Fifth AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, Nov 12-15, 2006

B83

The purpose of this research project was to determine the efficacy of the cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibitors, alone or in combination, to prevent OH-BBN-induced urinary bladder cancers in female Fischer-344 rats. In this OH-BBN-induced rat model, the bladder cancers are primarily transitional cell carcinomas which are mostly papillary and slowly growing. The rats were treated for 8 weeks with OH-BBN beginning at 49 days of age, then treated with chemopreventive agents and followed for an additional 6-7 months for the appearance of urinary bladder cancers. Beginning one week following the last OH-BBN administration and continuing until the end of the study, celecoxib (a COX2 inhibitor) was administered at 500 mg/kg diet, zileuton (a LOX inhibitor) at 1200 mg/kg diet, naproxen (a nonspecific COX inhibitor) at 200 or 400 mg/kg diet, aspirin (a COX1 inhibitor) at 300 and 3000 mg/kg diet, and caffeic acid (a LOX inhibitor) at 8 and 16 grams/kg diet. At the end of the study (months after final OH-BBN treatment) celecoxib showed a 76% decrease in bladder cancer weight, zileuton, a 43% decrease, and the combination, an 81% decrease, compared to controls. Naproxen at the high dose inhibited 70% and at the low dose 75% of cancers. Aspirin treatment resulted in a 33% and 44% inhibition at low and high doses, respectfully. Caffeic acid inhibited bladder cancers at the high dose only by 10%. Celecoxib and Naproxen demonstrated the most efficacy in these studies. While celecoxib and zileuton showed significant chemopreventive effect alone there was no additive or synergistic effect seen using the combination. Aspirin and caffeic acid, (COX and LOX inhibitors, respectively) were also modestly effective and noneffective respectively in inhibiting urinary bladder cancer. These results add strength to the hypothesis that arachidonic acid metabolism inhibitors are an effective class of agents against bladder cancer. Supported by NCI contract N01-CN25115.


The currently accepted paradigm for star formation assumes that field stars are born in clusters. These are not formed in isolation but in stellar complexes born out of giant molecular clouds. In the Galactic disk, molecular clouds have distinctive orbits, which, as they disappear after star formation is complete, may seed the Galactic disk with families of young clusters. These families gradually disperse to become individual clusters and, eventually, field populations. We investigate the existence of dynamical families of open clusters in the solar neighborhood using both age- and volume-limited samples from WEBDA in the framework of scan statistics. Our analysis indicates that a significant number of known young clusters organize in groups when age, spatial distribution, and kinematics are taken into account simultaneously. We find compelling statistical evidence for the presence of at least five dynamical families of young open clusters in the Milky Way disk associated to the underlying spiral structure. The young cluster population seems to be dominated by families of 10-20 objects; they are short-lived and the likely progenitors of classical moving groups, and stellar streams. Available observational data suggests that 50%-80% of newly formed open clusters dissolve within 20 Myr of formation to become field population. The overall age distribution of open clusters shows a steep decline, -->dN/dτ τβ, with -->β = − 3.6 ± 0.5 for clusters younger than 100 Myr, although it could be dependent on the local conditions as it ranges from -->β = − 1.0 ± 0.2 in the direction of Puppis to -->β = − 2.8 ± 0.5 in Norma. Due to the high rate of destruction among young clusters, any cluster-related coherent substructure must be younger than about 30 Myr unless it is the result of dynamically induced corotation resonances within the Galactic disk or minor mergers. The characteristic timescale for stars to become part of the field stellar populations is 10-20 Myr.


Kelly's constructive epistemology needs to transcend its background of instrumentalism arising from Dewey's influence. What enables us to well avoid instrumentalism is a notion of truth that incorporates both coherence and correspondence. If we were to abandon coherence, we would have to embrace the naive conception of realism, while by abandoning correspondence we would have to embrace instrumentalism because we would have to consider the workability of a theory or a construction system and its coherence with previously successful ones as constituting the truth of a given theory or construction system. Such a realistic constructivism provides a more satisfactory conception of personal constructs. According to this view, we no longer think that personal constructs are either true or false, rather they are divided into true and false in accordance with the grasp of reality reflected in our best theories. In other words, having provided a theory of truth, we are ready to compare different personal constructs with the grasp of reality involved in the theory in terms of their correspondence with that grasp. Furthermore, this conception of constructivism makes it possible to talk of the approximation of personal constructs to reality. Having provided a conception of correspondence, not only have we avoided instrumentalism, but also talking of approximation makes more sense. This is because our best theories provide an account of the world with reference to which we can talk of more or less approximate personal constructs. In this sense, more valid personal constructs are those that are more approximate, that is, more correspondent to the reality.


Cryptography with restricted conditions refers to cryptographic primitives with special requirements or conditions. For example, a proxy signature scheme only allows a proxy signer with valid delegation to issue signatures on behalf of the original signer, while for k-time anonymous authentication, a service provider can be ensured that a user can only have anonymous access to the services for up to k-times. Due to the different requirements in various types of security systems, more and more cryptographic primitives with new features are emerging. In this thesis, we study several cryptographic primitives with restricted conditions and their applications, including proxy signature and its variant in the attribute-based setting, oblivious transfer, k-time anonymous authentication and their applications in the e-coupon systems. To address the problem that a proxy signer might abuse the delegated signing right from the original signer, in this thesis, we present a k-time proxy signature scheme that only permits a designated proxy signer to generate a pre-determined number of proxy signatures. In the subsequent work, we implement proxy signature in attribute-based setting, that is, an original signer with a set of attributes can delegate his signing right to a proxy signer with a normal public and private key pair. One interesting feature of the proposed scheme is that by verifying a proxy signature, the public can be convinced the signature is generated by the proxy signer with valid deletion from the original signer whose attributes satisfy a pre-claimed predicate. Then we identify one attack that has been neglected in many existing delegation-by-warrant proxy signature schemes. We present the details of this attack and propose a general solution that can efficiently thwart the attack. In this thesis, we also construct several e-coupon systems with new properties. In the first e-coupon system, the user identity privacy would be revealed if a dishonest user requests more than pre-determined number of services specified in the coupon. Different from other e-cash and k-time anonymous authentication schemes, we achieve traceability without involvement of a trusted third party. Besides, for the first time, we formalize the concept of privacy of purchase, that is, the choices of the users when redeeming a coupon with the server is hidden. Moreover, we propose a new oblivious transfer (OT) scheme with retrievable receiver's privacy and design another e-coupon system based on our new OT scheme. If a user remains honest, the user anonymity and privacy of purchase are both well protected. Otherwise, the identity and purchase privacy of the user can be revealed by the service provider.


Recent research on supplemental damping enabling low to no damage structures has led to new devices, such as lead-extrusion-based high force-to-volume (HF2V) devices. They provide significant energy dissipation and force capacity in a small volume, enabling a range of novel low to no damage connections and systems. However, despite several research study tests and a limited range of velocity testing, they have never been tested across a realistic velocity range or for robustness to manufacture and design across several devices. These issues are hurdles that limit professional design uptake and add uncertainty and risk to their use in design. To address them, a serious damage-free dissipation device characterise its force capacity and variability due to manufacture (repeatable quasistatic force) and velocity input (peak force to connections). These outcomes are critical to size all the connections and foundations for the resultant demands and ensure robust, effective design. This manuscript presents the quasistatic testing of 96 devices designed for the same quasistatic force capacity, as well as high-speed prototype testing at velocities up to 200 mm/sec. Quasistatic tests show device forces vary with standard deviation,σ< 6.2% of design and average force. Peak input velocities of ∼200 mm/s produced peak resistive forces of ∼350 kN and increasingly weak velocity dependence as device input velocity increased, which is an advantage as it limits large demand forces to connecting elements and surrounding structure if larger than expected response velocities occur. Overall, the devices show stable hysteretic performance, with slight force reduction during high-speed testing due to heat build-up and softening of the lead working material. This testing quantified important HF2V device dynamics and robustness for designers and is an important step towards design uptake.


Every time the issue of effectiveness in university sports administrations addressed, consideration is given mainly to programme, facilities and funds. There is hardly any mention of quality of leadership of sports administrators, especially in the universities whereas organisational effectiveness appears to depend mainly on the leadership provided. The study was therefore conducted to found out the relationship between leadership profiles of sports administrators and sports organisational effectiveness in Nigerian Universities. To achieve the purpose of the study, a self developed and validated questionnaire on leadership profiles and sports organisational effectiveness was administered to 700 students, representing football, athletics, basketball, racket games and combat sports, randomly selected from 14 Nigerian Universities. Part of the questionnaire on leadership profiles was based on multifactor leadership questionnaire of Bass and Avolio and part of the questionnaire on organisational effectiveness was based on multiple constituency approach to organisational effectiveness proposed by Chelladurai. The result of the study indicated that the sports administrators in Nigerian Universities had mainly transactional organisational effectiveness profile. The result further significant correlations between transformational leadership and organisational effectiveness (r,688=705<0.05)transactional leadership and organisational effectiveness (r,688=0.56<0.05) and on leadership and organisational effectiveness (r,688- 0.56<0.05). Thus transformational leadership profile explained 0% transactional leadership profile, 31% and non-leadership profile, 42% of the variance in organisational effectiveness. Taken together they showed significant correlations between leadership profiles of sports administrators and sports organisational effectiveness in Nigerian Universities.


