A discussion is given of the electronic properties of the (111)Ga and (001)As-stabilized surfaces of GaAs and of the electronic natureofthe gas phase species present during the growth by metalorganicchemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). The reconstruction ofthe (001)As-stabilized surface is taken into account, allowing only for the formation of a bonds. In connection with the adsorbates attention especially is given to those situations where more or less electrons are present than the two required to form the chemical bond. As an example we have calculated the coverages on both surfaces under near equilibrium growth conditions.


Semantic wikis are very promising tools for producing structured and unstructured data. However, they suffer from a lack of user provided semantic annotations, resulting in a loss of efficiency, despite of their high potential. This paper focuses on an original way to encourage users to annotate semantically pages. We propose a system that suggests automatically computed annotations to users. Users thus only have to validate, complete, modify, refuse or ignore these suggested annotations. We assume that as the annotation task becomes easier, more users will provide annotations. The system we propose is based on collaborative filtering recommender systems, it does not exploit the content of the pages but the usage made on these pages by the users: annotations are deduced from the usage of the pages and the annotations previously provided. The resulting semantic wikis contain several kinds of annotations that are differentiated by their status: human provided annotations, computer provided annotations (suggested by the system), human-computed interactions (suggested by the system and validated by the users) and refused annotations (suggested by the system and refused by the user). Navigation and (semantic) search will thus be facilitated and more efficient.


Background This study aimed to assess the association of haptoglobin (HP) and natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 1 (NRAMP1) alleles with the presence of heme-consuming periodontal pathogens in a group of Iranian patients with chronic periodontitis and peri-implantitis. Methods This cross-sectional study evaluated 69 eligible chronic periodontitis and peri-implantitis patients selected from Shahid Beheshti Dental School. The periodontally diseased individuals had at least three teeth with clinical attachment loss of ≥3 mm and a probing pocket depth (PPD) of ≥3 mm in at least two quadrants. Peri-implant PPD of at least one site was ≥5 mm with or without suppuration and bleeding on probing. A plaque index of >20% and a radiographic crestal bone loss was present in at least one site around the implant. The paper point method was used for sampling from the deepest periodontal/peri-implant pocket of each tooth or implant for the DNA checkerboard hybridization technique. Statistical analyses were performed with PASW Statistics 18.0. The variables were presented as absolute and relative frequencies (%). Results An Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (A. actinomycetemcomitans) score of 1–2 was 5.8 times more frequent in HP 2, rs1723540 G, and rs2276631 G alleles. A Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) score of 1–2 was 4.8 times more common in the subjects carrying HP 2, rs1723540 G, and rs2276631 G alleles compared with HP 1, rs1723540 A, and rs2276631 A alleles. Conclusion Within the limitations of this study, it seems that there was a relationship between HP and NRAMP1 allele frequencies and the presence of heme-consuming periodontal pathogens in the Iranian patients with chronic periodontitis and peri-implantitis evaluated in the present study.


When a base-driven cylindrical monopole (or center-driven dipole) is immersed in an arbitrary medium, the electric and magnetic fields on its surface depend not only on its length and radius but also on the effective conductivity and permittivity of the medium. These fields can be explored and measured with small probes designed to travel along the cylindrical surface of the antenna. The interpretation of the observations depends on the availability of a general theory that correctly describes the distributions of current and charge on the conductor. The results of a new theory that is valid for electrically thin monopoles up to 5\lambda/8 (dipoles up to 5\lambda/4) in length over all practical ranges of conductivity and permittivity of the ambient medium, including those characteristics of under- and overdense cold plasmas, are described together with their experimental verification.


of a Monomeric, Air-Stable Germanocene** By Herbert Schumann, * Christoph Janiak, Ekkehnrdt Hahn. Jorg Loebel, and Jerold J . Zuckerman* symmetry with two parallel, staggered cyclopentadienyl rings and a stereochemically inert electron pair at Sn". It has not yet been determined whether the corresponding compounds of Ge"['] or Pb""] have similar structures. In the germanocenes studied up to now, (q5-CsH5)zGe,i'1 ( I ~ ~ C H & ~ H & G ~ , [ ~ I and ($C5Me5)2Ge,i51 on the other hand, the planes of the two cyclopentadienyl rings intersect at an angle of 34 to 50"; the compounds are very reactive. We have now obtained decabenzylgermanocene, I , the first germanocene that, despite nonparallel cyclopentadienyl ring planes, is stable toward air. 1 is formed as large, pale yellow crystals by addition of germanium diiodide to a freshly prepared solution of pentabenzylcyclopentadienyllithium in tetrahydrofuran (THF).Ih1 Decaphenylstannocene"' has S


A relation used in the calculation of the dipole correlation function for a rigid rotator by means of the Langevin equation is proved.


As the interaction of light with the Earth surface is very complex, spectral reflectances are composed of nonlinear mixtures of the observed materials. Nonlinear mixing models have the disadvantage that not all spectra of a hyperspectral dataset necessarily follow the same particular mixing model. Moreover, most models lack a proper interpretation of the estimated parameters in terms of fractional abundances. In this paper, we present a semi-supervised nonlinear unmixing technique that overcomes these problems. In a first step, we apply a kernelized simplex volume maximization to select an overcomplete set of endmembers that precisely describe the hyperspectral data manifold. In a second step, this set is used as ground truth data in a supervised learning approach to generate fractional abundance maps from the entire dataset. For this, three methods are presented, based on kernelized sparse unmixing, feedforward neural networks, and gaussian processes. The proposed method is validated on simulated data, a dataset obtained by ray tracing, and a real hyperspectral image.


The study explored the underlying mechanism of how team diversity structure exerts its influences on team task-related performance from the perspective of the demographic characteristics diversity. The author collects data by behavior experimental approach in four-person teams and followed Wen, Chang and Hou's method(2006)to test a mediated moderation model. As expected, the findings are as follows: Firstly, team diversity structure has a significant effect on team task-related performance. Secondly, hierarchical regression analysis indicates that this effect is moderated by team members' attitude towards diversity. Thirdly, information elaboration conveys the effect of team diversity structure, attitude towards diversity and their interaction on team task-related performance. The present study helps explain the contradictory conclusions about team diversity and discusses the implications for managing demographically diverse teams.


It is well known that the simplest way of estimation of statistical parameters is the method of least squares using linear functions. However, the problem with this method is in how to find out a linear observations. estimation accuracy is very important concept in many field such that, medicine, humanities, engineering, industry, economics and others since an unbiased vision is crucial in order to support the industry for decision making, also suitable data to obtain is, how estimates are completed, what factors encourage the choice of estimation methods and the current level of estimation accuracy. Therefore, this articlepurposesa novel technique in field of improving inferences about population characteristic estimation, mathematical models were implemented in content of stock market data are collected from Amman stock exchange (ASE). Estimation accuracy directly will be implemented and Daubechies Wavelet transform (DWT) combined with interval estimation accuracy will be calculated also. Themethodology aims to compare the accuracy level between the interval estimation accuracy directly and the accuracy that calculated using DWT combined with interval estimation. The results show that DWT improves the estimation accuracy in content of stock market data. Therefore, the DWT combines with traditional estimation accuracy is better than traditional estimation accuracy directly. The results are implemented using (SPSS) and MATLAB.


A case of subcutaneous abscess of the chest-wall due to Eikenella corrodens is reported in a patient recently splenectomized. This bacillus was grown in pure culture. Processing specimens and identification methods of this little Gram-negative bacillus are described. Eikenella corrodens is a commensal frequently encountered in mucous membrane surfaces. It is likely that this microorganism may be an "opportunist" pathogen.


Objective: To evaluate potential prognostic factors for survival after radiotherapy of metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC) on breast cancer patients treated at the Brazilian public health system. Methods and materials: We evaluated 51 consecutive patients treated in a single cancer center between May 2011 and May 2012. The following potential prognostic factors were investigated retrospectively: age, performance status, interval between tumor diagnosis and MSCC, presence of visceral metastases, interval between the development of symptoms and radiotherapy, site of compression and Tokushashi index (prognostic criteria index that divides patients into 3 groups with different life expectancy according to their total number of scoring points). Results: Patients characteristics are shown in Table 2. Inpatient mortality was 18%. Among the 16 patients who had non-ambulatory status at admission only 2 (12%) were able to walk after treatment. Overall survival was 13,6 months. Overall survival according to the Tokuhashi index was 1,5mo high risk, 13,6mo intermediate risk and 23,3mo low risk. The following prognostic factors for inferior OS were identified on univariate analysis: high risk Tokuhashi score - HR 3,7 (p 0,0001); PS4 - HR 3,2 (p 0,0004); Presence of visceral metastasis - HR 4,0 (p 0,0001); interval between symptoms and radiotherapy >14d - HR 2,5 (p 0,01). On multivariate analysis, a high risk Tokuhashi score was statistically associated with inferior survival. Conclusion: Metastatic spinal cord compression is an oncological emergency associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Life expectancy is a key factor for therapeutic planning. In the limited resource setting of the Brazilian public health system, the validation of prognostic factors is essential to guide the clinician on referring the patient to a tertiary cancer care center or to provide palliative care avoiding burden for debilitated patients resulting from multiple daily trips to the radiation oncology department and painful positioning on the treatment couch. This study validated the Tokuhashi index as a useful prognostic tool in this population. Citation Format: Tomas Reinert, Ricardo Zylberberg, Frederico MT Lima, Christiane S Pinto, Alexandre Boukai. Prognostic factors predicting overal survival after radiotherapy for metastatic spinal cord compression in breast cancer patients treated in the Brazilian public health system [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-16-02.


should this still be considered appropriate. Despite agreeing with these initial ideas which we presume inspired the work by Darling et al. on the use of a split laryngeal mask [ 11, we find difficulty in agreeing their technique was the most appropriate answer. We load a hollow bougie onto the fibreoptic laryngoscope for insertion into the trachea via a standard laryngeal mask. After placing the bougie, the laryngeal mask is removed and a tracheal tube railroaded on over the bougie. A 20 FG Baker jejeunostomy tube (Warne Medical), cut to a length of 28 cm with the cut end rounded and smoothed, has proved adequate. This length allows the laryngeal mask to be removed without risk of dislodgment of the bougie out of the trachea. The fibreoptic laryngoscope is lubricated with water prior to loading the bougie to facilitate withdrawal once the bougie is positioned. It is of course also possible to ventilate via the bougie, should this be required, by use of a suitable size of tracheal tube connector, prior to the tracheal tube being railroaded. It should be possible to improve our technique further using a narrower bougie which is still resistant to kinking and formation of redundant loops in the pharynx when attempting to railroad the tracheal tube.


