This study investigated relationships between shorter (505, change-of-direction (COD) deficit as a derived physical quality) and longer (Illinois agility test; IAT) COD tests with linear speed, lower-body power (multidirectional jumping), and strength in recreationally-trained individuals. Twenty-one males and 22 females (similar to collegiate club-sport and tactical athletes) were assessed in: 505 and COD deficit from each leg; IAT; 20 m sprint; vertical jump (VJ height, peak anaerobic power measured in watts (PAPw), power-to-body mass ratio); standing broad jump; lateral jump (LJ) from each leg; and absolute and relative isometric midthigh pull (IMTP) strength. Partial correlations calculated sex-determined relationships between the COD and performance tests, with regression equations calculated (p < 0.05). The 505 and IAT correlated with all tests except PAPw and absolute IMTP (r = ±0.43–0.71). COD deficit correlated with the LJ (r = −0.34–0.60). Left- and right-leg 505 was predicted by sex, 20 m sprint, and left-leg LJ (70–77% explained variance). Right-leg COD deficit was predicted by sex and left-leg LJ (27% explained variance). IAT was predicted by sex, 20 m sprint, right-leg LJ, and relative IMTP (84% explained variance). For individuals with limited training time, improving linear speed, and relative lower-body power and strength, could enhance shorter and longer COD performance.


The latest in an ongoing series of papers on the links between militarism and urbanism published in City, this paper opens with an exploration of the emerging crossovers between the 'targeting' of everyday life in so‐called 'smart' border and 'homeland security' programmes and related efforts to delegate the sovereign power to deploy lethal force to increasingly robotized and automated war machines. Arguing that both cases represent examples of a new military urbanism, the rest of the paper develops a thesis outlining the scope and power of contemporary interpenetrations between urbanism and militarism. The new military urbanism is defined as encompassing a complex set of rapidly evolving ideas, doctrines, practices, norms, techniques and popular cultural arenas through which the everyday spaces, sites and infrastructures of cities—along with their civilian populations—are now rendered as the main targets and threats within a limitless 'battlespace'. The new military urbanism, it is argued, rests on five related pillars; these are explored in turn. Included here are the normalization of militarized practices of tracking and targeting everyday urban circulations; the two‐way movement of political, juridical and technological techniques between 'homeland' cities and cities on colonial frontiers; the rapid growth of sprawling, transnational industrial complexes fusing military and security companies with technology, surveillance and entertainment ones; the deployment of political violence against and through everyday urban infrastructure by both states and non‐state fighters; and the increasingly seamless fusing of militarized veins of popular, urban and material culture. The paper finishes by discussing the new political imaginations demanded by the new military urbanism.


Banda Sea is one of the waters had rich of fish catch. The high catch of fish was related with primary productivity of these waters. Net Primary productivity in the Banda Sea was related with some oceanographic factors such as current, ARLINDO, upwelling and downwelling. The oceanographic factors are influenced by ENSO and IOD. The aim of this research to explained the variability of net primary productivity in Banda Sea and its relation with oceanography factor such as ENSO and monsoon. Data that used in this research were data from MODIS satellite and for analysis of net primary productivity data used Vertically Generalized Production Model (VGPM). The relation of net primary productivity with ENSO and IOD can used pearson correlation method. The result of net primary productivity value in Banda Sea was about 100 gCm-2day-1 1200 gCm-2day-1, with the highest apex net primary productivity in August precisely in the east season. The high value of net primary productivity due to upwelling in the season. The value of net primary productivity in west season was decreased. This condition caused by the downwelling of the season. The region with the highest net primary productivity value was the northeast of Banda Sea and the region with lowest net primary productivity value was the western of Banda Sea. The relationship between ENSO with net primary productivity in Banda Sea classified in medium correlation with value 0,556, while relationship between IOD and net primary productivity classified in weak correlation with value 0,23.


Objectives : This study is to report the clinical effect of oriental medicine on a patient suffering from endometriosis with chronic pelvic pain and other accompanied various symptoms. Methods : The 32 years old patient had suffered from endometriosis symptoms including pelvic pain, menstrual cramping, disuresia, and other pains over 8 years. The patient received herbal medication, acupuncture, abdominal moxibustion during 5 months of outpatient treatment. The clinical effects were evaluated through TSD (Total Symptom Distress) and EHP-5 (Short-From Endometriosis Health Profile Questionnaire). Results : The various clinical symptoms were improved during the treatment. The TSD and EHP-5 score also noticeably reduced. Conclusions : This case study showed that oriental medicine, acupuncture and moxibustion treatment appeared to effectively reduce various symptom of endometriosis.


Myiasis is a rare disease caused by infestation of tissue by larvae of flies. Oral myiasis is still rare and unique owing to the fact that the oral cavity rarely provides a necessary habitat for a larval life cycle. We discuss the definition, etiology, predisposing factors, classification, and management of myiasis. We hereby report a rare case of oral myiasis in a 75-year-old female with a history of maxillofacial trauma. She complained of pain in the lower lip and commissure region on the left side through which numerous live maggots (larvae) were seen crawling out. Postremoval of approximate seventy maggots resulted in lower lip defect along its commissure which was repaired by Bernard's modification of Gillies flap. Another case was an 18-year-old girl, a known case of congenital cerebral palsy with pain and swelling in the upper vestibule region. Prevention of myiasis involves addressing open wounds, maintaining good oral and personal hygiene, control of fly population, basic cleanliness of surrounding areas, and provision for basic sanitation and health education.


Histologic illustrations of stages of Sudeck's syndrome in the case of a 22 year old man, following amputation of the left mid-foot. Histometric techniques were also used.


Palaeoclimatic reconstruction in N. Greece has been investigated in this study, using stable isotope analyses and U/Th dating of a speleothem (stalactite) from the cave of Agios Georgios (Kilkis). Sampling sequence was followed in detail in order to obtain high resolution analysis of the proxy. Speleothem δO entirely depends on two factors: changes in the δO of the percolation waters (a proxy for local rainfall δO) and the temperature of water-calcite fractionation inside the cave (a proxy for outside air temperatures). During periods of relatively stable temperatures, δC shifts are caused principally by variations in soil CO2 input and physico-chemical processes inside the cave. More important processes affect the δC signal of speleothem inside the cave are length of flow path and rates of CO2 degassing.The lower δ C calcite values indicate greater respiratory activity of soils under wetter conditions. The stalagmite layers were dated through U/Th geochronological method, which places the carbonate precipitation in Middle Pleistocene (630-300ka BP). The isotopic composition of the layers was used in combination with the dating results to reconstruct the evolution of the area of Kilkis. Correlation with global climatic records shows that major climatic transitions that influenced northern hemisphere seem to have also affected the region of N. Greece.


The dexterity of hands and fingers is related to the strength of control by cortico‐motoneuronal connections which exclusively exist in primates. The cortical command is associated with a task‐specific, rapid proprioceptive adaptation of forces applied by hands and fingers to an object. This neural control differs between "power grip" movements (e.g., reach and grasp of a cup) where hand and fingers act as a unity and "precision grip" movements (e.g., picking up a raspberry) where fingers move independently from the hand. In motor tasks requiring hands and fingers of both sides a "neural coupling" (reflected in bilateral reflex responses to unilateral stimulations) coordinates power grip movements (e.g., opening a bottle). In contrast, during bilateral precision movements, such as playing piano, the fingers of both hands move independently, due to a direct cortico‐motoneuronal control, while the hands are coupled (e.g., to maintain the rhythm between the two sides). While most studies on prehension concern unilateral hand movements, many activities of daily life are tackled by bilateral power grips where a neural coupling serves for an automatic movement performance. In primates this mode of motor control is supplemented by a system that enables the uni‐ or bilateral performance of skilled individual finger movements.


The Manair River is an important tributary of river Godavari and forms part of Karimnagar district of Telangana State. The geomorphological studies have been carried out with a view to understand the impact of these parameters over the ground water occurrence in the area. The area is covered with hard rock's i.e., granites and granitic gneisses traversed by dykes and numerous veins of quartz, epidote and pegmatite. The morphometric analysis has been carried out in addition to the study of land forms. The structural features has strong bearing over the development of drainage pattern and it is mostly dendritic to sub-dendritic nature and the Manair river is designated as sixth order stream. The lower value of bifurcation ratio is mainly due to gentle slopes owing to hard rock terrain. The geomorphic features such as pediplains, shallow valley fills and palaeo channels are considered to be potential aquifer zones. It has been also observed that the increasing order of drainage has increased the ground water potential.


