Abstract This study aimed to assess the performance of several algorithms based on hospital diagnoses and the long-term diseases scheme to identify multiple myeloma patients. Potential multiple myeloma patients in 2010 to 2013 were identified using the presence of hospital records with at least 1 main diagnosis code for multiple myeloma (ICD-10 "C90"). Alternative algorithms also considered related and associated diagnoses, combination with long-term conditions, or at least 2 diagnoses. Incident patients were those with no previous "C90" codes in the past 24 or 12 months. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPVs and NPVs) were computed, using a French cancer registry for the corresponding area and period as the criterion standard. Long-term conditions data extracted concerned 11,559 patients (21,846 for hospital data). The registry contained 125 cases of multiple myeloma. Sensitivity was 70% when using only main hospital diagnoses (specificity 100%, PPV 79%), 76% when also considering related diagnoses (specificity 100%, PPV 74%), and 90% with associated diagnoses included (100% specificity, 64% PPV). In relation with their good performance, selected algorithms can be used to study the benefit and risk of drugs in treated multiple myeloma patients.


Verifiable training has shown success in creating neural networks that are provably robust to a given amount of noise. However, despite only enforcing a single robustness criterion, its performance scales poorly with dataset complexity. On CIFAR10, a non-robust LeNet model has a 21.63% error rate, while a model created using verifiable training and a L-infinity robustness criterion of 8/255, has an error rate of 57.10%. Upon examination, we find that when labeling visually similar classes, the model's error rate is as high as 61.65%. Thus, we attribute the loss in performance to inter-class similarity. Classes that are similar (i.e., close in the feature space) increase the difficulty of learning a robust model. While it may be desirable to train a model to be robust for a large robustness region, pairwise class similarities limit the potential gains. Furthermore, consideration must be made regarding the relative cost of mistaking one class for another. In security or safety critical tasks, similar classes are likely to belong to the same group, and thus are equally sensitive.

In this work, we propose a new approach that utilizes inter-class similarity to improve the performance of verifiable training and create robust models with respect to multiple adversarial criteria. First, we cluster similar classes using agglomerate clustering and assign robustness criteria based on the degree of similarity between clusters. Next, we propose two methods to apply our approach: (1) the Inter-Group Robustness Prioritization method, which uses a custom loss term to create a single model with multiple robustness guarantees and (2) the neural decision tree method, which trains multiple sub-classifiers with different robustness guarantees and combines them in a decision tree architecture. Our experiments on Fashion-MNIST and CIFAR10 demonstrate that by prioritizing the robustness between the most dissimilar groups, we improve clean performance by up to 9.63% and 30.89% respectively. Furthermore, on CIFAR100, our approach reduces the clean error rate by 26.32%.


Hand and forearm blood flows were measured in 12 subjects by means of a range-gated Döppler velocimeter, in basal conditions and after inflation (30, 50, 60, 70, and 90 mmHg) of a venous occlusion cuff on the middle part of the forearm. In basal conditions, there were significant decreases in radial, ulnar, and brachial blood flow after cuff inflation (up to -78, -69, and -31%, respectively). Minimal values were reached in less than 7 s. After occlusion of the circulation of the hand, control brachial blood flow was lowered but not significantly affected by venous distension. The results must be considered and accounted where venous occlusion plethysmography is used to measure segmental blood flow.


Purpose: Community rehabilitation services typically assist stroke survivors with function, participation, and quality of life. Many factors have been found to influence the overall quality of life including self-identity, control, social supports, personality, and participation in valued activities. This review explored the possible contributing quality of life factors for stroke survivors within a community rehabilitation context to assist with further development of service delivery within this clinical area. Method: A purposive sample of clients with stroke (n=20) was selected based on their overall quality of life change during their rehabilitation program as measured on the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Questionnaire. Clients with the largest positive and negative quality of life changes were included. A clinical record review of client medical records was undertaken of these stroke survivors to identify and describe common themes that may be related to quality of life. Results: Five general themes emerged relating to possible contributing factors to quality of life for clients participating in this community stroke rehabilitation setting including transiting between hospital and community, flexibility of service delivery model, strength of family and household relationships, acceptance and expectation of both service delivery and functional levels, and ongoing co-morbid medical issues. Conclusions: This review suggests that community rehabilitation service models of care should be flexible and tailored to client needs and goals to enable a true "client-centered" approach. Social and behavioural paradigms should be incorporated within the community rehabilitation settings. Services should focus on personal factors such as the stroke survivor's adjustment to their situation, personality factors, and outcome expectations. Consideration also needs to be given to the overall continuum of care of health care services.


We propose a detailed description of the structure of the layer formed by polyelectrolyte chains adsorbed onto an oppositely charged surface in the semi-dilute regime. We combine the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann-Edwards theory and the scaling functional theory to describe the variations of the monomer concentration, the electrostatic potential, and the local grafting density with the distance to the surface. For long polymers, we find that the effective charge of the decorated surface (surface plus adsorbed polyelectrolytes) can be much larger than the bare charge of the surface at low salt concentration, thus providing an experimental route to a "supercharging" type of effect.


This paper presents a new computationally efficient method for direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation with arbitrary arrays. The total angular field-of-view is first divided into several small sectors and the original noise subspace exploited by the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm is mapped from one sector to the other sectors by a Hadarmard product transformation. This transformation gives a new noise-like subspace cluster (NLSC), whose intersection is found to be simultaneously orthogonal to the steering vectors associated with the true DOAs and several virtual DOAs. Based on such a multiple orthogonality, a novel compressed MUSIC (C-MUSIC) spatial spectrum at hand is derived. Unlike MUSIC with tremendous spectral search, C-MUSIC involves a limited search over only one sector, and hence it is computationally very attractive. To obtain the intersection of NLSC for more than two sectors, a low-complexity method is also proposed in the present work, which shows advantages over the existing alternative projection method (APM) and singular value decomposition (SVD) techniques. Furthermore, the mean square errors (MSEs) of the proposed estimator is derived. Simulation results illustrate that C-MUSIC trades-off MSEs by complexity and resolution as compared to the standard MUSIC efficiently.


The purpose of our study is to see how the interaction between the social services and police work when a child under 15 years is suspected of crimes.What happens to the child from an agency perspective? How is the experience for the child and how do they get their voices heard? How is the professional perspective for a child when a child is suspected of a crime? What do the various authorities for short-term and long-term measures for the child?We have chosen to do a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. The study includes six interviews with two police officers, three field secretaries and a social worker in two different municipalities. A medium sized municipality, and a larger community.The people we interviewed think differently about collaboration. The municipality have different workforms. In the smaller municipality works a social worker at the police station once or twice a week. While in the larger municipality the police and social worker work separately but together nonetheless. The result shows that they are not completely satisfied with the interaction that is today, but it takes a lot of time to build it up and it can always be better. Furthermore, the study shows that the lack of time and resource issues control much of social service work. For the analyzes we have used a theory of interaction. The result shows that the professionals are using the children's perspective a lot when they are working with children who are suspected of crime.


Sixty-five Sprague-Dawley rats underwent one of three procedures: (1) laparotomy without resection (n = 15); (2) 75% distal small-bowel resection, including the ileocecal valve (n = 25); and (3) 75% bowel resection including ileocecal valve, and construction of a jejunal valve (n = 25). Rats were evaluated for survival, weight change, and transit time. Mortality was 0% in controls, 84% in group 2, and 28% in group 3 after three months. Rats with resection alone lost 29% of their initial weight, whereas rats with jejunal valves gained 24% over their preoperative weight. Transit time was three times slower in animals with valves. These data suggest that survival, transit time, and weight change are significantly improved in rats with massive bowel resection after construction of an artificial valve when compared with animals with resections alone. These observations imply that, in selected cases, an ileocecal valve replacement may have clinical usefulness.


In this paper, we present a new self-supervised scene flow estimation approach for a pair of consecutive point clouds. The key idea of our approach is to represent discrete point clouds as continuous probability density functions using Gaussian mixture models. Scene flow estimation is therefore converted into the problem of recovering motion from the alignment of probability density functions, which we achieve using a closed-form expression of the classic Cauchy-Schwarz divergence. Unlike existing nearest-neighbor-based approaches that use hard pairwise correspondences, our proposed approach establishes soft and implicit point correspondences between point clouds and generates more robust and accurate scene flow in the presence of missing correspondences and outliers. Comprehensive experiments show that our method makes noticeable gains over the Chamfer Distance and the Earth Mover's Distance in real-world environments and achieves state-of-the-art performance among self-supervised learning methods on FlyingThings3D and KITTI, even outperforming some supervised methods with ground truth annotations.


Vorticella includes more than 100 currently recognized species and represents one of the most taxonomically challenging genera of ciliates. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Vorticella has been performed so far with only sequences coding for small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA); only a few of its species have been investigated using other genetic markers owing to a lack of similar sequences for comparison. Consequently, phylogenetic relationships within the genus remain unclear, and molecular discrimination between morphospecies is often difficult because most regions of the SSU rRNA gene are too highly conserved to be helpful. In this paper, we move molecular systematics for this group of ciliates to the infrageneric level by sequencing additional molecular markers—fast-evolving internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions—in a broad sample of 66 individual samples of 28 morphospecies of Vorticella collected from Asia, North America and Europe. Our phylogenies all featured two strongly supported, highly divergent, paraphyletic clades (I, II) comprising the morphologically defined genus Vorticella. Three major lineages made up clade I, with a relatively well-resolved branching order in each one. The marked divergence of clade II from clade I confirms that the former should be recognized as a separate taxonomic unit as indicated by SSU rRNA phylogenies. We made the first attempt to elucidate relationships between species in clade II using both morphological and multi-gene approaches, and our data supported a close relationship between some morphospecies of Vorticella and Opisthonecta, indicating that relationships between species in the clade are far more complex than would be expected from their morphology. Different patterns of helix III of ITS2 secondary structure were clearly specific to clades and subclades of Vorticella and, therefore, may prove useful for resolving phylogenetic relationships in other groups of ciliates.