Recently, organic nanostructures have attracted much attention, and amongst them peptide nanotubes are of interest in many fields of application including medicine and nanobiotechnology. Peptide nanotubes are formed by self-assembly of cyclic peptides with alternating L- and D-amino acids. Due to their biodegradability, flexible design and easy synthesis, many applications have been proposed such as artificial transmembrane ion channels, templates for nanoparticles, mimicking pore structures, nanoscale testing tubes, biosensors and carriers for targeted drug delivery. The mechanisms of an ion, a water molecule and an ion–water cluster entering into a peptide nanotube of structure cyclo[(-D-Ala-L-Ala-)$_{4}$] are explored here. In particular, the Lennard-Jones potential and a continuum approach are employed to determine three entering mechanisms: (i) through the tube open end, (ii) through a region between each cyclic peptide ring and (iii) around the edge of the tube open end. The results show that while entering the nanotube by method (i) is possible, an ion or a molecule requires initial energy to overcome an energetic barrier to be able to enter the nanotube through positions (ii) and (iii). Due to its simple structure, the D-, L-Ala cyclopeptide nanotube is chosen in this model; however, it can be easily extended to include more complicated nanotubes.


This paper presents an efficient implementation of digit-serial/parallel multipliers on 4-input look-up table (LUT)-based field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This subset of FPGA devices hide individual gate delays and add important wiring delay. These two facts produce important changes over the theoretical advantages of each topology. Architectural transformations are applied to obtain topologies with minimum logic depth and where the maximum clock speed is limited by the FPGA technology. The main results of applying those transformations to the different multipliers have been quantified for Altera FLEX10K family, and the conclusions have been extrapolated to other FPGA families.


An approximate instantaneous eigenstate is presented for the many-spin system possessing the anisotropy exchange interaction in a strong magnetic field by the perturbation method. Based on the instantaneous eigenstate, the Berry phase of this state is worked out. Furthermore, the effect of the anisotropy exchange interaction on the Berry phase of the state for the many-spin system is studied.


The case chronicles the development of Lumni, Inc., an international start-up offering innovative mechanisms for financing higher education. It focuses on: the details of decision making required to transform an idea into a viable business; building partnerships; the challenge associated with raising venture capital; and the challenges of creating a new market where human capital can be traded to finance higher education.


A variational method is developed to prod~ 5-day gridded wind fields from the first European Remote Sensing (ERSI) scatterometer wind data only. The study focuses on the northwest Atlantic during a 3-month period from August to October of 1992. ERSI wind data, processed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, are binned tint on a 1 degree grid for 5-day periods, each period shifted by one day. The analysis method is based upon minimizing a cost function. This function is a set of constraints expressing proximity of resulting wind vector components and wind speed to ERSI values, a smoothing term and a kinematic constraint on the curl of the resulting wind field. Relative weights for each of the constraints are adjusted by means of statistical comparisons of analysed winds with independent buoy data, and tests of sensitivity. Salient characteristics of the resultant ERS I 5-day wind and wind-curl fields are anal~ and compared with those in surface wind products from ECMWF and buoy winds. They show a general good agreement and highlight the new information provided by ERSI data on the space and time variability of the wind over the ocean.


The lower Nanaimo Group was deposited in the (forearc) Georgia Basin, Canada and records the basin's initiation and early depositional evolution. Nanaimo Group strata are subdivided into 11 lithostratigraphic units, which are identified based on lithology, paleontology, texture and position relative to both the basal nonconformity and to each other. Significant topography on the basal nonconformity, however, has resulted in assignment of lithostratigraphic units that are not time correlative, and hence, cannot reliably be used to accurately reconstruct basin evolution. Herein, we present a sequence stratigraphic framework for lower Nanaimo Group strata in the Comox Sub‐Basin (northern Georgia Basin) that integrates both facies analysis and maximum depositional ages (MDAs) derived from detrital zircon. This stratigraphic framework is used to define significant sub‐basin‐wide surfaces that bound depositional units and record the evolution of the basin during its early stages of development. Seven distinct depositional phases are identified in the lower 700 m of the lower Nanaimo Group. Depositional phases are separated by marine flooding surfaces, regressive surfaces, or disconformities. The overall stratigraphy reflects net transgression manifested as an upwards transition from braided fluvial conglomerates to marine mudstones. Transgression was interrupted by periods of shoreline progradation, and both facies analysis and MDAs reveal a disconformity in the lowermost part of the Nanaimo Group in the Comox Sub‐Basin. Stratigraphic reconstruction of the Comox Sub‐Basin reveals two dominant depocenters (along depositional strike) for coarse clastics (sandstones and conglomerates) during early development of the Georgia Basin. The development and position of these depocenters is attributed to subduction/tectonism driving both subsidence in the north‐northwest and uplift in the central Comox Sub‐Basin. Our work confirms that in its earliest stages of development, the Georgia Basin evolved from an underfilled, ridged forearc basin that experienced slow and stepwise drowning to a shoal‐water ridged forearc basin that experienced rapid subsidence. We also propose that the Georgia Basin is a reasonable analogue for ridged forearc basins globally, as many ridged forearcs record similar depositional histories during their early evolution.


The main driver for recycling cable wastes is the high value of the conducting metal, while the plastic with its lower value is often neglected. New improved cable plastic recycling routes could provide both economic and environmental incentive to cable producers for moving up the "cable plastic waste ladder". The improvement potential for the European cable industry as a whole is roughly estimated to avoidance of 30 750 tonnes of CO2eq annually if these new techniques were to be applied to the 5% plastic waste stream from cable production. Cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of the waste management of the cable scrap is suggested and explained as a method to analyze the pros and cons of different cable scrap recycling options at hand. Economic and environmental data about different recycling processes and other relevant processes and materials are given. Cable producers could use this data and method to assess the way they deal with the cable plastic waste today and compare it with available alternatives and thus illuminate the improvement potential of recycling cable plastic waste. Through using the data and methods provided, the user will be able to show the climate impacts of improving the cable waste recycling (compared to how it is done today) and also to show the economic and technical implications of such improvements.


This paper addresses the existing provisions in the European Social Charter (ESC) relating to employee involvement in private enterprises, namely the right to information and consultation and the right to workers' participation. After providing an overview of the Charter's historical development, its relationship with the European Union law and the infl uence on the domestic law of the Member States of the Council of Europe are discussed. There then follows a brief description of the enforcement mechanisms for social rights under the ESC: the reporting system and the collective complaint. The subsequent part illustrates the development of the right to information and consultation in the different versions of the Charter, also considering collective redundancy procedures. This paper concludes by examining the rights to workers? participation included in the Social Charter.


Concrete is the most commonly used alley flooring in confined dairy herds because of its qualities of construction and ease of cleaning. Nevertheless, the hardness, abrasiveness, and slipperiness of concrete floors have adverse effects on animal well-being and health, and yielding rubber flooring is becoming popular as a way of improving the flooring conditions on walkways. The aim of this study was to investigate preferences of dairy cows for rubber compared with concrete flooring under the conditions of a commercial dairy farm. The study was conducted in an organic dairy herd with free-stall housing. Floor preference was tested on groups of standing cows in a 120-m2 holding pen before milking, and 1 yr later on a 12- x 3-m walkway. The holding pen and the walkway were divided lengthwise into 2 identical sections. Two types of solid rubber mats (soft and extra soft) were tested against solid concrete in the holding pen. Slatted and solid rubber mats were tested against slatted concrete in the walkway. Each floor type was tested over 4 d on the left side and 4 d on the right side of the holding pen and the walkway, respectively. Concrete flooring on both sides of the sections was tested as a control before the testing of different section materials. All observations of the distribution of cows in the sections were made from video recordings captured in association with the afternoon milking. The number of cows on each section was recorded approximately every 7 min in the holding pen, and continuously on the walkway. A significantly higher proportion of cows stood on the side with the soft and extra soft rubber mats (65.1 +/- 2.7 and 69.3 +/- 2.6%, respectively, mean +/- SEM) compared with the control distribution when only the solid concrete was available (50.9 +/- 3.9%). A significantly higher proportion of nonlame cows walked exclusively on the side with the slatted (64.5 +/- 5.4%, d 4) or solid rubber mats (68.2 +/- 5.1%, d 4) compared with controls (28.9 +/- 4.3%). Lame cows within a group of walking cows did not show a higher preference for soft flooring as distinct as nonlame cows (52.7 +/- 6.9 and 59.4 +/- 6.2% for the solid and slatted rubber mats, respectively, at d 4 vs. 40.3 +/- 6.2% for control), presumably because of competition with other, higher ranked cows. It was concluded that the majority of cows preferred to walk and stand on soft rubber rather than on concrete flooring.


