The purpose of the present investigation is to improve the fatigue strength of a non-load-carrying cruciform fillet welded joint by applying abrasive water jet kinetic energy to the weld toe region. FEM analysis, measurements of residual stress and hardness at toe region and 0-tension fatigue test of the fillet welded joint were performed for analyzing the improvement of fatigue strength. Fatigue failures invariably occurred at toe region. Main results obtained are summarized as follows:(1) Fatigue limit of a water jet treated joint could be improved to about 1.6-2.0 times (180-224 MPa) that of a joint as-welded by suitable water jet treatment (LP-pass number: W07538, W05010, W10038-3, W07538-3, W10038).(2) The reasons for such an improvement are considered to lie in tensile residual stress being decreased ; hardness increased ; and stress concentration decreased at toe region, depending upon the condition of water jet treatment.


High-temperature superconductivity occurs in strongly correlated materials such as copper oxides and iron-based superconductors. Numerous experimental and theoretical works have been done to identify the key parameters that induce high-temperature superconductivity. However, the key parameters governing the high-temperature superconductivity remain still unclear, which hamper the prediction of superconducting critical temperatures ($T_\text{c}$s) of strongly correlated materials. Here by using data-science techniques, we clarified how the microscopic parameters in the $ab$ $initio$ effective Hamiltonians correlate with the experimental $T_\text{c}$s in iron-based superconductors. We showed that a combination of microscopic parameters can characterize the compound-dependence of $T_\text{c}$ using the principal component analysis. We also constructed a linear regression model that reproduces the experimental $T_\text{c}$ from the microscopic parameters. Based on the regression model, we showed a way for increasing $T_\text{c}$ by changing the lattice parameters. The developed methodology opens a new field of materials informatics for strongly correlated electron systems.


WHO WAS `THE FAMOUS MR. BROWN', and why are his parks still so important? Today he is credited with laying out every piece of parkland in Britain, while others accuse him of single-handedly sweeping away all the formal gardens that preceded the Landscape Movement. If he was indeed the greatest of all designers of man-made landscapes, how should we properly understand and appreciate his work and his legacy? In this comprehensive study of the man and his creations, the author follows an introduction to the culture and society of 18th-century England by tracing the rise of the Landscape Movement. He then provides a carefully researched account of Lancelot Brown's humble origins and rising fortunes, his marriage and family, the course of his career and mounting fame and recognition, culminating in his appointment as Master Gardener to George III. `We have reached the peak of perfection', wrote Horace Walpole, `we have given the true model of gardening to the world; let other countries mimic or corrupt our taste.' The idyllic landscapes which surround so many of the great country houses seem to be native English landscape at its best; yet they are not some lucky accident of nature but the result of careful planning, perfect taste and a vast amount of groundwork and planting, shaped by one man's vision. In a unique exploration of Brown's style and techniques, 15 of his major works are described in full and illustrated with original plans, 18th-century pictures and modern photographs. The Gazetteer provides detailed information on all his other estates and their present condition. This important work first appeared in 1985 since when the author has revised the text, now re-set, and updated the Gazetteer. For those whose interests lie in understanding the history of gardening, landscape design or 18th-century society there is much to be found here, but equally this book will sharpen the appreciation of Brown's work for all those who have visited his estates and enjoyed his enduring achievements.


The growing competition among organizations for survival in the market is making every organization towards improving their service quality. To improve service quality the measurement and its subsequent management is essential. The study evaluated the passenger Rail Service quality of Indian Railways on the basis of modified Grönroos Technical and Functional Quality model with modified attributes. This study identified the attributes to evaluate the quality of Railway Passenger Services and develops a comprehensive instrument "RAILQUAL", which can be used by the Railways for collecting feedback from passengers and then to monitor, control and improve the service quality.


Abstract Metamorphosed troctolite cumulates occur interbedded with Mg-rich metagabbros in the Monviso ophiolitic massif; they have developed chloritoid, omphacite, talc and garnet during the eclogitic stage of the Eo-alpine metamorphism. The lack of penetrative deformation in the rocks has made it possible to recognize different microstructural sites of chloritoid growth, in which the chloritoid composition may vary widely and is controlled by the specific inherited chemical domain. The chloritoid compositions are unusually rich in Cr and Mg with large variations in Fe2+/Mg and Cr/AlVI ratio. The Cr/Al ratio in chloritoid is linked to both the Cr value of the primary minerals (i.e. Cr-rich spinels, Cr-end-members in the clinopyroxenes) and a limited redistribution of Cr during metamorphism. The Fe2+/Mg ratio, while being partly affected by bulk composition of the host rocks, also varies between different microstructural sites; the highest ratio is recorded in coronas between clinopyroxene and plagioclase, lower values occurring in coronas between plagioclase and olivine.


Clostridium difficile–associated disease (CDAD) constitutes a large majority of nosocomial diarrhea cases in industrialized nations and is mediated by the effects of two secreted toxins, toxin A (TcdA) and toxin B (TcdB). Key toxin-neutralizing epitopes have been discovered within the carboxy-terminal receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the toxins, which has generated interest in developing the RBD as a vaccine target. The elderly mount an impaired humoral response to C. difficile toxins leading to more severe and recurrent disease; however, it has yet to be determined what underlying mechanisms lead to lower anti-toxin titers, thus higher incidence of severe and recurrent disease. While numerous platforms have been studied, very few data describe the potential of DNA vaccination against CDAD. We immunized C57BL/6 mice with plasmids encoding the RBD from TcdA and TcdB intramuscularly followed by in vivo electroporation. Vaccination induced significant levels of anti-RBD antibodies within the serum and feces that could neutralize toxins in an in vitro cytotoxicity assay. Aged animals had lower endpoint and anti-toxin neutralization titers, but aged mice still elicited functional antibody post vaccination. Both young and aged immunized mice were protected following orogastric challenge with strains of C. difficile spores that were homologous (VPI 10463; n=10/10) and heterologous (hypervirulent UK1; n=4/8) strains to our vaccine antigens. These data demonstrate the robust immunogenicity and efficacy of a TcdA/B RBD-based DNA vaccine in preclinical young adult and aged models of acute toxin-associated disease.


Railway vehicles are generally maintained preventively within certain time periods. Condition based predictive maintenance strategies have a great economic potential so that modern trains are equipped with many sensors in order to perform diagnostics and prognostics of components. Methods for fault detection need appropriate feature subsets in order to achieve small in-sample and out-sample errors. In our case the typical feature selection approach using pure data-driven methods is difficult, as the number of possible feature sets is very large. On the other hand there exists rich domain knowledge and detailed physical models of the mechanical system. The aim is to combine this knowledge with the often used mathematical methods for feature selection for improving classification of cases when a faulty damper is present. Based on the dynamic equations of motion, this paper presents heuristic feature selection via the analysis of transfer functions. We describe several wellknown methods of automated feature selection and a workflow which combines domain knowledge with automated methods. Results show that it is difficult to define features based only on domain-knowledge, but in combination with data-driven techniques good classification performance can be achieved.


Introduction: Chronic conditions of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are associated with a decrease in health-promoting behaviors and require appropriate nursing interventions. Due to limitations of face-to-face education during the COVID-19 pandemic, telenursing can play an essential role in providing education to patients. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of self-care education with telenursing approach on health-promoting behaviors in MS patients.Materials and methods: In this clinical trial, 68 patients of the Jahrom MS Society randomly assigned to intervention (n = 34) and control (n = 34) groups. For patients in the intervention group, educational sessions were held three days a week for six weeks. Data were collected using demographic information and Walker's Health-Promoting Lifestyle questionnaires at two stages before and immediately after the intervention. Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests using SPSS software (Ver. 21).Results: Based on the findings immediately after the intervention, the mean score of HPBs was significantly higher (p = 0.005) in the intervention group (145.38 ± 26.66) than in the control group (129.18 ± 22.35). Significant differences were observed regarding the mean dimensions of nutrition, exercise, health responsibility, and stress management between the intervention and control groups immediately after the intervention (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Based on the findings, self-care education with the telenursing approach was effective on HPBs in MS patients. Therefore, it is recommended to utilize self-care education with the telenursing approach to control effective behaviors in MS patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Multivariate analysis was used to describe the com- position and distribution of vegetation types on the slopes of the volcanoes Tlaloc and Pelado, Mexico. These volcanoes are situated in the transitional zone between the Holarctic and Neotropical floristic regions, which offers a partial explana- tion for the relatively high α and β diversities. Previous research argued that human activities, i.e. burning and graz- ing, rather than abiotic factors, play a major role in determin- ing the distribution and floristic composition of the vegetation. TWINSPAN, Detrended Correspondence Analysis and Ca- nonical Correspondence Analysis were used to test this hy- pothesis. Floristic and environmental data from 138 releves and seven explanatory environmental variables were included: elevation, soil depth, soil moisture, percentage litter cover, percentage cover of bare ground, burning and grazing were included in the analysis. Soil moisture and elevation accounted for ca. 63 % of the residual inertia and none of the remaining explanatory variables proved to be correlated significantly with the first two axes. The present results suggest that burn- ing and grazing operate on a finer scale. In conclusion, soil moisture and elevation are the most relevant variables to explain the distribution of the vegetation under study.


This paper proposes an estimation methodology for Lévy-driven Ornstein– Uhlenbeck processes. The estimation unfolds in two steps, with a least-squares method for a subset of parameters in the first stage, and a constrained maximum likelihood for the remaining diffusion and Lévy distribution parameters. We develop this estimation procedure to demonstrate that the class of mean-reverting Lévy jump processes provides a better fit of the electricity and CO 2 (carbon) market prices. In particular, we describe the dynamics of the fuel-switching price (from coal to gas) when taking into account carbon costs. Several stochastic processes are considered to model the fuel-switching price: (1) the Brownian motion, and (2) Poisson and a panel of Lévy jump processes. The results unambiguously point out the need to resort to jump modeling techniques to model satisfactorily the fuel-switching price. The Gaussianity assumption is also clearly rejected in favor of jump models, especially for pure-jump processes such as Lévy processes.