In this paper, we present new integrated on-chip planar-type superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) first order gradiometers, which are manufactured by a new mix and match fabrication technology combining sub-μm sized Josephson junctions (JJs) with cm-scale pickup loops. The fabrication technology is described and the design is schematically shown. These sensors have high voltage swing and low flux noise and provide thus the best so far reported gradient resolution of about 13 fT / m · Hz . These gradiometers were developed and implemented in instruments for applications in mineral exploration. They allow a better system dynamic range (ratio of maximal to minimal detectable signals) and a more effective use of the chip area. The gradiometer performance in terms of gradient resolution is compared against state of the art planar-type SQUID based gradiometers. Two models predicting a gradient noise limit as a function of the chip area and baseline of the gradiometer are discussed. The small geometric dimensions of the gradiometers are very important for future miniaturized instruments in mineral exploration. The comparison of our results with those models highlights the importance of a smaller JJs size for the reduction of the intrinsic gradiometer noise and geometrical dimensions.


A guide with lists of, and some links to, Scholarly Articles, Books & Book Chapters, Cases, Congressional Materials, and Classes Taught at Colorado Law by or about Justice Gorsuch.


A general strategy has been proposed recently to design and study analytically plasmonic devices, such as kissing nanowires, which show unprecedented broadband and nanofocusing properties. These nanostructures result from a conformal transformation applied to infinite plasmonic systems. The conformal transformation tool is powerful since the whole problem is solved in the original frame under the quasistatic approximation. However, this strategy is quite restrictive in perspective of applications since it can only apply to nanostructures of a few tens of nanometers typically 20 nm. In this study, we extend the range of validity of this approach by taking into account radiation damping. The radiative losses are shown to map directly onto the power dissipated by a fictive absorbing particle in the original frame. Whereas only the surface plasmon mode was considered in previous studies, here lossy surface waves are also taken into account. Their counterpart in the transformed frame is shown to contribute predominantly to the radiative losses. The radiative reaction is then taken into account to predict the optical response of the nanostructure beyond the quasistatic limit. Radiative losses are shown to limit the light harvesting process but improve its broadband feature. The field enhancement induced by the nanostructure decreases with the structure dimension but remains significant 10 3 over a major part of the near-infrared and visible spectra. Our analytical model is compared to numerical simulations and a quantitative agreement is found for dimension up to 200 nm.


From healthcare to criminal justice, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly supporting high-consequence human decisions. This has spurred the field of explainable AI (XAI). This paper seeks to strengthen empirical application-specific investigations of XAI by exploring theoretical underpinnings of human decision making, drawing from the fields of philosophy and psychology. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for building human-centered, decision-theory-driven XAI based on an extensive review across these fields. Drawing on this framework, we identify pathways along which human cognitive patterns drives needs for building XAI and how XAI can mitigate common cognitive biases. We then put this framework into practice by designing and implementing an explainable clinical diagnostic tool for intensive care phenotyping and conducting a co-design exercise with clinicians. Thereafter, we draw insights into how this framework bridges algorithm-generated explanations and human decision-making theories. Finally, we discuss implications for XAI design and development.


Abstract Abstract. The orientation of juvenile marsh warblers during autumn migration was investigated at two widely different latitudes, in Sweden and in Kenya, by cage experiments in manipulated magnetic fields during the twilight period after sunset. The objective was to compare responses by birds exposed to different geomagnetic conditions, particularly to the shift in magnetic inclination between the northern and southern hemispheres. Orientation experiments were performed under clear skies and under simulated total overcast. The marsh warblers from the two sites differed markedly in their orientation under clear skies. Marsh warblers in Sweden showed an average orientation in the expected migratory direction (southeast), while in Kenya they oriented towards west-northwest by northwest (significantly different from the sunset point), a direction clearly different from the expected migratory direction in this area (south-southwest). The warblers did not respond in a consistent way to shifts in the magnetic field and they failed to show significant directional tendencies under total overcast conditions, indicating the importance of visual rather than geomagnetic cues for the birds' orientation. In Kenya activity in the orientation cages was strongly reduced under overcast skies in comparison with clear sky conditions. Mean mass and fat deposits of the marsh warblers were much larger in Sweden than in Kenya. These results indicate that migratory marsh warblers captured and tested at different sites along the migration route show markedly different orientational dispositions associated with differences in body condition and migratory strategy.


The Jurassic system in the Williston basin is divided into the thin non-marine Morrison formation at the top and the thick marine Ellis group below. The Ellis group includes the Upper Jurassic Sundance formation and the Middle Jurassic Piper formation. No Lower Jurassic rocks are known. Over most of the basin the Piper overlies Triassic Spearfish rocks, except in the north, where it overlies Mississippian or Devonian. The center of Jurassic deposition was in western North Dakota, and a less important Jurassic basin was in southern Saskatchewan. Grain size and relative amount of clastic material decrease toward the east, and limestones and calcareous shales are more abundant in the areas of thickest accumulation. The lower part of the Piper formation contains red shales and gypsum, and it is commonly difficult to separate it from underlying Triassic strata. Members of the Sundance formation defined in the Black Hills can not now be recognized in the basin, and the Rierdon formation of the Ellis group in Montana is not a readily mappable unit in North Dakota. Oil has been produced in Wyoming and Saskatchewan from rocks equivalent to the Sundance and Piper. Sundance sandstones and Piper limestones have suitable porosity and may be found to be productive on structure elsewhere in the basin. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2617------------


Many social phenomena have a spatio‐temporal dimension and involve dynamic decisions made by individuals. In the past, researchers have often turned to geographic information systems (GIS) to model these interactions. Although GIS provide a powerful tool for examining the spatial aspects of these interactions, they are unable to model the dynamic, individual‐level interactions across time and space. In an attempt to address these issues, some researchers have begun to use simulation models. But these models rely on artificial landscapes that do not take into account the environment in which humans move and interact. This research presents the methodology for 'situating' simulation through the use of a new modeling tool, Agent Analyst, which integrates agent‐based modeling (ABM) and GIS. Three versions of a model of street robbery are presented to illustrate the importance of using 'real' data to inform agent activity spaces and movement. The successful implementation of this model demonstrates that: (1) agents can move along existing street networks; (2) land use patterns can be used to realistically distribute agent's homes and activities across a city; and (3) the incidence and pattern of street robberies is significantly different when 'real' data are used.


We offer a practical unpaired learning based image dehazing network from an unpaired set of clear and hazy images. This paper provides a new perspective to treat image dehazing as a two-class separated factor disentanglement task, i.e, the task-relevant factor of clear image reconstruction and the task-irrelevant factor of haze-relevant distribution. To achieve the disentanglement of these two-class factors in deep feature space, contrastive learning is introduced into a CycleGAN framework to learn disentangled representations by guiding the generated images to be associated with latent factors. With such formulation, the proposed contrastive disentangled dehazing method (CDD-GAN) employs negative generators to cooperate with the encoder network to update alternately, so as to produce a queue of challenging negative adversaries. Then these negative adversaries are trained end-to-end together with the backbone representation network to enhance the discriminative information and promote factor disentanglement performance by maximizing the adversarial contrastive loss. During the training, we further show that hard negative examples can suppress the task-irrelevant factors and unpaired clear exemples can enhance the task-relevant factors, in order to better facilitate haze removal and help image restoration. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that our method performs favorably against existing unpaired dehazing baselines.


For individuals who rely on wheeled mobility devices (WMD), performing transfers is essential to independence with activities of daily living at home and participation in the community. Transfers are required for getting to and from the device to bed, bath tub, car seat, among others. The United States Access Board develops guidelines and maintains design criteria for the built environment to maximize accessibility to public places. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of transfer setup on performance of independent transfers. The first aim of the study was to perform an expert review of the current knowledge regarding transfers and the impact of setup. Results showed a consensus among studies that transferring to a higher surface implies greater exertion of the upper limb. Yet, there is no evidence concerning height differences, horizontal distance, and space needed next to the target surface so it can be accessible by a majority of WMD users. The second aim was to compare the current guidelines for amusement park rides with the results obtained by evaluating the impact of setup on transfer performance using a custom-built transfer station. We evaluated community-dwelling WMD users who were able to transfer independently and who represented a broad spectrum of disabilities. We evaluated the impact of height differential, gap, placement of a non removable armrest, and the effect of a grab bar. Results showed that height differentials above and below WMD height, gaps and obstacles pose serious transfer-related accessibility problems for WMD users. Current guidelines for amusement park rides fall short in terms of height recommendations and space available for the WMD and could exclude up to 72% of our sample. The third aim was to evaluate the relationship between functional performance (i.e. upper limb strength and trunk control) and transfer ability in people with spinal cord injury. Results found that trunk stability and gender are significant predictors of transfer ability. Rehabilitation plans should include balance training and core strengthening in addition to upper limb conditioning when teaching transfer skills. Improving transfer ability has the potential to increase community participation and independence among WMD users.


