ABSTRACT To date, there has been little study of comparison between picosecond 532 nm laser and 755 nm Q-switched Alexandrite lasers in the treatment of freckles. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of picosecond 532 nm laser (PS 532) and 755 nm Q-switched Alexandrite laser (QSAL) for treatment of freckles in a split-face manner. Eighteen patients with freckles were enrolled in the study. The right and left sides of their faces were randomly assigned to either a QSAL-treated group or PS 532-treated group. The degree of pain, satisfaction with the results, and adverse events associated with the laser treatment were evaluated using a questionnaire. All of the patients were followed up at 4 and 12 weeks after one treatment session. Among the 18 patients, PS 532 was found to be associated with less pain (3.56 ± 2.431) than QSAL (3.94 ± 1.893), but the difference was not statistically significant. The curative effect and satisfaction associated with 755 nm Q-switched Alexandrite laser was greater than that of picosecond 532 nm laser (P < .001). Both picosecond 532 nm laser and QSAL are effective in the treatment of freckles, and QSAL has a greater rate of satisfaction and curative effect.


Purpose Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has been associated with worse prognosis, and biomarkers are needed to identify high-risk patients who may benefit from clinical trials or escalated treatment after completion of standard treatment. We aimed to assess whether the post-treatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) can reflect patient prognosis and determine the follow-up period that can provide the most feasible data. Methods In this retrospective analysis involving patients with TNBC, clinicopathological data, including those on peripheral complete blood cell count, were collected. The prognostic powers of serial NLRs obtained at baseline and after treatment completion were compared. Kaplan-Meier curves were generated to compare the overall survival (OS) and distant disease-free survival (DDFS). Results In total, 210 patients were enrolled. Forty-three (20.5%) events were detected. Two-thirds of the events (29/43) were related to breast cancer. Most recurrent breast cancer-related diseases (27/29) were detected within 5 years of the initial diagnosis. In contrast, half of the events due to secondary malignancies or non-breast-related diseases (7/14) occurred 5 years after the initial diagnosis. Comparison of the prognostic performance of NLRs at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months after treatment completion revealed the strongest prognostic performance at 6 months after treatment completion (area under the curve = 0.745). The high NLR group (NLR >2.47) showed worse OS (p = 0.006) and DDFS (p < 0.001) than low NLR group. Conclusion Elevated post-treatment NLR was significantly associated with worse survival in patients with TNBC. We believe that it can be a useful surrogate marker for identifying high-risk patients with TNBC.


Composite materials incorporating vegetable fibres have known an increasingly interest during the past few decades. These environmental friendly materials are low-cost and offer advantages such as reduction of electrical consumption by air conditioning. Moreover, the use of vegetable fibres in replacement of synthetic fibre is interesting in developing countries where the availability of tropical plants and agricultural waste is important. This paper presents an initial investigation on the use of a construction material, composed of cement and pre-treated (heat or alkaline treatments) sugar cane bagasse fibres. The purpose of this study is to analyse the effect of fibre content and treatment on thermal conductivity, specific heat, flexural strength and density. The addition of retified fibres reduces composites thermal conductivity and yields a weaker specific heat in comparison with composites made with alkaline fibres. From mechanical point of view, composites made with alkaline fibres have a better flexural strength than others.


During a 3-year period, 25 caudalis dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) operations were done for severe, facial pain. Intraoperative brainstem recordings were done before and after DREZ in all patients. Primary diagnosis included refractory trigeminal neuralgia, atypical headaches or facial pain, posttraumatic closed head injuries, postsurgical anesthesia dolorosa, multiple sclerosis, brainstem infarction, postherpetic neuralgia and cancer-related pain. At the time of discharge, good to excellent pain relief was present in 24/25 patients and fair relief in 1. At 1 month, 19/25 (76%) patients had good to excellent results and at 3 months following surgery, 17/25 (68%) continued to have good to excellent pain relief. One year following surgery, 18 patients could be evaluated, 12/18 (67%) still considered their relief as good to excellent, 2 fair and 4 poor. Transient postoperative ataxia was present in 15/25 patients (60%), but was largely resolved at 1 months. In 3/18 (17%) patients, a degree of ataxia was still present at 1 year although in none was it disabling. Two patients had transient diplopia, and 3 had increased corneal anesthesia with 1 later developing a keratitis. No surgical or postsurgical mortality was noted. This procedure has proven to be a satisfactory treatment for many patients with debilitating facial pain syndromes with acceptable morbidity.


Using a large collocated data set of altimeter and buoy measurements, we examine the relationship between the altimeter Ku-band measurements of significant wave height, H s , backscatter coefficient, ? 0, and the buoy wave period. This is used to derive an empirical altimeter wave period model for TOPEX, Poseidon, Jason-1, ERS-2, Envisat, and GEOSAT follow-on. We show that there is a step change in the response of ? 0 at around 13 dB and above this value ? 0 is not related to wave period. The results are compared to algorithms proposed by two previous authors (Gommenginger et al., 2003; Quilfen et al., 2004) and examined in terms of absolute accuracy (RMS error), ability to replicate the joint distribution of wave height and period, and residual trends with various parameters. The new algorithm is shown to perform better than the previous algorithms in all metrics considered. Finally, we demonstrate that there is a limiting accuracy achievable for a function of the form f(H s , ? 0) and that our model comes close to this.


We have constructed a catalog containing the best available astrometric, photometric, radial velocity and astrophysical data for mainly F-type and G-type stars (called the Astrometric Catalog associated with Astrophysical Data, ACAD). This contains 27 553 records and is used for the purpose of analyzing stellar kinematics in the solar neighborhood. Using the Lindblad-Oort model and compiled ACAD, we calculated the solar motion and Oort constants in different age-metallicity bins. The evolution of kinematical parameters with stellar age and metallicity was investigated directly. The results show that the component of the solar motion in the direction of Galactic rotation (denoted S2) linearly increases with age, which may be a consequence of the scattering processes, and its value for a dynamical cold disk was found to be 8.0 ± 1.2 km s−1. S2 also linearly increases with metallicity, which indicates that radial migration is correlated to the metallicity gradient. On the other hand, the rotational velocity of the Sun around the Galactic center has no clear correlation with ages or metallicities of stars used in the estimation.


Bi-Se-Te mineralization from Úhorná (Spišsko Gemerské Rudohorie Mts., Słovakia): A preliminary report An unusual association of Se minerals was studied. Se enters into the structures of sulphosalts - into bournonite, jamesonite and tintinaite at concentrations up to 0.10, 0.38 and 1.11 apfu, respectively. However, Se and Te, together with Bi, also form discrete minerals such as tetradymite, laitakarite, ikunolite and hedleyite. Members of the laitakarite-ikunolite solid solution display a wide range of anion substitution from the nearly Se-free (0.10 apfu) end member to the S-poor (0.42 apfu) end member. Their contents of Te are low. Accompanying tetrahedrite does not contain Se or Te.


The modern nonlinear theory, bifurcation and chaos theory are used in
this paper to analyze the dynamics of the Rikitake two-disk dynamo system. The
mathematical model of the Rikitake system consists of three nonlinear
differential equations, which found to be the same as the mathematical model of
the well-known Lorenz system. The study showed that under certain value of
control parameter, the system experiences a chaotic behaviour. The experienced
chaotic oscillation may simulate the reversal of the Earth's magnetic field.
The main objective of this paper is to control the chaotic behaviour in
Rikitake system. So, a nonlinear controller based on the slide mode control
theory is designed. The study showed that the designed controller was so
effective in controlling the unstable chaotic oscillations.


Abstract We adapt, via asymptotic expansion, Kapitsa's formula for the effective potential of a pendulum with vibrating suspension to rapidly forced potential flows with free boundaries. Determination of time-averaged stationary states leads to an optimal shape design problem. Under periodic boundary conditions existence and uniqueness of smooth minimizers to the averaged energy is proved using local coerciveness. In the numerical part of the article, 2D and 3D finite element approximations including related error estimates are discussed. Some illustrating examples are sketched.


With the implementation of universal leucodepletion, an in-line, negatively charged LRF6H leucodepleting filter became an essential part of the Haemonetics MCS+ plateletpheresis system. A larger-scale (968) study using the standard protocol revealed a 2.79% leucodepletion failure rate (standard < 5 2 10 6 leucocytes per adult therapeutic dose). Factors influencing the efficacy of the filter were investigated. The pH of the filtrate was 7.0, the temperature 28°C and filtration rate 80 ml/min. Reduction of the filtration rate to 30 ml/min (784 doses) reduced leucodepletion failure to 0.38%. Measurement of the leucocyte count, pre- and post-filtration of the platelet products, revealed that donations from 1% of donors contained substantially larger numbers of leucocytes in pre-filter samples (300-1500/ w l) than in control samples (35-70/ w l). This number tends to increase progressively with subsequent donations in these individuals, leading to leucodepletion failure, whilst peripheral leucocyte counts remain normal. The new continuous filtration protocol (version C) using a less impact filter LRF-XL and a lower (7 ml/min) head pressure was also effective but failure still occurred twice on one of the donors who persistently showed high pre-filter count. We conclude that leucodepletion failures in the Haemonetics system are related to both donor leucocyte (i.e., being light and non-adherent) and operational/filter performance.


Abstract : Community structure is a topological property common to many networks. We present in this paper an efficient and accurate approach to detecting a community in a protein-protein interaction network from a given seed protein. Our experimental results show strong structural and functional relationships among member proteins within each of the communities identified by our approach, as verified by MIPS complex catalogue database and annotations.


