Endoscopic insertion of biliary stents is the preferred method of palliation for inoperable malignant biliary obstruction; however, migration and clogging are frequent problems with conventional endoprostheses. We sought to determine if expandable metal stents offer improved palliation compared to conventional stents. Sixty-two patients with common bile duct lesions were randomized to receive polyethylene or metal stents. Stents were placed endoscopically or by the combined percutaneous-endoscopic route. Early results (< 1 month) were similar in both groups. Long-term follow-up (n = 28 polyethylene, median: 5 months; n = 27 metal, median: 5 months) showed a higher stent failure rate in the polyethylene (n = 12; 43%) compared to the metal group (n = 6; 22%). The incidence of cholangitis was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the polyethylene (n = 10; 36%) compared to the metal group (n = 4; 15%). Life-table analysis showed a significantly reduced incidence of stent failure (p = 0.0035) in the metal stent compared to the polyethylene group. The total duration of hospital stay for treatment of stent related problems was significantly higher in the polyethylene (11.8 +/- 3 days) compared to the metal group (4 +/- 1.9 days; p = 0.02). The costs for retreatment because of stent failure were significantly higher in the plastic (DM 5900 +/- 1516) compared to the metal group (DM 2070 +/- 977). As a result, the overall costs (treatment of stent related complications & stents) were higher in the polyethylene group (DM 6000 +/- 1500).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Development of Intelligent Environments have been so far mostly ad-hoc and here we investigate one fundamental bottleneck which needs to be addressed to facilitate more effective developments in the future: handling of user preferences in a multiple user environment. This paper analyzes some cases which combine different approaches to manage users preferences combining services at higher and lower levels with user-led and environment-led approaches. We assess some practical pros and cons in each of these combinations as well as some more fundamental building blocks which developers need to reflect on from a scientific point of view before embarking on the engineering of these systems.


Type I X-ray bursts and superbursts on neutron stars release sudden and intense radiation fields into their surroundings. Here we consider the possible effects of these powerful explosions on the structure of the accretion disk. The goal is to account for the apparent evolution of the innermost regions of the accretion disk around 4U 1820-30 during a superburst. Three different processes are considered in detail: radiatively or thermally driven outflows, inflow due to Poynting-Robertson drag, and a structural change to the disk by X-ray heating. Radiatively driven winds with large column densities can be launched from the inner disk, but only for L/LEdd ≳ 1, which is expected to be obtained only at the onset of the burst. Furthermore, the predicted mass outflow rate is less than the accretion rate in 4U 1820-30. Estimates of the Poynting-Robertson or radiative drag timescale show that it is a very efficient means of removing angular momentum from the gas. However, the analytical results are likely only applicable at the innermost edge of the disk. X-ray heating gives a change in the disk scale height that is correlated with the blackbody temperature, as seen in the evolution during the 4U 1820-30 superburst. If this change in the scale height can alter the surface density, then the viscous time (with α ~ 0.03-0.2) is the closest match to the 4U 1820-30 results. We expect, however, that all three processes are likely ongoing when an accretion disk is subject to a sudden heating event. Ultimately, a numerical simulation of a disk around a bursting neutron star is required to determine the exact response of the disk. Magnetic truncation of the accretion flow is also considered and applied to the 4U 1820-30 X-ray reflection results.


Abstract This contribution is focused on the "Casa Esagono" realized in 1957 by Vittorio Giorgini in Baratti (LI), Italy. The research objective is to lay the foundations for a restoration plan of this experimental wooden architecture, which is now in precarious conditions due to its location near the sea, and whose constructive features, has always raised great questions about the technical feasibility of a full restoration. The paper describes the workflow for the implementation of the H-BIM model, aimed to organise all the data deriving from the historical and on-site research, and the restoration programme. The historical analysis about the house and the architect was the basis for the geometric survey and the analysis of building materials. All building components were subjected to visual analysis aimed to identify deterioration forms. The proposed conservation approach aims to maintain as much of the original elements as possible, while increasing their durability. H-BIM revealed to be the ideal tool to manage the entire restoration process, whose ultimate goal is to celebrate Giorgini's work, to exploit the potential of the house as a cultural attraction.


Background Access to molecular diagnosis was limited out-of-hospital in France during the 2020 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. This study describes the evolution of COVID-19 outbreak in a nursing home in absence of molecular diagnosis. Methods A monocentric prospective study was conducted in a French nursing home from March 17th, 2020 to June 11th, 2020. Because of lack of molecular tests for severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-Cov2) infection, probable COVID-19 cases were early identified considering only respiratory and not-respiratory symptoms and therefore preventing measures and treatments were enforced. Once available, serology tests were performed at the end of the study.A chronologic description of new cases and deaths was made together with a description of COVID-19 symptoms. Data about personal characteristics and treatments were collected and the following comparisons were performed: i) probable COVID-19 cases vs asymptomatic residents; ii) SARS-Cov2 seropositive residents vs seronegative residents. Results Overall, 32/66 (48.5%) residents and 19/39 (48.7%) members of health-care personnel were classified as probable COVID-19 cases. A total of 34/61 (55.7%) tested residents resulted seropositive. Death occurred in 4/66 (6%) residents. Diagnosis according to symptoms had 65% of sensitivity, 78% of specificity, 79% of positive predictive value and 64% of negative predictive value.In resident population, the following symptoms were registered: 15/32 (46.8%) lymphopenia, 15/32 (46.8%) fever, 8/32 (25%) fatigue, 8/32 (25%) cough, 6/32 (18.8%) diarrhoea, 4/32 (12.5%) severe respiratory distress requiring oxygen therapy, 4/32 (12.5%) fall, 3/32 (9.4%) conjunctivitis, 2/32 (6.3%) abnormal pulmonary noise at chest examination and 2/32 (6,25%) abdominal pain. Probable COVID-19 cases were older (81.3 vs 74.9; p=0.007) and they had higher prevalence of atrial fibrillation (8/32, 25% vs 2/34, 12%; p=0.030); insulin treatment (4/34, 12% vs 0, 0%; p=0.033) and positive SARS-Cov2 serology (22/32, 69% vs 12/34, 35%; p=0.001) than asymptomatic residents. Seropositive residents had lower prevalence of diabetes (4/34, 12% vs 9/27, 33%; p=0.041) and angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors' intake (1/34, 1% vs 5/27, 19%; p=0.042). Conclusions During SARS-Cov2 epidemic, early detection of respiratory and not-respiratory symptoms allowed to enforce extraordinary measures. They achieved limiting contagion and deaths among nursing home residents, even in absence of molecular diagnosis.


Background  In recent years thread lift has become widespread; however, existing methods need to improve their long-term outcome, which requires considering topographic anatomy of face and neck, especially the ligamentous apparatus. This study aims to assess the effectiveness and safety of an innovative method of one-time three-step thread facelift, which provides an additional support to the ligamentous structures of the upper, middle, and lower thirds of the face and neck. Methods  The study included 357 patients aged 32 to 67 years with various morphotypes of aging. The original method of thread lift was applied, and its effectiveness was followed up for to 2 years. The Wrinkle Severity Rating Score (WSRS) and Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale (GAIS) scores were used for assessment by investigators, independent observers, and patients. Statistical significance was determined using paired t -test and chi-square test. Results  The mean WSRS score was 3.88 ± 0.88 before the thread lift, 1.93 ± 0.81 one month after the procedure, and 2.36 ± 0.85 after 2 years of follow-up. The mean GAIS was 4.80 ± 0.04 one month after thread lift, and 4.01 ± 0.04 after 2 years, while in the patients' assessment Global Satisfaction Scale was 4.86 ± 0.02 and 4.10 ± 0.02, respectively. There were no clinically significant complications throughout the observation period. Conclusion  The new method of one-time three-step thread fixation of the soft tissues of the face and neck demonstrated a high degree of satisfaction by both experts and patients after 2 years of follow-up. It showed high efficacy and safety, including in the group of patients with pronounced age-related changes of the skin of face and neck.


This volume presents lecture notes based on the author's courses on Lie algebras and the solution of Hilbert's fifth problem. In chapter 1, "Lie Algebras," the structure theory of semi-simple Lie algebras in characteristic zero is presented, following the ideas of Killing and Cartan. Chapter 2, "The Structure of Locally Compact Groups," deals with the solution of Hilbert's fifth problem given by Gleason, Montgomery, and Zipplin in 1952.


Objective: The study was designed to examine the relationships of the severity of physical disease, perceived physical health, and social support to depression as well as the differential roles of instrumental and social support among the elderly in Taiwan. Method: During 2002, we conducted a cross-sectional survey by interviewing a random sample of 4049 elderly subjects enrolled in 1989 and followed up in 1993 and 1996. The present study successfully completed the follow up of 2125 subjects. Results: The results illustrated, (1) with depression as a dependent variable, by performing hierarchical regression analyses, severity of physical disease, perceived physical health, emotional social support would directly predict the level of depression. However, the interaction between the severity of physical disease and instrumental social support would influence the degree of depression. (2) Furthermore, we separated the subjects by severity of physical disease into high and low groups, and performed hierarchical regression analyses a second time. The results showed that as to the group with high physical disease, the more instrumental social support they had, the lower degree of their depression. Regarding the group with lower severity of physical disease, instrumental social support would not significantly predict the level of depression. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggested that perceived physical health and emotional social support directly influenced the degree of depression, while the severity of physical disease would buffer the impact of the instrumental social support on depression among the elderly in Taiwan.