Werner Wolfgang Rogosinski, or Rogo as he was affectionately called by mathematicians all over the world, was born in Breslau on 24 September 1894. His father was Justizrat Hermann Rogosinski and his mother Helma née Braun. The family came originally from Poland and was clearly musical. Werner's younger brother Kurt became a professional pianist, and Werner himself learnt the piano and the violin as a boy and always enjoyed playing the piano and listening to music. Werner had an orthodox schooling at the Gymnasium of St Maria Magdalena at Breslau from 1900 to 1913. This was a humanistic gymnasium with strong emphasis on Latin and Greek at which Werner excelled. There was little science and the mathematics course contained no calculus but plenty of geometry. Rogo was happy at school and considered that the training obtained there provided an excellent background for a future pure mathematician. He remained all his life strongly opposed to early specialization. Werner's studies at Breslau, Freiburg im Breisgau and finally in Göttingen under Edmund Landau were interrupted by the First World War in which Werner served as a corporal in the medical corps or Sanitäter. He studied pure mathematics with some physics and philosophy but no applied mathematics. He had already at that time the interest in analytical problems and in particular in series, which never left him and where he did research of particular elegance and distinction. His Ph.D. thesis, for which he was awarded the degree on 25 January 1922, solved a very intractable problem, which had puzzled Landau, himself no mean analyst. Rogo did the work in a fortnight and from this time he started being well known in the mathematical world.


The use of remote sensing images from various sensors is supposed to be able to improve classification accuracies. In this paper, a multiple classifiers system is adopted to fully utilize the complementary information among different data sources. A weighting policy may be applied to fuse knowledge acquired by classifiers according to their classification performances. Based on the past researches, there are some kinds of complex relationship among the classifiers' outputs. It is believe that the classification accuracy will be further improved if these relationships could be modeled properly. Therefore, a neural decision maker is proposed to express their relationships and to determine their weights among classifiers' outputs. Another type of the multisource classifier, neural networks approach, is also introduced. The classification performances of utilizing various multisource classifiers, i.e. neural network approach, multiple classifiers systems weighted by y the conventional Bagging and Boosting algorithms and the proposed method, to the application of multisource remote sensing images classification/ data fusion are demonstrated and compared. Experimental results show that both the neural networks approach and multiple classifiers system can dramatically improve the classification accuracy. In addition, the classification performance of the proposed method is better than that of using neural networks approach. Moreover, the proposed method outperforms the multiple classifiers systems weighted by the conventional Bagging and/ or Boosting algorithms.


The ability to detect and accurately estimate the strength of interaction effects are critical issues that are fundamental to social science research in general and IS research in particular. Within the IS discipline, a large percentage of research has been devoted to examining the conditions and contexts under which relationships may vary, often under the general umbrella of contingency theory ( McKeen, Guimaraes, and Wetherbe 1994; Weill and Olson 1989). In our survey of such studies where such moderating variables are explored, a majority fail to either detect and/or provide an estimate of the effect size. In cases where effects sizes are estimated, the numbers are generally small. These results have, in turn, led some to question the usefulness of contingency theory and the need to detect interaction effects (e.g., Weill and Olson 1989). This paper addresses this issue by providing a new latent variable modeling approach that can give more accurate estimates of such interaction effects by accounting for the measurement error in measures which attenuates the estimated relationships. The feasibility of this approach at recovering the true effects is demonstrated in two studies: a simulated data set where the underlying true effects are known and a Voice Mail adoption data set where the emotion of enjoyment is shown to have both a substantial direct and interaction effect on adoption intention.


Legal and medical professions are intertwined in an intimate and complex relationship. Medical malpractice arguably constitutes the biggest point of contention between the two professions. While a significant proportion of medical malpractice complaints is not frivolous and is based on appropriate research and screening criteria, most of these complaints are ultimately settled or taken to trial, with a fairly good chance that the outcome will be favorable or at least satisfactory to the involved physician. At times, the legal system fails to "filter out" frivolous cases. Such cases can and at times, do end up in court. Although majority of them are ultimately decided in favor of the defending physician, the emotional anguish and the potential damage to the physician's reputation can be significant. In addition, the spiraling costs of malpractice insurance and the fear of further malpractice insurance rate increases following a legal complaint cause many doctors to engage in costly and sometimes dangerous practice of defensive medicine. Due to the overall magnitude of the malpractice lawsuit misuse and the devastating consequences of such misuse, frustrated physicians have resorted to initiating countersuits in response to abusive and frivolous lawsuits. This review presents cases where physicians who were unfairly sued filed successful countersuits against the plaintiff's attorneys. A review of relevant medical and legal literature is also included. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Interpersonal skills and communication, Practice based learning and improvement, Professionalism. Republished with permission from: Dippolito A, Braslow B, Lombardo G, Hoddinott KM, Nace G, Stawicki SP. How David beat Goliath: History of physicians fighting frivolous lawsuits. OPUS 12 Scientist 2008;2(1):1-8.


Efforts to develop more efficient multiple hypothesis testing procedures for false discovery rate (FDR) control have focused on incorporating an estimate of the proportion of true null hypotheses (such procedures are called adaptive) or exploiting heterogeneity across tests via some optimal weighting scheme. This paper combines these approaches using a weighted adaptive multiple decision function (WAMDF) framework. Optimal weights for a flexible random effects model are derived and a WAMDF that controls the FDR for arbitrary weighting schemes when test statistics are independent under the null hypotheses is given. Asymptotic and numerical assessment reveals that, under weak dependence, the proposed WAMDFs provide more efficient FDR control even if optimal weights are misspecified. The robustness and flexibility of the proposed methodology facilitates the development of more efficient, yet practical, FDR procedures for heterogeneous data. To illustrate, two different weighted adaptive FDR methods for heterogeneous sample sizes are developed and applied to data.


Preoperative fasting has been a traditional practice for many years to reduce the risk of aspiration while the patient is under general anaesthetic and to eliminate the risk of postoperative nausea and vomiting. Although it is generally accepted that fasting is beneficial, the fasting regimens that patients undergo are not dependent on the individual patient or the timing of their operation.


HOLASOV A M., FIEDLEROV A V., ROUBAL P., PECHA COVA M. (2005): Possibility of increasing natural folate content in fermented milk products by fermentation and fruit component addition. Czech J. Food Sci., 23: 196–201. The possibility of the increase of the natural folate content in fermented milk products by the fermentation process and by the addition of fruit component was evaluated. 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) content was followed after the inoculation of pasteurised milk with the butter starter and the selected strains of Streptococcus thermophilus in combination with Bifidobacterium longum or Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii followed by fermentation at 30°C and 37°C for 12 and 18 h. 5-MTHF was determined by HPLC method after deconjugation with hog kidney conjugase and SPE SAX purification. The highest 5-MTHF content increase of 4.03 ± 0.44 µg/100 g was found at cofermentation with Streptococcus thermophilus No. 144 and Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii No. 160 at 37°C after 12 h of fermentation. 9 commercial fruit components used in dairy industry contained between 0.17–9.11 µg 5-MTHF/100 g. The components produced with pineapple, sour cherry, apricot, and apple contained low amounts of 5-MTHF – less than 1 µg/100 g. Among the rest of the components tested, the strawberry component proved to be the best source of folate with the content of 9.11 µg 5-MTHF/100 g. The values in 7 varieties of fresh fully ripe strawberries fluctuated between 25.5 and 54.0 µg/100 g fresh sample, i.e. 272 and 554 µg/100 g dry matter with the highest content found in the varieties Elsanta and Honeyoe. Fully ripe berries of the variety Senga Sengana contained by 63% more 5-MTHF in comparison with unripe berries. In order to reach maximum folate content in the fruit component, fully ripe strawberries of the cultivars Elsanta and Honeyoe are recommended for the processing. The folate content in the fermented milk product may be increased in this way by 4.8 µg/100 g, with 69% originating from the fermentation and 31% from the fruit component addition.


Background and objectives: Lack of proper management, increasing waste production and non-normative disposal of waste in addition to misspend the national capital, cause loss of precious natural resources. To address this problem we need a coherent and dynamic management program. The goal of this project is to reduce environmental pollution, cost saving, promoting citizen participation, revenue and reduce land loss. Methods: In this study, check lists, interviews and field report were used to collect data at period of one year. To determine the waste components, sampling technique was used then sampling data was imported into Excel software and was analyzed. Results: At the beginning of the project, the average per capita of generated waste was 580 g/day and at the end of the project will 660 g/day. The waste materials determined as 66.8 putrescible, 4.3 paper and cardboard, 7.2 plastic, 2.3 glass, 2 textiles, 0.2 metals, 1.6 wood, and also, hospital waste was equal to 4400 Kg. According to estimates made annual cost of solid waste management services per capita in Qom is 70 Rial and the cost of collection, transportation, separation and disposal of garbage for every Kilogram per day is 280 Rial. Conclusion: Amount of waste per capita in Qom was less than of Tehran, Delijan and Mallayer cities, and more than Esfahan and Kashan cities. Hospital waste was desirable as compared to the average of Iran.


