Abstract This paper aims to assess trainees' satisfaction with the process and assessment aspects of the Saudi Diploma of Family Medicine (SDFM). This cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2015 among trainees undertaking the SDFM. A questionnaire was distributed to all trainees in four examination centres in Saudi Arabia, under the supervision and guidance of the investigators (four members of the scientific committee of SDFM). There was a total of 97 participants in this study, the majority of whom were Saudis. More than 85% were satisfied with most elements of training including; an adequate number and variety of patients and cases, allocating time for training, giving regular written evaluation. Satisfaction with mentoring and giving constructive feedback scored less well and trainees were less satisfied with some hospital clinical rotations, which requires further exploration.


Abstract The influence of ageing on the amount and composition of phenolic compounds and their glucosides was studied in one to five-year-old shoots of Picea abies. The total content of phenolics increased remarkably within the first two years of growth. In this period cinnamic acid derivatives were dominating, but beginning with the end of the first vegetation period a dramatic increase of acetophenones was observed. Obviously at the end of the first vegetation period the cinnamic acid derivatives are subjected to oxidation resulting in an increase of acetophenones.


There is a strong association between 2 SEN virus (SENV) variants (SENV-D and SENV-H) and transfusion-associated non-A-E hepatitis. In total, 200 subjects from a Japanese region where hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly endemic and 194 persons from a contiguous area where HCV is not endemic were tested for SENV-D and SENV-H DNA by polymerase chain reaction. SENV DNA was detected equally in subjects from each area (56% prevalence in the area of high endemicity vs. 61% in the nonendemic area). Age-specific prevalence of SENV was similar to that of TT virus, with equal distribution at all ages in both areas; HCV was predominant in the elderly population. Alanine aminotransferase levels were significantly associated with HCV viremia but not with SENV viremia. SENV is a common infection that appears to have transmission routes and age-related prevalence that are distinct from those of HCV. No evidence was found that SENV caused hepatitis or worsened the course of hepatitis C.


Background: Sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) use is associated with an increased risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Objective: This study evaluated and compared the DKA characteristics and outcomes of users and non-users of SGLT2i. Methods: We retrospectively studied patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) admitted with DKA to Tawam Hospital, Al Ain City, UAE between January 2017 and March 2021. Demographic data, clinical, and laboratory findings were extracted from the electronic medical records. Results: A total of 55 patients with T2DM (62% UAE nationals, 50% women) were admitted with DKA. The average age was 54.0 ± 18.9 years and average diabetes duration of 15.7 ± 15.1 years. Seventeen patients (31%) were using SGLT2i. Infection was the main precipitating factor for DKA in (8 out of 17) SGLT2i users. Compared to non-users, SGLT2i users had lower systolic blood pressure (119.9 vs 140 mmHg; P = .012) and serum glucose levels (16.2 vs 24.9 mmol/L; P < .001) and higher Na level (137.5 vs 132.6 mmol/L; P = .005). Additionally, 56.3% of SGLT2i users had euglycemic DKA compared to 2.6% of nonusers (P < .001). Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurred more in SGLT2i users compared to non-users (94.1% vs 67.6%, P = .043). Further analysis revealed that SGLT2i users were about five times more likely to have prolonged hospital length of stay (⩾14 days) when compared with non-users (adjusted OR: 4.84; P = .035). Overall, there was no difference between the two groups with regards to DKA complications and mortality. Conclusions: SGLT2i related DKA is associated with lower blood glucose levels, lower SBP, worse hypovolemia, increased risk of AKI, and longer hospital stay when compared to non SGLT2i related episodes. Since the benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors far outweigh potential risks, there is a need to raise healthcare professionals and patients' awareness about this potential association.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Resistance to fluoropyrimidine based chemotherapy is the major reason for the failure of treating advanced colorectal cancer. The lack of ability for tumor cells to undergo apoptosis after genotoxic stress is the key contributor to such intrinsic mechanism. Mounting evidence has demonstrated that non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial regulators of gene expression, in particular, under acute stress. However, there is still very limited knowledge about the role of miRNAs in apoptosis. In this study, we discovered a novel mechanism mediated by miR-129 directly inducing apoptosis by suppressing a key anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. Ectopic expression of miR-129 promotes apoptosis, inhibits cell proliferation and causes G2-cell-cycle arrest in colon cancer cells in vitro. The intrinsic apoptotic pathway triggered by miR-129 is activated by cleaving caspase-9 and caspase-3. The expression of miR-129 is very significantly down-regulated in colorectal cancer tissue specimens compared with the paired normal control samples (p<0.00001). More importantly, we demonstrated that miR-129 functions synergistically with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in vitro and in vivo to enhance 5-FU cytotoxicity. These results suggest that miR-129 is a major regulator of apoptosis in colorectal cancer. Therefore, miR-129 may be a potential tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer and a novel candidate for developing miR-129 based therapeutic strategies.

Citation Format: Mihriban Karaayvaz, Haiyan Zhai, Jingfang Ju. miR-129 is a potential tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer by regulating apoptosis and modulating fluropyrimidine based chemosensitivity. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4185. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4185


The thesis investigates whether contemporary policy and practice support formal and informal learning in the field of archaeology. Also, the assumption that multi-sector partnerships broaden community participation in heritage activities is interrogated.
The multi-method comparative research model applied both empirical and qualitative methods to three case studies in the Midlands of Britain. Each of these projects gained funding to exhibit archaeology to the public during the course of the research. The policies and practices of the key individuals in the partnerships were investigated through taped interviews, and the data was analysed using cognitive mapping (Tolman, 1948, Buzan, 1993). Data about the visitors were gathered through questionnaire surveys, taped oral accounts, and observational studies. The interests, concerns and agenda of the principle stakeholders were compared.
The results indicated that the role of the volunteers was crucial to the success and sustainability of the projects. However, some volunteers felt that they were weaker partners, and this was linked to a distinction between amateurs and professionals. The power of local authorities in heritage partnerships and their conflicting roles as developers and guardians of the archaeological heritage are questioned. Ways to facilitate participatory partnerships are suggested.
The research draws on Foucault's definition of discourse, and Bourdieu's human capital theories and his concept of habitus and distinction. The links between informal and formal learning are rarely researched and theorised, but this study identifies how archaeologists, acting as "cultural intermediaries" (Bourdieu, 1984: 14), can create and sustain learning opportunities for adults, collapsing some of the traditional hierarchies between popular entertainment, community knowledge, and intellectual knowledge. The thesis places learning in archaeology within the theory of a structured taxonomy of learning (Biggs, 1971, Biggs and Collis, 1982).


The resource-based view has been proposed to investigate the impact of information technology (IT) investments on firm performance. Researchers have shown that a firm's ability to effectively leverage its IT investments by developing a strong IT capability can result in improved firm performance. We test the robustness of this approach and examine several related issues. Our results indicate that firms with superior IT capability indeed exhibit superior current and sustained firm performance when compared to average industry performance, even after adjusting for effects of prior firm performance. However, the differences in the results from various analyses suggest that the impact of "halo effects" and prior financial performance of firms must be taken into consideration in future tests of IT capability. Further, it is critical to develop theoretically derived multidimensional measures of IT capability in order to continue to apply the RBV approach to assess the impact of IT investments on firm performance.


There appears to be a mismatch between current interactive media and intergenerational storytelling, which leads to the elderly are often viewed as passive consumers, rather than active creators of story content. In this paper, we present our study aiming to facilitate storytelling of older adults living in the care facilities with their children, driven by the research questions: RQ1: What life stories would the older adults like to share? And RQ2: How to facilitate older adults to tell stories with their children? A research prototype named Slots-story was designed, which integrated functions of memory cue generator, story recording, and preservation. In the field study, eight pairs of participants (each pair consisting of an elderly adult and his/her child) were recruited to use the prototype for around ten days. Semi-structured interviews were conducted both with the elderly and their children. Stories collected were transcribed, and thematic analysis was conducted, which formed the foundation of the insights on the research questions.


Piezoceramic (PZT) transducers are extensively used in structural health monitoring (SHM) and noise and vibration control (NVC) of various aero, civil, and mechanical (ACM) structures. They are surface bonded on the host structure and are excited to produce structural responses. These responses form the basis of PZT—structure interaction based SHM or NVC methods. The last couple of decades have seen many `single input single output' (SISO) type PZT—structure interaction models. However, researchers are compelled to study `multiple input multiple output' (MIMO) or `multiple input single output' (MISO) type PZT—structure interaction models in addition to the SISO models to deal with ACM structures. Multiplexing is a process of active excitation and extraction of output responses from multiple PZT transducers, whereas uniplexing is active excitation and extraction of output response from a single PZT in the presence of other passive distributed transducers. Thus, this article focuses on the experimental study of such MISO/MIMO based multiplexing of PZT transducers, together with SISO based uniplexing on a prototype plate structure. This study also highlights the problems of interference due to transducers during uniplexing/ multiplexing and their influence on output responses.


WSN network is energy constrained, the energy consumption of the network has stringent limited. During design routing protocols, Energy issues is important factors to be considered. Without increasing send energy of nodes, MIMO technology can make use of the cumulative energy of the sending node to increase the sending signal to noise ratio, thus reducing the error rate and improve the reliability of data communication, In the same transmit power and bit error rate situations, Using MIMO technology can provide higher data rates, reducing the node sending time, thereby reducing the forward node processing and communication cost. In this paper, Based on dynamic collaborative virtual antenna MIMO technology, a new energy efficient routing protocol is proposed. In the specific application environment, Simulation shows that the protocol has better energy efficiency.


