OBJECTIVE
Time spent sitting increases all-cause mortality. Sedentary occupations are a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. A treadmill desk offers the potential to increase activity while working; however, it is important to make sure that productivity does not decline. The purpose of this study is to evaluate productivity while using a treadmill desk.

PARTICIPANTS
Eleven experienced medical transcriptionists participated in the study.

METHODS
Transcriptionists were given 4 hours training in the use of a treadmill desk. They were asked to transcribe tapes for 8 hours both while sitting and while using the treadmill desk. Speed and accuracy of transcription were compared as were the average expended calories per hour.

RESULTS
The accuracy of transcription did not differ between sitting and walking transcriptions. The speed of transcription was 16% slower while walking than while sitting (p < 0.001). The transcriptionists expended 100 calories per hour more when they transcribed while walking than when they transcribed while sitting (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
The treadmill desk offers a way to reduce sedentariness in the workplace and has potential to reduce employee obesity and health care costs. However, more than 4 hours of training will be necessary to prevent a significant drop in employee productivity.


A series of primary amino acid-derived polystyrene-supported organocatalysts was tested in anti-selective Mannich reactions. The polystyrene-immobilized threonine derivative showed the best performance in three-component (hydroxyacetone, anilines, and aldehydes) Mannich reactions to provide anti-β-amino-α-hydroxycarbonyl compounds (11 examples; up to 95% ee), and its use could be extended to dihydroxyacetone and protected hydroxyacetones (7 examples; up to 90% ee). The high activity depicted by the catalyst has allowed its implementation in continuous flow. Under this operation mode, the supported threonine catalyst produces anti-Mannich adducts with generally higher diastereo- and enantioselectivity than in batch. A family of five different enantioenriched anti-Mannich adducts has been sequentially prepared in flow by passing different combinations of anilines and aromatic aldehydes over the same sample of catalyst. This confirms the suitability of this methodology for the rapid access to small libraries...


Abnormal liver enzymes and liver function in congestive cardiac failure has long been recognized and occurs quite frequently in acute and chronic failure. The present study was undertaken to identify alterations in the liver biochemical profiles in relation to congestive heart failure and also to show their significance with respect to the duration of heart failure.
Sixty cases with heart failure of various aetiologies and twenty healthy controls were included in the study. In the present study, number of male cases were higher than number of female cases. Among sixty total cases 36 male and 24 female cases were present. Higher number of cases were found within the age group of 40 to 50 years followed by the age group of 50 to 60 years.
The present study revealed rheumatic heart disease is still the leading cause of heart failure in our set up. Among the total heart failure cases, 40% were due to rheumatic heart disease. Dilated cardiomyopathies represent about 23% of cases. Heart failure secondary to coronary artery heart disease is seen in about 13% of cases. We have found five cases with acute heart failure and three cases with hypotension.
Present study revealed a strong correlation between liver function derangements and the above cases.
Serum bilirubin, serum aminotransferases, serum alkaline phosphatase,
serum proteins, serum albumin and prothrombin time were the liver biochemical tests used in the study. Echocardiography and ultrasonography of the liver were also done in all cases.
Present study has found a strong relationship between liver function derangements and heart failure cases. The study observed 20% of cases with jaundice. Among sixty cases liver enlargement was seen in 63% of cases.
Increased liver size is strongly correlated with hyperbilirubinemia. Though the conjugated fraction of bilirubin is also elevated, the levels of unconjugated
fraction were higher.
Serum aminotransferases were elevated in 78% of cases unlike serum alkaline phosphatase which is increased only in 25% of cases. There found to be a significant correlation between rise in unconjugated bilirubin and elevation of serum aminotransferases. Study revealed marked alterations in liver function with acute heart failure and during hypotension when compared to chronic heart failure.
Low serum proteins and serum albumin levels are seen in many of the cases. Various factors play in causing these changes which have already been discussed. Serum prothrombin time, though prolonged in 88% of cases, the changes were only mild.


Objectives : This study was carried out to determine whether the state anxiety may affect sleep on the night before surgery. Methods : The researcher examined the clinical charts of patients who were scheduled to receive surgery by general anesthesia the following day and then had semistructural interview with patients. In addition Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory(1972), presleep questionnaire and postsleep questionnaire were administered to the patients. One hundred patients who responded to the questions were divided into three groups based on the state anxiety scores; low(n=35), middle(n=27) and high(n=38). Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients, some possible factors affecting sleep, daytime status and nighttime sleep before surgery were compared among three groups. Results : 1) There was no significant difference in demographic characteristics and some possible factors affecting sleep on the night before surgery among three groups. 2) In terms of clinical characteristics, the expectancy of surgical result was significantly different among three groups. More patients in low anxiety group than in middle and high anxiety groups, predicted surgical results as good, while more patients in middle and high anxiety groups than in low anxiety group could not predict their surgical results. 3) For daytime status, high anxiety group felt more tired compared to low anxiety group, but there was no significant difference in daytime nap among three groups. 4) For nighttime sleep before surgery, high anxiety group expected poor sleep and in fact, waked more frequently during sleep than low anxiety group. However there was no difference in bed time, sleep latency, rise time, total sleep time, sleep depth and sleep quality among three groups. 5) The need for hypnotics was higher before bedtime and also after rise in high anxiety group compared to low anxiety group. Conclusions : These results indicate that the individuals with high state anxiety before surgery have poor sleep and furthermore suggest that anxiolytics and/or hypnotics may be required to decrease anxiety and improve sleep for those with high state anxiety.


Talent Viewer is VHTO's first large project in primary education. It was designed to break down gender stereotypes about science and technology (S&T) among primary-school pupils, their parents, and the teachers. In the project, pupils assigned (S&T) talents to each other and discussed them. They investigated S&T professions that combine these talents. A female professional who works in S&T visited each class participating in Talent Viewer. The program also included the involvement of parents, who were encouraged to discuss the talents with their child. The project was evaluated by teachers. Pupils' attitudes towards STEM were measured before and after the project. The pupils' attitude towards STEM has changed significantly in a few aspects throughout the project. Teachers were positive about the impact of Talent Viewer on breaking down gender-STEMstereotypes.


Due to its inherent safety feature, the modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) has been seen as one of the best candidates in building next generation nuclear plants (NGNPs). Since the MHTGR dynamics has high nonlinearity, it is necessary to develop nonlinear power-level controller which is not only beneficial to the safe, stable, efficient and autonomous operation of the MHTGR but also easy to be implemented practically. In this paper, based on the concept of shiftedectropy
and the physically-based control design approach, it is proved theoretically that the simple proportional-differential (PD) output-feedback power-level control can provide globally asymptotic closed-loop stability. Numerical simulation results verify the theoretical results and show the influence of the controller parameters to the dynamic response.


I was recently introduced to this very important paper on the self potential. Realizing the paper is 25 years old, additional field information is now available, and that others have probably responded with critiques, nevertheless, I choose to report my experiences with this trustworthy, sorely neglected, geophysical method.


Home meal replacements (HMR) are kinds of convenient foods as cooked or semi-cooked foods, which are produced outside of home, to eat directly or after simple cooking in substitution for traditional home meals. Recently the market size for HMR is expanding rapidly around the world due to the changes of global consumer trends, growth of single-person household, increase in economic participation of women, aging population, and so on. The Europe takes over 52.4% of the global market share for HMR in global HMR market, and North America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa-Middle East are following. The most popular HMR products in US and Europe are frozen foods, whereas the market share of chilled products in Asia including Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam are much higher than that in US and Europe. Currently, the trends in HMR is focus on the expansion of the list of products that replace for meals with simple cooking, but it is expected that nutrition-enforced HMR product for aged persons or patients who live alone are requested for the further growth of the HMR market.


Soil C storage can be altered by land-use conversion and by agroforestry management techniques such as weed management and fertilization. The Southern Appalachian Mountains have a mosaic of land uses, including Christmas tree [Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir] farms, pastures, and unmanaged forests. We contrasted Christmas tree farm soil C pools with those of adjacent pastures and forests to estimate C storage differences due to land use. We partitioned soil C into fractions delineated by stability, an important determinant of long-term C sequestration potential. Soil C pools were quantified across a chronosequence of tree farms that varied in cultivation duration (3–51 yr) and interspace groundcover. We found that the duration of tree cultivation did not alter tree farm soil C pools; however, recalcitrant C pools were twice as high when interspace groundcover increased from 35 to 70%. Total, active, slow, and recalcitrant soil C pools were highest in forests compared with pastures and tree farms. Tree farm soils had about 25% lower C concentration than the adjacent forest soils, but because there was no downward trend with duration of cultivation, the reduction probably occurred rapidly following initial clearing. Tree farms and forests had longer mean residence times for active and slow C than pastures, potentially indicating an influence of woody root production. Our findings suggest that maintaining tree farm interspace vegetation, possibly through reduced herbicide use, can enhance soil C sequestration.


