Nowadays, the heterogeneity of interconnected things and communication technologies creates several small worlds composed of a single object and a smartphone. For each object, the user needs to download a specific application, search and connect the device. The result is a waste of valuable resources: several objects are able to communicate with the smartphone, but they cannot directly interact among them. In this paper, we propose a model that can be used to define a set of standard interfaces suitable for every smart object. Devices that adhere to the same model can be easily controlled and placed in relation among them, creating multi-object behaviors for a smart space. The smartphone is still a control center, but with a single application it is possible to control and personalize spaces in a holistic way, instead of using the traditional one-to-one approach. Moreover, personalization should be portable: it is desirable that a behavior works in as many smart spaces as possible, at least in a similar way as it does in the environment in which it was configured, freeing the user from the tedious task of adapting it manually every time s/he goes to another space. A portable personalization extends the bring your own device paradigm to a new "bring your own space" paradigm. The model is inspired in the object-oriented programming, reinterpreting features such as inheritance and polymorphism to the real world, so it is possible to provide a software system able to adapt existing behaviors to new spaces. The use of the model is exemplified in the paper with two examples of smart spaces. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.


Summary

The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of gluten free cakes prepared with rice and corn flours and with different concentrations of xanthan gum. Three formulae were created, F1, F2, and F3, with xanthan 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively. Two controls were used, both without xanthan: C1 and C2 (with wheat flour instead of rice flour). The cakes were characterised with chemical, physical, and sensory analysis. The sensory attributes of preference only of the gluten free F2 and F3 cakes were tested. Cakes formulated with xanthan gum displayed improved quality characteristics such as increased specific volume, enhanced texture in terms of decreased firmness, and delayed staling. The F2 and F3 formulated cakes presented desirable quality characteristics that resembled the physical, chemical, and sensory attributes of traditional cakes formulated with wheat flour.


Obstructive nephropathy, the primary cause of renal insufficiency in infants, is characterized by progressive renal apoptosis. Ceramide is a sphingolipid known to stimulate apoptosis in the kidney. We investigated the effects of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) on endogenous renal ceramide content and apoptosis in neonatal and adult rats. Animals were subjected to UUO or sham operation on the first day of life and were studied 3-28 days later. Adult rats were similarly treated and then studied 3 or 14 days later. In additional neonatal rats, the obstruction was removed after 5 days, with study at 14 or 28 days. Renal ceramide content was measured by diacylglycerol kinase assay, and apoptosis was determined by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end-labeling technique. Renal ceramide content was 50-fold higher in the 3-day neonatal compared with the adult kidney and 10-fold higher in the 7-day neonatal compared with the adult kidney, but there was no additional effect of UUO on ceramide content at these ages. However, after 14 or 28 days UUO in the neonate, renal ceramide was elevated compared with sham or intact opposite kidneys, and renal apoptosis was directly related to ceramide content (r = 0.99, P < 0.001). Moreover, renal ceramide was reduced by relief of obstruction (P < 0.05). There was less apoptosis in the obstructed kidney of the adult than the neonate, and UUO had no effect on ceramide content at 14 days in the adult. We conclude that prolonged UUO (at least 14 days duration) increases endogenous renal ceramide in the neonatal but not the adult rat. It is likely that this contributes to the prolonged renal apoptotic response of the neonatal obstructed kidney.


Objective  To investigate the protective effect of moderate noisy backgrounds on guinea pig's hearing after an exposure to a traumatic noise. Methods  Thirty guinea pigs were randomly divided into five groups (6 each). Animals in group A, B, C and D were subjected to noise of 84 decibels sound pressure level (dB SPL) for 4, 8, 24 and 0 hour respectively after a traumatic exposure of 110 dB SPL, and those in group E were kept in quiet environment. Distortion product oto-acoustic emission (DPOAE) amplitudes were determined on 1 day prior, and 1 and 7 days after noise exposure. Blood plasma was obtained to determine the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activities of hemocuprein (SOD) and nitricoxide synthase (NOS) at the end of the experiment. Results  Noise-induced hearing loss was caused in group D after a traumatic exposure. At the 1st and 7th day after exposure, DPOAE amplitudes were higher in group A and B than in group D, especially at high frequencies, while no significant difference was observed between group C and D. At the 7th day after exposure, the activity of SOD lowered, while the content of MDA increased in group A and B as compared with group E (P<0.05). The content of MDA in group A increased as compared with group D (P<0.05). Conclusion  After the traumatic noise-exposure, the recovery of noise-induced hearing loss, especially the high-frequency hearing loss could be motivated when exposed to noise at 84 dB SPL for 4 or 8 hours.


The thermodynamic effects are demonstrated of integrating steam turbine-based cogeneration systems with absorption chillers. A wide range of realistic extraction steam pressures and coefficient of performance (COP) values of absorption chillers are considered. A simple model of a steam turbine-based cogeneration plant is used for the evaluation of the integrated system. The integrated systems are evaluated based on the ratio of fuel consumption between a base case (one-stage absorption chiller with a COP value of 0.6) and several alternative cases (multi-stage absorption chillers with COP values ranging from 0.6 to 1.5). Two categories of scenarios are considered: (i) cases where the cooling load is fixed; and (ii) cases where the cooling load is fixed and the electrical output for the integrated system is set equal to that for the base case.


We investigate modifications of quantum mechanics (QM) that replace the unitary group in a finite dimensional Hilbert space with a finite group and determine the minimal sequence of subgroups necessary to approximate QM arbitrarily closely for general choices of Hamiltonian. This mathematical study reveals novel insights about 't Hooft's Ontological Quantum Mechanics, and the derivation of statistical mechanics from quantum mechanics. We show that Kornyak's proposal to understand QM as classical dynamics on a Hilbert space of one dimension higher than that describing the universe, supplemented by a choice of the value of a naturally conserved quantum operator in that classical evolution can probably be a model of the world we observe.


This paper reports findings from a survey of 763 Auckland residents. The research examined attitudes towards the resort town of Rotorua as a short-break destination with specific reference to the role that Maori culture plays in the formation of perceptions of Rotorua. The Te Arawa Maori people have been closely associated with tourism for over 140 years and this is recognised by the domestic market. However, the Maori component of Rotorua is found not to be an attraction. Rather, tourists are drawn to other facets of the product. While this is evidence for the fact that Rotorua is a multi-use product in tourism, given the role that travel is supposed to play in bridging gaps between cultures, tourism seems to be failing in this respect. It is suggested that an emphasis upon 'traditional authenticities' aimed at certain overseas segments misses the contemporary vibrant nature of Maori music and dance performance that might in fact have a wider appeal, including the domestic tourism market.


Objectives: The aim of the study was evaluate maternal and fetal outcomes of mitral stenosis at pregnant women. Methods: Forty-one pregnant woman with moderate and severe mitral stenosis were enrolled in the study. Predictor variables were the apgar score, new born weight and delivery week. Progression of NYHA functional class, thromboembolism, death, new onset atrial fibrillation was accepted as maternal event. Abortion, fetal or neonatal death, prematurity or low birth weight were accepted as fetal events. Results: In newborn babies, 10 were followed-up in intensive care. The mothers of these infants had higher LA diameters, their MVA's were smaller and the pulmonary hypertension was higher.It was observed that the LA diameter and warfarin treatment were independent risk factors for the need for intensive care. The NYHA was primarily dependent from the LA diameter, followed by the MVA, mean difference in the pressure and the pulmonary artery pressure (PAP).The independent risk factors of the birth weight and the 1st min. and 5th min. Apgar scores, only the LA diameter was found as significant. Also, the independent risk factors of the gestational age at birth are the NYHA classification and the MVA. Warfarin treatment in the mother has also been observed as a risk factor for IUGR. Conclusion: These results reveal that especially patients with mitral stenosis should be closelymonitored


The cumulative energy and global warming impacts associated with producing corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and switchgrass and transporting these crops to a central crop processing facility (called a "biorefinery") are estimated. The agricultural inputs for each crop are collected from seven states in the United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The cumulative energy requirement for producing and transporting these crops is 1.99 to 2.66 megajoules/kilo‐gram (MJ/kg) for corn, 1.98 to 2.04 MJ/kg for soybeans, 1.24 MJ/kg for alfalfa, and 0.97 to 1.34 MJ/kg for switchgrass. The global warming impact associated with producing biomass is 246 to 286 grams (g) CO2 equivalent/kg for corn, 159 to 163gCO2 equivalent/kg for soybeans, 89 g CO2 equivalent/ kg for alfalfa, and 124 to 147 g CO2 equivalent/kg for switch‐grass. The detailed agricultural data are used to assess previous controversies over the energy balance of bioethanol and, in light of the ongoing debates on this topic, provide a needed foundation for future life‐cycle assessments.


In 1977 the National Center for Health Services Research, US Department of Health and Human Services, undertook a survey of 40,000 individuals in the United States, soliciting information on expenditures and sources of payment for health services including prescribed medicines. Differences in the use of prescribed medicines by age, sex, ethnic/racial background, family income, and perceived health status were found across and within therapeutic categories. More than one-fifth of expenditures were for cardiovascular-renal agents. Sources of payment were similar in all but a few therapeutic categories.


We consider the beamformer design for multiple-input multiple-output (MISO) broadcast channels (MISO BCs) using zero-forcing dirty paper coding (ZF-DPC). Assuming a sum power constraint (SPC), most previously proposed beamformer designs are based on the QR decomposition (QRD), which is a natural choice to satisfy the ZF constraints. However, the optimality of the QRD-based design for ZF-DPC has remained unknown. In this paper, first, we analytically establish that the QRD-based design is indeed optimal for any performance measure under a SPC. Then, we propose an optimal beamformer design method for ZF-DPC with per-antenna power constraints (PAPCs), using a convex optimization framework. The beamformer design is first formulated as a rank-1-constrained optimization problem. Exploiting the special structure of the ZF-DPC scheme, we prove that the rank constraint can be relaxed and still provide the same solution. In addition, we propose a fast converging algorithm to the beamformer design problem, under the duality framework between the BCs and multiple access channels (MACs). More specifically, we show that a BC with ZF-DPC has the dual MAC with ZF-based successive interference cancellation (ZF-SIC). In this way, the beamformer design for ZF-DPC is transformed into a power allocation problem for ZF-SIC, which can be solved more efficiently.


