Friction surfacing is a solid state coating process with applications of wear and corrosion resistance coatings and also used for reclamation and repair of damaged and worn components. Friction surfacing is a kind of thermal processing technology, in which the temperature profile obtained and changes of temperature occurred in consumable rod and substrate are significant factors to obtain high quality of coatings. In the present work, the temperature fields of the consumable rod and substrate during the process are simulated by finite difference modeling method, And also heat source model of the consumable rod and substrate are established in friction surfacing process. The obtained results are consistence with experimental values. Reoccurring of the changes of temperature of both consumable rod and substrate while conducting friction surfacing process, hence furnishing theoretical information for the selection of primary technical factors in industrial engineering applications and which permits additional work for producing quality of coatings in friction surfacing process.


Although it is assumed that hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein binds with viral RNA to form a nucleocapsid, little is known about the resulting molecular interactions. We utilized surface plasmon resonance technology to study the structural basis of the affinity and the preference of the interaction between HCV core protein and oligonucleotides derived from the viral genome. Among the 10 oligonucleotides corresponding to the 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) of the tested HCV genome, the real-time analysis of sensorgrams indicated that the core protein binds most efficiently and stably to the 31-nucleotide-long sequence of the loop IIId domain, whose secondary structure is highly conserved not only among different HCV genotypes but also among pestiviruses. There also could be some interactions of the core protein with the loop I domain and the region of nt 23-41. The kinetic profiles, together with those obtained in experiments using single- and double-stranded polymeric oligonucleotides, suggest a multimerization of the core protein in solution. These newly characterized properties could provide a basis for understanding the pathway of the viral nucleocapsid assembly.


Surakarta Lentera Foundation is a Child Welfare Institution that provides services for children living with HIV and AIDS. During the Covid-19 pandemic, its services must be adjusted to binding government policies for providing services to children. This study aims to obtain an overview of the actions of the Lentera Foundation management and caregivers in 1) recognizing the threat and risk of the Covid-19 pandemic on children's safety and welfare; 2) developing appropriate protection and care for children during the Covid-19 pandemic; 3) build awareness and self-care of the various risks of the Covid-19 pandemic. This research used a qualitative approach with seven informants, namely the management and caregivers of the Lentera Foundation. Data collection used interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), and observations. The results showed that the services provided by the Lentera Foundation to children with HIV and AIDS were the same as during normal situations, only during the Covid-19 pandemic the administrators and carers had additional duties to take precautions and protect children and residents. Foundation so as not to be exposed to Covid-19. Problems experienced in efforts to protect foster children from the risk of being exposed to Covid-19 are the lack of facilities and infrastructure to comply with health protocols, lack of caregivers both in quantity and quality to assist children to comply with health protocols, online learning, doing time filling activities spare time so that the child does not feel bored during their stay at the Foundation due to social restrictions, the difficulty of children's awareness in adhering to health protocols.

Keywords: Social Services, Children With HIV and AIDS, Covid-19 Pandemic


The responses of neurons in areas V1 (17) and V2 (18) of anesthetized and paralyzed rhesus monkeys and cats were recorded while presenting a set of computer-generated visual stimuli that varied in pattern, texture, luminance, and contrast. We find that a class of extrastriate cortical cells in cats and monkeys can signal the presence of boundaries regardless of the cue or cues that define the boundaries. These cue-invariant (CI) cells were rare in area V1 but easily found in V2. CI cortical cells responded more strongly to more salient boundaries regardless of the cue defining the boundaries. Many CI cortical cells responded to illusory contours and exhibited the same degree of orientation and direction selectivity when tested with boundaries defined by different cues. These cells have significant computational power inherent in their receptive fields since they were able to generalize across stimuli and integrate multiple cues simultaneously in order to signal boundaries. Cells in higher order cortical areas such as MT (Albright, 1992), MST (Geesaman & Anderson, 1996), and IT (Sary et al., 1993) have previously been reported to respond in a cue invariant fashion. The present results suggest that the ability to respond to boundaries in a cue-invariant manner originates at relatively early stages of cortical processing.


Diabetes mellitus is closely related to oral-complicated diseases by oxidative stress. This study investigates whether cellular myeloblastosis (c-myb) could protect human dental pulp cells against glucose oxidative stress and regulate autophagy activity for pulp vitality. Diabetes mellitus was induced by streptozotocin in Sprague-Dawley rats, and their pulp tissue in teeth was analyzed in terms of pulp cavity and molecules by hematoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemistry staining. Human dental pulp cells were serially subcultured and treated with glucose oxidase in the presence of elevated glucose to generate glucose oxidative stress. The replication-deficient adenovirus c-myb and small interfering RNA c-myb were introduced for c-myb expression. The pulp tissue from the diabetic rats was structurally different from normal tissue in terms of narrow pulp capacity, reduced c-myb, and dentinogenesis molecules. Glucose oxidase treatment decreased c-myb and dentinogenesis molecules (bone morphogenetic protein 2 and 7, dentin matrix protein 1, and dentin sialophosphoprotein) in human dental pulp cells. However, overexpression of c-myb by adenovirus c-myb increased dentinogenesis, autophagy molecules (autophagy protein 5, microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B–light chain 3, and Beclin-1), and cell survival via p-AMPK/AKT signaling even with glucose oxidative stress. In contrast, the lack of c-myb decreased the above molecules and cell survival by downregulating p-AMPK/AKT signaling. The results indicate that diabetes leads to irreversible damage to dental pulp, which is related to downexpression of autophagy via the p-AMPK/AKT pathway by decline of c-myb. The findings of this study provide a new insight that c-myb could ameliorate autophagy activity and that it is applicable for monitoring complicated diseases of dental pulp. The involvement of c-myb in pulp pathology could serve a therapeutic target in oral-complicated diseases.


Importance Unverifiable publications in applications for ophthalmology residencies could be a serious concern if they represent publication dishonesty. Objective To determine the rate of unverifiable publications among applicants offered an interview. Design Retrospective review of 322 ophthalmology residency applications for entering classes 2012 to 2017 at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. Interventions Full-length publications reported in the applications were searched in PubMed, Google, Google Scholar, and directly on the journal's website. Applications were deemed unverifiable if there was no record of the publication by any of these means or if substantial discrepancies existed, such as incorrect authorship, incorrect journal, or a meaningful discrepancy in title or length (full-length article vs abstract). Main Outcomes and Measures Inability to locate publication with search, incorrect author position, applicant not listed as an author, article being an abstract and not a published paper, substantial title discrepancy suggesting an alternative project, and incorrect journal. Results Of the 322 applicants offered interviews during the 6-year study period, 22 (6.8%) had 24 unverifiable publications. Two hundred thirty-nine of these applicants (74.2%) reported at least 1 qualifying publication; of this group, 22 (9.2%) had an unverifiable publication. The applications with unverifiable publications were evenly distributed across the years of the study (range, 2-6 per cycle; Pearson &khgr;25 = 3.65; P = .60). Two applicants had 2 unverifiable publications each. Two of the 22 applicants (9.1%) with unverifiable publications were graduates of medical schools outside the United States. Among the unverifiable publications, the most common reason was inability to locate the publication (13 [54%]). Additional issues included abstract rather than full-length publication (5 [20.8%]), incorrect author position (4 [16.7%]), applicant not listed as an author on the publication (1 [4.2%]), and substantial title discrepancy (1 [4.2%]). One listed publication had an incorrect author position and incorrect journal (1 [4.2%]). Conclusions and Relevance Unverifiable publications among ophthalmology residency applicants is a persistent problem. Possible strategies to modify the review process include asking applicants to provide copies of their full-length works or the relevant PMCID (PubMed Central reference number) or DOI (digital object identifier) for their publications.


The objective of this study is to determine flavonoids and polyphenols
 content and antioxidant activity of extracts of figs growing in Romania. The
 content of flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds was determined according to
 the Romanian Pharmacopoeia, the 10th edition, using the standard rutin for
 flavonoids, catechol for polyphenols and HPLC for flavonoids quantification.
 Determination of antioxidant activity was done by DPPH scavenging method and
 at cellular level by attenuation of oxidative damage in human erythrocytes.
 The experimental results reveal that Ficus carica extracts may be a potential
 source of natural antioxidants.


In this paper we will discuss the problem of placing service replicas in the cloud network to fulfil customers' demand. Such a problem hass been well studied in "Facility Location" topic; however, in this area opening a new facility is costly and its migration is an expensive decision which makes the solution static. In cloud network infrastructures, services are pieces of software that can be migrated from one server to another in an easier way and therefore the dynamic service placement should be part of the solution. This paper aims to propose a new scheme of optimal dynamic service placement in the context of changing network environment. This scheme reinforces the existing solutions proposed in "Facility Location", allowing at each period of time to find the best locations for services given the network topology, resource availability and customers' demand. The scheme considers the efficiency of the new locations versus the necessary modifications that have to be made to obtain them. The solution has been evaluated by simulation and has shown that small modification in service deployment can achieve high performance close to optimal solutions.


To every algebraic subvariety of a complex torus there corresponds a Euclidean geometric object called a c-fan. This correspondence determines an intersection theory for algebraic varieties. c-fans form a graded commutative algebra with visually defined operations. The c-fans of algebraic varieties lie in the subring of rational c-fans. It seems that other subrings may be used to construct an intersection theory for other categories of analytic varieties. We discover a relation between an old problem in the theory of convex bodies (the so-called Minkowski problem) and the ring of c-fans. This enables us to define a correspondence that sends any algebraic curve to a convex polyhedron in the space of characters of the torus.