There are (at least) three ways of epistemologizing: (1) investigate how we know and conclude to what we know, (2) take the known world of common sense for granted and investigate in it how we know, or how we use "know", or (3) take the known world of science for granted, and work out how knowledge can occur in it. Many philosophers have moved from doing (1) to (2). Russell is at (3), distinguishable from both by discussing basic questions in roughly the same manner as others, from (2) in respecting science more than "common sense", and from (1) in refusing the camouflaged anthropocentrism of making knowledge pivotal. Given procedure (3), Russell elicits the following picture: Causal chains radiate from knowable objects to knowers and places where knowers might be. These processes maintain structure but not content. Where there is a knower, a further (physiological) process takes place which again preserves structure. At the end of the process there is both structure and content. The events at the end of the causal-cognitive chains, and those along them, have similar ontological status, but the former are parts of colonies internally related by memory, and are known by the colonies of which they form a part non-inferentially, whilst the latter are known, when known at all, only inferentially. This world picture differs from Leibniz's by the fact that there is genuine interaction, by irreversibility of causation, and by the fact that centres are not committed even potentially to knowing everything, in that the causal chains peter out "like rivers in the sand", so that it is not the case that everything is related by one of them to everything else. This brilliant little broadcast contains many echoes of earlier works of Russell's—and others'. To assess the issues raised adequately would make a very good life's work. One topical point, however: it does bring out neatly that if we take physics and physiology seriously (and we must on pain of death, as Russell says), we must think of knowledge as involving some concomitant variation between object and subject and that is a process, or requires a process. This powerful argument underlies the notion that knowing is a process, or at any rate involves a process. Thus investigations showing that the verb "to know" is used dispositionally, or performatively, etc. etc., and hence that does not denote a process, though possibly true, are quite irrelevant to the nature and genesis of one main problem about knowledge.


The optimal calibration of inventory management policies in a multi-echelon linear supply chain (SC) constitutes a complex problem. The difficulty to provide a clear and unique answer leads to frustration in using serious games for educational purposes. In this work, a simulation-based optimization approach, using a dynamic tabu search metaheuristic, is developed and applied to a specific case of a four-echelon linear SC. A stochastic demand with constant mean is used and different service levels to the market are considered. The results indicate significant differences of the required on-hand inventory, cost contributions and cost element importance between the different echelons. The non-linear influence of the service level on the various parameters and costs is also observed. The obtained results are consistent and provide a clear answer to the stated problem. The methodology developed can be easily generalized to other cases.


This research aims to evaluate the link between human resource practices (HRPs) and innovation with mediating effect of entrepreneurial creativity. This research uses the hierarchical analysis to examine data collected from entrepreneurs running 172 small and medium enterprises. The results show that (a) HRPs have a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial creativity; (b) HRPs have statistically significant impact on innovation. These results provide empirical evidence that entrepreneurial creativity mediates the relationship between HRPs and innovation. Also, the findings provide evidence that the mediating role of entrepreneurial creativity improves employees' innovation. By providing a cross-sectional examination of our model, we showed that HRPs and entrepreneurial creativity are of essence in shaping an innovative context. A comprehensive view on the triggers and outcomes of entrepreneurial creativity and innovation are needed, as the traditional unidirectional cause-effect rationale short in explaining how these concepts relate to one another and to entrepreneur experiences of HRPs.


We developed several ASL sequences at 7T with a FAIR-QUIPSS II labeling scheme and various spiral readout strategies using Pulseq. Iterative algebraic image reconstruction was performed with CG-SENSE, using the field evolution data measured with external NMR probes. Robust performance in detecting brain's perfusion signal was observed in 2D single- and multi-band spiral acquisitions especially at relatively high spatial resolution, without the requirement for a longer scan time. 3D spiral acquisition showed reduced contrast level in perfusion maps and requires further investigation and optimization.


Introduction Sessile Serrated Adenomas/Polyps (SSA/P) are responsible for nearly 20% of colo rectal cancer (CRC). Despite the utility of novel image enhancing techniques including narrow band imaging it is difficult to differentiate hyperplastic (HP) polyps from SSA/Ps. Vast proportion of endoscopists leave the diminutive and possibly small HP polyps in situ in the recto sigmoid area (diagnose and disregard approach). Hence there is a possibility of leaving SSA/P in the recto sigmoid region which could potentially lead to CRC later in life. Aim To estimate the prevalence of SSA/P in recto sigmoid colon at screening colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS). Method Patients aged >55 years underwent a screening colonoscopy (n=500) or a flexible sigmoidoscopy (n=500) at our institution between August 2014 and April 2015 were included. Data collected from 500 consecutive patients who underwent a colonoscopy or a FS. Demographic, procedural and polyp data were retrieved from our endoscopy database. Abstract PTH-039 Figure 1 Results 99.6% of (498/500) colonoscopy and 97.6% of flexible sigmoidoscopy procedures were completed. Screening colonoscopy detected 1006 polyps and FS detected 249 polyps. Polyp size ranged between 1–80 mm (colonoscopy mean size 6 mm, SD 7.2 mm; FS mean 3.4 mm, SD 3.9 mm). While colonoscopy detected 43 SSA/Ps (4.3%), FS detected only 6 SSA/Ps (2.4%) which equates to an overall prevalence of 3.9% (49/1255). Image 1 summarises the SSA/Ps prevalence by colonic segment. In recto sigmoid there were 21 SSA/Ps detected and resected which equals to a 3.9% of all recto sigmoid polyps. All SSA/Ps detected in this segment were less than 10 mm in size (range 2–10 mm). Only one of the SSA/P had dysplasia (4.7%). Prevalence of SSA/Ps in proximal colon was 4.8%. Conclusion Our cohort showed a slightly higher prevalence of SSA/Ps in rectum and sigmoid colon. Therefore, it becomes clinically relevant to differentiate SSA/Ps from HP polyps in recto sigmoid before adapting a diagnose and disregard approach for small (<9 mm) hyperplastic looking polyps in this location. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Over a long career of teaching and writing in the area of moral theology Charles E. Curran has experienced large areas of agreement with John Paul II on issues of social justice even while in other areas of personal and sexual issues the two are in serious disagreement. This phenomenon of agreement/disagreement has suggested to Curran that the pope is guilty of using a double methodology in his moral theological writing. Curran's book, The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II, seeks to uncover and substantiate the root of their agreements and disagreements. This article seeks to evaluate Curran's theory. This analysis is done in two parts: first, an examination of the evidence that Curran presents to support his charge against the pope, and second, an examination of the alternative possibility that it is Curran who has the double methodology rather than the pope.


Radon exhalation rate from soil is one of the most important factors for evaluation of the environmental radon level. Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (SSNTD ) has been widely used for the study of different aspects of radon emission from soil and others. In this paper, we are presenting the results of radon concentration, its exhalation rate and radium content in soil samples collected from different locations of refinery area belonging to Noonmati, Guwahati, Assam (India). The radon concentration varies from 380.95 to 457.14 Bq/ m3.The radon exhalation rates in terms of area and in terms of mass varies from 117.48 to 140.97 mBqm-2hr-1 and 3.32 to 3.99 mBqkg-1hr-1. The radium content varies from 5.34 to 6.40 Bq/ Kg. A good correlation is observed between radium content and radon exhalation rates in soil samples.


Resource and environmental issues related to urban building systems have recently become a hot research topic in the field of urban environmental management research. Taking Jinan city as an example, this paper establishes a system dynamic model for an urban residential building stock system. The simulated results show that the urban residential building stock will be 1.99 × 108 m2 in 2050; and the annual total demolition buildings will be at 3.36 × 106 m2 in 2082. Policy measures were developed based on four important action fields such as per capita floor area (PCFA), the building structure proportion of new construction, lifetime of the residential building, and the recycling of the C&D waste. Among these approaches, the set of policy measures focusing on the recycling of C&D waste appears to be more effective in reducing environmental and resource impacts than the other three fields. It is also found that the recycling of brick and concrete waste plays a considerable role in reducing environment and resource impacts due to the development of urban residential building stock with the lapse of time.


A melamine-formaldehyde-urea (MFU) resin was used as adsorbent to clean wastewater containing a basic dye (methylene blue) used to simulate leather and textile processing dyes. Dye removal was followed by measuring the initial and final dye concentration in solution by UV-Vis spectroscopy using the analytical wavelength of λ = 665 nm and the molar absorptivity of e = (8.43 ± 0.05) × 104 L mol−1 cm−1. The concentration range of methylene blue in solution for adsorption experiments was between 10−7 and 10−5 M so as to avoid dye polymerization reactions in solution that would give rise to apparent deviations from Beer's law. Batch and column methods were used for investigating adsorptive removal of dye. Parameters such as pH and contact time were optimized. The capacity of the sorbent for the dye was found by classical adsorption modeling (15.0 mg g−1) with the aid of a Langmuir isotherm. The optimal pH for adsorption was 7–8. Adsorption is thought to proceed mainly through cation exchange of methylene blue (MB+) with the RCOO− exchange groups of the sorbent. Adsorption was fast, and reached an equilibrium within 30 min. Color removal of simulated leather dyeing wastewater was shown to be feasible under optimal conditions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


Functional properties of each enzyme strictly depend on immobilization protocol used for linking enzyme and carrier. Different strategies were applied to prepare the immobilized derivatives of Rhizomucor miehei lipase (RML) and chemically aminated RML (NH2-RML). Both RML and NH2-RML forms were covalently immobilized on glyoxyl sepharose (Gx-RML and Gx-NH2-RML), glyoxyl sepharose dithiothreitol (Gx-DTT-RML and Gx-DTT-NH2-RML), activated sepharose with cyanogen bromide (CNBr-RML and CNBr-NH2-RML) and heterofunctional epoxy support partially modified with iminodiacetic acid (epoxy-IDA-RML and epoxy-IDA-NH2-RML). Immobilization varied from 11% up to 88% yields producing specific activities ranging from 0.5 up to 1.9 UI/mg. Great improvement in thermal stability for Gx-DTT-NH2-RML and epoxy-IDA-NH2-RML derivatives was obtained by retaining 49% and 37% of their initial activities at 70 °C, respectively. The regioselectivity of each derivative was also examined in hydrolysis of fish oil at three different conditions. All the derivatives were selective between cis-5,8,11,14,17-eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and cis-4,7,10,13,16,19-docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in favor of EPA. The highest selectivity (32.9 folds) was observed for epoxy-IDA-NH2-RML derivative in the hydrolysis reaction performed at pH 5 and 4 °C. Recyclability study showed good capability of the immobilized biocatalysts to be used repeatedly, retaining 50–91% of their initial activities after five cycles of the reaction.


