The modelling framework IAPPEM was redeveloped to predict indoor radon concentrations in dwellings that have undergone an energy retrofit, and have experienced a consequent air tightness change. The framework is flexible, and allows for simulations to be carried out under various pre-retrofit radon concentration levels, multi-zone building geometries, ventilation configurations and retrofit types. However, detailed real-time radon concentration and ventilation data is necessary for model validation, and such data is non-existent in the Irish context. The generation of these data, which allows for full model validation and testing, is the focus of the current study. The objectives of the current study are to (i) fully characterise the ventilation status of selected Irish dwellings, through measurement, and determine the real-time radon concentrations therein (ii) parameterise the model for these selected dwellings, and make comparative predictions of radon concentrations. The current study focused on measuring hourly radon concentrations, using real-time radon monitors, in dwellings that are representative of the buildings stock undergoing energy retrofit. Each dwelling was monitored for a week-long period to establish time-varying fluctuations in indoor radon concentrations and obtain data on the minimum and maximum range. In addition, air exchange was measured using the tracer gas decay method with CO 2 as the tracer. Air exchange comprised of eight selected hourly measurements per dwelling over each measurement week to ensure that the effect of meteorological variations was captured. The model will predict indoor radon concentrations based on local meteorological conditions, building characteristics and in-situ characterisation of radon entry rates derived from experimental measurements. The model's output will be compared with the hourly radon concentrations collected during the sampling period. Time-series analysis will be carried out, comparing experimental and predicted indoor radon concentrations.


The aim of this study is to examine secondary school mathematics teachers' orchestration types specific to their dynamic geometry software-based emergency remote teaching. The theoretical lens of the study is instrumental orchestration in which teachers' teaching styles with the use of technological tools are defined as orchestration types. The study was designed as a case study whose participants were two secondary school mathematics teachers (Faruk and Ela) experienced in the use of dynamic geometry software in their face-to-face teaching processes. Semi-structured interviews and observations were performed in order to collect the data in the study. The collected data were analyzed through qualitative content analysis method. The results of the study reveal that the teachers developed two new orchestration types during the emergency remote teaching process While Faruk developed the Teacher-in-sherpa-role orchestration in which the teacher performed the operations asked by the students; both teachers performed the Screen-as-board in which they used virtual pen to draw auxiliary lines, place marks and take notes on the screen. In addition, Ela adapted the Monitor-and-guide orchestration into her teaching process, in which a student-monitoring system regarding dynamic geometry activities played an essential role. The results show that various orchestration types identified in the literature do not occur in the remote teaching processes due to their characteristics regarding the physical classroom environment. It is suggested that further studies focus to examine the orchestration types developed by mathematics teachers in the post-pandemic remote teaching processes.


This paper addresses the distributed consensus protocol design problem for linear multi-agent systems with directed graphs and external unmatched disturbances. A novel distributed adaptive consensus protocol is proposed to achieve leader-follower consensus for any directed graph containing a directed spanning tree with the leader as the root node. It is noted that the adaptive protocol might suffer from a problem of undesirable parameter drift phenomenon when bounded external disturbances exist. To deal with this issue, a distributed robust adaptive consensus protocol is designed to guarantee the ultimate boundedness of both the consensus error and the adaptive coupling weights in the presence of external disturbances. Both adaptive protocols are fully distributed, relying on only the agent dynamics and the relative states of neighboring agents.


It has been established that under certain conditions microscopic dielectric objects can be trapped by a tightly focused laser beam. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as an optical gradient trap. The recently developed vector finite element method is used to visualize the interaction of the laser beam with the dielectric object and to quantitatively predict the optical trapping efficiency. The vector finite element method is an accurate and efficient approach when the incident beam wavelength is comparable to the object size, and it has the advantage that it can be used to model the trapping of arbitrarily shaped 3D objects.


The result of this procedure is a superiorly displaced nipple areolar-complex bilaterally, with an accentuation of the pseudoptosis seen preoperatively. The correction ofthis problem would entail an incision in the horizontal limb of the mastopexy, that is, an incision in the inframammary fold extending from the most medial portion of the inframammary fold to the farthest portion of the fold laterally with excision of approximately 4 em of skin in the centermost portion (midclavicular line) and tapering medially and laterally to allow for proper breast shape. This excision will reduce the nipple-areolar-complex-to-inframammary-fold distance to between 4 and 5 cm. This will also correct the pseudoptosis and mobilize the implant superiorly. It is quite possible that at the time of this surgery, the implant may need to be repositioned superiorly to allow for the closure of this wound. I would recommend closing the wound with a multiplelayer closure (three layers) and using either PDS or nylon sutures in the deep plane.


The objective of this work was to provide an economic and practical method for the purification of columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside from Angelicae Pubescentis Radix extract. In the static adsorption and desorption, the effects of resin type (D101, HP-20, AB-8, GDX-201, and DA201), contact time (10–360 min), and temperature (298–318 K) were assessed on columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside adsorption efficiency in laboratory. GDX-201 resin showed the best adsorption and desorption properties for columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside. The kinetic data revealed that the equilibrium time for columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside adsorption was achieved within 150 min. Moreover, the adsorption kinetic curve was well in accordance with the pseudo-second-order equation (R2 > 0.99). The rate controlling step of the adsorption process was the intraparticle diffusion. The Langmuir isotherm models (R2 > 0.99) could describe the whole adsorption process, which was exothermic and spontaneous according to the result of thermodynamics tests. In the dynamic adsorption and desorption process, the optimum loading flow (4, 5, and 6 BV/h), ethanol concentration (0–60%), and elution volume (10–230 mL) were optimized. Under optimal conditions of 4 BV/h loading flow, 6.7 BV loading volume, 25% ethanol, and 14 BV elution volume, the content of columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside in the product was increased 29.61-fold from 0.45% to 13.32 ± 0.64% with yield of 88.03 ± 2.76% by an experiment of lab-scale enlargement. Then, columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside was further purified by PHPLC and its purity was more than 98%. Additionally, the analgesic activity of the columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside was assessed by hot plate test. The experimental results showed that columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside significantly increased the latency of pain response in mice. This study demonstrated columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside could be as a potentially natural analgesic component. It could be summed up that the established method was successfully applied to purifying columbianetin-β-D-glucopyranoside from Angelicae Pubescentis Radix extract.


Underwater wireless communication is a rapidly growing field, especially with the recent emergence of technologies such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). To support the high-bandwidth applications using these technologies, underwater optics has attracted significant attention, alongside its complementary technology – underwater acoustics. In this paper, we propose a hybrid opto-acoustic underwater wireless communication model that reduces network power consumption and supports high-data rate underwater applications by selecting appropriate communication links in response to varying traffic loads and dynamic weather conditions. Underwater optics offers high data rates and consumes less power. However, due to the severe absorption of light in the medium, the communication range is short in underwater optics. Conversely, acoustics suffers from low data rate and high power consumption, but provides longer communication ranges. Since most underwater equipment relies on battery power, energy-efficient communication is critical for reliable underwater communications. In this work, we derive analytical models for both underwater acoustics and optics, and calculate the required transmit power for reliable communications in various underwater communication environments. We then formulate an optimization problem that minimizes the network power consumption for carrying data from underwater nodes to surface sinks under varying traffic loads and weather conditions. The proposed optimization model can be solved offline periodically, hence the additional computational complexity to find the optimum solution for larger networks is not a limiting factor for practical applications. Our results indicate that the proposed technique yields up to 35% power savings compared to existing opto-acoustic solutions.


Background: Exposure to trace elements may affect health, including breast cancer risk. Trace element levels in toenails are potentially useful biomarkers of exposure, but their reliability is not established. We assessed the reproducibility of toenail element concentrations over time and whether concentrations change following a breast cancer diagnosis. Methods: We assessed trace element levels in toenails collected at two time points from 221 women (111 with and 110 without an intervening breast cancer diagnosis). We measured levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, mercury, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, lead, antimony, selenium, tin, vanadium, and zinc using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in samples collected at baseline and 4–10 years later. We compared trace element concentrations over time using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (R). We used linear models to examine the magnitude and direction of changes and the influence of a breast cancer diagnosis. Results: Overall, we observed positive correlations (R = 0.18–0.71) between paired samples for all trace elements. However, nickel (R = −0.02) and antimony (R = 0.12) were not correlated among cases. We observed decreases in cadmium, chromium, mercury, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, and lead between baseline and follow-up, but case status was unrelated to these changes. The declines are consistent with decreases over calendar time rather than age time. Conclusions: Toenail trace element concentrations were correlated over time, but many elements showed systematic decreases by calendar year. Aside from nickel and antimony, postdiagnostic toenail levels correlated with prediagnostic levels, providing support for using postdiagnostic toenail samples in retrospective studies.


Cassava is one of the most important subsistence crops in tropical regions. It is necessary to preserve and to know the genetic diversity existent for the adequate use of genetic resources. The evaluation of genetic diversity among genotypes results in information about potential parents in breeding programs, allows duplicates identification, and facilitates germplasm exchange between research institutions. The objective of this study was to characterize the genetic diversity of cassava accessions of North Brazil region. A total of 106 accessions were analyzed using ten microsatellite markers. The genetic parameters estimated were: expected heterozygosity (HE), observed heterozygosity (HO) and polymorphic information content (PIC). Clustering was performed using the UPGMA and Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method. Bayesian analysis, analysis of principal coordinates and identification of a core collection were also used. The ten loci amplified 8,40 alleles on average. The average heterozygosity estimates were: HE = 0.71, HO = 0.58 and PIC = 0.72. Genetic distances ranged from 0.158 to 0.908.  Six (5,66%) accesses were redundant. Clustering and dispersion analysis didn't differentiate bitter from sweet cassava, and there wasn't correlation between groups and collect origin. The core collection consisted of 22 individuals that represented 94% of total allelic diversity and 20,75% of the base collection. The results indicate high dissimilarity between the accessions and allowed the detection of redundant genotypes, showing the use of genetic markers as informative tools for the management of collections.