In ephemeral systems, material subsidies can play a key role in the persistence and connectivity of populations, especially if the organisms living within them are trophically dependent on imported resources. Sandy beaches are heavily subsidized by organic material of both terrestrial and marine origin. For highly mobile supratidal fringe species, such as amphipods, which are marine but with a high tolerance of aerial conditions, such material potentially provides both food and shelter. We investigated the relationship between beach wrack and amphipods by examining the trophic contribution of allochthonous food sources to sandhopper diets using stable isotope analysis. Replicate samples of the sandhopper Talorchestia capensis and several types of beach wrack (including seagrass, wood and different macrophytes) colonized by these amphipods were collected from 11 sites within one biogeographical region along the south coast of South Africa. Analysis of variance showed that the δ13C and δ15N signatures of sandhoppers were significantly affected by the type of wrack with which they were associated, but stable isotope mixing models showed that there was no close relationship between T. capensis diet and the material under which they were found. Thus sandhopper isotope signatures differed with wrack type, but were not clearly derived from wrack. This was interpreted as an indication that amphipod feeding was extremely opportunistic, with different sandhopper populations feeding at different trophic levels (based on δ15N signatures) and obtaining their δ13C signatures from material associated with specific wrack types, rather than directly from the wrack itself or from imported suspended particulate material. These results suggest alternative links in sandy beach food webs, with amphipods obtaining their carbon indirectly from wrack via bacterial communities that are specific to different types of imported material.


The complexity of semiparametric models poses new challenges to statistical inference and model selection that frequently arise from real applications. In this work, we propose new estimation and variable selection procedures for the semiparametric varying-coefficient partially linear model. We first study quantile regression estimates for the nonparametric varying-coefficient functions and the parametric regression coefficients. To achieve nice efficiency properties, we further develop a semiparametric composite quantile regression procedure. We establish the asymptotic normality of proposed estimators for both the parametric and nonparametric parts and show that the estimators achieve the best convergence rate. Moreover, we show that the proposed method is much more efficient than the least-squares-based method for many non-normal errors and that it only loses a small amount of efficiency for normal errors. In addition, it is shown that the loss in efficiency is at most 11.1% for estimating varying coefficient functions and is no greater than 13.6% for estimating parametric components. To achieve sparsity with high-dimensional covariates, we propose adaptive penalization methods for variable selection in the semiparametric varying-coefficient partially linear model and prove that the methods possess the oracle property. Extensive Monte Carlo simulation studies are conducted to examine the finite-sample performance of the proposed procedures. Finally, we apply the new methods to analyze the plasma beta-carotene level data.


Abstract Transition zones are defined as locations where the posted speed limit changes from high- to low-speed. On high-speed two-lane rural highways, transition zones are often encountered when the roadway approaches a built-up area. The purpose of this study was to collect operating speed, roadway, roadside, traffic control, and land use data along two-lane rural highway transition zones in central Pennsylvania. These data were used to estimate passenger car operating speed models, recognizing the hierarchical nature of the data-generating process. The results showed that a three-level model could capture site-level speed variance that could not be captured in a panel data modeling framework; however, the parameter estimates and standard errors were very similar when comparing the model estimation results. It was also found that the presence of horizontal curves, presence of warning signs, the presence of curb, and increased access density were associated with reduced vehicle operating speeds. Increasing the lane width, shoulder width, and lateral clearance to obstructions was associated with increases in vehicle operating speeds. The models estimated in this paper could be used as a starting point to develop transition zone design guidelines.


The importance of introducing and developing of alternative energy in the context of ensuring environmental human rights were analyzed in the article. The role of international governmental and non-governmental environmental organizations in ensuring environmental human rights was identified. The main international legal treaties governing the reduction of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the introduction of renewable energy were analyzed. Attention was drawn to the need to strengthen the role of international governmental and non-governmental organizations within the framework of oversight and monitoring functions regarding the possibility of influencing specific states that do not comply with the provisions of signed and ratified international conventions. It was concluded about the necessary adjustment of the vector of development of environmental rights protection instruments in the direction of its world globalization. To date, the process of world globalization must be shifted from a purely economic to a social and environmental one. The current global concept of supporting the development of alternative energy sources needs to undergo some changes. Considering that the environmental problem is universal and, although to varying degrees, it still applies to every individual, regardless of country or nationality of a person, the obligation to protect the environment should be universal and not only provided by government bodies of sovereign states, but also by international governmental organizations. The position of the necessity of establishing of international financing funds which would be implemented by their Member States on a permanent basis as a percentage of their budget is being maintained. Expanding the power of controlling entities of international organizations in respect of environmental human rights of citizens of different countries and of the whole society is considered necessary.
 Keywords: alternative energy, environmental human rights, international protection of environmental human rights, international governmental and non-governmental environmental organizations


The authors present the case history of a child with neuroblastoma and early infiltration of the orbit accompanied by bilateral blindness. The typical clinical signs developed later. The thickening of the periosteum infiltrated by the tumor in the lateral wall of the orbit was demonstrated by computerized tomography. This may be regarded as an early sign of infiltration of the orbit by the neuroblastoma. In the case reported here a severe inflammatory reaction developed in the left orbit and anterior segment during massive chemotherapy and melted the cornea.


Tenalisib (RP6530), a dual phosphoinositide 3-kinase δ/γ inhibitor was evaluated in a phase I/Ib study for maximum tolerated dose (MTD), pharmacokinetics, and efficacy in patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral and cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (TCL). Histologically confirmed (TCL) patients, with ≥1 prior therapy received Tenalisib orally in a 28-day cycle in doses of 200 to 800 mg twice daily (800 mg in fasting and fed state) in escalation phase (n = 19) and 800 mg twice daily (fasting) in expansion phase (n = 39). The most frequently reported treatment emergent adverse events (TEAE) and related TEAE were fatigue (45%) and transaminase elevations (33%), respectively. Most frequently reported related Grade ≥3 TEAE was transaminase elevation (21%). Two dose-limiting toxicities occurred in the 800 mg fed cohort; hence, 800 mg fasting dose was deemed MTD. Tenalisib was absorbed rapidly with a median half-life of 2.28 h. Overall response rate in 35 evaluable patients was 45.7% (3 complete response (CR); 13 partial response (PR)) and median duration of response was 4.9 months. Responding tumors showed a marked downregulation of CD30, IL-31 and IL-32α. With an acceptable safety and promising clinical activity, Tenalisib can be a potential therapeutic option for relapsed/refractory TCL. Currently, a phase I/II combination study with romidepsin is ongoing.


PURPOSE
Telemedicine is increasingly utilized in the evaluation of critically ill patients, including those with decreased level of consciousness (LOC) or coma. Improving access to providers with neurologic expertise affords earlier triage and directed patient management. However, objective data regarding the reliability of using standardized coma scales, traditionally employed at the bedside for remote assessment, are largely lacking.

HYPOTHESIS
Bedside and remote assessments of patients with decreased LOC, using either the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) or Full scale Of UnResponsiveness (FOUR), score are equivalent.

METHODS
Prospective trial comparing the reliability of bedside and remote coma assessments using GCS or FOUR score clinical evaluation tools utilizing robotic telepresence technology. Total scores of the GCS and FOUR score were compared between bedside and remote physician assessors by paired t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC).

RESULTS
One hundred subjects were enrolled. Mean age was 70.8 (±15.9) years and the average examination time took 5.16 (±2.04) minutes. Mean GCS total score at bedside was 7.5 (±3.67) versus examination conducted remotely 7.23 (±3.85); difference in scores was 0.25 (±0.10); p = 0.01. Mean FOUR total score at bedside was 9.63 (±4.76) versus remote 9.21 (±4.74); difference in scores was 0.40 (±2.00); p = 0.05. PCC for GCS was 0.966; p < 0.001, and for FOUR score 0.912; p < 0.001. Ninety-five percent of remote providers rated GCS and 89% rated FOUR score as good (4/5) regarding overall satisfaction and ease of use.

CONCLUSIONS
Differences between total bedside and remote GCS and FOUR scores were small. Furthermore, PCCs between remote and bedside assessments were excellent: 0.97 (GCS) and 0.91 (FOUR). These results suggest that LOC can be reliably assessed using existing robotic telemedicine technology. Telemedicine could be adopted to help evaluate critically ill patients in neurologically underserved areas.


A research is done to characterize the microporous structure of outgoing and thermally modified (673 K, 180 min) plant-extracted carbon material. The porous system characteristics are worked out by different methods on low temperature (77K) N2 adsorption-desorption based isotherm. It is stated that thermal modification contributes to the enlargement of specific       surface (from 361 m2/g to 673 m2/g), an increase in total pore volume (from 0,166 cm3/g                    to 0,477 cm3/g) and an increase in micropore volume (from 0,127 cm3/g to 0,173 cm3/g). Most effectively thermal modification  is apt to form nanopores with diameters of 0,75; 1,25 and 4 nm.


Abstract. Stratosphere-to-troposphere transport (STT) is the dominant natural source of tropospheric ozone, which can occasionally influence ground-level ozone concentrations relevant for air quality. Here, we analyse and evaluate the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) global and regional forecast systems during a deep STT event over Europe for the time period from 04 to 09 January 2017. The predominant synoptic condition is described by a deep upper level trough over eastern and central Europe favouring the formation of tropopause folding events along the jet stream axis and therefore the intrusion of stratospheric ozone into the troposphere. Both global and regional CAMS forecast products reproduce the hook-shaped streamer of ozone-rich and dry air in the middle troposphere depicted from the observed satellite images of water vapor. The CAMS global model successfully reproduces the folding of the tropopause at various European sites, such as Trapani (Italy), where a deep folding down to 550 hPa is seen. The stratospheric ozone intrusions into the troposphere observed by WOUDC ozonesonde and IAGOS aircraft measurements are satisfactorily forecasted up to three days in advance by CAMS global model in terms of both temporal and vertical features of ozone. The fractional gross error (FGE) of CAMS ozone Day-1 forecast between 300 and 500 hPa is 0.13 over Prague, while over Frankfurt is 0.04 and 0.19, highlighting the contribution of data assimilation which in most cases improves the model performance. Finally, the meteorological/chemical forcing of CAMS global forecast system in the CAMS regional forecast systems is found to be beneficial for predicting the enhanced ozone concentrations in the middle troposphere during a deep STT event.


