Abstract We present the results of a theoretical investigation into the existence, evolution and excitation of resonant triads of nonlinear free-surface gravity waves confined to a cylinder of finite depth. It is well known that resonant triads are impossible for gravity waves in laterally unbounded domains; we demonstrate, however, that horizontal confinement of the fluid may induce resonant triads for particular fluid depths. For any three correlated wave modes arising in a cylinder of arbitrary cross-section, we prove necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a depth at which nonlinear resonance may arise, and show that the resultant critical depth is unique. We enumerate the low-frequency triads for circular cylinders, including a new class of resonances between standing and counter-propagating waves, and also briefly discuss annular and rectangular cylinders. Upon deriving the triad amplitude equations for a finite-depth cylinder of arbitrary cross-section, we deduce that the triad evolution is always periodic, and determine parameters controlling the efficiency of energy exchange. In order to excite a particular triad, we explore the influence of external forcing; in this case, the triad evolution may be periodic, quasi-periodic or chaotic. Finally, our results have potential implications on resonant water waves in man-made and natural basins, such as industrial-scale fluid tanks, harbours and bays.


Abstract This introductory article emphasises the need to put the contemporary nation-building (state-building) effort in post-Saddam Iraq and elsewhere in historical perspective. With the resurgence of a powerful international discourse on nation-building that draws very selectively on the ostensible lessons of earlier nation-building successes and failures since 1945 (in fact the term nation-building is increasingly being substituted for the less problematic concept of state-building), it is more important than ever to set the idea and practice of nation-building in the context of decolonisation, the universalisation of the nation-state system, the geopolitics of the rise and fall of the Cold War and the transformation of the global political economy between the 1950s and the 1990s. In contrast to a growing number of quantitative and technocratic studies of nation-building and political instability, the article emphasises the profound need for broad qualitative analysis that historicises and de-routinises nation-building and the international system of nation-states in order to facilitate better and more critical engagement with contemporary nation-building and the wider crisis of the nation-state system of the early 21st century.


Troodos is a classical ophiolite complex. It is proposed that the serpentinized harzburgites that now form the top of the mountain and represent the originally lowest part of the ophiolite sequence rose as a diapir. This diapiric rise is caused by the pervasive serpentinization of a suboceanic harzburgite, due to rock-sea water interaction. The serpentinization caused a 44% expansion of the rocks. Contrary to salt diapirism, the driving force for this diapiric rise is not so much the difference in density, but the volume increase asscociated with the transformation of harzburgite into serpentinite. The overlying gabbros, sheeted dike complex and pillow lavas were pierced by this serpentinite diapir but barely deformed. Their interaction with sea water was li- mited to some pyroxenes in the gabbros being transformed to amphiboles, and epidotisation of some of the dikes in the sheeted dike complex. The location of steep faults in the Troodos massif is determined by the contrasting expansion behavior of different rock-types on both sides of the fault.


The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of teachers about the effectiveness of the schools they work in based on various variables. The research was designed in the descriptive scanning model. The sample of the study is composed of 316 teachers working at Turkish high school in the Ağrı provincial center and local districts during the 2015-2016 academic years. The "Effective School Scale" developed by Abdurrezzak (2015) was used to collect data in the study. The data of the study were analyzed by descriptive statistics and parametric tests. According to the findings of the study, teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the schools they work in are at a "medium" level. While teachers' perceptions of effective school administrators, teachers and school atmosphere sub-dimensions are at a "medium" level, their perceptions on effective school students, and parents were determined as at a "low" level. It was determined that teachers' perceptions of school effectiveness were not significantly different according to gender, marital status, education status and duration of service variables. However, significant differences were found between the perceptions of teachers about the dimensions of effective schools according to the type of school they worked in and the branch variable.


This study was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding two forms (powder and extract) of green tea and marigold as well as α-tocopheryl acetate on performance, egg quality, egg yolk and also serum cholesterol concentrations of laying hens. A total of 150 hens, aged 64 weeks were divided into six groups with five replicate cages containing five hens each for each treatment. Dietary treatments were as following: control, two diets including 0.5% extract of green tea (Gteaext) or marigold (Marext), two diets including 1.5% powder of green tea (Gteapow) and marigold (Marpow) and an α-tocopheryl acetate (α-TA) diet (200 mg/Kg). Feeding α-TA significantly (p<0.05) improved feed intake, egg production, yolk weight, and yolk index. Feeding Gteaext decreased feed consumption and feed conversion ratio. Compared to control, serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and cholesterol concentrations were reduced by diets containing Gteaext, Marext, Gteapow or α-TA, significantly (p<0.05). Also, feeding Gteaext reduced serum triglycerides and increased ratios of HDL to cholesterol and LDL in comparison to control. Egg yolk cholesterol was greater in hens on Marpow and control compared to other diets. In general, incorporating antioxidant components derived from herbal plants (green tea and marigold) in laying hens diets as alternative options for α-tocopheryl acetate can be effective based on cost and availability.

 Key words: Natural antioxidants, yolk cholesterol, laying hens, egg quality, green tea extract, marigold extract.


There are situations where it is not possible to capture larger views with the given imaging media such as still cameras or video recording machines in a single stretch because of their inherent limitations. So to avoid such conditions a term Image Mosaicing comes into play. This Paper presents a complete system for mosaicing a group of still images with some amount of overlapping between every two successive images. Mainly the idea is to wrap up the overlapping areas within the group of images. Detection for the common area is done using common features by the help of feature extraction from the images. In this paper technique used for the feature extraction is SIFT which is used to extract invariant features which are stable in nature. Invariant features are those features of an image which does not change even after the scaling, rotation, or zooming, change in illumination of the image is done. Multiple level filtering and downsampling are the key factors of the SIFT. So the steps involved are feature detection, matching of stable features, wrapping up of features around those feature locations. Mosaicing part consists of two major part and those are transformation matrix and bilinear interpolation. Mosaiced images are full length images which consist of all the group images. GJCST-F Classification: I.4.7 Image Mosaicing with Invariant Features Detection using SIFT Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: Image Mosaicing with Invariant Features Detection using SIFT


In laboratory studies with 3 species of Calliphora more than half were shown to ingest eggs of Taenia hydatigena from the surface of clog faeces with a maximum of over 5000 eggs in 1 fly. Most eggs were voided within 48 h and between 38 and 48% of these eggs had lost their embryophores. In field studies carried out in the South Island of New Zealand, traps baited with dog faeces captured the following blowfly species in decreasing order of abundance: Hybopygia varia, Calliphora quadrimaculata, C. hortona and C. stygia. Peak numbers were trapped in January, February and March. Almost 25% of wild flies, caught after feeding for up to 3 mm on dog faeces naturally contaminated with taeniid eggs, had eggs in their intestine. When administered to lambs all 4 species of fly transferred infection. Lambs grazed in winter on plots near kennels that had housed dogs with patent infections of T. hydatigena acquired higher worm burdens than those grazed further away. The burdens were greater downwind of the prevailing wind. After removal of the dogs, blowflies caught in the vicinity contained taeniid eggs but the contents of pitfall traps did not. Blowflies, and to a much lesser degree the insects and dust caught on sticky traps during the presence of the dogs, transferred infection when administered to naive lambs.


Within a formal model of international agreements in the shadow of renegotiations and domestic competition, we highlight three important ways elections shape international agreements. Elections determine who will be in control of policy in the future, which affects how leaders bargain today. Elections also determine the deals policymakers will agree to. Finally, proposers have the opportunity to shape the contours of domestic political competition with what is offered in pre-electoral bargaining. We identify that several canonical results in the literature – like the Schelling conjecture or the idea that hawkish leaders have an innate bargaining advantage over dovish leaders – only hold under certain restrictions on how voters evaluate their leaders. In contrast, we show paradoxically that when voters are prospective, electoral incentives shade the ability for domestic leaders to negotiate better deals for their publics. Counterintuitively, this leads to hawks agreeing to more conciliatory agreements than doves.


There has been a problem of increase in employee turnover at the Cooperative bank. This is shown by an increase of turnover from 15% in the year 2005 to 19% ten years later in 2015. Labour market is currently being faced with a number of diverse trends. One element of this is the Generation Y type of employees. These are young employees born in the early 1980s and early 1990s who are joining the labour force with unique needs, aspirations and demands. The study utilized Herzberg two factor theory, Equity theory and Hierarchy of needs theory. The key variables for the study were: Reward and compensation practices; Career management practices; Training and development practices, and; Work-life balance practices. A stratified random sampling technique was used for the study. The researcher purposely selected the head office and Parliament branches. The target population of the study was 392 Generation Y employees. Census was conducted on employees of the head office and Parliament branch. The sample size was 89. After data had been collected, the researcher conducted data cleaning, and then the data was coded and entered in the computer for analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Data was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A total of 71 questionnaires were returned as correctly filled which were subsequently used in the analysis, representing response rate of 79.8%.The age group of majority of Generation Y employees at Cooperative bank lied between 28-36 years at (65.2%). Majority (58.3%) of the respondents were male while the rest (41.7%) of the respondents were female. Majority (44.0%) of the respondents had a working experience between 3 to 6 years. Regression results revealed that there was an existing linear relationship between reward and compensation and retention of generation Y employees (β = 0.371; p = 0.002, α = 0.05);  career management practices and retention of generation Y employees (β = 0.184; p = 0.020, α = 0.05); training and development practices and retention of generation Y at Cooperative bank in the County of Nairobi (β = 0.163; p = 0.040, α = 0.05).,and; work-life balance and retention of Generation Y's yielded Beta values, (β = 0.498; p= 0.001). All this led to the rejection of the null hypothesis and conclusion that indeed they were significant in retaining Generation Y employees. The study recommended that: there was need to have well scheduled salary review by the management;  Career management methods like having career counselling facilities, career mentors, career planning and career development programs should be widely adopted by banks; Training and development opportunities should be availed to all employees and ensure there is continuous skills improvement of the work force; banks should consider more on work-life balance practices are in place, and; further study is needed also to determine the nature of reward preferred by the commercial banks employees to be able to make the system work better and achieve greater results as envisaged in the strategic plan and future plans to succeed. This study may also be replicated in other similar organizations to compare the outcomes. Keywords: Reward and compensation practices, Career management practices, Training and development practices, Work-life balance practices and retention practices.