THIRD POWER: NEUTRAL ONE Summary The issues discussed in the article cover six areas: a/ law-based state and the division of power, b/ division of power in the doctrine, c/ division of power in Polish constitutionalism, d/ normative classification of constitutional authority, e/ the political power, opposition power and neutral power, f/ concluding remarks. The aim of the article is to present the arguments for "neutral power" as the creative factor indispensable in the proper functioning of the law-based state. Within Montesquieu tripartite classification, "neutral power" entailes the nessesity to restracture juridical power so thet it will include financial control, constitutional bank control as well as ombudsmen. Accepting the division into ruling power and opposition power, "neutral power" (including the judiciary and the ombudsmen) indicates the kind of power Montesquieu advocated, trough in its more prominent role of the mediator between the powers. "Neutral power", described in these terms, ought to be independent of the remaining powers through the system of internal elections to all the posts, performer by the Supreme Court representatives. Judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Ombudsman or the Cheef of Governmenmt Inspectorate ought to be elected by the Supreme Court Judges.


Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held at the PNLebedev Physical Institute RAS on 2 October 1996. It marked an occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Academician V L Ginzburg's birth. Nine reports were presented at this session: (1) Opening address of L V Keldysh as the AcademicianSecretary of the Division of General Physics and Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences; (2) A F Andreev (P L Kapitza Institute of Physical Problems RAS, Moscow) ``Bose condensation and spontaneous distortion of the time homogeneity'' (3) E L Feinberg (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ``Special theory of relativity: how good-faith delusions come about''; (4) R M Arutyunyan, V L Ginzburg, G F Zharkov (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ``On the `giant' thermoelectric effect in a hollow superconducting cylinder''; (5) A V Gurevich, K P Zybin, V A Sirota (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ``Cold dark matter and microlensing'' (6) V V Zheleznyakov (Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhni|̄Novgorod) ``Astrophysical plasma in extreme conditions''; (7) B M Bolotovski|̄, A V Serov (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ``On the transient radiation interference with the proper field of an emitting charge''; (8) E G Maksimov (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ``Extreme evidences of lacking the strong changecorrelation effects in HTSC systems''; (9) M A Vasil'ev (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ``Gauge theories of highest spins''. An abridged version of papers No 3, 4, and 6 is given below.


Recent directions in automatic speech recognition (ASR) research have shown that applying deep learning models from image recognition challenges in computer vision is beneficial. As automatic music transcription (AMT) is superficially similar to ASR, in the sense that methods often rely on transforming spectrograms to symbolic sequences of events (e.g. words or notes), deep learning should benefit AMT as well. In this work, we outline an online polyphonic pitch detection system that streams audio to MIDI by ConvLSTMs. Our system achieves state-of-the-art results on the 2007 MIREX multi-F0 development set, with an f-measure of 83% on the bassoon, clarinet, flute, horn and oboe ensemble recording without requiring any musical language modelling or assumptions of instrument timbre.


Commonly acclaimed for its black humor, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out uses the Buddhist concept of reincarnation to follow two families during the second half of the 20th century. The novel exemplifies the strategies through which Mo Yan transforms the violent and absurd events of recent Chinese history into personal memory of historical trauma. It focuses less, however, on those events per se than on the traumatic effects they create on the individual victims, and on the ways through which personal trauma caused by historical atrocities is addressed and healed. This article analyzes three layers of the novel: the evolving mechanisms of violence that condition the formation of personal trauma; the theatrical manifestation of the state-endorsed violence, and its loss in the post-revolutionary era; and the rationalization of the tragicomic past through the dialectic of remembering and forgetting. Built one on the other, these layers constitute the very dynamic stage on which the individuals interact with the violent and absurd world to negotiate the meaning of their lives, make sense of historical trauma, and insist on driving historical change.


This paper distinguishes between three views of argument: "argument as structure," "argument as confrontation" and "argument as dialogical encounter." Empirical studies of the criteria that examiners bring to the assessment of PhDs are cited. The studies provide evidence that qualities that align one or other of the three modes of argument figure significantly in the criteria that examiners bring to the assessment process. Embedded in the studies are respondents' comments that suggest that the range of conceptions of argument held by PhD examiners is broad. Explicit use of the term "argument" is often made in reference to a minimal concept of argument ¬– "argument as structure." However, the reported comments indicate a significant bias towards qualities associated with concepts of argument that lie somewhere along the spectrum between "argument as confrontation" and "argument as dialogical encounter" as a marker of quality in PhD research. Drawing on the work of Hans Georg Gadamer the paper will explore the possibilities opened up by adopting the view of "argument as dialogical encounter" in the context of the PhD. In particular I consider the issue of how PhD projects be structured so as to support the construction of arguments appropriate to practice based research in design?
 Keywords:
Argument; Gadamer; Hermeneutics; Rigour; Practice Based Research; Phd Examination


Recent developments in image quality, data storage, and computational capacity have heightened the need for texture analysis in image process. To date various methods have been developed and introduced for assessing textures in images. One of the most popular texture analysis methods is the Texture Energy Measure (TEM) and it has been used for detecting edges, levels, waves, spots and ripples by employing predefined TEM masks to images. Despite several success- ful studies, TEM has a number of serious weaknesses in use. The major drawback is; the masks are predefined therefore they cannot be adapted to image. A new method, Adaptive Texture Energy Measure Method (aTEM), was offered to over- come this disadvantage of TEM by using adaptive masks by adjusting the contrast, sharpening and orientation angle of the mask. To assess the applicability of aTEM, it is compared with TEM. The accuracy of the classification of butterfly, flower seed and Brodatz datasets are 0.08, 0.3292 and 0.3343, respectively by TEM and 0.0053, 0.2417 and 0.3153, respectively by aTEM. The results of this study indicate that aTEM is a successful method for texture analysis.


In the mid-1850s, no scientist in the British Empire was more visible than Richard Owen. Mentioned in the same breath as Newton and championed as Britain's answer to France's Cuvier and Germany's von Humboldt, Owen was, as the "Times" declared in 1856, the most 'distinguished man of science in the country'. But a century and a half later, Owen remains largely obscured by the shadow of the most famous Victorian naturalist of all, Darwin. Publicly marginalized by his contemporaries for his critique of natural selection, Owen suffered personal attacks that undermined his credibility long after his name faded from history. With this innovative biography, Nicolaas Rupke resuscitates Owen's reputation. Arguing that Owen should no longer be judged by the evolution dispute that figured in only a minor part of his work, Rupke stresses context, emphasizing the importance of places and practices in the production and reception of scientific knowledge. Dovetailing with the recent resurgence of interest in Owen's life and work, Rupke's book brings the forgotten naturalist back into the canon of the history of science and demonstrates how much biology existed with, and without, Darwin.


A critical review was given to the diagnostic transition of hyperactive children, i.e., from attention deficit disorder to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Based on the new diagnostic criteria for hyperactive children, or hyperkinetic disorders in ICD-10, 12 of 122 (9.8%) children with a birthweight less than 1,500 grams have found to show hyperkinetic disorders during ordinary follow-up examinations at 4 to 6 years of age. Discontinuation of stimulants during school holidays, or the "drug holidays" procedure, was recommended not only because a child's response to stimulants could be reconfirmed but also because the side effect of growth retardation could be avoided. Three typical drug responders with hyperactivity were presented. Case 1 was a 19-year-old male with some autistic features and tics. He had been taking pemoline from 10 to 13 years of age, but showed no side effects. Case 2 was a 15-year-old boy with epileptic EEG abnormalities, and had been also taking pemoline from 6 to 10. He was attacked by a partial seizure with secondary generalization just 2 months after the drug administration. Recurrence of epileptic seizures was prevented by additional medication of an anticonvalsant , carbamazepine. Case 3 was a 13-year-old boy with enuresis nocturna and with several febrile seizures, and had been taking clomipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant, from 4 to 6. The antidepressant proved very effective to his hyperactivity and temper tantrum, but not to his enuresis.


The ability of children to copy a complex figure was investigated by means of the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure and the corresponding methodology. The sample consisted of 420 children (boys and girls) aged 5½ to 12½ years. Responses indicate that the visuomotor ability involved in copying a complex figure increases with increasing age and that girls show significantly better performance than boys during the ages 8½ to 12½ years. The differences in performance can be attributed to differential neuropsychological strategies or functional differences that require further investigation.


As silicon photonics enters mainstream technology, we find ourselves in need of methods to seamlessly transfer light between the optical fibers of global scale telecommunications networks and the on-chip waveguides used for signal routing and processing in local computing networks. Connecting these components directly results in high loss from their unequal sizes. Therefore, we employ a coupler, which acts as an intermediary device to reduce loss through mode and index matching, and provide alignment tolerance. This thesis presents a potential fiber-to-waveguide coupler design for use in integrating such networks. A quadratic index stack focuses incident light from a fiber in one plane, while a planar lens and linear taper do likewise in the perpendicular plane. Once the mode is sufficiently compressed, the light then enters and propagates through the waveguide. We performed simulations using the beam propagation method and finite difference time domain, among other modeling techniques, to optimize coupling efficiency and gain an understanding of how varying certain parameters affects coupler performance. The simulation results were then incorporated into a mask layout for fabrication and measurement. Thesis Supervisor: Lionel C. Kimerling Title: Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering


In spite of existing profuse information regarding hemorrhagic complications of hemophilia, literature is scarce towards the presence of cancer in hemophilia, especially in pediatric patients. There are still many uncertainties concerning these patients' diagnosis and workup. We report here a rare case of two severe aggressive diseases (neuroblastoma and hemophilia A [HA]) concomitantly present in the same pediatric patient. We highlight that the diagnosis of severe HA did not have a negative impact on the patient's oncologic course. This case also illustrates the significance of the enriching cooperation among different specialties and hospitals when caring for the same patient.