Background : PPROM complicates 3% of pregnancies, the most commonly identified etiology is infection. Appendicitis is a well-known cause of peritonitis and systemic illness, complicating approximately 1/1700 pregnancies. Case : A healthy 26 year old primagravida female at 24 weeks gestation presented with PPROM. She was managed expectantly and delivered at 26 weeks gestation due to suspected chorioamnionitis, manifested by abdominal pain and tenderness. Postpartum the patient complained of mild abdominal pain and nausea that was deemed appropriate for her post-operative state, and she was discharged home on post-operative day 3. The following day she presented to our emergency department with worsening abdominal pain. Imaging was suggestive of appendicitis, and the patient subsequently underwent surgery. Intra-operative findings were significant for an inflamed appendix matted to the posterior surface of the uterus and diffuse erythema of the uterine serosa. Final pathology reports confirmed acute appendicitis, chorioamnionitis and funisitis. Conclusion : It is possible that an underlying appendicitis lead to intrauterine infection and subsequent preterm delivery in our patient.


The effect of the addition of methanol and 2-propanol as cosolvents on the caffeine adsorption onto activated carbons was evaluated by both kinetic and equilibrium studies. The kinetic results presented a good adjustment to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and reveal that the alcohol cosolvent has a double negative effect on caffeine adsorption: it enhances caffeine's solubility lowering its affinity toward the adsorbent and it seems to compete with caffeine for the adsorption active sites. The change in the isotherm shape from L to F type, when the mixture 2-propanol/water was used, was justified in terms of the higher interaction between the caffeine and 2-propanol molecules. This solvent presents the most similar Hansen three-dimensional solubility parameters when compared to the ones of caffeine. The overall adsorption results point out that when the sample with acidic surface chemistry is used, the water adsorption is favored and consequently the effect of the cosolvent is less marked and is mai...


This invention is related to the field of olefin polymerisation in double loop reactors and especially to the polymerisation of olefins with very active catalyst systems. It discloses a method for reducing blockage when transferring polymer product from the first loop to the second loop of a double loop reactor.


In designing and testing bolted joints there are multiple parameters to be considered and calculations that must be performed to predict the joint behavior. Each different set of parameters may call for a different set of equations. Determining every parameter in each bolted joint is impractical and in many cases impossible. On the other hand, it is much easier to reduce these calculations to a universal set that can be used for all bolted joints. This is the purpose of the Bolt Analysis Program. My project under the Mechanical and Rotating Systems branch of the Engineering Development and Analysis Division was to take the Bolt Analysis Program Version 2.0 and update the program to a modem and user-friendly format. Version 2.0 of the Bolt Analysis Program is a useful program, but lacks the dynamic capabilities that are needed for current applications. Version 2.0 of the Bolt Analysis Program was written in 1993 using the Pascal programming language in a DOS format. This program allows you to input data in a step-by-step format, calculates the data, and then on a final screen displays the input and the output fiom the calculations. Version 2.0 is still applicable for all bolted joint anaiysis, but has updates that are desired. First, the program runs in DOS format. With the applications available today, my mentor decided it would be best to update the program into Excel using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). This would allow the program to have multiple Graphical User Interfaces (GUI s) while retaining all functions of the previous program. Version 2.0 only allows you to input data in a step-by-step process. If you make a mistake and need to go back, you must run through the entire program before you can return to fix your error. This becomes tedious when needing to change one parameter or test multiple sets of data. In Version 3.0, the program allows you to enter and change data at any time while displaying real-time output data. If you realize an error, it is as simple as scrolling back to your mistake and changing the data. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.


"Love Hurts," suggested the BBC's Panorama programme in October last year. The investigation focused on the rising rates of sexually transmitted infections in the UK and the crisis in access to genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics.1 It took as it's starting point the centrality of sexual health in the 2004 Public Health White Paper for England, Choosing Health .2 The Government is committed to a major sexual health education programme starting in 2006 and major improvements in sexual health services. To monitor progress local health service organisations have been set targets, including one relating to patient access: by 2008, all patients should be offered an appointment within 48 hours of contacting a GUM clinic.

Poor access to sexual health services has been highlighted as one factor contributing to continued increases in sexually transmitted infections,3 and a number of surveys have found access to clinics have worsened over the past decade.4,5 Many clinics changed from walk-in to appointment-based services, and the expansion of demand has far …


Responses to hate crimes, hate incidents and hate speech are characterised by an exceptional fragmentation in terminology and lack of coordination among governmental and non-governmental organisations. This article proposes a new conceptual framework to map the diversity of responses to hate crime, hate incidents and hate speech, with the aim of assessing gaps and needs in this important policy area. Using Australia as a case study, we create and analyse a database of 222 organisations running activities focusing on tackling hate against different target groups. The results highlight an uneven distribution of efforts across different geographical areas, types of activities and target groups. The majority of anti-hate efforts, especially by government organisations, focus on awareness raising and education rather than victim support and data collection. Racial and religious hate are the main foci of anti-hate efforts, compared to other forms of hate, such as anti-LGBTIQ+ and disablist hate.


Human pose estimation has witnessed a significant advance thanks to the development of deep learning. Recent human pose estimation approaches tend to directly predict the location heatmaps, which causes quantization errors and inevitably deteriorates the performance within the reduced network output. Aim at solving it, we revisit the heatmap-offset aggregation method and propose the Offset-guided Network (OGN) with an intuitive but effective fusion strategy for both two-stages pose estimation and Mask R-CNN. For two-stages pose estimation, a greedy box generation strategy is also proposed to keep more necessary candidates while performing person detection. For mask R-CNN, ratio-consistent is adopted to improve the generalization ability of the network. State-of-the-art results on COCO and PoseTrack dataset verify the effectiveness of our offset-guided pose estimation and tracking.


Ethical researchers who want to quote public user-generated content without further exposing these sources have little guidance as to how to disguise quotes. Reagle (2021b) showed that researchers' attempts to disguise phrases on Reddit are often haphazard and ineffective. Are there tools that can help? Automated word spinners, used to generate reams of ad-laden content, seem suited to the task. We select 10 quotations from fictional posts on r/AmItheButtface and "spin" them using Spin Rewriter and WordAi. We review the usability of the services and then (1) search for their spins on Google; and, (2) ask human subjects (N=19) to judge them for fidelity. Participants also disguise three of those phrases and these are assessed for efficacy and the tactics employed. We recommend that researchers disguise their prose by substituting novel words (i.e., swapping infrequently occurring words, such as "toxic" with "radioactive") and rearranging elements of sentence structure. The practice of testing spins, however, remains essential even when using good tactics; a Python script is provided to facilitate such testing.


Based on the daily surface air temperature data from about 200 stations during 1951–1999 in China, changes in the frequency of some extreme temperature events were studied with a focus on trends. For China as a whole, the number of hot days (Tmax over 35°C) displays a slightly decreasing trend, while the number of frost days (Tmin below 0°C) exhibits a significant decreasing trend. Meanwhile, increasing trends were detected in the frequencies of warm days and warm nights. In addition, decreasing trends was found in the frequencies of cool days and even stronger decreasing trend was found in frequencies of cool nights in China.


Eudiplozoon nipponicum is a platyhelminth, from the class
Monogenea, family Diplozoidae. It is oviparous, hematophagous
ectoparasite of common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Proteolytic
enzymes (peptidases) are functional molecules, which catabolize
cleavage of peptide bonds of proteins. According to the process
of their action they are divided into several groups (e.g.
cysteine, serine, aspartic, metallo- peptidases). Serine
peptidases are known as a key factors of many physiological
processes of higher organisms, such as complement cascade
activation, blood clotting, fibrinolysis, inflammation and
programmed apoptosis. Parasites employ the serine peptidases
e.g. during invasion and migration of the host tissue and
digestion. For each living organisms, the regulation of the
activity of peptidases represents the crucial step and it can
be mediated also by natural inhibitors, such as serpins – the
inhibitors of serine peptidases. In transcriptomes/genomes of
various helminth species, we can find high number of genes,
coding serpins. In transcriptomic data, obtained on our
experimental organism E. nipponicum we identified several
sequences corresponding to serpins. Up to now no monogenean
serpin has been characterized. The results of our preliminary
experiments realized with recombinant serpin protein molecule
indicates that function of the serpins could be similar to
other blood feeding worms. This means, that eudiplozoon
probably adopted similar mechanisms enabling to avoid
inflammation, activation of complement and blood clotting.