The surgical defect after conventional partial laryngectomy practically needs no special technique to repair. On conservation surgery for late (T3 and T4) cases a large part of the larynx is to be resected so that the margin of surgical clearance is ample and, at the same time, an appropriate method of reconstruction is mandatory to restore the essential functions of the larynx. For this purpose we developed a technique of osteomuscular flap to repair the defect left behind after a three-fourths laryngectomy (for supraglottic case) or an extended vertical partial laryngectomy (for glottic case). In both cases the arytenoid cartilage or the cricoarytenoid joint was resected to ensure the safety margin of resection. The mylohyoid muscle was severed at the upper border of the body of the hyoid bone. A small piece of the hyoid bone (about 5 mm) and its attached strap muscles were used. The muscles were made a 90 degree bent toward the laryngeal cavity. The hyoid bone was used to substitute the removed arytenoid and the muscles to bridge over the laryngeal lumen. The postericoid mucosa was advanced to cover the transplanted hyoid bone. Then the cut edge of the thyroid cartilage was lifted up and sutured with the base of the tongue to close the wound. 108 cases were treated within a period of 12 years (1979-1990). The three year survival rates for stage II and stage IV of supraglottic type (66 cases) were 78.6% and 66.7% respectively, and for stage II of glottic type (42 cases), 79.3%. The decannulation rate was 75%-85%, and 80% of the patients enjoyed a socially acceptable voice. All cases resumed normal mouth-food-taking.


The bulk amorphous FINEMET was prepared from ribbon and powder by shock wave compaction. The magnetization of compacts was measured up to 550/spl deg/C. The Curie and crystallization temperature was 350/spl deg/C and 495/spl deg/C respectively. From the magnetization curves of as-compacted and annealed samples measured at room temperature in the external magnetic field up to 1.8 T, the effective anisotropy and the law of approach to saturation was derived The deviation from saturation was ascribed to the stress related structural defects in ribbon compacts with prevailing effect of the point-like defects. In the powder compacts the deviation was caused by the intrinsic magnetostatic fluctuations due to spatial inhomogeneity. >


This paper proposes to use the discriminant analysis technique as a machine learning method to adjust memberships of stereotypes, based on the user's in-depth, task-related knowledge contained in the user models. The paper reports an empirical study on the user stereotypes of information retrieval (IR) systems. The participants were first assigned into stereotypes based on their self-reported characteristics. Their memberships in the stereotypes were then tested and predicted using the discriminant analysis, based on their IR knowledge. The pre-assigned membership and the predicted membership of each stereotype were compared. The study demonstrates that the discriminant analysis technique can be used to detect the conflicts between individual users' knowledge and the assumption held by stereotypes that all members in a stereotype share common knowledge. The technique can be used to revise/reclassify a person's membership of a stereotype based on the person's knowledge. Implications and future directions of the study are discussed.


In this paper we review the range of formal tools and techniques available to support the new product development process, and examine the use and usefulness of these by means of a survey of 50 projects in 25 firms. For each firm, we compare routine and novel development projects, and identify the influence of project novelty on the frequency of use and perceived usefulness of a range of different tools and methods. In terms of usefulness, focus groups, partnering customers and lead users and prototyping are all considered to be more effective for high novelty projects, and segmentation least useful. Cross-functional development teams are commonplace for all types of project, but are significantly more effective for the high novelty cases. In addition, many tools rated as useful are not commonly used, and conversely some tools in common use are considered to be of limited use.


The divided dental correction device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a plurality of correction frames (10, 20, and 30) including a first correction frame (10) to be removably installed on the front teeth, a second correction frame (20) to be removably installed on the left molars, and a third correction frame (30) to be removably installed on the right molars; a plurality of connecting wires (61 and 62) interconnecting the correction frames (10, 20, and 30); and at least one gap-adjusting means (40 and/or 50), installed on the side surface of one of the correction frames, for adjusting the gaps between the correction frames, wherein by means of the adjustment using the gap-adjusting means, the gaps between the correction frames (10, 20, and 30) are gradually reduced for the purpose of dental correction. Since the correction frames are manufactured from a transparent resin, hardened plastic, or the like, when the dental correction device according to the present invention is used, the outward appearance of the user is not compromised when the correction device is worn, and one dental correction frame can be used continuously for a long period of time, which has the effect reducing expenses.


Teachers' view of the school is determinant for their action and condition of their activity and their professional development. This study focuses on the voice of teachers at community management schools in Guinea-Bissau in order to know the vision they have of the school and the teaching profession. For data collection, a personal and professional characterization questionnaire and interviews with thirty elementary school teachers were used. The results show that teachers value continuing education as a tool that allows them to perform the profession better. They identified some constraints related to the difficulty in the Portuguese language, the lack of didactic materials and teachers, isolation, and lack of community participation. Teachers refer to the school as a place of transmission of knowledge and values, highlighting the school as the key to development. According to teachers, the need for more infrastructure and materials as well as the greater involvement and commitment of the educational community are the main factors that must be improved. To conclude, we highlight the role that teacher training plays in the quality of their work and the efforts necessary for schools to respond to the needs of society.


The objective of this study is to assess the Islamic inter-bank money market instruments in Oman and their associated challenges. Wakalah inter-bank investment, currently the most widely used liquidity management tool by Islamic banks in the inter-bank money market, has some limitations including an uncertain profit rate, risk of bankruptcy, reliance on conventional benchmarks, and lack of secondary market tradability. To address these limitations, the study adopts a qualitative research methodology and employs both library information and secondary data. The results suggest that alternative instruments, such as Mudharabah inter-bank investment, Islamic negotiable Instrument of Deposit, and Wadiah acceptance, could serve as viable alternatives to Wakalah for deposit and placement purposes in the Islamic inter-bank money market. These instruments are grounded in the widely accepted Mudharabah concept and are expected to receive widespread support from stakeholders. The implementation of these alternatives is predicted to enhance market options and activities, thereby supporting the growth and expansion of the Islamic finance sector in Oman. This expansion could enable Islamic banks to support Islamic social institutions such as Zakat and waqf, thereby improving the social welfare of the Muslim community.


We have measured the wavelength of 30,789 transitions in Pu with the 9.15-m Paschen–Runge spectrograph at Argonne National Laboratory and the Fourier-transform spectrometer at Laboratoire Aime Cotton. More than 52% of these transitions have been classified. For the neutral atom 606 even-parity and 586 odd-parity levels have been identified. The total angular momentum has been assigned to all the levels, and for most levels the Lande g factor and isotope shift have been measured. Eight even and six odd electron configurations have been identified. The dominant electronic configuration and term have been assigned to about half of the Pu i levels.


The antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of hot water extract (WE) obtained from Dictyophora indusiata were investigated. The free radical scavenging ability of WE on DPPHwas 97.35% at 2 mg/ml concentration. The reduc- ing power of WE was moderate (1.22 at 2 mg/ml). Similarly, the WE displayed average scavenging effect on hydroxyl radical (52.28% at 2 mg/ml) and superoxide anion scavenging effect (48.64% at 2 mg/ml). However, the WE exhibited a very weak ferrous ion chelating effect of 18.56% at 2mg/ml concentration. Antimicrobial assay revealed that WE from D. indusiata can inhibit both bacteria and fungi used as indicators for antimicrobial effect at concentration of 200 mg/ml. The results suggest that WE possess good antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.


Doped ceria is commonly used to promote the performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with a lanthanum strontium manganite (LSM) cathode, but the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity on the interface between LSM and doped ceria is not conclusive due to the complexity of the cathode and problematic analysis of the impedance spectra. Here, to elucidate the role of the LSM|GDC interface in the ORR, we constructed a simple LSM|GDC interface and analyzed the impedance data using a method based on the calculation of the distribution function of relaxation times (DRT). DRT analysis demonstrates that the ORR on the LSM|GDC interface possesses similar activation energies for oxygen dissociation and the subsequent oxygen atom reduction but involves an easier oxygen incorporation process in comparison with the LSM|YSZ interface. Addition of the GDC interlayer causes a decrease in cell performance because poor LSM|GDC interfaces lead to depressed dominant electrode processes of oxygen dissociation and the subsequent oxygen atom reduction. These results provide useful insight into the ORR on the LSM|GDC interface, favoring the design of a high-performance doped ceria-enhanced LSM cathode.


Abstract The teeth of sharks famously form a series of parallel, continuously replacing files borne directly on the mandibular cartilages. In contrast, bony fishes possess site-specific shedding dentition borne on dermal plates. Understanding how these disparate systems evolved is challenging, not least because of poorly understood relationships and the profusion of morphologically and terminologically diverse bones, splints and whorls seen in the earliest chondrichthyans. Here we use tomographic methods to investigate the nature of mandibular structures in several early branching 'acanthodian'-grade stem-chondrichthyans. We characterise the gnathal plates of ischnacanthids as growing bones, and draw similarities between early chondrichthyan and stem gnathostome teeth and jaws. We further build the case for Acanthodopsis, a Carboniferous taxon, as an acanthodid, and show that, unexpectedly, its teeth are borne directly on the mandibular cartilage. Mandibular splints are formed from dermal bone and appear to be an acanthodid synapomorphy. The development of a unidirectionally growing dentition may be a feature of the chondrichthyan total-group. More generally, ischnacanthid and stem gnathostome gnathal plates share a common construction and are likely homologous, and shedding teeth evolved twice in gnathostomes.