The kinetics of oxidation of aromatic anils to benzaldehyde and azobenzene by potassium peroxymonosulfate has been studied in aqueous acetic acid medium. The low dielectric constant of the medium facilitates the reactivity. It has been found that the variation in the ionic strength of the reaction has a negligible effect on the rate. Similarly, polymerization was not observed when acrylonitrile was added to the reaction mixture. This observation rules out the formation of any free radical in the reaction. The added Mn(II) increases the rate of the reaction, which indicates the involvement of two-electron transfer. Highly negative ∆S# values indicate a structured transition state. The deviation of the Hammett plot was noted, and a concave downward curve was obtained for the anils with substituents in the aniline moiety. The observed break in the log kobs versus σ is attributed to the transition state whereas the concave upward curve was observed for the substituents in the benzaldehyde moiety and in the combination of aniline and benzaldehyde moieties, and a suitable mechanism was proposed.


ABSTRACT The politics of decentralisation reforms in Sierra Leone are unpredictable and instructive. This article, based on fieldwork, analyses party politics within the context of decentralisation, arguing that the imperatives of post-conflict decentralisation are not necessarily embedded in technical considerations, but in processes of political compromise and accommodation. Decentralisation has helped facilitate the re-emergence of the old political order, in that the country's main political parties have secured a consensus through which they have reconfigured the post-conflict state on their own terms. This study reveals that the narrative of a 'divide' within the political class is exaggerated, and illustrates the homogeneity and interconnectedness of its interests. The extent to which the 'peace' will be sustained by this compromise is uncertain, but this framing is useful in understanding the political economy in which 'fragility' and 'peace' co-exist, illuminating the political class's agency, as well as its ability to 'unite' against 'others'.


A modulation recognition method based on cyclic spectral features is presented to solve the problem in modulation recognition for time-frequency overlapped dual-signal in co-channel. Aiming at the OQPSK/MSK signals in co-channel, a new classification feature is constructed using the impact of the different symbol weighting pulse in the cyclic spectrum. Theoretical analysis and experiment results verified the reasonable and efficient of the presented method.


A study was carried out to evaluate the nutritional value of spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) to determine its potential use for feeding livestock in Oman. Spirulina was grown in wooden cubicles and harvested after 10 days. One batch of spirulina was dried by centrifugation (CS) and the other was dried in an oven without centrifugation (NCS). Samples were analyzed for dry matter (DM) and proximate chemical components. An in vitro assessment was carried out to measure gas production and in vitro DM degradability of spirulina. The DM was 56.1 and 57.1% in CS and NCS, respectively. The proximate composition for CS and NCS as a percentage of DM, respectively was: 60.8 and 62.5 for crude protein (CP); 0.97 and 1.05 for Ether extract (EE); 6.35 and 7.55 for ash. The CS and NCS contained: 0.25 and 0.37% DM Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) and 1.03 and 1.92 % DM Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), respectively. The gross energy (cal/g DM) was 5730 and 5629 in CS and NCS, respectively. The CS produced more in vitro gas (73 and 71 ml/200mg DM) from 12 hr until the end of the experimental period (96 hr) compared to the NCS (51 and 48 ml/200mg DM), respectively. The CS had significantly higher metabolizable energy (ME) (approximately 12 MJ/kg DM) than NCS (about 9 MJ/kg DM). CS had significantly higher (81 and 79%) Organic Matter Digestibility (OMD) than NCS (61 and 58%). The CS had significantly higher Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA) (1.7 and 1.6 μmol) than NCS (1.2 and 1.1 μmol). It was concluded that spirulina is an excellent source of protein and can be used after drying as a potential animal feed. There was little effect of the method of drying of spirulina on its chemical composition or digestibility.


Objective To assess the prevalence of elevated systemic right ventricular (sRV) end-diastolic pressure and pulmonary arterial hypertension in adults with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) who have undergone atrial switch operation. Methods Forty-two adults (aged ≥18 years) with complete TGA and atrial switch palliation undergoing cardiac catheterisation between 2004 and 2018 at Mayo Clinic, MN, were identified. Clinical, echocardiographic and invasive haemodynamic data were abstracted from the medical charts and procedure logs. Results Mean age was 37.6±7.9 years; 28 were male (67%). The Mustard operation was performed in 91% of individuals. Mean estimated sRV ejection fraction by echocardiography was 33.3%±10.9% and ≥moderate tricuspid (systemic atrioventricular valve) regurgitation was present in 15 patients (36%). Mean sRV end-diastolic pressure was 13.2±5.4 mm Hg. An sRV end-diastolic pressure >15 mm Hg was present in 35% of individuals whereas a pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP) >15 mm Hg was seen in 59%. Mean pulmonary artery pressure ≥25 mm Hg was seen in 47.5% of patients with PAWP being >15 mm Hg in all but one patient. Conclusion In adults after atrial switch, elevated sRV end-diastolic pressure was present in only one-third of patients whereas increased PAWP was seen in almost 60%. These findings are most likely related to a combination of decreased pulmonary atrial (functional left atrium) compliance and, in a subset of patients, pulmonary venous baffle obstruction. Elevation in pulmonary pressures was highly prevalent with concomitant elevation in PAWP being present in essentially all patients.


Oxygen consumption and reductive hydrogenation of lipoic acid, linked to the exponential growth of Escherichia coli in a "minimal" medium containing a non-limiting amount of glucose, produce reproducible and intelligible variations of the electric potential between a gold electrode and a reference electrode. A simple quasi-stationary mathematical model leads to analytical expressions of the electric potential in function of the experimental conditions and of time. The effects of active or passive transport of lipoic acid are distinguishable. An experimental method results in detecting and following bacterial activity.


With the rising demand for national security and the expanding role of police forces, police agencies have invested heavily in information technologies to support their expanded mandates. However, the link between investment in information technology and police performance remains unclear. In this article, we examine the effective use of a police system in the context of system implementation. We develop and test an effective use model based on representation theory and adapt it to the specific occupation culture of law enforcement agencies. The model discerns effective use into three dimensions based on different interactions among user, task, and system, with each dimension exerting an impact on performance. To contextualize the model and enrich its relevance, two salient occupation traits of police—autonomy and loyalty to peers—are operationalized and incorporated as a dimension of effective use. The model is tested using data collected before and after the rollout of a police command and control system in a major city in Asia. The empirical findings are consistent with the theoretical predictions. This article contributes to the ongoing discussion of effective use in general and provides insights into law enforcement systems, which have major societal impacts but have received little attention from researchers.


Introduction Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) accounts for 25%– 56% of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB) cases and is associated with high rates of mortality and rebleeding. We aimed to assess the rates and factors associated with 1 year mortality and rebleeding in patients with bleeding PUD. Methods This was a single-centre study of patients with AUGIB and endoscopic confirmation of PUD between November 2012–2014. All patients received at least 1 year of retrospective follow-up after endoscopy. Electronic records were scrutinised for outcomes of mortality and bleeding, with timeto-event analyses performed using a Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox-regression. Results 91 patients (median age 78.4, 65.9% male) were included. 63.7% were admitted with AUGIB and 36.3% bled during their inpatient stay. Mortality at 30 days and 1 year were 12.1% and 34.1% respectively, with 1 year mortality comprising: cardiovascular (20.0%), bleeding (20.0%), other (33.3%), unknown (26.7%). On univariate analysis, predictors of 1 year mortality included inpatient bleeding (hazard ratio [HR] 2.38, 95% CI: 1.18–4.83, p=0.016) [Figure 1], age (HR 1.036 per increase, 95% CI 1.009–1.065, p=0.009), Forrest classification (HR 2.22 for class 1 and 2 vs. 3, p=0.04), Rockall Score (HR 1.64 per increase, 95% CI 1.28–2.10, p<0.001), Charlson index (HR 1.34 per increase, p<0.001), aspirin use (HR 3.05, p=0.003), rebleeding (HR 5.52, p<0.001). The effect of inpatient bleeding on mortality was not significant (p=0.19) after adjusting for Charlson index. H. pylori was positive in 35.7%; eradication was associated with reduced mortality even after adjusting for Forrest classification and age (HR 0.30, p=0.007). Multivariable analyses to account for age are shown in table 1. The 1 year rebleeding rate was 7.8%. Higher haemoglobin on discharge (HR 0.940 per 10 g/dL increment, p=0.04), Forrest 3 ulcers (HR 0.18, p=0.02) and H. pylori eradication (HR 0.214, p=0.02) were significantly associated with reduced rates of rebleeding. Conclusion Increasing age, higher Rockall and Charlson scores, Forrest 1 or 2 lesions, inpatient bleed, and rebleeding were factors associated with mortality in bleeding PUD. Higher rates of inpatient mortality may be explained by age and comorbidities. Eradication of H. pylori was associated with improved outcomes and should be considered in all cases of bleeding PUD. Abstract PTU-011 Figure 1 Survival Following Ulcer Bleeding


The Internet has forced libraries to consider how to assist users to rapidly retrieve information. Such a consideration has accelerated the development of electronic publishing and has positioned the library as mediator between users and providers: archiving information circulation and providing secure copyright clearance through an efficient electronic document delivery and payment mechanism. This work develops an Extensible Markup Language (XML) framework for electronic document delivery that offers a novel electronic document delivery system and also locates publishers who can provide the copyrighted material in an electronic format via the OPAC. The proposed electronic document delivery system has four functions: (1) it enables the electronic document payment; (2) it shortens the time between inquiry and electronic document retrieval; (3) it anticipates the changing role of libraries; and (4) it reduces the printed collection load of libraries.