The activity of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can be enhanced by a number of chemical and genetic strategies. We describe a novel strategy for enhancing antibody‐dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) through modification of the mAb carbohydrate during expression, designated Sugar Engineered Antibody (SEA) technology. A series of small molecule fucose analogs were added to mAb‐expressing Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, with the resulting mAbs showing a significant reduction in their carbohydrate fucosylation. We demonstrate that these mAbs show a substantial increase in ADCC activity and an improvement in CD16 binding. We find that the mechanism of action is inhibition of GDP‐mannose dehydratase (GMD), the first enzyme in de novo synthesis of GDP‐fucose, leading to a depletion of substrate for the fucosyltransferase responsible for mAb carbohydrate fucosylation. We also demonstrate that this strategy yields mAbs with significantly reduced fucosylation in large scale CHO cell culture as well as in additional expression systems such as hybridomas and transient transfectants. Since genetic modification of the mAb‐producing cell line is not required, SEA technology can be readily applied from the mAb screening to manufacturing stage to generate effector function enhanced therapeutic antibodies. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):B133.


A transformer's failure can lead to disruption in power, decrease in system reliability and monetary loss to the utility and distribution companies. Fault detection of transformers is a critical step for improving the reliability of distribution systems. Regular maintenance checks can detect most of faulty conditions, but due to high cost and difficulty, the maintenance checked can only be performed annually. This paper proposes a simple on-line monitoring algorithm that uses a minimum set of sensor information, including ambient temperature, hot spot temperature, and load, to estimate several system parameters such as oil and thermal properties of the transformer and detect abnormal behavior. Fault can be detected when these parameter estimations experience sudden changes or the estimated values have sufficient deviation from their nominal values.


Face detection and subsequent localization of facial landmarks are the primary steps in many face applications. Numerous algorithms and benchmark datasets have been introduced to develop robust models for the visible domain. However, varying conditions of illumination still pose challenging problems. In this regard, thermal cameras are employed to address this problem, because they operate on longer wavelengths. However, thermal face and facial landmark detection in the wild is an open research problem because most of the existing thermal datasets were collected in controlled environments. In addition, many of them were not annotated with face bounding boxes and facial landmarks. In this work, we present a thermal face dataset with manually labeled bounding boxes and facial landmarks to address these problems. The dataset contains 9,982 images of 147 subjects collected under controlled and uncontrolled conditions. As a baseline, we trained the YOLOv5 (Jocher, 2020) object detection model and its adaptation for face detection, YOLO5Face (Qi et al., 2021), on our dataset. In addition to our test set, we evaluated the models on the external RWTH-Aachen (Kopaczka et al., 2019) thermal face dataset to show the efficacy of our dataset. We have made the dataset, source code, and pre-trained models publicly available at https://github.com/IS2AI/TFW to bolster research in thermal face analysis.


Agriculture drives the Mozambican economy. The sector is largely dominated by smallholder farmers and is a major source of livelihood in the country (World Bank, 2006). Available statistics indicate that agriculture contributes 25 percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 80 percent of the total labor force (African Development Bank, 2008). Development in the agricultural sector in Mozambique has evolved since colonial times to date due to different reasons. The main objective of the Portuguese colonialists was to increase the supply of raw materials to their country and hence targeted the needed investments in Mozambique. The sector wa.........


Abstract Arthur Raistrick was a dedicated socialist and pacifist. Following imprisonment as a conscientious objector in World War I, he changed direction from engineering to applied geology. He spent the 1920s largely self-employed and working on geological problems in coal mines, but researching on Quaternary geology and archaeology. Following appointment to Newcastle University, he undertook pioneering work on the pollen analysis of peat. He then used this knowledge to successfully correlate Carboniferous coal seams using quantitative spore profiles. To achieve this, he experimented extensively on spore extraction from coals and devised a spore classification system. Raistrick made rapid progress on applying microspores for seam correlation and established an extensive database that proved that the same seam had a very similar spore content, but different seams had different spore contents. Ultimately, his prodigious output led to overwork and severe eye strain. He then completely stopped palynological studies to concentrate on industrial history and archaeology, to which he also made a seminal and lasting contribution. Raistrick's methods for coal seam correlation were widely adopted by many coal laboratories both in the UK and overseas, and formed the starting point for the modern development of the subject.


Originally a 3D Fourier transform is used for utilizing the 3D nature of objects. Using this 3D optical Fourier transform, one can do spatial filtering and a correlation on the entire 3D input distribution. For example, with a 3D Fourier transform a conventional 2D joint transform correlator (JTC) can be extended to 3D.


Electride solutions, formed by dissolution of Na(m) in ethylenediamine (en), are used to generate MoS2 intercalation compounds. Two new intercalation compounds were obtained, labeled α and β phases, containing both Na and en as intercalate and cointercalate respectively. The intercalation reaction proceeds via formation of a kinetic product, the β phase, and subsequent generation of a stable thermodynamic product, the α phase. The β and α phases have interlayer distances, dIC, of 1.19 and 0.97 nm, respectively, which are ascribed to a perpendicular or parallel orientation of en within the intercalate galleries. Product compositions, morphologies and spectrochemical features are obtained from thermogravimetry, SEM and Raman measurement. Electrochemical reduction of MoS2 in an en-based electrolyte is investigated, but does not show the same intercalation reactions. The chemistry observed is compared with that previously reported for this and other MS2 hosts, and with graphite intercalation.


BACKGROUND
Theophylline toxicity is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. While a relationship of the serum theophylline level to symptoms associated with toxicity has been described in acutely intoxicated or elderly patients, this relationship may not be valid in younger patients receiving chronic theophylline therapy.

OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to define the predictive value and prevalence of minor symptoms of theophylline toxicity in ambulatory asthmatic adults receiving chronic theophylline therapy with elevated serum theophylline levels.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective study to determine the prevalence of symptoms in patients with elevated theophylline levels ( > 20 mg/L or 110 mumol/L). A prospective study was performed to ascertain the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of symptoms as an indication of elevated the theophylline level. In addition, we describe a patient who had a seizure in association with an elevated theophylline level in the absence of any preceding symptom of theophylline toxicity.

RESULTS
We reviewed the result of 483 theophylline measurements in 450 asthmatic patients. In 46 instances the theophylline levels was > 20 mg/L. Only three of these patients were symptomatic. Ninety patients were prospectively studies with a total of 111 theophylline measurements of which 13 exceeded 20 mg/L. None of the symptoms (ie, nausea or gastrointestinal upset; headache or palpitations, irregular heart beat, tremor, or shakiness) was a sensitive predictor of an elevated theophylline level.

CONCLUSIONS
Elevation of the theophylline level is frequently associated with lack of symptoms in young ambulatory asthmatic adults receiving chronic theophylline therapy. The question of whether cardiac or neurologic electrophysiologic abnormalities might exist in the absence of symptoms is an issue that needs to be addressed. Clinicians should continue to monitor serum levels on a regular basis and prescribe this drug conservatively.


Abstract. Lower glacial atmospheric CO2 concentrations have been attributed to carbon sequestration in deep oceans. However, potential roles of voluminous subtropical North Pacific in modulating atmospheric CO2 levels on millennial timescale are poorly constrained. Further, an increase in respired CO2 concentration in the glacial deep ocean due to biological pump generally is coeval with less oxygenation in the subsurface layer. This link thus offers a chance to visit oceanic ventilation and the coeval export productivity based on redox-controlled sedimentary geochemical parameters. Here we investigate a suite of sediment geochemical proxies to understand the sedimentary oxygenation variations in the subtropical North Pacific (core CSH1) over the last 50 thousand years (ka). Our results suggest that sedimentary oxygenation at mid-depths of the subtropical North Pacific intensifies during the episodes of late glacial (50–25 ka), Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and also the interval after 8.5 ka, especially pronounced for the North Atlantic millennial-scale abrupt cold events of the Younger Dryas, Heinrich Stadial (HS) 1 and 2. On the other hand, oxygen-depleted seawater is found during the Bölling-Alleröd (B/A) and Preboreal. Our findings of enhanced sedimentary oxygenation in the subtropical North Pacific is aligned with intensified formation of North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) during cold spells, while the ameliorated sedimentary oxygenation seems to be linked with the intensified Kuroshio Current since 8.5 ka. In our results, diminished sedimentary oxygenation during the B/A indicates an enhanced CO2 sequestration at mid-depth waters, along with slight increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration. Mechanistically, we speculate that these millennial-scale changes were linked to the strength of North Atlantic Deep Water, leading to intensification of NPIW formation and enhanced abyss flushing during deglacial cold and warm intervals, respectively. Enhanced formation of NPIW seem to be driven by the perturbation of sea ice formation and sea surface salinity oscillation in high latitude North Pacific through atmospheric and oceanic teleconnection. During the B/A, decreased sedimentary oxygenation likely resulted from an upward penetration of aged deep water into the intermediate-depth in the North Pacific, corresponding to a resumption of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.


Here, we report a novel, highly sensitive, selective and economical molecular beacon using graphene oxide as the "nanoquencher". This novel molecular beacon system contains a hairpin-structured fluorophore-labeled oligonucleotide and a graphene oxide sheet. The strong interaction between hairpin-structured oligonucleotide and graphene oxide keep them in close proximity, facilitating the fluorescence quenching of the fluorophore by graphene oxide. In the presence of a complementary target DNA, the binding between hairpin-structured oligonucleotide and target DNA will disturb the interaction between hairpin-structured oligonucleotide and graphene oxide, and release the oligonucleotide from graphene oxide, resulting in restoration of fluorophore fluorescence. In the present study, we show that this novel graphene oxide quenched molecular beacon can be used to detect target DNA with higher sensitivity and single-base mismatch selectivity compared to the conventional molecular beacon.