Acute gastroenteritis (AGE), which is one of the most common diseases worldwide, primarily occurs in infants and young children in both developed and developing countries. To investigate the prevalence of AGE in Korea, 6,788 stool specimens collected from hospitalized patients with AGE in Seoul, Korea from March 2004 to June 2007 were analyzed by enzyme immunoassay, reverse transcription-PCR, DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Enteric viruses and bacteria were detected in 2,955 (43.5%) and 1,389 (20.5%) specimens, respectively. Among the enteric viruses detected, rotavirus (19.7%) and norovirus (18.9%) were the predominant causative agents, followed by adenovirus (2.5%) and astrovirus (2.4%). Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly observed bacteria (8.0~19.2%). The epidemic peaks of the enteric viruses were October to December for norovirus, January to May for rotavirus, and August to October for adenovirus. The seasonal activity of rotavirus was shifted from winter to late spring. However, astrovirus did not display seasonal activity in this study. Although viral AGE primarily occurred in patients younger than 5 years of age, the incidence of viral AGE in children aged 6 to 14 years was significant. The results of this study will contribute to the currently available epidemiological data and improve public health and hygiene via amelioration of diagnostic methods and longitudinal surveillance.


Methionine starvation causes changes in the protein pattern of HL-60 promyelocytic leukemia cells as observed by two-dimensional electrophoresis. One group of proteins is apparently modified, appearing in new positions. A further series of proteins, including several principal nuclear polypeptides, is substantially diminished. The morphology of a fraction of the cells in the culture changes concomitantly, with condensation and fragmentation of the nucleus and eventual remolding of the cell to a "grape-cluster" appearance. Similar effects are produced by a DNA methylation inhibitor, 5-azacytidine, but not by various other toxic agents tested. A defect in DNA methylation, either by depletion of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (the methyl donor) or by inactivation of the relevant enzyme, may be responsible. The T-lymphoblastoid line CCL-119 and the histiocytic lymphoma line U-937 also show these effects, but most fibroblast, epithelial, and lymphoblastoid lines do not. These changes can be largely prevented in each of the three susceptible lines by prior treatment with the tumor promoter, phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), an agent known to cause differentiation in at least two of the lines. The results thus suggest interesting relationships between methionine metabolism, protein and structural changes in the cell nucleus, and PMA-induced cell differentiation.


Point-of care ultrasound (PoCUS) is a diagnostic paradigm, instrumental in the evolving anaesthesiologist's role towards a perioperative physician. The purpose of this article is to propose expert suggestions for a national standard towards official certification in perioperative PoCUS. Previously published recommendations in this journal constituted a first move towards a structured PoCUS pathway for Belgian anaesthesia residents1. This article defines in detail a pathway towards obtaining competency in airway ultrasound, lung ultrasound, gastric ultrasound, hemodynamic volume assessment, basic transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography. An updated overview of the international literature on the education of perioperative PoCUS serves as a scientific backbone.


There is broad empirical evidence showing that regional integration considerably influences the choice of firms over the location of production; nevertheless, the theoretical literature on this issue is rather limited. Traditional preferential trade theory does not include the driving force of these changes, that is, economies of scale. The paper surveys recent contributions from the new economic geography and the multinational enterprise literature addressing the issue of the effects of preferential trade, with the aim of examining the main features of the models, and assessing their predictions and policy implications critically. The paper shows, among other things, that the findings are often contradictory, depending upon the underlying hypotheses of the models used. Overall, there is a need of further research on the welfare implications of preferential trade agreements when location effects are considered; policy implications may be relevant, especially for small countries joining preferential trade areas with the expectation of benefiting from the location of economic activity in their territory.


Measures the analysing power of 4He(p, d) in the kinematics region of the quasi-free pdalpha to dp process. Comparison is made with known analysing powers for the free pd to dp process to discuss the reaction mechanism and nuclear polarisation effects.


Co-stimulatory signals are important shaping adaptive immunity which is pivotal to all stages of atherosclerosis. The interaction of the co-stimulatory molecules CD27 and CD70 modulates Treg development. Furthermore, T cell activation, proliferation, and also differentiation are affected by CD27-CD70 interactions. Thus, we hypothesized that the deficiency of CD27 will lead to exacerbated atherosclerosis.
 Cd27−/− mice were crossed with Apoe−/− mice. Cd27−/−Apoe−/− and littermate controls (Cd27+/+Apoe−/−) were sacrificed at the age of 18 and 28 weeks. Bone marrow of Cd27−/−Apoe−/− and littermate controls was transplanted into Apoe−/− recipient mice. Lesion size, histology and cellular composition were analyzed in the ascending aorta.
 Human and murine T cells co-localize with CD27 in atherosclerotic lesions. At early stages of atherosclerosis, Cd27−/−Apoe−/− mice displayed bigger and more complex atherosclerotic lesions. Flow cytometry revealed a significant decrease in abundance of splenic and aortic Tregs and increased apoptosis of Treg in the thymus of Cd27−/−Apoe−/− mice. In contrast, at later stages of atherosclerosis (28 weeks), splenic and lesional Treg content and atherosclerotic burden were similar. Transplantation of Cd27−/−Apoe−/− bone marrow, in contrast to control, induced increased atherosclerotic plaque size and a profound pro-inflammatory plaque phenotype accompanied by reduced frequency of aortic and splenic Tregs. Furthermore, the number of circulating leukocytes was increased.
 Taken together, CD27 deficiency impairs thymic Treg development which exacerbates early atherogenesis. However, the role of CD27–CD70 interactions does not affect later stages of atherosclerosis.


SUMMARY 60 Schizophrenic patients were given LiCo3/Chlorpromazine for 4 weeks, in a double blind cross over study with two placebo crossovers of 1 week before and two weeks after active treatment. Several core schizophrenic features showed significant reduction in severity with lithium. However, CPZ treatment was superior in terms of improvement, as compared to the other group on MBPRS and CGIS. Target symptoms may be one situation, where lithium could be tried and these results are discussed.


Abstract When a military staged an intervention during the Cold War, students of civil-military relations could quite easily tell if it was a coup d'état. This no longer seems to be the case. The reason may be the regnant understanding of coup d'état as a violent (bloody), swift, and extralegal/extra-constitutional seizure of power by first and foremost military officers or members of state apparatus after a long time of secret planning. This article takes stock of political complexities surrounding coups in our times by studying the nationally and internationally neglected case of February 28th (1997) coup process in Turkey as a 'deviant case', based on newly-revealed military documents as primary sources and several previously unstudied memoirs by army officers of the period. It argues that the February 28th coup was deliberately stretched over a long process, it was violent but not bloody, was staged almost openly through 'theoretically constitutional political operations' and psychological warfare against the elected government. Several select 'civilian' groups from the media, judiciary, trade unions, and non-governmental organisations were happily enlisted by the military as active participants in the coup caravan and without them as unique and pioneering a coup as the February 28th could not be executed.


The rapid development of modern science and technology has spawned rich scientific topics to research and endless production of literature in them. Just like X-ray imaging in medicine, can we intuitively identify the development limit and internal evolution pattern of scientific topic from the relationship of massive knowledge? To answer this question, we collect 71431 seminal articles of topics that cover 16 disciplines and their citation data, and extracts the"idea tree"of each topic to restore the structure of the development of 71431 topic networks from scratch. We define the Knowledge Entropy (KE) metric, and the contribution of high knowledge entropy nodes to increase the depth of the idea tree is regarded as the basis for topic development. By observing"X-ray images"of topics, We find two interesting phenomena: (1) Even though the scale of topics may increase unlimitedly, there is an insurmountable cap of topic development: the depth of the idea tree does not exceed 6 jumps, which coincides with the classical"Six Degrees of Separation"! (2) It is difficult for a single article to contribute more than 3 jumps to the depth of its topic, to this end, the continuing increase in the depth of the idea tree needs to be motivated by the influence relay of multiple high knowledge entropy nodes. Through substantial statistical fits, we derive a unified quantitative relationship between the change in topic depth ${\Delta D}^t(v)$ and the change in knowledge entropy over time ${KE}^t\left(v\right)$ of the article $v$ driving the increase in depth in the topic: ${\Delta D}^t(v) \approx \log \frac{KE^{t}(v)}{\left(t-t_{0}\right)^{1.8803}}$ , which can effectively portray evolution patterns of topics and predict their development potential. The various phenomena found by scientific x-ray may provide a new paradigm for explaining and understanding the evolution of science and technology.


In order to explore further the structure-activity relationships of serotonergic and dopaminergic ligands, a series of enantiopure 5-, 7-, or 8-triflate (-OTf)-substituted 2-(monopropylamino)-tetralins have been synthesized and evaluated in in vitro binding and in vivo biochemical and behavioral assays in rats. Consequently, the 8-OTf-substituted compound R-(+)-6 was found to be a potent and selective 5-HT1A (5-hydroxytryptamine) receptor agonist inducing a full-blown 5-HT syndrome in normal rats, while the corresponding 5-OTf-substituted compound S-(-)-12 was found to be a preferential dopamine (DA) autoreceptor agonist. A partial 5-HT syndrome was also observed for S-(-)-12, while the corresponding R-(+)-12 was found to be inactive at the DA and 5-HT receptors both in vitro and in vivo. Compounds 6 and 12 were found to be major urinary metabolites following oral administration of their dipropyl analogs (2 and 13, respectively). Thus 6 was proposed to be the metabolite responsible for the full-blown 5-HT syndrome seen after oral (but not subcutaneous) administration of 2. Similarly, 12 was proposed to be the metabolite responsible for the partial 5-HT syndrome seen after oral (but not subcutaneous) administration of 13. The bioavailability of R-(+)-6 (7.6 +/- 1.1%) appeared to be slightly lower than that of 2 (11.2 +/- 5.2%), although the in vitro metabolism of R-(+)-6 appeared to be slower than that of 2. Therefore first-pass metabolism was not thought to be the reason for the lower bioavailability of R-(+)-6, as compared to 2.