Nazca boobies (Sula granti) show unconditional obligate siblicide immediately after hatching, reducing the typical two-egg clutch size to one. We studied body mass changes and levels of testosterone (T), corticosterone (CORT), and progesterone (P) for A-chicks (dominant, first hatched), B-chicks (subordinate, second hatched), and singletons, during the first 7 days after hatching, when siblicide normally occurs. Mass increase with age was higher for A-chicks than for singletons and B-chicks. This exaggerated the existing developmental advantage of A- over B-chicks that is due to hatching asynchrony. In nests with two chicks, CORT titer was significantly higher in B-chicks than in A-chicks. During ontogenetic development, CORT decreased with age for A-chicks, but did not change for singletons. P showed qualitatively similar ontogenetic changes to CORT, remaining unchanged for A-chicks but increasing for singletons. Thus, both CORT and P levels were lower for A-chicks than for singletons, and both hormones varied inversely with body mass. Overall, T levels did not differ between different categories of chicks. However, one B-chick in the process of reversing the dominance relationship with its older, but weakened, sibling had significantly elevated T. We suggest that CORT and P are regulated to promote exaggerated mass gain in socially challenged A-chicks, facilitating siblicide. Whether T induces aggressiveness during short time intervals of intense sibling rivalry needs further attention.


As in Newtonian fluids, unconfined yield stress fluid slender flows are prone to become unstable and host travelling waves. We propose a non-local dimensionless number ψ, obtained from a physical order-of-magnitude analysis, to predict, for the first time, the transition that marks the onset of roll waves in unconfined discharges of bentonite, whose rheology was assumed as a Bingham plastic. Involved variables include the discharge volume flow, Bingham viscosity, mixture density, gravity acceleration, plane inclination and yield stress. Experimental verification considering various discharge flow-plane inclinations and concentrations of the mixture indicate that for values of ψ exceeding the unity, single or multiple roll waves appear.


Relativistic band theoretical calculations reveal that intrinsic spin Hall conductivity in hole-doped archetypical semiconductors Ge, GaAs, and AlAs is large [approximately 100(planck/e)(Omega cm)(-1)], showing the possibility of a spin Hall effect beyond the four-band Luttinger Hamiltonian. The calculated orbital-angular-momentum (orbital) Hall conductivity is one order of magnitude smaller, indicating no cancellation between the spin and orbital Hall effects in bulk semiconductors. Furthermore, it is found that the spin Hall effect can be strongly manipulated by strains, and that the ac spin Hall conductivity is large in pure as well as doped semiconductors.


In places where deicing salts are used to keep roads free of ice, the bridge components most prone to corrosion are concrete deck slabs, which can be made corrosion-free by replacing the steel reinforcement by bars made of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP). Recent experimental investigation has shown that only the transverse bars at the bottom of the deck slab confine the slab for full arching action. The rest of the reinforcement in the two assemblies only controls the widths of environmental and fatigue-induced cracks. An experimental fatigue study on full-scale models of deck slabs showed that slabs with steel bars have the poorest fatigue resistance and slabs with glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars the best. ISIS Canada conducted field studies in 2005 to show that the GFRP is not attacked by alkaline reaction in concrete. Because of this finding the Canadian Bridge Highway Bridge Design Code (CSA S06–06) permits GFRP as a primary reinforcement.


Drone-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems are attractive for small and mid-area applications due to easy and temporal deployment capability. In this paper, we present a 77-GHz drone-borne multistatic frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar transceiver (TRX) which enables multiple drones to cooperate for SAR imaging by wirelessly sharing the reference chirp signal between the drones. The TRX can be configured in the monostatic or multistatic (master/slave) mode by integrated RF switches. The antenna module in this work includes microstrip comb-line and planar Yagi-Uda array antennas for SAR signals and wireless synchronization of the reference chirp signal, respectively. The fabricated radar TRX chip size, including PADs, is 2.20 mm2. From the on-ground measurement, the SAR module detected a metallic object up to 20 meters away with around 11.2-dB SNR in multi-static mode. The TRX consumes 0.92, 1.3 and 0.4 W for monostatic, multistatic master, and multistatic slave modes, respectively.


Student success is among the most widely researched areas in tertiary education. Generalisability of research in this field is problematic due to cultural and structural differences between countries, institutions and programmes where the research is done. Engineering education in the Netherlands has not been studied in depth. In this paper, outcomes of studies done outside and inside engineering and outside and inside the Netherlands are discussed to help understand the complexity of student retention issues. Although generalisation is an issue, there are a number of concepts and variables that surface in many of these studies, including students' background and disposition variables, education attributes, variables concerning educational climate and student behaviour. How these variables are related and how a university can apply the outcomes of research in this field of study are discussed in this paper.


[1] This study investigates the potential of projecting regional precipitation over Yunlin County using a singular-value-decomposition (SVD) based statistical downscaling scheme to cope with climate change; the change rate of local precipitation and its connection with the variability of large-scale circulation are also discussed. It is found that rainfall over Yunlin County is closely tied to the large-scale circulation over the East Asian monsoon region, and that general circulation models (GCMs) perform reasonably in simulating the mean states of sea level pressure (SLP) and meridional wind field at 850 hPa (V850) over this region. Consequently, the two large-scale variables, SLP and V850, both of which are taken from seven GCMs involving the 20C3M, A1B, and B1 scenarios, are used as predictors for downscaling. The result shows that the downscaling schemes based on these predictors show a skillful and stable performance in reproducing historical seasonal rainfall anomalies over Yunlin County, especially when the strategies of using two predictors and multiple model ensemble (MME) are considered. It also shows that comparing the mean states of 20C3M-downscaled and scenario-projected seasonal local rainfall in the coming 36 years with respect to the period of 1975–2000 reveals a suppressive pattern in the wet season and an increasing pattern in the dry season; the finding may be associated with the strength of large-scale circulation under different scenarios. Overall, this study demonstrates that useful information concerning the impact of climate change on regional precipitation can be obtained by downscaling schemes using outputs of GCMs as predictors.


The purpose of the study was evaluating the peculiarity of bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). 51 men with SCI were enrolled to the study. The comparison group consists of 51 healthy men which were standardized by age and body weight. The study revealed in patients with SCI significantly higher rate of osteoporosis (84.31%) and sarcopenia (43.14%) in comparison with healthy men (1.96% and 25.49% accordingly). In healthy men the correlation analysis revealed the wide-ranging influence of body composition on lower extremities BMD. Thus, femur neck BMD is determined by the lean mass of upper extremities (r = 0.33, p <0.05), lower extremities (r = 0.38, p <0.05), trunk (r = 0.41, p <0.05) and total body (r = 0.43, p <0.05). Hip BMD depends on the lean mass of trunk (r = 0.36, p <0.05) and total body (r = 0.34, p <0.05). Lower extremities BMD correlates with lean mass of trunk (r = 0.33, p <0.05) and lower extremities (r = 0.32, p <0.05). In men with SCI it was found the correlation between femur neck BMD and trunk lean mass (r=0.30, p<0.05); hip BMD correlates with lean mass of trunk (r=0.31, p<0.05) and lower extremities (r=0.35, p<0.05); lower extremities BMD correlates with lean mass of trunk (r = 0.41, p <0.05) and lower extremities (r = 0.32, p <0.05). Consequently, our study showed the influence of lean body mass on lower extremities BMD in both groups, which should be taken into account during managements of patients with SCI.


We developed a new approach to synthesize MOF seeds by directly growing ZIF-8 seeds from zinc hydroxide nanostrands (ZHNs)/gelatin composite thin films. The ZIF-8 seeds were anchored firmly and partially in the gelatin film, which could overcome the poor bonding between the substrate and the MOF layer. Using these seeds, after second growth, a dense and well intergrown ZIF-8/gelatine thin film composite membrane was obtained. The different proportions of gelatin mixed with ZHNs influenced the density of the seeds, accordingly affecting the quality of the final ZIF-8/gelatin membranes. The continuous and well intergrown membranes with a ZIF-8 layer of about 2 μm, exhibited H2 permeance of 7.68 × 10−6 mol s−1 Pa−1 m−2 at room temperature, with ideal selectivities for H2/CH4 and H2/N2 gases of 14.2 and 9.4, respectively, far beyond the Knudsen selectivity. Similarly, an HKUST-1 seeds/gelatin thin film was also synthesized. This process holds the potential for synthesis of other MOF membranes on various substrates.


A variety of antigenic preparations from whole bacteria M. tuberculosis humanus (H37Rv) and relevant subcellular components have been tested using indirect ELISA for determination of antituberculous antibodies. Cell membranes of mycobacteria and antigens isolated from KCl-extracts of cell membranes in gel Toyopearl HW 55 F demonstrated the highest activity. Fraction 6 usage raised the reaction sensitivity to 83.3% in specificity 86.7%. As indicated by the ELISA, the highest antibodies content under the above antigen introduction was reached in patients with fibrocavernous tuberculosis, the lowest one in focal tuberculosis.


