An unknown number of patients are at risk of developing lymphoedema following treatment for cancer. In recognition of the need to coordinate and standardize methods of assessment and treatment, and to improve the quality of life for patients with lymphoedema, a hospital-based lymphoedema service was established. This article describes the objectives of the service, the rationale for the treatment methods that are used and the evaluation of these methods.


A novel, rapid, sensitive, specific RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for the simultaneous estimation of meloxicam and paracetamol in bulk and its dosage form. Efficient chromatographic separation was achieved on a Hypersil ODS C18 (150mm * 4.6mm, 5.0μm) column containing UV-Visible detector with methanol and water as mobile phase in the ratio of 70:30 at a flow rate of 0.6ml/min and the eluent was monitored at 240nm. Retention times were found to be 3.5min and 5.0min for meloxicam and paracetamol respectively. Results of the analysis were validated statistically and by recovery studies. The developed method has shown to be linear (r2 = 0.939 for Mlx and 0.996 for Pct), precise (R.S.D < 2), accurate (recovery of 99.26% for Mlx and 94.96% for Pct) and specific with limit of detection (0.102 for Pct and 0.591 for Mlx) and limit of quantitation (0.310 for Pct and 1.79 for Mlx) as per ICH guidelines


It has been observed that many face recognition algorithms fail to recognize faces after plastic surgery and wearing the spec/glasses which are the new challenge to automatic face recognition. Face detection is one of the challenging problems in the image processing. This seminar, introduce a face detection and recognition system to detect (finds) faces from database of known people. To detect the face before trying to recognize it saves a lot of work, as only a restricted region of the image is analyzed, opposite to many algorithms which work considering the whole image. In This , we gives study on Face Recognition After Plastic Surgery (FRAPS )and after wearing the spec/glasses with careful analysis of the effects on face appearance and its challenges to face recognition. To address FRAPS and wearing the spec/glasses problem, an ensemble of An Optimize Wait Selection By Genetic Algorithm For Training Artificial Neural Network Based On Image Erosion and Dilution Technology. Furthermore, with our impressive results, we suggest that face detection should be paid more attend to. To address this problem, we also used Edge detection method to detect i/p image properly or effectively. With this Edge Detection also used genetic algorithm to optimize weight using artificial neural network (ANN)and save that ANN file to database .And use that ANN file to compare face recognition in future Index Terms—FRAPS, EBGM, AAM, SVM, ANN,GA.


In modern science the efficient numerical treatment of high-dimensional problems becomes more and more important. A fundamental insight of the theory of information-based complexity (IBC for short) is that the computational hardness of a problem can not be described properly only by the rate of convergence. There exist problems for which an exponential number of information operations is needed in order to reduce the initial error, although there are algorithms which provide an arbitrary large rate of convergence. Problems that yield this exponential dependence are said to suffer from the curse of dimensionality. While analyzing numerical problems it turns out that we can often vanquish this curse by exploiting additional structural properties. The aim of this thesis is to present several approaches of this type. Moreover, a detailed introduction to the field of IBC is given.


Two sets of experiments were done in the greenhouse with 'Russet Burbank' potatoes infected with Phytophthora infestans. The first determined the effectiveness of selected late blight fungicides in restricting lesion length and spore production when applied after stem lesions had occurred on potted plants. The second quantified the curative activity of selected fungicides applied 12 to 48 h after inoculation of excised leaves with P. infestans. Such information may be beneficial in selecting an effective fungicide for late blight management when symptoms of the disease are present in a field. Expansion of established stem lesions was consistently restricted by one application of either dimethomorph plus mancozeb or metiram plus triphenyltin hydroxide. Sporulation on established stem lesions was consistently inhibited by either one application of dimethomorph plus mancozeb or cymoxanil plus mancozeb. Two applications of propamocarb hydrochloride plus chlorothalonil were required to restrict lesion expansion and inhibit sporulation. Size and number of lesions and sporulation on leaflets were reduced when propamocarb hydrochloride plus chlorothalonil was applied up to 48 h after inoculation.


We consider estimation of the historical volatility of stock prices. It is assumed that the stock prices are represented as time series formed as samples of the solution of a stochastic differential equation with random and time-varying parameters; these parameters are not observable directly and have unknown evolution law. The price samples are available with limited frequency only. In this setting, the estimation has to be based on short time series, and the estimation error can be significant. We suggest some supplements to the existing nonparametric methods of volatility estimation. Two modifications of the standard summation formula for the volatility are derived. In addition, a linear transformation eliminating the appreciation rate and preserving the volatility is suggested.


The delivery of mobile services is traditionally limited to the cellular operator's home domain, except for a small set of standardized services. Due to the centralized nature of service platforms, resource demanding services suffer from long delays if a user is accessing them when roaming. In this paper we describe an architecture that supports a dynamic, distributed service provisioning for mobile users. Both optimized service placement within an operator's network and placement of service components in a foreign network are supported. This leads to both more efficient resource usage and better quality for the users.


During the last decade many investigators have interested themselves in the study of the hormones of the sex glands and the parts which they play in the physiology of the individual. As often happens when a mass of data is collected by a number of individuals, many divergent and conflicting findings have been published. Out of this mass of data, however, certain principles seem to be generally accepted. Among these is the opinion that the secretions of the various organs do not act independently but are all dependent, one upon the other, and work in a system of checks and balances, any upset in which leads to abnormal physiological function.

From the results of the work done with the ovarian hormones and some of the closely allied synthetic hydrocarbons, it appears that these substances, acting upon or accumulating in the mammary tissue of mice, upset the hormonal balance and instigate the formation of neoplasms. In the dilute brown strain of mice, for instance, the hormones of estrus, pregnancy, and lactation stimulate the appearance of adenomas and adenocarcinomas of the breast in 65 to 100 per cent of the breeding females. If, however, females of this strain are kept as virgins, the stimulation of the hormones which produce estrus alone is sufficient to cause the glands to become cancerous in but 50 per cent of the individuals (1). It appears, therefore, that both quantitative and qualitative variations in the carcinogenic stimulants may bring about changes in the incidence of cancer in these animals.


The increasing complexity of software and hardware resources and frequentative interaction among function components make fault-tolerant very challenging in pervasive computing system. In our paper, we propose a novel framework of self-adaptive fault-tolerant mechanism for pervasive computing environments. In our approach, the self-adaptive fault-tolerant mechanism is dynamically built according to various types of detected fault based on continuous monitoring, analysis of the component state. We put forward the architecture of fault-tolerant system and the policy-based fault-tolerant scheme, which adopt three-dimensional array of core features to capture spatial and temporal variability and the Event-Condition-Action rules. The mentioned mechanism has been designed and implemented on a prototype of office pervasive computing application systems, called POPCAS System. We have performed the experiments to evaluate the efficiency of the fault-tolerant mechanism. The results of the experiments show that the proposed mechanism can obviously improve reliability of the POPCAS System.


In this paper, we present a software control method that maximizes the sensing rate of wireless sensor networks (WSN) that are solely powered by ambient RF power. Different from all other energy harvesting WSN systems, RF powered systems present a new challenge for the energy management. A WSN node repeatedly charges and discharges at short intervals depending on the energy intake. A capacitor is used for an energy storage in the energy harvesting system because of its efficient charge and discharge performance and infinite recharge cycles. When this charging time is too short, the node is more likely to experience an energy shortage. On the contrary, if it is too long, more energy is lost because of the leakage in the capacitor. Therefore, we implemented an adaptive duty cycle control scheme that is optimized for RF energy harvesting. This method maximizes the sensing rate considering the leakage problem, a factor that has never previously been studied in this context. Our control scheme improves efficiency by aggregate evaluation of the operation reliability and leakage reduction.


Intake of metabolisable energy (ME) when forages and grains are fed together to ruminants may, due to digestive and metabolic interactions, be lower or higher than expected from feeding these components separately. These interactions, or associative effects, are due primarily to changes in the intake and/or the digestibility of the fibrous components of forage. Effects on voluntary forage intake (substitution effects) are usually much larger than on the digestibility of fibrous components, although the changes in forage intake may be a consequence of changes in the rate of digestion of the fibrous components. Positive associative effects, where grains increase voluntary intake and/or digestion of forage, are usually due to the provision of a limiting nutrient (eg. nitrogen, phosphorus) in the grain which is deficient in the forage. Negative associative effects, where grains decrease voluntary intake and/or digestion of forage, occur frequently and can cause low efficiency of utilisation of grain. Rate of substitution of grain for forage is related to forage intake, forage digestibility, the proportion of grain in the diet, and the maturity of the animal. Substitution rates are usually high in ruminants consuming high intakes of forage of high digestibility, probably due to the metabolic mechanisms which control voluntary intake reducing forage intake. Substitution rates are often low when animals are consuming forage of low to medium digestibility. Since voluntary intake of such forages is most likely determined by the capacity of the rumen to accommodate and pass to the lower gastrointestinal tract undigested forage residues, and of the rate of forage fibre digestion in the rumen, substitution is likely to be determined by changes in these processes. Reduced rate of fibre digestion in the rumen is often due to low rumen pH and/or an insufficiency of essential substrates for rumen microorganisms. Use of grains for lactating dairy cows involves an additional constraint since dietary grain may severely reduce milk fat content. Negative associative effects can be alleviated by ensuring supply of essential microbial substrates, feeding management, and modification of grain to minimise their adverse effects on fibre digestion, while ensuring satisfactory digestion of the grain and efficient microbial protein production.