This study discussed the social- economic and environmental impacts of wastewater on Qana drainage basin. This study has been accomplished through carrying out biological and physio-chemical characterization for water samples from various springs in Qana valley in order to specify the quality of the springs' water. Moreover, the socio-economic effects of wastewater on the population in the study area were discussed. The study was relied mainly on using the analytical field methodology to analyse the samples of the springs water. It also used the applied quantitative methodology to check the results of the questionnaire that was distributed between the farmers in Qana valley. The study has found that the flowing wastewater from the Israeli settlements that lie in the study area is regarded as the main source in polluting the underground water in the basin. The results also revealed that 84% of the population of the Palestinian villages that lie in Qana basin use open septic tanks  in getting rid of their wastewater then draining it in the nearby valleys which in turn increased the percentage of pollution. Moreover, results also pointed that 82% of Qana valley population has left their homes in Qana valley to the nearby villages because of the spread of bad smells in the valley. The results also revealed that 45.5% of Qana valley farmers have stopped planting their agricultural lands because of wastewater which in turn lowers the percentage of agricultural production. The analyses showed that all the springs in the study area are biologically polluted by the bacteria which is regarded as an indicator wastewater pollution. The chemical analyses also revealed that all elements lie within the allowed limits according to the World Health Organization except iron which exceeded the allowed limits in Al-Fawwar and Al-Maasser springs which indicates the pollution of these springs.


In an exploration of the links between relationship quality and depression, the extent to which women's weekly reports of depressive symptoms vary as a function of same-week relationship functioning was tested. A sample of 161 married or cohabiting U.S. women completed measures of relationship functioning, mood, and depressive symptoms weekly for 12 weeks. In a series of hierarchical linear models, results of within-subject analyses indicated that depressive symptoms were negatively associated with same-week relationship functioning. Weekly fluctuations in mood did not account for these associations. Results of between-subjects analyses suggested that women low in stereotypical masculinity and in relationships of shorter duration are particularly likely to show increased depressive symptoms during weeks when they experience poorer relationship functioning than usual.


Much effort is devoted to eliminating residual tumor cells - which escape detection by conventional methods - from remission bone marrow harvested for autologous transplantation. The quantitative determination of the efficacy of these purging methods is generally difficult. This report describes an in vitro reproducible tumor model. Normal mononuclear blood cells were deliberately contaminated with cells from the human neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-AS. The frequency of clonogenic SK-N-AS cells was determined in limiting dilution culture before and after treatment. Two methods of purging these tumor cells from the mixed cell suspension were compared, 1) an immunomagnetic method taking advantage of the existence of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific for 90-95% of the tumor cells, and 2) a method based on cell mediated cytotoxicity testing the activity of previously lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells. Immunomagnetic purging eliminated 90% (1 log) of all SK-N-AS cells and 99% (2 log) of the mAb-binding clonogenic tumor cells. In contrast, LAK cell treatment removed only between 0.1 to 0.3 log (23-50%) of the clonogenic SK-N-AS cells.


NHIS was launched officially on 6th of June 2005. The Scheme is designed to provide comprehensive health care at affordable costs, covering employees of the formal sector, self-employed, as well as rural communities, the poor and the vulnerable groups. However, client satisfaction of services rendered continues to be a major concern for the improvement of NHIS. This study is designed to determine the level and causes of dissatisfaction of clients accessing NHIS clinic at the Kubwa General Hospital, Kubwa, FCT, Abuja. This study employed a descriptive cross sectional survey. 279 NHIS enrollees were recruited for this study at the Kubwa General Hospital. Questionnaires were administered and the level of dissatisfaction and satisfaction of NHIS services were analyzed. The satisfaction rate was 69.2% while the dissatisfaction rate was 22.9%. The respondents were satisfied with the attitude of health workers in NHIS clinic, Kubwa. However, they were dissatisfied with waiting time, attitude of record officers and those in pharmacy department. This study found that the level of dissatisfaction with NHIS services is high despite a high satisfaction level. The Attitude of health workers may influence the dissatisfaction of enrollees. NHIS is still limited to the formal sector.


ABSTRACT Wood biomass for energy is largely produced in Europe from forest land resulting from silvicultural and management practices or from agricultural land in the form of fast growing plantations. The present paper reviews and compares the estimated current potentials for wood biomass production in 25 countries in Europe. The potentials are divided attending to these sources to identify the most suitable method of wood biomass production on a country level, based on its current forest and agriculture levels of production. Data has been collected and compiled from previous models and estimations. The total aggregated available potential in Europe is 76 Mm3 of wood biomass from the forests, with an additional 90 Mm3 from increasing the utilization of forest lands, and 98 Mm3 from fast growing plantations (dedicating 5% of current agricultural land). Germany and France showed high potentials both from agriculture and forest; Finland and Sweden had most of its potential from forest sources; and Spain, Poland, and UK from fast-growing plantations. When considered together, Europe presents a large potential for wood biomass production for energy, and each country should develop different policy strategies of promotion attending to the most available source to realize this potential efficiently.


The Katar and Meki subbasins play a significant role in supporting the livelihoods of people in the region. However, the subbasins are currently under heavy human pressures, mainly associated with the ever-increasing human population and the subsequent intensification of irrigated agricultural activities. The aims of this study are to quantify the water balance components of the Katar and Meki rivers using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and to assess the implication of water abstraction on river hydrology. The Katar and Meki subbasins were discretized into 107 and 87 micro-subbasins, which were then subdivided further into Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs) of 683 and 658, respectively. Hydro-meteorological data from 1997 to 2014 were used for model setup, calibration, and validation. Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), coefficient of determination (R2), and Percent Bias (PBIAS) were used for model performance evaluation. The results of the simulation revealed NSE = 0.68–0.83, R2 = 0.72–0.85, and PBIAS = 1.6–22.7 during calibration and validation. More than 65% of the simulated flow was bracketed with the 95PPU for both subbasins, with the thickness of the 95PPU in the range of 0.90 to 1.41 calibration and 1.15 to 1.31 validation, which indicates that the overall performance of the water balance model can be rated as "very good". The results of the water balance show that evapotranspiration (ET), surface runoff (Qs), and groundwater discharge (Qgw) were large in the Meki subbasin, while percolation (PERC) and water yield (WYLD) were large in the Katar subbasin. The model estimated 140 and 111 mm of average annual WYLD for the Katar and Meki subbasins, respectively, and the Katar subbasin is a major contributor of water to Lake Ziway. A total volume of 19.41 million cubic meters (MCM) of water is abstracted from Katar and Meki rivers for irrigation and domestic use, which significantly reduces Lake Ziway's level by 4.5 cm (m). If the current trend of development continues, 149.92 MCM water will be abstracted each year from the lake environment and will reduce the lake level by 1.72 m. It is suspected that the Katar and Meki rivers are likely to cease to exist after a few decades and that Lake Ziway will also dry out.


ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to identify the contexts and conditions that allow for successful education transitions and opportunities for the Roma minority in Europe. Thus far, transnational and national policies have failed to ensure Roma inclusion and education equality, even though some progress is visible. Using a combination of policy analysis and interviews with NGO and European Union actors, University academics and Roma students, the article examines the key contexts that frame education policies and create the necessary conditions for education transitions. It identifies the problems and challenges within the contemporary EU education policy frameworks and highlights the tensions between political rhetoric and policy commitments that are visible at national, transnational, and local levels. In addition, through a focus on individual student experiences, the article captures the lived reality of Roma students who have managed their education transitions with success.


The present article examines special steels used for the production of injection screws in the plastic industry, with a glass fiber content of up to 30%. Experimental materials, M390 and M398, are classified as tool steels, which are produced by powder metallurgy-HIP methods (hot isostatic pressing). The main goal of the presented paper is to propose the optimal tempered temperature of M398 steel and also to compare the tribological properties of both materials and to determine the degree of their wear depending on their final heat treatment. Partial results refer to the analysis of hardness, roughness, the overall wear mechanism, the change in the volume of retained austenite due to the tempering temperature, and the EDS analysis of the worn surfaces in individual contact pairs. A ceramic ball Al2O3 in the α phase was used as the contact material, which had a diameter of 6.35 mm. The ceramic ball performed a rotational movement on the experimental material surface at an elevated temperature of 200 °C using the dry ball-on-disk method. It was experimentally shown that the new M398 material can fully replace the M390 material because it exhibits significantly better tribological properties. The M398 material showed more than a 400% reduction in wear compared to the M390 material. The ideal heat treatment consisted of cryogenic quenching to −78 °C and a tempering temperature of 400 °C. At tempering temperatures of 200 and 400 °C, adhesive wear occurred, which was combined with abrasive wear at a tempered temperature of 600 °C. The averaged coefficient of friction (COF) results show that the M398 material presents less resistance in the friction process and its values are approximately 0.25, while the M390 material showed a COF value of 0.3 after the cryogenic hardening process. The friction surface roughness of the M398 materials also showed lower values compared to the M390 material by approximately 35%. Both of these results are related to the content of M7C3 and MC carbide particles based on Cr and V in the bulk of the material, which are in favor of the M398 material.


