1. INTRODUCTION Through infra-red motion analysis systems it is possible to acquire the 3D joint kinematics of a patient while performing every day activities. These data, combined with a biomechanical model of the anatomical structures under investigation and clinical rating scales, can form the basis for an objective assessment of the patient motor ability. When the subject acquired is an amputee fitted with a new prosthetic arm, the information provided can be useful not only for the practitioner but also for the prosthesis designer. The aim of this work is to give an example of this kind of clinical/technology assessment, presenting the results obtained for a young trans-humeral amputee fitted with a prototype of the new Otto Bock DynamicArm. In particular, the analysis intended to quantitatively evaluate: 1) the performances of the Otto Bock arm, and in particular of the electromechanic elbow, when controlled in-vivo by the patient EMG signals; 2) how the patient controls the prosthesis, in order to identify critical movements and prevent possible disorders; 3) if the new prosthesis increases the patient abilities.


PURPOSE
There is a growing trend towards the adoption of model-based calculation algorithms (MBDCAs) for brachytherapy dose calculations which can properly handle media and source/applicator heterogeneities. However, most of dose calculations in ocular plaque therapy are based on homogeneous water media and standard in-silico ocular phantoms, ignoring non-water equivalency of the anatomic tissues and heterogeneities in applicators and patient anatomy. In this work, we introduce EyeMC, a Monte Carlo (MC) model-based calculation algorithm for ophthalmic plaque brachytherapy using realistic and adaptable patient-specific eye geometries and materials.

METHODS
We used the MC code PENELOPE in EyeMC to model Bebig IsoSeed I25.S16 seeds in COMS plaques and 106 Ru/106 Rh applicators that are coupled onto a customizable eye model with realistic geometry and composition. To significantly reduce calculation times, we integrated EyeMC with CloudMC, a cloud computing platform for radiation therapy calculations. EyeMC is equipped with an evaluation module that allows the generation of isodose distributions, dose-volume histograms, and comparisons with Plaque Simulator three-dimensional dose distribution. We selected a sample of patients treated with 125 I and 106 Ru isotopes in our institution, covering a variety of different type of plaques, tumor sizes, and locations. Results from EyeMC were compared to the original plan calculated by the TPS Plaque Simulation, studying the influence of heterogeneous media composition as well.

RESULTS
EyeMC calculations for Ru plaques agreed well with manufacturer's reference data and data of MC simulations from Hermida et al. (2013). Significant deviations, up to 20%, were only found in lateral profiles for notched plaques. As expected, media composition significantly affected estimated doses to different eye structures, especially in the 125 I cases evaluated. Dose to sclera and lens were found to be about 12% lower when considering real media, while average dose to tumor was 9% higher. 106 Ru cases presented a 1%-3% dose reduction in all structures using real media for calculation, except for the lens, which showed an average dose 7.6% lower than water-based calculations. Comparisons with Plaque Simulator calculations showed large differences in dose to critical structures for 106 Ru notched plaques. 125 I cases presented significant and systematic dose deviations when using the default calculation parameters from Plaque Simulator version 5.3.8., which were corrected when using calculation parameters from a custom physics model for carrier-attenuation and air-interface correction functions.

CONCLUSIONS
EyeMC is a MC calculation system for ophthalmic brachytherapy based on a realistic and customizable eye-tumor model which includes the main eye structures with their real composition. Integrating this tool into a cloud computing environment allows to perform high-precision MC calculations of ocular plaque treatments in short times. The observed variability in eye anatomy among the selected cases justifies the use of patient-specific models.


Background

Iron-deficiency anaemia is common during childhood. Iron supplementation has been claimed to increase the risk of malaria.

Objectives

To assess the effect of iron on malaria and deaths.

Search strategy

We searched The Cochrane Library (2009, issue 1); MEDLINE; EMBASE; LILACS and metaRegister of Controlled Trials, all up to March 2009. We scanned references of included trials.

Selection criteria

Individually and cluster-randomized controlled trials conducted in hypoendemic to holoendemic malaria regions and including children < 18 years. We included trials comparing orally administered iron with or without folic acid vs. placebo or no treatment. Iron fortification was excluded. Antimalarials and/or antiparasitics could be administered to either group. Additional micronutrients could only be administered equally to both groups.

Data collection and analysis

The primary outcomes were malaria-related events and deaths. Secondary outcomes included haemoglobin, anaemia, other infections, growth, hospitalizations, and clinic visits. We assessed risk of bias using domain-based evaluation. Two authors independently selected studies and extracted data. We contacted authors for missing data. We assessed heterogeneity. We performed fixed-effect meta-analysis and presented random-effects results when heterogeneity was present. We present pooled risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used adjusted analyses for cluster-randomized trials.

Main results

Sixty-eight trials (42,981 children) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Iron supplementation did not increase the risk of clinical malaria (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.88 to 1.13; 22,724 children, 14 trials, random-effects model). The risk was similar among children who were non-anaemic at baseline (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.09). An increased risk of malaria with iron was observed in trials that did not provide malaria surveillance and treatment. The risk of malaria parasitaemia was higher with iron (RR 1.13, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.26), but there was no difference in adequately concealed trials. Iron + antimalarial was protective for malaria (four trials). Iron did not increase the risk of parasitological failure when given during malaria (three trials). There was no increased risk of death across all trials comparing iron versus placebo (RR 1.11, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.36; 21,272 children, 12 trials). Iron supplementation increased haemoglobin, with significant heterogeneity, and malaria endemicity did not affect this effect. Growth and other infections were mostly not affected by iron supplementation.

Authors' conclusions

Iron does not increase the risk of clinical malaria or death, when regular malaria surveillance and treatment services are provided. There is no need to screen for anaemia prior to iron supplementation.

Plain Language Summary

Iron supplements for children living in malaria-endemic countries

Children commonly develop anaemia (low haemoglobin) after birth. Anaemia is associated with several ill-effects, including hindering motor development and learning skills, and it may have an adverse effect on immunity. Babies and children are therefore commonly given iron supplements to prevent or treat anaemia. In countries where malaria is prevalent, it has been suggested that iron supplementation increases the risk of malaria and deaths. The high dose of iron which is given as medicine may result in free iron circulating in the blood and available to the malaria parasite, which promotes its growth. We therefore aimed to assess the effects of iron administered to children living in countries where malaria is prevalent. We included only randomized controlled trials that compared iron given orally as a medicinal product (and not as food or drink fortification) with placebo or no treatment.

Iron did not increase the risk of malaria disease, indicated by fever and presence of parasites in the blood. The presence of parasites in the blood was slightly higher with iron overall, but not in trials with adequate randomization methods. There was no increased risk of death among iron-treated children. Although more than 70 trials were identified for this review, malaria-related outcomes and deaths were reported in only 16 and 11 trials, respectively. Iron supplementation increased haemoglobin by about 1 g/dL in areas where malaria is highly prevalent. At the end of follow up, which varied between two weeks and six months after the end of iron supplementation, the gain was smaller but still present at 0.4 g/dL. Iron did not increase the risk of respiratory infections, but episodes of diarrhoea were more frequent with iron when it was administered with zinc. Children given iron visited medical clinics less than children given placebo, but the rate of hospitalization was similar. Weight and height at the end of treatment were similar. Iron did not adversely affect rates of cure when given together with antimalarial treatment in three trials that examined this issue.

Our conclusions are that iron supplementation does not adversely affect children living in malaria-endemic areas. The evidence shown in our review is limited by the lack of trials examining the relevant outcomes and the limited information allowing us to analyse factors that can affect our results, such as the children's baseline level of haemoglobin. Based on our review, routine iron supplementation should not be withheld from children living in countries where malaria is prevalent.


Abstract This paper explores the way in which some lesbians rely on culturally circulated narratives about identity to assess safer sex and their potential risk of sexually transmitted infection (STI) and HIV. A well-established narrative within the literature about lesbian safer sex is that STI risk is non-existent. The implications of this are important because they demonstrate the perception of lesbian identity and notions of safety. This study focuses on how gender and sexuality contextualise an assessment of risk and safety for lesbians. This is vital to understand because there is still a lack of language about lesbian safer sex practices and techniques. Lesbians narrate their assessments of STI and HIV risk through the lenses of gender and sexuality – locating 'risk' in gay men and bisexual women. Using narrative analysis, I find that lesbians assess their risk by constructing characters from culturally circulated narratives steeped in homophobia and biphobia of the sensible lesbian, the risky gay man and the uncertain bisexual.


Distance Education (DE) is a new field in education that is entirely separated from the standard, classroom-based, classical instructional model. It is believed to attract geographically diverse learners. A time series enrolment data (2005-2010) of UPOU was categorized by province, and fed into a GIS-data analysis environment Visual analysis was conducted to analyze the temporal and spatial behavior of the data; identify major spatial units of students' concentration; and extract the implications of this behavior on the development of student support system. Data were visualized as maps, tables, and graphs. Results indicate that enrolment in UPOU is increasing within the period of analysis, and enrolment data were widespread in 2005 but tend to aggregate in urban centers in the succeeding years. The increasing trend in enrolment data may be due to the convenience factor of online learning. On the other hand, the geospatial distribution patterns over time highlight the equity and accessibility issue, and the importance of mobile communication facilities as supplemental learning platforms. It is recommended that a mobile-learning environment that is equivalent to the online learning management system may be developed.