Chiral, polymerizable P2Pt(S-BINOL) metallodendrimers constructed with a rigid phenyl benzoate ester linkage were copolymerized into highly porous and cross-linked methacrylate-based polymers. The performance of these polymers with respect to BINOL exchange reaction enantioselectivities was compared to similar metallodendrimers constructed of more flexible benzyl ether repeat units. The increased rigidity of the ester linkage resulted in higher enantioselectivities for a BINOL/Br2BINOL exchange reaction, though exact structure/selectivity relationships are difficult to establish. At elevated temperatures, BINOL loss is observed leading to the inactivation of sites, though it is the less selective, and therefore less hindered sites, that are preferentially deactivated. Enantiomeric ratios of up to 84:16 were observed for the substitution of P2Pt(S-BINOL) with (±)-Br2BINOL within the imprinted polymer site, which equals the best yet achieved.


A novel circuit for the compensation of the spurious admittance of TSM (thickness shear mode) resonator sensors is proposed. It compensates both the spurious capacitance and conductance, and as such is well suited for measurement in conductive liquids. Design equations, simulations and measurement results of a bread-boarded prototype are presented.


We address the problem of distributed source coding, i.e. compression of correlated sources that are not co-located and/or cannot communicate with each other to minimize their joint description cost. In this work we tackle the related problem of compressing a source that is correlated with another source which is available only at the decoder. In contrast to prior information-theoretic approaches, we introduce a new construction and practical framework for tackling the problem based on the judicious incorporation of channel coding principles into this source coding problem. We dub our approach as distributed source coding using syndromes (DISCUS). We focus in this paper on trellis-structured constructions of the framework to illustrate its utility. Simulation results confirm the power of DISCUS, opening up a new and exciting constructive playing-ground for the distributed source coding problem. For the distributed coding of correlated i.i.d. Gaussian sources that are noisy versions of each other with "correlation-SNR" in the range of 12 to 20 dB, the DISCUS method attains gains of 7-15 dB in SNR over the Shannon-bound using "naive" independent coding of the sources.


This paper relates the volatility of interest rates to the collective nature of monetary policymaking in monetary unions. Several decision rules are modelled, including hegemonic and democratic procedures, and also committees headed by a chairman. A ranking of decision rules in terms of the volatility of policy rates is obtained, showing that the presence of a chairman has a cooling effect. However, members of a monetary union are better off under symmetric rules (voting, averaging, bargaining), unless they themselves chair the union. The results are robust to the inclusion of heterogeneities among members of the monetary union.


The development of techniques for the detection of water leaks from underground pipelines is seen as a high profile activity by water companies and regulators. This is due to increasing water demands and problems with current leak detection methods. In this paper optical reflectance and microwave backscatter models (SAIL + PROSPECT and RT2) were used to try and identify optimal indices for detecting water leaks amongst a variety of different land cover types at different growth stages. Results suggest that red/near infrared and red/middle infrared ratios show potential for leak detection. Given the sensitivity of L-band radar to moisture, and the ability to separate contributions from canopy and ground surface, it is possible to detect saturated soils through vegetation canopies. The results of both approaches are used to infer limits of detection in terms of season and meteorological conditions for a range of land covers. Preliminary findings suggest that leaks may be optimally detected when canopy height is low, surrounding soil is dry, and the leak has been present for more than 14 days. The modelled data is compared with L - band fully polarimetric E-SAR data, and 200 channel HYMAP hyperspectral airborne data which were acquired over an 8km section of the Vrynwy aqueduct (UK), which included a high concentration of leaks. Data was acquired as part of the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), SAR and Hyperspectral Airborne Campaign (SHAC) in June 2000. The results from this work suggest that remote sensing is both an effective and feasible tool for leak identification.


The program to develop standard measurement practices for practical superconductors includes the generation of uniform definitions of terms, the development of standard measurement techniques, and comparisons of these measurements using standard reference materials. The initial sets of definitions have been published and their development will be described. Responses will be solicited on terms whose definitions are still in development or are controversial. The progress in the development of standard measurement techniques for critical current, transient losses and critical temperature will be discussed. The different techniques will be compared and the experimental parameters which must be carefully controlled will be enumerated.


"Mr. T" was a 28-year-old man with William's syndrome who was admitted to a university-based inpatient psychiatric unit for evaluation and treatment of severe malnutrition and food refusal. At 5 feet 5 inches tall, his presentation weight of 64.6 lb rendered a body mass index of 10.7 kg/m2. Elfin faced, grinning, genial, with limited intellectual functioning, and in the company of his parents, he arrived on the unit carrying a book on drag racing and a magazine for drummers. Although never in his life heavier than 78 lb, as a result of increasingly restricted patterns of eating, Mr. T lost 10 lb during the 2 months before admission. His parents and primary care physician were deeply concerned and requested inpatient evaluation, medical stabilization, and treatment of Mr. T's presumed eating disorder. Because Mr. T's I.Q. had been previously assessed at about 80, although his parents provided much of the history, Mr. T offered what information and perspectives he could regarding his symptoms, behaviors, and his understanding of their causes. Mr. T's stated chief complaint was "I get backed up when I eat, so I'm losing weight." He was not concerned about his current weight but realized that his parents were worried about his weight and health. For their part, Mr. T's parents worried about not having had formal training in parenting and managing the dietary habits of an adult with a possible eating disorder. They wanted instruction in how to constructively monitor and encourage healthy eating without being overbearing.


Objective: To describe the role of the medical technician/paramedic and review 2 types of drug storage: the emergency department and prehospital emergency medical services (EMS). Data Sources: Information was obtained from personal experience, personal communication with hospitals, prehospital healthcare providers, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacists. Searches of the Internet were conducted for sites reviewing traditional drug storage systems, as well as those utilized specifically for prehospital EMS. Key words used were advanced cardiac life support, crash cart, drug security, drug storage, emergency department, and emergency medical services. Study Selection and Data Extraction: All articles identified from the data sources were evaluated and all information deemed relevant was included for this review. Data Synthesis: Emergency departments traditionally utilize crash carts for their ease of maneuverability over tiled floors and massive storage capabilities. Prehospital EMS are unable to use crash carts for drug storage and transport. Smaller, more compact types of securable and transportable drug storage units are required for prehospital EMS. Conclusions: The concept of bringing the emergency department to the injured is still a relatively young science. With time and experience come innovations that tailor themselves to the needed specialties. The drug box used by the emergency medical technicians/paramedics bridges that gap between the emergency department and the street.


Recent developments in mathematics have in a sense organized objects
of study into categories, where properties of mathematical systems can be
unified and simplified through presentation of diagrams with arrows. A category
is an algebraic structure made up of a collection of objects linked together by
morphisms. Category theory has been advanced as a more concrete foundation of
mathematics as opposed to set-theoretic language. In this paper, we define a
pseudo-category on the class of isotonic spaces on which the idempotent axiom
of the Kuratowski closure operator is assumed.


INTRODUCTION
Stasis mucinosis and obesity-associated lymphedematous mucinosis (OALM) have been described as 2 discrete diagnostic entities.

CASE REPORT
A morbidly obese African American man in his late 60s presented to the emergency room with a 3-month history of swelling of both lower extremities and secondary changes suggestive of lymphedema and venous dermatitis. On physical examination, the patient had severe edema with multiple raised areas of verruciform skin changes and varicosities, diffuse induration, erythema, and scaling. He also had an open wound in his left hallux. The skin biopsy found mucinosis. A diagnosis of stasis mucinosis was rendered. He had normal thyroid function test laboratory results.

CONCLUSIONS
The authors suggest stasis mucinosis and OALM represent the spectrum of euthyroid mucin depositional disease in varying clinical settings.


Jetting is a universal phenomenon frequently observed in nature and industries, for instance, in rain drop impact, inkjet printing, spray cooling, fuel atomization, etc. In drop impact on a superheated surface, we observe the formation of a vapor cavity beneath the dynamic Leidenfrost drop and a consecutive downward ejection of a jet into the cavity using ultrafast x-ray phase contrast imaging. We reveal that the cavity is induced mostly by the retraction of the drop and the jetting is caused by the convergence of capillary waves along the liquid-cavity interface. We find a jetting criterion based on the viscous damping of capillary waves: OhWe2]≤66±10 . These results can provide important insight that leads to understanding and modeling of jets in nature.


