Mozambique is one of the countries which is most vulnerable to natural catastrophes in the world with the second highest annual per capita death rate from disasters, 328 deaths per million, ranking only below the P.D.R of Korea; flood disasters are responsible for half of the fatalities and a third of the economic losses from natural disasters worldwide. Its geographical location, along the Indian Ocean with an area of more than 1,700 km2, gives a degree of higher exposure to tropical depressions of different magnitudes, severe floods and droughts. Within the country, disasters are under the management of the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC) a governmental entity composed of a multisector commission to deal with emergencies and natural catastrophes. Natural disaster risk management is also a wide field that attracts the attention of many stakeholders in the country, namely NGO, governmental institutions, academics and researchers, international agencies and others at international level. This particular research paper aims to investigate and propose different techniques of responses in emergency situations such as floods and tropical depressions. The study will explore different approaches which are applied in emergency situations, combining theories and practices in order to formulate an integrated model. Stakeholder participatory approaches, earlier warning and probabilistic and mathematical simulation are among the main components of the Integrated Risk Response Techniques. The main objective in developing such Integrated Risk Response Techniques is to provide the natural disaster risk managers with a holistic tool that can be applied, in case of emergencies, and reinforce the sustainability of the emergency planning processes. The use of such techniques might create added value for the national and regional response mechanisms in case of emergency.


This study sets out to explore prevalent attitudes amongst the Israeli-Jewish majority towards Arab footballers playing for Israel's national team via an analysis of online reader comments ('talkbacks') posted by Jewish–Israeli readers to 360 online articles discussing the Israeli national football team between the years 2012–2014. Whilst some readers demonstrated a sense of support and empathy with the Arab players, the majority of Jewish–Israeli readers, however, showcased in their 'talkbacks' a persistent pattern of minimizing and underplaying Arab–Israeli footballers' contribution to the national team. Despite the fact that some readers did warm to the prospect of having 'their own Arab' play for the national team (that is to say, an Arab footballer who also plays for the domestic team they support), most Jewish–Israeli readers continued to vocalize their protest over the ever-increasing number of Arab players in the Israeli national team.


Background and objectives: During the last decade many aspects of haemostasis and coagulation management greatly changed in cardiac surgery. On one side, new anti‐platelet agents entered the market and became more and more widely used; on the other one, point‐of‐care monitoring tools are nowadays available for perioperative use. The present survey is aimed to investigate the perioperative haemostasis and coagulation management in European Cardiac Surgery Institutions. Methods: A questionnaire exploring different aspects of perioperative haemostasis and coagulation management was sent to 320 Cardiac Surgery Institutions in Europe. Results: 82 Institutions replied to the survey. Due to the poor quality of the data collection, 9 Institutions were excluded. A pool of 73 questionnaires coming from 24 different Countries was analyzed. Non‐routine coagulation tests (antithrombin activity) are done in 34% of the Institutions before the operation and in 23% after the operation. Point‐of‐care tests are applied as a preoperative routine in 9.9% of the Institutions (thromboelastography, 5.7%; PFA‐100, 1.4%; others, 2.8%) and in selected patients in 50% of the Institutions. Postoperative point‐of‐care test are applied in 17.9% of the Institutions (thromboelastography, 2.7%; PFA‐100, 1.4%; others, 13.8%). Allogeneic blood products use widely differs among Institution: packed red cells are used in 47.5% of the patients (range 8%‐90%), fresh frozen plasma in 29% (2%‐100%) and platelets in 12.4% (0%‐50%). Conclusions: Perioperative haemostasis and coagulation management is widely different among European Institutions. Point‐of‐care coagulation and platelet function tests are gaining a significant role. Transfusional policy appears strongly Institution‐dependent.


Reserves estimation is an essential part of developing any reservoir. Predicting the long-term production performance and estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) in unconventional wells has always been a challenge. Developing a reliable and accurate production forecast in the oil and gas industry is mandatory because it plays a crucial part in decision-making. Several methods are used to estimate EUR in the oil and gas industry, and each has its advantages and limitations. Decline curve analysis (DCA) is a traditional reserves estimation technique that is widely used to estimate EUR in conventional reservoirs. However, when it comes to unconventional reservoirs, traditional methods are frequently unreliable for predicting production trends for low-permeability plays. In recent years, many approaches have been developed to accommodate the high complexity of unconventional plays and establish reliable estimates of reserves. This paper provides a methodology to predict EUR for multistage hydraulically fractured horizontal wells that outperforms many current methods, incorporates completion data, and overcomes some of the limitations of using DCA or other traditional methods to forecast production.
 This new approach is introduced to predict EUR for multistage hydraulically fractured horizontal wells and is presented as a workflow consisting of production history matching and forecasting using DCA combined with artificial neural network (ANN) predictive models. The developed workflow combines production history data, forecasting using DCA models and completion data to enhance EUR predictions. The predictive models use ANN techniques to predict EUR given short early production history data (3 months to 2 years).
 The new approach was developed and tested using actual production and completion data from 989 multistage hydraulically fractured horizontal wells from four different formations. Sixteen models were developed (four models for each formation) varying in terms of input parameters, structure, and the production history data period it requires. The developed models showed high accuracy (correlation coefficients of 0.85 to 0.99) in predicting EUR given only 3 months to 2 years of production data. The developed models use production forecasts from different DCA models along with well completion data to improve EUR predictions. Using completion parameters in predicting EUR along with the typical DCA is a major addition provided by this study. The end product of this work is a comprehensive workflow to predict EUR that can be implemented in different formations by using well completion data along with early production history data.


Complex objects to support non-standard database applications require the use of substantial computing resources because their powerful operations and their related integrity constraints must be performed and maintained in an interactive environment. Since the exploitation of parallelism within such operations seems to be promising, we investigate the principal approaches for processing a query on complex objects (molecules) in parallel. A number of arguments favor methods based on inter-molecule parallelism as against intramolecule parallelism. Retrieval of molecules may be optimized by multiple storage structures and access paths. Hence, maintenance of such storage redundancy seems to be another good application area to explore the use of parallelism. Deferred update seems to be a bad idea, whereas concurrent update strategies incorporate salient application features. For performance reasons, we have chosen a multiprocessor system sharing an instruction addressable common memory which is used for buffer management, synchronization, and logging/recovery. Activation of concurrent requests is supported by a nested transaction concept which allows a safe and effective execution control within parallel actions of an operation.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO) in breast cancer and its correlation with clinicopathologic factors and prognosis.

METHODS
The expression of IDO, CD31, CD105 proteins in 40 specimens of breast cancer were assessed by immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS
The overexpression rate of IDO in breast cancer was 67.5% (27/40), and expression of IDO was closely associated with clinical stage and lymph nodes metastasis. The disease-free survival rate in patients with IDO overexpression was not significantly lower than that in patients with negative or low expression of IDO (P > 0.05). Moreover, the expression of IDO was positively correlated with CD105-labeled microvessel density (r = 0.659, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Expression of IDO is associated with clinical stage and lymph nodes metastasis, and microvessel densitty. IDO expression may promote the growth and metastasis of breast cancer, probably via the increased agiogenesis. A larger sample study is needed to verify whether the prognosis of beast cancer is significantly correlated with IDO expression.


We determined the prevalence of asthma, rhinitis, and eczema among Brazilian children using the standardized protocol of the International Study on Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) to facilitate the comparison of our results with other studies using the ISAAC methodology. We conducted a cross-sectional study from June to October 1994 to determine the prevalence of asthma, rhinitis, and eczema in 5182 school children aged 7-8 years and 13-14 years residing in the Brazilian towns of Santa Maria and Itabira (iron-mining cities located in Minas Gerais). Parents completed questionnaires at their child's school in the presence of trained interviewers. The cumulative prevalence of doctor-diagnosed asthma was 4.6% for all ages with no significant difference between the age groups. In general, there was a higher prevalence of symptoms in the younger age group than the older. The prevalence of wheezing in the previous 12 months was 14.3% (7-8 years old) and 9.3% (13-14 years old) (p < 0.01), of chronic cough in the previous 12 months was 25.6% (7-8 years old) and 22.1% (13-14 years old) (p < 0.01), and of nighttime cough in the previous 12 months was 22.3% (7-8 years old) and 19.4% (13-14 years old) (p < 0.05). Overall the prevalences of asthma and wheezing symptoms in the previous 12 months were higher for boys than girls (5.2% vs. 3.9% for asthma, p < 0.01, and 13.2% vs. 10.6% for wheezing, p < 0.01, respectively). These results suggest that asthma-related respiratory illnesses affect a substantial part of the childhood population in Itabira and Santa Maria, Minas Gerais. Some factors such as male gender and younger age may be associated with an increase risk for chronic respiratory symptoms. Prevalences of asthma and allergic diseases in these Brazilian cities on the basis of self-reporting of symptoms and of one's medical history may more accurately portray the true prevalence of asthma than the use of medical records.


We described the diagnosis and successful treatment of pleural and peritoneal effusion secondary to liver lobe torsion in a dog. A 12-year-old female spayed Borzoi dog was referred for heart failure. Emergency room thoracic and abdominal ultrasound showed a large volume of pleural effusion with mild peritoneal effusion and an abdominal mass. Pleural fluid analysis classified the effusion as exudative. A complete ultrasound revealed mild peritoneal effusion and decreased blood flow to the right liver lobe. Other causes of bicavitary effusion were ruled out based on blood work, ultrasound, echocardiogram, and computed tomography. The patient was taken to surgery and diagnosed with caudate liver lobe torsion and had a liver lobectomy. At the 2-week postoperative recheck, the patient was doing well and there was complete resolution of the pleural effusion. Liver lobe torsion is a rare occurrence in dogs and can be difficult to diagnose. Clinical signs are nonspecific for liver lobe torsion and patients may present in respiratory distress with significant pleural fluid accumulation. When assessing patients with pleural and peritoneal effusion, liver lobe torsion should be considered as a differential diagnosis.


