A method for the simultaneous determination of six macrolide antibiotics (oleandomycin, erythromycin, kitasamycin, josamycin, roxithromycin and tylosin) and two lincosamide antibiotics (lincomycin and clindamycin) in animal feeds by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospary ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was developed. The macrolide and lincosamide antibiotics were extracted from the feeds with methanol followed by enrichment and clean-up with an Oasis HLB cartridge. The UPLC separation was performed on a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column by a gradient elution using 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The identification of eight drugs was carried out by positive electrospray ionization in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, and the quantification analysis was performed by external standard method. The calibration curves showed good linearity in the range of 1-100 microg/L. The average recoveries of the eight drugs from the feeds spiked at 1, 10 and 100 microg/kg levels were between 68.6% and 95.2%, and the relative standard deviations (RSD) were between 4.9% and 11.8%. The limits of quantification (LOQ) of the drugs in the feeds were 1 microg/kg. The method is simple, rapid, sensitive and suitable for the simultaneous determination of macrolide and lincosamide antibiotics in animal feeds.


In this paper, the Monte Carlo efficiency transfer method was used to calibrate the full energy peak efficiency (FEPE) of a coaxial p-type HPGe detector. The gamma standard radioactive sources including 22Na, 54Mn, 57Co, 60Co, 65Zn, 109Cd,133Ba, 137Cs, 154Eu, 207Bi, 241Am were measured at different positions on-center of detector with the distance of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 cm. Besides, a cylindrical sample containing standard mixed nuclides solution was also measured at surface of the detector. The experimental FEPE curves as function of gamma energy for these geometries were determined with the coincidence-summing corrections. A HPGe detector model based on the specifications of manufacturer was built to directly calculate the FEPE for the geometries by Monte Carlo simulations with MCNP6 code. However, these simulated FEPEs show a quite high discrepancy from experimental FEPEs. Then, the FEPEs were calculated by the efficiency transfer method with the efficiency curve for point source at distance of 25 cm as the reference data. A good agreement was obtained between the calculated results by the Monte Carlo efficiency transfer method and experimental results. The comparisons between experimental and calculated FEPE showed that the relative deviations were mostly within +/-4% in the energy range of 53-1770 keV.


Selected examples, ranging from birds to pastoralistic nomads and subsisting peasants, indicate that the higher animals adopt foraging strategies similar to individual decision makers in economies without market (subsistence economies): in contrast to actors in (ideal neoclassical) market economies, maximizing expected utility, they operate in such way as to optimize long-term survival of genetically related groups. This can be seen as a strategy of (maximum) ruin avoidance, played by 'selfish genes'. In the sense of conjectural history the parallelism between risk behaviour of animals and early men may be regarded as the continued existence of principles of natural evolution beyond hominization up to the historical emergence of complex societies where pursuit of surplus production replaced ruin avoidance as the primary orientation in the older subsistence economies.


Spectral analysis of fluctuations in heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) was applied to assess sympathetic and parasympathetic cardiovascular control mechanisms in patients with unipolar affective disorder before and after treatment with imipramine (IMI) or mirtazapine (MIR). In a double-blind randomized study, 10 patients received treatment with IMI and 10 patients received treatment with MIR. Cardiovascular parameters were studied before and after 4 weeks of treatment: HR and BP (Finapres) were recorded continuously during supine rest (SR) and orthostatic challenge (OC; 60-degrees head-up tilting). During SR and OC, power spectra were calculated for HR and systolic BP. Spectral density was assessed for three frequency bands: low (0.02-0.06 Hz), mid (0.07-0.14 Hz), and high (0.15-0.50 Hz). Before treatment, the depressed patients (N = 20) differed from age-matched controls (N = 20) only in their response to OC: the depressed patients showed more suppression of HR variability (both mid- and high-frequency band fluctuations), indicating stronger vagal inhibition, and a reduced increase of BP variability (mid-frequency band fluctuations), indicating reduced sympathetic activation. After 4 weeks of treatment, patients treated with either antidepressant drug showed significant changes of HR (increase) and HR variability (decrease) during SR and OC; the suppression of mid- and high-frequency fluctuations of HR was larger for IMI than for MIR. The increase in HR and decrease in HR variability may be attributed to the anticholinergic properties of IMI (strong) and MIR (weak), resulting in cardiac vagal inhibition. Whereas MIR had no effect on BP or BP variability, IMI specifically reduced mid-frequency band fluctuations of BP as the result of a suppression of central sympathetic activity. Our data confirm and extend previous observations on the presence of autonomic dysfunctions in unmedicated depressed patients: spectral analysis of HR and BP fluctuations suggested that both parasympathetic and sympathetic mechanisms are involved, specifically during OC. The preexisting autonomic cardiovascular dysfunctions were not normalized by antidepressant drugs. In fact, some of the components of the cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction were further aggravated, depending on the pharmacologic profile of the drug under investigation.


To a modern reader pornography and the representation of reproduction are mutually exclusive, despite their common subject matter: sex. But seventeenth-century pornographic texts do not conform to modern ideas about the nature of pornography. Sexual intercourse is defined as for the purpose of procreation with cataclysmic consequences resulting from its avoidance. In this period the pleasures of sex represented in the pornographic text are intimately entwined with ideas about reproduction and conception, and an understanding of the body which is temporally and culturally specific: sexual pleasure was understood as not complete pleasure if it did not have the possibility of conception. The connection between the sexual act and its reproductive function is emphasised through metaphors that connect the body and the state, or the land, emphasising that early modern social and economic stability depended on reproductive


Over the past decades, classification models have proven to be essential machine learning tools given their potential and applicability in various domains. In these years, the north of the majority of the researchers had been to improve quantitative metrics, notwithstanding the lack of information about models' decisions such metrics convey. This paradigm has recently shifted, and strategies beyond tables and numbers to assist in interpreting models' decisions are increasing in importance. Part of this trend, visualization techniques have been extensively used to support classification models' interpretability, with a significant focus on rule-based models. Despite the advances, the existing approaches present limitations in terms of visual scalability, and the visualization of large and complex models, such as the ones produced by the Random Forest (RF) technique, remains a challenge. In this paper, we propose Explainable Matrix (ExMatrix), a novel visualization method for RF interpretability that can handle models with massive quantities of rules. It employs a simple yet powerful matrix-like visual metaphor, where rows are rules, columns are features, and cells are rules predicates, enabling the analysis of entire models and auditing classification results. ExMatrix applicability is confirmed via different examples, showing how it can be used in practice to promote RF models interpretability.


Technologies for learning environments are a vital and growing market for software development and utilization. A team of designers and developers created a Web-based intelligent tutoring system to teach a reading comprehension strategy for elementary and middle school students. Our approach to designing ITSS. combined the waterfall method of technology design with prescriptions for creating cognitive tutors. This article reports on each phase of the process: analysis, design, development, and implementation of the system and the challenges and solutions at each stage.


In the era of coalescing application landscapes a big potential for defining, implementing, disseminating and using ontologies is evolving. Whenever a software development project is not just concerned with a specific application but is part of a landscape of projects located in different domains, an ontology-driven approach may be worth considering and even be advantageous as compared to a traditional approach. One principal goal of this approach is to extend the idea of reuse from the modelling to implementation level. Instead of building systems right from the scratch or from the ready-made components which are plugged together such as hardware modules, ontologies are reusable model components from which particular implementations can be derived for any domain specific application . In this paper, the conceptual modeling is practiced as an Object Oriented Software Engineering and is mapped with the ontology approach to devise Ontology Driven Software Engineering approach. The resultant life cycle models various Ontology Driven Information Systems from different domains such as Expert Systems, Decision Support Systems and Process Control Systems etc. Finally, some perspectives of an Ontology Driven Software Engineering approach are outlined.


Abstract The efficacy of surfactant mixtures of Pluronic® F127 and Tween 80 at overall concentration in the micromolar range and molar ratio 1:1, 1:10, and 10:1 in inhibiting aggregation of the photosensitizer meso-tetraphenyl chlorin disulphonate (TPCS2a) was investigated in aqueous media at pH 2.9 by means of steady-state absorption and fluorescence emission spectroscopy as well as time-resolved fluorescence analysis. Corresponding experiments were performed at pH 7.4 in the absence of surfactants to determine the spectroscopic properties of a monomeric sample. Aggregation resulted in a red shift of the Soret absorption band and in substantial fluorescence quenching. The fluorescence lifetime of TPCS2a was a particularly sensitive indicator of the aggregation state, as the monomer at pH 7.4 decayed with a ∼ 10 ns time constant, while aggregation resulted in subnanosecond decay. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant mixtures was determined spectrophotometrically in the presence of TPCS2a. The ability of the surfactant mixtures to prevent aggregation at acidic pH was evaluated at overall surfactant concentration below and above CMC. Solubilization of TPCS2a in Pluronic® F127/Tween 80 mixtures prevented aggregation of the photosensitizer at overall surfactant concentrations much lower than those needed for both pure Pluronic® F127 and pure Tween 80.


In this article, we outline an innovative and comprehensive approach to the development by consensus of curriculum content guidelines for a medical specialty. We initially delineated the content domain by triangulation of sources, validated a curriculum blueprint by both quantitative and qualitative methodology, and finally reached consensus on content by Delphi methodology. Development of curricular objectives is an important step in curriculum development. Content definition or "blueprinting" refers to the systematic definition of content from a specified domain for the purpose of creating test items with validity evidence. Content definition can be achieved in a number of ways and we demonstrate how the concepts of content definition or validation can be transferred beyond assessment, to other steps in curriculum development and instructional design. Validity in Education refers to the multiple sources of evidence to support the use or interpretation of different aspects of a curriculum. In this approach, there are multiple sources of content-related validity evidence which, when accumulated, give credibility and strength to curriculum consensus guidelines.