The laplacian operator applied to the coordinates of a manifold provides the mean curvature vector. Manipulating the metric of the manifold or interpreting its coordinates in various ways provide useful tools for shape and image processing and representation. We will review some of these tools focusing on scale invariant geometry, curvature flow with respect to an embedding of the image manifold in a high dimensional space, and object segmentation by active contours defined via the shape laplacian operator. Such generalizations of the curvature vector and its numerical approximation as part of an image flow or triangulated shape representation, demonstrate the omnipresence of this operator and its usefulness in imaging sciences.


The aim of the publication is to evaluate the indicative modules of the deformation of fine-grained, sandy and gravelly soils. Deformation modulus is one of the most important geotechnical properties in terms of geotechnics. The reason is that it is most important from the point of assessing subsidence of buildings and expresses the characteristics that we call compressibility. It is evident that differences in the modulus of deformation are very important, among the classes of fine-grained, sandy and gravelly soils. Maximum indicative value of deformation modules is 30 MPa for fine-grained soils. It is 100 MPa for sandy soil and 500 MPa for a gravelly soil. From this trend it is apparent that the geological conditions have different characteristics in terms of impact on the subsidence of buildings in these important groups of sediments.


Abstract : Policy analysts have always lived with great uncertainty. We have long had tools for handling some of that uncertainty. But now that policy analysis has been around for a while, work in many fields has fallen into stereotyped problem formulations and analytical approaches. In particular, treatments of uncertainty are typically quite incomplete and often conceptually wrong. This report argues that these shortcomings produce pervasive systematic biases in analyses. Problem formulations suppress uncertainty about the world and ignore the capacity of the analyzed systems to adapt to the unanticipated. System design ignores opportunities to hedge or respond instead of predicting. System evaluation discounts strategies that hedge or respond. Policy analyses change in specific ways if their problems are formulated with a fuller recognition of uncertainty. Management capability -the ability to respond and adapt-becomes a resource, with a cost and an effectiveness, to which funds can be allocated in competition with more familiar uses of funds. Analytical tools change to incorporate options for management. Given that uncertainty is pervasive and generally cannot be counted completely, the logic that connects the analysis to the world changes as well: Our models are not necessarily adequate representations of reality.


This paper aims to explore the meaning of the English word argument in Chinese culture and language. It first reviews the various definitions and concepts of argument in western literature and Chinese culture. Next, it argues that there is no one single all-encompassing word in Chinese that can fully represent all the meanings of the English word argument. Finally, it conducts a survey research to get the possible Chinese translations of the English word argument.


"The role of location-specific amenities in human migration decisions, and subsequently regional development, is explored. A framework is developed which motivates a new assessment of existing alternative models of regional development, indicating the need for additional modeling efforts which focus upon amenities as critical elements in such analyses. The approach hinges upon the notion that amenity values are capitalized into wages, rents, or other local prices. This process of capitalization enables researchers to explore the implicit value that society places upon amenities, which can then be used in assessing future regional-development trends in a more comprehensive manner."


Introduction and background: Current evidence suggests that individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) demonstrate reductions in balance control that may be associated with an increased fall risk. There is only few documented research to support balance assessment and training in COPD. Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between balance and hypoxemia, cognitive state and exercise capacity in patients with COPD. Methods: Thirty-four patients with COPD (29 males, 5 females, mean FEV1=54.20±23.42%) were included in the study. Arterial blood gases were recorded. Balance and functional mobility was evaluated using a timed up and go test (TUG). Cognitive state was assessed using The Standardized Mini Mental State Examination (SMMSE). Symptom-limited maximal exercise capacity was evaluated using an incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT). Results: Fourty-four percent of the patients had increased an fall risk. The TUG time was correlated with PaO2 (r=-0.40, p=0.034), SaO2 (r=-0.44, p=0.019), and SMMSE-orientation (r=-0.39, p=0.023), ISWT distance (r=-0.45, p=0.020). The PaO2 explained 30% of the variance in the TUG time (R=0.58, R2=0.30, F(1-20)=10.06, p=0.005). Conclusions: Balance and functional mobility is related with hypoxemia, cognitive state and maximal exercise capacity in patients with COPD. Further research is required to determine which factors affect the balance and to determine whether improvements in cognitive state and balance can be made with balance training or pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD.


The validity of continuous measurement of hepatic venous oxygen saturation using a fibreoptic technique was investigated and set in correlation with intermittent measurements of saturation in hepatic venous blood in patients undergoing elective partial liver resection (pLR). Eleven patients (4 m/7 f, average age: 62.6 +/- 11.6 years) were included in the study after approval by the Ethics Committee of the University of Leipzig. A fibre-optic heparinized flow-directed pulmonary catheter (5.5-F) was inserted through the right internal jugular vein into the hepatic vein after induction of balanced anaesthesia (isoflurane/alfentanil). The position of the tip of the catheter was verified by fluoroscopic guidance. The oxygen saturation in the hepatic vein measured by the fibre-optic method and by blood-gas analysis (ShvO2) was compared at nine defined measuring points after in-vivo calibration (baseline). The ShvO2 decreased nonsignificantly from 84.4 +/- 10.4% to 77.1 +/- 19.1% during occlusion of the vessels in the liver hilus (Pringle's manoeuvre). The ShvO2 measured by the fibre-optic method and by blood-gas analysis correlated well (r = 0.815, p < 0.001). The limitations of the method result from artefacts based on surgical manipulations in the portal region (compression of hepatic veins, luxation of the liver). These artefacts can be differentiated by analysis of the pressure curves in the hepatic vein. Nevertheless, fibreoptic hepatovenous oxymetry seems to be a feasible method for continuous monitoring of the ShvO2 under intraoperative conditions in patients undergoing partial liver resection. Ischaemic situations of the liver can be detected and treated early. Additional information can be obtained from analyses of parameters in the hepatovenous blood.


Upper Cretaceous strata along the west side of the Sacramento Valley and northern San Joaquin Valley contain a diversified and well-preserved fauna of planktonic foraminifera. Fifty-six of the stratigraphically important species of this fauna are herein described and illustrated. Three species are described as new.


BackgroundThe 2003 liberation/invasion of Iraq and the resulting casualties from civilians and armed forces attracted researchers publishing in high prestigious journals but little was mentioned about the events that led to the armed intervention. This paper assesses the human cost of successive Iraqi governments' tyrannical rule in Kurdistan Region of Iraq over three decades.MethodThe two most recent and reliable census datasets of 1947 and 1957 were used to estimate fertility and survival rates by age group under normal circumstances. These were used in the classical Leslie Matrix to predict the 2007 Kurdistan Region of the Iraqi population. Results were contrasted with estimates for the same year that were obtained by the World Food Programme as part of their Food Security Analysis for Iraq to arrive at estimates that would indicate the scale of the loss in human capital from Saddam Hussein's tyranny. FindingsThe Kurdistan Region has lost around 1,911,479 people of which 1,043,549 were male and 867,930 female of different age groups. These include the direct victims of past genocide actions of successive Iraqi governments as well as those who sought refuge beyond the boundaries of the Kurdistan Region during past decades. InterpretationSaddam Hussein's actions were directed to all indigenous inhabitants irrespective of gender and age. As such, any possible offspring, had life continued as normal, is counted as human loss. Demographical, socio-political and the environmental impact of Saddam Hussien's tyrannical rule are worthy of further investigation.


Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) represents an innate immunodeficiency: the reduced production of oxygen radicals in phagocytosing cells results in decreased ability to kill pathogenic microorganisms. The patients concerned suffer from severe recurrent infections due to bacteria and fungi. Prophylactic administration of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, as usual in CGD-patients, has markedly reduced the incidence of bacterial infections. Now as before, however, there is a high risk to become affected by invasive fungal infections, mainly due to Aspergillus spp. which often are lethal. Therefore, a well-compatible antimycotic long-term prophylaxis effective against Aspergillus would be attractive. In the present study the compatibility of the oral triazole itraconazole was tested in 8 CGD-patients with high risk of Aspergillus infections. Itraconazole was administered in capsules with a dosage of 5.1 mg/kg body weight per day on an average for a mean range of 23 months. Periodically liver enzymes, renal retention and electrolytes were assessed as well as itraconazole serum levels. Aspergillus serology tests included complement fixation tests, IgG-ELISA, precipitation tests, IgE determination and Aspergillus-RAST. During the prophylactic treatment in all of the 8 patients no gastrointestinal side effects or hypersensitivity reactions were observed. Renal retention and serum electrolytes as well as liver enzyme values were in normal ranges with all patients. Itraconazole serum levels showed a marked intra- and interindividual variability. However, 82% of the peak levels were in ranges regarded as therapeutically effective for itraconazole. Under prophylaxis a clear decrease of Aspergillus IgG-ELISA values was observed in 5 of 7 patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Education is a culture of character, a habit against nature, but the only one that distinguishes people. It is an art that makes the conscious pass into the subconscious, it is a fact of the school, and of a virtue that every individual carries within. Everywhere in the world, leaders or managers are forced to make capital investment decisions. Investment options are pre-weighed extensively and all asset acquisition options and alternatives are analyzed in detail. For example, for the acquisition of a car, meaning an investment of a few tens of thousands of euros, the criteria are: "Which is the best in terms of quality/price, and which has the highest level of reliability?" the same questions, however, are asked when making investment decisions in human capital. The success of a business in today's times is extremely dependent on the understanding that the importance of long-term investment in people and human capital is a huge one.