The City of Toronto is placing a greater emphasis and priority on the development of "higher-order" public transit operations to respond to increased travel demand in a sustainable fashion. This study is focused on addressing the short-term ten-year needs within the Yonge Street corridor, recognizing the adopted long-term proposal to extend the Yonge Subway. Although extension of the Yonge Subway is in the City of Toronto's long-term plan, the TTC has identified other corridors as priorities for subway extensions. Over the next ten years, significant growth in population north of Steeles Avenue is expected. In order to identify surface transit opportunities for improvements on Yonge Street between Steeles Avenue and Finch Avenue, the City of Toronto, together with the TTC and GO Transit have initiated a Class Environmental Assessment, which is being carried out according to Schedule C. The impact assessment recognized that the preferred alternative should allow for the integration of transit services with the proposed Yonge Street Transitway north of Steeles avenue by York Region. The Study, at the time of writing this paper, has not concluded which approach to implementing surface transit improvements will be used. This paper focuses on the constraints, analyses, and trade-offs between competing objectives that occurred during the development of design concepts, and identify practical lessons and generic conclusions that can be applied to similar studies. The initial screening process of assessment factors revealed that the design alternatives exhibit significant differences in the following assessment factors: transit system performance; disruption of present land use development; traffic infiltration into the adjacent residential neighbourhoods; traffic delay; road safety; access to adjacent businesses; fire, police and emergency services access; and construction cost The procedures applied to quantify the implications of alternative design concepts appear to have been successful in providing reasonable estimates of the potential impacts and communicating these potential impacts in meaningful terms to the various stakeholders.


ABSTRACT Business actors often act in ways that may harm other parties. While the law aims to restrict harmful behavior and to provide remedies, legal systems do not anticipate all contingencies and legal regulations are not always well-enforced. This article argues that the logic of double effect (LDE), which has been developed and deployed in other areas of practical ethics, can be useful in helping business actors decide whether or not to pursue potentially harmful activities in commonplace business activity. The article illustrates how LDE helps to explain the exploitative nature of payday lending, the distinction between permissible and impermissible forms of market competition, and the potential wrong of imposing risk of harm on others. The article also addresses foundational debates about LDE itself. We offer the article as an illustration of the sort of "midlevel" theorizing that can address directly the needs of practitioners.


Effective elastic constants of bone-like biocomposites are investigated numerically. The bone-like materials are composed of strong layers and weak layers, and hierarchically structured. The unit cell model is employed to obtain the effective elastic constants. The effective anisotropic elastic constants of bone-like composites are obtained by using the potential energy method and finite element analysis. The effects of the Poisson's ratio, elastic modulus, hierarchical level, volume fraction and aspect ratio of the strong layer composed of the composites on the effective elastic constants are discussed.


Deep censoring is proposed as a direct method to assess the early reliability of semiconductor products. The method characterizes, in particular, the early part of the failure-time distribution and is described in the context of interconnect reliability and electromigration. In this context, it involves stressing a large number of test lines only long enough for some small number of lines to fail, enough to characterize the percentiles of the failure-time distribution that are of interest. Simulations and other calculations show that this approach offers the benefits of much reduced test times and better confidence in sample estimates of early percentiles and of sigma. It can also be used to detect and characterize extrinsic failure-time distributions. An experimental approach is proposed that uses special test structures with many parallel-running test lines. This makes possible early reliability assessments at the wafer level with a full-wafer testing system.


Noise reduction is an important part of modern hearing aids and is included in most commercially available devices. Deep learning-based state-of-the-art algorithms, however, either do not consider real-time and frequency resolution constrains or result in poor quality under very noisy conditions.To improve monaural speech enhancement in noisy environments, we propose CLCNet, a framework based on complex valued linear coding. First, we define complex linear coding (CLC) motivated by linear predictive coding (LPC) that is applied in the complex frequency domain. Second, we propose a framework that incorporates complex spectrogram input and coefficient output. Third, we define a parametric normalization for complex valued spectrograms that complies with low-latency and on-line processing.Our CLCNet was evaluated on a mixture of the EUROM database and a real-world noise dataset recorded with hearing aids and compared to traditional real-valued Wiener-Filter gains.


The aim of this study was to determine the impact of PNPM on the welfare of people in the rural village of Wasian, Dimembe sub-district, North Minahasa District. Data were collected by interview. To de-termine the sample to be interviewed was used the purposive sampling method. The total samples were 22 respondents. Respondents were interviewed consisted of 17 people who live in the old way and relatively disadvantaged while the rest were those live along the new road which is 5 respondents. Parameter welfare of rural communities in this study are based on two main indicators, namely social welfare and economic prosperity. Social welfare include: (1) physical development component; (2) The opinion consisting of: (a) opinions on the impact of development itself and (b) the opinion on the social aspects in the field of educa-tion, information, sports, and social interaction; and (3) the ownership of the house. Economic wellbeing include: increasing the number of family revenue. The results showed PNPM Rural activities have a positive impact on the welfare aspects in terms of both social and economic. From the social point of view include: physical development component which realized 100% in the implementation of the form of roads, bridges, and culverts. Public perception of the existing development that is increasingly good roads that exist in the construction of roads, reduced flooding in the presence of sewers, the ease of crossing the bridge. In the perception of the aspects of education, school children can use to access to school without using the vehicle / motorcycle. In the aspect of the perception of the information, the public is more easily gain access to the information needed special access to various facilities in the community. In the perception of the sport as-pect, namely, the growing functionality of existing sports facilities around the development. In the perception of the society more active social interaction in the interaction between public and scolds greet-ings.Increasing home ownership and existence as well as family receipts also increased or prosperous.


The paper deals with current state of the treatment options in childhood desmoid tumor (DT). It presents the long-term results of treatment in children with DT in the Republic of Belarus from 1995 to 2013. 40 children were treated, 39 of them underwent tumor excision and 1 -tumor biopsy. Radiotherapy was was conducted upon 14 patients including 6, who underwent radiotherapy with local hyperthermia. Chemotherapy (usually vinblastine + metotrexate) was administrated in 10 cases, 6 of them additionally received tamoxifen. Tamoxifen without chemotherapy was administrated in 4 patients as well. Ten years overall and relapse-free survival rates were 94 and 49% respectively. Our results based on considerable number of patients suggest that radical surgical excision is the method of choice in the treatment of DT patients. Additional chemo, radio as well as hormone therapy could be used in locally advanced and recurrent forms of disease. ( For citation: Ismail-zade R.S., Tarasik A.O., Shimanski A.T., Kochubinski D.V. Desmoid Tumors in Children. Onkopediatria. 2015; 2 (2): 131–138. Doi: 10.15690/onco.v2i2.1344)


Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic and one of the deadliest diseases. Diabetes disease increases the risk of long-term complications, including heart diseases and kidney failures, among others. Undoubtedly, Diabetes Mellitus patients may live longer and lead healthier lives if the disease is detected early. Over the years, several efforts have been on more accurate and early detection procedures to safe patients of Diabetes Mellitus. Interestingly, with the applications of Information Technology to the disease diagnoses and therapy managements, more attention has been on using machine learning in the predictions and early detection of Diabetes Mellitus. Unfortunately, determining the most appropriate machine learning algorithm with the best performance in terms of optimum accuracy still remains a challenge. The study proposes a framework for Diabetes Mellitus detection using Machine Learning Algorithms. The proposed framework was evaluated using K-nearest neighbor (KNN), Random Forest (RF), and Logistic Regression (LR). Extensive experiments were conducted to analyze the performance of the framework focusing on four distinct different clinical datasets. To ensure robust, web compatible framework, Python and its popular data science related packages, Pandas, Numpy, Seaborn, Matplotlib and Pickle were used for the implementation. Significantly, using the standard datasets obtained from the National Institute of Diabetes and Kidney Disease, Random Forest was able to predict Diabetes Mellitus in the datasets with the best accuracy of 93.4 %.


Abstract The research explores Hong Kong students' dispositions towards higher education and employment in relation to understandings of their schooling experiences in English Medium of Instruction (EMI) schools in Hong Kong. The research draws upon Bourdieu's theory of practice, Appadurai's notion of the 'capacity to aspire', and Taylor's concept of 'social imaginary', to help make sense of students' aspirations for the future. Data included observation notes and interview transcripts with members of six focus groups across three distinctive schools in Hong Kong. Analytically, the research shows how aspirational dispositions and logics formed through specific configurations of the broader cultural and social milieu of Hong Kong, middle-class familial practices, non-elite EMI schooling experiences, and the place of English in Hong Kong, were complicit in fostering a sense of ambivalence about the future for these students.


The theory of capital structure and its relationship with a firm's value and performance has been a puzzling issue in corporate finance and accounting literature since the Modigliani and Miller theory (MM) (1958) argue that under the perfect capital market condition which assume that, if without bankruptcy cost and capital markets are frictionless, if without taxes, and without asymmetric information the firm's value is independent from capital structure. According to MM theory, the only variables that determined firm value was its future earnings power (expected cash flow) and hence the capital structure decision is irrelevant. Since that time, several theories have been developed to explain the capital structure of a firm including the Pecking Order Theory, Trade off theory, and the Agency Cost theory. This paper will shed light on the concept of capital structure, its theories and link with firms' performance.


We investigate the ground state phase diagram of square ice — a U(1)
lattice gauge theory in two spatial dimensions — using gauge invariant
tensor network techniques. By correlation function, Wilson loop, and
entanglement diagnostics, we characterize its phases and the transitions
between them, finding good agreement with previous studies. We study the
entanglement properties of string excitations on top of the ground
state, and provide direct evidence of the fact that the latter are
described by a conformal field theory. Our results pave the way to the
application of tensor network methods to confining, two-dimensional
lattice gauge theories, to investigate their phase diagrams and
low-lying excitations.