Raw materials, such as collagen and chitosan, obtained from by-products from the food industry (beef hides and crustacean exoskeletons), can be used to obtain collagen–chitosan composite biomaterials, with potential applications in regenerative medicine. Functionalization of these composite biomaterials is a possibility, thus, resulting in a molecule with potential applications in regenerative medicine, namely clotrimazole (a molecule with antibacterial, antifungal, and antitumor activity), at a mass ratio (collagen–chitosan–clotrimazole) of 1:1:0.1. This functionalized composite biomaterial has great potential for application in regenerative medicine, due to the following properties: (1) it is porous, and the pores formed are interconnected, due to the use of a mass ratio between collagen and chitosan of 1:1; (2) the size of the formed pores is between 500–50 μm; (3) between collagen and chitosan, hydrogen bonds are formed, which ensure the unity of composite biomaterial; (4) the functionalized bio-composite exhibits in vitro antimicrobial activity for Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus aureus MRSA; for the latter microorganism, the antimicrobial activity is equivalent to that of the antibiotic Minocycline; (5) the proliferation tests performed on a standardized line of normal human cells with simple or composite materials obtained by lyophilization do not show cytotoxicity in the concentration range studied (10–500) μg/mL.


Abstract Purpose: As part of the institutional reforms and agricultural restructuring in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this paper provides an assessment of the performance of the agricultural extension system as well as factors explaining it. Method: This paper involves key informants' interviews and surveys of 107 extension organizations and 162 extension agents in randomly selected 156 villages, analyzed using qualitative and logistic regression methods. Findings and Practical Implications: Results show that despite having one of the highest extension agent-to-farmer ratio and a pluralistic extension system, DRC fails to deliver knowledge and technologies to rural areas due to lack of coordination, no unified and clear policy and mandate, lack of funding, aging and low competencies of agents, and lack of mobility and interactions of agents with key actors. This paper complements findings by other studies that number of agents is not a sufficient indication of performance, but an effective system needs to focus on the enabling environment for agents to be motivated to work as mandated. In this paper, enabling conditions that are found to be statistically significant are external funding, enforcement of performance targets, systems of rewards and sanctions, mobility to foster linkages, and skills development. Originality: This paper contributes by: (1) analyzing a cross-section of various organizations and agents to identify factors that explain variations in performance in a statistical and systematic approach; (2) providing insights on how to prioritize investments and options for a fragile state like DRC, with weak infrastructure and institutional capacity and with a long history of neglect for their national extension system; and (3) illustrating how a rich and well-cited conceptual framework can be implemented empirically to provide policy options for a country like DRC.


Aim: To examine the ethical problems intensive care unit nurses face when working with seriously ill patients, whether they think they have the necessary skills to handle such situations and if there is a need for ethical discussions in the working group.Method: Study of qualitative descriptive character. Interviews were conducted with eight intensive care nurses in an intensive care unit at a major hospital in central Sweden. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using manifest content analysis.Findings: The intensive care nurses reported that ethical dilemmas arise related to decisions whether to terminate treatment, determining how much time and resources to invest in patients, determining which patients should be prioritized, in situations when patients are moved to the ward or between intensive care units before treatment is completed. Nurses reported that they felt competent to handle ethical difficulties, based on experience. While there were no guidelines on how to approach ethical dilemmas, most thought it would be difficult to establish general guidelines as each situation is unique. All participating nurses agreed that there is a need for ethical discussions, that all professionals should participate in such discussions, and those discussions should occur on a continuous basis.Conclusions: Intensive care nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas and the nurses felt that there is a need to conduct ethical discussions among all professions within the team. These discussions should, according the nurses, be scheduled continuously and if necessary when an acute ethical dilemma arises.


Laser engagement systems are used for training by many military and security organizations around the world. Advanced laser engagement systems communicate using coded bursts which contain a multitude of information. These bursts must be sampled precisely in order to be correctly decoded. It is important to be able to correctly decode the messages from the laser transmitters when developing a decoder, or even just for verification of correct transmitter operation. Power measurements can be calculated from the sampled waveforms, but require proper sampling rates to ensure accurate power calculations. Calculating power accurately is important when verifying transmitter power, which is often measured to ensure that a transmitter is not operating above safe levels that can cause ocular damage. The aim of this work is to obtain a test setup that will accurately sample the waveforms of the transmitted coded bursts for proper decoding and power measurement calculations. Digitizer selection will be discussed, as well as an analysis of the algorithmic method used for decoding the messages from the bursts. vii Table of


Transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) has now been widely accepted in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Forty-five patients with tissue proven HCC received TAE and were followed up for more than 6 months; 28 of them were followed for more than one year and 13 for 2 years. The embolic materials used were Lipiodol 0.1-0.2 ml/cm2 (tumor area of its maximal diameter), which was prepared by pumping with contrast agent at a ratio of 1:2 and mixed with anticancer drugs (Mitomycin C: 8-10 mg or Adriamycin 40-50 mg), gelform particles 1-2 mm in size were subsequently embolized. The postembolization syndrome: abdominal pain, fever, nausea and vomiting usually subsided within 1-3 weeks. The overall cumulative half-year, 1-year and 2-year survival rates were 77.8%, 57.1% and 46.2%, respectively. Cases with regular follow-up and those with massive type without satellites, esp. when tumor size less than 5 cm, had better survival rates. In contrast, portal vein thrombosis and big tumors (especially with satellites) indicated poor prognosis. In addition, actively treated coexisting peptic ulcer and/or esophageal varices in HCC patients also improved TAE results.


Small secondary metabolites, including glucosinolates and the major phytoalexin camalexin, play important roles in immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana. We isolated an Arabidopsis mutant with increased resistance to the powdery mildew fungus Golovinomyces cichoracearum and identified a mutation in the gene encoding cytochrome P450 83A1 monooxygenase (CYP83A1), which functions in glucosinolate biosynthesis. The cyp83a1-3 mutant exhibited enhanced defense responses to G. cichoracearum and double mutant analysis showed that this enhanced resistance requires NPR1, EDS1, and PAD4, but not SID2 or EDS5. In cyp83a1-3 mutants, the expression of genes related to camalexin synthesis increased upon G. cichoracearum infection. Significantly, the cyp83a1-3 mutant also accumulated higher levels of camalexin. Decreasing camalexin levels by mutation of the camalexin synthetase gene PAD3 or the camalexin synthesis regulator AtWRKY33 compromised the powdery mildew resistance in these mutants. Consistent with these observations, overexpression of PAD3 increased camalexin levels and enhanced resistance to G. cichoracearum. Taken together, our data indicate that accumulation of higher levels of camalexin contributes to increased resistance to powdery mildew.


Benzimidazoles are an important class of compounds with a wide spectrum of biological activity ranging from anti-hypertensive, anti-viral, anti-fungal, antitumor and anthelmintic activity. In addition, few N-substituted benzimidazole derivatives have shown to exhibit significant activity against several viruses, including HIV, herpes simplex (HSV-1), influenza, picorna, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and hepatitis C virus. The five membered heterocyclic moiety 1,3,4-oxadiazole also confers for various biological activity. Hence a series of benzimidazole derivatives fused with oxadiazole ring system have been synthesized, characterized by UV, IR and 1H NMR spectral data and evaluated for their in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity.


Selecting candidates for female sterilization should be done with the possibility of regret and later request for reversal in mind. It has been estimated that 30/1000 sterilized women will regret the operation, 23 will consult a physician, 17 will have laparoscopic screening, and 10 will be operated with a success rate of 6 out of 10. The emotional and fiscal cost of these procedures is high, even for the preliminary consultations. In the literature, women requesting sterilization at risk for later regret are young with unstable marital relationships. A study comparing 180 women requesting reversal to 180 satisfied with sterilization showed that women with regret tended to be young at the time of their 1st relationship and childbearing, and had unstable marriages, often with a spouse refusing vasectomy. The women tended to be native, hysterical, lacking insight, and unable to bear the responsibility for contraception or sterilization. The number of children is not important since most Canadian women have only 2 or 3 children. Physicians should describe the typical woman with regret and point out to similar women requesting sterilization that they fit this category. They should also document that the patient understands the permanent nature of sterilization, for their medico-legal protection.


Virtual reality-based training simulators, with collaborative capabilities, are known to improve the way users interact with one another while learning or improving skills on a given medical procedure. Performance evaluation of Collaborative Haptic Virtual Environments (CHVE) allows us to understand how such systems can work in the Internet, as well as the requirements for multisensorial and real-time data. This work discloses new performance evaluation results for the collaborative module of the CyberMed VR framework.


Objective: The study aimed to examine if an active learning approach used in a pharmaceutical science laboratory would enhance pharmacy students' learning of foundation pharmaceutical science knowledge when conducting an experiment.
Method: A pre-post-test study design was used to collect data from third-year undergraduate pharmacy students with two approaches to performing an experiment (active learning, and traditional).
Results: Assessment data from 95 students (73% response rate) were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The active learning approach to performing an experiment resulted in significantly higher (p<0.001) scores compared to the traditional approach for knowledge about the variables to be measured (3.82 versus 2.72 for active and traditional, respectively) and measurement method (3.31 versus 2.85 for active and traditional, respectively). A thematic analysis identified 'planning' as unique to the post-test responses for the active learning session.
Conclusion: The authors concluded that the laboratory session featuring active learning had a greater impact on student learning than the traditional experiment method.