Background: Parenchymal hematoma (PH) is a major complication after endovascular treatment (EVT) for ischemic stroke. The hypoperfusion intensity ratio (HIR) represents a perfusion parameter reflecting arterial collateralization and cerebral microperfusion in ischemic brain tissue. We hypothesized that HIR correlates with the risk of PH after EVT. Methods: Retrospective multicenter cohort study of patients with large vessel occlusion who underwent EVT between 2013 and 2021 at one of the 2 comprehensive stroke centers (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany and Stanford University School of Medicine, CA). HIR was automatically calculated on computed tomography perfusion studies as the ratio of brain volume with time-to-max (Tmax) delay >10 s over volume with Tmax >6 s. Reperfusion hemorrhages were assessed according to the Heidelberg Bleeding Classification. Primary outcome was PH occurrence (PH+) or absence (PH−) on follow-up imaging. Secondary outcome was good clinical outcome defined as a 90-day modified Rankin Scale score of 0 to 2. Results: A total of 624 patients met the inclusion criteria. We observed PH in 91 (14.6%) patients after EVT. PH+ patients had higher HIR on admission compared with PH− patients (median, 0.6 versus 0.4; P<0.001). In multivariable regression, higher admission blood glucose (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.08 [95% CI, 1.04–1.13]; P<0.001), extensive baseline infarct defined as Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score ≤5 (aOR, 2.48 [1.37–4.42]; P=0.002), and higher HIR (aOR, 1.22 [1.09–1.38]; P<0.001) were independent determinants of PH after EVT. Both higher HIR (aOR, 0.83 [0.75–0.92]; P<0.001) and PH on follow-up imaging (aOR, 0.39 [0.18–0.80]; P=0.013) were independently associated with lower odds of achieving good clinical outcome. Conclusions: Poorer (higher) HIR on admission perfusion imaging was strongly associated with PH occurrence after EVT. HIR as a surrogate for cerebral microperfusion might reflect tissue vulnerability for reperfusion hemorrhages. This automated and quickly available perfusion parameter might help to assess the need for intensive medical care after EVT.


This study investigated the impact of calcium silicate (CS) content on composition, compressive mechanical properties, and hardness of CS cermets with Ti-55Ni and Ti-6Al-4V alloys sintered at 1200°C. The powder metallurgy route was exploited to prepare the cermets. New phases of materials of Ni16Ti6Si7, CaTiO3, and Ni31Si12 appeared in cermet of Ti-55Ni with CS and in cermet of Ti-6Al-4V with CS, the new phases Ti5Si3, Ti2O, and CaTiO3, which were emerged during sintering at different CS content (wt%). The minimum shrinkage and density were observed in both groups of cermets for the 50 and 100 wt% CS content, respectively. The cermets with 40 wt% of CS had minimum compressive Young's modulus. The minimum of compressive strength and strain percentage at maximum load were revealed in cermets with 50 and 40 wt% of CS with Ti-55Ni and Ti-6Al-4V cermets, respectively. The cermets with 80 and 90 wt% of CS showed more plasticity than the pure CS. It concluded that the composition and mechanical properties of sintered cermets of Ti-55Ni and Ti-6Al-4V with CS significantly depend on the CS content in raw cermet materials. Thus, the different mechanical properties of the cermets can be used as potential materials for different hard tissues replacements.


BACKGROUND
Researchers' understanding of the use of emergency departments (EDs) and physicians' offices for the treatment of toothaches is limited. The authors conducted a study to explore their use by low-income and minority adults in comparison with the use of traditional dental services.

METHODS
Participants included low-income white, African-American and Hispanic adults who had experienced a toothache during the previous 12 months. A stratified random sample of 4,200 households in Maryland participated in a cross-sectional telephone survey. Trained survey staff completed interviews with someone in 272 (68.3 percent) of 398 eligible households.

RESULTS
Only 8.7 percent of respondents contacted an ED for toothache pain relief, while 20.1 percent contacted physicians. The majority of respondents who contacted an ED (80.5 percent) or a physician (82.6 percent) also contacted a dentist. Contacts with a dentist were reported by 58.6 percent of respondents. The authors conducted tabular analyses using chi(2) tests of statistical significance (P < .05) and SUDAAN's multivariable logistic regression procedure (Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, N.C.) (P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS
Respondents experiencing toothache pain ultimately sought definitive resolution of their pain from dentists while visiting EDs and physicians for temporary relief. Access to dentists' services was particularly problematic for Hispanics and was exacerbated by health literacy issues.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
The elimination of oral health disparities must involve consideration of cultural influences on minority populations, as well as the responsibilities of the dental profession.


The C-Band All Sky Survey (C-BASS)\nomenclature{C-BASS}{C-Band All-Sky Survey} is a project to image the whole sky at a frequency of 5~GHz, measuring both the brightness and the polarization of the sky. The principal aim of C-BASS is to allow the subtraction of polarized Galactic synchrotron emission from the data produced by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)\nomenclature{CMB}{Cosmic Microwave Background} polarization experiments such as \emph{Planck}, Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (\emph{WMAP})\nomenclature{WMAP}{Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe} and future $B$-mode polarization experiments. Hence, it is important that the polarization be measured with utmost accuracy.It is difficult to measure the Stokes parameters correctly because the degree of polarization in astronomical sources is typically small and the radioastronomical receiving system modifies the incoming polarization with instrumental effects. Thus, careful calibration of the polarimeter was a critical step in the development of C-BASS pipeline. In this thesis, calibration of the C-BASS polarimeter was achieved by both developing the polarization calibration module in the pipeline and applying it to the observations of the Orion (an unpolarized source) and Tau A (a polarized source) over a range of parallactic angles over a period of some hours with C-BASS telescope.The data were reduced in the C-BASS data reduction pipeline. A baseline fit was performed on the reduced data and binned maps of 3 arcmin pixels for Stokes $I$, $Q$, $U$ and $V$ were made. Gaussian fits were made on Orion and Tau A maps to determine the flux of the Stokes parameters. Stokes $Q$ and $U$ for Tau A were also corrected for parallactic angle rotation. They showed the presence of leakage.The binned maps of complete raster schedules were made in beam coordinates in order to determine the leakage parameters. The polarization beams in the maps were found to be not circular, and an offset in Stokes $Q$ and $U$ was also observed. This showed that at least some of the leakage is due to the optics and not the receiver. The observed polarization of Orion was found to be $\thickapprox$ 2$\%$. Since Orion is expected to be intrinsically unpolarized, this was attributed to leakage. A leakage correction was applied to Tau A maps using the leakage parameters derived from Orion and the maps were also corrected for parallactic angle rotation. The effectiveness of the correction process was then verified on Tau A by using Gaussian fitting and calculating polarized intensity, degree of polarization, and the position angle.The raster schedule after calibration, for which this thesis presents a detailed analysis, shows a degree of polarization of $\Pi=3.51\pm0.13\%$ and a position angle of $\chi=138.44^{\circ}\pm0.39^{\circ}$. At 5 GHz, a position angle of $141^{\circ}\pm3^{\circ}$ and a degree of polarization between 3.5\% and 4.5\% is expected for Tau A. Our results are consistent with this.


Parallel computing was applied to the solution of an inverse problem arising from a hyperbolic system of two coupled linear first-order partial differential equations. A known sequential algorithm based on the method of invariant imbedding was parallelized by a mapping assigning processors to characteristics. Two implementations of an algorithm based on this mapping and suitable for a message-passing architecture, but differing in their relative demands on communication and local memory, are described. Timing estimates for these are developed, and various consequences of these, notably the corresponding estimates for efficiency, are compared with computational results obtained from implementations on a 64-node hypercube system.


Introduction: Sirep, is one of the traditional intervention of people in East Java Indonesia, especially Tengger tribe using spells to meet the needs of human sleep. Elderly in Indonesia is someone who has more than 60 years of age. Elderly in general often experience sleep disturbances fulfillment, But the effects of nursing Sirep as an immunomodulator to the levels of cortisol, IFN-Rα and IL-10 is still unknown in nursing perspective. Method: The population of this study were 70 elderly with the number of respondents were 43 elderly. They were divided into two groups for 23 elderly with 6-month sirep intervention (mean age, 69.6 ± 5.2 years) as an experiment group and 20 elderly as control group (65.8 ± 5.4 years). The need of sleep is implemented to Evaluate the sample of immune modulation, cortisol levels, IFN-Rα and IL10. The molecular biology of the samples was determined using ELISA analysis. The statistical analysis of the data used Determine ANOVA and t-test. Results: After the 6 -month intervention, there re is significant changes in serum cortisol levels (p = 0.0001) and a different test with a control intervention was also significant (p = 0.00 1 3). Significant changes in serumlevels of IFN-Rα is (p = 0.0003) and a different test with a control intervention is also significant (p = 0.016 4), while the change in the levels of IL-10 in serum is significant (p = 0.0003) and test different intervention with no significant control (p = 0.1143). Discussion: This study supports the hypothesis that sirep can improve immune modulator in elderly. However, immune modulator showed a slight improvement in the nursing intervention of sirep group, suggesting that a longer or more frequent sessions of intervention might have an effect. Key Word: Sirep, Elderly Sleep needs, Cortisol level, IFN- level, IL-10 level


Based on a conjugate addition/intramolecular cyclization sequence, we designed and synthesized a fast response fluorescent probe, BTAC (benzothiazol-azacoumarin), for the discriminative detection of cysteine (Cys). The reaction of cysteine with BTAC results in the cleavage of the acrylate moiety from BTAC, thereby producing BTAC-OH, with a remarkable fluorescence enhancement at 560 nm. The probe exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity toward cysteine over homocysteine and glutathione and the detection limit reached as low as 124 nM for cysteine. The addition of Cys resulted in the color of the solution of BTAC changing from colorless to greenish yellow under the simulation of physiological conditions and BTAC could serve as a "naked-eye" indicator. The structure of BTAC was established by computational DFT (density functional theory) calculation and time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations were performed to demonstrate the electronic properties of BTAC and its product, BTAC-O−. Finally, the probe was successfully applied for the fluorescence bioimaging of cysteine owing to its photostability and low cytotoxicity.