Stainless steels are widely used in the Oil & Gas and chemical process industry. This group of materials is today available in a large variety of alloy compositions, and practically all product forms needed for a construction are available. A historical view and application examples are given on the stainless steel evolution, from the standard grades used in chemical processes to todays most advanced applications in the chemical and oil & gas industry, where demands on reliable and long lasting solutions are necessary. The influence of alloying elements on the properties and manufacturability is described. The chemical industry is a very wide definition of a large group of industries with very different products, from plastics and organic acids to fertilizers, drugs and pesticides. Applications of stainless steels within the chemical industry are described. The first example is organic acids, where the use of high alloyed duplex stainless steels such as UNS S32205 and UNS S32750 have been successful. Another example is phosphoric acid applications, where the aggressiveness of the process solution depends very much on the fluoride and chloride content of the rock phosphate. In sulfuric acid, the material of construction is very much dependent on the acid concentration and temperature. Nitric acid is another common fertilizer acid which is highly oxidizing, and thereby demands stainless steels with high chromium content but with low molybdenum contents. The Oil & Gas industry uses very high quantities of carbon steel and stainless steel in their constructions. The oil wells are defined as sweet when the well contains carbon dioxide and no substantial amounts of hydrogen sulfide, when there is hydrogen sulfide present in the well, the wells are defined as sour. An overview on materials depending on the application is given. In subsea applications, hydraulic control lines (umbilicals) are used for control of valves and for methanol injection in subsea platforms. UNS S32750 is a high strength duplex stainless steel which today is the first choice for umbilicals and has been chosen for a very large amount of umbilical projects worldwide. The newly developed hyper duplex stainless steels with a combination of even higher corrosion resistance and strength are introduced for applications in oil-gas industry. The possibilities with stainless steels are endless, and new alloys are constantly being developed to meet industrial challenges of today and in the future. By choosing the right stainless steel grade, it is possible to find a solution to almost all challenges in the Oil & Gas and Process industry.


The development of professionalism in the health care industry has resulted in the existence of distinct lines of demarcation between disciplines. Duplication or absence of services, or lack of connection between services has made it difficult to respond to the needs of people with chronic conditions. With the rapid growth of the population with such conditions, the concept of integrated care has been proposed in order to increase accessibility, quality of care, cost sustainability and user satisfaction for such patients. The main content of this paper includes a definition of integrated care, the rationale behind it, and a model for it, as well as the advantages and disadvantages associated with it. Four integrated care systems were selected from different countries: Social HMO and PACE from USA, SIPA from Canada, Japan's community support system and Taiwan's long-term care resources management centers. Recommendations are also provided for members of the nursing profession actively participating in integrated care systems.


An experimental investigation was made of the geometric parameters of the melting zone and of some kinetic characteristics of the growth of a vapour—gas channel as a function of the spatial characteristics of a laser beam and of the profile of the radiation pulses. The depth of melting increased considerably, other conditions being equal, on reduction in the caustic angle of the laser beam incident on the irradiated surface. A new physical effect was discovered experimentally: the rate of growth of the vapour-gas channel increased when the length of this channel increased. This was the result of an increase in the laser radiation power density at the bottom of a channel during its growth. A molten zone depth of 6.5 mm was achieved for the first time for a pulse energy of 17.0 J.


Background—Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is proposed to have a variety of adaptive responses against oxidative stress. To examine the function of HO-1 against atherogenesis in vivo, we observed the effects of HO-1 inhibition on atherosclerotic lesion formation in Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbits (WHHL). Methods and Results—During 4 weeks of a 1% cholesterol diet, intravenous injections of Sn-protoporphyrin IX to inhibit HO-1 (S group, n=10) and saline as a control (C group, n=10) were given to 3-month-old WHHL rabbits. The percentages of en face atherosclerotic lesion areas in total descending aorta by Sudan IV staining (EFA) and the ratio of intima to media in microscopic atherosclerotic lesions in the ascending aortas (I/M) were calculated. Two different quantitative methods revealed significantly greater atherosclerotic lesions in the S group than the C group (EFA, P <0.001; I/M, P <0.005). HO-1 expression in atherosclerotic lesions was confirmed by Northern blot and immunohistochemical analyses. The dominant cell types expressing HO-1 were macrophages and foam cells, in which oxidized phospholipids were also accumulated. HO inhibition increased plasma and tissue lipid peroxide levels without affecting plasma lipid co osition. Conclusions—These results suggest the possibilities that HO-1 has antiatherogenic properties in vivo and that the antiatherogenic properties of HO-1 are conducted through the prevention of lipid peroxidation.


The income smoothing is a dimension of the accounts manipulation theme that has been at- tracting a great attention in the accounting literature. A goal of manipulation widely as- cribed to managers is the desire to smooth. Reported income, Income smoothing reflects re- ducing the possible income fluctuations so as to make it as stable as possible throughout the ism.  Almost  of  income  smoothing  research  in  Indonesia  used  Eckel's  index  to  clasify smoother non smoother firms. Empirical evidences have provided support for the existence of an income smoothing behavior. The studies showed inconsistent about factors determining this smoothing. The purpose of the present investigation is twofold. First, we seek to deter- mine if Eckel index is a reliable instrument to measure income smoothing behavior. Second, we pretend to identify the new instrument to measure incidence of income smoothing. Our research sample comprises manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Ex- change, over period of 1999-2008. This study confirms Eckel's index is not reliability instru- ment. The new proposed index quantifies the incidence of income smoothing without depend on n periods. The results imply that researchers should re-examine the conclusion of previ- ous studies, particularly that determinant, factors and effect of income smoothing practices.


Software evolves with continuous source-code changes. These code changes usually need to be understood by software engineers when performing their daily development and maintenance tasks. However, despite its high importance, such change-understanding practice has not been systematically studied. Such lack of empirical knowledge hinders attempts to evaluate this fundamental practice and improve the corresponding tool support.
 To address this issue, in this paper, we present a large-scale quantitative and qualitative study at Microsoft. The study investigates the role of understanding code changes during software-development process, explores engineers' information needs for understanding changes and their requirements for the corresponding tool support. The study results reinforce our beliefs that understanding code changes is an indispensable task performed by engineers in software-development process. A number of insufficiencies in the current practice also emerge from the study results. For example, it is difficult to acquire important information needs such as a change's completeness, consistency, and especially the risk imposed by it on other software components. In addition, for understanding a composite change, it is valuable to decompose it into sub-changes that are aligned with individual development issues; however, currently such decomposition lacks tool support.


Introduction: Alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT)-deficiency is a hereditary disease that can lead to the development of emphysema. Serum levels of A1AT are used for diagnosis and monitoring during substitution therapy.

Aim: We have previously shown that A1AT levels differ between smokers with and without COPD (Roepcke et al. ERS2010). Here we assessed the repeatability of A1AT levels in serum, induced sputum (IS) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) over a period of 6 weeks and compared the concentrations between compartments.

Methods: 24 COPD patients (GOLD II) and 23 age and gender matched healthy controls were included into the study. All were current smokers (≥ ten pack-years). Blood, BAL, and IS were collected on two occasions. A1AT was analyzed by ELISA, CRP by Luminex.

Results: The median (IQR) A1AT concentrations was 1.69 (0.53) g/L in serum, 505 (596) μg/L in BAL and 568 (475) μg/L in IS. The reproducibility between visits within each matrix was good (serum: r=0.55, p<0.001; BAL: r=0.72, p<0.001; IS: r=0.72, p<0.001). While there was a weak relationship between mean BAL and IS A1AT concentrations (r=0.36, p=0.03), no relationship was observed between serum and lung concentrations. BAL and IS A1AT levels did not correlate with neutrophils in the respective compartment or serum CRP, and only a weak correlation between serum A1AT, blood neutrophils (r=0.31, p=0.04) and CRP (r=0.32, p=0.04) was observed.

Conclusion: A1AT appears to be stable within compartments in healthy smokers and smokers with moderate COPD. The lack of relationship between lung and serum A1AT should be considered when interpreting serum A1AT for diagnostic and monitoring purposes.


This thesis describes modelling and measuring structural complexity mesure of Prolog program based on rule-dependency. Rule-dependency can be defined as relationships or interaction between rules. Usually, Prolog program is constructed by rules. These rules are Horn clause subset of the clausal form of first-order predicate logic. It is believed that rule-dependency is significant element of complexity and this research investigates to corroborate the claim especially on how rule dependency can be used to model and model and measure Prolog's structural complexity. This research is motivated by the lack of measures developed for Prolog due to the implicit control flow and construct. This lack of explicit control flow and constructs precludes in adapting conventional measures to Prolog program. This thesis shall present models that can be used to partially solve this problem that can enable direct application of existing measures tp Prolog program. To do measurement four criteria are explicitly defined: (1) attribute of entity, (2) abstraction or model, (3) ordering relationships, and (4) order-preserving mapping. These criteria are based on representational approach of measurement theory. The model Prolog's control flow and construct are modelled in the second criteria, while the measure is achieved by completing the process from identification of entity and attribute into numbers.


