The objective of the present work was to study the influence of low-intensity laser therapy on the cytokine system and the function of vascular endothelium in patients presenting with chronic viral hepatitis. The measurement of blood cytokine levels by an immunoenzyme assay revealed a decrease in the levels of anti-inflammatory IL-1-beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha and a rise in proinflammatory IL-4 in the treated patients compared with the untreated ones. Medicamental therapy of chronic viral hepatitis did not cause a significant reduction in the plasma nitric oxide level whereas inclusion of low-intense laser irradiation in the combined treatment resulted in its normalization. It is concluded that the use of low-intense laser irradiation as a component of combined therapy of patients presenting with chronic viral hepatitis has marked beneficial effect on the cytokine system. Moreover, various methods of such laser therapy improve the functional activity of vascular endothelium and its NO-producing capacity.


The Internet has traditionally been a device-oriented architecture where devices with IP addresses are first-class citizens, able to serve and consume content or services, and their owners take part in the interaction only through those devices. The Internet of People (IoP) is a recent paradigm where devices become proxies of their users, and can act on their behalf. To realize IoP, new policies and rules for how devices can take actions are required. The role of context information grows as devices act autonomously based on the environment and existing social relationships between their owners. In addition, the social profiles of device owners determine e.g. how altruistic or resourceconserving they are in collaborative computing scenarios. In this paper we focus on community formation in IoP, a prerequisite for enabling collaborative scenarios, and discuss main challenges and propose potential solutions.


The majority of rheumatic diseases belong to the group of autoimmune diseases and are associated with autoantibody production. Their etiology is not fully understood. Certain medications and environmental factors may have an influence on the occurrence of rheumatic diseases. Establishing a cause-effect relationship between a certain factor and disease induction is not always simple. It is important to administer the drug continuously or monitor exposure to a given factor in the period preceding the onset of symptoms. The lack of previously diagnosed autoimmune disease, or finally the lack of symptoms within a few weeks/months after discontinuation of the drug/cessation of exposure, is also important. The most frequently mentioned rheumatic diseases caused by drugs and environmental factors include systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, systemic vasculitis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and Sjögren's syndrome. The objective of this study is to summarize current knowledge on rheumatic diseases induced by drugs and environmental factors.


The Virtue Existential Career Model (VEC) is a Chinese career development model based on the Classic of Changes. It is designed to supplement the person-environment fit paradigm of Taiwan's 12-Year Basic Education for junior high school students. We adopted an action research approach with two parts, reflection-on-action and critical-emancipatory. An easy-to-use VEC career curriculum and a career information system (Career Genesis; CG) were developed by a team of staff members from government agencies (Tainan Department of Education and Student Counseling Centers), junior high schools, and the Chinese Career Research Center of National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan. The outcome of this project was strong on fostering interconnectedness. Implementing our VEC curriculum and CG to 30 junior high school students received statistically significant immediate increases in resilience, adaptation, and liking of career decision. The feedback and reflections suggest that mandating, attracting, and simplifying are useful strategies to promote our VEC model as well as to facilitate social change and create a multiple-win situation for all parties involved. This approach also follows the tao (道) of the Classic of Changes to provide new knowledge.


Abstract Efforts to stabilize or increase grassland bird populations require identification of suitable habitat as a first step. Although the number of studies examining grassland-bird habitat selection has increased substantially in recent years, much uncertainty exists regarding local-scale habitat variables that researchers should consider. We reviewed 57 studies and identified important vegetation features correlated with grassland bird abundance, density, occurrence, and nest and territory selection. Our objectives were to 1) guide future studies of grassland-bird habitat use by providing a reduced set of relevant vegetation characteristics, 2) challenge researchers to critically think about what variables to consider, and 3) highlight the need to include consistent definitions of terms used to describe grassland bird habitat. We identified 9 variables that were important predictors of habitat use by grassland birds: coverage of bare ground (important in 50% of the instances where it was included), grass (34% of instances), dead vegetation (33% of instances), forbs (31% of instances), and litter (29% of instances), along with an index of vegetation density (39% of instances) and volume (39% of instances), litter depth (36% of instances), and vegetation height (41% of instances). Only 25% of studies provided information on effects sizes and measures of variance. Furthermore, definitions of measured habitat variables were not consistent among studies. We provide definitions of the 9 important variables and implore authors to report effect size and measures of variance. Standardization of terms and reporting of meaningful results will facilitate replication of wildlife research and enhance our ability to recognize general patterns that emerge from observational studies of habitat use.


ABSTRACT Viscoelastic materials are used in ship and yacht constructions for floating floors, engine foundations and laminated glass. The contribution of viscoelastic rubbers is related to their capability to withstand and damp airborne and structural borne noise. New regulations have outlined the necessity to perform numerical analysis in the early design stages, when modifications in the structural layout and/or in the insulation plan are more feasible and less expensive for shipyards. The determination of damping loss factor of viscoelastic materials is an open topic in vibro-acoustic engineering; the complexity of their mechanical characterisation could have consequences in terms of unreliable numerical simulations if not validated by experiments. In this paper, a new reliable and simple testing procedure for the determination of damping loss factor for viscoelastic materials is presented; experimental data have been compared with finite element analyses and statistical energy analyses in order to validate the proposed method.


Design of modern multi-layered composite shell structures such as wind turbine blades is a highly complex task due to the conflicting requirements of high strength and stiffness at low weight and cost. In the development of such products, design optimization methods have become an increasingly important tool in aiding the designer at obtaining rational designs. Such optimization procedures rely on computationally efficient and robust analysis tools. The objective of the present project is to develop and implement efficient isoparametric degenerated shell finite element formulations for analysis and optimization of laminated composite shell structures. On basis of preliminaries pertaining to the finite element analysis of laminated composite shell structures, the governing equations for linear static stress analysis and linearized buckling analysis are developed. Formulation of degenerated isoparametric shell elements is shown and furthermore the thickness dependency of the strain-displacement relation is expressed explicitly. In combination with a linear approximation through the thickness of the inverse Jacobian matrix, explicit thickness integration is enabled. Consequently, the evaluation of element matrices may be performed efficiently for multi-layered shell elements with more than four layers. For higher number of layers, the formulation is an order of magnitude more efficient compared to layer-wise numerical integration schemes. The explicit thickness integration scheme's similarity with the integrations performed to obtain ABD-matrices in Classical Laminated Plate Theory reveals a link to lamination parameters. Thus, the stiffness matrix may be expressed in terms of an extended set of lamination parameters which turns out to be convenient in stiffness optimization. Structural design optimization is introduced and the maximum stiffness and the maximum stability design problem is formulated. For these problems design sensitivity analysis is shown for generalized design variables. From here, the focus is turned towards design optimization of composite laminates. Problems of non-convexity of a fibre angle parametrization is addressed by two simple examples. To provide convexity in stiffness optimization an alternative laminate parametrization is presented in terms of lamination parameters and the use with an existing laminate optimization procedure is outlined. A number of numerical examples are shown to validate the implementations of a 9and a 16-node version of the element formulation. Convergence and accuracy of the 'new' formulation is very similar to that of the existing isoparametric degenerated shell elements. In the thick shell range, the approximations made to enable explicit thickness integration cause some inaccuracy. For radius of curvature-to-thickness ratios above 25, the deviation of displacements compared to the existing isoparametric formulation is less than 4%. Eventually, two optimization examples confirm the performance gain in multi-layered settings.


Oxidative stress has been implicated in many diseases. The chief source of reactive oxygen species within the cell is the mitochondrion. We have characterized a variety of the biochemical and metabolic effects of inactivation of the mouse gene for the mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (CD1-Sod2tmlCie). The Sod2 mutant mice exhibit a tissue- specific inhibition of the respiratory chain enzymes NADH- dehydrogenase (complex I) and succinate dehydrogenase (complex II), inactivation of the tricarboxylic acid cycle enzyme aconitase, development of a urine organic aciduria in conjunction with a partial defect in 3-hydroxy-3-methylglu- taryl-CoA lyase, and accumulation of oxidative DNA damage. These results indicate that the increase in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species can result in biochemical aberrations with features reminiscent of mitochondrial myopathy, Fried- reich ataxia, and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA lyase defi- ciency.


The law of natural selection can be used to understand cancer development at the level of species as well as at the level of cells and tissues. Through this perspective, I seek to explain: (i) Why the lack of sufficient selective pressure to prevent cancers in old age helps explain the exponential increase in cancer incidence in the elderly. (ii) Why the evolution of long-lived animals necessitated the acquisition of potent tumor suppressive mechanisms. (iii) How the requirement to prevent inappropriate somatic cell expansion and cancer has constrained developmental and tissue architectural modalities. (iv) How the evolution of well-adapted stem cells with complex niche requirements has conferred resistance to oncogenic mutations, as phenotype-altering genetic change is almost always disadvantageous within a well-adapted cell population. (v) How the impairment of stem cell fitness, as occurs in old age, can promote selection for adaptive mutations and cancer initiation. (vi) Why differential maintenance of stem cell fitness may explain how different vertebrate species with enormous differences in life span and body size similarly avoid cancer through reproductive years.


A graded harmonic solid ring finite element model (FEM) is developed from the three-dimensional theory of elasticity using Fourier series expansion in circumferential direction to investigate free vibration characteristics of functionally graded (FG) thin and thick-walled cylinders parametrically. The mechanical properties of the finite length FG cylinders composed of metal (stainless steel) and ceramic (silicon nitride) are assumed to vary in radial direction according to a power law variation as a function of the volume fractions of the constituents. The frequency characteristics of the FG cylinders depending on various parameters such as circumferential harmonic number, power law exponent, thickness to radius ratio, length to radius ratio, and constituent material configuration are investigated through numerical simulations. When the graded harmonic model is compared with the previous models in the literature the agreements are found to be excellent. Also, a reduction in computational effort is provided using a smaller number of graded elements required for a fair estimation of vibrational behavior of such axisymmetric structures. As far as the numerical results are considered it is observed that thin and thick-walled cylinders behave in a different way for increasing circumferential harmonic number. The influence of the power law exponent on the frequency depends on the constituent material position and it does not affect the circumferential harmonic number at which the fundamental natural frequency occurs. As a conclusion, it can be stated that the free vibration behavior of FG cylinders can be regulated arbitrarily by altering material configuration and power law function as well as geometrical parameters.


