High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied to determine the carotenoid composition of carrots during storage and cooking. Analyses were conducted immediately after harvest and 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks after harvest. During the course of the storage, the carotenoid levels generally decreased, and this decrease was found to be greater during the first week for β-carotene (all-trans-β-carotene) and lutein, and during the second week for α-carotene. Additionally, the amount of the α- and β-carotenes in carrot leaves changed slightly within the first 2 weeks of harvest when stored at 4℃. Specifically, the level of lutein, the main component of carrot leaves, increased from 233.8±11.7 to 346.2±26.7 ㎍/g DW during the first 2 weeks. In addition, the change in carotenoid contents was observed during the home-processing of one Korean cultivar. Carrots fried in oil showed the highest amount of β-carotene (164.3±6.6 ㎍/g DW) and α-carotene (50.1±0.4 ㎍/g DW), while carrots that were prepared by sauteing, pressure-cooking in water and microwaving had the second highest levels. The greatest loss of in carotenoids occurred in response to boiling in water containing 1% NaCl, braising and baking. The content of lutein increased slightly after boiling in water containing 1% NaCl (9.3±0.4 ㎍/g DW), while a loss in lutein occurred after preparation using other home-processing methods. A cis-isomer of all-trans-β-carotene, 13-cis-β-carotene, was present in detectable amounts in all processed samples, but not in raw roots. Another isomer, 9-cis-β-carotene, was detected in carrots that were prepared by boiling, frying and pressure-cooking.


BACKGROUND
Breast cancer (BC), the most common female cancer in Pakistan, is associated with a very high mortality. However, the roles of individual risk factors for BC among Pakistani women are still controversial. To assess potential risk factors for BC, a matched case-control study was conducted in two tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study population included 297 pathologically confirmed incident cases of BC patients diagnosed between January 2009 and December 2010. 586 controls without any history of BC were matched on a hospital basis, within 5 years of patient ages.

RESULTS
Family history of BC (MOR=1.72; 95%CI: 1.10, 2.80 for first degree vs. none), single marital status (MOR=1.55; 95%CI: 1.10, 2.39 for single women vs. married women), older age at menopause (MOR=3.92; 95%CI: 2.52, 6.18 for menopausal women aged below 45 years, MOR=6.42; 95%CI: 3.47, 11.98 for menopausal women above 45 years of age compared with premenopausal women) conferred an increased risk of BC for women. Increasing parity decreased the risk of BC (MOR=0.90; 95%CI: 0.85, 0.97 for each live birth). Intake of Vitamin D supplements (MOR=0.30; 95%CI: 0.12, 0.81 for <3 years and MOR=0.27; 95%CI: 0.13, 0.56 for >3 years) was protective compared to non-users of Vitamin D.

CONCLUSIONS
This study confirmed only few of the recognized risk factors in Pakistani women. The protective effect of Vitamin D is important from public health perspective and needs to be further explored through a randomized controlled trial.


Abstract Following up on previous work, we prove a number of results for ${{\text{C}}^{*}}$ -algebras with the weak ideal property or topological dimension zero, and some results for ${{\text{C}}^{*}}$ -algebras with related properties. Some of the more important results include the following: • The weak ideal property implies topological dimension zero. • For a separable ${{\text{C}}^{*}}$ -algebra $A$ , topological dimension zero is equivalent to $\text{RR}\left( {{\mathcal{O}}_{2}}\otimes A \right)=0$ , to $D\,\otimes \,A$ having the ideal property for some (or any) Kirchberg algebra $D$ , and to $A$ being residually hereditarily in the class of all ${{\text{C}}^{*}}$ -algebras $B$ such that ${{\mathcal{O}}_{\infty }}\otimes B$ contains a nonzero projection. • Extending the known result for ${{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}}$ , the classes of ${{\text{C}}^{*}}$ -algebras with residual $\left( \text{SP} \right)$ , which are residually hereditarily (properly) infinite, or which are purely infinite and have the ideal property, are closed under crossed products by arbitrary actions of abelian 2-groups. • If $A$ and $B$ are separable, one of them is exact, $A$ has the ideal property, and $B$ has the weak ideal property, then $A\,{{\otimes }_{\min }}\,B$ has the weak ideal property. • If $X$ is a totally disconnected locally compact Hausdorff space and $A$ is a ${{C}_{0}}\left( X \right)$ -algebra all of whose fibers have one of the weak ideal property, topological dimension zero, residual $\left( \text{SP} \right)$ , or the combination of pure infiniteness and the ideal property, then $A$ also has the corresponding property (for topological dimension zero, provided $A$ is separable). • Topological dimension zero, the weak ideal property, and the ideal property are all equivalent for a substantial class of separable ${{\text{C}}^{*}}$ -algebras, including all separable locally $\text{AH}$ algebras. • The weak ideal property does not imply the ideal property for separable $Z$ -stable ${{\text{C}}^{*}}$ -algebras. We give other related results, as well as counterexamples to several other statements one might conjecture.


It is well established that religious service attendance is overreported on conventional surveys. However, research has focused almost exclusively on overreporting in American survey data. This study extends the current body of research by pursuing the following question: Are Americans the only overreporters, or is this a ubiquitous survey artifact inherent to conventional survey measures of religious service attendance? Overreporting is estimated as the difference between directive measures from conventional surveys and those from time diaries. The survey artifact is examined across 14 countries and over four decades, highlighting the consistency and extremeness of (over)reported American religious participation, in light of concordance between modes in other countries. Findings suggest that American religiosity may be exceptional not in terms of actual behavior, but rather in terms of identity. As a result, this study adds to our understanding of American exceptionalism by drawing a distinction between religious identities and religious behavior.


There is no data on the special complications of micro (less than 4 cm incision) and modern mini laparotomy cholecystectomies (4.1-6 cm incision). Out of 710 non selected patients, 643 micro laparotomy cholecystectomies were performed and 61 modern mini laparotomies due to choledocholithiasis. On three occasions, conventional mini (6.1-10 cm) laparotomy was performed and in another three, conventional laparotomy (over 10 cm incision) was executed. Intraoperative bleeding was encountered in 15 cases (2.1%) while accidental hepatic duct clipping occurred in one case (0.1%). Damage to the bile duct did not occur in any case reported. Postoperative bleeding was reported in 8 cases (1.1%) and delayed bile leakage was reported in 10 cases (1.4%). Special complications reported as a result of pathological alteration in the bile tract as follows: Intraoperative bleeding encountered during simple cholecystectomy-1% but cholecystectomy due to obstructive cholecystitis 3.8%, also caused by intraoperative bleeding. Delayed bile leakage in simple cholecystectomy was not observed, but after cholecystectomy for obstructive cholecystitis it encountered in 3.4%. Special complications resulted in four early reoperations (0.5%). Two other patients were re-operated within three weeks, independent of special complications. The percentage of both intra and postoperative complication was significantly higher in obstructive cholecystitis with an operative delay of 11 or more days.


SUMMARY 1. In continuation of work already reported (Menzies, 1949) further data are presented on the structure and cyto-chemistry of the granules in the oxyntic cells of the rat's stomach. 2. After multiple doses of pilocarpine or histamine, and after feeding, the phospholipine (as shown by acid haematein) is shed from some or all of the granules. The lipine first leaves the granules in cells situated in the basal part of the tubules, and finally those in the neck of the tubules, but a non-lipine lipoid remains in all the granules (as shown by sudan black). 3. The granules enlarge after prolonged starvation as they do after a single injection of pilocarpine; but after extraction of lipoids by hot pyridine and subsequent straining with iron haematoxylin, enlargement (i.e. of the non-lipoid moiety) is shown only after prolonged starvation. 4. A light, uncoloured central area is found in some of the largest granules after feeding and colouring with acid haematein. 5. An acid phosphatase appears in the oxyntic cells whose granules are about to lose their lipine component, and it disappears when they have done so. It is suggested that the acid phosphatase may cause hydrolysis of the phospholipine. 6. Only after prolonged starvation is there any apparent change in granule numbers, when they are decreased.


type="main" xml:id="smj2245-abs-0001"> Competitive dynamics research, despite progress, lacks a conceptual framework that can extend the field's reach to address today's environment. Increasing stakeholder power and globalization are but two of the organizational and economic forces compelling a broader conceptualization of competition. Our framework expands competitive dynamics along five dimensions—aims of competition, mode of competing, roster of actors, action toolkit, and time horizon of interaction—that prove useful for contrasting the rivalrous and competitive-cooperative modes and a new approach we call relational competition. We draw conjectures about the moderators, such as industry and culture, that determine the appropriateness of these forms of interaction, and conclude by relating our method to three discrete perspectives: the configurational, transaction cost, and stakeholder views . Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The global financial crisis has brought in question the validity of credit risk models. The firms that are 'too big to fail' are frequently discussed in the media, and continue to borrow rather than defaulting. In this paper we propose a new credit risk model for firms that are too big to fail. We propose a structural model of credit risk but model credit risk as a real option. We derive a closed form solution for the option to default and take into account the borrowing practices of systemically important firms. We develop our model to take into account economic factors using regime switching, and derive an option pricing solution under such a process. Finally, we obtain solutions for hedging the option to default, for markets where incompleteness exists for such options. We conduct numerical experiments to calculate the option to default at different debt values and volatility.


The rise of cryogenic technologies such as quantum computing [P. Platzman and M. Dykman, Science 284, 1967 (1999)] calls for semiconductor devices that can operate efficiently and with low thermal leak at low temperatures. To better understand the behavior of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at these extreme temperatures, we derive the LED forward characteristics in the case of an InGaAs single-quantum well. We demonstrate the benefits of composition grading for increasing LED current, especially at low temperatures. This is done by deriving the optimum indium composition as a function of position. The results of the derivation are compared with COMSOL Multiphysics simulations and are found to match well.