Many sparse matrices and tensors from a variety of applications, such as finite element methods and computational chemistry, have a natural aligned rectangular nonzero block structure. Researchers have designed high-performance blocked sparse operations which can take advantage of this sparsity structure to reduce the complexity of storing the locations of nonzeros. The performance of a blocked sparse operation depends on how well the block size reflects the structure of nonzeros in the tensor. Sparse tensor structure is generally unknown until runtime, so block size selection must be efficient. The fill is a quantity which, for some block size, relates the number of nonzero blocks to the number of nonzeros. Many performance models use the fill to help choose a block size. However, the fill is expensive to compute exactly. We present a sampling-based algorithm called Phil to estimate the fill of sparse matrices and tensors in any format. We provide theoretical guarantees for sparse matrices and tensors, and experimental results for matrices. The existing state-of-the-art fill estimation algorithm, which we will call OSKI, runs in time linear in the number of elements in the tensor. The number of samples Phil needs to compute a fill estimate is unrelated to the number of nonzeros and depends only on the order (number of dimensions) of the tensor, desired accuracy of the estimate, desired probability of achieving this accuracy, and number of considered block sizes. We compare Phil and OSKI on a suite of 42 matrices. On most inputs, Phil estimates the fill at least 2 times faster and often more than 20 times faster than OSKI. Phil consistently produced accurate estimates; in all cases that we tested Phil was faster and/or more accurate than OSKI. Finally, we find that Phil and OSKI produce comparable speedups in multicore blocked sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) when the block size was chosen using fill estimates in a model due to Vuduc et al.


Gertrude Stein once remarked that history must be understood not as the passage of time, but as the killing of centuries. This killing of centuries takes a very long time, she added, and she discerned the final death throes of the nineteenth century—a period in thrall to science and the idea of civilizational progress—in the middle of World War II. Being an American Jew in France, that denouement was realized, for her, by Hitler's Germany, in the moment that it fell to American industrial war making. But Stein's insight might as easily and as correctly be applied to the analysis of anticolonialism and the collapse of European rule in South and Southeast Asia. It was there, after all, that the ideology of a civilizational mission was revealed in all its hypocrisy. Such, at least, is the impression one gathers from reading the works of Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, Leela Gandhi, and Benedict Anderson, each of whom offers a perspective on the history of empire's end, and the rise of revolutionary and nationalist independence movements in Asia. As counterpoint to their insistently particularizing narration of these movements, James C. Scott sketches a deep history of recurrent antistatism as the context in which European empires made their ill-fated claims to civilizational exceptionalism, and in which anarchism could emerge as a technics of ungovernability.


The management of disordered immunoglobulin metabolism is generally difficult. Features of diagnosis and evaluation have slowly accumulated through years of observation. Crystalline inclusions may be seen in patients with a protracted course of myeloma, and their presence indicates that the patients may not require chemotherapy. A 59-year-old laundry worker had a prolonged course of myeloma from August 1976 to February 1984. Crystals were present in the bone marrow biopsy specimen. He was found to have an elevated level of monoclonal IgG of K type in his serum. Chemotherapy for myeloma was instituted in the last few months of his life, without improvement of status. His terminal serum urea nitrogen level was 58 mg/dL; creatinine, 3.8 mg/dL. Aspirate smears obtained in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1982 showed similar morphological features. There were approximately 10% to 15% large cells with oval nuclei and prominent blue to slate-gray cytoplasm containing variably sized, poorly


A mode-locked external-cavity laser emitting at 1.17-μm wavelength using an InAs/GaAs quantum-dot gain medium and a discrete semiconductor saturable absorber mirror is demonstrated. By changing the external-cavity length, repetition rates of 854, 912, and 969 MHz are achieved respectively. The narrowest −3-dB radio-frequency linewidth obtained is 38 kHz, indicating that the laser is under stable mode-locking operation.


Recent fieldwork on the island of Faial (Azores) led to the establishment of a detailed volcanic stratigraphic sequence, which is composed of five main geological formations. One of them, the Caldeira Formation, comprising mainly pumice fall and flow deposits, was judged to be Holocene in age. Organic materials were found preserved in or below some of the pyroclastic deposits from this formation. Wood, charcoal, peat and soil samples were radiocarbon dated, permitting correlation of deposits from different sequences and the establishment of a chronological framework for the Caldeira volcanic activity. These materials yielded ages from ca. 10–1 ka bp. The average dormant interval in the Caldeira pyroclastic activity from 4–1 ka ago is ca. 400 yr, with eruptions approximately every 200–800 yr. This frequency of activity indicates that the Caldeira volcano is an active, dangerous structure that should be closely monitored.


Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is a widely used form of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) that is used for obtaining a magnetic image from a surface with nanoscale resolution. Currently, the resolution of MFM is limited to approximately 20 nm due to the long-range nature of magnetic interactions between the MFM probe's tip and the magnetic medium. This paper describes an optimal signal processing solution to the problem of achieving high resolution MFM with the goal of significantly exceeding the level at which MFM metrology currently performs, thus providing metrologists with a means of resolution increase that is believed will enable, for example, the rapid development of high-density magnetic recording media (>100 Gbit in−2). This is achieved by using focused-ion beam trimming of a conventional tip to create a probe tip of predictable magnetic characteristics and then, provided that the sample could be approximated as a thin-film, using knowledge of this tip's sensitivity field for performing a deconvolution on the measured signal to better estimate the magnetic state of the surface under study. Stated differently, as the MFM measured signal is modelled as the convolution of the magnetized surface and the tip's sensitivity field, we exploit knowledge of the tip's properties to increase the resolution of the MFM image. Details of the deconvolution approach as well as images resulting from this processing are the focus of this paper.


The general issue of defining job satisfaction and the adverse implications of low job satisfaction are discussed. This is followed by an application of the research to the specific problem of job satisfaction among child welfare line social workers in a provincial government agency. The needs satisfaction and values satisfaction model of job satisfaction theory are described and a rationale is provided for the selection of the needs satisfaction model for this research. A variety of research instruments are reviewed, including the Job Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire, the Job Descriptive Index, the Quality of Work Life Survey, and the Professional Satisfaction Inventory. A new quantitative measures questionnaire is introduced for use specifically among social workers. It was hypothesized that job-specific variables will be stronger correlates of a facet-free measure of job satisfaction than will variables not specifically related to social work. It was hypothesized that specific differences will exist between the importance attributed to variables between less experienced and more experienced workers. It was further hypothesized that specific differences will exist between the satisfaction with variables as reported by less experienced workers and more experienced workers. Finally, hypotheses were presented regarding specific differences in job related correlates of job satisfaction, between less experience and more experienced workers. iii The research proceded by way of questionnaire among child welfare line social workers in the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia. Extensive efforts were made to ensure confidentiality while allowing the opportunity for followup research. The methodology of this confidentiality plan is explained. A sample of 60 social workers resulted in 49 questionnaires being returned. Support was found for the hypothesis that job specific variables were better correlates of job satisfaction than were variables not specific to social work. There was neither confirmation nor disconfirmation for the hypothesis that there would be differences in the importance of variables between less experienced and more experienced workers. Satisfaction was higher for those variables under the control or influence at the local level than for variables which were controlled centrally. The few significant differences between less experienced and more experienced workers in satisfaction with variables were explainable by objective influences rather than subjective experiences. Only one variable, getting a sense of accomplishment from the job, was a significant correlate for both less experienced and more experienced workers. Less experienced workers also demonstrated correlations between job satisfaction and satisfaction with professional identification, while more experienced workers demonstrated correlations between job satisfaction and control of their work. Recommendations are made for the government which employs social workers, the agency which administers programs, supervisors of social workers, and the union which bargains on behalf of social workers.


fni/is-3-Methylthioacrylamide (3-MTAA-NH2)was isolated as colorless needles from the culture broth of Streptomyces sioyaensis, a siomycin-producer. This substance is considered to be not only a new metabolite from methionine but also a new substance. The isolation and identification of 3MTAA-NH2, as well as the cultural conditions for production, were investigated. A variety of other Streptomyces also produced 3-MTAA-NH2from methionine.


Abstract
 Well-preserved upper and lower jaws of the aptychus-type found inside the body chambers of two specimens of the heteromorph ammonoid Pravitoceras sigmoidale Yabe, 1902 (Nostoceratidae, Ancyloceratina) are described from the Upper Cretaceous Izumi Group in Southwest Japan. They are similar in overall morphology to those of other nostoceratid and diplomoceratid ammonoids currently known, suggesting the morphological stability of the jaw features among these taxa. The equal size of the upper and lower jaws with beak-like rostral projection suggests that the jaw apparatus of this species might function to bite and cut up prey.


This study explores how Nigerians used social media platforms to mourn and memorialize protesters who were killed during the 2020 EndSARS protests in Nigeria. Data for this study are from tweets (N = 67,678) that were scraped from the hashtags, "#EndSARSMemorial2" and "LekkiMassacre" and online semi-structured interviews (N = 30) with digital activists in Nigeria. Results show that the most frequently tweeted words were "rest in peace," "heroes," "who gave the order," and "#EndSARSMemorial2." Five themes emerged from the interview data, and they include anger and sympathy, mourning and remembering, connecting in the shared humanity of the deceased, and pledges to be better humans and citizens. The paper shows that high centrality, high density of reciprocity, and low modularity illustrate online mourners' ability to stimulate commonality through decentralized and loose networks that allow for solidarity building during mourning and the personalization of mourning. Evoking some aspects of crisis network effects theory, this study concludes that when collective mourning occurs, individuals have more reciprocal relationships on a dyadic level and that the network has low modularity as such a network effect occurs when there is a shock that creates uncertainty in the system.