Abstract
Suitable seedling is one of the most important factors of onion growth and yield in transplanting method (TM). In order to investigation effects of different seedling size and age on marketable yield , biological yield, harvest index and some qualitative characters in onion an experiment was couducted at the Agricultural research Center of East Azarbayjan in 2008. The factorial was conducted based randomized complete block design (CRD) with four replications. The experimental factors were four seedling size 9, 12, 15 and 20 cm and two varieties of onion: Azar-shahr (red hull and long – day) and Gooli-Ghesseh Zanjan(bright-red skin, intermediate- day). In this research characters as: marketable yield (MY), biological yield (BY), harvest index(H.I), percentage of class I, II and III onion, bulb fresh weight(BFW), bulb dry weight(BDW), percentages of dry matter (DM) and total soluble solids (TSS), specific gravity (SG), bulb volume(BV), texture tightness(TT) and bulb shape index (BSI) were studied. Analysis of variance for the measured traits indicated that except for the SG, other studied characters were significant in 1% level. With increasing of seedling length except for BSI all evaluated characters increased. The Red Azar-shahr was superior cultivar in all attributes, and Gooli-Ghesseh Zanjan was lower. Comparsions of the means of treatments show that the seedling size of 20cm had highest values of MY, BY, H.I in Azar-shahr(41.29 t/ha, 233.84 g/p, 89.57% respectively) and lowest was seedling size of 9cm in Gooli-Ghesseh Zanjan(10.91t/ha, 95.89 g/p, 65.69% respectively). Also among of the cultivars that except for the bulb volume, other traits were significant. The seedling size × cultivar interaction were not significant. The data suggest that seedling size of 20cm was superior than other seedling size. Therefore seedling size of 20cm is recommended of onion planting in TM for the places with the environmental same conditions of this experiment.

Keyword: Onion, Transplanting method, Seedling size, Total yield, Bulb characteristics


Erlandson and Moss (2001) indicate one step to deciphering the taphonomic history of a deposit comprising numerous remains of aquatic organisms involves building a list of the nonhuman local carnivores. Such lists indicate potential, not actual, taphonomic agents, and the list they provide does not include one of the more significant potential accumulators of aquatic faunal remains—pinnipeds. Nor do they discuss the critical second step of taphonomic analysis that involves the writing of taphonomic histories based on signature criteria manifest as modifications to faunal remains.


Neutrophils and monocytes produce the highly cytotoxic hypochlorous acid (HOCl) via the myeloperoxidase (MPO)-catalyzed reaction of H2O2 with Cl-. We have investigated the reaction of reagent and MPO-derived HOCl with cholesterol in a purified liposome system, as well as progressively more complex biological systems. The products were identified by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and characterized by mass spectrometry (MS). TLC of the HOCl-treated samples gave four major cholesterol products with color development typical of oxysterols. Two of the products coeluted with authentic alpha- and beta-chlorohydrin standards. As was the case with the standards, they were readily converted into their respective epoxides during analysis by MS. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the other major product (band 3) gave peaks consistent with epoxides as well as a lateeluting peak with a distinct mass spectrum. Electrospray MS of this product confirmed its identity as a chlorohydrin based on the presence of the predicted molecular ion and 3:1 Cl isotope ratios. Lipids extracted from red cells and isolated red cell membranes were exposed to HOCl and gave identical products to the purified cholesterol liposome system as determined by TLC and MS. Higher concentrations of HOCl were required due to competition by other unsaturated lipids and protein molecules. When intact red cells, neutrophils, and MCF7 mammary carcinoma cells were exposed to HOCl, cholesterol chlorohydrins were formed, as detected by TLC. The formation of cholesterol chlorohydrins could be potentially disruptive to cell membranes and result in cell lysis and death. They could also be potential biomarkers for oxidative damage associated with neutrophil/monocyte activation.


Open data standards (e.g. LandXML, TransXML, CityGML) are a key to addressing the interoperability issue in exchanging civil information modeling (CIM) data throughout the project life-cycle. Since these schemas include rich sets of data types covering a wide range of assets and disciplines, model view definitions (MVDs) which define subsets of a schema are required to specify what types of data to be shared in accordance with a specific exchange scenario. The traditional procedure for generating and implementing MVDs is time-consuming and laborious as entities and attributes relevant to a particular data exchange context are manually identified by domain experts. This paper presents a method that can locate relevant information from a source XML data schema for a specific domain based on the user's keyword. The study employs a semantic resource of civil engineering terms to understand the semantics of a keyword-based query. The study also introduces a novel context-based search technique for retrieving related entities and their referenced objects. The developed method was tested on a gold standard of several LandXML subschemas. The experiment results show that the semantic MVD retrieval algorithm achieves a mean average precision of nearly 90%. The research is original, being a novel method for extracting partial civil information models given a keyword from the end user. The method is expected to become a fundamental tool assisting professionals in extracting data from complex digital datasets.


Background: Depression of health care workers was related to work absences, resignations, and poor work performance, affecting the quality of patient care and the health care system. The Coronavirus disease pandemic has had an effect on the mental health of health care workers. Health care workers are facing challenges that can be stressful, overwhelming, and cause strong emotions, may put them at higher risk to develop depression. There is limited evidence that assesses health care workers' depression and its associated factors in the study area during the Coronavirus disease pandemic. Therefore this study aimed to assess depression and associated factors among health care workers in eastern Ethiopia. Method: The cross-sectional study design was conducted from October 26th to November 15, 2020. A total of 265 health care workers from 10 health facilities participated. Patient Health Questionnaire was used for the collection of depressive symptoms. The data were analyzed by using STATA version 14 software. To assess the association between depression and the predictors Adjusted Odds Ratio along with a 95% confidence interval was estimated by using logistic regression analysis. A statistical significance was declared at p-value ≤ 0.05. Results: Of the total 265 study participant, 176 (66.4%) and 95% CI: 60.4%, 71.8% of them reported depressive symptoms. Of 176 reported symptoms of depression 27.9, 24.1, 9.4, 3.7, and 1.1% were had minimal, mild, moderate, moderate-severe, and severe depressive symptoms respectively. The multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed the odds of depression were 2.34 times higher among female participants compared to male participants (AOR: 2.34, 95%CI: 1.09-5.02). In addition, the odds of depression for participants who perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 was 4.05 times higher among their counterpart (AOR: 4.05, 95%CI: 1.12-14.53). Conclusions: Health care workers who experienced depression in the study was high. Health care workers' mental health needs to be protected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Female health care workers and health care workers perceived susceptibility of COVID-19 need attention.


OBJECTIVES
To analyze the influence of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) from CT26 on PD-L1 of dendritic cells and macrophages.

METHODS
In vivo, we respectively inoculated CT26 colon cancer cells subcutaneously and intraperitoneally to BALB/c mice.The mice were randomly assigned to three groups and treated with normal saline; BMPs inhibitor LDN193189; BMPs inhibitor LDN193189 combined with paclitaxel, respectively. The treatments started on the eighth day after inoculating, when the tumor volume reached 150 mm3 or the abdominal circumference was greater than 6 cm. After 2 weeks of treatments, the mice were sacrificed.The counts of dendritic cells and macrophages and the expression of PD-L1 in tumors or ascites were detected by flow cytometry (FCM).In vivo, the dendritic cells and macrophages from normal BALB/c mice bone marrow were exposed to: no treatment; CT26 supernatant; CT26; CT26 supernatant and LDN193189; CT26 and LDN193189; CT26 supernatant, LDN193189 and paclitaxel; CT26, LDN193189 and paclitaxel. BMPs from CT26 was detected by ELISA.The counts of dendritic cells and macrophages and their PD-L1 expressions were detected by FCM. IRF-1 expression was detected by real-time (RT)-PCR and Western blot.

RESULTS
In vivo, LDN193189 treated mice had the greatest tumor size or abdominal circumference, with least dendritic cells andCM(155.3mm]macrophages and expressions of PD-L1.In vivo, ELISA test results showed that the concentration of BMPs in CT26 supernatant was (0.59±0.09) ng/mL. FCM, RT-PCR and Western blot showed that dendritic cells and macrophages exposed to CT26 supernatant and LDN193189 or CT26 and LDN193189 expressed the least PD-L1 and IRF-1, which was close to those without treatment. While added the PTX to the above treatment, the expressions of PD-L1 and IRF-1 increased in the test results.

CONCLUSIONS
BMPs from CT26 up-regulate the expression of PD-L1 in murine dendritic cells and macrophages.


Points cloud surface reconstruction method in reverse engineering was proposed, Radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) was designed, and simulated annealing arithmetic was adopted to adjust the network weights. MATLAB program was compiled, experiments on points cloud data have been done employing the program. All experiments have shown that the arithmetic can efficiently approach the surface with 10-4 mm error precision, also the learning speed is quick and reconstruction surface is smooth. Trainings have been done with other networks in comparison. The sum squared error is 4.6802×10-8mm using the algorithmic proposed in this paper, the one is 1.1014×10-6mm under the same parameters employing RBFNN only. Back-propagation learning algorithm network does not converge until 3500 iterative procedure, and exactness design RBFNN is time-consuming. The arithmetic can approach nonlinear function by arbitrary precision, and also keep the network from getting into partial minimum.


A blanket of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was grown on rhodium black by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. During methane oxidation at 650 °C the as-synthesized material showed steady syngas production shortly after oxygen interruption, whereas the activity of uncovered rhodium black degraded. The improved activity of the catalyst was attributed to the boron nitride coating, which serves to stabilize rhodium metal and avoid particle agglomeration by carbon deposition. These results present a compelling technique for metal catalyst modification with boron nitride in cases where coking is a problem.