Abstract In 21st century, it has been observed that Wire Cut Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) has evolved as one of the most important non-traditional machining process. The popularity and its success lies because of its uniqueness towards producing different components which are very difficult to machine like titanium, tungsten carbide, Inconel materials etc and provides a platform in producing intricate complex shape which in many cases become impossible to machine by traditional machining methods. Pure sintered titanium bears very high specific strength, abrasion and corrosion resistances and thus machining this type of materials by conventional techniques becomes very difficult though this material finds immense applications in bio-plant and aerospace components. In the present work, WEDM on pure sintered titanium is studied. The different input parameters of WEDM like, pulse on time, pulse off time, wire tension and wire feed have been varied to investigate the output response like MRR, Surface Roughness (Ra), Kerf Width and Over Cut. A response surface methodology (4 factors 3 level) design of experiment (DOE) has been applied in this context to examine the machining ability of pure sintered titanium and results are found to be satisfactory and verified by confirmatory test. The machining parameters like pulse on time, pulse off time, wire tension and wire feed shows immense effect on the output responses and present study provide an optimal conditions of these input parameters to get the best output responses through RSM


Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the corrosion behavior of the ferrite-bainite phase of AISI1040 steel and its corrosion inhibition using pectin in 0.5 M sulphuric acid medium. The corrosion study was conducted through weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. The study was conducted within the temperature range of 313–343 K and immersion time of 1 h— 7 h. The inhibition performance of pectin has boosted with an increase in the concentration of pectin and decreased with the temperature and time of exposure. From the weight loss study, the highest inhibition efficiency of 85% was achieved at 5.0 g/L at 1 h of exposure at 40 °C. The activation, thermodynamic, and adsorption isotherm were adapted for the experimental results. The energy and enthalpy of activation emphasized on energy barrier for the corrosion process. The entropy of activation values is negative, indicating the association of molecules. The physical adsorption of pectin on the metal surface was confirmed by the free energy of adsorption (close to-20kj mol−1). The enthalpy of adsorption indicated the exothermic process and, arrangement of the molecules on the surface of the metal expressed by the entropy of adsorption. The optimum efficiency of 74.9% is achieved for the addition of 5.0 g/L of pectin at 313 K by the EIS technique. Surface analyses involving a scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscopy were carried out to understand the nature of the surface in the presence and absence of pectin.


The authors describe an organizational change process driven by a critical cost containment effort in a teaching hospital in the northeastern United States. This process resulted in a major shift in the role of the clinical nurse specialist. Development priorities of clinical nurse specialists before and after redesign of the role are described.


Cervical cancers, a malignancy associated with oncogenic papilloma viruses, remain a major disease burden in the absence of effective implementation of preventive strategies. CD66þ cells have previously been identified as a tumor-propagating subset in cervical cancers. We investigated the existence, differentiation state, and neoplastic potential of CD66þ cells in a precancer cell line harboring HPV31b episomes. The gene expression profile of CD66 cells overlaps with differentiated keratinocytes, neoplastic mesenchymal transition, cells of the squamocolumnar junction, and cervical cancer cell line–derived spheroids. There is elevated expression of DNMT1, Notch1, and the viral gene product E1^E4 in CD66 high cells. Thus, CD66 cells, in the absence of differentiating signals, express higher levels of key regulators of keratinocytes stemness, differentiation, and the viral life cycle, respectively. We also find a striking association of neoplastic traits, including migration, invasion, and colony formation, in soft agar with CD66 cells. These properties and a distinct G2–M–enriched cell-cycle profile are conserved in cells from cervical cancers. Principally, using a precancerous cell line, we propose that CD66 cells have an intermediate differentiation state, with a cellular milieu connected with both viral replication and neoplastic potential, and validate some key features in precancer lesions. Such pathophysiologically relevant systems for defining cellular changes in the early phases of the disease process provide both mechanistic insight and potential therapeutic strategies. Collectively, our data provide a rationale for exploring novel therapeutic targets in CD66þ subsets during cancer progression. Cancer Res; 74(22); 6682–92. 2014 AACR.


A reformulation of the perturbative triples correction to coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) based on the numerical Laplace transform of the energy denominator is presented. Rearranged equations reduce the O(N7) canonical scaling to O(N6), where N is a size measure of the electronic system. Two to three quadrature points is adequate for chemical predictions. The Laplace ansatz permits simple, noniterative expressions in noncanonical orbital representations. Furthermore, substituting canonical by generalized CCSD natural orbitals, the Laplace ansatz exhibits scaling close to O(N5), while retaining accuracy and providing crossover with respect to canonical triples for small size systems. A developing atomic orbital formulation is also introduced.


In this paper, the infrastructure of designing a multi-user wargaming environment over the WWW architecture is proposed. The proposed infrastructure is based upon the existence of a multi-user virtual reality system on top of the WWW environment. Hence, the necessary conditions for a network-based virtual reality system to support designing a wargaming environment are analyzed and studied in this paper. Finally, a prototype of a multi-user wargaming system was implemented with the SharedWeb system. The SharedWeb system is a multi-user virtual reality system built over the WWW environment. The SharedWeb system provides a seamless integration of virtual reality technique with the WWW architecture, which makes it an excellent platform for our experiment The 3D tank combat simulation is the result of this prototyping process. The scenario of this 3D Tank Wargame is a two-company drill and each company has two tanks. Since this application is simply a Proof of Principle(POP), the player can only control the movement and direction of each tank as well as issue the fire command. The experience presented in this paper may provide some thought on designing a new generation of war game system for the year 2000.


Conventional Monte Carlo (MC) methods for radiation transport computations are 'history-based', which means that one particle history at a time is tracked. Simulations based on such methods suffer from thread divergence on the graphics processing unit (GPU), which severely affects the performance of GPUs. To circumvent this limitation, event-based vectorized MC algorithms can be utilized. A versatile software test-bed, called ARCHER - Accelerated Radiation-transport Computations in Heterogeneous Environments - was used for this study. ARCHER facilitates the development and testing of a MC code based on the vectorized MC algorithm implemented on GPUs by using NVIDIA's Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). The ARCHER{sub GPU} code was designed to solve a neutron eigenvalue problem and was tested on a NVIDIA Tesla M2090 Fermi card. We found that although the vectorized MC method significantly reduces the occurrence of divergent branching and enhances the warp execution efficiency, the overall simulation speed is ten times slower than the conventional history-based MC method on GPUs. By analyzing detailed GPU profiling information from ARCHER, we discovered that the main reason was the large amount of global memory transactions, causing severe memory access latency. Several possible solutions to alleviate the memory latency issue are discussed. (authors)


Femoral hernia is rare and commonly presents with incarceration in emergency situations. From the literature review, there is no femoral hernia reported in chronic irreducible presentation. A 44-year-old female, who was planned for an elective hernia surgery for a chronic irreducible inguinal hernia, was discovered to have an irreducible femoral hernia intraoperatively. Herein, we revisit this diagnostic entity, discuss its misdiagnosis and suggest the best surgical approach when such an unexpected situation happens during an operation.


Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is a new type of bio-polyester which is expected to replace traditional petroleum-based plastics. It is also a critical transformation hub of carbon source in nitrogen and phosphorus removal in sewage. Based on the anaerobic-oxygen limited process, the experiment took organic solid waste fermentation liquid as carbon source control hub and realized PHA synthesis and recovery in denitrification and phosphorus removal from low carbon sewage the SBR reactor by regulating pH value and nitrogen and phosphorus restriction. The experimental results showed that when the ratio of C/N and C/P was 150, the content of PHA accounted for 50.39% and 36.07 of the dry cell weight, respectively. Besides, it was found that increasing the C/N ratio was beneficial to increasing the proportion of PHV in PHA. This study proved the feasibility of using an anaerobic-oxygen limited process to recover PHA in nitrogen and phosphorus removal from low-carbon sewage, which saves gas and reduces energy consumption. At the same time, it also provides some help for the follow-up study of low-carbon urban sewage nitrogen and phosphorus removal coupled with resource recovery of PHA to guide the water industry economy to develop in a circular and sustainable direction


Context. Recent calculations have shown that the UV bump at about 217.5 nm in the extinction curve can be explained by a complex mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in several ionisation states. Other studies proposed that the carriers are a restricted population made of neutral and singly-ionised dehydrogenated coronene molecules (C24Hn, n ≤ 3), in line with models of the hydrogenation state of interstellar PAHs predicting that medium-sized species are highly dehydrogenated. Aims. To assess the observational consequences of the latter hypothesis we have undertaken a systematic theoretical study of the electronic spectra of dehydrogenated PAHs. We use our first results to see whether such spectra show strong general trends upon dehydrogenation. Methods. We performed calculations using state-of-the-art techniques in the framework of the density functional theory (DFT) to obtain the electronic ground-state geometries, and of the time-dependent DFT to evaluate the electronic excited-state properties. Results. We computed the absorption cross-section of the species C24Hn (n = 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0) in their neutral and cationic charge-states. Similar calculations were performed for other PAHs and their fully dehydrogenated counterparts. Conclusions. π-electron energies are always found to be strongly affected by dehydrogenation. In all cases we examined, progressive dehydrogenation translates into a correspondingly progressive blue shift of the main electronic transitions. In particular, the π → π ∗ collective resonance becomes broader and bluer with dehydrogenation. Its calculated energy position is therefore predicted to fall in the gap between the UV bump and the far-UV rise of the extinction curve. Since this effect appears to be systematic, it poses a tight observational limit on the column density of strongly dehydrogenated medium-sized PAHs.


• Hearing impairment caused by otosclerosis was treated by mobilization of the stapes in 400 cases. The prospect of benefits from the operation was found to depend largely on the category of otosclerotic hearing defect. The category marked by normal bone conduction with more than 35 db. of loss in air conduction was twice as likely to be helped by fenestration as by stapes mobilization. The category marked by normal bone conduction and less than 35 db. of loss in air conduction was more likely to be helped by stapes mobilization. A third category, patients with a bone-conduction loss of not below the level of 30 db. with an additional air-conduction loss of at least 20 to 25 db., likewise had more favorable results from stapes mobilization. Fenestration is still the cornerstone of modern otosurgical procedures, and it is still needed to improve the hearing of many patients in whom the stapes mobilization procedure fails. But stapes mobilization fulfills a need for patients whose hearing losses do not fall within the levels necessary for successful fenestration, and it sometimes restores serviceable hearing when the nature of the hearing loss precludes such improvement by the use of fenestration.