Patients with the nephrotic syndrome (NS) exhibit abnormal renal sodium retention which cannot completely explained by a secondary hyperaldosteronism due to reduced renal perfusion. As an alternative mechanism to explain this phenomenon we postulate a cortisol-mediated mineralocorticoid effect as a consequence of a reduced activity of 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11beta-HSD). A down-regulation of 11beta-HSD, i.e. of the shuttle of active to inactive glucocorticosteroids, has been shown to cause mineralocorticoid effects. Therefore we investigated the activity of 11beta-HSD by measuring the urinary ratio of (tetrahydrocortisol + 5alpha-tetrahydrocortisol)/tetrahydrocortisone [(THF+5alpha-THF)/THE] by gas-chromatography in 29 NS patients with biopsy-proven glomerulonephritis and 29 healthy control subjects. The ratio of (THF+5alpha-THF)/THE was higher in NS patients (median 1.49, range 0.45-4.07) than in the control subjects (0.98, 0.60-1.36; p<0.01). This ratio was increased as a consequence of a decreased urinary excretion rate of the cortisone metabolite, THE. The present data indicate that a reduced activity of 11beta-HSD is a new mechanism contributing to the exaggerated sodium retention in patients with the NS.


The article deals with the analysis of mechanism of speech manipulation on readers' consciousness by means of socially marked key words, forming four concept groups: power, nation, wealth, poverty (on the material of journalistic article).


The objective of the study was to investigate involvement of TNF alpha, IL-1 beta and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced uveitis. Intravitreal injection of LPS (100 ng) to rabbits induced a massive leukocyte infiltration and protein leakage into the aqueous humor. Aqueous leukocyte counts and protein levels reached a peak 24 hr after this injection. The peak concentrations of aqueous TNF alpha (230 +/- 37 pg ml-1, at 9 hr) and IL-1 beta (185 +/- 80 pg ml-1, at 18 hr) preceded peak levels of aqueous leukocyte counts and protein levels. In contrast, the levels of aqueous IL-1Ra peaked at 48 hr (12,239 +/- 1964 pg ml-1) and a fairly high concentration of IL-1Ra remained when the inflammatory reactions subsided. Immunohistochemistry and leukocyte-depletion studies showed that infiltrating leukocytes were the major cellular sources of aqueous TNF alpha, IL-1 beta and IL-1Ra. Intravitreal injection of homologous TNF alpha (0.1-1.5 micrograms) or IL-1 beta (0.5-5 ng) reproduced a rapid leukocyte infiltration and protein leakage. Administration of anti-TNF alpha mAb (10 micrograms) suppressed the number of LPS-induced infiltrating neutrophils by 50%, mononuclear cells by 58%, and protein leakage by 42%. Administration of rabbit IL-1Ra (10 micrograms) also suppressed neutrophil influx by 78%, however, neither mononuclear cell influx nor protein leakage was inhibited by rabbit IL-1Ra. Co-administration of the two inhibitors enhanced inhibition of neutrophil infiltration to 88%, and protein leakage to 64%. We conclude that TNF alpha and IL-1 beta are the principal mediators of LPS-induced uveitis. Our observations also suggest that endogenous IL-1Ra may down-regulate inflammatory reactions.


Recent research in visual inference from monocular images has shown that discriminatively trained image-based predictors can provide fast, automatic qualitative 3D reconstructions of human body pose or scene structure in real-world environments. However, the stability of existing image representations tends to be perturbed by deformations and misalignments in the training set, which, in turn, degrade the quality of learning and generalization. In this paper we advocate the semi-supervised learning of hierarchical image descriptions in order to better tolerate variability at multiple levels of detail. We combine multilevel encodings with improved stability to geometric transformations, with metric learning and semi-supervised manifold regularization methods in order to further profile them for task-invariance -resistance to background clutter and within the same human pose class differences. We quantitatively analyze the effectiveness of both descriptors and learning methods and show that each one can contribute, sometimes substantially, to more reliable 3D human pose estimates in cluttered images.


Antenna requirements for software defined radio (SDR) and cognitive radio (CR) systems are reviewed and the resulting challenges are discussed. Both concepts imply capabilities for operation over very wide bandwidths, of the order of one decade in some cases. This then becomes the main challenge for antenna designers. However, as the concepts evolve, some systems will work over limited bandwidths and existing or extended bandwidth antennas will be used. In the Paper the concepts are explained. As bandwidth is a major concern, the fundamental limits of performance are restated. For handheld radio antenna bandwidth and efficiency at low frequencies is the main problem. Both in the terrestrial fixed infrastructure and in space communication the difficulty of designing very wideband arrays to give the pattern control necessary for interference minimization is significant. In defence applications external handset antennas are seen to be necessary and extension to very wide bandwidths is also seen to be challenging. It is concluded that there is steady progress towards the realization of both SDR and CR, and this is throwing up very significant antenna challenges.


Today, the term buchu refers to the two species in commerce, Agathosma betulina (P.J.Bergius) Pillans and Agathosma crenulata (L.) Pillans (Rutaceae). Its traditional use in urinary tract infections and related ailments made it a popular remedy, specifically in the US, in 19th century, but with the advent of antibiotics it became largely obsolete. Recent focus is on technological use and on the essential oil for use in the perfume and food-flavouring industry. A review of the scarce pharmacological research revealed moderate antimicrobial activity for a leaf extract but not the essential oil of both species in the MIC assay. In the 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) assay the essential oil of both species revealed IC50 values of 50.37 ± 1.87 μg/ml and 59.15 ± 7.44 μg/ml, respectively. In another study 98% inhibitory activity was determined for 250 μg/ml of an ethanolic extract of A. betulina on cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 and a 25% inhibitory activity on COX-2. Analgesic activity of an ethanolic extract of A. betulina was shown in mice. Moderate antioxidant activity was determined for methanol:dichlormethane extracts of A. betulina and A. crenulata and an aqueous extract of A. betulina showed a Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) of 11.8 µM Trolox. Recent in vitro studies with a commercial aqueous extract of buchu revealed increased uptake of glucose added to 3T3-L1 cell line, significant inhibition of the respiratory burst of neutrophils and monocytes, reduction in the expression of adhesion molecules and inhibition of the release of IL-6 and TNF-α. In diabetic rats the ingestion of aqueous buchu extract completely normalized the glucose level and in rats receiving a high fat diet the consumption of aqueous buchu extract resulted in less weight gain and less intraperitoneal fat gain as well as reduction of elevated blood pressure to normal associated with cardioprotective effects. Limitations in the hitherto conducted research lie in the undisclosed composition of the buchu extracts used and the difficulty in extrapolating data from animal studies to humans. Health claims for buchu products need to be substantiated by randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled studies. Only then can they be promoted for their true therapeutic potential.


Abstract We aimed to investigate the efficacy of chewing gum on bowel movements after minimally invasive gynaecologic surgery, total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH). The study was designed as a prospective randomised controlled study. We divided the patients into two groups regarding postoperative chewing gum after elective TLH operation. The demographic status and characteristics of the patients as well as, anaesthesia and operation records were obtained. The study group was asked to chew gum for 15 min in an hour starting from post-operative 4th hour until the patient passed flatus. In each patient, first auscultation of bowel sounds, first flatus and first defaecation time, as well as first mobilisation time and discharge time, were recorded. We compared the difference in abdominal distension, nausea and vomiting and post-operative ileus (POI) rates. Eight patients were excluded from the study due to matching with exclusion criteria. The remaining 126 patients were divided into two groups. First bowel sounds, first bowel movements, the timing of first gas discharge and the timing of the first defaecation was found significantly earlier in the given-chewing gum group (p < .001). The timing of patient discharge and POI were found to be similar in each group (p > .05). Mild symptoms of ileus were observed in two patients (3.2%) in the not given-chewing gum group and three patients (5.5%) in the given-chewing gum group. The symptoms were better tolerated by the patients who chew gums and no side effects regarding the treatment were observed. In post-operative patient care after minimally invasive surgery, chewing gum has a beneficial effect on bowel movements. This inexpensive and well-tolerated procedure ameliorates gastrointestinal (GI) functions, whereas it has little benefit on early mobilisation and timing of the patient discharge after patients undergoing TLH. Impact Statement What is already known on this subject? There are many studies in the literature on the effect of gum on postoperative bowel movements, early mobilisation and short-term hospitalisation. However, there are still doubts about its use after minimally invasive surgery, especially in gynaecology practice. What do the results of this study add? Chewing gum after surgery is a well-tolerated, effective, safe, easy and convenient method and is easily accepted by patients. Its use by gynaecologists after TLH is still not clear. Our aim is to show the relationship between chewing gum and TLH with this study; We believe that early mobilisation after laparoscopic hysterectomy will not be of significant benefit after minimally invasive gynaecological surgeries as it is not significantly effective in early nutrition and early patient discharge. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Our statistically not significant results obtained in this study may change after conducting randomised prospective studies involving more patients. However, we believe that giving chewing-gum after laparoscopic hysterectomy will not have a significant benefit.