Historic sacred places represent a pattern of American culture. The sheer abundance of churches, temples and synagogues across the country demonstrate the presence of religious freedom, and the public statement conveyed by sacred places in their craftsmanship, architectural styles and strategic locations in residential neighborhoods. The many ways a community relates to an historic sacred place are representative of how people value cultural resources and what impact these resources can have on community revitalization. When a strong partnership exists between a congregation and community members (whether congregant or not) the outcome is more beneficial to the preservation of a sacred place. This thesis proposes that a healthy partnership can be achieved by non-profit organizations collaborating with urban congregations, to effectively impact their communities and preserve their historic sacred places. The three case studies present exemplary partnerships between congregations and nonprofit organizations in Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit, where historic congregations are impacting the surrounding community by the preservation of their urban religious properties.


Executing an
effective clinical practicum experience for distance learners requires systems
to be in place to ensure that all students receive a quality clinical
experience and meet course and program objectives. Key to achieving these
successful outcomes is recognizing and overcoming the challenges involved in
designing graduate practica for Master of Science in nursing candidates. A
systematic approach is presented for consideration.


Observations of barrier coasts around the world suggest that some systems do not conform to the O'Brien-Jarret law. Here we explain this by investigating how resonance and bottom friction affect the response of tidal inlets to variations in basin geometry. Therefore, we develop a morphodynamic barrier coast model that is based on the stability concept of Escoffier for the morphological evolution of the inlets, coupled with an idealized hydrodynamic model that describes the water motion in the outer sea, inlets, and arbitrarily shaped back-barrier basin. We find that the total tidal prism through all inlets is predominantly determined by the (cross-shore) width of the basin and identify three regimes for this. First, a linear regime for narrow basins (i.e., basin width≪ tidal wavelength) where a larger basin leads to a linear increase in total tidal prism. Second, a resonant regime for basins with a width around the resonant condition in which the total tidal prism reaches a peak. This resonance condition is a quarter tidal wavelength for basins without friction, which shifts to narrower basins as friction becomes stronger, down to 0.15 tidal wavelength. Third, a dissipative regime for wide basins (i.e., the cross-shore basin dimension or basin width≫ resonant condition) with sufficiently strong bottom friction in which the total tidal prism does not change for wider basins, because the tidal wave completely dissipates in the basin.


Expanded Learning Time (ELT) measures have been implemented internationally to reduce the likelihood of academic underachievement among students at risk. The goal of this article is to examine the components of an ELT initiative aimed at supporting students at risk of academic failure in order to optimize the components that can improve its use and organization. Through a mixed method research approach, we have analyzed the experiences of 1,786 5th through 10th graders, 238 teachers and 126 instructors of a city-wide after-school initiative in Spain. This within-group study examines the design of the support, the environment, and the interactions between stakeholders as key components to optimize this support and promote equity. The results show which support components are related to greater support use. The results also suggest understanding these measures as additional support placed within an enriched support network. Implications for practice, research and policy towards this type of initiative are also discussed.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of return on equity on the dividend payout ratio, the effect of the company's growth on the dividend payout ratio, the effect of free cash flow on the dividend payout ratio, the effect of leverage on the dividend payout ratio, and the effect of the dividend payout ratio on firm value. The model used in data analysis is a simple multiple regression model because the measurement of the dependent and independent variables in this study is in the form of numbers with a ratio scale measurement instrument and independent variables used by more than one. The results of this study indicate that the return on equity has a significant effect on the dividend payout ratio, growth has no significant effect on the dividend payout ratio, free cash flow has a significant effect on dividend payout ratio, leverage has no significant effect on the dividend payout ratio, and dividend payout ratio has a significant effect on the value of the company.


Reasoning with time is ubiquitous. Many computational problems involving planning, scheduling, reasoning and modeling often refer to the literature and use some simplified versions of the rich body of theoretical works within the spatio-temporal reasoning areas. Although most of such latter works are for qualitative reasoning, one notable exception is Dechter et al's investigation on the temporal constraint network where explicit quantitative temporal information is modeled. For obvious reason a quantitative framework finds more application, as computers are still primarily numerical data crunching machines rather than symbol crunching ones. In this article we propose a framework for extending Dechter et al's investigation toward a non-linear underlying space where a finite Real line closes onto itself (cyclic). Such a space is not only esoteric but also practical, as reasoning with many calendar domains uses such a cyclic space, e.g., weekly scheduling of tasks. This is an ongoing work and only the basics are provided here.


Domain wall structure which may form in theories with spontaneously broken parity is generically in conflict with standard cosmology. It has been argued that Planck scale suppressed effects can be sufficient for removing such domain walls. We study this possibility for three specific evolution scenarios for the domain walls, with evolution during a radiation dominated era, during a matter dominated era, and that accompanied by weak inflation. We determine the operators permitted by the supergravity formalism and find that the field content introduced to achieve desired spontaneous parity breaking makes possible Planck scale suppressed terms which can potentially remove the domain walls safely. However, the parity breaking scale, equivalently the Majorana mass scale M{sub R} of the right-handed neutrino, does get constrained in some of the cases, notably for the matter dominated evolution case which would be generic to string theory inspired models, giving rise to moduli fields. One left-right symmetric model with only triplets and bidoublets is found to be more constrained than another admitting a gauge singlet.


Three murine plasmocytoma tumour which secrete specific antibodies have been studied for the effect of specific antigens (pneumococcal C polysaccharide and dinitrophenylated bovine gamma globulin) on the growth of these tumours in vivo. In each case, the effect of the specific antigen was to inhibit the growth of that tumour which synthesized the specific antibody. Low molecular weight haptens had no effect on tumour growth. We suggest that this antigen specific growth inhibitory effect is a function of the antigen's binding to membrane bound antibody resulting in defective membrane function.


Gilles Deleuze, the notable post-modern philosopher, in his two-volume cinematic books Cinema 1: movement-image (1986) and Cinema 2: timeimage (1989) recognizes two major periods in history of cinema (classic and modern) in terms of representing movement and time respectively. Referring to various films of modern cinema especially post-war European cinema like Italian neorealism, Cinema2 speaks about the possibility of direct presentation of time in cinematic works. Explaining Deleuze's theories and his two formulations of direct presentation of time as 'pure optical situations' and 'sheets of the past', in this essay we try to give an analysis of the two most important films of Iranian history of cinema: Still Life (1974) and Prince Ehtejab (1974). Finally, we will conclude that these films are not mere representation of preexisting philosophical concepts, rather in contrast to linguistic thought, they provide some kind of visual and non-linguistic philosophical meditations of time, cinema of time.


Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ARCH) models have successfully been applied in order to predict asset return volatility. Predicting volatility is of great importance in pricing financial derivatives, selecting portfolios, measuring and managing investment risk more accurately. In this paper, a number of ARCH models are examined in the framework of a method for model selection based on the Correlated Gamma Ratio (CGR) distribution and their ability to predict future volatility is examined. According to this method, the ARCH model with the lowest sum of squared standardized forecasting errors is selected for predicting future volatility. A number of evaluation criteria are used to examine the performance of a model to predict future volatility, for forecasting horizons ranging from one day to one hundred days ahead. The results show that the CGR model selection procedure has a satisfactory performance in selecting that model that generates "better" volatility predictions. It appears, therefore, that it can be regarded as a tool in guiding one's choice of the appropriate model for predicting future volatility, with applications in evaluating portfolios, managing financial risk and creating speculative strategies with options.


The main challenge in digital image processing is to remove noise from the original image. This paper reviews the existing denoising algorithms and performs their comparative study. Different noise models including additive and multiplicative types are discussed in the paper.Selection of the denoising algorithm is application dependent. Hence, it is necessary to have knowledge about the noise present in the image so as to select the appropriate denoising algorithm. Here we put results of different approaches of wavelet based image denoising methods using several thresholding techniques such as BayesShrink,SureShrink, and VisuShrink.A quantitative measure of comparison is provided by SNR (signal to noise ratio) and mean square error (MSE).


Due to their evolution in the retroperitoneal space, pheochromocytomas may grow significantly in size and remain asymptomatic for a long period of time. Normal values of urine catecholamine levels must not preclude the diagnosis of these endocrine lesions.


This little book sets out to describe the basic principles of resuscitation for nurses, medical students and ambulancemen. The book begins with a section on very basic anatomy and physiology, more suited to the ambulanceman than the medical student, but none the worse for that. There is an excellent chapter on basic life support, which would be better called by this now accepted name than the term used: primary resuscitation. There is sensible practical advice on the use of suction apparatus, the self inflation bag and mask, and the use of the defibrillator. The early use of the defibrillator is not stressed sufficiently. The drugs commonly used in cardiac arrest are described briefly and sensibly, although it is a pity that there is rather too much implied support for the user of calcium chloride, which is now thought to be detrimental in cases of myocardial ischaemia. Similarly, it is not emphasized that, in most cases of sudden unexpected arrest, sodium bicarbonate administration should be withheld for 15-20 min. The irritant effects of both calcium and bicarbonate are not sufficiently stressed. Endobronchial installation of certain drugs is mentioned and it would be helpful if a definite list could be included indicating those drugs, which are suitable for this route and those which are not. There are useful practical appendices on the management of choking, the recovery position, endotracheal intubation, the application of resuscitation in children and the interpretation of common life-threatening ECG traces. The illustrations, particularly the line diagrams, are quite excellent and will be of great value to the reader. It is a pity, however, that action algorithms along the lines of those produced by the Resuscitation Council (UK) were not included, to tie all the information and guidance together. All in all, this book fills the role for which it is designed quite admirably. It is very good value for money.