Natural nonlinear materials, e.g., biological materials and polymers, are mechanically weak. It has been a major challenge to develop a nonlinear material with potential mechanical applications. Here, we develop a nonlinear elastic metamaterial with giant and tailorable-nonreciprocal elastic moduli. The metamaterial is designed with a microstructural axial asymmetry, which activated nonlinear microstructural deformations in the axial direction and microstructural residual moments. This gives a robust load dependence of the nonlinear elastic modulus (i.e., secant modulus). The nonlinear elastic modulus is observed decreasing or increasing depending on, both, the direction and magnitude of the applied load. The nonlinear elastic modulus is increased by approximately $400\mathrm{%}$ upon switching the load direction and the activation of a microstructural buckling. Thus, the nonlinear elastic modulus is generally nonreciprocal, and the metamaterial disobeys the Maxwell-Betti reciprocal theorem. This metamaterial is demonstrated by means of experimental and analytical mechanics. Various material samples are experimentally tested and their nonreciprocal elastic moduli are measured. In addition, the relation between the material's nonreciprocity and its topological mechanics is defined. The developed metamaterial can find many important mechanical applications such as making mechanical resonators with enhanced mass sensitivity.


PREMISE
When divergent lineages come into secondary contact reproductive isolation may be incomplete, thus providing an opportunity to investigate how speciation is manifested in the genome. The Louisiana Irises (Iris, series Hexagonae) comprise a group of three or more ecologically and reproductively divergent lineages that can produce hybrids where they come into contact. In this study we sought to estimate standing genetic variation to understand the current distribution of population structure in the Louisiana Irises.

METHODS
We used genotyping-by-sequencing techniques to sample the genomes of Louisiana Iris species across their ranges. Twenty populations were sampled (total n=632) across 11,249 loci. Population genetic data were assessed using ENTROPY and PCA models.

RESULTS
We discovered evidence for interspecific gene flow in parts of the range and revealed patterns of population structure at odds with widely accepted nominal taxonomy. Undescribed hybrid populations were discovered that were designated as belonging to the I. brevicaulis lineage. Iris nelsonii shared significant ancestry with only one of the purported parent species, I. fulva, evidence inconsistent with a hybrid origin.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides several key findings important to the investigation of standing genetic variation in the Louisiana Iris species complex. Iris brevicaulis has a large amount of genetic diversity within it relative to the other nominal species. In addition, this study has discovered a previously unknown hybrid zone between I. brevicaulis and I. hexagona along the Texas coast. Finally, I. nelsonii does not appear to have mixed ancestry from three parental taxa as has been the longstanding hypothesis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Reported efficacies of drugs used to treat Strongyloides stercoralis infection vary widely. Because diagnostic methods are insensitive, therapeutic trials generally require multiple negative posttreatment stool specimens as evidence of drug efficacy. However, only a single positive stool specimen is usually required for study enrollment. To determine the reproducibility of detection of S. stercoralis larvae in the stool, 108 asymptomatic infected men submitted 25 g of fresh stool once a week for eight consecutive weeks for examination by the Baermann technique. During the 8-week study, 239 (27.7%) of 864 stool specimens were positive for S. stercoralis. Rates of detection of larvae in the stool specimens ranged from eight of eight specimens in 3 (2.8%) men to none of eight specimens in 36 (33.3%) men. Of 43 men for whom S. stercoralis was detected in at least two of the first four stool specimens, only 1 (2.3%) man tested negative on all of the next four specimens. In comparison, of 29 men who had detectable larvae in only one of the first four specimens, 22 (75.9%) tested negative on all of the next four samples. Thus, if these 29 men had been enrolled in a therapeutic trial between the first and second sets of four specimens, the efficacy of a drug with no activity against this parasite would have been estimated to be 76%. These data suggest that patterns of S. stercoralis detection vary widely among infected persons and that intermittent larval shedding can lead to inflated estimates of drug efficacy. Before a patient is entered in a clinical trial of drug efficacy, four consecutive stool specimens should be examined for S. stercoralis; only persons with two or more positive specimens should be enrolled.


This paper presents the combination of genetic algorithm and simulated annealing to solve multiple sequence alignment (MSA) assignment. Genetic algorithm will try to find a new region of feasible solution while simulated annealing will act as an aligning improver. There are several aspects that must be taken into consideration such as the representation, evaluation function and operator. Simulated annealing also helps to prevent local minima problem. Sequence similarity plays a major role in Bioinformatics and molecular biology. Significant results were produced from the prealignment and genetic algorithm phase.


The water-releasing composite coating was prepared by the aluminium crosslinked ben- tonite and EVA with organic solvent.The releasing rate along the coated fibre at different temperatures was measured by moisture teller.SEM,FT-IR,XRD and N_2 adsorption-desorption were employed to characterize the pore structure and test the effect of cross-linking agent.The results show that the hydrolysate of aluminum produces multiple polymerization degree crosslinker,and the single aperture be- tween interlayer of the modified bentonite is changed into hybrid aperture.The surface area of modified bentonite increased,and adsorption capacity is improved.The smallest aperture of the modified bentonite is plate-typed capillary pores with 1.5 nm.This structure can cause capillary condensation,which realizes to transfer water in control.


Abstract "Technology", the buzz word for the last ten to fifteen years in South Africa. Technology availability is quite often mistaken for technology adoption and use. Technology has been made available to almost all tertiary institutions and at least some public schools. However, in most tertiary institutions many professors still refuse to use technology to enhance their lectures and many educators in schools have not yet "come on board" in a manner of speaking. The South African government has indicated its intention to ensure that every school has access to a wide choice of diverse, high quality communication services that will benefit all learners and local communities (DOE 2004). It is important that the Department of Basic Education recognizes that regardless of the amount of technology and its sophistication, technology will not be used unless educators have the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to infuse it into the curriculum. The aim of this paper is to determine educators' attitudes towards technology and thus technology adoption in teaching and learning. In doing so, this study attempted to determine what educators' attitudes/perceptions (used synonymously) are towards constructs (e.g. relative advantage, perceived behavioural control, complexity) extracted from the different information systems (IS) technology adoption models. Thereafter, regression analysis was used to determine the best predictor of educators' attitudes and thus technology adoption. The findings of this study suggest that overall the educators perceptions are somewhat positive across most IS constructs with the notable exception of Perceived Behavioural Control and Facilitating Conditions where the mean are below 3.5. The analysis suggests that the independent variables explaining the greatest amount of variance in computer attitudes are in order of predicative value: extrinsic motivation, perceived usefulness, complexity, perceived behavioural control and relative advantage. The results point to the importance of educators' vision of technology itself, their experiences with it, their perceptions towards computer attributes and the conditions that surround its introduction into schools in shaping their attitudes towards technology and its subsequent diffusion into their educational practice.


Dr. Humphry Osmond first published the term "psychedelic" in 1957 as a result of an extensive set of clinical investigations with d-lysergic acid diethylmide (LSD) that took place in Saskatchewan in the 1950s. In the post-World War Two period, Saskatchewan became an attractive destination for medical, and in this case psychiatric, researchers who wanted to pursue theoretical and practical investigations that challenged disciplinary boundaries and critically examined the relationship between medicine and the state. Partly as a result of Saskatchewan's post-war political culture, the province became an intellectual sanctuary for medical experimentation that in some other contexts did not gain currency because it appeared too radical. This essay examines the way that psychedelic psychiatry emerged in that province and argues that the social, cultural and political environment in post-war Saskatchewan played a significant role in attracting researchers and supporting LSD research.


Publish/subscribe systems have been extensively studied in the context of distributed information-based systems, and have proven scalable in information-dissemination for many distributed applications that have motivated the research. With the emergence of sensor-based applications and sensor networks, researchers have proposed novel publish/subscribe protocols that address the problem of distributed event dissemination for sensor network characteristics and constraints. In this paper, we focus on primitive events and the emerging class of publishers, and argue for "state-filters" as more useful and suitable means of filtering events (than content-based filtering) in sensor-based publish/subscribe systems. Using state-filters, we claim to achieve higher efficiency by means of filtering redundant and correlated event notifications, suppress event duplicates, and capture lasting conditions that had been previously not possible using content- based filters. We evaluate our proposed filtering mechanism using real-world sensor data, and highlight some assumptions and pitfalls that motivate our future work in this area.


Steinemann, 1998 [1] reported an observation made several decades earlier in 1951, by Leventhal [2] in which 'bone reaction was studied by the insertion of up to 80 titanium screws into the femora of rats. At the end of sixteen weeks the screws were so tight that in one specimen the femur was fractured when an attempt was made to remove the screw'. Consequently, the main reasons given for the suitability of titanium for surgical implantation are its strength, its failure to cause tissue reaction, and the fact that bone becomes attached to titanium. Now, we call this attachment osseointegration which is considered to be the direct structural and functional connection between living bone and the surface of a load-bearing artificial implant. However, osseointegration is not considered to be a chemical bond between titanium and bone. Implant materials that actually bond to bone are considered to be bioactive. Materials for clinical use can be classified into three categories: resorbable, bioactive and nearly inert materials. A bioactive material is defined as a material that elicits a specific biological response at the interface of the material, which results in the formation of a bond between the tissue and that material. Whereas specific bioceramics are considered to be bioactive, titanium alloys are not normally considered to be so. However, recent surface modification of titanium alloys provide evidence that titanium alloys can become bioactive after treatment with NaOH and the ensuing development of a titanate gel on the metal surface.


This paper assesses the effects of structural reforms on firm-level productivity for 37 developing countries from 2006 to 2014 period. It takes advantage of the IMF Monitoring of Fund Arrangements dataset for reform indexes and the World Bank Enterprise Surveys for firm-level productivity. The paper highlights the following results. Structural reforms such as financial, fiscal, real sector, and trade reforms, significantly improve firm-level productivity. Interestingly, real sector reforms have the most sizeable effects on firm-level productivity. The relationship between structural reforms and firm-level productivity is nonlinear and shaped by some firms' characteristics such as the financial access, the distortionary environment, and the size of firms. The pace of structural reforms matters since being a "strong reformer" is associated with a clear productivity dividend for firms. Finally, except for financial and trade reforms, all structural reforms under consideration are bilaterally complementary in improving firm-level productivity. These findings are robust to several sensitivity checks. JEL Classification Numbers: D22, O16, O23, O24.