BACKGROUND
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important determinant of ocular complications of diabetes. Its potential role in diabetic renal disease has not been extensively studied.

METHODS
We employed mice with streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetes and db/db mice with type 2 diabetes to study the regulation of renal VEGF. Studies of VEGF regulation of protein synthesis were performed using proximal tubular epithelial (MCT) cells in culture.

RESULTS
A nearly three-fold increase of VEGF165 expression in the renal cortex was seen, coinciding with renal hypertrophy in mice with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. VEGF increased de novo protein synthesis and induced significant hypertrophy in MCT cells. VEGF stimulation of protein synthesis was dependent on tyrosine phosphorylation of the type 2 VEGF receptor and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) activity. Activity of Akt was increased two- to three-fold by VEGF. Expression of dominant-negative Akt showed that Akt activation was also needed for VEGF-induced protein synthesis and cell hypertrophy. As PI 3-kinase-Akt axis regulates initial events in protein translation, these events were examined in the context of VEGF regulation of protein synthesis. VEGF stimulated eukaryotic initiation factor 4E-binding protein (4E-BP1) phosphorylation, which was dependent on activation of PI 3-kinase and Akt. Stable transfection with 4E-BP1 Thr37,46-Ala37,46 mutant abolished the VEGF-induced de novo protein synthesis and cell hypertrophy.

CONCLUSION
VEGF augments protein synthesis and induces hypertrophy in MCT cells in a PI 3-kinase- and Akt-dependent manner. Phosphorylation of Thr37,46 in 4E-BP1 is required for VEGF-induced protein synthesis and hypertrophy in MCT cells. These data suggest a role for VEGF in the pathogenesis of diabetic renal disease.


Systems that operate in different modes with quick transition are usually studied through discontinuous systems. We give a model of a smoothing of the transition between two vector fields along a separation line, allowing perturbations of the vector fields and of the separation line. In this model there appears a canard phenomenon in certain macroscopically indeterminate situations. This phenomenon gives a new point of view on some situations usually studied through discontinuous bifurcations. We also study the dynamics near the transition line through an associated slow-fast system and compare the slow dynamics with the classical theory, namely, sliding mode dynamics in variable structure systems and equivalent control.


The study was performed at Commercial Biofertilizer Production Centre, Deptt. of Soil Science & Agril. Chemistry, JNKVV, Jabalpur comprising total 17 treatment combinations: two different types of (liquid and carrier based cultures of Azotobacter) individually maintained at different physical conditions of temperatures viz., 4C (refrigeration), 20, 30, and 40 C and subjected to different chemical inducers or stressors viz., no chemical, n-butanol, β-hydroxy butyrate and calcium deficiency. Every treatment was replicated thrice under randomized block design. The treatments were tested under both in vitro laboratory condition and pot experimentation with chilli crop (cv. Jawahar Mirch 283). Nitrogen fixing ability of liquid and carrier based Azotobacter cultures was measure at sixth month growth intervals. The different nitrogen fixing ability of Azotobacter cultures ranged from 3.12 to 4.81 mg/unit wt sucrose consumed with the treatment combinations of carrier based culture alongwith Ca-deficiency and liquid based cultures at 30C, respectively. The value of 3.79 mg/unit wt sucrose consumed was the average nitrogen fixing ability of Azotobacter cultures. The variation in pH values of different cultures at the different intervals ranged from 5.28 to 7.20 with treatment combinations of carrier based culture along with Ca-deficiency and liquid culture maintained at 30C, respectively with an overall average pH value 6.21.


Despite an extensive research effort for over 60 years, an understanding of the origins of conductivity in wide band gap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) semiconductors remains elusive. While TCOs have already found widespread use in device applications requiring a transparent contact, there are currently enormous efforts to (i) increase the conductivity of existing materials, (ii) identify suitable alternatives, and (iii) attempt to gain semiconductor-engineering levels of control over their carrier density, essential for the incorporation of TCOs into a new generation of multifunctional transparent electronic devices. These efforts, however, are dependent on a microscopic identification of the defects and impurities leading to the high unintentional carrier densities present in these materials. Here, we review recent developments towards such an understanding. While oxygen vacancies are commonly assumed to be the source of the conductivity, there is increasing evidence that this is not a sufficient mechanism to explain the total measured carrier concentrations. In fact, many studies suggest that oxygen vacancies are deep, rather than shallow, donors, and their abundance in as-grown material is also debated. We discuss other potential contributions to the conductivity in TCOs, including other native defects, their complexes, and in particular hydrogen impurities. Convincing theoretical and experimental evidence is presented for the donor nature of hydrogen across a range of TCO materials, and while its stability and the role of interstitial versus substitutional species are still somewhat open questions, it is one of the leading contenders for yielding unintentional conductivity in TCOs. We also review recent work indicating that the surfaces of TCOs can support very high carrier densities, opposite to the case for conventional semiconductors. In thin-film materials/devices and, in particular, nanostructures, the surface can have a large impact on the total conductivity in TCOs. We discuss models that attempt to explain both the bulk and surface conductivity on the basis of bulk band structure features common across the TCOs, and compare these materials to other semiconductors. Finally, we briefly consider transparency in these materials, and its interplay with conductivity. Understanding this interplay, as well as the microscopic contenders for providing the conductivity of these materials, will prove essential to the future design and control of TCO semiconductors, and their implementation into novel multifunctional devices.


Study Design. A retrospective cohort study was used to investigate a group of neonates with myelomeningocele who had a kyphectomy performed in conjunction with dural sac closure during the first few days of life. Objectives. To assess the effectiveness of operative intervention in the neonatal period to correct the kyphotic deformity in the patient with myelomeningocele and to monitor its long-term results. Summary of Background Data. Orthopedic management originally focused on the immediate treatment of the kyphotic deformity in the infant with myelomeningocele. However, there has been a movement toward postponing surgical treatment of the kyphos until a later age. This study included the longest follow-up of the largest group of neonates that a single surgeon has managed surgically since the treatment of this condition was originally described. Methods. The radiographic and clinical results for all neonates treated with a kyphectomy at the time of myelomeningocele closure between 1980 and 2000 were analyzed. Results. Neonatal kyphectomy was performed on nine males and two females. The average preoperative kyphotic angle measured 67°. The average initial correction was 77°, and the average loss of correction at follow-up assessment was 55°. There were no serious complications, and wound closure was successful in all patients. One patient required a repeat kyphectomy and posterior spinal fusion at the age of 9 years and 2 months. The average follow-up period was 7 years and 4 months (range 44–174 months). Conclusions. Kyphectomy performed at the time of dural sac closure in the neonate is a safe procedure with excellent initial correction. Eventual recurrence is expected despite the procedure. However, it occurs in the form of a longer, more rounded deformity that is less technically demanding.


This paper shows a new possibility for quality and reliability testing of low-current contacts by nonlinearity measuring. A normal third harmonic distortion (THD) tester cannot be used for low-impedance elements. Therefore, a special variant of the THD tester is described for this aim. This method was proved at a set of relay contacts and the results of testing validate a propriety of proposed method.


To solve the thermal deformation caused by thermal load of heavy machinery gearbox, it is established that coupled analysis model to carry out the analysis on box structure's thermal characteristic by using the finite element thermal structure coupled analysis. The model figures out the steady-state temperature distribution of the box, the results will be the boundary condition for box thermal structural coupled analysis. It is calculated which stress distribution and displacement cloud pictures of the box under the interaction of thermal and structural load. The results show that deformation of the heavy machinery gearbox is cased by structural loads and thermal loads. And the thermal load is an important factor that controls box deformation to ensure the accuracy and reliability of heavy gear transmission, which can not be ignored.


Microparticles (MPs) are small membrane-bound vesicles that arise from activated and dying cells and enter the blood to display pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic activities. MPs are 0.1-1.0 μm in size and incorporate nuclear, cytoplasmic and membrane molecules as they detach from cells. This process can occur with cell activation as well as cell death, with particles likely corresponding to blebs that form on the cell surface during apoptosis. To measure particle expression, flow cytometry allows determination of particle numbers based on size as well as surface markers that denote the cell of origin; platelet MPs are usually the most abundant type in blood. As shown in in vitro and in vivo systems, MPs can promote inflammation and thrombosis resulting from their content of cytokines like IL-1 and pro-coagulant molecules like tissue factor. Certain particle types can be anti-inflammatory, however, suggesting a range of immunomodulatory activities depending on the cell of origin. Studies on patients with a wide range of rheumatic disease show increased MP numbers in blood, with platelet and endothelial particles associated with vascular manifestations; increased numbers of particles also occur in the joint fluid where they may drive cytokine production and activate synoviocytes. In autoimmune diseases such as SLE and RA, MPs may also contribute to disease pathogenesis by the formation of immune complexes. MPs thus represent novel subcellular structures that can impact on the pathogenesis of rheumatic disease and serve as biomarkers of underlying cellular disturbances.