The manuscript by Stefanatos, Gershkoff, and Madigan is the inaugural contribution to the new Neurobehavioral Grand Rounds feature of JINS. Case reports have been published in JINS in the past, but the goal of this new feature is to highlight the importance of case reports that are theoretically driven and have the potential to influence future research in the area. You will see that this case fits that description very well. In order to emphasize the larger context of the case, for each Grand Rounds an expert in the area will be asked to provide a short introduction. Dr. Jeffrey Binder, a neurologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin and an expert in the neural basis of language, has written an introduction that emphasizes the value of this case in terms of its utilization of a careful perceptual analysis combined with anatomical data to better characterize this classic syndrome.


Background: Identification of HCC pts with higher probability of benefit from sorafenib warrants investigation. Hypertension (HTN) and hand foot syndrome (HFS) are sorafenib-specific toxicities; the development of these toxicities is prognostic in pts with renal cell cancer receiving sorafenib, their significance in HCC remains uncertain. Methods: HCC pts treated with sorafenib at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Nov-09-Feb-15) were identified. The primary end-point was overall survival (OS). Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models were employed for identification of prognostic factors. Results: Eighty-five eligible pts were identified [median follow-up 6.2 months (range: 0.4-31.4)].Median age 68 yrs (range 29-89); 87% male; 80% background liver cirrhosis ;88% ECOG performance score 0/1; Child-Pugh (CP) A5 (64%), A6 (29%) and B (7%); 41% baseline AFP > 400 IU/L; 45% previous liver-directed therapy. Sorafenib (400mg BD),was started in 68% (median dose intensity 49.9% (range 0.7-100)), remaining patients started at reduced dose. Fifty-one percent had pre-existing HTN (91% treated).The most common grade ? 3 treatment-related toxicities were HTN (42% no prior history of HTN), fatigue (8%), and HFS (8%);59% of pts developed any grade HFS and/or worsening HTN (HFS/HTN). Toxicity-related dose reduction/cessation was required in 46 (54%) pts (15% due to HFS, 7% due to HTN). Estimated median progression-free (PFS) and OS were 5.5 (95% CI 4.1-7.0) and 6.5 (95% CI 4.9-8.0) months, respectively. Age at diagnosis, previous liver-directed therapy, CP score, baseline AFP and development of HFS/HTN were included in multivariable analysis: CP-A (vs. B; p-value < 0.001) and development of HFS/HTN (vs. no; HR 0.4 [95% CI 0.2-0.7] p-value 0.001) were independent prognostic factors. The prognostic influence of HFS/HTN was preserved when limiting analysis to pts developing worst grade HFS/HTN in the first 3 months of treatment (53 pts; HR 0.5 [95% CI 0.3-0.9] p-value 0.030) making time-on-treatment bias unlikely. Conclusions: The development of sorafenib-specific toxicities, HFS and HTN, are prognostic factors associated with prolonged OS.


Cryptographic key management (CKM) schemes can be used to support identity management (IM) systems where linking users securely to data objects is important. CKM schemes enforce data security by encrypting data granting access only to authorized users and security compromises are prevented by updating any keys that are held by users from whom access rights have been revoked. Handling key updates efficiently and providing security against collusion attacks is challenging in dynamic environments like the Internet where manual Security management increases the likelihood of delayed responses. Delay increases the system's vulnerability to security attacks and the potential of the system's violating its service level agreements. Adaptive CKM has emerged as a possibility of addressing this problem but needs to be designed in a way that justifies the cost/benefit tradeoff. In this paper, we show that the key update and collusion avoidance problems are NP-complete and need heuristic algorithms to prevent performance degradations in comparison to standard CKM schemes. As an example of the benefits of a good heuristic, we present a collusion detection and resolution algorithm whose running time is polynomial in the number of keys. The algorithm operates by mapping the generated key set onto a key graph whose independent set is computed. In the key graph, the vertices represent the keys and the edges the probability that their endpoints can be combined to provoke a collusion attack. Collusion possibilities are resolved by applying a heuristic that resets the probability to zero. The performance of our algorithm is analyzed in comparison to the Akl and Taylor scheme that is secure against collusion attack, and the experimental results indicate that collusion prevention can be done dynamically without affecting performance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective This cross-sectional study analyzed the clinical characteristics of newly diagnosed Graves' disease (GD) in children and adolescents to provide clinical evidence for the early diagnosis of GD. Method From 2013 to 2019, information on children and adolescents with newly diagnosed GD admitted to the Department of Endocrinology, Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, was collected, including clinical features and laboratory tests. The data were summarized and statistically analyzed. Result This study included 204 cases of newly diagnosed GD, with 158 females and 46 males. The average age at initial diagnosis was 8.9 ± 2.9 years. A total of 132 cases (64.7%) had symptoms before puberty, and 72 cases (35.3%) had symptoms during puberty. Goiter was detected in 193 cases (94.6%). There were 140 cases (68.6%) of exophthalmos, and 21.4% (30/140) were infiltrative. At initial diagnosis, 10 cases (4.9%) reported leukopenia, 18 cases (8.8%) reported neutropenia, and 15 cases (7.4%) reported mild anemia. There was 1 (0.5%) case of thrombocytopenia and 1 (0.5%) case of agranulocytosis. Fifty-four cases (26.5%) had impaired liver function. Conclusion GD is more common in female children and adolescents. Parents may ignore their children's hypermetabolic symptoms in the early stages of GD. Routine blood and liver function tests are recommended at initial diagnosis to exclude abnormal hemogram and liver function.


This study proposes a framework to impute travel mode for trips identified from cellphone traces by developing a deep neural network model. In our framework, we use the trips from a home interview survey and transit smartcard data, for which the travel mode is known, to create a set of artificial pseudo-cellphone traces. The generated artificial pseudo-cellphone traces with known mode are then used to train a deep neural network classifier. We further apply the trained model to infer travel modes for the cellphone traces from cellular network data. The empirical case study region is Montevideo, Uruguay, where high-quality data are available for all three types of data used in the analysis: a large dataset of cellphone traces, a large dataset of public transit smartcard transactions, and a small household travel survey. The results can be used to create an enhanced representation of origin-destination trip-making in the region by time of day and travel mode.


suitable experience ; the authors' outlook is optimistic. The book itself is extremely condensed, as O'Connor and Hermalin not only report their own experiments but relate them to a clear and logical review of the literature. Although they set out to investigate speech and thought in imbecile children, in some of their experiments they use normal children of comparable mental age, but chronologically of nursery or infant schbol age, as a control group. From this it follows that their findings have relevance for the develop ment of speech and learning in young normal children, and this book is very suggestive reading for educationists and psychiatrists who make use of speech in their work with young children. O'Connor and Hermalin are interested in develop ment and learning from sensory discrimination to abstraction, or coding. They investigate the learning process systematically and this is reflected in the chapter headings : "¿ Visual perception―, "¿ Some experiments on words and communication―, "¿ Thought and language―, "¿ Cross modal coding―, "¿ Recall and recognition―. They specifically deny that they subscribe to any psychological theory, but their practical findings suggest how the views of Piaget and Luria may fit together. With Piaget and Luria they hold that there are two systems of learning, motor and verbal learning, and that motor learning precedes verbal learning in young children and in imbeciles. They would agree with Piaget that motor learning may continue to develop independently of verbal learning; but they would agree with Luria that verbal learning, or coding, is essential in order to attain the most efficient learning. They disagree with Luria's view that imbeciles are incapable of developing verbal coding, or a second signalling system, and that it is this absolute inability which categorizes imbeciles. In their experiments O'Connor and Hermalin found that although imbeciles had difficulty in complex learning if coding was built-in to the learning situation, they could make use of it and learn to apply abstract principles. The most efficient form of coding is verbal coding and at all levels, from the discrimination of visual shapes to the recognition of printed words, they found that if imbeciles were forced to use verbal coding, suited to their mental level, they could do so and learned more efficiently. The method employed in these experiments was operant conditioning. The authors have not investi gated the influence of the attitudes of adults on the learning of young children and imbeciles. They are extremely cautious in interpreting their findings. They are not attempting to describe a clear-cut programme for teaching imbeciles comparable to the time when spectators paid a small sum to go and look at the inmates of Bedlam. A. A. BAKER.