In this paper, an approach for the separation of harmonic sounds is described. The overall system consists of three components. Sinusoidal modeling is first used to analyze the mixed signal and to obtain the frequencies and amplitudes of sinusoidal spectral components. Then a new method is proposed for the calculation of the perceptual distance between pairs of sinusoidal trajectories, according to the implications of psychoacoustic knowledge. A procedure for classifying the sinusoids into separate sound sources is presented. The system is not designed to separate sounds that have the same fundamental frequencies. However, a solution to detect single colliding sinusoids is given.


Quantum tunneling across multiple barriers as yet is an unsolved problem for barrier numbers greater than five. The complexity of the mathematical analysis even for a small number of barriers push it into the realms of Numerical Analysis. This work is aimed at providing a rigorously correct solution to the general N barrier problem, where N can be any positive integer. An exact algebraic solution has been presented which overcomes the complexity of the WKB integrals that are traditionally employed and matches the earlier results reported for a small number of barriers. The solution has been explored to considerable depth and many startling consequences have been pointed out for 500 and 1000 barriers. These are quite revealing in themselves and open up new avenues for engineering applications and further research.


Pediatric renovascular hypertension is typically managed with revascularization, angioplasty, or radical nephrectomy. We describe the case of a 13-year-old boy with medically refractory renovascular hypertension who presented to our institution after a failed arterial bypass. Subsequent angiography and renin sampling of the segmental renal veins suggested that the lower pole of the kidney was affected exclusively by the relative hypoperfusion. We proceeded with an open partial nephrectomy in order to excise the affected region of the kidney, while preserving maximum renal function. The patient was normotensive off all antihypertensive medication and without complications 8 months postoperatively. We believe that partial nephrectomy is a reasonable treatment for children with renovascular hypertension secondary to segmental hypoperfusion, and it should be considered as alternative therapy.


This article analyzes the current crisis in terms of a conflict of temporalities, arguing that the pace of the economic temporality and its speed in decision making clashes with the temporality of the state and the slowness of the democratic process of decision making. The synchronization of these different tempos configures the present crisis of democracy and its different reactions, such as the recent Occupy and antiausterity movements, which have expressed their disenchantment with formal democracy. The article examines these disjointed temporalities of capital, state, and popular insurgencies, to explore the possibilities of radical change. © 2014 Duke University Press.


CONTEXT
Most neuroimaging studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have focused on potential abnormalities in the whole hippocampus, but the subfields of this structure, which have distinctive histological characteristics and specialized functions, have not been investigated. Studies of individual subfields may clarify the role of the hippocampus in PTSD.

OBJECTIVE
To determine if PTSD is associated with structural alterations in specific subfields of the hippocampus.

DESIGN
Case-control study.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 17 male veterans with combat trauma and PTSD (mean [SD] age, 41 [12] years) and 19 age-matched male veterans without PTSD who were recruited from the outpatient mental health clinic of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and by advertising in the community.

INTERVENTIONS
High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging at 4 T.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Volumes of hippocampal subfields.

RESULTS
Posttraumatic stress disorder was associated with 11.4% (1.5%) (P = .02) smaller mean (SD) cornu ammonis 3 (CA3)/dentate gyrus subfield volumes, irrespective of age-related alterations, whereas other subfields were spared. Age was associated with reduced volume of the CA1 subfield (P = .03). Total hippocampal volume was also reduced in PTSD by a mean (SD) of 6.5% (0.6%) but, related to both PTSD (P = .05) and age (P = .01), was consistent with the measurements in the subfields.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate for the first time in humans that PTSD is associated with selective volume loss of the CA3/dentate gyrus subfields, consistent with animal studies, implying that chronic stress suppresses neurogenesis and dendritic branching in these structures.


The northern margin of the Gondwanaland along the Indian block has been debated for some time now. According to the earlier view the northern margin ran along the Indus-Yarlung-Zangbo Suture. Newly acquired data has been interpreted to show that eastern Gondwana was much bigger than generally believed.
In the present work we analyze the floras that grew around the northern margin of the eastern Gondwana assembly to see if the distribution of plant fossils also provides supporting evidence for a 'greater' India. The floras that have been examined in the present synthesis originate in the Permian of New Guinea, Sumatra (Indonesia), Malaysia, Thailand, Tibet, Northern China, Kashmir (India), Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Turkey and Mesozoic of Ladakh (India), Bhutan and Nepal.
The analysis shows that though some of the floral assemblages contain certain elements that could be of Gondwana affinity yet the overall composition of almost all the floral assemblages, except the one from Kashmir, is basically Cathaysian. Whether these Cathaysian type floral assemblages occupied the northern margin of the eastern Gondwana or they flourished on the southern margin of Laurasia, or they grew all along the shores of the Tethys, has to be examined.
The latitudinal variation in vegetation, however, does not seem to explain the intermixing of elements of different floral provinces in the coastal vegetation on the two shores of a fairly wide, though shallow, Tethys as in Kashmir and in southern Tibet. Even if both these regions were on the same side of Tethys, intermixing of Gondwana and Cathaysia floras is not explained as no direct migratory routes from Laurasia are available in Gondwana assemblies.
This coupled with the occurrence of northern Mesozoic flora at Fukche, Ladakh, and near Lhasa indicates that the Indian Gondwana did not extend north of the Indus-Yarlung-Zangbo Suture Zone.


Recommender systems (RS), serving at the forefront of Human-centered AI, are widely deployed in almost every corner of the web and facilitate the human decision-making process. However, despite their enormous capabilities and potential, RS may also lead to undesired counter-effects on users, items, producers, platforms, or even the society at large, such as compromised user trust due to non-transparency, unfair treatment of different consumers, or producers, privacy concerns due to extensive use of user's private data for personalization, just to name a few. All of these create an urgent need for Trustworthy Recommender Systems (TRS) so as to mitigate or avoid such adverse impacts and risks. In this survey, we will introduce techniques related to trustworthy and responsible recommendation, including but not limited to explainable recommendation, fairness in recommendation, privacy-aware recommendation, robustness in recommendation, user controllable recommendation, as well as the relationship between these different perspectives in terms of trustworthy and responsible recommendation. Through this survey, we hope to deliver readers with a comprehensive view of the research area and raise attention to the community about the importance, existing research achievements, and future research directions on trustworthy recommendation.


Our paper examines the validity of the rotating questionnaire block about perceptions about and attitudes towards democracy included in the sixth round of the European Social Survey (ESS). The preliminary assumptions that inspired our analysis were that respondents' understanding of the questions formulated in such an internationally comparative survey may be challenged due to diverging theoretical constructions and narratives that feed historically developed notions of 'democracy.' Moreover, even within the same country people with a different socioeconomic, ethnic, and educational background may have different perceptions about the same questionnaire 'items.' We applied a multi-method approach to analyze the above metho-dological puzzle: a complex statistical analysis of the Hungarian ESS data served to help examine the consistency of answers to individual items and the entirety of the questionnaire block, while supplementary focus group research helped us apprehend the variety of interpretations of and perceptions about the individual items, as well as problems with understanding various terms included in the questions that assessed attitudes towards democracy. Our findings support the initial hypothesis: respondents had obvious difficulties understanding some of the items designed to assess attitudes towards democracy, while many others had differing interpretations. We conclude that even though the ESS is one of the most refined, well-prepared and validated comparative surveys in Europe, the related data cannot be analyzed without careful consideration of what the individual questions might mean in different contexts.


Influence of SiO2 addition on formation process of Pb(Ti⋅Zr)O3 solid solution was studied. Powdered PbO, TiO2, ZrO2 and SiO2 were used as raw materials. The process was determined from the variation of X-ray diffraction patterns and that of dilatometric dimensional change with heating temperatures.If the materials excluding SiO2 were mixed, Pb(Ti⋅Zr)O3 was synthesized, passing through formations both of PbTiO3 and PbZrO3. However, when the materials including SiO2 were mixed, the PbZrO3 formation was suppressed, accompanying by a decrease of Pb(Ti⋅Zr)O3 formation temperature.The difference seems to be caused by the appearance of a liquid phase formed by the co-existence of SiO2 and PbO, which occurs during the Pb(Ti⋅Zr)O3 formation process. Reaction observed at the contact surface of two green compacts, consisting of SiO2-PbO as well as of Pb(Ti⋅Zr)O3, was in line with the assumption.


Summary Three or four lines each of L1210 were treated for 10 to 15 transplant generations with 5-(3,3-dimethyl-1-triazeno) imidazole-4-carboxamide, 1-phenyl-3,3-dimethyltriazene, and 1-phenyl-3-monomethyltriazene. With increasing numbers of maintenance generations, there was a marked increase in the survival times of the untreated control mice with all three compounds. In subsequent untreated transfer generations, most of the sublines did not take and the others retained reduced growth rates. X-irradiation, or treatment with the triazenes which severely depressed the white blood cell count, decreased the median survival times of the mice bearing the altered sublines but not to the level of the parent L1210. Transplantation into hamsters showed that all triazene-altered lines had less oncogenic potential than the parent line L1210. The results of the present experiments do not exclude changes in antigenicity but the heterotransplantation experiments show clearly that the altered lines lost oncogenic potential.