For Chinese enterprises, which are in a situation of great change that has not been seen in a century, improving capacity utilization is not only an important way to enhance sustainable viability and comprehensive competitiveness, but also the key to optimize the allocation of social resources and improve economic resilience. Especially in recent years, governments have continuously deepened the supply-side structural reform, promoted the "three removal, one reduction and one compensation", and regarded the "removal of production capacity" as one of the important tasks to achieve high-quality economic development. However, the overcapacity of Chinese enterprises has not been fundamentally solved, which has become a deep-seated problem hindering the sustainable development of China's economy. Therefore, identifying the key factors affecting the improvement of capacity utilization of Chinese enterprises and exploring the path of optimizing enterprise capacity decision-making are still an important issue worthy of attention.In recent years, accelerating the regional coordinated development and building a unified domestic market have gradually attracted extensive attention. Governments have successively issued a variety of measures to eliminate local protectionism and market segmentation to promote regional market integration. At the same time, they have accelerated the construction of transportation infrastructure such as high-speed railway and improved the interconnection between different regions. China's domestic market is undergoing an important transformation from segmentation and fragmentation to integration. In the continuously integrated domestic market, the market space of enterprise products is broader, and the efficiency of resource allocation is improved, which will have an important impact on enterprise capacity decision-making and capacity utilization.From the perspectives of market demand effect and resource allocation effect, this paper investigates the impact of regional market integration on enterprise capacity utilization, and empirically analyzes the effect by using the micro data of Chinese industrial enterprises. It is found that regional market integration significantly improves the capacity utilization of enterprises. Regional market integration not only improves the market demand of enterprise products, but also promotes the effective supply of factors and the optimal allocation of resources, which has a positive effect on the improvement of enterprise capacity utilization. Enterprises with high tax base and high employment contribution and state-owned enterprises are more sensitive to regional market integration; the effect of regional market integration on the capacity utilization of enterprises in heavy industry sector is also higher than that in light industry sector; regional market integration significantly improves the capacity utilization of enterprises in the central and western regions, while the effect in the eastern region is not significant. This paper not only helps to further enrich the research on the formation mechanism of overcapacity, but also provides useful enlightenment for exploring the path of unblocking the domestic circulation and improving the quality of economic development.


Aspergillus fumigatus is often isolated from the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, but unlike in severely immunocompromised individuals, the mortality rates are low. This suggests that competition from bacteria within the CF lung may be inhibitory. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Pseudomonas aeruginosa influences A. fumigatus conidial germination and biofilm formation. Aspergillus fumigatus biofilm formation was inhibited by direct contact with P. aeruginosa, but had no effect on preformed biofilm. A secreted heat-stable soluble factor was also shown to exhibit biofilm inhibition. Coculture of P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing mutants (PAO1:ΔLasI, PAO1:ΔLasR) did not significantly inhibit A. fumigatus biofilms (52.6-58.8%) to the same extent as that of the PA01 wild type (22.9-30.1%), both by direct and by indirect interaction (P<0.001). Planktonic and sessile inhibition assays with a series of short carbon chain molecules (decanol, decanoic acid and dodecanol) demonstrated that these molecules could both inhibit and disrupt biofilms in a concentration-dependent manner. Overall, this suggests that small diffusible and heat-stable molecules may be responsible for the competitive inhibition of filamentous fungal growth in polymicrobial environments such as the CF lung.


Introduction A new generation of neurostimulation surgical leads is used to increase the success of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in difficult-to-treat indications such as Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS). This makes the implant procedure more invasive, which is likely to be a determinant factor in clinical and functional outcomes. Minimal access spinal technologies (MAST) have been previously used for surgical lead implantation. However, only a unilateral approach was described, causing some difficulties for median lead placement and not always preventing laminectomy. A recent MAST technique can be used to implant SCS leads without these limitations, which seems to be key in the positive outcomes experienced. The objective is to describe the original MAST technique used in the pilot study. Material and Methods Twenty-four consecutive patients were implanted with a multicolumn surgical lead for refractory chronic back and leg pain using the optic transligamentar MAST technique described extensively. Clinical outcomes, functional ability and adverse events (AEs), were recorded for up to 12 months after surgery. Results The MAST technique allowed median lead placement, facilitated visualization of the spine and permitted transligamentar insertion that minimized scarring and muscle damage, intraoperative blood loss and postoperative functional complications. Back pain decreased significantly at all follow-up, while functional status improved significantly at 1 year. No technique-related AEs were reported. Conclusion Use of MAST approach could be useful in safe implantation of multicolumn surgical leads and confer major advantages in difficult-to-treat refractory lower back pain conditions such as FBSS


ABSTRACT This qualitative study examines the factors that led Hispanic men and women residing along the US/Mexico border to be tested for HIV. These factors were identified by applying Borrayo's (1999) Cultural Health Belief Model (CHBM) for Hispanics using grounded theory methodology. Participants consisted of 32 individuals receiving services from five HIV/AIDS demonstration sites in four states along the US/Mexico border. Results indicate partial support for Borrayo's Cultural Health Belief Model. Results also indicate that Hispanic male participants tended to be directly involved in risky behaviors while the female participants were generally monogamous and unaware of their vulnerability to exposure through the risk behaviors of their male partners.


Babesia species are tick-transmitted apicomplexan pathogens and the causative agents of babesiosis, a malaria-like disease of major medical and veterinary importance. Of the different species of Babesia reported so far, Babesia duncani causes severe to lethal infection in patients. Despite the highly virulent nature of this parasite and the risk it may pose as an emerging pathogen, little is known about its biology, metabolic requirements, and pathogenesis. B. duncani is unique among apicomplexan parasites that infect red blood cells in that it can be continuously cultured in vitro in human erythrocytes but can also infect mice leading to fulminant babesiosis infection and death. Here we have taken advantage of the recent advances in the propagation of this parasite in vitro and in vivo to conduct detailed molecular, genomic and transcriptomic analyses and to gain insights into its biology. We report the assembly, 3D structure, and annotation of the nuclear genome of this parasite as well as its transcriptomic profile and an atlas of its metabolism during its intraerythrocytic life cycle. Detailed examination of the B. duncani genome and comparative genomic analyses identified new classes of candidate virulence factors, suitable antigens for diagnosis of active infection, and several attractive drug targets. Translational analyses and efficacy studies identified highly potent inhibitors of B. duncani thus enriching the pipeline of small molecules that could be developed as effective therapies for the treatment of human babesiosis.


BACKGROUND
Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is an undifferentiated tumor of the thyroid that has poor prognosis owing to its aggressive behavior and resistance to current treatments. We hypothesized that the stem cell properties induced by the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was one of reasons for the dismal outcome of ATC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Paraffin blocks and slides of 17 ATC cases were retrieved. We also collected 60 cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) for comparison. We used immunohistochemistry to examine the expression of multiple markers of cancer stem cells and EMT-activating transcriptional factors.

RESULTS
Majority of ATC cases showed loss of epithelial (E)-cadherin expression (15/17); however, all PTC cases (60/60) retained E-cadherin expression. EMT-activating transcription factors, such as snail and slug, were more frequently expressed in ATC than PTC cases (35.3% versus 6.7%, 76.5% versus 5%, respectively). Cancer stem cell markers such as CD133 and nestin were more highly expressed in ATC than PTC (52.9% versus 5%, 52.9% versus 0%, respectively).

CONCLUSION
We found that the expression of EMT-related factors and stem cell markers was higher in ATC than PTC. We therefore conclude that stemness induced by EMT plays an important role in the pathogenesis of ATC.


The titanomagnetite of the Lac Doré Complex, an Archean layered intrusion that is located in the Abitibi greenstone belt in Québec (Canada), contains a wide variety of exsolution textures, which are the remnants of a complex cooling history. In the present study, we reconstitute the decomposition stages of the original solid solution in order to explain the formation of ilmenite, Al-spinel (hercynite and gahnite), and corundum exsolutions in magnetite. This was conducted through a detailed mineralogical and textural examination and in situ determination of mineral chemistry. Our investigation reveals two discrete types of ilmenite exsolutions, which are ascribed, respectively, to the oxidation of ulvöspinel at temperatures above and below the magnetite-ulvöspinel solvus. Exsolutions of Al-spinel result from either a decrease in the solubility of the (FeZn)Al2O4 components upon cooling, or local excesses of Al and Zn due to the removal of ulvöspinel during the early oxidation. The origin of corundum is ascribed to the oxidation of pre-existing hercynite exsolutions. The trace element composition of the titanomagnetite indicates stratigraphic reversals in Cr, Mg, Co, Ti, and Si and important changes in redox conditions. We interpret this as a direct consequence of a major event of magma chamber replenishment, which strongly influenced the distribution of exsolutions.


This study aims to analyze the determinants of the structural transformation in ASEAN countries. This study uses quantitative panel data from 9 countries in ASEAN from 2000 to 2017, thus makes up for 162 observations. This study employs panel data regression analysis with fixed effect model approach. In this study, the shifting of sectoral value added away from agriculture sectors indicates structural transformation. In particular, sectoral value added consists of the industrial value added and service value added. The results of this study shows that dependency ratio, income per capita, education, and trade significantly affect the increase of industrial value added during observation period. On the other hand, total population, dependency ratio, income per capita, education, control of corruption, and trade significantly increase the service value added over time.


With increased complexity of customers choice behaviors, practical optimization approaches often involve decomposing a network revenue management problem into multiple single-leg problems. While dynamic programming approaches can be used to solve single-leg problems exactly, they are not scalable and require precise information about the customers' arrival rates. On the other hand, the traditional heuristics are often static which do not explicitly consider the remaining time horizon in the optimization. This motivates us to find scalable and efficient dynamic heuristics that work well with the complex customers choice models. We develop two expected marginal seat revenue type heuristics for the single-leg dynamic revenue management problems in airline industry and evaluate its performances using Monte Carlo simulation. The initial simulation results indicate that our proposed heuristics are computationally efficient and fairly robust. This study provides a foundation for potential future extensions to solve larger network problems.


Median artery of the forearm and wrist is not very frequently observed because it normally involutes before birth. Only a few cases of persistent median artery thrombosis associated with compression of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel have been reported. In these cases symptoms arise suddenly and surgery consists of the excision of the thrombosed arterial branch. In cases of large persistent unthrombosed median artery associated with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), excision of the unthrombosed median artery is not indicated because it may sometimes substantially contribute to the circulation of the hand. We report the case of a 39-year-old man with CTS associated with a thrombosis of a persistent median artery detected by high-resolution US and Doppler ultrasound. US can be also useful to exclude other causes of CTS such as tenosynovitis of the flexor tendons, ganglion cyst, musculotendinous variants, and various soft tissue tumors.