Seal wear is one of the primitive causes of failure in hydraulic cylinders. Regular visual inspection of seals without affecting the productivity is difficult as the seals are placed internally in the hydraulic cylinder requiring disassembly of the piston. Therefore, condition monitoring is required to assess the current health of the seals. There have been successful attempts made in literature for the assessment of seal quality using acoustic emission-based condition monitoring. However, there have been very few acoustic emission-based condition monitoring studies performed to diagnose the seal failure under varying speed and pressure parameters. Therefore, this study aims at increasing the understanding of seal failure under varying speed and pressure conditions through correlation with the acoustic emission features. Experiments were performed on a hydraulic test rig using unworn and worn piston rod seals. For each seal wear condition, experiments were performed for five strokes at pressure conditions of 10, 20, 30 and 40 bar and piston rod speed of 50 mm/s and 100 mm/s. To reduce the noise from other machine parts in the test rig, the acoustic emission signal of each piston rod stroke was filtered using a bandpass filter. The acoustic emission signal before and after bandpass filtering was analyzed using different acoustic emission time and frequency domain features. For unworn and worn piston rod seal conditions, the acoustic emission features obtained from the acoustic emission signal after bandpass filtering have good separability and low variability when compared to the acoustic emission features obtained from the non-filtered data. Therefore, the acoustic emission-based condition monitoring methodology developed in this study lays a strong foundation for further research to develop real-time monitoring of the piston rod seal in hydraulic cylinders.


This paper describes a new method, HMM gauge likelihood analysis, or GLA, of detecting anomalies in discrete time series using Hidden Markov Models and clustering. At the center of the method lies the comparison of subsequences. To achieve this, they first get assigned to their Hidden Markov Models using the Baum-Welch algorithm. Next, those models are described by an approximating representation of the probability distributions they define. Finally, this representation is then analyzed with the help of some clustering technique or other outlier detection tool and anomalies are detected. Clearly, HMMs could be substituted by some other appropriate model, e.g. some other dynamic Bayesian network. Our learning algorithm is unsupervised, so it doesn't require the labeling of large amounts of data. The usability of this method is demonstrated by applying it to synthetic and real-world syslog data.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The placement of metallic stents is now a well-established method in the management of malignant biliary obstruction. This study evaluated the long-term clinical efficacy of percutaneous transhepatic insertion of metallic stents in the management of malignant biliary obstruction.

METHODS
From January 1999 to December 2002, 102 consecutive patients with malignant biliary obstruction were treated with percutaneous transhepatic placement of metallic stents at a medical center in Taipei. The level of obstruction was at the hepatic hilum in 44 patients, and common bile duct (CBD) in 58 patients. Memotherm stents were used in 78 patients and Wallstents in 38. Among the 44 patients with hilar obstruction, 30 received a single stent and 14 received bilateral stents. Among the 58 patients with CBD obstruction, the stents were placed across the ampulla of Vater in 27. Patient survival rates and stent patency rates were compared using the Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS
Placement of stents was successful in all patients. The mean (range) serum bilirubin level before, 1 week after, and 1 month after stent insertion was 15.1 mg/dL (4.2-32.4 mg/dL), 7.8 mg/dL (0.5-19.4 mg/dL), and 1.8 mg/dL (0.2-8.2 mg/dL), respectively. The mean survival in all patients was 66.0 weeks (1-130 weeks) and the mean stent patency period (MSPP) in all patients was 59.9 weeks (1-130 weeks). The MSPP was 71.4 versus 49.9 weeks in hilar type versus CBD type patients (p = 0.047). The MSPP was 53.9 versus 73.0 weeks in patients who received Memotherm stents versus Wallstents (p = 0.115). In the hilar obstruction group, the MSPP was 82.1 versus 58.0 weeks in patients receiving bilateral versus a single stent (p = 0.039). In the CBD obstruction group, the MSPP was 46.3 versus 45.5 weeks in stents placed across versus not placed across the ampulla of Vater (p = 0.338).

CONCLUSIONS
The efficacy and patency period of percutaneous transhepatic insertion of metallic stents in the management of malignant biliary obstruction is satisfactory in the relief of obstructive jaundice. Both types of metallic stents performed well in relieving malignant biliary obstruction. Bilateral stenting was more effective than single stenting in treating patients with hilar obstruction. In patients with CBD obstruction, no significant difference in the stent patency period was found between stents placed across or not across the ampulla of Vater.


We consider the numerical solution of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PBE), a three-dimensional second order nonlinear elliptic partial differential equation arising in biophysics. This problem has several interesting features impacting numerical algorithms, including discontinuous coefficients representing material interfaces, rapid nonlinearities, and three spatial dimensions. Similar equations occur in various applications, including nuclear physics, semiconductor physics, population genetics, astrophysics, and combustion. In this thesis, we study the PBE, discretizations, and develop multilevel-based methods for approximating the solutions of these types of equations. We first outline the physical model and derive the PBE, which describes the electrostatic potential of a large complex biomolecule lying in a solvent. We next study the theoretical properties of the linearized and nonlinear PBE using standard function space methods; since this equation has not been previously studied theoretically, we provide existence and uniqueness proofs in both the linearized and nonlinear cases. We also analyze box-method discretizations of the PBE, establishing several properties of the discrete equations which are produced. In particular, we show that the discrete nonlinear problem is well-posed. We study and develop linear multilevel methods for interface problems, based on algebraic enforcement of Galerkin or variational conditions, and on coefficient averaging procedures. Using a stencil calculus, we show that in certain simplified cases the two approaches are equivalent, with different averaging procedures corresponding to different prolongation operators. We also develop methods for nonlinear problems based on a nonlinear multilevel method, and on linear multilevel methods combined with a globally convergent damped-inexact-Newton method. We derive a necessary and sufficient descent condition for the inexact-Newton direction, enabling the development of extremely efficient yet robust damped-inexact-Newton-multilevel methods. Multilevel convergence theory is discussed, and we adapt and apply some recent results to the Galerkin-based methods. Numerical results are presented for several test problems, including a nonlinear PBE calculation of the electrostatic potential of Superoxide Dismutase, an enzyme which has recently been linked to Lou Gehrig''s disease. We present a collection of performance statistics and benchmarks for the linear and nonlinear methods on a number of sequential and parallel computers, and discuss the software developed in the course of the research.


The deformation behavior and mechanical properties of a Cu54Zr22Ti18Ni6 bulk metallic glass during and after deposition by kinetic spraying were investigated. The bulk metallic glass feedstock particles were manufactured by inert gas atomization and were subsequently deposited onto mild steel substrates by means of kinetic spraying at different powder carrier gas temperatures [room temperature, 450°C (within the supercooled liquid region), and 550°C (above crystallization temperature)]. In addition, the phase compositions of the feedstock and as-sprayed BMG coatings were investigated using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Transmitted Electron Microscopy (TEM). With an increase of the powder feed temperature, it was deduced that more intimate contact of the particles with the substrate was achieved which decreased the porosity of the resulting coating. However, crystallizations, which seemed to be induced by severe deformation and accumulated heat, were observed at localized regions in the coating. In addition, micro-hardness and bond strength were affected by the crystallization degree of the as-sprayed coatings


Nowadays vehicles are embedding more complex functionalities, reason for which, the demand of Electronic Control Units able to perform safety-relevant tasks is increased. It leads the automotive industry to find novel verification and validation methodologies act to improve the quality of the assessment. The ISO26262:2018 automotive functional safety standard requires to follows a strict development process, compliant with its "safety lifecycle". It provides a guideline for all the phases of the item life, in particular for the hardware/software integration validation, since usually the software is in charge to mitigate the effects of some possible hardware failures. This thesis proposes a novel technique to aid the designers to perform the Failure Mode, Effect, and Diagnostic Analysis of hardware designs. In particular, it has been considered the case of a power electronics module to be embedded in an electric vehicle powertrain. I performed some tests on the benchmark application, with a simple mitigation algorithm and the approach has demonstrated itself able to provide results useful to aid the functional safety engineers. Because of the strong coupling between the failures of the item and the vehicle behaviour, I have approached a structured way to motivate the classification based on the simulation results.


This paper aims to examine the volatility of money velocity and also to estimate the velocity of money function in Malaysia by using the quarterly time series data. This study employed the recent econometric techniques such as volatility model in ARCH and GARCH framework, Johansen co integration test and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results show that the velocity of money for M1 (V1) and M2 (V2) are volatile and persistence rather than M3 (V3). The Johansen co integration test result indicates that the existence of long run relationship between velocity of money V1, V2 and V3 on the dependent variables, such as bond interest rate, deposit rate and income. Furthermore, the VECM result showed that the changes in dependent variables such as bond interest rate, deposit rate and income are significantly to influence the changes in velocity of money for V2 and V3 in the long run. Conversely, in the short run, a change in the national income has only significantly to cause the changes in the velocity of money V2 and V3, while the interest rate has significant effect to cause the velocity of money V3.