We have previously reported that luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LH-RH) levels in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) of adult male rats castrated for 2 weeks can be raised by testosterone (T) or estradiol (E2) treatment for 3-4 days. The present study was undertaken to determine the time after castration when the hypothalamus becomes refractory to this feedback action and whether prolongation of exposure to steroids would reinstate the hypothalamic LH-RH response. Treatment with T (Silastic capsules, s.c.) for 4 days, when commenced either immediately or 14 days after castration, significantly raised the MBH LH-RH levels. A 4-day regimen of E2 or dihydrotestosterone, on the other hand, evoked similar increase when commenced up to 21-28 days after castration. Further delay in institution of the 4-day treatment rendered the three steroids completely ineffective. When the effects of prolongation of treatment were tested in long-term castrated rats (56 days), it was found that T required 14 days as compared to 7 days of exposure with E2 or dihydrotestosterone to produce an equivalent MBH LH-RH response. Furthermore, the MBH LH-RH and serum LH responses were not always correlated, since increments in the MBH LH-RH were observed when serum LH levels were suppressed by physiological levels of T or dihydrotestosterone and also when they were unchanged with low levels of T or E2. These studies show that long-term castration causes a dichotomy in responsiveness of the hypothalamo-pituitary axis to steroids.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Its high mortality rate has remained unchanged for years. Radiotherapy and surgery are considered standard treatments in early and locally advanced stages. Chemotherapy is the only option for metastatic patients. Two treatment regimens, i. e. the association of 5-fluorouracil- irinotecan-oxaliplatin (FOLFIRINOX) and the association of nab-paclitaxel with gemcitabine, have been shown to improve outcomes for metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients. However, there are not standardized predictive biomarkers able to identify patients who benefit most from treatments. CA19-9 is the most studied prognostic biomarker, its predictive role remains unclear. Other clinical, histological and molecular biomarkers are emerging in prognostic and predictive settings. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of prognostic and predictive markers used in clinical practice and to explore the most promising fields of research in terms of treatment selection and tailored therapy in pancreatic cancer.


Solid phase transformation and metal solubility were monitored after coprecipitation of Cd2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ with Fe3+ to form ferrihydrite by titration to pH 6. The (co)precipitates were aged at room temperature for up to 200 d and subsequently heated for 60 d at 70 °C. The mode of (co)precipitate formation, rapid and slow titration, was also investigated. Metal solubility was measured by anodic stripping voltammetry. Surface area, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were used to follow the transformation of ferrihydrite after initial (co)precipitation. Electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) was used to show the distribution of metals within ferrihydrite aggregates. Thermal treatment produced a reduction in soluble Cd2+ and Zn2+, whereas Pb2+ appeared to be expelled from the solid phase. The more stable coprecipitate (formed by slow titration) maintained a constant Cu2+ solubility after thermal treatment. Characterization of the solid phase by XRD indicated that the presence of low levels of metals did not affect the initial or final transformation products, although metals present during the slow titration seemed to stabilize a higher surface area material. The rapid titration resulted in a less ordered (1-line) ferrihydrite than the slow titration (9-line). Furthermore, FTIR analysis indicated that the presence of metals promoted the formation of mixed (microcrystalline) end-products. The initial coprecipitation products seem to determine the final thermal transformation products. These transformation products include ferrihydrite, hematite (Hm), and goethite (Gt)- and lepidocrocite-like microcrystalline structures. Although experimental conditions were favorable for the homogeneous distribution of metals throughout the coprecipitate, EMPA suggests that Cu and Zn segregation within aggregates of Fe oxides occurs.


Background Many patients struggle to interpret and respond appropriately to the numerical blood glucose results displayed on their meter, with many regularly taking no action or self-care adjustment for out-of-range results. We recently reported that a glucose meter that provides automatic onscreen information using a color range indicator (ColorSure Technology) improved the ability of patients to categorize their blood glucose results. Objective The objective of this study was to examine how ColorSure Technology (or color) affected patient decision making on blood glucose results and how patient numeracy levels influenced such decisions. Methods We invited 103 subjects (56 with type 2 diabetes and 47 with type 1 diabetes) to a face-to-face in-clinic visit in a diabetes care center and showed them glucose results with or without color via interactive computer or paper logbook exercises. Before participating in these exercises, subjects completed surveys on numeracy and their understanding of blood glucose information. Results Subjects preferentially acted on high glucose results shown with color (55%, 57/103) compared to results without color (45%, 46/103; P=.001). When shown identical pairs of results, subjects preferentially acted on results shown with color (62%, 64/103) compared to results without color (16%, 16/103) (P<.001). Subjects more accurately identified days of the week in which results were low, in range, or high when reviewing logbooks with color (83%, 85/103) than without color (68%, 70/103; P=.012). Subjects with lower numeracy were more likely to consider taking action for high glucose results shown with color (59%, 18/31) than without color (41%, 13/31) and preferentially would take action on results shown with color (71%, 22/31) compared to results without color (16%, 5/31). Conclusions Insulin- and noninsulin-using subjects were each more inclined to act when glucose results were shown with color, and associating glucose results with color was viewed as particularly beneficial by subjects with lower numeracy.


During a study of lesions in 150 shoulder joints, observations were made with regard to the abduction phase of shoulder motion which serve to corroborate the teachings of a small group of contemporary anatomists. 1. Abduction of the arm is a complex mechanism, involving the scapulohumeral, the acromioclavicular and the sternoclavicular joint, whereby the scapula moves along the chest wall, the humeral head glides within the glenoid cavity and the clavicle rotates as its lateral end moves dorsalward, the glenoid moving forward and upward. Toward the completion of abduction there is ipsilateral curvature of the dorsolumbar portion of the spine. In the bared specimen these joints demonstrate a range of motion far in excess of that normally required to elevate the arm. 2. Complete abduction can be obtained in the coronal plane only by external rotation of the humerus (Martin 1 ) and in the sagittal plane by internal rotation of


Adaptive Neuro-Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms were utilized to produce numerical tools for predicting the bond strength between the concrete surface and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. From the relevant literature, a credible database encompassing 242 test specimens was developed, along with six input factors that primarily determine bond strength. These characteristics include the beam's width, the compressive strength of the concrete, the FRP thickness, the FRP modulus of elasticity, the FRP length, and the FRP width. Finally, using conventional statistical metrics, the outputs of the two suggested models (ANFIS and ANFIS-PSO) were compared to the experimental data. Both models were shown to be a good alternative strategy for predicting the bond strength of FRP-to-concrete.


This book is a very helpful book which gives us information and knowledge of using technology in language learning and teaching. It contains detailed consideration to articulatory and auditory Language learning as well as to the practicalities of English language learning. The book discusses the relationship between English language learning and technology.


Abstract Background: Pain has been considered to be the most disabling symptom of musculoskeletal disorders. It is the cause of a large number of medical consultations and high health costs around the world. Chronic back pain affects a larger population than other types of pain, with observed prevalence of between 53% and 81%; this has economic, clinical and social repercussions for the health system. Objective: The purpose of the present article is to describe the utility and the neurobiological mechanisms of verbal suggestion as a therapeutic ally during the management of patients with musculoskeletal pain. Important discoveries: Inducing expectations by means of verbal suggestions can activate placebo or nocebo pathways when the clinical professional uses either positive or negative words respectively. When the administration of drugs and physiotherapy interventions are accompanied by words which induce positive expectations, this may improve certain clinical parameters such as pain and/or function in people suffering low back pain. Equally important, the use of positive verbal suggestion may decrease the perception of pain in patients with osteoarthritis. Conclusions: In the management of clinical musculoskeletal pain, the inclusion of verbal suggestion has the potential to induce expectations which may generate hypoalgesia through the placebo effect; however, more research is needed to determine the magnitude and clinical significance of this contribution.


Objective The COVID-19 pandemic requires a nimble approach to building trust between healthcare providers and community. Crowdsourcing is one community-engaged approach that may be effective at engaging marginalised communities to identify ways to build trust. This early-stage innovation report assesses the effectiveness of using a crowdsourcing contest to elicit community ideas on how to build trust between healthcare providers and community about COVID-19 and promote community engagement about vaccines. Methods This mixed-methods study conducted a qualitative assessment of crowdsourcing contest entries and evaluated online community engagement via social media analytics (reach, video views, engagement). Themes from contest entries informed the development of community leader video interviews. Qualitative data from contest entries were digitally transcribed and analysed using axial coding. Results Contest participants (n=19) were European Americans (n=10), African Americans (n=8, 87%) and American Indians (n=1), the majority of whom identified as women (n=18) and were 18–80 years old. Contest entry recommendations included: (1) partner with community stakeholders and providers, (2) improve access to credible information from trusted sources, (3) use multiple channels of communication, and (4) use clear and plain language. Conclusion Crowdsourcing contests coupled with public education are beneficial community engagement tools to identify new ways to promote trust between medical professionals and diverse community members about COVID-19. Crowdsourcing contests also provide opportunity for partnership and critical dialogue between healthcare professionals and community leaders.


This article examines some treatments of the meaning and extension of the Islamic legal purpose (maqsad) of protecting religion (hifz al-din), with an eye towards Islamic legal theorists' explicit or implicit encounter with modern liberal and secularist understandings of what it means to 'protect religion'. The theory of the 'purposes of divine law' (maqasid al-shari'ah), which the author refers to as a form of 'Complex Purposivism' in legal interpretation and argumentation, is often viewed as a panacea for modern reformers and pragmatists who want to establish Islamic legitimacy for new substantive moral, legal and political commitments in new socio-political conditions, because it allows Muslims to ask not whether a given norm has been expressly endorsed within the texts, but whether it is compatible with the deeper goods and interests which God wants to protect through the Law.


Complaints after cholecystectomy are caused by bile duct disturbances (concrements in the choledochus, stenosis of the papilla, anatomic anomalies of the ducts), by diseases of neighbouring organs (pancreas, liver, stomach) or by functional disturbances. Diagnosis of organic disease can be established by appropriate means, that of functional disturbances by exclusion of organic causes. Therapy depends upon the underlying disease. Improvement of endoscopic procedures has let to the point, that in many cases secondary operations have become unnecessary. Close cooperation is necessary between internist, surgeon, and endoscopist, if an appropriate therapeutic procedure is to be found.