Glioblastoma is aggressive and lethal brain cancer, which is incurable by cancer standard treatments. miRNAs have great potential to be used for gene therapy due to their ability to modulate several target genes simultaneously. We found miR-429 is downregulated in glioblastoma and has several predicted target genes from the ERBB signaling pathway using bioinformatics tools. ERBB is the most over-activated genetic pathway in glioblastoma patients, which is responsible for augmented cell proliferation and migration in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Here we overexpressed miR-429 using lentiviral vectors in GBM U-251 cells and observed that the expression level of several oncogenes of the ERBB pathway, EGFR, PIK3CA, PIK3CB, KRAS, and MYC significantly decreased; as shown by real-time PCR and western blotting. Using the luciferase assay, we showed that miR-429 directly targets MYC, BCL2, and EGFR. In comparison to scrambled control, miR-429 had a significant inhibitory effect on cell proliferation and migration as deduced from MTT and scratch wound assays and induced cell-cycle arrest in flow cytometry. Altogether miR-429 seems to be an efficient suppressor of the ERBB genetic signaling pathway and a potential therapeutic for glioblastoma.


A thesis submitted to the Department of Electrical/Electronics Engineering,
College of Engineering
in ful llment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science, 2014


Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 106 requires that companies accrue the expenses for nonpension postretirement benefits. The focus of this thesis is to examine the impact of SFAS No. 106 on companies and their employees. Particular
attention is paid to the increase in expenses for postretirement benefits and the increase
in total liabilities resulting from the recognition of the obligation for postretirement benefits.
My study is the first to use actual data from financial statements to assess the impact of this new ruling. Eighty three companies were included in my sample. All of these companies were early adopters of FASB Statement No. 106 (implementation is only required for fiscal years starting after December 15, 1992).
T-tests were used to determine whether the increase in expenses and liabilities resulting from adoption were significant. T-tests were also used to determine the impact of several factors on the increase in expenses and total liabilities. These factors included the maturity level of the firm, the transition approach used, the actuarial assumptions used, and the funding practices used. Chi-square tests, correlation analysis and regression models were also used to find significant relationships between the variables.
The impact of FASB Statement No. 106 was significant. Significant increases were
found in postretirement expenses and total liabilities. The mean increase in
postretirement expenses was 200% for the sample companies, while total liabilities rose 7.6%. The impact was found to be particularly harsh on immature companies, nonfunding companies and those companies that recognized the entire transition obligation immediately.
Many companies have reacted to this huge increase in expenses and liabilities by cutting benefits for their employees. The ultimate victims of this accounting change may be the employees.


Background: COPD is associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. Factors contributing to vascular damage in patients with COPD are mostly unknown. However, it has been suggested that airflow limitation, systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, sympathetic activation, hypoxia and impaired physical activity may lead to endothelial dysfunction and underpin this association. Objective: To determine the impact of airflow obstruction, systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, sympathetic activation, hypoxia and physical activity on endothelial function in COPD. Methods: In patients with stable COPD (GOLD stage I-IV) assessments of endothelial function by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), conventional cardiovascular risk factors (Pocock-score), airflow obstruction (FEV1), systemic inflammation (CRP), oxidative stress (malondialdehyde), sympathetic activation (baroreflex-sensitivity), hypoxia (blood gases) and physical activity (steps per day) were performed. Associations between endothelial function and these potential underlying mechanisms were assessed in univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: 106 patients (35% GOLD stage I/II, 25% III, 40% IV) were included. In univariate analysis FMD correlated with FEV1 (r=0.53, p<0.001), baroreflex-sensitivity (r=0.25, p=0.01), and steps per day (r=0.27, p=0.01) but not with CRP, malondialdehyde, hypoxia or Pocock-score. In multivariate analysis including all proposed mechanisms only FEV1 and steps per day were independently associated with FMD. Conclusions: Endothelial function in COPD seems to be primarily determined by the severity of airflow obstruction and the level of physical activity.


This report describes enhancements to a Graphical-User Interface (GUI) for MODFLOW-96, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) modular, three-dimensional, finitedifference ground-water flow model, and MOC3D, the USGS three-dimensional, method-ofcharacteristics solute-transport model. The GUI is a plug-in extension (PIE) for the commercial program Argus ONE . The GUI has been modified to support MODPATH (a particle tracking post-processing package for MODFLOW), ZONEBDGT (a computer program for calculating subregional water budgets), and the Stream, Horizontal-Flow Barrier, and Flow and Head Boundary packages in MODFLOW. Context-sensitive help has been added to make the GUI easier to use and to understand. In large part, the help consists of quotations from the relevant sections of this report and its predecessors. The revised interface includes automatic creation of geospatial information layers required for the added programs and packages, and menus and dialog boxes for input of parameters for simulation control. The GUI creates formatted ASCII files that can be read by MODFLOW-96, MOC3D, MODPATH, and ZONEBDGT. All four programs can be executed within the Argus ONE application (Argus Interware, Inc., 1997). Spatial results of MODFLOW-96, MOC3D, and MODPATH can be visualized within Argus ONE . Results from ZONEBDGT can be visualized in an independent program that can also be used to view budget data from MODFLOW, MOC3D, and SUTRA. Another independent program extracts hydrographs of head or drawdown at individual cells from formatted MODFLOW head and drawdown files. A web-based tutorial on the use of MODFLOW with Argus ONE has also been updated. The internal structure of the GUI has been modified to make it possible for advanced users to easily customize the GUI. Two additional, independent PIE's were developed to allow users to edit the positions of nodes and to facilitate exporting the grid geometry to external programs.


Central pontine myelinolysis was suspected in two chronic alcoholics who developed and recovered from a progressive spastic paresis of all muscles, that derived innervation at and below the level of the pons. In both cases, short-latency auditory-evoked responses aided in the diagnosis by indicating a slowing of conduction in the pontine auditory pathway, which varied in degree with the severity of the clinical manifestations of pontine demyelination.


In 1969, Hallier and Park (5) showed that glutaraldehyde-fixed spinach thylakoids retained appreciable Hill reaction ac-tivity after extraction with 1% Triton X-100. The resistance of the fixed membranes to detergent destruction led them to suggest that such membranes might be favorable starting material for subsequent detergent fractionation studies. They postulated that cross-linking of membrane proteins would allow isolation of the larger membrane subunits identified by electron microscopy (8, 9). This paper reports an exploration of this suggestion. We investigated whether fixed membranes fragment differently from unfixed membranes when treated with various detergents and whether the fragments so liberated could be related morphologi-cally to structures observed in the intact thylakoid.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Until now the assessment of intracranial pressure (ICP) required invasive methods. The objective of this study was to introduce an approach to a noninvasive assessment of continuous ICP curves.

METHODS
The intracranial compartment was considered a "black box" system with an input signal, the arterial blood pressure (ABP), and an output signal, the ICP. A so-called weight function described the relationship between ABP and ICP curves. Certain parameters, called transcranial Doppler (TCD) characteristics, were calculated from the cerebral blood flow velocity (FV) and the ABP curves and were used to estimate this weight function. From simultaneously sampled FV, ABP, and (invasively measured) ICP curves of a defined group of patients with severe head injuries, the TCD characteristics and the weight function were computed. Multiple regression analysis revealed a mathematical formula for calculating the weight function from TCD characteristics. This formula was used to generate the ICP simulation. FV, ABP, and ICP recordings from 11 patients (mean age, 46 +/- 14 years) with severe head injury were studied. In each patient, ICP was computed by a simulation procedure, generated from the data of the remaining 10 patients. The simulation period was 100 seconds.

RESULTS
Corresponding pressure trends with a mean absolute difference of 4.0 +/- 1.8 mm Hg between computed and measured ICP were observed. Shapes of pulse and respiratory ICP modulations were clearly predicted.

CONCLUSIONS
These results demonstrate that this method constitutes a promising step toward a noninvasive ICP prediction that may be clinically applicable under well-defined conditions.


The first aqueous red CdTe QD-LED was fabricated with the structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PVK/CdTe QDs/ZnO/Al. The device has been considered to be an advanced aqueous QD-LED, which demonstrated a turn-on voltage of about 5 V. Further, its current density and brightness would also reach 92 mA cm−2 and 58 cd m−2 at the voltage of 10 V. Moreover, we found that there were two essential factors for fabricating an aqueous QD-LED successfully: (1) adding wet agent to the QD solution, (2) removing the composite ions remaining in the QD solution. Meanwhile, the EL intensity of the aqueous QD-LEDs will perform better if the solution of QDs is acidic. These results offer a promising approach to the further development of aqueous QD-LEDs.


Maternal deaths are a serious enough issue that The Joint Commission recently put out a Sentinel Event Alert with several suggested actions, with one specifically addressing the ED. Educate your staff about the fact that any woman of child-bearing age, regardless of presenting symptoms, might be pregnant or might recently have been pregnant. Adopt a policy that any female of child-bearing age who presents with abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding receives a pregnancy test. Ensure that any patient with a complaint referable to pregnancy goes to labor and delivery for a stress test and continuous monitoring.


OBJECTIVE
To understand the mechanism of Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD) in a female patient.

METHODS
A multiplex PCR (mPCR) protocol was applied to detect the dystrophin gene of the female DMD patient and her family members, whose haplotypes were analyzed in light of short tandem repeat polymorphism (STR) of five microsatellite markers (located in 5' terminus and introns 44, 45, 49, and 50).

RESULTS
No deletion was detected in the affected female patient and her affected son. Examination of the female DMD patient's STR haplotypes identified in the female patient and her affected son the same haplotype inherited from her unaffected mother, who was a likely germinal mosaicism. The female patient has different haplotype from her affected son and her mother as a deletion was identified in the intron 45 of the affected son, and the female patient and her mother were probably heterozygous for this deletion.