The dynamics of positive and negative streamers is numerically simulated in atmospheric pressure air in the range of parameters corresponding to the streamer deceleration and termination in the middle of the discharge gap. A detailed comparison with experiments in air at constant and variable density demonstrates good agreement between the 2D simulation results and the observations. It is shown that positive and negative streamers behave in radically different ways when decelerating and stopping. When the head potential drops, the negative streamer transits to the mode in which the propagation is due to the forward electron drift. In this case, the radius of the ionization wave front increases, whereas the electric field at the streamer head decreases further and the streamer stops. Its head diameter continues to increase due to the slow drift of free electrons in the residual under-breakdown field. On the contrary, the only advancement mechanism for a positive streamer with a decreasing head potential is a decrease in the effective radius of the ionization wave, leading to a local increase in the electric field. This mechanism makes it possible to compensate for the reduction in the efficiency of gas photoionization at small head diameters. A qualitative 1D model is suggested to describe streamer deceleration and stopping for different discharge polarities. Estimates show that, during positive streamer stopping, the local electric field at the streamer head can exceed the threshold corresponding to the transition of electrons to the runaway mode when the head potential (relative to the surrounding space) decreases to ∼1.2 kV in atmospheric pressure air. In this case, pulsed generation of a beam of runaway electrons directed into the channel of a stopping positive streamer can occur. The energy of the formed pulsed electron beam depends on the intensity of photoionization in front of the streamer head. This energy can vary from 700 V (when increasing the photoionization rate by a factor of 10 with respect to the value in atmospheric pressure air) to 2.6 kV (when decreasing the photoionization rate by a factor of 1000). It is possible that this behavior of decelerating positive streamers can explain the observed bursts of x-ray radiation during the streamer propagation in long air gaps.


In this work we explored a dataset made by more than 100 images acquired by COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) constellation over the Port-au-Prince (Haiti) metropolitan and surrounding areas that were severely hit by the January 12th, 2010 earthquake. The images were acquired along ascending pass by all the four sensors of the constellation with a mean rate of 1 acquisition/week. This consistent CSK dataset was fully exploited by using the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry algorithm SPINUA with the aim of: i) providing a displacement map of the area; ii) assessing the use of CSK and PSI for ground elevation measurements; iii) exploring the CSK satellite orbital tube in terms of both precision and size. In particular, significant subsidence phenomena were detected affecting river deltas and coastal areas of the Port-au-Prince and Carrefour region, as well as very slow slope movements and local ground instabilities. Ground elevation was also measured on PS targets with resolution of 3m. The density of these measurable targets depends on the ground coverage, and reaches values higher than 4000 PS/km2 over urban areas, while it drops over vegetated areas or along slopes affected by layover and shadow. Heights values were compared with LIDAR data at 1m of resolution collected soon after the 2010 earthquake. Furthermore, by using geocoding procedures and the precise LIDAR data as reference, the orbital errors affecting CSK records were investigated. The results are in line with other recent studies.


The first industrial demonstration of a three-phase, HTS power transmission cable at the Southwire manufacturing complex is in progress. One crucial issue during operation of the 30-m HTS cables is whether they can survive the fault current (which can be over an order of magnitude higher than the operating current) in the event of a short circuit fault and how HTS cables and the cryogenic system would respond. Simulated fault-current tests were performed at ORNL on a 5-m cable. This single-phase cable was constructed in the same way as the 30-m cables and is also rated for 1250 A at 7.2 kV AC line-to-ground voltage. Tests were performed with fault-current pulses of up to 15 kA (for 0.5 s) with pulse lengths of up to 5 s (at 6.8 kA). Although a large voltage drop was produced across the HTS cable during the fault-current pulse, no significant changes in the coolant temperature, pressure, or joint resistance were observed. The cable survived all 15 simulated fault-current shots without any degradation in its V-I characteristics.


The nonequilibrium Green's function approach in combination with density-functional theory is used to perform ab inito quantum-mechanical calculations of the electron transport properties of porphyrin oligomers sandwiched between two gold electrodes. The results show that porphyrin oligomers are good candidates for long-range conduction wires. In particular, the decay of conductance of porphyrin oligomers does not follow the exponential relation. The electron transport behavior was analyzed from the molecular projected self-consistent Hamiltonian states and the electron transmission spectra of the molecular junctions.


Abstract This article examines the mechanisms used since the 1970s to finance social housing in Canada. It reveals that direct government assistance has proven to be the most cost‐effective mechanism. Experimentation with alternative mortgage instruments such as the graduated‐payment mortgage and the index‐linked mortgage has also been central to the attempt to minimize subsidy and financing costs. The article concludes that the possibility of further enhancements in social housing finance is limited at best. The problem remains the gap between the cost of developing new social housing and the revenues generated from rents. Various partnership approaches have been tried, but none has been successful in providing housing at low rent levels. Some potential does exist, however, to refinance older social housing developments and draw equity out of them. This may be the only source of new funding available because federal assistance to new social housing developments has been frozen.


Long-term therapy with chloroquine can lead to irreversible retinal damage and serious loss of visual acuity and visual field. Not only are the retinal changes irreversible but they may continue to progress after discontinuance of the drug. Work is proceeding on the development of electrophysiological techniques for early detection of toxic effect before significant retinal damage occurs. Another possibility for minimizing the toxic effect of chloroquine is the use of other drugs which increase the excretion of chloroquine from the body.


This article examines a little known exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") that relieves seasonal recreational or amusement employers from their obligation to pay the minimum wage and overtime. The article evaluates the existing, confused case law surrounding the exemption and proposes a new, simplified framework for applying the provision. It then applies this framework to a recent wave of FLSA lawsuits brought against professional sports teams by cheerleaders, minor league baseball players, and stadium workers who claim they received less than the hourly minimum wage and/or were denied overtime pay. In particular, it determines that, when viewed properly, sports teams will often qualify for the exemption in at least some aspects of their operations. The article concludes by considering the policy implications of exempting this class of employers — some of which are worth up to three billion dollars — from the FLSA's wage and hour requirements.


Presents a concept of the measurement of Budeanu reactive power in nonsinusoidal systems, based on the wideband π/2-phase-shift networks. An example of such a meter for a band of ten harmonics is given. The measurement error due to imperfections of the π/2-phase-shift networks is also analyzed.


Abstract: To obtain the greatest benefit from its information system, an organization must determine which applications will provide the most benefit to organizational performance. This study reviews data collected from 310 manufacturing firms in Israel and 197 such firms in the U.S. For each firm, data were obtained about the benefits derived from using information systems, as perceived by a senior manager, and the organization's operating characteristics. Data were pooled across both countries. No meaningful relationship was found between the benefit a firm derives from its overall information systems application portfolio and its organizational operating characteristics. However, for two individual applications, the benefit derived is linked significantly to the organization's operating characteristics. Thus the model relating benefits from information systems to the organization's operating environment, first demonstrated by data collected in Israel, is confirmed by the data collected in the U.S. The model applies across both countries, even though there may be differences between the two countries, for example, in culture, size of businesses, and relationship with customers and suppliers.


Different types of natural fiber composites with thermoplastic matrices have been extensively investigated, especially with polyolefins. However, the ability of these fibers as reinforcement of technical matrices has been less studied. This study evaluates the possibilities of using fique fibers (hard fibers) obtained from leaves to reinforce technical matrices such as polyoxymethylene (POM). The mechanical behavior of fique fiber-POM matrix composites has been analyzed as a function of the fiber length, the fiber content, and the surface modification of the fiber. The treatments used correspond to alkalization, and using of formaldehyde, glycidyl methacrylate, and an isocyanate compound. The mechanical properties of these treated fiber composites are higher than those of the untreated ones, due to the enhancement of the fiber-matrix adhesion, observed by the reduction on the hydrophilic tendency of fique fibers. The hydrophilicity has been analyzed by following the variation of the polar component of the free surface energy, calculated by the Owens-Wendt method.


This discussion piece considers some of the potential consequences for international taxation of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic recession. It considers tax measures that states may wish to take, as well as the impact on the institutional structure of international taxation and the way in which we do international taxation. It considers the introduction of excess profit taxes and progressive wealth taxes, as well as changes to the OECD agenda. Finally, it considers whether some of the new ways of working developed during lock-down will have long-term implications for international taxation


Background. The term "ATAK" complex has been coined by the association of adrenaline, takotsubo, anaphylaxis and Kounis syndrome. We present an uncommon case of an "ATAK" complex with biphasic onset and a midventricular takotsubo pattern. Case Summary. A 50-year-old male was brought to the emergency department in anaphylactic shock. He had progressive exertional dyspnea and angina for the past 2 days. The intravenous administration of adrenaline for anaphylactic shock resulted in chest pain and concerning ECG repolarization findings. The patient was immediately transferred to the catheterization laboratory. Coronary angiography showed a midventricular ballooning pattern without significant coronary stenosis, with subsequent recovery during hospitalization, suggestive of takotsubo syndrome. The allergy tests remained inconclusive for the trigger. Discussion. Adrenaline-mediated stress is the link between these two entities, in which Kounis syndrome itself or anaphylactic shock treatment (adrenaline) are potential triggers for takotsubo syndrome.


This study deals with the possibility of using urban mobility plans (UMPs) of middle-size emerging cities (MECs) as inducers for the incorporation of the sustainability approach in urban planning and management processes, based on the principles of the transport oriented development (TOD) methodology. It is an exploratory research that identifies the MECs in Brazil, maps the use of TOD principles in UMPs in cities located in the South and Center-West Regions of Brazil using the text mining technique, and compares UMPs with master plans to identify opportunities for the incorporation of TOD principles. The results showed that out of the 35 MECs in the regions investigated, only ten had UMPs. Out of these, all dealt with issues regarding the TOD principles, but on different levels. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for the implementation of the TOD principles for MECs.


We study theoretically the coherent electron focusing in graphene nanoribbons. Using semiclassical and numerical tight-binding calculations we show that armchair edges give rise to equidistant peaks in the focusing spectrum. In the case of zigzag edges at low magnetic fields one can also observe focusing peaks but with increasing magnetic field a more complex interference structure emerges in the spectrum. This difference in the spectra can be observed even if the zigzag edge undergoes structural reconstruction. Therefore transverse electron focusing can help in the identification and characterization of the edge structure of graphene samples.