The digital Bleek and Lloyd Collection is a rare collection that contains artwork, notebooks and dictionaries of the earliest habitants of Southern Africa. Previous attempts have been made to recognize the complex text in the notebooks using machine learning techniques, but due to the complexity of the manuscripts the recognition accuracy was low. In this research, a crowdsourcing based method is proposed to transcribe the historical handwritten manuscripts, where volunteers transcribe the notebooks online. An online crowdsourcing transcription tool was developed and deployed. Experiments were conducted to determine the quality of transcriptions and accuracy of the volunteers compared with a gold standard. The results show that volunteers are able to produce reliable transcriptions of high quality. The inter-transcriber agreement is 80% for |Xam text and 95% for English text. When the |Xam text transcriptions produced by the volunteers are compared with the gold standard, the volunteers achieve an average accuracy of 69.69%. Findings show that there exists a positive linear correlation between the inter-transcriber agreement and the accuracy of transcriptions. The user survey revealed that volunteers found the transcription process enjoyable, though it was difficult. Results indicate that volunteer thinking can be used to crowdsource intellectually-intensive tasks in digital libraries like transcription of handwritten manuscripts. Volunteer thinking outperforms machine learning techniques at the task of transcribing notebooks from the Bleek and Lloyd Collection.


This paper attempts to investigate the possibility of structural change in tanker freight
volatilities pre-and during the financial crisis. The aim is to apply a Markov-switching general autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MS-GARCH) model that identifies and estimates the parameters of high and low volatility states, which are associated with different stages in the business cycle. Time varying volatility models, proposed by Engle (1982) and Bollerslev (1986) show that volatility is driven by shocks. Estimates of the persistence of shocks in time varying volatility models have been very high, particularly for financial data. This led to the introduction of integrated general autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (IGARCH) models by Engle and Bollerslev (1986), with unit persistence implying that market shocks do not die out over time. However, it has been suggested that the cause of high persistence of shocks within market volatilities may be due to structural shifts in the unconditional variance of the time series. Diebold (1986) argues that volatility persistence can be decomposed into two components, namely shocks persistence and persistence due to regime switching in the parameters of the variance model. Based on these findings we investigated the possibility of tanker freight volatilities being state dependent. Empirical findings show that tanker freight volatilities are clustered which may indicate that volatilities switch between distinct states. Assuming conditional volatilities of tanker freight rates switch simultaneously between a high volatility state and a low volatility state, and by measuring the magnitude and duration of these volatilities shocks, this paper attempts to explore the usefulness of such an implication to shipping freight risk and trading strategies, during booms and busts. The validity and comparative performance of the models is investigated with a set of diagnostics that discriminate between models on the basis of conservatism, accuracy and efficiency. Thus, this study contributes to the literature by: 1) investigating the possibility of state dependence of tanker freight volatilities. 2) measuring the duration and magnitude of high and low tanker freight volatilities shocks. 3) proposing a dynamic approach to measure long-term risk exposure through a Markov-Switching Conditional Variance-Value-at-Risk (VaR) model.


The glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin is unstable in solution. It undergoes a rearrangement involving the conversion of an asparagine residue to isoaspartate to give an antibiotically inactive species, CDP-I. Peptide analogs of bacterial peptidoglycan, such as Ac-D-Ala-D-Ala and di-Ac-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala bind to vancomycin and stabilize the antibiotic against degradation and consequent loss of activity. Protection by peptide is effective even under prolonged heating at 80 degrees C or steam sterilization (30 minutes, 10(4) kg/m2).


While the categories of control and resistance have provided important frames of reference to understand workplace relations, we argue that they offer a limited analytical range when investigating conduct in public institutions where work still has sizeable elements of discretion – despite the increasing demands of performance measurement that have been a central component of new public management. Here, we investigate the HBO series, The Wire, and situate it as a piece of social science fiction. By affording more attention to the different 'codes' of policework depicted on the show we develop a more pluralistic understanding of workplace conduct. In tracing out different normative orders that characterize these codes, we consider The Wire's Cedric Daniels' distinctive positioning in relation to performance measurement and the predominant normative order of 'the numbers game' and argue that he consistently displays the code of an ethical bureaucrat.


Arguments from mathematical system theory are used to show that the behaviorist-cognitivist debate in psychology is actually a non-issue: abstractly, the two are equivalent; but from the standpoint of a predictive, scientific theory of brains and behavior only the cognitivist program holds any promise.

After a brief summary of the algebraic theory of systems, the paper employs these algebraic tools to propose a functional means by which a brain (human or artificial) may compactly store and retrieve information. This scheme is then extended to provide a means for the generation of thoughts and emotions, as well.

Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the interconnections between the brain model suggested here and a number of other models proposed in the literature.


Observed changes in climate of the U.S. Pacific Northwest since the early twentieth century were examined using four different datasets. Annual mean temperature increased by approximately 0.68‐0.88C from 1901 to 2012, with corroborating indicators including a lengthened freeze-free season, increased temperature of the coldest night of the year, and increased growing-season potential evapotranspiration. Seasonal temperature trends over shorter time scales (,50yr) were variable. Despite increased warming rates in most seasons over the last half century, nonsignificant cooling was observed during spring from 1980 to 2012. Observations show a long-term increase in spring precipitation; however, decreased summer and autumn precipitation and increased potential evapotranspiration have resultedin larger climatic water deficits over the past four decades. A bootstrapped multiple linear regression model was used to better resolve the temporal heterogeneity of seasonal temperature and precipitation trends and to apportion trends to internal climate variability, solar variability, volcanic aerosols, and anthropogenic forcing. The El Ni~ Oscillation and the Pacific‐ North American pattern were the primary modulators of seasonal temperature trends on multidecadal time scales: solar and volcanic forcing were nonsignificant predictors and contributed weakly to observed trends. Anthropogenic forcing was a significant predictor of, and the leading contributor to, long-term warming; natural factors alone fail to explain the observed warming. Conversely, poor model skill for seasonal precipitationsuggeststhatotherfactorsneedtobeconsideredtounderstandthesourcesofseasonalprecipitation trends.


In this paper, we design and evaluate an energy efficient data retrieval architecture for continuous aggregate queries in wireless sensor networks. We show how the modification of precision in one sensor affects the sample-reporting frequency of other sensors, and how the precisions of a group of sensors may be collectively modified to achieve the target Quality of Information (QoI) with higher energy-efficiency. The proposed Collective Adaptive Precision Setting (CAPS) architecture is then extended to exploit the observed temporal correlation among successive sensor samples for even greater energy efficiency. Detailed simulations with synthetic and real data traces demonstrate how the combination of weak consistency semantics and temporal correlation can dramatically lower the energy consumption in practical sensor environments.


Traditionally dualism has been considered with reference to territorial differences in the economic and social structure. Now we must take note that the real diversity among firms is related to their efficiency and innovation capacity. There is no reliable statistics measuring good and bad enterprises and those in between but CENSIS considered one fifth financially solid, almost half capable to resist, another fifth very feeble and a tenth on the verge of bankruptcy. Unless we shall be able to move the human and physical resources from unable firms, the Italian economy shall not grow at an appropriate rate. To achieve such a target Bank of Italy should indicate banks indices reveling no good future and impose them to inform such clients that credit shall be closed within 12/18 months, at the same time Govern should create incentives for good enterprises to absorb the weak ones. Moreover new public enterprises should be created to use new technology, with a strict rule: within a predefined period (5/7 years) they should be sold to private institutions, Stock Exchanges included, or liquidated. Changes should necessary at corporate governance rules with priority at destroy pyramidal groups.


To evaluate the severity of a security vulnerability a security researcher usually tries to prove its exploitability by writing an actual exploit. In the case of buffer overflows on the heap, a necessary part of this is manipulating the heap layout in a way that creates an exploitable state, usually by placing a vulnerable object adjacent to a target object. This requires manual effort and extensive knowledge of the target. With a target as complex as the Linux kernel, this problem becomes highly non-trivial. At the current time, there has been little research in terms of employing algorithmic solutions for this. In this work, we present Kernel-SIEVE, a framework for evaluating heap layout manipulation algorithms that target the SLAB/SLUB allocator in the Linux kernel. Inspired by previous work that targets user-space allocators [34–36] it provides an interface for triggering allocations/deallocations in the kernel and contains a feedback loop that returns the resulting distance of two target objects. With this, we create the (to our knowledge) first performance benchmarks for heap layout manipulation algorithms in the Linux kernel. We present and evaluate two algorithms: A pseudo-random search, whose performance serves as a baseline, and KEvoHeap, a genetic algorithm based on Heelan's EvoHeap [34,36]. We show that KEvoHeap is successful at creating the desired heap layout in all test cases and also surpasses the user-space performance benchmarks of EvoHeap. Finally, we discuss the challenges of applying these kinds of algorithms in real-world scenarios and weigh different possible approaches to tackle the problems that arise. Our research results are publicly available on GitHub [18].


