This study was done to investigate the nematode diversity in a soybean-sugarcane production system in a semi- arid region of Zimbabwe .Results indicated thatPratylenchus, Helicotylenchus and Scutellonema had the highest populations per 100 cubic centimeters of soil before the planting of soybeans. Pratylenchus andCriconemella were not present after the harvesting of soybeans. Xiphinema andScutellonema were absent in the subsequent cane roots.  Basically there was a considerable reduction in nematode population in soils after harvesting soybeans

 Key words: Nematodes, soybeans, sugarcane.


We study the inference of long-range correlations by means of Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) and argue that power-law scaling of the fluctuation function and thus long-memory may not be assumed a priori but have to be established. This requires the investigation of the local slopes. We account for the variability characteristic for stochastic processes by calculating empirical confidence regions. Comparing a long-memory with a short-memory model shows that the inference of long-range correlations from a finite amount of data by means of DFA is not specific. We remark that scaling cannot be concluded from a straight line fit to the fluctuation function in a log-log representation. Furthermore, we show that a local slope larger than α=0.5 for large scales does not necessarily imply long-memory. We also demonstrate, that it is not valid to conclude from a finite scaling region of the fluctuation function to an equivalent scaling region of the autocorrelation function. Finally, we review DFA results for the Prague temperature data set and show that long-range correlations cannot not be concluded unambiguously.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Occult cancers' reported rates vary from 2-12% and serous tubal intraepithelial carcinomas (STICs) have been identified in 3-12% of the prophylactically removed tubes of women carrying a BRCA mutation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of tubal minor epithelial atypia (STIL), STIC, and occult invasive cancer and to evaluate the cancer-specific mortality in a prospective series of women at higher risk of ovarian and breast cancer undergoing risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) n a tertiary cancer center.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A series of RRSO specimens (including endometrial biopsy) from women carrying a BRCA mutation, BRCA-unknown and BRCA-negative were collected between January 1998 and April 2016 at the Division of Gynecology at the European Institute of Oncology. Inclusion criteria were: asymptomatic women who had a negative gynecologic screening within 3 months prior to RRSO. Exclusion criteria were: women with ovarian/tubal cancer prior to RRSO.

RESULTS
A total of 411 women underwent RRSO. Median age at RRSO was 47.0 years (range=32-70 years); 75.2% had a history of breast cancer. Fifteen women were diagnosed with an occult cancer (7 STIC, 4 invasive cancers, 2 breast cancers metastatic to the adnexa, 2 endometrial cancer) (3.6%). Sixteen showed a STIL (3.9%). When excluding cases with preoperative positive markers, the occult invasive cancer rate drops to 1.5%.

CONCLUSION
Our study, covering an 18-year period, shows a substantial low risk of occult cancer among a high-risk population of women undergoing RRSO. Our data still support the indication for RRSO in higher-risk patients. An endometrial biopsy should also be routinely obtained as it raises the chances of detecting occult endometrial cancers that may be otherwise missed.


BACKGROUND
Cali, Colombia, has a high incidence of interpersonal violence deaths. Various alcohol control policies have been implemented to reduce alcohol-related problems. The objective of this study was to determine whether different alcohol control policies were associated with changes in the incidence rate of homicides.

METHODS
Ecologic study conducted during 2004-08 using a time-series design. Policies were implemented with variations in hours of restriction of sales and consumption of alcohol. Most restrictive policies prohibited alcohol between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. for 446 non-consecutive days. Moderately restrictive policies prohibited alcohol between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. for 1277 non-consecutive days. Lax policies prohibited alcohol between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. for 104 non-consecutive days. In conditional autoregressive negative binomial regressions, rates of homicides and unintentional injury deaths (excluding traffic events) were compared between different periods of days when different policies were in effect.

RESULTS
There was an increased risk of homicides in periods when the moderately restrictive policies were in effect compared with periods when the most restrictive policies were in effect [incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.15, 90% confidence interval (CI) 1.05-1.26, P = 0.012], and there was an even higher risk of homicides in periods when the lax policies were in effect compared with periods when the most restrictive policies were in effect (IRR 1.42, 90% CI 1.26-1.61, P < 0.001). Less restrictive policies were not associated with increased risk of unintentional injury deaths.

CONCLUSION
Extended hours of sales and consumption of alcohol were associated with increased risk of homicides. Strong restrictions on alcohol availability could reduce the incidence of interpersonal violence events in communities where homicides are high.


A multiresidue method was developed for the determination of 19 emerging organic contaminants (pharmaceutical drugs, personal care products and bisphenol A) in poultry manure. Lyophilized samples of manure were extracted by ultrasound-assisted matrix solidphase dispersion and the extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry after derivatization. Analysis of spiked poultry manure samples, at levels ranging from 25 to 150 ng g -1 , gave satisfactory recovery results for all the compounds, with values from 67 to 106 %. The developed procedure provided detection limits that ranged from 0.9 to 2.2 ng g -1 . Finally, the validated method was applied to poultry manure samples collected from 23 poultry farms in Spain. Salicylic acid was found in most of the samples analyzed at levels up to 2501 ng g -1 , whereas, methyl paraben, orthophenylphenol, ibuprofen, paracetamol, and carbamazepine were detected at levels up to 250 ng g -1 . Composting of manure showed an important decrease in the levels of the detected contaminants.


Wind turbine systems are complex and remotely-installed structures which are subject to many possible faults in the existed components. Early fault detection, isolation and successful controller reconfiguration can considerably increase the performance in faulty conditions and prevent abysmal failures in the system. This paper gives an overview of recent progress in theory and methods to analyze and design fault-tolerant control systems for wind turbines. A comparison between model-based and signal based fault detection methods is presented and the contributions in these areas are addressed. The paper is written in a tutorial fashion to summarize some of the recent results in the subject area without going into details. A bibliographical review summarizing the most recent publications is provided to allow interested readers to obtain more detailed information about the recent contributions in Fault Tolerant Control (FTC) and Fault Detection (FD) design for wind turbines.


Introduction: Histology is a science of the analysis of tissue architecture; however, the presence of artifacts in microscopic sections may result in misdiagnosis. Despite documented common occurrences, studies on the patterns of artifacts in Nigeria are however scant. The rarity of descriptions in this clumsy but important component of histology stimulated our interest in demonstrating the various patterns of artifacts in a laboratory. This 1-year retrospective study was conducted in Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Delta State. Materials and Methods: Tissue sections were viewed and with the aid of a microscope to check for the various patterns of artifacts. These artifacts were seen as artificial structures or tissue alternations on the prepared slide. Histological images were captured using eyepiece Scopetek DCM 500, 5.0 Megapixel connected USB 2.0 computer. Data were obtained by standard microscopic techniques in which the various patterns of tissue alterations were described. Permission for this study was obtained from the hospital Ethics Committee (ethical number FMC/ASB/T/A81/198). Results: This review of patterns of artifacts showed that during the 1-year period, of the 388 slides reviewed, 94.59% had the presence of artifacts. The results also revealed that fold artifacts were the most prevalent patterns constituting about 33.00% of the total tissue sections observed, followed by artifacts attributed to microtomy which accounted for 18.47% and formalin pigment artifacts, 14.78%. The least was heat and hemorrhagic artifacts which contributed to about 0.25%. Conclusion: In conclusion, fold artifacts were the most prevalent patterns observed in this study due to the thin sections which easily stretch around other structures having different constituencies if the tissue is not carefully lifted from the water bath.


A flexible and extensible architecture allows for secure searching across an enterprise. Such an architecture can provide a simple Internet-like search experience to users searching secure content inside (and outside) the enterprise. The architecture allows for the crawling and searching of a variety or sources across an enterprise, regardless of whether any of these sources conform to a conventional user role model. The architecture further allows for security attributes to be Submitted at query time, for example, in order to provide real-time secure access to enterprise resources. The user query also can be transformed to provide for dynamic querying that provides for a more current result list than can be obtained for static queries.


Objective To summarize the clinical characteristics and drug sensitivity analysis of children with Salmonella enteritis in our hospital, explore the characteristics and drug resistance of Salmonella infection, and guide the rational clinical use of drugs. Methods The clinical data of 90 pediatric Salmonella enteritis patients treated in our hospital from January 2015 to January 2020 were selected as the observation group of this retrospective study, and 90 patients with non-Salmonella enteritis were selected at the same time as a control group. Discuss the clinical characteristics of Salmonella, drug sensitivity analysis, infection characteristics, and drug resistance and guide the rational clinical use of drugs. Results The susceptibility rates of 15 antibiotics from high to low were imipenem and meropenem, piperacillin, cefoperazone, compound trimethoprim, chloramphenicol, and ceftazidime. Salmonella strains were both resistant to imipenem and meropenem. Salmonella is sensitive and has a low rate of resistance to quinolones (ciprofloxacin) and a high rate of resistance to cephalosporins (ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, ceftazime, and cefpiramide), both reached more than 28%. Salmonella has the highest resistance to penicillin and erythromycin, both at 85.00% and above. Among 90 children with Salmonella enteritidis food poisoning, 32 were hospitalized, 21 cases were hospitalized less than 7 days, and 11 cases were 7-14 days. The longest hospital stay was 12 days, the shortest was 1 day, and the average was 6.1 days. Seven people stayed for observation and 51 people were discharged after treatment. All the children recovered without death. Conclusion In clinical practice, antibiotics should be used rationally based on drug susceptibility results. In the case of poor efficacy of cephalosporins, amoxicillin and potassium clavulanate, piperacillin, tazobactam, or imipenem, cephalosporin antibiotics can be considered the first choice for clinical empiric medication.


