In patients with coxitis or Perthes-like symptoms of the hip combined with ocular symptoms (e. g. ablatio retinae) one should think of Stickler syndrome. This disease is also known as hereditary arthro-ophthalmopathy. It has autosomal dominant inheritance. In 75 % of the patients with Stickler syndrome mutations of the COL2A1 gene located on chromosome 12q13.11-q13.2 have been identifed. These mutations result in abnormal production of type II collagen, a major component of cartilage, vitreous body, and nucleus pulposus. Other mutations in patients with Stickler syndrome are in the COL11A1 und COL11A2 genes. There is a wide variety of symptoms. The disease may affect the eyes, ears, heart, and musculoskeletal system. Retinal detachment occurs frequently. We performed a gait analysis on a 12-year-old patient with Stickler syndrome and Perthes-like symptoms in order to illustrate the effect of hip involvement on the whole skeletal system. It revealed a pelvic elevation on the right with an abduction position of the left hip as well as bilateral severe pelvic rotation. Intensive physiotherapy together with adequate drug treatment for pain relief is important to improve joint function. This therapy helps to prevent early surgery.


The abundance of primordial black holes changes in the presence of local non-Gaussianity. A positive non-linear parameter $f_{NL}$ increases the abundance while a negative one reduces it. We show that in non-attractor single-field models of inflation which enhance the curvature power spectrum and may give rise to primordial black holes, $f_{NL}$ is always positive, when computed in correspondence of the peak of the curvature power spectrum where the primordial black hole abundance has its maximum. This implies that the interpretation of the recent pulsar timing arrays data from scalar-induced gravitational waves generated at primordial black hole formation may not be supported by invoking non-Gaussianity within non-attractor single-field models.


Purpose of review To summarize and illuminate the recent findings regarding gastroduodenal mucosal defense mechanisms and the specific biomolecules involved in regulating this process, such as glucagon-like peptides (GLPs). Recent findings There has been a growing interest in luminal nutrient chemosensing and its physiological effects throughout the digestive system. From the ingestion of food in the oral cavity to the processing and absorption of nutrients in the intestines, nutrient chemosensing receptors signal the production and release of numerous bioactive peptides from enteroendocrine cells, such as the proglucagon-derived peptides. There has been a major emphasis on two proglucagon-derived peptides, namely GLP-1 and GLP-2, due to their apparent beneficial effect on gut structure, function, and on metabolic processes. As an incretin, GLP-1 not only enhances the effect and release of insulin on pancreatic &bgr;cells but also has been implicated in having trophic effects on the intestinal epithelium. In addition, GLP-2, the other major proglucagon-derived peptide, has potent intestinotrophic effects, such as increasing the rate of mucosal stem cell proliferation, mucosal blood flow, and fluid absorption, as well as augmenting the rate of duodenal bicarbonate secretion to improve gastric mucosal health and longevity. Summary Understanding the mechanisms underlying nutrient chemosensing and how it relates to GLP release can further elucidate how the gut functions in response to cellular changes and disturbances. Furthermore, a more in-depth comprehension of GLP release and its tissue-specific effects will help improve the utility of GLP-1 and GLP-2 receptor agonists in clinical settings. This, in turn, should help patients suffering from intestinal failure, malabsorption, and mucosal injury.


Type 1 diabetes is characterized by insulin deficiency due to destruction of pancreatic β-cells. A novel subtype of type 1B which is rapidly developed without any evidence of autoimmunity has been recently proposed as fulminant type I diabetes. In female patients of child-bearing age, the onset of fulminant type 1 diabetes occurred frequently during pregnancy or after delivery in Japan, however, there was no report about fulminant type 1 diabetes associated with pregnancy in Korea. We report a case of fulminant type 1 diabetes associated with pregnancy. A 28-year-old woman suffering from excessive thirst with vomiting and general weakness after four days from normal spontaneous vaginal delivery presented to our hospital. Laboratory examination revealed a high blood glucose level and evidence of diabetic ketoacidosis, butHbA1c level was normal. These findings suggested a very recent onset of diabetes mellitus. Serum C-peptide level was very low level. Antibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) was weakly positive. After fluid and insulin based management, patient successfully recovered without any serious complication. (J Kor Diabetes Assoc 31:180~183, 2007)


We document an ongoing research process towards the implementation and integration of a digital artefact, executing the lifecycle of a leveraged trade with permissionless blockchain technology. By employing core functions of the 'Dai Stablecoin system' deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, we produce the equivalent exposure of a leveraged position while deterministically automating the monitoring and liquidation processes. We demonstrate the implementation and early integration of the artefact into a hardened exchange environment through a microservice utilizing standardized API calls. The early results presented in this paper were produced in collaboration with a team of stakeholders at a hosting organization, a multi-national online brokerage and cryptocurrency exchange. We utilize the design science research methodology (DSR) guiding the design, development, and evaluation of the artefact. Our findings indicate that, while it is feasible to implement the lifecycle of a leveraged trade on the blockchain, the integration of the artefact into a traditional exchange environment involves multiple compromises and drawback. Generalizing the tentative findings presented in this paper, we introduce three propositions on the implementation, integration, and implications of executing key business processes with permissionless blockchain technologies. By conducting computational design science research, we contribute to the information systems discourse on the applied utility of permissionless blockchain technologies in finance and beyond.


The occupation of the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines and a series of terrorist attacks in Indonesia which followed it demonstrate that terrorism is a persistent and enduring threat to Southeast Asian security, despite the governments' concerted efforts on countering terrorism since 9/11 and the Bali Bombings in 2002 and 2005. Security specialists and defence officials in the region believe that ASEAN has to intensify its cooperation to address the challenge of terrorism through the use of military forces. This article, however, claims that the militarised counterterrorism has no institutional, normative and practical basis within ASEAN's main security structure, the APSC. This is followed by dual implications for the broader security agendas, affecting democratisation and sharpening mistrust among ASEAN states which challenges ASEAN centrality in regional security affairs.


We present a detailed investigation of the resonator properties of high-quality rolled-up SiO2 optical microtubes reinforced by atomic layer deposition. The evolution of the resonant modes with increasing film thickness and the transition to a multimode regime, including higher order radial modes, is discussed. Measurements and simulations show that the higher order modes exhibit high optical quality and an increased extension of the evanescent field from the resonator into the surrounding matrix, making them a promising solution for future on-chip sensor applications with increased sensitivity.


This paper presents a development of substation reliability evaluation by using the sequential Monte Carlo simulation method with time varying load at each delivery point. The technique is illustrated by application to a practical bus arrangement of substation and used to study the sensitivity analysis by varying selected station component parameters. The study results are essential to the condition base maintenance management planning and can play a great role in decision making for improving in main or sub equipment of substation component. It was shown that the Monte Carlo simulation method, which has gained popularity in recent year due to its simplicity and widely use in application to obtain more various indices than analytical method is nearest the real condition of substation, so this approach is a powerful tool for substation reliability evaluation. The results presented in this paper provide valuable information for planning, operation and maintenance of a substation.


Aircraft interior acoustic design is a key influencer for cabin comfort. An essential part of the design is optimization of acoustic insulation systems under weight restrictions to create a pleasant environment for human ear. Considering the complexity of aircraft geometry, noise sources,
 and transfer paths, computational prediction techniques become invaluable tools for increasing the accuracy in material selection while reducing design time and costs. In this study, a procedure that integrates sound quality evaluation with Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) to design aircraft
 acoustic insulation systems is described. SEA is employed to predict the cabin sound pressure levels of a narrow body aircraft insulated with sound absorption and vibration damping materials. Aircraft cabin including under-floor sections is modelled based on 3D airframe and VIP style interior
 design and the model is validated with flight test data. Transfer functions obtained from SEA model for selected transfer paths are utilized to filter the noise signal recorded with a binaural recording system during flight. Sound quality metrics are computed in order to map perceptive response.
 An iterative process is introduced to improve acoustic design by investigating the effects of different sound insulation systems and room absorption values on noise levels and sound quality metrics.


A 58-years-old man underwent F-18 FDG PET/CT for health screening. F-18 FDG PET/CT revealed a focal, round, and 1.5 cm-sized hypermetabolic lesion at midline of the prostate. The lesion was suspected as a urinary activity or malignancy. On the review of medical records, it was found that the patient had undergone contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scan 1 day before PET/CT examination. On the attenuation-uncorrected image, the prostatic lesion was still evident. The lesion was considered as a midline cyst of prostate, communicating with urethra. It is suggested that radioactive urine remained in midline cyst resulting in the focal hypermetabolic lesion.


This protocol can be used to purifiy DNA-dependent RNA polymerase from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 by heparin and ion-exchange chromatography.


This article examines the career of the Turkish emir Aq Sunqur al-Bursuqi, who was active across a wide region of the Middle East in the first half of the twelfth century. In so doing, it highlights important aspects of the Crusades and Counter-Crusade more widely during this period. It also analyses the presentation of al-Bursuqi in the historical chronicles which form the basis of studying the early twelfth century, in order to further understanding of the late-sixth/twelfth and early-seventh/thirteenth century societies in which they were written.