The major objective of this study is to estimate the technical efficiencies and technological gap of wheat farms in the major wheat producing areas of Sudan, namely Northern, River Nile, Gezira, and Kassala States of Sudan. A total sample of 951 wheat farms was selected and surveyed in the whole country during 2013. Non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model has been applied to measure the technical efficiency and technological gaps among the regions by means of metafrontier approach. Results show that there is significant inefficiency in wheat farms. The estimated average technical efficiencies with respect to group frontiers for Gezira, Kassala, Northern and River Nile are: 0.52, 0.61, 0.48 and 0.41, respectively. The average technological gap ratios for Gezira, Kassala, Northern and River Nile were 0.82, 0.50, 0.75 and 0.92, respectively. Therefore, the Kassala farms frontier has the most distant to the metafrontier, while the Gezira, Northern and River Nile frontiers have the closest. Our results suggest that farms in the Gezira, Northern, and River Nile regions could improve their productivity through more efficient use of inputs using the existing technologies such as sowing, fertilizer application, irrigation water scheduling, and harvesting at the right time. In contrast, improved technologies generation and dissemination such as integrated pest management in the Kassala region are required to improve wheat productivity.


Background & objectives: Aflatoxin M1 and M2 (AFM1 and AFM2) are secondary toxic metabolite of molds excreted into livestock milk and dairy products when animal consume feedstuffs contaminated with AFB1 and AFB2. Considering the importance of taking dairy products in human diet, the present study was carried out to determine AFM1 of pasteurized Kashk (industrial liquid) in Tehran Metropolitan. Materials & Methods: Totally, 32 industrial liquid Kashk samples (eight brands with four different dates of production) were purchased from supermarkets of Tehran and were analyzed using High Performance Liquid chromatography (HPLC) and immunoaffinity columns. Results: In this study, 90.62% of samples (mean: 60.17 ± 75.48 ppt) were contaminated with AFM1. The concentration of AFM1 in 20.68% of samples were higher than Iranian national standard limits (100 ppt). Comparison of different brands showed that brand B with the mean 99.09 ± 158.47 ppt and brand G with the mean 21.27 ± 16.91 ppt had the highest and lowest level of contamination respectively, however, the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Considering contamination of more than half of the samples with AFM1 and the point that even low level of aflatoxin can be a serious problem for human health, therefore, continuous control of dairy products and preventive proceedings such as avoidance of using moldy feedstuffs for livestock is suggested.


BACKGROUND
Intradialytic hypotension is mainly induced by the removal of extracellular sodium during dialysis, which impairs intravascular fluid refilling and reduces blood volume. To counter this complication we tested a new kind of profiled hemodialysis (PHD) consisting of the intradialytic modulation of dialysate sodium concentration according to individual profiles set up using a new mathematical model for intradialytic solutes and water kinetics. The clinical aim of this PHD is to stabilize blood pressure maintaining higher blood volume values than standard dialysis treatments. We clinically validated PHD in comparison with constant dialysate sodium dialysis (CHD).

METHODS
Twenty hypotensive dialysis patients underwent one PHD and one CHD session maintaining the same dialysis length, sodium mass removal and body weight decrease. A new mathematical model was used to define both the dialysate sodium profiles for PHD and the constant dialysate sodium for CHD. Percent blood volume variation (Crit-line), mean blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output (Doppler-echocardiography) were monitored intradialitically.

RESULTS
Cardiovascular stability improved on PHD as compared with CHD sessions; blood volume and cardiac output during PHD showed a lower decrease than on CHD, the differences statistically significant (from 30' and 60' respectively). Mean blood pressure was, at all time intervals, more stable on PHD than on CHD and was accompanied, on PHD, by a lower heart rate increase (differences statistically significant).

CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that PHD performed using dialysate sodium profiles elaborated by our mathematical model obtains, in hypotensive patients, a higher hemodynamic intradialytic stability than CHD, probably due to a higher stabilization of blood volume.


Sports reporters depend on access to events and sources as much or more than any other news professional. Over the past few years, some sports organizations have attempted to restrict such access, as well as what reporters can publish via social media. In the digital era, access and publishing autonomy, as institutionalized concepts, are evolving rapidly. Hypotheses tying access and work practices to reporters' perceptions of the legitimacy they experience are developed and tested via a structural equation model, using responses to a survey of journalists in American intercollegiate athletics and observed dimensions of access and autonomy to measure a latent variable of legitimacy. The model suggests that reporters have mixed views about whether they possess the legitimacy they need to do their jobs.


In conclusion, a variety of experimental evidence suggests roles for serotonin and the catecholamine neurotransmitters in key phases of nervous system development, such as neural-tube formation, proliferation of neuronal precursor cells, and gliogenesis. This raises the possibility that psychoactive drugs of use and abuse which act via these neurotransmitters could, if taken by a woman at an appropriate stage of pregnancy, influence the developing embryonic nervous system by interfering with the synthesis, uptake, or metabolism of these compounds during critical periods of neural ontogeny.


T H E publication of this study of "Talmudic Judaism in the Making"—as the book is subtitled—by one of the foremost scholars of ancient Judaism is sure to result in a more sympathetic and knowledgeable understanding of the nature and origins of that faith by those who stand outside the tradition. Drawing on his multi-volume History of the Jews in Babylonia, Neusner seeks to give a dynamic view of orthodox Judaism between about 100 B.C. and A.D. 640, centering his study on three basic concepts: power—how social patterns were effected and maintained; myth—why people did what they did; and function—how things worked. This nontechnical, moderately priced paperback may become a standard textbook in church, college, seminary, and perhaps even synagogue.


This paper describes a signal detection algorithm based on Dempster-Shafer theory. The detector combines evidence provided by multiple waveform features and explicitly considers uncertainty in the detection decision. The detector classifies waveforms as including a signal, not including a signal, or being uncertain, in which case no conclusion regarding presence or absence of a signal is drawn. The probability numbers required in the Dempster-Shafer formulation are defined as piecewise linear functions that can be described by two parameters, and the effects of these parameters on detector performance, using simulated data, are compared to Bayesian detection and to a fuzzy signal detector that also considers uncertainty. The performance of the Dempster-Shafer and fuzzy detectors shows similar dependence on the parameters, although, if parameters are adjusted so that the number of correctly classified waveforms are equal, the Dempster-Shafer detector has more uncertain classifications and fewer errors than the fuzzy detector, providing superior performance. The Dempster-Shafer detector incorporates a different type of uncertainty than the fuzzy detector, which may contribute to this difference in performance. The difference may also reflect the different mathematical operations used.


In a revealing expression and feeling, the author uses an analysis with the meaning of the lyrics of the song created. This final paper contains about racial equality described in the lyrics of Michael Jackson's "Black or White". The writer interests in discussing racial equality because this topic is very important among people of color, especially this has been experienced by such famous pop singer Michael Jackson who used to be blacks. This discussion intends to illustrate the points of race equality expressed by Michael Jackson through the lyrics of the song "Black or White". The writer uses a method of library research, so the writer uses books or libraries, music and lyric scrutining, recording, articles, flash media interviews and additional references in the search on the internet to collect data. The analysis in this final paper raises the Popular Culture of Culturalism theory presented by John Storey. The result shows that Michael Jackson expresses his feelings against the differences between races, especially African-Americans in her private life through a piece of song lyrics.


As a major pollutant source to urban receiving waters, the non-point source pollution from urban runoff needs to be well studied and effectively controlled. Based on monitoring data from urban runoff pollutant sources, this article describes a systematic estimation of total pollutant loads from the urban areas of Beijing. A numerical model was developed to quantify main pollutant loads of urban runoff in Beijing. A sub-procedure is involved in this method, in which the flush process influences both the quantity and quality of stormwater runoff. A statistics-based method was applied in computing the annual pollutant load as an output of the runoff. The proportions of pollutant from point-source and non-point sources were compared. This provides a scientific basis for proper environmental input assessment of urban stormwater pollution to receiving waters, improvement of infrastructure performance, implementation of urban stormwater management, and utilization of stormwater.


Characteristics of specific inflammation induced by intradental challenge with mycobacteria (MB) were studied cytologically and bacterioscopically. Mycobacterium tuberculosis hominis and bovis, BCG, atypical M. fortuitum in the 5th dilution by turbidity standard were administered into the root canals of a tooth and pulp cavities of 16 mongrel dogs (body mass 13-16 kg, age 1-4 years). Investigation of the dogs' organs and paradental tissues revealed that MB underwent L-transformation the speed of which depended on the species. Cellular reactions were also related to the agent species and form of vegetation. Cytobacterioscopic tests are proposed as additional diagnostic means and to validate therapeutic policy.