The notion of phraseology is now used across a wide range of linguistic disciplines: Phraseology (proper), Corpus Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics, Cognitive Linguistics, Computational Linguistics. It is, however, conspicuously absent from most studies in the area of Translation Studies (e.g. Delisle 2003, Baker & Saldanha 2011). The paradox is that many practical difficulties encountered by translators and interpreters are directly related to phraseology in the broad sense (Colson 2008, 2013), and this can most clearly be seen in the failure of SMT-models (statistical machine translation) to deal efficiently with the translation of set phrases (used here as a generic term for all categories of phraseological constructions, from collocations to proverbs). Although corpus-based and computational phraseology still need to be clearly delineated from other concurrent disciplines, a possible way of narrowing the gap between phraseology and translation studies is proposed here: the recourse to experiments involving on the one hand set phrases and, on the other, evidence from parallel translation corpora or SMT-machines such as Google Translate. We will argue that both phraseology and translation studies have much to gain from this cross fertilisation, because both disciplines are regularly criticised for their lack of coherent terminological description and for the insufficient number of reproducible experiments they involve. The aim of this paper is not to draw up an exhaustive list of the possible experiments showing the interweaving of phraseology and translation studies, but to propose directions for future research involving a number of key issues that are posed by phraseology and are illustrated by translation practice. A first series of experiments relating to this subject matter concerns the problems posed by phraseology to human translation. Decoding phraseology in the source text is far from easy for translators and interpreters, all the more so as they are usually not native speakers of the source language. Also, finding a natural formulation in the target language and avoiding translationese requires an excellent mastery of the phraseology of the target language. I will argue that experiments with translation corpora may precisely shed some light on some crucial notions of phraseology and of translation studies. Experiments have shown that translation errors due to phraseology are legion in many translation corpora, even in the official translations of the European Union. A contribution of corpus-based phraseology would therefore consist in making human translators aware of the pitfalls of phraseology in the source text. Even experienced professionals sometimes fail to detect the fixed or semi-fixed character of a source text construction. Experiments along these lines should therefore also include the creation of large, multilingual phraseological databases, which brings us back to two serious shortcomings of computational phraseology: 1. There is no universally accepted algorithm for the automatic extraction of phraseology, especially not for ngrams larger than bigrams. 2. There is no consensus as to the proportion of set phrases in relation with the rest of the vocabulary: according to Jackendoff (1995), there are about as many fixed expressions as there are single words in the dictionary, but others (such as Mel'cuk 1995) hold the view that fixed expressions far outnumber single words. I will argue in that respect that algorithms derived from text mining and information retrieval techniques (Baeza-Yates, R. & B. Ribeiro-Neto 1999) can be efficient and (computationally) cost-effective in order to build up unfiltered collections of recurrent fixed or semi-fixed phrases, from which translators could gain information about the number of set phrases in the source text. Such an algorithm has been proposed in Colson (2014), and a provisional database of about 700,000 English set phrases (tokens) has been assembled, which seems to confirm that Jackendoff's view about the total number of fixed expressions was not correct. A second series of experiments that would turn out to be profitable to a better theoretical understanding of both phraseology and translation studies, has to do with the specific problems posed by phraseology to automatic translation. Phraseology has only recently been identified as one of the main sources of errors in automatic translation systems, including the most recent SMT-systems (Monti, Mitkov, Corpas Pastor & Seretan 2013). I will however point out that the theoretical underpinnings of phraseology are at stake in order to provide a coherent explanation for the serious shortcomings in the automatic translation of sentences containing phraseology. The crux of the matter seems to be the complex interplay between association and frequency in fixed expressions. Recent evidence shows that, contrary to what is assumed by most statistical scores, there should be no relationship between the statistical association of the grams constituting a set phrase, and its frequency in a huge corpus. The countless examples of wrong translations of phraseologically rich sentences by Google Translate, for instance, all point to the fundamentally wrong way in which ngrams were traced down, namely by giving the highest priority to frequency. Further experimentation should also shed some light on the overall statistical distribution of set phrases in large corpora. The well-know zipfian distribution of words in a corpus poses theoretical problems as far as phraseology is concerned. Corpus-based studies (Baroni 2008) indicate that the distribution of ngrams themselves may display a Zipf-Mandelbrot curve. This is an important theoretical challenge to the theory of phraseology and also to semantics, having therefore consequences on the way meaning may be expressed in different languages and be adequately translated from one language into another. I will point out that a general theory of phraseology, as outlined by Mejri (2006), may offer a new insight into the statistical underpinnings of both morpheme associations (in words) and of word association (in set phrases). References Baeza-Yates, R. & B. Ribeiro-Neto (1999). Modern Information Retrieval. New York: ACM Press, Addison Wesley. Baker, M. & G. Saldanha (eds.) (2011). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. New York: Routledge. Baroni, M. (2008). Distributions in text. In: A. Ludeling & M. Kyto, (eds.), Corpus linguistics. An international handbook. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, p. 803-821. Baroni, M., Bernardini, S., Ferraresi, A. & E. Zanchetta. (2009). The WaCky Wide Web: A collection of very large linguistically processed Web-crawled corpora. Journal of Language Resources and Evaluation, 43, p. 209-226. Colson, J.-P. (2008). Cross-linguistic phraseological studies: An overview. In: Granger, S. & F. Meunier (eds.), Phraseology. An interdisciplinary perspective. John Benjamins, Amsterdam / Philadelphia, p. 191-206. Colson, J.-P. (2010a). The Contribution of Web-based Corpus Linguistics to a Global Theory of Phraseology. In: Ptashnyk, S., Hallsteindottir, E. & N. Bubenhofer (eds.), Corpora, Web and Databases. Computer-Based Methods in Modern Phraselogy and Lexicography. Hohengehren, Schneider Verlag, p. 23-35. Colson, J.-P. (2010b). Automatic extraction of collocations: a new Web-based method. In: S. Bolasco, S., Chiari, I. & L. Giuliano, Proceedings of JADT 2010,Statistical Analysis of Textual Data, Sapienza University of Rome, 9-11 June 2010. Milan, LED Edizioni, p. 397-408. Colson, J.-P. (2013). Pratique traduisante et idiomaticite : l'importance des structures semi-figees. In : Mogorron Huerta, P., Gallego Hernandez, D., Masseau, P. & Tolosa Igualada, M. (eds.), Fraseologia, Opacidad y Traduccion. Studien zur romanischen Sprachwissenschaft und interkulturellen Kommunikation (Herausgegeben von Gerd Wotjak). Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, p. 207-218. Colson, J.-P. (2014). Set phrases around globalization : an experiment in corpus-based computational phraseology. Paper presented at CILC 2014, 6th International Conference on Corpus Linguistics. University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 22-24 May 2014. Corpas Pastor, G. (2013). Deteccion, descripcion y contraste de las unidades fraseologicas mediante tecnologias linguisticas. In Olza, I. & R. Elvira Manero (eds.) Fraseopragmatica. Berlin: Frank & Timme, p. 335-373. Delisle, J. (2003). La traduction raisonnee. Ottawa: Presses de l'Universite d'Ottawa. Jackendoff, R. (1995). The boundaries of the lexicon. In M. Everaert, E.-J. van der Linden, A. Schenk & R. Schroeder (eds.), Idioms: Structural and psychological perspectives. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. 133-165. Mejri, S. (2006). Polylexicalite, monolexicalite et double articulation. Cahiers de Lexicologie, 2 :209-221. Mel'cuk, I. 1995. Phrasemes in language and phraseology in linguistics. In M. Everaert, E.-J. van der Linden, A. Schenk & R. Schroeder (eds.), Idioms: Structural and psychological perspectives. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. 167-232. Monti, J., Mitkov, R., Corpas Pastor, G. & V. Seretan (eds) (2013). Workshop Proceedings: Multi-word units in machine translation and translation technologies, Nice 14th Machine Translation Summit.


Abstract Background Although the gastrointestinal tract (including the pancreas, gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) is the most common site for extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC), the current treatment patterns of locoregional GEP NEC and in particular, the role of surgical resection is unclear. Methods Data from the National Cancer Database between 2004 and 2016 were used for this study. Results Of 2314 GEP NEC cases (stages I–III), 52.5% were stage III. Colon was the most common site (30%); 30.9% of all cases were small cell morphology. Age, morphology, stage, and primary site were associated with significant differences in treatment patterns. Management of NEC mimicked that of adenocarcinomas arising at the respective sites: colon NEC most likely to be treated with surgery and chemotherapy; anal and esophageal NEC was primarily likely to receive chemotherapy and radiation, and rectal NEC mostly likely to receive trimodality therapy. However, 25%-40% of patients did not undergo surgical resection even at sites typically managed with curative resection, and there was a trend toward lesser resection over time. The prognostic impact of surgical resection was significant across all stages and correlated with variations in survival across primary sites. Even in patients undergoing chemoradiation, surgery was the only prognostic variable that significantly affected survival in stages I–II patients (HR 0.63) and showed a strong trend in stage III (HR 0.77) patients. Conclusions Treatment patterns in GEP NEC vary considerably according to stage and primary tumor site. Surgery significantly improved survival in stages I–II patients and showed a strong trend in stage III patients regardless of primary tumor location and other perioperative therapies.


Geonor T-200B weighing precipitation gauge (Geonor) and Chinese standard
precipitation gauge (CSPG) are widely used for measuring precipitaion in
the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, their measurements must be adjusted
due to wetting, evaporation loss and wind-induced undercatch. Some
transfer functions had been proposed in previous studies, but their
applicability in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has not been evaluated. In
our study, a precipitation measurement intercomparison experiment was
carried out from August 2018 to September 2020 at a station in the
central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and these transfer functions are also
evaluated based on the results of the experiment. The results show that:
(1) the catch efficiency of Geonor for rain, mixed, snow, hail are
92.06%, 85.32%, 68.08% and 91.82% respectively, and the catch
efficiency of CSPG are 92.59%, 81.32%, 46.43% and 95.56%
respectively. (2) K2017b has the most accurate correction results for
Geonor solid and mixed precipitation at 30 minutes time scale, and the
M2007e scheme has the most accurate correction results for Geonor solid
precipitation at event scale. (3) The current transfer functions for
CSPG underestimate the solid precipitation, while overestimate the
liquid precipitation. Based on the results of the comparative
observation in our study, new CSPG transfer functions are proposed for
the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. (4) Hail is also an important
precipitation type in the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Because the
capture rate of hail precipitation is close to that of rain, and the
temperature when hail precipitation occurs is high, it is not necessary
to determine the hail precipitation type, and the transfer functions
recommended in this study can also get a good correction results.


Absfract-We have evaluated the ellicacy of duplex ultrasound (US) harmonic imaging with the addition of an ultrasound contrast agent in the post-operative evaluation of aortic aneurysm repair. Duplex ultrasound evaluation was done with the contrast was circulating throughout the blood pool, using digitally coded transmit-receive ultrasound pulse sequences with tissue harmonic imaging to optimize visualization. Twenty patients were evaluated, eighteen with modular stent grafts and two with unihody bifurcated stent grafts. All stent grafts remained widely patent with normal aorto-iliac flow hemodynamics. Duplex ultrasound with contrast identified all eight ofthe endoleaks seen by computed tomography angiography. In two patients ultrasound with contrast detected small endoleaks not seen by CTA, but confirmed by angiography at the time of endovascular closure. Standard duplex ultrasouud failed to identify four of the ten endoleaks. Duplex ultrasound, when used with an ultrasound contrast agent in the follow-up of aortic aneurysm repair, appears to provide very good sensitivity to patency and the presence and type of any endoleaks present.