Processor arrays are frequently used to deliver high performance in many applications with computationally intensive operations. This paper presents the general parameter method (GPM), a systematic parameter-based approach for synthesizing such algorithm-specific architectures. GPM can synthesize processor arrays of any lower dimension from a uniform-recurrence description of the algorithm. The design objective is a general nonlinear and nonmonotonic user-specified function, and depends on attributes such as computation time of the recurrence on the processor array, completion time, load time, and drain time. In addition, bounds on some or all of these attributes can be specified. GPM performs an efficient search of polynomial complexity to find the optimal design satisfying the user-specified design constraints. As an illustration, we show how GPM can be used to find optimal linear processor arrays for computing transitive closures. We consider design objectives that minimize computation time, or processor count, or completion time (including load and drain times), and user-specified constraints on number of processing elements and/or computation/completion times. We show that GPM can be used to obtain optimal designs that trade between number of processing elements and completion time, thereby allowing the designer to choose a design that best meets the specified design objectives. We also show the equivalence between the model assumed in GPM and that in the popular dependence-based methods. Consequently, GPM can be used to find optimal designs for both models.


In recent years, the study of polarization vision in animals has seen numerous breakthroughs, not just in terms of what is known about the function of this sensory ability, but also in the experimental methods by which polarization can be controlled, presented and measured. Once thought to be limited to only a few animal species, polarization sensitivity is now known to be widespread across many taxonomic groups, and advances in experimental techniques are, in part, responsible for these discoveries. Nevertheless, its study remains challenging, perhaps because of our own poor sensitivity to the polarization of light, but equally as a result of the slow spread of new practices and methodological innovations within the field. In this review, we introduce the most important steps in designing and calibrating polarized stimuli, within the broader context of areas of current research and the applications of new techniques to key questions. Our aim is to provide a constructive guide to help researchers, particularly those with no background in the physics of polarization, to design robust experiments that are free from confounding factors.


There is a problem of simplified of computational models, which are used at calculation and designing of metal superstructures as a frame. Sometime it leads to the considerable errors in calculations. In this work researches of dimensioned behavior of a superstructure by a finite element method was implemented. In the capacity of calculated construction the standard superstructure (a type project №690/2) has been used. Ground obtained results the model for calculation of supplemental forces in chords was designed, which simulate a behavior of constructional.


In sports drug testing the steroid profile is the most versatile and informative screening tool for the detection of steroid abuse. Despite the introduction of observed urine collection procedures by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), chemical manipulation of urine specimens by athletes to conceal drug use still occurs and poses an ongoing challenge for doping control laboratories worldwide. In vitro urine adulteration using highly oxidative chemicals have been reported several times in the past. In this study we report the effect of two oxidising agents, Fenton's reagent and peroxidase–peroxide system on the human urinary steroid profile. Varying concentrations of these oxidants were reacted with urine and the reactions monitored by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A significant decrease in the absolute concentrations of androsterone, etiocholanolone, 5α-androstane-3α,17β-diol, 5β-androstane-3α,17β-diol and epitestosterone was observed with consequent alteration of the steroid profile ratios. Adulteration of urine sample with these oxidants can thus mask the abnormality in a steroidal profile following steroid abuse. Drug testing authorities should take into account the effects of these oxidizing adulterants while interpreting the steroid profile data for doping control purposes.


In China, construction accidents have killed more people than any other industry since 2012. The factors which led to the accident have complex interaction. Real data about accidents is the key to reveal the mechanism among these factors. But the data from the questionnaire and interview has inherent defects. Many behaviors that impact safety are illegal. In China, most of the cases are from accident investigation reports. Finding out the cause of the accident and liability affirmation are the core of incident investigation reports. So the truth of some answers from the respondents is doubtful. With a series of NLP technologies, in this paper, causal factors of construction accidents are extracted and organized from Chinese incident case texts. Finally, three kinds of neglected causal factors are discovered after data analysis.


The original and power function versions of the matching law and matching theory are mathematical accounts of continuous choice that have been applied to the behavior of many vertebrate species, including humans, and have become influential in a variety of disciplines, such as economics, behavioral pharmacology, and clinical science. Each version can be interpreted either from a response strength perspective or from a purely algebraic perspective. The point of departure of both versions of matching theory is the assertion that all behavior is choice governed by the matching law. This assertion permits sets of equations to be derived that constitute the 2 versions of the theory. Considerable experimental evidence leads to the conclusion that both interpretations of the original version of the matching law and theory are false and that both interpretations of the power function version of the law and theory are tenable. Specifically, the behavior of animal and human subjects conforms exactly to the mathematical forms required by the power function version of the law and theory, and the theoretical assumptions entailed by both interpretations of this version are supported by the empirical evidence. In addition, the theoretical interpretations of all but 1 of the parameters of the power function version's equations are consistent with available evidence. The one problematic parameter is interpreted as the rate at which unmeasured background resources are acquired. The theoretical interpretation of this parameter must be reconciled with observation in order to maintain matching theory's central assertion that all behavior is choice.


An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) hay treated with calcium oxide (CaO) and molasses, offered ad libitum, on performance of growing beef cattle supplemented with cottonseed meal. Sixty-four growing Bos taurus and Bos indicus influenced heifers (249 ± 26 kg of BW) and steers (249 ± 20 kg of BW) were used in a randomized complete block design. The experiment consisted of a 56 d period in which animals were weighed every 14 d. On d 0, animals were weighed after 16-h water and feed withdrawal, stratified by sex, breed, and BW, and blocked by initial BW. Cattle were then allotted to 16 dormant bahiagrass pastures (1.34 ha each; 4 animals/pasture), which were located in 2 different areas within 0.52 km of each other. Pastures were stratified by location and randomly assigned (n = 8 pastures/treatment) to 1 of 2 treatments: 1) hay treated with 10% molasses (DM basis) + water (to 35% DM; MOL) or 2) hay treated with 5% CaO (DM basis) + 10% molasses (DM basis) + water (to 35% DM; CAO). Cottonseed meal was provided at a rate of 0.3% of cattle BW/d (as fed basis). Data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS and pasture was the experimental unit. The model included the fixed effects of treatment and sex. Location and block were included as random effects. Initial and final BW were not affected by treatment (P = 0.573, P = 0.453; initial and final BW, respectively) or sex (P = 0.512, P = 0.670; initial and final BW, respectively). Additionally, no effects of treatment (P = 0.767) or sex (P = 0.285) were observed on ADG (average of 0.537 kg). In conclusion, bahiagrass hay treated with molasses alone or in combination with CaO failed to improve performance of growing beef cattle


Actual yields of maize harvested by farmers are at level much below attainable yield potential of currently cultivated varieties. Among many growth factors zinc was recognized as one of main limiting factors of maize crop growth and yielding. This hypothesis has been verified within a three-year field study, where zinc fertilizer was applied to maize plants at the 5 th leaf stage. Maize crop responded significantly to zinc foliar application in two of three years of study. The optimal rate of zinc foliar spray for achieving significant grain yield response was in the range from 1.0 to 1.5 kg Zn/ha. Grain yield increase was circa 18% (mean of three years) as compared to the treatment fertilized only with NPK. Plants fertilized with 1.0 kg Zn/ha significantly increased both total N uptake and grain yield. Yield forming effect of zinc fertilizer revealed via improvement of yield structure elements. The number of kernels per plant showed the highest response (+17.8% as compared to the NPK plot) and simultaneously the highest dependence on N uptake (R 2 = 0.79). For this particular zinc treatment, however, the length of cob can also be applied


Interannual variations of total copepod abundance in the Gulf of Maine (1961-1991) are analyzed and related to the semi-permanent atmospheric pressure systems: Icelandic Low (IL) and the Azores High (AH). These centers of action dominate atmospheric and oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic. Cross-correlation analysis of zooplankton, sea surface temperature (SST) and the atmospheric characteristics have revealed different (from one to three years) time lags between the above characteristics. A multiple stepwise regression analysis gave a correlation value of 0.7 between observed and predicted interannual changes of total copepod abundance. A discussion is included of possible mechanisms that may contribute to the dynamic links that transfer atmospheric variation into observed changes in zooplankton abundance.


Digital image database represent huge amount of data, automatic indexing and content base retrieval are crucial factors. Content base retrieval requests specific indexing techniques allowing to deal with efficient data representations (reduced amount of data and adapted to content base retrieval) in order to avoid prohibitive low level process time on queries. We present a method consisting in building an "iconic" level image representation presenting the semantic, allowing to process content base retrieval and to reconstruct the image. This representation consists in a set of function parameters. It is a semantic presenting compression built by using a dedicated fractal compress scheme. To search patterns in a huge set of images, a specific algorithm allows to use this "iconic" representation as an index. It works entirely in the fractal transform parameter space of both image and pattern, to obtain performances compatible with an interactive search. The research engine uses both textures and edges of the pattern. The pattern can be present in the image with different orientations and/or scales by using a multiresolution fractal representation of the pattern. This method allows to retrieve in 3 seconds a 64/spl times/64 pixels pattern in an 100 images (512/spl times/512 pixels) database, on a SUN Spare 20 workstation. It can be combined with other indexing and retrieval techniques, such as textual annotation.


Abstract Purpose: This study evaluated the characteristics of a thyroid-dedicated bipolar RF electrode (BRFE) and compared its ablation performance with that of monopolar RF electrodes (MRFEs) in normal bovine liver blocks. Methods: BRFE was tested on 60 bovine liver blocks with six different time–power combinations, applying 20, 30 and 40 W for 60 and 120 s. Subsequently, BRFE and MRFEs with 0.5-, 0.7- and 1-cm active tips were applied on 160 bovine liver blocks, creating 16 time–electrode combinations (10, 30, 60 and 120 s). The ablation characteristics, RF efficacy and true RF efficacy of each electrode group were then evaluated and compared. True RF efficacy was defined as the total ablation volume created within the total time during which valid RF current was generated. Results: The true RF efficacy of BRFE with 30 W at 60 s was significantly higher than that of BRFE with 20 W and 40 W during the preliminary experiment (p = 0.011). BRFE showed larger vertical and transverse diameters (DT1, DT2) than MRFE with a 0.5-cm active tip (all p values < 0.001, except 10 s). By contrast, MRFE with a 0.7-cm active tip created a larger DT1, DT2, volume, efficacy and true efficacy than BRFE (maximum p value = 0.011). The shape ratio of BRFE was significantly higher than that of MRFEs with 0.5-cm and 0.7-cm tips (all p < 0.001). Conclusions: Application of BRFE with 30 W could achieve a median ablation volumes and efficacy between that of MRFEs with 0.5-cm and 0.7-cm active tips and created a more ellipsoid-shaped ablation zone.