We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural codes for representing stimulus information held in different states of priority in working memory. Human participants (male and female) performed delayed recall for 2 oriented gratings that could appear in any of several locations. Priority status was manipulated by a retrocue, such that one became the prioritized memory item (PMI) and another the unprioritized memory item (UMI). Using inverted encoding models (IEMs), we found that, in early visual cortex, the orientation of the UMI was represented in a neural representation that was rotated relative to the PMI. In intraparietal sulcus (IPS), we observed the analogous effect for the representation of the location of the UMI. Taken together, these results provide evidence for a common remapping mechanism that may be responsible for representing stimulus identity and stimulus context with different levels of priority in working memory.


hospitals. In some hospitals induction for growth retardation is performed only after antenatal cardiotocography has shown some abnormality of the fetal heart rate.3 As the oxytocin stress test becomes more routine, the risks of inadvertent induction of antepartum haemorrhage in unsuspected cases of placenta praevia increase. In view of the danger of producing haemorrhage it would be advantageous not to perform an oxytocin stress test on patients in whom placenta praevia is suspected. K H NG W P WONG


OBJECTIVE
To assess the diagnostic utility of expanded case definitions for HIV-associated smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and extra-pulmonary TB (EPTB), and to derive objective criteria for response to anti-tuberculosis treatment.

DESIGN
A prospective cohort study of HIV-infected adults who met expanded clinical case definitions for smear-negative PTB and EPTB.

METHODS
All participants were started on rifampicin-based anti-tuberculosis treatment after mycobacterial cultures from multiple sites. At weeks 2, 4 and 8, response to treatment (RTT) was assessed by measuring changes in weight, haemoglobin, C-reactive protein, Karnofsky performance score and symptom count ratio.

RESULTS
Of 147 participants enrolled, 105 (71%) were diagnosed with definite (culture-positive) or probable (histological features) TB and 25 (17%) with possible TB (treatment response). The positive predictive value for the most common case definitions ranged from 89% to 96%. Significant improvements in all the RTT parameters occurred in the subjects with confirmed TB (P < 0.001). Clinically relevant RTT criteria were derived, two or more of which were met at week 8 in 97.5% of subjects with confirmed TB, 91.3% of subjects with possible TB and none of the subjects without TB.

CONCLUSION
Expanded case definitions could enhance the diagnosis of PTB and EPTB in HIV-infected adults in resource-limited settings. Using objective criteria, RTT can be assessed within 8 weeks of initiating anti-tuberculosis treatment.


Empirical data on the nature of disease were systematized and summarized in Part 1. In Part 2 the same problem is addressed by the deductive method from the general biological and philosophical standpoint. Methodological assessment of the most popular definitions of the disease is undertaken along with expanded medico-philosophical interpretation of the notion of disease as an anthropological phenomenon including its applied aspects.


During a scientific examination in July 1999 both crypts below the St. Martin's Church in Grünstadt, Germany, were opened and 9 coffins from the county family of Leiningen examined. This paper is concentrating on one of these persons: Georg Hermann (1679-1751), count of Leiningen-Westerburg-Altleiningen, who gave during the 18. century the city its barock character. He was also responsible for the rebuilding of the church. His skeleton revealed interesting pathological changes. Few years before his death the count had the accident to get run over by a heavy wagon which crushed the distal part of his legs. The fractures healed, but gave him an ancylotic and shortened left leg, which must have caused him a lot of suffering in his last years.


A simulation study was conducted to examine the profitability of three 'alternative futures' for a dairy farm facing declining terms of trade. The approach involved a case study farm, input from a steering committee and whole farm analysis involving modelling the systems over time. This
provided the necessary insight into the complexity of the system, its management and effects of change on profit, liquidity, wealth and risk. The objective of the study was to compare the performance of a dairy farm business where the farm management system remained largely
unchanged over a medium-term planning period (10 years) with alternative futures' that involved modest changes to the farm management system. It was expected that the farm needed to change
to remain viable. The results showed that if the farm remained operating under status quo conditions, it would not be profitable, liquidity would deteriorate and equity would decline. The two options explored to maintain or increase profitability and liquidity in the face of a continuing costprice squeeze produced better outcomes and resulted in greater wealth accumulation than the 'do nothing different' case. The 'change' options involved improving pasture consumption by the milking herd and expanding the pastured milking area to reduce the need to purchase feed. The key measures used to assess business performance were annual operating profit, nominal internal rate of return (IRR), annual net cash flow and the value of the owners' capital in year 10. With change to the
system, annual operating profit increased, on average, by at least 3 times, the nominal IRR increased 2.3 percentage units, annual net cash flow increased $238,000 and owners wealth increased $3 million for the alternative futures investigated. Furthermore, these improved performances were achieved without markedly increasing overall risk


A special two-soliton solution of sine-Gordon equation is obtained by using the Hirota direct method. It is shown in a mass-centre system how two kinks move and interact with each other.


An increased association between neuroendocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas (GEP-NET) and other second primary malignancies has been suggested. We determined whether there is indeed an increased risk for second primary malignancies in GEP-NET patients compared with an age- and sex-matched control group of patients with identical malignancies. The series comprised 243 men and 216 women, diagnosed with a GEP-NET between 2000 and 2009 in a tertiary referral center. The timeline, before-at-after diagnosis, and the type of other malignancies were studied using person-year methodology. Poisson distributions were used for testing statistical significance. All data were cross-checked with the Dutch National Cancer Registry. Out of 459 patients with GEP-NET, 67 (13.7%) had a second primary cancer diagnosis: 25 previous cancers (5.4%), 13 synchronous cancers (2.8%), and 29 metachronous cancers (6.3%). The most common types of second primary cancer were breast cancer (n=10), colorectal cancer (n=8), melanoma (n=6), and prostate cancer (n=5). The number of patients with a cancer history was lower than expected, although not significant (n=25 vs n=34.5). The diagnosis of synchronous cancers, mainly colorectal tumors, was higher than expected (n=13 vs n=6.1, P<0.05). Metachronous tumors occurred as frequent as expected (n=29 vs n=25.2, NS). In conclusion, our results are in contrast to previous studies and demonstrate that only the occurrence of synchronous second primary malignancies, mainly colorectal cancers, is increased in GEP-NET patients compared with the general population.


Accepted on: 02/04/2015 ABSTRACT Tagore's humanism is mainly expressed through his concept of inter-personal (I and thou) relationship. I shall discuss here Tagore's humanism vis-à-vis inter-personal relationship. In order to expound this idea, I shall embark on his concept of man; man the finite and man the infinite, man within bounds and man the boundless. Tagore has reflected comprehensively and intensely on the ontological status of man in idiosyncratic dimensions and the revelation of the meaning in relation (a) to nature and (b) to modes of inter-personal relationship. I have also discussed the role of language in understanding inter-personal relationship, and finally arrive at the conclusion that the inter-personal relationship of I and thou takes the form of intra-personal relationship of I am thou.


Case Report A 39 year old lady presented to the ER with multiple episodes of dizziness associated with sweating and breathlessness for three days. An episode of near syncope prompted her to visit the ER. On examination, her pulse was 66/min, regular with a blood pressure of 100/60 mm Hg and no postural drop. She was afebrile with a respiratory rate of 18/min. Examination of the cardiovascular system revealed a S1 and S2 of normal intensity and absence of any murmurs. The rest of the clinical examination was normal. ECG showed a sinus pause with narrow complex escape junctional rhythm with a ventricular rate of 68/min, which was regular with retrograde conduction of P wave seen overlying the ST segment. The axis was normal. Patient's clinical findings were suggestive of episodes of low cardiac output state most likely due to bradycardia, which on electrocardiogram seemed to be caused by sinus node dysfunction. Laboratory data including electrolytes and TSH were within normal limits. Connective tissue diseases workup was unremarkable. A detailed history revealed that the patient was taking an herbal medicine supplement named "Focus Factor" for the past three months in order to enhance her memory, as marketed by the company. "Focus Factor" contains natural vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids and in addition, three herbal extracts, namely bacopa, huperzine and vinpocetine. A meticulous research revealed that huperzine is known to have cholinesterase inhibition effects that enhance the parasympathetic system, which likely explains the sinus node dysfunction. This alternative medication was stopped and the patient was observed in a telemetry unit. The patient continued to be in junctional rhythm but gradually reverted to sinus rhythm in 48 hours. Since then, the patient has remained asymptomatic on outpatient follow-up and continues to refrain from this herbal product. The cause of this patient's symptomatic bradycardia was attributed to the use of the herbal medication. To our knowledge this is the first case report linking the product "Focus Factor" to symptomatic bradycardia. The potentially life-threatening side effects of some unregulated herbal supplements warrant careful review of their use and marketing.


Simulation models are proposed to predict the transmission performances and the signal integrity of single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles in the frequency and time domain. The multiconductor transmission line approach is used for the computation of the common mode responses of bundles made by a different number of conductive nanotubes in the frequency range up to 10 GHz. The eye-diagram is the tool to verify the time-domain characteristics of the bundle excited by a digital voltage source with a capacity of 5 Gbit/s. A reduced- order model is developed for the analysis of the cross-talk between SWCNT bundles inside the same rope.


The effect of sodium salicylate (NaSal) on the formation and properties of wormlike micelles in aqueous solutions of 2-hydroxyl-propanediyl-α,ω-bis(dimethyldodecylammonium bromide) (12-3(OH)-12) and propanediyl-α,ω-bis(dimethyldodecylammonium bromide) (12-3-12) at a surfactant concentration of 50 mmol·L-1 was investigated using steady-state and frequency sweep rheological measurements. In the absence of a salt, 12-3(OH)-12 or 12-3-12 only produced spherical or small rod-like micelles at 50 mmol·L-1. The addition of NaSal promoted micellar growth yielding wormlike micelles in both systems. 12-3(OH)-12 showed a more sensitive response to the added NaSal compared with 12-3-12 and formed wormlike micelles at relatively lower salt concentrations. Moreover, the wormlike micelles formed by 12-3(OH)-12 were longer than those formed by 12-3-12, resulting in higher viscosity for the former solution. These were attributed to the hydrogen bonding interactions between the hydroxyl substituted spacers in the 12-3(OH)-12 system, which increased hydration on the aggregate surface and stimulated the dissociation of counterions. The higher charge on the 12-3(OH)-12 micellar surface was strongly associated with Sal-, which led to a tighter packing of the surfactant molecules in the micelles and thus strengthened the intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions and effectively reinforced the growth of the 12-3(OH)-12 micelles.