Here we report time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) results of Co-doped SnO2 thin films. Making use of stable Co and radioactive 111In implanted at the Bonn Radioisotope Separator with energies of 80 keV and 160 keV, respectively, it was possible to study the dopant incorporation and its lattice location during annealing. The hyperfine parameters have been probed as a function of temperature in vacuum. Two quadrupole interactions were observed. At high temperatures the dominant fraction for the probe nuclei can be assigned to the Cd-incorporation at the cation substitutional site in a highly disordered structure, obtained after implantation, to high crystallinity for the measurements at 873 K and 923 K. The similarity in TDPAC spectra obtained in undoped SnO gives indirect evidence that In and Co diffuse to different depths during the annealing process. Other interpretations will be discussed.Here we report time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) results of Co-doped SnO2 thin films. Making use of stable Co and radioactive 111In implanted at the Bonn Radioisotope Separator with energies of 80 keV and 160 keV, respectively, it was possible to study the dopant incorporation and its lattice location during annealing. The hyperfine parameters have been probed as a function of temperature in vacuum. Two quadrupole interactions were observed. At high temperatures the dominant fraction for the probe nuclei can be assigned to the Cd-incorporation at the cation substitutional site in a highly disordered structure, obtained after implantation, to high crystallinity for the measurements at 873 K and 923 K. The similarity in TDPAC spectra obtained in undoped SnO gives indirect evidence that In and Co diffuse to different depths during the annealing process. Other interpretations will be discussed.


A model is presented which describes magnetic properties of high-Tc superconductors when flux creep is the leading mechanism for dissipation. This model reduces the behaviour of a complex current pattern to the behaviour of essentially one single current loop which contains a fluctuating number of flux quanta. It is shown that the dynamics of such a system describes widely observed phenomena such as logarithmic decay of the magnetization, broadening of the resistive transition as a function of an external field and nonlinearity in the a.c.-susceptibility. Away from equilibrium, fluctuations in the magnetization and even harmonics in the a.c.-susceptibility decay algebraically in time.


Published data indicate that an inverse correlation has been identified in some tumours such as ovarian cancer and laryngeal squamous carcinoma. This study aimed to characterize alteration in the immunohistochemical expression of p16 and p Rb in carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma, and to assess the inverse correlation between p16 and pRb in carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma. A selected series of 27 cases of carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma were examined at Alfarabi Dental School in 2012. The results showed an inverse correlation between p16 (normal expression) and pRb (mutated) in 15 cases. Also 3 cases showed an inverse correlation between p16 (mutated) and pRb (normal expression). p16 and pRb (both proteins with normal expression) were identified in 3 cases. p16 and pRb (both proteins inactivated) were identified in 6 cases. This study suggests the alteration of p16 and pRb expression has been detected in carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenomas. They mentioned that if the function of one gene such as p16 or pRb was abrogated the other gene would be overexpressed or unaffected ini 18 out of 27 cases.


Introduction The decennial redrawing of federal electoral boundaries in Canada is a contentious and challenging exercise involving the delicate balancing of often contradictory representational goals. Primary among these have been community of interest and population equality, and the challenge of reconciling these principles has figured prominently in the litigation that has grown out of the process of adjusting electoral boundaries in Canada (Roach 1991, 1992; Knight 1999). However, other specifically geographic factors such as the compactness and contiguity of electoral districts, have also been included among the various desiderata of good electoral districts (Morrill 1981; Lijphart 1990; Butler and Cain 1992). In striking contrast to the American case, to date these geographic issues have attracted neither scholarly nor juridical attention in Canada. In this first systematic, countrywide assessment of the achievement of district compactness in recent federal electoral maps, we aim to redress the scholarly neglect of this issue. In addition, we contend that, in one form or another, such questions will likely come before the courts in future electoral boundaries litigation. The paper provides a baseline assessment of patterns in the compactness of the last two sets of Canadian federal electoral districts (FEDs) adopted after the 1981 and 1991 censuses (as defined in Representation Orders adopted by the House of Commons in 1987 and 1996, respectively). These maps were the first to be drawn following the introduction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a result, they are the first Canadian maps to have been scrutinized through the process of judicial review. Since the first judicial decisions with respect to electoral boundary practices were rendered in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we would expect that constitutional concerns would be more present in the minds of boundary commissioners in the 1990s. As such, a comparison of the two maps offers an exploratory assessment of the impact of the Charter on the shape of Canadian electoral districts. If the American experience (which we review briefly below) is any guide, we expect that efforts to balance equality of population with other representational goals should have the effect of diminishing the compactness of districts over time. Our analysis begins in the next section with a preliminary discussion of why compactness should matter in districting practice. We then consider the increased significance attached to questions of district shape in the US, and assess the prospects for similar developments arising in the Canadian context. Here we review several factors that incline us to believe that assessments of compactness may emerge in future rounds of boundary-related litigation that are virtually certain to follow the adoption of the new electoral maps. A third section discusses the conceptualization and measurement of compactness. This provides the basis for an empirical exploration of the compactness of the last two sets of Canada's FEDs that we present in the paper's fourth section. Here we document significant interprovincial differences in the compactness of FEDs that in the main seem attributable to the different landscapes of the provinces. With respect to our hypothesis about the decline of compactness scores over the two maps, however, we do not uncover strong support for this expectation, in that the mean scores on compactness for all districts generally or for urban districts in particular show little change. We close with some projections for the next map that will be forthcoming after the 2001 census figures become available. Why Should Compactness Matter? Discussions of redistricting virtually always include compactness as one of the criteria to be considered when evaluating electoral maps. Good electoral maps are those in which district boundaries define highly compact districts. Yet, as we outline below, assessing compactness is not a simple or straightforward process. …


In this paper we address three research issues. First, we are interested in assessing the impact of the recent economic recession on the general labour market performance in Macedonia. Second, we consider the question of how the economic crisis has affected different labour market segments. Finally, we intend to explore the role of the non-traditional labour market adjustment mechanisms such as employment in the informal sector, non-participation and emigration from the perspective of their capacities to absorb a part of the unemployed workforce.


When an airplane prepares for takeoff, everything from the coffee pots to the luggage is strapped down or secured. Passengers are as well—except infants, that is. Every day, flights proceed with infants and toddlers riding in an adult9s lap. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering regulations to ensure children younger than age 2 are restrained properly during flights. The Academy outlined its position in written comments to the FAA dated June 17. The comments are consistent with AAP policy on restraining children in motor vehicles, as the AAP Committee on Injury and Poison Prevention still is in the process of drafting an airline safety seat policy statement. "The Academy agrees that all children should be properly restrained, as appropriate, in a rear-facing or forward-facing CRS (child restraint system) and that the policy of allowing children younger than age 2 to ride in the lap of an adult should be discontinued," AAP President Joseph R. Zanga, M.D., said.


This study determined the perception and challenges encountered by college teachers in teaching mathematics online. The researcher utilized a quantitative design. The locale study was at Cagayan State University on all its eight campuses: Andrews, Aparri, Carig, Gonzaga, Lallo, Lasam, Piat, and Sanchez Mira for the school year 2021-2022. Descriptive statistics were utilized in the treatment of data gathered. The analysis of variance or independent samples t-test was used to determine the difference between the teacher's profile and their perception of online teaching. Based on the findings, the group of respondents was female-dominated and in middle adulthood. The result manifested that teacher–respondents had been into continuous professional development through enrollment in advanced studies. In addition, the faculty members in the locale of the study are composed of young professional teachers. Results revealed that teachers' level of perception toward online teaching in Mathematics is high. Also, the challenges teachers encounter in teaching mathematics online are to a great extent. Moreover, there is a significant difference between participants' mean level of perception towards online learning when grouped according to the length of years in teaching mathematics. On the other hand, no significant difference was found in other variables such as age, sex, highest educational attainment, and their mean level of perception towards online learning. Also, there is a significant difference between the mean level of challenges encountered by the participants in online learning when grouped according to age. In conclusion, there is a high level of teachers' perception toward online teaching and a great extent of challenges teachers encounter in teaching mathematics online. Also, older teachers found it difficult to develop interesting content, describe, and provide feedback using e-learning systems. Moreover, there is a need for the university to conduct training on online teaching strategies for mathematics teachers.


Abstract Coda-final consonant deletion has been extensively documented in Eastern Andalusian Spanish; however, its effects on neighbouring segments is still unknown. Scholars working on consonant deletion in Eastern Andalusian Spanish have mainly focused on /s/, given the semantic importance of this consonant in Spanish. As a result, other consonants which are often deleted syllable-finally in this geolect have been studied to a much lesser degree. The present paper aims to expand the traditional view on vowel doubling by analysing /-s/, /-r/, and /-Ɵ/ deletion before /a/. Firstly, the speech of 24 speakers from El Ejido (Eastern Andalusia) is analysed to ascertain how the deletion of word final /s/, /r/, and /Ɵ/ changes the quality of a preceding /a/. Secondly, a perception test is carried out with native speakers from the local area to confirm whether these speakers can differentiate perceptually between word-final /a/ and /a/ preceding underlying /-s/, /-r/, or /-Ɵ/. This paper presents two main conclusions: 1) /-s/, /-r/, and /-Ɵ/ deletion changes the quality of a preceding /a/ to different degrees; 2) EAS speakers can identify whether /a/ is followed or not by an underlying /-s/, /-r/, or /-Ɵ/, but they cannot identify which consonant has been deleted in each case.