ABSTRACT In view of the Feldstein–Horioka (1980) puzzle, this study examines the relationship between the investment rate and the saving rate using annual data from Norway for 1830 to 2017. The nonlinear version of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration methodology developed by Shin (2014), based on the linear ARDL bounds cointegration testing approach of Pesaran et al. (2001), is implemented. The findings show that there is a long-term cointegration relationship between the saving rate and investment rate. The nonlinear ARDL model indicates that there are short-run but no long-run asymmetric effects. It is concluded that Norway respects its intertemporal budget constraint and that international capital mobility is high.


Introduction: Diabetes is a chronic disorder and requires longterm therapy. Lack of adherence to antidiabetic medication causes suboptimal glycemic control and can lead to treatment failures, development of complications, and increased mortality. Aim: To study the medication adherence among type II diabetic patients at a tertiary care hospital in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted for a period of 1 year in the Diabetology Clinic in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 100 type II diabetic patients, who were on antidiabetic drug therapy for at least 6 months, were enrolled. Blood glucose was measured and details of drug therapy were noted. Medication adherence was assessed using Morisky Medication Adherence Scale and adherence scores were calculated. Results: Only 1% had high medication adherence, while 34% had moderate and 65% had low medication adherence. Medication adherence issues identified in type II diabetics were that they forgot to take/bring their medication when traveling, stoppage of medication once glycemic control is achieved, and difficulty in adhering to medication plan. Only 19% were having optimally controlled glycemic levels, whereas 81% were having uncontrolled glycemic levels. Medication adherence scores were lower (reflecting lower adherence) in type II patients with uncontrolled glycemic levels than those having optimally controlled glycemic levels, but this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Overall, the medication adherence was low in type II diabetic patients. The study shows that to improve medication adherence, better counseling and health education of patients are required.


Background: The high prevalence of hepatic hydatid cyst (HHC) still remains one of the major public health problems in our country. Patients and Method: In the last 30 years, 76 patients with HHC have been operated on in our department. Their clinical and pathological features, diagnosis, surgical treatment and outcome are retrospectively analyzed. Results: The study group comprised 47 (61.8%) males and and 29 (38,1%) females. The age of the patients varies between 8-72 (range 44) years. Pediatric cases presented clinical and therapeutical pecularities. Diagnosis was established by physical examination, serology, ultrasonography and rarely CT scan. Fifty-five cysts were located in the right lobe, 15 cysts in the left lobe and 6 cysts were bilateral. Twelve patients had multiple cysts and 3 patients had co-existing cysts with different abdominal or lung locations. There were 6 cases with recurrent disease. Majority of our cases had complications i.e. infection (n=15), rupture in the biliary duct without or with obstructive jaundice (n=13), rupture in the peritoneal cavity with acute abdomen (n=2), another co-morbidity (n=5). All patients underwent surgical treatment but in 6 cases the laparoscopic approach has been successfully used. Surgical procedures were partial cyst pericystectomies with external (n=60) or internal (n=2) drainage in 62 cases, total cyst pericystectomies in 7 cases, and left hepatic (atypical or segmentary) resections in 7 cases. The common bile duct was explored in 11 patients and it was drained by a T-tube in 6 cases or by choledocoduodenostomy in three others. Papilosphincterotomy was practiced in two patients. Chemotherapy (albendazole) was sporadically used after surgery. We had no deaths but a significant rate of morbidity (n=15; 19,7%) with a prolonged hospital stay. Conclusion: Surgery remains the mainstay treatment of HHC. The topography and volume together with the great number of complicated cases and co-existing pathology forced us to a variety of surgical approaches most of them conservative. Our results were encouraging with acceptable morbidity and no lethal cases for the study period.


Breakfast is considered by many to be the most important meal of the day. This study examined the intake of nutrients and foods at breakfast among Danes and the relation to the overall dietary quality. Data were derived from the Danish National Survey on Diet and Physical Activity 2011–2013, a cross-sectional national food consumption study. A total of 3680 participants aged 6–75 years were included in the analyses of breakfast consumption. The Nutrient Rich Food Index 9.3 method was used to examine the overall dietary quality of the diet. The intake of nutrients and foods at breakfast were compared across dietary quality score tertiles by ANCOVA adjusted for energy and socio economic status. Breakfast was eaten frequently by children and adults and contributed with 18–20% of total energy intake. Breakfast was relatively high in dietary fibre, B vitamins, calcium and magnesium and low in added sugar, total fat, sodium, vitamin A and D. A decrease in the intake of added sugar, total fat and saturated fat and an increase in the intake of dietary fibre and most micronutrients were seen across tertiles of dietary quality scores. Commonly consumed foods provided at breakfast in Denmark included bread, breakfast cereals and dairy products as well as water, coffee and juice, while intakes of fruits, vegetables, cakes and soft drinks were low.


Doctor-to-doctor relationships are explored. The impact of the employing organisation on working relationships is considered and methods of analysing problems at the organisational and individual level are described. The application of psychodynamic and systems theory in deepening understanding is discussed, illustrated by vignettes from the work situation. The impact of changes in the work environment are considered and potential sources of support listed.


Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the malignant epithelial tumors with a high metastasis rate. This study aimed to screen potential novel biomarkers involved in NPC metastasis. Microarray data of locoregionally advanced NPC (LA-NPC; GSE103611) were obtained from the database of Gene Expression Omnibus. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between LA-NPC tissues with and without distant metastasis after radical treatment were screened. Functional analysis was performed and the protein–protein interaction and submodule were analyzed. The univariate Cox regression analysis was performed to identify prognostic genes in NPC in the validation microarray dataset GSE102349. The drug–gene interactions and key genes were identified. Totally, 107 DEGs were identified. The upregulated DEGs and the key nodes in the protein–protein interaction network were associated with pathways or biological processes related to the cell cycle. Four genes including CD44, B2M, PTPN11, and TRIM74 were associated with disease-free survival in NPC. The drug–gene interaction analysis revealed that upregulated genes CXCL10, CD44, B2M, XRCC5, and RPL11 might be potential druggable genes for patients with LA-NPC metastasis by regulating cell cycle, autophagy, and drug resistance. Upregulated CXCL10, CD44, B2M, XRCC5, and RPL11 might play important roles in LA-NPC metastasis by regulating cell cycle-related pathways.


Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) continue their ascending developement to be among the leaders of technology. Furthermore, images are of paramount importance in several applications based on WSNs. Capturing, processing and transmitting the image face several challenges, mainly because of their highly needed power consumption. The huge number of images sensed and transmitted in a Wireless Video Sensor Network (WVSN) increases the dataflow on the overall network. A WVSN consists of three different layers: the video-sensor node, the coordinator and the sink. Sending images at the same time from different sensor nodes to a coordinator causes several problems. Besides energy consumption and bandwidth usage that represent the two major challenges in WSN, the queue of images on the coordinator can cause slower detection of intrusions and thus slower reaction from the coordinator. These reasons increase the need of a mac-layer protocol to control the network. We propose a new modified communication protocol based on the S-MAC protocol. This solution consists of adding a priority bit to the S-MAC protocol. Our approach is validated by experimentation using raspberry pi 3 and by simulation in OMNET++.


We present an algorithm for generating strings from logical form encodings that improves upon previous algorithms in that it places fewer restrictions on the class of grammars to which it is applicable. In particular, unlike an Earley deduction generator (Shieber, 1988), it allows use of semantically nonmonotonic grammars, yet unlike topdown methods, it also permits left-recursion. The enabling design feature of the algorithm is its implicit traversal of the analysis tree for the string being generated in a semantic-head-driven fashion.


Training multilingual automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems is challenging because acoustic and lexical information is typically language specific. Training multilingual system for Indic languages is even more tougher due to lack of open source datasets and results on different approaches. We compare the performance of end to end multilingual speech recognition system to the performance of monolingual models conditioned on language identification (LID). The decoding information from a multilingual model is used for language identification and then combined with monolingual models to get an improvement of 50% WER across languages. We also propose a similar tech-nique to solve the Code Switched problem and achieve a WER of 21 . 77 and 28 . 27 over Hindi-English and Bengali-English re-spectively. Our work talks on how transformer based ASR especially wav2vec 2.0 can be applied in developing multilingual ASR and code switched ASR for Indic languages.


This article discusses the work, graphic art and drawings, of the siblings, Maria Dunin-Piotrowska and Zygmunt Dunin created in the 1930s. The Dunins came from Kamyanets-Podilsky, and both graduated from Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw, and later were affiliated with the Association of Polish Graphic Artists. Their major form of artistic expression was woodcut; Zygmunt Dunin also dealt with drawing, especially its satirical variety. The oeuvres of both artists to great extent relied on dark humor and grotesque presentations of reality which is illustrated by both of them employing jet-black as the primary mode of expression. Only few of the artistic achievements of Maria Dunin survived till today. She was a student of Wladyslaw Skoczylas, and a member of Ryt [Engraving] a graphic artists' association, and one of the most talented Polish interwar female graphic artists. Her life after 1939 mostly remains a mystery, and the work of her younger brother, Zygmunt, a graphic artist, an illustrator, and a cartoonist is yet to be analyzed and researched. The works by either of them that have survived to this 83 Drzeworyt prezentowany pod tytulem Krolewna i smok (oryginalnie Zwyciezca) z 1925 r. w krakowskiej DESie; Św. Hubert z 1926 r. na aukcji z IV 2009; Stygmatyzacja św. Franciszka (1927) i Turniej (1928) przez krakowski Nautilus, aukcja nr 38 z 18 V 2013; W drodze na Golgote (1937) aukcja Nautilusa z 15.12.2012 r. 84 Zaulek (Katedra), 1932, drzeworyt prezentowany na aukcji krakowskiego Nautilusa z 15.12.2012 r. 206 Katarzyna Kulpinska day in public records as well as those that are known for their reproductions in magazines and pre-war exhibitions' catalogues represent only a small fraction of the siblings' tremendous achievements. I combine an attempt to determine the distinctiveness of media and artistic means they both employed as artists with the mode they influenced each other in their artistic endeavors. The artistic conducts of Maria Dunin and her younger brother, Zygmunt, share certain traits: the inclination towards the grotesque and dark humor, although the woodcuts by Maria did not highlight the grim aspects of reality or the ugliness of human physiognomy to the extent the works by her brother did. The radicalism visible in his drawings originated in the sharpened look, and the sensitivity to ugliness, as well as reality depicted as mirrored in a distorting mirror. The last known works by both artists are dated 1937 and 1938.