Civic participation in the United States is highly unequal, resulting in a "civic engagement gap" between socioeconomic, racial, and gender groups. Variation in civic participation and the civic engagement gap remain contested, primarily as a result of inconsistent definitions and measurement issues in previous work. Using consistent measures from the Monitoring the Future Study from 1976 to 2009, I analyze whether sociodemographic gaps in youth civic participation changed during a period of growing income inequality. I find that since the 1970s, electoral participation decreased, volunteering increased, and social movement activity remained constant. Participation varied by sociodemographic group, with highly educated Whites most active in all activities. Females volunteered more than males, but participated at the same rate in all other activities. The gap between male and female volunteering increased over the time period, as did the socioeconomic gap in volunteering. Racial gaps in participation, however, remained relatively stable from 1976 to 2009.


The TCP domain is a DNA-binding domain present in plant transcription factors that modulate different processes. In the present study, we show that Arabidopsis class I TCP proteins are able to interact with a dyad-symmetric sequence composed of two GTGGG half-sites. TCP20 establishes symmetric interactions with the 5' half of each strand, whereas TCP11 interacts mainly with the 3' half. SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) experiments with TCP15 and TCP20 indicated that these proteins have similar, although not identical, DNA-binding preferences and are able to interact with non-palindromic binding sites of the type GTGGGNCCNN. TCP11 shows a different DNA-binding specificity, with a preference for the sequence GTGGGCCNNN. The distinct DNA-binding properties of TCP11 are due to the presence of a threonine residue at position 15 of the TCP domain, a position that is occupied by an arginine residue in most TCP proteins. TCP11 also forms heterodimers with TCP15 that have increased DNA-binding efficiency. The expression in plants of a repressor form of TCP11 demonstrated that this protein is a developmental regulator that influences the growth of leaves, stems and petioles, and pollen development. The results suggest that changes in DNA-binding preferences may be one of the mechanisms through which class I TCP proteins achieve functional specificity.


Summary The purpose of this study is to design the interactive diagnosis system for preventing and managing of habitual substance disorders in adolescents. Research process includes the requirement analysis, making of questionnaires, actual survey, and its analysis. Especially, this paper is about knowledge-based system to diagnose the factors of the habitual substance disorder. Our system is to diagnose and manage habitual substance disorder, especially addictions to drinking, smoking and drug. It collects answers for the questionnaires about adolescent's environment, and analyzes the factor for adolescents to fall into temptation. Our system suggests the customized solution to conquer that for each adolescent. Moreover, our system also saves the history to manage the status of each teenager constantly and to make the survey and analysis information. With our system, young boys and girls can know their seriousness of alcoholism, nicotinism, and narcotism. And they can get all possible helps through our system.


Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is more likely to be advanced, poorly differentiated, larger, and present in women of younger age and of lower socioeconomic status. Moreover, TNBC patients have worse outcomes when treated with currently available adjuvant chemotherapy. In the United States, African American (AA) women have a lower incidence of breast cancer compared with Caucasian women (CA), but higher overall mortality. Our lab have demonstrated that BC tumors from AA patients express significantly higher levels of IGF-II and show a higher activation of the IGF signaling pathways (Kalla et.al., 2010a, 2010b). IGF-II levels regulate survival proteins and activate the ER signaling pathway promoting an aggressive tumor development. Thus we designed a study to determine if IGF-II regulates the progression of TNBC tumors. TNBC incidence is increasing in younger Vietnamese women. Thus, we designed a study to analyze the IGF-II expression in paired normal-tumor BC tissues from Vietnamese TNBC patients. Furthermore, we decided to characterize the IGF-II genomic imprinting status, to correlate IGF-II levels with Monoallelic or Biallelic IGF-II gene expression. A total of 24 paired BC samples obtained from ILSbio were analyzed by Western Blot, RT-PCR and gDNA PCR with Apa I restriction digestion. Our results showed that the IGF-II genomic imprinting status in all 24 pairs was the same in normal and tumor tissues from the same patient. The levels of IGF-II correlated with the imprinting status, i.e., Biallelic (BA; n=14)≫, Monoallelic with SNP (MAS; n=5)>, and Monoallelic non-ApaI SNP (MA; n=5)>. Higher IGF-II levels were expressed in tumor as compared to normal tissue from the same patient. The free proIGF-II protein levels were 6.5-15.22 fold higher in biallelic tumor tissues as compared to the proIGF-II levels detected in monoallelic tumor samples. The IGF-II mRNA levels were 0.4-1 fold higher in biallelic tumor tissues as compared to the proIGF-II levels detected in monoallelic tumor samples. We also assessed growth factor receptors; Insulin receptor A (IRA), Insulin receptor B (IRB), Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), Estrogen receptor-1 (ESR1), Progesterone receptor (PGR) and Human epidermal growth factor receptor (ERBB2) status to determine if IGF-II monoallelic or biallelic dosage regulated the receptor levels. We conclude that biallelic IGF-II expression in TNBC tumors results in higher IGF-II mRNA and protein levels than in monoallelic samples. Furthermore, higher IGF-II resulted in increased expression and signaling activation of IRA, IRB, VEGFR, ESR1, PGR and ERBB2 growth factor receptors. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3131. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3131


Space is too important to Europe to be left to scientists alone, according to a report on the future of the European Space Agency (ESA) released last week. The report (available at www.esa.int) concludes that better coordination between ESA and the business and defense sectors is essential to Europe's development.


Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) was selected as green extractant to prevent the secondary pollution existing in current liquid-liquid extraction process using extractant with toxicity to recover phenol from water. Liquid-liquid equilibrium of ternary system water-phenol-DMC and quaternary system water- phenol-DMC-hexane was measured at 200. The activity coefficient of DMC in the liquid phase was calculated by using model of UNIFAC. Experiments show that the distribution coefficient of phenol in organic and aqueous phases is a constant and doesn't change with the phenol concentration in the aqueous phase, but the value of the constant is different for the extracting solvent with different initial volumetric concentration of DMC. The distribution coefficient of phenol is increased from 10 to 19 when the initial volumetric concentration of DMC in the extracting solvent is changed from 50% to 80%. A new UNIFAC group OCOO was defined in this paper and its interaction parameters with CH2, H2O, ACH, ACOH were regressed from the experimental data. Liquid-liquid equilibrium of quaternary system is successfully predicted by using UNIFAC method and these regressed parameters.


This work describes the highly sensitive detection of organophosphorus pesticides employing the cobalt(II) 4,4,4,4-tetrasulfo-phthalocyanine (CoTSPc) macrocycle complex, carbon nanotubes (CNT), and 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (OMIM[BF_4]). The technique is based on enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition. The composite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and amperometry. The AChE was immobilized on the composite electrode surface by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde and chitosan. The synergistic action of the CoTSPc/CNT/OMIM[BF_4] composite showed excellent electrocatalytic activity, with a low applied potential for the amperometric detection of thiocholine (TCh) at 0.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl. The calculated catalytic rate constant, k _cat, was 3.67 × 10^3 mol^−1 L s^−1. Under the optimum conditions, the inhibition rates of these pesticides were proportional to their concentrations in the ranges of 1.0 pmol L^−1 to 1.0 nmol L^−1 (fenitrothion), 2.0 pmol L^−1 to 8.0 nmol L^−1 (dichlorvos), and 16 pmol L^−1 to 5.0 nmol L^−1 (malathion).


Management of lung cancer The contents of this bulletin are likely to be valid for around one year, by which time significant new research evidence may have become available. s Lung cancer is the third most common cause of death in the UK. The disease progresses rapidly and the prognosis is usually poor; around 80% of patients die within a year of diagnosis. s Since cigarette smoking is responsible for about 90% of cases of lung cancer, action against smoking should be the primary focus of efforts to improve outcomes. A range of coordinated interventions to reduce smoking should be provided at both local and national levels. s Palliative care should be an integral part of patient management from the outset. All patients should be offered accurate information about their disease and its management. s A range of interventions can be used to control symptoms and improve quality of life. These include not only anti-cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but also pain relief and psycho-educational interventions such as breathing retraining. s As treatment options are normally determined by tumour type, diagnosis should include identification of tumour type except when this would not influence management. Decisions about treatment should take account of the patient's fitness, not age. s Surgery offers a chance of long-term survival for a minority of patients with non-small cell lung cancer and every effort should be made to identify those who might benefit. Tumour stage must be adequately assessed before surgery to reduce the risk of inappropriate operations. s Systems should be established to allow CHART (continuous hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy) to be offered to suitable patients. This will require that radiotherapy is available at weekends. s Chemotherapy using established combinations of drugs should normally be offered to patients with small cell lung cancer. Chemotherapy may be appropriate for patients with non-small cell lung cancer but requires further evaluation.


The purpose of this project was to study the modifications in nutrient composition, amino acid content, and protein quality of white tuna preserves after each of the thermal treatments involved in the canning process. Also the influence that a three years storage period at room temperature has on the nutritional quality of canned tuna was studied. The biological assays used for the study of the protein utilization were carried out on Wistar rats, fed on semi-synthetic diets for 12 days varying only the protein source, casein or tuna provided as follows: raw, cooked in brine, steamed, sterilized tuna, and canned tuna stored for three years. The sterilization process and storage time led to a great increase in the lipid content of the canned tuna and to a porcentual decrease in protein, and moisture content. Amino acid composition of canned and cooked tuna did not show great modifications compared to raw tuna. Neither protein digestibility nor biological value of the cooked, canned, and stored tuna showed any deterioration. The protein quality of white tuna meat preserves has been compared with preserves made up of red and white tuna meat.