The Dutch  'ZSM' project was launched in March 2011 and implemented nationwide in 2013. Its (official) aim is to (conclusively) deal with frequently occurring crime (cases) in a rapid, astute, selective, simple and society-oriented way, paying due attention to the interests of defendants, victims and society alike. The underlying assumption of the ZSM – and its accompanying focus on the speedy (out-of-court) resolution of criminal cases that do not (necessarily) merit the attention of the courts –  is that 'speed' is beneficial to all involved: to defendants, to victims, to the police (and the Prosecution Service) and to society as such. The question that concerns the authors is whether that assumption is correct. Does a speedy (out-of-court) resolution indeed do justice to all involved, and particularly defendants and (purported) victims? In this contribution, the Dutch ZSM process and its focus on the speedy out-of-court resolution is analyzed from the perspective of both the requirements of Article 6 of the European Convention and the social-scientific notion of procedural justice.


A yield management system (YMS) is an essential component in a modern wafer fab tool set. The YMS provides tools to analyze and manage process and electrical test data from process metrology, in-line inspection monitoring, and electrical test operations. The system gives near-real time access to all data required to support wafer manufacturing. Typical yield enhancement (YE) activities include in-line defect reduction, yield excursion control, failure analysis, and baseline yield analysis. Each of these activities typically focus on a specific data type and/or set of analysis techniques to enhance yield. A solution which integrates various data types and analysis techniques with a common client/server interface is key to achieving the YE support needed for world class manufacturing yields. This paper describes experiences with Knights Technology Yield Manager/sup TM/ (Knights YM) as a fab-wide data integration and analysis tool. The Knights YM system is designed around a client-server architecture, with separate servers for database management and data analysis tasks. The system provides a single interface for extraction of multiple data types generated during device fabrication and testing, and tools to visualize, analyze, and correlate this data. All database and analysis functions can be accessed remotely via any terminal, workstation, or desktop PC which support x-terminal functions. At Motorola, the Knights YM system is used to facilitate fab data collection, management, and analysis. Examples of how the Knights YM system is being used to improve analysis capability, productivity, and response time are presented as case studies.


India has the third highest number of estimated people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the world. The current moral panic about HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the theories of deviance that go with it are not a new phenomenon. People expect dental students to know all about HIV/AIDS, but many experience the same fear and ignorance as the public. There is a need to cultivate non judgmental attitude towards the care of people infected with HIV/AIDS. This requires systematic and sensitive educational program. Recent trends have emphasized the use of interprofessional education (IPE) as a very effective tool to overcome such barriers in delivering optimal health care to these patients. The present article reflects the current scenario of the patients living with HIV and the stigma associated with it. We attempt to propose an IPE module to overcome the same.


In literature there is a growing evidence that in cervical dystonia (CD) rehabilitation, both in person and remotely, is an efficacious add on treatment to botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) injections, but there is no consensus about protocols. We present here two rehabilitation programs implemented by our neuro‐rehabilitative multidisciplinary team. The enclosed video clips show exercises to be performed at home as self‐rehabilitation program, and exercises presented by a physiotherapist for a telerehabilitation program. These two protocols may be helpful for integrating rehabilitation with BoNT treatment in CD.


ABSTRACT Pollen morphology of 12 species, representing genera of the tribes Brassiceae, Conringieae, Isatideae and Plagiolobeae were studied using light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that the polar diameter, pollen exine ornamentation, mesocolpium width, and exine thickness have important systematic significance. Pollen grains in these genera were tricolpate and their shapes varied from prolate to perprolate, with the polar axis length ranging from 30.28 to 41.05 µm and the equatorial axis length ranging from 17.21 to 23.36 µm. However, fine details can be used to distinguish pollen grains of the different species within the genera. The exine ornamentation varied among genera within the tribes and among species within the same genus. Three pollen types are distinguished based on lumen size. All the studied tribes' pollen were heterogeneous, with reticulate, microreticulate (Conringia orientalis, Plagioloba derakii), or macroreticulate (Moricandia sinaica) ornamentation. The exine thickness ranged from 0.75 to 2.60 µm. Pollen characteristics support: (i) two distinct pollen types (viz. Conringia austriaca and Iljinskaea planisiliqua types) in all four tribes; (ii) the similarity of the pollen shape between tribes Isatideae and Brassiceae; (iii) the transfer of P. crenulata from Zuvanda to Plagioloba, and of I. planisiliqua from Conringia to Iljinskaea. Plagioloba clavata displays great variation in pollen morphological characters and needs to be further studied. A key to the species of the genera was also provided.


Decision making or planning is a crucial part of AI research. In recent times, deploying autonomous agents – such as search and rescue robots, autonomous unmanned vehicles, planetary rovers, and many others – has been proposed as a feasible approach in many realworld scenarios where sending humans is deemed either too risky or too expensive. Many times, these agents are required to operate under uncertainty, which may arise either due to the dynamics of the environment or due to the inaccuracies inherent in the sensors and actuators of the autonomous agent. In order to accomplish its goal most efficiently, the autonomous agent must compute an optimal plan for itself. Decision making in partially observable stochastic settings is formalized by partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) [35]. Interactive partially observable Markov decision processes (I-POMDPs) [20] generalize POMDPs to multiagent settings where the goal is to compute the optimal policy for an individual agent operating in the presence of other agents whose goals and preferences may not align with that of the subject agent. The solution to the problem of multiagent decision making under uncertainty suffers from several sources of intractability. These sources of intractability arise due to the uncertainty inherent in the environment, such as the stochastic state transitions, noisy or partial observations, and uncertainty about the goals, capabilities, and beliefs of the other interacting agents. While POMDP allows an agent to act rationally in single agent settings and most POMDP approximation algorithms are generalizable to multiagent contexts such as I-POMDPs, additional effort must be made to tackle problems specific to multiagent settings. In my dissertation, I propose several techniques that target various sources of intractability that plague multiagent decision making problems formalized by I-POMDPs. The first approach is a simple enhancement to existing POMDP algorithms that limits the observation space in certain contexts for quicker solution. The next approach is a generalized policy iteration technique that restricts the exponential growth of the model space, thereby speeding up the computation of a locally optimal policy. Third, I propose an online bimodal approach that in which the agent behaves as a POMDP treating other agents as a static noise under higher uncertainty but once it has received sufficient information regarding the current physical state of the environment, switches to full I-POMDP mode. This asymptotically leads to better runtime. Finally, I target the problem of exponentially growing complexity of I-POMDP solution with the number of interacting agents. This source of intractability is overcome by exploiting commonly found problem structures such as anonymity [58] and context-specific independence [7]. Exploiting these problem structures enables solution of problems involving thousands of interacting agents in under six hours. Index words: Artificial intelligence, rational decision making, interactive decision theory, multiagent planning under uncertainty, interactive partially observable Markov decision process, scalable algorithms Scalable Algorithms for Sequential Decision Making Under Uncertainty in Multiagent Systems


Based on extensive literature, the article attempts to shed light on the relationship between dress and the body. Dressing is here understood as a practice on the border between the personal and social spheres as it is shaped by both individual agency and social influences. The article connects these ideas with the role dressing occupies in shaping identities and takes into account the embodied nature of these processes. The author proposes to use the term "dressing" because it surpasses specific designations like fashion or costume. Furthermore, "dressing" puts emphasis on practice, not the dress itself and enables us to take account of the changes to the body as a vital element of dressing practices.


There are problems with Atran's argument for an innate cognitive module for folk biology. He has been too quick to assume innate origins for what might plausibly be learned. Furthermore, in his characterization he includes aspects – essentialist reasoning and inductions from classes – that are not domain-specific. Finally, his characterization compromises his argument that the module is pretheoretical.


A discussion about the quantum mechanical effects on noise properties of ballistic (phase-coherent) nanoscale devices is presented. It is shown that quantum noise can be understood in terms of quantum trajectories. This interpretation provides a simple and intuitive explanation of the origin of quantum noise that can be very salutary for nanoelectronic engineers. In particular, an injection model is presented that, coupled with a standard Monte Carlo algorithm, provides an accurate modeling of quantum noise. As a test, the standard results of noise in tunneling junction devices are reproduced within this approach.


In this study, we introduce a sentiment construction method based on the evolution of survey-based indicators. We make use of genetic algorithms to evolve qualitative expectations in order to generate country-specific empirical economic sentiment indicators in the three Baltic republics and the European Union. First, for each country we search for the non-linear combination of firms' and households' expectations that minimises a fitness function. Second, we compute the frequency with which each survey expectation appears in the evolved indicators and examine the lag structure per variable selected by the algorithm. The industry survey indicator with the highest predictive performance are production expectations, while in the case of the consumer survey the distribution between variables is multi-modal. Third, we evaluate the out-of-sample predictive performance of the generated indicators, obtaining more accurate estimates of year-on-year GDP growth rates than with the scaled industrial and consumer confidence indicators. Finally, we use non-linear constrained optimisation to combine the evolved expectations of firms and consumers and generate aggregate expectations of of year-on-year GDP growth. We find that, in most cases, aggregate expectations outperform recursive autoregressive predictions of economic growth.


Introduction The advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has dramatically slowed down the progression of HIV. This study assesses the disparities in survival, life expectancy and determinants of survival among HIV-infected people receiving ART. Methods Using data from one of Nepal's largest population-based retrospective cohort studies (in Kathmandu, Nepal), we followed a total of 3191 HIV-infected people aged 15 years and older who received ART over the period of 2004–2015. We created abridged life tables with age-specific survival rates and life expectancy, stratified by sex, ethnicity, CD4 cell counts and the WHO-classified clinical stage at initiation of ART. Results HIV-infected people who initiated ART with a CD4 cell count of >200 cells/cm3 at 15 years had 27.4 (22.3 to 32.6) years of additional life. People at WHO-classified clinical stage I and 15 years of age who initiated ART had 23.1 (16.6 to 29.7) years of additional life. Life expectancy increased alongside the CD4 cell count and decreased as clinical stages progressed upward. The study cohort contributed 8484.8 person years, with an overall survival rate of 3.3 per 100 person years (95% CI 3.0 to 3.7). Conclusions There are disparities in survival among HIV-infected people in Nepal. The survival payback of ART is proven; however, late diagnosis or the health system as a whole will affect the control and treatment of the illness. This study offers evidence of the benefits of enrolling early in care in general and ART in particular.


