This article analyses whether the presence of the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) in tax treaties can prevent the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in disputes in which the States involved have signed the optional clause with reservations ratione fori. The study provides an overview of the means of dispute settlement available in international law and cross-examines each of them with the particular features of the MAP, in order to determine whether the ICJ would likely consider the MAP as a dispute resolution tool. Focus is also given to the practice of the ICJ of taking an equitable approach to its decisions and to the possibility of the Court pursuing an innovative approach and considering the factual effectiveness of the MAP when determining, based on a case-by-case analysis, the prevention of the Court's compulsory jurisdiction.


OBJECTIVE
In a previous paper the authors reported survival data for 20 panic disorder patients whose therapeutic doses of alprazolam were tapered by one of two methods: slow, flexible drug taper with supportive medical management or the same taper procedure carried out concurrently with cognitive behavior therapy. This report is an analysis of predictors of drug discontinuation success in that study. In addition, between-group comparisons of clinical measures at follow-up are presented.

METHOD
The subjects in the previous study (10 in each group) were assessed blindly at baseline, 2 weeks after completion of drug taper, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Potential predictors of drug discontinuation success were tested by using logistic regression. Between-group differences in symptom severity at 3-month follow-up were examined by using analyses of covariance.

RESULTS
Thirteen subjects (nine receiving alprazolam plus cognitive behavior therapy and four receiving alprazolam only) completed the drug taper on schedule and were still medication free at follow-up. A single variable--baseline-to-posttaper change in anxiety sensitivity--predicted drug status at follow-up in 85% of the cases. At follow-up, subjects in the combined-treatment group were significantly more improved on measures of anxiety, depression, catastrophic thinking related to anxiety, perception of emotional control, and disability than subjects in the drug-only group.

CONCLUSIONS
Across groups, reduction in the fear of anxiety symptoms was the best predictor of patients' ability to achieve and maintain drug abstinence. Some implications of that finding for the pharmacotherapy of panic disorder are discussed.


In this paper, the mechanical and tribological behaviours of as cast and rolled samples of Aluminium AA1070/fired clay (Al-Clay) composites were studied. The composites were developed through stir casting route with 0-20 wt.% clay particles of grain sizes250, 177 and 150 µm. The samples were cold rolled to final reduction of 20 and 35%.Hardness, tensile, impact and wear tests were performed on the developed composite samples and their microstructure were examined to determine the phases present in the composite. The results showed improvement in the mechanical and wear properties of Al-Clay composites with increase in wt.% clay addition. Increase in percent reduction also showed a reasonable increase in the mechanical and wear properties of the rolled samples. The results obtained clearly shows that Al-clay composite can be produced by stir casting and possess superior properties to the Aluminium AA1070 in terms of wear properties, impact energy, tensile strength as well as hardness.


We surveyed a random sample (n = 75) of doctors and dentists at University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. They were offered anonymous testing for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis Be antigen (HBeAG), antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) and to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), by enzyme immunoassay. The results suggest a high prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) with a high potential of transmissibility, as well as a high prevalence of HCV infection. The majority of the doctors and dentists use universal precaution for protection against viral hepatitis on < 50% of the occasions when they carry out procedures on their patients. Infection with HBV was associated with type of specialty (surgeons, dentists) and lack of HBV vaccination (p < 0.05). After logistic regression, these factors were independently associated with HBV infection (p < 0.05). Sixty (80%) had not received prior HBV vaccination. Unvaccinated personnel were more likely to be surgeons, dentists, < 37 years of age, and have fewer years of professional activity (p < 0.05). After logistic regression, only fewer years of professional activity remained independently associated with lack of vaccination (p < 0.05). To reduce the occupational exposure of HBV, universal precautions must be rigorously adhered to when the doctors and dentists carry out procedures on their patients, and all health-care workers should be vaccinated with HBV vaccine and the HCV vaccine, when it becomes available.


Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein 16.3 (MTB HSP 16.3) accumulates as the dominant protein in the latent stationary phase of tuberculosis infection. MTB HSP 16.3 displays several characteristics of small heat shock proteins (sHsps): its expression is increased in response to stress, it protects against protein aggregation in vitro, and it contains the core 'alpha-crystallin' domain found in all sHsps. In this study we characterized the chaperone activity of recombinant MTB HSP 16.3 in several different assays and compared the results to those obtained with recombinant human alphaB-crystallin, a well characterized member of the sHsp family. Recombinant MTB HSP 16.3 was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to apparent homogeneity. Similar to alphaB-crystallin, MTB HSP16.3 suppressed citrate synthase aggregation and in the presence of 3.5 mm ATP the chaperone activity was enhanced by twofold. ATP stabilized MTB HSP 16.3 against proteolysis by chymotrypsin, and no effect was observed with ATPgammaS, a nonhydrolyzable analog of ATP. Increased expression of MTB HSP 16.3 resulted in protection against thermal killing in E. coli at 48 degrees C. While the sequence similarity between human alphaB-crystallin and MTB HSP 16.3 is only 18%, these results suggest that the functional similarities between these proteins containing the core 'alpha-crystallin' domain are much closer.


This paper proposes a novel V-band transition from substrate integrated suspended line (SISL) to rectangular waveguide (RWG). The transition is realized by inserting a probe orthogonal to the E-plane of air-filled substrate integrated waveguide (AF-SIW), and then convert AF-SIW to RWG. The air cavities dimensions of both SISL and AF-SIW are optimized to broaden bandwidth by suppressing high-order modes. To further reduce transmission loss, the supporting substrate is hollowed as much as possible while maintaining mechanical strength. Simulated results show a broad bandwidth of 43.9% from 48 GHz to 75 GHz and a low insertion loss less than 0.57 dB. Measured results indicates that from 50 GHz to 67 GHz, the proposed transition has a return loss of 10 dB within the bandwidth and low insertion loss of 0.65±0.44 dB. Fabricated by printed circuit board (PCB) technology, the transition shows good properties of self-packaging, light weight, and low manufacturing cost.


Following the conclusion of World War II, Moroccans' khobz—bread—consumption experienced one fundamental and detrimental change: the homogenization of recipes from an assortment of diverse ingredients, such as barley, winter wheat, durum, and seeds, to almost solely soft wheat. The homogenizing trend towards soft wheat is an outcome of Western influence, trade policies, international markets, economic growth and integration. Specifically, the United States' development initiatives—namely Green Revolution technology transfers and food aid—rendered detrimental effects on Moroccan wheat patterns of consumption, production, and import, which were further perpetuated and extended by Moroccan governance post-independence. Analyzing the ramifications of soft wheat patterns on agricultural development is more necessary than ever given the launch of Maroc Vert, a World Bank sponsored project championing development through agriculture stimulus. Overall, the deleterious wheat patterns in Morocco erode domestic production of other grains and co-opt farmland, destabilize the balance of payments, endanger food security, and stymie economic development in rural areas. Manage with bread and butter until God sends honey. Murphy iii


Prior studies have explored variables that had predictive relationships with National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) score or NPTE failure. The purpose of this study was to explore whether certain variables were predictive of test-takers' first-time score on the NPTE.

SUBJECTS
The population consisted of 134 students who graduated from the university's Professional DPT Program in 2012 to 2014.

METHODS
This quantitative study used a retrospective design. Two separate data analyses were conducted. First, hierarchical linear multiple regression (HMR) analysis was performed to determine which variables were predictive of first-time NPTE score. Second, a correlation analysis was performed on all 18 Physical Therapy Clinical Performance Instrument (PT CPI) 2006 category scores obtained during the first long-term clinical rotation, overall PT CPI 2006 score, and NPTE passage.

RESULTS
With all variables entered, the HMR model predicted 39% of the variance seen in NPTE scores. The HMR results showed that physical therapy program first-year GPA (1PTGPA) was the strongest predictor and explained 24% of the variance in NPTE scores (b=0.572, p<0.001). The correlational analysis found no statistically significant correlation between the 18 PT CPI 2006 category scores, overall PT CPI 2006 score, and NPTE passage.

DISCUSSION
As 1PTGPA had the most significant contribution to prediction of NPTE scores, programs need to monitor first-year students who display academic difficulty. PT CPI version 2006 scores were significantly correlated with each other, but not with NPTE score or NPTE passage. Both tools measure many of the same professional requirements but use different modes of assessment, and they may be considered complementary tools to gain a full picture of both the student's ability and skills.


The formation of the subgroup B(A) phenotype is thought to be due to an overlapping specificity of the human blood group A and B transferases. A new molecular basis for the B(A) allele, resulting from the C(700) to G substitution which predicts the alteration of Pro(234) to Ala, just ahead of the second of the four amino acid residues which differentiates the specificities of the A and B transferases, is reported here. Compared to normal group B sera, a relatively lower B-transferase activity was demonstrated in the B(A) serum, which correlated well with the observation of a smaller amount of B antigen on the B(A) red cells. Also a much higher A-transferase activity was demonstrated in the B(A) serum in contrast to the minute amount of A-transferase activity found in normal group B sera. The formation of the B(A) phenotype in this report is most likely due to the shifting of the specificity of the B transferase rather than an enhanced B-transferase activity which was previously presumed to be responsible for the formation of this phenotype. The Pro(234) to Ala alteration is suggested to be responsible for the shifting of the specificity with a subsequent increase in A- but a decrease in B-transferase activity. This new B(A) allele shows that not only the four critical residues but also the neighboring areas may influence the specificity of the A and B transferases.