Phosphorylases a and b (EC 126.96.36.199) were inactivated by selective modification of arginyl residues on reaction with 2,3-butanedione in sodium borate buffer. The rate of inactivation was slightly greater for phosphorylase a than b. The course of inactivation followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with some deviations at low rates or at more than 60% inactivation. The rate of inactivation was first order with respect to butanedione concentration. The inactivation was partially reversible, and ultracentrifugal studies showed no change in subunit association or dissociation. Amino acid analyses indicated that several arginines were modified during inactivation and that no other amino acid was affected. Protection from inactivation was provided by the substrate glucose 1-phosphate (G1P), alone or together with the allosteric activator AMP, as well as by the competitive inhibitor UDP-glucose. The rate of inactivation of phosphorylase b was also retarded by the presence of AMP alone. Glycogen did not have any appreciable effect on inactivation. The Km of G1P for phosphorylase a remained constant over the course of inactivation, while the Km values of G1P and AMP for phosphorylase b increased. The modification of cross-linked tetragonal microcrystals of phosphorylase a followed the same trend as the enzyme in solution, although the rate of inactivation was slower. The X-ray crystallography studies at 6 A (1 A = 0.1 nm) resolution, of butanedione-treated cross-linked tetragonal crystals of phosphorylase a showed a large new peak of electron density at the end of a long side chain in the active-site pocket. The substrates G1P and arsenate, as well as UDP-glucose, had previously been shown to bind in that location. Other, small peaks of electron density were found in locations on the outside of the protein molecule. UDP-glucose failed to bind to the active site of crystals which had been treated with butanedione, while AMP, which also binds in the active-site pocket, showed a lower occupancy. This work indicates the presence of a functional arginine residue at the binding site for G1P in glycogen phosphorylases a and b.


The increasing use of technological tools to support the process of participation in assessment is explained, firstly, by the current tendencies in assessment and learning in Higher Education which encourage the active participation of students as a means to improve their learning; secondly, by the universal presence of technology that makes it impossible to conceive of any educational process that does not contemplate its use and that is leading to ever more courses that are either virtual or require minimal attendance; and, finally, an environment in which there are ever greater numbers of students per class. This chapter presents the results of using the web-based EvalCOMIX® programme in the context of a number of Higher Education training courses. Data has been collected through questionnaires and interviews applied to students, lecturers and academic coordinators. The results illustrate the ease of implementation of EvalCOMIX®, its usefulness in creating and sharing assessment instruments and the opportunity it provides to facilitate student participation in assessment.


It has recently been shown that the incorporation of weight restrictions in models of data envelopment analysis (DEA) may induce free or unlimited production of output vectors in the underlying production technology, which is expressly disallowed by standard production assumptions. This effect may either result in an infeasible multiplier model with weight restrictions or remain undetected by normal efficiency computations. The latter is potentially troubling because even if the efficiency scores appear unproblematic, they may still be assessed in an erroneous model of production technology. Two approaches to testing the existence of free and unlimited production have recently been developed: computational and analytical. While the latter is more straightforward than the former, its application is limited only to unlinked weight restrictions. In this paper we develop several new analytical conditions for a larger class of unlinked and linked weight restrictions.


Abstract. The presence of anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (AbTg) and their epitope specificity were investigated in sera of healthy people and patients with autoimmune thyroiditis (before and after L-thyroxine treatment). In sera samples AbTg were detected. It was shown that: (i) the level of AbTg in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis was significantly higher as compared with healthy individuals. After 6 months the level of AbTg of treated patients decreased but was higher than in healthy people. In serum samples of patients without L-thyroxine treatment the level of AbTg did not change. (ii) In healthy individual serum samples AbTg to antigenic regions of Tg recognized by monoclonal antibodies used in the work were not found. In patients serum samples monoclonal antibodies directed to 1F10 epitope were detected. Moreover the presence of monoclonal antibodies of the current specificity correlated with the increased level of AbTg. In 6 months the number of patients with AbTg to 1F10 epitope increased both in L-thyroxine treated and control group of patients. It is possible that the presence of AbTg to 1F10 epitope is associated with the pathological process in thyroid gland.


This symposium endeavors to address the issue of running economy from a multidisciplinary perspective. Topics addressed in this symposium include physiological aspects of running economy, changes in running economy with age during childhood and adolescence, biomechanical considerations for economical walking and running, psychological state and running economy, and running economy of elite performers. While the knowledge base in this area is expanding, future research should emphasize the formulation of testable hypotheses and the fostering of collaborative efforts aimed at identifying and manipulating variables associated with improved economy and discovering mechanisms underlying economical running styles.


.. Objectives: To determine the frequency of pre-eclampsia among pregnant ladies with abnormal uterine artery Doppler at 2224 weeks of gestation at a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nishtar Medical University / Hospital Multan. Period: All the women (n=160) with abnormal uterine artery Doppler from 01-07-2018 to 30-06-2019 were included. Material & Methods: The pulsatility index (PI) of uterine artery Doppler was taken by taking average of 3 consecutive waveforms to determine the abnormal uterine artery Doppler. These study cases were followed till delivery to document pre-eclampsia. Results: Of these 160 study cases, 89 (55.6 %) had gestational age up to 23 weeks while 71 (44.4 %) had gestational age more than 23 weeks having mean age of 25.44 ± 4.77 years. Of these 160 pregnant ladies with abnormal uterine artery Doppler, 72 (45.0 %) were resident of rural areas and 88 (55.0 %) were resident of urban areas and family history of pre-eclampsia was 42 (26.3%). Previous history of pre-eclampsia was noted in 41 (25.6%). Mean parity was 2.24 ± 1.06 and 113 (70.6%) had parity up to 3. Mean gravidity of our study cases was 3.87 ± 1.16 and 89 (55.6%) had gravidity up to 4. Obesity was present in 30 (18.8 %) having mean body mass index 25.23 ± 1.92 kg/m2. Mean interpregnancy interval was 14.19 ± 6.82 months and 83 (51.9 %) had interpregnancy interval more than 1 year and pre-eclampsia was noted in 125 (78.1%). Conclusion: Very high frequency of preeclampsia was noted in our study in pregnant women presenting with abnormal uterine artery Doppler at 22 – 24 weeks of gestation. Pre-eclampsia was significantly associated with age, family history of pre-eclampsia, previous history of pre-eclampsia and interpregnancy interval.


Democracy is in decline – or so a growing consensus suggests. Paul Schuler sets out the evidence for claims that people are turning to autocratic alternatives, and asks whether they necessarily show a loss of faith in democracy. He proposes some alternative measures that could establish whether people are genuinely willing to trade freedom for a 'solution' to anxieties about immigration, inequality and globalisation.


Three samples of special lead glass are suggested for radiation protection and radiation shielding. Each one of these samles consist of seven oxides (Lead Oxide, Silicon Oxide, Barium Oxide, Sodium Oxide, Calcium Oxide, Aluminum Oxide and Cerium Oxide) with different weight ratio for each sample. The mass attenuation coefficient for these samples was theoretically calculated according to Bragg additivity rule for two energies of gamma rays (0.66 and 1.25MeV). The sample which gave higher attenuation coefficient was experimentally manufactured and its mass attenuation coefficient was experimentally measured using ( 137 Cs and 60 Co) and G. M. counter. The results obtained was compared with the mass attenuation coefficient of standard lead glass. ــــــــــــــــ ــــــــــــــــ


.. Objectives: Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Arabian Peninsula has risen to a very high level especially in Saudi Arabia (32%). Compliance of diabetic patients' towards therapy is crucial for diabetic management. According to a study conducted at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 83.4% of uncontrolled glycemic level (HbA1c ≥7%) patients did not follow the recommended dietary plan. Another factor for high rates of un-controlled diabetes was poor compliance to medication. Present study was aimed to investigate awareness of disease and drugs, as well as compliance to medication, dietary control and exercise in diabetic patients reporting to a tertiary hospital at Arar, Saudi Arabia. Study Design: A cross sectional descriptive study. Setting: Diabetic center of Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mossaid hospital, Arar, Saudi Arabia. Period: November and December 2015. Methods: Patients' awareness of disease and drugs, as well as compliance to medication, dietary control and exercise was investigated by using a structured questionnaire. Response to various questions was analyzed using SPSS program version 16. Data was further correlated between variables via Fisher's exact and chi-squared test. Result: Average awareness about disease and drugs was 56.5% and 23%, respectively. Overall compliance rates to medication, dietary control and exercise were 89.3%, 31% & 28.5%, respectively. Positive association was found between awareness to disease/drugs and compliance to therapy. Conclusion: The results of present study and similar studies conducted elsewhere indicate that patients' awareness towards their disease and medication is directly proportional to patients' compliance. Adequate awareness programs should be arranged for better management of diabetes in the community.


The prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis in Ogbadibo Local Government Area, Benue State, Nigeria was investigated. Out of 657 urine samples examined, 300 (46.6%) showed the presence of Schistosoma haematobium . Of the 300 positive samples, 152 (23.13%) were from males and 148 (22.52%) were from females. Owukpa and Eha zones showed higher prevalence 10.8% and 10.35% respectively than the other three zones. Statistical analysis showed that the prevalence of the disease in the study is neither sex, nor age dependent, hence there was no observed significant difference (p>0.05), though the age group 11-20 years (9.56%) has a slightly higher prevalence than other age groups. There was a close relationship between haematuria and positive urine samples. The presence of many snail species especially th e Bulinus species, and increased contact time with the Schistosoma haematobium infested freshwater habitat were thought to be responsible for the prevalence of the disease in the area. Keywords : Prevalence, Urinary Schistosomiasis.