A small-chirp 40-Gbps electroabsorption modulator (EAM) with a novel tensile-strained asymmetric quantum-well (QW) absorption layer has been demonstrated for the first time. The strain and the band line-up of the asymmetric QW structure were designed in order to obtain a small-chirp operation, a clear eye opening, and a high extinction ratio simultaneously. The chirp measured as /spl alpha/-parameter was reduced without any penalty of extinction ratio and eye opening. The measured /spl alpha/-parameter was smaller than 1.5 at any bias voltage from 0 to -2 V. The measured 3-dB bandwidth of a 75-/spl mu/m-long EAM exceeded 50 GHz at -1 V bias voltage. Under a 40-Gbps modulation, a clear eye opening was obtained, and the eye diagram showed no violation of the standard STM256/OC768 mask. The measured dynamic extinction ratio was over 11 dB.


Despite an increased level of legalization of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), academic literature has paid little attention to the role of law in this field. By drawing on two different strands of the literature, namely 'politics of law' and the 'autopoietic theory of law', this paper addresses the question on how legalization has affected the practice of extra-territorial border control by the EU and its Member States. Empirically, the article focuses on border control performed by Frontex' joint operations and by individual Member States. We observe that legalization affects the approach of 'remote control' in two different and competing ways. On the one hand, it enhances the autonomy of national and supranational executives, whereas on the other hand, legalization, in all its hybrid manifestations, stimulates a transnational legal discourse that policy-makers can neither oppress nor ignore.


Treatment regimens for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis increase susceptibility to infections, many of which can be prevented by vaccinations. Increased awareness concerning vaccine-preventable diseases has led to several studies investigating the immunologic responses to vaccines in immunosuppressed patients with inflammatory bowel disease. This review provides an overview of the evidence-based rationale for currently accepted recommendations regarding the use of both inactivated and live vaccines in this unique population.


This paper presents and studies a distributed L2 cache management approach through OS-level page allocation for future many-core processors. L2 cache management is a crucial multicore processor design aspect to overcome non-uniform cache access latency for good program performance and to reduce on-chip network traffic and related power consumption. Unlike previously studied hardware-based private and shared cache designs implementing a "fixed" caching policy, the proposed OS-micro architecture approach is flexible; it can easily implement a wide spectrum of L2 caching policies without complex hardware support. Furthermore, our approach can provide differentiated execution environment to running programs by dynamically controlling data placement and cache sharing degrees. We discuss key design issues of the proposed approach and present preliminary experimental results showing the promise of our approach


The effects of ground-motion spatial variability on the seismic vulnerability of a floating cable-stayed bridge with 420-m long main span are investigated using component and system-level fragility analysis methods. Four combinations of the spatial variability components are considered including (a) the incoherence effect; (b) the incoherence and wave-passage effects; (c) the incoherence and site-response effects; and (d) general excitation case including the incoherence, wave-passage, and site-response effects. Parametric study was carried out to assess the sensitivity of seismic fragility to the variation of spatial variability components. The results indicate that the bridge becomes more vulnerable under spatially varying excitations than uniform excitations. The fragile components and the bridge system become more vulnerable with an increase in incoherence level. The component and system-level vulnerabilities are not sensitive to the variation of apparent wave velocities in most cases. However, the site-response effect is more complex than incoherence and wave-passage effects. There is no general trend about its effect on different components, whereas the system fragility increases as the soil conditions of adjacent excitation sites change more significantly and the soil types vary from the soft to the firm along wave-traveling direction. In addition, the bridge tends to be more vulnerable if the soil condition of the reference site becomes softer for the general excitation case. Spatial variability effects, especially incoherence and site-response effects, should be considered in the fragility analyses of this type of bridges.


This study explores the validity of a battery of interpreting aptitude tests comprising the SynCloze test, the
 Negative Affectivity Scale and the Inventory of Learning Styles in predicting the interpreting performance of Chinese interpreting
 trainees. The aptitude test battery was conducted at the beginning of the first semester for 68 post-graduate interpreting
 students in four Chinese interpreter training programs. English-Chinese (E-C) and Chinese-English (C-E) consecutive interpreting
 (CI) tests that measure the interpreting proficiency of the participants were conducted at the end of the semester. The results of
 the correlation and regression analysis indicated that the SynCloze test enjoyed statistically significant predictive power for
 both directions of CI and that its predictive power was stronger for C-E CI (β = 0.70) than for E-C CI
 (β = 0.48); negative affectivity was found to be a statistically significant predictor for E-C CI
 (β = −0.21) but not for C-E CI. Neither the meaning-directed nor the reproduction-directed learning style
 could predict interpreting performance. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to interpreter selection and
 training.


Stapes gusher sometimes occurs at the moment the vestibule is opened. A flood of perilymph can be expected as a complication of stapes surgery in all males affected with the X-linked progressive mixed deafness syndrome. Audiologic features, such as a mixed hearing loss and elicitability of stapedial reflexes, are reported for eight affected males in a large Dutch family.


Clonidine reduced both the pithed rat heart rate and blood pressure responses to low frequency sympathetic nerve stimulation. Marked shortening of the blood pressure response but not of the heart rate or of the responses to injected noradrenaline was found. This shortening effect was independent of the number of impulses in the train (4--120 impulses) and of the impulse frequency. It lasted for more than 1 hour and was found to affect only the late part of the pressor decay curve. Nerve stimulations at 2 Hz simulating bursts of different periodicity in the splanchnic nerves showed that the cumulation of the blood pressure between bursts was affected only when these were applied at intervals of more than 10 sec. The effect could not be influenced by antagonists to several known transmitters, by ligation of the renal arteries or by adrenalectomy and does not seem to be mediated by pre-or postjunctional alpha receptor stimulation.


Rotating fan shaft system was investigated experimentally and theoretically to study its dynamic performance. The type of oil used for the bearing was taken in consideration during the experimental program .Three types of oil were used, SAE 40, SAE 50 and degraded oil. During the experiments, the fan blades stagger angle was changed through angles (20˚, 30˚, 40˚, and 50˚). The shaft rotational speed also changed in the range of (0-3000 rpm). All these parameters have investigated for two cases (balanced and unbalanced fan). The performance parameters of the fan were found experimentally by measuring the fan, volume flow rate, Reynolds and Strouhal numbers, efficiency and pressure head. Analytical part was also represented to prepare the prediction of fan system dynamic performance. The aerodynamic forces and moments of each blade were also predicted to obtain the rotor dynamic future. Experimentally and theoretically the critical fan speed was obtained in the x and y direction for different lubricant oil viscosities and shaft rotational velocities for balanced and unbalanced fan. Analysis of the vibrational response gave important information about the dynamic performance of fan rotating system. Acceptable agreement was found between analytical and experimental results.


Background Comparison of care among centers is currently limited to major end points, such as mortality, length of stay, or complication rates. Creating "care curves" and comparing individual elements of care over time may highlight modifiable differences in intensive care among centers. Methods and Results We performed an observational retrospective study at 5 centers in the United States to describe key elements of postoperative care following the stage 1 palliation. A consecutive sample of 502 infants undergoing stage 1 palliation between January 2009 and December 2018 were included. All electronic health record entries relating to mandatory mechanical ventilator rate, opioid administration, and fluid intake/outputs between postoperative days (POD) 0 to 28 were extracted from each institution's data warehouse. During the study period, 502 patients underwent stage 1 palliation among the 5 centers. Patients were weaned to a median mandatory mechanical ventilator rate of 10 breaths/minute by POD 4 at Center 5 but not until POD 7 to 8 at Centers 1 and 2. Opioid administration peaked on POD 2 with extreme variance (median 6.9 versus 1.6 mg/kg per day at Center 3 versus Center 2). Daily fluid balance trends were variable: on POD 3 Center 1 had a median fluid balance of −51 mL/kg per day, ranging between −34 to 19 mL/kg per day among remaining centers. Intercenter differences persist after adjusting for patient and surgical characteristics (P<0.001 for each end point). Conclusions It is possible to detail and compare individual elements of care over time that represent modifiable differences among centers, which persist even after adjusting for patient factors. Care curves may be used to guide collaborative quality improvement initiatives.


Aims: This study evaluated a specific hip resurfacing system to determine the: (1) function and complications, (2) implant survivorship, (3) acetabular bone conservation and joint biomechanics and (4) osteolysis and polyethylene wear. Methods: I performed 234 resurfacing procedures (192 patients) using a two-piece titanium acetabular component with a 4 mm highly cross-linked polyethylene liner and a cementless titanium nitride-coated titanium femoral component. Function was assessed with Harris Hip, WOMAC, SF-12, and UCLA scores. Radiography and CT scans were used to evaluate bone retention, component position, joint biomechanics, and osteolysis. Retrieved polyethylene liners were analyzed for wear. Results: Median follow-up was 8 years and patients averaged 48 years of age at surgery. The mean Harris Hip Score was 96 and all scores improved significantly. Kaplan-Meier survivorship was 97%. The mean medial acetabular thickness was 9 mm postoperatively versus 14 mm preoperatively (p = 0.019). Femoral bone conservation (head:neck ratio) was 1.36 postoperatively versus 1.42 preoperatively (p = 0.02). There was no polyethylene wear through or osteolysis. Eight polyethylene retrievals had a mean wear of 0.05 mm/yr. Conclusions: Resurfacing with a highly cross-linked polyethylene acetabular component and a titanium nitride-coated titanium cementless femoral component is a reliable and bone-conserving procedure at mid-term.