We consider a model where investors can invest directly or search for an asset manager, information about assets is costly, and managers charge an endogenous fee. The efficiency of asset prices is linked to the efficiency of the asset management market: if investors can find managers more easily, more money is allocated to active management, fees are lower, and asset prices are more efficient. Informed managers outperform after fees, uninformed managers underperform after fees, and the net performance of the average manager depends on the number of "noise allocators." Small investors should be passive, but large and sophisticated investors benefit from searching for informed active managers since their search cost is low relative to capital. Hence, managers with larger and more sophisticated investors are expected to outperform.


Background: Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of golimumab (GLB) in improving the signs and symptoms of psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of GLB in monotherapy in patients affected by PsA with cutaneous involvement unresponsive to other anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) agents. Methods: This study included 32 patients treated with GLB as monotherapy, at a dosage of 50 mg, subcutaneously, every 4 weeks. Patients were divided into 3 groups (A, B, and C) according to their number of previous anti-TNF-α treatments (1, 2, or 3). Clinical and laboratory evaluations were performed at weeks 0, 12, and 24. Results: All patients showed significant improvement of their clinical, inflammatory, and quality of life indexes. Conclusion: Data suggest that GLB can be successful and safe in patients affected by PsA with skin involvement previously treated with other anti-TNF-α agents.


The development of dataspace support systems is far from reality as individuals and enterprises are faced with the huge challenge of data management. Critical to this is the need to provide a model that represents the relationships between the entities collaborating in a dataspace. A dataspace is a new abstraction and target architecture to data management that does not require up-front semantic data integration. This paper models a dataspace using the set theory with entity mappings. A technique for identity resolution and pay-as-you-go data integration is explained. In order to provide a strong degree of assurance, the authors subject the model to certain real world entities that might form part of a global dataspace.


OBJECTIVE
The gene GRM8, a metabotropic glutamate receptor, has emerged as a gene of interest for its possible role in the development of alcohol dependence, with evidence of association with an electrophysiological endophenotype and level of response to alcohol as well as suggestive evidence of association with alcohol dependence.

METHOD
The present study further investigated the association between GRM8 and alcohol dependence symptom counts among young adults using a new sample of individuals collected as part of the prospective sample (ages 18-26 years; N = 842) from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA).

RESULTS
Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly associated with alcohol dependence in European Americans using the Nyholt corrected p value of .007: rs886003 (β = -.212, p = .0002) and rs17862325 (β = -.234, p < .0001), but not in African Americans, likely because of the lower power to detect association in this group.

CONCLUSIONS
These results further implicate the role of glutamate receptor genes such as GRM8 in the development of alcohol dependence.


Fuel crisis and environmental concerns have led to look for alternative fuel of bio origin successes such as vegetable oils, which can be produced from forests, vegetable. The effect of neem bio-diesel and its blending with premineral diesel on different types of diesel engine combustion, performance and emission compared with this papers .The result shows that blending of bio-diesel of 20x shows better break thermal efficiency lower specific fuel combustion and less exhaust gas temperature while found less carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons emission. This research paper also compares the experimental results carried out by different researches to evaluate break power, specific fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions. When running on different engines with fuel additive blended with bio-diesel it is found that B20x produces higher performance with less exhaust emissions and fuel consumption as compared to blended diesel and mineral diesel.


This book looks at accountability in the field of Economic and Monetary Union, including the Banking Union. It looks at the emergence of a new constitutional and governance architecture in the Eurozone, following the measures that were adopted in response to the crisis. It shows how the rules and institutions that were put in place in response to the financial and public debt crisis affect not only the economies of the Member States but also the lives of European citizens. It makes the case for instilling more democratic legitimacy into the Economic and Monetary Union and examines the impact of the new EU economic governance framework on the horizontal and vertical distribution of power in the EU and the Member States. The key question is: what is the appropriate level, type, and degree of accountability and transparency that should be involved in the development of the EU's governance structures in the areas of fiscal/economic governance and the Banking Union? The book evaluates the powers conferred on the European and national parliaments in the fields of economic governance, monetary policy, and banking supervision/resolution, as well as the European Parliament's input into the crisis-induced measures. It further looks at access to EU courts, the available remedies, and the role of the EU and national courts in reviewing economic and monetary policy measures. Finally, it sets out the author's own proposals regarding the reforms needed to strengthen the Eurozone, as well as transparency, accountability, and—more broadly—legitimacy in the Economic and Monetary Union.


Recently, progress has been made in the application of neural networks to the numerical analysis of partial differential equations (PDEs). In the latter the variational formulation of the Poisson problem is used in order to obtain an objective function - a regularised Dirichlet energy - that was used for the optimisation of some neural networks. In this notes we use the notion of $\Gamma$-convergence to show that ReLU networks of growing architecture that are trained with respect to suitably regularised Dirichlet energies converge to the true solution of the Poisson problem. We discuss how this approach generalises to arbitrary variational problems under certain universality assumptions of neural networks and see that this covers some nonlinear stationary PDEs like the $p$-Laplace.


We discuss a disordered $\lambda\varphi^{4}+\rho\varphi^{6}$ Landau-Ginzburg model defined in a d-dimensional space. First we adopt the standard procedure of averaging the disorder dependent free energy of the model. The dominant contribution to this quantity is represented by a series of the replica partition functions of the system. Next, using the replica symmetry ansatz in the saddle-point equations, we prove that the average free energy represents a system with multiple ground states with different order parameters. For low temperatures we show the presence of metastable equilibrium states for some replica fields for a range of values of the physical parameters. Finally, going beyond the mean-field approximation, the one-loop renormalization of this model is performed, in the leading order replica partition function.


We have developed a horseback-riding simulator according to horseback riding therapy as an empirical therapy for both physical and mental disease. The effect of increasing muscle strength has been proved by clinical experiment. However, the quantitative exercise can't be realized because the exercise effect is different as everyday condition of everyone's body and individual active muscle is different. In this paper, a portable electromyometer is applied to construct the biofeedback control system. A control strategy that is to adjust the movement mode of the simulator for obtaining certain exercise intension online is proposed. The results of experiments are shown.


The fact that reminders increase the response rates of mail surveys is empirically documented. However, only a few studies have dealt with the effect of follow-up mailings on both response behaviour and sample composition. This article investigates these aspects using data from a regionally representative mail survey (N=3.555) on crime at advanced ages among 49 to 81 years-olds that was conducted in Sudbaden/Baden-Wurttemberg in 2009. The analyses showed that the use of follow-ups increased the number of missing values (item-nonresponse), with a curvilinear relation between the number of follow-ups and the extent of item-nonresponse. Follow-ups primarily involve people that are usually underrepresented in the first wave, i. e., people who are younger, living in rural areas, having a lower social status and weaker political interest. Using reminders therefore contributes to an enhanced social composition of the net sample. Nevertheless, the respondents of the first mailing do not differ fundamentally from those of the complete survey sample in terms of their social variables as well as their psycho-social characteristics. However, one exception is the respondents` criminal behaviour over the life-course: with increasing numbers of mailings the respondents` delinquency strongly decreases. Obviously, responses on the survey topic are thus correlated with the timing of data collection. This again shows how reminders can help diminishing biases. From a methodological point of view it is therefore recommended to always include follow-up mailings in postal surveys. Three mailings seem to be ideal.


The goal in speech enhancement is to obtain an estimate of clean speech starting from the noisy signal by minimizing a chosen distortion measure, which results in an estimate that depends on the unknown clean signal or its statistics. Since access to such prior knowledge is limited or not possible in practice, one has to estimate the clean signal statistics. In this paper, we develop a new risk minimization framework for speech enhancement, in which, one optimizes an unbiased estimate of the distortion/risk instead of the actual risk. The estimated risk is expressed solely as a function of the noisy observations. We consider several perceptually relevant distortion measures and develop corresponding unbiased estimates under realistic assumptions on the noise distribution and a priori signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Minimizing the risk estimates gives rise to the corresponding denoisers, which are nonlinear functions of the a posteriori SNR. Perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ), average segmental SNR (SSNR) computations, and listening tests show that the proposed risk optimization approach employing Itakura-Saito and weighted hyperbolic cosine distortions gives better performance than the other distortion measures. For SNRs greater than 5 dB, the proposed approach gives superior denoising performance over the benchmark techniques based on the Wiener filter, log-MMSE minimization, and Bayesian nonnegative matrix factorization.


Aspects of immunisation of the HIV-infected person that need to be considered include safety, efficacy with or without highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), convenience and relevance to public health. Live attenuated vaccines have been associated with an increased risk of disseminated disease, while killed and subunit vaccines have been shown to be safe. HIV-infected individuals have suboptimal immunological responses to primary vaccination, including memory and protection, and a faster rate of immunological decline of primary vaccine responses. Despite this, there is clear evidence to support vaccination of these individuals as they have a high burden of vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunisation schedules should be universal for all children. Surveillance and monitoring of the vaccinated HIV-infected individual are essential to evaluate responses to and risks associated with vaccination. HAART has a positive effect on rates of response to vaccination.