The revolution in art practices has led Malaysian artists to discover greater possibilities in art, especially in terms of media exploration. In this paper, the researchers conducted a study of hybrid art practices among the artworks of selected Malaysian artists. The research objective of this paper is to identify and trace, among the selected artworks, hybrid art practices as a way of creating hybrid artworks. The researchers applied direct observation and extracted the artists' statements for documentation. The results show that most of the artworks applied modern technology and have an element of interaction with the audience. In addition, media exploration has expanded to technological and scientific knowledge. In conclusion, the diversity of media and the discipline have enabled artists to explore more media when producing creative artworks. These collaborations have expanded to produce new findings and allow new perspectives on disciplines in art. media-based interventions in public space, annotation software tools,


SAEM W estern R egional R esearch F orum A bstracts Thirty-eight percent of male Hispanics age 15-18 years reported riding in the preceding 30 days with a driver who had been drinking (35% of those 15 yrs, 42% of those 18 yrs). The percent who rode with a drinking driver was 11% higher for male Hispanics than for male non-Hispanics. Fifteen percent of male Hispanics reported driving when drinking in the preceding 30 days (9% of 15 yrs. and 24% of 18 yrs). The percent who drove when drinking was 8% higher for male Hispanics than for female Hispanic. Conclusion: While Latino adolescent males are subjected to the risk of crash injury by their own behavior, the data suggests that they are also subjected to significant risk by their willingness to ride with impaired drivers. These findings have implications for ED-based interventions. Determining the Quality of Comprehensive Care for Non-Traumatic Chest Pain through a Composite Measure Christopher Colwell, MD; Phillip Mehler, MD; Allison Sabel, MD; Justin Harper, EMT-P; Luke Johnson; Lisa Cassell, MS. Denver Paramedic Division, Denver Health and Hospitals,Denver, Colorado; University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado ranged from 22.0% in patients 20-39 years old to 42.0% in patients older than 50 years. Conclusions: In the pre-hospital setting, there was good adherence to individual metrics yet poor adherence to the composite measure. Future studies are needed to determine appropriateness of certain interventions on medical chest pain patients and the implications of the composite intervention on optimizing outcome. 1. McVaney K, Macht M, Colwell C, Pons P. Treatment of suspected cardiac ischemia with aspirin by paramedics in an urban emergency medical services system. Pre-hospital Emergency Care. 2005; 9:282-284. Analysis of Ambulance Response for Patients with Medical Chest Pain Based on the Severity of Potential Cardiac Symptoms Christopher Colwell, MD; Phillip Mehler, MD; Allison Sabel, MD; Justin Harper, EMT-P, Luke Johnson; Lisa Cassell, MS. Denver Paramedic Division, Denver Health and Hospitals,Denver, Colorado; University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado Background: Comprehensive care for non-traumatic chest pain is becoming increasingly important as a quality indicator for the inpatient setting. These quality measures, which are based on evidence-based guidelines that improve patient outcomes, have not been extended to the pre-hospital arena. Previous studies have indicated that pre-hospital care providers may not adequately utilize aspirin for patients with cardiac ischemia 1 . A potential cause of this oversight could be a lack of appreciation of a cardiac cause to chest pain. Objective: To determine how well paramedics in an urban, public hospital system delivered high quality care for patients with non-traumatic chest pain. Methods: Patients with a primary complaint of non- traumatic chest pain between January and March of 2006 were systematically randomized and a retrospective audit was completed. Seven parameters were identified by the medical direction of the Denver Health Paramedic Division. A composite metric was created to assess comprehensiveness of care. The bundle score was considered unmet if any single variable was not present. Results: Two-hundred and ninety-two patient care reports were evaluated. Overall, 95.4% of the patients were provided with oxygen, 61.2% were given aspirin, 98.6% had lung sounds assessed, 99.7% had vital signs recorded, 85.8% had an IV established, 93.0% received an ECG, and 78.1% were assessed for cardiac risk factors. The overall composite measure was met in 36.5% of the patients. The bundle score Volume IX, no . 1 : January 2008 Background: When patients call 911 with a complaint of chest pain, they generally receive an ambulance responding emergently. However, less than 10% of these calls result in an emergent return to the hospital. Studies have shown that emergent response whether to or from a scene results in an increase in ambulance accidents and litigation 1 . Objective: To determine if the implementation of an EMD (Emergency Medical Dispatch) system resulted in a decrease in emergent responses to the source of the 911 call. Methods: This study is based on a retrospective audit of non-traumatic chest pain calls. A pre-post intervention design was used with the EMD system going into effect on July 1, 2006. Baseline data obtained from the first and third quarter of 2006 represented the post-EMD intervention. Systematic randomization was used within each quarter to select the cases. Calls were identified as being chest pain in nature because of the type of patient that the healthcare provider noted in the patient care report. Results: Out of the 292 patient care reports reviewed in the first quarter, 262 of the calls (89.7%) were responded to emergently. However, none of these calls (0%) returned to a hospital emergently. From the third quarter, 296 cases were reviewed. Outgoing emergent responses were used in 242 calls (81.7%) and 21 calls (7.1%) returned emergently to a hospital. Conclusions: Patients complaining of medical chest pain often do not need an outgoing emergent response. Further understanding of when an emergent response is necessary for the patients complaining of non-traumatic chest pain will help Western Journal of Emergency Medicine


Clinch Dace (Chrosomus sp. cf. saylori) is a newly recognized and yet-undescribed species of minnow with a restricted and fragmented distribution in the upper Tennessee River basin in southwestern Virginia, USA. We collected Clinch Dace from seven streams and observed variations at nine selectively neutral microsatellite DNA loci to infer population genetic processes and identify units for conservation management. Bayesian cluster analysis showed that three of the seven surveyed populations were genetically distinct, while the other four populations showed signs of recent admixture. Estimated effective population sizes and m-ratios were low within most populations, suggesting loss of alleles due to recent genetic drift. Positive FIS values, high average individual inbreeding coefficients, and high degrees of inferred relatedness among individuals suggested that inbreeding is taking place in some populations. FST values were high, and analysis of molecular variance indicated genetic divergence among populations. These indicators suggest that Clinch Dace populations are subject to the genetic processes that are characteristic of small and isolated populations.


Introduction The principles of design are essential to the development and production of clothing used by individuals and families around the world. Each principle has a specific role in creating an aesthetically pleasing garment or ensemble. The principles of design consist of: balance, proportion (also referred to as scale), emphasis, and rhythm. When a garment or ensemble uses the elements and principles of design to create a visual unity, harmony is achieved. Garments often integrate more than one principle, while drawing from the elements of design to create a cohesive look. The following discussion will present background information on each of the principles of design and applications to clothing design and construction.


A breakthrough in novel loudspeaker design has been achieved using miniature actuators in a matrix configuration. Present flat-panel loudspeakers exploit resonant modes, whereas conventional cone-type loudspeakers use pistonic motion to reproduce sound. A new actuator has been designed so that it introduces pistonic motion in flat-panel loudspeakers. Instead of one or two exciters, the proposed panel speaker has numerous miniature transducers vibrating coherently to produce sound. In this device, the whole body vibration of the panel reduces the poor bass and impulse response associated with present flat-panel speakers. Frequency responses show that this novel transducer is suitable for loudspeaker application because of its linear and consistent output over the whole audible frequency range and for various excitation currents. Measurements on three different device configurations prove a moving magnet transducer to be the most suitable for loudspeaker application. Finite element modeling has been used to examine single transducer operation and the magnetic interaction between neighboring transducers in a matrix array format. Experimental results show the correct positioning of the transducers in a matrix configuration, as observed by the simulation, reduces the effects of interferences on the magnetic transducers. Also, results show that larger matrix array transducer speakers exhibit better low-frequency responses


Recently, compact wireless modules are very significant parts for multi-band wireless systems such as mobile phones and compact personal computers. A low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) substrate which has embedded passive components is effective technology for producing the compact modules, because this substrate is suitable for a multilayer structure and is also a low dielectric loss and a low conductor loss. Therefore, a lot of multi-band wireless systems use this technology. In the radio frequency circuits of the multi-band wireless systems, a multiplexer is one of the most important passive circuits, in order to achieve both a compact size and high performances. In this paper, we report the technology of the compact multiplexer modules using the LTCC substrate. This paper especially focuses on the multiplexer for ultra-wideband wireless systems. The multiplexer which is suitable for narrow band wireless systems is also described.


In peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, a group of multiple peer processes (peers) are required to cooperate with each other. In this paper, we discuss a heterogeneous hybrid time group communication (HHT) protocol which takes advantage of the linear time (LT) and physical time (PT) to causally order messages in a scalable heterogeneous group. It depends on accuracy of each physical clock and minimum delay time between a pair of peers how messages can be ordered. In this paper, we consider a heterogeneous type of group where the clock accuracy of each peer and the minimum delay time between every pair of peers are not the same. In group protocols, even if a pair of messages are ordered in the protocol, the messages may not be causally ordered. Thus, some messages are unnecessarily ordered in the protocols. In this paper, we show the number of messages to be unnecessarily ordered can be reduced in the HHT protocol. In a scalable group, it is not easy, maybe impossible for each peer to hold information on the clock accuracy and minimum delay time of every peer. In this paper, we newly consider a two-layered model of a heterogeneous group to reduce the information which each peer has to hold.


Child poverty is one of the fundamental issues currently confronting Guatemalan society. This study examines the efforts of two international NGOs to address child poverty in this country. Compassion Guatemala is a faith-based evangelical NGO which enables foreign donors to sponsor individual Guatemalan children by funding the costs of support services in areas of the child's educational, health and spiritual development, from preschool years through to secondary school completion and beyond. Conversely, Plan Guatemala is an agency with no religious affiliation which has adopted the rationale that a greater positive impact on child poverty can be achieved through the implementation of community development projects which target health, sanitation, food security, education and civic participation. The strategies adopted by these two NGOs raise the question: is child sponsorship an effective response to child poverty in Guatemala?


In The Apostles in Early Christian Art and Poetry the relation between visual and poetic images of Christ's closest followers is discussed from the time of the first Christian figural images and poetry till the political end of the undivided Roman Empire (250-400).


We performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the demixing process of a three鄄component system, i.e., oil, water, and an anionic surfactant from the initial"homogeneous phase"to"two separated phases"and the effect of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) in this process was investigated. The two oil/water phases reached equilibrium in a short simulation time and an evident oil/water interface was formed. In the presence of SDBS the separation time of oil and water gradually increased as the concentration of SDBS increased and SDBS formed an evident interface membrane when the system reached equilibrium. Simulation results show that the MD method can be used as an adjunct and can provide the necessary information for experiments on the microstructural properties of molecular structures.


Background: Sexual dysfunction is caused by multiple anatomical, physiological, medical, and psychological factors. Many studies have shown the efficacy of herbal remedies on increasing libido and sexual function. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the effects of three herbs of ginger, cinnamon, and rose on sexual function of depressed women with low sex drive. Materials and Methods: This randomized double-blinded clinical trial was conducted on 140 depressed women with sexual dysfunction who were divided into four groups receiving oral drops of rose, ginger, cinnamon, or placebo. The information about the two variables of sexual function and depression were collected by Female Sexual Function inventory questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory, respectively. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Kruskal–Wallis test, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The mean scores of sexual dysfunction and depression were significantly improved in the three groups after treatment (P < 0.05) so that sexual dysfunction score in placebo group had the lowest rate of improvement with the mean of 1.55 ± 0.44 and in ginger group had the highest improvement rate with the mean of 4.04 ± 1.07. Depression in placebo group had the lowest improvement rate with the mean of 3.71 ± 1.94 and in cinnamon group had the highest rate of improvement with the mean of 6.29 ± 1.57, but there was no significant difference between the four groups (P > 0.05). The factors such as received treatments with impact factor of 0.723 and age with impact factor of 0.170 had direct relation and depression with impact factor of −0.078 had reverse relation to sexual performance improvement (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Herbal medicines, except for their positive impacts on sexual function, may have positive but minor effects on depression. Abbreviations Used: FSFI: Female sexual function inventory, BDI: Beck depression inventory, Spss: Statistical package for social science.


The papers are dedicated to the concepts, main ideas, texts, and forms of practice of the syncretic Taoist movement Chongxuan-pai – "Twofold mystery", which was developed in the 7–10th centuries. This school borrowed a number of logical constructions of Madhyamika Buddhism, including the system of four-level dialectical negation, as well as the idea of absolute "emptying of consciousness" for overcoming attachments both to mundane life and to any mental concepts. In part, these ideas are reflected in the Taoist-Buddhist practice of attaining "purity and quietness, a specific tradition of meditation, with its most important text "Canon of Purity and Quietness" (Qingjing jing) (given in this article in the author's translation). Despite its traditional structure, thematic allusions with "Dao De Jing" and precepts attributed to Lao-jun, this Canon pays special attention to the technique of "inner contemplation" (nei guan), which also gravitates to the Buddhist practice of vipasyana and is called to eliminate binary opposition (pure-polluted, movement-rest) in the practitioner's consciousness. The "Canon of purity and Quietness" is still highly revered in central China's Taoist schools today. The basis of the meditative practice according to this Canon is the gradual ascending from "looking inward", "looking outward" and "looking away" to "contemplation of emptiness". The highest stage of "emptying the emptiness" leads to the complete deactualization of the ego and the breaking of all ties with the world. In this way, the exegetical idea of the "Twofold mystery" is realized as a form of Taoist practice influenced by Buddhist ideas.


Penetrating cosmic ray showers are observed with an anticoincidence method which indicates whether or not each shower is associated with an extensive air shower. Those not associated with extensive showers (local penetrating showers) are found to show a transition effect which is mass-proportional, while the others (extensive penetrating showers) show a transition effect which is strongly Z-dependent, and is very like the Rossi transition effect of cascade showers. It is concluded that these are two completely independent types of penetrating showers, the local showers being groups of mesons produced in absorbers near the apparatus by single fast primary nucleons, and the extensive penetrating showers being large cascade showers containing penetrating particles. This separation is shown to accord well with previous observations.


Professional training of specialists in the field of musical art is an urgent task, as it contributes to the development of a performing and pedagogical culture, which is reflected in the understanding of a musical composition. High-quality music education ensures continuous professional and creative development. The purpose of the study is to determine the basic principles of combining empirical and theoretical knowledge in the educational process for training future musicians and pianists. The main methodological base of the study consists of: methods of theoretical (monographic, abstraction, and concretisation) and empirical (analysis, content analysis, generalisation of pedagogical experience, experiment) search. The study considers the main principles and trends in the development of modern piano pedagogy in Ukraine. The essence of the concepts of empirical and theoretical cognition in the context of the educational process is analysed and the features of their possible application in piano pedagogy are identified. An educational process model for training future pianists is proposed, which would allow providing favourable conditions for the development of a creative personality, better performing skills, and an independent professional performer. It is established that the specific features of piano pedagogy condition the need to adapt modern educational methods to the conditions of the educational process in the context of obtaining music education. As a result, during the application of the model for organising the teaching of piano art, which provides for the unity of theoretical and empirical cognition, the principles on which such a model should be based were identified. The practical value of the study lies in the fact that the development of a model for combining methods of theoretical and empirical cognition in the educational process of piano art students is proposed


INTRODUCTION In most countries, public health partnerships exist to advance national tobacco control. We assessed characteristics related to tobacco control partnership capacity across Europe. METHODS We developed a tool to assess partnership characteristics related to their theoretical capacity to influence policy. The tool was based on an existing framework in the literature, which we adapted for the tobacco control field, through an expert panel, insights from the literature and pilot tests. The tool consists of three dimensions: resources (8 items), member characteristics (2 items), and organizational characteristics (8 items) and was administered to 18 European partnerships across 17 European countries in 2019. RESULTS Whereas several characteristics likely related to tobacco control partnership capacity were highly prevalent across European partnerships, some were not. Of all 18 partnerships, 5 did not include professional lobbyists, 7 did not have access to national information on tobacco industry presence and lobbying, 9 had no influence on national research agendas, and 7 did not maintain working relationships with the relevant Minister or Secretary of State. Furthermore, 5 of 18 partnerships had no agreement on roles and responsibilities of member organizations, and 6 had no agreement on how credits are divided across member organizations. A leadership figure was absent in 6 of 18 partnerships. CONCLUSIONS This study confirms that tobacco control partnerships vary greatly in the extent to which they possess characteristics associated with their ability to advance tobacco control. There is much room for improvement of European tobacco control partnerships.


The thermal expansion of the heavy fermion compound CeRh2Si2 has been measured under pressure as a function of temperature using strain gages. A large anomaly associated with the Néel temperature has been detected even above the suspected critical pressure Pc∼1.05 GPa where no indication of antiferromagnetism has been observed in calorimetry experiments sensitive to the entropy change. The volume change at TN1 proves the first-order nature of the collapse of antiferromagnetism. An unexpected feature is the weak pressure dependence of the antiferromagnetic–paramagnetic transition in comparison to the fast pressure collapse predicted for a homogeneous first-order quantum phase transition with one single pressure singularity at Pc. A large pressure dependence is observed in the anisotropy of the thermal expansion measured parallel or perpendicular to the c-axis of this tetragonal crystal. This points out the collapse of the efficiency of the crystal field effects at Pv which indicates the entrance into the intermediate valence regime.


The paper concludes that the energy given by Einstein's famous formula E = mc2 consists of two parts. The first part is the positive energy of the quantum particle modeled by the topology of the zero set. The second part is the absolute value of the negative energy of the quantum Schr?dinger wave modeled by the topology of the empty set. We reason that the latter is nothing else but the so called missing dark energy of the universe which accounts for 94.45% of the total energy, in full agreement with the WMAP and Supernova cosmic measurement which was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. The dark energy of the quantum wave cannot be detected in the normal way because measurement collapses the quantum wave.


This paper analyzes language biographies written by undergraduate students within the framework of a course on teaching methodologies. My questions are as follows: Are students aware of their plurilingual repertoire? Do they consider themselves to be plurilingual beings? In these highly subjective narratives, they trace their learning journey and re-interpret their past experiences. Different approaches of bi-/plurilingualism are to be found in their writing. The article explores the ways in which students put their plurilingual experience into words. The notion of plurilingual awareness and the methodology used in the study are first presented. I then analyze which obstacles may hinder plurilingual awareness and finally how students categorize themselves as bi-/plurilingual.


BACKGROUND The incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancer, the most common form of cancer in the United States, continues to increase. It is important that physicians know what treatment modalities will be the most efficacious. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare recurrence rates by treatment modality for primary basal and squamous cell carcinomas in a private dermatological practice. METHODS Between June 1993 and December 1994, 268 consecutive primary nonmelanomic tumors were treated by surgical excision or electrodesiccation and curettage in our practice. The charts of the 191 patients treated were retrospectively reviewed, and recurrence data were compared by treatment modality. RESULTS The recurrence rates between the two types of treatment were not found to be significantly different. CONCLUSION In contrast to other studies reported from academic centers in which surgical excision has been found to have lower recurrence rates than tumors treated with curettage and electrodesiccation, this study found recurrence rates for two treatments to be approximately the same.