Glass ionomer cement (GIC) has a potential to improve the pulp by inducing Dentin Matrix Protein-1 (DMP-1) release that can mineralize dentin. This study used three types of glass ionomer cements; Conventional GIC i.e. GC Fuji IX; resin-modified glass ionomer cement (RMGIC) i.e. GC Fuji II LC and Nano particle of RMGIC i.e. KetacTM N100 3MEspe. The three materials were applied to the tooth pulp of Macaca nemestrina. Expression of DMP-1 extract-dental pulp of the subjects was investigated by using ELISA. This study was statistically analyzed by using Mann-Whitney test. The result showed that GICs has a potential to induce the expression of DMP-1 and there was no significant differences among the three groups of GIC to induce DMP-1(p≥ 0,05). In conclucion, all tested materials have a potential in dental pulp repair by expressing DMP-1.


As the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) set about reforming its centrally planned economy, it faced the thorny policy question of how to reform its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Should it support a shift from public to private ownership of the means of production? Such a shift would challenge not only the CCP's socialist ideology but also its very legitimacy. Mixing the business of corporate restructuring with the politics of socialism presented nothing short of a policy nightmare. With policy-relevant acuity, the contributors to this wide-ranging volume address the questions about reform programs that have plagued China --and East Asia more broadly --since the 1990s. While China, Japan, and South Korea have all been criticized for implementing reform too slowly or too selectively, this volume delves into the broader contexts underlying certain institutional decisions. The book seeks to show that seemingly different political economies actually share surprising similarities, and problems. While Going Private in China sheds new light on China's corporate restructuring, it also offers new perspectives on how we think about the process of institutional change.


Defense radar research and development in Australia is today largely, but not exclusively, confined within Australia's Defense Science and Technology Organization, DSTO, and its R&D collaborators in universities. Radar has a long history in Australia, dating back to World War II links with British defense radar development, and radar R&D continues to be an important focus within DSTO. It is impossible, in the context of a brief conference paper, to give other than the broadest-brush picture of Australian radar development over a half-century or more. So the approach taken is necessarily highly selective and focuses specifically on several illustrative development projects, in an attempt to convey the flavor of national radar research priorities, the way they drive R&D and likely future directions. Despite the escalating requirement for a national skills base in defense radar and allied technologies, there are currently legitimate concerns about the robustness of this base. Recruitment of high-caliber researchers into the field of radar and management of radar research careers are issues currently presenting major challenges. A number of initiatives are in place linking DSTO with university research; a recent effort to enhance the stature and visibility of radar research in Australia is the establishment of the Centre of Expertise in Microwave Radar as a joint venture between DSTO and Adelaide University.


The new energy saving pumping unit driven by linear induction motor (LIM) not only can overcome many disadvantages of traditional beam-pumping unit, but also has a lot of advantages, such as reliability, high operating efficiency, etc. So it arouses the universal concern of the oil industry. This paper focuses on the study of linear motor. Firstly, it analyzes the advantages of the pumping unit driven by LIM relative to beam-pumping unit, then in accordance with the system design requirements and based on the electromagnetic design method of linear motor, makes the theoretical calculation and the structure design of the motor, determines specific parameters of LIM, produces LIM applicable to the practical application to drive pumping unit. Lastly, makes field experiments, and experiments results show that LIM has reached the design requirements, also verify the correctness and feasibility of the design method.


1. The physical theory of evaporation in still air and in moving air is outlined. 2. An apparatus is described in which controlled conditions of temperature, humidity and wind velocity are obtained. 3. The effects of these three factors upon the rate of evaporation from simple physical systems have been investigated. 4. Sources of error attaching to experiments carried out in still air are enumerated. 5. The law of saturation deficiency is shown to be theoretically untrue.


We report on a discovery that homogeneous plasmonic non-diffracting metasurfaces of a certain type respond differently to spatially coherent and incoherent light, enabling robust speckle-free discrimination between different degrees of coherence. The effect has no direct analogue in natural optical materials and may find applications in compact metadevices enhancing imaging, vision, detection, communication and metrology.


The steering law is a model for predicting the time and speed for passing through a constrained path. When people can view only a limited range of the path forward, they limit their speed in preparation of possibly needing to turn at a corner. However, few studies have focused on how limited views affect steering performance, and no quantitative models have been established. The results of a mouse steering study showed that speed was linearly limited by the path width and was limited by the square root of the viewable forward distance. While a baseline model showed an adjusted R2 = 0.144 for predicting the speed, our best-fit model showed an adjusted R2 = 0.975 with only one additional coefficient, demonstrating a comparatively high prediction accuracy for given viewable forward distances.


Mutations in the adult β-globin gene can lead to a variety of hemoglobinopathies, including sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia. An increase in fetal hemoglobin expression throughout adulthood, a condition named Hereditary Persistence of Fetal Hemoglobin (HPFH), has been found to ameliorate hemoglobinopathies. Deletional HPFH occurs through the excision of a significant portion of the 3' end of the β-globin locus, including a CTCF binding site termed 3'HS1. Here, we show that the deletion of this CTCF site alone induces fetal hemoglobin expression in both adult CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and HUDEP-2 erythroid progenitor cells. This induction is driven by the ectopic access of a previously postulated distal enhancer located in the OR52A1 gene downstream of the locus, which can also be insulated by the inversion of the 3'HS1 CTCF site. This suggests that genetic editing of this binding site can have therapeutic implications to treat hemoglobinopathies.


After ore mined, the equilibrium state of original rock stress around mining area is damaged, causing surface deforming at large range. With the increasing resource needing and mining intensity, the mines all over the world are gradually in a stage of deep mining, so it is important to study the principle of surface deformation under the condition of deep mining. Finite element method is used to simulate mine process with increasing depth, and the relationship between mining depth and surface deformation is achieved. The result has important reference value to practical engineering.


Microalgae have been considered aspotential source of nutritional value. Phycocyanin is one of high added value compound extracted from microalgae that can be used as pharmaceutical products, coloring agent and food nutrition enhancer. Therefore, the potential of phycocyanin need to be explored and developed for its use as an active ingredient in functional food. However, the application of phycocyanin as active compounds in functional foods is eventually accompanied by a stability issue since it is vulnerable to light, moisture content and temperature resulting in the degradation of proteins. Microencapsulation is an effective and economical method to maintain the stability of phycocyanin. One common method of microencapsulation isspray drying, while maltodextrin is the common coating material for spray drying. This study aims to describe the potential of spray drying for phycocyanin encapsulation process. Furthermore, the  characterization of microcapsules psychochemical properties, and evaluate the performance of the storage stability and release controls will be also described. This review discussesnumerous works about the microencapsulation of phycocyanin using maltodextrins as coating material and microencapsulation by spray dying method.


This paper discusses Coulomb failure criteria for brittle deformation of intact rock and fault gouge. Data are presented from laboratory experiments designed to identify the critical gouge layer thickness required to effect a transition from the standard Coulomb criterion to a modified failure law (referred to as Coulomb plasticity) appropriate for simple shear of a gouge layer. Experiments were carried out using tension fractures and quartz powder to simulate granular fault gouge. Fractures sheared without gouge obey the standard Coulomb law. A 0.6mm-thick gouge layer was required to effect the transition to Coulomb plasticity. I test and reject the hypothesis that fault zone strength and apparent coefficient of internal friction can be predicted from fracture of intact rock simply by accounting for differences in the failure laws and without considering variations in the Coulomb parameters. The data presented indicate that the stress state required for Coulomb plasticity is not developed within very thin gouge layers. This work implies that brittle fault zones have lower friction than predictions based on the strength of intact rock. However, the magnitude of this weakening effect is small (for example, a coefficient of sliding friction of 0.75 would be reduced to 0.6) and thus it is not an independent explanation of the apparent weakness of mature faults.