Though researchers have employed various techniques (gravimetric, electromagnetic, neutron scattering, heat pulse, micro-wave and optical remote sensing techniques) for soil moisture measurement, dielectric based techniques (Time Domain Reflectometry, TDR, and capacitance technique, CT) have gained much more popularity, mainly due to revolutionary developments in the field of electronics and data communication systems. However, suitability and relative performance of these techniques for moisture measurement of soils is a point of debate. Hence, in order to address this issue, extensive studies were conducted on the soils of entirely different characteristics, compacted at various compaction states (dry density and water content) by employing TDR and capacitance probes. Subsequently, the dielectric constant of the soil and its bulk electrical conductivity were obtained using these probes and compared against each other and that computed from Topp's equation, which is a well-established relationship between the dielectric constant of the soil and its volumetric moisture content. An attempt was also made to correlate Ka values obtained from the dielectric techniques and Topp's equation with that of Time Propagation (TP) mixing model, which incorporates in it the properties of the soil matrix as well. It has been observed that Ka-TDR matches well with the Ka-Topp and Ka-TP, while the best match has been observed between Ka-TDR and Ka- Topp as compared to the Ka-CT. As such, the study demonstrates, clearly, that Topp's equation, which ignores the soil specific parameters, is capable of determining the soil moisture content appropriately . This study proposes an empirical equation which relates dielectric constants obtained from Topp's equation to those obtained from the TDR, capacitance technique and TP mixing model. Such a relationship can be further utilized for estimating the volumetric soil moisture content.


This essay argues that according to feminist existential phenomenology, feminist pragmatism, and feminist genealogy, our embodied condition is an important starting place for ethical living due to the inevitable role that habits play in our conduct. In bodies, the phenomenon of habit uniquely holds together the ambiguities of freedom and determinism, transcendence and immanence, and stability and plasticity. Seeing habit formation as a matter of self-growth and social justice gives fresh opportunity for thinking of "assuming ambiguity" as a lifelong endeavor made up of many small projects and practices of situated resistance to stagnation. Transcendence, understood as ameliorative transformation, is found in cultivating habits of learning from our bodily living. I articulate this argument via a reading of Simone de Beauvoir's The Coming of Age, John Dewey's Human Nature and Conduct, and Ladelle McWhorter's Bodies and Pleasures. I discuss two domains wherein the ethical significance of habit formation appears: cognitive psychological research on neural plasticity, and certain projects of self-cultivation that risk turning into overdetermining "cult of the self" practices that close off possibilities for personal and collective transformation.


There are many different visual display devices used in virtual environment (VE) systems. These displays vary along many dimensions, such as resolution, field of view, level of immersion, quality of stereo, and so on. In general, no guidelines exist to choose an appropriate display for a particular VE application. Our goal in this work is to develop such guidelines on the basis of empirical results. We present two initial experiments comparing head-mounted displays with a workbench display and a foursided spatially immersive display. The results indicate that the physical characteristics of the displays, users' prior experiences, and even the order in which the displays are presented can have significant effects on performance.


In his classic study, The Dialectics of Creation, Michael Lieb foregrounds the myriad ways in which Milton uses scatology throughout Paradise Lost to describe the depravity of the devil. But Satan is not the only character in the epic to be associated with excretion. Milton's angels and Milton's God are also implicated in the operations of the lower bodily stratum. In these instances, however, allusions to the evacuative functions attest to an exalted divinity rather than a disgusting diabolism. Evacuation in Paradise Lost is thus a highly complex signifier. Not simply a pejorative pointing inevitably at a damnable degradation, scatology can also signal a sublime goodness. This essay draws upon humoral theory and socio‐cultural studies of manners to both emphasize and account for the richly multivalent meaning of evacuation in Milton's epic.


Composite Truss has several benefits such as rapid construction and low span/depth ratio and is a competitive structure shape of span length having 12m to 18m. However, developed countries become aware that additional research is needed to analyze fire behavior for tall buildings after the September 11th attacks. This research is conducted to carry the experimental study of fire behavior of composite truss which was used in the World Trade Center. This study examined thermal resistance behavior of the composite truss system. The following conclusions were obtained based on the results of the tests. As the loading stress decreased, the specimens took more time in reaching their structural deflection limits. Truss-sheathing was found to contribute to lower temperature increases as well as higher thermal resistance. Deflection of the composite truss system took place with varying degrees depending on loading ratio. Thermal-resistant sheathing, however, was found to delay the deflection.


A collection and oral history of 3-finger style bluegrass banjo player Jim Smoak by 2013 Appalachian Sound Archive Fellow Joe O'Connell.


The occurrence of an emergent need for aspirin therapy in an aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-"allergic" individual presents one of the more challenging situations the allergist may face. A common request is for the allergist to evaluate an acutely ill patient in a monitored hospitalized setting with a vague and remote history of a "reaction to aspirin." Because of significant diagnostic limitations, introducing aspirin can be very difficult. The concern about the potential for causing anaphylaxis in an acutely ill patient can lead to fear about performing any challenge or desensitization in these patients. The objective of this article was to review the literature regarding aspirin challenges and desensitization in the emergency setting and present a rational approach to administering aspirin to patients that require this drug.


DELCHEV, G., and T. BARAKOVA, 2018. Efficacy of herbicides and herbicide combinations at sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench.). Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 24 (Suppl. 1): 33–39 In the period 2012-2014 a field experiment was carried out with sorghum hybrid Arcansiel (Sorghum bicolor Moench.). A total of 4 soil-applied herbicides were tested Tender EC (S-metholachlor), Silba SC (S-metholachlor + terbuthylazine), Sharpen 33 EC (pendimethalin) and Wing P (dimethenamid + pendimethalin) and 4 vegetation-applied herbicides Casper 55 WG (prosulfuron + dicamba), Cambio SL (bentazone + dicamba), Camix 560 SE (S-metholachlor + mesotrione) and Maton 600 EK (2.4-D ester). In all variants seeds were treated with the herbicide antidote Concep III (fluxofenin) to protect sorghum from the phytotoxic effect of antigraminaceous herbicides. Soil-applied herbicides Tender, Silba, Sharpen and Wing have high efficacy against annual weeds in grain sorghum grown by Concep technology. Vegetation-applied herbicides Casper, Cambio and Maton have very high efficacy against all broadleaved weeds. Herbicide Camix is the only vegetation-applied herbicide, which can control secondary weeding of annual graminaceous weeds in sorghum which seeds are treated with herbicide antidote Concep III. The combinations between soil-applied and vegetation-applied herbicides control successfully all groups of weeds with the exception of perennial graminaceous weeds from rhizomes. Herbicide Camix causes poor phytotoxicity in sorghum plants. Use of herbicide combinations Silba + Casper and Wing + Cambio result in obtaining high grain yields of sorghum. High grain yields are also obtained through the use of herbicide combinations Silba + Cambio, Sharpen + Cambio, Tender + Casper and Wing + Casper. Combining Camix and Maton with soil-applied herbicides leads to lower grain yields.


A 2007 WTERT survey (1) showed that the global waste-to-energy capacity (WTE) increased in the period 2001–2007 by about 4 million metric tons per annum. By far, the principal technology used globally for energy recovery from municipal solid wastes is combustion of "as received" MSW on moving grates ("mass burn" or stocker technology). The three dominant grate technologies, by Martin, Von Roll, and Keppel-Seghers, represent about 75% of the total growth in capacity. In the same period, Japan and China built several plants that were based either on the direct smelting or on fluid bed combustion of solid wastes. In China, there have been some mass-burn new plants and also over forty circulating fluid bed WTEs, using technologies developed by the Institute of Thermal Power Engineering of Zhejiang University and by the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. WTE technologies in China are actively supported by the national and local governments and many more plants are projected as sprawling cities are running out of landfill space. Japan is the largest user of thermal treatment of MSW in the world (40 million tonnes) and some of the newest plants use stoker technology, such as the Hiroshima WTE designed by the famous architect Taniguchi and the Sendai WTE that uses advanced oxygen enrichment technology. However, there are also over 100 thermal treatment plants based on relatively novel processes. The Direct Smelting and the Ebara fluid bed technologies developed in Japan require pre-processing of the MSW, combust the resulting syngas to generate steam, and produce a vitrified residue. The Thermoselect Gasification and Melting technology, originally developed in Europe, has been adopted successfully in seven Japanese facilities by JFE, a company with extensive experience both in high temperature metal processing and with various MSW thermal treatment technologies, including mass burn. This paper also includes a brief report on the results of a study by WTERT on ways to increase beneficial uses of WTE ash in the U.S.© 2008 ASME


Proper training and analytics in eSports require accurately collected and annotated data. Most eSports research focuses exclusively on in-game data analysis, and there is a lack of prior work involving eSports athletes' psychophysiological data. In this paper, we present a dataset collected from professional and amateur teams in 22 matches in League of Legends video game. Recorded data include the players' physiological activity, e.g. movements, pulse, saccades, obtained from various sensors, self-reported after-match survey, and in-game data. An important feature of the dataset is simultaneous data collection from five players, which facilitates the analysis of sensor data on a team level. Upon the collection of dataset we carried out its validation. In particular, we demonstrate that stress and concentration levels for professional players are less correlated, meaning more independent playstyle. Also, we show that the absence of team communication does not affect the professional players as much as amateur ones. To investigate other possible use cases of the dataset, we have trained classical machine learning algorithms for skill prediction and player re-identification using 3-minute sessions of sensor data. Best models achieved 0.856 and 0.521 (0.10 for a chance level) accuracy scores on a validation set for skill prediction and player re-id problems, respectively. The dataset is available at https://github.com/asmerdov/eSports Sensors Dataset.