This 1991 report contains monitoring data from routine radiological and nonradiological environmental surveillance activities. Summaries of significant environmental compliance programs in progress such as National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation, environmental permits, environmental restoration (ER), and various waste management programs for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque (SNL, Albuquerque) are included. The maximum offsite dose impact was calculated to be 1.3 {times} 10{sup {minus}3} mrem. The total population within a 50-mile radius of SNL, Albuquerque, received a collective dose of 0.53 person-rem during 1991 from SNL, Albuquerque, operations. As in the previous year, the 1991 operations at SNL, Albuquerque, had no discernible impact on the general public or on the environment.


This article examines television advertising used during the 2004 presidential primary campaign. Based on interviews with the advertising creators and on repeated viewings by the author and his students it describes and analyzes the advertisements. It reveals that Iowa was the heavy spending state at $12.4 million. It discloses how Kerry won through heavy late spending depending on testimonial advertisements from veterans and others; how Edwards depended on talking-head and town meeting advertisements; how Dean's innovation was the delivery of advertisements on the internet; how Clark relied on a strong bio-documentary while Gephardt, Lieberman, and Kucinich had less notable advertisements.


Most recent released PC and console games offer multiplayer online support where players can compete or cooperate in real-time. However, very few games on mobile phones provide multiplayer support other than shared high score lists. This paper describes problems game developers have to face when developing real-time multiplayer games for mobile phones. Typical problems the developer has to deal with are incoherent representation of players' positions, jagged player object movement, missing collision detection between player objects and background, and wrong or missing collision detection between player objects. The paper describes the mobile multiplayer real-time game BrickBlock, which was developed to investigate the performance issues related to multiplayer games played over the wireless networks. Further, we describe our approaches to solve network latency problems in the game, which made the game playable even over networks with high latency.


The scope of this work is to create an alterable and erasable quantum-mechanical laser disc mass memory. The new memory system is based upon optical quantum-mechanical bistability of electron spin systems, created with laser in the ferrimagnetic thin-film (YIG) of a fast rotating Garnet disc (GGG). The microscopic elements of the new memory system are certain photomagnetic cylinder domains and their surrounding, oppositely magnetized toroidal shells. They are characterized either as "black" or "white" electron spin-flips. Electron spin-flips are created near laser focus by means of the angular momentum of an incident, circularly polarized laser beam. In order to create electron spin-flips, the intrinsic ferrimagnetic domains of the Garnet are to be circularly prealigned with laser by thermomagnetic means. The incident laser beam is signal modulated in square waves by means of a linear electro-optical modulator (Pockel's cell), yielding electron spin-reversal (spin-flip) along the concentric thermomagnetically prealigned circular domains of the ferrimagnet. A combined elementary cylinder and its shell comprise a digital photomagnetic electron spin state of plus one (+1), or minus one (-'4), where (h) is Plancks constant divided by 2π. The empty intrinsic state of the cir-cularly prealigned elementary domains comprises the third neutral state zero. Quite different from the optical bistability of volatile semiconductor memories, photo-magnetic bistability is nonvolatile due to the coercive force of the ferrimagnetic thin film. Magnetization stays permanent until it is erased by thermomagnetic means. The theo-retical bandwidth of the new memory is of the order of one (1) Gigahertz, corresponding to the free angular precession frequency of the electron spin-flip, which is determined by the Larmor frequency of the intrinsic magnetization of the ferrimagnetic domains of the Garnet.


An asymptomatic immunosuppressed renal transplant patient presented with diffuse alveolar infiltrates on a routine chest roentgenogram. An open lung biopsy revealed changes compatible with metastatic pulmonary calcification. The etiology, pathogenesis, and diagnostic approach to this rare disorder are discussed.


Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) hollow fibres have been spun by a dry-jet wet spinning technique, using a commercial PAN polymer (Courtelle) redissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF). After failure to produce satisfactory porous hollow
fibres from PAN/DMF solutions, a series of studies on the porous substructure of PAN cast films prepared with a variety of additives in the casting solution and at
varying temperatures of the coagulation bath were carried out. A porous and flexible PAN cast film was produced when it was precipitated in water at 55 °C with CuSO4 present in the casting solution. Hollow fibres produced from a spinning solution composed of 25wt% PAN, 70wt% DMF and 5wt% CuSO4 were more porous and flexible than those produced from 25wt% PAN and 75wt% DMF spinning solution, and appeared to be more suitable for gas separation studies.

The permeability of the PAN hollow fibre membranes to single gases was studied. The experimental results showed that the calculated pore radius on the surface of the
fibre was in the range of 4- 32 nm. After coating with silicone rubber, the membranes showed very poor gas permeability and selectivity. Since PAN has a low
intrinsic gas permeability, the low permeability observed is ascribed to a thick skin layer. The low selectivity of the membranes is related to their high surface porosity
(> 10-4), or to the large pores present which are imperfectly blocked. With such fibres, little or no gas will pass through the membranes by solution-diffusion in the
PAN.

In order to reduce the surface porosity on the skin layer of the hollow fibres, a dualbath coagulation spinning system was used. The gas permeability of H2 in these
membranes is lower than that obtained by the single bath coagulation system, while the gas permeability of the other gases, such as CO2 and CH4, were too low to measure. These results indicate that a high selectivity can be obtained by the dual bath coagulation spinning system although the selectivity is accompanied by too low a permeability, which is itself caused by too thick a skin layer.

Surface modifications of PAN hollow fibre were carried out in order to modify the surface porosity of the fibres. After the treatments, the hollow fibre membranes did
not give significant improvement in gas permeability and selectivity. But, when PAN hollow fibres were treated with cuprammonium hydroxide solution at room temperature, the fibres became coloured and no longer soluble in the usual solvents. The insolubility of the fibres is presumed to be due to a newly-formed crosslinked structure. The crosslinking of the fibres is reversed when the fibres are treated with EDTA solution. It has been observed that the presence of the copper in the fibres increases the tensile strength and decreases the elongation of the hollow fibres. The interaction of the PAN fibre with the cuprammonium hydroxide gave no improvement in gas separation performance but might be the basis for general acrylic fibre modification.


This paper studies a secrecy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication system with coordinated multipoint (CoMP) reception, in which one UAV sends confidential messages to a set of distributed ground nodes (GNs) that can cooperate in signal detection, in the presence of several colluding suspicious eavesdroppers. Different from prior works considering the two-dimensional (2D) horizontal trajectory design in the non-CoMP scenario, this paper additionally exploits the UAV's vertical trajectory (or altitude) control for further improving the secrecy communication performance with CoMP. In particular, we jointly optimize the three dimensional (3D) trajectory and transmit power allocation of the UAV to maximize the average secrecy rate at GNs over a particular flight period, subject to the UAV's maximum flight speed and maximum transmit power constraints. To solve the non-convex optimization problem, we propose an alternating-optimization-based approach, which optimizes the transmit power allocation and trajectory design in an alternating manner, by convex optimization and successive convex approximation (SCA), respectively. Numerical results show that in the scenario with CoMP reception, our proposed 3D trajectory optimization significantly outperforms the conventional 2D horizontal trajectory design, by exploiting the additional degree of freedom in vertical trajectory.


Maximal transdiaphragmatic (Pdimax) and airway occlusion pressures (PaOmax) have been used to predict weaning from mechanical assisted ventilation in adults, but criteria for weaning are still based on trial and error in infants and young children. Because infants and young children cannot cooperate, crying Pdi and PaOmax against an occlusion have been used, but these may not yield maximal values. We hypothesized that breathing CO2 would achieve better Pdimax and PaOmax values by maximizing respiratory drive and help in establishing weaning criteria. To test this, we measured tidal breathing and occluded Pdi and PaOmax in 27 patients (mean age, 15.0 +/- 31.5 SD months) who required prolonged assisted mechanical ventilation and had failed previous weaning attempts. Measurements were performed while patients were breathing spontaneously 100% O2 and 5% and 7% CO2 in O2. The patients achieved higher Pdimax breathing 5% CO2 (73.2 +/- 24.4 cm H2O) than in O2 (61.6 +/- 24.4 cm H2O; p < 0.0001) or in 7% CO2 (69.1 +/- 23.4 cm H2O; p < 0.0001). They also achieved higher PaOmax in 5% CO2 (81.7 +/- 23.5 cm H2O) than with the other gases (69.9 +/- 25.5 in O2, and 77.5 +/- 24.1 in 7% CO2; p < 0.001); 19 patients (70%) were weaned from assisted ventilation within 3.2 +/- 1.9 wk. In 5% CO2, all patients who were weaned achieved Pdimax > 60 cm H2O and could sustain > 60% Pdimax for more than five successive occluded breaths (100% sensitivity; 100% specificity; p < 0.0005).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This article analyses the protection of suspects' rights within the relatively new sphere of EU criminal justice. It evaluates both EU and ECHR protections through the lens of comparative criminal justice, emphasizing the importance of understanding the ways that safeguards for suspects operate in practice across different jurisdictions. By linking together analysis of ECHR fair trial guarantees, EU measures to strengthen police and judicial cooperation, and comparative insights into the function of the defense lawyer, it brings a new perspective to the discussion of how best to protect suspects subject to EU cooperation measures. It challenges the effectiveness of mutual trust and recognition, which is the principle underpinning EU criminal justice cooperation, and which assumes ECHR compliance across Member States. In addition to uneven compliance and enforcement, ECHR protections lack the detail and prescriptive qualities required to protect adequately suspects subject to new EU measures for extradition and evidence sharing. Differences in criminal procedural tradition have made difficult any agreement on universal safeguards for suspects at the EU level, but the EU's new incremental approach to defense rights through the Roadmap and recent ECHR caselaw have altered the legal landscape, giving cause for optimism.