CONCLUSION
STR haplotype may not be responsible for the pathogenesis of DMD in the female patient and her affected son.


Abstract : Unit cohesion is over-emphasized as a command interest item. Regardless, cohesion has long been considered a military imperative toward unit success, with commanders accepting its pursuit of as one of their duties. Yet the multi-dimensional concept of cohesion is not fully understood, resulting in commanders exerting too much energy on only one facet of cohesion. Furthermore, the effects of cohesion on unit performance are not as clear as leaders believe them to be. In some cases, a highly cohesive unit may actually perform worse than a less cohesive one. Finally, the challenges of creating cohesion amongst unit personnel are greater in this era than in any other. This is part due to deployment schedules and deployment mechanisms but also due to the influence of technology on society.


This is a description of a unit of work undertaken in a primary (Key Stage Two) classroom. It illustrates an approach to teaching which, in this case, appeared to increase the level of engagement of the children. This increased engagement in turn appears to have led to increased motivation and an improvement in the standard of work produced by the majority of the children in the class.

The work involved the measurement of garden gates in the vicinity of the school and the children making use of photographs, measurements and sketches to help them to reproduce the gates as Logo designs. The complexity or simplicity of the end products (Logo designs) was left to the individual children to establish. Naturally help was given on the way and great progress was made by some children in their understanding of the basics of Logo.

The teacher was in a position to monitor the progress of the work and in particular to notice increased motivation and enthusiasm for school work generally. It is not possible to show with any certainty that the style of curriculum organisation or the use of Logo were responsible for the increase in motivation but the feeling of the teacher, and of others involved, was that the work undertaken by the children during the school term in question contributed greatly to the children's enjoyment of school which in turn, it is believed, contributed to the satisfactory progress of the children.

This is not a report of an empirical study, but a case study report of one example of "good practice" with a commentary which, it is hoped, will encourage discussion and consideration of ways of organising the primary curriculum and of the use of Logo.


Abstract Background Kidney disease is a frequent but underestimated complication in patients suffering from intestinal failure (IF) treated by long-term home parenteral nutrition (HPN). The evolution in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) over time is poorly characterized. The current equations for estimating GFR have limited precision. No study has specifically investigated the reliability of recent creatinine-based estimated GFR (eGFR) equations in this population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the renal function decline under home parenteral nutrition (HPN) with a gold standard method and compare the performances of routinely used eGFR equations. Methods Forty patients with HPN and two or more GFR measurements were retrospectively studied. The renal function decline was calculated by the slope drawn between the successive measured GFRs (mGFRs). The performances of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease, Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration, full age spectrum and revised Lund–Malmö equations were compared with reference methods (inulin or iohexol clearance). Results The mean mGFR was 78 ± 28 mL/min/1.73 m2. The annual decline of mGFR was −1.9 mL/min/1.73 m2/year. No predisposing factor was identified to predict impairment in renal function. eGFR formulas grossly overestimated mGFR and had a low level of accuracy. Conclusions Patients with IF are at significant risk for impaired renal function. In this population, the tested eGFR equations were inaccurate. However, monitoring kidney function with mGFR remains important in these patients, as their GFR regularly declines and no specific risk factor has yet been identified.


This project discuss the performance of evaluating windowing based continuous S-Transform with deep learning classifier for detection and classifying interrupt and transient disturbances. The primary purpose was to analyse the detection and classification of voltage interrupt and transient using S-Transform (ST) as signal processing technique. The detection technique was divided into half-cycle and one- cycle windowing technique (WT), both cycle is used for the purpose of comparison. The disturbances signal was create using MATLAB programming language and set in form of m-file. S-Transform (ST) was used to extract the significant feature in a form of scattering data from disturbances signal. Then, the scattering data was used to build the detection interface inside the disturbances signal. The scattering data also was actual an input for extreme learning machine neural network (ELMNN) in order to classify the percentage accuracy of the disturbance signal. In addition, this analysis was verified that by using windowing technique of half-cycle and one-cycle it can provide clear detection in detecting the existent of disturbance within electrical distribution signal. Extreme learning machine was one of the suitable neural network to be used in classifying power quality disturbance due to its advantage in processing large dataset and able to produces high percentages accuracy. This project also includes 3 type of different sample for each disturbance which were interrupt and transient for the comparison purpose.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether presenting test performance characteristics influences clinical management.

DESIGN
Two questionnaire-based, randomized controlled trials.

SETTING
Mailed surveys with 2 clinical vignettes.

PARTICIPANTS
Randomly selected US pediatricians (N=1502).

INTERVENTION
Vignette-specific, randomly assigned test information: no additional information (control), test characteristics (TC), or TC defined. In the pertussis vignette, the TC group received the direct fluorescent antibody test's sensitivity and specificity, and the TC defined group received the same information with definitions. In the urinalysis vignette, the TC group received the false-positive rate of persistent microhematuria in predicting renal disease, and the TC defined group received a definition of this information.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
In the pertussis vignette, diagnostic test choice and management of erythromycin therapy and hospital discharge plans. In the urinalysis vignette, serum laboratory testing and nephrology referral plans.

RESULTS
Six hundred fifty-three participants (49.5% of those eligible) returned completed surveys. In the pertussis vignette, significantly more of the TC (73%) and TC defined (71%) groups ordered the best-performing test than did controls (21%) (P<.001 for both comparisons). Receiving test characteristics did not significantly affect erythromycin therapy or hospital discharge plans (P>or=.40). In the urinalysis vignette, the TC defined group referred to nephrology (30%) and checked laboratory tests (88%) significantly more often than did controls (19%, P=.01; 78%, P=.01, respectively), but the TC and control groups' testing and referral plans did not differ significantly (22% vs 19%, P=.36; 75% vs 78%, P=.48, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Providing test performance characteristics influenced certain clinical decisions, sometimes in unexpected ways.


The use of antibiotics for longer duration contributes to some disadvantageous conditions such as the development of resistant bacteria, increased bacterial colonization and an increase in the costs. In addition, in terms of suggested therapy durations, there are some differences between guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia. In some studies, especially in the studies performed using new flouroquinolon and macrolide antibiotics in recent years, it has been shown that short course antimicrobial therapies for pneumonia are as effective as the traditional long therapies and are advantageous for lowering bacterial colonization and costs. In this article, short course therapy in community-acquired pneumonia is reviewed under the light of current literature.


A study, based on a literature review, was performed to examine currently recommended meteorological measurement programs and diffusion prediction methods for nuclear power plants to determine their adequacy for plants located in coastal zones. Although procedures for handling the near worst case (stable, light wind situation) were judged adequately conservative, deficiencies in guidelines and procedures were found with respect to the following: failure to consider the role of coastal internal boundary layers, specifications for tower locations and instrument heights, methods of classifying atmospheric stability, methods of allowing credit for plume meander and models specified for diffusion calculations. Recommendations were made for changes in the guidelines applicable to these topics. Areas in which additional research is needed were identified.


This paper presents methods for controlling the intensity of emotional expressions and speaking styles of an arbitrary speaker's synthetic speech by using a small amount of his/her speech data in HMM-based speech synthesis. Model adaptation approaches are introduced into the style control technique based on the multiple-regression hidden semi-Markov model (MRHSMM). Two different approaches are proposed for training a target speaker's MRHSMMs. The first one is MRHSMM-based model adaptation in which the pretrained MRHSMM is adapted to the target speaker's model. For this purpose, we formulate the MLLR adaptation algorithm for the MRHSMM. The second method utilizes simultaneous adaptation of speaker and style from an average voice model to obtain the target speaker's style-dependent HSMMs which are used for the initialization of the MRHSMM. From the result of subjective evaluation using adaptation data of 50 sentences of each style, we show that the proposed methods outperform the conventional speaker-dependent model training when using the same size of speech data of the target speaker.


This paper is focused on the systematic computer-based numerical research of processes taking place during laser/matter interaction on the nanosecond time scale. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of a laser with passive Q-switch and intra-cavity nonlinear frequency doubling. The model accounts for the whole set of processes: laser beam attenuation and absorption in the material, heat generation, heat diffusion, phase transitions (solid to liquid, liquid to gaseous state), material removal and melted material re-solidification. Through analysis and simulation of the laser model, we investigate the laser pulse formation and laser parameter optimization. Numerical experiments are used to explain crater shapes, rate of material removal, dependence on laser pulse duration, etc.


BACKGROUND
The risk of progressing to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and factors associated with progression in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are unclear, especially in Asian children.

METHODS
We started a nationwide, prospective cohort study of 447 Japanese children with pre-dialysis CKD in 2010, with follow-up in 2011. Progression to ESKD was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier analysis according to CKD stage. Cox regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for progression.

RESULTS
Data were analyzed for 429/447 children. Five patients died, of which four died before progression to ESKD. Fifty-two patients progressed to ESKD (median follow-up 1.49 years), including 9/315 patients with stage 3 CKD, 29/107 with Stage 4 CKD and 14/25 with Stage 5 CKD. One-year renal survival rates were 98.3, 80.0 and 40.9%, for Stages 3, 4 and 5 CKD, respectively. Risk factors for progression to ESKD included CKD stage [versus Stage 3; Stage 4: hazard ratio (HR) 11.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.22-29.28, P < 0.001; Stage 5: HR 26.95, 95% CI 7.71-94.17, P < 0.001], heavy proteinuria (>2.0 g/g urine creatinine; HR 7.56, 95% CI 3.22-17.77, P < 0.001) and age ( < 2 years: HR 9.06; 95% CI 2.29-35.84, P = 0.002; after starting puberty: HR 4.88; 95% CI 1.85-12.85, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
In this cohort, 12.5% of children with pre-dialysis CKD progressed to ESKD with a median-follow-up of 1.49 years. Children with advanced (Stage 4/5) CKD were particularly likely to progress. To our knowledge, this is the first, nationwide, prospective cohort study of children with pre-dialysis CKD in Asia.