The recent work of Ayer 1 on the use of combined cistern and lumbar puncture for the detection of spinal subarachnoid block, and the work of Dandy and Blackfan 2 on the use of dyes in the diagnosis of obstructive hydrocephalus, have suggested a procedure which may be of use in the localization of spinal cord tumors at operation. In principle the method consists of two steps: first, the demonstration of spinal subarachnoid block, by the Ayer method; second, the injection of a dye into the cisterna magna, or into the lumbar subarachnoid space. The injection is made immediately prior to operation. Assuming that the lumbar route has been used, the dye will diffuse through the subarachnoid space up to the lower pole of the tumor. The existence of a subarachnoid block will prevent its going beyond this point. If the laminectomy opening is below the tumor, on opening the


This paper elaborates on situatedness as an empirical phenomenon in computer-mediated settings. It is based on studies of petroleum engineers and how they work with digital sensor data. We show how their work practices are born out of a history of constitutive entanglement with specific types of sensors, the data they produce, and the information systems that process them. This entanglement arises from interaction between humans, technology, and the oil reservoir and is a fundamental aspect of the situations in which interpretative work occurs. We empirically show how different sensors in the petroleum production systems produce data in interaction with their surroundings, and that these data are creatively "stretched" to represent subsurface phenomena. When groups of engineers collaborate remotely with colleagues to make sense of problematic data, entanglement with specific II's is an important aspect of situatedness. The situationally particular in these settings is not as much a matter of locations as of histories of interaction with specific technologies. The notion of situatedness has been pivotal in stressing the importance of the particular circumstances in which work is performed. It has throughout its history been a counterweight to rationalistic accounts of work and the focus on design of standardized work processes. Here we show that patterns of interaction with specific information infrastructures make up a crucial part of situated work and that these may have non-local dimensions.


Learning is a social endeavor, in which the learner generally receives support from his/her social partner(s). In developmental research – even though tutors/adults behavior modifications in their speech, gestures and motions have been extensively studied, studies barely consider the recipient's (i.e. the child's) perspective in the analysis of the adult's presentation, In addition, the variability in parental behavior, i.e. the fact that not every parent modifies her/his behavior in the same way, found less fine-grained analysis. In contrast, in this paper, we assume an interactional perspective investigating the loop between the tutor's and the learner's actions. With this approach, we aim both at discovering the levels and features of variability and at achieving a better understanding of how they come about within the course of the interaction. For our analysis, we used a combination of (1) qualitative investigation derived from ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis (CA), (2) semi-automatic computational 2D hand tracking and (3) a mathematically based visualization of the data. Our analysis reveals that tutors not only shape their demonstrations differently with regard to the intended recipient per se (adult-directed vs. child-directed), but most importantly that the learner's feedback during the presentation is consequential for the concrete ways in which the presentation is carried out.


OBJECTIVE
A case of a nonfunctioning ectopic adrenal tissue tumor in the epipidymis is described.

METHODS/RESULTS
A case of a nonfunctioning ectopic adrenal tissue tumor in the epipidymis is presented. A left testicular mass had been incidentally detected in this patient.

CONCLUSIONS
Tumors of this type localized in the juxtafuniculogonadal region are usually benign. However, resection and histological analysis are always indicated in order to detect metastasis or confirm the histiological type is normal.


Compounds have been designed and tested exhibiting some of the beneficial effects of thyroid hormones, such as lowering of cholesterol and weight reduction, without the adverse thyroid hormone action on heart rate. Progress has also been made in attempting to treat hyperthyroidism by synthesizing antagonists that block thyroid hormone action, at the level of the thyroid hormone receptor or of the thyrotropin receptor. Clinical trials are still awaited, however, to verify whether these potentially promising agents will indeed prove to be of clinical therapeutic value.


appearances, showing condensation of the bony fragment. At operation, the bony fragment was quite definitely attached to the internal lateral ligament of the knee, but was clearly separate from the internal condyle of the femur, and from the tendon of the adductor magnus. The histological appearance of the fragment was that of true bone, containing haemopoietic marrow, and not simply of a calcified matrix. Although skiagrams taken recently show that re-formation of bone has taken place the patient's symptoms are now completely relieved.


The risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection while traveling abroad is increased in certain populations. Pre-travel consultation should include the education of travelers on the prevalence of HIV in the countries visited and on appropriate prevention measures. In patients infected with HIV (PHIV), combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) improves immunity, enabling them to travel with less risk for their health. Pre-travel consultation of PVIH has the following objectives: to determine immune status, to update immunization and to decide on anti-malaria drug prophylaxis, taking into account potential drug interactions with antiretroviral therapy. Vaccine response and duration of protection is shorter-lived in PVIH, especially if the CD4 count is below 200 cells/mm3 and the HIV viral load is detectable. Therefore cART is a cornerstone for disease prevention among patients infected with HIV who travel.


Statistics on multinational companies may be grouped into two broad categories: (1) those that pertain to cross-border transactions and positions between direct investors and direct investment enterprises (balance of payments and direct investment position data), and (2) those that pertain to MNC operations more broadly, including statistics on their domestic as well as international activities (financial and operating data). In the United States, BEA is the U.S. Government agency responsible for compiling and publishing both types of data. This note provides a brief history of BEA's data on MNC's, and describes some of the advantages associated with a single U.S. Government agency being responsible for compiling both types of data on MNC's. Major U.S. Government providers of data on international trade or finance are identified in an appendix.


A circle was attached to one of three lines which were changing in length and direction simultaneously. This configuration of moving lines had been found previously to induce the perception of depth. Of 26 observers 20 reported that the moving circle appeared smaller in size than a physically equal stationary circle which was located outside the changing, depth-inducing configuration.


State space models have shown to be effective at modeling long range dependencies, specially on sequence classification tasks. In this work we focus on autoregressive sequence modeling over English books, Github source code and ArXiv mathematics articles. Based on recent developments around the effectiveness of gated activation functions, we propose a new layer named Gated State Space (GSS) and show that it trains significantly faster than the diagonal version of S4 (i.e. DSS) on TPUs, is fairly competitive with several well-tuned Transformer-based baselines and exhibits zero-shot generalization to longer inputs while being straightforward to implement. Finally, we show that leveraging self-attention to model local dependencies improves the performance of GSS even further.


Abstract. Hydrologic viability, in terms of moisture availability, is fundamental to ecosystem sustainability in arid and semi-arid regions. In this study, we examine the spatial distribution and after-planting variations of soil moisture content (SMC) in black locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) plantings in the Loess Plateau of China at a regional scale. Thirty sites (5 to 45 yr old) were selected, spanning an area of 300 km by 190 km in the northern region of the Shaanxi Province. The SMC was measured to a depth of 100 cm at intervals of 10 cm. Geographical, topographic and vegetation information was recorded, and soil organic matter was evaluated. The results show that, at the regional scale, SMC spatial variability was most highly correlated with rainfall. The negative relationship between the SMC at a depth of 20–50 cm and the stand age was stronger than at other depths, although this relationship was not significant at a 5 % level. Watershed analysis shows that the after-planting SMC variation differed depending upon precipitation. The SMC of plantings in areas receiving sufficient precipitation (e.g., mean annual precipitation (MAP) of 617 mm) may increase with stand age due to improvements in soil water-holding capacity and water-retention abilities after planting. For areas experiencing water shortages (e.g., MAP = 509 mm), evapotranspiration may cause planting soils to dry within the first 20 yr of growth. It is expected that, as arid and semi-arid plantings age, evapotranspiration will decrease, and the soil profile may gradually recover. In extremely dry areas (e.g., MAP = 352 mm), the variation in after-planting SMC with stand age was found to be negligible. The MAP can be used as an index to divide the study area into different ecological regions. Afforestation may sequentially exert positive, negative and negligible effects on SMCs with a decrease in the MAP. Therefore, future restoration measures should correspond to the local climate conditions, and the MAP should be a major consideration for the Loess Plateau. Large-scale and long-term research on the effects of restoration projects on SMCs is needed to support more effective restoration policies. The interaction between afforestation and local environmental conditions, particularly water availability to plants, should be taken into account in afforestation campaigns in arid and semi-arid areas.


FutureFactories is a design research project exploring the creative possibilities afforded by digital design and manufacturing technologies. A specific aim of the project is mass individualisation; the industrial scale production of one-off artefacts. Tangible products would 'printed' direct from virtual meta-designs using additive manufacturing (Atkinson 2003). Distinct from mass customisation, where the product is configured to a specific consumer need or desire, individualisation involves introducing elements of random variance similar to the idiosyncrasy seen in natural forms. In the initial research a computational design approach was adopted in which computer scripts were used to 'drive' parametric CAD models (Unver 2003). A barrier to the adoption of such systems however, is the level of programming involved. Methodologies were developed to simplify the task such a Constructive Solid Geometry, CSG, building block approach (Dean 2009) whereby complex geometries are 'assembled' from pre-defined primitives. In spite of this development programming remained a significant burden. A commercial desire to simplify further had to be balanced against an audience demand for ever more dramatic changes in geometry. A potential solution came from looking outside of object centred product design to the virtual realm and to digital visualisation and simulation tools developed for diverse industries such as cinema and applied mechanics. This paper explores, through a series of case studies, the adoption and adaption of virtual modelling tools in 3D creative practice. Functional product design outputs are examined along with the practicality of the methodologies used to create them. As the transition between the digital and the real becomes increasingly simple, the virtual realm is set to become an ever more fruitful creative playground for 3D design and craft practitioners.


The purpose of this paper is to define the resources human and material of India, layout the opportunities of economic growth that utilize the capabilities of the people of India and her resources optimally. The analysis will be based on the principles of management or the three steps of management, namely: 1.Plan- identify the avenues of growth, resources at hand or to be developed, and the leadership, 2. Design- the strategy and process and 3. Evaluate, Execute and Amend. In this process, we hope to summon all elements of management such as accounting and finance, human resource management, administrative theory, marketing and supply chain management.