The expectation that learners with Down syndrome will have difficulties with mathematics is almost universal and research would support the contention, at least for number skills (Bird & Buckley, 2001). What is less clear is the performance of learners with Down syndrome on other aspects of mathematics. A few documented or anecdotal cases suggest higher mathematics may not be out of the reach of learners with Down syndrome with good teaching and the right support. Some literature (Monari Martinez, 1998; Monari Martinez & Pellegrini, 2010) has reported students with Down syndrome successfully learning algebra. In a fascinating paper, Monari Martinez and Benedetti (2011) report students learning coordinate geometry, including the distance formula, and financial mathematics, including solving exponential and logarithmic equations. Further, a student in Melbourne, Australia, passed the state-wide external examination in General Mathematics at the completion of secondary school (I. Cook, Education Officer, Down Syndrome Association of Victoria, personal communication, 30 March 2011) and a student in New Zealand passed a similar examination (parent, personal email communication, 19 March 2010).


Globally, environmental challenges have been recognised as a matter of concern. Among these challenges are the reduced availability and quality of drinking water, and greenhouse gases that give rise to change in climate by entrapping heat, which result in respirational illness from smog and air pollution. Globally, the rate of demand for the use of freshwater has outgrown the rate of population increase; as the rapid growth in town and cities place a huge pressure on neighbouring water resources. Besides, the rapid growth in anthropogenic activities, such as the generation of energy and its conveyance, release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, warming the planet. Polymer nanocomposite has played a significant role in finding solutions to current environmental problems. It has found interest due to its high potential for the reduction of gas emission, and elimination of pollutants, heavy metals, dyes, and oil in wastewater. The revolution of integrating developed novel nanomaterials such as nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, nanofibers and activated carbon, in polymers, have instigated revitalizing and favourable inventive nanotechnologies for the treatment of wastewater and gas separation. This review discusses the effective employment of polymer nanocomposites for environmental utilizations. Polymer nanocomposite membranes for wastewater treatment and gas separation were reviewed together with their mechanisms. The use of polymer nanocomposites as an adsorbent for toxic metals ions removal and an adsorbent for dye removal were also discussed, together with the mechanism of the adsorption process. Patents in the utilization of innovative polymeric nanocomposite membranes for environmental utilizations were discussed.


A GIS-based spatially-distributed hydrologic overland flow model which uses DEM (digital elevation model) and TIN (triangulated irregular network) to represent watershed topographic features is presented. The tools include a hydrologically ordered cell-to-cell flop sequence which is subsequently used to dictate the order of overland flow computations. Watershed characteristics are simulated according to digitized thematic maps. Combining the digital watershed flow algorithm with the hydrologic model for a sloped-land watershed and using kinematic-wave based finite-difference method to solve the system equations, a runoff hydrograph was produced.<<ETX>>


Introduction Urinary metabolic profiling using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has an increasing role in both understanding the pathophysiology of cirrhosis, the development of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) and the discrimination of malignant and non-malignant hepatic nodules arising on the background of cirrhosis. Clinical cohorts from Egypt,1Nigeria2,3and The Gambia2have been studied and consensus is emerging for an identifying urinary fingerprint of HCC. The aim of this study was to establish if a similar urinary NMR fingerprint for HCC could be identified in a Bangladeshi cohort. Method Urine samples were collected with local research ethics approval and informed consent from 21 Bangladeshi patients with HCC diagnosed by ultrasound and standard clinical tests. Proton (1H) NMR spectra were acquired using a JEOL ECP 500 11.7 Tesla spectrometer with a pulse-collect sequence and pre-saturation of the water signal. The HCC urinary 1H NMR spectral profiles were compared to 18 archived urinary 1H NMR spectral profiles from Western European healthy subjects. Processed 1H-NMR spectroscopy data underwent further analysis with principal component analysis (PCA). Results PCA illustrated that the urinary 1H NMR spectral profiles from HCC subjects differed to the control cohort across range of metabolites, including reduced hippurate and creatinine levels but increased creatine levels. These findings are consistent with the published findings from the studies of various African populations.1,2,3 Conclusion Urinary metabolite changes continue to be identified in subjects with HCC, which may be consistent with the diverse effects of HCC on both human physiology and gut bacterial action. Our studies further support the observation of candidate urinary biomarkers of HCC which may aid the development of a simple urinary screening test. Disclosure of interest None Declared. References Shariff MI, et al. Urinary metabolic biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma in an Egyptian population: a validation study. J Proteome Res. 2011;10:1828–1836 Ladep NG, et al. Discovery and validation of urinary metabotypes for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma in West Africans. Hepatology 2014;60:1291–1301 Shariff MI, et al. Characterization of urinary biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma using magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a Nigerian population. J Proteome Res. 2010;9:1096–1103


This paper explores the ways preschool teachers orchestrate instructional environments to promote mathematical play related to early number and, how they intervene during play to promote children's engagement with early number. We highlight these practices to identify resources for the growing numbers of early childhood teachers. This is important as many prospective and practicing teachers do not have access to the knowledge of teaching that supports young children's math learning because of the constraints of mathematics methods courses and the dearth of research on early childhood mathematics in mathematic education journals – particularly in-depth attention to early number and teaching mathematics in play.


Pain is a feeling of discomfort caused by intense or destructive stimuli, which can affect your daily routine if left untreated. Pain can be treated with an analgesic. One of the plants that are considered to have analgesic effects is the leaves of the ganitri. This research aims to determine ethanol and methanol extracts' impact on decreasing analgesic activity and percent protection. The study began with collecting and processing the leaves of the ganitri into the ethanol and methanol extracts using the maceration method. The research was continued with in vivo analgesic activity testing of 24 mice induced by pain using 1% acetic acid. The induced mice were divided into eight treatment groups, where the mice in the first group served as a negative control group. In that group, they were given CMC at a dose of 0.5%. The second group was positive control, given mefenamic acid at a dose of 500 mg/kg BW. In contrast, the third until eighth groups were given ethanol and methanolic extracts of the ganitri leaves with consecutive doses of 100 mg/kg BW, 200 mg/kg BW dan 400 mg/kg BW. Parameters measuring the effectiveness of the extracts used in this study included the amount of stretching, the percentage of analgesic power, and analgesic effectiveness. The results showed that the ethanolic and methanolic extract had the highest percentage of analgesic power at 400 mg/Kg BW amounted to 91,3% and 88,3%. Furthermore, based on the statistical analysis results using ANOVA, it was found that the ethanol and methanolic extracts of the leaves of the ganitri dosage of 400 mg/Kg BW had analgesic activity close to 500 mg/kg BW of mefenamic acid.


The advancements in the field of mechanically interlocked molecular systems (MIMs) has concurrently restructured the material chemistry frontiers and provided ample scope to explore new dimensions for applications and diversity creation. Among all these molecular entities, rotaxanes have a special locale and many research groups over the globe have contributed to their current niche in supramolecular chemistry. From refinements for better yielding synthetic strategies to their application oriented designs, this field has come a long way and is well inclined for further developments. In this review, we aim to document the contemporary developments in the synthesis of phenanthroline (phen) based rotaxanes. In addition to providing a comprehensive account of various subtypes of these rotaxanes and their stitching strategies, their applications, wherever discernible, will be duely highlighted.


The possible influences of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) on the development of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in patients with leukoaraiosis (LA) have rarely been examined. We aimed to determine whether CMBs might be a risk factor for ICH in hypertensive patients with leukoaraiosis. We studied 70 hypertensive patients with acute ICH and LA (the ICH group) by brain MRI, including T2*-weighted gradient-echo sequences. The control group was composed of 73 hypertensive LA patients without ICH. CMBs and old lacunae were counted in the group of patients with ICH and in the control subjects and compared. The ICH group contained more patients with CMBs (68 patients; control group, 41; p<0.01), and showed a higher mean number of lesions (19.9±31.1; control group, 7.4±19.6; p<0.01). The negative predictive value for ICH was highest among the ICH patients without CMB (94.1%), and the positive predictive value was highest among the ICH patients with 6 or more CMBs (75.4%). Old lacunae were observed more frequently in the ICH group (65 patients; control group, 58; p=0.02), but their predictive value for ICH was not high (positive, 52.3%; negative, 75.0%). Our results indicated that CMBs may be used to predict the risk of ICH in hypertensive patients with advanced LA.


Variations in the management accounting practices (MAPs) of firms are evident. Many studies have observed various levels of MAP adoption and implementation, especially in developing countries. Surveys on MAP in developing countries have reported wide variations in such practices, with traditional MAP being more popular than advanced MAP despite the advantages of the latter, as suggested by academicians and practitioners. This study investigates several factors that may explain the variations in the MAPs of firms in Yemen and highlights the role of firm owners and personnel in deciding and selecting the MAPs in their respective firms. Firms that operate in the various economic sectors of Yemen are included in the sample. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) framework on management accounting evolution is used to classify the MAP level of advancement. The ownership of firms, industry type, and educational level of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) significantly explain the variations in the MAPs of firms in Yemen. Foreign ownership and highly educated CFOs can drive firms to adopt a more sophisticated MAP. Industry type also has a significant role in determining the level of MAP advancement. Interestingly, the MAP advancement level in the financial and banking sector is higher than that in other economic sectors, with natural resources-extracting firms demonstrating the second-highest MAP advancement level. These results improve our understanding of why some firms invest in upgrading their management accounting systems and targeting the best practices, while others tend to maintain their use of traditional MAPs.Keywords: management accounting practice, influential factors, the Republic of Yemen


In this study, 36 concrete specimens with square cross-sections and different concrete qualities were tested either under uniaxial compression at different loading rates or subjected to sustained uniaxial stresses after externally jacketing with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. The main test parameters were the loading rate and the applied sustained stress level. Among these parameters, the loading rate varied in the range of 0.0002 and 0.04 strain/min. In the case of short-term creep tests under sustained loads, three stress levels (between 0.73 f'cc and 0.90 f'cc or 2.76 f'cc and 3.37 f'cc) for low-strength and four stress levels (between 0.69 f'cc and 0.92 f'cc or 0.89 f'co and 1.20 f'co) for medium-strength prisms were applied. The test results showed that the stress-strain behavior of CFRP-confined concrete was affected by the change in loading rate, and external CFRP confinement enhanced the creep performance of concrete significantly. For low-strength concrete specimens, higher strain rates did not bring higher strength values; however, an increase in strength was obvious for medium-strength prisms. On the other hand, for both concrete qualities, the specimens loaded at slower strain rates exhibited better deformability. None of the specimens of the medium-strength concrete failed during the short-term creep tests; however, three of the low-strength concrete prisms failed during the tests. The results of residual strength tests showed that sustained loading did not cause a strength or ultimate deformation capacity loss, but affected the residual strain capacities.