Two recognizable facets of modernity are feminism and the Nouveau Roman. Not only do the social movement and the new fiction seem to be at odds, but Robbe-Grillet, while being praised for his avant-garde writings, is simultaneously being accused of strong antifeminism. Taking as a corpus Robbe-Grillet's novels, film-novels, photo-novels and autobiographical novels, the problem is examined using an eclectic array of thematic and diegetic approaches. Thematics are topics of discourse or of artistic representation; diegetics are narratives in their most unconventionally unnatural forms. Struggles between males and females and between form and content clash and collaborate in the contested site of the text where contradiction, ambiguity, equivocation and paradox deconstruct textual components as they are being constructed. Probative and weighty perspectives on women surface through narrators, narratives and characters within the texts, and are interpreted by readers and critics. These themes and narrative structures, as they engender the very architecture of the texts themselves, speak eloquently of the extraordinary ability of Robbe-Grillet to overturn traditional types and forms as they interconnect and proliferate at unexpected levels and degrees in his works.


Verifying the identity of a person (sitter) portrayed in a historical painting is often a challenging but critical task in art historian research. In many cases, this information has been lost due to time or other circumstances and today there are only speculations of art historians about which person it could be. Art historians often use subjective factors for this purpose and then infer from the identity information about the person depicted in terms of his or her life, status, and era. On the other hand, automated face recognition has achieved a high level of accuracy, especially on photographs, and considers objective factors to determine the identity or verify a suspected identity. The limited amount of data, as well as the domain-specific challenges, make the use of automated face recognition methods in the domain of historic paintings difficult. We propose a specialized, likelihood-based fusion method to enable deep learning-based face recognition on historic portrait paintings. We additionally propose a method to accurately determine the confidence of the made decision to assist art historians in their research. For this purpose, we used a model trained on common photographs and adapted it to the domain of historical paintings through transfer learning. By using an underlying challenge dataset, we compute the likelihood for the assumed identity against reference images of the identity and fuse them to utilize as much information as possible. From these results of the likelihoods fusion, we then derive decision confidence to make statements to determine the certainty of the model's decision. The experiments were carried out in a leave-one-out evaluation scenario on our created database, the largest authentic database of historic portrait paintings to date, consisting of over 760 portrait paintings of 210 different sitters by over 250 different artists. The experiments demonstrated, that a) the proposed approach outperforms pure face recognition solutions, b) the fusion approach effectively combines the sitter information towards a higher verification accuracy, and c) the proposed confidence estimation approach is highly successful in capturing the estimated accuracy of the decision. The meta-information of the used historic face images can be found at https://github.com/marcohuber/HistoricalFaces.


The Simians of Swing are no ordinary jazz group; they are story tellers in the great comic book tradition. Each number on this album is a soundtrack to a hero or villain; some of the characters are good, most are bad … but all are legends with tales of revenge, tragedy and romance. Set in a post-apocalyptic world the Simians narrate their stories through the medium of jazz.


Since the events of September 11th 2001 much as been written on how the construction of the terrorist threat post-9/11 contributed to the legitimising and use of extraordinary practices outside of the traditional boundaries of legal and, indeed, security practice. Much of this literature has focussed on the violation of the human rights of individuals caught up in the web of practices ranging from extraordinary rendition to targeted assassination to military intervention. Simultaneously a growing literature has drawn attention to the low key risk-based institutions and practices that have grown up around the 'War on Terror' such as the efforts against terrorist financing, the growing web of dataveillance and the emergence of risk management bureaucracies designed to calculate and manage risks to a tolerable level. This paper seeks to examine these latter discussions towards the concerns raised in relation to the less visible practices of counter-terrorism. What are the implications of the construction of risk-bureaucracies that operate on the logic of prevention and risk-management for our understandings of human rights? What accountability mechanisms are in place and how do they operate in practice? Given the complex and largely hidden nature of such regimes, the question of how we can reconcile them with the ideals of democratic and liberal societies is a pressing one, particularly as such structures once established may prove to be more long-lasting and have greater repercussions than the more controversial but visible practices mentioned above.


AIMS
This study sought to measure the rates and trajectory of depression over six months following admission for an acute cardiac event and describe the relationship between depression and life satisfaction.

BACKGROUND
Co-morbid depression has an impact on cardiac mortality and is associated with the significant impairment of quality of life and well-being, impairments in psychosocial function, decreased medication adherence and increased morbidity.

DESIGN
This was a descriptive, correlational study.

METHOD
The study was undertaken at a large public hospital in Melbourne. Participants were asked to complete a survey containing the cardiac depression scale (CDS) and the Personal Well-being Index.

RESULTS
This study mapped the course of depression over six months of a cohort of patients admitted for an acute cardiac event. Significant levels of depressive symptoms were found, at a level consistent with the literature. A significant correlation between depressive symptoms as measured by the CDS and the Personal Well-being Index was found.

CONCLUSIONS
Depression remains a significant problem following admission for an acute coronary event. The Personal Well-being Index may be a simple, effective and non-confrontational initial screening tool for those at risk of depressive symptoms in this population.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Despite the known impact of depression on coronary heart disease (CHD), there is limited research describing its trajectory. This study makes a compelling case for the systematic screening for depression in patients with CHD and the importance of the nursing role in identifying at risk individuals.


The research is aimed to determine the strategy of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is most effective in increasing customer loyalty of BMT Sukoharjo Amanah Ummah. This research used a descriptive research method with a qualitative analysis approach. Data collection techniques used was interview, observation, and documentation. The results of this research indicate that the five elements of the IMC strategy there is one element which is most effectively used to increase customer loyalty, namely personal selling strategy. Based on the results of the interview, it can be seen that personal selling is the most obtained information source by the customer of BMT. It is proved by 21 customers or 56.8 %. While the location factor is the fewest obtained information source that is 7 customers or 18.9 %. Personal selling strategies can increase customer loyalty, because it interacts with BMT directly. BMT marketing goes straight to the customers by providing good service so it can create a good context with the customers. This case can make close context between customers and BMT, therefore it will create loyalty. Thus, it can be concluded that personal selling strategies is the most effective to increase customer loyalty of BMT. Another advantage of personal selling strategy is it can be used in the long term that will strengthen the brand of BMT in society. Keywords  : Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), Loyalty Members, Baitul Maal Wat Tamwil (BMT)


Polymorphic dispersal strategies are found in many plant and animal species. An important question is how the genetic variation underlying such polymorphisms is maintained. Numerous mechanisms have been discussed, including kin competition or frequency‐dependent selection. In the context of sympatric speciation events, genetic and phenotypic variation is often assumed to be preserved by assortative mating. Thus, recently, this has been advocated as a possible mechanism leading to the evolution of dispersal polymorphisms. Here, we examine the role of assortative mating for the evolution of trade‐off‐driven dispersal polymorphisms by modeling univoltine insect species in a metapopulation. We show that assortative mating does not favor the evolution of polymorphisms. On the contrary, assortative mating favors the evolution of an intermediate dispersal type and a uni‐modal distribution of traits within populations. As an alternative, mechanism dominance may explain the occurrence of two discrete morphs.


Increased levels of complement have been found in diabetic patients, being often more marked in young patients with proliferative retinopathy. Neither duration of diabetes nor the giving of insulin was associated with any particular alteration of complement levels. Acetylsalicylic acid was effective in suppressing complement in vitro in all instances, but to a greater extent in the younger, more severely affected patients. These findings are discussed and related to mechanisms in production of retinopathy.


Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) E6 has been shown to prevent or enhance apoptosis depending on the stimulus and cell type. Here we present evidence that HPV-16 E6 sensitized murine fibrosarcoma L929 cells to tumor necrosis factor α (TNF)-induced cytolysis. The E6-enhanced cytolysis correlated with a precedent increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and antioxidant treatment could completely block the E6-dependent sensitization. These findings represent the first demonstration of a link between a viral oncogene-sensitized cytolysis and ROS. Previous studies have shown conflicting results regarding whether TNF-induced cytolysis of L929 cells is through necrosis or apoptosis. Here we report that, although L929 cells underwent DNA fragmentation after exposure to TNF, they retained the morphology of intact nuclei while gaining permeability to propidium iodide, features characteristic of necrosis rather than apoptosis. We confirmed that the broad spectrum caspase inhibitor benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp(OMe)-fluoromethylketone markedly increased the susceptibility of L929 cells to TNF, and further demonstrated that E6 enhanced this susceptibility, which again correlated with increased ROS accumulation. We showed that the expression of E6 in L929 cells did not alter the stability of p53, and the cells retained a p53 response to actinomycin D. Furthermore, two E6 mutants defective for p53 degradation in other systems exhibited differential effects on TNF sensitization. These results suggest that the enhancement of TNF-induced L929 cytolysis by E6 is independent of p53 degradation. We also found that TNF-induced activation of NF-κB did not account for the enhanced TNF susceptibility by E6.


The disposition of [14C]salmeterol xinafoate, a new inhaled beta 2-adrenoceptor agonist with both bronchodilator and antiinflammatory activity, has been studied in laboratory animals and humans following intravenous and oral administration. [14C]Salmeterol was rapidly absorbed in animal species and humans with Cmax observed within 2 hr. Cmax was similar for normalized oral dose level in mice, rats, and rabbits. In dogs, Cmax was higher and reflected the greater oral bioavailability in this species. The plasma t1/2, after intravenous administration, was 5 hr in rats and 2 hr in dogs. The volume of distribution of salmeterol was significantly greater than total body water in both rats (40 liters/kg) and dogs (6 liters/kg) and indicated high tissue uptake of the compound. Plasma clearance was high in rats (95 ml/min/kg) and dogs (30 ml/min/kg). Radioactive drug-related material was widely distributed throughout body tissues in rats. The highest concentrations were present in kidney, liver, gastrointestinal tract, pituitary, lung, heart, and bone marrow. Transfer of radioactive drug-related material across the placental barrier or into milk, studied in rats, was low. In all species the majority of an oral or intravenous dose (55-75%) was excreted in feces. Biliary excretion in rats and dogs accounted for 53% (0-27 hr) and 40% (0-8 hr) of an oral dose, respectively, indicating good absorption across the gastrointestinal tract. Enterohepatic circulation was significant in rats. Salmeterol was cleared predominantly by metabolism in animals and humans.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


We consider the constrained finite time optimal control (CFTOC) problem for the class of discrete-time linear hybrid systems. For a linear performance index the solution to the CFTOC problem is a time-varying piecewise affine function of the state. However, when a receding horizon control strategy is used stability and/or feasibility of the closed-loop system is not guaranteed. In this paper we present an algorithm that by analyzing the CFTOC solution a posteriori extracts regions of the state-space for which closed-loop stability and feasibility can be guaranteed. The algorithm computes the maximal positively invariant set and stability region of a piecewise affine system by combining reachability analysis with some basic polyhedral manipulation. The simplicity of the overall computation stems from the fact that in all steps of the algorithm only linear programs need to be solved.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of historical screening compliance with the effectiveness of patient reminder letters on cervical cancer screening rates.