Plasma immersion ion implantation of insulators is an interesting topic both theoretically and industrially. The net energy of the incident ions is dictated by the surface potential and for conductors is equal to the voltage applied to the backside or sample stage. However, the poor electrical conductivity of insulating materials can lead not only to charging during ion bombardment but also reduced surface potential due to the capacitance effect. In the work described in this paper, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the influence of the thickness and dielectric properties of insulating materials on the implantation efficacy. The use of mesh-assisted PIII by covering the insulating materials with an electrically conducting cage to enhance the implantation efficacy is also compared experimentally. Our theoretical results suggest that a low plasma density induces less surface charges and higher surface potential. Our experimental data show good agreement with the theoretical results and mesh-as...


Foreign bodies in maxillary sinus, whatever their origin or nature, are unusual. However unilateral unexplained chronic rhinosinusitis should arouse clinical suscipicion. The diagnosis is based on radiological findings. The range of such foreign bodies is wide; those of dental origin such as tooth roots, burs, dental impression material, root-filling materials, dental implants, and needles take precedence over all others, but rarely, they may relate to blast injuries and penetrating objects. This special report highlights the unusual case of a pressure cooker nozzle lodged in maxillary sinus of a 28-year-old female who suffered a facial injury caused by explosion of a pressure cooker at home. The acuteness of the event and the flight of the foreign body were such that neither the casualty felt the ingress of foreign body nor was the diagnosis entertained by the surgeon who first examined her. Each blast injury therefore must be thoroughly evaluated for such possibility. While a radiological examination can clinch the diagnosis, treatment lies in endoscopic or surgical foreign body removal, with Caldwell luc procedure being a preferred technique.


In recent years, different forms of physical therapy have been proposed for the treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). These mainly consist of maneuvers aiming to reposition and disperse free-floating endolymph particles in the posterior semicircular canal. We report our experience with one of these procedures, the Epley maneuver (EM), in treating 30 cases of BPPV. Twenty-six patients (87%) were cured, while four (13%) did not respond to treatment. These results are similar to those reported in the literature for the EM and the S6mont maneuver.


Four uranyl coordination polymers [UO2(C6H8O4)(H2O)2](C18H12N6)2 (1), [UO2(C8H4O4)(H2O)2](C18H12N6)2 (2), Na[(UO2)(C12H6O4)2](C18H13N6)·H2O (3), and Na[(UO2)(C16H8O4)(C6H3NO2)](C18H12N6)·H2O (4) containing aliphatic (adipic acid) or aromatic linkers (1,4-benzene dicarboxylic acid (BDC), 1,4-napthalene dicarboxylic acid (NDC), anthracene 9,10-dicarboxylic acid (ADC)) were synthesized and characterized using single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, and luminescence spectroscopy. The π-stacking distances or the number of π–π interactions present between trispyridyltriazine (TPTZ) guests or the host framework in 1–4 may be affected by the size of the O-donor linker (adipic acid < BDC < NDC < ADC). Luminescence studies show that substitution between adipic acid and BDC influences the emission of 1 and 2, in which the emission of 1 shows a red shift relative to that of 2. Uranyl emission was not observed in 3 and 4, and may be attributed to the position of the NDC and ADC triplet state relati...


IT HAS been known for many years that complete ligation of the arterial supply to the liver is rapidly fatal in several mammalian species. Autopsy examination of animals which have died in this way always shows massive necrosis of the liver. The mechanism of death and the pathological changes leading to it have never been understood satisfactorily. The view which predominates through the literature is based on the assumption that anemic necrosis and subsequent liver failure constitute the important events in the process. It is of interest that bacterial infection has been implicated previously as a factor in the cause of death following peritoneal implantation of liver tissue—the so-called in-vivo autolysis of the liver. In 1930 Ellis and Dragstedt 1 isolated an anaerobic bacillus from normal dog liver. They found that fetal liver was harmless when implanted into the peritoneum and correlated this finding with the fact that fetal liver


The relationships between economic growth and environmental pressures are complex. Since the early nineties, the debate on these relationships has been strongly influenced by the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, which states that during the first stage of economic development environmental pressures increase as per capita income increases, but once a critical turningpoint has been reached these pressures diminish as income levels continue to increase. However, to date such a delinking between economic growth and emission levels has not happened for most atmospheric pollutants in Spain. The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between income growth and nine atmospheric pollutants in Spain. In order to obtain empirical outcomes for this analysis, we adopt an input-output approach and use NAMEA data for the nine pollutants. First, we undertake a structural decomposition analysis for the period 1995-2000 to estimate the contribution of various factors to changes in the levels of atmospheric emissions. And second, we estimate the emissions associated with the consumption patterns of different groups of households classified according to their level of expenditure.


The article analyzes organizational and economic problems of the industry in the Arctic and discloses methods and tools for researching these problems. An attempt to use the method of system diagnostics is made, which has established itself as a basis for determining the development strategy of industry in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF). This method allows to explore the mechanism of natural resources development in the Arctic, such as hydrocarbons and marine biological resources; as well as the organization of logistics and transport corridors for trade of goods produced in the North and in the central regions of Russia. The role, significance and content of the strategy as an essential element of the system for managing natural wealth development in the Arctic in the context of its growing importance in development of global transport corridor are revealed.Importance of a systematic approach to the development of industry in the Arctic is substantiated, it will ensure development of all investors interested in this region; will allow the state, large corporations, small and medium-sized businesses to work together for the long term. The proposed method for system diagnostics of strategizing the development of industrial potential in the AZRF can be used in the implementation of «Development Strategy for the Arctic Region» as part of roadmap realization for the Arctic region.


At the outbreak of the Second World War, the dominant ideology in Australia endorsed the myths of mateship and the "digger-Anzac", and women were not widely perceived as being excluded. This hegemony is apparent in the wartime journal published by the Army Education Service (AES, later the Australian Army Education Service, AAES), Salt.(1) The national myths are evident in the journal's reports and in much of the writing contributed by servicewomen and servicemen. Australian attitudes were bonded to an Anglo-Celtic heritage distanced from the source and from cosmopolitan stimuli. The enabling myths which related to mateship and nationalism subsumed the myth of the family to advantage a white Australian masculine point of view.Entry into professions was not gained easily even by better educated middle-class and wealthy women. For the majority, maintenance of the "nurturer" status as a component in the myth of the (national) family, rather than granting the more common reality of cheap labour, assumed paid "women's work" to be a refined form of service, or a noble sacrifice to family care.After the outbreak of war, factories were converted to produce supplies for the fighting forces, and rationing was introduced for civilians. "Women rapidly filled places in essential industry left vacant by the conscription of men for defence."(2) The need for labour for industry was one reason why the government hesitated to recruit women into the armed services, as Gould implies:[c]oncerned with manpower shortages, the Government reluctantly decided to recruit a limited number of women for the armed forces. This news resulted in thousands of applications being submitted.Enlisted women would return to civilian life as ex-Service personnel, presumably on the same footing as servicemen, to be involved in postwar reconstruction. Preparation for return to civilian life, an exercise also in the maintenance of morale, was the main educational raison d'etre of the AES. Salt's editorial section(3) was staffed by ten AES personnel, all members of the Australian Journalists' Association, as well as artists and illustrators. There were no women staff members: AWAS personnel served as typists.The journal, conventionally, directed adult education courses to men but did not specifically exclude women.(4) In the general community there was a lack of opportunities for (adult) education, and servicewomen's educational standards and their achievements through Army Education Service (AES) initiatives have not, to my knowledge, been surveyed. Salt reported that tutoring assistance to matriculation standard and leading on to University courses was available. The editor endorsed opportunities developed by the AES. Even fairly late in the war, however, if education for servicewomen was intended this was by vague implication only. In the staff article, "Chances For Soldiers. Varied Arrangements under Commonwealth Scheme" (S8 (10) 17/7/44, 54-56),(5) the editor endorsed opportunities developed by the AES for postwar professional training at universities and technical schools and vocational training. The term "trainee(s)" is used in this article and would seem to include servicewomen, except that the title has focused on "Soldiers".Participation in courses in any field requested by the servicewoman was arranged, if possible, through application to the AE Officer, Women's Services. Fedora Fisher (formerly Lieutenant Fedora Green, NF410040, AE Officer Women's Services in the Northern Territory from 1943 to 1944, recalls:levels of formal education...varied so much from state to state...[we] tried to help the individual who wanted to learn by matching her up with someone nearby who knew the subject...and, if possible, by existing correspondence courses or those we wrote ourselves....we lived our jobs with the intensity and faith of our youth. What we achieved, historians will never be able to relate because so much of the effort was ad hoc and officially unrecorded. …