Abstract : With the increasing popularity of defined-benefit retirement plans, retiring individuals are looking for professional financial advice to help manage their nest eggs. Commonly prescribed generic "one size fits all" rules of thumb such as the 4% Rule can carry someone successfully through retirement, but they do not effectively take into account individual expectations or preferences of the retiree or the volatility and risk of the capital markets. An alternative approach is an investment strategy focused on maximizing an individual's utility or "happiness" during retirement. We consider the maximization of a utility function that exhibits habit formation. The programming language C++ is used to implement a solution algorithm for this maximization problem, and Microsoft Excel is utilized as an interface to present and analyze data. The resulting implementation is a planning tool that provides optimized retirement financial plans according to an individual's preferences. We demonstrate the effects of habit formation on optimal retirement consumption and investment plans and show how a dynamic investment and spending strategy that maximizes an individual's utility can provide a major improvement over the rules of thumb currently practiced.


We argue that economists have studied the role of management from three perspectives: contingency theory (CT), an organization-centric empirical approach (OC), and a leader-centric empirical approach (LC). To reconcile these three perspectives, we augment a standard dynamic firm model with organizational capital, an intangible, slow-moving, productive asset that can be produced only with the direct input of the firm's leadership and that is subject to an agency problem. We characterize the steady state of an economy with imperfect governance and show that it rationalizes key findings of CT, OC, and LC as well as generates a number of new predictions on performance, management practices, chief executive officer behavior and compensation, and governance.


Seedlings are established in small growing containers to reduce cost of greenhouse space, while improving crop uniformity. These seedlings often are referred to as plugs. Vacuum seeders are used by larger growers to seed many flats per season (Bakos, 1983); however, individual growers, producing plants for their own use, may not be able to justify expensive seeding equipment. Several moderately priced vacuum seeders are available (Bartok, 1988). They consist of a metal tray with small drilled holes to hold the seed in place when a vacuum is applied to the tray from an external source. However, several problems with them exist. Seeds must be free of extraneous materials that might clog the small holes. A slight jarring of the plate, especially when the plate is turned upside down over the seed flat, may cause seeds to dislodge, resulting in unplanted cells in each flat. Also, different sizes of seeds and flats require completely different seeding plates and plate holders. A small grower may choose to seed flats by hand by placing seeds individually in each cell. This is feasible only for large-sized seeds or with pelleted seed. A simple, inexpensive, non-vacuum alternative design is presented and evaluated.


The 'GDP Illusion" is a fault in perception caused by defects in the construction and interpretation of standard economic data. Its main symptom is a systematic underestimation of the real contribution of low-wage workers in the global South to global wealth, and a corresponding exaggerated measure of the domestic product of the United States and other imperialist countries. These defects and distorted perceptions spring from the neoclassical concepts of price, value, and value added which inform how GDP, trade, and productivity statistics are devised and comprehended. The result is that supposedly objective and untarnished raw data on GDP, productivity, and trade are anything but; and standard interpretations conceal at least as much as they reveal about the sources of value and profit in the global economy.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Background:Calcareous aortic valve disease(CAVD) is widespread in society, and its incidence seems to increase with the age of the global population. However, the specific pathogenesis of calcareous aortic valve disease remains unclear. The purpose of the research is to construct miRNA-TF-mRNA regulatory networks and find the key genes, microRNAs (miRNAs) and transcription factors (TFs) to clarify the pathogenesis of CAVD and provide new treatment methods for CAVD.Methods:GSE51472, GSE87885 and GSE12644 datasets were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differentailly expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs(DEMs) were identified through integrative analysis by R software. Moreover, KEGG pathway analysis and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis were performed using the clusterProfiler R package. Then, STRING database, Cytoscape and Cytohubba were applied to construct the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and screen hub genes. Finally, a miRNA-TF-mRNA network was constructed based on bioinformatics data based on the TRRUST, miRWalk and miRtarbase database. And through the verification of dataset GSE12644, we have determined the key regulatory factors.Results:We have established a regulatory network of miRNA-TF-mRNA includes 17 genes,17 miRNAs and 12 TFs. In the miRNA-TF-mRNA network, genes VCAM1, ITGB2, CD86, transcription factors HIF1A, KLF2 are identified as key regulators.Conclusions: Our study has constructed a regulatory network of miRNA-TF-mRNA in CAVD, which may provide new insights about the interaction between genes, miRNAs and TFs in the pathogenesis of CAVD, and identify potential biomarkers or therapeutic targets for CAVD, which may reveal promising approaches for CAVD diagnosis and therapy.


The article examines a panel painting showing Ecce Homo, recently recognised as a work by Titian for the Duke Guidobaldo II della Rovere which (based on archival sources) was sent to Urbino by the Duke's envoy in Venice, Giovanni Francesco Agatone, in January 1566. The work was discovered fairly recently in the Poor Clares convent of Casteldurante (Urbania), a town which used to belong to the Duchy of Urbino, and to which the last of the dukes, Francesco Maria II (the heir of Guidobaldo II) withdrew for the last years of his life. Francesco Maria seems to have been particularly fond of the convent, so the donation of the painting to the Poor Clares, as a token of his profound devotion, appears a natural one. The panel, well known in literature, has recently undergone meticulous restoration by Ottorino Nonfarmale. The old varnish, repainting and the remains of a badly executed previous conservation have been removed, revealing a technique fully compatible with that, characteristic of confirmed works by Titian, and thus confirming that the painting is an autograph work by the master of Pieve di Cadore.


ABSTRACT Background: India's health care suffers from high out-of-pocket medical expenses that lead to a higher financial burden on poor people. To reduce the health cost burden, the government of India has initiated many governments funded insurance schemes since 2000. Private health insurance also flourished, but the coverage is limited to wealthier households. Many researchers have published many scientific publications on this research domain, but the bibliometric analysis of scientific publications is missing. Methods: We have relied on the 'SCOPUS' database for data collection based on the wider availability of literature. 761 documents extracted were journal articles, published between 2000 and 2021 followed by certain inclusion and exclusion criteria. Biblioshiny package of R-Studio has been used for data analysis. Results: Our analysis reflect upon various aspects of Bibliographic analysis like number of articles published, cited, country wise scientific production etc. Our results also reflect on very few studies that relate to Poverty, income, young adults, aged, adolescents, and children, where there is further scope for research. Conclusion: We found that the health insurance-related publication rate has increased over the period. But it requires more research especially the implementation of health insurance mechanisms from the health system perspective. The study will be a policy document to find the research gaps in the healthcare insurance domain.


Loop diagrams with near-Planck energies create a strong external gravitational field, which slows down local processes for distant observers up to their freezing. Since Planck length is the gravitational radius of the system of quanta, the events of this and smaller scale cannot occur in finite world time t and do not contribute to the S-matrix. Consequently, gravitational time dilation, leading to a strong redshift of local frequencies, provides gravitational self-regularization of the loop diagrams. The loop corrections without gravity effects, cut off at Planck energy, give upper bounds for the corrections with gravity effects and this fact leads to simple rules of gravitational regularization. The corrections with quanta of gauge fields and gravitons are small, and the perturbation theory series converge. At pre-Planck energies, one-loop graviton contributions are sufficient, since the multi-loop ones are damped by high degrees of the relation "energy/Planck energy". Scalar field with power-law growing corrections should be effective field. Non-linearity of fields enhances gravity and get faster freezing, which suppresses the high energy terms. Nonrenormalizable models are finite, but become consistent only when their loop corrections remain small on Planck scale and this occurs in quantum gravity. Gravitationally regularized Extended Standard Model (ESM), including gravitons and Standard Model with effective scalars, is renormalizable and finite, which simplifies its further generalization.


Recently, gel chromatography has been demonstrated as an effective method for the separation of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) according to their electronic type and structure. The separation of SWCNTs was thought to result from the different affinity forces between the gel and various SWCNTs. Based on this method, we investigated the effect of ultrasonic time on the dispersion and separation of metallic and semiconducting SWCNTs. At a low ultrasonic power, with the increase of ultrasonic time, better monodispersed SWCNTs in sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) aqueous solution were obtained. The UV-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) absorption, Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopic characterizations confirmed that under the condition of ultrasonication (2 h), higher-purity metallic tubes and semiconducting tubes with different diameter distributions could be obtained. We believe that the control of the ultrasonication time may tune the mono-dispersity and the length of SWCNTs, which would further influence the difference in affinity forces between various SWCNTs and the gel, therefore leading to different separation results.


We present a variational multi-label segmentation algorithm based on a robust Huber loss for both the data and the regularizer, minimized within a convex optimization framework. We introduce a novel constraint on the common areas, to bias the solution towards mutually exclusive regions. We also propose a regularization scheme that is adapted to the spatial statistics of the residual at each iteration, resulting in a varying degree of regularization being applied as the algorithm proceeds: the effect of the regularizer is strongest at initialization, and wanes as the solution increasingly fits the data. This minimizes the bias induced by the regularizer at convergence. We design an efficient convex optimization algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers using the equivalent relation between the Huber function and the proximal operator of the one-norm. We empirically validate our proposed algorithm on synthetic and real images and offer an information-theoretic derivation of the cost-function that highlights the modeling choices made.


Despite its clinical utility, progressive reliance on technology can lead to devaluing the physical examination in patients with advanced cancer. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether these patients have a positive or negative perception of the physical examination. A secondary objective was to determine whether these perceptions are related to interpersonal/relational values (symbolic) or diagnostic/objective values (pragmatic).