METHOD
Using population-based informatics systems, women with no cervical cancer screening in the prior 3 years were identified in two primary care clinics, Mayo Family Clinic Northeast (NE; n = 1613) and Northwest (NW; n = 1088). Patients were divided into two compliance groups: overdue/unknown screening status at study start or previously compliant. The NE Clinic sent reminder letters over a 6 months window to patients eligible for screening at the study start or during the study that were also identified as employees/dependents (E/D). There were 795 intervention (NE Clinic E/D patients) and 1906 control subjects. Using an intent-to-treat analysis, differences in screening rates were assessed.

RESULTS
A higher unadjusted screening rate was observed for the E/D group than the non-E/D group at both sites (32.7 versus 18.2% at NW, P < 0.001; 39.0 versus 14.7% at NE, P < 0.001). For the historically compliant group, unadjusted screening rates were higher for those who received letters (E/D subjects at NE) versus those who did not (E/D subjects at NW; 56.1 versus 44.5%, P = 0.01). No difference was observed between E/D subjects at NE (received letters) and NW (no letters) for the overdue/unknown group (27.4 versus 25.9%, P = 0.62). There was no difference in screening rates for non-E/D subjects at NE versus at NW (none of whom received letters) for both the compliant (24.2 versus 30.6%, P = 0.18) and the overdue/unknown groups (11.9 versus 13.0%, P = 0.59). Multivariate logistic regression models showed a significant overall effect of E/D status (P = 0.006), compliance group (P < 0.001), and the interaction between clinic site and E/D status (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSION
Among insured women, reminder letters appear to improve cervical cancer screening rates for those with a history of screening compliance. Reminder letters appear insufficient to motivate women if screening is overdue. Further investigation of the cohort of women overdue for screening is needed to develop interventions to successfully target this group.


The objective of this study was to determinate the genotype and allele distributions of growth hormone receptor gene polymorphisms in East Anatolian Red cattle (EAR), South Anatolian Red cattle (SAR), and Turkish Grey (TG) cattle. To this end, 50 EAR, 50 SAR, and 50 TG cattle were used in the study. DNA samples were isolated by using the standard ammonium acetate salt-out method. Target regions were amplified and digested by AluI, AccI, StuI, NsiI, and Fnu4HI restriction enzymes. The + allele frequency of growth hormone receptor (GHR)/AluI polymorphism related with milk traits in TG cattle and the - allele frequencies of GHR/AluI polymorphism related with meat traits in EAR and SAR cattle were found to be low. The + allele frequency of GHR/StuI polymorphism affecting milk traits was found to be low in the EAR breed. The -/- genotype of GHR/NsiI polymorphism was also low in all 3 of the breeds. The + allele frequency of GHR/Fnu4HI polymorphism related with meat traits turned out to be low in the SAR and EAR breeds. In conclusion, it can be said that some of the alleles of GHR polymorphisms that are favorable for trait qualities occur less frequently in SAR, EAR, and TG cattle breeds than they do in high-trait European breeds.


The chromogenic reaction of Al (III) with morin was studied in the presence of cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide(CTMAB), Al (III) was capable of reacting with morin to form a stable yellow complex in 0.17 mol l-1 glacial acetic acid media. The complex had a 1∶2 molar ratio for Al (III) and morin . In the presence of cationic surfactant CTMAB, the sensitivity of chromogenic reaction was largely improved. At the maximum absorption wavelength of 425nm, the apparent molar absorptivity was 1. 59×105l·mol - 1·cm- 1 .Beer′s law was obeyed in the range of 0 to 8μg/ 25ml Al (III) . The method has been applied successfully to the determination of trace amount of aluminium in tap and river water samples.


The strain energy of the four-membered ring of -lactams is not released in the transition state to lower the activation energy of reactions involving ring-opening. The alkaline hydrolysis of N-aroyl -lactams occurs with competitive exo- and endocyclic CN ring fission, the ratio of which varies with the aryl substituent. -Sultams are four-membered cyclic sulfonamides and are about 103 fold more reactive than analogous -lactams. Nucleophiles usually attack N-acylsulfonamides at the carbonyl centre resulting in CN bond fission, but the hydrolysis of N-acyl -sultams occurs with SN fission and opening of the four-membered ring. The 3-oxo--sultams are a unique combination of both -lactams and -sultams and therefore are susceptible to nucleophilic attack at either the acyl or the sulfonyl centre, but they hydrolyse with exclusive SN bond fission. -Sultams are novel inhibitors of the serine enzymes elastase, transpeptidase and -lactamase due to sulfonylation of the active-site serine residue. Structure-activity relationships are used to identify differences in transition-state structures between -sultams as inhibitors and -lactams as substrates. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd


While the general wisdom has it that behaviorism is dead, it not only survives but is intellectually active in areas such as psychological theory, the analysis of language and cognition, and behavioral economics. It is a successful, albeit limited, source of behavioral science. Its chief difficulty arises when its practitioners look out from their laboratory windows and attempt to explain the complexities of human behavior that will never be amenable to direct experimental investigation. Behavior analysis has failed to establish a methodology of interpretation to deal fully with such complexity. The message of this essay is that it cannot do so without embracing intentional explanation in the form of an interpretive overlay that plugs the gaps in its explanations of life beyond the lab.


Antimicrobial resistance remains a growing threat in the care of critically ill patients. Many pathogens previously susceptible to common antibiotics are now resistant to those agents. This pattern exists for both gram-negative and gram-positive organisms. In intensive care units (ICUs) in the United States more than 60% of all isolates of Staphylococcus aureus are methicillin-resistant (1). In Europe, Asia, and the US, many enterobacteriaceae produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) which hydrolyze some anti-infectives and which render them resistant to all but carbapenems. Beyond ESBLs, select pathogens are now resistant to carbapenems as well. The prevalence of these carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CREs) has more than tripled in Europe since 2010 (2). The situation is no better for Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( P. aeruginosa ) or Acinetobacter. For example, more than 50% of Acinetobacter are non-susceptible to carbapenems (3). Similarly, among P. aeruginosa , Micek et al . reported that 30% of such organisms recovered in ventilator-associated pneumonia in a cross section of 12 ICUs globally met criteria for multi-drug resistance (4).


An original competitive enzyme inhibition immunoassay has been developed for determination of total apolipoprotein A-I (apo A-I) in serum and in plasma. This specific assay involves a single monoclonal antibody (F59 4A12 2F4, directed to the -COOH terminal region of the apo A-I molecule) and a stable secondary plasma standard. Delipidation of serum samples exposed no additional antigenic sites, which suggests that all the apo A-I molecules express the epitope detected by Mab 4A1 2 on the surface of the apo A-I-containing particles. Withinand between-run CVs were, respectively, 6.1% and 7.5% at a 1.47 g/L concentration of apo A-I, 7.1% and 8.2% at 1.21 gIL, and 6.5% and 7.3% at 1.80 gIL. Results (y correlated with those obtained with an electroimmunoassay (x), in which we used a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies, including Mab 4A12, as follows: y = 250x7, r= 0.744, P <0.001.


A century after the publication of Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (the Flexner Report), the quality of medical education in much of Asia is threatened by weak regulation, inadequate public funding, and explosive growth of private medical schools. Competition for students' fees and an ineffectual accreditation process have resulted in questionable admission practices, stagnant curricula, antiquated learning methods, and dubious assessment practices. The authors' purpose is to explore the relevance of Flexner's observations, as detailed in his report, to contemporary medical education in South Asia, to analyze the consequences of growth, and to recommend pragmatic changes. Major drivers for growth are the supply–demand mismatch for medical school positions, weak governmental regulation, private sector participation, and corruption. The consequences are urban-centric growth, shortage of qualified faculty, commercialization of postgraduate education, untenable assessment practices, emphasis on rote learning, and inadequate clinical exposure. Recommendations include strengthening accreditation standards and processes possibly by introducing regional or national student assessment, developing defensible student assessment systems, recognizing health profession education as a field of scholarship, and creating a tiered approach to faculty development in education. The relevance of Flexner's recommendations to the current status of medical education in South Asia is striking, in terms of both the progressive nature of his thinking in 1910 and the need to improve medical education in Asia today. In a highly connected world, the improvement of Asian medical education will have a global impact. Acad Med. 2010; 85:333–339.