The research of this thesis centers on the investigation of first-episode medication-naive and recent onset schizophrenia patients. In part I, functional MRI studies are described, in part II short term treatment effects are compared between ziprasidone and olanzapine. Part I, chapter 2: Differences in the degree of language lateralization in first-episode medication-naﶥ schizophrenia and healthy controls were measured, using three language tasks. Results demonstrated that lateralization was significantly reduced in medication-naive first-episode patients. This reduction was most prominent in the inferior frontal gyrus (part of Broca's area) and the superior temporal gyrus (part of Wernicke's area). The level of lateralization was not related to specific symptomatology. We concluded that language lateralization is impaired already in the first episode of the illness and is not a confound of medication use. Part I, chapter 3: Frontal lobe function was compared in first-episode medication-naﶥ schizophrenia and healthy controls. To test frontal lobe function, we applied a modified Sternberg working memory task, which comprised a novel and practiced task. We expected patients to show a limited profit from practice in terms of brain activation, expressing inefficient neuronal processing in schizophrenia. Results indicated that after practice, both groups increased their performance equally. Frontal brain activation was reduced after practice in controls as well as in patients. In patients, this decrease was significantly smaller than in controls in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), in spite of equal improvement in performance. Furthermore, this reduced effect of practice in left DLPFC activation was related to the severity of negative symptoms and conceptual disorganization. Chapter 4 was follow-up study to the study reported in chapter 3, in which subjects were rescanned after 10 weeks. After the baseline scan, patients were started on atypical antipsychotic medication. Results again showed that function of the left DLPFC was significantly impaired. Interestingly, the abnormal left DLPFC function was almost entirely explained for by the subgroup of patients who failed to respond to antipsychotic treatment. In contrast, in patients responding to medical treatment the activation levels after practice were similar to those of the healthy subjects. Responders and non-responders could not be discriminated by their test performance. Furthermore, the antipsychotic treatment that was applied did not alter the function of the DLPFC. Taken together, our results indicate that prefrontal lobe dysfunction reflects a distinct neuropathological substrate in a subgroup of schizophrenia patients that does not respond to treatment with dopamine antagonists. Part II. Describes a study that compares the effects of short-term treatment of ziprasidone and olanzapine on cognitive function (chapter 5) and on symptomatology and tolerability (chapter 6) in recent-onset schizophrenia. The primary outcome measure of the study was the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). In addition, a larger cognitive battery consisting of nine neurocognitive tests, for which a composite score was developed, was administered. We found that short term treatment with both ziprasidone and olanzapine has a comparable effect on symptomatology and cognitive function, but that they differ in side effects.


DNA polymerase epsilon (Pol epsilon) is a multi-subunit enzyme required for the initiation of chromosomal DNA replication. Here, we report the cloning of two fission yeast genes, called dpb3+ and dpb4+ that encode proteins homologous to the two smallest subunits of Pol epsilon. Although Dpb4 is not required for cell viability, Deltadpb4 mutants are synthetically lethal with mutations in four genes required for DNA replication initiation, cdc20+ (encoding DNA Pol epsilon), cut5+ (homologous to DPB11/TopBP1), sna41+ (homologous to CDC45) and cdc21+ (encoding Mcm4, a component of the pre-replicative complex). In contrast to Dpb4, Dpb3 is essential for cell cycle progression. A glutathione S-transferase pull-down assay indicates that Dpb3 physically interacts with both Dpb2 and Dpb4, suggesting that Dpb3 associates with other members of the Pol epsilon complex. Depletion of Dpb3 leads to an accumulation of cells in S phase consistent with Dpb3 having a role in DNA replication. In addition, many of the cells have a bi-nucleate or multinucleate phenotype, indicating that cell separation is also inhibited. Finally, we have examined in vivo localization of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged Dpb3 and Dpb4 and found that both proteins are localized to the nucleus consistent with their proposed role in DNA replication. However, in the absence of Dpb3, GFP-Dpb4 appears to be more dispersed throughout the cell, suggesting that Dpb3 may be important in establishing or maintaining normal localization of Dpb4.


A new algorithm called the Mondrian detector has been developed for object detection in high-frequency synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) imagery. If a second (low) frequency-band image is available, the algorithm can seamlessly exploit the additional information via an auxiliary prescreener test. This flexible single-band and multiband functionality fills an important capability gap. The algorithm's overall prescreener component limits the number of potential alarms. The main module of the method then searches for areas that pass a subset of pixel-intensity tests. A new set of reliable classification features has also been developed in the process. The overall framework has been kept uncomplicated intentionally in order to facilitate performance estimation, to avoid requiring dedicated training data, and to permit delayed real-time detection at sea on an autonomous underwater vehicle. The promise of the new algorithm is demonstrated on six substantial data sets of real SAS imagery collected at various geographical sites that collectively exhibit a wide range of diverse seafloor characteristics. The results show that—as with Mondrian's art—simplicity can be powerful.


Abstract The cultural and commercial operations of the publishing industry have been dramatically reshaped by digital technologies, yet little is known about how these effects are differentiated across sectors of the industry. This article analyses data about the production of Australian-authored fantasy, romance and crime fiction titles to explore the specific publishing ecosystems of different genres and the roles played by multinational, small press and self-publishing in each. First, we show that there has been across-the-board growth in each genre and for each type of publisher. Second, we argue that multinational publishing activity in these genres has been characterized by broad stability, punctuated by experimentation with genre-specific imprints for romance and fantasy titles. Third, we find that small presses make diverse contributions to genre ecosystems, able to both activate prestige and experiment with formats. Finally, we note the immense growth in self-publishing, particularly in romance, and argue that self-publishing now operates in tandem with traditional publishing to create hybridized publishing ecosystems - with greater potential to transform the traditional publishing model than e-books.


The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of "administrative procedure" in the mechanism of public management of the land use and protection of the reserve land of Ukraine and the concept of "inventory of reserve land" and its place in the system of administrative procedures. It is determined that one of the promising directions for ensuring the efficiency of the implementation of the system of administrative procedures in the field of natural resources is to intensify the implementation of the state inventory of the reserve lands, the priority use of which is determined by the need to solve strategic complex problems of the development of the Ukrainian state. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the problems of legal regulation of the administrative procedure of the state inventory of lands of the reserve of Ukraine.
It is determined that among the features of the administrative procedure in the mechanism of public management in the field of land use and protection are the following: they are related to the activities of public administration bodies; regulated by administrative and legal norms; ensure the consistency of actions that the subject of these relationships must take; their purpose is to ensure the exercise of the rights or obligations of a particular legal entity; applied to resolve a specific issue; entities are public authorities, local self-government bodies and their officials and officials natural and legal persons; entails the onset of external consequences; are completed by the adoption of the relevant administrative act, which is binding.
The author investigates organizational and legal prerequisites for land inventory. It is concluded that the administrative procedure of the state inventory of the land of the reserve is the activity of public administration bodies, regulated by administrative norms, which provides for the collection and analysis of the information about the object of inventory and their entry in the State Land Cadastre of Ukraine in order to facilitate the effective use of the state land fund and sale interest.
 In the course of the conducted research it is determined that the state inventory of the land fund of Ukraine will allow to prevent violations of the land legislation and to ensure effective management of land resources, to carry out perspective planning of their use.


: Experiments were performed on de-endothelized perfused human middle cerebral artery constricted with noradrenaline, serotonin, prostaglandin F2 alpha and collagen-aggregated platelets, all of which provoked similar vasoconstriction; however, the ability of dipyridamole, prostacyclin and nifedipine to reduce the constriction was significantly less marked when induced by activated platelets. The decrease in drug antispasmatic effects was less marked for nifedipine than for other vasodilators. It was suggested that the resistance of platelet-induced vasoconstriction to vasodilator action depends on platelets ability to release several vasoactive substances simultaneously.


The experiment was conducted at the multipurpose experimental field of the University of Education, Winneba, Mampong – AshantiCampus. The objective was to investigate into the pollination of pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo). The Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used with three treatments replicated three times. It was observed from the results that most of the foraging activities of bees often occur in the morning (6:00 am – 11:00 am) but from (12:00-6:00pm) their activities reduce drastically. Fruit set, fruit size, weight and number of seed increased as the number of visits by Apis mellifera also increases per female flower, at which the highest fruit set level was reached. The treatments were Hand pollination, Open/Insect pollination and No pollination. It was found out that, with the exception of fruit length and weight the hand pollination was very significant (p < 0.05) onSeed weight, Number of seed per fruit, Pericarp of fruit and Diameter of fruit. The flowers which were Hand pollinated produced the highest mean values for the yield parameters, followed by the Open/Insect pollinated flowers and No pollination which yielded no fruit respectively. Farmers in and around Mampong –Ashanti can adopt hand pollination for better pumpkin yield and increased profit.


CONTEXT
Pain is one of the most common and intolerable symptoms in cancer patients. But cancer pain control is still negative in China.

OBJECTIVES
This paper explores the application of quality control circle in the treatment of cancer pain in inpatients to improve the quality of life of patients with cancer pain.

METHOD
Established a quality control circle group to analyze the current status of cancer pain control in inpatients with moderate cancer pain, set goals, formulate corresponding countermeasures and implement and review them in stages. The plan-do-check-act method was cyclically applied. The Brief Pain Inventory was used to evaluate the cancer pain status of patients with cancer pain hospitalized before (January to April 2016) and after (September to December 2016) the implementation of quality control circle activities.

RESULTS
The pain control effect of the observation group was significantly better than that of the control group. The mean (standard deviation) of pain severity and pain interference in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (6.21 [2.86] vs 4.31 [2.25], 10.54 [4.10] vs 7.25 [3.77]). There was significant difference after the implementation of quality control circle (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
Quality control circle activities are used to manage patients with cancer pain, to improve the situation of pain control and to improve the quality of life of patients. This management tool and method is worthy of clinical promotion and application.


Coherent coupling and formation of molecular orbitals in vertically coupled quantum-dot molecules is studied for a seven-dot InAs/GaAs system. The electron states are computed using a nanoelectronic modelling tool NEMO-3D. The tool optimizes atomic positions in the sample with up to 64 million atoms in the frame of the atomistic VFF model. The resulting optimal interatomic distances are then used to formulate the 20-band sp3d5s* tight-binding Hamiltonian defined on a subdomain large enough to guarantee a correct treatment of confined orbitals. It is found that in the absence of strain (VFF optimization turned off), a clear and highly symmetric miniband structure of the seven-dot orbitals is formed. It maintains a high degree of symmetry even if the dots are taken to be realistically non-identical, where the dot size increases in the growth direction. However, the inclusion of strain breaks this symmetry completely. The simulations demonstrate the important interplay of strain engineering and size engineering in the design of quantum dot stacks.


ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of an interleukin (IL)-12/23 monoclonal antibody (mAb) in subjects with a relapsing form of multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: A phase I, double-blind, placebo-controlled, sequential dose escalation study was conducted in 20 subjects with MS. Subjects were randomized (4:1) to receive a single subcutaneous injection of either IL‐12/23 mAb (0.3, 0.75, 1.5, and 3.0 mg/kg) or placebo. Clinical and laboratory evaluations were performed through 16 weeks following administration. Results: IL‐12/23 mAb was well tolerated in this study. Adverse events were generally mild or moderate, with no apparent dose-related trends. One subject with a family history of breast cancer was diagnosed during the study with breast cancer 21 days after IL‐12/23 mAb administration. There were no significant changes in laboratory indicators of systemic or neurotoxicity. There was a large degree of variability in T2 lesion volume and total number of gadolinium-positive lesions, both unaffected by dose escalation. Three relapses of MS occurred in two placebo-treated subjects. Over the range of single doses studied, the median Tmax ranged from 9.0 to 16.5 days, and the median T1/2 ranged from 20.2 to 30.9 days. Conclusion: Single subcutaneous administrations of IL‐12/23 mAb in this first study of relapsing MS were generally well tolerated. Safety of the agent will need to be tested in a study of longer duration and involving a larger cohort of subjects.


Let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}$ be an analytic self-map of the unit disc. If $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}$ is analytic in a neighbourhood of the closed unit disc, we give a precise formula for the essential norm of the composition operator $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$ on the weighted Dirichlet spaces ${\mathcal{D}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$ for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}>0$ . We also show that, for a univalent analytic self-map $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}$ of $\mathbb{D}$ , if $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}$ has an angular derivative at some point of $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}\mathbb{D}$ , then the essential norm of $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$ on the Dirichlet space is equal to one.


This paper shows that exact maximum singular value of a complex interval matrix can be found from a set of selected matrices. The results include both square interval matrix and generalized non-square interval matrix. Three illustrative examples are presented to verify the validity and utility of the proposed method.


This article aims to elucidate and analyze the links between science, specifically natural history, and the imperialist project in what is now the northwestern United States and western Canada. Imperialism in this region found its expression through institutions such as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). I examine the activities of naturalists such as David Douglas and William Tolmie Fraser in the context of the fur trade in the Columbia Department. Here I show how natural history aided Britain in achieving its economic and political goals in the region. The key to this interpretation is to extend the role of the HBC as an imperial factor to encompass its role as a patron for natural history. This gives a better understanding of the ways in which imperialism--construed as mercantile, rather than military--delineated research priorities and activities of the naturalists who worked in the Columbia Department.


Phasor measurement units (PMUs) can produce synchronised measurements with high accuracy and granularity. Currently the technology is widely deployed on transmission systems for Wide Area Monitoring, but it has generally not been exploited at distribution level. This paper introduces some applications that utilise synchrophasor measurements to actively manage distribution networks and release more capacity for connecting distributed energy resources (DER). These applications are considered as part of future Distributed Energy Resources Management System, which offers a range of functions for improving the operation security and reliability of modern distribution networks with high DER penetration. The paper also outlines how each application can be used in a distributed control structure an efficient control framework for managing smart grids.


The average drag forces on intruders slowly plunging into and withdrawing from shallow beds of monodisperse smooth glass beads and of sifted rough sand scale with the immersion depth and lateral dimensions of the intruder. The withdrawal forces are comparable for both types of media; however, the plunging forces for sand are substantially greater than for smooth glass beads. Furthermore, for glass beads, the rescaled plunging and withdrawal forces have two different power law dependences on the immersion depth, with exponents greater than unity.


Hollow core's inner surface coating in a photonic bandgap fibre (PBGF) is investigated by means of finite element method. The coat material and thickness-dependence dispersion curve and group velocity dispersion are numerically studied. The coating with materials of low index or small thickness will rise up the dispersion curve but will not induce surface modes. However, coating with materials of high index or big coat thickness will induce surface modes and avoided-crossings. By varying coat material's refractive index and thickness, the appearances of surface modes and avoided-crossings can be changed. It is found that the avoided-crossing can enormously enlarge the negative dispersion which can find applications in dispersion compensation. We numerically achieve a negative dispersion as large as -21416.15 ps/nm/km. The results give a physical insight into the propagation properties of PBGFs with the hollow core coated by a layer of material and are of crucial significance in the applications of PBGF coating.


In this paper, a novel scheme for supervised classification problem of Polarimetric SAR images is proposed, which is based on Adaboost. Compared to traditional classifiers such as complex Wishart distribution based maximum likelihood classifier or Neural Network based classifier, the proposed method is more robust and flexible. Different features or parameters extracted from Polarimetric SAR data could be adopted into the scheme and a quantitative analysis on the significance of each parameter for classification could be achieved. Experiment results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the major factors that facilitated indigenous language shift in Siltie (a Semitic language; primarily spoken in south-western Ethiopia), their effects on Siltie's overall identity and the future directions to reverse the situation (revitalize the language). The subjects used for the current study were 10 elders for an interview selected by purposive sampling and 500 people selected by availability sampling from five selected districts or woredas of Siltie Zone for filling questionnaire and 50 of them selected purposively for focused group discussion (FGD; a sample of selected informants in group for collecting data in major themes of the study). The descriptive survey research design was used to conduct this study by using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. The result indicated that there were various factors that facilitated the indigenous language shift in Siltie: political, social, economic and attitudinal ones that highly threatened the overall identities (history, culture, heritage and indigenous wisdom) of Siltie people. Based on these findings, therefore, different projects of revitalization are recommended for the revitalization of Siltie language: awareness training on the use of Siltie language, development of a (creative) writing culture, establishment of school-based language revitalization project, planning of family-based language revitalization project and establishment of series, deep and multifaceted training and research projects that involve linguists and language experts.

 Key words: Heritage language, language shift, Siltie identity, language revitalization.


Since Landsteiner and Chase first demonstrated passive transfer of sensitivity to picryl chloride by peritoneal exudate cells in guinea pigs (1), numerous studies have established the general nature of this phenomenon (2–5). In most cases biologic antigens, e.g., toxoids, have been employed by a variety of routes, and either circulating antibodies (2–4, 6, 7), delayed hypersensitivity (1) or both (8) have been detected.
 The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of induced protection against lethal doses of tetanus toxin following passive transfer of sensitized lymph node cells (SLNC) in nonirradiated, adult, highly inbred mice. The mouse has been shown to be susceptible to tetanus toxin (9), and active immunization with tetanus toxoid has been produced in this animal (10).
 Materials and Methods. The animals used were C3H/HeJ3 adult female mice. Fifty animals were immunized by injecting 0.25 ml of aluminum phosphate-adsorbed tetanus toxoid4 into the base of the tail and an equal amount subcutaneously into the interscapular region.


Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a growing public health problem worldwide. The condition is associated with perinatal complications and an increased risk for future metabolic disease in both mothers and their offspring. In recent years, molecular biomarkers received considerable interest as screening tools for GDM. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the current status of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), DNA methylation, and microRNAs as biomarkers for GDM. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for articles published between January 1990 and August 2018. The search terms included "gestational diabetes mellitus", "blood", "single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)", "DNA methylation", and "microRNAs", including corresponding synonyms and associated terms for each word. This review updates current knowledge of the candidacy of these molecular biomarkers for GDM with recommendations for future research avenues.


This paper seeks to study the security strategies in the Syrah (The life conduct) of the Shiite Infallible Imams. Since one of the most important Shiite sources in understanding the life of the Infallibles Imams are the four books of hadith regarded as reliable by the Shi'as (Al-Kutub al-Arbaʿa), so this study have been analyzed these books in terms of case study. The research question is as follows: What security strategies did the Infallibles Imams use during their Imamate and what are the features of these security strategies? The research method used in this study is content analysis. The results of this research show: According to their historical circumstances, the Infallibles Imams have used these four security strategies: Alavi, Expediency, Order Good and Forbid Evil and Taqiyya.


1. Helicobacter pylori has been associated with chronic type-B gastritis, which in turn is always present in duodenal ulcer patients; therefore, it is likely that Helicobacter pylori is an important cofactor in the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer disease. An eradication of Helicobacter pylori is associated with the reduced ulcer relapse rate, but an effective therapy for eradication is not yet available and should be restricted to experimental protocols. 2. Omeprazole is an antagonist of the proton pump of the acid-producing cell of the human stomach. With once-daily omeprazole treatment it is possible to almost abolish 24-hour intragastric acidity in the majority of duodenal ulcer patients; therefore, omeprazole allows alternative treatment of different causes of peptic disease.


Transport phenomena inside a low consistency disc refiner were experimentally investigated. A transparent refiner door was designed and fabricated with four acrylic viewports enabling plate-scale and groove-scale visual observation. High speed video, ultra-violet fluorescent tracer particles and a MATLAB program were used to perform particle tracking velocimetry to gain further understanding of the flow field. The experimental working fluid under study was water. The effects of refiner operating parameters on the flow field were of particular interest. Refiner flow rates were varied from 300 to 700 litres per minute. Refiner rotational speeds were varied from 400 to 1200 RPM. Plate gap values under study included 7.5, 2.5, 1.5, and 0.75 mm. Two plate configurations were studied, including a smooth rotor and grooved rotor with a machined acrylic stator plate. The plate geometry under test was designed for softwood pulp having a bar edge length equal to 0.99 km/rev.