This paper compares the level and source of income for Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians using data from the 2011 wave of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). Three sources of income are considered: wages and salaries; government benefits; and income from businesses, investments and other private transfers. Consistent with many previous studies, Indigenous Australians have, on average, lower total income than non-Indigenous Australians, with this difference being largest for those who are full-time employed. The difference is also larger for males compared to females. In terms of non-wage income, Indigenous men and women receive a much smaller proportion of income from other sources than their non-Indigenous counterparts (primarily business and investment income). This is particularly the case for those who are not in the labour force (NILF). Correspondingly, government benefits constitute a higher proportion of income for the Indigenous population than for the non-Indigenous. This is true for both males and females, and for all labour force states, although the difference is largest for part-time employed and those who are NILF. Given Indigenous persons are also more likely to be unemployed than non-Indigenous persons, they are more likely to be dependent solely on government payments as a source of income at any one time. The implications of these findings are discussed, as well as directions for future research.


We investigated the relationship between daily growth rates and diel variation of carbon (C) metabolism and C to nitrogen (N) ratio under P‐ and N‐limitation in the green algae Chlorella autotrophica. To do this, continuous cultures of C. autotrophica were maintained in a cyclostat culture system under 14:10 light:dark cycle over a series of P‐ and N‐limited growth rates. Cell abundance, together with cell size, as reflected by side scatter signal from flow cytometric analysis demonstrated a synchronized diel pattern with cell division occurring at night. Under either type of nutrient limitation, the cellular C:N ratio increased through the light period and decreased through the dark period over all growth rates, indicating a higher diel variation of C metabolism than that of N. Daily average cellular C:N ratios were higher at lower dilution rates under both types of nutrient limitation but cell enlargement was only observed at lower dilution rates under P‐limitation. Carbon specific growth rates during the dark period positively correlated with cellular daily growth rates (dilution rates), with net loss of C during night at the lowest growth rates under N‐limitation. Under P‐limitation, dark C specific growth rates were close to zero at low dilution rates but also exhibited an increasing trend at high dilution rates. In general, diel variations of cellular C:N were low when dark C specific growth rates were high. This result indicated that the fast growing cells performed dark C assimilation at high rates, hence diminished the uncoupling of C and N metabolism at night.


The 1993 floods along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and their tributaries have caused tremendous losses in terms of human life, homes, businesses and crop production. Bottomland areas have been under water for many weeks. Landowners, homeowners, foresters, park managers, and others are concerned about the long-term effect of the flooding on the forests of the Midwest and the Great Plains.


Diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with dreadful changes in the cardiovascular and renal systems, causing increased morbidity and mortality. Sodium-glucose cotransport-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors belong to the oral hypoglycemic group of drugs believed to reduce these events by various mechanisms in DM. We performed a systematic review to determine the effectiveness of SGLT2 inhibitors in reducing cardiovascular and renal complications and address safety concerns in participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We explored PubMed, PubMed Central, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Cochrane library, and ResearchGate for randomized controlled trials and observational studies done on the advantages of SGLT2 inhibitors in the prevention or reduction of worsening cardiovascular and renal changes in T2DM. Studies were screened for the quality assessment using the Cochrane risk-of-bias assessment tool and Newcastle-Ottawa scale. We screened 5615 articles, out of which 22 articles with 7,02,977 diabetes mellitus patients treated with SGLT2 inhibitors were used for the systematic review after meticulously filtering articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The trials included one of the following drugs - empagliflozin, dapagliflozin, canagliflozin, and luseogliflozin. SGLT2 inhibitors significantly reduced the risk of heart failure (HF), frequency of hospitalizations due to HF, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and nonfatal myocardial infarction. Renal outcomes showed a significant lowering of risk of acute kidney failure, progression of chronic kidney disease, renal mortality, and improvement in urinary albumin creatinine ratio. We noticed an initial worsening of the estimated glomerular filtration rate followed by stabilizing and reaching the baseline on long-term treatment, especially in end-stage renal failure patients. The review showed that SGLT2 inhibitors have adverse reactions similar to that of a placebo, with a slight increase in treatable genital mycotic and urinary tract infections but no evidence of diabetic ketoacidosis, fractures, and amputations. According to the available data, SGLT2 inhibitors can significantly prevent or reduce cardiovascular diseases and kidney abnormalities in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with tolerable safety outcomes.


Waste management is not only about removing waste from the environment but also a tool of social integration and economic well-being. Waste management through the three Rs offers advantages of employment, sustainable development and poverty alleviation. The environment requires attention because it is rapidly degrading amidst dwindling natural resources, mounting amounts of wastes while poverty continues to increase. This paper focused on material recovery from wastes through recovery, re-use, and recycling of municipal solid wastes in the north- eastern city of Maiduguri in Nigeria over a period of 24 months between 2011 and 2013. Three waste management scenarios were thought of and adopted within 7 groups made of the major wards, areas of the Maiduguri metropolis and the University of Maiduguri; involving 5000 respondents/participants working under waste collection outfits or operating at open dump areas. Data obtained were analyzed using simple statistical methods. Findings revealed an annual estimate of the recovery as 16.8 tons of bottles/glasses, 158.4 tons of plastics/rubber, and 264 tons of metal. It also indicated that considerable amount of money could be made from material recovery and recycling=N=97,600 was made from the sales of bottles/glasses, =N= 652,800 from plastic/rubber and =N= 1,408,000 from sales of scrap metals. Material recovery, re-use and recycling have many economic and material benefits. They also constitute human capacity development schemes. These recoverables have paved great means of livelihood to many people involved in this activity. There is need for support from either government or private sector.


Data compression is a challenging and increasingly important problem. As the amount of data generated daily continues to increase, efficient transmission and storage has never been more critical. In this study, a novel encoding algorithm is proposed, motivated by the compression of DNA data and associated characteristics. The proposed algorithm follows a divide-and-conquer approach by scanning the whole genome, classifying subsequences based on similarity patterns, and binning similar subsequences together. The data are then compressed in each bin independently. This approach is different than the currently known approaches: entropy, dictionary, predictive, or transform based methods. Proof-of-concept performance was evaluated using a benchmark dataset with seventeen genomes ranging in size from kilobytes to gigabytes. The results showed considerable improvement in the compression of each genome, preserving several megabytes compared with state-of-art tools. Moreover, the algorithm can be applied to the compression of other data types include mainly text, numbers, images, audio, and video which are being generated daily and unprecedentedly in massive volumes.


Abstract Objectives We investigated effect of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) dopamine D2 receptor inhibition on food intake and plasma ghrelin following chronic free or scheduled meal with different caloric intakes. Methods Male Wistar rats (220–250 g) were fed diets containing free (control) or three scheduled diets of standard, restricted and high-fat for 1 month. The animals stereotaxically received an intra VMH single dose of sulpiride (0.005 µg)/or saline (0.5 µL) before meal time. Thirty minutes later, food intake and circulating ghrelin were measured. Results Sulpiride significantly reduced food intake and ghrelin concentration in freely fed and scheduled-standard diet (p<0.05), while increased food intake, with ghrelin level on fasted level in scheduled-restricted group (p<0.01) compared to control. Food intake and ghrelin concentration between scheduled-high fat and freely fed or scheduled-standard diets did not show significant changes. Conclusions The VMH D2 receptors are possibly involved in controlling scheduled eating behavior, depending on energy balance context.


Process control of a spray dryer that is usually used as the last step of production is very crucial in obtaining a quality standard product. To this end, predicting the effect of various operating and environmental parameters on product properties is essential. Modeling was done in microscopic and macroscopic scales by modifying the mass and heat transfer equations used in investigating the drying mechanism. However, as far as momentum transfer is concerned, the equations are the same as the ones used in the available literature models. Unlike conventional models that take only the two streams of hot air and sprayed droplets into account, a third stream is considered in our proposed model and this modification improved the results significantly. The model equations were solved numerically and a new simulation software was developed using Visual C++ 6.0. The model results are in good agreement with the industrial data obtained from a detergent producing plant.


Polycystic ovary syndrome affects 5-10% of women in the developed world, making it the most common endocrine disorder among women of reproductive age. The symptoms typically associated with polycystic ovary syndrome: amenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, hirsutism, obesity, subfertility, anovulation and acne can lead to a significant reduction in female life quality.The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of polycystic ovary syndrome on quality of life and marital sexual satisfaction. Fifty women with polycystic ovary syndrome were qualified to the study as the research group. The control group consisted of fourty healthy women. A specific questionnaire was used as a research tool in this study. It included the socio-demographic part, polycystic ovary syndrome's symptomatology and validated scales: Polish version of Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) and Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS). The mean age of researched women was 28.9+/-5.6 years, and in the control group - 30.5+/-5.3 years (p>0.05). Quality of life parameters for women with polycystic ovary syndrome were lower than for the controls in the aspect of: general health (p<0.01), limitations due to physical health (p<0.05), limitations due to emotional problems (p<0.001), social functioning (p<0.01), energy/fatigue (p<0.001) and emotional wellbeing (p<0.01). Studied women showed worse marital sexual functioning (p<0.05). Marital sexual dysfunctions were diagnosed in 28.6% of women with polycystic ovary syndrome and in 10.5% of healthy women (p<0.05). Polycystic ovary syndrome decreases quality of life and marital sexual functioning among women. A negative effect of hirsutism severity on general well-being and marital sexual life is also observed.


Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are responsible for removing ubiquitin (Ub) from its protein conjugates. DUBs have been implicated as attractive therapeutic targets in the treatment of viral diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. The lack of selective chemical tools for the exploration of these enzymes significantly impairs the determination of their roles in both normal and pathological states. Commercially available fluorogenic substrates are based on the C-terminal Ub motif or contain Ub coupled to a fluorophore (Z-LRGG-AMC, Ub-AMC); therefore, these substrates suffer from lack of selectivity. By using a hybrid combinatorial substrate library (HyCoSuL) and a defined P2 library containing a wide variety of nonproteinogenic amino acids, we established a full substrate specificity profile for two DUBs—MERS PLpro and human UCH-L3. Based on these results, we designed and synthesized Ub-based substrates and activity-based probes (ABPs) containing selected unnatural amino acids located in the C-terminal Ub motif. Biochemical analysis and cell-based experiments confirmed the activity and selectivity of engineered Ub-based substrates and probes. Using this approach, we propose that for any protease that recognizes Ub and Ub-like substrates, a highly active and selective unnatural substrate or probe can be engineered.


Band 3 is the predominant polypeptide and the purported mediator of anion transport in the human erythrocyte membrane. Against a background of minor and apparently unrelated polypeptides of similar electrophoretic mobility, and despite apparent heterogeneity in its glycosylation, the bulk of band 3 exhibits uniform and characteristic behavior. This integral glycoprotein appears to exist as a noncovalent dimer of two approximately 93,000-dalton chains which span the membrane asymmetrically. The protein is hydrophobic in its composition and in its behavior in aqueous solution and is best solubilized and purified in detergent. It can be cleaved while membrane-bound into large, topographically defined segments. An integral, outer-surface, 38,000-dalton fragment bears most of the band 3 carbohydrate. A 17,000-dalton, hydrophobic glycopeptide fragment spans the membrane. A approximately 40,000-dalton hydrophilic segment represents the cytoplasmic domain. In vitro, glyceraldehyde 3-P dehydrogenase and aldolase bind reversibly, in a metabolie-sensitive fashion, to this cytoplasmic segment. The cytoplasmic domain also bears the amino terminus of this polypeptide, in contrast to other integral membrane proteins. Recent electron microscopic analysis suggests that the poles of the band 3 molecule can be seen by freeze-etching at the two original membrane surfaces, while freeze-fracture reveals the transmembrane disposition of band 3 dimer particles. There is strong evidence that band 3 mediates 1:1 anion exchange across the membrane through a conformational cycle while remaining fixed and asymmetrical. Its cytoplasmic pole can be variously perturbed and even excised without a significant alteration of transport function. However, digestion of the outer-surface region leads to inhibition of transport, so that both this segment and the membrane-spanning piece (which is selectively labeled by covalent inhibitors of transport) may be presumed to be involved in transport. Genetic polymorphism has been observed in the structure and immunogenicity of the band 3 polypeptide but this feature has not been related to variation in anion transport or other band 3 activities.


This article is devoted to the place and role of the Moscow megalopolis in the Russian and global political space. The article reveals the problems of formation of the modern world a new political subjectivity and consideration of big cities, in particular Moscow, as fully fledged political actors and active participants of the political processes. The author pays special attention to the particular political functions of the capital megalopolis, as well as the resources and competitive advantages, which allow Moscow to play an active role in political relations and processes, both within the country and on the international arena.


Authorization and access control in Web services is complicated by the unique requirements of the dynamic Web services paradigm. Current authentication mechanisms for Web services do not differentiate between users in terms of fine-grained access privileges. This results in an all-or-nothing access which is not flexible enough for modern day business processes using Web services to execute. In this paper, we present a policy-based authorization framework to address this requirement. We have designed a profile of the well-known WS-policy specification tailored to meet the access control requirements in Web services by integrating WS-policy with an access control policy specification language, X-GTRBAC. The design of the profile is aimed at bridging the gap between available policy standards for Web services and existing policy specification languages for access control. The profile supports the WS-policy attachment specification, which allows separate policies to be associated with multiple components of a Web service description, and one of our key contributions is the design of an algorithm to compute the effective policy for the Web service given the multiple policy attachments. To allow Web service applications to use our solution, we have adopted a component-based design approach based on well-known UML notations. We have also prototyped our architecture, and implemented it as a loosely coupled Web service providing healthcare information services to physicians subject to applicable authorization policies.


Biosynthetic incorporation of labeled sodium acetate into oxosorbicillinol in Trichoderma sp. USF-2690 suggests that oxosorbicillinol is derived from six acetate units, and subsequent bioconversion of the labeled oxosorbicillinol to bisvertinolone in the fermentation of the strain suggests that bisvertinolone is biosynthesized from oxosorbicillinol and sorbicillinol in a Michael-type reaction.


The authors consider modelling and estimating the texture in high resolution non-Gaussian sea clutter. Cyclostationarity of sea clutter is investigated and validated by processing measured high-resolution data. The clutter is modelled as a compound Gaussian process and the texture as the superposition of real cosines with unknown frequencies, amplitudes and phases. A method is proposed for estimating the model parameters and retrieving the texture component from the intensity data in the presence of multiplicative noise with unknown power spectral density. The method exploits the clutter cyclostationarity and is based on a RELAXation optimisation approach. The ability of the proposed method to retrieve texture information is investigated by processing simulated and measured sea clutter data.


When HeLa cells acutely infected with measles virus were incubated in a mixture containing only the six proteins of the alternative pathway of complement activation (C3, factors B and D, beta 1H, C3b inactivator, and native properdin) without antibody, there was activation of the alternative pathway as shown by progressive uptake of 125I-labeled C3b onto the cell surface. This C3b uptake was blocked by EDTA and was not shown by uninfected cells. The rate of 125I-labeled C3 uptake by infected cells was the same in the absence and presence of properdin; however, when antiviral IgG was bound to the cell surface, the rate of C3 uptake was increased in the presence of properdin. Significant 125I-labeled C3 uptake was first detectable when cells were studied at 12 hr after infection, when cells expressed viral polypeptides on their surface. There was also progressive uptake of 125I-labeled C3 onto measles virus-infected cells incubated in human serum depleted of both IgG and C4. Hence, the human alternative pathway of complement activation can be initiated on the surface of measles virus-infected cells independent of IgG antibody. However, lysis of the infected cells only occurs when antiviral antibody is present.


Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) is the simultaneous, coupled heat transfer within a fluid and an adjoining solid, and the interface treatment plays an important role in its analysis, particularly when using unstructured grid system. In the present paper a new solid-fluid interface treatment in CHT analysis is presented and applied to two typical CHT problems, i.e. natural convections in both concentric thick-walled cylinders and cavity with a centered solid body. The present interface treatment for unstructured mesh clearly demonstrates the same accuracy and robustness as that for typical structured mesh.


Objective To investigate the expression of NF-κBp65 in hippocampus after the XST intervention therapy in the SD rats with global cerebral I/R injury and testify the protective effect of XST after global cerebral I/R injury.Methods 72 healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups,sham operation(SO) group ( n =24),I/R group( n =24) and XST group( n =24).The model of acute global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (including:I/R and XST group) injury was produced by means of simple Pulsinelli- brierley's four arteries occlusion method.H.E.staining was performed to detect the number of surviving neurons and TUNEL was used to detect the rate of neurons apoptosis.The expression activation of NF-κB p65 in hippocampus comu-ammonis ( CA1 ) region were examined by immunohistochemical method (SABC).Results The survival pyramidal neurons in the XST group continued to increase,and it was significantly more than the I/R group at each time-point after reperfusion[ (99.23 ±4.22)/mm vs (75.83 ±7.17 )/mm,(80.93 ± 5.36)/mm vs (51.50 ± 8.26 )/mm,(103.24 ± 5.48 )/mm vs (35.67 ± 13.17 )/mm,( 126.22 ± 7.54 )/mm vs (9.83 ± 4.71 )/mm ],the differences were statistically significant ( P <0.01 ).The apoptosis rate of pyramidal cell in the XST group at each time-point were more significantly reduced than the I/R group [ ( 8.82 ± 2.71 ) % vs ( 22.58 ± 4.68 ) %.( 19.15 ± 6.23 ) % vs (42.68 ± 3.04 ) %,( 11.82 ± 2.87 ) % vs ( 55.51 ± 6.81 ) %,( 8.44 ± 3.23 ) % vs ( 71.69 ± 7.71 ) % ],the differences were statistically significant ( P <0.01 ).The positive neurons of NF-κBp65 expression in the XST group at different time-points were significantly less than the L/R group[ ( 13.20 ±2.50) vs ( 18.00 ± 1.87),(8.20 ±5.31) vs (41.60±3.65),(6.70±3.36) vs (55.30±5.10),(7.10±3.57) vs (72.80 ±4.71)],the differences were statistically significant ( P < 0.05,P < 0.01 ).Conclusions After global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion,XST could protect the brain from global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by holding up the expression of NF- kappaB p65,and inhibiting neuronal apoptosis,and increasing the number of surviving neurons.Thus,the results of this experiment could provide a powerful and weighty objective indication for XST being used during cerebral resuscitation.