Prostacyclin synthesis is stimulated in vitro by high density lipoproteins (HDL), which themselves are differently affected by desogestrel (DG)- and levonorgestrel (LN)- containing oral contraceptives. In this study we measured the urinary excretion of the metabolites of prostacyclin [6-keto-prostaglandin F 1 alpha(6-keto) and 2,3-dinor-6-keto-prostaglandin F1 alpha (dinor)] and of thromboxane A2 [thromboxane B2 (TxB2)] as well as serum HDL- and HDL2 cholesterol concentrations before and during DG and LN administration alone or in combination with ethinyl estradiol (EE) in 26 women. Before the trial, urinary dinor excretion correlated with serum total HDL cholesterol (r = 0.499; P less than 0.01) and HDL2 cholesterol levels (r = 0.668; P less than 0.001; n = 26). Administration of DG (150 micrograms/day; 14 women) or LN (150 micrograms/day; 12 women) for 2 weeks caused no changes in the excretion of these prostanoids, but LN administration decreased serum HDL cholesterol levels. After that, the women underwent a monophasic regimen of 150 micrograms DG or LN plus 30 micrograms EE for 3 months and thereafter polyphasic regimens of the same steroids for a further 3 months. The DG-containing pills increased urinary dinor excretion by 25-40%, but caused no changes in 6-keto and TxB2 excretion, as measured on days 19-21 of the cycles. LN-containing pills reduced urinary 6-keto excretion by 22% at the end of polyphasic treatment, but caused no changes in dinor and TxB2 output. DG plus EE, but not LN plus EE, increased serum total HDL and HDL2 cholesterol concentrations by a maximum of 25%. Thus, a DG plus EE combination may stimulate PGI2 synthesis by increasing the levels of HDL/HDL2. Theoretically, this stimulation protects against occlusive vascular disorders.


Reliable estimates of soil thermal properties such as heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and diffusivity are important in analysis of heat transmission through soils in applications such as shallow geothermal applications, buried electrical conduits, and in general heat/fluid flow analyses. A number of analytical, numerical and experimental methods are available to determine the soil thermal properties. In this paper, the analytical and numerical methods developed on the basis of one-dimensional heat conduction equation are used to estimate the apparent thermal diffusivity of soil. Three of the four analytical methods, Amplitude, Phase, and Arctangent provide explicit equations for the apparent thermal diffusivity. Two methods, Harmonic and Numerical, make use of large number of temperature measurements to implicitly solve for the apparent thermal diffusivity. The temperature time series data monitored at different depths in two field sites in Melbourne, Australia for more than 2 year period were used to estimate the apparent thermal diffusivity of soil down to 2 m depth. The apparent thermal diffusivity was calculated using all five methods and compared with laboratory experimental results. The effectiveness of each method in predicting the thermal diffusivity was compared and observed discrepancies were discussed. Finally, the observed soil temperature data for a 12 month period are used to model the temperature variation in the ground analytically using Harmonic method and the model prediction for the following 12 month was compared independently with the field measurements. The analytical model prediction is found to be in good agreement with the field monitored data.


The author reported a case of central alveolar hypoventilation (Ondine's curse) which was treated by diaphragm pacing. A 59-year-old man was admitted because of sudden deep coma and tetraparesis. Neurological examination on admission showed miotic pupils with absent light reaction, no oculocephalic reflex, no corneal reflex and tetraparesis. Glasgow scale was evaluated to be E-1 V-1, and M-3 with total of 5 points. Computed tomography confirmed a large hematoma in the cerebellum with ventricular rupture. Immediately, a suboccipital craniectomy was performed and the hematoma was evacuated. His neurological condition was improved gradually within a month after the operation. He responded to verbal orders and moved all his limbs against gravity. His respiration, however, was irregular with a pattern of so-called "cluster breathing" followed by prolonged apnea, that was more pronounced in night. He was suffered from hypoxic hypercapnea and recurrent pneumonia. Therefore, authors decided to employ diaphragm pacing for management of central alveolar hypoventilation. A diaphragm pacemaker (radiofrequency induction) was implanted. A cuff electrode was put around the right phrenic nerve in the right thorax, and the receiver installed subcutaneously in the right anterior chest. Postoperative respiratory study showed ventilation on pacing with satisfactory blood gas and he became able to move around using a wheel chair. In 1966 Glenn demonstrated a new technique to move the diaphragm paced by a receiver through the phrenic nerve, triggered by radio wave from external device.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This paper is dealing with women's entrepreneurial activities according to socio-economic aspects and the factors affecting their developments. Here, micro-entrepreneurship is focused mainly. Women micro-entrepreneurs are now holding a large number of enterprises creating employment, fastening the speed of economic growth and making social empowerment. In-spite of the significant role-played, their position in many areas of Bangladesh leaves much to be desired. This study aims to provide a micro-level perspective of different challenges faced by women micro-entrepreneurs in the Bangladeshi socioeconomic context and their future prospects. The study adopted a selfadministered questionnaires and interviews with women micro-entrepreneurs engaged in diverse sectors. The findings show that Bangladeshi women microentrepreneurs face an unfavorable business environment that is characterized by various challenges ranging from low technical, administrative and government support, lack of scope of professional development and bad interpersonal relationship. The findings also highlight the socio-economic characteristics such as age, marital status, educational status and starting age of business. We have found that married and above 25 years women are more likely to be micro-entrepreneurs. They do not get proper training but the government is being more positive in this regard, as they can get the loan easily. Hence, with family as well as government support they are becoming empowered day by day DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbt.v9i1.22778 Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.9(1) 2014; 53-70


We consider quantum phases of tightly-confined spin-2 bosons in an external field under the presence of rotationally-invariant interactions. Generalizing previous treatments, we show how this system can be mapped onto a quantum rotor model. Within the rotor framework, low-energy excitations about fragmented states, which cannot be accessed within standard Bogoliubov theory, can be obtained. In the spatially extended system in the thermodynamic limit there exists a mean-field ground state degeneracy between a family of nematic states for appropriate interaction parameters. It has been established that quantum fluctuations lift this degeneracy through the mechanism of order-by-disorder and select either a uniaxial or square-biaxial ground state. On the other hand, in the full quantum treatment of the analogous single-spatial mode problem with finite particle number it is known that, due to symmetry restoring fluctuations, there is a unique ground state across the entire nematic region of the phase diagram. Within the established rotor framework we investigate the possible quantum phases under the presence of a quadratic Zeeman field, a problem which has previously received little attention. By investigating wave function overlaps we do not find any signatures of the order-by-disorder phenomenon which is present in the continuum case. Motivated by this we consider an alternative external potential which breaks less symmetry than the quadratic Zeeman field. For this case we do find the phenomenon of order-by-disorder in the fully quantum system. This is established within the rotor framework and with exact diagonalization.


Background: Tuberculosis is a common health problem in Sudan. Tuberculous lymphadenitis is one of the most frequent causes of lymphadenopathy. In most of these cases sputum as well as other diagnostic routine tests are negative. Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) as a diagnostic tool for tuberculous lymphadenitis and to describe the cytomorphology of the smears. Material and Methods: This is a prospective hospital-based study conducted in Khartoum during the period from February 2011 to January 2012. Eighty five patients with a clinical suspicion of tuberculous lymphadenopathy were included. Direct smears were prepared and stained with Diff Quick (DQ) and Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stains. Results : of the 85 patients, 52 (61.2%) were females with 1.5:1 female to male ratio. The mean age was 31.6 years (range 2 - 70 years). The most frequent site involved was the cervical lymph node group,58 (68.2%) cases. Seventy five (88.3%) smears showed necrotizing granulomatous lymphadenitis (with or without detected epithelioid cells), and 10 (11.7%) smears were non necrotizing granulomatous lymphadenitis, only epithelioid and inflammatory cells detected. Positive smears for acid fast bacilli (AFB) by ZN stain were observed in 40 (47%) cases. Conclusion: FNAC is a simple and inexpensive method for diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenitis, and can obviate the need for surgical excision. Combination of FNAC with ZN stain is valuable and recommended as first line diagnostic modality in suspected cases. Keywords: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, Tuberculous lymphadenitis, Acid fast bacilli.


This paper seeks to investigate into the aspects of thermal performance of traditional residential buildings in traditional settlements of Kathmandu valley. This study proceeds to analyze the detailed field data collected, with a view to identify the indoor thermal environment with respect to outdoor thermal environment in different seasons. This paper also compares the thermal performance of traditional buildings with modern residential buildings of traditional settlements of the valley. There is a regression analysis to obtain information about the thermal environment of different traditional and modern residential buildings with different conditions. The paper concludes that, thermal performance of traditional residential building, adapted in various ways to the changing thermal regime for thermal comfort is better than that of contemporary buildings. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v10i1.10898 Journal of the Institute of Engineering , Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014,  pp. 172–183


Landscape diversity has declined in Europe during the recent (that is, post 1950) period of agricultural intensification with a tendency for the most progressive farmers to create the simplest landscapes. The object of this paper is to analyse the landscape of the Presidential estate of Castelporziano, a protected area located near Rome. In this territory, there are two SCI (Site of Community Importance) and several environments of naturalistic value, making Castelporziano one of the protected areas with the highest biodiversity in Italy. Photo-interpretation of aerial photographs taken in 1930 and 2010 was carried out to perform a land cover (LC) and change detection (CD) analysis. We used Patch Analyst 3.1 software to calculate landscape indices, in order to characterize the landscape structure. The latter is of particular interest, considering that the environments in this territory are found in the proximity of two urban centres, Rome and Ostia, and have therefore been subjected to high anthropic pressure in recent decades. This study shows a slight fragmentation of all the land-cover classes. Although the present situation does not call for any particular concern, constant monitoring to prevent any further landscape fragmentation is required.

 Key words: Land-cover change, aerial photographs, nature reserve, landscape pattern metrics.