A survey has been carried out of the habits of people living within 3 km of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. The survey included estimates of consumption rates of foodstuffs for a range of ages and of time spent indoors, outdoors and away from home. A high proportion of those interviewed were farmers and they provided additional data on time spent in the various farming activities. A comparison of the food consumption rates and generalised values recommended for critical groups by the NRPB and MAFF.


Time-dependent integrated predictive modelling is carried out using the PTRANSP code to predict fusion power and parameters such as alpha particle density and pressure in ITER H-mode plasmas. Auxiliary heating by negative ion neutral beam injection and ion-cyclotron heating of He3 minority ions are modelled, and the GLF23 transport model is used in the prediction of the evolution of plasma temperature profiles. Effects of beam steering, beam torque, plasma rotation, beam current drive, pedestal temperatures, sawtooth oscillations, magnetic diffusion and accumulation of He ash are treated self-consistently. Variations in assumptions associated with physics uncertainties for standard base-line DT H-mode plasmas (with Ip = 15 MA, BTF = 5.3 T and Greenwald fraction = 0.86) lead to a range of predictions for DT fusion power PDT and quasi-steady state fusion QDT (≡PDT/Paux). Typical predictions assuming Paux = 50–53 MW yield PDT = 250–720 MW and QDT = 5–14. In some cases where Paux is ramped down or shut off after initial flat-top conditions, quasi-steady QDT can be considerably higher, even infinite. Adverse physics assumptions such as the existence of an inward pinch of the helium ash and an ash recycling coefficient approaching unity lead to very low values for PDT. Alternative scenarios with different heating and reduced performance regimes are also considered including plasmas with only H or D isotopes, DT plasmas with toroidal field reduced 10% or 20% and discharges with reduced beam voltage. In full-performance D-only discharges, tritium burn up is predicted to generate central tritium densities up to 1016 m−3 and DT neutron rates up to 5 × 1016 s−1, compared with the DD neutron rates of 6 × 1017 s−1. Predictions with the toroidal field reduced 10% or 20% below the planned 5.3 T and keeping the same q98, Greenwald fraction and βn indicate that the fusion yield PDT and QDT will be lower by about a factor of two (scaling as B3.5).


Endometriosis occurs in 10% of women aged 19 - 45 years. There is a rare incidence of spontaneous vulvar endometriosis, a possible subset of cutaneous endometriosis. Few cases of vulvar endometriosis have been reported in literature and are often related to large lesions. The occult cases of vulvar endometriosis have been identified mistakenly following response to hormone use after being misdiagnosed as intractable primary vulvodynia. With this mis- or delayed diagnosis comes increased psychological distress adding to the burden of disease. This management algorithm following a rapid literature review of cases using recognized databases such as PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, CINAHL and EMBASE addresses the needs of this group of vulvar endometriosis. Vulvar endometriosis is rare and can present as primary vulvodynia in the young woman. It may mimic vulvodynia or other chronic pelvic pain disorders such as interstitial cystitis leading to conflicting management. However, a strong correlation of vulvar pain or discomfort to her menstrual cycle activity with or without a visible lesion should raise the likelihood of this condition. J Clin Gynecol Obstet. 2021;10(2):35-39 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jcgo735


Study Design: This was a retrospective study. Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety between anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and posterior fixation and fusion (PFF) for treating unstable hangman's fracture. Summary of Background Data: In previous clinical study, ACDF and PFF have been introduced to manage unstable hangman's fracture. However, it remains unknown which approach is superior. Methods: Between January 2006 and May 2011, 44 patients with unstable hangman's fracture underwent either ACDF or PFF. The operation time, blood loss, surgical complications, and postoperative drainage were compared. Neurologic function was evaluated using the ASIA scale and neck pain was assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score. Rates of fracture heeling and bone fusion were also studied. Results: Follow-up was completed for 38 patients. Twenty-four cases underwent ACDF and 14 cases received PFF. The operation was successful in all 38 cases. The mean operative time, estimated blood loss, and postoperative drainage were significantly shorter or less for the ACDF group than the PFF group (P<0.01). No surgical complication was reported in the ACDF group. Excessive bleeding due to injury to the venous plexus occurred in 3 cases in the PFF group. The VAS score in the 2 groups was significantly lower than their respective preoperative score (P<0.01), but there was no difference between the 2 groups (P>0.05). Solid fusion was achieved with no implant failure in all cases 6 months postoperatively. At the final follow-up, 8 cases with ASIA C or D grade improved to E grade. Conclusions: The anterior procedure seems to be superior to the posterior approach for unstable hangman's fracture as it is a less invasive and simpler procedure with fewer complications and is especially indicated for cases with no medullary canal in C2 pedicles and traumatic C2–3 disk herniation compressing the spinal cord.


[1] We construct global budgets of atmospheric glyoxal and methylglyoxal with the goal of quantifying their potential for global secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation via irreversible uptake by aqueous aerosols and clouds. We conduct a detailed simulation of glyoxal and methylglyoxal in the GEOS-Chem global 3-D chemical transport model including our best knowledge of source and sink processes. Our resulting best estimates of the global sources of glyoxal and methylglyoxal are 45 Tg a−1 and 140 Tg a−1, respectively. Oxidation of biogenic isoprene contributes globally 47% of glyoxal and 79% of methylglyoxal. The second most important precursors are acetylene (mostly anthropogenic) for glyoxal and acetone (mostly biogenic) for methylglyoxal. Both acetylene and acetone have long lifetimes and provide a source of dicarbonyls in the free troposphere. Atmospheric lifetimes of glyoxal and methylglyoxal in the model are 2.9 h and 1.6 h, respectively, mostly determined by photolysis. Simulated dicarbonyl concentrations in continental surface air at northern midlatitudes are in the range 10–100 ppt, consistent with in situ measurements. On a global scale, the highest concentrations are over biomass burning regions, in agreement with glyoxal column observations from the SCIAMACHY satellite instrument. SCIAMACHY and a few ship cruises also suggest a large marine source of dicarbonyls missing from our model. The global source of SOA from the irreversible uptake of dicarbonyls in GEOS-Chem is 11 Tg C a−1, including 2.6 Tg C a−1 from glyoxal and 8 Tg C a−1 from methylglyoxal; 90% of this source takes place in clouds. The magnitude of the global SOA source from dicarbonyls is comparable to that computed in GEOS-Chem from the standard mechanism involving reversible partitioning of semivolatile products from the oxidation of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, isoprene, and aromatics.


Early generic concepts in programming languages were mixed-type arithmetic (e.g., "+" used with any combination of fixed-and floating-point numbers) and "print" functions which could be applied to any of a language's objects. Generic concepts reduce the number of terms which must be remembered and permit considerable condensation of language design. Three different paths in the development of generic-concept languages have been followed by APL, Algol 68, and object-oriented languages such as SIMULA 67 and Smalltalk. APL was the earliest and one of the most interesting applications of generic-concept methods, but now makes the weakest use of these ideas.
 My talk will use slides and movies to show how the message-object programming system Smalltalk makes use of generic concepts embedded in class descriptions to give rise to a wide variety of simply programmed dynamic simulations including graphic animation, music synthesis, document layout and retrieval, and APL-like calculation features. Many of these systems have been brought to life by child and adult novice programmers.
 A short list of references is given for those wishing more introductory information about Smalltalk.


Graph neural networks have achieved state-of-the-art performance on collaborative filtering (NeuGCFs). The success of NeuGCFs is mainly attributed to the stacking of message aggregation layers. Recent studies have shown that the effectiveness of existing NeuGCFs largely relies on the selection of optimal aggregation steps, which makes the performance on various recommendation scenarios unsatisfactory. To tackle this, we for the first time propose a framework to achieve personalized aggregation step assignment on NeuGCF. First, each user is endowed with a learnable unit to measure the aggregation degree at each aggregation stage. Second, the aggregation degree is used to determine whether the aggregation process should stop after the current stage. Third, the learnable unit is jointly trained with the NeuGCF by bi-level optimization. Finally, we term this new framework AutoGCF, implementing it on the state-of-the-art NeuGCF model - Light-GCN. Empirical experiments on five datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of AutoGCF, and highlight that AutoGCF can adaptively choose optimal steps on different datasets.


This article deals with several improvements of the spectral domain analysis of microstrip and coplanar circuits. Thus different kinds of expansion functions allow nonuniform meshing strategies with an improved current description. Furthermore a combination of acceleration methods with respect to the evaluation of the spectral domain integrals and special matrix fill techniques leads to a drastic reduction of the computational effort.


Discounting is an important dimension in multi-agent systems as long as we want to reason about strategies and time. It is a key aspect in economics as it captures the intuition that the far-away future is not as important as the near future. Traditional verification techniques allow to check whether there is a winning strategy for a group of agents but they do not take into account the fact that satisfying a goal sooner is different from satisfying it after a long wait.

In this paper, we augment Strategy Logic with future discounting over a set of discounted functions D, denoted SL[D]. We consider "until" operators with discounting functions: the satisfaction value of a specification in SL[D] is a value in [0, 1], where the longer it takes to fulfill requirements, the smaller the satisfaction value is. We motivate our approach with classical examples from Game Theory and study the complexity of model-checking SL[D]-formulas.