Scientists who document the history of humanity 100 thousand years ago claim that the first knife made was of lighters 25 thousand years ago. The 75,000-year time difference between man and the first knife should be the process of transformation of human beings into homo sapiense. Sapiens have started to transfer their experiences which have the power to design the tools they use, to the new generation beyond logical instincts. Petroglyphs and lettering were not only carrying information but also lightening the tools and preventing them from being forgotten. Human beings have been able to communicate with each other in different geographies in different periods. With this virtue, they have been able to change their way of life by developing and processing the materials. In this process, the Turks, soldiers and those skilled in their time were the first to process iron during civilization, beyond the era of knives, swords, wedges. In Turks, instruments are not only functional but also aesthetic. This article deals with the history and development of knife, which is one of the most frequently used tools of humanity. Turk's knives, their place in Turkish culture, importance, types and etymological description have been discussed in this study. By comparing with today's knives, the place, historical development, and properties of the historical Bursa knife were determined. 93 Harbi and migratory knives that affected the historical Bursa knife and the law of firearms numbered 6136 in 1953 were examined and their effects on the Bursa knife were evaluated. In this respect, the article was concluded by evaluating the findings.

 Key words: Turks culture, knife, history, Bursa, The 93 war.


This paper discusses the digitization of indigenous knowledge on forest foods and medicine for the effective management of Ghana's forest resources. The paper is based on a survey conducted in nine communities in Ghana where primary data were obtained from 606 respondents using in-depth face-to-face interviews. The aim of the study was to assess what knowledge local communities had about products of the forest especially indigenous forest foods and medicine. The findings reveal that local communities have an in-depth knowledge of indigenous forest foods and medicines. They are conversant with what foods and medicines are available in the forests, how they are consumed and when they mature. The study reveals that consumption of indigenous forest foods is on the decline, while the use of traditional medicine is on the ascendancy. The study recommends the promulgation of laws and legal instruments to protect communities from bio-piracy.


This volume of the Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, prepared by the Directorate of Human Rights of the Council of Europe, relates to 2003. Part one contains information on the Convention. Part two deals with the control mechanism of the European Convention on Human Rights: selected judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and human rights (DH) resolutions of the Committee of Ministers; part three groups together the other work of the Council of Europe in the field of human rights, and includes the work of the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Directorate General of Human Rights; part four is devoted to information on national legislation and extracts from national judicial decisions concerning rights protected by the Convention. Appendix A contains a bibliography on the Convention, and Appendix B the biographies of the new judges elected to the European Court of Human Rights.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the response to treatment with anti-TNFs in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Prospective observational study conducted in the Gastroenterology service of the Guillermo Almenara National Hospital, from January 2015 to August 2018.

RESULTS
31 patients with inflammatory bowel disease who received maintenance therapy with Infliximab were evaluated. Twelve (38.7%) patients (3 with ulcerative colitis and 9 with Crohn's disease) presented loss of response after 6 months of the beginning of the maintenance phase: 2 between 6-12 months, 4 between 12-18 months and 6 between 18- 24 months. As a first step, the dose was doubled (10 mg/kg) to the 12 patients, obtaining a response in 6 (50%) after 12 weeks. Of the remaining 6 patients, 4 switched to Adalimumab, 1 patient presented colon cancer and 1 patient presented anaphylaxis and sarcoidosis. Of the patients who received Adalimumab, 3 had endoscopic recurrence (75%) after 6 months and 1 did not respond to induction therapy and was subjected to colectomy (25%).

CONCLUSIONS
Approximately one third of our patients presented loss of response to maintenance therapy with Infliximab. The dose escalation as a rescue therapy was successful in half of the patients. The change to Adalimumab in patients with loss of response to a first anti-TNF drug does not seem to be effective.


Comparisons of pulmonary microbiotas associated with healthy individuals and cystic fibrosis (CF) patients identified a less diverse microbiota among CF patients comprising numerous bacterial species not found among healthy controls. This research aimed to identify if coadhesion occurs between respiratory pathogens P. aeruginosa and S. aureus and some commensal species associated with the microbiota of CF. This was conducted in vitro by spectrophotometric co-aggregation analysis and multi-species biofilm assays in the presence and absence of an inhibitor of lectin-mediated coaggregation, testing the ability of eleven commensal representative species of the CF pulmonary microbiota. Results show that all commensal species selected to represent genera that are associated with the CF pulmonary microbiota are capable of coaggregation in vitro with respiratory pathogens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. S. aureus co-aggregated with a higher affinity to commensal species than P. aeruginosa with a median coaggregation percentage of 62.9 % after 24 h incubation, compared to 41.9 % in P. aeruginosa. When commensal and pathogenic species were cultured in the presence of lactose, biofilm inhibition was observed in 5 of 12 cultures with P. aeruginosa and 7 of 12 with S. aureus. These results demonstrate that some commensals associated with CF participate in coaggregation with respiratory pathogens in vitro which has the ability to alter biofilm production. Identifying coadhesion between commensal and pathogenic species in vitro suggests that coadhesion could be occurring in vivo potentially causing increased susceptibility of the host by enhancing adhesion to the epithelial surface of the respiratory tract, aiding colonization and therefore increased susceptibility to infections.


The article presents the results of the national project "Masks with echo", a play- and drama therapy project developed in Romania in the period January - September 2017. It was initiated by the "Audiosofia" Association and supported by the Community Foundation and MOL Romania, including 3-18 year old deaf children and teenagers wearing cochlear implants or hearing aids. In 2017 the project had 101 users, among whom 80 were deaf children. The main stages of the performances during the whole project, especially the description of the therapeutic process, are detailed and exemplified by suggestive images. Following a study on a lot of 29 cochlear-implanted children having often participated in the therapeutic sessions, a constant normal level of subjects' mental health was observed. The study concludes that, in the process of rehabilitating the cochlear-implanted children and teenagers, the introduction of creative therapies could contribute to subjects' normalization and integration in the communities they belong to. The authors advocate for a holistic approach to these children.


The black bean protein has been widely utilized to prepare hydrolysates with different bioactive properties. Herein, we hydrolyzed the black bean protein to prepare hydrolysate with calcium binding activity and characterized its behavior. Our results showed that ficin was superior in obtaining hydrolysate with calcium binding capacity in comparison with trypsin, alcalase and bromelain. In particular, the optimal capacity of ficin hydrolysate reached 77.54 ± 1.61 μg mg-1, where the optimal hydrolysis conditions of ficin were a temperature of 70 °C, a pH value of 6.2, an enzyme concentration of 1.61% and a time of 3 h. This might be due to high proportions of aspartic acid and glutamic acid (35.59%). Further spectral analysis evidenced the formation of hydrolysate-calcium complexes, demonstrating that the interaction between hydrolysate and calcium ions primarily occur on carboxyl oxygen atoms and amino nitrogen atoms. These findings provide a possible utilization of black bean hydrolysate to serve as a calcium supplement nutraceutical to enhance the absorption and bioavailability.


Purpose: Different fanbeam reconstruction algorithms are being evaluated and the noise performances of these algorithms are compared at equivalent MTF.Method and Materials: The fanbeam reconstruction algorithms under comparison are FBP with Parkers smooth weighting (PFBP), LCFBP, DFBP, reconstruction algorithm by Noo et.al and exact reconstruction algorithm by Kudo et.al . The MTF from the five different algorithms were plotted and compared. In order to establish the basis for an unbiased comparison of the noise variance between different algorithms, we established the condition of equivalent spatial resolution. To achieve this, a window function was applied to the ramp filtering kernel before back‐projection for PFBP, LCFBP and Kudo's algorithm. A homogenous phantom was numerically simulated and Poisson noise with N0= 2e5 was added to the projection data. The images were reconstructed from projection data with and without the Poisson noise added. These images were then subtracted from each other to result in a subtracted or pure noise image. The variance in these noise images over five different ROIs was subsequently compared. FBP with Parkers smooth weighting was chosen as the gold‐standard and percentage decrease in variance in the imagesreconstructed using other four algorithms with respect to that of PFBP was tabulated. Results: The results showed that the new reconstruction algorithms had better noise performance than state‐of‐the‐art reconstruction algorithm (PFBP) after establishing the condition of equivalent spatial resolution. DFBP and exact reconstruction algorithm by Noo performed much better than the other three algorithms. Equal weighting scheme utilized definitely improved the noise performance over smooth weighting. DFBP showed a decrease of variance by about 23 % compared to PFBP. Conclusion: The reduction in noise variance theoretically leads to a radiation dose reduction by about 23 %. This will be of significant importance especially in pediatric imaging.


BACKGROUND
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common chronic disorder that often requires lifelong care. Available practice parameters provide evidence-based recommendations for addressing aspects of care.

OBJECTIVE
This guideline is designed to assist primary care providers as well as sleep medicine specialists, surgeons, and dentists who care for patients with OSA by providing a comprehensive strategy for the evaluation, management and long-term care of adult patients with OSA.

METHODS
The Adult OSA Task Force of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) was assembled to produce a clinical guideline from a review of existing practice parameters and available literature. All existing evidence-based AASM practice parameters relevant to the evaluation and management of OSA in adults were incorporated into this guideline. For areas not covered by the practice parameters, the task force performed a literature review and made consensus recommendations using a modified nominal group technique.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Questions regarding OSA should be incorporated into routine health evaluations. Suspicion of OSA should trigger a comprehensive sleep evaluation. The diagnostic strategy includes a sleep-oriented history and physical examination, objective testing, and education of the patient. The presence or absence and severity of OSA must be determined before initiating treatment in order to identify those patients at risk of developing the complications of sleep apnea, guide selection of appropriate treatment, and to provide a baseline to establish the effectiveness of subsequent treatment. Once the diagnosis is established, the patient should be included in deciding an appropriate treatment strategy that may include positive airway pressure devices, oral appliances, behavioral treatments, surgery, and/or adjunctive treatments. OSA should be approached as a chronic disease requiring long-term, multidisciplinary management. For each treatment option, appropriate outcome measures and long-term follow-up are described.