The method of obtaining phosphorus-containing polyester by the Steglich reaction is considered. The results of studies on the production of polyesteresters using ethyl phosphate group in the structure of dipolyethyleneglycolethylphosphate are presented. The obtained polymer was characterized by IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The composition of polyester ether was evaluated and its end groups were analyzed.


Abstract Introduction The aim was to assess the efficacy of total sleep deprivation (TSD) with sleep phase advance (SPA) in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and associated biochemical factors. Methods We studied nine males and 12 females, aged 49±14 years, with treatment-resistant unipolar or bipolar depression, receiving antidepressant and mood-stabilizing drugs. The four-day schedule included single TSD and three consecutive nights with SPA. Biochemical markers were measured on the day before and on 1st, 7th and 14th day after the TSD. Results Ten subjects met criteria for response, defined as a reduction of ≥50% in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, on the 14th day. Concentrations of cortisol at baseline were lower in responders, and they decreased during therapy in both groups. In responders, there was an increase of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-1β on the 14th day. Discussion Our preliminary study demonstrated the efficacy of pharmacotherapy augmentation by TSD and SPA in half of the patients with TRD. The main biochemical factors related to clinical response included status of cortisol and increase in IL-10 and IL-1β levels.


A simple, rapid and accurate high performance liquid chromatography method is described for determination of thiocolchicoside from active pharmaceutical ingredients. The separation of drug was achieved on Zorbax Eclipse C18 (250 x 4.6 mm i.d.) with 5 µ particle size column showed most favorable chromatographic pattern over the other columns. The mobile phase consisted of a mixture of buffer and acetonitrile (70:30 % v/v). The buffer was mixtures of 0.1 % tri-ethyl amine adjusted the pH 3.3 with ortho-phosphoric acid. The detection was carried out at wavelength 260 nm. The mixture of buffer and acetonitrile (70:30% v/v) was used as a diluent. The method was validated for system suitability, linearity, accuracy, precision, robustness, stability of sample solution. The method has been successfully used to analyze thiocolchicoside hydrochloride from active pharmaceutical ingredients


"Texture plus depth" refers to the format where a sender encodes both texture and depth maps at multiple camera-captured viewpoints. Having received such a representation, the decoder can synthesize novel intermediate view images via depth-image-based rendering (DIBR), using as anchors the texture and depth maps of the two closest captured viewpoints. Ideally then, one would optimally allocate available source coding bits among the encoded texture and depth maps, such that the synthesized view distortion is minimized. However, in many practical application scenarios the precise rate constraint may either: i) be unknown at encoding time, or ii) it can take on multiple values for clients of heterogeneous connectivities. In this paper, we propose a flexible codec and an associated bit allocation strategy to address both of these scenarios. In particular, we first present an edge-adaptive wavelet multiview image codec capable of producing a scalable bitstream from which proper subsets can be extracted and decoded at different bit-rates. Given our scalable codec, we then propose a rate allocation algorithm that performs one of the following two actions. The algorithm will either incrementally increase the number of bits for encoding texture or depth maps of already encoded viewpoints, or it will introduce into the scalable representation new texture or depth maps of previously uncoded captured viewpoints. The incremental choice of either refining an existing view or introducing a new one is carried out one layer at a time, such that the associated rate-distortion tradeoff is locally optimized. By employing our novel bit allocation strategy the proposed coder outperforms the state-of-the-art H.264/SVC codec as well as the same wavelet-based coder when armed with a simple suboptimal bit allocation with the same rate allocated to each map, in all coding scenarios studied in our experiments. Furthermore, our coder can achieve an arbitrarily fine granularity of encoding bit rates, while providing the additional functionality of view embedded encoding, unlike the other related coders that we examined.


We present a Newtonian, one-dimensional, differential analysis for capillary breakup rheometry (CBR) to determine the surface tension to viscosity ratio $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ . Our local differential analysis does not require specific assumptions for the axial force to preclude its measurement. Our analysis indicates that measuring gradients in filament curvature is necessary to accurately determine $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ when axial force is not measured. CBR experiments were performed on five silicone oils ( $0.35~\text{Pa}~\text{s}<\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}<10~\text{ Pa}~\text{s}$ ), three sample volumes, and three strains to evaluate the operating range of the differential analysis and compare its performance to that of a standard integral method from literature. We investigate the role of filament asymmetry, caused mainly by gravity, on the performance of the differential method for the range of conditions studied. Experimental and analytical details for resolving gradients of curvature are also given.


The objective of the present study was to investigate whether lymphopenia occurring after heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is related to apoptosis and or sepsis in children. The design was a prospective cohort study in a third level care hospital in Mexico City. In total, 68 children (31 girls and 37 boys) with congenital cardiopathy who needed corrective cardiac surgery with or without CPB were included. The samples were obtained from central blood before, immediately after and 24 h after surgery. Complete blood counts and lymphocyte apoptosis were analyzed. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), sepsis and the type of microorganism were recorded. A total of 53 patients received CPB and 15 did not. Lymphocyte count decreased after surgery in both groups (P<0.001). However, neutrophil count increased markedly in both groups. Apoptosis of B (CD19+) lymphocytes was higher in the non-CPB group (14, 2 and 21% before, immediately after and 24 h after surgery, respectively) than the CPB group (0, 2 and 3%, respectively), but apoptosis of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD8+) was higher in the CPB group (5, 4 and 3% before, immediately after and 24 h after surgery, respectively) than in the non-CPB group (2, 3 and 2%, respectively). However, the extent of apoptosis of T and B lymphocytes after surgery did not differ between groups. The CPB group had more complications than the non-CPB group [38 (71.7%) vs. 9 (60.0%)]. In conclusion, the decrease in lymphocyte count may be related to apoptosis of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in children receiving cardiac surgery with CPB and to apoptosis of B lymphocytes in those not receiving CPB. The decreased lymphocyte counts in both groups suggested that CPB is not the main cause of this decrease. Children who received CPB during surgery had more complications, such as sepsis and cardiogenic shock than did those who did not receive CPB.


The aim of this study is to reduce the foreign fishermen`s rate of deserting from Korean coastal and offshore fishing vessel. There are two employment systems for foreign fishermen who work on a coastal and offshore fishing vessel in Korea. One is employment permit system and the other is foreign seamen system. The former permits the foreign fishermen to work on the fishing vessels which are less than 20 gross tonnage. The latter permits the foreign fishermen to work on the fishing vessels which are more than 20 gross tonnage. The recent rate of deserting from their workplace are 21.5% in foreign seaman system and 26.8% in employment permit system by October 2011. In this paper, the authors propose eight means to reduce the rate of deserting from their workplace.


1. Following a single dose (400 mg/kg s.c.) of o-[methyl-14C]toluidine to male F344 rats, 56% of the 14C was recovered in the 24 h urine, 2.3% in the faeces and 1% as exhaled 14CO2. After 48 h, 83.9% of the 14C appeared in the urine, 3.3% in the faeces and 1.4% was exhaled. 2. Ether-extractable urinary metabolites were separated by h.p.l.c. and identified as: o-toluidine (5.1% dose); azoxytoluene (0.2%); o-nitrosotoluene (less than or equal to 0.1%); N-acetyl-o-toluidine (0.2%); N-acetyl-o-aminobenzyl alcohol (0.3%); 4-amino-m-cresol (0.6%); N-acetyl-4-amino-m-cresol (0.3%); anthranilic acid (0.3%) and N-acetylanthranilic acid (0.3%). 3. Acid-conjugated urinary metabolites (51% of dose), separated by paper electrophoresis and by Sephadex LH-20 chromatography, were identified as sulphates of 4-amino-m-cresol (27.8% dose), N-acetyl-4-amino-m-cresol (8.5%), and 2-amino-m-cresol (2.1%), and glucuronides of 4-amino-m-cresol (2.6%), N-acetyl-4-amino-m-cresol (2.8%) and N-acetyl-o-aminobenzyl alcohol. Evidence for a double acid conjugate of 4-amino-m-cresol was also found. 4. These results show that N-acetylation and hydroxylation at the 4 position of o-toluidine are major metabolic pathways in the rat. Minor pathways include hydroxylation at the 6 position, oxidation of the methyl group and oxidation of the amino group. Sulphate conjugates predominate over glucuronides by a ratio of 6:1.


Serendipita (=Piriformospora) indica is a fungal endophytic symbiont with the capabilities to enhance plant growth and confer resistance to different stresses. However, the application of this fungus in the field has led to inconsistent results, perhaps due to antagonism with other microbes. Here, we studied the impact of individual bacterial isolates from the endophytic bacterial community on the in vitro growth of S. indica. We further analyzed how combinations of bacteria and S. indica influence plant growth and protection against the phytopathogens Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani. Bacterial strains of the genera Bacillus, Enterobacter and Burkholderia negatively affected S. indica growth on plates, whereas Mycolicibacterium, Rhizobium, Paenibacillus strains and several other bacteria from different taxa stimulated fungal growth. To further explore the potential of bacteria positively interacting with S. indica, four of the most promising strains belonging to the genus Mycolicibacterium were selected for further experiments. Some dual inoculations of S. indica and Mycolicibacterium strains boosted the beneficial effects triggered by S. indica, further enhancing the growth of tomato plants, and alleviating the symptoms caused by the phytopathogens F. oxysporum and R. solani. However, some combinations of S. indica and bacteria were less effective than individual inoculations. By analyzing the genomes of the Mycolicibacterium strains, we revealed that these bacteria encode several genes predicted to be involved in the stimulation of S. indica growth, plant development and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Particularly, a high number of genes related to vitamin and nitrogen metabolism were detected. Taking into consideration multiple interactions on and inside plants, we showed in this study that some bacterial strains may induce beneficial effects on S. indica and could have an outstanding influence on the plant-fungus symbiosis.