Moving object detection is very important for video surveillance. In many environments, motion maybe either interesting (salient) motion (e.g., a person) or uninteresting motion (e.g., swaying branches.) In this paper, we propose a new real-time algorithm to detect salient motion in complex environments by combining temporal difference imaging and a temporal filtered motion field. We assume that the object with salient motion moves in a consistent direction for a period of time. No prior knowledge about object size and shape is necessary. Compared to background subtraction methods, our method does NOT need to learn the background model from hundreds of images and can handle quick image variations; e.g., a light being turned on or off. The average speed of our method is about 50fps on images at size 160x120 in 1GB Pentium III machines. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm to robust detect salient motion is demonstrated for a variety of real environments with distracting motions such as lighting changes, swaying branches, rippling water, waterfall, and fountains.


Draws on recent research on the impact of electronic data interchange (EDI) on the Australian automotive industry. The often considerable efforts by large corporations towards the globalization of production and distribution has led such firms (typically multi‐national corporations) to invest in technologies designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their global operations. In this context, one such technology is EDI. Much has been written about EDI and, in particular, the benefits that adopters can expect from using this comparatively simple, facilitating technology. While many authors are quick to extol the virtues of EDI, rarely have they documented the actual benefits and costs to an organization from adoption. Examines the impact of EDI on trading partners in the Australian automotive industry. Research consisted of a longitudinal study (between 1992 and 1994) of all component manufacturers which were supplying components to the large locally‐based multi‐national vehicle assemblers (Ford, General Motors‐Holden (GMH), Mitsubishi and Toyota). It is the component manufacturers who have felt the major impact of their larger customer's requirements to become EDI capable.The alternative was to cease supplying the automotive industry. Following the establishment of a conceptual model, path analysis was used to analyse support for a number of hypotheses in measuring the extent of benefits to the organization from using EDI. Conclusions so far drawn support the hypothesis that benefits were being achieved depending on the degree of commitment of the organization to issues such as system integration, and level of senior management involvement. A number of suppliers found that despite being forced into EDI adoption, they were obtaining some competitive advantage, and having received new business (e.g. international contracts) partly as a result of being EDI capable.


Increasing popularity and higher data requirements of new types of service result in higher demand in wireless networks. Hybrid cellular networks have been seen as an effective way to meet the users' increased bit rate requirements while still retaining the benefits of a cellular structure. The objective of this paper is to propose and illustrate effective and efficient approaches for improving the system capacity and performance of hybrid cellular networks appropriate to the last mile by using flexibility in the antenna system to provide coverage at the right place at the right time. Optimization approaches for cooperatively adjusting the antenna radiation patterns in the context of cellular networks with embedded relay nodes are outlined. Two kinds of simple antenna system are considered, namely omni-directional antennas with variable pilot signal power and sector antennas with simple tilting capability. Experiments show that the proposed approaches have significant improvements. The performance evaluations are based on Mobile WiMAX technology.


Although limits of resources such as memory or disk usage are one of the key problems of many communicating applications, most process algebras fail to take this aspect of mobile and concurrent systems into account. In order to study this problem, we introduce the Controlled π-calculus, an extension of the π-calculus with a notion of recovery of unused resources with an explicit (parametrized) garbage-collection and dead-process elimination. We discuss the definition of garbage-collection and dead-process elimination for concurrent, communicating applications , and provide a type-based technique for statically proving resource bounds. Selected examples are presented and show the potential of the Controlled π-calculus.


The moderating effect of events such as the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on the relation between stock market returns and macroeconomic variables has attracted very little attention. This study investigates the extent to which the 2008 GFC moderated the relationship between inflation rate and stock market returns. The study uses month-onmonth inflation rate and year-on-year inflation rate from 1st January 1993 to 31st December 2015 and divides the sample data into pre-crisis period (from 1st January 1993 to 31st December 2007); crisis period (from 1st January 2008 to 30th June 2009); and post-crisis period (from 1st July 2009 to 31st December 2015). It uses a product-term regression model instead of the most widely applied additive regression model. Results indicate that a unit increase in the both measures of inflation rate had significant depressing effects on stock market returns after the crisis compared to before the crisis. Likewise, the results reveal that average stock market returns were significantly higher after the crisis compared to before the crisis at low rather than medium or high values of the two measures of inflation rate. These results suggest that the Kenyan stock market is highly sensitive to variations in inflation rate, especially as it emerges from a financial or political turmoil. This study is empirically innovative in the sense that it is the first to examine the moderating effect of the 2008 GFC on the relation between inflation rate and stock market returns in Kenya using a product-term model.


Reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate from wastewater reuse facilities contains concentrated emerging pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals. In this research, a paper-like composite sheet consisting of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zeolite was synthesized, and removal of the antipruritic agent crotamiton from RO concentrate was studied using the TiO2/zeolite composite sheet. The RO concentrate was obtained from a pilot-scale municipal secondary effluent reclamation plant. Effective immobilization of the two powders in the sheet made it easy to handle and to separate the photocatalyst and adsorbent from purified water. The TiO2/zeolite composite sheet showed excellent performance for crotamiton adsorption without obvious inhibition by other components in the RO concentrate. With ultraviolet irradiation, crotamiton was simultaneously removed through adsorption and photocatalysis. The photocatalytic decomposition of crotamiton in the RO concentrate was significantly inhibited by the water matrix at high initial crotamiton concentrations, whereas rapid decomposition was achieved at low initial crotamiton concentrations. The major degradation intermediates were also adsorbed by the composite sheet. This result provides a promising method of mitigating secondary pollution caused by the harmful intermediates produced during advanced oxidation processes. The cyclic use of the HSZ-385/P25 composite sheet indicated the feasibility of continuously removing crotamiton from RO concentrate.


Planar and vertical heterostructures based on graphene/graphene oxide/ZnO nanorods were investigated using optical and electrical characterizations. ZnO nanorods grown on graphene substrate by using the hydrothermal method were used for local oxidation of graphene and the formation of self-assembled graphene/graphene oxide lateral and vertical heterostructures under an electric field. The graphene substrates were prepared by deposition of graphene oxide suspensions, followed by thermal reduction or the growth of graphene by using chemical vapor deposition. The vertical heterostructure demonstrated well-reproducible resistive switching for low offset voltage and could be used to fabricate high-density memory devices with low power consumption.


Mobile robot motion is a complex field of research intensively studied during the recent decades. In this article the authors consider the problem of path planning for a mobile robot with two degrees of freedom (ground vehicle) in a priori undetermined environment. The authors formulate the path planning problem and propose a computationally effective algorithm for solving the problem of movement path construction in a priori unknown environment. The proposed algorithm decomposes the path planning problem in two main phases: construction of a graph-based presentation of a free space and graph search. The authors propose a dual graph of a free space polygon triangulation as a means of a free space presentation. This approach allows us to minimize the graph size without an uncontrollable loss of accuracy of environment representation. This approach uses Dijkstra algorithm for the conduct path search on a free space graph, but it is possible to replace this algorithm by another one with account of the particular constraints. The proposed algorithm envisages a continuous collection of the environment information by a robot using its sensors. A brief review of the existing approaches to the problem is presented, as well as a theoretical comparison of these approaches with the proposed one in terms of the computational complexity theory. The proposed algorithm's computational efficiency is demonstrated via a computational experiment, where the proposed and reference algorithms operate on a set of synthetic environment models of different geometric size, but with a similar structure. An experiment proved the algorithm's supremacy in speed.


The paper is devoted to the role played by Adolf Januszkiewicz, a poet and insurgent in the November uprising, in Polish-Kazakh relations. Agraduate of Vilnius University, Januszkiewicz was among eminent Polish activists sent by the Tsar into exile in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Over twenty years spent in close contact with the inhabitants of the Great Steppe shaped Januszkiewicz's peculiar attitude to the Kazakh nation. His journals and letters have been translated into several European languages. They still remain an interesting source of knowledge about the culture and customs of Kazakhs then. They are highly appreciated in Kazakhstan as an example of the thorough approach taken by an educated representative of a progressive European culture towards the life of a nomadic people. The positive image of Poles generated by the 19th century exiles has laid the foundations for the friendly attitude the Kazakh have had towards successive groups of Poles who found themselves in their country. At present, the sizeable Polish minority is well integrated with Kazakh society. The legacy of such activists as Adolf Januszkiewicz provides excellent foundations for the advancement of Polish-Kazakh relations.


Pluronic L81 (PL81) inhibits fat absorption, and other Pluronic copolymers help overcome drug resistance in cancer cells. To understand how PL81 acts, we synthesized a radiolabeled analog, [14C]PL81, and showed that it was structurally similar to PL81 based on 1H NMR as well as mass spectrometric analysis. [14C]PL81 inhibited the secretion of chylomicrons (CMs), lipoproteins essential for fat absorption, by differentiated Caco-2 cells similar to PL81. Moreover, PL81 competed with the cellular uptake of [14C]PL81. Thus, [14C]PL81 and PL81 behave similarly in these physiologic assays. Uptake of [14C]PL81 by Caco-2 cells was concentration-, time-, and temperature-dependent and occurred mainly from the apical side. Intracellularly, it was assimilated in the cytosol. Cells excreted PL81 toward the apical side via a pathway partially sensitive to verapamil. Small amounts were secreted toward the basolateral side unassociated with CM, and this secretion was unaffected by the inhibition of CM assembly. Nonetheless, PL81 significantly inhibited the secretion of triacylglycerols (TGs) and phospholipids as part of CM. PL81-treated cells showed decreased activity of microsomal triglyceride transfer protein and accumulated more TGs, but not phospholipids, in their cytosol. We propose that Pluronic copolymers act by interfering with the export of molecules from the cytosol. They inhibit fat absorption by decreasing TG transport to the endoplasmic reticulum and increase drug efficacy against cancer cells by competing for their excretion.