Anemia commonly occurs among cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. In these patients, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) are effective in managing anemia but there is an increased risk for thrombovascular events. In more recent randomized clinical trials, there have been differing results regarding the impact of ESAs on overall survival and mortality. The balance between studies that show higher ESA-associated mortality and those that don't show ESA-associated mortality is examined in this review. This review discusses where we stand today on anemia management in cancer patients. Preliminary results from a recent independent patient data meta-analysis for on-study deaths and overall survival in patients receiving chemotherapy (the only oncology population for which ESA treatment is currently indicated) showed no statistically significant difference between the ESA and control groups (on-study deaths hazard ratio [HR], 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98-1.24; overall survival HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.97-1.11, compared with controls). Possible factors that could influence study results are discussed in this review. There are no convincing data to support ESA-induced tumor stimulation in patients. ESAs decrease RBC transfusion needs and sustain targeted hemoglobin levels, and this ESA response does not significantly impact overall survival or mortality when ESAs are used within guidelines and labeling. However, based on the currently available data and meta-analysis, the use of ESAs has to be carefully balanced against any possible risk for higher mortality.


Tourism heavily relies on climate as a resource but is highly climate-sensitive. Evidence has shown that a certain amount of climate change has occurred. Africa is considered as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the effects of climate change. At a local scale, Kenya's substantial arid and semi-arid and coastline increases its vulnerability. In addition, overreliance of a lean natural resource base for tourism puts the sector into increasing risk. Documentation of vulnerability and adaptation of Africa and more so tourism to climate change is limited. Different stakeholders agree that there is need to improve response initiatives geared towards mitigation and adaptation. This study seeks to assist tourism and other stakeholders reduce vulnerability and improve adaptation efforts. To facilitate this, a critical review of relevant literature was undertaken and a comprehensive countrywide bottom-up approach assessment of vulnerability and adaptation of tourism to climate change was carried out. This was done by exploring the impacts of climate change on the tourism sector from both supply and demand side and the resultant adaptation practices, analyzing the policy framework in Kenya and estimating the vulnerability level, using explanatory sequential design. Through triangulation, information was sought from tourists, hotel managers and tourism / climate change experts from three major tourism regions in Kenya. A total of 36 hotel managers and 352 tourists filled questionnaires whose results were verified by 20 experts. Further, tourists numbers were compared against precipitation over a 40 year period. Content analysis, Chi-Square, ANOVA, correlation and regression are among the statistical methods used for data analysis. Results generally indicated that climate change impacts are currently affecting the tourism sector in the country and that the supply side is more affected by these impacts than the demand side. Sensitivity of tourism to climate change depends on the type of indicators; the source market; the purpose of travel; the age of tourists; the class of accommodation facilities and marital status. Exposure depends on the type of climate change indicators; the geographical location of tourist facilities and the nature of occurrence of the indicators. Furthermore, although the industry has put commendable efforts towards adaptations, the sector is faced by several challenges such as lack of information and finances. Policy analysis shows that although Kenya has made commendable efforts towards formulating policies on climate change, most content of these policies is not based on primary research. The regression coefficients of determination for the perception of the tourists concerning importance of weather and climate change indicators is explained by 78.9% of the variance (Radj = 0.789), while that of that of the hotel managers is explained by 97.9% of the variance (Radj = 0.979). From the regression analysis, it can be concluded that vulnerability depends on direct indicators, general indicators, indirect indicators and weather factors and magnitude of impacts on resources, infrastructure; facilities; activities; and services. Further, a Vulnerability Scoping Diagramme (VSD) for tourism was constructed in order to describe the current vulnerability of tourism to climate change impacts in Kenya. Generally, the tourism sector in the country is found to be highly sensitive, highly exposed, with moderate adaptive capacity and therefore highly vulnerable. Finally, a conceptual model for vulnerability assessment for the tourism sector was developed. Further research is suggested on the implications of climate change policies on tourism operators and the economic impacts of climate change on tourism resources.


This report covers the work carried out in cooperation with Kongsberg Automotive AB during the thesis work performed by all third year students at Jonkoping University.During the project a measurement equipment for testing the capacity of the fans, I.E their flow and pressure, was to be generated and examples for constructions given. The fans which were to be tested has the function to vent the car seats. Similar products are already on the market and this work was how to find new innovative solutions to simplify the construction, installation, and improve the design of the product to meet the employer's requirements. In addition to Kongsberg's requirements the equipment had to be designed after an ANSI standard to meet Kongsberg's customers' demands.This report will examine the steps taken to generate new solutions through various concept generating methods and how these are then screened out to find the best concept. In connection with this a detailed specification of requirements which the development of test equipment is based on was created. The report then describes the design process of the product which was carried out. The work was based also on several different theories about materials and the choice of production method and will be described in the early stages of the report. As this work does not include the physical manufacturing of the prototype, only the steps leading up to a final concept drawings and selection of the purchased components required is described.


3D printing offers an attractive approach in fabricating complex designs across a wide range of materials to meet the functional requirements of targeted applications. In this study, the surface‐patterned metallic electrodes are printed and integrated with custom built reaction vessels produced via a polymer‐based 3D printing approach to create a complete electrochemical cell. It is shown that metallic electrodes with conical surface structures can be printed from Ti and Ni. In addition to conventional flat electrodes, the design can be tailor‐made to any desirable geometry such as a curved structure. The transformation of inactive Ti electrodes with the deposition of an active catalyst can be readily obtained by electrodeposition to enhance the electrode functionality. A new design of fully printed compartmented electrochemical cell with both anode and cathode facing outward, separated by a Nafion membrane, enabling the water oxidation and proton reduction reactions to occur in their respective compartments is fabricated.


Extensive research has been done on porous silicon (PS) and its applications in optoelectronics since the discovery of its light emitting properties. Porous silicon technology is also used for silicon micro machining. However, porous films can be seriously strained and this often causes mechanical curling, fracture and device failures. In the present study an optical apparatus based on substrate curvature method was developed for intrinsic stress measurement of thin films, which offered a lot of advantages as overall field, non-contact, high precision, nondestructive, easy operation and quick response. Using the apparatus, the residual stress in porous silicon layers prepared by electrochemical etching was obtained. The residual stresses in the films were determined by measuring the curvature of the Si substrate before and after etching. It is found that the residual tensile stress tends to increase with the porosity increasing and the doping concentration of the silicon wafer increasing. The results show that there is a deep connection between the microstructure PS and the residual stress distribution.


In a paper which I had the honour of reading before this Society on November 19th, 1879, entitled "On Concretionary Patches and Fragments of other Rocks contained in Granite," I called attention to the fact that a certain class of such inclusions, usually more or less ovoid in form and resembling imbedded pebbles, are essentially composed of a fine-grained variety of the granite in which they are severally enclosed. The proportion of dark-coloured mica in these patches is almost invariably greater than in the rock in which they occur, and imparts to them a darker colour than that of the general mass. It was further observed, when sections made through both pebble-like inclusions and the enclosing granite are examined under the microscope, that along their line of contact minute crystals are found to extend from the one into the other. These rounded inclusions sometimes enclose a second similar nodule, differing from the first either in colour or in fineness of grain only. Such inclusions are sometimes porphyritic in structure, and enclose large crystals of the felspar characterizing the enclosing rock. Thus, when the felspar of the surrounding granite is either red or pink in colour, that which is porphyritically distributed through the inclusions will be correspondingly red or pink; if, on the contrary, white felspar be a characteristic of the normal granite, the porphyritic crystals of the inclusions will likewise be white. The angles of felspar crystals so enclosed in ovoid inclusions are often much rounded.


In this research permendur (49Fe-49Co-2V) and nickel were used to make a novel bimetal actuator. The actuator consists of a main body and core with energizing coil. The main body of actuator is made of annealed permendur with two magnetostrictive bimetal arms. The magnetostrictive bimetal technique is used to enhance the small displacement of permendur. Static and dynamic behaviors of the actuator are investigated at both, room temperature (RT) and 77 K. The actuator magnified the small displacement of permendur strip (1.8 µm) and large displacement of 9 and 5 µm are achieved at RT and 77 K, respectively when the coil was energized by ± 5 A current. Additionally, it is found that resonance frequency of actuator is 1240 Hz at 77 K and 1125 Hz at RT. Since the stiffness of actuator increases at 77 K, the displacement of actuator is reduced 33-50% when the coil is energized with different amplitudes at cryogenic environments.


Objective: To remove the noises occurred in the bio medical pictures with less computation time. Methods: An innovative technique called Parallel Fuzzy Inference System (PFIS) is introduced for image denoising in the medical images. This method takes input training images, process a dissimilar neighbourhood association between the center pixel and generates the fuzzy inference rules. These rules are distributed to the nodes for simultaneous execution. Then, the type-1 interval fuzzy set is submitted to the resultant defuzzifier module which will decode it into scalar value. If it is impulse pixel, the noise filter is used to reduce the noise. Results: The improvement of the PFIS technique is evaluated by using the medical images. PFIS method shows high efficiency when matched with the existing Type-2 Fuzzy Logic (TFL) based impulse detector for impulse noise removal. In the PFIS method, the fuzzy rules are generated analyzing the medical images and these rules are processed simultaneously. If the noise density is 75%, the Mean Squared Error (MSE) in PFIS is 59.48, the False Classification Ratio (FCR) is 3.25 and the computation time is 740 ms. According to the comparison and the results from the experiment shows that the proposed method has high efficiency. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that the PFIS is presented and this method has high efficiency in terms of MSE, FCR and computation time.