The importance of space charge in solid dielectrics has been recognized for a long time. Over the years many attempts have been made to observe its dynamics in solid dielectrics. Significant development in measurement techniques has emerged two decades ago. In this paper several popular non-destructive techniques are briefly reviewed, followed by description of some advanced space charge measurement facilities housed in our laboratory. The selected results obtained over the years will be presented. It has been found that the interfaces play important role in space charge formation in addition to the bulk materials. Electrical ageing of polymeric materials under dc condition has been extensively studied and the technique has been extended to XLPE power cables. Recent work on ac ageing of polymeric materials has clearly indicated that ageing under high ac electric field results in the formation of space charge and these charges are very stable, indicating the formation of deep traps due to ac ageing. The impurities in the materials have significant influence on space charge formation and dynamics while the morphological feature of the material however has less effect on space charge. Simulation based on a bipolar charge model shows a good agreement with experimental results.


Transformation of NIH/3T3 cells by Kirsten murine sarcoma virus (MSV) caused a dramatic reduction in the number of cell-surface receptors for epidermal growth factor (EGF). However, the number of EGF receptors remained at a very low level in a non-tumourigenic revertant cell line isolated from the virus-transformed cells, indicating that an increase in EGF receptors is not a requirement for the phenotypic reversion of Kirsten MSV-transformed 3T3 cells. Serum-free conditioned medium from normal and virus-transformed cell lines contained similar amounts of cell growth-promoting activity as assayed by the ability to stimulate DNA synthesis in quiescent Swiss 3T3 cell cultures. However, the concentrated conditioned medium from these cell lines showed no evidence of beta-transforming growth factor (TGF) activity as assayed by promotion of anchorage-independent growth of untransformed normal rat kidney (NRK) fibroblasts in agarose. The cellular release of alpha-TGF activity was assayed by measuring the ability of concentrated conditioned medium to inhibit the binding of 125I-EGF to Swiss 3T3 cells. Conditioned medium protein from the virus-transformed cell line inhibited 125I-EGF binding but only to the same extent as conditioned medium protein prepared from the untransformed cell line. The alpha-TGF secretion by these cell lines was estimated to be 30-45-fold lower than the level of alpha-TGF released by a well-characterized alpha-TGF-producing cell line (3B11). These results suggest that the induction of TGF release is not a necessary event in the transformation of NIH/3T3 cells by Kirsten MSV.


the nature of an arrhythmia and disturbances of conduction. The long controversy on the question whether or not -the tracing obtained with, limb leads represents an algebraic sum of the separate ventricular effects is held to be settled conclusively, and in the affirmative, by the partial electrocardiogram. The second part of vol. i deals with the pathological tracing. and here the chief novelty will be found in the diagnosis of local myocardial disease by means of the partial electrocardiogram. It may be noted in passing that the author subscribes to the modern terminology of bundle-branch block and ventricular extrasystoles. The significance of, and the mechanism involved in, the changes in the T wave are discussed at length, and here again the partial electrocardiogram, Professor Groedel asserts, will give additional evidence of value. Vol. ii consists entirely of tracings which illustrate the text of the first part; on the 200 plates are produced first-class tracings without exception. This book can appeal only to a few; it demands a good knowledge both of clinical cardiology and of the electrophysics of myocardial activity, while the rather poor arrangemenit of the material adds to the difficulty of translation. However, all students of the electrocardiogranm will find the author's arguments provocative, and in particular those which claim so much for the partial electrocardiogram.


Civil society and the state form an inseparable couple – mutually reinforcing, controlling and cooperating with each other. This thesis will concentrate on the relationship of the state with a particular part of civil society – bad civil society. Bad civil society can occur in many forms and its activities are based, inter alia, on intolerance and hate. Whether, how and to what extent the state can tackle activities of bad civil society are going to be main questions this thesis will attempt to answer. Both an analysis of contemporary empirical examples and suggestions based on the research will be presented in this paper.


The authors examine the characteristics of the W-band surface backscatter cross section using data from the 94-GHz cloud profiling radar on the CloudSat mission. These data from CloudSat represent the first global measurements of surface properties at 94 GHz. The authors use these data to investigate seasonal changes in surface backscatter over both land and ocean. The authors also make use of a limited set of off-nadir data to investigate behavior of W-band backscatter from the ocean versus wind speed for incidence angles up to 17°.


In (Petrick and Bacchus 2002), a "knowledge-level" approach to planning under incomplete knowledge and sensing was presented. In comparison with alternate approaches based on representing sets of possible worlds, this higher-level representation is richer, but the inferences it supports are weaker. Nevertheless, because of its richer representation, it is able to solve problems that cannot be solved by alternate approaches.

In this paper we examine a collection of new techniques for increasing both the representational and inferential power of the knowledge-level approach. These techniques have been fully implemented in the PKS (Planning with Knowledge and Sensing) planning system. Taken together they allow us to solve a range of new types of planning problems under incomplete knowledge and sensing.


We argue that the Economic Value Added (EVA) is biased by design and will generally yield distorted assessment of both the operating and overall performance. Fundamentally, the scale of measurement bias depends on the interest tax shield actually obtained in a measurement period and on a book to value ratio, however, there are also other potentially significant sources of distortions induced by the metric design. A robust alternative we propose is a concurrent evaluation of operating and total performance with the two nested metrics, Operating EVA (OEVA) and Total EVA (TEVA). OEVA applies the risk of assets (rather than WACC) to calculates the full capital charge and is unaffected by financing activities. TEVA incorporates financing side effects by explicitly adding interest tax shields to OEVA, but can be calculated as simply as a sum of interest expenses and net income less the full capital charge. The OEVA-TEVA approach is computationally simpler than EVA, the corresponding valuation model is consistent with the cash flow discounting and can be utilized as a self-sufficient instrument for investment project appraisal and business valuation.


Smart-grid applications have widely varying data needs as well as bandwidth and latency requirements. The usual approach to collecting the available data (e.g., from Phasor Measurement Units) at a centralized site continuously and executing all the applications there leads to large latencies and requirements for high communication bandwidth. This paper proposes and evaluates, using real data, techniques wherein the data packets are disseminated based on the applications' data needs and semantics. These techniques systematically filter data in the dissemination network and reduce bandwidth requirements while resulting in low latency solutions. For example, based on the results from our testbed for the Indian Electric Grid, we show that the processing overheads decrease by at least 50% for the large PMU data sizes compared to the traditional centralized approach.


Birds are unique in laying eggs with pigmented shells, but for most species (e.g. most passerines, which lay white eggs speckled with reddish spots of protoporphyrin) the pigments' function is unknown. We studied a bird population at a geologically variable site, and considered a hitherto untested hypothesis: that protoporphyrin pigments might compensate for reduced eggshell-thickness (caused partly by calcium deficiency), which is known to reduce eggshell-strength and increase eggshell-permeability. We found that pigment spots specifically demarcated thinner areas of shell, with darker spots marking yet thinner shell than paler spots. Variation in pigmentation was thus associated with variation in shell thickness both within and between clutches, so accounting for the eggshell's characteristic spot patterns. Geological variability at this site has resulted in a great range of calcium availability and, as predicted by the hypothesis, variation in calcium availability was found to affect between-clutch variation in both eggshell-mass (+) and pigmentation characteristics (−). We suggest a physiological mechanism and some important implications of these findings.


This study appraises the results of an intervention to prevent drink-driving in a cohort of pre-drivers in the region of Catalonia (Spain). The program applied, based on attitude change, sets out to reduce significantly the risk of being involved in drink-driving. A classic quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with control group was used, and two questionnaires were applied: a general one measuring several risk factors, and another one specifically addressing the question of alcohol. The study was carried out with three groups: a) experimental 1, which received the entire program, b) experimental 2, which received a part of the program, and c) control, which did not receive the benefits of the program. Results from the factor analysis (PCA) and the repeated-measures ANOVA suggest that young pre-drivers who received the program obtained better results in road safety and showed less risk of drink-driving than those who did not receive the program or received only part of it. Significant differences were also found between men and women. The results confirm the effectiveness of the attitude-change program and the possibility of reducing alcohol use among young pre-drivers.


Recent results from the AMS-02 data have confirmed that the cosmic-ray positron fraction increases with energy between 10 and 200 GeV. This quantity should not exceed 50%, and it is hence expected that it will either converge toward 50% or fall. We study the possibility that future data may show the positron fraction dropping down abruptly to the level expected with only secondary production, and forecast the implications of such a feature in term of possible injection mechanisms that include both dark matter and pulsars. Were a sharp steepening to be found, rather surprisingly, we conclude that pulsar models would do at least as well as dark matter scenarios in terms of accounting for any spectral cut-off.