Ni(2+), a toxic and carcinogenic pollutant and one of the leading causes of contact dermatitis, is shown to inhibit neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in a competitive, reversible manner with respect to the substrate l-arginine (K(i) = 30 +/- 4 microM). The IC(50) values were dependent on calmodulin (CaM) concentration, but proved independent of Ca(2+), tetrahydrobiopterin (BH(4)) and other essential cofactors. Ni(2+) also inhibited CaM-dependent cytochrome c reduction, NADPH oxidation, and H(2)O(2) production by nNOS. Overall, the action profile of Ni(2+) was suggestive of an unusual, double-acting inhibitor of nNOS affecting l-arginine-binding and Ca(2+)/CaM-dependent enzyme activation.


Abstract-Irinotecan has been proven to have anti-tumor effects and is used for chemotherapy in colorectal cancer. It is a prodrug converted by carboxylesterase to form the active metabolite 7-ethyl-10-hydroxy-camptothecin (SN38). To identify the potential molecular function of SN38 in colon cancer, we investigated the gene expression profile of colon cancer cell lines treated with SN38 and tried to reveal critical genes and biological pathways involved in the response of colon cancer cells to SN38 treatment. The analysis indicates that 447 genes (fold change>4, false discovery rate (FDR)<0.05%) were differentially expressed after SN38 treatment. 464 genes (fold change>2) were predicted to be differentially expressed with exposure time. The expression pattern of 1082 genes (fold change>2) may be cell line-specific. 58 colon related genes were annotated in Gene Ontology and 54 important pathways were found from GeneGO database using enrichment analysis. Pathways involved in cell cycle or apoptosis such as DNA-damage-induced apoptosis, role of Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) in p53 regulation were considered as colon cancer significant pathways. The results demonstrated that some cell cycle and apoptosis pathways were affected by SN38. Our results were generally consistent with previous studies on SN38. Moreover, we employed a more powerful biological pathway database and also obtained other colon cancer related pathways such as signal transduction pathways that were all significant in statistic level. We predicted that these pathways may be important to the SN38 treatment in colon cancer and needed to be further validated in experiment.


In a rolling block maze, one or more blocks lie on a rectangular board with square cells. In most mazes, the blocks have size k × m × n where k, m, n are integers that determine the size of the block in terms of units of the size of the board cells. The task of a rolling block maze is to roll a particular block from a starting to an ending placement. A block is rolled by tipping it over one of its edges. Some of the squares of the board are marked as forbidden to roll on. We show that solving rolling block mazes is PSPACE-complete.


This paper tends to highlight the grievance of women's sexual objectification in television advertising in Pakistan. As Martha Nussbaum calls it "instrumentality" of women in mass media advertising for commercial purposes, this paper also attempted to address this concern. Based on the nature of this topic, beauty products advertisements were selected by dividing them into two categories. The time frame was limited and, seven most popular television channels were selected for data gathering purpose. Every observed television channel broadcasted a fair number of product advertisements which were carefully recorded and enlisted in their assigned category. The cross-tabulation method is used to display the frequency record of advertisements whereas; Chi-square test is applied to test the relationship between women sexual objection and television advertising. Results revealed that there is no significant relationship found between our postulated variables. However, several positive responses are also documented which means, media advertising particularly, television advertising in Pakistan does contain related content which promotes inequality and violates women rights in our society. Further, it is recommended that marketers and, advertisers should not exploit the image of women to gain their commercial interest. Rather, they should play their role to alter stereotypical convictions of society about roles of women without limiting perceptions about their intelligence and capabilities.


Interest in the metabolism and physiological action of vitamin D is increased exponentially. The most important metabolites of vitamin D are 25-hydroxyvitamin and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3). The aim of the study was to develop a rapid and simple HPLC method for the measurement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) in human plasma. A method for the measurement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) using HPLC with UV detection and investigation into the extraction techniques with regard to stability and recovery are described. For the separation, RP column LiChroCart 125-4, Purospher RP-18e, 5 microm, was used. The mixture of methanol and deionized water (95:5 v/v) was used as mobile phase. The analytical performance of this method is satisfactory: the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were below 10%. Quantitative recoveries from spiked plasma samples were between 92.0-103.2%. The LOD was 10 nmol/L. The preliminary reference range of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) in a group of blood donors is 62 +/- 26 nmol/L.


Effective forest management is predicated on accurate information pertaining to the characteristics and condition of forests. Unfortunately, ground-based information that accurately describes the complex spatial and contextual nature of forests across broad landscapes is cost prohibitive to collect. In this case study we address technical challenges associated with estimating forest characteristics from remotely sensed data by incorporating field plot layouts specifically designed for calibrating models from such data, applying new image normalization procedures to bring images of varying spatial resolutions to a common radiometric scale, and implementing an ensemble generalized additive modeling technique. Image normalization and ensemble models provided accurate estimates of forest types, presence/absence of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), and tree basal areas and tree densities over a large segment of the panhandle of Florida, USA. This study overcomes several of the major barriers associated with linking remotely sensed imagery with plot data to estimate key forest characteristics over large areas.


hic and midrashic fragments and their publication history from the time of their discovery through the present. Danzig emphasizes that the publication of medieval Rabbinic literature (Sifrut Rabbanit) from the Genizah is still in its infancy (tehilat darko) (p. 29) and the difficulties involved in the collection and publication of .. this material. He then focuses upon the materials within the Jewish Theological Seminary of America collections. emphasizing the Adler collection. and concludes by categorizing the material by genre. This exceptional introduction is carefully annotated. and provides a very useful access to the study of the Genizah as a whole. A short sixteen page English summary of the Hebrew introduction is provided. I hope that Danzig will translate the full Hebrew introduction at some future date. The various documents are carefully indexed. and make this an extremely useful and usable volume. This type of collection may be even more useful. however. as a computer database. This database is available through the Lieberman Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. A Catalog of Fragments of Halakhah and Midrash from the Cairo Genizah in the Elkan Nathan Adler Collection of the Library of lhe Jewish Theological Seminary of America should be purchased by every research library that collects deeply in classical Judaic Studies.


Background As part of the introduction of a standardised Admitted Patient Death Screening Tool (APDST) to NSW public health organisations (PHOs) specific criteria relating to end of life (EOL) management were added. Aim All patients who die in NSW PHOs have their end of l Skorstengaardife management reviewed with regard to comfort and the level of patient and/or family involvement in decision making. Methods An APDST was developed which includes indicators on the quality of dying. These include whether an existing advance care plan was enacted; the presence of discomfort in the last 48 h of life; the outcome of screening i.e. was death expected or unexpected; and time lapse between decision to palliate and time of death. Results Since implementation in October 2014, 144 facilities have commenced using the tool with over 3600 (30%) cases screened. Initial results demonstrate that of those patients screened 21% had an advance care plan: 68% had a not for resuscitation order prior to death. Discussion/conclusion Whilst many clinical departments review deaths to determine if they were preventable or not, or whether a change in condition was detected and acted upon, few review the quality of dying. The introduction of specific measures of the safety and quality of care provided at the EOL provides an opportunity for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the systems and processes for delivery of this care. This is essential to track performance over time and identify priorities for improvement.


A guide to the online multimedia resources in the Hiram College Library. Does not include physical items such as CDs or DVDs.


A dripping faucet system is simulated. We numerically show that a hanging drop generally has many equilibrium shapes but only one among them is stable. By taking a stable equilibrium shape as an initial state, a simulation of dynamics is done, for which we present a new algorithm based on Lagrangian description. The shape of a drop falling from a faucet obtained by the present algorithm agrees quite well with experimental observations. Long-term behavior of the simulation can reproduce period-one, period-two, intermittent and chaotic oscillations widely observed in experiments. Possible routes to chaos are discussed.


MS‐based proteomics is a bioinformatic‐intensive field. Additionally, the instruments and instrument‐related and analytic software are expensive. Some free Internet‐based proteomics tools have gained wide usage, but there have not been any single bioinformatic framework that in an easy and intuitive way guided the user through the whole process from analyses to submission. Together, these factors may have limited the expansion of proteomics analyses, and also the secondary use (reanalyses) of proteomic data. Vaudel et al. (Proteomics 2014, 14, 1001–1005) are now describing their Compomics framework that guides the user through all the main steps, from the database generation, via the analyses and validation, and through the submission process to PRIDE, a proteomic data bank. Vaudel et al. partly base the framework on tools that they have developed themselves, and partly they are integrating other freeware tools into the workflow. One of the most interesting aspects with the Compomics framework is the possibility of extending MS‐based proteomics outside the MS laboratory itself. With the Compomics framework, any laboratory can handle large amounts of proteomic data, thereby facilitating collaboration and in‐depth data analyses. The described software also opens the potential for any laboratory to reanalyze data deposited in PRIDE.


Ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) catalyze the reduction of ribonucleotides to the corresponding deoxyribonucleotides. The catalytic activity of most RNRs depends on the formation of a dimer of the catalytic subunits. The active site is located at the interface, and part of the substrate binding site and regulatory mechanisms work across the subunit in the dimer. In this study, we describe and characterize a novel domain responsible for forming the catalytic dimer in several class II RNRs. The 3D structure of the class II RNR from Rhodobacter sphaeroides reveals a so far undescribed α-helical domain in the dimer interface, which is embracing the other subunit. Genetic removal of this HUG domain leads to a severe reduction of activity paired with reduced dimerization capability. In comparison with other described RNRs, the enzyme with this domain is less dependent on the presence of nucleotides to act as allosteric effectors in the formation of dimers. The HUG domain appears to serve as an interlock to keep the dimer intact and functional even at low enzyme and/or effector concentrations.