A new compression testing instrument was developed for the assessment of the surface properties of fibers. To measure the variation in compression force during a test, a full-bridge load cell was developed. It was seen that the signal coming from the strain gauges was superimposed with noise. The source of the noise was both electrical and mechanical. An extensive mathematical analysis of mechanical noise and the application of a mechanical noise-reduction technique minimized the mechanical noise component. An analysis of electrical noise showed that the motion control card was interfacing with the data acquisition (DAQ) card via both the RS232 and the ac power line. It was necessary to separate the motion control unit and the DAQ unit to eliminate the electrical noise problem present in the system. After eliminating the noise from the unit, the calibration of the strain gauges has been performed. The coefficient of correlation was found to be 1.00 with a cubic model. It was possible to differentiate the differences between the surface characteristics of different fibers.


: The negative effects of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) have drawn increasing attention from both scholars of organizational science and practitioners of management. Our work focuses on the negative effects of OCB taken from the perspective of Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing. On the one hand, this perspective can help us better explore reasons regarding "too much" and "Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing" in OCB; on the other hand, it can help us better analyze the impact mechanism of "Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing" specific to OCB. Furthermore, based on limitations and problems seen in the current literature, we proposed a dynamic model perspective of negative effects on OCB with an emphasis on factors at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. In addition, we suggest that future studies should use longitudinal designs to better understand the causal effects of OCB on organizations and individuals as this deeper understanding will allow us to better manage and use the "double-edged sword" of OCB.


Abstract: Several governmental programs have been established throughout Canada to foster agriculture sustainability. As a best management practice, cover crops (CCs) limit soil erosion and prevent nutrient losses in agroecosystems. Yet, the variable effects of CCs on cash crop productivity previously reported may limit their large-scale adoption by farmers. To address this variability, we conducted an unweighted meta-analysis including 2274 observations from 86 field studies conducted under humid temperate climate to evaluate yield response to CCs for three annual cash crops. Overall, CCs increased corn and small grain cereal yields by 13% and 22% respectively, but did not affect soybean yield. Legume CCs alone or mixed with grasses provided the highest small grain cereal and corn yield increases compared with non-legume broadleaf and grass CCs. CC benefits increased with nitrogen (N) content in CC aboveground biomass but decreased when N fertilizer inputs applied to corn exceeded 60 kg N ha−1. Greater precipitation and N fertilizer inputs reduced the negative effect of grass CCs on corn yield, while benefits of legume CCs were highly resilient to precipitation variations. CC benefits on corn yield increased through time and at low soil organic matter content, especially at low N fertilizer inputs. These results evidence the complex interplay between cash crop productivity, CC management, and environmental factors — related to N inputs from CCs, changes in soil properties (e.g., increased organic matter, improved soil structure or microbial activity), or potential competition for water under drier conditions — which provide new perspectives to promote CC inclusion in cropping systems.


A common class of problems in remote sensing is scene classification, a fundamentally important task for natural hazards identification, geographic image retrieval, and environment monitoring. Recent developments in this field rely label-dependent supervised learning techniques which is antithetical to the 35 petabytes of unlabelled satellite imagery in NASA GIBS. To solve this problem, we establish CELESTIAL-a self-supervised learning pipeline for effectively leveraging sparsely-labeled satellite imagery. This pipeline successfully adapts SimCLR, an algorithm that first learns image representations on unlabelled data and then fine-tunes this knowledge on the provided labels. Our results show CELESTIAL requires only a third of the labels that the supervised method needs to attain the same accuracy on an experimental dataset. The first unsupervised tier can enable applications such as reverse image search for NASA Worldview (i.e. searching similar atmospheric phenomenon over years of unlabelled data with minimal samples) and the second supervised tier can lower the necessity of expensive data annotation significantly. In the future, we hope we can generalize the CELESTIAL pipeline to other data types, algorithms, and applications.


Arabic is a language that is spoken as the first or native language of more than 280 million people, most of whom live in the Middle East and North Africa. Apart from the Middle East and North Africa, Arabic is also familiar and often used in Indonesia because of the majority of Indonesia's population is Muslim and Arabic is the language of worship in Islam. The recognition of Arabic handwritten letters is one of the studies that has been done before, where the accuracy results obtained vary according to the research and methods used. This study aims to determine the accuracy resulting from the recognition of Arabic script handwriting patterns using a combination of the DCT(Discrete Cosine Transform) feature extraction method and the ANN Backpropagation classification method. The data used for this study were data from handwritten sources on A4 HVS paper using markers with categories of age from 7-13 years old and 18-23 years old with 15 respondents in each group and a total dataset image of 8400. Testing the best model model obtained on all images produces an accuracy of 80.79%, using the images of age range 17-23 years produces 87.27% accuracy, and the images of age range 7-13 produces an accuracy of 72.84%.


BACKGROUND
Attempted gross-total resection for the management of cystic retrochiasmatic craniopharyngiomas can cause severe hypothalamic dysfunction and decrease overall survival. Ventriculoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive alternative; however, potential indications and technique have not been well defined.

OBJECTIVE
To present our indications and technique for the ventriculoscopic treatment of cystic retrochiasmatic craniopharyngiomas.

METHODS
We evaluated all patients with retrochiasmatic craniopharyngiomas for ventriculoscopic surgery. Indications and operative technique were developed to minimize operative morbidity, relieve mass effect, and optimize functional outcome. Cyst size and functional outcomes were statistically evaluated to determine radiographic and short-term clinical outcome.

RESULTS
Indications for ventriculoscopic surgery included (1) radiographic evidence of hypothalamic involvement and (2) major cystic component. Ten patients met indications, and mean follow-up was 2.5 ± 1.6 yr. The surgical technique included wide cyst fenestration at the foramen of Monro, and fenestration of inferior cyst wall/third ventriculostomy ("through-and-through" technique). Preoperative Karnofsky performance status was 70 ± 15 and was inversely correlated with preoperative cyst size (13 ± 13 cm3). A statistically significant reduction in cyst size was found on early postoperative imaging (2.1 ± 4.3 cm3). Seven patients received postoperative radiotherapy. Postoperative performance scores (81 ± 8.3) had improved; no patient suffered functional decline. Pre- and postoperative body mass indices were similar. No patient had short-term hypothalamic obesity.

CONCLUSION
Ventriculoscopic surgery, with or without adjuvant treatments, can reduce early postoperative tumor volume and improve short-term functional status in cystic retrochiasmatic craniopharyngiomas with hypothalamic involvement; it should be considered a minimally invasive option in the multimodal treatment of craniopharyngiomas. Further studies are needed to determine long-term efficacy.


Over the last decades an incredible amount of resources has been devoted to building ever more powerful supercomputers. However, exploiting the full capabilities of these machines is becoming exponentially more difficult with each new generation of hardware. To help understand and optimize the behavior of massively parallel simulations the performance analysis community has created a wide range of tools and APIs to collect performance data, such as flop counts, network traffic or cache behavior at the largest scale. However, this success has created a new challenge, as the resulting data is far too large and too complex to be analyzed in a straightforward manner. Therefore, new automatic analysis approaches must be developed to allow application developers to intuitively understand the multiple, interdependent effects that their algorithmic choices have on the final performance.

This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners from the areas of performance analysis, application optimization, visualization, and data analysis and provides a forum to discuss novel ideas on how to improve performance understanding, analysis and optimization through novel techniques in scientific and information visualization.


In declarative programming languages based on the constraint programming paradigm, computations can be viewed as deductions enhanced with the use of constraint solvers. However, admissible constraints are restricted to formulae handled by solvers and thus, declarativity may be jeopardized. We propose a domain-independent scheme to extend constraint solvers so that they can handle alien constraints, i.e., constraint involving new function symbols. This mechanism, called SoleX, consists of a set of symbolic rule-based transformations: they add and deduce syntactical as well as semantic information related to alien constraints, complete the computation domain, and purify constraints in order to allow solvers to cope with alien constraints. These transformations can be seen as elementary solvers, and thus, SoleX is a collaboration of these several solvers with the initial solver. Some extensions of computation domains have already been studied to demonstrate the broad scope of SoleX potential applications.


The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of different instructional approaches for Chinese dyslexic children with different types of problems in word recognition. Based on the dual-route model of reading, readers may use either the lexical (words are recognized as wholes) or sub-lexical (words are recognized through graphemephoneme correspondence) procedure to read. Castles & Coltheart (1993) have provided evidence for the existence of these two mechanisms in English reading and they suggest deficits in one and/or the other mechanism lead to different patterns of reading disability. Surface dyslexia results from impairment of the lexical procedure with an intact phonological route to reading. Deep dyslexia results from a highly selective deficit in the graphemephoneme transformation mechanism. In the case of Chinese reading, Elliott & Ho (1996) also found the existence of surface and deep dyslexic reading patterns in the Chinese reading disabled subjects. This study made use of the analytic approach with a focus on highlighting the phonetic components within the words as well as the whole-word approach with a focus on recognizing words as " wholes" to teach those subjects with different patterns of reading problems.�The results indicated that the analytic method was useful for teaching different sub-types of readers double irregular character words.


A water-soluble palladium complex (PdLn@β-CD) was designed and prepared based on functionalized β-cyclodextrin. It showed high turnover numbers (TONs) and turnover frequencies (TOFs) of up to 9.9 × 108 and 4.9 × 108 h−1, respectively, in aqueous Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions. The detailed reason for the excellent catalytic activity was studied.