In Madagascar, voluntary termination of pregnancy is totally forbidden. However, many women resort to it, most especially in the capital, Antananarivo. These secret abortions are carried out not only by traditional birth attendants but also by private medical practitioners. This article presents the results of a research conducted on 193 women interviewed in 2005 when they came to consult a doctor and seek abortion. This first survey was complemented by qualitative data collected from students who had already had an abortion, but most especially the young ones, spinsters and those still in school. The latter try to delay the time of first childbirth in order to complete their studies, to find a first job and to get married. The young girls have a very limited access to contraception and their contraceptive choice yet depends on the willingness of their sexual partners


A Risk Model (RM) is a powerful tool to understand major accident categories and to provide information about the consequences of human actions and influences. A maritime Collision in Congested Waters RM model developed as part of SAFEMODE and provides a quantified approach that allows human actions to be understood in relation to an accident – describing both positive and negative contributions to an event. This paper presents the validation processes for the RM development and includes two phases: Part 1-Testing of the RM using real-world incidents to confirm the model can consistently describe the events in an incident. Part 2 provides feedback from stakeholders on the RM to improve the robustness and utility of the model and identify its applications to their activities. The results of the validation activities indicate that the RM has domain utility. However, directed applications, whether these be a post-accident forensics assessment, training or foresight visioning of the introduction of new technologies and operational procedures, requires further examination and exploitation.


The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic also affected the electoral agenda of political action between 2020 and 2021. With the health emergency, the governments of Latin America faced challenges to guarantee the right to vote. Among the substantial changes, atypical campaigns were carried out through digital platforms, such as the social network Facebook. Seta investigation focuses on analyzing the communication of Andrés Arauz and Guillermo Lasso, presidential candidates of Ecuador, through their official Facebook accounts; during the last week prior to the voting of the second round. The methodology used has a quantitative approach, under the compound week technique and with the support of a validated technical sheet for data recording. The results point to being able to exercise adequate management of online content with specific schedules and themes to be positioned during campaign times, with the aim of - among other things - achieving the objectives. Well, it was found that a higher generation of posts in a high-trend social network such as Facebook does not mean precisely reaching the proposed goals. In the same way, that a "negative" or "mixed" campaign does not always penetrate the population, it all depends on the context and the strategy.


Samples were collected from four distributed along Tigris river near Amara city center in Missan province to estimate the hydrocarbon concentration compounds in water and sediment samples. By using spectrofluoro meter the concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs)were measured. Results of the present study revealed that the concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons in water samples were (1.25, 2.35, 3.47 and 2.92 µg/l) in first, second, third and fourth stations respectively , whereas for sediments samples were (2.83, 3.83, 12.3 and 6.25 µg/g dry weight) in first, second, third and fourth stations, respectively. The highest concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons recorded in sediment samples, also the results of th is study showed that there were spatial variations in TPHs levels among stations. Elevated their levels of TPHs in third station compared with other stations especially first station may be attributed to reception of high amounts of organic matter like industrial and domestic wastes from Amara City Center which have high population density. Whereas the first station (control station) is far away from the eminent anthropogenic pollution sources .


Natural Language Inference (NLI) aims to determine the logic relationships (i.e., entailment, neutral and contradiction) between a pair of premise and hypothesis. Recently, the alignment mechanism effectively helps NLI by capturing the aligned parts (i.e., the similar segments) in the sentence pairs, which imply the perspective of entailment and contradiction. However, these aligned parts will sometimes mislead the judgment of neutral relations. Intuitively, NLI should rely more on multiple perspectives to form a holistic view to eliminate bias. In this paper, we propose the Multi-Perspective Inferrer (MPI), a novel NLI model that reasons relationships from multiple perspectives associated with the three relationships. The MPI determines the perspectives of different parts of the sentences via a routing-by-agreement policy and makes the final decision from a holistic view. Additionally, we introduce an auxiliary supervised signal to ensure the MPI to learn the expected perspectives. Experiments on SNLI and MultiNLI show that 1) the MPI achieves substantial improvements on the base model, which verifies the motivation of multi-perspective inference; 2) visualized evidence verifies that the MPI learns highly interpretable perspectives as expected; 3) more importantly, the MPI is architecture-free and compatible with the powerful BERT.


This action research study utilized a quasi-experimental pre-/post-test design to examine effect of teacher-mediated vocabulary discussions during read alouds. Fourteen second grade students participated in teacher-led discussions of new vocabulary in the context of the text and their lives. They discussed examples, non-examples, and synonyms for the targeted vocabulary. Fifteen comparison group students were incidentally exposed to the words during read alouds. Data sources included a pre/post-test multiple choice vocabulary assessment, open-ended vocabulary assessment, and researcher log. The intervention group's mean gain vocabulary scores were significantly higher than the comparison group's scores which ultimately have a positive impact on their reading comprehension indicating success of the intervention. Furthermore, the intervention showed positive results for students regardless of assessed reading ability levels.


Polymer thin films with thickness below 100 nm are a fascinating class of 2D materials with commercial and research applications in many branches ranging from coatings to photoresists and insulating materials, to mention just a few uses. Biopolymers have extended the scope of polymer thin films with unique materials such as cellulose, cellulose nanocrystals, cellulose nanofibrils with tunable water uptake, crystallinity and optical properties. The key information needed in thin biopolymer film use and research is film thickness. It is often challenging to determine precisely and hence several techniques and their combinations are used. Additional challenges with hydrophilic biopolymers such as cellulose are the presence of humidity and the soft and often heterogenous structure of the films. This minireview summarizes currently used methods and techniques for biopolymer thin film thickness analysis and outlines challenges for accurate and reproducible characterization. Cellulose is chosen as the representative biopolymer.


Can we use technology in the pursuit of a good life, or are we doomed to having our lives organized and our priorities set by the demands of machines and systems? How can philosophy help us to make technology a servant rather than a master? "Technology and the Good Life?" uses a careful collective analysis of Albert Borgmann's controversial and influential ideas as a jumping-off point from which to address questions such as these about the role and significance of technology in our lives. Contributors both sympathetic and critical examine Borgmann's work, especially his "device paradigm"; apply his theories to new areas such as film, agriculture, design, and ecological restoration; and consider the place of his thought within philosophy and technology studies more generally. Because this collection carefully investigates the issues at the heart of how we can take charge of life with technology, it will be a landmark work not just for philosophers of technology but for students and scholars in the many disciplines concerned with science and technology studies.


NAZHIF GIFARI. The effect of multivitamin mineral supplementation on the nutritional status, hemoglobin concentration and physical fitness of Bogor Agricultural University First Common Year female students. Supervised by RIMBAWAN and MIRA DEWI. The aims of the study are to examine the influence of multivitamin mineral supplementation on the nutritional status, hemoglobin concentration and physical activity of Bogor Agricultural University First Common Year female students. The previous research showed that Bogor Agricultural University First Common Year female students have a high prevalence of anemia (Briawan 2008). The design of the research was a double blind-quasi experimental. Subjects consisted 27 people who were sistematically allocated into two groups. The first group consisted of 14 people (28.5% anemia), received multivitamin mineral (MVM) and the second group consisted of 13 peopole (38.4% anemia), received placebo (control group). The supplements contained of vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, vitamin C, Ca, Mn, Fe and Zn which were distributed and consumed everyday during 8 weeks. The data used were primary data in the form of characteristic samples, anthropometry (weight, height and percent body fat), food consumption, level of fitness results of speed (running at 60 meter), endurance and muscle strength (sit-up, push-up and vertical jump), agility (shuttle run 4x10 meter) and VO2max values (bleep test). The results of statistical test (paired samples t-test) showed that there were significant difference of speed (sample at 60 meter of running) (MVM: p>0,060; placebo: p<0,029), push-up (MVM: p<0,008; placebo: p<0,029), sit-up (MVM: p<0,000; placebo: p<0,020) and bleep test (MVM: p<0,011; placebo: p<0,000), but there were no significant difference (p>0,05) in vertical jump and shuttle run test in both MVM and placebo groups.


Serosurvillance of 650 children of clinically suspected dengue infection based on simple laboratory tests were evaluated to find out the early indicator for diagnosis of dengue infection. The study was conducted among the patients attending the Sir Salimullah Medical College (SSMC) and Mitford Hospital and Popular Diagnostic Center, Dhaka, during July 2002 to September 2002. Of these 650 suspected dengue cases, 294 were in the age group 1-5 years, 206 were in age group 6-10 years and 150 cases in age group 11-15 years, of which Seropositivity was found in 78 (26.53%), 60 (24.12%) and 65 (43.33%) cases respectively. Primary dengue IgM was positive in 123 (60.59%) cases and secondary dengue (IgG & IgM combined or IgG alone) was positive in 80 (39.41%) cases. Leucopenia was found in 90 (75%) cases and Thrombocytopenia was found in 95 (79.16%) cases in primary dengue cases. Similarly in secondary dengue cases TWBC and PLT was decreased in 60 (72.29%) and 65 (78.15%) cases respectively. Haemoconcentration was found in 40 (36.67%) cases of primary dengue and 13 (18%) cases in secondary dengue. Month wise distribution of dengue seropositivity shows that 10 (8.53%) cases was found in July, 175 (50.10%) cases in August and 78 (10.00%) cases in September. This study reveals that seropositivity is highest (43.33%), in the age group 11-15 years and incidence of dengue increased in the month of August. Leucopenia (WBC <or= 5000) and Thrombocytopenia (Patelet count <or= 100000) were two findings that help in the early diagnosis of dengue infection.