The mysteries of the real prime, by M. J. Shai Haran, LMS Monographs 25. Pp.240. £45. 2001. ISBN 0 19 850868 9 (Oxford University Press). This advanced monograph looks at real numbers from the viewpoint of the padic numbers. Real numbers and p-adic numbers can both be considered completions of the rational numbers. Real numbers complete the rationals, Q, in the sense that a Cauchy sequence of rational numbers (q")n > i may not have a limit in Q. In other words, the sequence may be such that, given e > 0, there exists a positive integer JV (e) such that ] qn qm \ < e for all n, m > N, yet there is no rational limit / such that given e > 0, there exists a positive integer TV (e) such that | qn -I \ < e for all n > N. Defining Cauchy sequences of rationals to be equivalent if the difference between their nth terms tends to zero, real numbers may be constructed as equivalence classes of rational Cauchy sequences, and with suitable definitions of arithmetic operations, the real numbers are complete: Cauchy sequences of real numbers converge to a real limit. For a given prime p, a non-zero rational number q a n can be represented by q = p , where a, n and d are integers and p does not divide n a or d. The p-adic valuation of q, written | q \p is then \q\p = p~ . The p-adic numbers are the completion of the rationals with respect to the p-adic valuation. The idea of this book is to consider the modulus function as an analogue of the p-adic valuations, \x\ = \x\r! where r\ is the real prime. We can think of the p-adic integers ~lp as power series of the form ao + «ip + a^j? + ... , 0 < a, < p. In the real prime analogue, the 'mystery' referred to in the title concerns the question 'What is Z"?' Whereas the p-adic valuations satisfy the strong triangle inequality l*i + *2 \p < max(|;ti L, |*2 | p} , the modulus function only satisfies the weaker inequality | *i + x21 < | x\ | + | x21, which means that from this point of view, the real numbers are awkward. We can define ~EP = {x e Q : \x\p < \\ but, {x e Q : 1*1, < l} = [-1, l ] , the analogous definition is not closed under addition, causing all sorts of problems. The first eight chapters work up through the zeta, gamma and beta distributions, p-adic gamma and theta chains and the <y-zeta function to g-gamma and #-beta chains and the real beta chain. At this point the answer to the mystery is revealed. Five chapters follow on global chains and higher dimensions, the Fourier transform, the quantum group, the Heisenberg group and the Riemann zeta function, culminating in a heuristic 'proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, based on the real prime approach. STEVE ABBOTT


Digital Displacement (DD) fluid power machines utilizes electronically controlled seat valves connected to pressure chambers to obtain variable displacement with high operational efficiency and high bandwidth. To achieve high efficiency, fast valve switching is essential and all aspects related to the dynamic behaviour of the seat valves must be considered to optimize the machine efficiency. A significant effect influencing the valves switching performance is the presence of oil stiction when separating the contact surfaces in valve opening movement. This oil stiction force is limited by cavitation for low pressure levels, e.g. valves connected to the low pressure manifold, however for valves operated at higher pressure levels, the oil stiction force is dominating when the separating surfaces are close to contact.This paper presents an analytic solution to the oil stiction force for annular seat valves suitable for DD applications based on the Reynolds equation and considers contact surface curvature and attack angle. A dynamic cavitation zone is included in the stiction model, and cavitation is found to be present even for seat valves surrounded by high pressure levels.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the potential of using tea extracts as complementary mouthwash and to test the comparative efficacy of two commercial samples.

DESIGN
A randomized controlled trial with 30 healthy human volunteers was carried out. The subjects were randomly assigned to 5 groups of 6 subjects per group. The ability of Ndu tea (from Cameroon) and Lipton tea (from Nigeria) to reduce colony forming units (CFU) in the liquid expectorated after 60 seconds of gargling from the mouth of the volunteers at 5 and 60 minutes were evaluated. These were compared to the values obtained from bank water and Minty Brett (thymol 0.047%), a standard antiseptic.

SETTING
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.

SUBJECTS
Thirty healthy human volunteers (18 males and 12 females, between 22-30 years of age) who met the eligibility requirement of being nonsmokers and not taking any other antimicrobial agent were selected for the study.

RESULT
Relative to the bank water, the results indicated that the hot water extract of both teas significantly (p < 0.05) reduced CFU per milliliter in the liquid expectorated after gargling at both 5 and 60 minutes. Minty Brett showed higher activity than both tea extracts; however, unlike Minty Brett both extracts still reduced the CFU per milliliter at time 60 minutes (an indication of longer duration of activity). The combination of the tea extracts with sodium lauryl sulfate (1.2% w/v), a surfactant and emulsifier, significantly increased the antimicrobial activity relative to each tea alone. Comparatively, the activity of Ndu tea was found to be slightly higher than that of Lipton tea but this was not significant (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Lipton and Ndu tea extracts potently reduced the CFU per milliliter. This activity was potentiated by sodium lauryl sulfate. Although Minty Brett had more potent antimicrobial activity, both tea extracts have longer duration of activity. The results indicate the potential usefulness of tea extracts as a complementary mouthwash.


A lot of strategies exist to monitor and control additive layer manufacturing processes. Basically one can distinguish between coaxially monitoring the process zone and monitoring the complete layer currently being built. Since Selective Laser Melting is a thermal process, a lot of information about the process and in consequence about the resulting part quality can be gathered by monitoring the temperature distribution of a complete layer and its temporal evolution. It depends on the geometrical configuration of parts being built and the quality of the powder layer deposition. In this paper, process errors originating from insufficient heat dissipation are investigated as well as the limits for detecting pores and other irregularities by observation of the temperature distribution.


When there are many people who don't need to expect something more than the benefits to take, we will suggest you to have willing to reach all benefits. Be sure and surely do to take this crohns disease and ulcerative colitis surgical management that gives the best reasons to read. When you really need to get the reason why, this crohns disease and ulcerative colitis surgical management book will probably make you feel curious.


After describing the most common causes of chronic pelvic pain in women the Authors stress the importance of psychosomatic factors to the pathogenesis of chronic pelvic pain. Bearing this in mind it is easier to understand why the results of pharmacologic treatments often fail to come up to doctor's and patient's expectations. These limitations have often been stressed in the literature and several alternatives, like individual or group psychological treatment or, more recently, acupuncture, have been suggested. The Authors' proposal for treatment envisaged a dozen meetings to carry out skin reflexotherapy. Significant psychological elements came to light on those occasions and were subsequently discussed. The Authors' experience, though covering 15 cases only, is extremely encouraging and confirms the value of this reflexotherapeutical and psychosomatic approach which can really help patients who are chiefly alexitimic to overcome their problems.


In direct torque control, selection of each voltage vector is based on the measured parameters in the beginning of the sampling period. Due to the fast dynamic of torque, this delay causes an extra torque ripple. In this paper, a new predictive controller is proposed for compensating this delay and reducing the torque ripple. The stator current is measured two times at the beginning of each sampling period and its expected value at the end of period is predicted according to an extrapolation algorithm. Thus, there is no need to machine parameters and the algorithm is quite robust against machine parameters variations. The calculation of the electromagnetic torque is performed using the predicted value of stator current. Therefore, the selection of voltage vector is more realistic and it prevents extra torque ripple. This controller is very suitable for high power drives where the sampling frequency is low and there is adequate time for the extra measurements. Simulation and experimental results confirm the ability of this method to reduce the torque ripple.


The purpose of the study was to compare the analgesic effectiveness of epidural administration of ketamine mixed bupivacaine with fentanyl mixed bupivacaine in the management of postoperative pain. This prospective study was carried out in CMH, Bogra in one calendar year from July 2004 to June 2005. For postoperative pain management 100 patients of both sex, age ranging between 20 to 50 years, ASA physical status I and II scheduled for lower abdominal, pelvic and inguinal surgery were included in the study. All patients were divided into two groups. Epidural catheter was inserted in each patient through space between L 3 to L 2 . Surgery was done under epidural anaesthesia in both groups. In group A (n=50) surgery was done with 0.5% bupivacaine and fentanyl (bupivacaine 1.5 ml/segment + fentanyl 2?g/ml). In group B (n=50) surgery was done with 0.5% bupivacaine and ketamine (bupivacaine 1.5ml/segment + ketamine 0.3mg/kg body weight). Epidural analgesia was continued in postoperative ward with 6 ml 0.25% bupivacaine + fentanyl 2?g/ml in group A and with 6 ml 0.25% bupivacaine + ketamine 0.3mg/kg bodyweight in group B, 4 hourly for 24 hours. The efficacy of analgesia was assessed by using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Verbal Rating Scale (VRS). Mean VAS and mean VRS were less than 3 in both groups, which proved adequate postoperative analgesia. Differences of mean VAS and mean VRS between two groups were statistically not significant. Haemodynamic parameters, respiration and oxygenation were within normal range in both groups. Postoperative complications, like inadequate analgesia, post operative nausea and vomiting (PONV), headache and vertigo were less in both groups. It was observed that epidural administration of both bupivacaine mixed with ketamine and bupivacaine mixed with fentanyl found safe, effective and tolerable for postoperative pain management. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbsa.v22i1.18097 Journal of BSA, 2009; 22(1): 21-25


Following oral administration of only one dose of lithium (e.g. just prior to a clinic blood test), plasma concentrations rise quickly and may appear to be in the therapeutic steady state range for several hours. At the clinic, therefore, noncompliance may go undetected. It has been suggested that measurements of erythrocyte lithium concentrations (Le) may be more useful than plasma lithium concentrations (Lp) in detecting patient non‐compliance. This was investigated by comparing the pharmacokinetics of lithium in plasma and erythrocytes after a single 800 mg dose of lithium carbonate and during constant dosing around steady state. Twelve healthy male volunteers took part in the study and took 800 mg of lithium carbonate (Priadel) for 28 days. Le and Lp ranges were determined around steady state using data obtained from eight volunteers known to be compliant. Compliance was measured using electronic monitoring. Both erythrocyte and plasma lithium concentrations reached values comparable to steady state after a single oral dose. This suggests that Le measurements are no better than Lp measurements when attempting to identify noncompliant patients who only dose shortly before a blood test.