An analysis is presented of possible worldwide production of methane from anaerobic decay of organic municipal and industrial wastes in landfills. The amount of methane released to the atmosphere from this source may now be in the range of 30–70×106 T/yr, which is between 6% and 18% of the total CH4 source. By far, most of this emission comes from the industrialized world. Release rates from these countries have been increasing steadily during the past decades, but growth rates are now gradually stagnating. In the future, the contribution from developing nations is expected to grow rapidly because of increasing population and urbanization. Consequently, methane release from landfills may become one of the main sources of atmospheric methane in the next century.


A computerized tomography (CT) reconstruction technique has been used to make quantitative measurements of the size and shape of the focal spot in medical linear accelerators. Using this technique, we have measured the focal spots in a total of nine accelerators, including (i) two Varian Clinac 2100c's, (ii) two Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) Therac-25's, (iii) two AECL Therac 6's, (iv) a Siemens KD-2, (v) a Varian Clinac 600c (4 MV), and (vi) an AECL Therac-20. Some of these focal spots were monitored for changes over a 2-yr period. It has been found that (i) the size and shape of the source spot varies greatly between accelerators of different design ranging from 0.5 to 3.4 mm in full width at half maximum (FWHM); and (ii) for accelerators of the same design, the focal spots are very similar. In addition to the measurements of the focal spot, a new technique for measuring the magnitude and distribution of extra-focal radiation originating from the linear accelerator head (flattening filter, primary collimator) has also been developed. The extra-focal radiation produced by a Varian Clinac 2100c accelerator was measured using this technique and it was found that the extra-focal radiation accounts for as much as 8% of the total photon fluence reaching the isocenter. The majority (75%) of this extra-focal radiation originates from within a circle 6 cm in diameter at the target plane. The source MTFs for each of the measured focal spots have been calculated in order to assess their influence on the spatial resolution of verification images. The limiting spatial resolution (i.e., 10% modulation) for all the source MTFs is 1.8 mm-1 or greater when used for transmission radiography at a magnification of 1.2. The extra-focal radiation, which produces a low-frequency drop in the source MTFs of up to 8%, changes with field size. As a result, the source MTFs of linear accelerators depend not only on the design of individual accelerators and image magnification, but also on the field size used when forming an image.


Abstract An N‐heterocyclic‐carbene‐stabilized diboryne undergoes rapid, high‐yielding and catalyst‐free hydroamination reactions with primary amines, yielding 1‐amino‐2‐hydrodiborenes, which can be considered boron analogues of enamines. The electronics of the organic substituent at nitrogen influence the structure and further reactivity of the diborene product. With electron‐rich anilines, a second hydroamination can occur at the diborene to generate 1,1‐diamino‐2,2‐dihydrodiboranes. With isopropylamine, the electronic influence of the alkyl substituent upon the diborene leads to an unprecedented boron‐mediated intramolecular N‐dearylation reaction of an N‐heterocyclic carbene unit.


Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is becoming an important issue in the modern communication system. Though many sectors of this networking system are still under research, many of them have high potential in everyday life. Lots of research are done and many of them are waiting to be modified. This research work studied on cluster-based routing wireless networks precisely. In this paper, we have proposed E-MODLEACH (Extended MODLEACH) which is an improved version of MODLEACH by introducing a secondary cluster head with the parallel of the main Cluster head. The secondary cluster head handover the cluster operation in case of failure of a cluster head by aiming to improve the system lifetime and network throughput. The simulation result indicates that our E-MODLEACH, in comparison with MODLEACH outperforms in terms of network life, data loss and packet transferred to the base station.


In the Northern Song Dynasty (690-1279), studies of the Yi exerted extensive influences in both the society and academic circle, then interpreting and commenting the Yi became an important approach to the development of Confucianism. The neo-Confucianists engaged diverse studies on the Yi, which relate to various layers including general comments, discrimination of the authors, balance between different schools, and statecrafts by Yi. They raised some doubts about some views in the Han (206BC-220AD) and Tang (618-907) Yi studies and made some rectifications, and offered new interpretations by the trend of thought at that time as well by which we could clearly see the internal evolution track of the Yi studies in the Northern Song Dynasty.


The translational mobility and the thickness of the surface disordered layer of thin CH4 films adsorbed on MgO(100) have been measured by quasi-elastic neutron scattering below the bulk melting point (90.66 K). The thickness of the quasi-liquid phase varies from one-molecular layer at 72 K to 3.6 layer at 89.4 K for a 10-layer thick film. The corresponding temperature dependence of the translational diffusion coefficient shows that the nature of the "melted" surface layer is probably different from the supercooled liquid.


The molecular dynamics simulations of trapping of hydrogen atoms in tungsten are presented. The simulations reveal formation of platelet-like structures of self-trapped hydrogen induced by stresses in tungsten, in particular, those produced by dislocations, at the interstitial hydrogen concentrations at.%. The spontaneous hydrogen platelet formation in absence of dislocations and external stresses has been also observed at the higher hydrogen concentrations at.%. It is shown that the platelets can retain substantial quantities of hydrogen, exceeding trapping capacity of other non-cavity defects in tungsten. The properties of the hydrogen platelets formed in tungsten under various conditions are assessed and a formation mechanism is proposed. A model of hydrogen retention by the dislocation-induced structures is also presented, which describes retained quantities and outgassing dynamics of hydrogen in plasma exposed tungsten samples.


Seasoned Excel developers were invited to participate in a challenge to implement a spreadsheet with multi-dimensional variables. We analyzed their spreadsheet to see the different implement strategies employed. We identified two strategies: most participants used a projection of three or four-dimensional variables on the two-dimensional plane used by Excel. A few participants used a database approach where the multi-dimensional variables are presented in the form of a dataset table with the appropriate primary key. This approach leads to simpler formulas.


In this research paper, a hybrid Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) tuned Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA) as a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) is employed to amend root mean square error (RMSE) of photovoltaic (PV) modeling. Moreover, Gaussian membership functions have been considered for fuzzy controller design. This paper interprets the Luo converter occupied brushless DC motor (BLDC)-directed PV water pump application. Experimental responses certify the effectiveness of the suggested motor-pump system supporting diverse operating states. The Luo converter, a newly developed DC-DC converter, has high power density, better voltage gain transfer and superior output waveform and can track optimal power from PV modules. For BLDC speed control there is no extra circuitry, and phase current sensors are enforced for this scheme. The most recent attempt using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)-FPA-operated BLDC directed PV pump with advanced Luo converter, has not been formerly conferred.


The article presents the results of validation for the method of measuring the lateral stability in tractors, trailers and agricultural machines. The method was developed in the testing laboratory of the State Scientific Institution «Leonid Pogorely Ukrainian Research Institute for Forecasting and Testing Equipment and Technologies for Agricultural Production», Kharkov branch. The method developed for measuring the angle of lateral stability is based on measuring the mass of the machine on boards in a horizontal and inclined position. Evaluation of lateral stability is carried out through an indirect indicator — the ratio of the mass of the machine bead in a horizontal position and inclined. The application of the developed method does not require determination of the coordinates of the center of mass of the machine and the use of platform stands, but provides only for measuring the mass of the machine in a horizontal position and at an angle when lifting one of the sides. A method for calculating the metrological characteristics of the proposed method is given. The error in measuring the angle of transverse stability of the proposed method consists of the error in measuring the mass of the machine and the uncertainty in measuring the angle of elevation of the machine's edge. These values are independent and uncorrelated. The measurement error of the lateral stability angle is determined for the range of the real values masses of the machines and the angle at which they can be lifted aboard in safety conditions. As a result, validation is established. The method of measuring the lateral stability of a machine by successively weighing its sides is suitable for use. Its following characteristics. Requirements for the accuracy of measuring instruments: the measurement error of the angle of inclination of the machine — no more than ± 0,1°; measurement error of the mass of the machine — no more than ± 4 kg. The total absolute error of the method: when the mass of the machine is (2000)—(2300) kg — not more than 1,5°; with a mass (2300)—(10000) kg — 1,0°; with a mass of 10,000 kg or more — 0,5°. The range of measured values of the lateral stability angle is (25—45)°. The angle at which the machine climbs is (5—15)°. The scope of application of the method: tractors, trailers, agricultural machines. Table — 4. Figure — 4. References — 10.


Patients in intensive space have the right to get special attention due to metabolic changes that have an impact on nutritional status. Critical patients will experience an increase in metabolism as the body's response to disease. Assessment of nutritional status must be carried out routinely in the hospital, including in the ICU. The Council of Europe 2001, that there are no nutritional assessment standards that can be used for all patients treated. The assessment must be early, simple, based on current science and can be adapted in the clinical environment. The American Society of Parenteral and Enteral (ASPEN) recommends assessing nutritional status or nutritional screening tools in patients treated by using Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). Another measure of nutritional status assessment that can be used is the Malnutrition Screening Tools (MST). MST is a nutritional status assessment tool that has been used by the General Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Achmad Mochtar Bukittinggi Hospital. This study aims to analyze the differences in the accuracy of MST and SGA in assessing nutritional status as well as differences in sensitivity of MST and SGA as indicators of the incidence of pressure sores in patients in the ICU of the Achmad Mochtar Bukittinggi Hospital. The type of this research is this research is quantitative research with comparative hypothesis type and cross-sectional research design. The results of this study indicate that SGA is more accurate in assessing nutritional status in patients in intensive rooms.