Adrenergic and cholinergic innervation of the stomach was investigated using histochemical techniques, and gastric mucosal cholinesterase (ChE) activity was measured by a calorimetric method. The effects of vagal nerve stimulation on gastric mucosal ChE activity was examined, and the following results were obtained. No differences in innervation and mucosal ChE activity were found between the lesser and greater curvatures of the stomach. High ChE activity and a wide and dense network of cholinergic nerve fibers were observed in the fundic mucosa, but in the antral mucosa the fibers were limited and ChE activity was low. The number of cholinergic fibers was markedly reduced in the intermediate zone. Mucosal ChE activity increased temporarily after truncal vagotomy, but after 6 months it returned to the original value. Antral mucosal ChE activity became elevated temporarily after vagal stimulation, but decreased rapidly thereafter. Denervation of hepatic, celiac and antral branches of the vagus caused a significant decrease in acid secretion. This suggests that these nerves are also involved in gastric secretion, and that the vagal nerve fibers are distributed to the greater curvature of stomach via these branches.


The Duke University men's basketball team has served as the gold standard in college athletics for well over two decades...and that's all because of the extraordinary impact of Mike Krzyzewski, the highly-respected coach of the Duke squad. Coach K's reputation as a teacher of young men has transcended his extraordinary success as a coach. The Duke team is always ranked at the top of the college game, year in and year out but what's truly remarkable about Coach K are his players and the legacy they leave behind: Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Elton Brand, Bobby Hurley, and on and on -- these are not just great basketball players but individuals who have become true leaders in American society, all thanks in large part to Coach K's leadership. So how does he do it? In this he reveals his tips, advice and time-tested guidance on how he coaches and educates his players about life beyond basketball court Starting with the 4 most important words "I believe in you" Coach K provides his personal philosophy on how to cope with winning, how to cope with losing, how to rely on one's teammates, the importance of discipline, the rewards of taking pride in one's work, and much, much more.


This publication consists of the six papers presented at the XV Conference of Translation Studies (XV Kaantamisentutkimuksen paivat), hosted by the Nordic Philology unit of the Department of German, French and Scandinavian Languages, University of Oulu. The contributors came from the Department of Modern Finnish and Translation (University of Vaasa) and the Department of German, French and Scandinavian Languages (University of Oulu). Most focus on theoretical and practical problems in translating. The conference plenary paper, which deals with translation and interpretation from a semiotic point of view, was presented by a lecturer of the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature (University of Helsinki, University of Oulu).


Most manuscripts submitted to Acta Orthopaedica, as well as to other medical scientific journals, describe treatment effects, complications, side effects, quality of life, health economy, etc. in a limited group of patients. The aim of the studies, however, is to learn something of importance for all patients, including future ones, not only for those who participated in the studies.

Statistical analysis is performed to quantify the empirical support for the findings. The evaluation is based on sample-to-population inference: an observable sample is studied in order to learn about the unobservable population it represents.

A consequence of the population not being fully observable is that the findings will always be uncertain to some degree. Statistical methods can, however, be used to quantify this uncertainty. It is often presented in terms of confidence intervals and p-values.

Unfortunately, instead of recognizing that p-values and confidence intervals describe generalization uncertainty, many authors seem to believe that these measures represent some obscure property of the observed sample itself.

For example, when two groups have different mean values, but the difference is not statistically significant, the observed difference is often described as "there was no difference". Another common phrase is that "there was no statistical difference". The first description is wrong, because it is a misrepresentation of what has actually been observed. The second characterization is ridiculous, because a statistically insignificant difference in mean values is as much "statistical" as a statistically significant one. Observed data should be described correctly: for example, "the two groups had similar mean values" or "differed in mean value, but the difference was not statistically significant".

Similar confusion is common for statistically significant findings. Statistical significance can, for example, be considered to be a token of practical significance or importance. However, uncertainty and practical significance are two fundamentally different things. Practical significance cannot be derived from a p-value.

Note that the p-value is not an effect measure; a lower p-value does not necessarily correspond to a greater difference. The same difference in revision rates between two specific knee arthroplasties is, for example, likely to get a much lower p-value when tested in the large Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register than in a small clinical study. The reason for this is that the size of the p-value depends on sample size. It is therefore necessary to consider both the practical effects (the clinical significance of the effects) and their estimation uncertainty (related to the statistical significance of the effects). Just presenting a finding as "significant" is clearly ambiguous.

Other common language problems are related to misunderstood terminology, such as "multivariate" analyses performed with multiple linear regression (a univariate method), and four "quartiles" representing the four quarts of a sample (which are defined by three quartiles).

In addition, some statistical software packages have a bad influence on scientific writing. Attempts to improve user-friendliness are often made at the expense of specificity. For example, the description "independent groups' T-test" may be reasonable within the narrow framework of a certain software package, but it is not sufficiently specific for the statistics section of a scientific manuscript, because without knowledge about the software package used, the description can refer to any of Student's, Welch's, Satterthwaite's, Yuen's, and Pitman's t-tests, and even to Hotelling's T-test.

Vague and ambiguous descriptions and slang language may have a place in literary writing but should be avoided in science in order to facilitate correct interpretation of the findings presented.


Preface I. Function 1. Natural selection and avian coloration: protection, concealment, advertisement, or deception? Gary R. Bortolotti 2. Intraspecific variation in bird colors James Dale 3. Bird colors as intrasexual signals of aggression and dominance Juan Carlos Senar 4. Female mate choice for ornamental coloration in birds Geoffrey E. Hill 5. The function and evolution of color in young birds Rebecca M. Kilner 6. Benefits to female birds of assessing color displays Simon C. Griffith and Sarah R. Pryke 7. Female coloration in birds: a review of functional and non-functional hypotheses Trond Amundsen and Henrik Paern II. Evolution 8. Colorful phenotypes of colorless genotypes: Towards a new evolutionary synthesis of bird color displays Alexander V. Badyaev 9. Ecological explanations for interspecific variability in avian coloration Ian P. F. Owens 10. Adding color to the past: Ancestral-state reconstruction of bird coloration Kevin E. Omland and Christopher M. Hofmann Acknowledgments Contributors Index


Four Af rican antelopes were purchased freshly killed from local hunters at Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State Nigeria and were transported to the Meat Science Laboratory of the Department of Animal Production, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Yewa Campus, Ayetoro, Ogun State, where the study was conducted. The Antelopes were dressed conventionally, eviscerated, washed and weighed. They were dissected into two halves and chilled at 40C for 24 hours. One half carcass of each antelope was weighed after chilling and was fabricated into primal cuts namely; leg, shoulder, rib, loin and breast, shank + flank (BSF) and weighed. Weight of chilled half carcass and primal cut as well as the proportions of primal cuts relative to chilled half carcass weight percentage cook yield, cooking loss, lean meat, bone as well as meat to bone ratio were determined. The results showed that leg cut had highest percentage weight of 40.11, followed by shoulder cut (16.94%), while loin cut had the least (10.72%). Percentage cook yield was highest in leg cut (71.69%), followed by BSF (70.85%) and least in rib cut (66.39%). The percentage cooking loss was highest in shoulder cut (37.09%), followed by rib cut (33.61%), and while leg cut had the least (27.81%). The leg cut gave the highest lean meat weight of 436.25 g followed by the shoulder cut with 187.50 g, while loin cut gave the least (59.00 g). Similarly, the leg cut had highest bone of 103.75 g, followed by shoulder cut (42.75 g) and least in loin cut (19.50 g). The lean to bone ratio was highest in shoulder cut 4.39:1 closely followed by leg cut 4.20:1, while loin cut had the least 3.03:1 lean-tobone ratio. The results on yield of carcass and primal cuts of Antelope obtained from this study compared well with those of sheep and goats. It is therefore, suggested that domestication of Antelope be expedited in order to shore up the supply of animal protein for growing world population, especially in developing countries where animal protein consumption is low. Keywords : African antelope, carcass yield, primal cuts, meat, animal protein


Cancers of the orofacial region can be devastating in their impact on physical structure and function of the affected individual, leading to potentially severe compromises in quality of life. A total of Twenty (20) mandibular resected patients were selected for this study. All the patients' were rehabilitated with mandibular resection prosthesis. Novel scale known as Maxillofacial Prosthesis Performance Scale (MFPPS) was developed for mandibulectomy patients to assess the oral health related quality of life. This scale has been tested for validity and reliability. The OHRQol was measured using the oral health impact profile (OHIP-Edent-19), Obturator functioning scale (OFS-15) and Maxillofacial Prosthesis Performance Scale (MFPPS-10) with standardized questionnaire after 2 weeks & 3months of prosthesis function for twenty (20) mandibular resected patients. For OHIP –Edent scale; when comparing 2 weeks, all subscale scores shown significant progress on oral health impact profile-Edent scale after 3 months of prosthesis function. For OFS scale; when observing the score of 2 weeks and 3 months, there was dramatic improvement of (75%) in miscellaneous factors which include Problems in dryness of mouth, engagement in social events and obturator positioning. For MFPPS; all rehabilitated patients' were observed two weeks later, negative impacts have been eliminated and positive impacts increased on oral health. The patient was reviewed again 3months later and confirming an even higher level of overall satisfaction with the Mandibular Resection Prosthesis. The maxillofacial prosthesis had a strong positive impact on quality of life .Hence mandibular resection prosthesis enhance the oral health related quality of life.