The authors report their preliminary results of the use of acupuncture analgesia in normal delivery. They obtained 22 very good results out of 31 cases of low lumbar pain, especially in posterior positions. The figures are not significant yet, but they are encouraging, as far as uterine contraction pain is concerned. The very good results obtained during caesarean section encourage us to persist with the method.


Critical Source Areas (CSAs) are considered as priority areas for soil conservation and it is essential to identify CSAs for effective watershed management. Soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model is a useful tool in identifying CSAs. Previous studies that used SWAT for CSAs identification were almost carried out on the basis of sub-watershed level which was too coarse to capture spatial detail of soil erosion. This research identified CSAs of soil erosion at a moderate fine spatial detail scale in a small watershed of Loess Plateau in China using SWAT model. CSAs were identified based on the 4-year average annual sediment yield of hydrological response units (HRU). The result shows that CSAs were mainly located in steep slope farmland areas and gully dominated areas. CSAs covered 10% areas of watershed, and contributed 30% sediment yield to the watershed. Such a trend is more obvious under larger storms. This could imply that CSAs identification on HRUs level is suitable for site-specific management design. This study also confirms that CSAs identification could be a potential approach assisting water quality control.


FERROELECTRICS Volumes 417–418 represent the Proceedings of the 1st Lithuanian– Ukranian-Polish (LUP-1) Meeting on Ferroelectrics Physics, which was held in Taujenai Estate, Lithuania on 12–16 September 2010. Taujenai estate was founded in the second half of sixteen century, and today the Taujenai manor is the center of recreation and conferences. The LUP-1, in fact, is the sequel of the International Meetings on Ferroelectrics Physics, organized by Prof. Zbigniew Czapla at Wroclaw University, Poland since 1970s. Later on, these meetings became Polish-Ukrainian Meetings on Ferroelectrics Physics. The program Committee assembled speakers to make an outstanding program. We extended the boundaries of the three countries to 92 participants from 10 countries, not only from Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland, but also from Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic (Jan Petzelt), Russia (Olga V. Malyshkina), Germany (Wolfgang Kleemann, Georg Völkel), Japan (Satoshi Wada) and Brazil (Jose Antonio Eiras) took part in this Meeting. The program featured 33 oral talks and 54 posters, which cover a broad range of fundamental and applied topics of ferroelectrics physics. The plenary lectures highlighting research areas of strong interest were delivered, among others, by: Z. Czapla, "Successive Phase Transitions in (Gua)4SO4Cl2 crystal"; A. N. Morozovska, "Prediction of Size-Induced Ferroelectricity in BaO Nanowires"; J. Petzelt, "Ferroelectric Phase Transition Dynamics in the BaTiO3-SrTiO3 System by Dielectric Spectroscopy"; S. Wada, "Piezoelectric Properties in Barium Titanate-Bismuth Perovskite-type Oxide System Ceramics"; W. Kleemann, "Magnetoelectricity in Disordered Multiferroics"; J. A. Eiras, "Ferroelectric and Ferroelastic Contributions to the Dielectric Response of Ferroelectrics." It was decided to organize the next Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian (UPL-2) Meeting on Ferroelectrics Physics in 2012 in Ukraine and the following Polish-Ukrainian-Lithuanian (PUL-3) Meeting in 2014 in Poland. The organizers are grateful for the financial support from Taylor & Francis Group, Vilnius University, Research Council of Lithuania, and Joint stock company "VST," Lithuania.


Team leaders should optimize the leadership behaviour they perform within team meetings in such a way that it maximizes performance. This research examines the relationship between three effective leadership behaviours and three performance outcomes taking into account the mediating effect of meeting effectiveness. The effective leadership behaviours are 'structuring the conversation', 'informing', and 'challenging others professionally'. The performance outcomes are the team performance, individual performance, and job satisfaction. By using quantitative data analyses, the correlations and regressions are determined between the leadership behaviours, meeting effectiveness, and performance outcomes. A mediator analysis is applied to test the significance of the mediating role of meeting effectiveness. From the data analyses it is concluded that 'structuring the conversation' negatively relates to team performance, rated by team members, with a significant mediating effect of the meeting effectiveness. 'Structuring the conversation' is indirectly related to the other performance outcomes. According to the data analyses, 'informing' does not significantly influence the meeting effectiveness nor the performance outcomes. 'Challenging other professionally' is negatively related to the meeting effectiveness, but is slightly positively related to the team performance and job satisfaction. Further the meeting effectiveness is a positive predictor of the team performance, individual performance, and job satisfaction.


Abstract Establishing status and trend for an endangered species is critical to recovery, especially when it is faced with a nascent extinction agent. We calculated, with hierarchical log-linear change-point models, hibernaculum-level population trends between 1983 and 2009 for the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) now subjected to the fast-spreading fungal disease white-nose syndrome. We combined trends from 222 wintering populations before and after onset of the disease to determine trend for clusters of interacting wintering populations, recovery units, and the species. Before onset of the disease, a west-to-east gradient in trends existed, with westernmost populations declining and easternmost populations increasing in abundance. The species as a whole, however, was stationary between 1983 and 2005 (−0.5% mean annual change; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −2.8, +1.8%). Estimated mean population size in 2009 was 377,124 bats (195,398–957,348), with large variance apparently caused by white-nose syndrome. With the onset of white-nose syndrome (2006–2009), the species exhibited a 10.3% annual decline (95% CI = −21.1, +2.0%). White-nose syndrome is having an appreciable influence on the status and trends of Indiana bat populations, stalling and in some cases reversing population gains made in recent years.


Knowledge Representation and Reasoning.- A Complete Subsumption Algorithm.- Temporal Decision Trees for Diagnosis: An Extension.- Obligations as Social Constructs.- Automatically Decomposing Configuration Problems.- Bridging the Gap between Horn Clausal Logic and Description Logics in Inductive Learning.- A Methodology for the Induction of Ontological Knowledge from Semantic Annotations.- Qualitative Spatial Reasoning in a Logical Framework.- On Managing Temporal Information for Handling Durative Actions in LPG.- An Abductive Proof Procedure Handling Active Rules.- Soft Computing.- BackPropagation through Cyclic Structures.- A Neural Architecture for Segmentation and Modelling of Range Data.- A Combination of Support Vector Machines and Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Networks for Protein Secondary Structure Prediction.- Adaptive Allocation of Data-Objects in the Web Using Neural Networks.- Machine Learning.- Improving the SLA Algorithm Using Association Rules.- Incremental Induction of Rules for Document Image Understanding.- Explaining Bagging with Monte Carlo Theory.- Pairwise Data Clustering Using Monotone Game Dynamics.- Abduction in Classification Tasks.- Data Mining.- MQL: An Algebraic Query Language for Knowledge Discovery.- Preprocessing and Mining Web Log Data for Web Personalization.- Multi-relational Structural Bayesian Classifier.- Intelligent Agents.- Specifying and Verifying Systems of Communicating Agents in a Temporal Action Logic.- Combining Intelligent Agents and Animation.- An Abductive Interpretation for Open Agent Societies.- Reasoning about Conversation Protocols in a Logic-Based Agent Language.- Distributed Intelligent Management of Active Networks.- Planning.- Planning under Uncertainty in Linear Time Logic.- Planning with Fuzzy Resources.- Planning by Abstraction Using HW[].- The Role of Different Solvers in Planning and Scheduling Integration.- Robotics.- Evolving the Neural Controller for a Robotic Arm Able to Grasp Objects on the Basis of Tactile Sensors.- An Early Cognitive Approach to Visual Motion Analysis.- Content Based Image Retrieval for Unsegmented Images.- A Mechanism of Coalition Formation in the Metaphor of Politics Multiagent Architecture.- Image-Based Monte-Carlo Localisation without a Map.- Natural Language Processing.- Making Explicit the Hidden Semantics of Hierarchical Classifications.- Sub-symbolic Encoding of Words.- A Relation-Based Schema for Treebank Annotation.- Applications.- Personalized Recommendation of TV Programs.- A Simulation-Based Decision Support System for Forest Fire Fighting.- Knowledge Maintenance and Sharing in the KM Context: The Case of P-Truck.- A CSP-Based Interactive Decision Aid for Space Mission Planning.- E-mail Categorization, Filtering, and Alerting on Mobile Devices: The ifMail Prototype and its Experimental Evaluation.- Applying Artificial Intelligence to Clinical Guidelines: The GLARE Approach.- Invited Speakers.- Two Paradigms for Natural-Language Processing.- Robotics and AI: From Intelligent Robots to Neuro-robotics.