Abstract The nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor stability of a cylindrical interface between vapor and the liquid phases of a fluid is studied when the phases are enclosed between two cylindrical surfaces coaxial with the interface, and when there is mass and heat transfer across the interface. The method of multiple time scale expansion is used for the investigation. A simple nondimensional parameter is found to characterize the stability of the system. Using this parameter, the region of stability is displayed graphically.


The synthesis of several new compounds containing a chromophore and a helicenic moiety is reported. The preparation, characterisation and some physico-chemical studies are detailed. In particular, the two enantiomers of several chiral molecules of this type were separated by chiral HPLC (both analytically and in a preparative way) and their racemisation rates were determined for short-lived species. Electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and circular polarised luminescence (CPL) measurements were performed for the compounds with a very long racemisation half-life. Chiral porphyrins and Bodipys both gave ECD and CPL responses over a large area of the visible spectrum.


BACKGROUND
Endometriosis appears to affect every aspect of a women's reproductive system resulting in infertility and spontaneous pregnancy loss. This study aims to find out the prevalence & clinical characteristics of endometriosis amongst infertile women.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN
A Hospital based retrospective study over a period of one year.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
It is a retrospective study conducted in the gynaecology department in Institute of Kidney Diseases & Research Centre; Ahmedabad from April 2012 to March 2013 amongst women with a primary complaint of infertility (Primary/Secondary).A total of 372 patients underwent diagnostic hysterolaparoscopy and of these 180 patients who had laparoscopic evidence of endometriosis was included in the study. All of these patients and their findings were analysed with respect to the clinical signs and symptoms. The outcome after appropriate management was analysed in subsequent follow up.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
All collected data was entered into the SPSS version 20. Categorical data are expressed in frequency or percentage. Chi-Square test and Fisher-Exact test has been performed to carry out p-value for categorical data. P-value <0.05 shows statistically significant difference.

RESULTS
The frequency of endometriosis among women with infertility subjected to diagnostic hysterolaparoscopy was found to be 48.38%. Statistical significant association with severity of disease was associated with symptoms like dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain, restricted uterine mobility and adnexal tenderness. (p <0.01) Ultrasound finding of endometrioma with ground glas appearance also had statistical significant association with staging of disease (p <0.01).

CONCLUSION
Endometriosis amongst infertile women is increasingly being detected due to greater use of laparoscopy in evaluation of infertility.Though most signs do not correlate with severity of disease however the presence of restricted uterine mobility, adnexal tenderness & chronic pelvic pain should always raise the suspicion of endometriosis. Laparoscopy remains the gold standard for diagnosing and staging endometriosis.


Background: Transforming growth factor b1 (TGF-b1)-mediated epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) of alveolar epithelial cells (AEC) may contribute to lung fibrosis. Since PPARg ligands have been shown to inhibit fibroblast activation by TGF-b1, we assessed the ability of the thiazolidinediones rosiglitazone (RGZ) and ciglitazone (CGZ) to regulate TGF-b1-mediated EMT of A549 cells, assessing changes in cell morphology, and expression of cell adhesion molecules E-cadherin (epithelial cell marker) and N-cadherin (mesenchymal cell marker), and collagen 1a1 (COL1A1), CTGF and MMP-2 mRNA. Methods: Serum-deprived A549 cells (human AEC cell line) were pre-incubated with RGZ and CGZ (1 30 μM) in the absence or presence of the PPARg antagonist GW9662 (10 μM) before TGFb-1 (0.075-7.5 ng/ml) treatment for up to 72 hrs. Changes in E-cadherin, N-cadherin and phosphorylated Smad2 and Smad3 levels were analysed by Western blot, and changes in mRNA levels including COL1A1 assessed by RT-PCR. Results: TGFb-1 (2.5 ng/ml)-induced reductions in E-cadherin expression were associated with a loss of epithelial morphology and cell-cell contact. Concomitant increases in N-cadherin, MMP-2, CTGF and COL1A1 were evident in predominantly elongated fibroblast-like cells. Neither RGZ nor CGZ prevented TGFb1-induced changes in cell morphology, and PPARg-dependent inhibitory effects of both ligands on changes in E-cadherin were only evident at submaximal TGF-b1 (0.25 ng/ml). However, both RGZ and CGZ inhibited the marked elevation of N-cadherin and COL1A1 induced by TGF-b1 (2.5 ng/ml), with effects on COL1A1 prevented by GW9662. Phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3 by TGF-b1 was not inhibited by RGZ or CGZ. Conclusions: RGZ and CGZ inhibited profibrotic changes in TGF-b1-stimulated A549 cells independently of inhibition of Smad phosphorylation. Their inhibitory effects on changes in collagen I and E-cadherin, but not Ncadherin or CTGF, appeared to be PPARg-dependent. Further studies are required to unravel additional mechanisms of inhibition of TGF-b1 signalling by thiazolidinediones and their implications for the contribution of EMT to lung fibrosis.


The Green Browser is a design support tool, intended to cover the whole life cycle of environmentally conscious products. It supports designers to collaborate based on information sharing of the product over the Internet. It facilitates communication with consumers and specialists in order to receive feedback for the continuous design. The shared model of the Green Browser consists of three parts, i.e., strategy model, process model, and object model, which are linked to one another. The strategy model represents the concept of a product, in which requirements for the product are represented in a trade-off network. The process model represents the life cycle of a product. The object model represents geometry, function, and structure. These models are built and linked by designers by the support of the Green Browser. Some part of them is also accessible over the Internet from customers and specialists. The Green Browser is being implemented in Java and CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). Java enables the Green Browser to be platform independent and executable on any major web browser. CORBA provides the Java-based Green Browser with access to the product database on a different architecture across the network. Through the Green Browser, the user can find information about the relationship between the requirements in the strategy model and product data in the object models. Several kinds of user interfaces are implemented to represent the strategy model in different perspectives. The concept and the implementation of the Green Browser are reported in this paper.


We develop, analyze, and simulate a physical model of Li+-ion conduction inside polyethylene oxide (PEO) helical tubes, which are the solvent of LiI salt. The current is due to diffusion and electric interactions with a permanent external field, the PEO charges, and ion-ion interactions. Potential barriers are created in the PEO by loops in structure. We calculate the energy of configurations of one or two lithium ions in the loop and derive an explicit expression for the activation energy. We use Kramers' formula to calculate the conductivity as function of mechanical stretching, which lowers the barrier and causes an exponential rise in the output conductivity.


Melkersson Rosenthal Syndrome (MRS) is a neuromucocutaneous granulomatous disease characterized by recurrent facial paralysis, orofacial oedema and fissured tongue. The etiopathogenesis is not known yet, but genetic susceptibility, immunocompromised individual, infectious agents, food intolerance, stress are thought to be responsible. Classic triad is seldomly observed. Generally, monosymptomatic or oligosymptomatic findings are seen. The diagnosis of disease is with clinical findings, and histopathology with non-caseous granulomatous cheilitis further supports the diagnosis. We herein report a patient who previously diagnosed and treated as angioedema and cellulitis in different centers, finally diagnosed as MRS with the classic triad; scrotal tongue, recurrent facial paralysis and orofacial edema; and want to call attention to inadvertent physical examination can miss the diagnosis of MRS.


Recent advances in materials science research allow production of highly stretchable sensors and displays. Such technologies, however, are still not accessible to non-expert makers. We present a novel and inexpensive fabrication method for creating Stretchis, highly stretchable user interfaces that combine sensing capabilities and visual output. We use Polydimethylsiloxan (PDMS) as the base material for a Stretchi and show how to embed stretchable touch and proximity sensors and stretchable electroluminescent displays. Stretchis can be ultra-thin (≈ 200μm), flexible, and fully customizable, enabling non-expert makers to add interaction to elastic physical objects, shape-changing surfaces, fabrics, and the human body. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach with three application examples that range from ubiquitous computing to wearables and on-skin interaction.


Motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) are caused by degeneration of dopamine (DA) neurons of the substantia nigra (SN), while early non-motor symptoms such as anxiety and sleep disturbances are likely mediated by dysfunction of locus coeruleus (LC) norepinephrine (NE) neurons. The LC develops α-synuclein pathology prior to SN DA neurons in PD, and later undergoes degeneration, but the mechanisms responsible for its vulnerability are unknown. The SN and LC are the only structures in the brain that produces appreciable amounts of neuromelanin (NM), a dark cytoplasmic pigment. It has been proposed that NM initially plays a protective role by sequestering toxic catecholamine metabolites and heavy metals, but may become harmful during aging and PD as they overwhelm cellular machinery and are released during neurodegeneration. Rodents do not naturally produce NM, limiting the study of causal relationships between NM and PD-associated LC pathology. Adapting a viral-mediated approach for expression of human tyrosinase, the enzyme responsible for peripheral melanin production, we successfully promoted pigmentation in mouse LC neurons that recapitulates key features of endogenous NM found in primates, including eumelanin and pheomelanin, lipid droplets, and a double-membrane encasement. Pigment expression results in mild neurodegeneration, reduced NE levels, transcriptional changes, and novelty-induced anxiety phenotypes as early as 1-week post-injection. By 6-weeks, NM accumulation is associated with severe LC neurodegeneration and a robust neuroinflammatory response. These phenotypes are reminiscent of LC dysfunction in PD, validating this model for studying the consequences of pigment accumulation in the LC as it relates to neurodegenerative disease.