A set of phenomenological characterizations of observed particle behaviour was identified. Qualitative results were provided for the effect of gap, refiner speed, and flow rate on the flow field. Lagrangian pathlines were shown to reveal tortuous flow for grooved rotor experiments. Quantitative results were presented for grooved rotor experiments for gaps of 0.75 mm. Eulerian measurements of groove axial velocity indicated fluid transport into and out of the stator grooves, while net transport occurred out of the grooves. The presence of backflow in the stator grooves was observed at all operating points for the grooved rotor under test. The relationship between stator backflow velocity and operating parameters was reported showing an increase with refiner speed and a minimal decrease with refiner flow rate. It has been shown that there is a linear relationship between stator backflow velocities and the pressure differential across the refiner. Rotational motion in the stator grooves was quantified by angular velocity and turnover rate of the fluid. Turnover rate was defined as the number of rotations of the fluid as it travels the length of the groove. Angular velocity increased proportionally with refiner speed and turnover rate did not vary significantly with refiner operating parameters.


Structural insights into capsid flexibility Viral capsids are protein structures that enclose the genetic material of viruses. Previous structural studies of the HIV-1 capsid have relied on recombinant, cross-linked, or mutant capsid proteins. Mattei et al. now report subnanometer-resolution cryo–electron tomography structures of the HIV-1 capsid from intact virions. These structures confirm the hollow cone shape of the capsid and allow for the specific placement of each individual capsid hexamer and pentamer within the lattice structure. The structures also reveal the flexible nature of the capsid, which likely helps it to accommodate interactions with host cell factors. Science, this issue p. 1434 High-resolution structures of the capsid from intact HIV-1 virions suggest that it forms after virus maturation. HIV-1 contains a cone-shaped capsid encasing the viral genome. This capsid is thought to follow fullerene geometry—a curved hexameric lattice of the capsid protein, CA, closed by incorporating 12 CA pentamers. Current models for core structure are based on crystallography of hexameric and cross-linked pentameric CA, electron microscopy of tubular CA arrays, and simulations. Here, we report subnanometer-resolution cryo–electron tomography structures of hexameric and pentameric CA within intact HIV-1 particles. Whereas the hexamer structure is compatible with crystallography studies, the pentamer forms using different interfaces. Determining multiple structures revealed how CA flexes to form the variably curved core shell. We show that HIV-1 CA assembles both aberrant and perfect fullerene cones, supporting models in which conical cores assemble de novo after maturation.


Background Primary appraisals of pain as a potential threat influence pain perception and coping but comparatively less is known about related effects of challenge appraisals or causal effects of primary appraisals on secondary appraisals of perceived pain coping capacities (e.g., pain self-efficacy). Methods To address these gaps, young Chinese women (N = 147) and men (N = 88) were randomly assigned to one of three appraisal conditions prior to engaging in a cold pressor test (CPT): (1) a higher threat appraisal condition featuring task orienting information describing symptoms and consequences of frostbite, (2) a lower threat appraisal condition featuring orienting information about safety of the CPT, or (3) a challenge appraisal condition featuring orienting information describing benefits of persistence despite discomfort for future life satisfaction. Results Compared to peers in the higher threat condition, challenge condition cohorts experienced smaller decreases in task-related self-efficacy, more cognitive coping, and less catastrophizing as well as more overall pain tolerance. A path analysis indicated that self-efficacy changes, cognitive coping and catastrophizing fully mediated links of subjective challenge and threat appraisals with pain tolerance. Conclusions Initial appraisals about the nature of pain influence, not only pain tolerance and coping, but also perceived coping capacities. Perspective Through examining particular theory-based pain appraisal and coping processes, this experiment is the first to identify both perceived coping capacities (pain self-efficacy) and coping responses as factors that explain why appraisals of pain as a challenge or threat have differential effects on pain tolerance.


The Wharton Basin in the vicinity of DSDP Site 211 is characterized by a broad, low-relief northwest-southeast topographic trend along with a local high perpendicular to it. Seismic stratigraphy has indicated two distinct sedimentary layers, an upper acoustically transparent and a lower opaque underlain by the oceanic basement (layer 2). Sediment is found as thin pockets and is devoid on the basement highs. Local free-air gravity anomaly pattern follows the local topography closely. The magnetic anomalies appear to have an approximate east northeast-west southwest trend within the area of study. The forms of benthic life present indicate a soft muddy bottom.


The choice behavior of 6 pigeons performing a mulltidimensional same-different texture discrimination was examined. On each trial, they had to choose among 2 choice hoppers depending on whether a color, shape, or redundant (color and shape) target signal was present or not in a textured stimulus. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were produced by variations in the priori signal presentation probabilities across conditions. Quantitative analyses of these ROC curves were used to evaluate different competing theories of discrimination (signal detection vs. high-threshold-default response models) and information integration (independent observations, additive integration, unidimensional models). The results suggested the structure of the pigeons' choice behavior in this same-different discrimination was best described by an unequal variance signal detection model involving a unidimensional evidence variable (e.g., degree of difference).


[1] The planetary boundary layer (PBL) height is a key variable in climate modeling and has an enormous influence on air pollution. A method based on the wavelet covariance transform (WCT) applied to lidar data is tested in this paper as an automated and non-supervised method to obtain the PBL height. The parcel and the Richardson number methods applied to radiosounding data and the parcel method applied to microwave radiometer temperature profiles are used as independent measurements of the PBL height in order to optimize the parameters required for its detection using the WCT method under different atmospheric conditions. This optimization allows for a one-year statistical analysis of the PBL height at midday over Granada (southeastern Spain) from lidar data. The PBL height showed a seasonal cycle, with higher values in summer and spring while lower values were found in winter and autumn. The annual mean was 1.7 ± 0.5 km a.s.l. during the study period. The relationship of the PBL height with aerosol properties is also analyzed for the one-year period.


Leading grand processions through the towns of northern Italy in the late fifteenth century, the Franciscan friar Bernardino da Feltre brandished a banner emblazoned with the image of the Man of Sorrows, often called the Imago pietatis. His remarkable dual objective was to found and finance a civic lending bank or Monte di Pieta to help the working poor. Nowadays the designation "Monte di Pieta" seemingly embraces a tension: banking on the one hand and the redemptive body of Christ on the other. Or to put it differently, the need for capital in this world and the promise of Christian salvation in the next. Our article seeks to explain the apparent paradox of the Man of Sorrows as a fitting symbol for the Monte and to clarify Bernardino's role in adopting the image as an organizational logo. We explore these questions in the light of the history of the Man of Sorrows in the Veneto during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and against the political strategies of the Observant Friars generally and Bernardino in particular.


The geometric rate of biodiversity loss in developing countries like igeria has been identified as a problem of major concern. The loss in biodiversity in modern times is evident in the extinction of many plants and animal species. In developing countries like Nigeria, more attention is given to aesthetics, functionality as well as the cost of proposed projects than the Environmental Impacts of the projects. During construction and rehabilitation of infrastructural projects, biodiversity is destroyed. Thus, this study was aimed at exploring the various ways by which infrastructural projects affect biodiversity, with a view to proffering ways of its restoration. The negative effects of infrastructural projects on biodiversity can be reduced through Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This will help in averting the detrimental effects on natural resources. In situations, where natural habitat loss is unavoidable, adequate mitigation measures such as provision of strict protection zones along the proposed projects should be adopted. In order to meet the Sustainable Development Goal, EIA should be carried out before projects that may have a negative impact on the environment are constructed.


Planktonic organisms may provide a niche to associated bacteria in the oligotrophic ocean. Bacterial fitness strategies in association with copepods – abundant planktonic crustaceans – were examined by sampling and incubation experiments in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (NASG). The bacterial metatranscriptome was dominated by Gammaproteobacteria and showed expression of complete bacterial pathways including chemotaxis, cell signaling, and alkaline phosphatase activity. Quantitative PCR and reverse transcriptase qPCR revealed the consistent presence and expression of alkaline phosphatase genes primarily by Vibrio spp. in the copepod association. Copepod-associated bacteria appear to respond to prevailing phosphorus limitation by using alkaline phosphatases to break down organophosphoesters, presumably originating from the copepods. The results suggest that the basin-wide tendency for phosphorus limitation in the North Atlantic Ocean is occurring at microscales in these nitrogen-enriched copepod microenvironments. The bacterial communities and their fitness strategies supported by associations with these abundant mesozooplankton are unique from the surrounding seawater and could have large-scale implications for biogeochemical cycling, marine food web structuring, and copepod and ecosystem health.


background. Botulinum A exotoxin injection is a well‐established method for treatment of glabellar frown lines, crow's feet, and horizontal furrows of the forehead. However, there is no consensus as to the optimal dosage per injection site or the concentration of injectate to be used. objective. The purpose of this study was to determine the minimal effective dose per injection site to be used as well as the effect of concentration in response to treatment. results. A total of 46 subjects were divided into ten groups and injected with escalating doses and concentrations of botulinum toxin. The response and longevity of treatment were then followed on a monthly basis. A dose between 2.5–4 U per injection site (12.5–20 U total) was determined to be an effective starting dose, with a duration of 2–5 months (median 14 weeks). conclusions. There was no statistically significant difference in safety or efficacy for concentrations ranging from 50 to 200 U/ml of botulinum toxin.