A new method for composite-system state evaluation using genetic algorithms (GA) is proposed. The objective of GA is to minimize load curtailment for each sampled state. Minimization is based on the DC load flow model. System constraints are represented by fuzzy membership functions. Membership value indicates the degree of satisfaction of each constraint for an individual in a GA population. The GA fitness function is a combination of these membership values. The proposed method has the advantage of allowing sophisticated load curtailment strategies, which lead to more realistic load point indices. Application to a simple test system using different load curtailment philosophies is given.


Background and Objectives: In recent years, there has been considerable interest in scientific research on yoga, especially on Pranayama . Nostril breathing exercises including Alternate nostril breathing, Left nostril breathing and right nostril breathing exercises is getting attention in the east and in the west. Left nostril breathing exercises is also called Chandra Nadisuddhi Pranayama or Chandra anulomaa vilomaa Pranayama (CAV). Very few have carried out research on Chandra Anuloma Viloma Pranayama (CAV). This study was carried out to see the effects of CAV on experienced yoga practitioners and naives. Material and Methods: The study consisted of 36 subjects divided into two groups, first group consist of 26 medical students who were naive and the next group consist of 10 yoga practitioners. All the subjects performed 12 rounds of Chandra Nadisuddhi Pranayama in each session for 24 days. Variables were entered into SPSS Program and were analyzed. Results: This study depicts fall in Pulse rate, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure and Diastolic blood pressure after CAV Pranayama in both Naives and Yoga practitioners. But the significant drop was observed in SBP only (at p < 0.05) among Naives and in all parameters except respiratory rate among Yoga Practitioners. Conclusion: The effect of the Chandra Anuloma Viloma (CAV) in this study was more eminent in the yoga practitioners than in the naive group. Janaki Medical College Journal of Medical Sciences (2015) Vol. 3 (1):45-51


The delivery of health care is undergoing dramatic change. Often, patients have come to be viewed as customers and physicians as merely providers. The progressive rise in the cost of medical care has placed a premium on restraint. Unfortunately, quality has not received the same emphasis. As costs equalize among health care systems, however, quality of care will become the major differentiating feature among providers, including gastroenterologists. These changes have lead to what some term the third revolution in medical care, that is, "assessment and accountability". The field of outcomes research has emerged in response to these influences, providing the means to measure the relative effectiveness of different interventions to identify those that provide the most benefit for their cost. At the same time, outcomes research provides a monitoring system to ensure that quality is not sacrificed in the enthusiasm to reduce expenditures. These principles have implications in the practice of clinical gastroenterology.


Optimal absorption method for improving the sensitivity of bolometric detection is explored. We show that, in addition to its role in conventional conducting-film detection, the application of plasmon resonance absorption offers highly promising characteristics for efficient far-field thermal detection and imaging. These characteristics include good frequency sensitivity, intrinsic spatial (angle) selectivity without focusing lenses, wide tunability over both infrared and visible light domains, high responsivity and miniaturization capabilities. In this context, we examine the well-known surface plasmon resonance (SPR) regime, but also report on a new type of plasmon resonance excitation, the cavity plasmon resonance (CPR), which offers more flexibility over wide ranges of wavelengths, bandwidths, and device dimensions. Both CPR and SPR occur in metallic films, which are characterized by high thermal diffusivity essential for fast bolometric response.


Purpose: This study investigated the attitudes of medical students toward physicians and the roles which the doctors and patients should play in the health care process. Methods: Attitudes toward the patient-doctor relationship of 436 medical students of the K university in Seoul were measured using the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS), a validated instruments designed to measure individual preferences toward various aspects of the patient-doctor relationship. The PPOS was composed of Sharing (sharing information, take part in decision making) and Caring (respect one`s feelings, interpersonal relationship) subscale. Total PPOS scores can range from patient-centered (egalitarian, whole person oriented) to disease- or doctor-centered (paternalistic, less attuned to psychosocial issues). Socio-demographic data including gender, age, school year, marital status, undergraduate major, student`s and her/his family medical background and specialty choice were collected and it was investigated the possible impact of socio-demographic factors on students` attitudes. Results: The PPOS score was 3.82. The Sharing and Caring scores were 3.74 and 3.90, respectively. Female gender and students of graduate entry program were significantly associated with patient-centered attitudes. Age, school year, marital status, academic background, student`s and her/his family medical background, and specialty choice did not show significant associations with PPOS scores. Conclusion: Female and graduate students showed more patient-centered attitudes than male and undergraduate students, respectively. Given the emphasis placed on patient-centered care in the current medical environment, our results suggest further research to explore the dynamics in medical education that may foster or inhibit student attitudes toward patient-centered care.


Voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) remain technically illegal in the Netherlands, but the practices are openly tolerated provided that physicians adhere to carefully constructed guidelines. Harsh criticism of the Dutch practice by authors in the United States and Great Britain has made achieving a balanced understanding of its clinical, moral, and policy implications very difficult. Similar practice patterns probably exist in the United States, but they are conducted in secret because of a more uncertain legal and ethical climate. In this manuscript, we plan to compare end-of-life care in the United States and the Netherlands with regard to underlying values, justifications, and practices. We will explore the risks and benefits of each system for a real patient who was faced with a common end-of-life clinical dilemma, and close with challenges for public policies in both countries.


The Meihe Basin in northeastern China is a normal-fault-controlled basin filled with Eocene nonmarine deposits, the sediments assigned to the Meihe Formation. Sediment grain-sizes, core study, well-log analysis and micropetrographic study combined with sedimentary facies analysis indicate that the main sedimentary facies of the Meihe Basin represent fan-delta, lake, and turbidite deposits. Thick coal seams that are mainly distributed in the eastern part of the studied area were deposited in the swamp facies of the Lower Coal-Bearing Member. Oil shale was mainly deposited in the deep lake represented by the Mudstone Member, and is mainly distributed in the southern part of the studied area. In the Lower Coal-Bearing Member, organic-rich sediments are characterized by TOC content between 0.6 wt.% and 43.1 wt.%and contain Type II and III kerogen. The thick coal seams are the result of high landplant productivity and good preservation conditions. Thin coal seams in the fan-delta plain resulted from the migration and erosion of the fan-delta channel. In the shallow lake and fan-delta front, limited productivity coupled with dilution by inorganic matter resulted in lower organic-matter content in theMudstoneMember. Oil shale and mudstone rich in organic matter were deposited in a deep lake with an average TOC content of 3.4 wt.%. The origin of the organic matter was mainly algae and aquatic plants mixed with land plants. The improved preservation conditions and high bioproductivity in this environment resulted in three oil-shale layers in the lower part of this sedimentary succession. Three coal-bearing and oil-shale-bearing fault basins lie adjacent to the Dunhua-Mishan Fault zone, among which the Fushun Basin is located in the southwest, the Meihe Basin is in themiddle, and theHuadian Basin is in the southeast. From the Fushun Basin to the Huadian Basin, the oil shale and coal seams have distinct sedimentation characters laterally. Vertically in each basin, the organic-matter sources all have the same variation trend from land plants to land plants mixed with algae to algae then to algae mixed with land plants, and the TOC content also shows a similar trend from high to medium-high then to low in each basin.


This article introduces a simple coordination system for two or more infusion liquids. Solutions drip down one after the other in a continuous flow, with no attendance required, two or more infusion containers being connected in a way described below. There is no intermingling of solutions when using non-rigid containers, and only a slight one when using glass or plastic material. The check valves work through the pressure exerted by the columns of liquid, the containers being placed on different levels. The essential advantages are: less discomfort and less danger for patients and staff. The system can be used for a washing drainage.


The IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee protocol stack has been considered as a promising technology for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). IEEE 802.15.4 Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) standard specifies the lower protocol layers—the physical layer (PHY), and the media access control (MAC) portion of the data link layer (DLL) and Network layer(NWK) Wireless sensor network provide the low rate, wireless interconnection of ultra low cost sensor/actuator devices to enable the cyber world to sense and affect the real physical environment. The IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee protocol stack provide selectable levels of security using AES-128 mechanism for privacy, sender authentication, message integrity. It uses fully handshake protocol for transfer reliability. In business applications where WSN are applied, failures in essential parts of the sensor network must be efficiently detected and automatically recovered. ZigBee is targeted at radio-frequency (RF) applications that require a low data rate, long battery life, and secure networking.This paper will analyze the adaptability features of IEEE802.15.4[3] at Physical, MAC and Network layer and various mode of operation at MAC layer.