THE ROUND TABLE covered two principal topics: first, external diseases of the eye, especially in relation to infection and to lid and conjunctival lesions; and, second, growth and development of the eye with stress upon eye movements, refractive errors, and strabismus.
 External diseases of the eye are often primary, but pathology in this area frequently is found to reflect systemic illness.
 LID
 Various glands of the lid were defined and the pathology of each reviewed. In the fibrous tarsal portion of the lid lies the Meibomian gland, the sebaceous secretion of which prevents the spillage of tears and protects the lid margin. The acute inflammation is usually staphylococcal, and tends to persist to produce a granuloma surrounded by fibrous tissue. A chronic chalazion consists of round, epithelial and giant cells without acid-fast organisms. Heat may be useful initially in the acute stage; however resolution is slow and usually terminates in a hard, persistent nodule. The removal of the chronic chalazion is by curettage.
 The glands of Zeiss are the sebaceous glands for the lash follicles. By contrast, infection of these results in a self-limited disease, hordeolum or stye, which drains itself spontaneously or may require local incision. Rarely are there complications following a hordeolum. Some individuals are more susceptible to repeated infections, and prevention remains an unsolved problem.
 The sweat glands of the lid, or glands of Moll, may form simple cysts on the lid margins which rupture easily.
 The lacrimal glands in the upper part of the lid are seldom involved in an inflammatory process, except occasionally in mumps or sarcoid.


This study aims to diagnose objectively term neonate hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) by using deep learning network to extract deep information from multiple modalities of conventional magnetic resonance (MR) images. Neonate HIE diagnosis accuracy is restricted to lesion diversity, MR images quality, high interobserver variability. The network got high diagnosis accuracy in the ROC curve. The network could detect severe neonate HIE with characteristic appearance such as basal ganglia injury and periventricular leukomalacia. The network can help diagnosis neonate HIE objectively without the effect of different radiologist experience and contribute to risk stratification and clinical decision making.


Group guidance is one of the guidance techniques that seek to help individuals to achieve optimal development in accordance with the abilities of talents, interests, and values that are adopted and implemented in group situations. Group guidance is intended to prevent problems arising in individuals and develop individual potential. The group guidance service has three functions First, the informative function, Second, the development function. Both of these functions for example, group guidance is carried out through the activity of the Home Room, while the third, preventive and creative functions, are used for the treatment of psychological problems such as psychodrama, or sociodrama for the treatment of problems or social conflicts. In this paper the group guidance service is one of the media oriented towards efforts to help individuals develop themselves in order to be more independent, be able to socialize well, be able to practice speaking, responding, giving other people's opinions, being able to work together, caring with others, fostering normative attitudes and behavior as well as other aspects, tolerance and in turn individuals can develop their own potential and can improve their personal communication behavior, and most importantly, learn to take the right decisions for themselves in order to achieve more future goals good.


Various controlling factors such as geology, slope angle, slope aspect, landuse, stream proximity etc are generally considered. Spatial multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) tool in GIS software were used which takes into account such a complex relationship among parameters. The study is based on a terrain mapping units map, generated at 1:25,000 scale by interpretation of thematic maps, satellite images and field data. Five area factors, three linear factors and six constraint factors were entered to model. In this research, a criteria tree model for landslide susceptibility is proposed, priority weights and fuzzy standardization for each parameter controlling the landslide were determined, and a composite index map that was classified to four class as a hazard map was prepared of an area in a fragile mountainous terrain in the centre part of Iran. Watershed area was 5685 ha that 69.5% from that had no risk, 8.3% of area had moderate risk and 1.9% of area had high risk. The presented susceptibility maps was intended to help in the design of hazard and fear mitigation and land development policies at watershed scales.


AIM
To study the regulatory effects of Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (Gl-PS) on cytotoxicity and mechanism of specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) induced by dendritic cells (DC) in vitro during the stage of antigen presentation.

METHODS
Cultured murine bone marrow-derived DC were pulsed with P815 tumor cell lysates and co-incubated with or without various concentrations of Gl-PS (0.8, 3.2, or 12.8 mg/L) at the same time. P815 specific CTL were induced by spleen lymphocytes stimulated with mature DC. Non-adherent cells and culture supernatants were harvested on d 5 for analysis of specific cytotoxicity with lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity assay, mRNA expression of IFNgamma, granzyme B with RT-PCR assay, and protein expression of IFNgamma, granzyme B with ELISA or Western blot assay, respectively.

RESULTS
Three concentrations of Gl-PS promoted LDH activities released into culture supernatants (P<0.01). It also increased mRNA expression of IFNgamma in CTL (Gl-PS 12.8 mg/L vs RPMI medium 1640, P<0.05) and granzyme B in CTL (P<0.01). Protein production of IFNgamma in culture supernatants (P<0.05) and protein expression of granzyme B in CTL (Gl-PS 12.8 mg/L vs RPMI medium 1640, P<0.05) were also augmented by Gl-PS.

CONCLUSION
Gl-PS is shown to promote the cytotoxicity of specific CTL induced by DC which were pulsed with P815 tumor antigen during the stage of antigen presentation, and the mechanism of cytotoxicity is believed to be going through IFNgamma and granzyme B pathways.


A new metabolite, koninginin G (1), was isolated from a strain of Trichoderma aureoviride and its structure established by the interpretation of spectroscopic data. The metabolite significantly inhibited the growth of etiolated wheat coleoptiles by 56% at 10(-3) M.


Beckett's personal and critical writings in the early 1930s evidence a dismissive attitude toward Goethe's Werther and other German Romantic figures such as Rilke. Murphy (1935-1936), however, suggests that, far from simply rejecting Werther, by the mid 30s Beckett found the novel useful as a paradigm which he could at once satirize and pursue. This essay attempts to sketch a pattern of correspondence between these two works, indicating Murphy's affiliation with a tradition of "romantic disillusionment."1 While often read as a novel of ideas, Murphy thus reveals a significant relationship to a romantic legacy of irrational desire. It is suggested a recognition of this debt helps make sense of a fundamental negativity at the end of the novel which has not been fully appreciated.


Objectives To estimate the gender gap in hourly wages earned by medical specialists in their main jobs after controlling for age, number of hours worked and medical specialty. Design Observational using governmental administrative and survey data. Setting New Zealand public employed medical workforce. Participants 3510 medical specialists who were employed for wages or a salary in a medical capacity by a New Zealand district health board (DHB) at the time of the March 2013 census, whose census responses on hours worked were complete and can be matched to tax records of earnings to construct hourly earnings. Main outcome measures Hourly earnings in the DHB job calculated from usual weekly hours worked reported in the census and wage or salary earnings paid in the month recorded in administrative tax data. Results In their DHB employment, female specialists earned on average 12.5% lower hourly wages than their male counterparts of the same age, in the same specialty, who work the same number of hours (95% CI 9.9% to 15.1%). Adding controls for a wide range of personal and work characteristics decreased the estimated gap only slightly to 11.2% (95% CI 8.6% to 13.8%). At most, 4.5 percentage points can be explained by gender differences in experience at the same age. Conclusions Male specialists earn a large and statistically significant premium over their female colleagues. Age, specialty and hours of work do not appear to drive these wage gaps. These findings suggest that employment agreements that specify minimum wages for each level of experience, and progression through these levels, are insufficient to eliminate gender wage gaps between similar men and women with the same experience.


The convergence criterions nessesary for the entrance of EU-member to European Monetary Union are divided to monetary and fiscal area. To fiscal criterions (after Pact of Stability and Growth) belong the low long-run deficit of public budget in the maximum 3 % of GDP and maximal public debt 60 % of GDP. The article are dealing with comparision, filling or perspectives of fiscal criterions´ filling in all of four new EU-members associated in Visegrad Group. It describes initial and present conditions and tries through reform steps´ description outlines the named countries´ possibilities for euro estabilishment as the national currencies.


INTRODUCTION
This study determines the accuracy of reading a Polaroid retinal photograph in the diabetic retinal photography programme as compared to a clinical fundal examination in the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy.

METHODS
A prospective study recording the additional findings obtained from clinical examination of the eye using indirect ophthalmoscopy and slit lamp biomicroscopy in a restructured tertiary hospital serving an urban community was performed.

RESULTS
Seventy-eight eyes in 39 diabetic patients were reviewed by an ophthalmologist for diabetic changes seen on fundus photography. The sensitivity of diabetic retinal photography in diagnosing diabetic eye conditions was 91.6 percent, with a specificity of 99.8 percent and a positive predictive value of 95.6 percent. The degree of agreement kappa was 0.94.

CONCLUSION
The use of diabetic retinal photographs to screen for diabetic eye disease achieved a high sensitivity by capturing diabetic retinal lesions. It was comparable to an examination performed by the ophthalmologist. With appropriate training, the person reading the diabetic retinal photographs can accurately diagnose diabetic eye conditions.


Since 1989 and the regionalization of public transports in Belgium, the Societe des transports intercommunaux de Bruxelles (STIB), i.e. the public operator of urban transport in Brussels, has undergone many changes, both structural and organizational. Meanwhile, the company has managed to improve its financial health in accordance with the objectives set by the regulatory transport authority, the Region of Brussels-Capital. The analysis of the system of actors shows that, in a principal-agent relationship characterized by high information asymmetry, the convergence of interests between the supervisory authority and the public company is neither natural nor automatic: it is built. This construction takes place at several levels and materializes incrementally, particularly through the management contract. In this regulatory system, the process organizing the dialogue between the company and the authority produces the desired beneficial effects, more than the legal value of the contract does. The interdependence between the actions of the Region and those of the STIB implies practices that can be described as a partnership. Finally, the analysis shows that the contractualization is not inconsistent with an evolution of the roles of each actor.