The Fianna Fail Party, since it first came to government in 1932, has completely dominated the political life of Ireland. Fianna Fail has always seen itself as more than a party: more a national movement - and one that represented the nation in microcosm, superseding partisan and regional prejudices. It also managed to be the most ruthless, successful and professional party machine in Europe. Noel Whelan traces the party's fortunes from its foundation by Eamon de Valera and Sean Lemass in the 1920s, through the economic war of the 1930s, war-time neutrality and the stagnation of the 1950s. Lemass's governments of the 1960s, generally regarded as the best in the history of the State, restored the country's fortunes, but the 1970s and 1980s were wasted years, dominated by the divisive and charismatic figure of Charles J. Haughey. Under the later leadership of Bertie Ahern, party divisions were healed, and it seemed that national divisions were healed with them. An economic boom was allowed recklessly to run out of control, with the result that the party, having brought Irish prosperity to a new peak, was blamed for the sudden violence of the crash. The general election of 2011 reduced Fianna Fail to its lowest ebb since it had been founded. It may not have marked the end of the party, but it clearly marked the end of an era.


A colony of Macaca nemestrina monkeys was screened for naturally occurring strabismus. Thirteen cases of naturally occurring strabismus were documented, 12 esotropes and one exotrope. The characteristics of the strabismus in these monkeys were similar to those of human clinical cases. Four of the affected monkeys showed interocular differences in grating acuity. We estimated the incidence of strabismus in the monkey colony to be 4%.


This paper describes a method to improve the production rate for a magnetizer machine by modifying its circuit configurations. A resistor was put in series with the recovery diode in order to bring out part of the heat from the magnetizing fixture. It also reduces the discharging time of the inductor. The branch of the recovery diode in series with the added resistor was moved so that they were in parallel with the discharging capacitor instead of parallel with the magnetizing fixture. It provides a discharging route for the capacitor which was charged reversely when the inductor was discharging.


To date, different techniques of navigation for mobile robots have been developed. However, the experimentation of these techniques is not a trivial task because usually it is not possible to reuse the developed control software due to system incompabilities. This paper proposes a software platform that provides means for creating reusable software modules through the standardization of software interfaces, which represent the various robot modules.


To analyze the short film Bluesman (2018) this work brings together the concept of Sankofa - originally from the writing of Akan peoples from West Africa - with the concept of Afrofuturism through a methodology that articulates the ideas of circularity and inversion. We start by observing the trajectory of Brazilian rapper Baco Exu do Blues under the "exulic" perspective explained by Sàlámì (King) and Ribeiro (2015); then we discuss the peculiarity of racial issues in Brazil from the concept of "racism by denial" proposed by Lélia Gonzalez (1988); and we conclude using the concept of Afrofuturism to point out decolonial elements identified in the narrative proposed by the work, using the narrative itself as a guide to observing the game of inversion of meanings that is proposed with the notions of before, during and after in the course proposed by the short film. The methodology used is also circular and based on the proverbial ideogram Sankofa: looking for the past, projecting it in the present and providing a future. Therefore, Bluesman's descriptive analysis gains decolonial significance by articulating epistemologies outside the Eurocentric axis to highlight the logic of resistance present in the narrative proposal and in the themes addressed by the work, a logic that seeks the reverse of the sense indicated by hegemonic thinking.


This paper generalizes the cointegrating model of Phillips (1991) to allow for I (0), I (1) and I (2) processes. The model has a simple form that permits a wider range of I (2) processes than are usually considered, including a more flexible form of polynomial cointegration. Further, the specification relaxes restrictions identified by Phillips (1991) on the I (1) and I (2) cointegrating vectors and restrictions on how the stochastic trends enter the system. To date there has been little work on Bayesian I (2) analysis and so this paper attempts to address this gap in the literature. A method of Bayesian inference in potentially I (2) processes is presented with application to Australian money demand using a Jeffreys prior and a shrinkage prior.


This research work focuses on optimal solution for the image detection and segmentation. The prosthesis may – a few or numerous years after it was embedded – come needing fix or substitution. In a portion of these cases, the maker and the model of the prosthesis might be obscure to the patients and their essential consideration specialists, for instance when the medical procedure was led in another nation where the patient has presently no admittance to the records. The highest accuracy value is 81.68% which is while applying the=7k=6 and the lowest accuracy value is 65.6% when apply the k=7. The highest precision value is 81.68% while applying the k=1 and very lowest precision value is 73.69% lies on k=2 and k=9.The highest recall value is 83.69% which is produced by while applying the parameter k=6, the lowest recall value is 65.76% while applying the parameter k=9. The K=10 model takes more time to build the model is while applying the k=10 and very low time consumption model is k=8. Another conceivable instance of not knowing the specific producer and model could be expected uncertainty in clinical records or clinical images.


While deep learning (DL) approaches are reaching human-level performance for many tasks, including for diagnostics AI, the focus is now on challenges possibly affecting DL deployment, including AI privacy, domain generalization, and fairness. This last challenge is addressed in this study. Here we look at a novel method for ensuring AI fairness with respect to protected or sensitive factors. This method uses domain adaptation via training set enhancement to tackle bias-causing training data imbalance. More specifically, it uses generative models that allow the generation of more synthetic training samples for underrepresented populations. This paper applies this method to the use case of detection of age related macular degeneration (AMD). Our experiments show that starting with an originally biased AMD diagnostics model the method has the ability to improve fairness.


▪ Abstract Teenage childbearing has been a topic of sociological research, public discourse, and political discussion since the mid-1960s. It is surprising that the intensity and topics of the discussion over this period have corresponded poorly with research on the rates and consequences of teenage childbearing. This essay chronicles the history of the issue of early childbearing and my contributions to this field of study.


The Air Force Phillips Laboratory, in collaboration with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), is developing lateral geometry, high-power photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS) for use in phased-array, ultra-wideband (UWB) sources. The current switch utilizes an opposed contact geometry with a 0.25 cm gap spacing and is an extension of previous work on 1.0 cm PCSS devices. This work presents the development and demonstration of the 0.25 cm PCSS under both ideal laboratory conditions and potential source conditions. The laboratory configuration consists of two high-bandwidth transmission lines connected with a PCSS. The potential source configuration consists of a vector-inversion pulse generator (Blumlein) commuted with a PCSS. Independent, low-jitter PCSS operation is demonstrated by series coupling two independent Blumleins into a common load. The 0.25 cm PCSS is shown to operate at 20 kV charge voltage. 65 ps RMS switching jitter, less than 450 ps risetime and greater than 1 kHz pulse repetition rate (PRR) when triggered using a compact, high-power laser diode.


Despite technical advances, the ability to restore motor function following a brachial plexus avulsion is limited. Twenty patients who suffered the loss of elbow flexion following a brachial plexus avulsion injury underwent a neurotization procedure in an attempt to restore that lost function. Of 16 patients who underwent intercostal to musculocutaneous nerve anastomosis, seven obtained good elbow flexion. Four patients who no longer had a viable biceps brachialis muscle underwent an anastomosis between transposed intercostal nerves and a free vascularized gracilis muscle grafted to the position of the biceps. Two of these patients obtained good elbow flexion. Although synkinesis between the biceps brachialis and the inspiratory muscles can be demonstrated during coughing and deep inspiration, the patients learn to flex their reinnervated biceps brachialis muscle and maintain flexion independent of respiration.


Staffordshire University has been running a spring undergraduate marine and terrestrial field course at
Millport Field Centre since 2009. These field notes will focus on the terrestrial records (non-‐‑avian) that
cover a period in late March (24th March) to mid-‐‑April (19th April). These notes started as casual
observations linked to our marine focus but over the years we have grown this provision. We hope this
short list will provide a stimulus to more observations related to this overlooked aspect of the fauna of the
Isle of Cumbrae.


Hyperhomocysteinemia induced by the C677T genetic variant in MTHFR (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) has been implicated in neuronal cell death of retinal ganglion cells (RGC), which is a characteristic feature of glaucoma. However, association of MTHFR C677T with glaucoma has been controversial because of inconsistent results across association studies. Association between MTHFR C677T and glaucoma has not been reported in Indian population. Therefore, with a focus on neurodegenerative death of RGC in glaucoma, the current study aimed to investigate association of MTHFR C677T with Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) and Primary Angle Closure Glaucoma (PACG) in a North Indian population. A total of 404 participants (231 patients and 173 controls) were included in this study. Genotyping was performed by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism. A few random samples were also tested by direct sequencing. Genotypic and allelic distributions of the POAG and PACG cohorts were compared to that of controls by chi-square test and odds ratios were reported with 95% confidence intervals. Genotypic and allelic distributions between POAG cases and controls were significantly different (p = 0.03 and p = 0.01 respectively). Unlike POAG, we did not find significant difference in the genotypic and allelic distributions of C677T between PACG cases and controls (p>0.05). We also observed a higher proportion of TT associated POAG in females than that in males. However, this is a preliminary indication of gender specific risk of C677T that needs to be replicated in a larger cohort of males and females. The present investigation on MTHFR C677T and glaucoma reveals that the TT genotype and T allele of this polymorphism are significant risk factors for POAG but not for PACG in North Indian population. Ours is the first report demonstrating association of MTHFR C677T with POAG but not PACG in individuals from North India.


For further complexity reduction of fixed-point cascade IIR digital filters using multiplier blocks the minimizing problems of coefficient wordlength, (roundoff noise)-to-signal ratio and adder cost of multiplier blocks should be decided jointly. Two approaches to such decision are proposed. Their efficiency is demonstrated by examples.