Processing data items in BKSDA experiences problems because it still uses written bookkeeping to record data of entry and exit of goods so that employees have difficulty calculating the amount of inventory and determine predictions of the addition of an item of goods so that it results in an inventory emptiness of an item in the warehouse. The purpose of the inventory prediction system is to make it easier for employees in the equipment department to determine the amount of inventory and manage the transaction of goods in the agency. A system can be made to record the amount of goods entering and leaving the warehouse. This system is equipped with a prediction calculation of the amount of inventory using the Tsukamoto FIS (Fuzzy Inference System) method so that the amount of inventory in the warehouse can remain stable. Variables used in determining the prediction of goods based on the amount of inventory remaining, purchase data and the amount of goods out. The expenditure variable consists of two fuzzy sets, namely: Low and High, the inventory variable consists of two fuzzy sets, namely: Little, and Many, while the purchase variable consists of two fuzzy sets, namely: Decrease and Increase. By combining all fuzzy sets, four fuzzy rules are obtained, which are then used in the inference stage. At the inference stage, the antecedent membership value (α) and the estimated value of production (z) from each rule are sought. The amount of goods to be produced (Z) is sought by a centralized average defuzzification method. This information system will display information of goods leaving the warehouse, inventory information, inventory prediction information and other supporting information. All information generated in this system will be displayed in the form of a website.

Keywords: Prediction, Inventory, Tsukamoto FIS, Website


If scattering amplitudes are ordinary complex numbers (not quaternions) there is a universal algebraic relationship between the six coherent cross sections of any three scatterers (taken singly and pairwise). A violation of this relationship would indicate either that scattering amplitudes are quaternions, or that the superposition principle fails. Some possible experimental tests involve neutron interferometry, K_S-meson regeneration, and low energy proton-proton scattering.


To investigate the effect of ethanol induced liver toxicity in male Wister albino rats. The liver toxicity was induced by the chronic administration of ethanol to the animals at the 20%v/v, 10%v/v respectively for 28 days at daily basis. The liver toxicity was assessed by the estimation of liver marker enzymes and liver histopathological studies. The chronic induction of ethanol in rats, liver marker enzymes like aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) , lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), total bilirubin (TB), direct bilirubin (DB) levels were significantly elevated (P<0.0001) when, compared to the normal animals. Ethanol is one of the most widely used and abused drugs and increasing lipid levels in humans and experimental animals. Liver damage seen in chronic ethanol consumption appears to be modulated by kupffer cell activation. Chronic ethanol treatment has been shown to enhance oxidative stress in liver tissues. Ethanol induced oxidative stress is a major role in the mechanism of hepatotoxicity. In the present study was revealed that the chronic consumption of ethanol treated rats shows significantly increased liver marker enzymes and severe damage to liver tissues.


Ontogenesis is a complex process of morphophysiological transformations. Embryonic and postembryonic development is continuously affected by both endogenous and environmental factors, which lead to variability in morphometric parameters. The research was conducted in the laboratory of ecological embryology of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education of the North Osetian Federal University (Vladikavkaz). The results showed that under the influence of bentonite extract, the morphological parameters of green toad larvae with a brown phenotype are more variable than in larvae with an olive green phenotype in both the control and experimental groups. Thus, the embryos and larvae of the green toad with the olive green phenotype are more stable than the larvae that had the brown phenotype, both in natural circumstances and under the influence of bentonite clay extracts.


Retinoids are analogues of vitamin A, with documented activity against various malignant cell types. Neuroblastoma is a childhood tumour of the sympathetic nervous system that shows a complex clinical and biological heterogeneity, often with poor outcome despite intensive multimodal therapy. The aim of the thesis was to investigate effects of retinoid treatment in vitro on human neuroblastoma cells, and in vivo on human neuroblastoma xenografts in nude rats. The ultimate goal was to find a new retinoid treatment for children with neuroblastoma. Oral treatment with 9-cis RA in vivo resulted in a significant inhibition of neuroblastoma tumour growth, but with major toxic side effects. Further experiments showed that 9-cis RA might not be suitable for clinical use in children with neuroblastoma, because of its short half-life, low bioavailability and toxic profile in rats. Ro 13-6307 was established to be a morphologically differentiating retinoid, able to reduce proliferation and induce G1 growth arrest in both MYCN amplified and non-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines in vitro. Further experiments showed that oral Ro 13-6307 could inhibit neuroblastoma tumour growth in vivo with limited toxicity. In vitro and in vivo results indicated that Ro 13-6307 was at least as effective as the clinically established retinoid 13-cis RA. These results demonstrate that Ro 13-6307 is a potential retinoid for clinical oral therapy of children with neuroblastoma. Despite promising results demonstrating that fenretinide induces apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells in vitro, no significant reduction in neuroblastoma tumour growth was observed after oral treatment with fenretinide in vivo. Five different doses were evaluated, but no significant inhibiting effect on tumour growth or morphological changes were found in treated compared to untreated tumours. Other alternatives for fenretinide administration should be investigated in future experimental and clinical studies. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was found to be a suitable method for detecting metabolic alterations in neuroblastoma cells in vitro undergoing fenretinide-induced apoptosis. It was possible to monitor the kinetics in the treatment response and to distinguish between fenretinide-sensitive and -resistant cells. These findings suggest that proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a potential clinical non-invasive tool to monitor early tumour response to retinoid treatments. In conclusion, retinoids were shown to inhibit growth of human neuroblastoma cells in vitro and in vivo, however the effect depends on the retinoid in use. Dosing, scheduling, and toxicity are important factors determining the therapeutic efficacy of retinoids in vivo. Ro 13-6307 may be a retinoid for future clinical therapy of children with neuroblastoma.


The study was conducted to know the appropriate probability distribution for weekly reference crop evapotranspiration (ETr) values at desired probability levels for Solapur, Ahmednagar, Pune and Nasik stations of Maharashtra, India. ETr values were estimated by Penman-Monteith, Modified Penman, Hargreaves-Samani, Pan Evaporation, Blanney-Criddle, and Radiation methods. Based on the root mean square error, Hargraves-Samani found to be the best method for Solapur and Nasik stations and Modified Penman for Ahmednagar and Pune stations. The probability distribution functions selected were Normal, Log Normal, Gamma, Gumbel and Weibull's. Results of probability distribution analysis indicated that, more than one probability distributions were found suitable for finding weekly ETr values. ETr values estimated at 20 %, 60 % and 90 % probability levels in graphical representation for all the methods using the probability distribution of the best fitted were presented. The weekly values at 70 % probability level of ETr were determined and presented for ready reference.


Background We have previously reported that TOP2A RNA expression was prognostic in patients with operable estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer treated with anthracycline containing adjuvant chemotherapy plus endocrine therapy in trial E2197, and provided complementary prognostic information in those who had a mid-range Recurrence Score (RS) (Sparano et al. Clin Cancer Res 2009; 15; 7693). The purpose of this analysis was to provide additional evidence regarding this observation. Methods: We evaluated TOP2A RNA expression in 4 independent data sets individually and in a pooled analysis including all data. We also used an algorithm to simulate the Oncotype DX Recurrence Score (SimRS). The analysis included 752 patients with early stage breast cancer that was ER-positive, HER2−negative defined by gene expression. Results are expressed as the hazard ratio (HR) for estimates of the effect of a one standard deviation increase in the value of the log gene expression (x + 1SD vs. x) as a continuous function. Five-year relapse free survival (RFS) rates were also evaluated for patients with a mid-range SimRS for high vs. low TOP2A expression (above vs. below the median, which was prognostic in E2197). The distribution of SimRS was categorized to be concordant with the distribution of actual RS in E2197 (47%, 34%, 19%, respectively for RS 31 - high). Results: The HR for models including TOP2A alone and joint models including TOP2A and SimRS are shown in the table. TOP2A expression was significantly associated with recurrence in all 4 datasets when evaluated individually (HR 1.56, p Conclusions: This analysis provides additional evidence that TOP2A expression provides prognostic information in patients with ER-positive, HER2−negative disease, a population known to have low incidence of TOP2A gene alterations. These findings also suggest that TOP2A expression provides information that is complementary to RS, and may be useful for identifying high risk subjects who have a mid-range RS. These findings require prospective validation in other prospective or prospective-retrospective trials using the actual rather than simulated RS. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-12-13.


Drought is the main factor limiting the yield of barley in drought prone areas of Ethiopia, because rainfall is scarce, unevenly distributed and temperatures are high during grain filling period. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the yield performance and some agronomic traits of 20 barley landrace populations and three long-term checks.Overall, accession numbers 235238, 235264 and the local check, Saesa-a have significantly proven superiority over the others in their overall performance in the experimental field and also consistently demonstrated the fastest root development in the laboratory filter paper experimentation. The strong positive correlation of root length with thousand seed weight, harvest index and grain yield in combination with other field performances could be used as selection criteria for drought tolerance. The outcome of this experiment is believed to benefit small scale farmers and development agents.


Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) are of increasing importance due to their many hardware security applications including chip fingerprinting, metering, authentication, anti-counterfeiting, and supply-chain tracing, e.g., DARPA SHIELD. This paper presents BIST-PUF, the first built-in-self-test (BIST) methodology for online evaluation of weak and strong PUFs. BIST-PUF provides a paradigm shift in the evaluation of the un-clonable circuit identifiers: unlike earlier known PUF evaluation suites that are software-based and offline, BIST-PUF enables on-the-fly assessment of the desired PUF properties all in hardware. More specifically, the BIST-PUF structure is designed to evaluate two main properties of PUFs, namely unpredictability and stability. These properties are important for ensuring robustness and security in face of operational, structural, and environmental fluctuations due to variations, aging or adversarial acts. For BIST-PUF unpredictability evaluation, we identify and adopt the tests of randomness that are amenable to hardware implementation. For stability assessment, the BIST-PUF suggests three distinct methods, namely, sensor-based, parametric interrogation, and multiple interrogations. Proof-of-concept implementation of the BIST-PUF in FPGA demonstrates its low overhead, effectiveness, and practicality.