Nurses, like other healthcare professionals, such as physicians, pharmacists, and therapists, are susceptible to unanticipated patient harm, in which they suffer as second victims due to the immense personal and professional impact from the adverse event. The aim of the present study was to explore the psychological responses, coping strategies, and support needs of Singapore nurses as second victims of adverse events. A descriptive qualitative study was adopted. Eight participants (6 women and 2 men) who had been involved in an adverse event were interviewed and audio-recorded. Thematic analysis was performed to analyze the data. Seven themes emerged from the thematic analysis: responding psychologically after the event, feeling others' prejudice, having intrusive thoughts, drawing valuable lessons from the event, coping to recover after the event, taking responsibility for the mistakes made, and finding self-identity. The harmful effects of adverse events on nurses are long lasting. Second-victim nurses adopted various coping strategies to recover. The findings from the present study will guide the development of effective second-victim support programs.


Sand casting technologies have now emerged as practical and commercial ways of manufacturing high integrity near net shape castings. A variety of castings have found their way into general engineering applications, primarily in the areas of cement industries for crushing components and load bearing structures. Castings that serve these specific applications have to achieve the quality requirements of superior mechanical properties and zero-porosity. To achieve these objectives within a limited time frame in a product development process, CAD technologies combined with process simulation tools are increasingly used to optimize form filling and solidification of the cast parts. This paper discusses a newly developed simulation tool and its application to a crusher component that was prototyped via sand casting route. Results of casting trials showed a high level of confidence in the simulation tools.


Post-Keynesian, heterodox and Marxist political economists have rightly argued that the eurozone crisis is not a fiscal crisis but a balance of payments crisis, mainly caused by the pivotal position of Germany in the European Monetary Union (EMU) and its neo-mercantilist model of growth (low wage, low inflation and export-led). This view, however, sees the split between core and periphery in the European Union as something created with the introduction of the EMU in 1999. This chapter contends that this is not the case. By putting forth a global fault-lines historical perspective and focusing on the case of Greece, it is argued that the problem is not the introduction of the EMU but the geopolitical and macroeconomic asymmetries between core and periphery in Europe since the inception of what vaguely – and even inaccurately – can be defined as 'European modernity'. Global fault-lines offer a macro-historical and macroeconomic understanding of crises seen as structural events generated by the evolving and contradictory tendencies of capitalism as a world system. It is not just a political economy perspective but a perspective that encompasses many instances of the social, especially geopolitical and geocultural structures.


An experimental investigation of a procedure for sawing and welding of bone tissue with ultrasonics in the area of orthopedics was reported. The welding of bone with ultrasonic waves, bone meal and a plastic adhesive did not product satisfactory results in terms of stability and tissue reaction. The applicability of the ultrasonic saw is limited by the thickness of the bone on which the osteotomy is to be performed. We saw no advantages over against the oscillating saws which were available to us. In our opinion, an indication for the application of the ultrasonic apparatus could be the removal of inflammatory, tumerous or necrotic bone processes.


BACKGROUND. SEL24/MEN1703 is a first-in-class, orally available, dual PIM/FLT3 kinase inhibitor investigated in unselected AML patients in the First-in-Human, Dose Escalation (DE) and Cohort Expansion (CE) DIAMOND trial (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT03008187). The study has completed the DE part showing an acceptable safety profile up to the recommended dose (RD), with initial evidence of single agent efficacy1. Preclinical studies conducted in vitro - using a panel of 26 AML cell lines harboring different genetic alterations - and in vivo - in xenograft mouse model bearing MOLM-16 cell line - showed a direct correlation between the activity of SEL24/MEN1703 and the inhibition of S6 phosphorylation (pS6) protein, a downstream target of PIM/FLT3 signaling pathway.
 AIM. To assess the degree of target engagement and its preliminary correlation with the anti-leukemic effect of SEL24/MEN1703 in samples collected from patients enrolled in the DE part of DIAMOND trial.
 METHODS. S6 phosphorylation has been longitudinally monitored in the DIAMOND study through an optimized assay for multiparametric analysis of phospho-protein activation. The assay allows a quantitative assessment of pS6 at single cell level among blast cells as well as the identification of blast subpopulations in both peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM). Blast counts were monitored to assess whether the target engagement did translate into blast count reduction.
 RESULTS. Two cohorts of patients, treated at 100 mg (one dose level below RD) and 125 mg (RD) were analyzed, for a total of n=9 evaluable patients on PB and n=7 on BM. At screening we observed a heterogeneous positivity for pS6 marker in blast cells (range: 1%-53 %) both in PB and in BM, consistent with the unselected AML patient population recruited in the trial. Overall, 7/9 PB and 4/7 BM samples showed pS6 inhibition in blast cells at the end of the Cycle 1 in comparison with screening (range: 70%-94% and 26%-76% in PB and BM, respectively) (Figure 1). In the cohort treated at 100 mg such strong pathway inhibition did not correlate with blast count reduction. Interestingly, in samples from a patient treated at 125 mg who harbored the highest burden of pS6+ blast cells (>25%), a correlation between pathway inhibition and blast count reduction was observed suggesting that a higher burden of blasts with activated pS6 might be more sensitive to the inhibition of the pathway (Figure 1).
 CONCLUSIONS. The longitudinal PD assessment through the modulation of pS6 activation by flow cytometry confirmed that meaningful target engagement was achieved, both in PB and BM, in patients treated with SEL24/MEN1703 at 100 and 125 mg. Preliminary data suggest that the FLT3/PIM pathway inhibition might be associated with blast count reduction, particularly in case of high baseline activation of pS6. Longitudinal monitoring of PD will be continued in the CE part of DIAMOND trial.
 REFERENCES. 1. Solomon et al, EHA 2020

 Tomirotti: Menarini Ricerche: Current Employment. Bellarosa:Menarini Ricerche: Current Employment. Walter:Genentech: Consultancy; Selvita: Research Funding; StemLine: Research Funding; Daiichi: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Boston Biomedical: Consultancy; BiVictriX: Consultancy; BioLineRx: Consultancy, Research Funding; Astellas: Consultancy; Arog: Research Funding; Argenx: Consultancy; Aptevo: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amphivena: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Agios: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; Race Oncology: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; New Link Genetics: Consultancy; Macrogenics: Research Funding; Kite: Consultancy; Jazz: Consultancy, Research Funding; ImmunoGen: Research Funding. Ravandi:Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Orsenix: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Macrogenics: Research Funding; Astellas: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Xencor: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria. Brzózka:Ryvu Therapeutics: Current Employment. Baldini:Menarini Ricerche: Current Employment. Salerno:Menarini Richerce: Current Employment. Binaschi:Menarini Ricerche: Current Employment. Laurent:Menarini Ricerche: Current Employment. Pellacani:Menarini Ricerche: Current Employment.


We propose a novel graphical model selection scheme for high-dimensional stationary time series or discrete time processes. The method is based on a natural generalization of the graphical LASSO algorithm, introduced originally for the case of i.i.d. samples, and estimates the conditional independence graph of a time series from a finite length observation. The graphical LASSO for time series is defined as the solution of an l1-regularized maximum (approximate) likelihood problem. We solve this optimization problem using the alternating direction method of multipliers. Our approach is nonparametric as we do not assume a finite dimensional parametric model, but only require the process to be sufficiently smooth in the spectral domain. For Gaussian processes, we characterize the performance of our method theoretically by deriving an upper bound on the probability that our algorithm fails. Numerical experiments demonstrate the ability of our method to recover the correct conditional independence graph from a limited amount of samples.


Background: Multi-drug resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is one of the most challenging problems in the National Strategy for control tuberculosis in Macedonia. The aim of this study was to present all patients with MDR-TB who were registered in the National MDR-TB Register in Macedonia from 2001 till 2011. Material: 32 patients who were treated with individualized therapeutic regimes were enrolled in the study. Patients follow-up ended when an outcome was recorded or, in December 2011 for those still on treatment. Results: 29 patients were with bacteriological confirmation, and 3 cases were suspected for MDR-TB. MDR-TB cases participate with 0,5-4,6 % in the total resistant strain obtained from positive culture during the last six year. 30 patients (93, 75%) had acquired resistance and only 2 patients (6, 25 %) had primary MDR resistance. Time to culture conversion was two months or less in the most of patients. The results of treatment outcome are: 9 patients were cured (28, 12 %), 13 patients (40, 62%) died, 5 patients interrupted the treatment (15,62%) and 5 patients (15,62 %) are still on treatment. No one patient had XDR-TB initially, but only one cases emerged XDR-TB during the treatment. Conclusion: To improve management and treatment results of MDR-TB patients in Macedonia, we need more efforts in providing necessary medications, clinical conditions and treatment under direct control.


The nature of the contribution that fathers make to families is the subject of intense debate by both academics and policymakers. Contact between non-resident fathers and their children has been promoted by government and the courts, but remains difficult to achieve. This paper reports on interview data collected from fathers, mothers and their adolescent children in intact families on the perceptions of fathering practices and the factors that influence them. In addition, the nature and extent of fathers' involvement with their children is explored in relation to the problem of 'boundary setting'. While the traditional, rather distant, breadwinning father has disappeared, there is no evidence from this study of a shift towards the kind of father who takes equal day-to-day responsibility for his children. Rather, the changes in the nature of fathers' involvement with their children are more subtle, relying to a large extent on an appreciation of the importance of 'passive care' and of mediation by mothers. We suggest that these findings have important implications for what might be expected by and of fathers when relationships break-up, and for the development of policies to encourage father involvement.