Neural ordinary differential equations (NODEs) have recently attracted increasing attention; however, their empirical performance on benchmark tasks (e.g. image classification) are significantly inferior to discrete-layer models. We demonstrate an explanation for their poorer performance is the inaccuracy of existing gradient estimation methods: the adjoint method has numerical errors in reverse-mode integration; the naive method directly back-propagates through ODE solvers, but suffers from a redundantly deep computation graph when searching for the optimal stepsize. We propose the Adaptive Checkpoint Adjoint (ACA) method: in automatic differentiation, ACA applies a trajectory checkpoint strategy which records the forward-mode trajectory as the reverse-mode trajectory to guarantee accuracy; ACA deletes redundant components for shallow computation graphs; and ACA supports adaptive solvers. On image classification tasks, compared with the adjoint and naive method, ACA achieves half the error rate in half the training time; NODE trained with ACA outperforms ResNet in both accuracy and test-retest reliability. On time-series modeling, ACA outperforms competing methods. Finally, in an example of the three-body problem, we show NODE with ACA can incorporate physical knowledge to achieve better accuracy. We provide the PyTorch implementation of ACA: https://github.com/juntang-zhuang/torch-ACA.


With the rapid development of clean energy, the combined cooling and heating power (CCHP) and hybrid energy storage system (HESS) have become matured significantly. However, further optimizing the configuration of the energy supply system and adjusting the output of distributed micro-sources and energy storage units are still attractive issues. This paper focuses on the two-stage optimization strategy of the microgrid system, including CCHP and HESS. The details of the operating characteristics and mathematical models of distributed micro-sources in the system are presented. The energy storage architecture is used for mathematical modeling, and the optimization model is analyzed from the two perspectives of energy supply and demand, which explores the feasibility of improving the economic operation of the micro-energy system. The two-stage optimization model in which the first stage is to determine the optimal installation capacity of various equipment and the second stage determines the optimal operation plan of the system by obtaining the system's capacity configuration. The simulation results show that the CCHP system can reduce the operation cost by 4.61% and 6.48% for winter and summer, respectively, also reduce fuel cost consumption by 3.01% and 3.68% for winter and summer, respectively.


Background Disposal of pharmaceutical waste among patients is a global challenge, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. Improper medication disposal can lead to health problems and environmental contamination. Therefore, the present study was aimed to assess disposal practices of unused medications among patients in public health centers of Dessie town, Northeast Ethiopia. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 263 patients in four public health centers of Dessie town, Ethiopia from March to June 2019. Face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires were used to collect data from each study subject. Results The majority of the respondents, 224 (85.17%), had unused medications at their home during the study period. The most commonly reported disposal method in the present study was flushing down into a toilet, 66 (25.09%). None of the respondents practiced returning unused medications to the pharmacy. Moreover, 85 (32.31%) of the respondents reported never disposing of their medications and believed that it is acceptable to store medications at home for future use. Conclusion In the present study, there was a high practice of keeping medications at home and most of the disposal practices were not recommended methods. In addition, most of the respondents did not receive advice from pharmacists and other health-care professionals on how to dispose of unused medications. Hence, there is a need for proper education and guidance of patients about disposal practices of unused medications.


Afandi D, Basyuni M, Putri LAP, Chalil D, Syahputra I. 2019. Expression of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) polyisoprenoids in response to Ganoderma boninense infection. Biodiversitas 20: 68-76. Currently, oil palm is an important economic crop and has become one of the world's major vegetable oils as well as a potential source of biodiesel. Unfortunately, oil palm plantations in Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia face the threat of basal stem root diseases caused by Ganoderma sp. Various methods and approaches have been made to select the oil palm that is tolerant to Ganoderma boninense, among others using biochemical selection. This research aimed to analyze polyisoprenoids expressionof oil palm tolerant to G. boninense using two-dimensional thin layer chromatography (2D-TLC). The plant material used in this trial weretwo cross-series of genetic materials belonging to PT Socfindo, that were known to have certain levelsof tolerance to G. boninense. The first wasa cross-series of 15-year-old oil palm in the field, and the secondwasa new cross-series for an early detection in the nursery stage. The results showed that there werediversitiesin the expression of polyisoprenoids between tissues, treatments, and level of tolerance. Polyprenols with a chain length of C45-C65 and dolichols of C45-C55were detected in the leaf tissue but not found in the root tissue. Polyprenols with a carbon chain length of C80-C100 occurred in infected palm root tissue but did not in the healthy oil palm. The increase of polyisoprenoid (polyprenol and dolichol) in infected and inoculated root tissues it is presumablydue to the plant biochemical response to the presence of G. boninense attack. Cluster analysis demonstrated distinct groups of polyisoprenoid carbon-chains betweenroot and leaf tissues of oil palm mature and seedling. Interestingly, in the absence of G. boninense infection, the polyisoprenoid carbon chain pattern in the tolerant oil palm seedlingroot tissue is different from that in the susceptible seedlings. Thus, the polyisoprenoid carbon chain pattern can be considered as a potential biochemical marker for the screening of oil palm tolerance to G. boninense.


Conformational changes in enzymes are well recognized to play an important role in the organization of the reactive groups for efficient catalysis. This study reveals atomic and energetic details of the conformational change process that precedes the catalytic reaction of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase. The computed free energy profile provides insights into the ligand binding mechanism and a quantitative estimate of barrier heights separating different conformational states along the pathway. Studies show that the ternary complex comprised of NADPH cofactor and substrate dihydrofolate undergoes transitions between a closed state and an occluded state via an intermediate "open" conformation. During these transitions the largest conformational change occurs in the Met20 loop of DHFR and is accompanied by the motion of the cofactor into and out of the binding pocket. When the cofactor is out of the binding pocket, the enzyme frequently samples open and occluded conformations with a small (approximately 5 k(B)T) free energy barrier between the two states. However, when the cofactor is in the binding pocket, the closed conformation is thermodynamically most favored. The determination of a profile characterizing the position-dependent diffusion of the Met20 loop allowed us to apply reaction rate theory and deduce the kinetics of loop motions based on the computed free energy landscape.


In Ford Motor Co. v. Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice reviewed the transfer pricing arrangements between parent and subsidiaries Ford US and Ford Canada in the context of a going-private transaction. Its review was the key to resolving the two main issues in the case: first, did the transfer-pricing arrangements understate Ford Canada's profits so as to undermine the fair value of Ford Canada's shares? And second, did the transfer-pricing arrangement oppress or unduly disregard the interests of Ford Canada's minority shareholders so as to give rise to the oppression remedy? In this comment, the authors analyse the Court's reasoning and its implications for tax and corporate law. They review profit allocation methods that were available to the Court (and to Ford US) and the Court's rationale in adopting the profit split method. Although the authors agree with the Court's reasoning regarding the profit allocation methods, they argue that the reasoning with regard to oppression gives rise to some important questions regarding the proper analysis for oppression when board conduct is impugned. They disagree with the Court's use of reasonable foreseeablity as a basis for assessing whether the oppression remedy should be granted and argue that where board conduct is at issue in an oppression action, courts must consider whether directors have breached their fiduciary duties.


In 2008, the Corporate Pharmacy of the Interior Health Authority of British Columbia, Canada embarked on a project to replace large-volume (LV) infusion devices with "smart pumps" (infusion devices equipped with dose error-reduction systems [DERS]). To determine ideal device-to-patient ratios for procurement, Interior Health performed a research study to investigate infusion practice and LV device use. Discoveries were made regarding device use and perceptions of nurses regarding infusion administration, policy, and asset management that have aided in successful device implementation and will aid in future optimization of safe infusion therapy. Since 2009, Interior Health has completed implementation of DERS-equipped LV infusion devices in its acute care facilities.


Streams are preferable over data stored in memory in contexts where data is too large or volatile, or a standard approach to data processing based on storing is too time or space consuming. Emerging applications such as publish-subscribe systems, data monitoring in sensor networks, financial and traffic monitoring, and routing of MPEG-7 call for querying streams. In many such applications, XML streams are arguably more appropriate than flat streams, for they convey (possibly unbounded) unranked ordered trees with labeled nodes. However, the flexibility enabled by XML streams in data modeling makes query evaluation different from traditional settings and challenging. This paper describes SPEX, a streamed and progressive evaluation of XML Path Language (XPath). SPEX compiles queries into networks of simple and independent transducers and processes XML streams with polynomial combined complexity. This makes SPEX especially suitable for implementation on devices with low memory and simple logic as used, for example, in mobile computing.


Paediatric ART coverage in Zimbabwe remains low despite effort to improve it. Currently it stands at 56.7% compared to an adult ART coverage above 75%. Major reasons for this are largely unknown although assumptions are these children are not being tested for HIV. This is a presentation of the results of a study on factors affecting paediatric ART uptake among children aged one to fourteen years in Bindura and Guruve districts of Mashonaland Central Province.
Methods
An analytic cross sectional study was conducted among caregivers of HIV positive children and health workers in Bindura and Guruve Districts. Data were collected on socio-demographic, socio-economic, psychological and programmatic factors associated with pediatric ART uptake. Quantitative data were analysed using Epi info to calculate odds ratios. Stratified and multivariate analyses were done to check and control for effect modification and/or confounding.
Results
A total of 213 caregivers were interviewed. Control of household finances [aPOR=11.7 (95% CI 4.71 – 29.23)], sex of caregiver [aPOR=11.2 (95% CI 3.48 – 36.28)] and ethnicity [aPOR=8.38 (95% CI 3.01 – 23.31)] were the independent risk factors associated with up taking paediatric ART. Age of child [aOR=0.26 (95% CI 0.07 – 0.97)] was the independent protective factor associated with up taking paediatric ART. Conclusion
Socio-demographic factors were significantly associated with uptake of paediatric ART among respondents. Education on the importance of paediatric ART for caregivers who visit the PMTCT needs to be reinforced by the nurses attending to the caregivers on their review dates.