In this paper, a conceptual multi-zone model for climate control of a live stock building is elaborated. The main challenge of this research is to estimate the parameters of a nonlinear hybrid model. A recursive estimation algorithm, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is implemented for estimation. Since the EKF is sensitive to the initial guess, in the following the estimation process is split up into simple parts and approximate parameters are found with a non recursive least squares method in order to provide good initial values. Results based on experiments from a real life stable facility are presented at the end.


We propose and demonstrate an integrated optical isolator in InP using two phase modulators in series. The phase modulators are driven with a single-frequency signal in quadrature. Theoretically there is no effect on the forward signal, and the carrier of the backward signal can be eliminated, the energy distributed to other frequencies. We achieve a carrier isolation of 11 dB and an excess insertion loss of 2.3 dB. Such an isolator can be monolithically integrated with a laser without extra materials or magnetic fields.


We generalize a convexity result due to Wyner and Ziv to channels with binary inputs and arbitrary outputs. This results in a convex reformulation of some non-convex optimization problems that arise naturally in multi-user information theory.


A fundamental result in differential privacy states that the privacy guarantees of a mechanism are preserved by any post-processing of its output. In this paper we investigate under what conditions stochastic post-processing can amplify the privacy of a mechanism. By interpreting post-processing as the application of a Markov operator, we first give a series of amplification results in terms of uniform mixing properties of the Markov process defined by said operator. Next we provide amplification bounds in terms of coupling arguments which can be applied in cases where uniform mixing is not available. Finally, we introduce a new family of mechanisms based on diffusion processes which are closed under post-processing, and analyze their privacy via a novel heat flow argument. As applications, we show that the rate of "privacy amplification by iteration" in Noisy SGD introduced by Feldman et al. [2018] admits an exponential improvement in the strongly convex case, and propose a simple mechanism based on the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process which has better mean squared error than the Gaussian mechanism when releasing a bounded function of the data.


THE term "relapsing polychondritis" was introduced in 1960 by Pearson et al 1 to denote a syndrome characterized by recurrent inflammation of cartilage, especially in the nose, ears, and upper respiratory tract, associated with low-grade fever and malaise. Clinical evidence of iridocyclitis has been observed in approximately 30% of cases studied, but only a few histopathologic studies of involved eyes have been performed. The purpose of this communication is to report the histologic features of a pair of eyes obtained at autopsy from a patient with relapsing polychondritis, whose initial complaint was ocular and who died from the pulmonary complications of the disease. Report of a Case In March 1968, a 40-year-old white woman initially sought medical attention for a mild, nonspecific iritis of the right eye. Two weeks later, the left eye was similarly affected. At this time, her visual acuity was 20/20 bilaterally, and 2+ cells and flare


We investigate the use of a yellow-green filter to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (snr) in imaging photoplethysmography (iPPG) and test if high frame rate (HFR) video improves the accuracy of the derived heart rate variability (HRV). This pilot study is associated with a broader program to use iPPG to detect and monitor stress levels using HRV. To improve the snr of the iPPG signal, we employ two HFR colour video cameras of which one was fitted with a yellow-green filter (corresponding to the haemoglobin absorption peak within the visible spectrum). To our knowledge, the benefit of a yellow-green filter has never been explored. The predominant influence on HRV comes from the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which connects directly to the heart and cues the human body to relax or to stress. The linkage of HRV to the ANS makes HRV a proxy for stress levels. The HRV is derived from the iPPG signal by first using a cubic spline interpolation for more precise peak detection, and then calculating the inter-beat intervals from the peak-to-peak time differences. Instead of interpolating the signal, we hypothesise that a more accurate HRV measurement can be obtained using a HFR video camera, in our case at 200 frames per second.
References

E. B. Blackford, J. R. Estepp, and D. J. McDuff. Remote spectral measurements of the blood volume pulse with applications for imaging photoplethysmography. In G. L. Cote, editor, Optical Diagnostics and Sensing XVIII: Toward Point-of-Care Diagnostics, volume 10501, page 105010Z. International Society for Optics and Photonics, SPIE, 2018. doi:10.1117/12.2291073.
M. Brayne. Trauma and Journalism: A Guide For Journalists, Editors and Managers. DART Center for Journalism and Trauma, 2007. https://dartcenter.org/sites/default/files/DCE_JournoTraumaHandbook.pdf.
L. F. C. Martinez, G. Paez, and M. Strojnik. Optimal wavelength selection for noncontact reflection photoplethysmography. In Proceedings of the 22nd Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Light for the Development of the World, volume 8011, page 801191. International Society for Optics and Photonics, SPIE, 2011. doi:10.1117/12.903190.
Y. Sun, S. Hu, V. Azorin-Peris, R. Kalawsky, and S. E. Greenwald. Noncontact imaging photoplethysmography to effectively access pulse rate variability. J. Biomed. Optics, 18(6):061205, 2013. doi:10.1117/1.JBO.18.6.061205.
A. M. Unakafov. Pulse rate estimation using imaging photoplethysmography: generic framework and comparison of methods on a publicly available dataset. Biomed. Phys. Eng. Exp., 4(4):045001, 2018. doi:10.1088/2057-1976/aabd09.


Modern organizations are faced with the need to rapidly respond to frequent changes arising from external business pressures. The effect of such continuous evolution eventually leads to organizational misalignment, that is, situations in which sub-optimal configurations of underlying systems significantly reduce an organization's ability to meet its strategic goals. Ensuring alignment of an organization's systems and its goals has been a concern of researchers and practitioners in the enterprise architecture (EA) domain. Unfortunately, current approaches do not adequately address alignment problems that modern organizations face. In this paper we propose that alignment concerns can be better addressed by making models the primary entities that stakeholders within and outside of an organization use to interact with the organization. We call an organization that maintains and uses an integrated set of models to manage alignment concerns a Model Driven Organization (MDO). In this paper we characterize the alignment problem, discuss the shortcomings of current alignment management approaches and present our MDO vision.


Loss of distal fingertip bone and soft tissue defect can be treated using different methods, but the involvement of the nail influences the choice of surgical approach and makes reconstruction more difficult. The eponychial flap is a backward cutaneous translation flap that lengthens the nail plate and restores a good appearance of the nail apparatus. Pulp reconstruction is usually performed using local flaps (Tranquilli-Leali or Venkataswami flaps). The eponychial flap technique is a safe and easy technique that is indicated in cases of transverse fingertip angulations for lengthening the short amputated nail. This procedure can be used in combination with different flaps for pulp reconstruction.


s a result of the challenge of adapting to a chronic illness, psychological disorder can occur in individuals with Vasculitis. However, positive outcomes of successful adaptation have also been reported.
The present study aimed to investigate the contributors to both positive adaptation, measured by life satisfaction and maladaptation, measured by depression and anxiety. An association has been found between maladaptive metacognitions and psychological distress. Recent research has highlighted that positive metacognitions and meta-emotions are also important for successful psychological functioning.
One hundred and thirty-two participants aged 20-78yrs, recruited from Vasculitis charity websites completed an online questionnaire assessing maladaptive metacognitions (MCQ-30), positive metacognitions meta-emotions (PMCEQ-18), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7) and life satisfaction (SWLS). Demographic and disease-related data (type of Vasculitis, length of illness, disease activity status, prednisolone dosage and number of medications) were also collected.
Statistical analysis found MCQ-30 total scores to negatively correlate with life satisfaction and positively correlate with depression and anxiety. PMCEQ-18 factor scores were found to positively correlate with life satisfaction and negatively correlate with depression and anxiety.
Multiple linear regression revealed a model which accounted for 43.3% of the variance in life satisfaction. One MCQ-30 factor and two PMCEQ-18 factors were found to be significant predictors of life satisfaction. In addition, ANOVA analyses revealed individuals with high MCQ- 30 total scores and low PMCEQ-18 factor scores had significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to practical applications that may assist individuals with Vasculitis to adapt successfully. Directions for future research are also identified.


This paper has an objective to combine and disseminate information on sea wave energy converters. The potential of sea wave energy is very high and over one thousands patents exists, however, only selected projects supported by EC are presented. At the beginning a basic terms and methods of sea wave energy capture are discussed. Further several most important sea wave energy conversion prototypes are shown. The generators and power electronics solutions for Power Take Off system are presented on the example of Wave Dragon MW sea wave energy converter. The Wave Dragon MW captures power from the sea waves by means of low-head turbines and converts it into rotating mechanical power. Problems which can appear in mechanical power to electrical power conversion in Wave Dragon MW can be expected to be similar as in wind turbine. However, subject of the mechanical energy conversion from sea waves to electrical energy is not well identified and further research should be curried out. Additionally, specific problems of grid connected AC-DC-AC converters under grid voltage distortions (harmonics and voltage dips) are discussed. Some simulated and experimental oscillograms that illustrate properties of the presented systems are shown.


Macroautophagy (autophagy) meaning self-eating is an evolutionary conserved intracellular degradation pathway, during which autophagosomes envelop bulk cytosol, unwanted or damaged organelles and misfolded proteins to handle them to the lysosomes for breakdown. There are many types of autophagy, which differ mainly in the site of cargo sequestration and in the type of cargo itself. The process of autophagy is a model in which autophagic vesicles develop into mature degradative autophagolysosomes in a series of distinguished steps namely: initiation, nucleation, expansion, maturation then finally degradation. The discovery of definitive biological markers for autophagy by the Japanese, Nobel Prize-awarded cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi and the advances in visualizing techniques enabled further insight of this vital process. Autophagy takes place at a low basal level constitutively, and can be potently induced by various types of stress conditions, such as starvation, hypoxia, pathogen invasion, and exercise. The functional relationship between apoptosis and autophagy is complex. Under certain circumstances, autophagy constitutes a stress adaptation that avoids cell death (and suppresses apoptosis), whereas in other cellular events, it constitutes an alternative cell-death pathway. Recently, autophagy dysfunction is linked to severe diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer. Control of autophagy promises to facilitate the development of therapeutic and preventive measures for these morbid diseases for the well-being of mankind.