The Mauritian writer, Ananda Devi, once described the experience of translating her own French-language novel, Pagli, into English as 'liberating, even exhilarating', as compared with the more constrained, faithful practice of translating another writer's work. Indeed, Devi goes so far as to assert that the English-language version of Pagli 'is more of a rewriting than a translation', so explicitly signalling the creative liberties that she takes with source text and culture. This article seeks to overcome the critical neglect of Devi's fascinating self-translation, by exploring the many striking divergences—both stylistic excisions and narrative additions—between source and target texts, occasioned, at least in part, by the novel's new, Anglophone Indian readership. It investigates, in particular, how Devi's extensive additions of new material, particularly relating to questions of slavery and anti-black racism, seek to rewrite dominant national narratives which foreground Indo-Mauritians' enduring diasporic links with India. Exploiting the creative freedom offered by self-translation, Devi's English-language, Indian-published Pagli represents the author's attempt to confront, and thereby begin to overcome, the deep and enduring divisions caused by Mauritius's dual 'crimes fondateurs' of slavery and indenture. As our analysis of Ananda Devi's rewriting of both her own text and, with it, of Mauritius's past demonstrates, the author's 'liberating and exhilarating' self-translation destabilises and refutes the traditional binary opposition between 'original' writing and derivative translation, revealing the many, creative and political ways in which meanings shift with language and audience.


Morphological changes in liver biopsies from 40 alcoholic patients were studied, 20 of which being ordinary alcoholics (40-80g ethanol/day) and the other 20 being heavy drinkers (above 80g ethanol/day for over 20 years). All being male who have neither type B nor type C hepatitis. The basic morphological changes observed being: 1. Liver cell degeneration including fatty degeneration & focal ballooning, decrease in liver cell size, occasional giant mitochondrion and Mallory's body formation. 2. Focal necrosis with neutrophil infiltration. 3. Pericellular fibrosis of liver cells, hepatic fibrosis and early cirrhosis. Alcoholic liver disease can be divided into 5 types: I. alcoholic fatty liver (AFL), II. alcoholic hepatitis (AH), III. alcoholic hepatic fibrosis (AHF), IV. alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC), V. slight alcoholic liver disease (SALD). The degree of liver damage (liver cell necrosis and hepatic fibrosis) is closely related to the amount of daily ethanol intake. The progression of liver damage observed in our study is much milder than reports from Europe, the U.S. and Japan.


Higher education is held on the basis of the spirit of discovery to orient its activities to be able to achieve great "discoveries" that are useful for changes in human life in the future. This macro-social platform raises a new paradox, to express opinions and creativity tend to be regarded as mere products, so that in higher education, the prevailing consensus is that we do not really face the same changes faced by business. Because the substantial dependence of various systems and actors in developing and implementing innovative solutions involves renegotiating tertiary institutions in a progressive or renewal manner. The purpose of this paper is to describe Integrating macro-social platforms and work practices for management of universities in the face of era disruption. The results of the discussion concluded: 1) Management of teaching and learning must be project-based in a tangible manner by utilizing an interdisciplinary and problem-based approach through collaboration with industrial and academic partners. 2) Supporting student autonomy requires support in managing their learning transitions by requiring (i) empathy awareness of the fact that individuals learn differently (ii) clarifying with students that cognitive styles are as important as their learning abilities to support them in developing attention more adaptive; (iii) support students' basic psychological needs related to intrinsic motivation to increase satisfaction and adoption of a deeper approach to learning; (iv) supporting students to develop different / more appropriate terms of reference for new learning environments; (v) work with students to increase cognitive flexibility; (vi) ensuring coherent program design; (vii) explicit introduction, and induction into the requirements of the new learning environment and the objectives of specific learning activities. 3) The aim of higher education is to equip students with the skills they need to succeed in the world of work and to make an impact on the world in general by avoiding traditional lectures and textbooks for project-based learning activities where students work in teams to solve problems without solutions clear. 4) Today's demands for higher education managers are greater than before. Effectiveness as a college leader requires managers to master four important prerequisites. They must know their environment, know their university, know their department and know themselves as individuals. 5) understanding the company creating wealth through labor investment can be complicated and a line of sight to assess company-level results is not always direct. However, developing such an understanding is key for practitioners and academics.


In this paper, we report on experimental results towards the development of near-infrared (NIR)-emitting scintillators based on rare-earth-doped garnet crystals, which were obtained as a part of collaborative research with the Nuclear Power Safety Technology Research Center, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. A series of garnet scintillators, Y3Al5O12 (YAG) and Y3Al2Ga3O12 (YAGG) doped with rare-earth elements (Nd, Sm, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb) at varying concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0, and 10.0 mol%), were synthesized by the floating zone method and systematically characterized for NIR-emitting scintillator applications. Among all the samples, 5% Nd-doped YAG showed the highest scintillation intensity (integration mode). By taking the spectral responsivity of the photodetector and the attenuation of optical light guide into consideration, a combination of 5% Yb-doped YAG and an InGaAs detector is expected to give the highest detectable signal. The scintillation intensity effectively depends on the photoluminescence quantum yield and energy transfer efficiency, which is effectively correlated with not the quality of the crystal but the type of rare-earth ion doped.


In this work we have studied the antagonistic interactions existing among cultivable bacteria isolated from three ecological niches (rhizospheric soil, roots and stem/leaves) of the traditional natural medicinal plant Echinacea purpurea. The three compartments harboured different taxonomic assemblages of strains, which were previously reported to display different antibiotic resistance patterns, suggesting the presence of differential selective pressure due to antagonistic molecules in the three compartments. Antagonistic interactions were assayed by the cross-streak method and interpreted using a network-based analysis. In particular 'within-niche inhibition' and 'cross-niche inhibition' were evaluated among isolates associated with each compartment as well as between isolates retrieved from the three different compartments respectively. Data obtained indicated that bacteria isolated from the stem/leaves compartment were much more sensitive to the antagonistic activity than bacteria from roots and rhizospheric soil. Moreover, both the taxonomical position and the ecological niche might influence the antagonistic ability/sensitivity of different strains. Antagonism could play a significant role in contributing to the differentiation and structuring of plant-associated bacterial communities.


Introduction Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients suffer increasing functional limitation as the disease progresses. Increasing sedentary behaviour (SB) time has been associated with poorer health-related quality of life. Determining thresholds for activity vigour in patients with respiratory disease is difficult due to variability in cardiorespiratory limitations between individuals. SB time is not confounded by this limitation and may be a more reliable measurement of activity in patients with severe exercise limitation such as IPF. Methods Thirty-nine IPF patients wore a GENEActiv actiwatch continually for 7 days. Participants underwent measurement of forced vital capacity (FVC), diffusion capacity of carbon monoxide (DLCO), 6 minute walk distance (6MWD) Results Valid data was downloaded from 35 of the 39 participants (89.7%). Mean acceleration intensity recorded in the most active 5 hours of each day (M5; in milli-g) were 43.8 milli-g and time spent in SB was 551.7 minutes per day, higher than estimates of time in SB in similar age demographics in previous studies. Daily SB time correlated moderately with M5 values (pearson correlation −0.366, p = 0.030). Only M5 values predicted time in SB. No variability in SB time was seen by day of the week. There was a trend towards higher one and two year mortality with greater periods of time in SB. Conclusions Wrist-worn accelerometers reliably collected data and were well tolerated. IPF patients spent long periods of time in sedentary behaviours. Of the standard clinical measures used, 6MWD predicted daily activity but not SB time; no clinical measures predicted SB time. Increased time in SB may be associated with poorer outcomes in IPF patients; replacing time in SB with light activity may be a more achievable goal than increasing moderate or vigorous activity levels in IPF patients and improve outcomes. Abstract P277 Figure 1 2-year survival analysis by tercile of sedentary behaviour


The hybrid three-arm coupler, which consists of the middle long range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) waveguide and two outside conventional dielectric waveguides, is proposed and analyzed numerically with finite element method. The characteristics, including coupling length, coupling loss, extinction ratio and frequency dependence, are discussed in detail with different structure parameters. Compared with the two-arm hybrid coupler, the coupling loss of the three-arm hybrid coupler based devices can be reduced, especially with wider middle LRSPP waveguide. Extra transmission loss on the metal strip can be avoided because of the lossless input and output arms. Furthermore, different from conventional three-arm dielectric coupler, we find that the three-arm hybrid coupler with asymmetric structure can reach a much higher extinction ratio by introducing a middle arm offset. Since the middle arm can only transfer the TM mode from one dielectric arm to the other one within the TM mode coupling length, this structure is promising for realizing integrated polarization splitter or other functional devices.


Cymbopogon martinii is an aromatic plant commercially grown for its valuable essential oil, which is used in the pharmaceutical and aromatic sectors. Antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, anthelmintic, antioxidant, and chemopreventive medicines are all found in the oil. The widespread growth of Cymbopogon martinii was observed in the Devarayana Durga hills of Tumkur, Karnataka, India. The plant was identified using morphological, cytogenetic, and anatomical characteristics (SEM and Microscopic studies). DNA barcoding and flow cytometry analysis was used to confirm ploidy and species specificity. The plant was identified as Cymbopogon martinii (Roxb.) Wats. The seeds and the Herbarium (AC-62/2021) were deposited at the ICAR's National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa New Delhi. The morphology of the wild plant differed from that of other C. martinii kinds gathered and analyzed from the same wild area, indicating a response to environmental influences. Flow cytometry was used to confirm that the species was tetraploid ( C.flexuosus ). Using NCBI BLAST, the DNA barcoding sequence of rbcL revealed close similarities to C. martinii , and the sequence was deposited in Gen Bank under the accession number MW538957. As a result, conserving wild C. martinii would aid in the development of new breeding lines with potential bioactive chemicals with an economic worth in the future.


