students in IS/IT degree programs demonstrate greater knowledge of forensic technology in cases involving digital evidence?, and 2) Will students in IS/IT programs demonstrate higher acquittal rates in cases involving digital evidence? The findings of the current study address the two research questions above and provide further evidence of a "tech-effect" in our society. In addition, the results revealed interesting differences between the two studies.


There is a limited information available pertaining to the adverse effects of Off-Road-
Vehicle (ORV) use and trail impacts. As a result, this study was initiated in 2003 to (a) quantify
water quality impacts of an ORV trail stream crossing through monitoring of total suspended
solids, and (b) conduct WEPP (Water Erosion Prediction Project) simulations to determine longterm
sediment loads contributed by the ORV trail stream crossing. To collect suspended sediment
samples from the ORV trail stream crossing, ISCO6 6700 water samplers were installed. Data was collected from November 2003 through July 2004. During this time suspended sediment
samples were collected for three different operational conditions (open, closed, maintenance).
When the study began the trail was open to traffic. The trail was then closed to traffic on January
1, 2004 and went through a two-week maintenance regime in early March. The trail was then
opened to ORV traffic on April 1, 2004. The largest suspended sediment load contributed by the
stream crossing during this study occurred during the trail closed condition. This storm event had
a recorded rainfall of 49 mm, and contributed a suspended sediment load of 109 kg. Since there
were no storm events sampled with return intervals of more than one year, the WEPP model was
used to estimate the potential long term effects of ORV trail stream crossing. A thirty-year
synthetic weather data (generated by CLIGEN) was used to predict sediment yield from the ORV
trail stream crossing. The WEPP model suggested that average annual sediment load from the
stream crossing is about 126.8 tons/ha, which is much higher than what is allowed by the USDA
Forest Service-National Forests in Alabama for temporary roads. The model also suggested that
most of the sediment load to the stream is contributed by a steep hillslope section that flows
directly to the stream. Hence the modeling study suggests that a BMP needs to be implemented
to control sediment loss from ORV trail section that contributes sediment directly to the stream.
In addition, the ORV trail stream crossing should be located on as flat a slope as possible.


BackgroundMajor incidents continue to pose a threat to health care systems by overwhelming them with a sudden surge of patients. A major factor impacting a hospital's surge capacity is the skills, abilities, and knowledge of emergency department registered nurses. The level of disaster nursing competency they possess affects patient safety and outcome. ED RNs' ability to accurately assess their competency and knowledge is imperative for mitigating the effect of major incidents. ED RN's perception of overall disaster preparedness has not been thoroughly addressed. The aim of this study was to assess emergency department registered nurses' self-perceived disaster preparedness.MethodThe study was a cross-sectional study. A self-assessment questionnaire based on the results of a study identifying specific disaster nursing competencies for emergency department registered nurses was distributed to all emergency department registered nurses at six participating hospitals between January 10th to February 19th of 2019. A five-point Likert-type scale was used to assess competency.ResultsEmergency department registered nurses' disaster preparedness according to the Total Disaster Competency mean, was low. Furthermore, the results indicate that ED RNs' overestimate their disaster nursing competency when compared to the Total Disaster Competency score. When asked to estimate their overall the mean was "less than competent" yet higher than the Total Disaster Competency score. Knowledge gaps concerning disaster preparedness plans were also identified. Additionally, this study identified factors associated with disaster preparedness and self-assessment ability.Conclusion ED RNs' overestimate their disaster preparedness and may lack self-awareness concerning their disaster competencies. However, ED RNs with formal disaster education appeared to have better insight concerning their preparedness. Clinical experiences, higher levels of education, and training were positively associated with preparedness. A lack of self-awareness may negatively impact patient outcomes during a major incident.


Symmetrical forelimbs were created in the axoltl by performing surgery on embryos at stages 32-34. The technique of J.M.W. Slack (J. Embryol. Exp. Morphol., 39:151-168, 1977) was utilized. Several experiments were then performed to test the ability of these symmetrical forelimbs to participate in pattern formation. When symmetrical limbs were amputated without previous surgery, 58% failed to regenerate. When symmetrical limbs were wounded in the plane of symmetry and permitted to heal for 30 days prior to amputation, 75% failed to regenerate. When the anterior half of the symmetrical limb was exchanged with the posterior half of the contralateral forelimb followed by amputation 30 days later, both limbs failed to regenerate. When the anterior half of the symmetrical limb was exchanged with the anterior half of an asymmetrical limb followed by amputation 30 days later, the previously symmetrical limbs regenerated asymmetrical hands, and previously asymmetrical limbs failed to regenerate. These results indicate that wounding increases the occurrence of regenerative failure in embryonically produced symmetrical forelimbs. The anterior half of the embryonically produced symmetrical forelimb behaves unpredictably and in a manner not easily described with any of the current models of pattern regulation. The posterior half of the embryonically produced symmetrical forelimb behaves predictably during pattern formation.