Significance Voltage-gated ion channels contain domains that have discrete functionalities. The central pore domain allows current flow and provides ion selectivity, whereas peripherally located voltage-sensing domains (VSDs) are needed for voltage-dependent gating. Certain mutations trigger a leak current through VSDs, known as gating pore current. Hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HypoPP) type 2 is caused by mutations in the skeletal muscle voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.4 that neutralize positive charges in S4 voltage-sensing segments of VSDs. We show that Hm-3 toxin from the crab spider Heriaeus melloteei inhibits gating pore currents through such mutant channels. We propose that Hm-3 and similar toxins may constitute useful hits in developing gating pore current inhibitors and HypoPP therapy. Gating pore currents through the voltage-sensing domains (VSDs) of the skeletal muscle voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.4 underlie hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HypoPP) type 2. Gating modifier toxins target ion channels by modifying the function of the VSDs. We tested the hypothesis that these toxins could function as blockers of the pathogenic gating pore currents. We report that a crab spider toxin Hm-3 from Heriaeus melloteei can inhibit gating pore currents due to mutations affecting the second arginine residue in the S4 helix of VSD-I that we have found in patients with HypoPP and describe here. NMR studies show that Hm-3 partitions into micelles through a hydrophobic cluster formed by aromatic residues and reveal complex formation with VSD-I through electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions with the S3b helix and the S3–S4 extracellular loop. Our data identify VSD-I as a specific binding site for neurotoxins on sodium channels. Gating modifier toxins may constitute useful hits for the treatment of HypoPP.


Traditional user interfaces in modeling have followed the WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, Pointer) paradigm. While functional and powerful, they can also be cumbersome and daunting to a novice user; creating a complex model requires much expertise and effort. A recent trend is toward more accessible and natural interfaces, which has lead to sketch-based interfaces for modeling (SBIM). The goal is to allow hand-drawn sketches to be used in the modeling process, from rough model creation through to fine detail construction. Mapping 2D sketches to a 3D modeling operation is a difficult and ambiguous task, so our categorization is based on how an SBIM application chooses to interpret a sketch, of which there are three primary methods: to create a 3D model, to add details to an existing model, or to deform and manipulate a model. In this STAR, we present a taxonomy of sketch-based interfaces focused on geometric modeling applications. The canonical and recent works are presented and classified, including techniques for sketch acquisition, filtering, and interpretation. The report also includes a discussion of important challenges and open problems for researchers to tackle in the coming years.


In the time alloted for this subject it will be impossible to discuss, in its entirety, all phases of the methods used in computing the loss of water by transpiration from native plant-life along the Santa Ana River. The results of this work are published in Bulletin 44 of the Division of Water Resources, State of California. The present paper is confined to a discussion of the diurnal fluctuations that occur in the flow of the Santa Ana River and the adjacent ground-water.

On Figure 1 have, been plotted the gage-height records for a short period (July 5–8, 1935) for eight southern California streams. These records have been selected at random from the large number of records filed in the local office of the United States Geological Survey. Some of these streams have a large drainage-area, others are small; some are short and steep, others flat and long. The points of measurement range from 15 to 2950 feet above sea-level. One of the streams (Mojave River) is in the desert-region; the others drain into the Pacific Ocean. The object of Figure 1 is to demonstrate, that the diurnal fluctuation exists and is, to a large degree, similar at most points of measurement. As a rule, the maximum discharge occurs about 10 o'clock in the morning, and the minimum late in the afternoon. It is readily recognized that these fluctuations are in the main caused by the evaporation and transpiration-loss in or adjacent to the stream-channel.


The membrane-bound metalloproteinase, neutral endopeptidase (NEP), is a degrading enzyme of both bronchoconstrictor and bronchodilator peptides within the airways. To examine the role of NEP in exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) in asthmatic subjects, we used inhaled thiorphan, a NEP inhibitor, as pretreatment to a 6-min standardized exercise challenge. Thirteen clinically stable asthmatic subjects participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study that was performed on 2 days separated by 48 h. Thiorphan was administered by two inhalations of 0.5 ml containing 1.25 mg/ml. Subsequently, exercise was performed on a bicycle ergometer at 40-50% of predicted maximal voluntary ventilation while inhaling dry air (20 degrees C, relative humidity 6%). The airway response to exercise was measured by forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) every 3 min, up to 30 min postexercise challenge, and was expressed both as the maximal percent fall in FEV1 from baseline and as the area under the time-response curve (AUC) (0-30 min). The acute effects of both pretreatments on baseline FEV1 were not different (P > 0.2), neither was there any difference in maximal percent fall in FEV1 between thiorphan and placebo (P > 0.7). However, compared with placebo, thiorphan reduced the AUC by, on average, 26% [AUC (0-30 min, +/-SE): 213.6 +/- 47.7 (thiorphan) and 288.6 +/- 46.0%fall.h (placebo); P = 0.047]. These data indicate that NEP inhibition by thiorphan reduces EIB during the recovery period. This suggests that bronchodilator NEP substrates, such as vasoactive intestinal polypeptide or atrial natriuretic peptide, modulate EIB in patients with asthma.


Actinomycosis, a rare infection of the middle ear, has less than 50 documented cases worldwide. Actinomyces are an anaerobic, filamentous bacterium causing granuloma formation and suppurative infection.

 We present a young male with a nine-month history of unilateral, yellow coloured otorrhoea and hearing loss. Swabs showed no growth, with infection not responding to oral or topical antibiotics. CT temporal bones was consistent with cholesteatoma and ossicular disruption. Surgical exploration revealed a yellow, cystic mass within the middle ear. Cortical mastoidectomy and washout were performed. Histological diagnosis confirmed actinomyces clusters with positive Gram stain.

 Actinomyces typically presents as chronic otitis media. It likely reaches the middle ear via the Eustachian tube. It is often misdiagnosed due to culture insensitivity; however clinical suspicion can aid labs in providing an optimum culture environment. Tympanomastoidectomy allows for histopathological diagnosis. Surgical resection should be followed by a prolonged course of antibiotics.


The three-phase buck-boost DC-AC inverter generates three alternating output voltages as the differential voltage of three DC-DC individual buck-boost converters. Three converters are driven with three DC-biased and 120° phase-shifted sinusoidal references. The peak value of the inverter alternating output voltage can be larger or smaller than the value of the direct input voltage. In this paper, a three-phase buck-boost DC-AC inverter is designed and implemented on a prototype with digital controller using a microcontroller.


This review is made of two parts which are related to Poincar\'e in different ways. The first part reviews the work of Poincar\'e on the Theory of (Special) Relativity. One emphasizes both the remarkable achievements of Poincar\'e, and the fact that he never came close to what is the essential conceptual achievement of Einstein: changing the concept of time. The second part reviews a topic which probably would have appealed to Poincar\'e because it involves several mathematical structures he worked on: chaotic dynamics, discrete reflection groups, and Lobachevskii space. This topic is the hidden role of Kac-Moody algebras in the billiard description of the asymptotic behaviour of certain Einstein-matter systems near a cosmological singularity. Of particular interest are the Einstein-matter systems arising in the low-energy limit of superstring theory. These systems seem to exhibit the highest-rank hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebras, and notably E(10), as hidden symmetries.


In this paper a universal fuzzy flip-flop is proposed that can be reconfigured as a fuzzy SR, D, JK, or T flip-flop. When integrated with a multi layer neural network, the resulting reconfigurable fuzzy-neural structure showed excellent learning ability. The sigmoid activation function of neurons in the hidden layers of the multilayer neural network was replaced by the quasi-sigmoidal transfer characteristics of the universal fuzzy flip-flop in the reconfigurable fuzzy-neural structure. Experimental results showed that the reconfigurable fuzzy-neural structure can be effectively trained using either a large or sparse set of data points to closely approximate nonlinear input functions.