Background Low-dose glucocorticoid (GC) therapy is widely used in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but the balance of benefit and harm is still unclear. Methods The GLORIA (Glucocorticoid LOw-dose in RheumatoId Arthritis) pragmatic double-blind randomised trial compared 2 years of prednisolone, 5 mg/day, to placebo in patients aged 65+ with active RA. We allowed all cotreatments except long-term open label GC and minimised exclusion criteria, tailored to seniors. Benefit outcomes included disease activity (disease activity score; DAS28, coprimary) and joint damage (Sharp/van der Heijde, secondary). The other coprimary outcome was harm, expressed as the proportion of patients with ≥1 adverse event (AE) of special interest. Such events comprised serious events, GC-specific events and those causing study discontinuation. Longitudinal models analysed the data, with one-sided testing and 95% confidence limits (95% CL). Results We randomised 451 patients with established RA and mean 2.1 comorbidities, age 72, disease duration 11 years and DAS28 4.5. 79% were on disease-modifying treatment, including 14% on biologics. 63% prednisolone versus 61% placebo patients completed the trial. Discontinuations were for AE (both, 14%), active disease (3 vs 4%) and for other (including covid pandemic-related disease) reasons (19 vs 21%); mean time in study was 19 months. Disease activity was 0.37 points lower on prednisolone (95% CL 0.23, p<0.0001); joint damage progression was 1.7 points lower (95% CL 0.7, p=0.003). 60% versus 49% of patients experienced the harm outcome, adjusted relative risk 1.24 (95% CL 1.04, p=0.02), with the largest contrast in (mostly non-severe) infections. Other GC-specific events were rare. Conclusion Add-on low-dose prednisolone has beneficial long-term effects in senior patients with established RA, with a trade-off of 24% increase in patients with mostly non-severe AE; this suggests a favourable balance of benefit and harm. Trial registration number NCT02585258.


Introduction: An important aim of rehabilitation of patients with COPD is to support them in acquiring and maintaining an active lifestyle. Dependent on their ability to train, patients visit the rehabilitation center 2 or 3 times a week. It is hypothesized that a web based home training program, with exercise videos and a videoconference module can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of this rehabilitation program. Aim and objective: To evaluate a web based home training program for COPD patients in terms of user experience (satisfaction and usability) and clinical benefits (changes in subjective perceived and objective measured health status: dyspnea and fatigue (VAS), CRQ and Six Minute Walk Test). Methods: COPD patients were divided into a control and an intervention group. Patients of the control group followed the traditional rehabilitation program. Patients of the intervention group followed the same program but a web based home training program was provided as addition (for those visiting rehabilitation center 2 times a week) or as partly replacement (for those visiting rehabilitation center 3 times a week). At baseline and after intervention measurements were obtained. Results: Preliminary data analysis (n=23) shows that patients are satisfied with the web based home training program and rated its usability as good. The degree of clinical benefit of the intervention group (n=23) is similar to the progression made by the patients of the control group (n=20) after rehabilitation. Conclusions: Based on preliminary results, a web based home training program seems to have potential to treat patients in their own environment under professional supervision.


In the present study, physico-chemical parameters of water samples were compared with the water quality standard of Bureau of Indian standard and the state pollution control board. Variations of different parameters investigated were as follows: Temperature (24.2-30.9°C), dissolved oxygen (2.9-10.9 mg/L), pH (6.05-8.6), electrical conductivity (5.16–17.33 mS/cm), TDS (4510–11900 mg/L), chloride content (4389-12575 mg/l), nitrate (13.03-24.01 mg/l), phosphate (0.55-2.59 mg/l), calcium (125.4-400.8 mg/l), magnesium (153.16-474.13 mg/l) and total hardness (800-2090 mg/l). The significant variations of p among different study sites with high load of calcium, chloride, nitrate and phosphate in most of the study sites indicating the pollution status of the estuarine water.


Eleven patients were treated with the Hepatix extracorporeal liver assist device (ELAD) between June 1991 and August 1993. The first 2 patients were treated according to Food and Drug Administration guidelines ("Emergency Use of Unapproved Medical Devices," October 22, 1985), and the remaining 9 were treated according to an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE). The goal of the study was to establish the short-term safety of ELAD therapy, with a focus on acute medical complications such as hemodynamic instability, complement activation, and deterioration of vital organ function. As secondary goals, the metabolic capacity of ELAD cartridges and their clinical impact were assessed. Treatment was considered successful if the patient recovered sufficient liver function to survive weaning from the ELAD or was stabilized until orthotopic liver transplantation was performed. No short-term safety problems were associated with ELAD use. In addition, metabolic support was documented in 10 of the 11 patients, and 6 patients reached a successful end-point. The Hepatix ELAD is safe, and it provides measurable metabolic support in patients with late-stage liver failure. This pilot study provides the impetus to perform controlled trials of ELAD therapy in the treatment of various types of end-stage liver disease.


The effects of impurity (on-center and off-center) on electronic and linear and nonlinear optical properties (i.e. absorption coefficients and refractive index changes) are investigated in a cubic quantum dot in the presence of an electric field. The energy levels and wave functions are calculated using a variational method within an effective mass approximation. The results show that the existence of impurity, confinement, electric field, and position of impurity have a great effect on the optical characteristics of the system.


We study the geometric and physical foundations of Finsler gravity theories with metric compatible connections defined on tangent bundles, or (pseudo) Riemannian manifolds). There are analyzed alternatives to Einstein gravity (including theories with broken local Lorentz invariance) and shown how general relativity and modifications can be equivalently re-formulated in Finsler like variables. We focus on prospects in modern cosmology and Finsler acceleration of Universe. All known formalisms are outlined - anholonomic frames with associated nonlinear connection structure, the geometry of the Levi-Civita and Finsler type connections, all defined by the same metric structure, Einstein equations in standard form and/or with nonholonomic/ Finsler variables - and the following topics are discussed: motivation for Finsler gravity; generalized principles of equivalence and covariance; fundamental geometric/ physical structures; field equations and nonholonomic constraints; equivalence with other models of gravity and viability criteria. Einstein-Finsler gravity theories are elaborated following almost the same principles as in the general relativity theory but extended to Finsler metrics and connections. Gravity models with anisotropy can be defined on (co) tangent bundles or on nonholonomic pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. In the second case, Finsler geometries can be modelled as exact solutions in Einstein gravity. Finally, some examples of generic off-diagonal metrics and generalized connections, defining anisotropic cosmological Einstein-Finsler spaces are analyzed; certain criteria for Finsler accelerating evolution are analyzed.


Standard methods for differentially private training of deep neural networks replace back-propagated mini-batch gradients with biased and noisy approximations to the gradient. These modifications to training often result in a privacy-preserving model that is significantly less accurate than its non-private counterpart. We hypothesize that alternative training algorithms may be more amenable to differential privacy. Specifically, we examine the suitability of direct feedback alignment (DFA). We propose the first differentially private method for training deep neural networks with DFA and show that it achieves significant gains in accuracy (often by 10-20%) compared to backprop-based differentially private training on a variety of architectures (fully connected, convolutional) and datasets.


Early detection of breast cancer can be a life‐saving measure for many patients. The inaccessibility of X‐rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and other medical facilities in many resource‐constrained areas hinders the early detection of breast cancer. In this paper, the use of a rectangular patch antenna for breast cancer detection is proposed by using multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as patch material. The proposed antenna is designed by CST software which is (30 × 40 × 1.66) mm in dimension. A breast model is designed including tumor and cancerous tumors by specific tissue properties for observing the antenna performance in different cases. In free space, the return loss of the designed antenna is observed at −33.414 dB. Moreover, the S11 is examined in a normal breast, a breast including a normal tumor, and a breast including a cancerous tumor is −32.641 dB, −34.94 dB, and −35.22 dB respectively. It can be utilized on a human body phantom model due to its adaptability and reduced radiation properties. The proposed antenna is miniature in size, cost‐effective, easily portable, and eco‐friendly. It can be used as a first screening tool for breast cancer patients, particularly in resource‐constrained regions.


Cysthationine β-Synthase (CBS) is a pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the condensation of serine and homocysteine to form cysthathionine. Deficiency in CBS activity is the leading cause for the disorder homocystinuria in humans. The focus of the studies described in this thesis is to investigate the mechanism of homocystinuria-associated mutations in the active site of yeast CBS, the potential of native tryptophan residues as probes of conformational change and the binding of SAM to the regulatory domain. Site-directed replacement variants of 9 residues located in the active-site of the truncated form of yeast CBS (residues 1-353) were characterized. The results suggest that the hydrogen bonding network comprising residues K112, E111, K327, E244 and T326 is a determinant of active-site architecture and dynamics. Residues G245, I246 and G247, situated adjacent to the cofactor, play a role in maintaining PLP in a catalytically productive orientation. With the goal of developing probes of conformational change within the catatlytic domain and of communication between the catalytic and regulatory domain of CBS, single and triple-substitution, site-directed variants of the four tryptophan residues of yeast CBS (W132, W263, W333 and W340) were characterized in the truncated and full-length enzyme forms. The results demonstrate that residue W263 is the main contributor for fluorescence resonance energy transfer to the PLP cofactor. Substitution of W333 and W340 causes a change in the degree of solvent exposure in the microenvironment of these residues. This is due to the presence of the regulatory domain in the full-length enzyme. Binding of SAM to the regulatory domain of human CBS leads to enzyme activation. In contrast, the Drosophila melanogaster and yeast CBS enzymes are not activated by SAM. The binding of SAM to the regulatory domains of yeast and human CBS was investigated via fluorescence spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The results indicate that the full-length yeast enzyme does not bind to SAM, suggesting that, similar to the drosophila enzyme, yeast CBS may locked in a conformation that does not allow SAM-binding to its regulatory domain.