Free Website Building services (FWBs) provide individuals with a cost-effective and convenient way to create a website without requiring advanced technical knowledge or coding skills. However, malicious actors often abuse these services to host phishing websites. In this work, we propose FreePhish, a scalable framework to continuously identify phishing websites that are created using FWBs. Using FreePhish, we were able to detect and characterize more than 31.4K phishing URLs that were created using 17 unique free website builder services and shared on Twitter and Facebook over a period of six months. We find that FWBs provide attackers with several features that make it easier to create and maintain phishing websites at scale while simultaneously evading anti-phishing countermeasures. Our study indicates that anti-phishing blocklists and browser protection tools have significantly lower coverage and high detection time against FWB phishing attacks when compared to regular (self-hosted) phishing websites. While our prompt disclosure of these attacks helped some FWBs to remove these attacks, we found several others who were slow at removal or did not remove them outright, with the same also being true for Twitter and Facebook. Finally, we also provide FreePhish as a free Chromium web extension that can be utilized to prevent end-users from accessing potential FWB-based phishing attacks.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to determine the fundamental relationships between cervical intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, endplate calcification, and the patency of endplate marrow contact channels (MCC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Sixty cervical IVDs were excised from 30 human cadavers. After sectioning the specimens underwent micro computed tomography (microCT) - from all images the number, calibre, diameter and distribution of endplate openings were measured using ImageJ. Next, the specimens were scored for macroscopic degeneration (Thompson's classification), and subsequently underwent histological analysis for both IVD and endplate degeneration (Boos's classification) and calcification.

RESULTS
The study group comprised 30 female and 30 male IVDs (mean age ± SD: 51.4 ± 19.5). Specimen's age, macroscopic and microscopic degeneration correlated negatively with the number of MCCs (r = -0.33-(-0.95); p < 0.0001), apart from the MCCs > 300 μm in diameter (r = 0.66-0.79; p < 0.0001). The negative relationship was strongest for the MCCs 10-50 μm in diameter.

CONCLUSIONS
There is a strong negative correlation between the number of endplate MCCs, and both macroscopic and microscopic cervical IVD and endplate degeneration. This could further support the thesis that endplate calcification, through the occlusion of MCCs, leads to a fall in nutrient transport to the IVD, and subsequently causes its degeneration.


Brumfit (1979) has suggested that many commercially published ELT materials are little more than 'masses of rubbish, skilfully marketed'. He perhaps rejects most of the published materials. However, in reality, it is observed that these ELT resources are the only available alternatives in the contexts where infra-structural limitations of language classrooms and the inefficiency of the language-teachers make the goal of language learning and teaching unreachable or unattainable for many of the learners. This paper, through a case study, aims at justifying the use of commercially published ELT coursebooks that are designed and used, considering the limitations and problems of the personally produced materials by untrained teachers. Nevertheless, these materials must consider the local market rather than the global markets so that they meet the needs of the local language learners and instructors. The case study implies that it is the selection or adaptation of the right materials for the specific learners that makes them effective or ineffective. It also suggests that the personally designed or locally produced materials too may make teaching and learning difficult and impossible sometimes. IIUC Studies Vol.10 & 11 December 2014: 173-182


Most of the HCI work on mental health is based on the Western metaphysical definition of mind that is less applicable outside the West. This paper focuses on this issue and critically examines "Kaan Pete Roi" (KPR), a suicide prevention and emotional support helpline in Bangladesh, through an interview study with 20 participants. We find that KPR's service, grounded in the 'befriending' model – originating from the UK and emphasizing non-judgmental active listening without offering direct advice – often struggles to ensure callers' safety, provide long-term support, and protect volunteers from harassment and distress. We argue that such failures are often rooted in some foundational ideas of the UK-born 'befriending' model that underpins the service. Building on Enrique Dussel's decolonial philosophy, we argue that 'befriending' model and its underpinning Western metaphysical ideation of mind carry a colonial impulse, and discuss how community-based approaches may better address the mental health problems in the Global South.


Custodial violence is an alarming problem at Universal level. This violence is such a nature that can't be discriminated among human beings as per their religion, class, place of birth, sex, social status, etc. people of every group may suffer in custody by the hands of police authorities. Violence in custody not only committed by police in an active way which includes harsh beating, pulling out nails brutally, lying naked on ice, etc. But the commission of violence may be made by passive way which includes denial of food, medicines, sleep etc. The dignity of women disregards by the police during the commission of sexual assault or rape under custody. In our country policeman is deemed to be a protector of law or guards of human. But when these guards often violate the rights of a human, the great inconvenience arises.


ABSTRACT Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is considered as the most potent liver carcinogen for humans. A method for determination in sesame seeds was developed. AFB1 was extracted by methanol-water, cleaned by immunoaffinity columns and determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. The recovery factor and the limit of detection (LOD) of AFB1 in sesame seeds were 111.5% and 0.02 ng g−1, respectively. Thirty samples of sesame products were examined for the presence of AFB1. After analysis, 77.6% of samples were found to be contaminated. Eight samples exceeded the European Union (EU) limit (2 µg AFB1 kg−1). In 15 samples, AFB1 was below the EU limit. Seven samples remained below the LOD. The most contaminated (14.49 ng AFB1 g−1) sample was unpeeled packaged sesame seeds. In all samples, aflatoxigenic Aspergilli fungi as well as the risk for AFB1 presence in sesame seed was investigated.


To facilitate nurses' application of nursing theories, theories must be analyzed and disseminated. This study aimed to analyze the functional components of Paplau's Theory of Nursing among chemical dependent participants. The analysis of the theory was based on Meleis's model. The results of this analysis provided more than an understanding of the functional components of this theory; the results included the appropriateness and utilization of Paplau's theory to provide care to dependent chemical clients.


Targeting "discharge before noon" (DBN) for hospitalized patients has been proposed as a way to improve hospital throughput and patient safety by reducing emergency department (ED) boarding and crowding. In this issue, Kirubarajan et al1 report no association between morning discharge and length of stay (LOS) for either the ED or hospitalization.1 This large (189,781 patients) 7-year study from seven quite different Canadian hospitals adds important data to a literature that remains divided about whether DBN helps or hurts hospital LOS and ED boarding. Unlike trials reporting interventions to encourage DBN, this observational study was unique in that it took each day as the unit of observation. This method cleverly allowed the authors to examine whether days with more discharges before noon conferred a lower mean ED and inpatient LOS among patients admitted on those days. Their approach appropriately reframes the central issue as one of patient flow. Kirubarajan et al's most notable, and perhaps surprising, finding is the lack of association between morning discharge and ED LOS. Computer modeling supports the hypothesis that ED throughput will improve on days with earlier inpatient bed availability.2 Several studies have also noted earlier ED departure times and decreased ED wait times after implementing interventions to promote DBN.3 Why might the authors' findings contradict previous studies? Their outcomes may in part be due to high ED LOS (>14 hours), exceeding Canadian published targets and reports from the United States.4,5 Problems relating to ED resources, practice, and hospital census may have overwhelmed DBN as factors in boarding. The interpretation of their findings is limited by the authors' decision to report only ED LOS, rather than including the time between a decision to admit and ED departure (boarding time). While early studies that focused on interventions to promote DBN noted decreased inpatient LOS after their implementation, later studies found no effect or even an increase in LOS for general internal medicine patients. Concerns have been raised about the confounding effect of concurrent initiatives aimed at improving LOS as well as misaligned incentives to delay discharge to the following morning. As the number of conflicting studies mounts, and with the current report in hand, it is tempting to conclude that for the DBN evidence base as a whole, we are observing random variation around no effect. With growing doubt about benefits of morning discharge, perhaps we should turn our attention away from the question of how to increase DBN and consider instead why and at what cost. Hospitals are delicate organisms; a singular focus on one metric will undoubtedly impact others. Does the effort to discharge before noon consume valuable morning hours and detract from the care of other patients? Are patients held overnight unnecessarily to comply with DBN? Are there consequences in patient, nursing, or trainee satisfaction? Is bedside teaching affected? And as concepts of patient-centered care are increasingly valued, we may ask whether DBN is such a concept, or is it rather an increasingly dubious strategy aimed at regularizing hospital operations? The need for a more holistic assessment of "discharge quality" is apparent. Instead of focusing on a particular hour, initiatives should determine the "best, earliest discharge time" for each patient and align multidisciplinary efforts toward this patient-centered goal. Such efforts are already underway in pediatric hospitals, where fixed discharge times are being replaced by discharge milestones embedded into the electronic medical record.6 An instrument to track "discharge readiness" such as this one, paired with ongoing analysis of the barriers to timely discharge, might better facilitate throughput by targeting the entire admission, rather than concentrating pressure on its final hours.


Chronotropic impairment is associated with decreased survival in Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (IPAH) patients. However, little is known if this could be one of the factors that influence the different clinical course seen in schistosomiasis associated PAH (Sch-PAH). Objetive: To compare the performance and heart rate (HR) response of Sch-PAH and IPAH patients during maximal cardiopulmonary exercise (CPET). Method: Retrospective analysis of 23 CPETs (15 IPAH, 7 Sch-PAH). Gas exchange, ventilatory and chronotropic parameters were analyzed during rest, anaerobic threshold (AT) and peak. HR, VO2 and VO2/HR were analyzed as absolute and as a proportion of maximum predicted values (HR%pred, VO2%pred, VO2/HR%pred) at each point. HR recovery (HRR) was the difference between peak HR and HR on the first minute after exercise interruption. Results: IPAH patients tended to be younger (37.6 ± 10.7 vs 47.8 ± 12.5 yrs, p=0.053), with higher proportion of female patients and similar hemodynamics and VO2%pred. IPAH had higher VO2/HR%pred during rest (0.37 ± 0.12 vs 0.23 ± 0.12, p=0.04), with no differences found at AT or peak exercise. Both groups had similar HR, HR%pred and VE/VCO2 at each point. HRR was also similar between groups (16.9 ± 8.2 vs 14.8 ± 12.6bpm, for IPAH and Sch-PAH respectively, p=0.72). Conclusion: No differences were found in HR response between IPAH and Sch-PAH. Although VO2/HR was higher for resting iPAH, this difference was not found during exercise. Our results suggest that chronotropic impairment may not be the mechanism explaining the survival difference seen in IPAH and Sch-PAH.