With the proliferation of mobile wireless communication and embedded systems, the energy efficiency becomes a major design constraint. The dissipated energy is often referred as the product of power dissipation and the input-output delay. Most of electronic design automation techniques focus on optimising only one of these parameters either power or delay. Industry standard design flows integrate systematic methods of optimising either area or timing while for power consumption optimisation one often employs heuristics which are characteristic to a specific design. In this work we answer three questions in our quest to provide a systematic approach to joint power and delay optimisation. The first question of our research is: How to build a design flow which incorporates academic and industry standard design flows for power optimisation? To address this question, we use a reference design flow provided by Synopsys and integrate in this flow academic tools and methodologies. The proposed design flow is used as a platform for analysing some novel algorithms and methodologies for optimisation in the context of digital circuits. The second question we answer is: Is possible to apply a systematic approach for power optimisation in the context of combinational digital circuits? The starting point is a selection of a suitable data structure which can easily incorporate information about delay, power, area and which then allows optimisation algorithms to be applied. In particular we address the implications of a systematic power optimisation methodologies and the potential degradation of other (often conflicting) parameters such as area or the delay of implementation. Finally, the third question which this thesis attempts to answer is: Is there a systematic approach for multi-objective optimisation of delay and power? A delay-driven power and power-driven delay optimisation is proposed in order to have balanced delay and power values. This implies that each power optimisation step is not only constrained by the decrease in power but also the increase in delay. Similarly, each delay optimisation step is not only governed with the decrease in delay but also the increase in power. The goal is to obtain multi-objective optimisation of digital circuits where the two conflicting objectives are power and delay. The logic synthesis and optimisation methodology is based on AND-Inverter Graphs (AIGs) which represent the functionality of the circuit. The switching activities and arrival times of circuit nodes are annotated onto an AND-Inverter Graph under the zero and a non-zero-delay model. We introduce then several reordering rules which are applied on the AIG nodes to minimise switching power or longest path delay of the circuit at the pre-technology mapping level. The academic Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool ABC is used for the manipulation of AND-Inverter Graphs. We have implemented various combinatorial optimisation algorithms often used in Electronic Design Automation such as Simulated Annealing and Uniform Cost Search Algorithm. Simulated Annealing (SMA) is a probabilistic meta heuristic for the global optimization problem of locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. We used SMA to probabilistically decide between moving from one optimised solution to another such that the dynamic power is optimised under given delay constraints and the delay is optimised under given power constraints. A good approximation to the global optimum solution of energy constraint is obtained. Uniform Cost Search (UCS) is a tree search algorithm used for traversing or searching a weighted tree, tree structure, or graph. We have used Uniform Cost Search Algorithm to search within the AIG network, a specific AIG node order for the reordering rules application. After the reordering rules application, the AIG network is mapped to an AIG netlist using specific library cells. Our approach combines network re-structuring, AIG nodes reordering, dynamic power and longest path delay estimation and optimisation and finally technology mapping to an AIG netlist. A set of MCNC Benchmark circuits and large combinational circuits up to 100,000 gates have been used to validate our methodology. Comparisons for power and delay optimisation are made with the best synthesis scripts used in ABC. Reduction of 23% in power and 15% in delay with minimal overhead is achieved, compared to the best known ABC results. Also, our approach is also implemented on a number of processors with combinational and sequential components and significant savings are achieved.


ABSTRACT This paper describes a slope slipping in the Sainte-Marie open pit coal mine (South-West of France). The movement and its instrumentation are first described. In a second part we present the model which has been done by the distinct element method, as well as a comparison between the results of field instrumentation and the numerical model. The model fit well the in-situ measurements. Consequently we can now hope to use this kind of model to analyze other parts of the mine which are presently stable but could present similar problems in the future.


A team of researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Statoil used large-eddy simulations to numerically investigate the merging wakes from upstream offshore wind turbines. Merging wakes are typical phenomena in wind farm flows in which neighboring turbine wakes consolidate to form complex flow patterns that are as yet not well understood. In the present study, three 6-MW turbines in a row were subjected to a neutrally stable atmospheric boundary layer flow. As a result, the wake from the farthest upstream turbine conjoined the downstream wake, which significantly altered the subsequent velocity deficit structures, turbulence intensity, and the global meandering behavior. The complexity increased even more when the combined wakes from the two upstream turbines mixed with the wake generated by the last turbine, thereby forming a "triplet" structure. Although the influence of the wake generated by the first turbine decayed with downstream distance, the mutated wakes from the second turbine continued to influence the downstream wake. Two mirror-image angles of wind directions that yielded partial wakes impinging on the downstream turbines yielded asymmetric wake profiles that could be attributed to the changing flow directions in the rotor plane induced by the Coriolis force. The turbine wakes persisted for extended distances in the present study, which is a result of low aerodynamic surface roughness typically found in offshore conditions.


Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the patients who had undergone radial nerve reconstruction. Methods: The medical charts of 35 patients with radial nerve lesions and 13 patients with superficial radial nerve lesions who underwent surgical exploration and repair in the authors' center were reviewed. The outcomes were analyzed in relation to various factors, such as age at injury, denervation time, level of injury, length of nerve graft, and type of reconstruction. Results: With regard to the radial nerve, good and excellent motor results were seen in 27 of 35 cases (77.14 percent). Postoperative lateral pinch and grip strength of the affected side were equal to 75.49 percent and 76.42 percent of those of the nonaffected side, respectively. Patient age, level of injury, denervation time, associated nerve injuries, length of nerve graft, and type of surgical reconstruction significantly influenced the functional outcome. For the superficial radial nerve, good and excellent sensory results were seen in 10 of 13 cases (76.92 percent). Postoperatively, pain scores were graded as excellent in 69.23 percent and as good in 23.07 percent of patients. Conclusions: Better functional results were achieved in younger patients, with denervation time of 3 months or less, in lesions in continuity, in patients without associated nerve injuries, in distal lesions, with neurolysis, and with nerve grafts less than or equal to 5 cm long. Functional outcomes following microsurgical repair of radial nerve injuries are encouraging and should be pursued.


Eulerian hydrocode simulations using the Mechanical Threshold Stress (MTS), Zerilli-Armstrong (Z-A), and Johnson Cook (J-C) flow stress models were performed to provide insights into dynamic tensile extrusion (DTE) experiments with copper (Cu) and tantalum (Ta). The extrusion of Cu and Ta projectiles was simulated with an explicit, two-dimensional Eulerian continuum mechanics hydrocode and compared with data to determine if this extrusion concept is a useful indirect hydrocode material strength model evaluation experiment. The data consisted of high-speed images of the extrusion process, photon Doppler velocimetry (PDV) to measure the projectile velocity history and die transit time, dynamic temperature measurements of the extruded material, recovered extruded samples, and post-test metallography. The hydrocode was developed to predict large-strain and high-strain-rate loading problems. The code features a high-order advection algorithm, material interface tracking scheme, and van Leer monotonic advection-limiting algorithm. The strength models were utilized to evolve the flow stress (σ) as a function of strain, strain rate, and temperature. Average strain rates on the order of 104 s−1 and plastic strains exceeding 300% were predicted in the extrusion of copper at impact velocities between 400–450 m/s, while plastic strains exceeding 800% were predicted for Ta. The predicted and measured deformation topologies, projectile velocity profiles and die transits times, plastic strains, and temperatures were qualitatively compared. The flow stress distributions predicted by the three strength models were also compared for one experiment. Finally, the feasibility of using DTE to evaluate hydrocode strength models will be discussed.


How does granting certificates of 'business clean of Arab workers' to owners of shops, stores, and Jewish businesses who prove they are not employing Arab workers shape identity? Identity development involves making sense of, and coming to terms with, the social world one inhabits, recognizing choices and making decisions within contexts, and finding a sense of unity within one's self while claiming a place in the world. Since there is no objective, ahistoric, universal trans-cultural identity, views of identity must be historically and culturally situated. This paper explores identity issues among members of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel. While there is a body of literature exploring this subject, we will offer a different perspective by contextualizing the political and economic contexts that form an essential foundation for understanding identity formation among this minority group. We argue that, as a genre of settler colonialism, 'pure settlement colonies' involve the conquering not only of land, but of labor as well, excluding the natives from the economy. Such an exclusion from the economy is significant for its cultural, social, and ideological consequences, and therefore is especially significant in identity formation discussed in the paper. We briefly review existing approaches to the study of identity among Palestinian Arabs in Israel, and illustrate our theoretical contextual framework. Finally, we present and discuss findings from a new study of identity among Palestinian Arab college students in Israel through the lens of this framework.


Abstract This bionomic study of the detritic bottoms dominated by macroalgae from the south of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean) includes a quantitative description of the algal communities found in the area, as well as their bathymetric and geographical distribution. The results presented here are based on data collected in two oceanographic campaigns conducted in July 2012 and September 2014, using a Jennings beam trawl. A hierarchical group average agglomerative clustering, accompanied by the SIMPROF test, allowed the identification of seven different macroalgal communities, of which two are described here for the first time: the Cryptonemia longiarticulata fields and the Maërl beds of indeterminate rhodoliths. Depth and rhodolith abundance were the two main features driving the distribution of these communities. We found that seven species contributed 70% of the similarity between samples (SIMPER test), with the indeterminate species of rhodoliths (23.6%) and the encrusting fleshy red alga, Agissea inamoena (15.6%) being the most important. The methodology used for the sample selection and quantification processes turned out to be very efficient and faster than other methods used for the characterization of macroalgal communities from detritic bottoms, suggesting that this study could serve as a baseline for similar studies and for future management and conservation actions.


Mycobacterium ulcerans is a non-tuberculous environmental mycobacterium responsible for extensive cutaneous and subcutaneous ulcers in mammals, named Buruli ulcer in patients. M. ulcerans has been seldom detected in the feces of mammals but not in patients, nevertheless the detection and isolation of M. ulcerans in animal feces does not feet with the current epidemiological schemes for the disease. Here using an experimental model in which rats were fed with 109 colony-forming units of M. ulcerans, we detected M. ulcerans in feces of challenged rats for two weeks and along their digestive tract for 10 days. M. ulcerans was further detected in the lymphatic system including cervical and axillary lymph nodes and the spleen, but not in any other tissue including the healthy and breached skin, 10 days post-challenge. These observations indicate that in some herbivorous mammals, M. ulcerans contamination by the digestive route may precede translocation and limited infection of the lymphatic tissues without systemic infection. These herbivorous mammals may be sources of M. ulcerans for exposed populations but are unlikely reservoirs for the pathogen.