Cylindrical sediment traps are frequently used to measure the downward flux of particles in the upper ocean. Some protocols recommend filling these traps with brine (50 psu in excess of ambient) before deployment to better retain the collected sample. However, this also changes the aspect ratio of the traps-a critical parameter affecting the trapping effkiency. We conducted controlled experiments in a flume that demonstrate filling traps with a 5 psu brine decreases their trapping efficiency to 54% at a velocity of 5 cm set-', and to 75% at 15 cm set-' relative to the same trap with no brine. This suggests that a revision of the protocols and further experiments are needed.


BACKGROUND
There has always been a constant search for the definition of idealistic and realistic orthodontic treatment goals for different ethnic groups around the world. This study was hence devised to study the mesio-distal angulations and labio-lingual inclinations of the clinical crowns in Dravidian population with pleasing profiles and non-orthodontic normal occlusion.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty dental casts from a Dravidian sample (21.5 years) with Class I canine and molar relation; normal maxillo-mandibular relationship; well-aligned arches; with no dental anomaly, restorations or attrition; no history of previous orthodontic treatment, and exhibiting normal growth were studied. A custom-made tip-torque device was used to measure the crown angulations and inclinations. The arithmetic mean and standard deviations for each tooth type were compared with those of Andrew's Caucasian norms using Student's 't' test.

RESULTS
The study group exhibited statistically significant decrease in crown angulation (mesial tip) and increased labial crown torque in both upper and lower anteriors. The lower anteriors exhibited distal crown tip while the posteriors were significantly tipped more mesially. All the posteriors demonstrated increased lingual crown torque.

CONCLUSION
Tip and torque modifications are suggested for the fine finishing and easy retention of occlusion in Dravidians while using straight wire appliance.


This paper presents a new technique for the update of a probabilistic spatial occupancy grid map using a forward sensor model. Unlike currently popular inverse sensor models, forward sensor models can be found experimentally and can represent sensor characteristics better. The formulation is applicable to both 2D and 3D range sensors and does not have some of the theoretical and practical problems associated with the current approaches which use forward models. As an illustration of this procedure, a new prototype 3D forward sensor model is derived using a beam represented as a spherical sector. Furthermore, this model is used for fusion of point-clouds obtained from different 3D sensors, in particular, time-of-flight sensors (Swiss-ranger, laser range finders), and stereo vision cameras. Several techniques are described for an efficient data-structure representation and implementation. The range beams from different sensors are fused in a common local Cartesian occupancy map. Experimental results of this fusion are presented and evaluated using Hough-transform performed on the grid.


Molecular Fe phthalocyanine (FePc) is successfully anchored on a defective mesoporous carbon framework for the highly efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with a half-wave potential of 0.86 V (vs. RHE) and a limited current density of 5.40 mA cm-2. DFT calculations further suggest that the non-planar structure incorporating FePc can promote charge polarization and decrease the energy barrier.


Environmental sustainability is regarded as the key to the achievement of all other developmental goals. Environmental issues and the effects of environmental degradation have drawn the attention of policy makers and the wider community in developing countries like India to impending environmental hazards and encouraged efforts at the local level by creating awareness and action on green initiatives. These initiatives have been supported by civil society organisations and international agencies. Local communities have also assumed custodianship of their environment and natural resources which previously was the sole responsibility of the government. This paper focuses on some of India's efforts to communicate the green path to sustainable development and the experiences of India-EU partnerships to build mutual understanding on global environmental issues including climate change. This paper also analyses the growth of development paradigms shaped by community needs and environmental activism for sustainable development in India.


This paper uses a systematic catalogue of 414 riots in Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester to examine the changing practice of rioting from 1800 to 1939. Three empirical findings emerge: first, over this period, riots went from being an autonomous tactic to one which was largely subordinated to other protest logics; second, the way rioters chose their targets changed: instead of targeting individuals with whom rioters had concrete relationships, they started targeting people as tokens of some wider type; third, throughout this period rioting was a localised practice which reflected local traditions and dynamics. On the basis of these findings, I revisit the orthodox history of social movements and suggest we refine this narrative to explicitly acknowledge continuity in the repertoire of contention, regional variation, the uneven reach of the state and to properly distinguish between individual practices like demonstrations, composite forms like social movements and the repertoire as a whole.


Taxi has the characteristics of strong mobility and wide dispersion, which makes it difficult for relevant law enforcement officers to make accurate judgment on their illegal acts quickly and accurately. With the investment of intelligent transportation system, image analysis technology has become a newmethod to determine the illegal behavior of taxis, but the current image analysis method is still difficult to support the detection of illegal behavior of taxis in the actual complex image scene. To solve this problem, this study proposed a method of taxi violation recognition based on semantic segmentation of PSPNet and improved YOLOv3. (1) Based on YOLOv3, the proposed method introduces spatial pyramid pooling (SPP) for taxi recognition, which can convert vehicle feature images with different resolutions into feature vectors with the same dimension as the full connection layer and solve the problem of repeated extraction of YOLOv3 vehicle image features. (2) ,is method can recognize two different violations of taxi (blocking license plate and illegal parking) rather than only one. (3) Based on PSPNet semantic segmentation network, a taxi illegal parking detection method is proposed. ,is method can collect the global information of road condition images and aggregate the image information of different regions, so as to improve the ability to obtain the global information orderly and improve the accuracy of taxi illegal parking detection. ,e experimental results show that the proposed method has excellent recognition performance for the detection rate of license plate occlusion behavior DR is 85.3%, and the detection rate of taxi illegal parking phenomenonDR is 96.1%.


With the rise of fluorescence-guided surgery, it has become evident that different types of fluorescence signals can provide value in the surgical setting. Hereby a different range of targets have been pursued in a great variety of surgical indications. One of the future challenges lies in combining complementary fluorescent readouts during one and the same surgical procedure, so-called multi-wavelength fluorescence guidance. In this review we summarize the current clinical state-of-the-art in multi-wavelength fluorescence guidance, basic technical concepts, possible future extensions of existing clinical indications and impact that the technology can bring to clinical care.


Children in Scotland are held criminally responsible from the age of 8, something that has attracted wholly justified criticism within the country and from international organisations, including the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Despite the fact that this puts Scots law in the same camp as some of the world's least progressive regimes, proposals to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility have, to date, been rejected. For the second time this century, a government-appointed advisory group recently recommended raising the age to 12. Setting the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Scotland in the context of historical, international and comparative developments and the burgeoning contemporary literature, this article argues that the climate for change has never been better. It predicts that, this time, the advisory group's recommendation will result in legislative reform and highlights the challenges that will result.


OBJECTIVE
This study observed the curative effect of sustained negative pressure drainage application on treatment of severe maxillofacial and neck space infection.

METHODS
Incision and drainage were performed to treat 18 patients with severe maxillofacial and neck space infection. A small incision was made on the site of the most obvious swelling or fluctuations, and localized negative pressure was applied with a drainage device on the wound during suturing.

RESULTS
Among the 18 patients, 14 were healed, whereas 4 underwent dehiscence of the wound after the operation. Negative pressure was lost as the drainage tubes were removed, and non-negative pressure drainage method was used instead. During the negative pressure treatment, swelling and pain did not increase after the operation. Other complications, such as asphyxia, septic shock, or mediastinal abscess, did not occur. All the patients were healed and eventually discharged from the hospital.

CONCLUSION
Sustained negative pressure drainage, which is a modified version of the traditional method of incision and drainage, is an alternative treatment for severe maxillofacial and neck space infection. Such treatment reduces patient pain and eases doctor exertion. Thus, this method provides a new therapeutic strategy for severe maxillofacial and neck space infection.


BACKGROUND Neurofibroma can be a clinical manifestation of neurofibromatosis, which is a benign neurogenic tumor that occurs sporadically. Neurofibromas in the abdomen usually appear in the retroperitoneal space. Reports on neurofibromas in the abdominal wall are rare, and multiple recurrent neurofibromas in this area have not yet been reported. CASE SUMMARY This is a case of a 73-year-old man who suffered from multiple recurrent neurofibromas in the abdominal wall for 16 years and received 13 surgical treatments. CONCLUSION We need to pay due attention to its treatment, and primary surgery should be designed thoroughly.


After the recent description of β-arrestin2 recruitment to the human histamine H4 receptor (hH4R) in response to the well known H4R antagonist 1-[(5-chloro-1H-indol-2-yl)carbonyl]-4-methyl-piperazine (JNJ 7777120), we evaluated in this study the efficacy of 31 known hH4R ligands to induce Gαi protein signaling and β-arrestin2 recruitment by the hH4R. The selected hH4R ligands belong to nine different structural classes that partly cover (pre)clinical trial candidates. We have identified hH4R ligands with a significant bias for the Gαi protein or β-arrestin2 pathway on the basis of efficacy differences. In addition, hH4R antagonists that did not show positive efficacy in either functional readouts were found. A common trend in pathway preference for the nine different ligand classes could not be observed. In particular, the isothiourea class shows very diverse results, varying from Gαi protein-biased or β-arrestin2-biased to nonbiased antagonists upon minor structural changes. The identified biased hH4R ligands are important pharmacological tools to unravel the significance of biased hH4R signaling in H4R pharmacology.