In the recent past there has been a significant improvement in the quality of life and vast reduction in Human Immunodeficiency Virus- related mortality rates. The advent of antiretroviral therapy has largely contributed to this drastic increase in the life expectancy of Human Immunodeficiency Virus -infected individuals. In this review we have discussed about fertility issues in -infected people, preconception, fertility desires, effect of Human Immunodeficiency Virus on pregnancy, factors affecting mother to child transmission, diet and advice in pre-conception, behavioural and psychological support, impact of preconception services and areas of future researches. Method- A internet based PUBMED, MD CONSULT, Science direct and African journals online search of all the articles dating from 1998 to 2012 available under the heading of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and preconception was carried out and a detailed review was presented.


In order to extend Gould, Eklund, and Jackson's (1992a) investigation with 1988 U.S. Olympic wrestlers, Eklund (1994) reported results from a season-long investigation of cognition during performance among collegiate wrestlers. This manuscript expands the account of that season-long investigation by reporting precompetitive cognition and affect—the psychological experience immediately prior to match performance—associated with performance. Qualitative data were collected from 6 NCAA Division I wrestlers via indepth retrospective interviews regarding all-time best and worst performances within 2'days of 38 season matches. Observable patterns in the organization and content of precompetitive psychological experience were identified in high, moderate, and low quality performances and observations made regarding associations with the competitive psychological experience.


Mathematical integration techniques rely on mathematical relationships such as addition, subtraction, division, and subtraction to merge images with different resolutions to achieve the best effect of the merger. In this study, a simulation is adopted to correct the geometric and radiometric distortion of satellite images based on mathematical integration techniques, including Brovey Transform (BT), Color Normalization Transform (CNT), and Multiplicative Model (MM). Also, interpolation methods, namely the nearest neighborhood, Bi-linear, and Bi-cubic were adapted to the images captured by an optical camera. The evaluation of images resulting from the integration process was performed using several types of measures; the first type depends on the determination of quality in the regions of the edges using a contrast measure as well as the number of edges and threshold. The second type is the global one that is based on the parameters of the image region, including the Mean (μ), Standard Deviation (SD), and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). The parameters also included the Amount of Information Added (AIA) to the original image, such as those for the total (AIAt) , edges (AIAe), and homogenous (AIAh) regions. The results showed the efficiency of the integration process in the image fusion with different resolutions in one image integrated resolution. The quality measures used were also capable in evaluating the most efficient techniques and determining the accurate information of the resulting image.


This review provides an overview of the incidence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and a summary of the most commonly associated risk factors. A literature review was performed with a focus on recent studies with a high level of evidence (large prospective cohort studies and meta-analyses). The incidence rate of RCC varies globally, with the rate rising rapidly in more developed regions, demonstrating the effects of increased use of diagnostic imaging and prevalence of modifiable risk factors. Based on the current evidence, cigarette smoking, obesity, and hypertension are the most well-established risk factors for sporadic RCC worldwide. Acquired cystic kidney disease is also a significant risk factor, specifically in dialysis patients. There is increasing evidence for an inverse association between RCC risk and moderate alcohol consumption. Certain analgesics and occupational exposure have been linked to an increased risk of RCC, although data are limited. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables may provide a protective effect.


World energy demand is expected to continue increasing in the coming years. This situation has created a worldwide pressure for the development of alternative fuel and energy sources, pursuing a more environmentally friendly usage of biofuels. The EU has the target of generating 20% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. Member States have different individual targets to meet this overall target. Meanwhile in the United States, there are about 750 million acres [300 million hectares] of forestland, with slightly more than two-thirds classified as timberland or land capable of producing 20 cubic feet per acre [1.4 m3 per hectare] annually of roundwood. Given these circumstances, this research aimed to understand the U.S. opportunities to export woody biomass based on the targets that the European Union has imposed to its Member States. The data collected allowed several scenario developments by identifying the possible EU's biomass deficits and U.S.'s capacity to supply the gaps. Considering the physical availability, the U.S. would be able to satisfy between 42 and 48% depending on the energy efficiency scenario. Nevertheless, when considering reasonable biomass prices, only a small portion of the EU demand could be covered by the U.S.


Anecdotal reports suggest school nurses and staff treat increasing numbers of public school students with chronic diseases. However, professionals know little about actual disease burden in schools. This study measured prevalence of chronic disease medication administration rates in a large, urban midwestern school district. Data from daily medication logs were recorded by school nurses during a single week. Medications and administrations were sorted by disease type. Prevalence rates were calculated for six chronic diseases: asthma, diabetes, seizures, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, other mental/behavioral disorders, and other diseases/conditions. Separate rates stratified by school grade, poverty level, and type of school were calculated. Overall, 3.12% of students received medication for chronic diseases, including 2.13% for psychiatric/mental disorders and 1.91% for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder alone. These rates were lower than estimates from other states. Factors that contributed to this finding are reviewed.


Ninety postmyocardial infarction convalescents were treated by electrical sleep (impulse frequency 50-70 Hz) in combination with intranasal electrophoresis of 3% solution of lithium chloride to improve cardiocerebral relationships. The studies involved the clinical pattern, myocardial bioelectrical activity, exercise tolerance and cerebral hemodynamics. The results pointed to therapeutic benefit of the combination in sanatorium management of the patients.


As surgical management of carpal tunnel release (CTR) becomes ever more common, extensive research has emerged to optimize the contextualization of this procedure. In particular, CTR under the wide-awake, local-anesthesia, no-tourniquet (WALANT) technique has emerged as a cost-effective, safe, and straightforward option for the millions who undergo this procedure worldwide. CTR under WALANT is associated with considerable cost savings and workflow efficiencies; it can be safely and effectively executed in an outpatient clinic under field sterility with less use of resources and production of waste, and it has consistently demonstrated standard or better post-operative pain control and satisfaction among patients. In this review of the literature, we describe the current findings on CTR using the WALANT technique.


In this paper, a method for automatic hexahedral (Hex) mesh generation for electromagnetic field analysis is presented. In this method, the shape recognition technique and the tree method are used. Utilizing the shape recognition technique, a mesh is generated in a complicated analysis domain, and a high-quality Hex mesh is obtained. By using the tree method, control of the mesh density is easily enabled. In this proposed system, a modest amount of input data is necessary, such as object parameters and the mesh density data.


We reported earlier on the bioflocculant production potential of Halobacillus sp. Mvuyo, a marine bacteria isolated from Algoa Bay sediment samples. In this paper we report on the detailed characterization of the purified bioflocculant composed of polysaccharide and protein. The optimum dose of the purified bioflocculant for the clarification of 4 g l−1 kaolin clay suspension was 0.2 mg ml−1 at neutral pH. Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) revealed the bioflocculant to have an amorphous structure. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum exhibited the presence of hydroxyl, carboxyl and amino groups in its structure. The bioflocculant was thermostable with relative bioflocculant activity residue of 74.4% after heat treatment at 100°C. Moreover thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) exhibited a degradation temperature (Td) of ∼ 140°C. The flocculation efficiency of the bioflocculant was 86.2% compared with 82.6%, 74.5% and 70.9% for polyethylimine, ferric chloride and alum, respectively. This bioflocculant has immense promise as a substitute to inorganic and synthetic flocculants in view of their hazard implications.


Summary During the dissection in a 55-year-old male cadaver, two accessory renal arteries were encountered in the abdominal region. The arteries were originating from left anterolateral aspect of the abdominal aorta and running into the left kidney. Left testicular artery was originating from the superior accessory renal artery. Left testicular artery crossed behind the inferior accessory renal artery. Origins of the superior accessory renal artery, main renal artery and inferior accessory renal artery were 4.8 mm, 14.5 mm and 46 mm below the superior mesenteric artery, respectively. Subsequently, accessory renal arteries run into superior and inferior pole of the left kidney. These kinds of anomalies are important in surgical procedures related to the abdomen, such as renal transplantation, abdominal aortic aneurysm, ureter surgery, vascular pedicles of kidney and in angiographic interventions.


Despite high educational aspirations amongst asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs), scholarship on international student migration and mobility commonly lacks insight deriving from forced migration research. Drawing on qualitative research concerned with Syrian ASRs' educational aspirations and lived experiences regarding higher education access in Germany, this article speaks to the intersection of refugee and education politics. German Higher Education Institutions commonly subsume ASRs under the more general admission classification of "international students". While an intentional blindness of the background of non-European Union students in the admission procedure is justified on the grounds of equal treatment, findings indicate that ASRs experience the disregard for their distinct struggles as particularly stifling and disillusioning. At the same time, an analysis of the symbolic significance young ASRs attribute to the student status suggests that educational aspirations are shaped by the prospect to "raise" one's migration status and identity to that of international students.


This paper illuminates important causal processes that can explain differences between central, semi-central and suburban workplaces in commuting distances and modes. Its empirical base is qualitative interview material on the considerations and conditions underlying commuting behavior among employees of workplaces differently located within Oslo metropolitan area. The interviewees do not necessarily choose local jobs but rather travel a bit farther if this is necessary to find a more relevant job, especially if they have specialized job qualifications. Likewise, employers do not restrict their recruitment to local applicants. Workplaces close to the city center have a large number of potential employees within a short distance from the workplace and are, therefore, more likely to recruit workers locally. The interviewees' rationales for travel mode choices, such as time-saving, flexibility, convenience and stress avoidance, encourage commuting by transit to central workplaces and by car to peripheral workplaces. For example, transit is often faster and more convenient than car when commuting to central workplaces, while the opposite is often the case for commutes to peripheral workplaces. Rationales of avoidance of stress and frustration and of predictability and control work in similar ways.