Yield enhancements in the manufacturing process today require an expensive, long and tedious physical failure analysis process to identify the root cause. In this paper we present Axiom, a new technique geared towards efficiently identifying a single dominant defect mechanism (for example in an excursion wafer) by analyzing fail data collected from the production test environment. Axiom utilizes statistical hypothesis testing in a novel way to analyze logic diagnosis data along with information on physical features in the design layout and reliably identify the dominant cause for yield loss. This new methodology was validated by applying it to a single excursion wafer produced on a 90 nm process, in which the dominant failing physical feature was correctly identified.


A common diiculty encountered by many solvers for complementarity problems is convergence to a local (but not global) minimum of an underlying merit function. Such diiculties can be avoided by using a proximal perturbation strategy, which allows the iterates to escape the local minimum in a controlled fashion. This paper presents the proximal perturbation strategy for a general class of complementarity solvers and proves subsequential convergence to a solution based upon a pseudo-monotonicity assumption. An example algorithm is presented, called PROXI, which uses an extremely simple (but not very robust) basic algorithm enhanced by the proximal perturbation strategy. Test results on the MCPLIB and GAMSLIB problem libraries demonstrate that PROXI is not only robust but also computationally eecient.


In the male moth Agrotis ipsilon behavioural response and antennal lobe (AL) neuron sensitivity to the female‐produced sex pheromone increase with age and juvenile hormone (JH) level. We recently showed that the neuromodulator, octopamine (OA), interacts with JH in this age‐dependent olfactory plasticity. To further elucidate its role, we cloned a full cDNA encoding a protein that presents biochemical features essential to OA/tyramine receptor (AipsOAR/TAR) function. The AipsOAR/TAR transcript was detected predominantly in the antennae, the brain and, more specifically, in ALs where its expression level varied concomitantly with age. This expression plasticity indicates that AipsOAR/TAR might be involved in central processing of the pheromone signal during maturation of sexual behaviour in A. ipsilon.


Objective: Chemotherapy-induced alopecia is a common and distressful side effect, especially among breast cancer patients. Scalp cooling (SC) can reduce hair loss during anthracycline- and taxane-based chemotherapy. This study assessed the effectiveness of SC in daily clinical practice in three Italian oncology units. Methods: From 2014 to 2016, we prospectively included 220 female early-stage breast cancer patients undergoing curative chemotherapy in combination with SC using the Paxman device. Effectiveness was defined as the severity of hair loss according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Version 4.0 as follows: Grade 0, no hair loss; Grade 1, <50% hair loss not requiring a wig; and Grade 2, ≥50% hair loss at each cycle and at completion of chemotherapy. The tolerability and safety were also evaluated. Results: The overall success rate of SC (hair loss Grade 0–1) was 68%. Severe hair loss was avoided in 89% of women receiving taxane-based chemotherapy and in 78% of women receiving both anthracyclines and taxanes. Among women undergoing anthracycline-based chemotherapy, 47% experienced hair preservation. SC was well tolerated, as only 20 patients discontinued SC for reasons other than hair loss. Conclusions: Our study confirmed that SC provides a reliable chance for breast cancer patients to keep their hair during taxane- and/or anthracycline-based chemotherapy.


Classifying EEG data is integral to the performance of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) and their applications. However, external noise often obstructs EEG data due to its biological nature and complex data collection process. Especially when dealing with classification tasks, standard EEG preprocessing approaches extract relevant events and features from the entire dataset. However, these approaches treat all relevant cognitive events equally and overlook the dynamic nature of the brain over time. In contrast, we are inspired by neuroscience studies to use a novel approach that integrates feature selection and time segmentation of EEG data. When tested on the EEGEyeNet dataset, our proposed method significantly increases the performance of Machine Learning classifiers while reducing their respective computational complexity.


This paper presents the application of multi-objective genetic algorithms for green building design to minimize two conflicting criteria: the life-cycle cost and the life-cycle environmental impact. Environmental impact categories considered in this study include energy and non-energy natural resources, global warming, and acidification. Variables focus on building envelope-related parameters. The application of multi-objective genetic algorithms is divided into two phases. The first phase intends to help designers in understanding the trade-off relationship between the two conflicting criteria. The second phase intends to refine the performance region that is of the designer's interest.


Objective: A patient medical insurance coverage plays an essential role in determining the post-acute care (PAC) discharge disposition. The prior health insurance authorization process postpones the PAC discharge disposition, increases the inpatient length of stay, and effects patient health. Our study implements predictive analytics for the early prediction of the PAC discharge disposition to reduce the deferments caused by prior health insurance authorization, the inpatient length of stay and inpatient stay expenses. Methodology: We conducted a group discussion involving 25 patient care facilitators (PCFs) and two registered nurses (RNs) and retrieved 1600 patient data records from the initial nursing assessment and discharge notes to conduct a retrospective analysis of PAC discharge dispositions using predictive analytics. Results: The chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID) algorithm enabled the early prediction of the PAC discharge disposition, accelerated the prior health insurance process, decreased the inpatient length of stay by an average of 22.22%, and reduced inpatient stay expenses by $1,974 for state government hospitals, $2,346 for non-profit hospitals and $1,798 for for-profit hospitals per day. The CHAID algorithm produced an overall accuracy of 84.16% and an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve value of 0.81. Conclusion: The early prediction of PAC discharge dispositions can condense the PAC deferment caused by the prior health insurance authorization process and simultaneously minimize the inpatient length of stay and related expenses incurred by the hospital.


In this paper1 we present an overview of a prototype we are developing for in the context of web archives (page comparison, crawling and information retrieval). It analyses pages based on their DOM tree information and their visual rendering. This tool implements a modified version of VIPS with the aim of enhancing the precision of visual block extraction and the hierarchy construction. First, the visual rendering of a page, produced by several browsers, is segmented into rectangular blocks. Then, the extracted blocks are analysed looking for visual overlaps, which are analysed using a adapted version of the XY-Cut algorithm and resolve the overlap. As a result we may have different shapes of blocks, rectangular and non-rectangular blocks. Finally, the visual block tree, representing the layout of the page is analysed in order to have a more coherent layout disposition.


Significance Death-driven compensatory proliferation to repair tissue defects is an important promoter of inflammation-associated carcinogenesis. Our work using a mouse model demonstrates that a biliary epithelial injury-induced regenerative response mediated by IL-33 accelerates development of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC) from peribiliary glands, an effect that was suppressed by anti–IL-33 treatment. Thus, IL-33 is a potential therapeutic target for ECC, and the mouse model reported in this study will enable identification of the mechanisms of biliary injury-based carcinogenesis. The carcinogenic mechanism of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC) is unclear, due at least in part to the lack of an appropriate mouse model. Because human studies have reported frequent genetic alterations in the Ras- and TGFβ/SMAD-signaling pathways in ECC, mice with tamoxifen-inducible, duct-cell–specific Kras activation and a TGFβ receptor type 2 (TGFβR2) deletion were first generated by crossing LSL-KrasG12D, Tgfbr2flox/flox, and K19CreERT mice (KT-K19CreERT). However, KT-K19CreERT mice showed only mild hyperplasia of biliary epithelial cells (BECs) in the extrahepatic bile duct (EHBD) and died within 7 wk, probably a result of lung adenocarcinomas. Next, to analyze the additional effect of E-cadherin loss, KT-K19CreERT mice were crossed with CDH1flox/flox mice (KTC-K19CreERT). Surprisingly, KTC-K19CreERT mice exhibited a markedly thickened EHBD wall accompanied by a swollen gallbladder within 4 wk after tamoxifen administration. Histologically, invasive periductal infiltrating-type ECC with lymphatic metastasis was observed. Time-course analysis of EHBD revealed that recombined BECs lining the bile duct lumen detached due to E-cadherin loss, whereas recombined cells could survive in the peribiliary glands (PBGs), which are considered a BEC stem-cell niche. Detached dying BECs released high levels of IL-33, as determined by microarray analysis using biliary organoids, and stimulated inflammation and a regenerative response by PBGs, leading eventually to ECC development. Cell lineage tracing suggested PBGs as the cellular origin of ECC. IL-33 cooperated with Kras and TGFβR2 mutations in the development of ECC, and anti–IL-33 treatment suppressed ECC development significantly. Thus, this mouse model provided insight into the carcinogenic mechanisms, cellular origin, and potential therapeutic targets of ECC.