The High Level Architecture (HLA) is the IEEE 1516 standard for interoperation between heterogeneous simulators which are developed with different languages and platforms. Run-Time Infrastructure (RTI) is a software which implements the HLA Interface Specification. With the development of time management service of RTI, it is necessary to consider an efficient design approach and an algorithm of Greatest Available Logical Time (GALT) computation. However, many time management services of existing RTIs have difficulty in modification and extension. Although some RTIs avoid this difficulty through modular design, they comply with not IEEE 1516 HLA/RTI but HLA 1.3. In addition, a lot of RTIs made use of well-known Mattern's algorithm for GALT computation. However, Mattern's algorithm has a few limitations for applying to IEEE 1516 HLA/RTI. This paper proposes a modular design and an implementation of time management service for IEEE 1516 HLA/RTI. We divided th time management service module into two sub-modules: a TIME module and a GALT module and used Mattern's algorithm improved for IEEE 1516 HLA/RTI. The paper also contains several experimental results in order to evaluate our time management service module.


Abstract Purpose This study presents a prototype smartphone application for occupational dosimetry in interventional practices based on electronic personal dosimeters to assist in dose monitoring. Methods The prototype receives and records information from the occupational dose report containing the cumulative dose of electronic personal dosimeters worn over the apron at chest level and electronic area dosimeters located on C‐arms (reference dosimeters), for each fluoroscopy‐guided procedure. Using their smartphones, personnel involved in interventional practices can review and compare their occupational records with an investigation level, the dose limits, and their department colleagues (anonymously). The ratio between H p(10) measured by the personal and the reference dosimeters at the C‐arm is presented as an indicator of consistent use of suspended operator shield. Some general results extracted from the first months of use are presented. Results The reference dosimeter located at the C‐arm (without lead protection and acting as an ambient dosimeter) recorded in one of the laboratories 217 mSv during 308 procedures over 5 months, showing an indication of the radiation risk present in an interventional laboratory. The ratio between the personal cumulative dose and the dose at a reference C‐arm dosimeter ranged from 0.2% to 1.67% (a factor of 8.5) for different interventionalists. These differences suggest different protection habits among interventional operators, as well as a target for dose reduction. Conclusions With this system, professionals have easy access to their occupational dosimetry records (including information on the workload) in the setting of their interventional departments, to thereby actively engage in the protection process.


Diabetic subjects tend to develop microvascular complications believed to be due to platelet hyperaggregability. This increased platelet sensitivity is though to be the result of an imbalance of PGI2 and TXA2 production in diabetes. This study sought to determine whether megavitamin E supplementation could restore PGI2/TXA2 balance in streptozotocin-diabetic rats. Endogenous release of PGI2 by isolated aorta, determined via radioimmunoassay of its stable metabolite, 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, was significantly greater (P less than 0.05) in rats receiving 100x the normal vitamin E requirement than in untreated diabetic rats. PGI2 synthesis was negatively correlated with plasma glucose levels (r = -0.87, P less than 0.05) in non-fasted rats at sacrifice. Vitamin E supplementation, at both the 10x and the 100x level, significantly depressed (P less than 0.05) thrombin-stimulated synthesis of TXA2 in washed platelet. PGI2 and TXA2 production were expressed as a ratio. Megavitamin E therapy appears to increase this ratio over that seen in the diabetic animal. The data suggest that vitamin E, at high levels, exerts an ameliorating influence of the PGI2/TXA2 imbalance of diabetes.


The networked control system based on redundancy switched industrial Ethernet has been the developing trend of industrial control system. Considering the characteristics of data and information in coal mine safety supervision system, novel network hierarchy architecture based on improved protocol model for coal mine safety supervision is presented, which is compatible with IEEE802.3 standard. Having the redundancy ring network as one connected by hierarchy, the end-to-end communication delay was calculated and analyzed. Time delay, packet loss and priority policy were examined in experimental scenario. Testing result shows that the architecture of network protocol presented can provide the deterministic end-to-end delay and effective priority support.


To investigate the protective effect of Emblica Total Phenolic Acids (ETPA) on acute liver injury in mice and its possible mechanism. Mouse model of acute liver injury was established, which was induced by Acetaminophen (APAP). The mice were divided into normal group, model group and ETPA groups (15, 30 and 60 mg•kg-1). UV-Vis spectrophotometry was used to detect serum Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) and Aspartate Amino Transferase (AST) activities of various groups, as well as Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and Malonaldehyde (MDA) levels in liver homogenates. HE staining was performed to observe the pathological changes in liver. Compared to the model group, intragastric administration of ETPA (30 and 60 mg•kg-1) could significantly decrease the elevated activities of ALT and AST in serum. ETPA was also found to decrease the elevated MDA and SOD levels in liver homogenates. ETPA could significantly improve the degree and extent of hepatocellular necrosis and reduce inflammatory cell infiltration. ETPA has a protective effect on APAP-induced acute liver injury in mice, and relevant mechanism may be associated with its anti-oxidation effect.


With the help of differential blood count analysis and velocity of erythrocyte sedimentation (VES), 30 healthy persons (donors), 30 patients with chronic ischemic hearty disease (IHD) and 34 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) underwent the procedure of calculation for leukocyte index (LI), leukocyte intoxication index (LII), leukocyte shift index (LSI), leukocyte and VES ratio (LVESR), leukocytic and granulocytic index (LGI), general index (GI), neurophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), neurophil-monocyte ratio (NMR), lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR) and lymphocyte-eosinophil ratio (LER). Unlike healthy people, patients with chronic IHD had higher indices of LVESR, GI and LER while patients with AMI had increasing indices of LII, LSI, NLR, LER and decreasing indices of LI, LGI, GI, LMI. In case of AMI compared with chronic IHD, average indices of LII, LSI, NLR were higher and indices of LI, LGI, LVESR, GI, LMR were lower. The obtained results show expansion of possibilities to get information about the state of non-specific immunologic reactivity in patients with various IHD forms with the help of integral indices in blood leukogram.


A necessary condition of understanding how designers work is understanding how designers talk. In this paper we show how new methods of linguistic data analysis are beginning to reveal insights into the general nature of design conversations. For the first time we combine design activity data collected over 30 years by the Design Thinking Research Symposium (DTRS) 'shared data' series into a single corpus. We apply emerging techniques of analysis on this corpus and explore word forms, expressions, topics, and themes related to the particularities of how designers talk. We describe three such methods: generating category network maps using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) system; semantic grouping of words using word embeddings and examining the distribution of these groups across the datasets, and custom text generation using an A1-based language modeller. In applying these methods, we show that exploring design activity data at the corpus level can reveal more general patterns of design talk and raise key questions and hypotheses for further study. We see these methods as a first step in developing an understanding of how people not considered to be designers (e.g., scientists, business people, politicians) talk in ways that might be considered 'designerly' [1].


We consider in this paper top-k query answering in social applications, with a focus on social tagging. This problem requires a significant departure from socially agnostic techniques. In a network- aware context, one can (and should) exploit the social links, which can indicate how users relate to the seeker and how much weight their tagging actions should have in the result build-up. We propose algorithms that have the potential to scale to current applications. While the problem has already been considered in previous literature, this was done either under strong simplifying assumptions or under choices that cannot scale to even moderate-size real-world applications. We first revisit a key aspect of the problem, which is accessing the closest or most relevant users for a given seeker. We describe how this can be done on the fly (without any pre- computations) for several possible choices -- arguably the most natural ones -- of proximity computation in a user network. Based on this, our top-k algorithm is sound and complete, addressing the applicability issues of the existing ones. Moreover, it performs significantly better in general and is instance optimal in the case when the search relies exclusively on the social weight of tagging actions. To further address the efficiency needs of online applications, for which the exact search, albeit optimal, may still be expensive, we then consider approximate algorithms. Specifically, these rely on concise statistics about the social network or on approximate shortest-paths computations. Extensive experiments on real-world data from Twitter show that our techniques can drastically improve response time, without sacrificing precision.


Abstract Provenance trials remain an important tool for understanding genetic variation in forest trees. Maintaining decades-old experiments is critical for revealing maladaptation of translocated populations to local sites and meaningful divergence in survival and growth. We revisited the Second International Larch Provenance Test in southeastern Michigan, which featuring 24 provenances of European and Japanese larch. We compiled data collected when the plantation was 25, 41, and 61 years from seed to supplement data published at 19 years from seed. Divergence in survival rates first became pronounced at 41 years from seed. Plantation sources of unknown origin and continental Sudeten provenances had the highest rates of survival. High-elevation sources from the southern Alps performed the poorest. Survival differences were likely driven by ice storm damage and severe growing season droughts, both of which occurred at least 1-2 times per decade in southeastern Michigan over the last 60 years. Provenance performance for growth mirrored that of survival, although sources varied more in their survival than in their growth. Growth rate among sources varied over the 43-year sampling period, with intervals of fast growth occurring in several of the overall poor-performing provenances. Diameter was moderately correlated to both elevation and latitude, with inconsistent correlations to climatic variables. Broad geographical variation in provenance performance was also important in explaining variation in growth. Our data corroborate that monitoring of long-term provenance trials could be an important source of information needed to predict and understand how forest species may respond to imminent climate change and may be critical for developing strategies for its mitigation.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contend that collaboration between employers and universities in the design and delivery of programmes of work-based study is an effective way to align the higher-level skills needs of employers with the aspirations of individuals who wish to gain university qualifications in the workplace. In mapping the fluctuations of UK higher-level skills policy through workforce development to degree apprenticeships it is argued that the facility for employers and universities to co-design and develop degree apprenticeship standards should be extended to the development of Higher Apprenticeships in England.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides an analysis of a broad range of higher education (HE) skills related UK policy documents to map the fluctuations in policy that underpin the opportunities for employers and universities to collaborate in the design and delivery of HE programmes in England, including degree apprenticeships.

Findings

It is noted that the approach to collaborative employer-university development signalled for degree apprenticeships described in policy documents unhelpfully perpetuates the presumed distinction between "academic learning" and "on the job training". However, it is also concluded that despite this, the rationale for co-design and delivery should equally apply to the development of all higher apprenticeships to ensure that the expertise that universities can bring in designing and assessing higher-level learning is not unnecessarily excluded from the process.