Several unique molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized via a precipitation polymerization technique using 4-vinylpyridine as a functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linker for selective separation of sinapic acid from aqueous solution. Three sets of MIPs with different functional monomer : cross-linker molar ratios at 4 : 20; 8 : 20 and 8 : 32 were prepared along with the corresponding non-templated polymers (NIPs). The MIPs and NIPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, N2 adsorption analysis, thermogravimetry, and FT-IR/solids 13C NMR spectroscopy. Batch rebinding and selectivity experiments were carried out to evaluate their adsorption performance, where the MIP prepared with a 4 : 20 monomer : cross-linker mole ratio had significantly higher affinity toward sinapic acid. Notably, all MIPs displayed greater molecular recognition with sinapic acid relative to the NIPs. Therefore, MIPs prepared by this approach represent promising advanced materials for the pre-concentration, isolation and enrichment of sinapic acid from complex food matrices or controlled removal from agricultural waste streams.


Ionic conductivity is one of the important parameters for understanding the electrical state of the environment and is known to be sensitive to the presence of aerosols. Thus, aerosol loading on the stratosphere has a bearing on the conductivity.Apreliminary effort is made to study the behaviour of ionic conductivity of the stratosphere. For analyzing the effect of aerosols on conductivity, the aerosol number density alone is not sufficient and requires a parameter which is a function of ionic mobility and as well as aerosol size distribution. Therefore, the aerosol ion-small ion recombination coefficient determines the extent to which aerosols can alter the conductivity of the stratosphere. This necessitates the requirement of experimental measurements of aerosol ion-small ion recombination coefficient along with simultaneouslymeasured aerosol density and electrical conductivity in the region. Comparison of iis-profiles with that of the ion-ion recombination coefficient iii indicate that it may be necessary to incorporate multiple charged aerosols in the ion-aerosol model studies of conductivity of stratosphere under enhanced aerosol conditions such as volcanic eruption, a feature not seen in the usual model studies of the stratospheric conductivity.


Introduction Despite advances in non-surgical oncological treatments, surgical resection of the primary tumour is still required to "cure" a patient of colorectal cancer (CRC). Surgeon specific outcome reporting in colorectal cancer surgery focuses on patients who undergo major elective resection, raising a concern that only data for "low risk" patients are included, thus giving an incomplete picture of a Unit's overall performance in the management of colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to analyse the frequency, reasons and outcomes of patients who do not undergo resection. Method Details of 1093 patients diagnosed with CRC in a single institution between April 2008 and April 2013 were recorded prospectively. Analysis of demographics, staging, treatment, reasons for non-surgical management and survival was performed. Patients who underwent local tumour resection were excluded (n = 40). Results 827 (75.6%) patients underwent primary major resection of their tumour, of which 62 patients were stage IV at the time of surgery. 226 (24.4%) patients were treated non-operatively. Of these patients, 143 (63.2%) had Stage IV cancer (37 (25.9%) underwent palliative surgery). 44(19.5%) patients were deemed unfit for surgery, 2 (0.9%) had complete response to chemo-radiotherapy and 23(10.2%) patients declined surgical intervention. During follow up (median 32 months, range 0–78 months), 253 (30.6%) patients who underwent a major resection died, with 175 deaths (69.2%) directly attributed to cancer. For the non-resection group, 182 (68.4%) patients died, with 137 deaths (75.3%) due to cancer. Median survival for patients undergoing major resection was 45 months: 729 (88.1%) and 667 (80.7%) patients were alive at 12 and 24 months respectively. Median survival for non-resection patients was 4 months, with 108 (48.2%) and 84 (37.5%) patients alive at 12 and 24 months respectively, p < 0.0001 (Mann-Whitney U test). Median survival following surgical intervention for Stage IV disease was similar for major resection (12 months) or a palliative procedure (8 months). During the 5 year period studied, the rate of non-resection remained constant at 22.7%, 21.9%, 22.9%, 22.8% and 24.5% year on year respectively, indicating that there was no change is selection criteria for major resection. Conclusion To give a complete picture of a unit's performance for colorectal cancer treatment, data on the rate of non-resection of CRC, together with an analysis of reasons for non-resection should be included in annual Unit or surgeon-specific outcome reports,. Major resection for Stage IV disease does not appear to offer any survival advantage over lesser, palliative procedures. Disclosure of interest None Declared.


Breaking serves to limit the height of surface waves, mix the surface waters, generate ocean currents, and enhance air-sea fluxes of heat, mass, and momentum through the generation of turbulence and the entrainment of air. Breaking may result from intrinsic instabilities of deep-water waves or through wavewave, wave-current, and wind-wave interactions. Observations in the field are made difficult by the fact that breaking is a strongly nonlinear intermittent process occurring over a wide range of scales. Controlled laboratory studies of breaking have proven useful in measuring the scaling relationships between the surface wave field and the kinematics and dynamics of breaking. Our inability to predict the occurrence and dynamics of breaking is a major impediment to the development of better wind-wave and mixed-layer models. Modern acoustic and electromagnetic oceanographic instrumentation should lead to significantly improved measurements of breaking in the near future.


This article presents the results of an address-based sample survey (n = 351) conducted in the fall of 2016 for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) as part of an effort to provide guidance for building sidepaths. The survey investigated attitudes toward bicycling among drivers and bicyclists, bicycling habits, barriers to bicycling, and roadway design preferences regarding bicycle infrastructure in Michigan. In particular, this survey explored design preferences while bicycling with children, bicycling by oneself, and driving. Safety emerged as a key barrier to bicycling, as did distance, weather, and the difficulty of carrying things or traveling with others. Roadway design preferences were clearly weighted toward greater separation when sharing the roadway whether as a bicyclist or a driver, and this trend was most pronounced (p < 0.001) when considering bicycling with children. In all cases, ratings for one-way separated bike lanes were similar to those for sidepaths, suggesting that separated bike lanes could be a key part of addressing the safety and comfort concerns of more cautious riders. Preferences for separation were strongly associated with perceived safety as a barrier. These results were even stronger for non-transport-cyclists, although all groups, regardless of frequency or type of bicycling, preferred more separation. These results corroborate past research and add compelling evidence for separated facilities as a key part of expanding the potential for bicycling trips in general, and particularly with children. The survey findings will inform guidance about sidepath design for MDOT.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the suitability of referral from primary to secondary care in pediatric Otolaryngology.

METHODS
The study was performed in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, from March 2004 to May 2005. A total of 408 pre-school children referred from primary care to secondary care in the department of Otolaryngology presenting with otitis, tonsillitis, sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, and tonsillar/adenoidal hypertrophy was assessed. The studied variables were: agreement between diagnoses in primary and secondary care; waiting time for doctor's appointment; follow-up, and professional (pediatrician or family physician) that examined children in primary care. Agreement of diagnoses was assessed using kappa statistics.

RESULTS
Patients were five years old on average, 214 (52.5%) were boys, mean waiting time for appointment was 3.7 months. Diagnoses in primary and secondary care were respectively: otitis (44%, 49%), tonsillar/adenoidal hypertrophy (22%, 33%), tonsillitis (18%, 23%), sinusitis (13%, 21%), allergic rhinitis (3%, 33%). Agreement analysis of kappa was 0.15 for otitis with effusion, 0.35 for recurrent otitis, 0.04 for tonsillar/adenoidal hypertrophy, 0.43 for tonsillitis, 0.05 for allergic rhinitis, and 0.2 for sinusitis. Diagnoses in primary care referred to secondary care were in agreement when given either by pediatrician or family physician.

CONCLUSIONS
Unsuitability of referrals from primary to secondary care in otolaryngology was expressed by the long time waiting for appointments and by the low agreement between diagnoses in different level of care for the same patients. Primary health care could be more efficient if professionals were better qualified in Otolaryngology.


BACKGROUND
With a dramatic rise in prescription opioid use, it is imperative to review postsurgical prescribing patterns given their contributions to the opioid epidemic.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of departmental postoperative prescribing guidelines on opioid prescriptions following elective spine surgery.

METHODS
Patients undergoing elective cervical or lumbar spine surgery between 2017 and 2018 were identified. Procedure-specific opioid prescribing guidelines to limit postoperative prescribing following neurosurgical procedures were developed in 2017 and implemented in January 2018. Preguideline data were available from July to December 2017, and postguideline data from July to December 2018. Discharge prescriptions in morphine milliequivalents (MMEs), the proportion of patients (i) discharged with an opioid prescription, (ii) needing refills within 30 d, (iii) with guideline compliant prescriptions were compared in the 2 groups. Multivariable (MV) analyses were performed to assess the impact of guideline implementation on refill prescriptions within 30 d.

RESULTS
A total of 1193 patients were identified (cervical: 308; lumbar: 885) with 569 (47.7%) patients from the preguideline period. Following guideline implementation, fewer patients were discharged with a postoperative opioid prescription (92.5% vs 81.7%, P < .001) and median postoperative opioid prescription decreased significantly (300 MMEs vs 225 MMEs, P < .001). The 30-d refill prescription rate was not significantly different between preguideline and postguideline cohorts (pre: 24.4% vs post: 20.2%, P = .079). MV analyses did not demonstrate any impact of guideline implementation on need for 30-d refill prescriptions for both cervical (odds ratio [OR] = 0.68, confidence interval [CI] = 0.37-1.26, P = .22) and lumbar cohorts (OR = 0.95, CI = 0.66-1.36, P = .78).