Selfish genetic elements (SGEs), specifically X-chromosome meiotic drive (XCMD), create huge conflicts within a host's genome and can have profound effects on fertility. Suppressors are a common evolutionary response to XCMD to negate its costs. However, whether suppressors themselves can cause negative non-target effects remains understudied. Here, we examine whether the intragenomic conflicts created by XCMD and its suppressor affect gonad morphology in Drosophila subobscura. We found significant differences in testes, seminal vesicle, and accessory gland size depending on whether a male carried a non-driving X chromosome, an XCMD, and if the XCMD was suppressed. We also found the first evidence of abnormal testes development that is specifically associated with a suppressor of XCMD. Unlike other studies, our evidence suggests that XCMD in D. subobscura creates major abnormalities to male gonads. These abnormalities are most frequent if both XCMD and its suppressor are both present. While costs of suppression have importance in theoretical models, they have largely been ignored in empirical XCMD systems. Overall, this study highlights that genetic conflict, created by SGEs and their suppressors, is a potent evolutionary force that can have major impacts on gonad development and gametogenesis.


The aim of this project was to investigate how Bacillus can survive in the finished beer. This was evaluated by producing batches of beer with starter cultures that were deemed to be interesting in terms of their Bacillus content. This beer, together with beer from microbreweries and store-bought beer were plated onto Bacillus Chromoselect agar, a selective agar for Bacillus. Samples were then taken to isolate specific colonies and send them for 16S rRNA sequencing.
The colony count was higher on the produced beer than in the other types. There were minor differences in CFU between the starter cultures. Since the pure cultures presented with radical differences, the similarity in finished beer would indicate that the malt contributes more to Bacillus content than the starter cultures. Bacillus cereus, or B. thuringensis, appeared to be present to a great extent in the produced beer. B. subtilis and B. smithii were dominant in the beer from microbreweries based on the 16S rRNA sequencing results. The produced beer had an average of 108.89 ±0.2 CFU/330mL, the microbreweries had an average of 104.6 ±1.23 CFU/330mL and the store-bought beer had an average of 103.8 ±0.22 CFU/330mL. Beer from larger companies was lower than those from microbreweries, this is most likely due to filtration.
The amount of CFU present in these beers were close to what is used in probiotic supplements with Bacillus. Since the sequencing showed that some of the survivors were B. subtilis it is reasoned that it could have an effect on the microflora in the intestines. This is likely since B. subtilis is currently used as a probiotic supplement. There were a lot of bacteria that could not be identified below genus level. There were only two opportunistic pathogens but they were only found once.


In this paper, we compare two replication schemes designed to provide high availability in an efficient manner: HA-NFS and ARM. Both schemes use the primary copy method for replica control. Both schemes were designed with the goal of minimizing the overheads during failure-free operation. In a primary copy scheme these overheads primarily consist of updating the secondary replicas. The two schemes were designed for different applications: ARM for providing high availability in a Shared Nothing database system, HA-NFS for providing high availability in an NFS file server environment. They also differ in that the HA-NFS scheme uses dual-ported disks to provide high availability, the ARM scheme uses replication over a network. In spite of the seemingly major differences, the schemes have the same key conceptual idea viz. propagating updates asynchronously to remote replicas. In addition to this idea, HA-NFS uses an unusual hardware arrangement in the form of dual-ported disks to further the lower the overhead of updating secondary replicas. In addition to discussing efficient updates, we will also discuss how each of the schemes handles the three key problems of replica control viz. ensuring one-copy serializability, preventing loss of updates of committed transactions and handling network partitions.


Cardiac muscarinic receptors activate an inwardly rectifying K+ channel, IK+Ach, via pertussis toxin (PT)-sensitive heterotrimeric G proteins (in heart Gi2, Gi3, or Go). We have used embryonic stem cell (ES cell)-derived cardiocytes with targeted inactivations of specific PT-sensitive alpha subunits to determine which G proteins are required for receptor-mediated regulation of IK+Ach in intact cells. The muscarinic agonist carbachol increased IK+Ach activity in ES cell-derived cardiocytes from wild-type cells, in cells lacking alphao, and in cells lacking the PT-insensitive G protein alphaq. In cells with targeted inactivation of alphai2 or alphai3, channel activation by both carbachol and adenosine was blocked. Carbachol-induced channel activation was restored in the alphai2- and alphai3-null cells by reexpressing the previously targeted gene and guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio] triphosphate was able to fully activate IK+Ach in excised membranes patches from these mutants. In contrast, negative chronotropic responses to both carbachol and adenosine were preserved in cells lacking alphai2 or alphai3. Our results show that expression of two specific PT-sensitive alpha subunits (alphai2 and alphai3 but not alphao) is required for normal agonist-dependent activation of IK+Ach and suggest that both alphai2- and alphai3-containing heterotrimeric G proteins may be involved in the signaling process. Also the generation of negative chronotropic responses to muscarinic or adenosine receptor agonists do not require activation of IK+Ach or the expression of alphai2 or alphai3.


Far offshore atmospheric conditions are favourable for wind energy purposes since mean wind speeds are relatively high (i.e., high power production) while turbulence levels are relatively low (i.e., less fatigue loads) compared to onshore conditions. Offshore wind energy, however, is still expensive compared to onshore wind energy. There is little known about exact offshore wind conditions due to the costs involved in far offshore atmospheric measurement campaigns. This causes unnecessary conservatism in wind turbine design and suboptimal wind turbine performance, which subsequently results in an increase in the cost of energy of offshore wind energy. The aim of this PhD research is twofold. First far offshore atmospheric conditions relevant for wind energy are studied from a meteorological point of view, which should result in a comprehensive, accurate and implementable description of offshore atmospheric conditions for wind energy purposes. Second, the influence of the specified atmospheric description on wind turbine performance is studied in more detail. This should result in fundamental insight how offshore wind turbines are influenced by atmospheric conditions. Results can then aid in reducing the cost of offshore wind energy if they are implemented correctly. Atmospheric conditions relevant for wind energy have been studied, and known theoretical relations have been validated, based on measurements from a recently constructed meteorological mast sited 85 km offshore in the Dutch North Sea. In this thesis it is decided to emphasize on frequently occurring conditions that are relevant for wind energy, namely wind shear (the change in wind speed with height) and turbulence (the change in wind speed in time). It is found that a general framework can be used in which wind shear and turbulence characteristics are coupled as a function of atmospheric stability, which is a measure of the vertical temperature gradient. The resulting wind profile however, is only valid relatively close to the surface, which poses problems given the size of state of the art wind turbines. A new wind profile that is valid for the entire atmospheric boundary layer has therefore been derived based on theoretical grounds and it has been validated with observation data. The proposed wind profile is found to provide a better representation of offshore wind shear, especially if the atmosphere is stably stratified. It is recognised that the majority of shear profiles used in wind energy are not capable of describing situations with a local wind maximum. Such phenomena, called low-level jets, are known to occur often onshore at night, but the offshore occurrence is not studied frequently in absence of detailed offshore observation data. The occurrence and characteristics of low-level jets offshore have therefore been studied with aid of the new offshore meteorological mast. It is found that low-level jets occur frequently and with characteristics relevant for wind energy purposes (with respect to the maximum wind speed and height of the wind maximum). The atmospheric knowledge obtained is used for wind energy applications with the aid of numerical simulation software and a reference wind turbine frequently used in research. Adopting the general framework including atmospheric stability in wind turbine fatigue load assessment shows that guidelines, which typically do not consider atmospheric stability, cause an overestimation of simulated wind turbine fatigue loads. This is not necessarily caused by conservatism in either wind shear or the amount of turbulence, but by the lack of a coupling between both conditions. This coupling, which occurs in reality, should be adopted in wind turbine design as well. In wind energy resource assessment one thus also has to observe atmospheric stability conditions accurately. Next, the impact of wind shear and turbulence on wind turbine performance is assessed separately. Although this approach is not representative for actual offshore conditions, in which wind shear and turbulence are coupled, it does provide fundamental insight in wind turbine performance as a function of specific atmospheric conditions. With respect to wind shear, it is found that the validated boundary layer wind shear profile substantially influences wind turbine power production as well as fatigue loads experienced by wind turbine blades. Especially for stable conditions, where the boundary layer profiles deviate most from simple diabatic wind profiles, fatigue loads are reduced by more than 10%. At the same time power production is reduced by up to 2% for stable conditions. In absence of a simple model that can be used to describe low-level jets, it is decided to first formulate a new empirical low-level jet wind model that can easily be implemented for wind energy purposes. Subsequently the influence of low-level jets on wind turbine performance is assessed, where it is found that low-level jets can have a substantial influence depending on the jet characteristics. If the jet occurs exactly at hub height, both power production as well as blade root bending moments reduce substantially. Finally, the influence of specific turbulence scales is studied in detail with aid of numerical simulations. In these simulations turbulence is filtered in such a way that only specific scales remain present. This allows a detailed study in which turbulence scales are relevant for wind energy performance. The results provide insight in modelling of wind conditions and show which turbulence scales have to be incorporated into wind turbine simulations. It is found that the reference wind turbine is hardly influenced by turbulence kinetic energy present in very large and very small scales. The structures with a similar order of magnitude as the turbulence length scale contain a lot of turbulence kinetic energy, and the reference wind turbine is able to convert part of the turbulence kinetic energy into power. Out of all turbulence scales, those structures with a similar order of magnitude to the turbulence length scale also contribute most to wind turbine fatigue loads. The results obtained in this research are primarily theoretical, and they provide more fundamental insight into offshore atmospheric conditions and the subsequent performance of a wind turbine. If properly implemented however, it is possible that wind turbines can be designed with less conservatism, which directly reduces the cost of offshore wind energy. Besides, numerous results are useful to improve the accuracy of resource assessment and wind power forecasting, both contributing to the cost of energy as well. It shows the need to approach offshore wind energy as an interdisciplinary field in which meteorologists and engineers collaborate to optimize wind turbine performance.