Auto-Pipe is a tool that aids in the design, evaluation and implementation of applications that can be executed on computational pipelines (and other topologies) using a set of heterogeneous devices including multiple processors and FPGAs. It has been developed to meet the needs arising in the domains of communications, computation on large datasets, and real time streaming data applications. This paper introduces the Auto-Pipe design flow and the X design language, and presents sample applications. The applications include the Triple-DES encryption standard, a subset of the signal-processing pipeline for VERITAS, a high-energy gamma-ray astrophysics experiment. These applications are discussed and their description in X is presented. From X, simulations of alternative system designs and stage-to-device assignments are obtained and analyzed. The complete system permits production of executable code and bit maps that may be downloaded onto real devices. Future work required to complete the Auto-Pipe design tool is discussed.


: Neutron stars are excellent subjects for unveiling more about the physical laws in nature. In this work some of the physical properties will be studied. Halo cone model will be considered within light cylinder limits. Neutron stars types like Milliseconds and Normal stars with Magnetar stars samples adopted in this work. Magnetic fields, luminosity, spin down and characteristic age will be calculated. P-Pdot diagram will be indicating the start of the trajectory a neutron star with follow along its life: going to the lower right where a big population lies before fading out in the graveyard. The ages, magnetic field strength, the spin and its spin down rate are read from this diagram. The results showed that find that magnetar stars will be located at the top right of the diagram and the high-energy at high-derived long period. They are young stars compared to the stars of the millisecond second, which lies in the center of the diagram. This is also the region where we find those pulsars which are still associated with supernova remnants. These remnants fade and are not detectable anymore after a few hundred thousand years or so. Therefore, older pulsars with typically ages of a few million years can be found in the center of the diagram. If pulsars slow down further, conditions to create radio emission apparently cease, and the longest period known for Magnetar stars is just about 11 seconds.


Aim: To determine factors associated with obstetric fistula repair failure at Gynocare Women's & Fistula Hospital in Kenya.
 Methods: This is a case-control study of patients who underwent fistula repair at Gynocare from January 2012 to December 2016. Total of 357 patients (119 cases and 238 controls) were taken by simple random sampling.
 Results: Study participants were mostly married (62.2%) with low or no formal education (90.1%). Delivery that led to fistula development occurred in the hospital for 85.2% of the study participants and 66.7% had Cesarean Section. Only one-third (120) had previous repair(s). Patients classified to have VVF IIA were 20.5%, class IIB were 35.0% and class III were 9.2%, and the rest (35.3%) were classified as class I. The odds of repair failure were 2.9 times more among those with previous repair attempts compared to those with no previous repair attempts. Women with VVF IIB were 4 times more likely to develop failure. While women who attained at least secondary education were 77% less likely to have fi stula repair failure.
 Conclusion: After controlling the eff ects of age, marital status, comorbidities, parity, time to repair, post-operative complications, having not attained at least secondary education level, having previous repair attempts, and VVF IIB were found to be independent predictors of repair failure.
 Key words: Failure, Kees Waaldjik, Obstetric Fistula, Obstetric Fistula Classifi cation, Repair


While there are many distance education studies of student satisfaction or perceptions of CMC, studies on residential student perceptions of CMC are rare. A paper survey was administered to 105 residential graduate and undergraduate students at a midwestern U.S. university. Results indicated that the majority of students preferred face-to-face discussion over CMC for most tasks; however, CMC was preferred overall for simple learning tasks. Content analyses of student responses to open-ended questions revealed that some students perceived face-to-face discussion to be faster, easier, and more convenient, while others perceived that CMC saves time and is more convenient. A discriminant analysis revealed several important factors that predicted those who preferred CMC for discussion. Students further commented that they would learn better from CMC if their instructors were more involved with and enthusiastic about CMC. Speed and convenience appear to be more important to students than whether discussion is face-to-face or CMC.


Selective proximal vagotomy (SPV) was fulfilled in 440 patients with ulcer of the duodenum, 30.0% of them being operated upon for relative indications, and 70.0% for different complications of the ulcer. Different draining operations were made in 219 patients with stenosis. Draining operations were made in 10.6% of 254 patients without stenosis of the pylorus who had big and deep penetrating ulcers which could disturb duodenal passage on their healing. Resections of the stomach after Billroth-I were fulfilled in 20 of 43 patients with combined gastric and duodenal ulcers, and after Hofmeister-Finsterer in 23 patients in view of a danger of malignization. The best results were obtained after proper SPV and after operations eliminating stenosis and saving the evacuating mechanism of the pylorus (transversal duodeno-duodenostomy in 10 patients and duodenoplasty--in 22). Resection of the stomach should be performed by the Billroth-I method.


An 85-year-old, never-smoking man presented with exertional dyspnea. He had been exposed to silica dust in the work place. Chest computed tomography revealed bronchial wall thickening without emphysema. A pulmonary function test showed airflow obstruction without impaired gas transfer. Airway hyperresponsiveness and reversibility were not evident. A transbronchial lung biopsy showed findings suggestive of mineral dust exposure, such as fibrosis and slight pigmentation of bronchioles. He was diagnosed with non-smoking chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) due to occupational exposure to silica dust. His symptoms were improved using an inhaled long-acting bronchodilator. The clinical characteristics of non-smoking COPD are discussed in this report.


In the research presented in this paper, the use of computational systems for the interviews is investigated. Exploratory Case Studies had been carried through to identify the problems that occur when the technique interview is carried through by chat. Amongst the identified problems, question-without-reply it was the chosen problem to be investigated in this research. It was proposed solution "list of questions": to isolate messages by interviewing other messages chat, becoming explicit to the respondent which messages still need to be answered. The InterVIU system was developed for interviews, and the solution was implemented through the mechanism "area of questions". A study was carried through pilot to identify the functionality problems, of usability and bugs in the system. To evaluate the proposed solution, a study of confirmatory case was performed. In the session where the InterVIU was used, the respondent could answer all the questions, an indication of that the solution is adjusted. From the register's analysis of the interview session, the answers to a questionnaire and the participant's comments, it could be concluded that the list of questions is useful for monitoring the interview.


It was discovered that nitric oxide synthase activity and concentration of S-nitrosothiols decreased during molybden-dependent xanthine oxidase activation. The increase of apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 activity, with the respected decrease of [table: see text] poly-(ADP-ribose)-polymerase and protein kinase C activities as well as increase of trypsine like serine proteinases activity were observed. No significant changes of DNA fragmentation were revealed.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Oral cancer is the major form of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, which is the sixth most common cancer worldwide. Tobacco smoking is one of the leading causes of oral cancer. Dibenzo[a,l]pyrene (DB[a,l]P) is the most potent carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon found in tobacco smoke. Our laboratory had developed a novel mouse model of oral cancer induced by DB[a,l]P. The metabolic activation of DB[a,l]P and genotoxic effect in rodent oral cavity have not been examined before. Our working hypothesis is that the stereochemical course of DB[a,l]P metabolism, the conformations of the DNA adducts formed, their removal by mammalian DNA repair enzymes, and their mutagenic properties if not removed in an error-free manner, all play critical roles during the induction of oral carcinogenesis. As an initial study to test our hypothesis, here we developed a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method to detect and quantify DB[a,l]PDE-N6-dA adducts in oral tissues of mice treated with DB[a,l]P. (±)-anti-[15N5]-DB[a,l]PDE-N6-dA adducts were synthesized as internal standards. The stereoisomeric adducts were characterized by MS, NMR and CD analysis. After addition of internal standards, DNA was enzymatically hydrolyzed to 2'-deoxyribonucleosides and partially purified by solid-phase extraction. The LC-MS/MS analysis was carried out by monitoring transitions m/z 604 [M+H]+ to m/z 335 [(M+H) +-dA-H2O] for DB[a,l]PDE-N6-dA adducts and m/z 609 to m/z 335 for the internal standards. The detection limit for DB[a,l]PDE-dA adduct is approximately 20 fmol in 100 ug DNA. We have compared the formation and removal of adducts as a function of time following direct application of DB[a,l]P into the oral cavity of B6C3F1 mice (24 nmol, 3 times per week, for 5 weeks). Adducts were measured at 48h, 1, 2 and 4 weeks after the last dose. Only (−)-anti-cis-and (−)-anti-trans- DB[a,l]PDE- N6-dA adducts were detected from oral tissues of DB[a,l]P treated mice, ranging from 1.9± 0.3 to 0.7± 0.1 and from 4.8 ± 0.2 to 2.3 ± 0.3 fmol/ug DNA, respectively. The levels of both adducts decreased in a time-dependent manner; approximately 50% of (−)-anti-cis- and (−)-anti-trans- DB[a,l]PDE- N6-dA adducts were removed within 4 weeks. The results suggest that DB[a,l]P is predominantly metabolized to (−)-anti-DB[a,l]PDE in oral tissues of mice, which is consistent with studies in other preclinical model systems. In this study we developed for the first time a sensitive LC-MS/MS method for the detection and quantification of DNA adducts derived from DB[a,l]P. The persistent (−)-anti-DB[a,l]PDE- N6-dA adducts may account for the initiation of carcinogenesis in the oral tissues of mice treated with DB[a,l]P.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5550. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-5550


The single image super-resolution (SISR) methods based on the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) have recently achieved significant improvements in accuracy, advancing the state of the art. However, these deeper models are computationally expensive and require a large number of parameters. Accordingly, they demand more memory and are unsuitable for on-chip devices. In this study, a novel SISR method using a deeply recursive CNN with skip connections and a network in network structure is proposed. The deeply recursive CNN with skip connections is adopted for the image feature extraction at both local and global levels. Parallelised 1 × 1 CNNs, usually called a network in network structure, are adopted for image reconstruction. Specifically, recursive learning is utilised to control the number of model parameters needed and residual learning is used to ease the difficulty of training. The proposed method performs favourably against the state-of-the-art methods in terms of computational speed and accuracy. It significantly outperforms the previous methods by a large margin, while demanding far fewer parameters. This model requires less memory and is friendly to on-chip devices.