Corruption is acknowledged as one of the greatest challenges affecting urban councils in Zimbabwe. It is common to open a newspaper and discover a story highlighting the ethical violations and corrupt activities of urban council officials. The prevalence of corruption in Zimbabwe's urban local authorities is considered in this study as the litmus test on the capacity of the existing ethics architecture to fight corruption. Ethics architecture refers to systems and structures in the form of a set of rules, institutions and practices designed by urban local authorities to promote ethical conduct against corruption. This study sought to evaluate the performance of the ethics architecture of urban councils in Zimbabwe and to propose relevant policy and institutional improvements. The study is situated within teleological, deontological and virtue ethics theories and argues that one cannot exist in isolation and should be unified to underpin the study. Analysed through the lens of a three pronged theory of ethics, the conceptual and theoretical framework provides a benchmark to conduct a comparative analysis of Norway, Singapore, Botswana and South Africa ethics architecture, including that of Zimbabwe in order to come up with ethics architectural remedies that are internationally aligned but locally relevant to stamp out corruption in Zimbabwe. Fighting corruption and its manifestation in these four countries, two international and two continental have common grounds of political will, institutional and legal enforcement practices. The qualitative methodology was employed to collect data from five sites through documentary analysis, interviews and observations, this allowed for replication of logic to occur and the production of compelling and reliable results. The five sites included Gweru City Council, Mutare City Council, Bindura Municipality, Redcliff Municipality, and Zvishavane Town Council. Data analysis in this study involved detailed case by case analysis followed by a comparative thematic and cross analysis of the five urban local authorities' cases. The study was able to draw conclusions and to make recommendations. The study concludes that the ethics architecture for urban councils is not effective to counter the problem of corruption. The practice of good ethics and effective ethics architecture therefore, forms a sound backbone to fight corruption and all its manifestations. The study reveals that Zimbabwean urban councils should adopt effective ethics architectural remedies which are capable of fighting corruption head-on from detection, investigation and prevention to resolution point of view. The study therefore recommends that urban councils should conduct v ethics training programs for their employees and elected officials to raise ethics consciousness and to build skills capable of identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas from primary school level to adulthood as a long- term measure, and parents should participate in the integrity crusade by inculcating ethical values and moral uprightness during the formative years of their children. The study further recommends that socialisation as a preventive measure is very critical because the acts of corruption are committed under the cover of secrecy, which implies that corruption can evade detection, prosecution and sanction. Against such a background, the need for proper socialisation of the inner person cannot therefore be overemphasised for urban councils in Zimbabwe. The growth of the moral fabric of the inner person takes superiority over the legal remedy which is reactive and costly. But, on its own, socialisation is inadequate to eradicate the vice of corruption, so sanctioning and enforcement through the legal remedy plays a complementary role. The sanctioning process follows the stages of detection, investigation and resolving corruption by enforcing asset and financial declarations for both elected and senior appointed officials and enacting legislation which protects whistle-blowers against occupational detriments. Overall, effective ethics architectural remedies managed by an Integrity Management Office (IMO) is crucial in the battle against corruption and this should be supported by exemplary leadership, well-paid workforce, robust and balanced media platforms and active citizenry. The ethics architectural remedies in this study are recommended to be adopted and experimented as a liberating praxis and solution to ethical problems and challenges confronting the urban councils in particular, and Zimbabwe in general. The study identified areas that need further research. First, a similar study which infuses both quantitative and qualitative methods is needed to complement the limitations of this study. Second, research that substantiates the involvement of civil society groups and the media in raising alarm bells when ethics is violated is recommended. Third, in this study the examination of the ethics architecture is delimited to urban local authorities, so the other area of research that needs urgent attention is a comparative study between rural and urban councils' ethics architectural remedies. This comparative study will unearth reasons why corruption is more prevalent in urban councils than in rural councils as revealed in this study.


The theta aurora is a remarkable configuration of auroral and polar cap luminosities for which a generally sun-aligned transpolar arc extends contiguously from the dayside to nightside sectors of the auroral oval. Four individual occurrences of theta aurora over earth's northern hemisphere are examined in detail with the global auroral imaging instrumentation on board the high-altitude, polar-orbiting spacecraft DE 1. Simultaneous measurements of fields and plasmas with this high-altitude spacecraft and its low-altitude, polar-orbiting companion, DE 2, are examined in order to establish an overview of auroral and polar cap phenomena associated with the appearance of the theta aurora. For these series of observations, two general states of the polar cap are found corresponding to (1) a bright, well-developed transpolar arc and (2) a dim or absent transpolar arc. During periods of a relatively bright transpolar arc the plasma convection in the polar cap region associated with the transpolar arc is sunward. Elsewhere over the polar cap the convection is antisunward. The convection pattern over the auroral zones and polar cap is suggestive of the existence of four cells of plasma convection. Field-aligned electron acceleration into the polar atmosphere and field-aligned current sheets are present in the transpolar arc plasmas. This electron precipitation and these current sheets are relatively absent over the rest of the polar cap region. The transpolar arc plasmas exhibit similar densities and ion compositions relative to those plasmas observed simultaneously over the poleward zone of the auroral oval. The ion compositions include hot H+, He++, and O+ ions and thus are of both ionospheric and solar wind origins. Principal hot ions in the remainder of the polar cap region are H+ and He++, indicating access from the magnetosheath for these ions. Low-energy electrons identified with a magnetosheath source are also present in this region. The dominant thermal ions in the polar cap region are O+ ions flowing upward from the ionosphere. These thermal ions are heated along magnetic flux tubes within the transpolar arc plasmas. Pairs of current sheets with oppositely directed current densities occur in the transpolar arc region and with magnitudes similar to those associated with the poleward zones of the auroral oval. The upward currents are carried by electrons accelerated by a field-aligned potential. Funnel-shaped auroral hiss and broadband electrostatic noise are associated with the presence of the transpolar arc plasmas. Energetic solar electrons are employed to show that the magnetic field lines threading both the transpolar arc and the poleward zone of the auroral oval are probably closed. In contrast, the accessibility of these electrons to the remainder of the polar cap indicates that these polar regions are characterized by a magnetic topology that is connected directly to field lines within the interplanetary medium. Thus the overall character of the transpolar arc region appears to be very similar to that observed over the poleward zones of the auroral oval. This latter region is currently thought to be magnetically mapped into the boundary layer of the plasma sheet in the magnetotail, namely, the boundary layer of high-speed ion beams and field-aligned currents. When the transpolar arc is dim or at its initial stages of brightening, there is a severe corresponding change in the character of luminosities, convection electric fields, fields, and plasmas over the polar cap region. The plasma convection is no longer the signature of a simple four-cell convection pattern. Plasma convection is generally turbulent or sunward in the polar cap. Remarkably, the zone of hot H+, He++, and O+ ions, which is a unique signature of the presence of a transpolar arc, is still present for the two examples of dim or absent transpolar arc luminosities presented here. However, the ionosphere displays a complex system of polar arcs and glows over almost the entire polar cap region. Similarly, the occurrence of field-aligned electron acceleration, broadband electrostatic noise, and field-aligned currents is widespread within the polar cap region. Outside the zone of hot H+, He++, and O+ ions associated with the position of the transpolar arc the primary hot ions are H+ and He++, a composition that is indicative of direct access of these ions from the magnetosheath. The existence of the theta aurora implies a corresponding unique magnetospheric convection pattern and magnetospheric topology. The dynamics of the magnetosphere during these periods is currently an actively contested issue. The comprehensive, correlated observations presented here are intended to provide a foundation for future theoretical and interpretive efforts.


We determined the antifungal susceptibility of 50 Candida isolates from invasive mycoses in intensive care unit patients in Chile. Candida albicans (27 isolates) and C. parapsilosis (12 isolates) were the most common etiologic species. Candida glabrata (five isolates) was isolated only from children. Our data are consistent with those of recent Brazilian and Argentinean studies but differ from those of some US, Canadian and Norwegian studies, in which the relatively azole-resistant C. glabrata was the predominant non-C. albicans species seen. All isolates in this study were susceptible to amphotericin B. Itraconazole and fluconazole resistance were observed in 6 and 4% of the isolates, respectively.


Barrington Moore, Jr., argued that a vigorous and independent bourgeoisie is a necessary, if insufficient, condition for democracy. This article addresses this thesis through a comparative analysis of class formation in Southeast Asia. Colonial era state policies towards immigrant Chinese merchant minorities shaped the diverging capacities and inclinations of capitalist classes in the region to assert themselves in political life and to assume control over state power. The variegated identities and strengths of the capitalist classes of Southeast Asia have prefigured enduring authoritarian rule in most countries in the region over the past several decades, while enabling democratic rule in the Philippines, Thailand, and, in recent years, Indonesia.


A smog of ignorance, fear, myth, and superstition surrounds the problem of leprosy. This often reduces the chances for early diagnosis and treatment of the disease, and frequently affects the patient's own mental attitude so as to sharply restrict his chances for ever resuming a useful, creative life. The present article describes these psycho-social implications and cites a number of ways in which their adverse consequences can on occasion be diminished or overcome.


Appropriate assessment is of major importance for universities today. Many faculty perceive assessment as already occurring through grade assignment. This paper investigates grades versus knowledge of learning objectives as forms of assessment. By analyzing the relationship between examination questions and post-test comprehension of learning objectives in Principles of Microeconomics, this study tests differences in proportions of correct responses from the two evaluation methods. For some learning objectives there are statistical differences between the two proportions but insignificant differences for the others. These mixed results demonstrate exam questions and learning objective post-test questions are not necessarily equal measures of student learning.