The performance of trellis codes is examined for a class of intersymbol interference (ISI) channels that occur in high-frequency radio systems. The channels considered are characterized by in-band spectral nulls and by a rapid time variation. The baseline modulation technique is 4QAM (four-point quadrature amplitude modulation). When spectral nulls are absent, performance of fractionally spaced linear equalizers and trellis decoders is found to be near ideal and to be better than using symbol-spacing in the equalizer. However, error propagation in the feedback path, resulting from equalizer-based decisions, ruins the performance of the combination of decision-feedback equalizers and trellis decoders when spectral nulls are present. Their performance can be improved by using fractionally spaced feedforward equalizer sections and by designing the decoder to compensate for ISI. Rate 2/3 codes are found to outperform rate 1/2 codes in error performance. >


Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) and allergic conditions in individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) may evolve to serious complications unless managed properly. Early diagnosis and evaluation of these conditions of DM patients are important to maintain the quality of life of the patients. The objective of the current study was to identify the incidence of UTIs among type 2 DM patients. Method: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 260 type 2 DM patients, who participated in a diabetic clinic conducted in the District General Hospital, Ampara. The study was conducted for a period of one month. Information like demography, history of UTI reported in the last 12 months, glycemic control of patients and other relevant details were collected via a questionnaire. In addition, Urine Full Report (UFR) of spot urine sample and Full Blood Count (FBC) investigations were performed in the hospital laboratory and analyzed. Results: The incidence of UTI in the study population was 27.2% (n = 72). UFR showed 25% of the study population had evidence of UTI (presence of 10 or more puss cells/ high power field of the microscope). A significant association was noticed between the incidence of UTI and the gender (p < 0.01). High incidence of UTI was observed in females (81.9%) with a relative risk of 2.0 (95% CI 0.208, 0.701). Moreover, the study showed a statistically significant association between the incidence of UTI (p < 0.05, relative risk, 2.5 (95% CI = 1.053, 5.936)) and female patients having poor glycemic control. A statistically significant association was also shown between the incidence of UTI and the duration of DM (p < 0.05) which was seen to be greater than 6.5 years. The incidence of allergic conditions in the study population was 25.8% (n = 67). RESEARcH ARTiclE


Lincoln Electric System, the public power utility of Lincoln, Nebraska, will complete a multiple LM6000 gas turbine station project at the end of 2003 that features Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) for both combined cycle as well as simple cycle. Furthermore, the facility will be capable of meeting ultra low emissions levels of nitrogen oxides when firing both natural gas and Number 2 fuel oil. This discussion explores the selection and implementation of these emission control systems from procurement through first fire. Burns and McDonnell, of Kansas City, Missouri, led the design effort of this green field site and co-authors with members of the utility.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


The authors examined the effects of relationship threats on sexual fantasies. In two studies, participants described a sexual fantasy following an imagination task and reported their attachment orientations. In Study 1, participants imagined relationship or nonrelationship threat scenes. Results indicated that relationship threat led to fantasies that involved interpersonal distance and hostility themes. Furthermore, following relational threat, women and more anxiously attached individuals were most likely to use relationship-maintaining strategies in their fantasies. More anxiously attached individuals were also particularly likely to represent themselves as alienated. In Study 2, participants imagined sexual or emotional threat scenes. The findings showed that sexual threat elicited self-enhancement, whereas emotional threat led to fantasies involving both self-enhancement and attachment-related themes. Emotional threat was also most likely to induce negative views of others in more avoidant women. Implications for understanding the underlying functions of sexual fantasies within the context of romantic relationships are discussed.


The general theme of this special section is modelling and simulation in polymer and composite processing. Composite processing in general involves reactive processing. During the last decade there have been numerous advances in modelling and simulation in both thermoplastic and reactive processing. This fact, coupled with the enormous advances in computing capability, has made Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) a reality. Industry nowadays depends on CAE to improve and/or develop new processes. There is no excuse not to take advantage of modelling and simulation. Another tendency is a clear move towards environmentally benign manufacturing; thus several papers in this issue discuss environmentally benign alternatives to traditional manufacturing for both composite and thermoplastics. The first two papers are a review of modelling and simulation; the first paper by Castro, Cabrera Rios and Mount-Campbell focuses on reactive processing, while the second by Kim and Turng discusses thermoplastics moulding. Another important issue is the need to use empirical modelling for cases where physics-based models are not available or are too cumbersome to use. For that reason the paper by Castro et al focuses on empirical modelling and the paper by Kim and Turng discusses exclusively physics-based modelling. The next three papers, two by Advani and collaborators and the third by Srinivasagupta and Kardos, refer to composite manufacturing. Advani's papers cover recent advances in Reactive Liquid Moulding, a process that has gained great acceptance as an environmentally benign alternative to open moulding. The paper by Srinivasagupta and Kardos covers the important issue of addressing simultaneously both environmental and economical design. In general the environmental optimum does not coincide with the economic optimum; this gives rise to the need to compromise. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique, discussed in the first paper, can be used to identify the best set of compromises. The exergy approach used by Srinivasagupta and Kardos to evaluate the ecological impact has shown great potential for measuring the effect of processes in the environment. The process they discuss is an environmentally friendly alternative to the standard pultrusion process. The sixth paper, by Chensong Dong and collaborators, focuses on modelling and optimizing dimensional variation in composites, and offers a good complement to Advani's papers. Papers seven by Lilly et al, and eight by Lyytikainen et al, focus on thermoplastic moulding. The last paper, by Chen et al, discusses the modelling of a technology that has the potential to be the environmentally friendly alternative to painting. I would like to thank Dr Mauricio Cabrera Rios, who obtained his PhD under my supervision and is now a professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Mexico, for his help in coordinating the paper reviews. Also, the willingness of the authors to go through several review iterations where needed is greatly appreciated. Finally I would like to thank Ms Judith Adams (editor), without whose help this issue would not have been possible. She was instrumental in securing some papers and in obtaining the proper evaluations of others.


— One of the front runners in the area of renewable energy resources today is solar power. Photovoltaic cells are used to convert solar energy in to useful electrical energy. The objective of this paper is to construct an efficient solar car, for the daily office commuters of city so that they can travel a fixed distance that they need to commute everyday on a reliable and economical car that essentially runs on free renewable solar energy. All calculations would be made bearing in mind the maximum distance travelled by office commuter since overcoming this distance would be the primary objective of the solar car to be built. The paper illustrates how the charge generated by an array of solar panels is received and its flow in and out of a battery pack is to be controlled using a microcontroller based charge controller to ensure efficient storing of charge in a battery pack. The stored energy would be divulged to a DC motor which would run the car. The design of a motor controller to control the car's speed and forward/reverse direction of motion is shown. The mechanical construction from scratch of the chassis along with all necessary mechanical systems is illustrated. Finally the wiring of the electrical system onto the mechanical body is demonstrated.


BACKGROUND
This research aims to understand the role of coping strategies and self-efficacy expectations as predictors of life satisfaction in a sample of parents of boys and girls diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder.

METHODS
A total of 129 parents (64 men and 65 women) answered a questionnaire on life-satisfaction, coping strategies and self-efficacy scales.

RESULTS
Using a regression model, results show that the age of the child is associated with a lower level of satisfaction in parents. The results show that self-efficacy is the variable that best explains the level of satisfaction in mothers, while the use of problem solving explains a higher level of satisfaction in fathers. Men and women show similar levels of life satisfaction; however significant differences were found in coping strategies where women demonstrated higher expressing emotions and social support strategies than men.

CONCLUSIONS
The development of functional coping strategies and of a high level of self-efficacy represents a key tool for adapting to caring for children with autism. Our results indicated the necessity of early intervention with parents to promote coping strategies, self-efficacy and high level of life satisfaction.


Products of the vacuum-UV photolysis of cyanodiacetylene (HC(5)N) in solid argon -- the anion C(5)N(-), imine HNC(5), and the branched carbene C(4)(H)CN -- have been identified by IR absorption spectroscopy, in addition to the already discovered isonitrile HC(4)NC. Spectral assignments were assisted by deuterium substitution experiments, by BD(T) calculations, and by the results of a recent density functional theory study.


: Since the 1980s, the critical theory of humanities and social sciences generates a new sub-discipline called critical toponymy, which focuses on the dissection of the cultural, economic, and political motivations of naming or renaming and pays close attention to the critical interpretation of the evolution of place- name landscape based on the perspectives of power competition and social relations. This sub- discipline gives an opportunity to account for the huge changes in the place-name landscape in China within the characteristic social context of market-oriented economy and rapid urbanization. It makes use of knowledge from multiple disciplines such as history, geography, management, linguistics, and folkloristics. As the produce and component of social memory, the application of social memory theory to the research of toponymy is of great theoretical and practical significance. But the role of social memory theory in toponymy has been overlooked for a long time. Meanwhile, place names have been considered intangible cultural heritage and many cities take diverse measures to preserve them. However, social memory is characterized by continuity, contemporaneity, and selectivity, which decide that not only the usage habitat and collective memory of local residents, but also the collective imagination of social groups can be ignored when naming or renaming place names. In other words, preserving historical place names and developing modern place names are equally important. Applying GIS spatial analysis and the theory of social memory, this study explored the spatiotemporal pattern and dynamic change of street names of the main districts in Nanjing City. It found that the most of newly-added street names distributed around the old urban area and the disappeared names clustered within the old urban area. The old south district has the highest density of both existent and disappeared street names. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the then newly-added street names were mainly found in the areas along the Yangtze River of Xiaguan District and districts surrounded by the Ming Great Wall, and from the 1990s they scattered at the periphery of the old city districts. Since 1911, the government came to control naming rights; as time went by, the leading role of the government and passivity of enterprises increased. The existing street names were mainly derived from surrounding residences, blessing, alien cultural sites, and natural landscape, which were not only inherited via the local culture of old districts, but also reflected the development prospect of the new districts. The street names based on religious beliefs, historical figures, economic activities, municipal facilities, and location in the city were more likely to die out due to the frequent change in social ideology and the city's functional space. The involvement of power and capital gave rise to many place names in modern style; the inertia of memory delayed the vanishing of old names; and the social construction of memory propelled the evolution of place names.


OBJECTIVE Polygenic prediction of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in continental Africans is adversely affected by the limited number of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of T2D from Africa and the poor transferability of European-derived polygenic risk scores (PRSs) in diverse ethnicities. We set out to evaluate if African American, European, or multiethnic-derived PRSs would improve polygenic prediction in continental Africans. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using the PRSice software, ethnic-specific PRSs were computed with weights from the T2D GWAS multiancestry meta-analysis of 228,499 case and 1,178,783 control subjects. The South African Zulu study (n = 1,602 case and 981 control subjects) was used as the target data set. Validation and assessment of the best predictive PRS association with age at diagnosis were conducted in the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus (AADM) study (n = 2,148 case and 2,161 control subjects). RESULTS The discriminatory ability of the African American and multiethnic PRSs was similar. However, the African American–derived PRS was more transferable in all the countries represented in the AADM cohort and predictive of T2D in the country combined analysis compared with the European and multiethnic-derived scores. Notably, participants in the 10th decile of this PRS had a 3.63-fold greater risk (odds ratio 3.63; 95% CI 2.19–4.03; P = 2.79 × 10−17) per risk allele of developing diabetes and were diagnosed 2.6 years earlier than those in the first decile. CONCLUSIONS African American–derived PRS enhances polygenic prediction of T2D in continental Africans. Improved representation of non-European populations (including Africans) in GWAS promises to provide better tools for precision medicine interventions in T2D.