Digital and social media and large available data-sets generate various new possibilities and challenges for conducting research focused on perpetually developing online news ecosystems. This paper presents a novel computational technique for gathering and processing large quantities of data from Facebook. We demonstrate how to use this technique for detecting and analysing issue-attention cycles and news flows in Facebook groups and pages. Although the paper concentrates on a Finnish Facebook group as a case study, the demonstrated method can be used for gathering and analysing large sets of data from various social network sites and national contexts. The paper also discusses Facebook platform regulations concerning data gathering and ethical issues in conducting online research.


The main motivation of this thesis is to explore several techniques for estimating electric guitar synthesis parameters to replicate the sound of popular guitarists. Many famous guitar players are recognisable by their distinctive electric guitar tone, and guitar enthusiasts would like to play or obtain their favourite guitarist's sound on their own guitars. This thesis starts by exploring the possibilities of replicating a target guitar sound, given an input guitar signal, using a digital filter. A preliminary step is taken where a technique is proposed to transform the sound of a pickup into another on the same electric guitar. A least squares estimator is used to obtain the coefficients of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter to transform the sound. The technique yields good results which are supported by a listening test and a spectral distance measure showing that up to 99% of the difference between input and target signals is reduced. The robustness of the filters towards changes in repetitions, plucking positions, dynamics and fret positions are also discussed. A small increase in error was observed for different repetitions; moderate errors arose when the plucking position and dynamic were varied; and there were large errors when the training and test data comprised different notes (fret positions). Secondly, this thesis explored another possible way to replicate the sound of popular guitarists in order to overcome the limitations provided by the first approach. Instead of directly morphing one sound into another, replicating the sound with electric guitar synthesis provides flexibility that requires some parameters. Three approaches to estimate the pickup and plucking positions of an electric guitar are discussed in this thesis which are the Spectral Peaks (SP), Autocorrelation of Spectral Peaks (AC-SP) and Log-correlation of Spectral Peaks (LC-SP) methods. LC-SP produces the best results with faster computation, where the median absolute errors for pickup and plucking position estimates are 1.97 mm and 2.73 mm respectively using single pickup data and the errors increased slightly for mixed pickup data. LC-SP is also shown to be robust towards changes in plucking dynamics and fret positions, where the median absolute errors for pickup and plucking position estimates are less than 4 mm. The Polynomial Regression Spectral Flattening (PRSF) method is introduced to compensate the effects of guitar effects, amplifiers, loudspeakers and microphones. The accuracy of the estimates is then tested on several guitar signal chains, where the median absolute errors for pickup and plucking position estimates range from 2.04 mm to 7.83 mm and 2.98 mm to 27.81 mm respectively.


INTRODUCTION
Detection of residual disease following the completion of primary treatment in Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) patients diagnosed with mediastinal tumor mass has an exceptional importance in the assessment of therapeutic response. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and (67)gallium ((67)Ga) scintigraphy can be used to identify active tumor tissue in the mediastinal residuum.

AIMS
To evaluate: the accuracy of MRI and (67)Ga scintigraphy in the prediction of clinical HL relapse/progression; congruence of findings and the probability of mediastinal disease relapse/progression regarding to the detection of active/inactive tissue by both imaging methods.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty HL patients with abnormal mediastinal tissue following the completion of primary treatment were examined by MRI and (67)Ga scintigraphy. Positive findings were: high signal intensity on unenhanced T2-weighted images on MRI and the abnormal accumulation of gallium on scintigraphy or SPECT. These findings were compared with the clinical follow-up.

RESULTS
Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive values were: 75.0%, 96.2%, 93.3%, 75.0%, 96.2% in MRI and 50.0%, 88.5%, 83.3%, 40.0%, 92.0% in (67)Ga scintigraphy. Discrepant results concerning the mediastinal tissue activity were found in 3 of 30 patients (10%). No statistically significant differences were found between both imaging methods in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Estimated 2-years progression free survival (PFS) for patients without and with active residual mediastinal tissue by MRI was 96% and 25% (p=0.0001), respectively. The probability of 2-years PFS in the cases with negative and positive findings on (67)Ga scintigraphy was 92% and 60% (p=0.026), respectively.

CONCLUSION
Although MRI showed better results than (67)Ga scintigraphy in the assessment of residual mediastinal tissue activity in HL patients after primary treatment, the difference between these methods was not statistically significant. Both methods could be included in the standard restaging protocol.


In this two-part study, we present the development and analysis of a stochastic theory for characterizing the relative positions of monodisperse, low-inertia particle pairs that are settling rapidly in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. In the limits of small Stokes number and Froude number such that $Fr\ll St_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}}\ll 1$ , closures are developed for the drift and diffusion fluxes in the probability density function (p.d.f.) equation for the pair relative positions. The theory focuses on the relative motion of particle pairs in the dissipation regime of turbulence, i.e. for pair separations smaller than the Kolmogorov length scale. In this regime, the theory approximates the fluid velocity field in a reference frame following the primary particle as locally linear. In this part 1 paper, we present the derivation of closure approximations for the drift and diffusion fluxes in the p.d.f. equation for pair relative positions $\boldsymbol{r}$ . The drift flux contains the time integral of the third and fourth moments of the 'seen' fluid velocity gradients along the trajectories of primary particles. These moments may be analytically resolved by making approximations regarding the 'seen' velocity gradient. Accordingly, two closure forms are derived specifically for the drift flux. The first invokes the assumption that the fluid velocity gradient along particle trajectories has a Gaussian distribution. In the second drift closure, we account for the correlation time scales of dissipation rate and enstrophy by decomposing the velocity gradient into the strain-rate and rotation-rate tensors scaled by the turbulent dissipation rate and enstrophy, respectively. An analytical solution to the p.d.f. $\langle P\rangle (r,\unicode[STIX]{x1D703})$ is then derived, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$ is the spherical polar angle. It is seen that the p.d.f. has a power-law dependence on separation $r$ of the form $\langle P\rangle (r,\unicode[STIX]{x1D703})\sim r^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\sim St_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}}^{2}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}<0$ , analogous to that for the radial distribution function of non-settling pairs. An explicit expression is derived for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ in terms of the drift and diffusion closures. The $\langle P\rangle (r,\unicode[STIX]{x1D703})$ solution also shows that, for a given $r$ , the clustering of $St_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}}\ll 1$ particles is only weakly anisotropic, which is in conformity with prior observations from direct numerical simulations of isotropic turbulence containing settling particles.


UNLABELLED
Aim. After surgical treatment of type A aortic dissections a long segment of these aortas often remain dissected. Our goal was to analyse feasibility and first clinical and pathophysiological results of a combined treatment by ascending aorta replacement and stenting of the arch or descending aorta with Djumbodis(R) bare stents.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Twenty two cases from two centres were analyzed (Universitary Hospital of Parma and Rangueil Universitary Hospital of Toulouse).

RESULTS
All the stents have been implanted with short times of circulatory arrest. Average follow-up was 278 days (0-2005). There were two peroperative deaths (9.1%). One year cumulate survival rate was 72.7%. Postoperative complications were mainly respiratory and renal. We have shown a reduction in number of perfused false lumen for aortic arches, more often stented, than for descending aortas (p=0.0104), and for dissected and stented segments versus dissected unstented segments (p=0.0083).

CONCLUSION
Our study demonstrates feasibility of this combined procedure and its positive effect on pathophysiologic evolution. Long term results have to be evaluated, but we think promising to extend this treatment to the whole dissected aorta.


This study focused on the comparison of basic VoIP infrastructure setup particularly between proprietary devices and open-sourced tools in terms of cost, equipment/technology, technical support, reliability and compatibility. This is a qualitative/descriptive study. Interviews with four representatives from selected companies particularly those who implemented VOIP technology either with the use of proprietary device or open-sourced tools were conducted using interview guide questionnaire. It has been noted that technically, proprietary devices require the same set of equipments however; they differ in some features. The comparison revealed that proprietary devices are advantageous in terms of durability of the hardware, the provision of after-sales services, and its compatibility with other proprietary products. However, they are considered as expensive due to the licensing requirements, cases of erratic relay of data or information caused by excessive collision of network, its limited upgradable hardware feature and its compatibility to open-sourced device relies on the installation of additional gadget. The strengths of open-sourced tools are associated with lower cost due to no license fee required in using it and its compatibility with all generic and proprietary devices.


The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) is a kokumi receptor that plays an essential role in nutrient sensing and animal physiology, growth, and development. Pig CaSR (pCaSR) was identified and characterized in the intestine. However, further research is still needed to confirm the expression of CaSR in the epithelial cells isolated from weaned piglets. In this study, primary enterocytes were isolated and characterized from the ileum of weaned piglets by the Weiser distended intestinal sac technique and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) based on sucrase-isomaltase as an enterocyte-specific marker. The expression of CaSR was investigated in both primary enterocytes and the intestinal porcine enterocyte cell line (IPEC-J2) by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), immunofluorescence staining, and western blotting. Results demonstrated that porcine enterocytes could be obtained using FACS with the sucrase-isomaltase as the enterocyte-specific marker and that pCaSR is not expressed in both porcine ileal enterocytes and IPEC-J2 cells, which specifically identified the expression of pCaSR in ileal enterocytes with sensitive and specific approaches.