Pietro Verri's 1771 "Reflections on political economy" (Kelley, English edn., 1993) has been the object of inquiry from several points of view. However, while special attention has been given to his analysis on price, other equally important aspects have stayed hidden in the shadows. When for example Schumpeter comes to deal with Milanese School of Political Economy in his treatment of the 18th century "Cheapnessand-Plenty" new doctrine, he includes a revealing remark, to the effect that "Verri is the most important pre-Smithian authority on Cheapness-and-Plenty". The present paper shows that a careful canvass of the texts (in coincidence with the first variorum edition of Verri's Works) substantiates Schumpeter's suggestion and therefore points towards Verri not only emerging as an important precursor of Adam Smith, but also standing out as a key figure in the transition from Physiocracy to the Smithian system. The paper also goes on to argue that the conventional consumer sovereignty version of Verri's and Smith's systems can be misleading, given that the Cheapnessand-Plenty view of the competitive economy embodies a conception of growth focussed on creativity in production.


Plasma cholecystokinin (CCK) responses after ingestion of a test meal in patients with mild chronic pancreatitis having abdominal pain were studied with a radioimmunoassay using the CCK specific antiserum (OAL-656) produced by a novel immunization procedure. Mean concentration of the fasting plasma CCK determined using CCK-8 as a standard was 31.5 +/- 5.8 pg/ml in six patients who had mild impaired exocrine function with pain, and was significantly higher than 10 healthy subjects (9.8 +/- 1.8 pg/ml). In those patients, the ingestion of a liquid test meal led to a peak of 75.1 +/- 25.4 pg/ml at 30 min, and the 120-min integrated CCK response (5427 +/- 1217.3 pg X min/ml) was significantly higher than in healthy subjects (1538 +/- 110.1 pg X min/ml).


Topical minoxidil is the only topical drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia. However, the exact mechanism by which minoxidil stimulates anagen phase and promotes hair growth is not fully understood. In the late telegen phase of the hair follicle growth cycle, stem cells located in the bulge region differentiate and re-enter anagen phase, a period of growth lasting 2-6 years. In androgenetic alopecia, the anagen phase is shortened and a progressive miniaturization of hair follicles occurs, eventually leading to hair loss. Several studies have demonstrated that minoxidil increases the amount of intracellular Ca2+, which has been shown to up-regulate the enzyme adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase. A recent study demonstrated that ATP synthase, independent of its role in ATP synthesis, promotes stem cell differentiation. As such, we propose that minoxidil induced Ca2+ influx can increase stem cell differentiation and may be a key factor in the mechanism by which minoxidil facilitates hair growth. Based on our theory, we provide a roadmap for the development of a new class of drugs for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia.


Using data for students undertaking a series of real-world academic examinations with high future payoffs, we examine whether the differences in these evaluations' competitive nature generate a performance gender gap. In the univariate setting we find that women's performance is first-order stochastically dominated by that of men when the competition is higher, whereas the reverse holds true in the less competitive or noncompetitive tests. These results are confirmed in the multivariate setting. Our findings, from a real-world setting with important payoffs at stake, are in line with the evidence from experimental research that finds that females tend to perform worse in more competitive contexts.


PurposeThis article explores the varied ways that individuals create and use calendars, planners and other cognitive artifacts to document the multiple temporalities that make up their everyday lives. It reveals the hidden documentary time work required to synchronize, coordinate or entrain their activities to those of others.Design/methodology/approachWe interviewed 47 Canadian participants in their homes, workplaces or other locations and photographed their documents. We analyzed qualitatively; first thematically to identify mentions of times, and then relationally to reveal how documentary time work was situated within participants' broader contexts.FindingsParticipants' documents revealed a wide variety of temporalities, some embedded in the templates they used, and others added by document creators and users. Participants' documentary time work involved creating and using a variety of tools and strategies to reconcile and manage multiple temporalities and indexical time concepts that held multiple meanings. Their work employed both standard "off the shelf" and individualized "do-it-yourself" approaches.Originality/valueThis article combines several concepts of invisible work (document work, time work, articulation work) to show both how individuals engage in documentary time work and how that work is situated within broader social and temporal contexts and standards.


This paper focuses on the common personality characteristics, and contextual factors that lead to leadership behavior in leaders who emerged in the tsunami disaster. As the sample for the study, the researcher selected twenty leaders and forty inmates from seven camps in the area from Panadura to Matara. The data for independent variables, that is, personality factors and contextual factors and the dependent variable, that is, leadership behavior were collected through the administration of two standard questionnaires and one structured questionnaire to leaders and their followers and through in- depth interviews with the leaders. Findings on this study were made in the form of three categories of leadership such as those who chose to lead by serving to satisfy spiritual aspirations, those that emerge in response to the needs of the moment due to perceived-inequity and those that emerge because of their search-for-excellence. The leadership development programs can be tailor made to address these areas for further improvement of leaders in disasters and thereby be more effective in management of disasters. Keywords: Disaster Management, Fielder's, Contingency Model, Leadership, Personality, Spirituality For full Paper: firstname.lastname@example.com


Background : The right ventricular outflow tract is the most common source of ventricular arrhythmias in non-structural heart disease. Most of these arrhythmias are of endocardial origin, but their morphological substrate is mostly unknown. Objective : To identify potential morphological substrates for such arrhythmias originating within the right ventricular outflow tract. Methods : We examined three adult human hearts, which had been fixed in 4% formaldehyde. Of the hearts, two were obtained subsequent to necropsies. In these hearts, the base of the anterior papillary muscle of the tricuspid valve was removed at the site of its fusion with the moderator band. The block of myocardium thus removed was submitted to routine histological processing and sectioned at 5 micrometer thickness. The free-standing sub pulmonary infundibulum was also removed as a series of macroscopic preparations, which were then similarly sectioned in their short axis at 5 micrometer thickness. The third heart was assessed using micro-computed tomography after it had been stained with 7.5% I2KI contrast agent for 14 days, with the contrast agent refreshed at the seventh day. Results : We identified, and tracked, specialized conducting cardiomyocytes from the base of anterior papillary muscle to the supraventricular crest and subpulmonary infundibulum, using histology in two, and microcomputed tomography in the other. Transitional cells were also found at these sites. Conclusion : The existence of such specialized cardiomyocytes within the infundibulum is of obvious clinical significance, since they could be the morphological substrate for the arrhythmias known to originate from these sites.


In this introduction to our book Transatlantic Governance in the Global Economy, we examine the record of transatlantic economic relations, at three levels: the intergovernmental level, where chiefs of government and other high level officials negotiate on behalf of the United States' and European Union's respective interests, as determined by internal domestic processes; the transgovernmental level, where lower-level domestic officials work with their transatlantic counterparts on specific issues to coordinate and harmonize domestic policies; and the transnational level, where private actors, including business representatives and other constituents, coordinate efforts to advance their respective goals. Each of these three levels corresponds to a specific body of theory in international relations, including neoliberal regime theory and two-level games, transgovernmental and network approaches, and transnational and global civil society approaches, respectively. We examine two primary sets of questions. First, we seek to explain the development of new and increasingly elaborate mechanisms for transatlantic governance, asking what is new about these mechanisms, and why these actors opted for intensive bilateral cooperation at this time. Put concisely, these three questions ask, "what's new?" "why transatlantic?" and "why now?" Second, we ask about the nature of cooperation at each of the three levels identified above. Section I places the transatlantic economic relationship in historical and global context. Section II reviews the literature on each of the three theoretical perspectives and provides clear definitions of intergovernmentalism, transgovernmentalism, and transnationalism to guide the analysis. Section III introduces the nine substantive chapters of the volume, divided symmetrically so that three chapters address each level of analysis.


Serum immunoglobulins were determined in 120 women with breast cancer. A strong association between age at tumor diagnosis and serum IgA levels was noted. Relative hypoglobulinemia of IgA was associated with appearance of tumors early in life, and was more frequent among women with family history of breast cancer and among those with poor prognosis. A strong association between levels of serum IgG and parity was noted. Parous women and/or those who had good prognosis had higher levels of serum IgG, compared to nulliparous women and those with poor prognosis. The observations indicate that serum immunoglobulins may be useful in the identification of women who have a high breast cancer risk and poor prognosis.


To the Editor: We read with interest the research by E Ernst in your July issue 'Deaths after Chiropractic: A Review of Published Cases' (1). Limiting himself to case reports allows Ernst to ignore 36 cases identified in the study by Cassidy et al. (2) published in Spine in 2008. Even if the detailed data collected from Cassidy were not used, Ernst could have made reference to the work. Not doing so was a major oversight as he claimed to be 'summarising all fatalities which occurred after chiropractic spinal manipulation and were published in the medical literature'. This significantly reduces the importance of his study as Cassidy et al. provides the most exhaustive investigation ever performed into the subject. Cassidy et al. is a well-known work to anyone familiar with the field, using a study designed by a multidisciplinary team of the worlds leading experts in musculoskeletal medicine. These numbers would nearly treble the 24 cases he uncovered. The design of his research allows him to ignore these data and avoid an 'inconvenient truth' behind his argument – the fact being that the most comprehensive research on the subject has found no evidence of excess risk of vertebrobasilar artery (VBA) stroke associated with chiropractic care. To provide some context, the 36 cases identified by Cassidy et al. represent only 4.4% of the 818 cases of VBA stroke from all causes identified from over 100 million person years of data. A similar percentage of control patients visited a chiropractor in the same time period. The researchers also found that, in comparison, 53% of cases had visited their primary healthcare practitioner prior to stroke. For anyone interested in the facts on this subject, the key points from Cassidy et al. are as follows: • VBA stroke is a rare event in the population. • There is an association between VBA stroke and chiropractic visits in those under 45 years of age. • There is also an association between VBA stroke and primary care physician visits in all age groups. • No evidence was found of excess risk of VBA stroke associated with chiropractic care. • The increased risks of VBA stroke associated with chiropractic and physician visits is likely explained by patients with vertebrobasilar dissection-related neck pain and headache consulting both chiropractors and primary care physicians before their VBA stroke. Ernst states, 'When carefully evaluating the known facts, one does arrive at the conclusion that causality is at least likely'. This statement is indeed a conclusion that may be contrived if you are selective in the facts you consider for your research.