Sulfate-reducing bacteria can be involved in inflammatory bowel disease. Cross-correlation parameters of their metabolic process in the gut have never been reported before. The aim of the research was to statistically (cross-correlation) evaluate the parameters of growth (biomass) of Desulfovibrio species from colitis people and healthy as well as to investigate the change in dissimilatory sulfate reduction of these bacterial strains. The microbiological, biochemical, chemical, and statistical methods were used in the research. The cross-correlation analysis indicates that the strains isolated from people with colitis shifted to the right side of Y axe by biomass accumulation, sulfate consumption, lactate oxidation as well as hydrogen sulfide and acetate production, compared with the strains isolated from healthy individuals. Different percentages were observed in shifting to the right side of Y axe: biomass accumulation 26%, sulfate consumption 1.5%, sulfide production 5%, lactate oxidation 3% and acetate production 12%. The biomass accumulation of intestinal sulfate-reducing bacteria and their hydrogen sulfide production are the main factors in inflammatory bowel disease development, including ulcerative colitis. Acetate production showed lesser influence while sulfate consumption and lactate oxidation are negligible factors in the inflammatory bowel disease.


– Aim: To compare the activation of GMed and TFL in four multi-joint exercises in strength training protocols and to verify if the level of muscle activation is indicated for strength gains in resistance training protocols. Methods: Eleven recreational lifters had normalized muscle activation of GMed and TFL assessed during ten maximal repetitions of four multi-joint exercises: (1) bilateral supine bridge (BiBRG); (2) bilateral supine bridge with hip abducted (BiBRG-AB); (3) unilateral supine bridge (UniBRG) and (4) single-leg squat (SLS). Results: A load of exercises was significantly greater for the BiBRG and BiBRG-AB compared to the UniBRG and SLS (p<0.001). We observed that GMed activation was significant greater compared to TFL among the four exercises (p=0.004) [BiBRG: Δ=26.2%; BiBRG-AB: Δ=27.3%; UniBRG: Δ=24.5% and SLS: Δ=18.8%]. Additionally, GMed activation was classified as moderate (<40%iMVC) and TFL activation was classified as low (<20%iMVC) in all exercises. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that GMed is more active than TFL in all analyzed exercises. However, the level of activation observed for GMed was below that recommended to strength gain in resistance training programs.


This paper discusses a case of a cement-producing plant that wants to continue using its existing legacy DEC Alpha OpenVMS system with Oracle RDB database. One of the main reasons is that the current ERP solution cannot be ported to a contemporary computer architecture. The plant also needs to automate and modernize the process of loading their products, but the company management does not want to invest in modern computer servers and a new ERP system. That's why they decided to implement a hybrid solution – a modern .NET client application using the existing legacy DEC Alpha as a server. Here, the required technologies used for developing that software solution are overviewed and all parts of the software solution are described. Finally, the benefits and effectiveness of such a hybrid software solution are shown.


A study was conducted to investigate the accessibility and use of online electronic information resources in Alagappa University PG students. The methodology adopted for the study was survey in which questionnaires used in collection of the data. A total of 80 respondents participated in the study. It was concluded that most of the respondent's frequency of using online electronic information resources search for the author strategies in most useable (35%), the maximum respondents (25%) using for the online resources. This study shows that majority of the respondents (47.5%) have had 1 hour of access in e-resources, and more than 3 hours has been accessed by the respondents (12.5%) using for the electronic resources. Majority of respondents (31.5%) have accessibility of using e-resources.


In the field of the efficiency of very shallow geothermal energy systems, there is still a significant need for research activity. To ensure the proper exploitation of this energy resource, the decisive geophysical parameters of soil must be well-known. Within this study, thermal conductivity, as a fundamental property for evaluating the geothermal potential of very shallow geothermal systems, was analyzed and measured with a TK04 device. A dataset, consisting of various geophysical parameters (thermal conductivity, bulk density, water content, and porosity) determined for a large range of different textural soil classes, was collated. In a new approach, the geophysical properties were visualized covering the complete grain size range. The comparison between the measured and calculated thermal conductivity values enabled an investigation with respect to the validity of the different Kersten equations. In the course of this comparison, the influence of effective bulk density was taken into account. In conclusion, both Kersten formulas should be used as recommended and regular bulk density corresponded better to the reference dataset representing the outcomes of the TK04 laboratory measurement. Another objective was to visualize the relation of thermal conductivities within their corresponding textural classes and the validity of Kersten formulas for various bulk densities, depths, and soils. As a result, the accessibility to information for expedient recommendations about the feasibility of very shallow geothermal systems will be improved. Easy, accessible know-how of the fundamentals is important for a growing renewable energy sector where very shallow geothermal installations can also cover heating and cooling demands.


A new approach for locating a mobile robot in a real indoor scene from a monocular image by natural frames is presented. Based on a fast vanishing points finding algorithm, the three rotational transform are determined. Meaningful and structured features which are amenable to high level interpretation are constructed, from linear features extracted from contours up to junction and face features. The high level interpretation about the height of face feature or junction feature permit to determine the translational transform.


Scholars have examined the ways in which gender is reproduced and resisted in various physical activities and their designated spaces such as aerobics (Markula, 2003), weight training (Dworkin, 2001), and fitness training (Ginsberg, 2000). CrossFit, a relatively new entrant on the fitness scene, has seen an increase in popularity and popular media coverage in the past few years. One of the core tenets of CrossFit is the belief that it is accessible to everyone through scaling. Using a critical feminist geographical approach, the purpose of this research was to examine the ways in which gender was reproduced and resisted in one CrossFit box. This ethnographic study incorporated participant observation, semistructured, in-depth interviews, and online archival work. The themes that emerged included sense of community, pushing through physical limits, coed workouts, beat by a girl, and spatial influence. The results indicate that even though there are ways in which gender norms are reinforced in this space th...


HIV has reached epidemic proportions in India. Many predict that this nation of one billion people will soon see infection rates soar if current prevention programmes are not scaled up.1 India may be next in line after sub-Saharan Africa to be devastated by the virus.

The Indian government estimates that in 2000 3.86 million Indians were infected with HIV, the second largest number of infected people after South Africa.2 Although the prevalence of HIV in India may seem relatively low—0.7% of the general adult population compared with rates of 20% and over in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana—the infection has now been detected in all states and union territories. It is no longer confined to vulnerable groups, such as sex workers and transport workers, or to urban areas.

If effective prevention efforts are not implemented immediately, and sustained long term, the World Bank warns that India could have 37 million people infected with HIV by the year 2005.3 …


CD4+ T cells provide the major target for HIV infection initiation but productive viral infection is accompanied with CD4 receptor down-modulation. However, it is still not completely understood which cell subsets support HIV infection and replication in vivo and contribute to plasma viremia. Under the assumption that cell-associated HIV nucleotide sequences, quasi-identical to plasmaderived sequences, originate from HIV infected cells producing plasma virus, we analyzed plasma and cell-associated HIV sequences in sorted memory CD45RA- T cell populations including CD4low/- /CD8- T cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs, CD4+CD25+FoxP3+), T-follicular helper cells (Tfh, CD4+CXCR5+) and non-T-follicular helper cells (non-Tfh, CD4+CXCR5-). A nested PCR was used to amplify, clone and sequence the highly variable HIV Envelope (Env) V1V3 region (HxB6559 to 7320) from the sorted cell populations. Nucleotide sequences were aligned with respect to the predicted amino acid sequence of the reference alignment using MEGA6. Up to 4 substitutions between cell and plasma-associated sequences were counted as quasi-identical. Collectively, 621 EnvV1V3 sequences from 9 viremic HIV positive subjects were analyzed. Dual infection evidence was detected in 4 subjects and quasi-identical cell-plasma sequence pairs were detected in 5 of the 9 subjects. For patient H76 3 cell-derived sequences from the CD4low/-/CD8- T cell subset were quasiidentical with 4 distinct plasma sequences. For patient H241 17 cell-derived sequences from the CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T cell subset were quasi-identical with 2 plasma sequences. For patient H304 1 CD4+CXCR5+ and 1 CD4+CXCR5- cell subset was quasi-identical with 1 plasma sequence. For patient H442 1 CD4+CXCR5- cell subset was quasi-identical with 10 plasma-derived sequences and 1 CD4low/-/CD8- T cell subset was quasi-identical with 1 plasma-derived sequence. For H446 1 CD4+CXCR5- T cell subset was quasi-identical with 1 plasma derived sequence and further 2 CD4+CXCR5- T cell subsets were quasi-identical with 1 other plasma derived sequence. These results are consistent with the concept that the majority of infected memory CD4 T cells in peripheral blood may not contribute to plasma viremia. Furthermore, none of the cell subset-derived sequences preferentially clustered with plasma virus sequences. Rather, the data indicate that all of the studied memory T cell populations can either contribute to plasma virus production and/or have recently become infected.


There is increasing focus on the development of bioactive scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that mimic the native nanofibrillar extracellular matrix. Solution blow spinning (SBS) is a rapid, simple technique that produces nanofibers with open fiber networks for enhanced cell infiltration. In this work, highly porous bioactive fibers were produced by combining SBS with thermally induced phase separation. Fibers composed of poly(d,l-lactide) (PLA) and dimethyl carbonate were sprayed directly into a cryogenic environment and subsequently lyophilized, rendering them highly porous. The surface areas of the porous fibers were an order of magnitude higher in comparison with smooth control fibers of the same diameter (43.5 m2·g-1 for porous fibers produced from 15% w/v PLA in dimethyl carbonate) and exhibited elongated surface pores. Macroporous scaffolds were produced by spraying water droplets simultaneously with fiber formation, creating a network of fibers and ice microspheres, which act as in situ macroporosifiers. Subsequent lyophilization resulted in three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds formed of porous nanofibers with interconnected macropores due to the presence of the ice spheres. Nanobioactive glass was incorporated for the production of 3D macroporous, bioactive, therapeutic-ion-releasing scaffolds with potential applications in non-load-bearing bone tissue engineering. The bioactive characteristics of the fibers were assessed in vitro through immersion in simulated body fluid. The release of soluble silica ions was faster for the porous fibers within the first 24 h, with confirmation of hydroxyapatite on the fiber surface within 84 h.