We analysed the effects of the overproduction of parts or all of a multisubunit ATP‐binding cassette (ABC) transporter, the MalFGK2 complex, involved in the uptake of maltose and maltodextrins in Escherichia coli. We found that production of the MalF protein alone was inducing the phtrA promoter, which is under the control of a recently discovered sigma factor, σ24, involved in the response to extracytoplasmic stresses. The production level, stability and localization of MalF were not altered when produced without its partners, suggesting that the protein was correctly inserted in the membrane. Our results indicate that a large periplasmic loop located between the third and fourth transmembrane segment of MalF, the L3 loop, is responsible for phtrA induction: (i) deleted MalF proteins with no L3 loop or with a L3 loop lacking 120 amino acids do not induce the phtrA promoter; (ii) the export to the periplasm of the L3 loop alone or fused to MalE induces the phtrA promoter. Moreover, the proteolytic sensitivity of MalF is different when it is produced alone and when MalF and MalG are produced together, suggesting a change in the conformation and/or accessibility of MalF. These results suggest that some inner membrane proteins can be sensed outside the cytoplasm by a quality control apparatus or by the export machinery. Moreover, the observation of the phtrA induction by MalF could be a useful new tool for studying the insertion and assembly of the MalFGK2 complex.


In this paper we have studied the motion of a nanocar and nanotruck on gold substrate using the classical molecular dynamics method. Analyzing the motion regime of the nanocar at different temperatures is one of the main goals of this paper. In the past years, similar molecules such as Trimmer, Z-car and nanotruck have been simulated by Konyukhov and Akimov. To increase the modeling accuracy in this paper we have used classical molecular dynamics contrary to previous works which used a rigid body molecular dynamics method. The result of our simulations were compared qualitatively to the experimental tests performed by Zhang et al. [12]. There was a good agreement between the results achieved from our simulations and the experimental observations. We found that the motion of both molecules can be divided into 3 different regimes: immobility at 200K and lower temperatures, short range displacements between 200K to 400K, and long range movements at 500 K and higher temperatures. Furthermore, the bigger and more flexible chassis of a nanocar reduces the speed of the nanocar with respect to a nanotruck. The results lead to the better understanding of nanocar motion and reveal exclusive motion details of both molecules and elucidate their use in practical applications.


An 18-year-old female was given prednisolone and azathioprine for treatment of systemic lups erythematosus. She was admitted to Fukuoka University Hospital because of headache and vomiting. Examinations revealed she was suffering from cryptococcal meningitis. Fluconazole (FLCZ) 400 mg a day was administrated for therapy. Her general condition improved and the serum level of cryptococcal antigen decreased one month after therapy. This therapy resulted in abatement of subjected symptoms and sterilization of the cerebral spinal fluid. This case suggested that therapy with FLCZ alone is useful for patients with cryptococcal meningitis, therefore the standard therapy with amphotericin B (AMPH) or the combination.


Determination of emerging pollutants such as UV-filters in environmental samples is very important because they have been proven to have harmful effects on human and aquatic life. In this study, a simple, fast and inexpensive method combining solid phase extraction (SPE) and UV spectrophotometry was developed for simultaneous preconcentration and deter mination of benzophenone and sulisobenzone in wastewater samples. The effect of factors affecting the preconcentration of UV-filters was optimized using univariate and multivariate approach. Under optimized conditions, the limits of detection (LOD), limits of quantifica - tion (LOQ) and preconcetration factors were in the range of 0.15–0.28 and 0.50–0.93 μg L −1 , 50–55, respectively. The dynamic linear range was up to 250 μg L −1 for benzophenone and sulisobenzone. In addition, the intra- and inter-day precisions were 3.1–3.3 and 4.5–5.2%, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to determine UV filters in wastewater samples attaining satisfactory recoveries over the range of 99.3–100.7%. The con - centration of the target pollutants in wastewater samples ranged from 6.83 to 85.67 μg L −1 .


We present a catalog of panchromatic spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 7 M and 4 K dwarf stars that span X-ray to infrared wavelengths (5 Å –5.5 μm). These SEDs are composites of Chandra or XMM-Newton data from 5–∼50 Å, a plasma emission model from ∼50–100 Å, broadband empirical estimates from 100–1170 Å, Hubble Space Telescope data from 1170–5700 Å, including a reconstruction of stellar Lyα emission at 1215.67 Å, and a PHOENIX model spectrum from 5700–55000 Å. Using these SEDs, we computed the photodissociation rates of several molecules prevalent in planetary atmospheres when exposed to each star's unattenuated flux ("unshielded" photodissociation rates) and found that rates differ among stars by over an order of magnitude for most molecules. In general, the same spectral regions drive unshielded photodissociations both for the minimally and maximally FUV active stars. However, for O3 visible flux drives dissociation for the M stars whereas near-UV flux drives dissociation for the K stars. We also searched for an far-UV continuum in the assembled SEDs and detected it in 5/11 stars, where it contributes around 10% of the flux in the range spanned by the continuum bands. An ultraviolet continuum shape is resolved for the star ϵ Eri that shows an edge likely attributable to Si ii recombination. The 11 SEDs presented in this paper, available online through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, will be valuable for vetting stellar upper-atmosphere emission models and simulating photochemistry in exoplanet atmospheres.


Working effectively within a multicultural society requires that counselors and educators become multicultural in context. This study was designed to determine whether a three-part cultural training diversity program would enable participants to become multicultural in context through structured learning experiences. Participants were 44 white educators, 7 males and 37 females, employed at a large private high school in New Hampshire. The three-part program emphasized multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills as separate training components. Each component featured experiential and didactic learning experiences. Scores were obtained for 3 measures of cultural awareness and knowledge and 15 critical incidents from the Culture General Assimilator instrument prior to the training. Six months later, the same measures, with 15 different critical incidents were used to measure attitudes and knowledge. Results provide evidence to suggest that individuals are capable of acquiring characteristics noted to be relevant to the development of a multicultural perspective as a result of cultural diversity training. (Contains 1 figure, 3 tables, and 20 references.) (SLD) ********,..d....******************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Multicultural Identity Development


The ear of cetaceans, and especially the middle ear, is very different from that of terrestrial mammals and shows specific adaptations to diving. Our research, performed on six Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) stranded along the Italian coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, concentrated on the morphology of the external and middle ear of this species. We report the findings using a proper Veterinary Anatomical Nomenclature and describe the characteristics of the auditory meatus of the external ear and the presence and morphology of the erectile tissue in the middle ear. Our anatomical and histological data highlight the structure and possible functions of the corpus cavernosum located in the middle ear of the Striped dolphin, and suggest a possible role for this structure in relation to pressure regulation during diving. Many of our observations indicate the existence of an internal regulatory system able to prevent barotraumas by regulating pressure and volume inside the middle ear cavity.


In order to accomplish high performance on grid workflow, grid resource management system needs a smart and swift resource allocation middleware. In this paper, we study the economy driven resource allocation problem based on market model of grid resource management architectures. We model the problem as the multiple choice knapsack problem (MCKP) and design the resource allocation optimization algorithm to minimize the average turnaround time of the grid workflow. The complexity analysis shows that the optimization algorithm leads to more efficient resource allocation than many current algorithms. The algorithm is also proved to be especially appropriate since the problem's own characteristics can accelerate the algorithm implementation process.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of compensation on the performance of employees of startup companies in Yogyakarta with motivation as an intervening variable; to determine the effect of financial compensation on employee performance, to determine the effect of non-financial compensation on employee performance. This research was conducted by taking startup employees in Yogyakarta randomly as many as 73 employees. The calculation technique used in this study is the Multiple Linear Regression Analysis model and path analysis. Based on the analysis results indicate that there is a significant influence between financial compensation and non-financial compensation on employee performance; there is a significant influence between financial compensation and non-financial compensation on employee performance with notibvasi as an intervening variable.


Separating specular reflection components from diffuse reflection components is an important subject in computer vision. Hence, the author's group has developed a method to separate a diffuse image from a high-speed-video image with specular reflection components. The method uses an estimation technique based on luminance variation owing to flicker of a strobe. However, an issue with the method is that the strobe produces a new specular reflection component. In this study, we get around this limitation by introducing a method for combining two images produced based on flickering information. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.


Noise levels in a well known quarry located in Gunduwawa village in Gezawa Local GovernmentArea of Kano State was studied on both working days and non-working days to ascertain theambient noise levels. Specialized Integrating Average Sound Level Meter was used for the mea-surement. The impact of noise through the action of vibration was conducted to ascertain theintegrity of structures 300 m and 600 m respectively away from the quarry site. Results obtainedshowed that the average morning, afternoon and evening noise levels on Sundays, a typical restday were 37.83, 45.5 and 41.5 dB(A) respectively. While the corresponding values for successivesix working days were 96, 101.4 and 83.6 dB(A) respectively. At break time during the workingdays the noise level had an average value of 87.16 dB(A). The structural integrity of buildingsrecorded values ranging from 8 to 36 KPa. The ones with high values were constructed by theconstruction companies with concrete and sandcrete blocks with good foundation. On the otherhand, the local buildings werebuilt with mud and without good foundations. They were found to begenerally weak and had cracked, with vey low lifespan. It was concluded that the villagers livingwithin 600m from the quarry site were exposed to excessive and uninterrupted noise which hasadverse eect on their health conditions. Keywords: buildings, cracks, decibel, environment and noise


We classify the self-dual (or holomorphic) vertex operator superalgebras of central charge 24, or in physics parlance the two-dimensional (possibly fermionic) conformal field theories with just one primary field. There are exactly 969 such vertex operator superalgebras under suitable regularity assumptions (essentially strong rationality) and the assumption that the shorter moonshine module $V\!B^\natural$ is the unique self-dual vertex operator superalgebra of central charge 23.5 whose weight-1/2 and weight-1 spaces vanish. Additionally, there might be self-dual vertex operator superalgebras arising as fake copies of $V\!B^\natural$ tensored with a free fermion $F$. We construct and classify the self-dual vertex operator superalgebras by determining the 2-neighbourhood graph of the self-dual vertex operator algebras of central charge 24 and also by realising them as simple-current extensions of a dual pair containing a certain maximal lattice vertex operator algebra. We show that all vertex operator superalgebras besides $V\!B^\natural\otimes F$ and potential fake copies thereof stem from elements of the Conway group $\mathrm{Co}_0$, the automorphism group of the Leech lattice $\Lambda$. By splitting off free fermions if possible we obtain the classification for all central charges less than or equal to 24.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing area in everyday life. New applications under the umbrella term IoT are being developed continuously. A typical IoT system consists of quite a large set of interchangeable components. In prototype development the Raspberry Pi and Arduino have become core components of wireless sensor network solutions. This research looks at how component-based software engineering (CBSE) and off-the-shelf components can be taken advantage of when defining IoT systems. We will attempt to identify the common properties of IoT systems and compare how well these properties relate to the CBSE component characteristics: composability, deployability, comprehensive documentation, independence, and standardization. The research methodology used in this study is a literature survey. The main results of the study show that CBSE is not widely used. There has been very little research on the software side of applications, as most studies have focused on describing the hardware side of implementations. The conclusion can be made that, in order for studies to be reproducible, the software side should be described in more detail.