Why did the pope Pius XI address his discourse on sexual morals, traditionally limited to priests, to the whole humanity? This and other questions find answers in the history of the encyclical "Casti connubii" (1930). Based on unpublished documents from the historical archive of the Pontifical Gregorian University, this essay traces parts of this history. It tells the origin and tries to interpret the meaning of the document. The first part of our paper summarizes the main features of the historical context of the encyclical: the alliance between the Catholic Church and Fascism on conjugal morals, the debate on the demographic campaign and the politicization of sexuality and reproduction, the modernization of the family and the feminist claims of the American birth control movement. The second part sketches its redactional history: the identity of the ghostwriter and the instructions of the pope.


Cine steady-state free-precession (SSFP) is the backbone of cardiac MRI, providing visualization of cardiac structure and function over the cardiac cycle, but requires concurrent ECG-gating to combine k-space data over multiple heart beats. However, cine SSFP is limited by a number of factors including arrhythmia, where beat-to-beat variability causes image artifacts. Real-time (RT) SSFP and recent innovations in image reconstruction provides a new potential alternative, capable of acquiring images without averaging over multiple heart beats. However, analysis of cardiac function from this image data can be complex, requiring retrospective analysis of function over multiple cardiac cycles and slices. We propose a deep learning regression method to facilitate cardiac phase detection, leveraging synthetic training approach from historical cine SSFP image data, and evaluate the effectiveness of this approach for detecting cardiac phase on RT SSFP images, manually labeled by expert readers. This combined approach using RT SSFP may have multiple potential advantages over traditional cine SSFP for evaluating cardiac function in patients with arrhythmia or difficulty tolerating long breath holds.


Fabry disease affects multiple organs, including the lungs. To date, there have been no reports of the effect of enzyme replacement therapy on patients with pulmonary manifestations of the disease. We report on a case of marked improvement of pulmonary signs and symptoms in a patient with Fabry disease following enzyme replacement therapy. A 38‐year‐old female with Fabry disease presented with dyspnea requiring constant supplemental oxygen. Following bi‐weekly treatment with agalsidase beta, she demonstrated marked improvement in her pulmonary symptoms, eventually no longer needing supplemental oxygen and returning to an active lifestyle. Improvement was seen on pulmonary function tests and chest CT examinations. Enzyme replacement therapy may alleviate pulmonary dysfunction in patients with Fabry disease. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract Pollen analysis of sediment cores from Grandfather and Ongivinuk Lakes reveals a record of postglacial vegetation and climate change in the northern Bristol Bay region. The chronology is based on six conventional 14C dates of bulk organic matter from the Grandfather core. A mesic herb tundra dominated the landscape 13,000-9800 yr B.P. Betula shrubs probably first appeared in the region 11,300 yr B.P. but were restricted to favorable microhabitats until 9800 yr B.P. The later establishment of Betula shrubs and relatively low Betula pollen abundance in these records compared to other areas of eastern Beringia suggest that postglacial warming in southwestern Alaska was dampened by regional climatic controls, possibly low sea-surface temperatures of the North Pacific Ocean. Between 10,800 and 9800 yr B.P., diminished Betula shrub cover, along with decreased aquatic productivity as recorded by Pediastrum cell nets and biogenic silica, suggest a brief reversion to colder and drier climatic conditions possibly associated with the Younger Dryas event. Around 9800 yr B.P., Betula shrub tundra and meadow communities expanded, probably in response to increased temperature and precipitation. Alnus arrived and formed extensive thickets within the region ca. 7400 yr B.P. The establishment of the modern boreal forest-tundra ecotone is marked by the arrival of Picea glauca at Grandfather Lake ca. 4000 yr B.P. and the subsequent increase to present population densities ca. 2000 yr B.P. The unique features of these pollen records emphasize the spatial complexity of late Quaternary vegetation and climate history in eastern Beringia.


Developing treatments for antibiotic resistant bacterial infections is among the highest priority public health challenges worldwide. Tetracyclines, one of the most important classes of antibiotics, have fallen prey to antibiotic resistance, necessitating the generation of new analogs. Many tetracycline analogs have been accessed through both total synthesis and semisynthesis, but key C-ring tetracycline analogs remain inaccessible. New methods are needed to unlock access to these analogs, and heterologous biosynthesis in a tractable host such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a candidate method. C-ring analog biosynthesis can mimic nature's biosynthesis of tetracyclines from anhydrotetracyclines, but challenges exist, including the absence of the unique cofactor F420 in common heterologous hosts. Toward this goal, this paper describes the biosynthesis of tetracycline from anhydrotetracycline in S. cerevisiae heterologously expressing three enzymes from three bacterial hosts: the anhydrotetracycline hydroxylase OxyS, the dehydrotetracycline reductase CtcM, and the F420 reductase FNO. This biosynthesis of tetracycline is enabled by OxyS performing just one hydroxylation step in S. cerevisiae despite its previous characterization as a double hydroxylase. This single hydroxylation enabled us to purify and structurally characterize a hypothetical intermediate in oxytetracycline biosynthesis that can explain structural differences between oxytetracycline and chlortetracycline. We show that Fo, a synthetically accessible derivative of cofactor F420, can replace F420 in tetracycline biosynthesis. Critically, the use of S. cerevisiae for the final steps of tetracycline biosynthesis described herein sets the stage to achieve a total biosynthesis of tetracycline as well as novel tetracycline analogs in S. cerevisiae with the potential to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.


This carefully crafted archaeological synthesis of the American Bottom region, including the prominent Cahokia site, serves as an indispensable resource for North American archaeologists. In The Cahokia Chiefdom, George R. Milner argues for a Cahokia with a much smaller population and sociopolitical influence than suggested by most published literature. He supports his conservative position by strictly relating the regional cultural ecology to available evidence in an effort to refute speculation concerning a state-like Cahokia. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the extensive history of archaeological surveys and contract projects in the area. Much of this work contributed to the conventional wisdom of Cahokia as an urban center with a population exceeding 10,000 people and positioned at the apex of a four-tiered site hierarchy. Milner rejects this view in favor of a decentralized Cahokia that was large but otherwise average for the Mississippian period. In order to convince readers of this position, Milner identifies the most serious problems plaguing the standard view. He establishes a regional cultural sequence, including a commonly overlooked yet equally important Emergent Mississippian period, based largely on ceramics. Milner concludes this chapter by calling for a reexamination of radiocarbon data because most of the previously obtained dates are not calibrated. His point is well made, as such revised data would certainly allow for more accurate population estimates. Chapter 2 appraises the American Bottom ecological conditions, focusing on the nineteenthand twentiethcentury environments, including the condition of the floodplain and the extent of forests, wetlands, and prairies, along with changes in river movement and surface inundation. This information is valuable in understanding the environmental challenges that later regional peoples faced, but more evidence is needed to understand the ecological context that existed during Cahokia's development and decline. Milner provides many illustrations that are well served as visual aids; much of the book follows this pattern to good effect. Chapter 3 establishes the extent of Cahokia's regional interactions by examining the geographic limits of shared pottery elements. Milner asserts that the lack of information from archaeological surveys north and west of St. Louis makes these boundaries uncertain. However, Emergent Mississippian and Mississippian pottery with Cahokia-style elements are readily found in Missouri and the lower Illinois Valley. The Cahokia pottery tradition extends nearly 80 km to the south before a sharp discontinuity with southern ceramic traditions appears. This information is successfully supported by illustrative charts. Overall, this chapter represents a succinct yet detailed overview of Cahokia ceramics, including a section on local design variation. Chapter 4 examines food availability in the American Bottom floodplain, as well as the need for finely tuned subsistence strategies. Milner compares the relative values of certain foods to refute claims that a wetland emphasis was replaced by hunting diverse game; Cahokia's large population simply would not have allowed for it. Milner argues that food exchanges with outlying settlements would have fulfilled social obligations and not have been a primary means of feeding Cahokia's population, which was capable of supporting itself. Chapter 5 provides an excellent discussion of artifacts and architecture, including stone tools, ceramics, and residential and special-purpose buildings. Items with special significance were relatively dispersed throughout Cahokia and outlying settlements, as well as between individuals of high and low status. Contrary to claims of specialized craft production, Milner concludes that most stone tools required no special knowledge to create and most households would have produced their own tools. Milner refutes claims that the manufacture of decorated pottery would have required overseeing. He concludes the chapter with a detailed analysis of mound construction and orientation, a topic he returns to in Chapter 7. Chapter 6 forms an integral component to later discussions of Cahokia's sociopolitical status. Milner exposes issues hindering prior population estimates and discusses the method for his new estimate. He relies heavily on archaeological evidence and establishes site limits for his calculation taking into account the length of site occupations. He concludes that Cahokia had a population of between 3,000 and 8,000 people, although he judges even this to be an overestimation. Regardless, his estimate is significantly smaller than others and serves to illustrate his main argument.


In the current "obesity epidemic", obese individuals without insulin resistance, lipid disorders, or hypertension, have been called "metabolically healthy" (MHO) and considered to have intermediate cardiovascular risk, between that of healthy nonobese (HNO) individuals and of metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO). Nonetheless, this is controversial, as MHO may have subclinical abnormalities, and indeed may be a transitory state in the way to the unhealthy phenotype.

 To evaluate systemic microvascular reactivity in MHO, MUO and HNO.

 Ten MHO, 10 MUO and 20 HNO individuals were studied. Obesity was considered as a BMI ≥30 kg/m2. The NCEP/ATPIII criteria, excluding waist circumference, were used to define the metabolically healthy phenotype (absence of all criteria) or unhealthy phenotype (presence of any of the criteria). Laser speckle contrast imaging coupled with skin acetylcholine (Ach) iontophoresis was employed to study cutaneous microvascular reactivity (endothelial-dependent vasodilatation), as a surrogate for systemic microvascular function, and cutaneous vascular conductance [CVC in arbitrary perfusion units of microvascular flow (APU)/mean arterial pressure (mmHg)] was measured.