To study on common food adulterants and knowledge about adulteration among Student of Gorakhpur district. Man cannot live without food. It is essential for health and life. But this food must be pure, clean and fresh. Nowadays, foods are often adulterated. In hotels and restaurants stale and rotten foods are mixed with fresh food and served to the customers. Fish and vegetables are adulterated by putting on them chemicals and other preservatives in order to make them look fresh. Bakery and confectionery products are also adulterated by using toxic substances. Junk food contains harmful chemicals. Even fruits, milk and beverages are also adulterated. In fact, all kinds of foods and food articles are adulterated by dishonest and greedy businessmen for a quick and unearned profit. This study was conducted in student, area of Gorakhpur. To assess the knowledge of diseases related to adulteration of foods and knowledge of Govt. Acts. There are 100 respondents appropriate questionnaire were used as a total over all existing the study. It was found that out of all respondents only 72% subject have knowledge about adulteration of foods supplement, remaining respondents have no knowledge about adulterants, Majority of subjects knows only AGMARK brands majority of respondents have not knowledge about disease related to adulteration of foods. An adulteration is a common problem not only found in existing local net area but it is mostly found the world


The closed-loop optimization paradigm of an oil field can increase oil recovery and reduce water production, maximizing economic gains. One way to improve the management of a field involves designing optimal production strategies by means of dynamically adjusting the production flow rates or bottom-hole pressures over the reservoir life-cycle and operation. A major difficulty occurs in optimizing production of all wells, according to constraint along the production of a field. These optimal control strategies are often difficult to be realized in practice due to the large number of control variables to be adjusted during the optimization process, requiring large amount of computational infrastructure in place. These challenges become even more evident with larger number of wells and with complex large-scale reservoirs. For these reasons, this work proposes a new hierarchical hybrid optimization framework employing model order reduction techniques in a closed-loop fashion. This paper proposes the use of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) with the discrete empirical interpolation method (DEIM), to reduce the computational effort, and to perform local optimization by means of gradient-based approach by using forward and adjoint models followed by aggressive line search process. This approach was applied in the UNISIM-I-D benchmark case, testing the performance of the optimization proposed in a complex reservoir with several producer and injector wells, whose conventional optimization would require a high computational cost. The results showed an improvement in reservoir management by means of additional gains in terms of NPV, and through the proposed robust optimization algorithm, we show advantages of the operation of the wells and in the reduction in the computational efforts necessary to attain optimal solutions. The efficiency of the gradient-based approach coupled with model order reduction can be combined in future entire optimization workflow with global optimum algorithms like Fast Genetic Algorithm.


Abstract Aims Same-day discharge (SDD) is feasible after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). We aim to compare prospectively cryoballoon (CRYO) vs. radiofrequency (RF) ablation in a systematic SDD programme. Methods and results We prospectively analysed the 617 scheduled PVI performed consecutively at our institution (n = 377 CRYO, n = 240 RF) from 1 April 2019 to 31 December 2022 within a systematic programme of SDD. The feasibility of SDD, the 10-day incidence of urgent/unplanned medical care after discharge (UUC-10), and the cost per procedure due to hospital resource use were studied. The 100 procedures performed during the previous year, in which patients were systematically hospitalized, were used as a control group. Same-day discharge was achieved in 585/617 (95%) procedures, with a significant trend towards a higher monthly SDD rate from 2019 to 2022 (P = 0.03). The frequency of SDD was similar in CRYO (356/377; 94%) vs. RF (229/240; 95%). After SDD, the UUC-10 was 66/585 (11.3%), being similar for CRYO (41/356; 11.5%) and RF (25/229; 10.9%); P = 0.8 (log-rank test). Of these, 10 patients were re-hospitalized, with an identical rate in CRYO-treated (6/356; 1.7%) and RF-treated (4/229; 1.7%) patients and owing to similar causes (4 haematomas, 4 pericarditis, and 2 symptomatic sinus node dysfunction). Same-day discharge was associated with an average savings per procedure of 63% (P < 0.001), but no differences were found between the CRYO and RF (P = 0.8). Conclusion In a systematic SDD programme, feasibility (95%, increasing over time), safety (11% UUC-10, 1.7% re-hospitalizations), and savings (63% per procedure) were similar for CRYO and RF ablation procedures.


In order to investigate sound image quality, white and bandlimited noises with various cross-correlation coefficients are reproduced from two loudspeakers placed in anechoic or echoic chambers. Subjects are asked to make similarity judgments and some subjective evaluations of pairs of the noises. The experimental data are analyzed by Kruskal's multidimensional scaling (MDS) program. The analysis of the experimental data shows the following: (1) sound image quality depends mostly on the width and the distance of the sound image, (2) the width of the sound image depends on the absolute value of the cross-correlation coefficient, (3) the distance of the sound image depends on the cross-correlation coefficient itself, (4) with respect to physical and psychological factors governing sound image quality, there is no fundamental difference between anechoic and echoic chambers.


A dedicated radio frequency coil design for MR mammography needs to optimize sensitivity, reduce scan time, and improve patient comfort to ultimately facilitate diagnosis. We investigate signal-to-noise ratio and parallel imaging performance differences between widely used commercial 16-/18-channel receive coils for breast MRI at 3 T in prone and supine position and an in-house developed 28-channel wearable coil array ("BraCoil"). An SNR gain of up to a factor of 6 with BraCoil was found in this phantom study.


For students, academics and researchers within the Optometry and Visual Sciences Division. Discover resources providing access to clinical trials; systematic reviews; clinical guidelines; summaries of evidence; quality indicators and economic evaluations.


A poly(urethane-imide) diacid (PUI), a diimide-diacid with a soft structure unit, was directly synthesized from the reaction of trimellitic anhydride and isocyanate terminated polyurethane prepolymer. FT-IR and NMR were used to characterize its chemical structure. Then PUI was blended with two types of epoxy resins with different chemical structures, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and novolac epoxy (EPN). After curing the blends with polyfunctional aziridine CX-100, novel polyurethane/epoxy composites were obtained as transparent yellowish films. Thermal, chemical, and morphological properties of the cured composites were investigated using thermal analysis, SEM, TEM, chemical resistance, respectively. All experimental data indicated that epoxy modified PUI composites possessed higher thermal stability than that unmodified PUI, and that modified PUI had much better chemical resistance. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


We found severe hypercalcemia in the course of hydrocortisone withdrawal in a patient who had undergone unilateral adrenalectomy to resect a cortisol-hypersecreting adenoma. Serum calcium gradually but progressively increased after unilateral adrenalectomy. Severe hypercalcemia developed on the 77th postoperative day (the 15th day after discontinuing hydrocortisone replacement). The serum concentration of calcium, PTH, 25(OH)D, and 1,25(OH)2D were 8.0 mEq/l, less than 100 pg/ml, 10.1 ng/ml and 29.6 pg/ml, respectively. This hypercalcemia was accompanied by marked urinary hydroxyproline excretion and less calcium excretion in the urine than the prevailing level of serum calcium. Serum concentrations of 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)2D and PTH were not elevated during the severe hypercalcemia. We concluded that the hypercalcemia in this patient was due in part to enhanced bone resorption and increased renal tubular reabsorption of calcium as a result of glucocorticoid withdrawal, but not to the elevation of serum PTH or serum 25(OH)D and serum 1,25(OH)2D.


PurposeSoil nutrient management and fertilizer use by farmers are important for sustainable grain production. The authors examined the effect of an experimental agricultural extension program, the science and technology backyard, in promoting sustainable soil nutrient management in the North China Plain (NCP). The science and technology backyard integrates farmer field schools, field demonstrations, and case-to-case counselling to promote sustainable farming practices among rural smallholders.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a large-scale household survey of more than 2,000 rural smallholders. The authors used a multivariate regression analysis as the benchmark to assess the effect of the science-and-technology backyard on smallholder soil nutrient management. Furthermore, the authors used coarse exact matching (CEM) methods to control for potential bias due to self-selection and the (endogenous) switching regression approach as the main empirical analysis.FindingsThe results show that the science-and-technology backyard program increased smallholders' wheat yield by approximately 0.23 standard deviation; however, no significant increase in maize yield was observed. Regarding soil nutrient use efficiency, the authors found a significant improvement in smallholders' phosphorus and potassium use efficiencies for both wheat and maize production, and a significant improvement in nitrogen use efficiency for wheat production, but no significant improvement of nitrogen use efficiency for maize production.Originality/valueThis study evaluated a novel participatory agricultural extension model to improve soil nutrient management practices among smallholders. The integration of agronomists' scientific knowledge and smallholders' local contextual experiences could be an effective way to improve farmers' soil nutrient management. This study provides the first quantitative estimates based on rigorous impact assessment methods of this novel extension approach in rural China.