Abstract This paper situates Sub-Saharan African migration to the global core, especially the United States, within a historical-structuralist framework and in the process connects migration from the region to global capitalism in a political economy. It considers mechanisms adopted in exploiting the region's human capital in three regimes of accumulation under capitalist expansion: slavery, colonialism, and globalization. The paper uses both the historical record and empirical data from American Community Survey in analyses. It concludes that recent migration from the region is a continuation of the historic exploitative relationship between the global core and Sub-Saharan Africa. By connecting African human capital utilization to global capitalism, the findings of this paper emphasize the continued need to consider migration as part of the broader postcolonial project. The policy implication of these findings for the region is that countries need to focus on economic development, rather than focusing solely on the role of remittances, brain drain and gain, and migration policy to the detriment of development policy. The paper also argues that core country policies to the migration crisis depend upon whether conservative/nationalists, neoliberal or humanist perspectives prevail in these countries.


Applications involving travel behavior from the perspective of land use are dating from the 1990s. Usually, four important components are distinguished: density, diversity and design (3D?s of Cervero and Kockelman) and accessibility (introduced by Geurs and van Wee). But there is not a general agreement on how to measure each of those 4 components. Density is used to be measured as population and employment densities, but others authors separate population density between residential and building densities. A lot of measures have been developed to estimate diversity: among others, a dissimilarity index to indicate the degree to which different land uses lie within one another?s surrounding, an entropy index to quantify the degree of balance across various land use types or proximities to commercial-retail uses. Design has been characterized by site design, and dwelling and street characteristics. Lastly, accessibility has become a frequently used concept, but its meaning on travel behavior field always refers to the ability ?to reach activities or locations by means of a travel mode?, measured as accessibility to jobs, to leisure activities, and others. Furthermore, the previous evidence is mainly based on US data or on north European countries. Therefore, this paper adds some new evidence from a Spanish perspective to the research debate. Through a Madrid smartphone-based survey, factor analysis is used to linearly combine variables into the 3D?s and accessibility dimensions of the built environment. At a first step for future investigations, land use variables will be treated to define accurately the previous 4 components.


This paper studies the feasibility of minimizing convergence delay and forwarding disruption without carrying any additional bits in the IP header, to provide high availability despite link failures in traditional IP networks. Previously proposed mechanisms achieve two of these three objectives by trading off the other objective. For instance, the ordered forwarding information base updates approach may prolong the convergence delay, whereas the SafeGuard scheme requires carrying the path cost in the IP header. As a better alternative, we propose a scheme called fast convergence with fast reroute (FCFR), which combines the features of IP fast rerouting and interface-specific forwarding. We show that FCFR can achieve minimal convergence delay, while ensuring loop-free delivery during convergence, after a single non-partitioning failure in an IP network, without altering the IP header format, making it amenable for immediate deployment.


The main aim of this study was the application of excitation-emission fluorescence matrices (EEMs) combined with two decomposition methods: parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) to study the interaction mechanisms between humic acids (HAs) and Zn(II) over a wide concentration range (0–50 mg·dm−3). The influence of HA properties on Zn(II) complexation was also investigated. Stability constants, quenching degree and complexation capacity were estimated for binding sites found in raw EEM, EEM-PARAFAC and EEM-NMF data using mathematical models. A combination of EEM fluorescence analysis with one of the proposed decomposition methods enabled separation of overlapping binding sites and yielded more accurate calculations of the binding parameters. PARAFAC and NMF processing allowed finding binding sites invisible in a few raw EEM datasets as well as finding totally new maxima attributed to structures of the lowest humification. Decomposed data showed an increase in Zn complexation with an increase in humification, aromaticity and molecular weight of HAs. EEM-PARAFAC analysis also revealed that the most stable compounds were formed by structures containing the highest amounts of nitrogen. The content of oxygen-functional groups did not influence the binding parameters, mainly due to fact of higher competition of metal cation with protons. EEM spectra coupled with NMF and especially PARAFAC processing gave more adequate assessments of interactions as compared to raw EEM data and should be especially recommended for modeling of complexation processes where the fluorescence intensities (FI) changes are weak or where the processes are interfered with by the presence of other fluorophores.


Objective Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH), a disease commonly encountered by neurosurgeons, is treated by burr hole drainage (BHD). However, the optimal surgical technique among the three types of BHD has not been determined. Methods We conducted a retrospective study on BHD performed on 93 patients who were diagnosed with CSDH. The subjects were divided into three groups based on the surgical technique performed: single BHD without irrigation (Group A, n=31), double BHD without irrigation (Group B, n=32), and double BHD with irrigation (Group C, n=30). The clinical factors, radiological factors and recurrences were compared between the three groups. Moreover, independent factors affecting the recurrence were analyzed. Results The change in hematoma thickness was 29.77±7.94%, 49.73±12.87%, and 75.29±4.32% for Group A, B, and C, respectively, while the change in midline shift was 40.81±15.47%, 51.78±10.94%, and 56.16±16.16%, respectively. Thus, Group C showed the most effective for resolution of hematoma and midline shift (p<0.05). Group A, B, and C had 12 cases (38.7%), 8 cases (25.0%), and 3 cases (10.0%) of recurrences, respectively. Group C had a statistically significantly fewer recurrence rate than Group A (p<0.05). Double burr hole, irrigation, and coagulopathy were each identified as independent factors that reduce recurrence (p<0.05). Conclusion Among the three techniques, the double BHD with saline irrigation resulted in the fewest recurrences. It is probably the most effective technique for preventing the recurrence of CSDH.


Visual perceptual abilities of 47 institutionalized trainable retarded subjects were compared on selected measures of visual perception. Significant relationships were found between the Developmental Test of Visual Perception and the Matching and Copying subtests of the Metropolitan Readiness Test. Only moderate correlations were found between these two subtests and Motor-free Visual Perception Test.


In the pursuit of the communicative, collaborative and participatory planning processes advocated by academic planning literature, a practice has evolved that translates abstract objectives into practical workforms. Planning literature proposes many objectives that can be met by less top-down methods of generating ideas and making decisions. Little is known about how such objectives are translated into practical methods applied. This paper presents an inventory of practices that is meant to validate and supplement available theories on communicative planning. It concentrates on a specific part of the planning process: the moment where optional solutions to a problem are being generated, not by each stakeholder in isolation, but specifically by groups of stakeholders in constructive designerly interaction with each other. We interviewed 11 experienced professionals from the Netherlands who use interactive design sessions on a regular basis. This paper reports on their responses to questions about skills needed by session leaders, what types of venues are best to use, how to behave during sessions, requirements for participants to contribute, roles of governments and what explains the eventual effects of session outcomes. Although every session still needs to be tailor-made, based on practical wisdom and sensitivity to context, this study reveals recurring hands-on principles for organizing an effective dialogue for exploring solution space.


Biotechnological processes have accompanied humanity since the beginning of civilization; proof of this is the use of yeasts for the preparation of bread, wine and beer. Biotechnology has also been fundamental in the improvement of plants and animals that are part of the human diet; and in vitro culture techniques have accelerated the processes for obtaining better crops  for our growing population. The project "Biotechnology for everyone: Socialization of concepts, applications and benefits" socializes the concepts, applications and benefits of biotechnology among educators, opinion-forming groups, and producers in the agricultural and food sectors. The project has successfully used new technologies to reach its goals.


With the accelerated development in semiconductor power devices along with the dictated rigorous reliability standards in some industrial sectors, the application of a medium-voltage high-power multiphase induction machine with multiple three-phase windings is now considered as a leading technology in high-power safety-critical applications. This paper proposes a parameter-independent postfault control scheme for an asymmetrical six-phase induction machine based on simple scalar V/f control, which can successfully ensure the most common postfault scenarios used in this respect, namely, equal stator copper loss and minimum copper loss modes. Moreover, the proposed controller can effectively be used in either open-loop or closed-loop speed control modes. The proposed controller is experimentally validated using a 1.5-kW prototype induction machine. The effect of the neutral arrangement on the dynamic performance is also explored.


We extend an existing multicast routing protocol, multicast extension to OSPF (MOSPF), to achieve tunnel multicasting. The extension is as follows. Tunneling is introduced for supporting tunnel multicasting, which aims at reducing the protocol overhead associated with MOSPF. Simulation results show that the extension can reduce protocol overhead significantly without affecting the per-destination shortest path characteristics of a resulting tree or introducing any extra control overhead.


We present a review of the influence of cosmic repulsion and external magnetic fields on accretion disks rotating around rotating black holes and on jets associated with these rotating configurations. We consider both geometrically thin and thick disks. We show that the vacuum energy represented by the relic cosmological constant strongly limits extension of the accretion disks that is for supermassive black holes comparable to extension of largest galaxies, and supports collimation of jets at large distances from the black hole. We further demonstrate that an external magnetic field crucially influences the fate of ionized Keplerian disks causing creation of winds and jets, enabling simultaneously acceleration of ultra-high energy particles with energy up to 10 21 eV around supermassive black holes with M ∼ 10 10 M ⊙ surrounded by sufficiently strong magnetic field with B ∼ 10 4 G. We also show that the external magnetic fields enable existence of "levitating" off-equatorial clouds or tori, along with the standard equatorial toroidal structures, if these carry a non-vanishing, appropriately distributed electric charge.