 Mean age was 34.8, 36.7 and 32.3 years (P=0.17, ANOVA) and BMI was 20.7, 32.2 and 33.3 kg/m2 (P<0.0001) for HNO, MHO and MUO, respectively. Both MHO and MUO had significantly decreased microvascular vasodilation in comparison to HNO (Figure 1). Of note, there was no significant difference between MHO and MUO regarding CVC (both similarly decreased when compared to the healthy controls).

 This study underscores that MHO is not a "benign" condition, as it has adverse effects on microvascular function, similarly to those found in MUO. The study of cutaneous microvascular function may be useful to identify subclinical abnormalities in obese individuals who might deserve more intensive management.
 Figure 1

 Type of funding source: Public Institution(s). Main funding source(s): FAPERJ - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - Brazil


Terahertz waves cover a large region of the electromagnetic spectrum that is between the wellestablished microwave and infrared bands. The significance of this regime lies in the accessibility of both structural and spectroscopic information. Applications of THz imaging and spectroscopy include biomedical imaging, detection of explosives, and nondestructive evaluation tools for the aerospace industry. Development and exploitation of terahertz detectors for both direct and heterodyne detection is an attractive area for research and commercial applications. This paper presents an overview of the features of available terahertz detectors.


Previous research on Education for Sustainable Development, ESD, reveals that many young people associate environmental problems with feelings of helplessness, guilt and insecurity. Therefore, new ...


ABSTRACT This study aims to overview and identify how medical record is executed by specialists in undertaking their medical tasks. This study involves specialists at Dr. M. Soewandhie hospital. Based on the preliminary research, one of the problems in paper-based medical record is the incompleteness of medical record filling. The incompleteness is mostly caused by the specialists-in-charge who had not filled the form. Due to this, this study formulized a research problem on factors that influenced the compliance of specialist in completing the filling of paper-based medical records. This study applied a cross-sectional study with a descriptive analytic design. This study was conducted in patient units with the total of respondents of 35 full-time specialists along with 175 medical record files used as research data. This study resulted from 175 medical records, there are 97.1% completed medical records, and 0.029% incomplete medical records. It indirectly indicated a breach of specialist's duty to maintain complete medical records. This study concluded that voluntary and obligation factors were the two factors that affected the specialist to fill-in medical records completely, and it was tested by the regression test. Rather than out of a sense of responsibility, the medical records were actually the authority of the hospital director and monitoring-evaluation manager who has authority and high order for specialists to complete medical records.


: The objective of this research was to study Brand Position Communication Channel in Brand Building in Rajabhat University Affecting Decision Making of Higher Education from of qualitative research and in-depth interview with executive members Rajabhat University and also quantitative by questionnaires which are personal data of students, study of the acceptance and the finding of the information of Rajabhat University, study of pattern or Brand Position Communication Channel affecting the decision making of studying in Rajabhat University and the result of the communication in Brand Position Communication Channel. It is found that online channel and word of mount are highly important and necessary for education business since media channel is a tool and the management of marketing communication to create brand awareness, brand credibility and to achieve the high acclaim in terms of bringing out qualified graduates. Also, off-line channel can enable the institution to survive from the high competition especially in education business regarding management of the Rajabhat University. Therefore, Rajabhat University has to communicate by the various communication channel strategies for brand building for attractive student to make decision making of higher education.


We provide a simple proof of the bifurcation condition for localized bulging in a hyperelastic tube of arbitrary thickness that is subjected to combined axial loading and internal pressure. Using analytic tools, we prove that the bifurcation condition is equivalent to the vanishing of the Jacobian of the internal pressure P and the resultant axial force N , with each of them viewed as a function of the azimuthal stretch on the inner surface and the axial stretch. Previously this was only established by numerical calculations. The method should be applicable to any bifurcations that depend on a slowly varying variable, concluding that they share the same bifurcation conditions with bifurcations into uniform/homogeneous states as long as the equations determining the bifurcation condition are not trivially satisfied by uniform/homogeneous solutions.


Objective: Restricting salt intake is considered important in the treatment of hypertension, and knowledge of the profile of salt and potassium (K) intakes is required in outpatients with hypertension. We collected spot urine from outpatients to determine urinary sodium (Na) and K excretion values and urinary creatinine to calculate daily salt and K intakes. Design and Method: Spot urine from outpatients with hypertension (n = 377) or other diseases (n = 282) was collected when they presented to our hospital to receive medical examination from morning to noon. Urinary Na and K levels were determined, and daily excretion values were calculated based on the urinary Na (mEq/L) or K (mEq/L) values, body weight (BW, kg), height (cm), urinary creatinine value (mg/dl), age (years) and sex, according to previously reported method. Results: Urinary Na and K excretion values were significantly lower in patients with hypertension (Na, 188.9 ± 3.9 mEq/day; K, 46.7 ± 0.7 mEq/day) than in patients with other diseases (Na, 204.5 ± 4.7 mEq/day; K, 50.1 ± 0.9 mEq/day). Body mass index was significantly higher in patients with hypertension (23.8 ± 0.2 kg/m2) than in patients with other disease (22.8 ± 0.2 kg/m2). Age did not differ significantly between groups (patients with hypertension, 72.0 ± 0.6 years; patients with others, 71.9 ± 0.8 years). Urinary Na and K excretion values correlated negatively with age and positively with body weight and BMI in both groups. Conclusions: Lower Na excretion values in patients with hypertension might be attributable to effective education about the importance of lowering salt intake. On the other hand, lower K excretion suggests lower K intake, which might act to increase blood pressure. Education on this issue may help to increase K ingestion and body weight might be decreased. A simple method to determine 24-h urinary Na and K excretion in outpatients is useful for clinical application.


In the world of technical life cloud computing has become integral part and also understanding the way of business is changing and is likely to continue changing into the future. Using cloud storage services means that you and others can access and share files across a range of devices and position. Files such as photos and videos can sometimes be unmanageable to email if they are too big or you have allot of data. You can upload your data to a cloud storage provider means you can speedily circulate your data with the help of cloud service and you can share your data files with anyone you choose. Since cloud computing shares distributed resources via network in the open environment thus it makes less secured. Data security has become a major issue in data sharing on cloud. The main motto behind our system is that it secures the data and generates the key for each transaction so every user can secure our shared data by the third party i.e. unethical hacker.


Previous studies have documented an increasing heterogeneity in first-birth timing in countries experiencing the postponement transition. Sobotka (2004), for instance, showed a rising dispersion in age at first birth in developed countries, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States, where the timing polarisation between more and less advantaged women is most evident. However, these studies have included few countries outside Europe and North America, and lack a thorough interpretation of the rising dispersion in first births. Our aim is to compare the evolution of dispersion in age at first birth in countries in Europe, East Asia, North America and South America. Using data from the Human Fertility Database and the Human Fertility Collection, we describe the evolution of the period mean age at first birth and its variance for 21 countries since 1970. In line with previous studies, our results show a widespread pattern of increasing heterogeneity in age at first birth after the onset of the postponement transition, although with marked differences among regions and countries. The greatest heterogeneity can be found in countries where timing of family formation varies greatly among women with different socioeconomic status. Chile and Uruguay, in particular, exhibit the highest heterogeneity even though they are at the beginning of the postponement transition. There is no general explanation of why dispersion increased as the mean age at first birth rose. Further studies in this area should investigate causes and interpretations of this trend, and develop measures for studying heterogeneity in fertility timing.


Background : Gastric cancer mass screening using serum pepsinogen has been recognized and several advantages of this methods over photofluorography have been shown by previous study. Aims : To determine the factors influence the serum pepsinogen levels in healthy subjects. Subjects & Methods : One thousand and one hundred fourteen subjects who were screened for gastric cancer as part of a periodic health check. Blood samples were taken after fasting and stored below –20 ° C, until pepsinogen levels were assayed. Results : The subjects consist of 338 males (mean age 52.6+14.0) and 776 females (mean age 49.0+11.9). Age ranges from 19 to 81 years. The overall prevalence of chronic atrophic gastritis using a criterion PG I £ 70 hg/ml and PG I/II ratio £ 3.0 was 21.99 % in 1996 and 23.97 % in 2000. Bivariate analysis revealed a significant association between age, more salt consumption, fish favorable over meat and less than three time meal intake covariates with the lowering of PG I/II ratio. Smoking, drinking, BMI, weight and gender did not affect the changes of PG I/II ratio. Conclusion : Age and more salt consumption covariates have a strongest association with the decreased of PG I/II by multivariate analysis. Keywords : pepsinogen, dietary, drinking, smoking, atrophic gastritis


This paper discusses a context model developed for medical laboratory information system of Tartu University Hospital laboratories (in Tartu, Estonia). Due to the size, structure and complex history of the laboratory infrastructure, managing user communications and even achieving a common vocabulary has become a serious task. Most of the concepts used by the laboratory personnel depend on the particular cultural, organizational or other types of context, thus reducing the problem of user communications to context management. In this paper we present a cross-linked hierarchical approach to building a context management engine that uses open context space and a flexible attribute value delegation mechanism. We discuss development objectives of the laboratory information system together with the design decisions made and summarize the first user experience. Even though the context engine is currently implemented for use in laboratory environment, its architecture is general enough to support a considerably larger variety of application domains.