Introduction: Internet searches suggest people need to check the appropriate and correct information in the field of health. Meanwhile, due to the rapid growth of new technologies such as mobile technology, which today is universally accessible to all members of society, has been created a new  and  appropriate channel to offer health services that use this technology to propose best value tailored to customer requirements  in a short time.Method: In this paper, several approaches and models has been exploited in order to study and design a new business model for mobile health nutritional counseling. First, the business value chain has been introduced and several parts of the Canvas model, VRISA index, Growth-Share Matrix and Familiarity Matrix and Porter's Five Competitive Forces has been analyzed and finally, a cost and revenue model and food menu provision have been provided.Results: The results show that the application of Information Technology especially mobile technology is advantageous for nutritional counseling domain. With respect to a portion of the costs and revenues that are roughly predictable. The way to determine the price your service provider offers be considered floating price is higher than first and then reduce prices to attract more customers. The total number of customers leading to a break-even point is 5373. Once this amount is reached, the number of customers we will achieve profitability.Conclusion: The proposed business model relatively provides a sustainable competitive advantage with low cost, but since resources are available in this area, the threat of new entrants is low and we need to maintain continuous improvement and innovation to keep our market position. With the increasing number of customers, revenues are growing exponentially, while the cost of the project is fixed. So attracting the customers and meeting their demand is very important.Keywords: Canvas business model, Electronic health, Mobile phone, VRISA analysis, Familiarity matrix


Stereo vision is a straightforward approach for 3D information perception. However image correspondence is the most difficulty in real-time applications. In this paper a qualitative 3D scene verification method is proposed. The global correspondence problem is simplified to an optimization for disparity map parameters. The results of fitting provide the camera pose parameters. The obstacles are then detected from the abnormality of disparity. As we known, simple two-dimensional vision based road following methods are not sufficient for Autonomous Land Vehicle (ALV) navigation in complex environments under arbitrary weather and illumination conditions. They can not recognize 3D obstacles efficiently, and may detect the shadow or water on the road as false obstacles. In this paper the novel qualitative stereo-vision method we proposed is designed for real-time obstacle detection on structural roads. The optimal disparity map of the image pair can be easily computed, and it is a linear function on the image plane. Road scene is verified by the optimal disparity map. A morphology procedure is applied for more reliable abnormal-disparity region extraction. These regions are the focus-of-attention parts for following processing, as obstacle avoidance or object recognition. The algorithm is not correspondence related, so it is very efficient and can be implemented in real-time. Experiments show that this approach is simple and robust. Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 16, © 1996 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517


AXS CatalystTM Distal Access Catheter INTENDED USE/INDICATIONS FOR USE The AXS Catalyst Distal Access Catheter is indicated for use in facilitating the insertion and guidance of appropriately sized interventional devices into a selected blood vessel in the peripheral and neurovascular systems. It is also indicated for the removal/ aspiration of soft emboli and thrombi from vessels in the peripheral and neurovasculature.


In the field of autism intervention, a large amount of evidence has demonstrated that parent-mediated interventions are effective in promoting a child's learning and parent caring skills. Furthermore, remote delivery treatments are feasible and can represent a promising opportunity to reach families at distance with positive results. Recently, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 dramatically disrupted intervention services for autism and forced an immediate reorganization of the territory services toward tele-assisted intervention programs, according to professional and local resources. Our study aimed to conduct a retrospective pilot exploratory investigation on parental compliance, participation, and satisfaction in relation to three different telehealth intervention modalities, such as video feedback, live streaming, and psychoeducation, implemented in the context of a public community setting delivering early autism intervention during the COVID-19 emergency. We found that parents who attended video feedback expressed the highest rate of compliance and participation, while parental psychoeducation showed significantly lower compliance and the highest drop-out rate. Regardless of the tele-assistance modality, all the participants expressed satisfaction with the telehealth experience, finding it useful and effective. Potential benefits and advantages of different remote modalities with reference to parent involvement and effectiveness are important aspects to be taken into account and should be further investigated in future studies.


Because of agriculture?s direct link to global food security, it is strategically important. This research recognizes the importance of a paradigm shift from subsistence to commercial agriculture for East Africa to advance this strategic importance. This shift has particularly had significant impact on the poultry industry. In East Africa, commercial poultry farming has steadily taken root over the last decade albeit the challenge of inadequate farm management competences among farmers which has been aggravated by lack of systems and approaches to enhance effective and efficient decision making among poultry farmers in the region. The focus of this study therefore is how decision processes of poultry farmers can be enhanced so that they are able to efficiently monitor and manage their operations as they seek to take advantage of the trend of commercialisation of the poultry industry. This paper explores the decision making practices of poultry farmers with an aim of enhancing these decisions for improved productivity of poultry farms in the region. The key research question this study seeks to address is: How can decision making among poultry farmers in East Africa be enhanced?


Among the antitumor drugs, bacterial enzyme L-asparaginase has been employed as the most effective chemotherapeutic agent in pediatric oncotherapy especially for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Glutaminase free L-asparaginase producing actinomycetes were isolated from soil samples collected from Egypt. Among them, a potential culture, strain NEAE-119, was selected and identified on the basis of morphological, cultural, physiological, and biochemical properties together with 16S rRNA sequence as Streptomyces olivaceus NEAE-119 and sequencing product (1509 bp) was deposited in the GenBank database under accession number KJ200342. The optimization of different process parameters for L-asparaginase production by Streptomyces olivaceus NEAE-119 using Plackett-Burman experimental design and response surface methodology was carried out. Fifteen variables (temperature, pH, incubation time, inoculum size, inoculum age, agitation speed, dextrose, starch, L-asparagine, KNO3, yeast extract, K2HPO4, MgSO4·7H2O, NaCl, and FeSO4·7H2O) were screened using Plackett-Burman experimental design. The most positive significant independent variables affecting enzyme production (temperature, inoculum age, and agitation speed) were further optimized by the face-centered central composite design-response surface methodology.


We consider a one‐dimensional contact problem in linear thermoelastic diffusion theory. The coupled system of equations consists of a hyperbolic equation and two parabolic equations. This problem poses new mathematical difficulties due to the nonlinear boundary conditions. The existence of a weak solution is proved by the use of Sobolev's basic space energy arguments. Moreover, we show that the weak solution converges to zero exponentially as time goes to infinity.


INTRODUCTION
This study examines the care experience of obstetric patients within the Military Health System and compares them to those of medical and surgical care patients. Specifically, the study seeks to (1) examine how obstetric inpatient experience ratings differ from medical and surgical inpatient experience ratings, (2) understand specific aspects of care that drive overall experience ratings within this population, (3) test whether adherence to nursing practices such as hourly rounding and nurse leader visits affect experience ratings, and (4) describe ways that patient experience information can be presented to healthcare providers to improve performance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data for this study include Military Health System patient experience survey data (based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) collected from 2011 through 2019. Analysis includes data collected from 338,124 patients aged 18 years and older. Our analysis involved z-test comparisons of patient experience measure scores, trend analysis, logistic regression-based driver analysis, and correlations.

RESULTS
Obstetric ratings are generally lower than those of medical and surgical patients; however, they have been improving at a slightly faster rate year over year. Effective nurse communications with patients are a particularly strong driver for improving their overall care experiences, and practices like hourly nurse rounding, nurse leader visits, and nurse-patient shift change conversations are positively correlated with obstetric patient experience ratings.

CONCLUSIONS
This study contextualizes how obstetric inpatient experience ratings differ from those of medical and surgical care patients. Healthcare administrators and policymakers should be aware that obstetric patients may have unique needs and expectations that lead to patient experience ratings differing from those of medical and surgical patients. Effective nurse-patient communications, hourly rounding, nurse leader visits, and nurse-patient shift change conversations could be strategies used to improve obstetric experience ratings.


Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) involves multiple organs, but little is known about bone marrow (BM) alterations caused by cGVHD. In mice and humans, we found that cGVHD is associated with BM fibrosis resulting in T cell infiltration, IgG deposition, and hematopoietic dysfunction. Macrophages and Nestin+ mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) participated in the process of BM fibrosis during BM cGVHD development. BM macrophage numbers were significantly increased in mice and humans with BM fibrosis associated with cGVHD. Amplified macrophages produced TGF-β1, which recruited Nestin+ MSCs forming clusters, and Nestin+ MSCs later differentiated into fibroblasts, a process mediated by increased TGF-β/Smad signaling. TLR4/MyD88-mediated activation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in macrophages is associated with fibrosis by increasing Nestin+ MSC migration and differentiation into fibroblasts. Depletion of macrophages by clodronate-containing liposomes and inhibition of ER stress by 4-phenylbutyric acid reversed BM fibrosis by inhibiting fibroblast differentiation. These studies provide insights into the pathogenesis of BM fibrosis during cGVHD development.