A basis to understand how doing and learning coalesce through work, referred to as co-participation at work, is advanced. Coparticipation encompasses, on the one hand, the affordances provided by the workplace for engagement in activities and the provision of guidance. However, workplaces are contested, their affordances are neither benign nor distributed equally to those who participate or wish to participate in them. Accordingly, these affordances determine how individuals participate and learn in workplaces. However, on the other hand, individuals determine how they engage in work, how they know and transform their ways of knowing as a result. In this way there is a reciprocity and interdependence which underpins thinking, acting and learning through work.


The overuse of p-values to dichotomize the results of research studies as being either significant or non-significant has taken some investigators away from the main task of determining the size of the difference between groups and the precision with which it is measured. Presenting the results of research as statements such as "p 0.05", "NS" or as precise p-values has the effect of oversimplifying study findings. Further information regarding the size of the difference between groups is required. Presenting confidence intervals for the difference in effect, of say two treatments, in addition to p-values, has the distinct advantage of presenting imprecision on the scale of the original measurement. A statistically significant test also does not imply that the observed difference is clinically important or meaningful, and their meanings are often confused.


Earthquakes do not only trigger landslides in co-seismic phases but also elevate post-seismic landslide susceptibility either by causing a strength reduction in hillslope materials or by producing co-seismic landslide deposits, which are prone to further remobilization under the external forces generated by subsequent rainfall events. However, we still have limited observations regarding the post-seismic landslide processes. And, the examined cases are rarely representative of tropical conditions where the precipitation regime is strong and persistent. Therefore, in this study, we introduce three new sets of multi-temporal landslide inventories associated with subsets of the areas affected by 1) 2016 Reuleuet (Indonesia, Mw = 6.5), 2) 2018 Porgera (Papua New Guinea, Mw = 7.5) and 3) 2012 Sulawesi (Indonesia, Mw = 6.3), 2017 Kasiguncu (Indonesia, Mw = 6.6) and 2018 Palu (Indonesia, Mw = 7.5) earthquakes. Overall, our findings show that the landslide susceptibility level associated with the occurrences of new landslides return to pre-seismic conditions in less than a year in the study areas under consideration. We stress that these observations might not be representative of the entire area affected by these earthquakes but the areal boundaries of our study areas.


Immunity to malaria has a major role in controlling disease and pathogenesis with cytokine production being involved in almost each phase of the immune response. The present study aimed to assess hematological variables and to measure plasma levels of TNFα, IFNg and IL10, their ratios, and their relation to parasitemia among patients with uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Hodeidah, Yemen. Forty patients with uncomplicated P. falciparum monoinfection and 40 healthy age and sex matched controls were enrolled in the study. Parasitological diagnosis was confirmed, and parasite density estimated. Hematologic parameters, the presence of gametocytes, and plasma cytokine levels were determined. Results revealed lower Hb levels, RBC, lymphocyte and platelet counts and higher neutrophil and reticulocyte counts among patients compared to controls. TNFα, IFNg and IL10 were higher in patients than controls. A relatively higher IL10 production was demonstrated by the significantly lower TNFα/IL10 and IFNg/IL10 ratios in patients than controls. TNFα and IL10 correlated positively with parasite density. Reticulocyte count was higher and IFNg level was lower in the presence of gametocytes. Conclusively, uncomplicated falciparum malaria is associated with the ability to regulate the production of the pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. This mediates parasite clearance while simultaneously avoiding severe pathology.


A model based on the local density approximation and on the multiple-scattering wave method has been used to analyse the experimental XANES spectra of the crystalline materials rutile and anatase. The results presented are close to the best computations that can be achieved for the solid adopting a local density one-electron theory. The effect of cluster size on the computations has been analysed in the case of rutile concluding that at least 51 atoms are needed to get all the spectral features. Convergence is obtained for a model comprising 75 atoms. The agreement between the theoretical and the experimental spectra is very good even for the pre-edge structures, the origin of which has been the object of controversy. Minor differences, which could be assigned to many-body effects, have been pointed out. SCF X alpha computations have also been performed and allow the formulation of some hypotheses concerning two-electron excitations in the XANES spectra.


In recent years, agricultural commodity prices were subject to vast fluctuations on the world market. To understand the effects of international price fluctuations on rural households, the study of the transmission of world market prices to local markets which are most relevant for small-holder farmers and households offers important insights. Covering the dominant cash crop and the primary food crop, this research analyses the integration of maize and rice markets in Son La province, northern Viet Nam, with national and world agricultural markets. Following an in depth analysis of the value chains of maize and rice, monthly as well as weekly time series of wholesale and retail-prices in the periods from 2001 to 2009 and from 2007 to 2009, respectively, are employed to analyse price dynamics and interrelationships using cointegration analysis and Vector Error-Correction Models. We find that domestic production and marketing of maize are largely liberalised and highly competitive. However, no cointegration of Son La markets with world markets is found. Also, cointegration is not present between all markets studied along the domestic value chain. Yet, perfect price transmission is found between cointegrated markets. The analysis of the rice markets yields that domestic production and local trade are largely deregulated as well. Son La markets are found to be cointegrated with the ones in the country's south as well as with world markets. However, long-run price transmission appears to be weak, so that only about 27 % of a price change on the world market is transmitted to Son La province. In conclusion, for the commodities investigated farmers in the mountainous north of Vietnam are only partly affected by world market price fluctuations. The main underlying reasons are seasonality of production and fluctuations of international shipping rates in the case of maize and high governmental influence in international and long distance domestic trade in the case of rice.


Comprehensive clinical programs for teenage mothers and their children, also known as teen-tot programs, have been a promising intervention to improve outcomes of teenage childbearing and parenting. However, much remains unknown regarding the efficacy of such programs. We reviewed four published evaluations of programs that provided medical care, counseling, contraception, guidance for parenting, and assistance with staying in school. The evaluations reported moderate success in preventing repeat pregnancies, helping teen mothers continue their education, and improving teen and infant health over 6 to 18 months. However, the evaluations had limitations that may have reduced or accentuated observed effectiveness. Teen-tot programs will continue to face the challenges of sustaining adequate long-term interventions and evaluations, and reducing the high attrition rate among program participants. It is concluded that increased support and funding for teen-tot programs and more complete evaluations are warranted.


The nonapeptide oxytocin (OXT) and its receptor (OXTR) have been implicated in social cognition, empathy, emotion and stress regulation in humans. Previous studies reported associations between OXT and OXTR genetic polymorphisms and risk for disorders characterized by impaired socio-emotional functioning, such as schizophrenia and autism. Here we investigate the influence of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the OXTR gene on a measure of socio-emotional functioning in schizophrenic patients. OXTR SNPs that were previously investigated in other studies were genotyped in 145 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia according to DSM-IV and 145 healthy controls matched for age and gender. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was used to assess cognitive ('perspective taking'), affective ('empathic concern') and self-related ('personal distress') dimensions of empathy. No group differences in genotype frequencies were observed. MANCOVA revealed a significant main (F [1,282] = 10.464; p<0.01) and interaction effect (genotype by diagnosis: F [1,282] = 4.329; p<0.05) of OXTR SNP rs2254298(A>GG) with 'empathic concern'. Within the schizophrenia group, linear regression analysis determined OXTR rs2254298 genotype, PANSS negative and general symptom score, and age of disease onset as being significantly associated with 'empathic concern'. OXTR rs2254298 significantly impacted PANSS general psychopathology scores. No associations were found for OXTR rs53576, IRI 'perspective taking' or 'personal distress' ratings. Our preliminary findings support hypotheses about an involvement of OXTR rs2254298 in emotional empathy in schizophrenic and healthy individuals, warranting independent replication.


Rajayakshma is a group of diseases that gets manifested with the vitiation of tridhatu and sapta dhatu. Due to indulging in Sahas veg sandarana. kshaya, and vishamashana , there is the manifestation of Ekadasha Rupa. Rajayakshma is considered as king of all diseases. Thus it is termed as Raja (King) and Yakshma (decay) which mean of the fraying conditions of huge magnitude. Symptoms of Rajayakshma are Parshwashool, Jwar, kasa and raktashthiwana.  In modern era Rajayakshma can be correlated to Tuberculosis. Though there is a difference in the pathogenesis of Rajayakshma and Pulmonary Tuberculosis. The clinical picture of both is quite similar. It is a major public health problem in India due to environmental changes, changes in behavior, diet habits, poor quality of life, population explosion, undernutrition, and lack of awareness about the causes of disease and modern lifestyle. Ayurveda can provide the satisfactory health services due to it comprehensive capacity of attending all type of Pathological changes.


In the prepoliomyelitic stage of infantile paralysis, a history of disturbance in the gastro-intestinal motility has repeatedly been obtained. This disturbance was evidenced by the fact that enemas and cathartics were of little avail. In the few patients in this stage whom I examined there was an absence of the auscultating gurgle. At this time, before somatic paralysis had set in, there was often a history of involvement of the urinary bladder. There were relaxation and distention of this organ with overflow dribbling, indicating parasympathetic paralysis of the bladder. Since the innervation of both the intestines and the urinary bladder is sympathetic and parasympathetic, it was thought that investigations in localization might be interesting. The best way to investigate such conditions was by the use of autonomic drugs. MATERIAL Clearcut cases of unilateral paralysis were selected for these experiments; that is, cases in which one arm or one leg was


INTRODUCTION:
Incisional hernia is a hernia arising from previous surgical or wound site. Incisional hernia constitutes 2% – 12 % of all abdominal surgical incisions. There are many surgical techniques are available but no one is best always.
AIM & OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the incidence of incisional hernia and to compare the various surgical techniques to repair the incisional hernia.
MATERIALS & METHODS:
This prospective study of 60 consecutive cases of incisional hernia admitted in Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital, Salem was done in the period from July 2011 to June 2013. The cases were evaluated through proper history taking, clinical examination, operative procedure and post operative follow-ups.
OBSERVATION:
In our study, commonest age group having incisional hernia is between 30 – 50 years (46.6%). Females are common (61.7%), the most common previous surgery to develop the incisional hernia is Laparotomy (58.3%) and common surgical incision is Median Vertical (45.1%). Most of the patients (27.3%) had wound dehiscence.
47% of patient had incisional hernia within one year of previous surgery.
In this study, I found 10% of recurrence rate, 25% of per operative bleeding and 25% of chronic pain for onlay mesh repair. Sublay, Component Separation Techinique and Laparoscopic technique had no recurrence; Chronic pain was noticed 10% patients in Component Separation and Laparoscopic techniques while only 5% patients in Sublay repair.Hospital stay is less required in sublay repairs and laparoscopic repairs. Sublay technique had less post operative complication.
CONCLUSION:
Open Sublay mesh repair and Laparoscopic mesh repair are the best method in our study compared to others. Middle aged female patients who underwent laparotomy with wound dehiscence having midline vertical incision had incisional hernia commonly.