The presence of an intellectual disability may cause a child to have significant deficits in social skills and emotion regulation abilities across development. A vital next step is to find interventions that can be delivered in the school environment and across disability categories that target socioemotional factors. The current study investigated the feasibility of delivering a school-based musical theater program to students with intellectual disability across a range of school settings. A within-group repeated-measures design was used to analyze pre- and post-video recordings of the intervention program, which were coded for six domains of socioemotional ability across all participants (n = 47). Results showed that significant gains across all domains were observed. However, these gains related to school- and individual-level student factors, such as grade level, severity of disability, and baseline social skill ability.


We study conservative finite-mass corrections to the motion of a particle in a bound (eccentric) strong-field orbit around a Schwarzschild black hole. We assume the particle's mass $\mu$ is much smaller than the black hole mass $M$, and explore post-geodesic corrections of $O(\mu/M)$. Our analysis uses numerical data from a recently developed code that outputs the Lorenz-gauge gravitational self-force (GSF) acting on the particle along the eccentric geodesic. First, we calculate the $O(\mu/M)$ conservative correction to the periastron advance of the orbit, as a function of the (gauge dependent) semi-latus rectum and eccentricity. A gauge-invariant description of the GSF precession effect is made possible in the circular-orbit limit, where we express the correction to the periastron advance as a function of the invariant azimuthal frequency. We compare this relation with results from fully nonlinear numerical-relativistic simulations. In order to obtain a gauge-invariant measure of the GSF effect for fully eccentric orbits, we introduce a suitable generalization of Detweiler's circular-orbit "red shift" invariant. We compute the $O(\mu/M)$ conservative correction to this invariant, expressed as a function of the two invariant frequencies that parametrize the orbit. Our results are in good agreement with results from post-Newtonian calculations in the weak field regime, as we shall report elsewhere. The results of our study can inform the development of analytical models for the dynamics of strongly-gravitating binaries. They also provide an accurate benchmark for future numerical-relativistic simulations


In Wireless Sensors Networks (WSNs), energy efficiency is an important topic. To prolong the lifetime and achieve effective geographic routing, we apply a sparse number of anchors and color theory to estimate location of sensor nodes. In this paper, we modify the election of relay node which differs from Color-theory-based Energy Efficient Routing (CEER) algorithm. This approach can reduce the transmission cost of cluster head such that an energy-saving routing is created. Simulation results show our proposed Color-theory-based Geographical Energy Efficient Routing (CGEER) algorithm can reduce the cost of cluster head transmission and achieve efficiency energy networks.


In this paper, we propose a new search technique for ATPG, called CONCAT [1], which (a) is based on AND/OR reasoning, (b) integrates conflict driven learning, and (c) avoids over specification of test vectors. The technique works seamlessly (i) between Boolean and non-Boolean gates in industrial designs, (ii) across phases in latch-based designs, (iii) between justification and propagation tasks in sequential ATPG, and (iv) across faults in the fault list. Experimental results on combinational ISCAS circuits against SAT-based ATPG, show that we can reduce the test vector specification by upto 74%, with consistent improvement in performance and capacity. We integrated the CONCAT technique into Intel's existing ATPG tool, called Aztec, and obtained upto 67% speed-up and upto 14% more ATPG effectiveness on industrial designs.


Despite the importance of the liver segmentation in the medical images for efficient noninvasive diagnosis, few studies found in the literatures for fully automated methods for liver segmentation in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) compared to that in Computed Tomography (CT) scans. Motivated by this, we propose an adaptive fully automatic liver segmentation method for MRI images based on thresholding and Bayesian classification. Bayesian classifications have proved to be highly robust to various image degradations. It only requires a small amount of training data to estimate the parameters necessary for classification, which is a huge advantage in medical applications. Furthermore, the Bayesian model is robust when large uncertainties are involved in medical image analysis problems. The proposed method is successfully tested on many MRI cases acquired from different patients, in various sizes. Experiments proved the robustness of the proposed liver automatic segmentation process even on data from different scanner types. The segmentation accuracy of the model has a mean Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 95.5% for MRI datasets.


Home networks is a network composed of devices in home and is being expanded by evolving devices. Also, The number of digital contents in home network has been increasing steadily. But it is difficult to continually protect the rights of digital contents due to lack of interoperability among contents devices. Besides, a license has to be re-issued by DRM sever for contents transfer between devices. Thus, this paper proposes framework which can freely transfer the contents to another device through mutual device authentication and a system that can decrease overload of license management of the DRM server and that enable users outside home network to use contents through user authentication.


This paper analyses the theme of mutual female bonding of black women in Toni Morrison's novel Love (2003). Sisterhood might be a weapon against alienation experienced by black women created by various factors as racial, gender and class injustices. However, this female friendship of black women in Morrison suffers a serious setback and changes into an alienated relationship in the long run because of powerful temptations under the canopy of the patriarchal structure of marriage and class strata. While highlighting the healing power of female companionship which may allow women to survive in the face of challenges and injustices, this study brings forth an argument that this female friendship is ultimately damaged by explicit or implicit patriarchal forces working under the platform of social institutions of marriage and class. Through this failed female friendship, Morrison warns her female readers to be on guard against the omnipresent fatal patriarchal forces in operation against them.


The aim of this study was to examine the differences in the major external features and body weight of some common lizards from two locations. Ten samples each of the male and female rainbow lizard ( Agama agama africana ) and wall gecko ( Hemidactylus frenatus ) were purchased from Itoku market in Abeokuta, Ogun state as well as Bode market in Ibadan, Oyo state. Morphometric parameters such as the forelimb length, hindlimb length, tail length, head length, body length and total length were measured. It was observed that the body lengths of both male and female Agama lizards showed significant difference at (P< 0.05) in terms of location- the male and female Agama lizards in Abeokuta was longer in body length than those from Ibadan. In wall geckos, it was observed that the length of the forelimb was significantly different at (P< 0.05) while the hindlimb length, head length and body length showed significant difference at (P< 0.01) in terms of location. However, there was no significant difference in the body weights of the male Agama, female Agama and wall gecko from the different locations at both (P< 0.01) and (P< 0.05) significant levels although mean values showed that the weights of the male and female Agama lizards in Abeokuta was more than that of Ibadan while the mean values of the wall gecko from both locations was the same. Keywords: Morphometrics, Lizards, Comparative assessment, Ibadan, Abeokuta


Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a serious condition secondary to John Cunningham virus (JCV) infection derived from an innate or acquired cellular immunity deficiency. We present the first reported case in Latin America of PML associated with Natalizumab (NZB) in a patient with a diagnostic of relapsing - remitting multiple sclerosis, who entered the emergency room with progressive cognitive, behavioral, motor and language impairment. Neuroimaging performed with magnetic resonance imaging was suggestive of PML. Polymerase chain reactions in cerebrospinal fluid for JC virus were conducted twice with negative results. Finally the diagnosis was confirmed by in situ hybridization technique on brain biopsy. This report is made in order to highlight the importance of clinical and paraclinical monitoring in patients with multiple sclerosis receiving NZB.


Churchill's wartime comment on the Soviet Union (British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast, London, 1st October 1939) could equally be applied to Ménière's disease. The cause of Ménière's disease still remains an enigma, despite some 157 years since Prosper Ménière's original observations in 1861. In this month's issue of The Journal of Laryngology & Otology, Jeremy Hornibrook postulates a saccular otoconial theory for Ménière's disease. In that article, evidence that Ménière's disease is caused by detached saccular otoconia is presented. It is hoped that as the resolution of inner-ear imaging in human ears advances, further progress will be made in elucidating the exact pathophysiological mechanism of Ménière's disease. Also in this month's issue, Puttasiddaiah and Browning describe a novel technique of using piezo surgery to remove external auditory canal exostoses. The authors propose that such a technique lessens the risk of injury to surrounding structures. The article follows the use of the ultrasonic bone aspirator for temporal bone dissection, which similarly reduces injury to surrounding structures and can be utilised endoscopically. If the safety profile of this technique is indeed demonstrated over time, then it offers the potential for simultaneous bilateral surgery to be performed in the future, thereby reducing the recovery time for patients with bilateral exostoses. A study by Siupsinskiene et al. in this month's issue of The Journal examines the relationship between intranasal Helicobacter pylori infection and nasal polyps. This work follows their previous study published last year, which demonstrated an association between H pylori infection and chronic tonsillitis and laryngopharyngeal reflux. In this latest study, the authors found a higher rate of H pylori carriage in the nasal polyp patients compared with controls (28.9 per cent vs 3.3 per cent; p = 0.005). Further work is required to determine whether H pylori is simply an 'innocent bystander' colonising the upper airway preferentially in nasal polyp patients (e.g. chronic inflammation of the sinonasal mucosa may create a more suitable environment for the bacterium to survive), or whether there is indeed a causal relationship between H pylori intranasal colonisation and sinonasal disease.