INTRODUCTION
Coma is a relatively common condition in the paediatric intensive
care unit. Epidemiological studies generally divide the causes of coma as
traumatic and nontraumatic. The incidence of non traumatic coma was
five times greater in children in developed countries. Non traumatic coma
is an important source of morbidity and mortality in paediatric age group.
Design of appropriate and efficient protocols of investigation for coma
require an understanding of the relative frequencies of various potential
etiologies. There are no prospective study on the etiology, clinical signs,
severity of non traumatic coma in children with a view to define
predictors of outcome in south Tamilnadu. Considering the fact that acute
non traumatic coma is accounting for 10 to 15% of all hospital
admissions, there is a need for more studies so that outcome rather than
survival can be improved.
Consciousness is a state of normal cerebral function in which the
child is aware of both self and surroundings and responds to stimuli, both
internal, e.g., hunger and external. Sleep is a normal variation of this
state. Impairment in consciousness may range from confusion,
drowsiness and stupor to coma and brain death.
The ascending reticular activating system (RAS) is a collection of
neurons located in the brainstem and medial thalamus, having
connections with all parts of the cerebral hemispheres. This system
maintains the brain in wakeful consciousness. Impairment of
consciousness and coma occurs due to lesions that damage the RAS or its
projections, disruption of large portions of both cerebral hemispheres,
suppression of reticulo-cerebral functions by drugs, toxins, inflammation,
or metabolic derangement etc.
Most cases of acute impairment of consciousness and coma are due
to potentially treatable conditions and respond well to treatment. In
certain conditions prognosis depends more on the causative illness rather
than the severity of the illness. Outcome also depends on the speed and
quality of the treatment given. Residual neurological deficit might
improve over time with proper physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
Cognitive functions may improve over time. Behavioral problems are
common during recovery which may also improve in due course. 72
CONCLUSION:
1. CNS infection is the commonest etiology and epilepsy is the
second common etiology in all age groups and both sexes.
2. Low age groups are more susceptible for occurrence of impairment
of consciousness and coma. Hypoxic – ischemic encephalopathy is
the common etiology in 01 month to 3 year age group.
3. Gender had no role in etiological diagnosis and outcome.
4. Meningeal and focal signs are viable and valid factors to facilitate
the diagnosis of etiology.
5. Severity of coma, duration of coma and meningeal and focal signs
are the influencing factors upon the nature of outcome.
6. Secondary symptomatic seizures are more common in CNS
infections than in other non epileptic etiologies. Presence of
secondary symptomatic seizures in non-epileptic group had adverse
impact on the outcome.
7. CT Brain with positive findings is an objective collateral evidence
to diagnose etiology. Presence and absence of findings in CT brain
is not significant in determining the outcome in this study. Further
larger studies are needed.
8. Epilepsy had better outcome than other etiology.
9. Hypoxic ischemic, Metabolic, toxic and other etiological group had
variable outcome due to heterogenous nature of multiple etiologies.
In pediatric population, impairment of consciousness is an urgency
and coma is an emergency. Proper history taking, focussed clinical
examination and relevant laboratory investigations are essential to find
out etiology. The present study shows that clinical variables such as age
specificity, severity of coma, duration of coma, meningeal and focal signs
and disease related seizures are important factors that can influence the
outcome of non traumatic coma in paediatric population.


Our Fanatics: Figurations of Religious Fanaticism in Ian McEwan, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Marilynne Robinson examines how three contemporary novelists complicate oft-repeated accounts that oppose religious fanaticism to reasoned argumentation and secular politics. My dissertation features novels that focus intently on the interiority of protagonists who encounter figures of religious fanaticism, portraying religious fanaticism as something to be negotiated rather than defended against. By analyzing twenty-first century novels that variously figure religious fanaticism in oppositional, paradoxical, and genealogical terms, this project examines how religious fanaticism is constitutive of—rather than external to—the worlds of these novels.The first chapter reaches back to Ian McEwan's Enduring Love (1998), comparing it to his 9/11 novel, Saturday (2005), and, more recently, The Children Act (2014). I argue McEwan's novels frame religious fanaticism as a form of irrational certainty that generates epistemological uncertainty for the novels' protagonists. These texts frustrate a simple triumphant narrative whereby secular rationalism prevails over religious fanaticism. More recently, however, McEwan's fiction resolves such tensions with increasing authority, gradually eliminating the experimental dimensions of McEwan's early work. Chapter two features Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus (2003), which develops an apparently paradoxical religious fanatic— politically admirable but privately violent. I investigate this paradox by analyzing the novel's cyclical plot, which echoes the Catholic liturgical calendar and which distinguishes it from Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958), a comparison that has dominated Adichie's critical reception. The third chapter reads Marilynne Robinson's Gilead trilogy—Gilead (2004), Home (2008), and Lila (2014)—as an extended meditation on the lingering effects of religious fanaticism across the generations of a small mid-Western town. The trilogy's genealogical figuration of religious fanaticism ties abolitionism to civil rights activism, delivering a resounding critique of "mainline" Protestant disavowals of such fanaticism.The religious fanatics that appear across this dissertation cannot be described in any easy sense as "ours." My title draws attention to the smaller, subtler way that these novels approach religious fanaticism through intimate relationships and private spaces, positioning religious fanaticism as internal to communities, to families, and, particularly in Adichie and Robinson, to Christian traditions.


BACKGROUND Skin cancer commonly occurs on areas that are salient to body image perception (i.e., head and neck). Patients with head and neck skin cancer (HNSC) may experience negative body image perceptions related to their disease, which is concerning, given the numerous negative sequelae of poor body image. However, there are no existing disease-specific measures of body image concerns in HNSC. OBJECTIVE To develop and examine the psychometric properties of a brief self-report, disease-specific measure of body image concerns in patients with HNSC—the Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients with HNSC completed the BIQ before (n = 239) and 6 months after (n = 80) treatment with Mohs micrographic surgery. Analyses examined the internal consistency, convergent validity, and factor structure of the BIQ. RESULTS Internal consistency reliability was acceptable, and the measure demonstrated convergent validity with well-being. Four dimensions underlie the BIQ: appearance satisfaction, appearance avoidance, head/neck/skin-specific dissatisfaction, and perceived change. CONCLUSION The BIQ is a valid and internally reliable disease-specific instrument that measures body image concerns in patients with HNSC.


Objective To examine the risk of malignant mesothelioma (MM) in former pupils who attended primary school near an asbestos cement plant. Methods A cohort of 12 111 former pupils, born 1940–1970, was established from individual historical records from four primary schools located at a distance of 100–750 m in the prevailing wind direction from an asbestos cement plant operating from 1928 to 1984 in Aalborg, Denmark. The school cohort and a comparison cohort consisting of 108 987 gender and 5-year frequency-matched subjects were followed up (2015) for MM in the Danish Cancer Registry. Using Cox regression, HRs were estimated for the incidence of MM. Adjustments for occupational and familial asbestos exposure were made with a job exposure matrix. An SIR analysis including latency periods testing the cancer incidence rate was performed with the comparison cohort as the reference rate. Results The median person-years of follow-up were 62.5 years in the school cohort and 62.2 years in the comparison cohort. There were 32 males and 6 females of the former pupils who developed MM during the follow-up: HRmale 7.01 (95% CI 4.24 to 11.57), HRfemale 7.43 (95% CI 2.50 to 22.13). Those who attended school 250 m north of the plant had the highest HR for MM, 10.65 (95% Cl 5.82 to 19.48). No significant trend between school distance and risk of MM was established (p=0.35). Conclusion Our results suggest that boys and girls who attended schools and lived in the neighbourhood of an asbestos cement plant later in life have a significantly increased risk of MM.


The separation of ownership and control in companies limits the involvement of shareholders in management decision-making. Therefore, shareholders have to rely on the board of directors to evaluate and challenge management decisions. The way a board discharges their duties is referred to as the board process. This study examines the relationship between board process and company performance of Malaysian public listed companies. This study used two types of data; a questionnaire survey of Malaysian directors and data derived from company annual reports from 2007 to 2009. Based on a sample of 175 companies, the findings of the study reveal that board's risk oversight and performance of independent directors are positively correlated to company performance. However, CEO performance evaluation and directors' accessibility to information have no effect on company performance. Overall findings are expected to serve as a basis for more effective corporate governance policies and practices in Malaysia in ensuring the sustainability of the listed companies.


AIMS
Client language reflecting motivation for changing substance use (i.e. change talk) has been shown to predict outcomes in motivational interviewing. While previous work has shown that change talk may be elicited by clinician behaviors, little is known about intrapersonal factors that may elicit change talk, including clients' baseline motivation for change. The present study tested whether in-session change talk differs between clients based on their readiness for change.

DESIGN AND SETTING
First-session audio recordings from Project MATCH, a large multi-site clinical trial of alcohol treatments.

PARTICIPANTS
Project MATCH out-patients (n = 69) and aftercare patients (n = 48) receiving motivational enhancement therapy (MET).

MEASUREMENTS
Client language from first-session MET was coded using the Sequential Code for Observing Process Exchanges. Readiness and stages of change were assessed using both categorical and dimensional variables derived from the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment and the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale, administered prior to first treatment sessions.

FINDINGS
Stage of change scales followed some of the expected correspondence with change talk, although the associations were generally small in magnitude and inconsistent across measures and treatment arms. Higher overall readiness did not predict more overall change talk, contemplation had mixed associations with preparatory change talk, and preparation/action did not predict commitment language.