In the article is considered a fragment of the extensive investigation of the syntactic connections in their correlation with the pragmatics of language and speech, with the category of subject and, in particular, with the types of communicative registers. One part of the article is devoted to the generalization of some previous works of the author of the given article, which reflect these problems. The anlysis of records of the oral speech demonstrates, that using continually pronoun такой is one of the means of forming the position of subject – observer, this pronoun is a signal of an addressee's reference to some situation, which he / she has to present. In such use pronoun такой combines often with the extralinguistic means (gestures, mimicry, movements etc.), and this factor increases a role of the visual channel, proposing primordially presence of the direct observer. In this case a type of syntactic connection (coordination) is conducive to forming of the observer's position and decorative register.


In patients who had sustained myocardial infarction including that of complicated history, the anaerobic threshold was defined to choose the optimum intensity of physical training. The latter were also examined for effects on exercise tolerance. It was ascertained that measuring physical exercise by heart rate at the level of the anaerobic threshold made it possible to choose the optimal conditions for the aerobic supply of metabolic demands during physical training. Applying physical training under aerobic conditions greatly increases exercise tolerance, prevents recurrent myocardial infarctions and plays an important role in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.


Cancer arises from the accumulation of genetic mutations and aberrant epigenetic modifications in normal cells. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been described as a unique tumorigenic population of cells within the tumor mass that have the ability to self-renew and differentiate. In the past few years, the existence and nature of CSCs has served as one of the most controversial topics in the field of cancer biology; however, more recently, there is an abundant amount of evidence that demonstrates their existence. CSCs are believed to be responsible for resistance against conventional therapies, such as radiotherapy that contributes to uncontrolled tumor growth, metastasis and subsequently, patient demise. In this review, we summarize the mechanism(s) by which CSCs are radioresistant, including their enhanced DNA damage response, cell cycle status and the role of the CSC niche. Moreover, by using the Oncomine database, we display data from our laboratory and other groups demonstrating that CSCs have an increased expression of radioresistance genes, which are also involved in carcinogenesis, metastasis and patient relapse. In addition, we provide data from prostatospheres derived from primary patient cells demonstrating that the RAN signaling pathway is one of the top upregulated pathways within the CSC population. Therefore, we hypothesize that the RAN signaling pathway is related to the radioresistance property of CSCs. We briefly review this burgeoning field of study on the biological behavior of CSCs and provide new suggestions for the development of future therapies to target radioresistant CSCs in both pharmaceutical investigations and clinical trials.


Circumstantial evidence holds great importance in this age. Islam too, has given special importance to circumstantial evidence. If no evidence is found, the decision can be made in the light of circumstantial evidence if the case is not related to, Hadood and Qisas. Sometime circumstantial evidence supports and strengthens other available evidence.Since Quran & Sunnah have not denied the circumstantial evidence and its authenticity exists in our Sharia also .Trust in circumstantial evidence and apparent marks is obligatory because it ensure Justice to the victim, and the orders or not delayed and people get their rights in this regard the example of Holy Prophet (SAW) is enough when he said  emergence of the menstruation blood is the symbol of an empty uterus and that woman is impregnate this commandment has been described as the end of iddat duration. The sexual intercourse has also been made forbidden and after that wedlock has been declared lawful .This is the best proof to justify circumstantial evidence and a clear example of action based on circumstantial evidence.


Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are the most common diseases among children and adults in Russia. Persistent wheezing and laryngotracheitis occupy the leading part among ARIs in children of early age. The aim of our work was to evaluate occurrence of obstruction of respiratory tract among acute respiratory diseases in children9s hospital. Methods. We performed a retrospective analysis of histories of children admitted at Department of respiratory infections of Saint Vladimir Childrens City Hospital in 2006-2007 and 2010-2011 years. Results. Our cohort included children with ARIs aged from 1 months to 15 years old (in 2006 - 2220, 2007 - 2455, 2010 – 3200, 2011 - 2960 children). Children with obstruction were mainly early age (from 1 months to 3 years old). We revealed high frequency of obstruction upper and lower respiratory tracts, most of these children had recurrent episodes in history. We have found reduction frequency of wheezing in different years of observation from 23.1% to 21.5% (2006 – 23.1%, 2007 – 38.3%, 2010 – 39%, 2011 – 21.5% of children with AIRs). Also we registered high occurrence children with obstructive laryngotracheitis (in 2006 – 42.5%, 2007 – 65.7%, 2010 – 50.4%, 2011 – 47% of children with AIRs). All children with obstruction received standard treatment. Conclusion: Reduction of frequency of wheezing and obstructive laryngotracheitis in children admitted at children9s hospital is connected with introduction of modern principles of therapy obstruction of respiratory tract at a pre-hospital stage.


Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) and Au-Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using the chemical reduction method. The morphology of the synthesized pure Cu2Oparticles can be controlled by varying the amount of reducing agent NH2OH.HCl. Due to their similar crystal structure and relatively small lattice mismatch Cu2O particles are nucleated and locally undergo an epitaxial growth on the surface of the multi-faceted Au seed resulting in a stellated icosahedra Au-Cu2O core-shell particle. The extinction spectrum of Cu2O particles offew hundred-nm in size is dominated by light scattering, while that of the stellated icosahedra AuCu2O core-shell particles exhibits the interband absorption of the Cu2O shell only. The interband absorption peak undergoes a blue shift as the shell gets thinner. No prominent SPR of the Au nanocore was observed due to a rather thick Cu2O shell.


According to the traditions of some Australian Aborigines, the strange monsters known as "Kadimakara" once lived in a "roof" of vegetation over Central Australia, occasionally foraging for foods in the "lower" world. These Aborigines believed that on one occasion, when the Kadimakara's path back to their home was cut off, they were obliged to roam on earth until they died in Lake Eyre. Their bones, the Aborigines thought, became what we know as fossils. In the richly illustrated volume Kadimakara, pioneers of the bourgeoning field of Australian fossil research provide a broad overview of vertebrate history in that country. Offering a wealth of information on how palaeontologists view their own processes of interpreting what fossil animals and plants were like when alive, the book includes an essay for each of thirty-two extinct vertebrates. The work begins with an engagingly written chapter "Priest-Geologists and Knighted Explorers: A Short History of the Discovery of Vertebrate Fossils in Australia" by P. V. Rich, continues with an essay "The Stirton Years, 1953-1966" by R. H. Tedford, and goes on to a discussion of changing Australian environments throughout geological time by E. M. Truswell and G. E. Wilford. The essays on fossil vertebrates constitute the remaining two-thirds of the book.


The quintessential aim of the ODL system is to erase divides at various levels. Given the enormity and magnitude of human resources and the colossal number of villages in India, the ODL system alone has the immense potential to address as well as negotiate at first hand the problems which are engendered by economic, environmental and even social divides. The ODL system can evolve tangible mechanisms and set up innovative paradigms for agricultural development at the grass root level.

Since agricultural amelioration and rural poverty reduction are integrally interrelated

(i)The ODL system can design ICT-enabled programmes for the true empowerment of rural farmers.

(ii)The ODL system can mobilize the idea of sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Example from India: Example – COL's lifelong Learning for Farmers (L3 Farmers), COL-ICRISAT, COL Poverty Alleviation programme; case study – NSOU, (Kalyani Green Campus ) .

(iii)As the ODL system has the inherent capacity to outreach, it can very well serve as a viable conduit for information on the current needs of farmers . Example – Village Research Project (MSSRF, Pondicherry) and e-seva projects in India.


Hexane extracts of needles and defoliated twigs of Pinus pumila (Pall.) Regel from two distant populations, located in the southwest and the east (i.e., Lake Baikal region and Sakhalin Island) of the species distribution range were studied by GC/MS analysis. Composition and retention indices of major components were determined. A drastic composition divergence for the extracts of P. pumila needles and defoliated twigs, depending on growth location, was established. Needle extracts from the eastern population sample contained mainly labdane‐type acids (anticopalic acid derivatives), whereas the predominant components of needle extracts from the other population sample were abietane‐type acids (abietic, neoabietic acids) and isopimarane‐type diterpenoids (sandaracopimaric acid, sandaracopimaradien‐3β‐ol). The main components of defoliated twig extracts from Sakhalin Island population sample were abietane‐type acids and cembrane‐type diterpenoids, while content of these compounds in the extracts of the southwestern marginal population sample was remarkably lower.


In this paper we define a bivariate counting process as a compound negative binomial process with bivariate geometric compounding distribution. The resulting process is called a Bivariate Polya process. Then we consider a risk model in which the claim counting process is a Bivariate Polya process and call it a Bivariate Polya risk model. We also consider two types of ruin probability for this risk model and find the corresponding Laplace transforms. We discuss in detail the particular cases of exponentially distributed claims.


In order to eliminate position errors existing at the steady state in the motion control of robotic manipulators, a new fuzzy control algorithm is propeosed using three variables, position error, velocity error and integral of position errors as input variables of the fuzzy controller. Although the number of input variables of the fuzzy controller is increased from two to three, the number of fuzzy control rules is just increased by two. Three dimensional look-up table is used to reduce the computational time in real-time control, and a technique reducing the amount of necessary memory is introduced. Simulation and experimental studies show that the position errors at the steady state are decreased more than 90% compared to those of existing fuzzy controller when the proposed fuzzy controller is applied to the 2 axis direct drive SCARA robot manipulator.