The vortex spinning technology inserts twist into the yarn at a high speed by means of the swirling airflow generated inside the nozzle. The layered structure of its resultant yarn makes this spinning technology suitable for producing core-spun yarns. Therefore, the nozzle is the key part of the vortex spinning machine. In this paper, the current research progress of the design of the nozzle for producing vortex core-spun yarns is reviewed. The complex characteristics of the swirling airflow inside the nozzle are discussed. It is pointed out that numerical simulation based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an effective method for optimizing the flow characteristics inside the nozzle and thus can provide the basis for designing the nozzle. Novel designs of the nozzle for producing vortex core-spun yarns are still expected, especially the nozzle with a low amount of lost fibers.


Three surveys of postoperative patients and surgical ward staff were conducted in an 840‐bed university hospital to ascertain the severity of pain after surgery and the reasons why patients in pain do not receive more of the analgesia prescribed for them. In the first survey, 206 inpatients were questioned within 24 h following operation, and 25.2% of patients experienced moderate pain wnust 9.2% experienced severe pain but received only 36% of their prescribed analgesics. In the second survey, 176 staff reported that the commonest reasons why patients in pain did not receive analgesics were that they did not request analgesia, were too sleepy or refused the dose. In the final survey, of 200 inpatients questioned, 88% had experienced pain since operation, 97% had been offered analgesics, 14% refused a dose. Twenty‐nine percent were moderately or very concerned about injections. The beliefs of both ward staff and patients could have contributed to this failure of pain relief.


The channel or inter-session variability problem is one of the most important factors causing recognition errors in speaker recognition systems. In this paper, we have proposed three methods to estimate the channel supervector in the GMM supervector space to deal with this problem, namely EM clustering, PCA and NAP algorithms. Furthermore, feature mapping is applied to the MFCC after the estimation of channel supervector. The EER of the feature mapping system decreases by 34% relatively over the baseline GMM system in the NIST 2006 SRE core test.


Abstract We have monitored the behaviour of different polyethylene foils including virgin medium density polyethylene (MDPE), MDPE containing pro-oxydative additives (238, 242) and MDPE with pro-oxydative additives and thermoplastic starch (297) in the soil for a period of one year. A foil based on a blend of polyester and polylactic acid (BASF Ecovio) served as degradable control. The experiment was carried out by weekly measurements of conductivity and capacity of the soil, since the setup was analogous to a condenser, of which the insulating layer was the foil itself. The twelve replications allowed monthly sampling; the specimen taken out from the soil each month were tested visually for thickness, mechanical properties, morphological and structural changes, and molecular mass. Based on the obtained capacity values, we found that among the polyethylene foils, the one that contained thermoplastic starch extenuated the most. This foil had the greatest decrease in tensile strength and elongation at break due to the presence of thermoplastic starch. The starch can completely degrade in the soil; thus, the foil had cracks and pores. The polyethylene foils that contained pro-oxydant additives showed smaller external change compared to the virgin foil, since there was no available UV radiation and oxygen for their degradation. The smallest change occurred in the virgin polyethylene foil. Among the five examined samples, the commercially available BASF foil showed the largest extenuation and external change, and it deteriorated the most in the soil.


Compact, reliable and little consuming accelerators are needed for tumour treatment with ions. TERA proposes CABOTO (CArbon BOoster for Therapy in Oncology), a linac which boosts the energy of C ions and H 2 molecules coming from a cyclotron. The linac is divided into several modules. The beam energy can be varied in steps of about 1 MeV/u without using absorbers by acting on the power that feeds the different modules of the linac. This work presents the structure design of a 5.7 GHz high repetition rate Side-Coupled Linac for a cyclinac, that accelerates carbon ions from 150 up to 400 MeV/u in about 25 meters. The beam dynamics and the energy selection system are also discussed.


We conducted comparative analysis of treatment 52 patients (7 men and 45 women aged 42-64 years, mean age 51.1 years) with I-II degree arterial hypertension (AH) and type 2 diabetes mellitus with the use of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor perindopril and with of other drugs. During 6 months effective control of AH was achieved on both treatments. We assessed changes in target organs at the background of 1 year therapy based on the use of perindopril or other antihypertensive preparations. Favorable changes of 24 hour indexes of arterial pressure accord in the group of perindopril treated patients compared with the group of patients treated with other antihypertensive drugs. Therapy with perindopril exerted organoprotective effect which manifested as lowering of microalbuminuria and augmentation of endothelium dependent vasodilation. We demonstrated ability of perindopril to affect proinflammatory status: to suppress factors of subclinical inflammation (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein) and to elevate level of anti-inflammatory interleukin-10.


Security is a basic need of system and it is one of core technology of remote controlled system. Robot monitoring system of ocean remote sensing satellite receiving station includes robot, cloud computing system and remote terminals. Robot acquires real-time image of controlled system and operates it; cloud computing system build visual decision subsystem to identify the target using wavelet transform algorithm, neural network algorithm and knowledge database of features video of specific environmental; using remote terminal administrator observes the controlled system through its scene simulator and control robot to operate it remotely. Using technology of the pseudo-random number password, technology of mutual authentication to prevent cloning site, technology of conversion between the image of controlled system and its status code and technology of conversion between operation codes and operation instructions, the security strength of the robot monitoring system is improved greatly.


Low drop-out regulators (LDO) are circuits which are designed to provide a stable and specified DC voltage, with a low input-to-output voltage difference. To get a new approach of power management towards a design of a low drop-out voltage regulator that provides a modern system on chip (SoC) solution and fulfils the present commercial requirements as well as the upcoming demands of the future, it becomes necessary to design the LDO regulator which gives all-rounder performance. This LDO should beware of various performance matrices. Also future nm technology offers more advantages in achieving most of the performance specifications. This paper presents a lowvoltage low-dropout regulator that is capable of providing regulated output with small drop-out voltage and offers a range of different voltages, by using two binary-input control signals. The entire circuit has been designed in a 32 nm technology and simulated using Microwind tool. This design utilizes a cascode current amplifier used with a high threshold PMOS operated in the sub-threshold region, which is responsible to boost the gain and yield the desired output voltage.


During the course of these studies, polyester polyurethane foam has been found to be readily degraded in soil and marine environments. The incorporation of the formulation biocide Vinyzene E.P. reduced the rate and extent of degradation in test material exposed to soil conditions, but was found to be ineffective in preventing degradation when exposed to the marine environment.
As a result of these studies, a number of fungi, representing a range of genera, have been isolated, identified, and shown using Kochian principles to degrade polyester polyurethane as a sole source of carbon. A list of isolates is submitted. In addition, a number of bacteria, hitherto unreported as deteriogens of polyester polyurethane, have been isolated and also shown, again using Kochian principles, to degrade polyester polyurethane. In order to effect degradation, the bacteria were found to require supplementation of the basal mineral salts medium with non-defined, complex sources of organic nitrogen, such as yeast extract.
Chemical analysis of degraded test material, using FT-IR spectroscopy has provided evidence to suggest that the ester linkage of the polymer was hydrolysed during degradation by a bacterial isolate studied, resulting in marked reductions
in the physical properties recorded. No degradation, either in terms of chemical composition or in the physical properties of the polymer was recorded where the test material was inoculated with this isolate in a mineral salts medium supplemented with glucose, suggesting that the enzymes involved in the degradation process were catabolically suppressed and therefore inducible.
Extracellular esterase enzyme activity was detected in cellfree supernatants where the mineral salts medium was supplemented with yeast extract, but not in the case where glucose was used. However the addition of the test material
did not enhance the level of esterase activity detected.
Purification/concentration of these enzymes and characterisation studies using gel filtration chromatography, SDS-PAGE and PAGE were found to support these findings. The results of the present studies suggest that the test material was degraded by the bacterial isolate as a result of co-metabolism.


A mathematical model was developed for simulating the batch copolymerization of styrene (St) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of polybutadiene (PB). It was adjusted to the measurements of three reactions carried out at 65°C, with initial comonomers ratio at the azeotropic condition, THF as solvent, and benzoyl peroxide as initiator. The measurements included: (a) conversions and grafting efficiencies by gravimetry; (b) molecular weight distributions (MWDs) by size exclusion chromatography; and (c) global mass fractions of St in the co- and terpolymer, by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The model predicts the MWDs of the three polymeric components of MBS: free St-MMA copolymer, St-MMA-g-PB graft terpolymer (GT), and residual PB. In addition, it predicts the bivariate chain length distributions of the different GT topologies, with each topology characterized by the number of branches per molecule. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010


In 1959, Philip Hall introduced the locally finite group

 {\mathcal{U}}

 , today known as Hall's universal group. This group
is countable, universal, simple, and any two finite isomorphic subgroups are conjugate in

 {\mathcal{U}}

 . It can explicitly be described as a direct limit of finite symmetric groups. It is homogeneous in the model-theoretic sense since it is the Fraïssé limit of the class of all finite groups. Since its introduction Hall's group and several natural generalisations have been studied widely. In this article we use a generalisation of Fraïssé's theory to construct a countable, universal, locally finite semigroup

 {\mathcal{T}}

 , that arises as a direct limit of finite full transformation semigroups, and has the highest possible degree of homogeneity. We prove that it is unique up to isomorphism among semigroups satisfying these properties. We prove an analogous result for inverse semigroups, constructing a maximally homogeneous universal locally finite inverse semigroup

 {\mathcal{I}}

 which is a direct limit of finite symmetric inverse semigroups (semigroups of partial bijections).
The semigroups

 {\mathcal{T}}

 and

 {\mathcal{I}}

 are the natural counterparts of Hall's universal group for semigroups and inverse semigroups, respectively. While these semigroups are not homogeneous, they still exhibit a great deal of symmetry.
We study the structural features of these semigroups and locate several
well-known homogeneous structures within them, such as the countable generic semilattice, the countable random
bipartite graph, and Hall's group itself.