STUDY OBJECTIVES--The aim was to explore the pattern of disease in staff associated with a bomber that crashed in 1968 when carrying nuclear bombs. DESIGN--The database was constructed from staff files of Danish workers employed from 1 April 1963 to 1 July 1971. Comparison was made between subsequent mortality and hospital admissions of workers employed during the clean up of the crashed bomber, and those employed outside this period. SETTING--The study involved workers employed at Thule US air base in Greenland. MAIN RESULTS--During 1963-1971, 4322 staff were employed at the air base. Of these, 4265 (98.7%) were identified in 1987, among whom 1202 workers were employed during the clean up period. No differences were found in total mortality, or mortality from cancer, heart disease, or accidents, after allowing for differences in age, marital status, or length of employment, between those employed during the clean up period and those employed at other times. Similarly, no difference in hospital admissions between the two groups was found. CONCLUSIONS--No harmful effects on health due to the crash were found, as measured by mortality and hospital admissions.


Fifteen years ago we sought to develop a method for teaching residents how to make lean, pithy journal club presentations. Our aim was to help them distill an article down to its core while systematically reviewing its validity and telling a compelling story. Others have created successful journal clubs by explicitly linking the educational experience to questions raised in caring for patients.1

Brief article presentations are structurally similar to the brief case presentations we do all the time. On work rounds, morning report, or sign-out, the goal is to communicate the essential information about a patient in a concise, mostly standardised format that is easily digested by the listener. We reasoned that, just as learners progress from meandering and imprecise case presentations on clinical clerkships to brief, utilitarian sign-outs as senior residents, journal club presenters can learn to efficiently convey the essence of an article.

We introduce this model of journal club presentation to medical residents in a small group workshop early during internship and then deepen residents' skills during our clinical epidemiology course in the second year.2 Residents' skills are reinforced and refined throughout residency at a weekly journal club attended by 10–20 residents, fellows, and faculty.

We use the following 10 step guideline to help presenters increase efficiency in assessing a study's validity and results and to increase confidence in limiting a presentation to the core essentials. Faculty members model the process and residents learn through reflective practice.

Start your article presentation with a brief case presentation, or briefly explain how the article is relevant to a patient or problem you are considering. This helps listeners more fully engage with your presentation and makes it more of a story.

For example, "An otherwise healthy 68 year old man came to see me after he suffered a …


In this paper, we present a novel color independent components based SIFT descriptor (termed CIC-SIFT) for object/scene classification. We first learn an efficient color transformation matrix based on independent component analysis (ICA), which is adaptive to each category in a database. The ICA-based color transformation can enhance contrast between the objects and the background in an image. Then we compute CIC-SIFT descriptors over all three transformed color independent components. Since the ICA-based color transformation can boost the objects and suppress the background, the proposed CIC-SIFT can extract more effective and discriminative local features for object/scene classification. The comparison is performed among seven SIFT descriptors, and the experimental classification results show that our proposed CIC-SIFT is superior to other conventional SIFT descriptors.


Purpose – Provides chief executives with 21 tools for success in the turbulent global business environment. Design/methodology/approach – Illustrates the main points with the examples of such successful international leaders as Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, A. G. Lafley, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Jeff Bezos, Herb Kelleher and Tony Hsieh. Findings – Emphasizes the importance of valuing people, adapting to change, encouraging innovation and training for the future. Practical implications – Demonstrates how to overcome leadership challenges, including those from the increasing scope and pace of change and the growing internationalism of business. Social implications – Argues that successful chief executives are able to get the best out of their people and understand their customers, no matter what their background. Originality/value – Helps leaders to overcome volatility, complexity and ambiguity and even turn them to their advantage.


One of the chief goals of stratigraphy is to correlate the provincial stages used in many countries with the standard chronostratigraphic scale based on European stages. In this study, United States Gulf Coast provincial Paleogene stages in their type area are correlated with the European standard Paleogene stages by use of calcareous nannoplankton. Gulf Coast provincial stage boundaries can be placed in Martini9s standard calcareous nannoplankton zonation as follows: Midwayan-Sabinian boundary—mid-NP 5; Sabinian-Claibornian boundary—base NP 12; Claibornian-Jacksonian boundary—mid-NP 17; Jacksonian-Vicksburgian boundary—mid-NP 21; Vicksburgian-Chickasawhayan boundary—base NP 24; upper Chickasawhayan boundary—mid-NP 24. Gulf Coast stages therefore correlate with the European stages as follows. The Midwayan Stage corresponds to all of the Danian Stage and the lowest part of the Selandian Stage. The Sabinian Stage corresponds to the rest of the Selandian and the lower half of the Ypresian Stage. The Claiboraian Stage includes the upper half of the Ypresian, all of the Lutetian, and approximately the lower two-thirds of the Bartonian. The Jacksonian includes the upper third of the Bartonian, all of the Priabonian, and the lower part of the Rupelian. The Vicksburgian corresponds to all but the lowermost and uppermost fractions of the Rupelian, and the Chickasawhayan, to the upper one-tenth of the Rupelian and the lower one-fifth of the Chattian.


Pre-trained language models such as BERT have shown their effectiveness in various tasks. Despite their power, they are known to be computationally intensive, which hinders real-world applications. In this paper, we introduce early exiting BERT for document ranking. With a slight modification, BERT becomes a model with multiple output paths, and each inference sample can exit early from these paths. In this way, computation can be effectively allocated among samples, and overall system latency is significantly reduced while the original quality is maintained. Our experiments on two document ranking datasets demonstrate up to 2.5x inference speedup with minimal quality degradation. The source code of our implementation can be found at https://github.com/castorini/earlyexiting-monobert.


Hoof and mouth disease is a potentially serious threat to the agricultural industry of the state of Kansas. Although not invariably fatal in humans or animals, its zoonotic properties, ease of spread, and rapid mutation into vaccine-resistant forms make it a major concern. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have proven useful towards the containment and eradication of outbreaks globally. Although situations differ, GIS functionality has contributed to meeting various objectives. The state of Kansas utilizes GIS for a variety of emergency management situations. A suggested set of objectives and GIS procedures for responding to an outbreak provides a fundamental approach for consideration. Through the incorporation of the geodatabase structure, geoprocessing, and raster spatial analysis, a more effective response to a hoof and mouth disease outbreak may be achieved.


Breast cancer is the most frightening cancer for women in the world. The current problem that closely related with this issue is how to deal with small calcification part inside the breast called micro calcification (MC). As a preventive way, a breast screening examination called mammogram is provided. Mammogram image with a considerable amount of MC has been a problem for the doctor and radiologist when they should determine correctly the region of interest, in this study is clustered MC. Therefore, we propose to develop an automated method to detect clustered MC utilizing two main methods, multi-branches standard deviation analysis for clustered MC detection and surrounding region dependence method for individual MC detection. Our proposed method was resulting in 70.8% of classification rate, then for the sensitivity and specificity obtained 79% and 87%, respectively. The gained results are adequately promising to be more developed in some areas.


In this study we evaluated the efficacy of enoxacin in treating complicated urinary tract infections (UTI). We isolated 21 bacterial strains from 20 enrolled patients and all the strains showed "in vitro" susceptibility to enoxacin. The most represented bacterial strain was E. coli (47.7%). After 48 hs and after 30 days from the end of the treatment, we observed clinical and bacteriological recovery in 65% and 55% of the patients, respectively. However, 6 out of the 20 patients (30%) interrupted the treatment due to mild-severe side effects. In conclusion, enoxacin showed a good antibacterial activity, but it could be necessary to lower daily dosage and to extend the treating period to prevent side effects.


The stratigraphic importance of the successive appearances and disappearances of the Globorotalia menardii/tumida lineages in the Atlantic during the Pleistocene has been recognized since the pioneering work of Ericson. The lineages, which developed in the Indian/western Pacific Ocean in the Miocene, have intermittently spread westward into the tropical Atlantic but have not been able to maintain a permanent foothold there. Their presence in the Atlantic is modulated by the opening and closing of a narrow window of environmental conditions and surface currents at the southern tip of Africa. When climatic variability during the last 5 m.y. shut the window, the population in the tropical Atlantic has undergone spurts of endemism or has failed totally. When the window opened, the population increased dramatically and endemism has disappeared. At Site 502B, the waxing and waning of Atlantic menardii/tumida populations is recorded in excellent detail back to about 3.5 Ma. The longest interval over which menardii/tumida are observed to be continuously present is approximately 0.4 m.y., whereas the longest period of exclusion is approximately 0.2 m.y. In its external forcing and stratigraphic potential, the inclusion/exclusion record of menardii/tumida in the Atlantic resembles reversals of the earth's magnetic field. Thus, the principles used inmore » magnetic reversal chronology provide a guide for developing a menardii/tumid-based biochronostratigraphy for important exploration areas in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere din the tropical and subtropical Atlantic. The golden rule of both geomagnetic chronology and menardii/tumida chronology is not to use it with supportive faunal and floral range data. When combined with reliable planktonic foraminiferal and calcareous nannofossil range data, delineation of menardii/tumida inclusion/exclusion zones provides an immediate two-fold enhancement in stratigraphic resolution.« less


Abstract: Traditional agricultural heritage research has a very long history. Programme on "The conservation and adaptive management of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)" initiative launched by FAO in 2002, aimed at not only preserving agricultural heritage system, but also applying the principle of dynamic conservation to promote rural development to benefit local community, to assure food security and maintaining the ecosystem. Since then, many more scientists have been enrolled in the new field focusing on the function and value, application and management, conservation and development and other aspects of these traditional agricultural systems which facilitate an emerging cross-discipline. In this paper, based on the concepts and characteristics of GIAHS and China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (China-NIAHS), the author specifies that Agri-cultural Heritage is a compound heritage that integrates the characteristics of natural, cultural and intangible cultural heritage, and a typical social-economic-natural complex ecosystem composed of economic, biological, technological, cultural and landscape components. For their conservation and development, the joint efforts of scientists from economics, ecology, geography, history, management sciences, culturology, ethnology, sociology and other subjects are needed. Based on progresses studies and perspectives of the field, the author felt that although a good start of the research on Agri-cultural Heritage has been made, there is still much room for development which show a steady growth trend and suggested 32 priority areas in research; a new subject of Agroheritology could emerge in the near future.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To describe individual temperament and character trait profiles associated with nurses and nursing students in a large regional health district and university in Australia.