A simplified shear lag analysis using a progressive damage scheme is pro posed for crossply composite laminates under uniaxial tensile loading. Closed form solu tions for stress distributions, transverse crack density and reduced stiffnesses of damaged plies as well as the entire laminate can be obtained as a function of applied load and prop erties of the constituent plies, where the shear lag parameter is only a function of geom etry and shear moduli of the lamina. The analysis can also take into account the residual stresses in the laminate. Experimental and predicted results for reduced stiffness as a func tion of crack density are in good agreement for various crossply composite laminates. Pre dicted results for crack density as a function of applied load, as well as stress-strain curves to failure are shown and are in good agreement with experimental results for a crossply laminate under monotonic tensile loading conditions. The proposed theory can be used as a basis for development of a damage accumulation model.


The project of deliberative democracy is increasingly pursued through designed mini-publics. But exactly how they are designed proves crucial in determining whether or not mini-publics can deliver on their promise. This article explores the role of appreciative inquiry – a version of deliberative design that is gaining ground. In this approach, participants are primed to develop an 'appreciative gaze' by focusing the discussion on what already works well in the system and imagining possibilities for building on these strengths. It is distinguished from contestatatory approaches in that argumentative, blame-seeking and deficit-oriented forms of discourse are considered counter-productive to the process. We argue against a one-sided emphasis on appreciative inquiry, which must be balanced with more contestatory forms. Focusing on appreciative approaches to deliberation at the expense of contestation obstructs the ability of a group to deliberate properly and secure crucial deliberative outcomes. Our analysis is grounded in the case of the first Australia's Citizens' Parliament.


This paper examines the concept of learning and teaching effectiveness as defined in Kimbell's (2001) assertion that the real products of design and technology classrooms are to be seen not simply in terms of '3D artefacts' learners produce but rather the 'empowerment' of young people. Assuming learner empowerment is the goal, the challenge for teachers is to provide more authentic instructional contexts that will motivate and enthuse pupils in their learning and give them a real sense of ownership and personal achievement. This paper argues that collaborative interaction and imaginative engagement in authentic design and technology contexts helps foster an approach to learning that is empowering for both teacher and learner. Toward this end, teachers need to be reflective and analytical about their own beliefs and practices, and acquire deep understanding of cognitive and motivational principles of learning and teaching. In this paper the author examines how teachers can model and promote greater learner autonomy and empowerment within supportive and creative classroom learning environments. The research tutor worked collaboratively with teachers in two schools, primary (11 yr old pupils) and post-primary (14 yr old pupils), encouraging a greater emphasis on holistic teaching and more active and reflective forms of learner engagement. In the primary school, a story, featuring a dilemma and a challenge, provided an authentic context by virtue of its orientation towards mutual engagement and intersubjectivity. In the post primary school, a short four-minute video clip and other source material related to the G8 'Make Poverty History' concert provided the context for imaginative engagement and reflection. The aim in both schools was to provide real contexts for learning and a classroom ethos that would encourage student voice, purposeful and imaginative engagement, decision-making, action and reflection (learner empowerment). Audio and video recordings, collections of pupils' work, teacher and pupils' questionnaires, field notes and reflective comments were used to provide the data. Semi-structured interviews with the teachers and pupils helped illuminate the contextual conditions that seemed to be significant in promoting more participatory and inclusive modes of engagement. Main findings indicated that facilitating student voice and more collaborative ways of working and thinking together helped change the classroom culture to one that empowered pupils in their creative thinking and learning. The quality of the talk-in- interaction, the nature of the teacher-pupil relationship and a more authentic form of pupil assessment provided the engine for driving the learning process forward in creative and personally fulfilling ways.


Because of authoritarianism, no collective protests or acts of resistance have emerged since 2001 in Eritrea. Dissidence manifests itself only through indiscipline, obstruction, desertion, and exile. Expressions of discontent and condemnation are carefully concealed in private spheres. This article presents and analyzes how Eritrean conscripts perceive and criticize the political arena and state power in their country by analyzing a corpus of discourse and jokes they share among each other about the state, the government, and its policies. In accounting for this form of resistance, this article documents how these views and their humor, in challenging the legitimacy and the hegemony of the political elites, often contribute to the reification and accentuation of certain characteristics of state power.


A spectral discrimination task was used to estimate the frequency range over which information about the temporal envelope is consolidated. The standard consisted of n equal intensity, random phase sinusoids, symmetrically placed around a signal component. The signal was an intensity increment of the central sinusoid, which on average was 1000 Hz. Pitch cues were degraded by randomly selecting the center frequency of the complex and single channel energy cues were degraded with a roving-level procedure. Stimulus bandwidth was controlled by varying the number of tones and the frequency separation between tones. For a fixed frequency separation, thresholds increased as n increased until a certain bandwidth was reached, beyond which thresholds decreased. This discontinuity in threshold functions suggests that different auditory processes predominate at different bandwidths, presumably an envelope analysis at bandwidths less than the breakpoint and across channel level comparisons for wider stimulus bandwidths. Estimates of the "transition bandwidth" for 46 listeners ranged from 100 to 1250 Hz. The results are consistent with a peripheral filtering system having multiple filterbanks.


We presented all relevant results so that readers could decide for themselves whether their interpretation of our findings fits with ours. Brind thinks that the analysis in which both ever and never users lost to follow-up before the age of 38 were excluded (adjusted relative risk 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.88 to 1.02) shows serious bias and invalidates the main dataset results in which only never users younger than 38 were excluded (0.88, 0.83 to 0.94). Since the total population in each analysis is different, their results should not be compared directly (in the same way that the results from the main and the general practitioner observation dataset should not be compared directly, as indicated in the footnote to table 2).

Furthermore, the different standard populations inevitably result in some variation in the point estimates from each analysis. The point estimate of 0.95 from the "fully excluded" analysis is not materially different from that of 0.88 from the "partially excluded" analysis, although the latter is based on more data. In addition, the upper 95% confidence interval of the fully excluded point estimate was just above unity, suggesting no increased risk of overall cancer.

The subgroup analyses of duration and time since last use of oral contraception included a large number of comparisons, some of which may have reached significance by chance. Although the relative risk of breast cancer was raised among ever users who had stopped 15-20 years previously, it was decreased in those who had stopped more than 20 years previously (0.54, 0.35 to 0.82) and the trend over time was not significant. We cannot explain the increased risk of central nervous system/pituitary cancer among ever users, although the number of women affected was small (49 of the 3877 cancers in the main dataset). We highlighted and discussed the increased risk of any cancer among women using oral contraception for more than eight years in the paper, press releases, and media interviews. Our interpretation remains that oral contraception was not associated with an overall increased risk of cancer—indeed it may even produce a net public health gain.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is an uncommon hematologic malignancy accounting for 1% of all malignancies. Renal involvement is a common complication of MM. Rapid intervention to reverse renal dysfunction may be critical for management, especially in patients with light chain cast nephropathy. Recovery rate ranges from 5% to 15%. We describe an atypical presentation of MM in a young patient who presented with severe renal insufficiency requiring renal replacement therapy and achieved complete renal recovery with chemotherapy.


Much ultrastructural detail is retained in tissue fixed only with aldehydes and subsequently air-dried after suspension in a polyvinyl acetate emulsion. The latter provides an external support only, but permits ultrathin sectioning; thus, an exposure of intracellular contents for potential immunocytochemical reactions is achieved. Sections of unembedded frog retina so prepared have been studied with success. The tissue was incubated first with a rabbit antiserum prepared against gradient purified bovine rod outer segments. Following incubation, reacted sites were labeled with ferritin-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG and stained with phosphotungstic acid. Intense labeling of the rod outer segments was clearly achieved, whereas the cone outer segments were without label. Other parts of the retina, including the ellipsoid region of both rods and cones, were also without significant label. These regions provided an intrinsic control for the specificity of the antiserum and established the validity of the general technique.


Even in the absence of valves, flow through the discharge port of a screw compressor is oscillatory in nature. This unsteady but periodic flow variation at the discharge port excites the pressure pulsation. In this paper, the one-dimensional unsteady gas flow equations describing the discharge pressure pulsation are established, which allow for the effects of the viscosity friction and heat transfer between the gas and the pipe, and the boundary conditions of discharge pressure pulsation are considered. With Two-Step Lax-Wendroff scheme used, the one-dimensional unsteady gas flow equations are solved. In order to verify the theoretic analysis, the discharge pressure pulsation at variable working conditions is measured. It is shown that the model established in this paper is valid for getting a better understanding of the mechanism governing the behavior of the pressure pulsation in discharge pipe. It is found that the most important factor that affects the discharge pressure pulsation is the pressure difference between the actual discharge pressure and the design discharge pressure.