A survey experiment exposes treatment groups to four messages supporting future vaccination against COVID-19. These treatments emphasize either the risks of the virus or the safety of vaccination, to the respondent personally or to others. For a nationally representative sample, self-reported intent to vaccinate is not significantly different from the control for any message. However, there is a substantial divergence between white non-Hispanic respondents, whose response to all four treatments is close to zero, and non-white or His- panic respondents, whose intention to vaccinate is over 50% higher in response to a message emphasizing prosociality and the safety of others.


Background In the Italian Campania Region, 30.517 new cases of solid cancer have been diagnosed, in 2019. Of those, patients with metastatic disease are up to 20%. This class of patients is extremely diversified and copious, and the offer of radiotherapy may vary in different geographical areas within the same region. The aim of this observational multicenter retrospective and prospective trial is to evaluate the occurrence of metastatic metastatic cancer patients candidates for palliative radiotherapy in several areas of a great Italian region, the management of the disease through RT approaches, and its impact on cancer-related pain and overall HRQoL. Methods This is a multicenter, retrospective and prospective observational investigation. The retrospective part of the study concerns all patients enrolled with a diagnosis of metastatic disease and treated in RT centers within the Campania Region between January 2019 and July 2020. The prospective phase is going to involve all the metastatic patients with an indication of palliative RT. Considering regional epidemiological data, we expect an enrollment of 12.500–21.000 patients in 5 years. Conclusion The MAMETIC Trial in an observational study designed for investigating on the use of radiotherapy in patients with advanced disease within a regional area, and for evaluating the local response to the patient's request. It can be a unique opportunity, not only to highlight possible geographic differences but also to regularly collect and share data to standardize the therapeutic offer within the regional area. ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04595032, retrospectively registered.


Coined by Intraub and Richardson in 1989, boundary extension phenomenon refers to a visuo-spatial memory distorsion occuring when an observer tries to remember a previously perceived photograph. This distorsion results in the extrapolation of the spatial layout of the perceived scene: the observer's memory includes details that were not present in the initial scene, but likely to be found outside its limits. This article proposes to synthesize studies realized in this research area, by exposing the characteristics of the phenomenon, its limits, and theoretical points which are still open to debates.


There have been studied on suicide in children and adolescents in Western countries, literature review was carried out for the forth coming needs of protective intervention for suicidal children in Japan. Suicide is very rare in children with gradual increase towards adolescents. Suicide in children has association with family history, psychiatric disorders of both children and parents, especially depression and addictive disorders, cognitive and emotional disturbance in children, demographic characteristics, family discord, family psychopathology and child abuse, accessibility of lethal suicide methods. Identification of risk factors as foci for intervention is important for suicide prevention. Although there are some programs for prevention, their theoretical bases have been hardly presented and their efficacy are not acceptable. Future evaluative research is essential, and at moment, network of medical, educational and child welfare professionals is important to support children and family at risk where there is much to do with psychiatry to take role.


A paradigm shift in assessment culture has emphasized the importance of formative assessment. The existing evidence supports the identification of feedback as the central component of formative assessment. Feedback provides information about the existing gap between the actual and desired levels of performance. The existing evidence suggests various characteristics of effective feedback, for example, ensuring that feedback is construct-referenced and student referenced. An exploration of the existing educational literature provides evidence for the emphasis on formative assessment. This paper evaluates the pedagogical implications of formative assessment to deep learning. A constructivist approach, emphasizing the principles of adult learning and placing emphasis on the student is advocated. However, in applying the wider educational literature to healthcare, it is questioned if the paradigm shift in assessment culture has occurred as the majority of the existing literature is centred on summative assessment.


A brilliant but little-known operation, the Shimazu clan raid on the independent kingdom of Rykyu (modern Okinawa) in 1609 is one of the most extraordinary episodes in samurai history and the culmination of centuries of rivalry between the two powers. The defeat of the Shimazu at Sekigahara in 1600, and their need to win favour with the new Shogun, led them to hatch an audacious plot to attack the islands on the Shogun's behalf and bring back the king of Rykyu as a hostage. Stephen Turnbull gives a blow-by-blow account of the operation, from the daring Shimazu amphibious landing, to their rapid advance overland, and the tactical feigned retreat that saw the Shimazu defeat the Okinawan army and kidnap their king in spectacular fashion. With a detailed background and specially commissioned artwork, the scene is set for a dramatic retelling of this fascinating raid.


As demands on companies' accountability have increased, researchers have turned their attention towards the social auditing practice and studied its role in companies supply chains. This study highlights a theory gap, questioning existing praise and criticism correlated to the categorization of social auditors. By comparing two different social audit categories, namely the independent and internal auditors, this paper contribute with a broader understanding of the similarities and differences between the two audit types. This study addresses the research question; how does the independent and internal social audit type support companies' work with improving social standards in the supply chain? The theoretical framework includes aspects within the area of social auditing, buyer-supplier relationships and theories regarding the categorization of the two audit types. The study draws upon a qualitative approach investigating two cases with different social auditors, finding that both auditor types have their strengths and weaknesses, and therefore support companies in different ways. Referring to this tradeoff, this study concludes that the praise and criticism correlated to the two audit classifications of independent and internal auditor might not be completely valid, which calls for further research.


A method for quickly producing compilers for high level languages is described. The technique consists of feeding a description of the language to be translated to a general-purpose macro processor. Used in this way, the macro processor functions as a compiler-compiler, providing automatic parsing, lexical scanning, symbol table operations, and handling of syntactic errors. A complete syntactic and semantic description of a WHILE statement (except for Boolean expression processing) is given in only seven lines, as an example. A system programming language implemented by this method is discussed in order to illustrate the main ideas. The compiler produced for this language is compared to other compilers produced by conventional methods.


This study including evalution of nutrient status of children so called Balita (age 3-5) based on energy sufficent value (kal) and protein suficient value. At the age of the children good nutrition will support optimal growth and development. Hence infancy requires a balanced intake of nutrients such as energy and nutrient intake of protein intake and good nutrition knowledge of parents. There is the influence of balita parents work, parents' education, parental balita income, age and nutritional knowledge of parents on the nutritional status of energy and protein nutritional status in infants. The purpose of this study was to determine the nutritional status of children under five based on body weight for age (W / A) with the help of questionnaires that included self-identity of the respondents (which includes: weight, age, and income, employment, education, parents) to know the nutritional intake of energy and protein intake and a questionnaire on nutrition knowledge of respondents, and conduct direct interviews regarding "dietary recall" to parents. Taking the sample of respondents was done by random sampling in some infants in the village of Gogik in Ungaran City. Determination of sample size using the Krejcie-Morgan Formula. From these studies showed that working parents had no effect on the nutritional status of protein and energy nutritional status, parents' education affect the nutritional status of protein and energy nutritional status, parental income affect the nutritional status of protein and energy nutritional status, nutritional knowledge of parents influence the nutritional status of protein and energy nutritional status. Energy and protein nutritional status among children under five in the Gogik village, Ungaran city mostly quite good. Key words: Nutritional status of energy, protein nutritional status, Toddlers, Nutrition Knowledge, Education, Employment, Income


The United States of America is the top trading partner of the Philippines and also the top destination of highly skilled and professional Filipino workers. This paper explores the possibility of a free trade agreement (FTA) that covers the asymmetries of the two countries in labor, services and human resources development, particularly educational services. The existing FTAs of the U.S. were examined to seek for provisions the Philippines may adopt for a freer movement of natural persons. However, there are barriers inherent in the U.S. immigration and recent U.S. Congressional pronouncements to uphold the primacy of their immigration policy, thus, no more similar liberal agreements could be entered into. Issues on the movement of workers, particularly mutual recognition, accreditation, taxation and the refund of social security contributions were raised. For the educational sector, the issue of public subsidy and national treatment of foreign service providers were also brought up to clarify the objective of bringing access to students. The paper concluded that for an FTA concerning the movement of natural persons to materialize, the Philippines should weigh its sacrifices against what it will be requesting from the U.S. within the context of the overall importance of the maximizing opportunities for the Filipino worker.


Abstract This paper deals with a near-field to far-field transformation able to predict the radiation of UHF antennas located over a lossy ground. From in-situ near-field measurements, an equivalent set of dipole sources is obtained as a model of the characterized antenna. The paper details the main steps of the transformation and describes the specific experimental set-up designed for the application. Simple directional antennas (monopoles array) as well as more complex omnidirectional antennas (like a biconical antenna as a scaled-down model of a HF antenna) have been tested in realistic environments. This approach is very efficient for separating the contributions of the radiated waves: the sky wave and the surface wave.


Currently, 40% of arable land in Ethiopia is affected by acidity and particularly the soil acidity problem that occurs in central and western zones of Oromia deserves immediate intervention for crop production. The objective of the present study was to examine responses of Desi type chickpea varieties against acidic soil of western Ethiopia. Pooled analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated significant difference among genotypes indicating differential response of chickpea genotypes to acidic soil. The combined mean of genotypes indicates that Natoli and DZ-2012-CK-20113-2-0042 were top yielders. Differential response of chickpea genotypes indicates the possibilities of designing better chickpea breeding strategies that aim at screening large germplasms of chickpea genotypes for soil acidity tolerance and thereby developing a cultivar(s) with wider adaptations.

 Key words: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), yield, soil acidity, liming.