CONCLUSION
Provider-aimed interventions such as implementation of procedure-specific prescribing guidelines can significantly reduce postoperative opioid prescriptions following spine surgery without increasing the need for refill prescriptions for pain control.


This new essay collection, edited by Jan Hokenson and Howard Pearce, explores the surprising variety of guises the impulse toward the fantastic has taken throughout history. Incorporating wide-ranging perspectives, the twenty-six essays in the volume include studies of the fantastic in literature, art, philosophy, film, psychology, drama, history, and aesthetics. Among the subjects and forms examined are allegories, animal fables, horror stories and films, and monsters and fabulous beasts. Examples are drawn from Elizabethan drama, German Romantic music, French Expressionist painting, American science fiction, and cubist film. The contributors, in their exploration of the fantastic, consider the possibility of an intrinsic character or essential nature and examine its characteristic elements. Most of the texts studied have been found to contain echoes of myth and epic, linguistic archaism or invention, emphasis on freedom, and especially in more recent works, concern with sexuality, as well as a penchant for reflexive game-playing with a chosen form.


An eportfolio can be defined as a collection of student work accomplished throughout a student's time in an academic program [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Therefore, an eportfolio can serve as a capstone to demonstrate growth of achieving learning outcomes to measure what students have learned and are able to do when they complete their degree. Ideally, this has to be done at the conclusion of the program of study. An Eportfolio Assessment Management System (EAMS) is being developed and used in an outcome-based university to create, reflect, revise, and structure students' work. The EAMS is a web-based eportfolios which was developed in-house. The rationale of the EAMS is to allow students to present a collection of items that represent their accomplishments in courses towards the satisfaction predetermined courses learning outcomes using a pedagogical web-based environment model. The system assesses students learning outcomes and evaluates how courses and colleges programs are meeting institutional goals. It is a repository management system that facilitates collecting, sharing, and presenting artifacts of student learning outcomes via a digital medium. The EAMS was built around two defined set of learning outcomes: institutionally agreed upon set of learning outcomes, and learning objectives that are related to major requirements. Therefore, there are two major benefits of the system: (a) eportfolios can serve as a capstone; and (b) eportfolios can serve as an institutional documentation of accreditation requirements. To evaluate students' eportfolios, a committee is assigned to review eportfolios for key courses across the curriculum. Judgment of eportfolios is then based on student performance on achieving specific learning outcomes according to three predefined achievement levels (beginning, developing, and accomplished). At the end, the committee prepares a set of questions for the face-to-face conversation with each student after he/she do a presentation of how learning outcomes are achieved.


Objective: To assess the acceptance of removable partial denture among partially edentulous undergraduates.
Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data for the study was collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 2 sections: the first section sought demographic information (age, gender and marital status) while the second section consisted of 10 questions that tried to find out the prosthetic status of the respondents' missing teeth, awareness of options for replacing missing teeth, preferred treatment options, acceptance of RPD as a treatment option and perception towards the use of RPD for replacement of missing teeth.
Results: More than half (56.1%) of the participants had missing anterior teeth while the remaining 43.9% had their posterior teeth missing. Most (60.5%) of the participants had a form of replacement for their missing teeth. More than half (51.6%) of the respondents stated that RPD was the more common treatment options for replacing missing teeth while 23.6% and 24.8% felt RPD was not common and were indifferent respectively.
There was statistically significant association between gender and preferred treatment modality for replacing missing teeth (p=0.02) with a higher proportion (66.1%) of male respondents preferring RPD while 32.6% of female respondents preferred implants. There was statistically significant association between preferred treatment modality for missing teeth and perception of RPD as a form of treatment (p=0.0001) with 66.3% of those who preferred RPD having the perception that RPD was a good form of treatment for missing teeth.

Conclusion: Undergraduate students seem to accept removable partial denture as a viable treatment option for replacing missing teeth. The low cost and less time associated with removable partial denture are reasons adduced for its acceptance. More male undergraduates accepted removable partial denture compared to females who preferred implants.


Theory of normal mode propagation in a line-of-sight street scenario is extended to include propagation into buildings through coupling to a diffuse indoor field. Signal strength predictions are in close agreement with measurements, producing 2 dB and ≤ 3.5 dB root-mean-square model-data difference, in line-of-sight and outdoor-indoor scenarios, respectively. The full 3-D field model predicts actual signal directions and antenna correlations as a function of range, important for evaluating performance of directional antennas and spatial diversity. Only minimal description of the environment is needed, i.e., street width and representative building wall properties, without any interior details.


A considerable portion of the energy consumed in the steel industry is rejected as waste heat from the electric arc furnace. Capturing this energy impacts the efficiency of production significantly by reducing operating costs and increasing the plant's productivity. It also presents great opportunities to increase the industry's competitiveness and sustainable operation through a reduction in emissions. This work presents an assessment of steel manufacturing, and demonstrates the potential of thermal energy storage systems in recovering heat from the high-temperature exhaust fumes of the electric arc furnace. Our investigation entails mapping the material and energy requirements of one of two-phase of the current steel production method, i.e. natural gas reforming for syngas production, direct reduction of the iron ore, and secondary refining to obtain the steel in the electric arc furnace. Analysis of an obtained electric arc furnace off-gas temperature and flow rate profiles are then used as a basis in the development of a waste heat recovery model. Simulation results from the waste heat recovery module reveal that in a period of 4 days, an output power of 2108 kW per tap-to-tap cycle can be achieved from a continuous charge electric arc furnace. This can be harnessed and used either internally or externally to the steel manufacturing process. This is inevitably coupled with a reduction in CO 2 emissions, which works to actively address climate change.


Resistive switching in binary metal oxides consists of conductivity changes originating from the electrical creation/dissolution of conductive filaments (CFs) at nanoscale. The investigation of CF local properties can only be achieved through physical and electrical studies at the scale of 10 nm or less, that is, the characteristic size of CFs. This work reports on the direct manipulation of individual CFs formed through insulating NiO films by conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) and the comparison between forming/reset processes induced by CAFM and those observed in large-area devices with the same NiO film. The switching variability due to local defects, such as grain boundaries and dislocations, is directly evidenced by CAFM during electroforming process. Our results also indicate that the forming voltage under CAFM can be significantly smaller than the one observed in large-area devices, thus providing evidence for the electric-field enhancement underneath the CAFM tip. Filament deactivation, or...


Abstract. In these articles the authors introduce a new line of precision instruments used in the laboratory procedure for set-up models preparation, set-up models correction and model surgery according to the orthodontic and surgery treatment plan. The Set-Up Model Maker (SUM), the Occlusal Plane Reference (OPR) and the Surgical Model Accuracy Device (SMAD) are described in this article, and its use is explained through the case report of a treatment of a skeletal class III case with open bite.


The Coulomb scattering dynamics in graphene in energetic proximity to the Dirac point is investigated by polarization resolved pump-probe spectroscopy and microscopic theory. Collinear Coulomb scattering rapidly thermalizes the carrier distribution in k directions pointing radially away from the Dirac point. Our study reveals, however, that, in almost intrinsic graphene, full thermalization in all directions relying on noncollinear scattering is much slower. For low photon energies, carrier-optical-phonon processes are strongly suppressed and Coulomb mediated noncollinear scattering is remarkably slow, namely on a ps time scale. This effect is very promising for infrared and THz devices based on hot carrier effects.


The past decade has seen significant progress in understanding galaxy formation and evolution using large-scale cosmological simulations. While these simulations produce galaxies in overall good agreement with observations, they employ different sub-grid models for galaxies and supermassive black holes (BHs). We investigate the impact of the sub-grid models on the BH mass properties of the Illustris, TNG100, TNG300, Horizon-AGN, EAGLE, and SIMBA simulations, focusing on the MBH − M⋆ relation and the BH mass function. All simulations predict tight MBH − M⋆ relations, and struggle to produce BHs of $M_{\rm BH}\leqslant 10^{7.5}\, \rm M_{\odot }$ in galaxies of $M_{\star }\sim 10^{10.5}\!-\!10^{11.5}\, \rm M_{\odot }$. While the time evolution of the mean MBH − M⋆ relation is mild ($\rm \Delta M_{\rm BH}\leqslant 1\, dex$ for 0 $\leqslant z \leqslant$ 5) for all the simulations, its linearity (shape) and normalization varies from simulation to simulation. The strength of SN feedback has a large impact on the linearity and time evolution for $M_{\star }\leqslant 10^{10.5}\, \rm M_{\odot }$. We find that the low-mass end is a good discriminant of the simulation models, and highlights the need for new observational constraints. At the high-mass end, strong AGN feedback can suppress the time evolution of the relation normalization. Compared with observations of the local Universe, we find an excess of BHs with $M_{\rm BH}\geqslant 10^{9}\, \rm M_{\odot }$ in most of the simulations. The BH mass function is dominated by efficiently accreting BHs ($\log _{10}\, f_{\rm Edd}\geqslant -2$) at high redshifts, and transitions progressively from the high-mass to the low-mass end to be governed by inactive BHs. The transition time and the contribution of active BHs are different among the simulations, and can be used to evaluate models against observations.