In light of the numerous studies on the detection of target letters among adults, it is generally accepted that the missing-letter effect depends both on a given word's frequency in its language and on its role (function vs. content) in a sentence. Following a presentation of several models explaining these observations we analyze the results of a letter-detection task given to 886 French students from kindergarten to second grade. The purpose of the present study is to determine the moment when the sensitivity to content/function word distinction emerges. The results of this study reveal that even if word frequency plays a role in letter detection, the emergence of an ability to extract sentence structure, along the lines of the structural model of reading, is significantly linked to the initial stages of explicit reading instruction.


Do municipal amalgamations enforce or do they weaken (local) political participation? This is an important question considering a worldwide tendency for municipalities to merge. This question will be answered using a mixed-method approach based on a literature overview (meta-study) in general and additional quantitative (turnout figures, election studies) and qualitative (interviews) data regarding the situation in The Netherlands in particular. Political participation is consistently measured using indicators that measure behaviour (especially turnout figures) instead of perceptions and opinions such as trust or internal and external political efficacy. Local political participation seems to decrease with an increase in municipal population size.


The role of covalent binding of CCl4 radicals to the microsomal protein in the CCl4-induced inhibition of cytochrome P-450 was investigated. The incubation of liver microsomes with NADPH and CCl4 under anaerobic conditions (to avoid lipid peroxidation) results in an inhibition of cytochrome P-450 similar to that observed in the in vivo intoxication with a standard dose (0.25 ml/100 g body wt) of CCl4, when the level of covalent binding is 5-10 fold higher than that observed in the in vivo condition. When in the in vitro experiments the level of covalent binding is of the same magnitude as that observed in vivo, minimal if any inhibition of cytochrome P-450 is seen. Experiments carried out under aerobic conditions seem to indicate that the CCl4-induced inhibition of cytochrome P-450 depends more on lipid peroxidation than on covalent binding.


Frontal fibrosing alopecia is a distinctive form of scarring alopecia presenting with frontal and temporoparietal recession of the hairline. Its etiology remains unknown, and there are no universal treatment guidelines. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to define the clinical findings and treatment outcomes of 62 patients with frontal fibrosing alopecia, one of the largest cohorts to date.


The use of QbD principles during product development provides opportunities to facilitate innovation and continual improvement throughout the product lifecycle, compared to traditional approaches hence it is systematic way to product and process development. QbD principles increase process knowledge and product understanding, often through the application of new technologies such as PAT or modeling. The increased process knowledge and product understanding resulting from QbD can increase the efficiency of manufacturing processes; reduce product recalls and compliance actions, resulting in cost savings for pharmaceutical companies. By reducing uncertainty and risk, QbD can allow industry and regulators to focus their resources in the most critical areas. Because much more process understanding has been demonstrated and expressed in the dossier, QbD filings also can help facilitate CMC reviews and GMP inspections by the regulators and decrease the number of post-approval regulatory submissions required to make process changes. QbD can also facilitate the use of innovative technologies and promote the use of new approaches to perform process validation, such as continuous quality verification.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to employ a quantitative approach to explore the intellectual structure of the market orientation (MO) field over the course of its development.

Design/methodology/approach
This research was conducted by using the bibliometric techniques of citation and co-citation analyses to investigate 1,892 publications in the MO field from 1990 to 2016, as well as factor analysis and multidimensional scaling to present a clear visual experience of the knowledge structure of the MO filed.

Findings
This study reveals meaningful outputs to assist in: delineating the critical authors, institutions and countries related to the study of MO; identifying the published documents that have had a significant influence on the field; clarifying the subfields that have developed from the MO field; and mapping the intellectual structure of the field in a two-dimensional space that allows for the visual representation of different themes.

Research limitations/implications
Given the sheer volume of works that exist, these bibliometric techniques cannot completely measure, describe and present the entire intellectual structure of the MO field. Instead, co-citation analysis was performed using the data from only the top publications to identify the level of integration of the field, the changes of each knowledge group and the maturity of its evolution.

Originality/value
First, this study extends the approach to identify the subject of MO from a quantitative perspective. Second, our analysis shows the intersection between the marketing discipline and management discipline in the MO literature. Finally, this study reveals the development tendency of the MO field in recent years. The results of this study are valuable to readers interested in MO research, especially those newly interested in this field.


Knowledge on the factors influencing water erosion is fundamental for the choice of the best land use practices. Rainfall, expressed by rainfall erosivity, is one of the most important factors of water erosion. The objective of this study was to determine rainfall erosivity and the return period of rainfall in the Coastal Plains region, near Aracruz, a town in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, based on available data. Rainfall erosivity was calculated based on historic rainfall data, collected from January 1998 to July 2004 at 5 min intervals, by automatic weather stations of the Aracruz Cellulose S.A company. A linear regression with individual rainfall and erosivity data was fit to obtain an equation that allowed data extrapolation to calculate individual erosivity for a 30-year period. Based on this data the annual average rainfall erosivity in Aracruz was 8,536 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 yr -1. Of the total annual rainfall erosivity 85 % was observed in the most critical period October to March. Annual erosive rains accounted for 38 % of the events causing erosion, although the runoff volume represented 88 % of the total. The annual average rainfall erosivity return period was estimated to be 3.4 years.


Abstract Objectives Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic, multifocal, sometimes painful, inflammatory disease of the oral mucosa. OLP can predispose development of psycho-emotional disorders. Until now, the relationship between the severity of lichen planus and the psychological profile of patients (psychological well-being, perceived stress and pain coping strategies) has never been studied. Material and Methods Study was conducted on 42 OLP patients. Number of sites involved, severity and activity score of OLP were evaluated. Psychological tests were used to evaluate patients' psycho-emotional condition. The mean duration time of symptomatic OLP was 43 months. Results We detected that the longer the duration of subjective symptoms, the poorer the quality of life and the higher the level of perceived stress (PSS). Also, the higher the PSS results, the greater the anxiety and depression on Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Likewise, higher level of depression in HADS was strongly correlated with worse quality of life. (p≤0.05). Conclusions In this study, we detected a relationship between duration of the disease, level of perceived stress and quality of life. The longer the disease lasts, the higher it tends to catastrophize. This may influence development or increase of the anxiety and depression and may decrease patients' quality of life.


We present circuits and techniques which allow the extraction of fine-grained timing information using a simple, scan-based, test-access port such as the JTAG/IEEE 1149 standard. We go on to show how these techniques can be combined with other simple circuits for post-fabrication timing control. These techniques open up opportunities to perform timing oriented tests through TAP control. Further, they allow in-system timing adaptation which can be exploited to achieve high system performance.


Wasting, categorized as either severe or moderate, is a form of child malnutrition that manifests with a low weight-for-height Z-score. Previous treatment methods for moderate wasting, which affects approximately 300,000 children in Kenya, were ineffective as they lacked a mechanism to replace the accelerated loss of lean tissue. Supplementation with leucine, maybe a safe and effective method for treating moderate wasting. At a high dosage, leucine activates the mammalian target of rapamycin within the muscles which enhances gain of lean tissue. Leucine supplements are currently inaccessible to populations affected by moderate wasting in Kenya. The objective of this study was,therefore,to formulate a leucine-rich composite flour (TheraPEM) from locally available foods for treatment of moderate wasting. Six composite flours were prepared using combinations of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), groundnuts (Voandzeia subterranea), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) selected for their high leucine content, local availability and relatively low cost. Nutrient composition analysis and sensory evaluation were conducted on each of the six flours. The three preferred flours in terms of sensory attributes were subjected to accelerated shelf-life evaluation to determine changes in peroxide value, fat acidity, moisture content and total viable count. Kraft paper, gunny bags and plastic containers were the packaging materials used.All six flours met the Codex Alimentarius food standards for minimum energy density (80 kcal/100g) and maximum fat content (27 %) in processed cereal-based foods used for complementary feeding of infants and young children. They all also met the required > 1050 mg leucine per 100 grams of flour. Formulations 2, 3 and 5 had the most preferred sensory attributes and were thus subjected to accelerated shelf-life evaluation. At the fifth month, fat acidity was least in the flours packaged in plastic containers. There was no peroxide formation in any of the three samples during the storage period. The study generated six formulations that meet the minimum requirement for leucine in treatment of moderate wasting but formulation 3, had the most preferred sensory attributes. It is recommended that formulation three be subjected to a study to further validate its effectiveness in the treatment of moderate wasting prior to release for up-scaled use.


I. Introduction IT IS WELL KNOWN that many non-neoplastic disease entities may give symptoms and signs which mimic those of an expanding intracranial lesion. None of our diagnostic procedures, including cerebral angiography, is always definitive in diagnosis of the entities. They include: congenital lesions such as aneurysm,1and arteriovenous malformation2; focal inflammatory and infectious diseases such as brain abscess3; intracranial hemorrhage, infarct formation or edema formation secondary to cerebrovascular disease4; and trauma.4Leukoencephalopathy of the hemorrhagic type, one form of demyelinating disease, has been reported to present as an intracranial mass lesion, in which the mass effect is related to hemorrhage.5It is the purpose of this paper to report a case with demyelinating disease without hemorrhage in which the clinical symptoms and cerebral angiograms were interpreted as indicating an expanding intracranial lesion and led to the presumptive diagnosis of brain tumor.


Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising solution for building terabit optical routers and realizing IP over WDM. In this paper, we describe the basic concept of OBS and present a simulation model. The objective of our simulation is to estimate the throughput and the burst loss probability in such a network of OBS nodes. The traffic characteristics and reservation schemes are essential on burst loss probability. We give some comparison of these schemes by using our simulation model, as we can see, while low self-similarity traffic distribution and JET (just enough time) reservation schemes may have a potential positive effect on the overall blocking probability of the OBS network.