Salivary glands (SGs) exhibit several important features which are also common to endocrine glands: self-containment due to a surrounding capsule, highly efficient protein production and the ability to secrete proteins into the bloodstream. We have hypothesized that SGs are potentially useful as gene transfer targets for the correction of inherited monogenetic endocrine disorders. In the present communication, we extend our studies and attempt to test our hypothesis by comparing the efficacy of two commonly used viral vectors and the resulting serum and salivary distribution of transgene encoded hormones. A low dose (5 x10(9) particles) of either an adenoviral serotype 5 (Ad5) vector encoding the human erythropoietin (hEPO) cDNA or an adeno-associated virus sero-type 2 (AAV2) vector encoding either the hEPO or human growth hormone (hGH) cDNA was administered to individual submandibular SGs of Balb/c mice. Serum and salivary hEPO and hGH levels were determined at defined time points. Two additional recombinant viruses encoding enhanced green fluorescence protein (GFP) were also used (AdGFP and AAVGFP) in order to perform immunohistochemical analyses of transgenic protein localization in SG sections post-administration. AAV2 vectors led to stable gene transfer unlike the results with the Ad5 vectors. Indeed, in one mouse we observed hEPO production for a period of two years after administration of AAVhEPO to SGs. hEPO, which is a constitutive pathway secretory protein, was readily secreted into the bloodstream from the SGs, yielding therapeutically adequate serum levels. Conversely, hGH, a regulated secretory pathway protein, was preferentially secreted into saliva. SGs may be an attractive candidate target tissue for gene therapeutics of some monogenetic endocrine deficiency disorders. At present, AAV2 vectors seem particularly useful for such applications, and transgenes encoding constitutive secretory pathway hormones are more suitable for this application with SGs than those encoding regulated secretory pathway hormones.


This paper presents the results of Kirchhoff prestack depth migration applied to two onshore deep seismic reflection data sets (ANCORP'96 and PRECORP'95). The prestack depth migration method was implemented in 3D (ANCORP) and in 2D (PRECORP), respectively, from topography. Selective stacking of the migrated depth slices yielded a 3D depth volume (ANCORP) and a 2D depth section (PRECORP), respectively. An additional "offline stacking" provided a final 370 km long 2D depth section (ANCORP). In this paper a 180 km long depth section will be presented. At the beginning of the ANCORP section a double reflection zone is observed, which is associated with the upper and lower boundary of the oceanic crust. Except for some areas a nearly complete image of the Nazca reflector at depths between 60–90 km has been obtained. Moreover, one Bright Spot in each section has been detected: the Quebrada Blanca Bright Spot (QBBS, ANCORP) and the Calama Bright Spot (CBS, PRECORP). The reprocessing yielded two new aspects regarding these structures: Besides the west dip of the QBBS, which was already known from standard poststack processing results, a 3D analysis of the ANCORP data set shows an additional north‐dipping trend of the QBBS. Furthermore, the CBS is discovered for the first time.


The electricity market is undergoing a tremendous transformation not only in India but throughout the world as it move towards a more competitive environment. The growing complexity of this transformation — price instability, an aging infrastructure, changing regulatory environments are coursing energy consumers and electric utility to take another look at the benefit of renewable generation. The combination of utility restructuring, technology evolution, recent environmental policies provide the bases for renewable to progress an important energy option in near future for India. Utilities restructuring-opens energy market, allowing the customers to choose energy providers, methods of delivery, and attendant services etc. Moreover, the market forces favor small modular power technology that comes from renewable option (i.e. Small hydro, wind, solar and biomass) and that can be installed quickly in response to market signals. India has unique renewable energy resources (RES) and development of country depends to a great extent on harnessing these sources. As Conventional sources of energy pose significant threats to our current and future global security, environmental quality, health and social well being, so there is urgent need to promote renewable in present Indian restructured power sector in sustainable and eco-friendly manner. Preferential transmission tariff for renewable promotion along with other promotion policies plays a significant role in overall redevelopment of renewable energy sources. Hence current status, various issues, regulatory policies and incentives, special tariff for promotion of renewable energy sources in Indian restructured power sector are discussed in this paper. This will make renewable more attractive in the future competitive electricity market.


BaTi4O9 ceramics with Sm2O3 addition were prepared in a form of xSm2O3+BaTi4O9 (x = 1, 3, 5, 7 mol %) and the microstructures and microwave dielectric properties of the ceramic samples were characterized. SEM shows when x greater than 3 mol %, BaSm2Ti4O12 crystallized in a fiber shape along the crystalline boundary. With the increase of Sm2O3 addition, the dielectric constant increases from 36.65 to 39.8, while the quality factor decreases from 28000 to 19000, τf from +20.2 to +10.1 ppm/°C. Results of curve fitting of FIRS show extrinsic dielectric loss could account for the increase of dielectric loss, which should be attributed to the substantial increase of Ti3+ and Ti2+.