Abstract Background and Hypothesis Disturbances in self-experience are a central feature of schizophrenia and its study can enhance phenomenological understanding and inform mechanisms underlying clinical symptoms. Self-experience involves the sense of self-presence, of being the subject of one's own experiences and agent of one's own actions, and of being distinct from others. Self-experience is traditionally assessed by manual rating of interviews; however, natural language processing (NLP) offers automated approach that can augment manual ratings by rapid and reliable analysis of text. Study Design We elicited autobiographical narratives from 167 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SZ) and 90 healthy controls (HC), amounting to 490 000 words and 26 000 sentences. We used NLP techniques to examine transcripts for language related to self-experience, machine learning to validate group differences in language, and canonical correlation analysis to examine the relationship between language and symptoms. Study Results Topics related to self-experience and agency emerged as significantly more expressed in SZ than HC (P < 10−13) and were decoupled from similarly emerging features such as emotional tone, semantic coherence, and concepts related to burden. Further validation on hold-out data showed that a classifier trained on these features achieved patient-control discrimination with AUC = 0.80 (P < 10−5). Canonical correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between self-experience and agency language features and clinical symptoms. Conclusions Notably, the self-experience and agency topics emerged without any explicit probing by the interviewer and can be algorithmically detected even though they involve higher-order metacognitive processes. These findings illustrate the utility of NLP methods to examine phenomenological aspects of schizophrenia.


The Gaussian Process Convolution Model (GPCM; Tobar et al., 2015a) is a model for signals with complex spectral structure. A significant limitation of the GPCM is that it assumes a rapidly decaying spectrum: it can only model smooth signals. Moreover, inference in the GPCM currently requires (1) a mean-field assumption, resulting in poorly calibrated uncertainties, and (2) a te-dious variational optimisation of large covariance matrices. We redesign the GPCM model to induce a richer distribution over the spectrum with relaxed assumptions about smoothness: the Causal Gaussian Process Convolution Model (CGPCM) introduces a causality assumption into the GPCM, and the Rough Gaussian Process Convolution Model (RGPCM) can be interpreted as a Bayesian nonparametric generalisation of the fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process. We also propose a more effective variational inference scheme, going beyond the mean-field assumption: we design a Gibbs sampler which directly samples from the optimal variational solution, circumventing any variational optimisation entirely. The proposed variations of the GPCM are validated in experiments on synthetic and real-world data, showing promising results.


Time and Relational Theory provides an in-depth description of temporal database systems, which provide special facilities for storing, querying, and updating historical and future data. Traditionally, database management systems provide little or no special support for temporal data at all. This situation is changing because: Cheap storage enables retention of large volumes of historical data in data warehouses Users are now faced with temporal data problems, and need solutions Temporal features have recently been incorporated into the SQL standard, and vendors have begun to add temporal support to their DBMS products Based on the groundbreaking text Temporal Data & the Relational Model (Morgan Kaufmann, 2002) and new research led by the authors, Time and Relational Theory is the only book to offer a complete overview of the functionality of a temporal DBMS. Expert authors Nikos Lorentzos, Hugh Darwen, and Chris Date describe an approach to temporal database management that is firmly rooted in classical relational theory and will stand the test of time. This book covers the SQL:2011 temporal extensions in depth and identifies and discusses the temporal functionality still missing from SQL. Understand how the relational model provides an ideal basis for taming the complexities of temporal databases Learn how to analyze and evaluate commercial temporal products with this timely and important information Be able to use sound principles in designing and using temporal databases Understand the temporal support recently added to SQL with coverage of the new SQL features in this unique, accurate, and authoritative reference Appreciate the benefits of a truly relational approach to the problem with this clear, user friendly presentation


In Re C (A Child) (Adoption: Duty of Local Authority), the Court of Appeal had an opportunity to explore the relationship between parental interests and the paramountcy of child welfare in adoption decisions. This commentary critically examines the court's reasoning, arguing that it utilised an unnecessarily narrow conception of welfare and gave undue weight to the interests of the child's mother.


Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects structural connectivity, triggering the reorganization of structural–functional circuits in a manner that remains poorly understood. We focus here on brain network reorganization in relation to postural control deficits after TBI. We enrolled young participants who had suffered moderate to severe TBI, comparing them to young, typically developing control participants. TBI patients (but not controls) recruited prefrontal regions to interact with two separated networks: (1) a subcortical network, including parts of the motor network, basal ganglia, cerebellum, hippocampus, amygdala, posterior cingulate gyrus, and precuneus; and (2) a task-positive network, involving regions of the dorsal attention system, together with dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal regions. We also found that the increased prefrontal connectivity in TBI patients was correlated with some postural control indices, such as the amount of body sway, whereby patients with worse balance increased their connectivity in frontal regions more strongly. The increased prefrontal connectivity found in TBI patients may provide the structural scaffolding for stronger cognitive control of certain behavioral functions, consistent with the observations that various motor tasks are performed less automatically following TBI and that more cognitive control is associated with such actions. Author Summary Using a new hierarchical atlas whose modules are relevant for both structure and function, we found increased structural and functional connectivity in prefrontal regions in TBI patients as compared to controls, in addition to a general pattern of overall decreased connectivity across the TBI brain. Although this increased prefrontal connectivity reflected interactions between brain areas when participants were at rest, the enhanced connectivity was found to be negatively correlated with active behavior such as postural control performance. Thus our findings, obtained when the brain was at rest, potentially reflect how TBI patients orchestrate task-related activations to support behavior in everyday life. In particular, our findings of enhanced connectivity in TBI might help these patients overcome deficits in cerebellar and subcortical connections, in addition to compensating for deficits when interacting with the task-positive network. Hence, it appears that greater cognitive control is exerted over certain actions in order to overcome deficits in their automatic processing.


In a context of increased state expectations that Chinese private enterprise will "give back to society," this article argues that the way that locally developed private enterprises engage in welfare and poverty relief in rural China is decisively shaped by the social networks of the owners. Three very different industrial structures located near to each other in Fanhua County, Shandong Province, are compared. These are: a small group of large conglomerates situated near the county seat, a networked cluster of over 3,000 mostly small and micro furniture companies, and a cluster of midsize companies that produce sheet steel. Industrial structures have shaped the owners' social networks in each of these three industries. The norms embedded in the businesspeople's social/business networks, which are affected by the influence on the networks of political authority, factory-owner peers, and ordinary locals, orient the private enterprise owners toward providing or not providing social welfare in particular ways.


This study investigates the diurnal cycle of tropical organized deep convection and the feedback in large-scale circulation. By considering gravity wave phase speeds, we find that the circulation adjustment into weak temperature gradient (WTG) balance occurs rapidly (<6 h) relative to diurnal diabatic forcing on the spatial scales typical of organized convection (≤500 km). Convection-permitting numerical simulations of self-aggregation in diurnal radiative–convective equilibrium (RCE) are conducted to explore this further. These simulations depict a pronounced diurnal cycle of circulation linked to organized convection, which indeed maintains WTG balance to first order. A set of sensitivity experiments is conducted to assess what governs the diurnal cycle of organized convection. We find that the "direct radiation–convection interaction" (or lapse-rate) mechanism is of primary importance for diurnal precipitation range, while the "dynamic cloudy–clear differential radiation" mechanism amplifies the range by approximately 30%, and delays the nocturnal precipitation peak by around 5 h. The differential radiation mechanism therefore explains the tendency for tropical heavy rainfall to peak in the early morning, while the lapse-rate mechanism primarily governs diurnal amplitude. The diurnal evolution of circulation can be understood as follows. While nocturnal deep convection invigorated by cloud-top cooling (i.e., the lapse-rate mechanism) leads to strong bottom-heavy circulation at nighttime, the localized (i.e., differential) top-heavy shortwave warming in the convective region invigorates circulation at upper levels in daytime. A diurnal evolution of the circulation therefore arises, from bottom heavy at nighttime to top heavy in daytime, in a qualitatively consistent manner with the observed diurnal pulsing of the Hadley cell driven by the ITCZ.


This paper analyzes whether or not investors who utilize financial advisors/brokers are systematically directed to mutual fund investments that have lower quality governance. By utilizing the Morningstar Stewardship Grades and analyzing the Board Quality, Managerial Incentive, Fee Rating, and Corporate Culture Rating, we conclude that investors in multiple share class mutual funds (MS funds) are indeed investing in funds that have lower quality governance. Specifically, ordered probit regressions suggest that MS funds are less likely to have higher board quality ratings, less likely to have higher managerial incentive ratings, and are less likely to have higher fee ratings. The results suggest that regulating bodies like the US Securities and Exchange Commissions should investigate these investments to make sure retail investors are not being disadvantaged.