In Mobile Ad hoc Networks congestion control and prevention are demanding because of network node mobility and dynamic topology. Congestion occurs primarily due to the large traffic volume in the case of data flow because the rate of inflow of data traffic is higher than the rate of data packets on the node. This alteration in sending rate results in routing delays and low throughput. The Rate control is a significant concern in streaming applications, especially in wireless networks. The TCP friendly rate control method is extensively recognized as a rate control mechanism for wired networks, which is effective in minimizing packet loss (PL) in the event of congestion. In this paper, we propose a routing delay prediction based on PL and Explicit Delay Acknowledgement (EDA) mechanism for data rate and congestion control in MANET to control data rate to minimize the loss of packets and improve the throughput. The experiment is performed over a reactive routing protocol to reduce the packet loss, jitter, and improvisation of throughput.


The exact Dyson-Schwinger equation for the effective gluon mass in the temporal axial gauge is shown to reduce to evaluation of a single two-loop skeleton graph as a consequence of the Slavnov-Taylor-Ward-Takahashi conditions for gauge consistency. Not only does the exact one-loop contribution, comprising almost all previous work, and the entire longitudinal part vanish identically, as previously known, but also the number of independent functions to be self-consistently determined is reduced so that it is no longer necessary to consider the four-gluon vertex function, even at the full two-loop level.


Referential actions are specialized triggers for automatically maintaining referential integrity in databases. While the local effects of referential actions can be grasped easily, it is far from obvious what the global semantics of a set of interacting referential actions should be. In particular, when using procedural execution models, ambiguities due to the execution ordering can occur. No global, declarative semantics of referential actions has yet been defined.We show that the well-known logic programming semantics provide a natural global semantics of referential actions that is based on their local characterization: To capture the global meaning of a set RA of referential actions, we first define their abstract (but non-constructive) intended semantics. Next, we formalize RA as a logic program PRA. The declarative, logic programming semantics of PRA then provide the constructive, global semantics of the referential actions. So, we do not define a semantics for referential actions, but we show that there exists a unique natural semantics if one is ready to accept (i) the intuitive local semantics of local referential actions, (ii) the formalization of those and of the local "effect-propagating" rules, and (iii) the well-founded or stable model semantics from logic programming as "reasonable" global semantics for local rules.We first focus on the subset of referential actions for deletions only. We prove the equivalence of the logic programming semantics and the abstract semantics via a game-theoretic characterization, which provides additional insight into the meaning of interacting referential actions. In this case a unique maximal admissible solution exists, computable by a ptime algorithm.Second, we investigate the general case---including modifications. We show that in this case there can be multiple maximal admissible subsets and that all maximal admissible subsets can be characterized as 3-valued stable models of PRA. We show that for a given set of user requests, in the presence of referential actions of the form ON UPDATE CASCADE, the admissibility check and the computation of the subsequent database state, and (for non-admissible updates) the derivation of debugging hints all are in ptime. Thus, full referential actions can be implemented efficiently.


Ion transport membrane (ITM) is considered to be one of the promising techniques for the separation of oxygen from the air for clean energy applications. Studying flow configurations of gases around Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) membrane is presented and discussed in this paper. The effects of the sweep mass flow rate and impingement configurations for the gases flow in the feed and permeation sides have been investigated. In this regard, flow with single or double impingement and impingement with different angles have been simulated and analyzed in order to identify the configurations that would provide the maximum permeation flux. Results show that increasing the sweep flow rate, directly, increases the oxygen permeation flux. It is also found that, in case of single impingement, decreasing the distance between the nozzle and the membrane (H), directly, increases the oxygen permeation flux for constant sweep side nozzle (slot) width (D). The permeation flux increases from around 2.9–3.66 µmole/cm2 s for the ratio H:D from1:1 to 1:4 (i.e., decreasing H to one-fourth of its value). Results show that the double impingement flow gives lower results than the single impingements by about 35.7%. The results also revealed that the optimum configuration is the parallel flow with vacuum in the sweeping side, which gives the highest permeation flux with an increase of more than 41% from that of the parallel configuration with a sweeping gas. Using carbon dioxide as a sweeping gas is better than helium.


Newspaper headlines are difficult and costly to write and often dangerous to publish. Headlines can mislead readers and sometimes hurt feelings and provoke lawsuits.(1) Leadlines - the lead of the story set in display type and used like a headline - are not commonly used by newspapers now but may be an alternative that avoids many headline problems and saves time and money. This experimental research asks whether leadlines could complement current headline practices as an effective way to introduce and communicate story information on newspaper pages. Literature review Headline and lead functions Journalism textbooks and professional articles point out that headlines and leads perform similar tasks.(2) In fact, the headline/lead literature lists at least 23 functions, many shared by both headlines and leads. These 23 functions were divided with 83 percent agreement into three sets by three professional journalists. They selected six functions that sold the story to the reader. They were: attracts attention to the story; conveys a sense of immediacy; urges reading of story; creates a vivid story impression; lures the reader into the full story and indicates the reward for reading the story. Ten functions communicated the meaning or content of the story: summarizes story content; sets story tone or mood; communicates information effectively; tells the main idea of the story; reveals major points immediately; clear and easy to understand; accurate in fact; focus and tone; uses specific, precise wording; logical and makes sense; and concise and right to the point. Another seven functions serve graphic or display functions on the page. They are: indicates importance of the story; makes the page more attractive; makes the page more modern; separates stories on the page; helps scanning of the page; provides cues on nature of the newspaper and indexes stories on the page. Headline and lead problems The creation and use of newspaper headlines is a time consuming, costly and difficult professional task. Doug Underwood, C. Anthony Giffard and Keith Stamm, in a study of the impact of computers on the newspaper editing process showed that headlines are probably taking more time to write and edit now than before computers.(3) About 28 percent of their respondents said that writing headlines takes more time now compared to about 13 percent who reported less time. Editors also said there was less time available for headline work. The authors further noted: "... as the percentage of time spent on what were formerly backshop activities goes up, the priority placed on a number of important journalistic tasks goes down."(4) Randall Hines and Jerry Hilliard, in a study of editorial quality, examined the extent to which Tennessee newspapers observed established guidelines for writing headlines. They learned that dailies failed to observe traditional guidelines about 30 percent of the time and non-dailies about 40 percent.(5) Theodore E. Conover, in his book on graphics, condemned headlines claiming that "The traditional headline form is difficult to write and often it is necessary to use inaccurate or inappropriate words because of the rigid unit count."(6) Headlines are error prone. In a 1964 study of inaccuracies in one week's issue of the Gainesville (Florida) Sun it was shown that headlines contained incorrect facts (42 percent of errors) and distortion and exaggeration (34 percent of errors).(7) Similar problems with newspaper leads are often presented as journalistic errors to be avoided. For example, Fred Fedler, John Bender and Lucinda Davenport provide a list of problems lead writers should avoid.(8) And Carol Rich lists 10 defective lead types.(9) Melvin Mencher reports that advertising and news writers share headline and lead problems. "Advertising copywriters say that finding the few words for the headline or lead-ins is the toughest part of the job. …


This paper discusses how Moodle can act as a catalyst in transforming teaching practice. During Unitec"s implementation of a new eLearning Development Strategy, framed within a broader teaching and learning initiative referred to as the Living Curriculum, the institute migrated from Blackboard to Moodle. Reflecting on this transition period, the authors identify how the social constructivist approach underpinning Moodle complements and can be employed to facilitate and incorporate the characteristics of Living Curricula. An overview of Unitec"s characteristics of Living Curricula is given, with four themes providing a framework for their application. An investigation of the Moodle tools through the lens of these themes enables us to relook, rethink, and redesign our learning spaces. Examples illustrate some of the affordances of Moodle in enabling a Living Curriculum, and lead to a reflection on the support required to encourage teachers as learners to recognise these affordances for their pedagogical potential. Discussion around the design and intent of Moodle leads to a consideration of how teachers dispositions ultimately impact on the tool"s employment.


Weaning age is the time when breastfeeding is stopped and replaced with complementary foods. Based on a preliminary study at the Posyandu Aster, Tegal Besar Village, Kaliwates District, Jember Regency, of the 10 respondents who had children aged 24-36 months who had weaned their children, only 2 were on time and the nutritional status of their children was good, and 8 people who did the weaning incorrectlytime. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the history of weaning age and the nutritional status of children aged 24-36 months. Correlation analytic research design with cross sectional approach. The population is 128 mom who have children aged 24-36 months, the sample is 96. The technique used is simple random sampling with data collection using questionnaires, obtained =24 month weaning age as 28(29.16%), <24 months were 68 (70.84%). Nutritional status over 13 (13.54%), both were 26 (27, 08%), approximately as many as 42 (43.75%), poor as many as15 (15.62%). Statistically Based on Chi Square test and df = 1 and the 5% error level obtained x2 count is greater than x2 tables (9.12> 3.481) and KK forb 0,295. The conclusion is that there is a relationship between the history of weaning age and the nutritional status of children aged 24-36 months with a low/ weak but definite relationship strength. Health care workers should provide education on properweaning and weaning effects of improper weaning so that people do right on time.


This comparative study of Olodumare in Yoruba thought and the Judeo-Christian God reviews the reasons why these two deities from different cultures are so often equated, when they are not necessarily so. This paper uses a philosophical-theological method of inquiry that is apt in giving a concise clarification of theological interface between the two religious and cultural beliefs. It Is not the intention of this paper to argue that the Yoruba concept of 016dumare Is superior to the Christian concept of God. Rather, it is argued that they are not necessarily the same. Finally, the essay establishes that the Yoruba before the advent of Christianity had a philosophical concept of the existence of 016dumare, the Creator of everything that is in the primordial existence and the material world.