INTRODUCTIONOne of the major problems of modern philology involves the study of the dialogical nature of artistic discourses and the processes of their creation and perception, understanding the causes of redundancy works of art. This problem is studied in research in various aspects: structural-semiotic (Barthes R.L, 1985, p.368), psychoanalytic (Lacan J. Ecrits, 1966, p.924), cultural (Foucault M. L, 1976, p. 275), etc. However, in the modern post non-classical scientific paradigm, the study of emergent, redundant nature of journalistic discourse is possible from the standpoint of convergent methodology, which involves the justification of the multidisciplinary theoretical approaches and specific methodological techniques to examine the potential inexhaustibility of discursive practices. The convergent approach allows us to prove, first of all, the reasons for the formation of the potential redundancy of discourse. For clarification of these reasons, it is advisable to rely on methodological principles of the theory of reflection, the concept of the unconscious and synergy.METHODSTraditional, classic paradigm of literary criticism has been focused on the study of conscious poetic construction of the text. Non-classical paradigm shifts the emphasis of the reader who designs the text itself in accordance with the content of its shortcut potential. In the result the concept of literary discourse was formed. This installation that reveals the dialogic nature of discourse, became the basis for understanding the effect of its emergence. The study of the redundancy of the text - the focus of modern methods and techniques: New criticism (Brooks C., 1987, p. 82), Deconstruction (Derrida J., 1976, p. 396), Receptive aesthetics (Iser W., 1970, p. 38).Firstly, each approach focuses on the study of a specific aspect of the general problem, so disputes and disagreements between the supporters of the given concept are arisen. Secondly, different answers to the question - how does it form, how do the emergent potential of the discourse function. Aside the question remained, why does it occur. The reason, in our opinion, in fear of the deterministic approaches that are characteristic of non-classical worldview with its fears of so-called totalitarianism in any area of human practice. However, the modern situation of post-nonclassical picture of the world returns us to the atmosphere needs increasing degrees of certainty in scientific research. In this regard, we formulate the problem of the article: 1) to offer a methodological variant of interpretation of discourse, which allows to consider, first of all, the reasons for the formation of the emergency effect in the functioning of the journalistic texts.2) To answer the question it is necessary to go to wider scientific context in the area of convergence. Psychological theory of the unconscious, the philosophical theory of reflection of reality in art and synergetic principles of self-organization of the studied phenomena performed in that respect feature sufficient basis on which to create an integrative method of disclosure of the redundancy of artistic discourse. As a concrete example suggests that the novel of Yuri Trifonov "Exchange", which is generated multivalued predictive potential.RESULTSIn understanding the mechanisms of reflection of reality in art it is necessary to allocate two levels of this process - knowledge and reflection. Cognition relates to the conscious creative activity of the author in the process of creating literary texts, the reflection, the phenomenon is more complex, includes the broader, objective understanding of the essence perceive the phenomena (Anokhin, P. K., 1970). To reflect in their texts the author can do much more than you wanted to know. Disclosure of the reasons for this effect will help the emergence of mechanisms of unconscious creative activity of the author, in particular, the concept of "background" perception of the phenomena of the world (Grigolava, V. …


Field experiments have shown that avian predators in the wild can select for similarity of warning signals in aposematic prey (Mullerian mimicry) because a common signal is better protected than a signal that is novel and rare. The original theory of Mullerian mimicry assumes that the mechanism promoting mimicry is predator learning; by sharing a signal, the comimic species share the mortality that is due to sampling by inexperienced predators. Predation events have not been observed in the wild, and learning experiments with naive bird predators in a laboratory have not unambiguously shown a benefit of a uniform signal compared with different signals. As predators in the field experiments are likely to be more experienced compared with previous laboratory experiments, we studied selection by experienced predators on a novel imperfect mimic. We trained great tits Parus major to avoid artificial aposematic models and subsequently introduced perfect and imperfect mimics at different frequencies. Birds with prior experience on the models selected against the imperfect mimics that were at a disadvantage also in a memory test conducted a week after their introduction. Selection against the imperfect mimics was antiapostatic. However, the imperfect mimics also benefited from some signal generalization to the models and possibly gained protection because the birds were familiar with the alternative cryptic prey that was also present. Our results suggest that experienced predators might be more important to the evolution of mimicry than the learning-based theory assumes. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.


This study analyzes flavor ingredients according to types of whisky and maturation periods based on total 40 different types of whisky that are mainly distributed to Korea via imports. Whisky was classified into four categories based on origin, and also into different categories based on maturity period, ingredients such as fusel alcohol, fatty acid, and fatty acid esters and proportion of patterns were analyzed. As a result of an analysis for fusel alcohol, high qualified types of alcohol including 3-methylbutanol, 2-methylbutanol, iso-butanol, and 1-propanol were detected from all Scotch whiskys, America whiskys, and Canadian whiskys. In particular, the proportional sum of 3-methylbutanol and 2-methylbutanol, and the sum of 3-methylbutanol and 2-methylbutanol/iso-butanol were regarded as core factors to determine each type of whisky. Acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and acetic acid increased as maturation and storage period became longer. As a result of the fatty acid and fatty acid ethyl ester analysis, the major fatty acids were dodecanoic acid and decanoic acid, both with detection of octanoic acid and hexanoic acid. However, dodecanoic acid, decanoic acid, and octanoic acid were lower than the detectable limit in American and Canadian whiskys, showing a unique phenomenon that hexanoic acid was detected only in very small amounts. Malt Scotch whisky showed higher significance than blended Scotch whisky, making it possible to classify types of whisky. Fatty acid ethyl ester contents showed significance with fatty acid either. In addition, changes in the whiskys based on maturation period were confirmed via proportions of fatty acids and fatty acid ethyl esters. In general, the proportion of fatty acids and fatty acid ethyl esters decreased as the storage period increased. This study provided basic data to classify types of whisky based on maturation periods by analyzing the proportion of flavor ingredients such as fusel alcohols, fatty acids, and fatty acid ethyl esters.


We hypothesize that the Universe contains observable subluminal matter (tardyons and locatily) and unobservable superluminal matter (tachyons and nonlocality). By using space-time ring we establish mathematical theory of space-time with subluminal and superluminal coexistence. The rotating motions of tardyons and tachyons produce centrifugal and centripetal (gravity) forces, respectively. This paper deduces a new gravitational formula and Newtonian gravitational formula from the tardyonic and tachyonic coexistence principle. Through the morphism we first show that tardyons and tachyons are interchangeable, but that tachyons are unobservable . We then convert the tachyonic mass into tardyonic mass We obtain gravitational coefficient η = 6.9 ×10-10.Using it we establish the expansion theory of the universe and suggest the new universe model


Recently, it has been shown that for offline deep reinforcement learning (DRL), pre-training Decision Transformer with a large language corpus can improve downstream performance (Reid et al., 2022). A natural question to ask is whether this performance gain can only be achieved with language pre-training, or can be achieved with simpler pre-training schemes which do not involve language. In this paper, we first show that language is not essential for improved performance, and indeed pre-training with synthetic IID data for a small number of updates can match the performance gains from pre-training with a large language corpus; moreover, pre-training with data generated by a one-step Markov chain can further improve the performance. Inspired by these experimental results, we then consider pre-training Conservative Q-Learning (CQL), a popular offline DRL algorithm, which is Q-learning-based and typically employs a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) backbone. Surprisingly, pre-training with simple synthetic data for a small number of updates can also improve CQL, providing consistent performance improvement on D4RL Gym locomotion datasets. The results of this paper not only illustrate the importance of pre-training for offline DRL but also show that the pre-training data can be synthetic and generated with remarkably simple mechanisms.


OBJECTIVE
Using P-wave signal-averaged electrocardiography, we assessed the patterns of atrial electrical activation in patients with idiopathic atrial fibrillation as compared with patterns in patients with atrial fibrillation associated with structural heart disease.

METHODS
Eighty patients with recurrent paroxysmal atrial fibrillation were divided into 3 groups as follows: group I - 40 patients with atrial fibrillation associated with non-rheumatic heart disease; group II - 25 patients with rheumatic atrial fibrillation; and group III - 15 patients with idiopathic atrial fibrillation. All patients underwent P-wave signal-averaged electrocardiography for frequency-domain analysis using spectrotemporal mapping and statistical techniques for detecting and quantifying intraatrial conduction disturbances.

RESULTS
We observed an important fragmentation in atrial electrical conduction in 27% of the patients in group I, 64% of the patients in group II, and 67% of the patients in group III (p=0.003).

CONCLUSION
Idiopathic atrial fibrillation has important intraatrial conduction disturbances. These alterations are similar to those observed in individuals with rheumatic atrial fibrillation, suggesting the existence of some degree of structural involvement of the atrial myocardium that cannot be detected with conventional electrocardiography and echocardiography.


Conversion of the essential n-3 (18:3n-3) and n-6 (18:2n-6) fatty acids to longer chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) involves sequential desaturation and elongation reactions. Previous studies have reported gender differences in n-3 PUFA synthesis, whereas the effect of age is less clear. n-3 PUFAs are reported to have important effects on immune cell function. A previous study reported long chain PUFA synthesis in mitogen stimulated but not quiescent peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). However, the underlying mechanism is not known.

PUFA synthesis was investigated in PBMCs incubated with [1-13C]18:3n-3 for 48 h. Activation with the T-lymphocyte mitogen concanavalin A (Con A) increased PUFA synthesis. 22:6n-3 synthesis was not detected. [1-13C] incorporation was greatest for 20:3n-3 suggesting initial chain elongation is an important fate for 18:3n-3. Con A increased expression of three key genes (FADS2, FADS1 and ELOVL5) involved in PUFA synthesis, suggesting upregulation of the pathway is controlled at the transcriptional level. ELOVL2 expression was negligible, possibly explaining the lack of 22:6n-3 synthesis. Con A increased methylation of 12 CpGs in the FADS2 promoter contradicting the general view that DNA methylation represses transcription. Subsequent 5'RACE analysis verified that activated PBMCs were not using an alternative promoter for FADS2 transcription. Contrary to expectation, 18:3n-3 conversion in activated PBMCs was not affected by gender or menopausal status and there was no clear age effect.