Climate change and environmental pressures have a significant impact on global crop production and require growing crops that can withstand many climate changes and environmental disruptions, such as irregular water supply leading to drought or waterlogging, excessive salinization of the soil, extreme and variable temperatures, ultraviolet radiation and much biotic stress. Plant have complex molecular mechanisms to cope with these dynamic environmental change; one of the most common and useful mechanism is reprogramming expressions stress-responsive genes. Plant miRNAs (miRNAs) have become vital post-transcriptional and translational gene expression regulators to modulate stress effects. Recent research set their critical roles in epigenetic regulation of stress / adaptive reactions, as well as in ensuring the stability of the plant genome. Some stress-sensitive miRNAs identified from various crops and miRNA-based RNA interference (RNAi) turns into a technology of choice for improving crop traits and providing a phenotypic and genotypic solution. Here present a promising review of the study of miRNAs as potent targets for crops that can withstand multi-stress environments using function loss/enhancement approaches.


The government restrictions on inter-state migration, imposed as a result of the violence of World War I, had a considerable impact around the world. This book explores the local Yugoslav particularities of these changes by examining the administrative development of its emigration offices. The book covers the official and unofficial policies, as well as the institutional and extra-institutional frameworks, and is therefore able to address several related topics, such as the State's hidden minority policy and the widespread corruption and misconduct in the administration of emigration procedures. It also includes a chapter dedicated specifically to the issue of State-facilitated surveillance over female emigration. (Series: Studies on South East Europe - Vol. 11)


Abstract Although the pre-glacial Proterozoic isotopic record is poorly constrained, it is apparent that the chemical and isotopic composition of the oceans began to change during the early to mid-Neoproterozoic and experienced considerable fluctuations alongside climatic instability during much of the subsequent Cryogenian and Ediacaran periods. The earliest known large negative δ13C excursion appears to post-date 811 Ma and fluctuations became progressively more extreme, culminating in the late-Ediacaran 'Shuram–Wonoka' anomaly. The negative excursions are commonly associated with pre-glacial and post-glacial times, while extremely high δ13C values are characteristic of strata between glaciations. The precise causal mechanism for these excursions is subject to debate. Seawater 87Sr/86Sr rose during the Neoproterozoic, with abrupt increases following deglaciation consistent with enhanced weathering rates. Reported marine sulphate and pyrite δ34S data exhibit marked variation through this interval, although the changes are not always consistent within or between sedimentary successions of equivalent age. Iron-speciation studies indicate that much of this variation was caused by fluctuating and low sulphate concentrations in seawater, which at times led to the build-up of ferruginous conditions in the ocean. The application of chemostratigraphy to understanding and correlating the Neoproterozoic glaciations evokes considerable controversy, and many questions persist regarding the reliability and calibration of the δ13C, 87Sr/86Sr and δ34S record. Nevertheless, the individual glaciations appear to be characterized by distinct combined chemostratigraphic signatures, in large part due to the generally increasing strontium isotope composition of seawater through the Neoproterozoic Era.


The unique ability of ultrasound to detect soft tissue interfaces makes it a prime tool for at least one major diagnostic approach to soft tissue lesions. Systematic ultrasonic examination of suspected masses in the abdomen should be performed early in the course of investigation. It will help direct additional studies and often result in cost savings by making the diagnostic process more efficient. The method is painless, to the best of our knowledge harmless and can be repeated at will for early study or late follow-up. The ultrasonic look into the body has provided us with a major tool for obtaining far more information on internal structures than was possible even a few years ago. Ultrasonic scans, radioisotope examinations and computerized x-ray tomography are leading us into an era of much increased anatomic knowledge about lesions which heretofore were obscure and difficult to evaluate.


The tumour suppressor gene hypermethylated in cancer 1 (HIC1) is a transcriptional             repressor, which functionally cooperates with p53. Loss of HIC1 function is associated             with the development of various tumor entities. The aim of this study was to elucidate             the relevance of CpG island (CGI) methylation of HIC1 in renal cell carcinoma             (RCC). DNA methylation of HIC1 was analysed in a total of 98 tumor and 70 tumor             adjacent normal specimens. After conducting bisulfite conversion, relative methylation             levels were quantitated using pyrosequencing. Relative methylation values were             compared for paired tumor and normal specimen and for correlation with clinico-pathologic             and follow-up data of patients. Tumor-specific hypermethylation could not be detected             for the subregion of the HIC1 - CGI analyzed in this study. Comparing the level             of methylation in tumors to clinicopathological data solely, patients without             lymph node metastases demonstrated a higher level of methylation compared to patients             with lymph node metastases (p=0.030). Patients recurrence-free survival (p=0.0074)             both in univariate as well as bivariate cox regression analysis. This study identifies             HIC1 hypermethylation in tumors as an independent predictor of reduced recurrence-free             survival, which fits into our current understanding of hypermethylated HIC1 being             a marker for poor prognosis. Therefore, HIC1 - CGI methylation could be a candidate             marker to improve individualized therapy and risk stratification.


BACKGROUND
The development of multicomponent reactions (MCRs) in the presence of task-specific ionic liquids (ILs), used not only as environmentally benign reaction media, but also as catalysts, is a new approach that meet with the requirements of sustainable chemistry. In recent years, the use of ionic liquids as a green media for organic synthesis has become a chief study area. This is due to their unique properties such as non-volatility, non-flammability, chemical and thermal stability, immiscibility with both organic compounds and water and recyclability. Ionic liquids are used as environmentally friendly solvents instead of hazardous organic solvents.

OBJECTIVE
We report the condensation reaction between α-oximinoketone and dialkyl acetylene dicarboxylate in the presence of triphenylphosphine to afford substituted pyrroles under ionic liquid conditions in good yields.

RESULT
Densely functionalized pyrroles was easily prepared from reaction of α-oximinoketones, dialkyl acetylene dicarboxylate in the presence of triphenylphosphine in a quantitative yield under ionic liquid conditions at room temperature.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, ionic liquids are indicated as a useful and novel reaction medium for the selective synthesis of functionalized pyrroles. This reaction medium can replace the use of hazardous organic solvents. Easy work-up, synthesis of polyfunctional compounds, decreased reaction time, having easily available-recyclable ionic liquids, and good to high yields are advantages of present method.


This paper examines genre-related tags through a social bookmarking system CiteULike. Three types of genre-related tags were identified: "is" tag indicating a genre,"for" tag for creating another genre, and "about" tag dealing with a genretopic. An analysis of the frequency and functions of genre-related tags will enable us better understand tagging as well as genre.


ABSTRACT As our understanding of the importance of the human microbiota in health and disease grows, so does our need to carefully resolve and delineate its genomic content. 16S rRNA gene-based analyses yield important insights into taxonomic composition, and metagenomics-based approaches reveal the functional potential of microbial communities. However, these methods generally fail to directly link genetic features, including bacterial genes and mobile genetic elements, to each other and to their source bacterial genomes. Further, they are inadequate to capture the microdiversity present within a genus, species, or strain of bacteria within these complex communities. Here, we present a method utilizing fluorescence-activated cell sorting for isolation of single bacterial cells, amplifying their genomes, screening them by 16S rRNA gene analysis, and selecting cells for genomic sequencing. We apply this method to both a cultured laboratory strain of Escherichia coli and human stool samples. Our analyses reveal the capacity of this method to provide nearly complete coverage of bacterial genomes when applied to isolates and partial genomes of bacterial species recovered from complex communities. Additionally, this method permits exploration and comparison of conserved and variable genomic features between individual cells. We generate assemblies of novel genomes within the Ruminococcaceae family and the Holdemanella genus by combining several 16S rRNA gene-matched single cells, and report novel prophages and conjugative transposons for both Bifidobacterium and Ruminococcaceae. Thus, we demonstrate an approach for flow cytometric separation and sequencing of single bacterial cells from the human microbiota, which yields a variety of critical insights into both the functional potential of individual microbes and the variation among those microbes. This method definitively links a variety of conserved and mobile genomic features, and can be extended to further resolve diverse elements present in the human microbiota.