Background: Fasting is observed by Muslims during Ramzan. Here, they do not consume food and drinks. It is observed for 29–30 days. The fast begins early in the morning and lasts until evening.

Aims and Objectives: This study tries to assess whether intermittent fasting (during Ramzan) can alter the insulin resistance and blood lipid levels in healthy individuals.

Materials and Methods: A total of 30 healthy volunteers were subjected to anthropometric and biochemical assessment before the beginning of Ramzan and then at the end of fasting immediately after the month of Ramzan. Biochemical parameters were measured by standard laboratory methods, and statistical analysis was done by Student's t-test.

Results: After the completion of Ramzan fasting, subjects experienced decrease in their body weight and body mass index. There was slight decrease in low-density lipoprotein and increase in high-density lipoprotein levels and not much significant changes in insulin resistance.

Conclusion: Our study found that fasting during Ramzan produced reduction in body weight but no significant effect on fasting/postprandial glucose levels and blood lipid levels.


The primary object of the present communication is to suggest a correlation of the Lower Limestone group between Renfrewshire and Ayrshire. The sediments of these two areas are no longer in direct continuity: whatever may have been the case in the past, they are now separated by a belt of the underlying lavas. As a consequence no horizon can be followed without interruption from one district to the other: the correlation must remain a matter of inference alone. The method followed has been to examine the sequence as developed in each area, and to use as a basis those horizons which retain their peculiarities throughout the region: one can naturally expect that these "constants" should pass over from one district to the other, and especially so in view of the fact that the upper parts of each sequence are sufficiently alike to warrant the belief that the two areas were in complete communication when those sediments were originally deposited. A glance at the published maps will show that the limestone strata of the two districts approach each other closely at two points. The first is by way of the long trough running south-west from Barrhead through Neilston to Lugton; the second is in the similar depression passing through Castle Semple Loch from Howwood to Lochwinnoch. A comparison of the limestones of Barrhead and Lugton has the advantage that the type succession of the Lower Limestone group comes from Hurlet, close to Barrhead; nevertheless, although the sequence is there well known This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract


Statistical inference begins with viewing data as realizations of stochastic processes. Mathematical models provide partial descriptions of these processes; inference is the process of using the data to obtain a more complete description of the stochastic processes. Wildlife and ecological scientists have become increasingly concerned with the conditional nature of model-based inference: what if the model is wrong? Over the last 2 decades, Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) has been widely and increasingly used in wildlife statistics for 2 related purposes, first for model choice and second to quantify model uncertainty. We argue that for the second of these purposes, the Bayesian paradigm provides the natural framework for describing uncertainty associated with model choice and provides the most easily communicated basis for model weighting. Moreover, Bayesian arguments provide the sole justification for interpreting model weights (including AIC weights) as coherent (mathematically self consistent) model probabilities. This interpretation requires treating the model as an exact description of the data-generating mechanism. We discuss the implications of this assumption, and conclude that more emphasis is needed on model checking to provide confidence in the quality of inference. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.


The Budd-Chiari syndrome is characterized by thrombotic or non thrombotic reduction of the venous hepatic flow. Several works have enabled the comprehension of Budd-Chiari syndrome as well as the diagnosis and treatment. This clinical review attempted to present the Budd-Chiari syndrome overall and more particularly the history, etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and the understanding of the latest developments in conservative and surgical management as well as prognosis. This review is based on relevant contributions from general surgery and gastroenterology journals, review articles and international references.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Depression is associated with impairment in cognition and everyday functioning. Mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in depression and the factors that influence strategic deployment of cognitive abilities in complex environments remain elusive. In this study we investigated whether depression symptom severity is associated with disengagement from a working memory task (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task; PASAT) with parametric adjustment of task difficulty. Methods: 235 participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, low and high cognitive load conditions of the PASAT, and quality of life. Cognitive disengagement was the sum of consecutive items in which participants did not proffer a response to the trial. Results: Individuals with higher depression severity showed more cognitive disengagement on the high but not low cognitive load trial of the PASAT; they did not differ in number of correct responses. Increased disengagement from the low to high cognitive load was associated with more impaired quality of life. Conclusions: Depression severity is associated with increased disengagement from tasks as difficulty increases. These findings suggest the importance of measuring how cognitive skills are avoided in complex environments in addition to considering performance accuracy. Individuals with depressive symptoms might preferentially avoid cognitive tasks that are perceived as more complex in spite of intact ability.


Abstract Analyses were conducted concerning the accumulation of four metals representing the group of macroelements, i.e. sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in two ponds located in the city of Słupsk. Water samples for chemical analyses were collected from the surface microlayer using a Garrett net. At the same time subsurface water samples were collected. Concentrations of metals were determined using a mass spectrometer. Generally, amounts of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium were similar in surface microlayer and subsurface water. Only in the case of potassium and calcium was low enrichment observed in the surface microlayer in one pond, while the greatest extent for magnesium enrichment was observed in the spring period.


: Purpose: This research aimed to explore how to address the opportunities and challenges of sustainable e-procurement practices in the pandemic era. Particularly in developing a conceptual framework to evaluate different factors influencing sustainable e-procurement adoption in Hong Kong during the outbreak of COVID-19. Design/Methodology/Approach: To test the hypotheses, data were collected from 69 members of The Institute of Purchasing and Supply of Hong Kong. Investigation was conducted to study how respondents feel about their companies' daily sustainable practices during the pandemic, the driving factors that promote adoption of e-procurement, and the effectiveness of such acts. Findings: E-procurement is a way to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable business in the future. The results showed that operational efficiency, cost effectiveness and employee acknowledgment are the top three factors for the adoption. However, due to pandemic, companies need to adapt to new suppliers, and it could be hard for firms to collaborate without face-to-face communications. Companies need to prepare sustainability assessments and Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) reports according to law. Finally, strengthening the connection between e-procurement and sustainable development can improve capabilities and performance. Practical Implications: The results helped provide a new insight for company performance and business sustainability. Originality/value: To the extent of our knowledge, this study is the pioneer investigation into new insight about the major drivers for e-procurement adoption for e-business firms.


abstract:While critics have remarked how The Sunset Limited stresses White's identity as a professor, they have had little to say regarding what this fact and White's suicidal longing reveal concerning McCarthy's view of the contemporary university. This article fills this gap by scrutinizing White's death wish through the lens of the academy's engagement with virtue. Drawing upon John Henry Newman's understanding of the relationship between the university and character formation, as well as traditional formulations of classical and Christian virtues, I show how White's arguments in favor of self-annihilation are grounded in an education lacking any pursuit of virtue of either kind. Representative of the modern academy, White has located all value not in an ethical consideration of how to be a good man in community with others, but in the artistic achievements of humanity; his vocation has concerned itself with aesthetics at the expense of virtue. Divorced especially from the theological virtues, the education White professes darkness by combining intellectual pride with moral skepticism in such a way as to subvert human solidarity, individual purpose, and indeed the project of the university itself.


Koalas are iconic mammals indigenous to Australia. These rare animals and their habitats are occasionally associated with pathogenic fungi, including species of Cryptococcus, and consequently, monitoring the mycobiota of areas inhabited by koalas is of considerable importance. In this report, we describe a novel basidiomycetous yeast isolated from a site in Kanazawa Zoo, Japan, associated with captive koalas. Swab samples were collected from koala breeding environments, from which we isolated a novel unencapsulated yeast characterized by ovoid to ellipsoidal cells (3.2–4.9 × 3.5–5 μm). These cells were observed to undergo polar budding and grow as parent bud pairs, with an optimal growth temperature of 28°C. Colonies grown on yeast extract peptone dextrose agar at 28°C have a characteristic coral pink color. On the basis of physiological, morphological, and molecular characters, the new species was placed in the genus Begerowomyces, and the name Begerowomyces aurantius JCM33898T(LSEM1333T=CBS16241T) is proposed.