PUFA synthesis was constitutive in the Jurkat T-lymphocyte leukaemic cell-line and was higher than in PBMCs. FADS2, FADS1 and ELOVL5 mRNA expression was also higher in Jurkat cells and was associated with 50% lower methylation of 17 CpGs in the FADS2 promoter, suggesting transcriptional dysregulation of PUFA synthesis in Jurkat cells involves altered DNA methylation.

These findings have provided novel insights into the regulation of PUFA biosynthesis in PBMCs and upregulation of the pathway in activated PBMCs suggests that newly synthesised PUFAs may be important for cell function.


Introduction and objectives Effective therapies for chronic cough are a significant unmet need. Recently a P2X3 antagonist (AF-219), markedly reduced cough frequency in two phase 2 trials, but the role of P2X3 receptors and their ligand (adenosine triphosphate, ATP) in chronic cough is not well-understood. This study assessed the effect of P2X3 antagonism on cough evoked by capsaicin and ATP in healthy volunteers and chronic cough patients. Method We performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, 4-period crossover study. During each period (≥48 h apart), cough challenges were performed 2h after single doses of study medication [capsaicin (0.48–1000 μM) periods 1/2 and ATP (0.227–929 μmol/mL) periods 3/4]. Two cohorts were enrolled; cohort (1) 14 healthy volunteers (HV, mean age 37.5 yrs, 100% male) and 12 chronic cough (CC, mean age 60.3 yrs, 17% male) received AF-219 300mg/placebo and cohort (2) 12 HV (mean age 34.8 yrs, 100% male) and 12 CC (mean age 57.8 yrs, 25% male) received AF-219 50 mg/placebo. Cough challenges consisted of four inhalations of each doubling concentration of tussive agent, from a dosimeter 30s apart. Coughs in the first 15s were counted and challenges continued to the maximum tolerated dose. The concentrations evoking at least 2 and 5 coughs, C2 and C5 (from inhalation 1) were analysed using mixed effect models; pharmacodynamic modelling was used to estimate Emax/ED50. Results AF-219 had no effect on capsaicin C2 or C5 at 300 mg or 50 mg in HV or CC (all p > 0.05). For ATP challenges, AF-219 300 mg significantly increased C2 in CC (AF-219 10.8 μmol/mL vs. placebo 2.3 μmol/mL, p = 0.005) but not HV (p = 0.135), whereas AF-219 50mg significantly increased C2 in both groups (CC 40.4 μmol/mL vs. 2.8 μmol/mL, p = 0.002 and HV 114.4 μmol/mL vs. 20.7 μmol/mL, p = 0.046). AF-219 had no significant effect on ATP C5 at either dose in HV (all p > 0.05), but in CC patients 50mg AF-219 (but not 300mg) increased C5 (70.1 μmol/mL vs. 17.1 μmol/mL, p = 0.027). Of note, ATP inhalation evoked less coughing than capsaicin, limiting the utility of the C5 endpoint. Conclusions P2X3 antagonism reduced cough responses to ATP, particularly in patients with CC, but did not alter cough responses to an off-target tussive agent.


Background The euthanasia of dogs and cats is a highly emotive issue, one which animal activists and politicians alike use to rally support around their respective causes. Veterinarians and veterinary nurses are equally disturbed about the number of animals entering and dying in pounds and shelters across the country. Many of them working in shelters are the ones who have to perform such euthanasias.


The evolution from machines to systems and from objects to products has profoundly affected the meaning of the term "design" as the "role" of designers, and the new concept of industrial design&engineering, which combines the two more traditional fields of industrial design and engineering design, has taken place. While till now the shift and the extension of the industrial designer's area of expertise has affected his typical activities usually in an unarranged manner, the research presented in this paper aims at defining the guidelines for developing an innovative framework to support the design process carried out by a new designer, based on a structured integration of knowledge and tools currently used by the two main areas of reference (industrial design and industrial engineering). The paper presents the guidelines for the innovative framework, the experimental activities to qualitatively test it and some important remarks on its use by designers, both students and professional ones.


This collective volume is devoted to the Phoenician and the Punic civilization studied for its own purpose but also for its relationship with contemporaneous cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. The first part discusses the various sources relating to the Phoenician and Punic world; a second part attempts to sum up the different facets of its material and cultural surrounding. The third part expounds the present state of our knowledge of the Phoenicians and the Punics in each of the large geographical areas where they have emerged. The work thus assembles clearly, conveniently and as completely as possible the basic facts that will allow specialists of fellow disciplines to initiate themselves, and well-informed researchers to complete or check easily their information. This volume includes a bibliography, illustrations, maps and indexes.


This paper presents an algorithm for Interactive Co-segmentation of a foreground object from a group of related images. While previous approaches focus on unsupervised co-segmentation, we use successful ideas from the interactive object-cutout literature. We develop an algorithm that allows users to decide what foreground is, and then guide the output of the co-segmentation algorithm towards it via scribbles. Interestingly, keeping a user in the loop leads to simpler and highly parallelizable energy functions, allowing us to work with significantly more images per group. However, unlike the interactive single image counterpart, a user cannot be expected to exhaustively examine all cutouts (from tens of images) returned by the system to make corrections. Hence, we propose iCoseg, an automatic recommendation system that intelligently recommends where the user should scribble next. We introduce and make publicly available the largest co-segmentation datasetyet, the CMU-Cornell iCoseg Dataset, with 38 groups, 643 images, and pixelwise hand-annotated groundtruth. Through machine experiments and real user studies with our developed interface, we show that iCoseg can intelligently recommend regions to scribble on, and users following these recommendations can achieve good quality cutouts with significantly lower time and effort than exhaustively examining all cutouts.


Robotic assistance recently gains increasing popularity in spinal surgery. Robotic assistance provides higher effectiveness and safety especially in complex anatomy environment. 16 patients with degenerative disc disease were operated with robotic assistance device («SpineAssist»; MAZOR Surgical Technologies, Caesarea, Israel). The robot was used for automated intraoperative positioning of the instruments according to preoperatively planned trajectories. Robotic assistance enabled optimal screw placement even in complex anatomical cases (thin pedicles and rotational deformity). No implant-related complications were recorded.


Thermal distributions of temperature indicate the possibility of application of this technique to evaluate the intensity of the measurement of blood flow to the extremities of the patient, which may be limited due to dysfunctions of the circulatory system of the limb parts. Thermograms obtained during tests can be also spectral analysis, using the wavelet transform to performed on the basis of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The paper presents an assessment of the possibilities of using the decomposition of respondents thermographic images using CWT as a qualitatively new comparative criterion. (The use of thermal images to assess the impact of physical stimuli on metabolic processes in the tissues). Slowa kluczowe: termiczny rozklad temperatury, procesy metaboliczne w tkankach, analiza widmowa.


Illicit drugs have been a burning social issue in Estonia over the last fifteen years. Estonia has taken the lead in Europe with regard to drug-related deaths and prevalence of HIV among injecting drug users. Experimental drug use among Estonian students is more widespread than the European average. It is important to study press coverage, because according to agenda setting theory, the media plays an important role in influencing the salience of social issues on the public agenda. The aim of this article is to map fluctuations in attention received from Estonian two major dailies to different drug related issues during the last 25 years. The author focuses on issues highlighted in national and international drug reports such as drug addiction, drug related crime, spread of HIV among addicts, drug-induced deaths, drug problem in schools etc. Content analysis of almost 1000 press articles reflecting drug problems in Estonia was carried out from 1990 to 2014. The study revealed that since 1995, attention received from the major newspapers to drug related crime has been high and quite stable compared to other drug issues. Press interest with regard to problem drug use and HIV was notice a bleat the turn of the millennium and in the beginning of the new century, but almost lost by 2014. More intense periods of coverage were triggered by specific events. Only a few articles have reflected drug induced death despite the fact that Estonia is the undisputed leader in the EU regarding this indicator. This reflects that the coverage was not been in line with the drug situation in Estonia. It seems that the attention of the press depends rather on newsworthiness of the issue and the agenda setting processes.


INTRODUCTION
Vesicovaginal fistulas (VVF) are the most common and the most frequent type of urogenital fistulas. They may have a different etiology. In most cases, surgery is required for treatment.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to analyze the results of surgical therapy of VVF in a tertiary level institution over the last decade.

METHODS
The retrospective study of results was conducted involving a total number of 99 women who were surgically treated for VVF at the Clinic of Urology of the Clinical Center of Serbia in Belgrade in the period from 2001-2010.

RESULTS
Over the past ten years VVF occurred after hysterectomy in 74.7% of cases, and almost twice more frequently after hysterectomy for a benign gynecological disease. In the surgical treatment of primary VVF transvesical approach was used in 53.53% (52/99) of cases. Relapses were treated surgically using transperitoneal approach in all cases. No significant difference was found in respect to the applied approach in the surgical treatment of primary fistulas. In even 94% (93/99) of cases the problem of VVF was solved by a single surgical intervention only. In total, in 107 interventions 8 (7.4%) relapses were recorded.

CONCLUSION
The study showed that VVF occurred after hysterectomy in three quarters of cases, more frequently after hysterectomy due to a benign gynecological disease. Early detection with timely and appropriate treatment of gynecological diseases will reduce the number of conditions that may lead to VVF. Surgical treatment of VVF yielded satisfactory results; it was shown that even in 94% of cases the problem of VVF was solved by a single surgical intervention only, however further improvement is certainly necessary.