Hot springs are aquatic environments with high temperatures. They harbor diverse groups of micro-organisms like fungi that have developed mechanisms to thrive at wide temperature ranges, according to their optimal growth requirements. Fungi are a large group of eukaryotic organisms with worldwide distribution, inhabiting a diverse range of extreme habitats from deserts to hyper saline environments. The fungal diversity of the hot spring along the shores of Lake Bogoria was investigated using a culture-dependent approach. Microbial mats and wet sediments were collected from three sampling points along the hot spring while water samples were gotten from the mouth of the hot spring on the shores of the lake. Physicochemical characteristics were recorded at the study sites. Samples from the hot spring were isolated on four different media at pH 10 and at a temperature of 30°C. A total of seventeen fungal isolates were identified using morphological, physiological and molecular characters. Furthermore, the isolates were screened for production of extracellular enzymes. All the fungal isolates variedly grew at pH ranging from 5 to 10, temperature range of 25 to 35°C and sodium chloride range of 5 to 30%. Based on experimental analysis, isolate B61 exhibited significant growth in the four parameters tested. Also all the seventeen isolates produced different extracellular enzymes such as amylases, lipases, proteases and esterases. Analysis of partial sequences using Blastn showed that about 11.7 and 29.1% of the isolates were affiliated with members belonging to the genera Penicillium and Aspergillus, respectively. A total of 12% of the isolates belonged to the genera Alternaria and Fusarium while another 41% of the isolates clustered closely with uncultured fungus. Fungal endophyte comprised 6%. Although the culture dependent method did not reveal the true diversity of the fungal community, the isolates recovered were a representation of thermotolerant, alkalitolerant and halotolerant microorganisms found in soda lake environments. The isolates have the potential to produce useful enzymes for biotechnological applications.

 Key words: Hot springs, tropical mycology, diversity, extremophiles.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate gabapentin's role in head and neck cancer surgery following the demonstration of the effectiveness of gabapentin in reducing postoperative pain.

DESIGN
Non-randomised open-label trial.

SETTING
Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Pain scores, analgesic usage, and the frequency of adverse effects.

PATIENTS
In patients undergoing anterolateral thigh flap reconstruction after resection of tongue carcinoma, those who had an oral dose of gabapentin before surgery were compared to those who did not.

RESULTS
Postoperative pain was reduced in the gabapentin group (1.2) compared to the control group (1.7) [P=0.05]. In the gabapentin group, mean morphine (patient-controlled analgesia) use (3.5 mg), sedation scores (1.0), and antiemetic usage (0 mg metoclopramide) were all significantly reduced in comparison to the controls with respective figures of 11.4 mg, 1.6, and 12.2 mg.

CONCLUSION
Single preoperative doses of gabapentin led to significant reductions in postoperative pain and nausea with reduced analgesic and antiemetic usage, without additional side-effects or increases in operative complications.


Twelve members of a Maori family were investigated for alpha-thalassaemia after a provisional diagnosis of thalassaemia had been made on the basis of chronic hypochromic microcytic red cell indices. Ten family members were shown to have the 3.7 kb deletion form of alpha-thalassaemia; two of these were homozygous for this deletion (-alpha/-alpha); eight had the single deletion (-alpha/alpha alpha). While anaemia was not a significant finding, the degree of hypochromicity and microcytosis correlated well with the alpha globin gene status of individual family members. This and other studies provide evidence that alpha-thalassaemia is a significant contributor to the chronic mild anaemia of the Maori.


Galaxies grow their supermassive black holes in concert with their stars, although the relationship between these major galactic components is poorly understood. Observations of the cosmic growth of stars and black holes in galaxies suffer from disjoint samples and the strong effects of dust attenuation. The thermal infrared holds incredible potential for simultaneously measuring both the star formation and black hole accretion rates in large samples of galaxies covering a wide range of physical conditions. Spitzer demonstrated this potential at low redshift, and by observing some of the most luminous galaxies at z~2. JWST will apply these methods to normal galaxies at these epochs, but will not be able to generate large spectroscopic samples or access the thermal infrared at high-redshift. An order of magnitude gap in our wavelength coverage will persist between JWST and ALMA. A large, cold infrared telescope can fill this gap to determine when (in cosmic time), and where (within the cosmic web), stars and black holes co-evolve, by measuring these processes simultaneously in statistically complete and unbiased samples of galaxies to z>8. A next-generation radio interferometer will have the resolution and sensitivity to measure star-formation and nuclear accretion in even the dustiest galaxies. Together, the thermal infrared and radio can uniquely determine how stars and supermassive blackholes co-evolve in galaxies over cosmic time.


The injectable contraceptive Depo Provera banned in the U.S. and other Western countries because of associated cancer risks is currently being distributed by Western governments in the Third World countries. There are now more than 500000 women in Asia and Africa who are currently using the contraceptive containing MPA (medroxyprogesterone acetate) which in U.S. Food and Drug Administration trials produced cancers in beagle bitches. The U.S. and Swedish governments through WHO IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) and other bodies are financing the distribution of the contraceptive in Asia. 2 issues are raised by this distribution activity: 1) the ethical issue of using drugs banned in the West on illiterate women in the Third World; and 2) the use of contraceptives on a huge scale despite FDA warnings and bans in Western countries. Asian doctors have long pointed out that Western companies whose products have been banned in their own countries have been dumping substandard equipment and medicines into the Asian market. Depo Provera injected every 3 months is widely used in Southeast Asia particularly in Thailand. The London-based IPPF is the worlds largest distributor of the contraceptive. The Family Planning Association in Britain has applied for the lifting of restrictions in Britain but the Committee on Safety of Medicines has approved its short-term use only for women whose husbands have had a vasectomy and for women being immunized against German measles. Dr. Malcolm Potts medical advisor to IPPF and other research clinics in Britain and in the U.S. questioned the association between beagle trials and women taking far lower doses. Thai women who had been treated with Depo over many years have not shown any increase in cancerous symptoms. However the real issue behind the controversy is the distribution of Western medicines and drugs in Third World countries. As Dr. Zafrullah Choudhury founder of the "barefoot doctor" scheme in Bangladesh said "Western doctors feel they can do experiments on Asian women because they are poor and illiterate. They do not regard them as people. They...see family planning in terms of numbers....in terms of population control rather than people."


We analyze the Parisian taille of the late 13th century - a taxation mechanism used to finance periodic major expenditures by the French Crown, including wars. Our major finding is that this system was remarkably successful along a number of dimensions, in an environment without the administrative structures used by contemporary governments. The taille's essential features were; an agreement between the king and city government to collect a fixed amount of revenue, and a collection process that made use of information about taxpayers held by their fellow artisans and/or neighbors. We show that it collected considerable sums without social unrest, with high levels of compliance, and administrative costs that were low even by modern standards. We also argue that its success may have lessons for improved tax collection and compliance in contemporary less-developed economies.


This thesis presents a comparative account of the theory of fetishism and its
role in the social constitution and constituent properties of Marx's, Lukacs', Adorno's
and Lefebvre's theories of social domination. It aims to bring this unduly neglected
aspect of fetishism to the fore and to stress its relevance for contemporary critical
theory.

The thesis begins with an introductory chapter that highlights the lack of a
satisfactory theory of fetishism and social domination in contemporary critical theory.
It also demonstrates how this notion of fetishism has been neglected in contemporary
critical theory and in studies of Marxian theory.

This frames the ensuing comparative, historical and theoretical study in the
substantive chapters of my thesis, which differentiates, reconstructs and critically
evaluates how Marx, Lukacs, Adorno and Lefebvre utilize the theory of fetishism to
articulate their theories of the composition and characteristics of social domination.
Chapter 1 examines Marx's theory of fetish-characteristic forms of value as a theory of
domination socially embedded in his account of the Trinity Formula. It also evaluates
the theoretical and sociological shortcomings of Capital. Chapter 2 focuses on how
Lukacs' double-faceted account of fetishism as reification articulates his Hegelian,
Marxian, Simmelian and Weberian account of dominating social mystification. Chapter
3 turns to Adorno's theory of the fetish form of the exchange abstraction and unpacks
how it serves as a basis for his dialectical critical social theory of domination. Chapter
4 provides an account of how Lefebvre's theory of fetishism as concrete abstraction
serves as the basis for a number of theories that attempt to socially embody an
account of domination that is not overly deterministic. The critical evaluations in
chapters 2-4 interrogate each thinker's conception of fetishism and its role in their
accounts of the genesis and pervasiveness of social domination.

The conclusion of the thesis consists of three parts. In the first part, I
bring together and compare my analysis of Marx, Lukacs, Adorno and Lefebvre. In part
two, I consider whether their respective theories provide a coherent and cohesive
critical social theory of fetishism and of the mode of constitution and the constituents
of social domination. In part three, I move toward a contemporary critical theory of
fetishism and social domination by synthesising elements of Lukacs', Adorno's and
Lefebvre's theories with a model of social constitution, reproduction and domination
modelled on Marx's account of the Trinity Formula.


A set of vertices $S$ of a graph $G$ is {\em monophonically convex} if every
induced path joining two vertices of $S$ is contained in $S$. The {\em
monophonic convex hull of $S$}, $\langle S \rangle$, is the smallest
monophonically convex set containing $S$. A set $S$ is {\em monophonic convexly
independent} if $v \not\in \langle S - \{v\} \rangle$ for every $v \in S$. The
{\em monophonic rank} of $G$ is the size of the largest monophonic convexly
independent set of $G$. We present a characterization of the monophonic
convexly independent sets. Using this result, we show how to determine the
monophonic rank of graph classes like bipartite, cactus, triangle-free, and
line graphs in polynomial time. Furthermore, we show that this parameter can
computed in polynomial time for $1$-starlike graphs, i.e., for split graphs,
and that its determination is $\NP$-complete for $k$-starlike graphs for any
fixed $k \ge 2$, a subclass of chordal graphs. We also consider this problem on
the graphs whose intersection graph of the maximal prime subgraphs is a tree.