Industrial equipment products had been developed for a small and compact design. Cooling system is also developed to mini heat exchanger with microchannel as main component. The main study is to find the characteristic of flow pattern and heat transfer effect in microchannel. The experiment has been done with visual apparatus that placed after outlet of test section with inner diameter 0.5 mm. The working fluids used is a natural refrigerant (propane) that operated on a vary parameter of experiment condition i.e. saturation temperature, mass flux and heat flux. Mapping of flow pattern used Wang's Map. The result experiment reported intermittent flow pattern occurred along operated experiment. Heat transfer showed increasing value on initial occurred two phase. The observation to visual data has reported as additional of experiment analysis.


A simple theoretical model of heat transfer in animals is presented. In the model, heat produced in metabolically active tissues is redistributed via blood circulation and dissipated from the body surface by convection, radiation transfer, and sweating. Heat transfer equations are solved numerically by finite difference methods. The predictions of the model correspond well with experimental measurements.


We describe an approach for dynamic route optimization for autonomous high-performance aircraft. A multiresolution representation scheme is presented that uses B-spline basis functions of different support and at different locations along the trajectory, parametrized by a dimensionless parameter. A multirate receding horizon problem is formulated as an example of online multiresolution optimization under feedback. The underlying optimization problem is solved with an anytime evolutionary computing algorithm. By selecting particular basis function coefficients as the optimization variables, computing resources can flexibly be devoted to those regions of the trajectory requiring most attention. A simulation scenario is presented.


Background Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) and allograft dysfunction remain as two of the major clinical challenges after heart transplantation. Here, we investigated the effect of donor treatment with simvastatin and methylprednisolone on microvascular dysfunction and immunomodulation during IRI in rat cardiac allografts subjected to prolonged ischemia time. Methods The DA rats received simvastatin, methylprednisolone, or both 2 hr before heart donation. The allografts were subjected to 4-hr hypothermic preservation and transplanted to the fully major histocompatibility complex–mismatched WF rat recipients. Results Six hours after reperfusion, donor treatment either with simvastatin alone or with high dose of methylprednisolone alone or in combination with simvastatin and methylprednisolone significantly reduced cardiac troponin T release and the number of allograft infiltrating ED1+ macrophages MPO+ neutrophils. However, the combination donor treatment was superior in the prevention of IRI and significantly prolonged allograft survival. Donor simvastatin treatment inhibited allograft microvascular RhoA GTPase pathway activation, whereas methylprednisolone prevented activation of innate immune response and mRNA expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; and its multiple target genes. Conclusions Our results show that donor treatment in combination with simvastatin and methylprednisolone prevents IRI and has beneficial effect on allograft survival in rat cardiac allografts. Minimizing microvascular injury and the activation of innate immunity may offer a novel therapeutic strategy to expand the donor pool and furthermore improve the function of the marginal donor organs.


In this paper, principle and system fabrication for concrete health monitoring based on embedded distributed piezoelectric sensing network are presented. Piezoelectric circular plates are embedded in concrete and the electrodes of the piezoelectric plates are wired together according to some order to form a passive stress-sensory network. For a passive piezoelectric sensory device only senses dynamic physical observables, to test the structural state in concrete, which is usually determined by static parameters, the structure is mechanically or acoustically excited to cause impact wave or acoustic wave propagation within concrete. The state parameters will modulate the caused wave and the modulated wave propagation is sensed by the piezoelectric distributed sensing network embedded in concrete. As the piezoelectric distributed sensing network can work without a power supply and outputs of all sensory elements in the network are passed through limited signal channels by addressing them, it is feasible to build up a sensing network distributed over a range of the concrete structure in large dimensions. Compared with the ultrasonic testing technique of concrete, the concrete structural health monitoring technique based on the passive piezoelectric distributed sensing network will exactly determine the structural state by capturing parameters at multiple points and avoid the uncertainty in ultrasonic testing caused by uncertain coupling condition of transmitters and receivers. The varied phase and frequency in sensing output, compared with the exciting signal, reflect the state in concrete. It is required to address one element in the sensing network in a sustained duration to get continuous output for analysis. Here, readout method of continuous output for each element in the sensing network is described in detail.


The two tissue viability nurses at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust had responsibility for over 2000 acute beds and needed a way to disseminate knowledge to clinical staff to improve referral appropriateness. A new link nurse system was adopted in order to empower link nurses, and ultimately, their colleagues. The Trust now has over 70 active link nurses whose competency in tissue viability is closely monitored, and whose teaching is tailored to meet individual need. The link nurse study days have been validated by Northumbria University and link nurses can now gain accreditation for their role.


The current experiment was carried out to explore the effects of dezocine combined with ropivacaine infiltration anesthesia on the anesthesia recovery time and pain factors of patients with open hepatectomy. A prospective randomized controlled method was used to select 92 patients with open liver cancer resection in our hospital from August 2017 to November 2019. The patients were divided into a study group (n=46) and a control group (n=46) using a computer-generated random number table. Both groups underwent general anesthesia, based on this, the study group was treated with ropivacaine infiltration anesthesia 10 minutes before skin incision, and dezocine was given intravenously 0.5 h before surgery, the control group was anesthetized with ropivacaine 10 minutes before the incision, and was given a saline injection 0.5 h before the operation. Compared the recovery of anesthesia (recovery time of spontaneous breathing, time to open eyes, time to extubation), the incidence of adverse reactions, and cellular immune function indicators (peripheral blood CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, NK cell levels), stress response indicators [serum blood glucose (Glu), norepinephrine (NE), adrenaline (E)], pain factors [serum dopamine (DA), neuropeptide Y (NPY), substance P (SP)] before induction of anesthesia (T0), completion of surgery (T1), 12 hours after surgery (T2), and 24 hours after surgery (T3) between the two groups, and the degree of pain (VAS score) at T2 and T3 were compared between the two groups. The levels of CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, and NK cells in peripheral blood at T1, T2, and T3 in the study group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05); serum Glu, NE, and E levels in the study group at T1, T2, and T3 were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05); serum DA, NPY, and SP levels in the study group at T1, T2, and T3 were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05); the VAS scores of the study group at T2 and T3 were lower than those of the control group (P<0.05); the time of spontaneous breathing recovery, eyes opening and extubation in the study group were shorter than those in the control group (P<0.05); the incidence of restlessness (4.35%), transient hypertension (6.52%), and cough (2.17%) in the study group were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). Dezocine and ropivacaine infiltration anesthesia can significantly shorten the recovery time of anesthesia and inhibit pain factor secretion in patients with open hepatectomy and can reduce the body's stress response after surgery, reduce immune function fluctuations, and can reduce the incidence of adverse reactions to anesthesia, and help promote patients' postoperative recovery.


Background. The VAC system (vacuum-assisted wound closure) is a noninvasive active therapy to promote healing in difficult wounds that fail to respond to established treatment modalities. The system is based on the application of negative pressure by controlled suction to the wound surface. The method was introduced into clinical practice in 1996. Since then, numerous studies proved the effectiveness of the VAC System on microcirculation and the promotion of granulation tissue proliferation. Methods. Eleven patients (5 men, 6 women) with a median age of 64.4 years (range 50 to 78 years) with sternal wound infection after cardiac surgery (coronary artery bypass grafting 5, aortic valve replacement 5, ascending aortic replacement 1) were fitted with the VAC system by the time of initial surgical debridement. Results. Complete healing was achieved in all patients. The VAC system was removed after a mean of 9.3 days (range 4 to 15 days), when systemic signs of infection resolved and quantitative cultures were negative. In 6 patients (54.5%), the VAC system was used as a bridge to reconstructive surgery with a pectoralis muscle flap, and in the remaining 5 patients (45.5%), primary wound closure could be achieved. Intensive care unit stay ranged from 1 to 4 days (median 1 day). Duration of hospital stay varied from 13 to 45 days (median 30 days). In-hospital mortality was 0%, and 30-day survival was 100%. Conclusions. The VAC system can be considered as an effective and safe adjunct to conventional and established treatment modalities for the therapy of sternal wound infections after cardiac surgery.


Signs for the Dalit Movement of Karnataka Janaki Nair The Karnataka Dalit Sangharsh Samiti has become a formidable organisation in the state. Relying on local resources and responding quickly to the daily abuses to which Dalits are subjected, the DSS has learnt to wield the legal-juridical machinery with some skill. This has made the Dalits the targets of new and varied atrocities and earned them the hostility of other political groupings such as the Raitha Sangha.


Since the first offering of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in 2008, the body of literature on this new phenomenon of open learning has grown tremendously. In this regard, this article intends to identify and map patterns in research on MOOCs by reviewing 362 empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2008 to 2015. For the purposes of this study, a text-mining tool was used to analyse the content of the published research journal articles and to reveal the major themes and concepts covered in the publications. The findings reveal that the MOOC literature generally focuses on four lines of research: (a) the potential and challenges of MOOCs for universities; (b) MOOC platforms; (c) learners and content in MOOCs; and (d) the quality of MOOCs and instructional design issues. Prospective researchers may use these results to gain an overview of this emerging field, as well as to explore potential research directions.