The features and prognoses of 802 cases (908 eyes) of retinal detachment from 8 months to 19 years of age were studied with the patients divided into three age groups: 65 eyes in group I (0-9), 259 eyes in group II (10-14), and 584 eyes in group III (15-19). Eyes in group I were different from the others in many respects. In group I, traumatic detachments, preoperative complications, four-quadrant detachments, and eyes with undetected breaks were more frequent, and the prognosis was worse than in the other groups. Holes with lattice degenerations were most frequent in group III eyes having no history of trauma. Group III resembled adult retinal detachment and group II was thought to be the transitional type.


A reconfigurable range-Doppler processing method for FMCW radar is presented. By concatenating beat-frequency signals from more than one sweep, a continuous beat-frequency signal for the whole coherent processing interval (CPI) can be created. As a result, continuous targets' observation time is extended beyond that of a single chirp duration, leading to range resolution improvement. The created continuous beat-frequency signal can be split in the digital domain to any two-dimensional slow-time and fast-time matrices with the same number of elements as in the original signals, which offers a realization of a software-defined pulse/sweep repetition rate in range-Doppler processing. The signal concatenation is done in the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) domain, where the beat-frequency slices are extrapolated to compensate for the observation time lost in the transient region between sweeps, and then a phase correction is applied to each frequency-slice as appropriate, followed by an inverse STFT (ISTFT). The proposed technique is verified with simulation and experiments with an FMCW radar for stable and moving target scenarios. We found that the method allows for range resolution improvement without the transmission of additional bandwidth and also allows for the ability to observe different resolution granularities in parallel from one CPI. It additionally allows the decoupling of the transmitted PRF from the Doppler processing PRF, permitting the facility to observe different unambiguous Doppler velocity intervals from one CPI, without compromising on the total CPI processing gain.


This paper attempts to locate the issue of innovation and foreign entry, in particular new entrants from China, in recent US and EU merger decisions. In the first part, the paper examines to what extend US and EU authorities considered foreign entry in recent major merger decisions such as Bayer/Monsanto, Dow/DuPont and ChemChina/Syngenta. The outcome of this short analysis shows that the EU Commission has in recent years begun to accept the argument of foreign entry, in particular from China, as long as the market shares of the merging parties are not too high. The US has not explicitly discussed the question of foreign entry in the above-named decisions. However, in the case Whirlpool/Maytag the US authorities accepted, despite high market shares of the parties, the argument of foreign entry and approved the merger. With regards to innovation, entry into future product markets is not considered favourable to the merging parties by the EU Commission. 'Innovation competition' or early 'pipeline products' is rather used as an argument to demonstrate that the merging parties hold market power in product markets in the future. Based on the selected case law, the US authorities, by contrast, did recognize entry into future product markets as an argument in favour of the merging parties.
In its second part, the paper looks at the pros and cons of forming 'national champions' and discusses competition law enforcement in light of the numerous and politically powerful Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
Global competition/antitrust law and policy, foreign entry in merger decisions and China, innovation competition, entry criteria in US/EU mergers, climate change


This study examines the extent to which the learning orientations identified by student selfreports and the observation of their online learning events were related to each other and to their academic performance. The participants were 322 first-year engineering undergraduates, who were enrolled in a blended course. Using students' self-report on a questionnaire about their approaches to learning and perceptions of the blended learning environment, 'understanding' and 'reproducing' learning orientations were identified. Using observations of student activity online, a Hidden Markov Model and agglomerative sequence clustering detected four qualitatively different patterns of online learning orientations. Cross-tabulations showed significant and logical associations amongst the learning orientations derived by the self-report and observational methods. Significant differences were also consistently found in the students' academic performance across the mid-term and final assessments based on their learning orientations detected by both self-report and observational methods, results which have important implications for learning research.


We report the successful growth of InAs/Ga_(1−x)In_xSb strained‐layer superlattices by molecular‐beam epitaxy. The superlattices are grown on thick, strain‐relaxed InAs or GaSb buffer layers on (100)‐oriented GaAs substrates. A short‐period, heavily strained superlattice at the GaAs interface is found to improve the structural quality of the buffer layer. Arsenic incorporation in nominally pure GaSb layers is found to depend strongly on substrate temperature and As‐background pressure. Best strained‐layer superlattice structural quality is achieved for samples grown at fairly low substrate temperatures (<400 °C). Photoluminescence measurements indicate that the energy gaps of the strained‐layer superlattices are smaller than those of InAs/GaSb superlattices with the same layer thicknesses, in agreement with the theoretical predictions of Smith and Mailhiot [J. Appl. Phys. 62, 2545 (1987)]. Far‐infrared photoluminescence is observed from a 37/25 A, InAs/Ga_(0.75)In_(0.25)Sb superlattice, demonstrating that far‐infrared cutoff wavelengths are compatible with short superlattice periods in this material system.


Introduction: Serum uric acid (sUA), a known inflammosome-inducer, is associated with prospective risk of coronary artery disease in a dose-dependent fashion. Psoriasis (PSO), a chronic inflammatory disease associated with elevated burden of systemic inflammation and subclinical coronary artery disease, provides a reliable human model to study how sUA may relate to non-calcified coronary plaque burden (NCB) measured by computed coronary tomography angiography (CCTA). Hypothesis: We hypothesized that sUA would directly associate with NCB beyond traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. Methods: 103 consecutive PSO patients and 47 healthy volunteers (HV) underwent CCTA (320 detector row, Toshiba) for coronary plaque burden quantification using QAngio (Medis). PSO severity was assessed by Psoriasis Area Severity Score (PASI) and divided into severe PSO (PASI>10) and mild-moderate PSO (PASI Results: PSO patients were older than HV and had a higher CV risk by Framingham risk score (FRS) (Table 1). We observed a significant trend towards increase in sUA among severe PSO, mild-moderate PSO, and HV groups (mean 6.4, 5.9, 5.4 respectively, p=0.02 for trend). A positive association was observed between sUA and NCB, which was stronger in severe PSO after adjustment for traditional CV risk, alcohol, statins, and systemic/biologic PSO treatment (Severe PSO: β=0.27, p Conclusions: sUA is independently associated with NCB in states of chronic inflammation such as PSO, and as such, may potentially serve as a biomarker for subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. However, larger prospective studies of CV outcomes in chronic inflammatory diseases are needed to confirm these results.


Abstract  Between November 1993 and June 1995 18 patients received oral famciclovir (3 times 500 mg) for treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reinfection after liver transplantation. Reinfection was defined as the reoccurrence of HBsAg in the serum. In the first 15 patients, famciclovir therapy was initiated after clinical signs of graft hepatitis, whereas the last 3 patients received treatment immediately after HBV‐DNA was detected. Famciclovir was well‐tolerated in all patients. HBV‐DNA values were decreased to undetectable levels in 8 out of 18 patients. Clinical status improved in 7 patients, whereas 5 patients remained unchanged and 6 patients progressed to deteriorating graft function and death. When famciclovir was initiated early after reinfection, a response rate of approximately 66 % was observed. Late onset of therapy in patients with fulminant hepatitis generally failed to provide any clinical benefit.


This paper deals with sensitivity of human auditory to changes in sound phase spectrum. Although the human auditory system was considered "phase deaf" for a long time, nowadays a few recent studies proved that the change of sound phase spectrum has a significant impact on auditory perception. The aim of this paper is to verify these mentioned claims. To achieve this aim it is fundamental to perform listening tests with phase changed audio signals. The phase changes were applied to two groups of audio signals – synthetic signals and real signals. Thus, the listening test consisted of six different experiments and fourteen subjects participated in the listening test. The results of the test were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and the effect of phase changes to human auditory perception was determined based on these results.


Planktonic eggs of S. sihama have been identified from Mandapam in the south-east coast, based on similarities in the ripe ovarian eggs as well as other characters. The ripe ova range in diameter from 0.53 to 0.78 mm, have a single oilglobule in the diameter range of 0.150 to 0.167 mm and show faint vacuolation of yolk. The planktonic eggs have diameter range of 0.55 to 0.89 mm, in various stages of development, the size gradually increasing with progressive development. The oil globules show the same diameter range as that of the ripe ova and the yolk has faint vacuolation. In early embryos melanophores appear on the oilglobule and dorsal side of the head. With more development, the above pigmentation increases on the body also, accompanied by the appearance of diffused xanthophores. Hatching takes place in the afternoon of the day of collection, the newly hatched larva measuring 1.54 mm and its pigmentation is in the form of melanophores and diffused xanthophores. The 24-hours old larva measures 2.42 mm, with melanophores mostly along the dorsal and ventral margins of the body and xanthophores in the form of five vertical bands. By 48-hours (measuring 2.56 mm), the post larval phase has set in, with pigmentation of the eyes, forma tion of the mouth, etc. The similarities of the present material with those of the eggs and early larvae of S.japonica as well as the difference from it, are discussed.


We have treated surgically 5 patients with renal cell carcinoma in the solitary kidney. The cause of renal absence was nephrectomy for renal stones, in 2 patients and renal tuberculosis, renal cyst and renal hypoplasia in 1 patient each. Four of the 5 patients died. One of the 4 patients died 5 days after surgery due to gastrointestinal bleeding, 1 due to metastasis, 1 due to gastric cancer and one due to hemodialysis complications. Surgical management of renal cell carcinoma of solitary kidney is discussed.


This chapter discusses how the manner in which a contract is concluded can potentially affect its validity. Before discussing the terms and details of a contract, it is important to note that a contract may fail due to one or both parties not possessing the capacity to establish a contract. Some of the common reasons includes a mistake by one or both parties, a provision that has been misrepresented in the negotiations, or the use of undue influence or placing the other party under duress in the process of concluding the contract. Some of the reasons listed in this chapter may be common, but the emphasis here is to identify where problems may occur that could prevent the successful operation of the contract despite fulfilling the essential features discussed in the previous chapters.