Healthy, male, Negro, Caucasian and Eskimo subjects were subjected nude to an air temperature of 17°C. Rectal, average skin and extremity temperatures, body metabolism, sweating rates and electromyograms were obtained at 5-minute intervals throughout the duplicate exposure periods for each individual. After 55 minutes of exposure, both the Caucasian and Eskimo subjects demonstrated an average rise in metabolism of 22 Cal/hr/m2 above control levels of 40 and 55 Cal/hr/m2, respectively. Negro subjects showed an increase in body heat production of only 10 Cal/hr/m2 after 85 minutes in the cold room. Although the absolute levels of heat production differed for the Eskimo and Caucasian groups, these subjects responded in a similar fashion to the standard cold stress. Submitted on July 24, 1957


The present study was carried out to assess the physico-chemical status of surface water of Mirik lake in Darjeeling from seven selected locations during October 2005 – September 2007. The highest and lowest air and water temperatures were recorded respectively during summer and winter months. The pH values, as found to be lower in Sites 1 and 2, may be due to regular discharge of waste water from major and minor drains. The highest and lowest electrical conductivities in summer and monsoon respectively were due to dehydration and dilution of rainwater at different times. DO values were found to be higher during monsoon and winter seasons, while lowest value was recorded in summer. DO showed a significant negative correlation with free CO2. The highest and lowest total alkalinity and total hardness values were found respectively during summer and monsoon. Chloride values were found to be highest during winter and the lowest value was recorded during monsoon. Higher BOD values were recorded at Sites 1, 2 and 6. All the parameters varied significantly among sites and seasons. Public awareness is very much important to control the discharge of wastes into the lake and long term scientific monitoring is necessitated to evaluate the status of the lake for its longevity.


DKI Jakarta area with high CO 2 emission and 84,95 % of  built-up areas (year of 2009) cause urban heat island (UHI).  To overcome UHI problems, its characteristics must be known.  Trend analysis of surface temperature areas was conducted by comparison of surface temperature spatial distribution of 2006 with 2010.  UHI analysis based on geograpical coordinates were also conducted.  High surface temperature of > 34 oC was on inner city and decreasing to sub urban area.  High surface temperature were especially on high density bulit-up areas. Priority of  solving UHI problems are conducted on high surface temperature areas. Keyword: UHI, surface temperature, built-up area, trend analysis.


Testing is the primary software validation technique used by industry today, but remains ad hoc, error prone, and very expensive. A promising improvement is to automatically generate test cases from formal models of the system under test. We demonstrate how to automatically generate real-time conformance test cases from timed automata specifications. Specifically we demonstrate how to efficiently generate real-time test cases with optimal execution time i.e test cases that are the fastest possible to execute. Our technique allows time optimal test cases to be generated using manually formulated test purposes or generated automatically from various coverage criteria of the model.


Reports of early parenting were assessed using two measures, the Parental Bonding Index (PBI) and the Measure of Parenting Style (MOPS), in a sample of 265 patients with DSM-defined major depressive disorder. Psychiatrists then rated the extent to which sample members evidenced the personality "styles" underpinning 15 separate personality disorders, returning personality vignette scores. The extent of disordered functioning was also assessed across "parameters" and "domains" by psychiatrists, referrers, and family members, using a range of measures. Those with higher scores on vignettes measuring borderline, anxious, depressive, and self-defeating personality style rated parents as uncaring, overcontrolling, and abusive. When vignettes were consolidated into scores akin to the DSM clusters, the most consistent links between perceived dysfunctional parenting were with the Cluster C (anxious), and Cluster B (dramatic) styles and were nonsignificant for Cluster A (eccentric) style. Meeting criteria for an increasing number of personality disorder clusters was associated with increasing levels of adverse parenting. Multiple regression analyses indicated that disordered functioning (as assessed by the three independent rater groups) was most distinctly associated with paternal indifference and maternal overcontrol.


Over the last 15 years, lattice discretizations of quarks that preserve chiral symmetry have progressed from beautiful theoretical ideas to practical simulation tools. With control over chiral symmetry, lattice calculations of more of the matrix elements relevant to the violation of charge-conjugation and parity (CP) symmetry in the Standard Model can be done. The progression to practical simulation tool has been aided by the continued growth in computing power, as well as marked advances in algorithms. The status of simulations with chiral quarks will be reviewed, emphasizing the physics of CP violation that is currently being done. The prospects for future simulations with physical values for the light quarks will also be discussed.


Previous research has shown that exposure to successful role models can restore performance that had been impaired by stereotype threat, and that some role models are more effective than others. The present research examined the effects of role model deservingness on women's mathematics test performance after being placed under stereotype threat. In Experiment 1, a woman who attained success by herself (deserved) proved a more effective role model than an equally likable and successful woman whose success was handed to her (not deserved). In Experiment 2, women role models proved more effective at combating stereotype threat when their successes were attributable to internal-stable (deserved) than external-unstable (not deserved) causes, an effect that was partially mediated by reduction in extra-task thinking. The results are seen as having implications for theories of stereotype threat and causal attribution. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Ferroptosis has essential value in cancer treatment. It is signi�cant to explore the new ferroptosis-related lncRNAs(FRLs) prediction model in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the potential molecular mechanism of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs. Using differentially expressed lncRNAs associated with ferroptosis, we developed A multi-lncRNA prognostic signature in HCC. We used qRT-PCR to detect lncRNA in HCC cells. We performed functional experiments in vitro and in vivo to determine the biological role of NRAV. Interaction between NRAV and miR-375-3P was con�rmed by RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay and dual luciferase reporter. We observe 6 differentially expressed lncRNAs related to the progression of HCC. According to Kaplan-Meier analyses, HCC with a high-risk lncRNAs signature has a poor prognosis. In addition, AUC values con�rmed the utility of lncRNAs signature for predicting HCC prognosis. Further functional experiments show that the high expression of NRAV can strengthen the viciousness of HCC. Interestingly, we found that NRAV can enhance iron export and ferroptosis resistance. Further studies showed that NRAV attenuated the inhibition of SLC7A11 by miR-375-3P through competitive binding to miR-375-3P, in�uencing the prognosis of HCC patients. In conclusion, We developed a novel FRLs prognostic model with crucial predictive value for the prediction of hepatocellular carcinoma. NRAV is essential in ferroptosis induction through the miR-375-3P/SLC7A11 axis.


This researchseeks to prove the pivotalrole of conceptual metaphor - as presented by the cognitive orientation launched by George Lakoffat the beginning of the eighties of the last century - in teaching and learning the second language, and how metaphor contributes to developing the cognitive abilities of learnersat the level of understanding and interpreting the speech of the second language, whetheritis oral or written. In order to clarify the interactions that exist between the metaphorical competence and the communicative competences of the learner, wedecided, since the beginning of this research, to identify some of the issues and hypotheses that metaphor stems from, highlighting the importance of metaphorical  awareness in acquiring the target language, by linking the conceptual domain of the first language as a source domain with the conceptual domain of the second language as a target domain. In the context of this transition, we have high lighted the importance of conceptual fluencyas a contrast to linguistic fluence in the teaching and learning of the second language. Linguistic, social, textual, grammatical, strategic, and other educational competencies.


Fibre-reinforced concrete is a term used when concrete is reinforced with randomly
distributed short fibres. The addition of short fibres causes a reduction in workability.
On the other hand, Superplasticisers can be used to increase the workability of
concrete.
The main objectives of the project were to investigate the effects of Superplasticisers
on structural concrete with the addition of short-fibres, which vary from the most
commonly used steel fibres, to polypropylene and fibre mesh. The behaviours of
Superplasticisers on plain and fibre-reinforced concrete are compared. Lastly, data for
the fresh and harden properties of the concrete were collected and analysed. The
scope of this project is based on the usage of Superplasticisers in steel short-fibres,
fibre mesh and polypropylene short-fibres.
To evaluate the effects of Superplasticisers on the workability of fresh short-fibre
reinforced concrete, several tests were carried out. These tests consist of slump tests
Vebe tests and compacting factor tests. Meanwhile, the harden properties of concrete
were assessed by the conducting tests, which involved compressive strength test,
indirect-strength test, flexural strength test and finally test to determine the value for
the modulus of elasticity.
From the results of Vebe test and compacting factor test obtained, steel short-fibre
reinforced concrete have the highest workability, which were followed by
polypropylene short-fibre and Fibremesh reinforced concrete. Generally, when more
then 1% of short-fibres are used to reinforce the concrete, rate of workability
increases with the addition of Superplasticisers. Meanwhile, it was also found that
flexural strength for fibre-reinforced concrete with the usage of Superplasticisers was
higher.


This paper presents the findings of an empirical assessment of human resources management features required for the effective maintenance of higher education institutions (HEIs) buildings in South Africa. This was done to improve the maintenance management of HEI buildings in the country for better performance of buildings. The study adopted a post-positivism philosophical perspective using a quantitative research approach with questionnaires as the instrument for data collection. The questionnaire survey was distributed to the users of academic buildings and head of maintenance departments in six HEIs in Gauteng, South Africa. Data collected was analysed using mean item score, Kruskal-Wallis H-test, and confirmatory factor analysis. The study found that the availability of skilled and experienced personnel, adequate staffing of the maintenance department, effective occupational health and safety practices of maintenance staff, and top management support for training are key to the effective maintenance of HEIs buildings. This study offers a theoretical contribution to the existing discourse on the maintenance of educational buildings by exploring the human resources management dimension – an aspect that has gained little attention in recent times.


For management and trading purposes, information on short-term wind generation (from few hours to few days ahead) is crucial at large offshore wind farms, since they concentrate a large capacity at a single location. The most complete information that can be provided today consists of probabilistic forecasts, the resolution of which may be maximized by using meteorological ensemble predictions as input. The paper concentrates on the test case of the Horns Rev wind farm over a period of approximately one year, in order to describe, apply and discuss a complete ensemble-based probabilistic forecasting methodology. In a first stage, ensemble forecasts of meteorological variables are converted to power through a suitable power curve model. This model employs local polynomial regression, and is adaptively estimated with an orthogonal fitting method. The obtained ensemble forecasts of wind power are then converted into predictive distributions with an original adaptive kernel dressing method. The shape of the kernels is driven by a mean-variance model, the parameters of which are recursively estimated in order to maximize the overall skill of obtained predictive distributions. Such a methodology has the benefit of yielding predictive distributions that are of increased reliability (in a probabilistic sense) in comparison with the raw ensemble forecasts, while taking advantage of their high resolution.