Abstract Due to the complexity of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of soils subjected to internal erosion, a high number of parameters are usually required for the erosion models and the constitutive models. This aspect makes it difficult to determine by trial-error their relevant values from laboratory tests. To address this issue, an efficient optimisation-based procedure for identifying the parameters of a recently developed hydro-mechanical model for internal erosion using an enhanced backtracking search algorithm (so-called MBSA-LS) has been proposed. The MBSA-LS incorporates two points: (1) modifying the mutation of the original Backtracking Search Algorithm (BSA) and (2) incorporating an efficient differential evolution (DE) as a local search to improve the optimisation performance. A mono-objective framework with six different criteria has been proposed to identify the parameters related to the interlocking effect and the erosion process. The proposed procedure was successfully applied to identify the parameters from the erosion tests of Hong Kong-Completely Decomposed Granite mixture (HK-CDG). All results demonstrated that coupling the MBSA-LS and the hydro-mechanical erosion model could efficiently solve the issue of parameter identification accounting for both the mechanical behaviour and internal erosion.


The proton pumping mechanism in cytochrome c oxidase, the terminal enzyme in the respiratory chain, has been investigated using hybrid DFT with large chemical models. In previous studies, a gating mechanism was suggested based on electrostatic interpretations of kinetic experiments. The predictions from that analysis are tested here. The main result is that the suggestion of a positively charged transition state for proton transfer is confirmed, while some other suggestions for the gating are not supported. It is shown that a few critical relative energy values from the earlier studies are reproduced with quite high accuracy using the present model calculations. Examples are the forward barrier for proton transfer from the N-side of the membrane to the pump-loading site when the heme a cofactor is reduced, and the corresponding back leakage barrier when heme a is oxidised. An interesting new finding is an unexpected double-well potential for proton transfer from the N-side to the pump-loading site. In the intermediate between the two transition states found, the proton is bound to PropD on heme a. A possible purpose of this type of potential surface is suggested here. The accuracy of the present values are discussed in terms of their sensitivity to the choice of dielectric constant. Only one energy value, which is not critical for the present mechanism, varies significantly with this choice and is therefore less certain.


OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to determine whether women with primary vestibulitis-since the first episode of sexual intercourse-differ in disease characteristics and outcome of operative treatment from women with secondary vestibulitis.

STUDY DESIGN
A total of 111 patients with severe vulvar vestibulitis underwent perineoplasty from 1991 to 1995. Thirty-nine (35%) of them had primary vestibulitis (ie, dyspareunia from the first attempt at sexual intercourse). They were compared with 72 (65%) who had secondary vestibulitis with regard to demographic, social, and medical variables, the presence of human papillomavirus deoxyribonucleic acid, physical and histopathologic findings in the vestibule, and surgical outcome.

RESULTS
Women with primary vestibulitis were 5 years younger than those who had secondary vestibulitis (22.9 +/- 2.9 years vs 27.7 +/- 8.6 years, respectively; P <.0001) and differed in their marital status (unmarried, 84% vs 56%, respectively; P <.008), parity (nulliparous, 97% vs 67%, respectively; P <.0002), and involvement of the whole vestibule (74% vs 93%, respectively; P <.006). The 2 groups were similar in all other variables, including use of oral contraception, smoking, presence of human papillomavirus, dysuria, success of perineoplasty (average, 83%), and histopathologic findings.

CONCLUSIONS
Women with primary vestibulitis were younger than women with secondary vestibulitis. Most other differences were dependent on the different ages of the 2 groups. Primary and secondary vestibulitis may therefore be two presentations of the same disease.


Food Literacy (FL) is associated with the improvement of autonomy and confidence around food, healthier dietary intake, and chronic disease prevention. However, to date, behaviour change research at CHI has focused on motivating healthy eating mainly through weight loss and calorie control, which can lead to poor nutritional choices as consumers optimize caloric intake over a balanced diet. To address this gap, we designed a mobile game called Pirate Bri's Grocery Adventure, that seeks to improve FL through a situated learning approach to grocery shopping. Our game leverages Self Determination Theory (SDT) to build a player's competence, autonomy, and relatedness as shoppers are encouraged to develop an understanding of the nutritional benefits of foods and are rewarded for balancing sugar, sodium, fats and fibre in their purchases.


Abstract Background Few reports of Talaromyces marneffei (TM) or cryptococcosis infections among HIV-negative patients with high-titeranti–IFN-γautoantibodies (nAIGAs) have been published. We investigated the clinical manifestations of patients with nAIGAs and TM infections. Methods HIV-negative adults (≥18 years) were enrolled if they haddisseminated TM infection (group 1; further divided into nAIGAs positive [group 1P] and negative [group 1N]); cryptococcosis(pulmonary cryptococcosis and/or cryptococcosis of the brain)(group 2); pulmonary tuberculosis (group 3); and healthy controls (group 4) with nAIGAs detected. Complete histories, physical examinations, and routine clinical laboratory tests were obtained at baseline. Results Overall, 88 participants were in the four groups (20,13,23, and 32 in groups 1 to 4, respectively). Significant differences occurred between groups with higher nAIGAs titers (P < 0.001), and higher total white-cell and absolute neutrophil counts (P < 0.001) in group1. Lungs (90.0%), lymph nodes (60.0%), skin (55.0%), and bones (50.0%) were most common sites of involvement. Significant differences in total white-cell and absolute neutrophil counts occurred between groups IP and 1N.Patients with recurrent TM infections, particularly group 1P, had higher initial nAIGA titer. Conclusions Patients with persistent infection who died tended to have positive initial nAIGA titer. It suggests that nAIGAs may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of TM infections, and may be associated with more severe, refractory infection.


ABSTRACT This article examines the prevalence and correlates of orgasm and faking orgasm in the last year among a representative sample of Chinese men and women. Existing research on orgasm in China has largely been confined to medical research. To our knowledge, no published studies have examined faking orgasm in a Chinese context. These data come from the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey (CHFLS) conducted in 1999 and 2000. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify independent correlates of orgasm and faking orgasm among 1496 women and 1497 men, ages 20–64. In accounting for orgasm and faking orgasm in China, we found evidence that men and women are trying to manage social expectations and to act in accordance with gender expectations, consistent with research in other countries. Results provide insight into how specific sexual practices (e.g., oral sex) and interactional pressures (e.g., insecurity) are correlated with orgasm and faking orgasm. Findings pave the way for future research on the presence of gender inequality as evidenced through lower orgasm rates among women and higher rates of faking orgasm. These findings have implications for how we conceptualize and study gendered and interactional components of sex, which are often overlooked in research and programmatic efforts in China.


One possible model for materials displaying classically forbidden symmetry properties (apart from perfect quasicrystals) is the icosahedral glass model. We simulate the random growth of two types of two-dimensional icosahedral glasses consisting of the Penrose tiles, First we restrict the growth with the arrow rules, then we let the structure develop totally freely. The diffraction patterns have a clear five-fold symmetry in both cases. The diffraction peak intensities do not differ, but shapes of the central peaks vary depending on whether the arrow rules are imposed or not. Finally, we show that the half-width of the central peak decreases when the size of the simulation increases until a finite disorder-limited value is achieved. This phenomenon is in agreement with the behaviour of physical quasicrystallites and in contradiction with perfect mathematical quasicrystals which have Bragg peaks of zero width.


A common feature used in system identification procedures is transmissibility, which is the frequency-domain ratio between any two outputs and is formally defined as the relative admittance between those two measurements; it is often interpreted as the response normalized by a reference response instead of by the actual input. Several researchers have used the transmissibility, or other features derived from changes in it, for various structural health monitoring applications. In this paper, we consider a SIMO identification model and regard the change in transmissibility as a feature correlating with damage occurrence. Both inherent randomness due to the estimation process and external sources of noise contamination are included as sources of uncertainty in the transmissibility. Quantification of this uncertainty is necessary to group-classify the measurements into either undamaged or damaged (binary) conditions with a clearer understanding of Type I/II trade-offs in a way that facilitates proper decision-making. The paper uses Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves for individual frequency lines as the key performance metric across the entire frequency domain and use Area Under Curve (AUC) as the metric to quantify the performance of the ROC. The paper proves that regions near resonance will have the best hypothesis test performance in terms of sensitivity and specificity.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the influence of social support and adverse life events on depression symptoms, before and after therapy (15-30 days) and during follow-up (4 months) of a psycho-educational intervention for depression.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study population consisted of 254 women with depression symptoms selected among those seeking treatment for their symptoms in three community mental health centers and in one Ministry of Health center, all of them in Mexico City, between January 1998 and December 2000. The intervention has been proved effective previously in reducing depression symptoms. Symptoms were assessed using Radloff's CES-D scale, while specifically designed scales were used for events and social support. Hierarchical regression analyses were carried out to test various models.