The study of the genome dictated that the whole is more than the sum of its parts; genes do not function independently but in networks. The impact of this understanding was explosive. It acknowledged the concept that this interplay of genes is at least equally significant to their individual functions, and indicated that genome alone cannot describe the whole of an organism, not without the study of the systems of gene products. Proteomics and a range of other "-omics" sciences were thus created, uterly overwhelming in their magnitude and complexity. The development of proteomics would have been impossible without the technological benefits of genome research, despite the fact that great differences exist between proteomic and genomic analysis. High-throughput technologies evolved generating a huge amount of data in dire need of interpretation. A pivotal role for bioinformatics emerged, with this science becoming able of producing primary biological knowledge. Biology was transformed into a big science and systems biology was born. All these act as a pressure generating force towards the evolution of medicine not only in terms of clinical applications but, more importantly, as a way of thinking. The classical qualitative approach previously pacing the hypothesis-driven investigations is gradually abandoned and quantitative approaches necessitate discovery-driven ways towards clinical diagnosis. Medicine clearly ought to be prepared to adapt to this revolution.


The evolution of modern cooperative trends now seen in society have not yet been easily explained. After extensive computational studies and theoretical analysis, Nowak and Sigmund proposed that cooperation was established largely due to the emergence of indirect reciprocity. Our previous studies show that a high information flow rate stimulates cooperation in a society. In this study we find that the decrease of cooperation cost will make a society more cooperative, and the inheritance of wealth will induce cooperation in the society even when the exchange rate is comparatively low. We also study the distribution of knowledge according to wealth. We find that, for this model, cooperation is slightly less likely to occur if the exchange rate is low.


Associative Memory (AM) research covers technologies enabling implementation of associative memory which enables thought process and links previous experience to novel situations. Each neural network system requires a memory for storing and retrieval of associated concepts, based on a combination of the base concept and the context. Adaptive Resonance Theory is a kind of associative neural memory model as unsupervised neural network model. The aim of this article is to present identification and recognition of Magneto-telluric data for sedimentary basins using associative neural memory with Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART2).The ART2 is an unsupervised learning algorithm where the network is provided with inputs but not with desired outputs. The system itself to decide what features it will use to group the input data. Several sets of data consisting of 17 phases and 17 apparent resistivity values and their respective tag values are given. These sets of data are used for training the network, and other sets of data are used to test the network for clustering. The testing will result in the approximate identification of the data patterns with tag value of 1 where there is sediment of hydrocarbon and a tag value of 0 where there is no sediment of hydrocarbon in the given data set. The recognition rate in the proposed system lies between 90% and 100%.


Abstract— Uptake of 2‐deoxy‐d‐glucose (2‐DG) was investigated in capillaries isolated from rat brain. A high affinity, carrier‐mediated transport system was defined with an apparent Km for 2‐DG of 93 μM. Uptake was temperature‐dependent and markedly inhibited by phloretin and selected hexose isomers. The apparent Ki for d‐glucose inhibition of 2‐DG uptake was 98 μM. Essentially all of the 2‐DG retained by the capillary preparation could be released by sonication and 95% was recovered as free unphosphorylated 2‐DG. Uptake was not sodium‐dependent and not altered by insulin. These results suggest that movement of glucose across the blood‐brain barrier through endothelial cells probably is not rate‐limiting unless blood glucose levels are extremely low.


The symptomatic treatment of moderate or advanced Parkinson's disease with the use of deprenyl as adjunct therapy in combination with levodopa has been clearly established over the past fifteen years. The first report was that of Birkmayer in 1975 followed by Lees and reports from a number of other authors. Clinical observations have concluded that deprenyl combined with levodopa does have a moderate beneficial effect in relieving wearing off or end of dose fluctuations and morning akinesia in fifty percent of subjects. This beneficial effect may continue for a year or longer in one-half of the subjects and may allow for a reduction of levodopa of twenty to thirty percent. This is essentially supported by our own observations on eighty-six patients treated with deprenyl. A controlled cooperative study by Golbe et al with ninetysix subjects indicated that deprenyl was of moderate benefit in improving the symptom fluctuations in fifty-eight percent of subjects. Golbe subsequently observed that the improvement disappeared in most of his subjects within eight months, although in others improvement continued. A recent report by Elizan et al with two hundred chronic Parkinson patients treated with levodopa and with added deprenyl indicated improvement of end of dose response in one-third to one-half of the subjects. The improvement was not maintained in the majority. In addition these authors concluded that there is no evidence that deprenyl with levodopa decreased the excess mortality of Parkinson's disease contrary to Birkmayer et al retrospective study that suggested increased life expectancy. The ratio of observed to expected deaths was 1.6 as compared to 1.46 on levodopa alone. The use of deprenyl did not appear to prevent progression of Parkinson's disease. The pharmacological mechanisms of deprenyl in Parkinson's disease are somewhat complex. Primarily deprenyl could exert an effect on symptoms by increasing the availability of nigrostriatal dopamine by preventing oxidation of dopamine through the inhibition of monoamine oxidase-B (MAO-B). In addition there may be inhibition of the re-uptake of dopamine and increased synthesis of dopamine. Deprenyl is also known to have an amphetamine like effect as well as an antidepressant effect and anticholinergic effect. With this acknowledged response one would therefore anticipate some degree of symptomatic improvement in early Parkinson's disease with either deprenyl monotherapy or deprenyl in combination with levodopa.


Six Holstein x Zebu steers fitted with ruminal and abomasal cannulas and fed diets containing two levels of soybean hulls and three different protein supplements were used to determine ruminal, intestinal, and total tract digestibilities of nutrients. Cutine was used as the internal marker to quantify DM contents of both abomasal digesta and feces. After 15 days of diet adaptation, twelve samples of abomasal digesta and feces were taken from each animal in each period. Contents of cutine, DM, OM, CP, NDF, ADF, and NFC were all determined in samples that were pooled for animal and period. No significant differences in the amounts of ruminal, abomasal, and intestinal DM, OM, NDF, ADF, and CP were observed among protein supplemnts. Feeding starea to steers resulted in higher intake of NFC but lower DM, NDF, ADF, and NFC digestibility coefficients compared to the other protein supplements. Increasing soybean hulls levels in the diet also increased apparent ruminal and total tract digestibilities of all nutrients excepting crude protein in the rumen. It can be concluded that cutine can potentially be used as an internal marker to estimate passage rate of nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants.


The novel RTPD/MACSC model proposed in this paper tunes the cache size adoptively on the fly. It combines the extant MACSC (model for adaptive cache size control) and the novel RTPD (real-time traffic pattern detection) capability. Similar to its MACSC predecessor, the new RTPD/MACSC tuner maintains the given cache hit ratio consistently and persistently. It, however, differs from its predecessor because it adapts itself to compensate for the ill effects on the cache hit ratio by the Internet traffic, which embeds various patterns over time. The automatic adaptation (self-tuning) capability in response to traffic pattern changes detected by the RTPD is called self-reconfiguration in the RTPD/MACSC context


The flow of granular material through an orifice has been a subject of numerous studies for decades due to its importance for proper industrial silo design. The most widely accepted law that predicts the flow rate of grains trough an orifice was proposed by Beverloo et al. (1961). The velocity field within the silo during discharge cannot be reliably predicted yet, and the mechanisms controlling discharge from silos remain unclear. In this work an investigation into gravity discharge from silos in increased gravity conditions is presented. Increased gravity conditions were modelled in the geotechnical centrifuge, where the gravity was increased up to the factor of 15. Materials differing in particle sizes were tested using two different silo model geometries. The results were then compared to Beverloo equation for a slit orifice of a quasi-twodimensional silo, as well as with the equation presented by Rose and Tanaka (1956) regarding influence of hopper angle on the flow rate. It was shown that the mass flow rate as well as the local velocity of discharging is proportional to the square root of gravity and that the time required for a silo model to discharge cohesionless material scales with gravity. Analysis of the time required to discharge a silo leads to the observation of a scaling law for silo centrifuge models.


Several cutaneous inflammatory diseases can affect the nails, leading to alterations that can be severe and can determine functional and psychosocial consequences. Lichen planus, a benign inflammatory disorder of not well understood etiology, is one of them. Nail manifestations in lichen planus may be isolated or appear in a more generalized involvement of the skin. Currently nail lichen planus is very difficult to treat, and there aren't therapies fully accepted by the scientific community. Topical therapy does not lead to significant improvements and intralesional steroids are considered as a first line therapy. I present a case of nail lichen planus involving just one nail of a hand, successfully treated with intralesional triamcinolone acetonide.


"Overtraining in Sport" is the first comprehensive text on the physiological, biomedical, and psychological aspects of overtraining and overreaching in sport. Thirty-three leading researchers contribute 17 chapters to this multidisciplinary review of recent findings. Since the research is multidisciplinary, information is presented in an easy-to-understand manner and background information is provided for those who may not have a comprehensive understanding of each subject area."Overtraining in Sport" is divided into seven sections: Section I examines the prevalence, physiological responses, and methods of monitoring and preventing overtraining in endurance athletes. Section II discusses overtraining in strength/power athletes and their responses to changes in factors such as resistance volume and intensity. Section III considers medical consequences of overtraining, including cardiovascular and hematological responses, neuroendocrine responses, and musculoskeletal and orthopedic effects. Section IV covers immune system responses to overtraining and possible interventions to prevent immunosuppression. Section V documents nutritional factors that may play a part in overtraining. Section VI discusses the psychological aspects of overtraining and covers potential treatment and prevention methods. Section VII summarizes the current status of overtraining research and points to future research needs and directions. This valuable reference should be on the bookshelf of anyone with a serious interest in the potential effects of training too often or too intensely.


Two studies examined abstract conditional reasoning. First, participants at three grade levels (grade 8, college, university) were informed that a problem corresponding to Affirmation of the consequent (P implies Q, Q is true) had no certain response and were asked to justify this conclusion, for both concrete and abstract premises. Results showed an increase in use of formal justifications with grade. The second study looked at the effects of embedding abstract premises into realistic or fantasy contexts with participants at grades 8 and 11. Results show that abstract reasoning is facilitated by realistic context. These results support the idea that such reasoning may represent a qualitative change in reasoning abilities and that its development relies on appropriate access to empirical knowledge despite the abstract nature of premises.