BACKGROUND
Identification of personality characteristics have been undertaken in most professions; however there is little extant literature on nurses which looks at specific aspects of temperament and character.

DESIGN
A cross-sectional quantitative study of nurses and nursing students in a large regional health service district and university in South East Queensland, Australia.

METHOD
  An online survey to nurses and nursing students included a demographic questionnaire and the temperament and character inventory (TCI) to identify levels of the seven basic dimensions of temperament and character. Univariate analysis made multiple and covariate comparisons between TCI scores, nurses, students, working status and age.

RESULTS
The target number of responses was exceeded and totalled 451. Results are reported for females who comprised 90% of respondents; 53.5% students and 46.5% nurses. Significant main effects for age and student status were detected in several temperament and character inventory dimensions. Working students had significantly different temperament and character profiles compared to non-working students.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, this sample displays levels of temperament and character traits congruent with a profession requiring high levels of persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness and reward dependence. Our findings prompt further investigation of whether individuals with the requisite temperament traits are attracted to nursing, or do individuals develop certain character traits as a product of their professional experiences/training.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The identification of distinct profiles of temperament and character traits among different nursing roles may provide insight into what traits are conducive to retention of nurses in these roles. The predictive potential of the temperament traits plus the modifiable component of character traits may provide scope for nursing educators and policy-makers to assist in recruitment and retention of nurses in the workforce.


atric procedures, it exists in both the upper and lower tracts: dilations, mucosectomies and polypectomies. In addition, EUS pancreatobiliares can also be performed [1]. It is also a useful tool to study malignant tumors, performed mainly in adults, for the staging of preoperative gastric cancer, where the result can lead to important decisions for the treatment of patients [2]. In adults, the possibility of performing endoscopic diagnostic and treatment interventions for small submucosal tumors (< 3 cm) has also been studied [3].


A 63-year-old male patient with HIV disease presented with dyspnea and complete heart block, and was found to have aortic valve (AV) endocarditis secondary to Candida parapsilosis infection. Echocardiography demonstrated AV endocarditis and possible aortic root versus subannular abscess with moderate AV regurgitation (AR), a ventricular septal defect (VSD) and possible left ventricular to right atrial shunt (Gerbode defect). Large AV vegetations, subannular abscess with an acquired membranous VSD, Gerbode defect, and tricuspid annular abscess at the insertion of septal leaflet were noted intraoperatively. The patient underwent AV replacement with a stented bioprosthesis, two-sided VSD patch closure, and tricuspid valve (TV) repair with an annuloplasty ring. The left-sided patch closed the VSD and facilitated AV replacement, while the right-sided patch facilitated the TV repair.


This study aimed to characterize the pedagogical strategies used in educational activities on a continuing education program for seniors. It is an exploratory and descriptive study with the participation of 82 teachers/instructors. The responses related to what facilitates learning of the elderly have generated three groups of responses: Category 1. Problematizing Participant Pedagogy; Category 2. Cognitive strategies considering the declines associated with age; Category 3. Pedagogy of Transmission. It was concluded that during the educational process, an active and critical appropriation must be encouraged, instead of the static accumulation of knowledge on the part of the elderly.


In this paper, we address the question of how the control of delayed measured chaotic systems can be improved. Both unmodified Ott-Grebogi-Yorke control and difference control can be successfully applied only for a certain range of Lyapunov numbers depending on the delay time. We show that this limitation can be overcome by at least two classes of methods, namely, by rhythmic control and by the memory methods of linear predictive logging control and memory difference control.


A single intraperitoneal inoculation of 180 mg/kg N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) into 30-day-old outbred Sprague-Dawley (CD) rats resulted in an 90% incidence of mammary tumors (MTs) after an average latent period of 93 days, with an 85% rate of malignancy. The incidence, induction period, number of tumors per rats, and the rate of malignancy were reduced in rats ovariectomized prior to or shortly after (5 days) ENU exposure. Over 70% of the ENU-induced MTs regressed following ovarioectomy. The malignant MTs developed from nodules located in the terminal end buds (TEB), which are believed to contain the most susceptible cell population for chemical carcinogens. The serum calcium was elevated above control values in 92% of intact rats evaluated with MTs in the absence of bone metastases. No correlation was demonstrated between the volume of MTs or total number of MTs and the serum calcium level. The ENU-induced MT is a reproducible animal model that can be used in the investigation of the early changes in mammary cells (especially TEB) and the interrelationships between the carcinogen and ovarian hormones associated with neoplastic transformation.


We propose a serialized sensor network using a reflected SOA (RSOA) as a low-cost and wideband source. The RSOA is self-injection locked by the FBG sensors with different center wavelengths. By reading the wavelength shifts, the number of sensors up to 32 can be monitored with the side mode suppression ratio of >27 dB within 4 km.


This article studies the transformation of homes of Timbrah Settlement, a Bali Aga Community of Karangasem Regency. It focusses on two fundamental elements, namely spatial formation and built forms which are, by tradition, two unique features characterizing the built environment of Timbrah. These spatial elements symbolize complex socio-cultural systems of belief, subsistence, gender, knowledge, defend, time, territoriality, etc. In its development, the community has to inevitably interrelate with various congencies brought in by modernity - taking place globally, and other forces driven from within. Some observed consequences brought by these influences include (not limited to) modifications in value systems, way of people live their life, and demographic formations. This observation has constituted an inspiration to the conduct of this whole study, in which qualitative approaches were put into practice. Study findings demonstrate that almost all Timbrah homes (karang paumahan) have been transformed in one way or another. This condition is mainly due to a need for more living space, efficiency in spatial utilization, social status, self actualization, and to accommodate changes of inhabitants' lifestyle. The transformation of Timbrah homes has been carried out in a gradual manner, directed by a conscious understanding to maintain local knowledge and values, especially of those associated with the governance of space exist in both domestic and communal spheres. In consequence, attempts to keep Timbrah's identity as a unique Bali Aga community have been indirectly imposed on, at any given opportunity.
 Kata kunci: spatial formation, traditional settlement, narrow lane, bale agung, Timbrah Community


Neuroimaging measures of Alzheimer's disease (AD) include grey matter volume (GMV) alterations in the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Executive Control Network (ECN). Small-vessel cerebrovascular disease, often visualised as white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on MRI, is often seen in AD. However, the relationship between WMH load and GMV needs further examination. We examined the load-dependent influence of WMH on GMV and cognition in 183 subjects. T1-MRI data from 93 Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and 90 cognitively normal subjects were studied and WMH load was categorized into low, medium and high terciles. We examined how differing loads of WMH related to whole-brain voxel-wise and regional DMN and ECN GMV. We further investigated how regional GMV moderated the relationship between WMH and cognition. We found differential load-dependent effects of WMH burden on voxel-wise and regional atrophy in only MCI. At high load, as expected WMH negatively related to both ECN and DMN GMV, however at low load, WMH positively related to ECN GMV. Additionally, negative associations between WMH and memory and executive function were moderated by regional GMV. Our results demonstrate non-unidirectional relationships between WMH load, GMV and cognition in MCI.


BACKGROUND
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of methotrexate (MTX) treatment on the ultrasonographic appearance of extrauterine pregnancy (EUP) and, particularly, to test the hypothesis that the ultrasonographic appearance is not predictive of treatment success.

METHODS
A prospective cohort study. The study group included 56 women with tubal EUP who received a single-dose protocol of MTX. EUP was diagnosed whenever an intrauterine gestational sac was not identified by transvaginal ultrasonography (TVUS), accompanied by an abnormal rise or plateau in hCG concentration. Serial TVUS was performed weekly until hCG normalization or the size of the ectopic mass declined to 1 cm(2).

RESULTS
Ectopic tubal mass was identified on TVUS in 45 (80%) women with a mean size of 4 +/- 0.5 cm(2). Following the first week of MTX injection, the mean size of the ectopic mass significantly increased to 6 +/- 0.8 cm(2) (P = 0.02). The initial size of the ectopic mass was not related to the success of the treatment nor to serum hCG levels. Ultrasonographic resolution of the ectopic mass was documented in 27 women following a mean of 42 +/- 2.4 days (range 7-63 days).

CONCLUSIONS
The initial size of a tubal pregnancy is not related to the success of MTX treatment. MTX treatment in tubal pregnancy is followed by an initial increase in the size of the ectopic mass. Accordingly, such enlargement of the ectopic mass should not be considered as a higher risk for failure of treatment.