Background and objective: Stroke is an increasing problem in developing countries and is the principal cause of disability and dependency in the western world. This study aimed to find out the one- and six-month case fatality, dependency and recurrence rates of stroke in Erbil teaching hospitals.
Methods: This hospital-based prospective study included 293 stroke patients hospitalized in Erbil teaching hospitals from January 1st, 2015 through December 31st, 2015. Stroke was diagnosed by a consultant internist or neurologist and confirmed by brain CT-scan and/or MRI. Patients were followed-up for six months, then one- and six-month outcomes were measured including case-fatality, dependency and recurrences rates.
Results: The one and six month case fatality rates were 28.3% and 37.5%, respectively. The rates in females (33.3%, 42.6%, respectively) were higher than that in males (23.7%, 32.9%, respectively), but there was no significant association between case-fatality rate and gender. A total of 74.3% and 45.4% of patients at one- and six-month were functionally dependent. The majority (88.9%) of diabetic patients were functionally dependent. Also, the one and six month recurrence rates of stroke patients were 15.7% and 23.2%, respectively. For both one and six month post stroke more recurrence occurred from ischemic (16.2%, 14.3%, respectively) than from hemorrhagic (24.5%, 19.5%, respectively) strokes, but there was no significant association between the recurrence and stroke subtype (P = 0.691, P = 0.367, respectively).
Conclusion: The reported outcomes are relatively comparable to that reported in other developing countries, although it is still more than the rates of developed countries. Outcome measures can help to give information and develop guidelines for clinical practice and research.


This guide summarizes the many resources available to help first year law students understand the concepts being taught in FIU College of Law foundation curriculum courses.


Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been proposed as a key role leading to the progressive tubulo-interstitial fibrosis (TIF). The tubular EMT is an highly regulated process involving four key steps including: loss of epithelial cell adhesion, de novo smooth muscle actin expression and actin reorganization, disruption of tubular basement membrane,and enhanced cell migration and invasion. These crucial processes are closely connected to the relative actions on many signaling pathways in EMT. Additionally, increasing evidences suggest that some Chinese herbal medicines and their extracts, such as Astragali Radix, Cordyceps, Salvia miltiorrhiza, as well as Chinese. herbal prescriptions including Astragalus Angelica mixture and Supplementing Qi and activating blood circulation decoction, could intervene the related events controlling EMT both in vitro and in vivo. Chinese herbal medicines could ameliorate TIF by intervening the course of EMT.


In this work, a new methodology based on a mixed integer linear programming formulation is proposed to solve the optimal charging coordination of electric vehicles (EVs) in unbalanced electrical distribution systems (EDS) considering vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. The steady-state operation of the EDS is represented using the real and imaginary parts of voltages and currents at nodes and circuits respectively. Distributed generation (DG) and the imbalance of the system circuits and loads are taken into account. The developed method defines an optimal charging schedule for the EVs. This charging schedule considers the EVs' arrival and departure times and their arrival state of charge, along with the energy contribution of EVs equipped with V2G technology. The presented formulation was tested in a 123-node distribution system. The charging schedule obtained was compared in terms of V2G and DG scenarios, demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed method.


Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) might be the first modern critical church historian. If, as Anthony Grafton believes, Bayle's idiosyncratic use of the footnote is key to the development of our discipline, then Bayle's work on church history is crucial to the history of church history. Anthony Grafton, in Footnote (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), wrote that "Bayle arrived at his new method of citation after engaging in sustained reflection and debate. Footnotes mattered to him—mattered enough not only to be compiled with endless energy and laced with sardonic humor, but also to the object of serious epistemological effort" (211). If Grafton is right, then Bayle is tremendously important to us, and Barbara Sher Tinsley has given us a strong foothold toward understanding this forefather of our profession. Tinsley deserves great praise for writing a deep trench-work study that will long be valuable as a resource on the beginnings of Reformation scholarship. Bayle is not easy to read. His discursive footnotes are often longer and more involved than his text. This means the reader, in effect, has to follow multiple entwined lines of argument at the same time. Tinsley has done an excellent job of sorting the strands of seventeenth-century historiography while sifting through more recent scholarship on the same subjects. Her book, in effect, is a running engagement with Bayle's own running engagement with Reformation historians. Tinsley analyzes fourteen of Bayle's biographical sketches of reformers while offering a window into the way the seventeenth century was trying to understand the sixteenth. Tinsley wrestles with a hard subject, and the result of her work is important to the understanding of the history of church history.


Sewage sludge application in agriculture is the simplest method of its management. Its content of organic and inorganic toxic components is a barrier to such management. Particular attention should be paid to the content of heavy metals whose presence in sewage sludge and later in soil poses hazard for plants, animals and people. The investigations aimed to determine the effect of vermicomposts obtained from tannery sludge on development of the root system and biomass of shoots as well as heavy metal concentrations in these organs. In the first year after the vermicomposts application their effect on the maize biomass increase was equal to the farmyard manure treatment but significantly worse than the mineral fertilization. The consecutive fertilizer effect of vermicomposts of tannery sludge ted on the increase in biomass of the shoots and roots of winter rape, sunflower and oats was comparable with the farmyard manure effect but notably better than the mineral fertilization. Heavy metal concentrations in individual plants were diversified; in the plants from vermicompost treatment they were as a rule lower than in the plants from mineral or farmyard manure treatment. Absorbed heavy metals accumulated primarily in the root systems, whereas the extremely high chromium content in vermicomposts did not cause its excessive accumulation in the cultivated plants.


"Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East" is a new two-volume A-to-Z reference to the history and culture of the peoples of Africa and the Middle East. This fascinating resource includes about 1,400 entries on the major peoples that have maintained a cultural identity in the area - from ancient to modern times - summarizing their history, migration, culture, belief system, social organization, and relationship to other peoples. Students will find entries on the Assyrians and the Asante, as well as entries on 'Iraqis: nationality' and 'Ghanaians: nationality', describing who they are today with cross-references to the various ancestral peoples.It includes: Armenians; Bantu; Berber; Dinka; Egyptians; Fulani; Greeks; Hittites; Iraqis: nationality; Jews; Khoikhoi; Kurds; Ottoman; Persians; Phoenicians; and, South Africans: nationality.


The Internet and Web pervasiveness are changing the landscape of several different areas ranging from information gathering/managing and commerce to software development. This paper presents a case study where time series were adopted to forecast future Web site access. In order to measure the applicability of time series to the prediction of Web site accesses, an experimental activity was performed. The log-access file of an academic Web site (http://www.ing.unisannio.it) was analyzed and its data used as test set. The analyzed Web site contains general information about the Faculty of Engineering of University of Sannio at Benevento (Italy). Preliminary results were encouraging: the average number of connections per week could be predicted with an acceptable error.


Tracking moving objects in video sequence is an important problem in computer vision, with applications in several fields, such as video surveillance and target tracking. As the shadows attached along with the moving object also have the same motion that of objects, the detection of shadows as foreground objects is very common and produce large errors in object localization and recognition. This paper introduces an effective method which uses the edge information to detect moving cast shadows for traffic sequences. The proposed method initially removes the boundary of the cast shadow, preserving object's interior edges. The coarse object shapes are then reconstructed using the object interior edges. Finally, the cast shadow is detected by subtracting the reconstructed moving object from the change detection mask. The method is implemented and tested using three benchmark videos. The efficiency of the proposed method is compared with five other popular shadow detection methods and the results proved its superiority over others. Keywords—Saliency region extraction; visual attention; visually impaired people; saliency map; saliency cut; image enhancement;


Presented is the methodology of managing researchers' bibliographies within the COBISS.SI system. A research classification scheme is used for unique identification of researchers. It is through this classification scheme that links are made to official records of the Slovenian Research Agency, containing information on researchers and developers, and to the Slovenian Current Research Information System (SICRIS). Researchers' bibliographies are created in the shared cataloguing process; for sorting of bibliographic items, however, the use of a uniform methodology of documents/works is mandatory. The correctness of whether bibliographic units are sorted by formal criteria or not is checked automatically. Compliance of scientific publications classification by content criteria is evaluated by Central Specialised Information Centres (CSICs) according to scientific disciplines. Researchers' bibliographies are generated from records in the COBIB.SI shared bibliographic database. The categorisation of bibliographic units in terms of their importance is dependent on the criteria of the institution evaluating the efficiency of a researcher, and these criteria might be different from those for the Slovenian Research Agency and universities.


Novel methods of switching magnetism with electric fields and vice versa, and aiming at magnetoelectric (ME) data processing are reported. The patented MERAM uses the electric field control of exchange bias via an epitaxial Cr2O3 layer and exchange coupling to a Pt/Co/Pt trilayer. It promises to crucially reduce Joule energy losses. Magnetic switching of the electric polarization in a 3-1 composite of a vertically poled BaTiO3 thick film embedding CoFe2O4 nanopillars by a transverse magnetic field produces a regular surface polarization pattern with rectangular symmetry. Its possible use for data processing is discussed.


The aim of this research is to look at how the recent economic crisis, which was so strong that its consequences are still apparent nearly six years later, impacted Poland, which has been resilient to it compared with other economies, and what role was played by Poland's internationalization or its openness. The approach involves a detailed analysis of not only such staple macroeconomic variables as gross domestic product and changes in the trade structure but also of such openness factors as shifs in inward foreign direct investment across industries and the changes (for example, employment and productivity) seen in multinational firms present in Poland. The main finding is that the openness of the Polish economy allowed it to rake in various benefits after 2007 while not being too exposed to the international arena (for example, membership in the euro zone). Thus, Poland showed a positive balance relating to the impacts on the Polish economy emerging from the crisis.