With the proliferation of portable devices, new multimedia-centric applications are continuously emerging on the consumer market. These applications are pushing computer architecture to its limit considering their demanding workloads. In addition, these workloads tend to vary significantly at run time as they are driven by a number of factors such as network conditions, application content, and user interactivity. Most current hardware and software approaches are unable to deliver executable codes and architectures to meet these requirements. There is a strong need for performance-driven adaptive techniques to accommodate these highly dynamic workloads. This paper shows the potential of these techniques in both software and hardware domains by reviewing early attempts in dynamic binary translation on the software side and FPGA-based reconfigurable architectures on the hardware side. It puts forward a preliminary vision for unifying runtime adaptive techniques in hardware and software to tackle the demands of these new applications. This vision will not be possible to realize unless the notorious reconfiguration bottleneck familiar in FPGAs is addressed. The paper concludes by pointing several future directions to explore in order to realize the full potential of runtime adaptation.


The goal of this study was to review the effects of emotions on observation target by elementary school students using the eye tracking method. A task of observing photographs of spiders was presented to two groups of elementary students with either positive or negative emotions for spiders, while tracking their eye movements. As a result, the group expressing positive emotions watched the spiders longer than the group with negative emotions. The group with positive emotions also watched specific parts of the spider longer than the opposing group.


A unified theory of periodic and promotion effects in transition metal sulphate hydrodesulfurtization catalysts a review of some specific phases as possible active hydrotreating constituents catalytic sites and heterolytic reaction mechanisms in hydrotreating catalysis microstructural characterization of molybdenum disulphide catalysts STM and AFM studies of transition metal chalcogenides HREM characterization of MoS2, MoS2:Co, and MoS2:Fe on the identification of Co-sulphate species in sulfided supported Co and CoMo catalysts properties of MoS2-based hydrotreating catalysts modified by electron acceptor additives (P, Na, Cs, F) modelling HDS catalysis with sulfido bimetallic clusters evidence for H2S as active species in the mechanism of thiophene hydrodesulfurization role of the sulfiding procedure on activity and dispersion of nickel catalysts ruthenium sulphate based catalysts comparison of sulfided CoMo AL2O3 catalysts in hydrodesulfurization of gas oil fractions and model compounds competitive conversion of nitrogen and sulphur compounds in naphtha with transition metal sulphate catalysts the effect of additives and impregnation stabilizers on hydrodesulfuritation activity molten salt preparation of mixed transition metal on zirconia: application to hydrotreating reactions the role of hydrogen in the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of aniline on the nickel single crystal surfaces: its applications on the mechanisms of HDN reactions hydrodenitrogenation of carbazole on a alumina-supported molybdenum nitride catalyst aromatics hydrogenation over alumina supported Mo and MiMo hydrotreating catalysts applications of pillared and delaminated interlayered clays as supports for hydrotreating catalysts catalytic hydrotrating with pillared synthetic clays residual oil hydrotreating catalyst rejuvenation by leaching of foulkant metals: effect of metal leaching on catalyst characteristics and performance characterization of coke on spent resid catalyst from ebullating bed service and its effect on activity microbial removal of organic sulphur from fuels: a review of past and present approaches.


An in-vitro experiment was carried out to evaluate the egg hatching inhibition effect of three herbal plants, namely;Albizia gummifera, Phytolacca dodecandra, and Vernonia amygdalina. The leaves of these plants were collected; air dried and powdered with pestle and mortar, and then hydro-alcoholic extraction was performed and in measuring the percentage yield, P. dodecandra givesbetter yield (15.34%). Crude extract of these plants were evaluated for egg hatchability assay at different concentrations (3mg/ml, 5mg/ml and 10mg/ml) for each plant and the experiment was replicated five times. Ivermectin (0.1ml/ml) was used as positive control. Among the plants, the crude extracts of P. dodecandrahad better activity that achieved maximum (100%) egg hatch inhibition at concentrations of 5 mg/ml while V. amygdalina and A. gummifera induced complete inhibition at concentration of 10 mg/ml after 48 hours of exposure. All the three plant crude extracts were inhibit egg hatchability significantly (p< 0.05) as compared  with the negative control but the inhibition among them were not significantly different in the effect. In conclusion, this study revealed that all of the three plant extracts have high inhibition potential on the hatchability of gastrointestinal nematode eggs. More detailed study on vivo anthelmintic effects of these plants with different extraction methods and phytochemical screening should be done.


A pioneering work in the history of philosophy, the ancient text of the Lives presents engaging portraits of nearly a hundred Greek philosophers. It blends biography with bibliography and surveys of leading theories, peppered with punchy anecdotes, pithy maxims, and even snatches of poetry, much of it by the philosophers themselves. The work presents a systematic genealogy of Greek philosophy from its origins in the sixth century BCE to its flowering in Plato's Academy and the Hellenistic schools. In this fully up-to-date and accessible translation, based on the most accurate texts and the latest advances in scholarship, Stephen White provides a valuable resource for students and scholars of ancient philosophy. Highlights include extended treatment of the 'Seven Sages' (Book 1), Socrates and his Socratic followers (Book 2), Plato (Book 3), Aristotle and his school (Book 5), Diogenes the Cynic (Book 6), Stoicism (Book 7), Pythagoreans (Book 8), Pyrrhonian skepticism (Book 9), and Epicureanism (Book 10).


It is generally held that idiopathic hyperaldosteronism and glucocorticoid-suppressible hyperaldosteronism (GSH) are distinct entities, distinguishable by thorough investigation. We report a patient who presented in 1974 at age 15 yr with blood pressure of 240/120 mm Hg, serum K of 3.1 mM, low renin, and high normal aldosterone excretion, with findings diagnostic of GSH. After dexamethasone treatment (2 mg/day for 4 weeks), urinary aldosterone was undetectable (less than 1 microgram/24 h), associated with correction of hypertension and hypokalaemia. While untreated, plasma aldosterone increased in response to ACTH infusion at a dose that did not influence plasma cortisol. Plasma aldosterone at 0800 h while recumbent was higher than in subsequent samples taken while ambulant, consistent with ACTH dependence of aldosterone secretion. Blood pressure, renin, and potassium remained normal for 4 yr during treatment with dexamethasone (0.5-0.75 mg/day), but hypertension then slowly returned. After 7 yr, the original studies were repeated. Urinary aldosterone excretion was again in the high normal range after 3 weeks of no treatment, but both plasma renin and aldosterone consistently increased in response to upright posture. After dexamethasone treatment (2 mg/day) for 4 weeks, urinary aldosterone was not suppressed (excretion rate, 10.8, 9.2, and 5.7 micrograms/day; urinary Na, greater than 100 mmol/day; urinary cortisol, less than 1 microgram/day). At this time, dexamethasone did not alleviate hypertension or increase renin. Control of blood pressure has been readily achieved, 8-12 yr after diagnosis, with a low dose of beta-adrenergic antagonist and amiloride. Aldosterone remains incompletely suppressible during sodium loading, so that the findings now resemble those of idiopathic hyperaldosteronism. This sequence indicates that glucocorticoids may not permanently control hypertension in GSH. The transient dominance of ACTH in control of aldosterone secretion indicates that the relationship between GSH and idiopathic hyperaldosteronism merits further evaluation in long term studies.


Objectives: To assess the nutritional status among older dementia patients. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study on 87 dementia patients aged ≥ 60 years old who were examed or treated at National Geriatric Hospital. Patients were interviewed according to the uniform questionnaire, the nutritional status was assessed by MNA-SF, and dementia was diagnosed by neuropsychiatrists following DSM-5 criteria. Results: The mean age of the patients was 76.8±1.2 years, female patients accounted for 65.5%. The mean score of MNA-SF was 9.6 ± 2.4 points. The prevalence of malnutrition was 18.4%, and the risk of malnutrition was 59.8%. Dependence in activity daily living was associated with malnutrition or risk of malnutrition (OR = 20.5, 95%CI: 1.06 - 386.12) in the univariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: The study showed a high proportion of dementia patients who were malnourished and at risk of malnutrition. Dementia patients with dependence in activity daily living have more risk of malnutrition.


Lamium ponticum, known from central and eastern Black Sea region of Turkey, is an endemic species with white flowers. However, it was evaluated as a synonym of L. moschatum subsp. micranthum in the last taxonomic revision the genus. During our revisional studies on the genus, we concluded that L. ponticum is completely different from L. moschatum subsp. micranthum. In addition, we collected some specimens from western Black Sea region of Turkey with pink-rose colored flowers, pinkish-purplish inflorescence and calyx, and greenish-pinkish bracts with pinkish-white spots at base, that looks quite different from the typical L. ponticum. Therefore, in this paper, we resurrected L. ponticum and described a new subspecies from western Black Sea region of Turkey. IUCN red list category, notes on biogeography and ecology of the new subspecies are also given.


We propose several new schedules for Strassen-Winograd's matrix multiplication algorithm, they reduce the extra memory allocation requirements by three different means: by introducing a few pre-additions, by overwriting the input matrices, or by using a first recursive level of classical multiplication. In particular, we show two fully in-place schedules: one having the same number of operations, if the input matrices can be overwritten; the other one, slightly increasing the constant of the leading term of the complexity, if the input matrices are read-only. Many of these schedules have been found by an implementation of an exhaustive search algorithm based on a pebble game.