Within the framework of the embedded-atom method, we performed molecular-dynamics calculations to investigate the structural transformation during melting of two copper clusters containing 57 and 58 atoms. The simulation results reveal how their different structural changes can strongly influence internal energy and radial distribution functions. The local structural patterns of different regions during the temperature increase, determined by atom density profiles, are identified for the melting of each cluster. The simulations show sensitivities of the structural changes for these two small size clusters with different structures.


In June 2014, a new Protocol to ILO Convention No. 29 on Forced Labour was adopted. The purpose was to overcome implementation gaps for Convention No. 29. The Protocol is significant because it recognizes that all forms of forced labor, not just those that relate to trafficking, must be eradicated. Toward this end, it focuses on prevention, victim assistance, and international cooperation. The Protocol may also point to a way that international labour standard setting can be reinvigorated. In practical terms there is also reason for optimism given US support for the protocol and its leading role in rebalancing the focus on forced labour more equally to encompass trafficking and non-trafficked forced labour. This article examines the new Protocol and concludes that because of all the above reasons it is possible that real progress can be made toward combating all forms of forced labour.


This paper proposes exploiting the common sense knowledge learned by large language models to perform zero-shot reasoning about crimes given textual descriptions of surveillance videos. We show that when video is (manually) converted to high quality textual descriptions, large language models are capable of detecting and classifying crimes with state-of-the-art performance using only zero-shot reasoning. However, existing automated video-to-text approaches are unable to generate video descriptions of sufficient quality to support reasoning (garbage video descriptions into the large language model, garbage out).


This dissertation adopts a realist meta-perspective on a body of the scholar's own research papers written between 2005 and 2011, all either published or in press and offered for reference in the Appendices. The six papers represent the point of departure for the thesis; they are the phenomenon for further investigation into 'what must be the case' for the research events to have emerged as they did. One aspect of this study, therefore, is an auto ethnographic account of conducting research in the field of Academic Development within varied settings and over a given time frame. But alongside this personal history it narrates cycles in the Academic Development movement in South Africa over 30 years. Margaret Archer's Social Realist principle of analytical dualism (1995) is used to disaggregate the emergent properties within these histories and to enable an analysis of the underlying mechanisms that generated them. It refers to three social domains. Firstly, it describes the material structures the institutional environments, policies, roles or professional conditions in which the projects were conceived. Secondly, it identifies the cultural registers that the profession was drawing on such as theories, beliefs or discourses. Thirdly, it draws attention to the agency of individuals and communities in the field as they independently activated or mediated these various conditioning structures and registers. So the study is a systematic examination of the parts and the people in research stories, of the complex interrelationship of structural and agential elements, and of how together they have generated particular forms of knowing and kinds of knowledge in Academic Development. Drawing from this 'history-within-a-history', the study makes some claims for 'what must be the case' for substantial knowledge to flourish in a newly emergent, hotly contested and relatively unstable field. It argues that Academic Development has few shared epistemological foundations and boundaries, and its roles and functions are shifting and diverse. It describes the tensions in the field between those who have been inclined to understand it as primarily concerned with redress or equity in the postapartheid state, and yet others who have prioritised Academic Development as an efficiency project within higher education. But there is a third discourse emanating from those in the profession who have consistently argued that neither of these approaches can succeed without drawing on stronger theoretical foundations. This study endorses the view that Academic Developers need to identify more coherent ontological and epistemological frames for their research work. This has important implications for building the kind of substantial knowledge base that could be more influential in addressing the troubled terrain of South African higher education. The study refers extensively to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) and to Mervyn Peake's 1946 illustrations of these children's stories, finding in these texts powerful analogies and metaphors for principles in realist philosophy and theory, and for describing a researcher's journey towards a more assured identity in the curious field of Academic Development.


A three-dimensional dynamic model for simulating various motions of full vehicle is presented. The model has 16 independent degrees of freedom (DOF) consisting of three kinds of components; a vehicle body of 6 DOF, 4 independent suspensions equipped at every corner of the body, and 4 tire models linked with each suspension. The dynamic equations are represented in six coordinate frames such as world fixed coordinate, vehicle fixed coordinate, and four wheel fixed coordinate frames. Then these lead to the approximated prediction model of vehicle posture. Both lateral and longitudinal dynamics can be computed simultaneously under the conditions of which various inputs including steering command, driving torque, gravity, rolling resistance of tire, aerodynamic resistance, etc. are considered. It is shown through simulations that the proposed 3D model can be useful for precise design and performance analysis of any full vehicle control systems.