Fielding's satire on Richardsons's Pamela has survived its model in popularity for obvious reasons: the combination of breezy comedy, knockabout farce, lively narrative and vigorous satire is irresistible. But above all, it is the character of Parson Adams who continues to breathe life into the story, imbued as he is with so much of Fielding's own generosity, humanity and warm-heartedness. Conceived as a literary parody, Joseph Andrews (1742) rises triumphantly above its original purpose as a great novel in its own right. It is paired with the splendidly bawdy (Shamela 1741), another skit on Pamela. The explanatory notes are by Professor A. R. Humphreys. The Everyman edition is recognised as the definitive edition.


The article deals with the preservation of historical and cultural heritage of the Great Patriotic War in the sociocultural aspect of the process of success symbolization. The classification of heritage sites of World War II is based on the type of transferring of the value concepts. An analysis of the complex of monuments located in the Park of the 30th Anniversary of the Victory in Armavir revealed their educational potential, that is regarded as a resource for the stability of the social, cultural and economic development. The authors note that the symbols of success reflected in the historical and cultural heritage are leading the reconstruction of socio-cultural factors of everyday reality.


The creation and expansion of human habitats alters the natural properties of urban soils, not only through direct anthropogenic soil disturbance, but also indirectly through impacts from the anthroposphere. This creates soils that are novel and different to those found in non-urbanised settings. These urban soils are often compacted and degraded and not be suitable for the establishment and growth of deep-rooted tree species that make urban habitats liveable.

In this thesis, I have studied methods to rehabilitate compacted and degraded urban soil to improve the successful establishment and growth of trees planted into those soils by improving key physical and biological properties through tillage and the incorporation of OM amendments. My objectives for the study were:
1. To investigate the effects that the incorporation of organic amendments and tillage have on improving the soil properties of degraded and compacted urban soils and their ability to support improved tree performance.
2. To develop an understanding of the interaction between organic amendments and soil type when improving degraded urban soils.
3. To understand the interaction between tree water strategies in determining tree growth response and levels of water stress in degraded urban soils amended with different organic amendments.

For the first objective, I found that the use of a 'scoop and dump' tillage technique, with the incorporation of organic matter (compost and/or biochar), was effective at improving key physical and biological properties of compacted and degraded urban soils. However, the successful growth of trees in remediated soils was partly determined by the initial site conditions found at each site, and improved tree growth was not always apparent. In both sandy and clay soils, improvements to physical and biological properties, achieved with the use of tillage, were maintained for longer, when organic matter was also incorporated into soils during the tillage. The addition of organic matter improved the biological activity of tilled sand and clay soils, and this may have been a result of improved soil water availability. In addition, I found that there were very few differences in soil and tree growth outcomes between the compost and biochar used in either soil type. Although the incorporation of biochar was effective in the remediation of urban soils, it was no more effective than the incorporation of compost or of compost and biochar combinations. There were no synergistic tree growth benefits from using a combination of compost and biochar.

The second objective of this project was to investigate the interaction between organic amendments and soil types when improving degraded urban soils. The water holding properties of sandy soils were improved with the addition of organic matter where the plant available water content was increased in both a greenhouse pot study and a field study. Alternatively, the plant available water content was decreased in a clay soil amended with organic matter in a greenhouse experiment and unchanged in the clay soils of a field experiment. Although the water characteristics were not changed in the clay soil, tree growth was nevertheless improved due to improvements in other soil hydrological properties achieved with the addition of organic matter. These changes allowed for faster infiltration and decreased the bulk density of the clay soils.

The third objective of this thesis evaluated the interaction between tree water use strategies, soil types and the incorporation of different types of organic matter. Compared to an unamended control, a xeric tree species accumulated more biomass when grown in a sandy soil amended with compost, biochar and a combination of compost and biochar, under both well-watered and water deficit irrigation regimes. There were no biomass changes in the clay soil. There were no differences measured in the growth of the mesic species in either the sand or clay soil or with the compost, biochar or the combination of compost and biochar.

This thesis suggests that while urban soils can be successfully remediated with the application of tillage, the incorporation of organic matter will prolong the benefits achieved by the tillage. However, successful remediation of compacted and degraded urban soils will ultimately depend on applying solutions based on an understanding of existing soil properties and the tree resource acquisition strategies required for a particular site. Management practices utilising the incorporation of organic matter should assess the cost/benefits of different types of organic matter amendments as the outcomes of using different organic matter types may not differ.


Abstract Solutions of Rough Differential Equations (RDE) may be defined as paths whose increments are close to an approximation of the associated flow. They are constructed through a discrete scheme using a non-linear sewing lemma. In this article, we show that such solutions also solve a fixed point problem by exhibiting a suitable functional. Convergence then follows from consistency and stability, two notions that are adapted to our framework. In addition, we show that uniqueness and convergence of discrete approximations is a generic property, meaning that it holds excepted for a set of vector fields and starting points which is of Baire first category. At last, we show that Brownian flows are almost surely unique solutions to RDE associated to Lipschitz flows. The later property yields almost sure convergence of Milstein schemes.


Eu3+-doped GdAlO3 (Eu:GAP) and Gd0.5La0.5AlO3 (Eu:GLAP) perovskite single crystals were successfully grown using the optical floating zone (OFZ) method. The microstructure, optical, photoluminescence (PL) and radioluminescence (under X-ray excitation, XEL) were investigated. Under the PL excitation of 275 nm, obvious emission bands peaking at 556 nm, 592 nm, 617 nm, 625 nm, 655 nm, and 706 nm were demonstrated, which correspond to the 5D0 → 7Fj (j = 0–4) transitions of Eu3+. The grown Eu:GAP single crystal showed a stronger PL intensity compared with that of Eu:GLAP in the red light region. After annealing at 1000 °C for 4 h in weak reductive atmosphere (Ar + 5% H2), a slight redshift and dramatic enhancement of PL and XEL intensity occurred. In addition, Eu:GLAP show a more intense XEL emission than that of Eu:GAP. Considering their different densities, these two kinds of red luminescence phosphors are proposed to be promising in a wide field of X-ray imaging, warm white, or plant lighting, respectively.


This article traces the impact of advocacy organisations which have been established in the UK to represent young people and children who have spent time in public care. Throughout the twentieth century, abuse scandals came to light which exposed structural deficits in the care 'system' and highlighted the vulnerability of young people in the care of the state. Adopting an historical perspective and drawing on interviews with personnel working in the service user-led organisations which emerged in response to these scandals as well as archives, recent literature and policy documents, this paper examines the progress which has been made in giving young people in care a voice and protecting them. The concluding discussion avers that, whilst the initiatives and campaigns of these grassroots organisations have met with some political acknowledgement in each of the countries and there are now good models of empowerment, the direct impact of advocacy organisations is variable and subject to a collocation of factors.


This review provides the available evidence on sexual dysfunctions in India. Most of the studies have concentrated on male sexual dysfunction and hardly a few have voiced the sexual problems in females. Erectile dysfunction (ED), premature ejaculation (PME) and combinations of ED and PME appear to be main dysfunctions reported in males. Dhat syndrome remains an important diagnosis reported in studies from North India. There is a paucity of literature on management issues with an emergent need to conduct systematic studies in this neglected area so that the concerns of these patients can be properly dealt with.


A retrospective study of Johannesburg Hospital records revealed that during a 4-year period (1978-1981) 49 infants who had been born in the Transvaal had presented with symptomatic coarctation of the aorta in the first year of life. The total number of live births for this period was 92,697. This incidence of 0.529 new cases per 1,000 live births, or 1/1,892 births, is three times higher than that observed in a careful study in the USA. The age at presentation and sex ratio were similar to other reported series. There was no definite seasonal incidence. Two of the patients had siblings with coarctation of the aorta. The exact reasons for the unusually high number of cases which occurred in the years 1979 and 1981 (1/1,405 and 1/1,241 live births respectively) could not be determined. It is suggested that it is probably due to a combination of genetic predisposition and as yet unidentified environmental factors.


The present study shows the experimental and modeling results of the cooling system using nanofludic loop thermosyphon. the experimental results show that nanofluid is not effective for small scale cooling system. The heat transfer performance is not much improved with the current small scale loop system comparing with the convectional water based loop system. In this study, various effects of nanofluids such as the concentration, the md of particle, host fluid, and heat capacity and so on were investigated. With nanofluid as the working fluid, the flow instability was improved at a certain concentration.


Temporalis fascia remains the most widespread material for reconstructing the tympanic membrane in tympanomastoid surgery. If total or partial ossicular replacement prostheses are needed or pathology of the eustachian tube causes ventilation impairment, a more rigid transplant material is required. Between 1989 and 1994 perichondrium-cartilage composite grafts were used in a series of 597 cases of tympanomastoid surgery performed at the University ENT Clinic of Würzburg. The graft was taken from the tragus and prepared as a cartilage island with perichondrium attached to one side, the perichondrium-cartilage island transplant (PCI). If reconstruction of the ossicular chain was necessary, glass ionomer cement protheses (IONOS) were used. Closure of the tympanic membrane could be achieved in 90% of all cases. In those cases where ossicular chain reconstruction was postponed to a second procedure, closure of the drum was achieved in 96%. The audiological results of the different type III procedures were evaluated. By using the PCI technique a favorable closure of the air-bone gap to 10-25 dB was achieved, even in cases with advanced ear pathology technique and results are presented in detail.


A digital controller IC for the flyback converter with primary-side feedback is proposed. The controller is used for adapter charger or LED driver applications. To obtain high accuracy for the primary-side feedback, a digital primary-side sensing technology is adopted, which can auto-track the knee point of the primary auxiliary winding voltage. Furthermore, an internal digital compensator eliminates the need for external loop compensation components while achieving excellent line and load regulation. The controller could output both constant voltage and constant current depending on the load current. Pulse width modulation and pulse frequency modulation are used in constant voltage mode while quasi-resonant control is used in constant current mode. The digital controller is validated by using FPGA.