RESULTS
Model I: effect of variables: life events, social support, and socio-demographic variables (age, education level, income, and work status) on CES-D pre-treatment. The model was significant (p<0.000) and the first two variables and age were included in the model. Model 2: effect of the same predictive variables on CES-D post-treatment. The model was significant (p<0.001) and included social support and life events. Model 3: effect of the same variables on CES-D during follow-up. The model was significant (p<0.000) and included life events and educational achievement. Model 4: effect of social support and life events during follow-up on CES-D during follow-up. The model was also significant (p<0.000) and both variables were included in the model. Additional analyses for models 2 and 3 adding CES-D pre-treatment as a predictor showed that only the latter was significant.

CONCLUSIONS
Life events and social support are associated with initial depression symptoms and also predict the reduction of symptoms following the psycho-educational intervention. This may be due to the high correlation of life events and social support with CES-D pre-treatment. Life events and social support following the intervention also have an effect on CES-D in this same stage. The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html.


All of us in medicine who care for patients who are chronically critically ill, dying of incurable illnesses, will be faced with discussions about the value of their lives and about the appropriateness of ongoing supportive care. Such discussions are good and true, and they must always be done within the context of the sanctity of every human life and the promise of God that we are His children, each and every one of us. In this article, I explore the end-of-life path of a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the courageous faith that she demonstrated in the face of her illness. I explore with you, the reader, the hard-core conversations that took place at her bedside and their meaning in light of Catholic moral teaching. This story is not meant to indicate that we should always do all interventions at all times for all patients. That would be a teaching counter to Evangelium vitae. This story is meant to help you think through the path of your patients and of you as a physician or other type of healthcare professional in serving your patients. Primum non nocere. Ad majorem Dei gloriam.


Emulsion technology has been used for decades in the food industry to create a diverse range of products, including homogenized milk, creams, dips, dressings, sauces, desserts, and toppings. Recently, however, there have been important advances in emulsion science that are leading to new approaches to improving food quality and functionality. This article provides an overview of a number of these advanced emulsion technologies, including Pickering emulsions, high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs), nanoemulsions, and multiple emulsions. Pickering emulsions are stabilized by particle-based emulsifiers, which may be synthetic or natural, rather than conventional molecular emulsifiers. HIPEs are emulsions where the concentration of the disperse phase exceeds the close packing limit (usually >74%), which leads to novel textural properties and high resistance to gravitational separation. Nanoemulsions contain very small droplets (typically d < 200 nm), which leads to useful functional attributes, such as high optical clarity, resistance to gravitational separation and aggregation, rapid digestion, and high bioavailability. Multiple emulsions contain droplets that have smaller immiscible droplets inside them, which can be used for reduced-calorie, encapsulation, and delivery purposes. This new generation of advanced emulsions may lead to food and beverage products with improved quality, health, and sustainability.


A local variable-size memory policy called the variable-interval sampled working set (VSWS) policy is described. The results of trace-driven simulation experiments reported here show that VSWS has a static performance comparable to those of the working set (WS) and sampled working set (SWS) policies, a dynamic performance better than those of WS, SWS, and the page fault frequency (PFF) policy, and similar to that of the damped working set (DWS) policy. Furthermore, VSWS generaly causes substantially less process suspensions than SWS, and is less expensive to implement than WS or DWS, since it requires the same hardware support as SWS and PFF. The sampling overhead of VSWS is comparable to that of SWS and lower than that of PFF.


The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of protein malnutrition on the glycoprotein content of bone marrow extracellular matrix (ECM). Two-month-old male Swiss mice were submitted to protein malnutrition with a low-protein diet containing 4% casein as compared to 20% casein in the control diet. When the experimental group had attained a 20% loss of their original body weight, we extracted the ECM proteins from bone marrow with PBS buffer, and analyzed ECM samples by SDS-PAGE (7.5%) and ECL Western blotting. Quantitative differences were observed between control and experimental groups. Bone marrow ECM from undernourished mice had greater amounts of extractable fibronectin (1.6-fold increase) and laminin (4.8-fold increase) when compared to the control group. These results suggest an association between fluctuations in the composition of the hematopoietic microenvironment and altered hematopoiesis observed in undernourished mice.


Mouse and vole embryos were transferred into pseudopregnant CD-1 and scid female mice. Cellular changes involved in the formation of decidua in the pregnant mouse uterus up to day 8 of pregnancy were examined by histological, electron microscopic, and histochemical techniques. On day 6 of pregnancy, the vole embryos were laid in interstitium of antimesometrial side of the uterus, as well as in intraspecific pregnancy. Compared with intraspesific pregnant mouse, blood vessels were numerous in the decidua around the vole embryos in interspecific pregnancy. Both distribution and dilation of the blood vessels were increased on day 8. A part of cells in the inner cell mass had not nuclei, suggesting damaged vole embryos on day 8. At the implantation site, the uterine decidua was invaded by extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cells whose function is to destroy the walls of the uterine spiral. Moreover, this decidua was infiltrated by a population of natural killer (NK) cells and macrophage. These cells were particularly numerous in the decidua basalis at the implantation site where they come into close contact with invading EVT cells. These results suggest that interaction between NK, macrophage, and EVT provides the controlling relationship of embryo-maternal in intraspecific and interspecific pregnancy.


Nor-β-lapachone has shown several biological properties. Regarding cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines, it has been recognized as an important prototype. However, quinonoid drugs present a major challenge because of their toxicity. In this study, we evaluated the cytotoxicity and genetic toxicity of nor-β-lapachone in human lymphocytes and HL-60 leukemia cells and murine V79 fibroblasts, to shed some light on its selectivity toward cancer cells. As measured by MTT test, exposure of V79 cells to nor-β-lapachone resulted in a weak cytotoxicity (IC(50) = 13.41 μM), and at a concentration up to 21.9 μM, no cytotoxic effect was observed in lymphocytes, while in HL-60 cells, nor-β-lapachone elicited significantly greater cytotoxicity (IC(50) = 1.89 μM). Cultures coexposed to GSH-OEt showed an increased viability, which may indicate a neutralization of ROS generated by quinonoid treatment. In fact, only the highest concentrations of nor-β-lapachone (10 or 20 μM) caused an increase in oxidative stress in nontumor levels cells as measured by TBARS and nitrite/nitrate detection. This was accompanied by an alteration in intracellular thiol content. However, NAC pre-exposure restored the redox equilibrium of the cells and the concentration of thiol levels to control values. Nor-β-lapachone at 2.5 and 5 μM failed to induce DNA damage in nontumor cells, but at the highest concentrations tested, it induced single and double DNA strand breaks and increased the frequency of chromosomal aberrations. Interestingly, these damages were prevented by NAC pretreatment or exacerbated by prior exposure to the GSH-depleting agent 1-bromoheptane. In electrochemical experiments, nor-β-lapachone at the same concentrations as those used in genotoxic tests did not damage DNA directly, but at the highest concentration tested (200 μM), it caused a very weak DNA interaction. Corroborating electrochemical data, oxidative modifications of DNA bases were observed, as checked by DNA repair enzymes EndoIII and FPG, which reinforced the indirect actions caused by nor-β-lapachone through ROS generation and not via DNA intercalation. The DNA repair capacities were higher for nontumor cells than for leukemia cells, which may be related to the selective cytoxicity of nor-β-lapachone toward cancer cells. Our data suggest that ROS play an important role in nor-β-lapachone toxicity and that its DNA-damaging effect occurs only at concentrations several times higher than that needed for its antiproliferative effect on cancer cells.


Cancer remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. Despite significant advances in our understanding of the pathology of the disease, and the substantial public and private investment into treatment development, late-stage patients often exhaust therapeutic options. Indeed, in the US alone, there were >1.7 million new cancer diagnoses and >600,000 cancerassociated deaths in 2019. As biology in general and cancer research in particular become ever richer in data, we explore the role of machine learning (ML) in changing the cancer drug development landscape. In the first part of this analysis, we focussed on ML for target identification and drug design. We discussed the growing need for ML-based analysis as we enter an age of clinical -omic data and provided a primer to ML-based techniques for the non-statistician/ mathematician. In this chapter, we will explore the problem of tumour heterogeneity together with the role of ML in the discovery and development of cancer biomarkers and for clinical trial design. We end with a brief consideration of the economics of personalised cancer treatment.


This paper offers a strategy for evaluating university training programs in special education. The strategy is comprised of five steps for designing and implementing a system that is responsive to changing trends and needs and oriented to applications by departments of special education using existing resourses and programmatic standards. The discussion includes examples illustrating the steps and considerations involved in implementing them.


Seepage-induced piping erosion is observed in many geotechnical structures. This paper studies the piping mechanism of gap-graded soils during the whole piping erosion failure process under a supercritical hydraulic gradient. We define the supercritical ratio Ri and study the change in the parameters such as the flow velocity, hydraulic conductivity, and fine particle loss with Ri. Under steady flow, a formula for determining the flow velocity state of the sample with Ri according to the fine particle content and relative density of the sample was proposed; during the piping failure process, the influence of Rimax on the rate at which the flow velocity and hydraulic conductivity of the sample increase as Ri decreases was greater than that of the initial relative density and the initial fine particle content of the sample. Under unsteady flow, a larger initial relative density corresponds to a smaller amplitude of increase in the average value of the peak flow velocity with increasing Ri. Compared with the test under steady flow, the flow velocity under unsteady flow would experience abrupt changes. The relative position of the trend line L of the flow velocity varying with Ri under unsteady flow and the fixed peak water head height point A under steady flow were related to the relative density of the sample.