We discuss the results of a multiwavelength differential imaging lab experiment with the High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The HCIT combines a Lyot coronagraph with a Xinetics deformable mirror in a vacuum environment to simulate a space telescope in order to test technologies and algorithms for a future exoplanet coronagraph mission. At present, ground-based telescopes have achieved significant attenuation of speckle noise using the technique of spectral differential imaging (SDI). We test whether ground-based SDI can be generalized to a nonsimultaneous spectral differential imaging technique (NSDI) for a space mission. In our lab experiment, a series of five filter images centered around the O2(A) absorption feature at 0.762 μm were acquired at nominal contrast values of 10-6, 10-7, 10-8, and 10-9. Outside the dark hole, single differences of images improve contrast by a factor of ∼6. Inside the dark hole, we found significant speckle chromatism as a function of wavelength offset from the nulling wavelength, leading to a contrast degradation by a factor of 7.2 across the entire ∼80 nm bandwidth. This effect likely stems from the chromatic behavior of the current occulter. New, less chromatic occulters are currently in development; we expect that these new occulters will resolve the speckle chromatism issue.


Abstract

Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is the only treatment available to reduce neurological sequels for unconscious patients following cardiac arrest (CA). TH requires sedation and muscular relaxation, obscuring the clinical neurological examination for estimation of prognosis, and clinical decision making.

Continuous amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) has been used to predict outcome in neonates suffering from asphyxia. In adults following CA and TH, the novel observation was made that a continuous aEEG-pattern prior to or at normothermia strongly correlated to return of consciousness, while other patterns strongly correlated to continued coma. A status epilepticus aEEG-pattern carried a poor, but not desolate prognosis.

Biochemical neuronal-markers (neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S-100B) have previously been assessed in non-TH CA patients. In TH, an NSE level of 28 μg/l 48h after CA, or an increase of more than 2 μg/l between 24 and 48h were strongly associated to a poor outcome.

Five days after the CA, one third of the patients remained in coma. They either had multimodal signs of extensive brain damage (high NSE levels, ischemic changes on MRI or neurophysiological evidence of advanced brain damage (bilateral lack of SSEP)), or showed sustained unconsciousness and a status epilepticus aEEG-pattern. Unconscious patients without these signs of brain injury eventually regained consciousness.

Approximately 50% of hypothermia treated patients regained consciousness. Ninety-eight percent of surviving patients had an independent lifestyle six months after the CA. The dominant cognitive problem was a disturbed memory function.

Taken together, aEEG appears superior in early neurological prognostication in these patients.


With the spread of online social networks, it is more and more difficult to monitor all the user-generated content. Automating the moderation process of the inappropriate exchange content on Internet has thus become a priority task. Methods have been proposed for this purpose, but it can be challenging to find a suitable dataset to train and develop them. This issue is especially true for approaches based on information derived from the structure and the dynamic of the conversation. In this work, we propose an original framework, based on the the Wikipedia Comment corpus, with comment-level abuse annotations of different types. The major contribution concerns the reconstruction of conversations, by comparison to existing corpora, which focus only on isolated messages (i.e. taken out of their conversational context). This large corpus of more than 380k annotated messages opens perspectives for online abuse detection and especially for context-based approaches. We also propose, in addition to this corpus, a complete benchmarking platform to stimulate and fairly compare scientific works around the problem of content abuse detection, trying to avoid the recurring problem of result replication. Finally, we apply two classification methods to our dataset to demonstrate its potential.


Judge Marvin Frankel's writings in the early 1970s inspired the creation of sentencing guidelines commissions and guidelines rules in twenty-two state and federal jurisdictions. By the late 1970s Frankel's tentative proposals had been substantially filled out by other writers and reformers; the two most common guidelines models were adopted by Minnesota (1980) and Pennsylvania (1982). The federal guidelines (1987) have been justly criticized, but most state guidelines have been accepted by judges and other practitioners and observers. This sentencing reform model has also been endorsed by the American Bar Association and the American Law Institute. This essay tells the story of how Judge Frankel's proposal evolved, where and how it was adopted, and how well it has stood the test of time. The essay concludes that Frankel's critique of unregulated judicial and parole discretion was, and is, correct—such lawless, haphazard deprivation of offenders' liberty and life chances is unacceptable in any legal system claiming to be governed by the rule of law. The essay further argues that well-developed guidelines, based on Frankel's elaborated proposal and as implemented in several states, provide the best and indeed the only proven way to meaningfully address the problems of sentencing and parole disparity that Frankel so eloquently identified. But he would want and expect guideline systems to continue to evolve, thoughtfully and steadily coming closer to the shared goals of fair, balanced, and cost-effective punishment. The essay therefore proposes several further reforms, any of which would improve even the best state guideline systems.


BACKGROUND
Endogenous morphine-like compounds have been identified in humans and are released in response to stress. Human monocytes and granulocytes express the micro opiate receptor, micro3, which is morphine selective but opiate peptide insensitive. Recent studies have shown that CYP2D6 acts at critical steps for endogenous morphine biosynthesis. We theorized that ultrarapid (UM) CYP2D6 metabolizers may have an enhancement of their endogenous pain modulating mechanisms.

METHODS
After institutional review board approval, a previously developed surgical patient database was evaluated for information concerning CYP2D6 genotypes and morphine consumption. One hundred forty-two patients were found to have adequate information to be included in this current analysis. The study group was divided, based on morphine consumption, into two subgroups: low morphine consumers (LMC) (< or =10 mg/4 h, N = 80) and high morphine consumers (HMC) (>10 mg/4 h, N = 62). DNA was extracted from blood in all patients and was genotyped by the Amplichip (Roche, Pleasanton, CA) to determine the specific CYP2D6 genotypes.

RESULTS
CYP2D6 UM were found to occur more frequently in the LMC group than in the HMC group (8/80 vs 0/62, P = 0.0091). No significant differences were noted for the poor, intermediate, or extensive metabolizers.

CONCLUSIONS
Our current results suggest that CYP2D6 UM appear to require less morphine in the acute postoperative period compared with other CYP2D6 metabolizer groups. One possible mechanism for this observation is that CYP2D6 UM may have higher efficiency in synthesizing endogenous morphine compared with other metabolizers, thus increasing endogenous pain modulation and reducing the need for exogenous morphine.


The Report of the Iraq (Chilcot) Inquiry was finally published, 7 years after the Inquiry's creation, on 6 July 2016. The scope of the Inquiry's work was vast, and this was reflected in the enormous size of its final Report. The publication of the Report thus raises a multitude of questions requiring further analysis. In this short article, we aim to contribute some initial thoughts, immediately following the Report's publication, in just two (interrelated) areas. First, we comment on the role of international law in the Chilcot Inquiry. To what extent was international law considered and how was it presented in the Report? We also ask whether the Report reaches any implicit substantive legal conclusions, despite formally refraining from determinations of law. Secondly, we review the Inquiry's findings concerning international legal advice and legal advisers. In particular, we contribute some thoughts on the Report's treatment of questions relating to the appropriate recipients of legal advice and its transparency, the timeliness of advice, the perception and treatment of law and legal advice by the Government, and the independence and quality of that advice.


Anthracyclines are integral components of most adjuvant chemotherapy regimens for surgically removed early breast cancer and are central to the accepted treatment standards. Recently the standard anthracycline regimen of doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide was found to be inferior in preventing recurrence of breast cancer when compared to cyclophosphamide and docetaxel, questioning the necessity to expose patients to the potential cardiotoxicity of anthracycline in the adjuvant setting. Trastuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against the extracellular domain of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) has become the cornerstone of treatment of breast cancers that overexpress HER2 in the neo-adjuvant and metastatic setting. Unfortunately, the combination of anthracyclines and trastuzumab produces a high incidence of cardiotoxicity as seen in early trials of metastatic breast cancer. Five adjuvant trials combining trastuzumab with different anthracycline-based regimens have been reported, all of them revealing similar efficacy in reducing recurrence of breast cancer. The trastuzumab adjuvant trial 006 from the Breast Cancer International Research Group shows for the first time that a nonanthracycline-containing regimen with trastuzumab has equivalent efficacy in decreasing the recurrence of breast cancer, with less incidence of cardiotoxicity when compared to anthracycline-containing trastuzumab adjuvant regimens. Further trials are needed to determine the optimal length of adjuvant therapy with trastuzumab, as well as long-term side effects with special attention to cardiotoxicity.


This thesis questions on one level the assertion that the Internet is a force for democratisation in authoritarian regimes (Habermas, 2006), and at the same time another means for disseminating propaganda, fear and intimidation (Rodan, 1998). It overcomes the limitations of using automated data collection and analysis of blogs by supplementing these techniques with a prolonged period of participant observation and a detailed reading of the textual extracts in order to allow for meaning to emerge. It analyses the discourses and styles of discourse of the Singapore political blogosphere. Hurst (2006) and Lin and Sundaram et al., (2007) described the same blogosphere as isolated from the global blogosphere and clearly demarcated with no central topic. Countering the social ignorance of such automated data collection and analysis techniques, this study assigns meaning to data gathered from January 2009 to February 2010. This case study will help highlight the analytic framework, benefits and limitations of using social network analysis and an anthropological approach to networks. It has targeted blogs using hyperlink network analysis and measured 'importance' with 'betweenness centrality' (de Nooy & Mrvar et al., 2005) in order to demarcate the boundaries of the sample of blogs that are archived for semantic and discourse analysis. Beyond a brief introduction to betweenness centrality, and the merits or otherwise, of combining various ranking of blogs such as Google's PageRank, Hits and Blogrank algorithms it avoids the algorithm fetishism within hyperlink data collection and linguistic analysis of corpus collected from blogs; allowing for culture, identity and agency. It assesses which of White's (2009) three disciplines and relative valuation orders the Singapore blogosphere adheres. The contention raised here is that social network analysis, or rather those elements within it that are focused exclusively on algorithms, are in danger of co-option by states and multinational corporations (Wolfe, 2010:3) unless they acknowledge sociocultural forces. The tools of social network analysis and data mining are moved beyond mere description, while avoiding prescription – and at the same time advancing its contribution to substantive theoretical questions (Scott, 2010). Ensuring space for agency in a field dominated by sociograms, statistics and algorithms with theory that places persons lacking recognition at its centre is important to this thesis. Focusing only on the relational aspects of the interaction and in the individual persons linked (Wolfe, 2010: 3) creates a limited representation of the wider phenomena under study and a narrow awareness of the context in which these networks exist. A people governed
by one political party since 1963 (The People's Action Party) with the government of Singapore is the focus of this case study. This paper also highlights the use of various software technology; blogs, IssueCrawler, HTTrack, NetDraw, and Leximancer while using an ethnographic approach to counter the social ignorance of automated electronic software. The analysis of the Singaporean blogosphere from 2009 to 2010 provides a descriptive analysis of the argument that the non-democratic nature of Singapore society shapes the development of online public spheres.