A high-power liquid dielectric switch is being developed to satisfy the requirements for future directed energy applications. A flowing, high-pressure liquid dielectric was chosen for the design of a megavolt class switch operating at 100 pps. This paper reports on the design philosophy, modeling, and experimental results of a full size, single-shot prototype 250-300 kV concept validation test (CVT) switch which can transfer kilojoules per pulse. Analysis of design criteria and scaling for a compact, 100-pps, kilojoule, high-voltage switch are presented. Optimization studies indicate that a pressure range of 6.9-13.8 MPa (1000-2000 psi) appears to be ideally suited to a flowing dielectric rep-rate switch.


BACKGROUND
Epidural analgesia provides the most effective pain relief in labor, but it is not known if it causes adverse long-term effects. The objective of this study was to assess the long-term effects of two mobile epidural techniques relative to high-dose epidural analgesia in a randomized controlled trial.

METHODS
A total of 1,054 nulliparous women were randomized to traditional high-dose epidural, combined spinal epidural, or low-dose infusion. Women in all groups were followed-up at 12 months postpartum by postal questionnaire to assess long-term symptoms. The primary long-term outcome was backache occurring within 3 months of the birth persisting for longer than 6 weeks. Secondary outcomes were frequent headaches and fecal and urinary stress incontinence.

RESULTS
No significant differences were found in long-term backache after combined spinal epidural or low-dose infusion relative to high-dose epidural. Significantly less headache occurred in combined spinal epidural analgesia than high-dose epidural (OR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.36-0.92), but no difference was found for low-dose infusion. Significantly less fecal incontinence (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.30-0.87) and stress incontinence (OR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.42-1.00) occurred with low-dose infusion.

CONCLUSION
Trial evidence showed no long-term disadvantages and possible benefits of low-dose mobile relative to high-dose epidural analgesia.


Background: Assessing clinical progression and CD4 + level were important in determining the efficacy of  antiretroviral (ARV) and switching to other regimens, especially when viral-load data were not available.  This research aims to assess combination of zidovudine-lamivudine-nevirapine (Co-ZLN) failure using  WHO 2010 criteria on clinical failure (CF) and immunological failure (IF), single or together, to determine  correlation between CF and IF; and to evaluate two failure categories (CF alone and combination of CF-IF)  in making decision to switch to second-line of ARV. Methods: Children at Sanglah General Hospital, who gain initial treatment of Co-ZLN in period of March 2006–March 2013 were selected. Cross sectional study was applied. The ARV response was assessed twice. First period (P1) and second period (P2) of evaluation were conducted after patients received the Co-ZLN at least 6 and 12 months.  Results: Forty five patients were included in this study. After at least 6 and 12 months of therapy, more patients showed IF (10 and 9 children in P1 and P2) than those in CF (4 and 2 patients in P1 and P2). Only one child met to CF-IF category in P2. The low clinical condition (HIV stage 4) did not always associate with deteriorating immunologic marker in the treatment-failure (TF). The patients who fit on CF and CF-IF based decision to switch regimen criteria were different. In resource-limited hospital, CF-IF based decision could give a better picture of patients' condition and be used as an indicator to assess TF compared to single CF criteria.


To our knowledge, until 1988, the year we performed our operation, only six other cases of ischiopagus tripus conjoined twins had been separated in the world. In our case, operated on in October 1988, one twin remained in a vegetative state after an episode of acute and dramatic encephalitis. However, the separation was successfully performed and now, 3 years after the operation, the two continue to live. The particularities of this case and the factors that made the separation successful are reported.


The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will conduct the biggest spectroscopic galaxy survey ever, by detecting the 21 cm emission line of neutral hydrogen (H I) from around a billion galaxies over 3/4 of the sky, out to a redshift of z ~ 2. This will allow the redshift-space matter power spectrum, and corresponding dark energy observables, to be measured with unprecedented precision. In this paper, we present an improved model of the HI galaxy number counts and bias from semi-analytic simulations, and use it to calculate the expected yield of HI galaxies from surveys with a variety of Phase 1 and 2 SKA configurations. We illustrate the relative performance of the different surveys by forecasting errors on the radial and transverse scales of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature, finding that the full 'billion galaxy survey' with SKA2 will deliver the largest dark energy Figure of Merit of any current or future large-scale structure survey.


Tributyltin (TBT) and triphenyltin (TPT) compounds have been widely used as antifouling paint for ship bottoms and fishery firm nets, and they are known to be aquatic environmental contaminants. A survey of the pollution with organotin compounds in fish and shellfish has been carried out for samples (180 samples from 43 kinds) which were collected in the Hokkaido prefecture during the period from February, 1989 to September, 1992. On the other hand, daily intakes of organotin compounds have been investigated using the Market Basket Method. Relatively high concentrations of TBT and TPT were detected from flat fish and shellfish such as Hirame (bastard halibut), Kurogarei (black plaice), Asari (Japanese littleneck), Hokkigai (Japanese surf clam) and Kaki (oyster). The maximum value of TBT in samples was 0.38 microgram/g (for both Asari and Kaki), and TPT was 0.47 microgram/g (Kurogarei). Estimated daily intakes of DBT, TBT and TPT were 0.45 microgram, 2.40 micrograms and 4.11 micrograms, respectively. The values presented in this study were lower in comparison with the acceptable daily intake. It was revealed that the values of the organotin compounds in this study were not so high as to have any efect on human health at the present.


This article analyzes Dietrich von Hildebrand's criticism of amoral sex education, which he regards as misleading and anti-educational in many crucial respects. Its content is misleading, because it separates human sexuality from its inherent connection with married love and thereby fails to do justice to the personal and intimate nature of sexuality. Its reductive and neutralizing approach not only fails to develop young people's capacity for the transcendence implicit in moral agency, it also fails to provide the preconditions for the development of their autheantic subjectivity. Instead of fostering objectivity, critical thinking and autonomy, amoral sex education promotes a normatively closed educational environment that fails to unfold young people's potential for value-response and to contribute to the fulfilling of their human potential in general.


In a recent paper Mr. H. Graham Cannon (1) has presented data on sus ceptibility in amphibian development, some of which are in disagreement with Bellamy's results (2, 3), and has also criticised the application of the physiological gradient conception to the higher animals. In response to inquiry whether the 4 Proceedings of the Royal Society ' were open to us if re-examination of contested points should make further discussion desirable, Dr. E. W. MacBride has very kindly consented to communicate to the Society a statement of our results and our position. We wish to express our appre ciation of this courtesy and of the courtesy of the Royal Society in admitting this communication. During the amphibian breeding season of the present year (1923) we have worked with four genera, Amblystoma tigrinum, Bufo americanus, nigritus, and Rcma pipiens, with reference to the points disputed by Mr. Cannon. The work was in part repetition of earlier work and in part new. The present paper includes results of this work so far as they concern points at issue : we have also taken the opportunity to clear up certain obscurities and to supply certain omissions to which Mr. Cannon has kindly called attention. And finally, in the hope of avoiding to some extent future misunderstanding of our views we have attempted a brief statement of the chief results of the susceptibility method and of the conclusions to which it has led.


The dynamical spin correlation function Sxx(Q, omega ) of dilute antiferromagnet CsCopMg1-pCl3 is analysed using a one-dimensional Ising-like model of S=1/2 with the nearest-neighbour interaction J and the next-nearest-neighbour interaction J'. The authors results reproduce well the experimental results from Nagler et al. (1984). They estimate J'/J approximately 0.1, which is compatible with a previous estimation. Two peaks found at omega approximately J and omega approximately 2J correspond to single soliton excitations and soliton-pair excitations, respectively. The interaction J' over a single Mg2+ ion broadens the peak at omega approximately J. As the temperature is increased, another peak appears at omega approximately 0.


EU negotiations over the first EU-wide investment treaties are held in the absence of a formal negotiating model. And yet, new formulations of old standards underline the shift from old generation agreements and the so-called Member States' 'gold standard' to the nascent 'EU platinum standard'. In this light, the present chapter explores full protection and security, a protection closely affiliated with fair and equitable treatment, and arbitrary or discriminatory treatment and advances some drafting suggestions. Particular attention is paid to protection against investment impairment through arbitrary or discriminatory measures, a standard that it is suggested legal economy could exclude from the scope of future EU treaties. Adopting a broad approach to the study of 'arbitrary or discriminatory measures', the analysis considers occurrences of treaty language that precludes those measures, especially in exceptions clauses, and argues in favour of the inclusion of such language in the EU drafting 'model'.


In this paper, a novel RF-MEMS phase shifter based on a rectangle bridge-like coplanar waveguide (BCPW) structure is proposed. The signal line of the coplanar waveguide (CPW) has symmetrical saw-shaped structures under the MEMS bridges above which covers the BCPW bridge. The CST software is used for the modeling, simulation and optimization the model of phase shifter from 30 to 40 GHz. Simulation and optimization results show that the proposed design with a 35 GHz central resonant frequency has a return loss less than -10 dB within about 2 GHz bandwidth range and for each RF MEMS switch-type bridge, as high as 75 degrees phase shift is realized. Compared with MEMS phase shifters without a BCPW bridge, S11 performance can be improved by up to 10 dB, and interference among the adjacent components can be decreased.


Explores how organizational culture is created, how it impacts and is impacted by the business, and how inclusion and participation become cultural norms. Discusses aspects needed for an inclusive, participative culture in terms of industrial democracy. Then, raises the challenge that evolutionary implementation of participative strategies won't succeed. Concludes that we need to change our fundamental assumptions about human nature, organizational philosophy, and business strategy to self‐organization. Only then will participation work effectively