There has been considerable work in recent years showing that other exocrine glands, in addition to those secreting mucus, are affected in fibrocystic disease of the pancreas. In 1951, Kessler and Andersen showed that patients with fibrocystic disease of the pancreas are particularly liable to heat prostration during hot weather. In 1953, di Sant' Agnese, Darling, Perera and Shea reported that the sweat of fibrocystic patients contained abnormally high values for sodium and chloride, and these findings were confirmed by Shwachman, Leubner and Catzel (1955). In their original article, di Sant' Agnese et al. stated that not only are the sweat glands involved in fibrocystic disease of the pancreas, but there is evidence also that the parotid secretory rate is increased, and that the values for sodium and chloride in mixed saliva are elevated. Prader, Gautier, Gautier and Naef (1955) showed that the sodium content of mixed saliva is dependent on the rate of flow of saliva, the duration of collection and the time of day of collection. They found that when all these factors were carefully controlled they were able to obtain constant results. Prader and Gautier (1955) also report that the sodium concentration of mixed saliva obtained by aspiration was increased in eleven children with cystic fibrosis of the pancreas. McGrady and Bessman (1955) found that the chloride concentration of saliva varied greatly with the method of collection, and that consistent results were obtained only with parotid secretion. In five patients with mucoviscidosis the chloride content of parotid saliva was markedly elevated as compared with 100 controls. The present study was undertaken to analyse the parotid secretion for electrolyte content in a number of patients with fibrocystic disease of the pancreas attending The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. Method The parotid secretion was obtained by placing a small metallic collecting device over the orifice of Stenson's duct. The device was made to adhere to the surrounding mucous membrane by suction, and the parotid saliva, uncontaminated by other salivary secretions, was easily collected. In all cases, a few crystals of citric acid were placed on the tip of the patient's tongue in order to stimulate the salivary flow. The parotid secretion was collected for a period of one minute after the onset of flow, and usually O4 ml. or more of fluid was obtained. Occasionally, the collection lasted more than one minute in order to obtain a sufficient amount of secretion. In each case, the volume of fluid was carefully measured together with the length of time of collection. The secretions were analysed for sodium and potassium concentration by flame photometry, and for chloride concentration by the method of Van Slyke and Hiller (1947). Parotid secretion was analysed by this method in 31 patients with proven fibrocystic disease of the pancreas. Sixty-three patients with various diseases in the wards of the hospital served as controls. The average age of the fibrocystic group was 6 years, with a range from 2 to 14 years. The average age of the controls was 8 years, with a range from 2 to 12 years. The fibrocystic group consisted of 14 males and 17 females, and among the controls there were 24 males and 39 females.


Wikipedia is nowadays one of the most valuable information resources; nevertheless, its current structure, which has no formal organization, does not allow to always have a useful browsing among topics. Moreover, even though most Wikipedia pages include a "See Also" section for navigating through those articles' related Wikipedia pages, the only references included here are those which authors are aware of, leading to incompleteness and other irregularities. In this work, a method for finding related Wikipedia articles is proposed; this method relies on a framework that clusters documents into semantically-calculated topics and selects the closest documents which could enrich the "See Also" section.


Flax was once grown in every county of Ireland, when the production of linen was an entirely cottage industry. After the Williamite war of 1691 immigration to Ireland was encouraged and many who came were Huguenots from France. Notably Louis Crommellin came to Lisburn, in County Down, to establish a colony of Huguenot linen weavers. Just how much their arrival contributed to innovation is arguable but they enriched the range of linen idiom. Linen manufacture came to be concentrated in north-west Ulster. Ramazzini, in 1705, had noted respiratory problems associated with 'a foul mischievous powder' entering the lungs of flax hacklers, but it was not until production was mechanised in the 19th Century that it became a serious problem. In 1831 Thackrah described similar cases in Leeds; by 1860 Greenhow had employed the term 'Byssinosis' (from the Greek 'bussinos' – of linen) in an official document and recorded that the condition was exacerbated on Mondays, ie 'Monday Fever.' In 1856, Malcolm in Belfast, demonstrated that the condition was related to the initial, dustier phases of linen manufacture. Another Ulster doctor, Charles Nicholas Delacherois Purdon (who had Huguenot forebears), in the 1870s described diseases associated with linen manufacture: '…one of the most injurious, and in certain branches very fatal, is the effect induced by the inhaling of flax dust, called by the workers 'Pouce,' (from the French: 'poussif' – wheezy) which is produced, when the fibre is cleansed by machinery.' Those employed as 'doffers' (from the French: 'démonteurs' – dismantlers) who removed the spindles did not suffer from Pouce because they were exposed to heat and vapour rather than dust which rendered them more susceptible to bronchial attacks '(Mill Fever).' Thanks to John Pemberton's (and others') research at The Queen's University of Belfast, Flax Byssinosis became a Prescribed Industrial Disease in 1965.


A review of 65 patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and 10 patients with primary macroglobulinemia (PM) seen at our clinic from 1972 through 1988 revealed further cancers that were found in 11 patients with MM and in 2 patients with PM. In 4 of 13 patients with multiple primary neoplasms, either MM or PM was an antecedent. In 6 patients, MM or PM was coincident with the cancers. In 3 patients, the cancer was antecedent. Only one patient with multiple myeloma developed secondary leukemia following treatment with alkylating agents.


ABSTRACT:  Examination of the bycatch from a hake survey off the coast of South Africa in 2010 yielded new diphyllidean tapeworms from 2 species of batoids not previously examined for this cestode order. The spotted skate, Raja straeleni (Rajidae), was found to host Echinobothrium dorothyae n. sp., which differs in hook formula from 37 of its 43 congeners, and can be distinguished from the 6 remaining species in features such as length, number and arrangement of testes, and number of cephalic peduncle spines. The second new species, Echinobothrium dougbermani n. sp., was collected from the lesser guitarfish, Rhinobatos annulatus (Rhinobatidae). This species differs from all but 6 of its congeners in hook formula. With respect to these 6 species, it differs in numbers of cephalic peduncle spines, testes and proglottids, overall size, and ovary shape. Furthermore, it bears lateral hooklets that are more posterior in position relative to the apical hooks than is seen in most of its congeners. Scanning electron microscopy of these 2 species highlights ultrastructural differences that exist among diphyllideans, which, although their complete taxonomic distribution and function(s) are not yet understood, are interesting to consider. These are: the presence or absence of a spinithrix-lacking "V" shaped region on the medial distal bothrial surface, variation in spinithrix form from anterior to posterior on the proximal bothrial surface, and surface elaborations in the form of tiny, ridgelike structures of varying length that may or may not anastomose with one another. The relatively random nature of the selection of the skates and guitarfish hosts sampled here supports the notion that the small percentage of species in these genera that are currently known to host diphyllideans, and likely also their respective families Rajidae and Rhinobatidae, are likely a result of a lack of sampling.


We conducted an analysis of all communications received from patients or their families by the director of a pediatric emergency department over a three-year period, during which approximately 150,000 visits occurred. Communications were characterized as complaint or compliment and subclassified by type: waiting time, staff attitude, quality of medical care, and billing, x2 analysis was used to identify factors that predisposed to complaint or compliment and to identify the subtype. After quality-of-care issues, complaints stemmed most often from billing issues or waiting time for care for nonurgent disorders (especially medical problems), while complimentary letters most frequently addressed staff attitude and quality of care. The problems that we identified might be addressed by providing families improved access to non-emergency department care sources, education regarding the role of an emergency department, and better explanation of billing procedures during the registration process. Additionally, our findings serve as a reminder that many parents appreciate the care given to their children, particularly for life-threatening emergencies.


Since its foundation, the Council of Europe has developed a rigorous philosophy of democracy based on the protection of human rights. This includes the aprticipation of citizens in community life; respect for the rights of others; the right to own property; freedom of association; the right to pluralist information; freedom of the press and so forth. These issues are embodied in the European Convention on Human Rights and have been confirmed by the subsequent findings of the European Court of Human Rights. Moreover, the right to heritage necessarily forms one element of the whole entity. Furthermore, the need for unity and the recognition of diversity in the protection of cultural heritage was specified in the Final Declaration of the Fourth Conference of European Ministers responsible for the Cultural Heritage.


This workshop study was aimed to develop a model of the radio programmer network in mental health promotion and prevention in Chiangrai province, Thailand. The particular programmers were given knowledge about mental health self care, counseling skills, issues about referral system for some audience needed mental health services to psychiatric services providers nearby the community. Expecting the radio programs frequently educate about mental health context would eventually influenced in suicide prevention of the consumers. Twenty nine radio programmers were voluntary participated. Assessment administered by pre and post test difference scores.Frequency and percentage were analytic statistics for the training session. The scores showed participants better gained knowledge and skills. Follow up meeting including Suanprung psychiatric hospital tour were held one month after the first training. Focus groups disclosed that they developed more positive attitude to mental health related services and the patients as well , more often inserted some mental issues into their routine radio programs and made more properly referred the mental health needed audience to providers in Chiangrai. Key words : model, network, radio programmer, suicide, Chiangrai


Squalene synthase of Alisma orientale catalyzes farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) to form squalene, which is the key regulatory enzyme of the carbon source flow to protostane triterpenes biosynthesis. For further research on the function and expression of AoSS gene, the open reading frame (ORF) of squalene synthase gene (accession no. JX866770) from A. orientale was subcloned into a prokaryotic expression vector pCzn1 and induced the expression of AoSS gene in Escherichia coli BL21(Roseta). The fusion protein was mainly in the form of inclusion bodies and purified to obtain high purity protein. By verifying its functionality through vitro enzymatic reaction, the results showed that the catalytic protein had the catalytic activity of FPP into squalene. In order to research the expression of AoSS in A. orientale, the purified protein was used to immunized rabbits to prepare polyclonal antibody which was then purified, the titer of the antibody was greater than 1∶51 200 by ELISA detection, and displayed good specificity by Western blotting. The prepared antibody was used for immunoassay of AoSS in different organs of A. orientale, and the results showed that the AoSS expression level was the highest in tubers, followed by leaves, and lowest in root. Successful construction of prokaryotic expression vector, validation of gene functions and establishment of rapid immunoassay lay the foundation for further researches on the function and regulation of AoSS gene, and also provide scientific basis on the application of the protostane triterpenes of A. orientale in the field of synthetic biology.