The article argues that all posthumous editions of Herder's Aelteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts, vol. I (1774) are based on an unauthorized impression of the first edition (a ›normalized‹ version initiated by the printing house Breitkopf and the publisher Hartknoch) and that a previously unknown impression – marred by what appear to be striking printing errors and irregularities – must be the original version that was authorized by Herder. It also shows the important role typography and layout play in this work and the extent to which our understanding of the text is affected by the degree to which, for Herder, form of argument and material shape of the text are interrelated. Ultimately, it argues for a way of reading Herder that is attuned to the author's subversion of linearity.


Developing the next generation of household robot helpers requires combining locomotion and interaction capabilities, which is generally referred to as mobile manipulation (MoMa). MoMa tasks are difficult due to the large action space of the robot and the common multi-objective nature of the task, e.g., efficiently reaching a goal while avoiding obstacles. Current approaches often segregate tasks into navigation without manipulation and stationary manipulation without locomotion by manually matching parts of the action space to MoMa sub-objectives (e.g. learning base actions for locomotion objectives and learning arm actions for manipulation). This solution prevents simultaneous combinations of locomotion and interaction degrees of freedom and requires human domain knowledge for both partitioning the action space and matching the action parts to the sub-objectives. In this paper, we introduce Causal MoMa, a new reinforcement learning framework to train policies for typical MoMa tasks that makes use of the most favorable subspace of the robot's action space to address each sub-objective. Causal MoMa automatically discovers the causal dependencies between actions and terms of the reward function and exploits these dependencies through causal policy gradient that reduces gradient variance compared to previous state-of-the-art reinforcement learning algorithms, improving convergence and results. We evaluate the performance of Causal MoMa on three types of simulated robots across different MoMa tasks and demonstrate success in transferring the policies trained in simulation directly to a real robot, where our agent is able to follow moving goals and react to dynamic obstacles while simultaneously and synergistically controlling the whole-body: base, arm, and head. More information at https://sites.google.com/view/causal-moma.


The effect of a GnRH analogue [D-Ala6, des-Gly10-NH2)-GnRH-ethylamide,GnRHa) on granulosa and cumulus cell glycolysis in presence or absence of FSH was studied. Cumulus complexes and granulosa cells from PMSG-treated rats were cultured in Eagle's minimal essential medium (MEM) for a period of 72 h. Media were changed at 24 and 48 h and lactate content was assayed by fluorimetry. GnRHa alone stimulated lactate production in granulosa cells. GnRH combined with FSH increased lactate production in granulosa cells during the 0-24 h period and decreased it during the 48-72 h period as compared to FSH alone. GnRHa did not stimulate lactate production in cumulus complexes during 72 h culture in MEM, while FSH did. In a less complex culture medium, BMOC, GnRHa caused a small increase in lactate production and slightly enhanced the FSH effect. In conclusion, GnRHa has a direct stimulatory effect on granulosa cell glycolysis. GnRHa also modulates the FSH stimulation of granulosa cells biphasically, i.e. early enhancement (0-24 h) and late inhibition (48-72 h). GnRHa has no consistent direct effects on cumulus cell glycolysis.


To clarify the involvement of cytochrome P4503A (CYP3A) and CYP2C19 in the metabolism of alprazolam, the effects of pretreatment with erythromycin, which is an inhibitor of CYP3A and S-mephenytoin 4-hydroxylation capacity on the single-oral dose kinetics of alprazolam were studied in 12 healthy male volunteers. Six each were extensive metabolizers (EMs) and poor metabolizers (PMs) of S-mephenytoin 4-hydroxylation. Each subject received erythromycin 1,200 mg/day or placebo for 10 days in a double-blind, crossover manner. At 9 AM of day 8 alprazolam 0.8 mg was given orally, and blood samplings were performed up to 48 hours postdosing. Erythromycin treatment compared with placebo treatment increased significantly plasma alprazolam concentrations from 6 to 48 hours postdosing. Erythromycin significantly decreased the apparent oral clearance and prolonged the elimination half-life of alprazolam. No significant difference was found in plasma concentrations and pharmacokinetic parameters of alprazolam between the EM and PM groups. The present study thus suggests that CYP3A, but not CYP2C19, is involved in the metabolism of alprazolam.


As the poultry industry has grown and expanded and as alternative uses of wood by-products have expanded, the availability of wood shavings and sawdust for litter materials has been challenged. Litter type utilized is largely dependent upon local availability of the material and location of the farm. Unfortunately, the availability of pine shavings has steadily decreased due to competition for its use from other industries and use as an energy source. The objective of this research was to evaluate conventional litter sources to sand as a substitute litter. For the experiment Pine Wood Shavings (PWS), Rice Hulls (RH), River Bed Sand (S) and river bed sand top dressed with pine wood shavings (SP) were the four litter source treatments implemented. Chicks were identified and randomly allocated in a randomized complete block design. Litter temperatures were recorded prior to bird placement. Body weight, cumulative feed consumption, feed conversion (feed: body weight) and litter moisture were determined on a weekly basis through 42 days of age. Mortality was recorded daily. At processing carcass weight, percentage carcass yield without giblets and gizzard yield were determined on a prechilled basis. Litter surface temperatures were significantly (p<0.001) higher for PWS, RH and SP compared to just S alone. Broilers raised on S had significantly (p<0.001) higher body weights and consumed more feed than those raised on PWS or RH throughout the 42 days. No significant differences were found for feed conversion, mortality or carcass yield. Carcass weight and gizzard yield were significantly (p<0.001) higher for birds raised on S. Sand maintained approximately 15% lower moisture level in comparison to PWS and RH and a 5% difference to SP (p<0.001). In conclusion, sand can potentially be used as an alternative litter material for growing broilers.


This study reports the QbD on Pharmaceutical Development of Diazepam Oral Disintegrating Tablet. The concept of quality by design (QbD) has recently gained importance by application of design of experiments approach (DoE). QbD describes a pharmaceutical development approach especially in formulation design & development and manufacturing processes for the purpose of maintaining and improving the product quality. There are various elements of QbD are there such as Quality Target Product Profile (QTPP) ,Critical Quality Attributes (CQAS), Quality Risk (Assessment) Management (QRM), Design Space etc. The present work is aimed in the application of quality by design (QbD) concept especially Target Product profile in the formulation development of Diazepam tablet.


: A preparative procedure for obtaining tightly and loosely bound DNA-matrix complexes was developed. To this end, the DNA-matrix complexes were separated from DNA excess by restrictase digestion and solubilized in 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate + 8 M urea. To obtain tightly bound complexes, the lysate was transferred to a solution containing 2 M LiCl and 4 mM urea and gel filtered in the same medium. Tightly bound complexes were eluted in the same peak with DNA. Loosely bound complexes were obtained by gel filtration in 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate + 8 M urea after preliminary digestion of the original complexes with DNAase I which selectively destroys the tight bonds. Within the composition of loosely bound DNA-matrix complexes, the polypeptides with Mr of 180, 65-75, 58 and 47-50 kDa were identified, whereas tightly bound complexes were shown to contain polypeptides with molecular masses of 180, 65-75, 63, 61, 58 and 52-53 kDa.


Excitation and ionization cross sections of He, Ne and Ar atoms by positron impact have been presented in the energy range from the respective thresholds up to 100 eV using a time-of-flight (TOF) method. These data were compared with the theoretical and experimental data. For excitation, the present data for Ar in the whole range and for Ne in the range 50-100 eV coincide roughly with the electron impact data of de Heer and co-workers. However, for He the present data are much smaller than the electron data above 30 eV, but in good agreement with the theoretical data of Varracchio below 35 eV. The present data for the ionization cross section for He coincide well with the experimental data of Fromme et al. in the range less than 100 eV.


Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) are used as a service software which provides huge support to clinical decision making process where the main properties of a patient are matched to a tangible clinical knowledge. Within this gathered important information about patients, the medical decisions can be made more accurately. In this paper we present a CDSS that uses four physiological parameters of patients such as Pre-prandial Blood Glucose, Post-prandial Blood Glucose, Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) and Glucose in Urine to produce a prediction about the possibility of being diabetic. According to collected reference data provided from hospitals, the disease can be predicted by comparing the input data of patients. If the system cannot procure a prediction about patients' status with these parameters, then the second phase which uses soft computing techniques is put into process with requesting additional data about patients. Our conducted experiments show that the diagnosis can be established in a breeze by getting the patients information with %80 accuracy. Support Vector Machines were applied to achieve maximum success rate with nine different physiological parameters such as; Pregnancy, glucose, blood pressure, skin fold, insulin, Hemoglobin A1C, body mass index, family tree and age. Four different Kernel Functions are implemented in case studies and classification process is optimized by reducing attributes with feature selection algorithms. This represents an improvement in classification of CDSS, while reducing computational complexity.


This paper presents the consideration of proper interpretation of hub-and- spoke structure for the example: Central Airport Project. The hub- and- spoke paradigm is a form of transport topology optimization in which traffic routes are organized as a series of "spokes" that connect outlying points to a central "hub".