Glibenclamide, a sulfonylurea derivative is widely used as hypoglycaemic agent. Glibenclamide is a highly permeable class II drug. Hence, rate of oral absorption is often controlled by the dissolution rate in the gastrointestinal(GI)tract. Therefore, the Liquisolid compact of Glibenclamide has been prepared for the enhancement of dissolution of Glibenclamide. Neusilin US2 was selected as carrier material and Aerosil 200 was selected as coating material. A Central composite factorial design was applied to optimize the drug release profile systematically. The amounts of drug (%) in PEG 400 (X1) and Excipient ratio, R (X2) were selected as independent variables. Angle of repose (Y1), Hardness (Y2) and CPR at 10 min (Y3) were selected as dependent variables. All the batches of Liquisolid compacts showed significance improvement in dissolution of Glibenclamide. Various dissolution parameters like DP10min, %DE10min and MDT of optimized batch and direct conventional tablet were compared. DSC and XRD analysis of pure Glibenclamide, physical mixture and final formulation indicated that the drug was solubilized in non-volatile vehicle and solubilization of Glibenclamide was the main cause of enhancement of solubility of Glibenclamide. Storage of the prepared formulations at 45°C for one month showed no any chemical incompatibility. It was concluded that, Liquisolid compact technique can be a simple and effective to enhance the dissolution of poorly water soluble drug.


Assessing the environmental footprints of modern agriculture requires a balanced approach that sets the obviously negative effects (e.g., incidents with excessive use of inputs) against benefits stemming from increased resource use efficiencies. In the case of rice production, the regular flooding of fields comprises a distinctive feature, as compared to other crops, which directly or indirectly affects diverse impacts on the environment. In the regional context of Southeast Asia, rice production is characterized by dynamic changes in terms of crop management practices, so that environmental footprints can only be assessed from time-dependent developments rather than from a static view. The key for the Green Revolution in rice was the introduction of high-yielding varieties in combination with a sufficient water and nutrient supply as well as pest management. More recently, mechanization has evolved as a major trend in modern rice production. Mechanization has diverse environmental impacts and may also be instrumental in tackling the most drastic pollution source from rice production, namely, open field burning of straw. As modernization of rice production is imperative for future food supplies, there is scope for developing sustainable and high-yielding rice production systems by capitalizing on the positive aspects of modernization from a local to a global scale.


A new technique which can quantitatively visualize the spatial distribution of velocity in flows using optical processing of particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) under deformed double exposure has been developed. Tracer particles seeded in the flow are irradiated by a sheet of light from an argon-ion laser under deformed double exposure. Under deformed double exposure, each locus of the particles displaced in the flow visualizes the direction and the magnitude of the velocity. The loci of displaced particles show the spatial distribution of the flow velocity in a single image frame. The image is taken continuously in real time by a CCD camera. The deformed double exposure has been synchronized with the scanning frame of the CCD camera. The spatial distributions of the loci of the particles have been discriminated at certain magnitudes and directions simultaneously and instantaneously by a multiplexed matched spatial filter (MMSF). The MMSF is a holographic filter which can discriminate the shapes of the loci using optical cross-correlation. Cross-correlation of the shapes has been calculated optically and the correlation peaks which are the discriminated signal appear skew-symmetrically relative to the position of the shapes in each discrimination area. Using this technique, the number and the position of loci, i.e. spatial distributions of velocity in the flow, are visualized. The MMSF technique has been tested for synthetic images and experimental images. The synthetic images have the overlapped and deformed loci of particles in flow. The experimental images are loci of the cavity flow with a high Reynolds number. From the results, it has been demonstrated that PTV images which have high density tracer particles and deformed streaks can be measured by this technique.


The story of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) rumbles on. The foundational patents for this key technology expired in March last year in the USA and will do the same in Europe in March 2006. Will this result in a genetic freefor-all as many have predicted with the demise of licence and royalty fees? The answer is far from clear. So what is polymerase chain reaction and why all the hype. Genetics affects all living things. It is what makes us different, not just at a superficial physical level, but in ways that dramatically affect our lives. The polymerase chain reaction is the almost ubiquitously preferred method for facilitating such genetic analysis; it can be used not only for diagnosing a disease but in telling us what diseases we are more likely to suffer from in later life and how to adjust our lifestyles accordingly. It can even tell us how we will respond to therapeutic drugs such that we can avoid adverse reactions by tailoring dosage or selecting alternative therapies as appropriate. It is in areas such as these that the analytical power and potential of polymerase chain reaction for the provision of genetic analysis has been proven time and time again over the last two decades. However, whilst the success of polymerase chain reaction has been backed by significant financial and technological investment, some would argue that it has also been constrained by a strong patent position such that exploitation has been restricted to a few large players with sufficient financial muscle to enter this market.


While dietary protein is known to induce greater satiety than fats and carbohydrates, the extent to which the source of protein matters and the mechanisms involved are less certain. This study examined the effect of the level and source of protein on subsequent food intake, metabolism, and changes in plasma amino acids in adult Sprague‐Dawley rats. Rats were entrained to a meal‐feeding schedule consisting of a 30‐minute treatment meal, equivalent to 10–20% of average daily intake, one hour into the dark phase followed by ad libitum access to a control diet for 5.5 hours later in the dark phase. Treatments were 1) 20% wheat gluten, 2) 35% wheat gluten, 3) 20% egg white, and 4) 35% egg white and provided in a randomized crossover design. Energy expenditure and food intake patterns were measured using indirect calorimetry housing system. Rats provided meals containing egg white protein had decreased food intake at the subsequent meal compared to wheat gluten fed rats, regardless of protein level (P<0.005). While energy expenditure did not differ among treatments, respiratory exchange ratio following ingestion of the 35% egg white protein meal was lower than the other treatment meals for several hours following ingestion (P<0.001). In a separate cohort of rats, blood plasma was collected at 30 minute intervals for 2 hours following ingestion of the treatment meals. Analysis of plasma amino acid concentrations revealed greater increases in measured amino acids following ingestion of meals containing egg white protein. Specifically, concentrations of valine and lysine were the largest contributors to the difference observed in plasma amino acids. Overall, these results suggest protein‐induced satiety depends on the protein source. Egg white protein caused greater satiety than wheat gluten protein, corresponding to greater postprandial increases of plasma amino acids. These results collectively highlight the importance of the consideration of protein sources as it relates to controlling appetite.


A few methods for neutron dose measurement have been examined. In this paper, a simple method for dose calibration by a low power reactor is introduced. Calibration with the theoretically calculated values of some neutron dosimeters was made. This calibration was based upon the neutron flux values estimated by the activation method using the neutron field of UTR-B operating at 0.1W. On The calibration with the Bendix fast neutron dosimeter and thermal neutron dosimeters, the experimental values were found to be close enough to the theoritical values to be of practical use from the operational health physics stand point.


Biodiesel has recently received widespread attention as an essential source of renewable and environmentally friendly energy due to its ease of production and clean burning. Cashew nutshell is a biomass waste readily available in India. This work studies the production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from the cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) using sulfonated cashew nutshell biochar catalyst by transesterification reaction. Catalyst efficiency is compared with a conventional catalyst for biodiesel production. Characterization of the catalyst was done using FTIR, TGA, elemental analysis, and BET. Transesterification studies were carried out using KOH and the biochar catalyst. These studies inferred that the highest conversion of CNSL to FAME is achieved by using the conventional catalyst KOH (94.2% yield) and process parameters of 650C reaction temperature, 1hr reaction time, 18:1 methanol to oil ratio, and 5 w/w % catalyst weight. The highest conversion achieved using the biochar catalyst was 43.4% at optimum process parameters. The study revealed the feasibility of producing FAME from waste biomass, which lowers production costs and benefits environmental sustainability.


The numerical study of circularly polarized plasmon resonance modes in metallic nanoparticles with uniaxial symmetry is reported. These plasmon modes provide optical means for nanoscale focusing of circularly polarized light. For this reason, these modes are promising for all-optical magnetization reversals of nanoscale spots of magnetic recording media. A general theoretical approach to the analysis of circularly polarized plasmon modes is presented and then applied to two specific designs of silver nano-rings and spherical nanoshells on dielectric substrates.


Since the 1970s, economic restructuring and the farm crisis have reduced rural communities' economic opportunities. These changes have limited rural communities' economic development options, making older development strategies less viable and forcing many to look for nontraditional ways to sustain themselves. One of the most popular nontraditional rural development strategies has been tourism and its associated entrepreneurship opportunities because of tourism's ability to bring in dollars and to generate jobs and support retail growth. Rural tourism can be an important instrument of economic development of Serbia. Mountain areas are very attractive to tourists, especially because of the advantages offered by combining the rural environment, history, ethnic, and geographic characteristics. Rural landscape, natural environment, traditional and cultural values are important preconditions for the creation of a competitive tourist attractions.