Originality/value

This paper provides value through its analysis of how the fluctuations of HE and skills policy has affected the basis upon which employers and universities can collaborate in the design and delivery of work-based HE including higher and degree apprenticeships in England. It also seeks to inform HE policy and practice in the development of employer-responsive provision.


The dynamics and scope of strategic culture-building, in the context of the EU's aspirations to develop a European security and defence policy (ESDP), is the focus of this working document. It argues that the notion of strategic culture can be useful in assessing the context in which the ESDP will develop further, as well as its performance in matters of conflict prevention, management and resolution. Nevertheless, in order to be conceptually and empirically useful, strategic culture needs to be broken down into collective norms about the means and ends of security policy. The paper examines the convergence thesis and suggests three theories to explain convergence informed by realist, constructivist and regional theories of political change.


Depression remains one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders, with many patients not responding adequately to available treatments. Chronic or early-life stress is one of the key risk factors for depression. In addition, a growing body of data implicates chronic inflammation as a major player in depression pathogenesis. More recently, the gut microbiota has emerged as an important regulator of brain and behavior and also has been linked to depression. However, how this holy trinity of risk factors interact to maintain physiological homeostasis in the brain and body is not fully understood. In this review, we integrate the available data from animal and human studies on these three factors in the etiology and progression of depression. We also focus on the processes by which this microbiota-immune-stress matrix may influence centrally mediated events and on possible therapeutic interventions to correct imbalances in this triune. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 71 is January 4, 2020. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


There are some deficiencies in the former designed crack monitoring sensor, especially when crack initiates from both sides of hole. To solve this problem, a new scheme of the sensor is presented and corresponding finite element model (FEM) is established. Then the output characteristics of the sensor are analyzed by FEM. It is shown that the sensor is sensitive to cracks, and can be used to monitor the cracks initiating from the edge of the hole, no matter from left or right side. The relationship between crack length and sensor's output is established by polynomial fitting, and it can be employed in further crack monitoring.


A particular aspect of demographic behavior among young people in Italy is postponement of entering first union. High youth unemployment, a tense housing situation, and a passive welfare state are currently creating a precarious economic situation, in which most young adults are unable to choose cohabitation. Thus, not surprisingly, previous studies found evidence that in Italy cohabitation was only a choice for people who were economically independent. Also of interest is that the percentage of informal unions varies to a considerable extent across Italy, showing higher proportions of cohabitation in the more prosperous regions of the North, unlike the South, where informal unions are much less prevalent and the economic system is affected by mismanagement, unemployment, and the informal economy. This suggests an interrelationship between the diffusion of cohabitation and the regional economic situation. In this qualitative study we are particularly interested in the question of how job insecurity affects cohabitation – or more precisely: How are job insecurity and resulting economic shortages related to the hesitant spread of cohabitation in Italy? For our analysis we investigated two different regional settings: Bologna in the North and Cagliari (Sardinia) in the South. Our findings show that, when compared to their counterparts in Cagliari, couples in Bologna benefited from higher opportunities to access at least temporary job contracts. Benefiting also from the availability of parental support during cohabitation, the Bologna couples faced fewer obstacles when deciding on an informal union. In Cagliari, couples were strongly affected by unstable employment conditions; further, the lack of parental approval of cohabitation often led to decreasing economic support, thereby making cohabitation an expensive choice.


Malang and Batu are territories for the apel production in Indonesia. overripe and rejected apples become trash only. So, it's needed to make a solution for raising value. The reseach was conducted in Mei-Juli 2016, having an object to utilize the overripe apel for making substrates of nata de apple. Apples were gotten from malang apple shop. Samples were washed and mixed with water until 50%:50% of ratio (cider A), after that, filtering cider with a gause. Cider was deluted by watering again until achieving 75%:25% (cider B) and 87,5%:12,5% (cider C) of ratio. All ciders were heated to avoid a bacteria contaminant. 100ml each of cider is put into specific bottles and added with 10-20 ml of Gluconobacter xylinus. The ciders were incubated at room temperature. The result of this study showed that the growth of nata de apple on cider A (1.27 ± 0,9cm) is thicker than B (1.27 ± 0,9cm) and nata on cider B was thicker than C (0.13 ± 0,1 cm). The nata weight was 66.7gr for A, 43gr for B and 4.2gr for C. The residual liquid fermentation test showed that the total acid 0.4 mg/ml for A, 0.3 mg/ml for B and 0.1 mg/ml for C. The sugar reduction degree was 17,15 mg/ml of 32.4 mg/ml for A, 8 mg/ml of 26.4 mg/ml for B, and no sugar reduction of 6.3 mg/ml for C. It could be concluded that the cider A resulting the best subrate of nata de apple..


Laser combined machining is a complex machining method which utilizes the combined effect of various forms of energy to achieve a material processing. High manufacturing quality and surface accuracy, and machining efficiency can be achieved. The research progress in the area of laser combined other machine processes is reviewed. Several methods of laser combined machining are introduced and their characteristics and applications from the point of the laser assisted liquid machining are investigated. For example, laser assisted wet etching and laser assisted jet electrochemical machining, and waterjet-guided laser machining are reported. The experimental and theoretical studies of the technologies to improve the machining performance are discussed. Finally, the existing problems and the future research directions of the laser compound processing are put forward .


The evolution of 5-aminolevulinate synthase (ALS) was studied by acquiring sequence data and generating phylogenetic trees. Gene sequences were already available for a variety of vertebrates (which have both a housekeeping and an erythroid form of the gene), fungi, alpha-proteobacteria, and one protist and one protostome. In order to generate representative trees, ALS sequence data were acquired from various deuterostomes and protostomes. The species and tissues selected for study were beluga whale liver, hagfish blood, sea urchin gonadal tissue, cuttlefish hepatopancreas, horseshoe crab hepatopancreas, and bloodworm blood. The new sequences and those previously published were examined for the presence of heme-regulatory motifs (HRMs) and iron-responsive elements (IREs). The HRMs are present in almost all eukaryotic species, which suggests their fundamental role in the regulation of ALS. The IREs are present in all vertebrate erythroid forms of ALS, which indicates that in those animals, expression of the erythroid form of the enzyme and, hence, hemoglobin production can be influenced by the intracellular content of iron. The new sequences were aligned with previously reported ALS sequences, and phylogenetic analyses were performed. The resulting trees provided evidence regarding the timing of the gene duplication event that led to the two forms of the ALS gene in vertebrates. It appears that the housekeeping and erythroid forms of ALS probably arose before the divergence of hagfish from the deuterostome line leading to the vertebrates. The data also add to the evidence indicating that alpha-proteobacteria are the nearest contemporary relatives of mitochondria.


Appropriate design and construction can reduce the environmental impact of buildings over their entire lifecycle. Such a prevention strategy can be supported by an evaluation tool. Our approach consists in applying life cycle analysis, and the use of computers is preferred to compare alternative designs and to test possible improvements of a project. We adopted an object oriented approach in order to link models with professional practice. A data structuration has been defined, in which a building is decomposed into objects. The corresponding classes include both data and methods. The result of such evaluation will be an environmental profile, constituted of various indicators on natural resources used, emissions and waste produced. The past experience on low energy architecture has been used and the environmental assessment tool will be proposed to the users club of an existing tool for building energy analysis.