In this diplomatic work was created a Safety Management System of a Company which is involved with management of a fleet of oil tankers. The method was inspired by the one that was used from the IMO (International Maritime Organization) in order to establish the ISM Code (International Safety Management). The work has been based firstly on the requirements of ISM (because the Code is the base of the system) and secondly on all the regulations that ask conformity, e.g. requirements of port Authorities, Port State Controls, requirements of the ship's Class and of course on the requirements of world market trading and transporting oil in bulk with tanker vessels. The virtue of the present diplomatic work is that it does not provide the reader with a simply fully complying with the regulations modern Safety Management System, but the methodology of the buildup step by step. Also even if the load of requirements to be followed and implemented is huge, the System is so well structured so that it allows to the reader and also to the operator a quick familiarization with a small degree of difficulty. The conclusions that will be exported show that the System has been created in order to develop a culture on the Safety and the Protection of Environment among company's staff, resulting Management of total Safety.


Cities are sites of intense investment in niche construction, substantially altering ecological dynamics. Although novel in evolutionary terms, cities have distinctive epidemiological and demographic effects on human mortality and phenotype. Cities, however, do not affect all of their inhabitants identically, especially with a trend toward greater inequity with increased urbanization; the urban landscape offers a set of stratified behavioral niches to inhabitants. An examination of meninos de rua (street children) in Brazil highlights the opportunities available in urban landscapes and the demands placed on residents: a radically simplified foraging landscape, availability of energy-dense food resources, decreased activity levels, and challenges to mental health. Considering urbanization as niche construction highlights the embodied and psychological consequences of urban life not just on individuals but also over generations as urbanization creates phenotypic and developmental bias. The niche construction perspective blurs the divide between biological and cultural approaches to human variation and draws attention to the biological consequences of the built environment and socioeconomic structures underpinning urban life. Using street children in Brazil as a case study, this paper outlines the theoretical implications of urban adaptation as an example of niche construction dynamics leading to rapid changes in diet, morphology, and mental health.


The modeling work presented in this paper is intended to simulate a plasma jet impinging on a flat surface and its influence on substrate temperature during layer build-up. In the first step, a two-layer model is incorporated into a commercial CFD code to express the turbulent plasma jet and the viscous sublayer that forms on the surface of the impact plane, or in this case, the substrate. In a subsequent step, heat dissipation in the substrate is expressed with a 3D volume model based on finite volume approximation of thermal exchanges. This two-step approach allows surface temperatures on the substrate to be determined as the plasma-sprayed layer grows. The influence of different substrate materials is also considered in this investigation, particularly in regard to transient surface temperatures. Paper includes a German-language abstract.


The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is investing a notable effort to mitigate the endogenous stack and protocol delays (e.g., introducing new numerology, through preemptive scheduling or providing uplink granted free transmission) to attain to the heterogeneous Quality of Service (QoS) latency requirements for which the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks (5G) is envisioned. However, 3GPP's goals may become futile if exogenous delays generated by the transport layer (e.g., bufferbloat) and the Radio Link Control (RLC) sublayer segmentation/reassembly procedure are not targeted. On the one hand, the bufferbloat specifically occurs at the Radio Access Network (RAN) since the data path bottleneck is located at the radio link, and contemporary RANs are deployed with large buffers to avoid squandering scarce wireless resources. On the other hand, a Resource Block (RB) scheduling that dismisses 5G's packet-switched network nature, unnecessarily triggers the segmentation procedure at sender's RLC sublayer, which adds extra delay as receiver's RLC sublayer cannot forward the packets to higher sublayers until they are reassembled. Consequently, the exogenously generated queuing delays can surpass 5G's stack and protocol endogenous delays, neutralizing 3GPP's attempt to reduce the latency. We address RLC's related buffer delays and present two solutions: (i) we enhance the 3GPP standard and propose a bufferbloat avoidance algorithm, and (ii) we propose a RB scheduler for circumventing the added sojourn time caused by the packet segmentation/reassembly procedure. Both solutions are implemented and extensively evaluated along with other state-of-the-art proposals in a testbed to verify their suitability and effectiveness under realistic conditions of use (i.e., by considering Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) variations, slices, different traffic patterns and off-the-shelf equipment). The results reveal current 3GPP deficits in its QoS model to address the bufferbloat and the contribution of the segmentation/reassembly procedure to the total delay.


Objectives Medication storage in patients' homes is an important safety issue. Safe storage of methadone oral solution is of particular concern. Previous studies have suggested that only about half of patients store methadone appropriately. The aims of this study were to describe medication‐storage practice in a sample of patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment (MMT), and to identify factors associated with safe storage.


In this study, we have analyzed the chemical composition and antiproliferative activity of propolis from three different arid and semiarid regions of Sonora, Mexico. We identified and quantitated the main chemical constituents of propolis by HPLC-MS. The most abundant constituents of propolis were pinocembrin, pinobanksin 3-acetate, and chrysin. Sonoran propolis had a strong antiproliferative activity on both murine and human cancer cell lines in a concentration-dependent manner. The propolis constituents CAPE, galangin, xanthomicrol and chrysin showed significant antiproliferative activity on most of the cancer cells tested. DNA harvested from cancer cell cultures treated with Sonoran propolis exhibited a ladder of internucleosomal DNA cleavage characteristic of apoptosis. In summary, we have identified and quantitated the main constituents of Sonoran propolis. These propolis samples possess a strong antiproliferative activity on cancer cell lines.


Recursive formulas are derived for computing the Cramer-Rao lower bound on the error covariance matrix associated with estimating the state vector of a moving target from a sequence of biased and temporally correlated measurements. The discussion is limited to deterministic motion with no process noise. Furthermore, the nonlinear mapping from the target state space to the observation space is assumed to be corrupted by additive noise. When the measurement noise process becomes temporally decorrelated, the recursive relation for computing the Cramer-Rao lower bound reduces to that originally obtained by Taylor [1]. Specific noise models are examined, and results are illustrated using an example. For the special case of the random walk process, it is shown that the recursive formula for the Cram¿Rao lower bound reduces to the error covariance propagation equations of the prewhitening filter of Bryson and Henrikson [2].


The influx of virtual media platforms has allowed extremists and terrorists to transmit their messages to wider audiences without passing through a gatekeeper or being a subject to editorial policies existed in traditional media outlets. Thus, extremists and terrorists exploit virtual media platforms to report their actions; propagate their ideologies and ultimately to boost their objectives, because these mediums enabled them to have control over time and space. As a result, some governments work to deprive extremists and terrorists from this 'oxygen' through monitoring the cyberspace to block the suspected virtual media platforms. The reactions of some governments to face the extremists and terrorists' manipulation of virtual media platforms have shown currently that the Internet is the main medium of transmitting extremism and terrorism. In a similar vein, some key Islamic figures, such as the Grand Mufti of Australia, blames the Internet on radicalising young Muslims. Drawing on this assumption the question is: Is the Internet the main medium of transmitting terrorism? This paper answers this question, considering that the Internet is just a medium to transmit extremism and terrorism, because the heinous ideologies and callings for violence are transmitted historically and still by other means of communication.


Purpose
This paper aims to understand empirically how shares of standard and premium private label (PL) products affect a retailer's marketing mix decisions toward national brands (NBs).

Design/methodology/approach
Using a comprehensive store-level data set covering 52 categories and 130 stores of two retailer chains during 2003-2009, this paper examines how shares of standard and premium PLs affect retailer marketing strategies for NB retail prices, promotions and product assortments. The empirical analysis uses a simultaneous equations model estimated by the generalized method of moments approach and controls for endogeneity between PL shares and NB decisions and potential confounding variables including consumer, manufacturer and retailer factors.

Findings
Standard PL shares are associated positively with NB retail prices and negatively with NB promotions and assortments. In contrast, premium PL shares are associated positively with NB retail prices, promotions and assortments.

Research limitations/implications
The results indicate that retailers make strategic NB decisions through multitier PLs. Specifically, the evidence suggests that retailers use standard and premium PLs differently in promotion and assortment decisions toward NBs. NB manufacturers need to be cognizant of the increasing marketing power of retailers through their multitier PLs.

Originality/value
Prior research has mainly focused on the role of PLs as a strategic weapon to gain power in the channel and its impact on NB pricing decisions in a single PL context. After accounting for potential confounding factors (retailer, consumer and manufacturer) and endogeneity, the authors find empirical evidence that retailers appear to leverage standard and premium PLs differently in some marketing mix decisions toward NB. In particular, the results reveal PL performance to be a determinant of retailer NB assortment decisions.


BACKGROUND
An isolated aspergillosis of the sphenoidal sinus is a difficult diagnosis because the often misleading clinical symptoms of this rare disease can develop late and first be presented to the ophthalmologist. Because of this even life-threatening disease in normally immunodeficient patients, fast diagnostics and treatment is indicated.

CASE REPORT
We report about an immunocompetent man to suffer from an invasive aspergillosis involving the sphenoidal sinus after external operation of a mucocele. Aspergillus infiltrated the right orbit by bone erosion and led to an acute loss of vision on his right eye and a pathological visual field (visual acuity 0.1). A systemical antimycotic therapy was performed and the right orbit and the optical channel were operated to remove the mycosis. During operation the optical nerve was found to be completely surrounded by the mycosis. After surgery visual acuity recovered slowly but completely in about two weeks (visual acuity 1.0) and visual field examination revealed normal findings. These findings were stable now for one year.

CONCLUSION
The main findings of unilateral acute visual loss and pre-operations of the paranasal sinuses in combination with persistent headache can lead to the suspect of an aspergillosis infection. It is important to establish correct diagnosis--especially in immunocompetent patients--early to prevent a probably irreversible visual loss and in an advanced stage to handle the life-threatening risk of this disease.