The ability to perceive and interpret human emotions is an essential aspect of daily life. The recent success of deep learning (DL) has resulted in the ability to utilize automated emotion recognition by classifying affective modalities into a given emotional state. Accordingly, DL has set several state-of-the-art benchmarks on static affective corpora collected in controlled environments. Yet, one of the main limitations of DL based intelligent systems is their inability to generalize on data with nonuniform conditions. For instance, when dealing with images in a real life scenario, where extraneous variables such as natural or artificial lighting are subject to constant change, the resulting changes in the data distribution commonly lead to poor classification performance. These and other constraints, such as: lack of realistic data, changes in facial pose, and high data complexity and dimensionality increase the difficulty of designing DL models for emotion recognition in unconstrained environments. This thesis investigates the development of deep artificial neural network learning algorithms for emotion recognition with specific attention to illumination and facial pose invariance. Moreover, this research looks at the development of illumination and rotation invariant face detection architectures based on deep reinforcement learning. The contributions and novelty of this thesis are presented in the form of several deep learning pose and illumination invariant architectures that offer state-of-the-art classification performance on data with nonuniform conditions. Furthermore, a novel deep reinforcement learning architecture for illumination and rotation invariant face detection is also presented. The originality of this work is derived from a variety of novel deep learning paradigms designed for the training of such architectures.


This article evaluates the challenges that militate against the full engagement of New African Pentecostalism (NAP) in the process of social cohesion in South Africa. It argues that this new religious phenomenon in South Africa has been preoccupied with the promotion of internal social cohesion within its ecclesiastical boundaries to the neglect of national social cohesion. Employing the notion of 'religious cosmopolitanism' (Cahill 2003) as theoretical underpinning, the article proposes a new concept termed Pentecopolitanism, as an ethical frame for New African Pentecostal engagement in democratisation and social cohesion in South Africa. The notion of Pentecopolitanism is envisaged to function as an antidote against sectarianism and fundamentalism within NAP and a framework for its constructive engagement with pluralism in the current South African search for national social cohesion. Pentecopolitanism is a philosophy which arises out of the need for recognition of the social function of religion, so as to enable human beings to discover their humanity through the humanity of others. Keywords : Social cohesion, Pentecopolitanism, South Africa, Black Africans, New African Pentecostalism


Diagnosing the causative agent of bacterial cellulitis is difficult. Blood culturing and needle aspiration have been used: the former has an extremely low sensitivity, the yield of the latter ranges from 4 to 42 percent. A retrospective study was conducted to determine the diagnostic success of needle aspiration and culture of the leading edge of cellulitis with a 21 to 22 gauge syringe and conventional bacteriologic culture of blood in determining the agent that causes acute cellulitis. This agent was determined in 33 percent of patients by needle aspiration and in 4 percent using blood cultures.


When executing inside a virtual machine environment, OS level synchronization primitives are faced with significant challenges due to the scheduling behavior of the underlying virtual machine monitor. Operations that are ensured to last only a short amount of time on real hardware, are capable of taking considerably longer when running virtualized. This change in assumptions has significant impact when an OS is executing inside a critical region that is protected by a spinlock. The interaction between OS level spinlocks and VMM scheduling is known as the Lock Holder Preemption problem and has a significant impact on overall VM performance. However, with the use of ticket locks instead of generic spinlocks, virtual environments must also contend with waiters being preempted before they are able to acquire the lock. This has the effect of blocking access to a lock, even if the lock itself is available. We identify this scenario as the Lock Waiter Preemption problem. In order to solve both problems we introduce Preemptable Ticket spinlocks, a new locking primitive that is designed to enable a VM to always make forward progress by relaxing the ordering guarantees offered by ticket locks. We show that the use of Preemptable Ticket spinlocks improves VM performance by 5.32X on average, when running on a non paravirtual VMM, and by 7.91X when running on a VMM that supports a paravirtual locking interface, when executing a set of microbenchmarks as well as a realistic e-commerce benchmark.


This article presents some predictions for the future of cross-cultural social psychology. It begins with the argument that all social psychology is cultural and that there is ever-growing acceptance of this fact. The results of this acceptance will be an increase in the pervasiveness of culture as a variable, a growth in multicultural research teams, and a recentering of research in social psychology. The introduction of non-Western constructs and theories, such as the interdependent self and relationship harmony, will increase in the future and bring with them a focus on research on interpersonal interactions and relationships. Finally, a model is presented that it is hoped will lead to studies that include both group-level and individual-level variables. It is concluded that an increase in complexity of studies and the incorporation of interdisciplinary research will lead to greater understanding of the mutual effects of culture and social behavior.


The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of wheat bran fortification on the mastication process of bread. White wheat bread (WB) and bran-fortified wheat bread (BB) were consumed by eighteen panellists. The bolus was collected at four different mastication stages and characterized by properties of hydration, particle size, and texture. The results showed that there was no difference between the two bread samples in terms of swallowable bolus moisture. BB with a harder and denser texture produced more small particles and had a slightly shorter chewing time than WB during mastication. Moreover, bolus heterogeneity (D75/D25) indicated a distinct difference among mastication stages and revealed different disintegration pathways between the two samples: BB bolus exhibited a monotonous particle size reduction during mastication with reducing D50 and D75/D25; whereas, WB displayed a combination pattern of disintegration and agglomeration featuring relatively steady D50 and fluctuating D75/D25. It was concluded that bran fortification changed the bread breakdown pathways in terms of bread disintegration and bolus formation during the mastication process. This information offers new guidelines for fortifying innovative materials to manufacture foods specifically targeted for health.


In this paper, an introduction of traditional time series prediction model using SVM has been first given, and then followed by description of a new network training algorithm and a nonlinear regression algorithm of support vector machine which are based on classification. Compared with traditional SVM regression algorithm, CSVR algorithm is less sensitive and more robust. It is another advantage that the value of the parameters can be set according to individual situation. More importantly, this method can also escape from over-fitting. Finally, an analysis of this new method has been given to demonstrate the validity of this method.


The rapidity with which molecular sequence data are gathered continues to grow. The result is that, for many workers, it is increasingly difficult to keep abreast of the current state of play of molecular cloning, even for those genes that encode proteins of special interest. The clear success of the various worldwide genome projects has made this even more apparent, and by the end of 1996 the complete determination of the nucleotide sequences of the genomes of two eukaryotes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Caenorhabditis elegans, will have either been completed or will be nearing completion. This article is an attempt to provide, in an easily accessible format, a compilation of genes and cDNAs that have been sequenced and deposited in GenBank that encode transferase enzymes involved in eukaryotic glycoprotein or glycolipid biosynthesis. The full sequence information can be easily retrieved from a databank, e.g. GenBank, using the relevant accession number(s).


The expression «valenciana prosa» , used from the XVth century onwards by writers like Rois de Corella, Miquel Peres, Bernardi de Vallmanya, and others, has been interpreted in different and sometimes contradictory ways (Rubio i Lluch, Nicolau d'Olwer, Riquer, Fuster, Coromines, etc). The author of this article considers it to be a mere way of outlining the fact that a given text was written in «lengua valenciana», this is to say in the modality of the Catalan Language used in Valencia, and that does not therefore relate to any specific literary style.


Explores the traditional and current uses of large displays in automotive design and presents new applications that make innovative use of large-format electronic displays. The development of our applications has highlighted several issues and challenges for the future. Perhaps the overriding issue is that, ultimately, the story is about interaction, not displays. For the system to be of value, it's generally not enough simply to present information. Viewers must be able to create, manipulate, explore and annotate the displayed image. Furthermore, the display's location, who uses it, what it's used for and how it's used are all critical in determining value.


Given the large investment and prevalence of knowledge management (KM) in organizations, it has become important to analyze the effects of KM activities on organizational performances. A theoretical framework is proposed to investigate the impact of KM activities on innovation capabilities in the IT service industry. This study considers KM activities as the major determinant that enhances absorptive capacity. KM activities enhance employees` ability to obtain external knowledge, resulting in increasing intellectual capital. Thus, this study proposes that absorptive capacity plays a mediating role between KM activities and innovation capability. Additionally, this study investigates the key antecedents of KM activities that promote employees` knowledge sharing. Based on prior studies on KM, this study posits KM team activities and top manager support as KM activities. The proposed research model was tested by using survey data collected from 556 employees in the IT service industry. PLS (partial least squares) was employed for the analysis of the data. The findings of this study showed that KM activities and absorptive capabilities play a significant role in enhancing service innovation and process innovation in the IT service industry. The results also shed light on the mediating role of absorptive capacity between KM activities and innovation capability. Moreover, both KM team activities and top manager support serve as the salient antecedents of promoting employees` knowledge sharing.