The high-pressure structural phase transition and pressure as well temperature induced elastic properties in ReY; (Re = La, Sc, Pr; Y = N, P, As, Sb, Bi) pnictides have been performed using effective interionic interaction potential with emphasis on charge transfer interactions and covalent contribution. Estimated values of phase transition pressure and the volume discontinuity in pressure-volume phase diagram indicate the structural phase transition from NaCl to CsCl structure. From the investigations of elastic constants the pressure (temperature) dependent volume collapse/expansion, second order Cauchy discrepancy, anisotropy, hardness and brittle/ductile nature of rare earth pnictides are computed.


The Public Awareness of Research Infrastructures (PARI) three-day conference held in July 2022 at the SKA Observatory's Global Headquarters (U.K.) discussed the science communication issues that practitioners face at research infrastructures, like community building, science diplomacy and equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM. We concluded that we need to bring society within the walls of the scientific facilities as much as we need to help scientists engage with society.


Following the lead of clinicians, the use of hypnosis in criminal investigations has increased over the last few decades, and it is this use that will be the focus of this Article. Specifically, this Article will look at the reliability of hypnotically refreshed testimony in the criminal courts. In Part II, attention will turn to a review of how the common law has responded to the questions raised by hypnotically refreshed testimony. With this background in mind, Parts III and IV will proceed to consider the impact the United States Supreme Court case of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. may have on this evidence. Part III will discuss Daubert and the more recent case of Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, in an effort to detail the construct that Daubert has created to test the reliability of scientific evidence. Then, Part IV will employ this new construct as a means of investigating whether the behavioral science literature can support the forensic application of hypnotically refreshed testimony in criminal prosecutions.


In this paper, we propose a robust and an accurate face recognition model which uses the feature extraction capabilities of fractional discrete cosine transform (FDCT). We apply FDCT on the face image database, and use transform coefficients as features. The proposed model is tested on publicly available standard AT&T face database to demonstrate the recognition accuracy. Extensive experimental comparison is provided with the DCT based face recognition algorithm to establish the superiority of the proposed model in terms of recognition accuracy.


Rethinking marginality in new queer television is a self-reflection on how this Special Issue of Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture took form. Throughout this editorial, we examine trends in current queer theory and reflect on the changes occurring in both the depictions of queer representations and the dissemination of television itself. We conclude by offering a survey into the variety of television that is covered by the issue, from Pose and Vida to Killing Eve, Hollywood, Broad City, Star Trek, She-Ra and BoJack Horseman. There is a broad variety of demographics and genre that further demonstrate the importance of this issue.


The GPS antenna on mobile terminals suffers from multipath effects owing to reflection, diffraction and scattering of the incident wave in a radio environment. A traditional approach to evaluate the GPS antenna performance in a real multipath environment is therefore insufficient. Presented is a new technique to characterise these environmental effects and the system performance of GPS antennas on mobile terminals.


Most immunological characteristics became practically normal 7-9 months after a single chloxyl treatment course in patients with chronic cholecystocholangitic opisthorchiasis. The patients who required repeated chemotherapy showed more profound and steady immune disturbances.


The purpose of this study was to assess the association of perceived racial discrimination with emotional eating behaviors, weight status, and stress levels among obese African-American women, who volunteered to enter a weight control study (SisterTalk) in the New England region of the United States. The sample of women was taken from the baseline data of participants in SisterTalk, a randomized, controlled trial of a cable TV-delivered weight control program. Using the Krieger instrument, telephone and in-person surveys were used to assess perceived discrimination, emotional eating behaviors, and stress. Height and weight were measured to calculate BMI in order to assess weight status. ANOVA models were constructed to assess the association of discrimination with demographics. Correlations were calculated for discrimination, stress, emotional eating, and weight variables. ANOVA models were also constructed to assess discrimination with emotional eating, after adjusting for appropriate demographic variables. Perceived discrimination was associated with education and stress levels but was not associated with weight status (BMI). The frequency of eating when depressed or sad, and eating to manage stress, were both significantly higher among women who reported higher perceived discrimination and higher stress levels. Discrimination may contribute to stress that leads to eating for reasons other than hunger among African-American women, although the causal direction of associations cannot be determined with cross sectional data. Associations of discrimination with weight status were not found, although it is likely that emotional eating behaviors related to perceived discrimination are unhealthy. Future research should examine these relationships more closely in longitudinal studies.


It is increasingly common that public construction projects are procured and managed with explicit intentions to establish closer collaboration between partners. Opportunities for negotiation and the freedom to choose partners are more restricted in a public setting than in a private one. Thus, many relational requirements that are generally considered essential to trust-based collaboration are more difficult to fulfil. Based on two case studies from the Netherlands and one from Sweden, we investigate how this formalized context, including formal partnering models to support relationship management, influences relational development in public sector construction contracts. Collaboration is primarily needed in projects where uncertainty is high and exchange conditions cannot be comprehensively defined. The contractual ambiguities, together with the limited opportunities for pre-contractual sense-making and relationship-building, imply that the early post-contractual phase is of significantly higher importance in public projects than in private ones. After signing a contract, it is important that the parties use the interpretive flexibility to signal trust and commitment and also that joint learning processes are organized to resolve ambiguities and enable joint learning. Formal partnering models are helpful in structuring this interaction, but also incentive arrangements may be important in shaping interaction and signalling trust.


Background: In developing countries, antiretroviral therapy provides life-saving treatment to HIV-positive women and their children before, during and after birth. However, supply chain challenges such as long distances, medication shortages and nonfacility deliveries often compromise consistent access to prophylactic treatment for at-risk infants. A proposed intervention to address these challenges, often referred to as the "Pratt Pouch," allows for liquid-formulation medications, such as nevirapine (NVP), to be repackaged into single-dose pouches. These pouches are distributed antenatally. Methods: HIV-positive women at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania received 14 pouches each containing a single dose of NVP for prevention of mother-to-child transmission. Women were trained on how to open the pouch and dispense the medication to their infants after delivery. All participating women were asked to return to Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre 7–14 days after delivery, where infant blood spots were collected to assess NVP levels. Results: All enrolled women (21/21) administered NVP to their infants within 24 hours of birth. All enrolled infants (22/22) had NVP blood concentrations over 100 ng/mL and exhibited no health concerns attributable to over or under dosing. Conclusions: The Pratt Pouch intervention provides a clinically appropriate solution for addressing liquid-formulation antiretroviral access challenges in developing countries.


How can prompting a large language model like GPT-3 with explanations improve in-context learning? We focus specifically on two NLP tasks that involve reasoning over text, namely question answering and natural language inference. Including explanations in the prompt and having the model generate them does not consistently improve performance in the settings we study, contrary to recent results on symbolic reasoning tasks (Nye et al., 2021; Wei et al., 2022). Despite careful prompting, explanations generated by GPT-3 may not even be factually grounded in the input, even on simple tasks with straightforward extractive explanations. However, these flawed explanations can still be useful as a way to verify GPT-3's predictions post-hoc. Through analysis in three settings, we show that explanations judged as good by humans—those that are logically consistent with the input and the prediction—usually indicate more accurate predictions. Following these observations, we present a framework for calibrating model predictions based on the reliability of the explanations. Our framework trains calibrators using automatically extracted scores that approximately assess the reliability of explanations, which helps improve performance across three different datasets


If we approximate distributed parameter heat exchanger systems as bilinear systems, the systems often contain not only product terms of the state variables and the input flow rates but also product terms of the state variables and the disturbance flow rates. In almost bilinear systems investigated so far, disturbances were applied to the systems linearly. Therefore we cannot apply such controllers to heat exchanger systems directly. In this paper, we consider two kinds of H∞ controllers for heat exchanger systems: a bilinear H∞ output controller and a bilinear H∞ state feedback controller combined with a bilinear observer. For the latter controller, three types of observers, a full order bilinear observer, a disturbance decoupling bilinear observer, and a disturbance bilinear observer with disturbance estimator, are used. The performance of each controller is evaluated with several simulation results.


Children are often forced into mainstream schools while special needs schools are being shut down. Children with phonological disorders in mainstream schools go through fear, shame and frustration of not being understood. The proposed research attempts to address this issue by way of designing and developing a prototype for an assistive device that would help special needs children in mainstream education. This will also help children overcome problems that result from lack of confidence. This work has been very much a pioneering work and has achieved the target it pursued. This study was carried out in two phases first one with a group interface and the second phase with a personalised interface that catered for the needs of each individual user.


ABNT 8550 steel samples were heat treated by quenching and tempering at 890°/640oC and annealed at 890oC. These samples were plasma nitrided and tested in respect to its erosion and corrosion-erosion resistance by using substitute sea water with sand particles. The wear tests were carried out in a test rig specially developed for this purpose, where a jet of sea water with sand is impinged against the test specimen. The impingement velocity was 15 m/s at angles of 30° a 90o and the sand concentration 6%. All tests were performed at room temperature. In order to measure the synergic effects between corrosion and erosion, pure erosion and corrosion tests were done. The wear mechanisms were evaluated with the aid of scanning electron microscopy and laser interferometry. The results showed that the steel microstructure did not have any significant effect on the corrosion-erosion performance and the wear mass lost at normal impingement was systematic lower than those at oblique ones, suggesting a ductile wear behavior. On the nitrided samples a fragile behavior was observed, where the white layer has a negative effect on the wear performance. After removal of this layer the wear was observed to be in the ductile mode. Despite of this the plasma nitriding increased substantially the corrosion-erosion resistance of the ABNT 8550 steel.