A short account of the verse drama Peer Gynt is given, showing its setting in Ibsen's life and work, and its content. The paper relates what the poem tells us about Ibsen to what I know of him from elsewhere, specifically to certain conflicts and the search for his "true self." It also relates the poem to the experience of psychoanalysts and psychiatrists (illustrating this with clinical material), and finally, to aspects of the world today.


Tony Atkinson's Inequality: What Can Be Done? is a remarkable book and major contribution from the scholar who has done most to develop and drive forward the economic analysis of inequality over the last 50 years. Here we take the opportunity to delineate some of the distinctive features of this book, highlighting what may be of particular salience and interest to a sociological audience in particular but also more generally from a theoretical and policy perspective.


Examination of the effects of vehicle and pedestrian tracks of known age (13 or more years) and intensity of use (single to multiple passages) on vegetation, soil chemistry, soil arthropods, soil thaw characteristics, and small-scale hydrological changes showed clear and inter-related patterns. In general, all tracks, regardless of age, showed small increases in the depth of thaw beneath them (c. 2.8 cm). Tracks were generally depleted of carbon and to a lesser, but significant extent, of potassium and phosphorus. Slight increases in NO 3 , NH 4 , and calcium were noted. Magnesium and total nitrogen seemed unaffected. On all tracks which had suffered multiple passages vegetation cover was significantly reduced. In a few sites where single passages were recorded, cover increased through proliferation of the sedge, Kobresia myosuroides. Abundance of soil arthropods was significantly reduced on tracks, but the diversity was not. In most sites, soil moisture and over-ground water flow did not seem affected. Only in sedge meadows where compression from a single passage resulted in channelling of water, and where multiple passages removed vegetation and initiated gulley erosion, were effects serious.


Summary Numerous pulmonary complications associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Sj6gren's syndrome (SS) have been described. Mild airway obstruction has recently been recognized in these disorders, severe obstruction occurring in only a few patients with RA. We report a patient with RA and SS who developed severe irreversible airway obstruction, an association not hitherto described. The airway disease failed to respond to bronchodilators, steroids or immunosuppressive agents. S. AIr. med. J.. 61, 674 (1982).


Skeletal muscle and adipose tissue lipolysis rates were quantitatively compared in 12 healthy nonobese and 14 insulin-resistant obese subjects for 3.5 h after an oral glucose load using microdialysis measurements of interstitial glycerol concentrations and determinations of local blood flow with 133Xe clearance in the gastrocnemius muscle and in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue. Together with measurements of arterialized venous plasma glycerol, the absolute rates of glycerol mobilization were estimated. In the basal state, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue glycerol levels were 50% higher (P < 0.05-0.01) and adipose tissue blood flow (ATBF) and muscle blood flow (MBF) rates were 30-40% lower (P < 0.02-0.05) in obese versus nonobese subjects. After glucose ingestion, adipose tissue glycerol levels were rapidly and transiently reduced, whereas in muscle, a progressive and less pronounced fall in glycerol levels was evident. MBF remained unchanged in both study groups, whereas ATBF increased more markedly (P < 0.01) in the nonobese versus obese subjects after the oral glucose load. The fasting rates of glycerol release per unit of tissue weight from skeletal muscle were between 20 and 25% of that from adipose tissue in both groups. After glucose ingestion, the rates of glycerol release from skeletal muscle and from adipose tissue were almost identical in nonobese and obese subjects. However, the kinetic patterns differed markedly between tissues; in adipose tissue, the rate of glycerol mobilization was suppressed by 25-30% (P < 0.05) after glucose ingestion, whereas no significant reduction was registered in skeletal muscle. We conclude that significant amounts of glycerol are released from skeletal muscle, which suggests that muscle lipolysis provides an important endogenous energy source in humans. In response to glucose ingestion, the regulation of skeletal muscle glycerol release differs from that in adipose tissue; although the rate of glycerol release from adipose tissue is clearly suppressed, the rate of glycerol mobilization from skeletal muscle remains unaltered. In quantitative terms, the rate of glycerol release per unit of tissue weight in adipose tissue and in skeletal muscle is similar in nonobese and obese subjects in both the postabsorptive state and after glucose ingestion.


This paper investigated how climate change can affect paddy rice productivity and proposed a mitigation measure that may be undertaken. The analysis first explored the potential impacts of climate variables on rice yields by using panel data covering the period 1980 to 2016 for seven countries members of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). It then went on to calculate the investments needed in Research and Development (R&D) for developing new crop varieties technologies by applying the methodology developed by World Bank (2010). Results indicated the growth of rice yields was positively related to the level of technological progress, the rainfall or quantity of water, and amount of seedlings. The concentration level temperature and the mass of carbon dioxide emitted throughout rice cultivation appeared to affect negatively the growth of rice yields. From the estimation of fixed-effects model, the findings showed the existence of specificities (heterogeneity) among the underlying countries that influenced positively rice production in the study area. After all, the aggregate impact of climate change on paddy rice productivity was found to be negative in WAEMU area. From the application of Word Bank methodology, it was recommended to all the countries, in particular, Benin, Burkina-Faso and Niger to increase constantly their annual (R&D) spending throughout the period 2017 to 2050. In consideration of the negative impact of climate variables, the study proposed the development of new rice varieties that could withstand temperature, and a rigorous management of postharvest cropland enabling the reduction of negative externalities due to carbon dioxide emissions.

 Key words: Rice productivity, climate change, mitigation, panel data analysis.


Artificially structured metamaterials offer a means to enhance the weak optical nonlinearities of natural materials. The enhancement results from the inhomogeneous nature of the metamaterial unit cell, over which the local field distribution can likewise be strongly inhomogeneous, with highly localized and concentrated field regions. We investigate the nonlinear enhancement effect in metamaterials through a numerical study of four nonlinear metamaterial designs comprising arrays of metallic structures embedded in nonlinear dielectrics and operating around 10 THz. Through full-wave simulations and by employing an extended version of the transfer-matrix-based nonlinear parameter retrieval method, we confirm and quantify the enhanced nonlinearities, showing bulk quadratic nonlinear properties that are up to two orders of magnitude larger, and cubic nonlinear properties that are up to four orders of magnitude larger than the bulk nonlinear dielectric alone. Furthermore, the proposed nonlinear metamaterials support a variety of configurable nonlinear properties and regimes, including electric, magnetic, broadband, and low loss, depending on the particular geometry chosen. Finally, we use the retrieved parameters in a coupled-mode theory to predict the optimal crystal lengths and conversion efficiencies of these structures, displaying the possibility of efficient and subwavelength nonlinear devices based on metamaterials.


This research was a study of increasing efficiency in warehouses by using linear programming methods. The research aimed to reduce the distance to pick up the products. The company was used to do this research was a company located in Nakhon Pathom province. The company is a small and medium sized company (SMEs), plastic manufacturing factory. The population were used to study were the total number of products. The sample groups were used in this study were bag and roll product groups. The data were used in the study would collect the data on the demand for pallets during January 2019 - May 2019. After that, follow the steps: to calculate the product segmentation by ABC, to calculate the position of the product using Linear Programming and comparison. The results ABC analysis showed that Roll type products were classified as Group A. Next, calculate the linear programming equation. The objective equation is to have the smallest distance traveled. There were 2 conditional equations: 1. Set the number of pallets to be placed and 2. Set the variable named Area code as Binary. This research can reduce the distance from 1170 to 1116, with a distance of 54 meters. Accounting for 4.25 percent.


More than 200 low-lying and moderately high-lying doubly excited states ( L.3 S e , 3 P 0 , L.3 D e , L.3 F 0 , L G e ) of He-isoelectronic systems (Z = 2 - 5) have been studied in the nonrelativistic Hohenberg - Kohn - Sham density-functional framework by incorporating the nonvariational work-function exchange potential suggested by Harbola and Sahni and a simple parametrized local Wigner-type correlation functional. In essence, a Kohn - Sham-type equation has been solved numerically. Our results on excited-state energies, excitation energies and differences between excitation energies are in good agreement with available experimental and theoretical results. In 50% of cases, the percentage deviation in the calculated excitation energy is less than unity. The estimates of the relatively small distances (0.02 - 0.1 au) of the He states below the corresponding N = 2, 3, 4 ionization thresholds are in error by 0.5 - 34.9%, indicating that the Wigner correlation functional needs to be improved for greater accuracy. The excited radial densities display expected structures. Some new states are reported.