CONCLUSIONS
Motivational language used in initial sessions by people receiving counselling for excessive alcohol consumption does not appear to be associated with readiness to change as construed by the Transtheoretical Model.


Model parallelism is a standard paradigm to decouple a deep neural network (DNN) into sub-nets when the model is large. Recent advances in class parallelism significantly reduce the communication overhead of model parallelism to a single floating-point number per machine per iteration. However, traditional fault-tolerance schemes, when applied to class parallelism, require storing the entire model on the hard disk. Thus, these schemes are not suitable for soft and frequent system noise such as stragglers (temporarily slow worker machines). In this paper, we propose an erasure-coding based redundant computing technique called robust class parallelism to improve the error resilience of model parallelism. We show that by introducing slight overhead in the computation at each machine, we can obtain robustness to soft system noise while maintaining the low communication overhead in class parallelism. More importantly, we show that on standard classification tasks, robust class parallelism maintains the state-of-the-art performance.


While theorists in faculty development define the term differently, there is general agreement that the intent of well-conceived faculty development is to maximize opportunities for faculty members to experience and then sustain success in personal and professional growth (Chait & Ford, 1982; Eble, 1972; Gaff, 1975). Opportunities for faculty development vary greatly across institutions. It is increasingly clear, however, that the need for faculty to engage in development activities has intensified. Factors that have traditionally encouraged faculty development (i.e., movement toward promotion and tenure) have been added to by changes both internal and external to institutions of higher education. Schwartz (1983) recently noted that, while these changes will have impact on all faculty who choose to continue a professorial career, faculty in teacher education are considerably more "endangered" than faculty in other disciplines. It is critical that faculty development efforts in special education likewise take these changes into account. Awareness of the factors will allow the establishment of successful faculty development programs that react to identified pressures and are also proactive in guiding the disciplines of teaching and learning for the coming decade.


Rationale Previous work has demonstrated a profound effect of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) antagonism in the infralimbic cortex (IL) to selectively elevate impulsive responding in a rodent reaction time paradigm. However, the mechanism underlying this effect is unclear. Objectives This series of experiments investigated the pharmacological basis of this effect in terms of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission. We tested several pharmacological mechanisms that might produce the effect of NMDAR antagonism via disruption or dampening of IL output. Methods Drugs known to affect brain GABA or glutamate function were tested in rats pre-trained on a five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) following either their systemic administration or direct administration into the IL. Results Systemic lamotrigine administration (15 mg/kg), which attenuates excess glutamate release, did not counteract the ability of the intra-IL NMDAR antagonist 3-((R)-2carboxypiperazin-4-yl)-propyl-L-phosphonic acid ((R)CPP) to increase premature responding on the 5-CSRTT. Putative elevation of local extracellular glutamate via intraIL infusions of the selective glutamate reuptake inhibitor DL-threo-β-benzyloxyaspartate as well as local α-amino-3hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid receptor antagonism also had no effect on this task. However, intra-IL infusions of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol produced qualitatively but not quantitatively comparable increases in impulsive responding to those elicited by (R)CPP. Moreover, the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline blocked the increase in impulsivity produced by (R)-CPP when infused in the IL. Conclusions These findings implicate glutamatergic and GABAergic mechanisms in the IL in the expression of impulsivity and suggest that excessive glutamate release may not underlie increased impulsivity induced by local NMDA receptor antagonism.


This paper describes Self-Organizing Maps for Genetic Algorithm (SOM-GA). In this algorithm, the search performance of a real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) is enhanced with self-organizing map (SOM). The SOM is trained with the information of the individuals in the population. Sub-populations are generated from a whole population by the help of the map. The RCGA search is performed in the sub-populations. The Rastrigin function is considered as a test problem. The search performance of SOM-GA is compared with that of the RCGA. The results show that the use of the sub-populationsearch algorithm improvesthe local search performance of the RCGA and therefore, SOM-GA can find better solutions in shorter CPU time than RCGA.


Peritonitis is a common and life-threatening complication of acute peritoneal dialysis (PD). Diagnosis requires the presence of clinical signs of peritonitis which are nonspecific and laboratory investigations [total leukocyte count (TLC), Gram-stain, and culture of PD effluent fluid] which are time-consuming and not available at the bedside. In this study, we evaluated the use of leukocyte esterase reagent strip (LERS) as a bedside test to diagnose peritonitis in patients undergoing acute PD. Patients who underwent acute PD were monitored for signs and symptoms of peritonitis. PD effluent fluid analysis included TLC, absolute neutrophil count, Gram-stain, and culture for the diagnosis of peritonitis. LERS (Multistix 10SG) was simultaneously dipped in PD effluent fluid and read at two minutes. Reading of + was considered as indicative of peritonitis. Twenty-one out of 166 (12.6%) patients undergoing acute PD developed peritonitis. LERS detected peritonitis in 20 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value (NPV) of LERS were 95.2%, 95.2%, 74.1%, and 99.3%, respectively. LERS has very high sensitivity and NPV and can be used as a rapid bedside tool to exclude peritonitis in patients undergoing acute PD.


Described in the article are the results of using ultrasonographic duplex scanning for studying anatomical peculiarities of the precanal segment of the human vertebral artery.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Ultrasonographic duplex scanning (USDS) of the extracranial portions of brachiocephalic vessels was performed in a total of 215 inpatients without haemodynamically significant stenoses of the arteries of the vertebrobasilar basin. The patients found to have pathological alterations in the vertebrobasilar basin were excluded from the examined group. We studied the first segment of the vertebral artery from the origin to its entry into the canal of the transverse processes of cervical vertebrae (V1 segment according to the ultrasonographic nomenclature). We measured the diameter of the vertebral artery, assessing the pattern the vessel's passage, presence of pathological tortuosity, topographic interrelations between the V1 segment of the vertebral artery and structures of the neck, as well as analysing age-specific alterations in the anatomy of the vertebral artery.

RESULTS
By means of duplex scanning we in a non-invasive manner managed to gain a deeper insight into the anatomical peculiarities of the passage and structure of the initial portion of the human vertebral artery, as well as the differences in the structure between the contralateral vertebral arteries. We determined the average values of the diameters of the vertebral artery, its area, topographical relationships with the surrounding anatomical reference points along the length of the precanal segment, available for visualization by this method of study, and age-related peculiarities of the anatomy of the vertebral artery.

CONCLUSIONS
Ultrasonographic duplex scanning of the extracranial portions of brachiocephalic vessels in humans is an effective, available and accurate technique making it possible to assess the anatomy of the initial portion of the vertebral artery. The average values of the diameters and area of the transverse section of the left vertebral artery turned out to be significantly greater than similar values of the right vertebral artery in the overwhelming majority of cases. Due to structural peculiarities of the aortic arch branches, in particular, independent origin of the left subclavian artery from the aortic arch, the left vertebral artery has, as a rule, greater length than the right one and differs by the topographical correlations with the surrounding structures on the neck, which is confirmed by the ultrasonographic method of study. The ultrasonographic method of study makes it possible to sufficiently effectively assess the difference in depth of the passage of the trunk of the vertebral artery in tissues of the fascial spaces of the neck in representatives of various types of the body-build. We also revealed a tendency towards a tortuous passage of the vertebral artery in the precanal segment in 35-44% of cases irrespective of the body-build, age and gender.


A single-ended low noise amplifier in 65 nm CMOS for applications at 60 GHz is presented. Its measured gain and noise figure at the centre frequency of 57 GHz are 19.1 dB and 5.5 dB, respectively, and it provides wideband matching. Transistors in the design have an asymmetrically fingered layout which reduces parasitic capacitances while simultaneously allowing for higher channel current densities.


ABSTRACT Introduction The recommended method of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been closed-chest cardiac compressions, but the development of CPR adjunctive devices has called into question the efficacy and role of these adjunctive devices. In this review, we provide a comprehensive evaluation and discussion on the commercially available noninvasive CPR adjuncts used during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Areas Covered We review the three most common CPR adjunctive devices: the piston mechanism, the load distributing band, and the impedance threshold device. All three CPR adjunctive devices have preclinical data to support their use during cardiac arrest. In clinical trials, limited data show improvement in survival and neurologic recovery for these devices, and there is insufficient high-level evidence to support their use over manual chest compressions. However, there is a role for them when adequate manual chest compressions are not feasible. Expert Opinion The commercially available CPR adjuncts do not consistently show improved outcomes in the literature. There is still a need for research and development into innovative solutions to improve OHCA survival and neurologic recovery. Efforts focused on increasing the speed of CPR initiation and increasing perfusion to the cerebral and coronary vasculature have the potential to advance resuscitative practices.


OBJECTIVE
We are studying associations between selected biomarkers and schizophrenia or bipolar disorder among military personnel. To assess potential diagnostic misclassification and to estimate the date of illness onset, we reviewed medical records for a subset of cases.

METHODS
Two psychiatrists independently reviewed 182 service medical records retrieved from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Data were evaluated for diagnostic concordance between database diagnoses and reviewers. Interreviewer variability was measured by using proportion of agreement and the kappa statistic. Data were abstracted to estimate date of onset.

RESULTS
High levels of agreement existed between database diagnoses and reviewers (proportion, 94.7%; kappa = 0.88) and between reviewers (proportion, 92.3%; kappa = 0.87). The median time between illness onset and initiation of medical discharge was 1.6 and 1.1 years for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
High levels of agreement between investigators and database diagnoses indicate that diagnostic misclassification is unlikely. Discharge procedure initiation date provides a suitable surrogate for disease onset.