Drought is characterized using parameters including duration, severity, intensity and spatial coverage. Drought frequency and trend can also be used as additional parameters to further characterize drought occurrences. In this study, drought occurrence was examined using Standard Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) as an assessment tool. Based on the SPEI results, spatial and temporal patterns were inspected both at district and regional levels. In doing so, monthly climate data collected on selected stations, from the Dutch national weather service known as the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), was used to assess the drought trends and characterize the study area in terms of drought duration, severity, intensity, frequency, spatial extent as well as drought trend. The analysis results indicated that most districts in the southern and eastern zones experienced more intense droughts than the rest of the study area. It was also found that the average drought return period in the study area ranged between 2.02 at 3-month, 6-month and 24-month time scales to 2.13 years at 12-month time scale. A statistically significant increasing drought trend was also revealed at all-time scales. Generally, the study has revealed an increasing trend of drought occurrence and spatially variable drought duration, severity, intensity and frequency in the study area. The short return period and increasing drought trends indicate the need for urgent drought management intervention. Keywords : Drought characterization, Drought Intensity, Trend, Spatial Distribution,


This article presents static and dynamic calibration methods of thin-film thermocouples (TFTCs) by means of a laser modulation technique. The static calibration is based on a combined analysis of theoretical and experimental results; knowing the experimental parameters (incident laser power, beam waist radius), the temperature of the exposed junction is theoretically calculated using a thermal model and the sensor electromotive force (emf) response is recorded. The ratio between the sensor emf and the corresponding temperature gives the TFTC sensitivity. The periodic method is used to determine both the frequency response and the 95% response time of the TFTC. Special test patterns with integrated Au/Pd thin-film thermocouples are developed and tested by these methods. Results of Au/Pd TFTC sensitivity are compared to the literature values and a good agreement is obtained.


The interactive advertisement is already on satellite and cable broadcasting hereafter the introduction of this system is concerned on terrestrial programs. This study is to research the effectiveness of interactive TV advertising focusing on factors of involvement and interaction. Study started for the effect measurement of interactive television advertisement. Interactive television advertisement has different concept than existing television advertisement. Thus, the effect also needs to examine in other methods. Study is mainly focusing on the characteristics of interactive and the experiments, which was based on existing data, for measurement of effect. In the experiments, the characteristics were categorized in a search time, a number of searched pages about interactive television advertisement. The research finds that the involvement of the audience increases when the interaction of advertising attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions also increases. And so, a successful interactive TV advertisement results in longer searching hours and greater it visits by the audience when the interaction factors are considered and increased. By study of consumer's characteristics and behavior, a new method of the effect measurement for interactive television advertisement is provided. The new method includes not only existing measurement elements of television advertisement which are attitude on advertising and brand, and customers' purpose, but also the features of interactive television advertisement, which are search time, a number of searched pages. Recently added features provides data of the effect on high/low groups and it contributes to the process of interactive television advertisement. Study on interactive television advertisement will be helpful to plan an effective strategy by suggesting the theoretical evidence of its effect.


Adolescent depression is a common and recurrent disorder associated with significant impairment and other forms of psychopathology. Finding an effective intervention that prevents depression in adolescents is an important public health priority. Participants were 518 high school students (mean age = 15.09; SD = 0.76) from the mid-south of the United States. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: a cognitive-behavioral program (CB; n = 166), nonspecific control (NSp; n = 175), or a no-intervention control condition (NIC; n = 177). Both the CB and NSp conditions consisted of 90-min sessions administered once a week over a 10-week period during regular school hours. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) at baseline; postintervention; and at 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-ups. The Time × Condition interaction was significant, F(8, 478.57) = 3.32, p = .001, indicating that at the 4-month follow-up, youth in the CB condition had significantly lower CDI scores compared with those in the NSp (p = .047, g = 0.29; CI [0.06, 0.52]) and the NIC conditions (p = .003, g = 0.30; CI [0.07, 0.53]). Future studies need to examine the importance of theory-driven change mechanisms, interpersonal relationships, and structural circumstances in schools as factors impacting the long-term effects of CB prevention programs.


Hilbert geometry is a metric geometry that extends the hyperbolic Cayley-Klein geometry. In this video, we explain the shape of balls and their properties in a convex polygonal Hilbert geometry. First, we study the combinatorial properties of Hilbert balls, showing that the shapes of Hilbert polygonal balls depend both on the center location and on the complexity of the Hilbert domain but not on their radii. We give an explicit description of the Hilbert ball for any given center and radius. We then study the intersection of two Hilbert balls. In particular, we consider the cases of empty intersection and internal/external tangencies. 1998 ACM Subject Classification I.3.5 Computational Geometry and Object Modeling


OBJECTIVE
For patients who undergo off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) surgery, pulmonary artery catheterization (PAC) has been proposed as a useful intraoperative monitoring tool. This study was designed to determine if the choice of PAC versus central venous pressure monitoring (CVP) had any effect on outcome after OPCAB. This study compared these 2 methods of hemodynamic monitoring in low-risk patients undergoing beating-heart surgery via a median sternotomy and evaluated their effect on morbidity and in-hospital mortality.

DESIGN
Retrospective database and medical record review.

SETTING
Tertiary care teaching hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Low-risk patients who had coronary revascularization via a median sternotomy on the beating heart.

INTERVENTIONS
None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
A population of 2,414 low-risk patients who had beating-heart coronary revascularization between January 2000 and December 2003 was reviewed. Most patients (1,671 or 69.2%) received a PAC, whereas 743 (30.8%) had CVP monitoring. Risk-adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the effect of each technique on clinical outcomes. The groups were comparable in both baseline characteristics and Parsonett's mortality risk (1.5 +/- 0.9, p = 0.58). Univariate analysis failed to show a difference in operative mortality (p = 0.76), on-pump conversion rate for completion of aortocoronary bypasses (p = 0.82), postoperative low cardiac output (p = 0.10), or prolonged inotropic agent use (p = 0.22). Similarly, in the multivariate analysis, both groups had a similar rate of conversion to an on-pump procedure for completion of coronary artery grafting (p = 0.91), intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump use (p = 0.69), low cardiac output state (p = 0.16), or in-hospital mortality (p = 0.51).

CONCLUSIONS
This single-institution, retrospective study suggests that in low-risk patients undergoing beating-heart surgery, CVP monitoring may be sufficient.


A clause in a patent license agreement which requires the licensee to continuously render royalty payments even after the intellectual property rights have expired has been a very controversial issue in practice. With the infamous United States Supreme Court Ruling of Brulotte v. Thys, and its subsequent affirmation in the case of Kimble v. Marvel, the legality of continued royalties seems to be a settled provision of law in the American Jurisprudence. However, the judgement rendered in the case of Kimble v. Marvel begs the question as to whether the affirmation was by reason of sound judicial interpretation or the coercion of stare decisis. The interplay between the rule of reason and the per se rule on one hand, with that of the patent misuse theory on the other, was alarmingly unclear. The three were presented as being so closely related that the two distinct dynamics of law could very well be addressed as excessive legislation on the same subject-matter. The present research seeks to analyze the 2015 ruling of Kimble v. Marvel, without the interference of stare decisis and defines the contours under which the judgement was rendered (patent law or anti-trust). Most importantly, the paper will assess the Indian jurisprudential stand with reference to continued royalties, both within patent law and the competition law.


The Phonetic Representation of Spoken Language in Modern Hebrew Literature – Written language normatively transmits the full graphic pattern of a word without deviating from the spelling rules of a particular language. However, when graphic signs are intended to represent the spoken language used in natural conversation, the question of the phonetic imitation of spoken language in written texts arises. The present article deals with the position of spoken language in Hebrew narrative fiction and drama, and the modes of its representation from 1948 on, including both original Hebrew works and those translated from English into Hebrew. This issue is discussed against the background of such relevant broader issues as: the special situation of Hebrew, which had long been used as a written language only, devoid of the varied functions of spoken language; linguistic-stylistic norms in Hebrew literature from 1948 on and the changes they underwent; Hebrew writers' and translators' awareness of the principles of spoken language in general, and those of the Hebrew vernacular in particular; differences in dialogue formation between various literary sub-systems: drama as distinct from narrative fiction and original literature as distinct from translated literature, including some cross-sections of both. The issues are discussed from both the synchronic and diachronic points of view.


A time delay present in the observation represents a mathematical challenge in an output feedback stabilization for linear infinite-dimensional systems. It is well known that for a linear hyperbolic system, a stabilizing output feedback control may become unstable when the observation has a time delay. For the fixed time delay in observation, the problem for one-dimensional partial differential equations (PDEs) has been solved by the observer-based feedback in the time interval where the observation is available and the predictor where the observation is not available. However, the generalization to multidimensional PDE systems has been a long-standing unsolved problem. In this paper, we investigate the problem from operator point of view for abstract first-order equation setting of infinite-dimensional systems. We formulate the problem in the framework of the well-posed and regular linear systems and solve it in the operator form. The result is then applied to the stabilization of a multidimensional Schrödinger equation.


Purpose: identify the factors affecting the effective performance of the Children and Youth Sports School at the initial and preliminary stage of basic training. Material and Methods: analysis of the literary base, pedagogical research methods, statistical methods, questionnaire. Results: the understanding of the factors influencing the motor skills formation of students is displayed. The author grounded three-dimensional understanding of dissimilar conditions and factors determining the functionality of a Children and Youth Sports School taking into account the motivation of students the scope of use of the skills and other factors which don't deal with teaching science. Conclusions : it was found that miscellaneous factors, many of which are associated with the state of material and technical base and infrastructure of the school, the region and the country as a whole affect screening the contingent of a Children and Youth Sports School


A short account of how a new practical electronegativity scale has been derived is provided. Different applications of the new electronegativity scale are described. Simple expressions to calculate internuclear separations of covalent compounds and bond dissociation energies are provided. Examples of calculated values are given and they are shown to give very good agreement with experimental values. Advantages of the proposed electronegativity scale are briefly discussed.