Repositories have historically focused on supporting traditional text-based outputs in STEM areas, capturing and making individual research publications openly available, and more recently the underpinning datasets. Funder policies focus on these outputs, resulting in greater awareness and usage of repositories amongst STEM researchers.

Practice-based arts research tends to be in non-text formats, and is often part of a wider, changing portfolio of work (including the original artefact and related documentation), elements of which may be captured in a publications repository, with associated documentation held in a data repository. This has often led to fractured discussions: those on open access take place in different forums to those on research data; and different teams may support these areas, including libraries, archives, and research offices.

Much work has been done to customise repositories to more effectively capture this research. However, barriers to effectively engage with this community remain. Specific functionality requirements and issues include: records that enable open metadata and closed files; portfolios representing a changing body of work need updating over time; issues with file sizes and types, image quality and video streaming; restrictions imposed by repository software architecture, and interoperability with CRIS systems; and concerns with intellectual property rights and copyright.


Clozapine has been used as an attempt to manage levodopa complications in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). To investigate the use of clozapine in this context in a Brazilian sample, a retrospective chart review was carried out at the Movement Disorders Clinic from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. This study enrolled 43 PD patients who used or were in use of clozapine. Patients had a mean age of 64 years and a mean UPDRS score of 55. Clozapine was indicated for dyskinesias in 17 patients, for psychosis in 15 and for both reasons in 11. The average maximum dose was 70 mg/day. Twenty six patients used it for a mean of 3.5 years. Twenty nine presented an improvement of their condition, 9 remained clinically stable. Twenty subjects interrupted the use of clozapine, being 9 due to adverse effects. Clozapine may play a role in the management of motor and psychiatric complications in PD, but it is associated with low tolerability.


This study aims to investigate the use of in-flight magazines in the context of corporate public relations (PR) in the aviation sector since it is under-researched in the tourism and travel literature. A literature review on corporate PR strategies in the aviation sector shows that the strategies can be grouped under corporate image-generating and customer loyalty-generating themes. These themes were used in this study to identify the focus and strategy of the companies in PR in the case of four Turkish airline companies. In-flight magazines of the companies, published in 2018, were explored using content-coding analysis. Comparisons were conducted highlighting the differences among companies in their use of the PR themes. Implications were discussed both from the theoretical and managerial perspectives.


We set up a duopoly model with dynamic capacity constraints under demand uncertainty. We endogenize the investment decisions of the firms, examine their intertemporal pricing behavior, their incentives to merge, as well as the welfare implications of a merger. Whereas under known and constant demand the high capacity firm lets its low capacity rival sell out, under demand uncertainty we obtain a rich set of sales patterns. Each unit of available capacity has an option value (or opportunity cost), which depends on both firms' capacities, the current demand and the remaining horizon. This option value may be higher when the firms act non-cooperatively compared to the case when they merge to form a monopoly. Trade surplus may be higher when a merger takes place, as capacity is more efficiently managed over time. The prospect of a merger also leads to higher investment levels, as each firm wishes to appropriate a higher share of the total surplus. For some levels of the capacity instalment cost, a merger that turns the duopoly into a monopoly is welfare improving.


Background. Physicians can help guide teenagers in their emerging sexuality; however, teens rarely inform physicians about their sexual activity. Methods. We audio-recorded annual visits between 365 teenagers and 49 physicians. Before the recorded visit, the teens were asked in a confidential telephone survey whether they had ever engaged in sexual intercourse. Recordings were coded for teenage disclosures about previous sexual intercourse. We measured agreement between telephone survey responses and annual visit disclosures, and examined factors associated with agreement between the two. Results. Fifty-six teenagers (15%) reported previous sexual intercourse in either the telephone survey or to their physician. Among those who reported sexual intercourse, 57% shared this information to both the telephone survey and their physician (κ = .72, confidence interval = 0.63-0.82). Conclusions. Although a slight majority of teenagers disclosed their sexual activity to both the telephone survey and their doctor, a significant number disclosed to just one source.


not changed. Furthermore, the 'image' projected by contemporary homes is still dependent, as it was in Victorian times, on what Orvel calls the hieroglyphics of home furnishings. In his closing essay, Orvel discusses the underlying theme of the whole book in relation to a cultural artifact that is the quintessence of the twentieth century: junk. In characteristic fashion, Orvel produces an elegant definition of a thoroughly inelegant object"[junk] is the object with a history, the mass-produced object become individualized" (p. 282). Orvel discusses the idea ofjunk in relation to the work of Charles Burchfield, Ralph Steiner, Walker Evans, James Agee, Carlos Williams, Joseph Cornell, Robert Lowell, Wallace Stevens and Claus Oldenburg. He traces out the ways in which junk becomes the occ.asion for both the pursuit of authenticity and the celebration of facticity. As in the closing essay, so throughout the book, the reader will find countless disquisitions of varying length on many of the important shapers of American culture, including Whitman, Wright, Sullivan, Dickie, Norris and Howells. Many of these disquisitions can stand on their own, almost like entries in an encyclopedia of culture. Thus, the book can. be read as the presentation of a partICular vision of American culture, but it can also be used as a reference work.


The effect of boron and nitrogen (BN) bonding on the activity of the oxygen reduction reaction was investigated when boron and nitrogen atoms are chemically inserted into activated carbons. With the readily available B and N doping precursors of boric acid and urea, heteroatom-doped carbon materials were synthesized under varying pyrolysis temperatures and mixing ratios of the precursor to activated carbon (AC). According to electrochemical and structural analyses, the heteroatom was doped into the carbon lattice at 1000 °C, whereas annealing temperatures below 850 °C did not achieve the doping. It is striking that the BN co-doped AC shows much higher doping contents than the B or N single-doped AC despite the use of the same amounts of doping precursors as in the single doping case. The electrochemical analysis indicates that higher B or N doping contents enhance the level of ORR activity with the four-electron pathway, especially for the BN co-doping case due to the formation of B–N–C bonds. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of heteroatom-doped AC as a cost-effective alternative catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells.


Immunotherapy with subcutaneous rIL‐2 and alpha IFN was administered to stage D3 prostate cancer patients after the failure of secondary treatment with oral estramustine phosphate. Of a total of 15 patients, 2 are in partial response, with estramustine maintained after 44+ and 36+ weeks, respectively. Response to estramustine was observed initially in 7 of 13 patients, with a median duration of 12 weeks (range, 8–20). No response to estramustine was observed in the remaining 6 patients. After the failure of estramustine, 13 patients were treated with immunotherapy. After the first cycle, progression of disease with increasing levels of PSA was observed in 7 of 13 patients (53.8%). No further immunotherapy was given to those patients. A reduction of PSA levels was observed during the first cycle in 2 patients (15.3%); levels subsequently increased during the second cycle of treatment. A partial response was observed in 4 patients (30.7%), with a reduction of PSA levels in 3. The duration of response was 28 and 32 weeks in 2 patients who survived after failure for 18 and 21 weeks, respectively. Two patients are still alive, with continued partial response at 62+ and 42+ weeks. Side effects were represented mainly by a flu‐like syndrome, associated with fever and nausea in all the patients. The serum concentration of IL‐10 was measured in 8 patients under study and in 11 matched controls. Levels higher than mean + 2 SD of controls before, during, or after immunotherapy were correlated with treatment failure, whereas levels below 6 ng/ml were encountered among the patients who showed a clinical response and a reduction of PSA during treatment. Within the limitations of this pilot study, it appears difficult to distinguish between a spontaneously slowly progressing disease and a true response to therapy. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


During the seven-year research period, the average annual removal was by 3274 m3 higher than the average annual removal prescribed by the existing management plan (MP). The main reason lies in the high amount of salvage felling volume at 55,238 m3 (38.3%) in both the main and the intermediate felling due to oak dieback. The analysis of forest accessibility took into account the spatial distribution of cutblocks (with ongoing felling operations) and the volume of felled timber for two proposed factors: (1) the position of the cutblock and (2) the position of the removal. Cutblock position factor took into account the spatial position of the felling areas/sites, while removal position factor besides the spatial reference took into account the amount of felled timber (i.e., volume) both concerning forest infrastructure network and forest operations. The analysed relative forest openness by using geo-processing workflows in GIS environment showed four types of opening areas in the studied management unit (MU): single-opened, multiple-opened, unopened and opened areas outside of the management unit. Negative effects of the piece-volume law and low harvesting densities on forest operations are highlighted in this research due to high amount of salvage felling particularly in the intermediate felling by replacing timber volume that should have come from thinnings.


A 64-Mb chain ferroelectric RAM (chainFeRAM) is fabricated using 130-nm 3-metal CMOS technology. A newly developed quad bitline architecture, which combines folded bitline configuration with shield bitline scheme, eliminates bitline-bitline (BL-BL) coupling noise. The quad bitline architecture also reduces the number of sense amplifiers and activated bitlines, resulting in the reduction of die size by 6.5% and cell array power consumption by 28%. Fast read/write of 60-ns cycle time as well as reliability improvement are realized by two high-speed error checking and correcting (ECC) techniques: 1) fast pre-parity calculation ECC sequence and 2) all-"0"-write-before-data-write scheme. Moreover, among nonvolatile memories reported so far, the 64 Mb chain FeRAM has achieved the highest read/write bandwidth of 200 MB/s with ECC. The chip size is 87.5 mm2 with average cell size of 0.7191 μm2.


An effort is made to resolve the problem of interaction between a metallic post coated with dielectric and microwaves, within a rectangular waveguide. The analysis is based on the mode matching technique. The results can be used in some interesting applications such as the post being used as a band-pass or band-reject filter as well as in microwave amplification.