The East Usambaras in Tanzania are a tropical biodiversity hotspot where current agricultural management practices pose threats to forest conservation and development objectives. Promoting sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) would improve long-term productivity and reduce pressure on forest reserves. The study objective was to identify household-level characteristics that influence adoption of improved management practices, specifically soil replenishment practices, in order to identify opportunities and constraints to scaling up SAI to landscape level. First, three common farming systems and a fourth agroforestry (AF) model were developed to estimate the relative profitability of incorporating fallow, manure, and non-timber forest product activities. Next, household surveys were conducted and a logistic regression analysis was used to measure the influence of socioeconomic characteristics, physical and financial assets, tenure security, and plot-specific attributes on adoption of soil replenishment practices that were specified in the model. Findings showed that the AF model was financially competitive but raises opportunity costs to labour when compared to common systems. Marital status, household size, remittances, credit access, and tenure security significantly influenced adoption of fallow and applying organic inputs. Significant plot-specific attributes included perceived fertility and distance from the homestead. Policies to scale up SAI should consider these factors and emphasize improving markets for AF species and extension services.


This paper deals with the issues on the optimization of transmitter and receiver FIR filters in the orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) system with offset QAM modulation. The filters have their responses overlapped in both the time and the frequency domains. The transmitter and receiver filters satisfy the constraints minimizing the interchannel and intersymbol interference and are optimized by using nonlinear programming procedures. Two different objective functions in the frequency domain are used: the least square error (LSE) in the stop-band and minimizing the maximum magnitude (mini-max) in the stop-band.


Abstract Background Psoriasis is a chronic immune‐mediated inflammatory skin disease manifested by an increased rate of keratinocyte division. Currently, it has been established that the cytokines of the IL‐36 family play a significant role in the initiation and regulation of the inflammatory process in psoriasis. The IL‐36 cytokine found in skin is inactive and its activation requires proteolytic processing that may occur via the involvement of neutrophil serine proteases such as human neutrophil elastase (HNE). The localization of these enzymes in the upper layers of the epidermis suggests that topical application of HNE inhibitors could be efficacious in the treatment of psoriasis. Sivelestat is an HNE inhibitor developed for systemic use towards the treatment of acute respiratory failure. Aim The present study focussed on the investigation of the effects of sivelestat formulated for topical use, in the imiquimod‐induced model of psoriasis in mice. Methods The psoriasis‐like state was induced by application of imiquimod (Aldara®) 5% cream to mouse shaven skin. A group of 40 inbred mice of the BALB/c strain randomized into 4 groups of 10 was used in the experiment: Group 1 – no therapy (control), Group 2 – ointment (Vaseline) containing 1% sivelestat, Group 3 – cream (lanoline + olive oil + water in equal proportions) containing 1% sivelestat, Group 4 – 1% betamethasone dipropionate. Dermatological assessment of skin lesions was performed by means of the PASI method (mPASI), as well as histological and immunohistochemical evaluation. Results Based on the evaluation of efficacy manifestations, it was established that the total mPASI index value decreased by 50% during therapy with sivelestat cream and by 36% during therapy with sivelestat ointment. Histological study revealed that the epidermal thickness in groups that underwent therapy was 2.4–3.6 times lower compared to the control group. Immunohistochemical study of the skin indicated that following sivelestat treatment, the quantity of CD3+cells in the skin was 1.8–2.2 times lower, and the level of proliferative activity (Ki‐67+cells) was 2.3–2.9 lower compared to the non‐therapy group. In contrast to topical corticosteroids where the more pronounced anti‐inflammatory effect is typically seen with ointment formulations, with sivelestat we observed an opposite effect. The reasons for that reversal remain unclear. Conclusion Based on the results obtained using the animal model of imiquimod‐induced psoriasis, it was established that the HNE inhibitor sivelestat demonstrated efficacy comparable to that of a strong topical glucocorticoid steroidal drug (betamethasone dipropionate 1%). Significant resolution of skin lesions, reduction of epidermal thickness, diminishing of the skin infiltration with T‐lymphocytes and normalization of the cell division rate in epidermis and dermis were evident. Thus, suppression of IL‐36 mediated inflammation activity in the skin by topical application of a HNE inhibitor represents a promising new direction in the treatment of psoriasis. Certainly, HNE has other targets; thus, molecular studies could be subject of future experiments beyond the scope of the present study.


Hydroxycinnamic acids are widely distributed in the plant kingdom secondary metabolites, found also as simple derivatives including amides, esters, and glycosides. These acids and their derivatives are known to possess antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiproliferative, immunostimulatory and neuroprotective properties. The aim of the present work was the synthesis of new hydroxycinnamoyl amides of the (L)- cysteine and (L)- proline and evaluation of their radical scavenging and antimicrobial activity. The structures of the synthesized analogues were characterized by UV, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, ESI-MS. The compounds were screened for their antibacterial (against Staphylococcus aureus 209, Streptococcus pyogenes 10535, Bacillus subtilis 1A95, Listeria monocytogenes C12) and antifungal (against Candida albicans 62) activities. All amides demonstrated the most potent activity against Streptococcus pyogenes, even higher in comparison with the free hydroxycinnamic acids. The ability of hydroxycinnamoyl amides to interact with 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) stable free radical in vitro was also evaluated. The results obtained showed that the radical scavenging activity of the sinapoyl- and caffeoyl amides of L-cysteine is superior to the standards ferulic acid, eugenol and isoeugenol.


SARS-CoV-2 is a RNA coronavirus of the β-CoVs family responsible for the pandemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (COVID-19). It is hypothesized that the viral genome of the contemporary predominant founder clones is likely to be evolving in geographic-dependent manner. Thus, strains of different origin may be characterized by different mutation patterns. The study was aimed to perform the mutational and phylogenetic analysis of the Russian SARS-CoV-2 genomes at different time periods and in various regions, as well as to characterize the mutational profiles of isolates using the bioinformatics approaches. The mutation accumulation was compared in 86 SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequences from Russia and 220 from Europe and North America in order to reveal the characteristic gene variations, the possible positive selection patterns. Along with the known mutation variants in the structural proteins genes, typical for isolates of European origin, several additional mutations including the synonymous mutation in gene M (C26750T) characteristic for Russian isolates were revealed. Double mutation R203K and G204R in the nucleocapside gene which previously emerged in Europe began spreading and rapidly (within a month) became the dominant form in Russia. The results obtained indicate that the viral genome of most Russian isolates evolves with accumulation of new mutations associated with increased viral transmission. Data on the SARS-CoV-2 genome specific mutation patterns might be used for the detection of the virus, as well as for tracking and controlling of its spread.


Long after the American revolution, social movements played important roles in the
development of the United States as a nation, helping to define and express identities
that were both larger and smaller than the nation itself. Movements that were
founded to advance certain goals — temperance, religious conversion, or the abolition
of slavery — consciously helped to shape and define "Americanness" and
therefore played an important role in constituting the nation itself. Movements
inspired by Protestantism have been a particular force. To outsiders — immigrants,
the irreligious, non-Protestants, or foreigners — American social movements sought
to impose American civilization on peoples, lands, and nations outside their cultural
or political domain, all justified as a mission sanctioned and supervised by God.


An integrated approach of geomorphological, speleological, climatological and stratigraphical analysis was applied in a selectet study area in the Swabian Alb (south Germany) to determine the spatial and temporal development of deep karstification since the Pliocene. By correlating the field data derived from applying different analysis, four karstification levels could be identified and assigned to the regional landscape development. The oldest and highest level L IV represents only scattered relics of Late Tertiary karstification. Levels L II and L III are clearly determined by terraces and cave levels. They correspond to major stagnation phases of the regional base level of the river Danube and the pre-alpine glaciation in the Late and Middle Pleistocene. The lowest level L I evolved during the major glaciation of the Riss-period and is still active in the upper reaches but buried under younger deposits in the lower reaches of the area. The study points out the necessity of using different methods to characterise the evolution of karstification.


This paper presents a method for obtaining dynamically cryptographically strong substitution boxes (S-boxes) based on discrete chaos map system (DCMS). The cryptographical properties such as bijection, nonlinearity, strict avalanche, output bits independence and equiprobable input/output XOR distribution of these S-boxes are analyzed in detail. The results of numerical analysis show that all the criteria for designing good S-box can be satisfied approximately. As a result, our approach is suitable for practical application in designing block cryptosystem.


We present a patient with an abnormal origin of the right coronary artery from the left anterior descending artery. The patient had chest pain probably related to myocardial ischaemia. This anomaly is very rare and has previously been reported in only three cases. The abnormal vessel travelled rightwards and remained anterior to the main pulmonary artery, it was free of significant stenosis. The mechanism of anterior myocardial ischaemia remains unexplained.


Islam is an incredible blend of rationality, simplicity and justice. Muslims made a personal appeal to peoples' religious consciousness and they often put forward the populistic intelligibility of Islam. Besides its simple and rational creed, Islam offers an impressive set of rituals which gained the admiration and, subsequently, the conversion of many non-Muslims to Islam. The alarming rationalism and clarity of Islam not only led the Middle East to renounce Christianity and convert to Islam in the past, it equally continues to do so with Christians in the West to the present day. But the Westerners never ceased to portray Islam as an enforcing power claiming that Islam was spread by military adventures or with the sword. They believe that non-Muslims were offered the freedom to choose between two things: Islam or death. They should know that Islam teaches that a person's faith must be pure and sincere, so it is certainly not something that can be forced on someone. 1 Therefore, refuting their claims this paper raises questions to the Westerners who are pointing the sword to the contemporary Christians converting to Islam like Lauren Booth, Cat Stevens and the likes? Or, why the fastest growing religion is Islam in America 2 which is believed to be the abode of the most rational people of the earth? Are Americans converting to Islam in fear of the sword? Or, is Dr. Zakir Nayek pointing guns to those Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and atheists who are converting to Islam after listening to his speech? So, it is all about rationality, simplicity and justice of Islam comparing to the other world religions that attract very much the rational minds.