Recent reports * have indicated that therapeutic hypoprothrombinemia may be produced and maintained safely and effectively by the administration of the 4-hydroxycoumarin compound, warfarin sodium.† The rapidity of onset and duration of action of warfarin sodium has suggested that perhaps in instances where prolonged anticoagulant therapy is anticipated warfarin sodium could be administered with less frequency in somewhat larger doses, obviating the necessity for a daily prothrombin determination. This would appear to be a distinct advantage if, after a period of careful observation, a dose could be administered every three or four days that might be predicted with a reasonable degree of accuracy to maintain the prothrombin concentration in an acceptable therapeutic range. Concomitant with good predictability a lessening of the frequency for prothrombin determinations would be realized, with resultant economy. Our clinical studies were directed by this premise, and presentation of these observations is given, together with a comparison of


The effect of body contact size on the control of floating body voltage in body tied to source partially depleted (BTS PD) SOI MOSFET has been investigated using three dimensional simulations using non-isothermal drift diffusion model. The results show that using smaller contacts (0.05 /spl mu/m) are as effective as larger contacts (0.35 /spl mu/m) while maintaining higher current drive. To accelerate simulation, a simple two-dimensional model to investigate BTS contacts in SOI MOSFETs was developed. Simulation results using the two-dimensional model show the same trend as the full three-dimensional simulations at less than 1% of the computation time.


There are regional differences in the prevalence and severity of Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Asian and Western Pacific Regions. Medical management of the condition will depend very much on the assessment of disease activity. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in full dosage should always be the first choice of treatment. Their popularity however varies from country to country depending partly on the availability and partly on the cost structure that the Department of Health has been able to negotiate with the manufacturer.


Tan and Thoen proposed a generic model of trust for e-commerce in which transaction trust combines party trust and control trust. The purpose of this study is to assess the influence of party trust and control trust on risk perception and exchange behavior in B2B e-marketplaces. The authors modeled party trust and control trust as higher-order formative constructs; they then developed a partially mediated research model to show how these two forms of trust influence perceived risk, information sharing, and transaction. The research model was tested on a sample of 82 manufacturing enterprises having experience in B2B e-marketplaces using Partial Least Squares. The results show that party trust negatively influences perceived risk, that control trust positively influences information sharing, that perceived risk negatively influences information sharing, and that information sharing positively influences transaction. Information sharing acts as the mediator between trust and transaction. E-marketplace operators should supply all participants with various tools and channels for sharing transaction-related information. 


Abstract Muscle and tendon injuries about the shoulder and upper arm are commonly evaluated and characterized with magnetic resonance imaging. This article reviews our experience with abnormalities of the rotator cuff tendons and muscles as well as the deltoid muscle in the shoulder. We discuss and illustrate abnormalities of the upper arm such as strain injuries of the pectoralis major, strain injuries of the teres major and latissimus dorsi, and contusion and crush injuries of the biceps and brachialis muscles in the upper arm.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which myelin proteins have been implicated as autoantigens recognized by pathogenic autoreactive T cells. To study the relationship between human myelin basic protein (hMBP) and HLA alleles associated to MS susceptibility, such as DRB1*1501, the binding of synthetic peptides spanning the entire hMBP sequence to 10 purified HLA-DR molecules was determined. All the hMBP peptides tested showed binding affinity for at least one of the DR molecules analyzed, but three hMBP peptides, included in sequences 13-32, 84-103, and 144-163 were found capable of binding to three or more DR molecules. The hMBP peptide 84-103 was the most degenerate in binding, in that it bound to 9 out of 10 DR molecules tested. Interestingly, it bound with highest affinity to DRB1*1501 molecules. To correlate the binding pattern of hMBP peptides to HLA class II molecules with their recognition by T cells, 61 hMBP-specific T cell lines (TCL) were established from the peripheral blood of 20 MS patients, who were homozygous, heterozygous, or negative for DRB1*1501. Analysis of hMBP epitopes recognized by these TCL and their HLA restriction demonstrated a very good correlation between binding data and T cell proliferation to hMBP peptides. Although virtually all hMBP peptides tested could be recognized by at least one TCL from MS patients, three immunodominant T cell epitopes were apparent among the TCL examined, corresponding exactly to the hMBP peptides capable of binding to several DR molecules. No major difference could be detected in the recognition of immunodominant hMBP peptides by TCL from DRB1*1501 positive or negative MS patients. These results have implications for the role of hMBP as relevant autoantigen, and of DRB1*1501 as susceptibility allele in MS.


Acinetobacter calcoaceticits, typing of, strains isolated from hospital patients by cell envelope protein profiles, 659 African swine fever, an updated survey of, in Malawi, 723 Air, Joseph Lister and infection from the, 569 Antirabies vaccine, persistence of rabies antibody 5 years after pre-exposure prophylaxis with human diploid cell, and antibody response to a single booster dose, 91 Aquaria, enteric pathogens in tropical, 635 Aspergillosis, invasive nosocomial pulmonary: risk factors and hospital building works, 407 Australia, respiratory tract infections due to Branhamella catarrhalis: epidemiological data from Western, 445


Research on lethal violence has generally been directed at White and African American populations, with few studies addressing this issue among American Indians. Interestingly, national data indicate that American Indians have one of the highest homicide rates among racial groups. In an effort to identify the etiological underpinnings of this violence, the current study examines whether variation in county-level American Indian homicide rates can be explained by social disorganization theory. Specifically, the authors investigate the impact of economic deprivation, ethnic heterogeneity, mobility, and family disruption on homicide levels among American Indian populations.


Humalog Mix 75/25 insulin analog is widely used in the People's Republic of China to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, but the Humalog Mix 50/50 analog is not as yet widely used or assessed. The purpose of this 12-week, parallel-group, randomized, treat-to-target study was to evaluate the difference in clinical efficacy, safety, and outcome of treatment between Humalog Mix 50/50 and Humalog Mix 75/25 analogs in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In total, 146 insulin-naïve patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and aged 18–75 years were randomized and treated twice a day with either Humalog Mix 50/50 (group A) or Humalog Mix 75/25 (group B). We monitored levels of fasting blood glucose, 2-hour postprandial blood glucose, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in patients in both groups prior to and 3 months post treatment, the average time to achieve target blood glucose level, and frequency of hypoglycemic episodes during treatment. We found that group A showed better glycemic control as per fasting blood glucose and 2-hour postprandial blood glucose than group B. Moreover, HbA1c levels in group A (5.5%±1.4%) were lower by 1.0%±0.1% (P<0.05) compared with those in group B (6.5%±1.5%). The time to achieve glucose control was shorter (P<0.05) in group A (12.6±3.6 days) than in group B (22.3±4.7 days). Regarding safety, no significant adverse events or severe hypoglycemia on treatment was observed in either group. Additionally, the 1:1 ratio of Humalog Mix 50/50 showed a trend towards fewer episodes of nocturnal hypoglycemia. Thus, compared with Humalog Mix 75/25, the high-proportion premix insulin analog, Humalog Mix 50/50 showed better glycemic control, achieved target blood glucose levels more rapidly and without an increase in hypoglycemic episodes in Chinese type 2 diabetic individuals and is recommended for use in clinical practice.


There are increasing numbers of adults with congenital heart disease. These patients remain at lifelong risk of complications including heart failure, arrhythmias and premature death. This review examines the management of those patients with advanced disease, with particular reference to patients with either a systemic right ventricle or a univentricular circulation. Drugs used to treat left ventricular dysfunction in acquired heart disease have been shown to have little benefi t in this setting. There are, however, promising results from small trials looking at selective pulmonary vasodilators in patients with a previous Fontan operation. Whilst there is evidence of a benefi t with implantable cardiac defi brillators and cardiac resynchronisation, there remains a lack of clear guidelines as to which patients will benefi t from these invasive therapies. Cardiac transplantation in these patients is associated with an increased early mortality but the long term outcome is similar to those with acquired heart failure. Transplantation however, is limited by both the patient's suitability and the availability of a matched organ. End of life care should be discussed with all patients with advanced disease and ideally this should be done early on and in parallel to other therapies.


Soil arsenic contamination becomes a potential ag- ricultural and environmental hazard worldwide, and has been a serious problem for safe food production. A field experiment on soil contamination was conducted on four wheat varieties ( Jimai, Gaoyou, Weimai and Wennong) in Eastern China, using 50 or 100 mg arsenic/kg soil. Biomass production and yield components were determined and arsenic concentrations were measured in plant tis- sues. Differential arsenic effects on wheat varieties were determined at maturity. Results showed that addition of arsenic significantly (p stems > leaves and rachises > grains > glumes > awns. In the arsenic treatments, arsenic concentrations in bran were about 2-3 times higher than those in flour. Most of the arsenic contaminated flour exceeded the Chinese tolerance limit. Arsenic contents of grain parts were dependent on variety and treat- ment level in polluted soils. Weimai and Wennong showed highest amounts of arsenic in flour than the other varieties at 50 or 100 mg/ kg soil treatment, respectively. Weimai possessed significantly lower (p<0.05) amount of arsenic in bran than any other wheat variety. Re- sults showed significant variety differences in arsenic concentration in polluted areas; it is of outstanding importance that wheat with the lowest possible arsenic concentration is used for food or fodder production. The present results provide scientific basis for revising the standards of wastewater discharges.


Through this study we explore the literature discussing the innovations which have progressed management information systems (IS) from the beginnings of transaction processing through to expert systems in an attempt to clarify existing IS taxonomies into a holistic discourse. The concepts are defined and discussed, the path of innovation in the systems' delineation are traced and discussed and each IS taxonomy is then framed with regard to the whole. In this work we offer a diagram tracing the systemic elements which are core to the definition of what each of these systems are. This diagram is useful in explaining where an information system fits into the IS taxonomies found in IS literature. Through this we have described the path of information systems innovation from the processing of electronic transaction data through to expert systems. In particular we have focussed on the elements of management information systems and decision support systems and their place within the available taxonomies.