Pulau Penyu or Turtle Island, which is located in Sandakan, is among one of the main attractions for local and international tourists. On this island, tourists can
witness how turtles land and lay eggs on the islands as well as to see the preservation efforts of the Wildlife Department and Sabah Parks. Turtles are among marine life that are known as vertebrate (animals with back bone) of the
reptilian family---similar to snakes, lizards, tortoise and tuntung. Studies have shown that turtles have existed since millions years ago that is during the Jurassic (145-208 million years) and dinosaur eras. Today, turtles are classified under endangered species because they are facing extinction due to human activities and have become among the significant assets in eco-tourism. The purpose of this paper is to observe and evaluate the effectiveness of the
techniques and preservation methods applied by Sabah Parks on Selingan Island and Gulisan Island of Sandakan in the effort to increase the number of turtles in Sabah from the perspectives of sailors and researchers using the Bajau
traditional boat called Parangkang.


Your patient can manage this potentially debilitating Gl disorder with simple but important dietary changes. Here's how you can help.


A derivation of the elastic scattering differential cross section, within a three-body eikonal model, that treats both central and spin-orbit interactions between the constituent projectile clusters and the target is presented. This formalism is then used in the theoretical study of the scattering of 8B from 12C at 40 MeV/nucleon. The proton halo candidate, 8B, is taken to consist of a single valence proton orbiting a 7Be core cluster. Calculation of the elastic scattering amplitude relies upon determining the phase shifts caused as the projectile passes through the region of interaction with the target. A form for the orbital angular momentum operator of each projectile cluster about the target is obtained that allows a relatively simple form for the spin-orbit phase shift functions, analogous to those for the central interactions, to be deduced. The study of the angular distribution of the elastic scattering differential cross section is carried out in two parts. Initially the effect of elastic break-up and recombination of the projectile during the scattering process, only taking into account central interactions, is studied. To gauge the magnitude of these effects, within the three-body model, the elastic scattering differential cross section, in the limit of no projectile break-up, is derived. Despite the very small binding energy of 8B it is shown that these effects are quite small. It is also shown, however, that these effects become more conspicuous as the valence proton becomes less localised about the core. Finally the effect of including spin-orbit interactions is studied. In the system under study these effects are shown to have an almost negligible effect on the angular distribution of the differential cross section. However, increasing the projectile kinetic energy to the region of hundreds of MeV/nucleon is seen to increase their significance. Future calculations hope to look at the angular distribution of the elastic scattering differential cross section and vector and tensor analysing powers of polarised beams of deuterons as these systems are expected to show more sensitivity to spin- orbit interactions. Furthermore, with the possibility of polarised beams of halo nuclei, the three-body Glauber model would be an ideal theoretical tool with which to study certain of their spin-related phenomena too.


This essay studies the connection between attention and redemption in the poetry of Thomas A. Clark. It discusses the possibility of using Simone Weil's religious philosophy to interpret Clark's understanding of attention as 'waiting'. It argues that while there are affinities between Clark and Weil, Clark's poetic practice also reveals a resistance to the ascetic extremes which attention assumes in Weil's philosophy. To think through the difference between attention as method and style, the essay then draws on the failures of Descartes' Meditations in order to argue that only a practical, that is to say, stylistic, engagement with attention will allow for the radical attention that Weil sought but could not achieve.


Azimuth ambiguity occurs in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems due to the well-known constraint of minimum antenna area, particularly at high resolutions and wide swaths. A space time domain method can be utilized to remove this ambiguity if the multiple-channel data are available. In this letter, a modified approach is presented to determine the filter weight vectors. This approach was successfully applied to the real data, which were collected by an experimental airborne multiple-channel SAR system. The channel imbalance and the error in antenna phase center position are analyzed in detail.


Occupational Science: The Evolving Discipline presents the most current and comprehensive information on the development of occupational science. This exciting resource offers stimulating ideas about occupation and its implications for health and occupational therapy practice. The papers in this book, most of which are from presentations at the Occupational Science Symposia, reflect an extensive range of perspectives. Presentations by Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, and Mary Catherine Bateson are included, as well as other invited and peer-reviewed presentations. In these papers, experienced scholars share their ideas, hypotheses, and preliminary research, tying together the theory behind the study of occupational science. Each section of the book begins with a detailed introduction in which Zemke and Clark describe the relationship of each paper to the study of occupational science. This unique text provides an understanding of occupation that will give therapists a heightened concern for those activities in which their patients invest their energies and time, a better understanding of how participation in occupation shapes self-identity, a way to identify the motivating factors for participation in occupation, and knowledge of how patients can enhance their life opportunities.


STUDY OBJECTIVE
Intravenous epinephrine is a potentially vital therapy for patients with life-threatening asthma but is often avoided because of concerns about its safety. We evaluated the safety of intravenous epinephrine in a series of adults with life-threatening asthma.

METHODS
We performed an explicit retrospective chart review on a case series of 27 emergency department patients aged 19 to 58 years (mean 25 years) who were treated with intravenous epinephrine for a life-threatening exacerbation of asthma between 1989 and 1997. Explicit criteria for adverse effects, including cardiac arrhythmia or ischemia, hypotension or hypertension, neurologic injury, and death, were defined before chart review.

RESULTS
No patient had an arrhythmia other than sinus tachycardia, and there were no cases of cardiac ischemia, hypotension, neurologic deficit, or death.

CONCLUSION
Intravenous epinephrine was safe in this small series of younger adults with acute life-threatening asthma. A prospective trial of its use to better define an efficacy and risk-benefit relationship is justified.


Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of bilateral visual impairment in children in Western countries. This finding reflects better methods for identifying visual impairment due to CNS injury and also advances in perinatal care, which have increased the survival rate of children with neurological morbidity. This review will describe advances in the diagnosis and management of CVI. Central to our discussion is a definition of CVI that includes a decrease in visual acuity. New treatment and rehabilitative measures are badly needed for this disorder. We hope to stimulate interest in CVI, a disease that has become a significant public health problem.


Anemia is often associated disease in patients with chronic heart failure, which reduces exercise tolerance, quality of life and worsens the prognosis in the patients. The recommendations of the leading associations of cardiology include the correction of iron deficiency and anemia in the context of the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure. Such influence and modern recommendations determine the relevance of knowledge of the prevalence and pathogenesis of anemia and iron-deficiency conditions in chronic heart failure. The purpose of the study was to review the literature illustrating current data about prevalence and pathogenesis of anemia and iron deficiency in patients with chronic heart failure. Materials and methods. This work presents review of literature about prevalence and pathogenesis of anemia and iron deficiency in patients with chronic heart failure, based on a search of English-language articles in the PubMed database for the last 20 years, by keywords – anemia, iron deficiency, chronic heart failure, pathogenesis, prevalence. Results and discussion. The frequency of anemia that patients with chronic heart failure ranges have are from 4% to 30-70% of cases, according to several studies. Such a variety of data is associated with different degrees of severity of heart failure in different studies, but they unanimously confirm the information about the significant prevalence of this condition in the studied population cohort. Iron deficiency is an important comorbid condition that patients with heart failure have and is observed in an average of 30-50% of cases, according to some data, the frequency reaches a maximum of 70-83%. Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anemia, but it is particularly interesting that approximately 46% of patients with iron deficiency do not have anemia. The following 6 factors that can be the cause of anemia individually or in combination that patients with chronic heart failure have, have been identified: iron deficiency, inflammation, erythropoietin level, medications, hemodilution, medullary dysfunction. The causes of absolute iron deficiency are anorexia, cachexia, malabsorption of iron due to intestinal edema and hepcidin-induced suppression of iron transporters, such as ferroportin, functional – chronic inflammatory state, which leads to an increase in the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1, interleukin-6, interleukin-18, tumor necrosis factor-, which, in turn, induces the synthesis of hepcidin and, accordingly, decreases the expression of ferroportin with a decrease in the transition of iron into the state of circulation and stimulation of sequestration in macrophages of the reticuloendothelial system. Conclusion. Better understanding of the pathogenesis of these conditions that patients with chronic heart failure have, will allow the development of new methods of treatment


"The article examines the influence of the age at the time of the study on the fertility of women aged between 15 and 49 in their first marriage. The analysis is based on the variation between conditional one-dimensional distributions.... On the basis of data from the censuses in Bulgaria of...1965, 1975 and 1985, the author specifies some tendencies in the change of the fertility level, as well as the nature of the relation between the age at the moment of study and fertility. The article also makes an attempt to study the relation between the duration of the marriage and the fertility of women aged between 15 and 49 [who are] in their first marriage." (SUMMARY IN ENG)


Measuring the phenomenon of violation of maternal integrity in childbirth (e.g. obstetric violence) relies in part on the completeness of maternity care providers' data. The population coverage and linkage possibilities that they provide make for a great untapped potential. Although violation of integrity is a complex phenomenon best measured with dedicated instruments, standard data provide details about the birth and care received. Relevant variables include justifications of medical procedures (e.g. episiotomy) and characteristics of the birth process (e.g. length of labour). Demographic variables can be used for intersectional analyses to track potential discrimination -a dimension of violation of integrity in childbirth.

 Using a baseline questionnaire and perinatal data obtained from hospitals, birth centres and midwifes in the BaBi study (Germany), we compared the completeness of integrity-relevant variables across providers and depending on the demographic and clinical characteristics of the women. We investigated potential for analysis from an intersectional perspective.

 Our analyses included 908 births, of which 32 outside hospital. There were 634 vaginal birth vs. 274 caesarean sections. We found poor reporting on demographic variables, in particular with regard to the 'region of origin' variable (correct origin recorded for half of the migrants). There was better reporting by midwives than by hospitals for "soft indicators", such as the position of the women during birth (100% vs. 87.6%).

 Putting more emphasis on completeness of standardised data could increase their potential for research. Healthcare setting, organisational culture and working conditions might determine what is judged important in terms of reporting; therefore, targeted education may improve this process. Next, we will interview care providers to understand data collection constraints and priorities and potential reporting bias in real-life settings.