137 results concerning the influence of the annealing time at 70000c. as well as of the simultaneously applied magnetic field on the magnetic properties of the as-cast Nd2Fe77CoSNb3CuB6 amorphous rihhons obtained by melt spinning technique are presented in this paper. The best magnetic properties of the annealed ribbons were achieved at 700 "C for 10 min. time of treatment, when the size of the crystallites raised up to 30-40 nm. These values are Br= 11.25 kG, Hc=3.9 kOe and (BH)max= 13 MGOe. When a magnetic field of 0.7 T is applied along the ribbon's length during the heat treatment. all magnetic characteristics are improved up to 12.5 kG for remanence, 4.3 kOe for coercivity and 14 MGOe for maximum energy product. We notice that the isotropic nature of the samples is maintained after the magnetic field annealing, the grains remaining randomly oriented. dM plots revealed that the nucleation field becomes closer to the coercivity, indicating that the exchange coupling between grains is increased by the magnetic field applied during annealing. We observed also that the samples annealed in the presence of the magnetic field can be saturated at lower external applied fields. A possible explanation could be attributed to the exchange interaction between hard grains and soft iron based grains that appears during their formation. We found that the Curie temperature of the hard magnetic phase is 60 degrees higher than that of the Nd2Fe14B and it is not affected by the magnetic field annealing. This increase is due only to the CO addition. CS-14. EFFECT OF TIC ADDITIONS TO THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF Ndy.5Feu.SB6 MELT SPUN RIBBONS. M. J. Kramer, C. P. Li, K. W. Dennis, R. W. McCallum (Ames Lab.. Ames, IA 50021). C. H. Sellers, D. J. Branagan (Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co., and Idaho Natl. Eng. and Environ. Lab., Idaho Falls. ID 83415-2218). L. H. Lewis, and J. Y. Wang (Dept. of Appl. Sci., Brookhaven National Lab., Upton. NY 11973) To achieve enhanced remanence in Nd-Fe-B alloys. numerous groups have shown that adding excess Fe and B improves the exchange coupling effect. The formation of secondary phases is dependent on the initial composition. melt-spinning parameters and subsequent heat treatment. Additions of TIC have been shown to improve the quenchability and inhibit grain growth during subsequent annealing for stoichiometric 2-14-1. A study of the effect of TIC addition on a high remanence alloy was undertaken to see if T i c addition provides better quenchability and microstructural control during subsequent annealing. The alloys (Nd,,,Fe,,,B,) with and without 3 at.% T ic were melt spun from 5 to 25 m / s then annealed in vacuum ( 3 X torr) at temperatures from 600 to 750 "C. For alloys melt spun under similar conditions, the over-quenched state was achieved at wheel speeds > 10 m / s for the TIC added alloy while 1 2 0 m / s was necessary without TIC. The largest energy product for a given wheel speed was obtained using a 700 "C anneal for all alloys. For the various wheel speeds. the highest energy product was for those alloys melt-spun near to the optimal condition 15 m/s for T ic added (14.1 MGOe) and 20 m / s without TIC (17.4 MGOe). TEM analysis showed that the T ic added alloys had a larger fraction of grain boundary (GB) phases. The TIC particles were only observed in the GB region. The size and amount of the free a-Fe phase was smaller in those samples melt-spun in the overquench state. In addition, the underquenched alloys had large Fe dendrites which were not removed with annealing. These data show that the improvements the microstructure over a larger fraction of the ribbon volume. Effect of TIC on control of solidification will he discussed. Research funded in pan by USDOE through Iowa State University under contract No. W-7405-Eng-82. at BNL under contract no. AC0276CH00016. in energy product for the TiC added alloy is due to the improved control of CS-15. AC-INITIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY AS A QUANTITATIVE MEASURE OF EXCHANGE COUPLING IN A TWO-PHASE NANOSTRUCTURED FessNd6B6 ALLOY. J. S. Fang, T. S. Chin (Dept. of Mater. Sci. & Eng., Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu, 30043, Taiwan, R.O.C.), and S. W. Yung (Dept. of Ceramic Eng., Natl. Lienho College of Technol. and Commerce, Miaoli 36012, Taiwan, R.O.C.) The extent of exchange coupling interaction has been found to increase with decreasing grain size of the two phases in a nanocomposite magnet alloy, because the exchange correlation length is not long enough to cover the whole magnetic moment of the two phases.' In this study, the peak broadening of in-situ measured ac-initial susceptibility (xK, at 10 kHz, 0.6 Oe) before Curie temperature (Tc) of the Nd2Fe14B phase in annealed two-phase nanocrystalline Fes8Nd6B, alloy ribbons was correlated to the quantitative measure of exchange coupling varied due to grain size. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of xa peak increases with increasing grain size of the two phases, while, however, the remanence ratio decreases, implying that the extent of exchange coupling interaction is decreasing. The sum of the FWHM and the remanence ratio of each differently annealed flake is almost the same, 1.1 1 to 1.14. The FWHM of xaC peak corresponding to the Tc of Nd,Fe,,B phase thus correlates well with the extent of exchange coupling interaction between the two nano-phases. In this study, furthermore, a slight decrease in Tc of Nd,Fe,,B was also noted with increasing grain size. This is also resulted from the decreased exchange-interaction between boundaries of higher-Curie-temperature iron grains and lower-Curie-temperature hard-phase grains 'H. Fukunaga, N. Kitazima, and Y. Kanai, Mater. Trans. JIM. 37, 864 ( 1996). I CS-16. APPLICATION OF SHOCK COMPRESSION TECHNIQUE FOR CONSOLIDATION OF HARD MAGNETIC POWDERS. M. Leonowicz. ' W. Kaszuwara,' E. Jezierska,' D. Januszewski,' G. Mendoza,' H. A. Davies,' and J. Paszula' ('Faculty of Mater. Sci. and Eng.. Warsaw Univ. of Technol., Narbutta 85, 02-524 Warszawa, Poland, 'Dept. of Eng. Mater., The Univ. of Sheffield, Sheffield SI 4DU, U.K., 'Faculty of Armament and Aviation, Military Univ. of Technol.. Kaliskiego 2, Warszawa, Poland) Fully dense, RE-based, permanent magnets are usually made either by liquid phase sintering or by hot working of melt-spun ribbon or mechanically alloyed powder. However, the need for processing at high temperatures makes these methods unsuitable for nanocrystalline powders or low temperature stability phases such as Sm2Fe,,N,. In this study a shock compression technique was successfully applied to the consolidation of hard magnetic powders without appreciable changes in the phase structure and grain size. RE-Fe-B and Sm-Fe-N powders, prepared with the application of various processing methods, were shock compacted with a shock wave speed of 1200 m/s and pressure of 4.4 GPa. TEM studies on the SmlFe i41V3 alloy before and after compaction revealed average grain sizes of 50 nm and 60 nm, respectively. It was found that the final density of the compacted magnets depends on the composition of the powder and the crystallite size. Higher density results in an increase of the remanence of bulk magnets. We found that the coercivity of high RE containing material, for which the magnetic hardness is controlled by good magnetic separation of magnetic grains by a =-rich paramagnetic phase. decreases material. The possibility of coercivity enhancement by addition of Zn powder prior to the compaction was also studied. The shock compression technique appears to he especially appropriate for consolidation of nanostructured materials. for which the application of traditional methods leads to substantial loss of the magnetic properties. For low RE, exchange coupled materials, the densification does not change the coercivity. sliehtly, al -5%. due to a closer proximity of the cvstallites in a dense


Objective: To audit the causes and management outcome of urogenital fistula (UGF) at LadyWillingdon hospital. Study Design: A prospective descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: The department of obstetrics and gynecology Lady Willingdon Hospital Lahore from July 2009 to July 2010. Patients and Methods: All patients of urogenital fistulae except due to malignancy and radiation were included in the study. History of demographic features, cause of fistula and previous attempts at surgery was taken. Investigations included urine culture, intravenous pyelogram and examination under anesthesia. The method of treatment and outcome was noted. Results: 61 patients were included in the study. The formation of Urogenital fistulae was found to be more common in women of child bearing age (96.72%). Most of the patients belonged to lower socioeconomic group (100%) and to the rural areas (95%). The causative factor was obstetrical trauma in 43 (70%) cases, due to either obstructed labor (37.7%) or cesa-rean section (32.78%). Other causes were gynecological surgeries like abdominal hysterectomies (27.87%) and septic indu-ced abortion (1.63%). Surgical repair was performed in 58 patients. Overall success rate of different procedures was 77.04%. Vasicovaginal fistula (VVF) was found to be most common type of fistula. 43 / 61 patients (70.49%) had VVF. Repair of VVF was successful in 81.39% cases. Six patients out of 43 VVFs, had fistula of short duration and had a trial of conserva-tive management. Success rate was 50% in patients managed conservatively. Uretrovaginal fistula was found in 5 cases (8.2%) with 100% successful repair. Urethrovaginal fistula was found in 3 (4.92%) cases with no success through combined abdominovaginal route. All the three cases of Vasicouterine fistula (4.92%) were repaired abdominally with success rate of 66.67%. There were 7 cases of vasicocervical fistula (12.47%). Vaginal repair was performed with 71.43% success rate. Conclusion: Vasicovaginal fistula was the commonest type of urogenital fistula. Transvaginal route was most successful route of repair for VVF.The commonest cause was obstetrical trauma which was preventable by improvement of health edu-cation and maternity care in rural areas. Key Words: Fistula. Urogenital fistula. Vasicovaginal fistula. Urethrovaginal fistula, Obstetrical trauma.


This paper is concerned with overlapping group mode‐dependent H∞ control for a discrete‐time Markovian jump linear system, where global modes of the system are not completely available for controller design. Firstly, a randomly overlapping decomposition method is developed to reformulate the system by a set of locally overlapping switched groups with accessible group modes. The reformulated system switches among different group modes in an overlapping manner. Secondly, an overlapping group mode‐dependent state feedback controller is delicately constructed. Compared with some existing mode‐dependent controllers in the literature, the proposed controller has three features: (i) it does not require all exact knowledge of global modes; (ii) it takes full advantage of group mode information of the reformulated system; and (iii) it allows overlapping local modes to exist in the formed groups. Thirdly, sufficient conditions on the existence of a desired overlapping group mode‐dependent state feedback controller are derived such that the resultant closed‐loop system is stochastically stable with prescribed H∞ performance. Furthermore, the proposed method is extended to design overlapping group mode‐dependent state feedback controllers subject to incomplete mode transition probabilities. The proposed overlapping group mode‐dependent framework is shown to be more general and includes traditional Markovian jump linear systems with completely accessible global modes as its special case. In the case of only one group in the reformulated system, it is shown that some existing result in existing literature can be retrieved. Finally, two illustrative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This article reviews the development of non-invasive optical techniques for determination of blood glucose concentrations in diabetic patients. Early diagnosis and daily management are essential for ensuring the healthy life of diabetic patients. The determination of blood glucose concentration with common devices involves the chemical analysis of blood samples, which are obtained by pricking the finger or extracting blood from the forearm. Pain, discomfort, and inconvenience, associated with current invasive methods, have necessitated the investigation of non-invasive measurement techniques. Non-invasive monitoring of blood glucose level offers several advantages, including absence of pain and biohazard materials, non- exposure to sharp objects, increased testing frequency and consequently, tighter control of glucose concentration. Considering these potential advantages commercialization of non-invasive glucose monitoring devices has become a subject of increasing interest. Several optical technologies have the potential to provide viable noninvasive measuring devices. this review study aimed to describe the major optical technologies for noninvasive glucose monitoring and compare their advantages and disadvantages. second scenario) better than other methods in presence of a typically low false positive rate equal to 3%.


In Canadian law, the question of whether agents for federal and provincial governments can be liable to consumers in negligence has traditionally been resolved in the negative. However, when many Canadians suddenly fell ill and others died due to exposure to listeria-infected meat products in mid-2008, the ensuing public health crisis and criticism of the government agency that handled it obliged the Prime Minister to call for an investigation and report upon the conduct of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In the context of the unfolding investigation, the authors examine the underlying rationale and policy reasons for the Canadian courts' doctrine of Crown immunity and whether the time might be ripe for policy change in circumstances like those which gave rise to the losses caused by listeriosis.