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

Ran binding protein-M (RanBPM, also called RanBP9) is a nucleo-cytoplasmic protein that has been implicated in a multitude of cellular roles, including the regulation of transcription, protein modifications and stability, and extracellular receptor signaling pathways. However the precise mechanism by which RanBPM functions within the cell remains largely unknown. Previous studies in our lab have identified RanBPM as a pro-apoptotic protein that mediates its effects through modulation of Bcl-2 levels. Here we present evidence that the effect of RanBPM on apoptosis is mediated, at least in part, through regulation of the ERK1/2 signaling pathway.

First, we determined that in addition to Bcl-2, RanBPM also regulated the expression of a second anti-apoptotic factor, Bcl-XL. siRNA-mediated knockdown of RanBPM expression led to elevated Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL mRNA expression, suggesting regulation by RanBPM at the transcriptional level. Conversely, we found that expression of RanBPM also affected ectopically expressed Bcl-2 protein levels. Together, these findings suggested that RanBPM regulated the expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL at both the transcriptional and post-translational levels.

One pathway that has previously been shown to regulate the expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL at both the transcriptional and post-translational levels is the ERK1/2 signaling pathway. We found that RanBPM-deficient cells exhibited enhanced ERK1/2 phosphorylation and activation, while re-expression of RanBPM led to a marked decrease in the levels of phosphorylated ERK1/2. Further analyses indicated that enhanced ERK1/2 activation in RanBPM-deficient cells contributed to the elevated levels of Bcl-2 expression observed in these cells, as inhibition of ERK1/2 activation correlated with decreased Bcl-2 protein expression. These findings suggested that RanBPM acts as a novel negative regulator of ERK1/2 signaling.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1071. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1071


Signification is a social practice which produces and reproduces meanings, the result of that being the sign (signum facere), artificial semantic differences constructed by predicative subjects of a cultural formation. In order for the designer to be able to formulate relevant design solutions, he/she has to reject what is considered already known, as well as a prioristic premises, dichotomized positions and reductive definitions. That will allow him/her to think creatively about his/her practical problems. Innovative solutions do not follow the excludent philosophy of either/or but adopt instead the inclusiveness of this and that, something that seems to explain the closeness of contemporary design philosophies to Peirce's semiotics, which is what this paper aims to show.


Friction plays a key role in manipulating objects. Most of what we do with our hands, and the most of what robots do with their grippers, is based on the ability to control frictional forces. This letter aims to better understand the variability and predictability of planar friction. In particular, we focus on the analysis of a recent dataset on planar pushing by [K.-T. Yu, M. Bauza, N. Fazeli, and A. Rodriguez, More than a Million Ways to Be Pushed: A High-Fidelity Experimental Data Set of Planar Pushing, in Proceeding of the IEEE/RSJ Internatinonal Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2016, pp. 30–37.] devised to create a data-driven footprint of planar friction. We show in this letter how we can explain a significant fraction of the observed unconventional phenomena, e.g., stochasticity and multimodality, by combining the effects of material nonhomogeneity, anisotropy of friction and biases due to data collection dynamics, hinting that the variability is explainable but inevitable in practice. We introduce an anisotropic friction model and conduct simulation experiments comparing with more standard isotropic friction models. The anisotropic friction between the object and supporting surface results in convergence of initial condition during the automated data collection. Numerical results confirm that the anisotropic friction model explains the bias in the dataset and the apparent stochasticity in the outcome of a push. The fact that the data collection process itself can originate biases in the collected datasets, resulting in deterioration of trained models, calls attention to the data collection dynamics.


PDO operates about 200 deep gas wells in the X field in the Sultanate of Oman, producing commingled from the Barik gas-condensate and Miqrat lean gas reservoir completed by multiple hydraulic fracturing. Their inflow performance relation (IPR) is tracked to diagnose condensate damage, hydraulic fracture cleanup and differential reservoir pressure depletion. The best IPR data is collected through multi-rate production logging but surface production data serves as an alternative. This paper describes the process of deriving IPR's from production logging and surface production data, and then evaluates 20 years of historic IPR data to quantify the impact of condensate damage and condensate cleanup with progressive reservoir pressure depletion, to demonstrate the massive damage and slow cleanup of hydraulic fractures placed in depleted reservoirs, to show how hydraulic fractures facilitate the vertical cross-flow between isolated reservoir intervals, and to highlight that stress-dependent permeability does not play a major role in this field.


The importance of state audit both at the domestic and international level is growing day by day. After all, thanks to the state audit, inspections are carried out on topical issues, errors, violations are identified, and possible ways to prevent them. And the identification of violations, consulting on their elimination is one of the tasks of the SAI of each country. Therefore, this article substantiates the need for further study of best practices of foreign countries, analyzes the experience of the SAI of the INTOSAI member states, the main organization uniting state audit and financial control bodies. In particular, the organization and conduct of a coordinated audit in countries such as Australia, Russia, and Ukraine were studied. As a result of the research, it was found that three types of coordinated audit are used in these countries: parallel, joint and coordinated. Based on the analysis of domestic legal acts, the authors revealed that two types of coordinated audit are used in the Republic of Kazakhstan, namely parallel and joint. Based on the experience of foreign countries, it is proposed to introduce a connected audit into the practice of state audit and financial control bodies.


The aim of this study is to determine the developmental performance of the 18 bean genotypes belonging to Phaseolus vulgaris L. belonging to Anatolia's many components, chilling according to the organs below. Fidelites of ten different bean genotypes were cultured in the growth chamber under controlled climatic conditions and in the vessels containing the Hoagland nutrient solution. Cold stress application in the conditioning room in the temperature of +4 0C plants kept for 5 days. Root, stem and leaf weights and leaf counts of plants were examined after application. As a result of the research, it was found that bean plants had differences in their root, stem, leaf weights and leaf counts between genotypes compared to controls. Genotypes 22, 4 and 14 in cold stress were better than others in terms of plant growth. On the other hand, genotypes 20, 21 and 5 were found to be more susceptible to cold with lower developmental performance.


In Reply.— We thank Drs Steffen and Paradis for their letters supporting our recent article on hospital resuscitation policies. Dr Paradis agrees that policies requiring family agreement to DNR orders sometimes create serious problems for patients and families. He then goes beyond our arguments to considerations of equity or justice toward other patients. We believe that these concerns augment our case and are worthy of further discussion, but we also think that considerations of patient best interests and of the proper role of surrogates are sufficient to justify our proposal. We agree with Dr Steffen that a decision that CPR would be futile should not be based solely on the diagnosis but rather on a case-by-case review of all the medical evidence. Dr Doukas disagrees with our other proposal, that hospital policy not require that futile CPR always be discussed with patients or families. He points, as do Youngner 1


This paper presents a new metric called TIGEr for the automatic evaluation of image captioning systems. Popular metrics, such as BLEU and CIDEr, are based solely on text matching between reference captions and machine-generated captions, potentially leading to biased evaluations because references may not fully cover the image content and natural language is inherently ambiguous. Building upon a machine-learned text-image grounding model, TIGEr allows to evaluate caption quality not only based on how well a caption represents image content, but also on how well machine-generated captions match human-generated captions. Our empirical tests show that TIGEr has a higher consistency with human judgments than alternative existing metrics. We also comprehensively assess the metric's effectiveness in caption evaluation by measuring the correlation between human judgments and metric scores.


On histological examination of 667 cases originally suspected of lymph node toxoplasmosis, 12 cases were diagnosed as malignant lymphoma and 15 cases as atypical hyperplasia (AH), suspicious of malignant lymphoma. All 12 malignant cases were of Hodgkin's disease: eight of the lymphocyte predominant nodular type, two of lymphocyte predominant diffuse type, and two of the nodular sclerosis type. In all cases, the lymph nodes contained small groups of epithelioid cells which were virtually indistinguishable from those seen in toxoplasmosis. In the differential diagnosis between lymph node toxoplasmosis and malignant lymphoma, the following features were found helpful. In toxoplasmosis the general structure is preserved and germinal centres are frequent, while in malignant lymphoma and in AH the general structure is destroyed. However, in some cases of toxoplasmosis germinal centres may be difficult to identify because their margins are indistinct due to clusters of epithelioid cells. Also, in some types of Hodgkin's disease and in some cases of AH with epithelioid cells, the general structure of the lymph node may be partially preserved. The occurrence of epithelioid cells within germinal centres seems to be a specific feature for toxoplasmosis; it was never seen in malignant lymphoma nor in AH. The occurrence of strands of monocytoid cells (unreife Sinushistiocytose) though a fairly typical feature of toxoplasmosis, was also occasionally seen in Hodgkin's disease or AH.


In each of two replicate trials, 1-d-old chicks were inoculated orally with a phage type 13 Salmonella enteritidis isolate (resistant to nalidixic acid). Although S. enteritidis was found in the livers, spleens, and ceca of all sampled chicks at 1 wk postinoculation, colonization generally persisted beyond 4 wk postinoculation only in the ceca. Nearly half of the remaining hens were still shedding S. enteritidis in their feces at 24 wk of age, but only 1 of 62 hens laid eggs that were internally contaminated with S. enteritidis during the initial 4 to 6 wk of egg production. Chickens exposed to S. enteritidis shortly after hatching can apparently remain infected until maturity, at which time they might produce contaminated eggs or spread the infection to other susceptible, previously unexposed hens.