Introduction Women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have increased risk of developing glucose abnormality, but current diagnostic criteria are evidence-based for adverse pregnancy outcome. The aims of our study were: (i) to ascertain a frequency of early conversion of GDM into permanent glucose abnormality, (ii) to determine predictive potential of current GDM diagnostic criteria for prediction of postpartum glucose abnormality and (iii) to find optimal cut-off values of oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT) to stratify GDM population according to postpartum risk. Materials and methods Electronic medical records of an ethnically homogenous cohort of women diagnosed and treated for GDM in a single medical centre during the period 2005–2011 who completed postpartum oGTT up to 1 year after the index delivery were retrospectively analysed (N = 305). Results Postpartum glucose abnormality was detected in 16.7% subjects. Mid-trimester oGTT values, respective area under the curve and HbA1c were significantly associated with early postpartum glucose abnormality (P < 0.05, Mann-Whitney) and exhibited significant predictive potential for postpartum glucose abnormality risk assessment. Optimal cut-off values for discrimination of at-risk sub-population were identified using ROC analysis and their comparison with WHO and IADPSG criteria exhibited superiority of IADPSG for risk-stratification of GDM population. Conclusion Risk-based stratification at the time of GDM diagnosis could improve efficiency of the post-gestational screening for diabetes. IADPSG criteria seem to optimally capture both perinatal and maternal metabolic risks and are therefore medically and economically justified.


A series of Schiff bases and their derivative (oxazepine) have been synthesized. 1, 4-Bis (3-aminopropyl)- piperazine was condensed with various aromatic aldehyde in ethanol in the presence of acetic acid as catalyst to yield the Schiff bases. These Schiff's bases on treatment with phthalic anhydride gave substituted oxazepine. The structure of synthesized Schiff bases has been established on the basis of their spectral (FT-IR, Mass, 1H, 13C-NMR, elemental analysis) data. The purity of the compounds was confirmed by TLC. The biological activities of some prepared compounds were also studied against four different kinds of bacteria. These compounds were tested to determine their ability to inhibit corrosion of mild steel in 1 mol.l-1 H2SO4.


Summary A case of abnormal lobulation of spleen in a three years old Holstein cow was described after slaughter. Post mortem evaluation of the cow revealed three lobes and two projections at the spleen. The color of the spleen was normal but lymphoid hyperplasia was observed at the cut surface. Hilus of the spleen was located on 1/3 of the facies visceralis. Histopathological examination of the spleen revealed that lymphoid hyperplasia. No abnormality was observed other visceral organs. This is a first case of lobulated spleen in a three years old Holstein cow..


In lexically-stressed languages such as English or Greek, accent phrases usually include one lexical word (noun, verb, adverb or adjective), together with some syntactically bound grammatical words (conjunction, pronoun or preposition). In non-lexically languages such as French or Korean, accent phrases are delimited by a final syllabic stress and may contain more than one lexical word, depending on the speech rate and limited to a 250 ms to 1250-1350 ms duration range. As perception of syllabic stress is strongly influenced by the listeners current own speech rate making perception agreement between annotators elusive, an interactive software program has been implemented imbedding constrains external to acoustic data to better investigate the actual distribution of stressed syllables in oral recordings of French.


In 73 cases of perforated gastroduodenal ulcers in which operation was done at St. Joseph's Hospital, San Francisco, during the ten-year period July 1939 to July 1949, the death rate was 13.7 per cent. In all but three of the cases, simple closure of the perforation was carried out. In 46 cases there were postoperative complications. Of this number, peritonitis and its sequelae comprised 35 per cent and pulmonary complications, 37 per cent. The mortality rate in the group in which these complications occurred was 35 per cent.


In this paper, we deal with a joint production and Preventive Maintenance (PM) scheduling problem in the robustness framework. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we will establish that the insertion of maintenance activities during production scheduling can hedge against some changes in the shop environment. Furthermore, we will check if respecting the optimal intervals of maintenance activities guarantees a minimal robustness threshold. Then, we will try to identify from the used optimisation criteria those that allow making predictive schedules more robust. The computational experiments in a flowshop show that joint production and PM schedules are more robust than production schedules and maintenance provides an acceptable tradeoff between equipment reliability and performance loss under disruption.


Educated unemployment is the most important problem that must be solved by the government. Studies related to unemployment are very interesting to study. This study examines the relationship between educated unemployment in Aceh Province. The purpose of this study is to examine the modeling of educated unemployment in Aceh Province using secondary data. Forecasting was carried out to predict unemployment in Aceh Province in the period until 2030. The results of this study show that Aceh's educated unemployment rate continues to increase. The recommendations of this study are expected by the government to make improvements in various development sectors, especially programs that rely on improving human resources in order to change the labor recruitment system in Aceh Province to avoid a decrease in the unemployment rate in Aceh Province.


Since recent studies suggested a role for Parachlamydia in atherosclerosis, we investigated 354 patients with or without atherosclerosis for Parachlamydia infection. Six patients exhibited anti-Parachlamydia IgG. No patient presented IgM. Parachlamydial DNA was not amplified from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. There was no association between atherosclerosis and Parachlamydia infection.


Background In this study, we prepared and evaluated an injectable poloxamer (P407) hydrogel formulation for intratympanic (IT) delivery of dexamethasone (DEX). Methods DEX-loaded P407 hydrogels were characterized in terms of thermogelation, drug loading capacities, particle size, and drug release. The in vivo toxicity and drug absorption of the DEX-loaded P407 formulation after IT injection were evaluated using an animal model by performing histopathological analysis and drug concentration measurements. Results The P407 hydrogel effectively solubilized hydrophobic DEX and demonstrated a sustained release compared to the hydrophilic DEX formulation. The in vivo study showed that the hydrogel formulation delivered considerable drug concentrations to the inner ear and displayed a favorable safety profile without apparent cytotoxicity or inflammation. Conclusion P407 hydrogel can be useful as an injectable inner ear delivery formulation for hydrophobic drugs due to their biocompatibility, drug-solubilizing capacity, thermogelation, and controlled release.


We theoretically study the wavelength and the propagation length of the edge magnetoplasmons (EMP's), running along the edge of a two-dimensional (2D) electron layer in a semiconductor quantum-well structure with and without metallic gates. We show that the metallic gate suppresses the propagation of the EMP's, but the quality factor of the wave (q′/q″, where q′ and q″ are the real and imaginary parts of the complex EMP wavevector) can be larger in the gated structures as compared to the structures without the gate. The results may be useful for analysis of operation of the recently discovered microwave detectors and spectrometers operating at liquid nitrogen temperatures (Kukushkin et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 044101 (2005)).


Data-Free Knowledge Distillation (DFKD) has recently attracted growing attention in the academic community, especially with major breakthroughs in computer vision. Despite promising results, the technique has not been well applied to audio and signal processing. Due to the variable duration of audio signals, it has its own unique way of modeling. In this work, we propose feature-rich audio model inversion (FRAMI), a data-free knowledge distillation framework for general sound classification tasks. It first generates high-quality and feature-rich Mel-spectrograms through a feature-invariant contrastive loss. Then, the hidden states before and after the statistics pooling layer are reused when knowledge distillation is performed on these feature-rich samples. Experimental results on the Urbansound8k, ESC-50, and audioMNIST datasets demonstrate that FRAMI can generate feature-rich samples. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the student model is further improved by reusing the hidden state and significantly outperforms the baseline method.


Background & Objectives:Chronic hepatitis C is one of the leading causes of chronic liver disease in our country. With the introduction of directly acting antivirals, many patients are benefitted these days. Transient elastography is one of the newer technologies for measuring liver stiffness and quantifying liver fibrosis and has excellent accuracy for the diagnosis of fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Our study analyzes changes of liver stiffness and its associated factors in patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with directly acting antivirals (DAAs).Materials & Methods: One hundred and seven patients with chronic hepatitis C, who were treated with DAAs (Sofosbuvir 400 mg and velpatasvir 100mg) and have significant fibrosis (>7.0 kPa) at baseline were included. Liver stiffness was measured at the time of enrollment, and after completion of DAAs with fibroscan and changes of stiffness and its associated factors were analyzed.  Results:The study showed significant decrease in liver stiffness at the end of treatment, which continued after treatment only in patients who achieved a sustained virological response.Conclusion: Liver stiffness decreased following 12 weeks of successful DAAs therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C at the end of treatment who achieved sustained virological response.


Technological advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have led to the proliferation and deployment of mobile and wireless devices which are still being managed by conventional Network Management Systems (NMS). Due to their operational characteristics which allow these mobile devices to transition into lower energy consuming states, effective management of these networks is becoming very challenging. We have simulated an energy-aware mobile agent (MA) NMS in OPNET which could operate efficiently in a power saving (PS) environment. We created an infrastructured wireless network with scenarios which represented non PS and PS and then compared the impact of PS on both centralised and our optimised MA paradigms. Our MA paradigm showed significant improvement in performance as opposed to the centralised and non optimised MA paradigms especially in response time. Our experiments confirmed that PS has an impact on the management platforms.


This article seeks to provide some support for the troublesome report of Damascius in the De Principiis that, for Porphyry, the first principle is the Father of the Noetic Triad—and thus more closely implicated with the realm of Intellect and Being than would seem proper for a Neoplatonist and faithful follower of Plotinus. And yet there is evidence from other sources that Porphyry did not abandon the concept of a One above Being. A clue to the complexity of the situation may be provided by a passage from Proclus (In Parm. 1070, 155ff. Cousin) which criticises him for making the One the subject also of the Second Hypothesis of the Parmenides. Here, I consider a series of passages from Porphyry's Sententiae which seem to indicate a doctrine of the One essentially faithful to that of Plotinus, but modulated in the direction of closer linkage to the levels of reality below it.