In recent years, learning environments have been radically affected by the scientific developments regarding cognitive processes. In our study, we examined high school students'process of abstraction of the knowledge of signum functions in a learning environment created by considering such developments. In the instruction phase, which employed a case study and group studies with two high school students, three specially-designed sequential problems were used. It was observed that the students used the knowledge they had abstracted for the first problem in order to solve the others, and they abstracted the knowledge of piecewise and signum functions accurately to a certain extent. The study also showed that using environmental events and problems to teach about functions strongly contributes to learning.


The paper describes the moisture control strategy used in the case of a multi-story office building located in a hot humid climate and estimates the energy consumed to dehumidify the ventilation air to avoid condensation. The results show that, in order to achieve a comfortable and stable environment from both thermal and humidity perspectives, the ventilation (and dehumidification) system of the building should be operated 24 h/day. If high variations in the relative humidity are acceptable, important energy savings can be achieved by switching off the ventilation system at night. When compared to an all-air system, the use of the hydronic radiant system for conditioning in a hot humid climate provides similar indoor comfort conditions and requires less energy and peak power to operate.


We study how the class of observers introduced in a previous paper, here referred to as circle-criterion observers, can be incorporated in output-feedback control. Due to the absence of a controller-observer separation property for nonlinear systems, the certainty-equivalence implementation of a state-feedback design may lead to severe forms of instability. We show, on the contrary, that the state-dependent convergence properties of circle-criterion observers can prevent such instabilities. Exploiting these convergence properties we develop a modified circle-criterion observer design that guarantees global asymptotic stability for certainty-equivalence controllers.


This article examines the political nature of South Africa's Black Consciousness movement through an account of the pro-Frelimo rallies organised in Durban and at the University of the North by the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) and the Black People's Convention (BPC) in September 1974. It places these rallies in the context of these organisations' adoption of confrontational and public forms of protest after 1972. These represent a high-water mark in Black Consciousness organisation and provided the excuse for the state's prosecution of the leaders of the movement. Despite this, these rallies have been understudied. This article therefore presents a new account of these protests. It shows how the leaders of SASO and the BPC progressively revised their ideas about public confrontation through the process of organising these rallies. After the Minister of Justice announced his intention to ban them, these leaders refused to back down. The rallies each took place as planned, and each provoked a response from local police forces – which, in turn, were clearly expecting the rallies and prepared for the task of dispersing them. This article suggest that the embrace of confrontational forms of protest by SASO and the BPC should be understood as representing a significant moment in the development of public forms of mass protest in South Africa.


The seastar Pentaceraster regulus (Müller & Troschel, 1842) is documented from the coastal estuary of Wallis Lake, New South Wales, Australia, c. 600 km from the nearest previous records at Lord Howe Island, an offshore area known to receive a tropical influence from the southern flowing East Australian Current, and between 640 to 800 km south of earlier published records from mainland areas to the north in Queensland. Historical data combined with contemporary observations provide evidence that this is a recent range extension and may be a further example of tropicalization of the south eastern Australian coastal waters. Records from Wallis Lake span a twelve year period and the most recent observations in 2020 indicate it is abundant, and there is considerable difference between the smallest and largest specimens present, suggesting a population that completes most or all of the life cycle is established in the estuary. Given the impacts range shifted species and other echinoderms are known to have in influencing ecosystem dynamics, it is suggested that further study of this seastar is prudent to determine what impacts it may have in the newly colonized area.


Bending waveguides with 90° corners based on a two-dimensional photonic crystal with metallic cylinders arranged in a square lattice are studied for THz wave guiding. Considering single- and double-line defects, five different designs are investigated and assessed in terms of their transmission performance. A better structure is proposed by increasing the number of rods in the bending arc, thus achieving superior performance of the transmission characteristics in comparison to that of the former five designs. A comparison of the improved bend waveguide with a linear waveguide shows a significant reduction of the bending losses. Transmission levels of up to 98% within a 2.5 THz bandwidth (from 1.2 to 3.7 THz) have been accomplished.


Software is based on universal principles but not its development. Relating software to hardware is never automatic or easy. Attempts to optimize software production and drastically reduce their costs (like in hardware) have been very restricted. Instead, highly-skilled and experienced individuals are ultimately responsible for project success. The long and convoluted path towards useful and reliable software is often plagued by idiosyncratic accidents and emergent complexity. It was expected that software standardisation would remove these sources of unwanted diversity by aiming to controllable development processes, universal programming languages, and toolkits of reusable software components. However, limited adoption of development standards suggests that we still do not understand why software is so difficult to produce. Software standardisation has been limited by our poor understanding of humans' role at the origin of technological diversity.


Objective: Cognitive bias modification (CBM) eliminates cognitive biases toward negative information and is efficacious in reducing depression recurrence, but the mechanisms behind the bias elimination are not fully understood. The present study investigated, through computer simulation of neural network models, the neural dynamics underlying the use of CBM in eliminating the negative biases in the way that depressed patients evaluate facial expressions. Method: We investigated 2 new CBM methodologies using biologically plausible synaptic learning mechanisms—continuous transformation learning and trace learning—which guide learning by exploiting either the spatial or temporal continuity between visual stimuli presented during training. We first describe simulations with a simplified 1-layer neural network, and then we describe simulations in a biologically detailed multilayer neural network model of the ventral visual pathway. Results: After training with either the continuous transformation learning rule or the trace learning rule, the 1-layer neural network eliminated biases in interpreting neutral stimuli as sad. The multilayer neural network trained with realistic face stimuli was also shown to be able to use continuous transformation learning or trace learning to reduce biases in the interpretation of neutral stimuli. Conclusions: The simulation results suggest 2 biologically plausible synaptic learning mechanisms, continuous transformation learning and trace learning, that may subserve CBM. The results are highly informative for the development of experimental protocols to produce optimal CBM training methodologies with human participants.


The Federal Circuit, the Patent Office, and several regional circuits apply the trademark law doctrine of foreign equivalents. Under the doctrine, marks in foreign languages are translated into English and tested for the statutory bars to registration, instead of being tested in their original form. The doctrine is applied even in cases where only a negligible percentage of the purchasing public would be able to translate the foreign mark.I argue that the Federal Circuit should abolish the doctrine of foreign equivalents from trademark law for two reasons. First, the doctrine violates directly applicable Supreme Court precedent, which rejects the doctrine. Second, the doctrine makes little sense as a matter of policy. It contravenes the basic goal of trademark law - to protect a substantial portion of the public - by allowing courts to refuse registration of marks where only a minuscule portion of the public would be confused, deceived, or otherwise affected by a mark. Moreover, the doctrine is unworkable because it lacks reasoning, creates confusion and is inconsistently applied by the courts.


Launching a new journal is a rare event - doing it electronically is even more rare. Given the subtext for the journal: "media, technology and lifelong learning", the format might not be so surprising. Enthusiasts for electronic publishing underline that it acts as an alternative to the traditional publishing in a number of significant ways. It is far more affordable for independent actors to establish, it is a lot more reasonable to run, and in addition supports genuine academic virtues more effectively than traditional journals: results from research can be published faster, they are accessible for everyone with a PC hooked onto the Internet, it can serve formerly unrecognised academic communities and special interests with a platform, etc.Genevieve Brown and Beverly J. Irby give a brilliant account of the "whys" and "hows" they confronted while planning and launching their journal "Advancing Women in Leadership Journal". Read their wonderful article in The Journal of Electronic Publishing.The most important, however, is the founding idea, what the editors suggest as their contribution to the current discourses in the field. Seminar.net is a title we find telling: it is about education, it is about teaching and learning, about democracy in the digital age and about didactics. Now, didactics has a significant position in educational theory in general. Behind the development of didactics, there is a long history of trying to formalise the "art of teaching". Educational technology goes back to the ancient Greek, according to the historian of educational technology, Paul Saettler. Trying to make teaching meaningful to the student, efficient in its use of time and resources, coping with both the process of conveying meaning, cultural standards and upbringing as well as initiating the young into the world of adults is a complex activity. Inventing methods, tricks of the trade and rules of thumb, has, during history, been crucial in making training of teachers possible. In this sense didactics, has been the technology whereby teachers could act efficiently. One dimension of this technology is theoretical e.g. what researchers investigate and theorize. Another dimension is practical and material. The school building, classrooms, blackboards, textbooks – are all exponents, or representations of what we during history have conceived of as promoting teaching and learning. They are material expressions of the educational technology.The digital tools for information and communication technology have intensified the significance of a more thorough understanding of the media in education. Pedagogical innovations are clearly linked to innovations in methods for communication, its rhetoric and ability to mediate. The relation between the objective world and the subjective mind is a mediated relation. Comenius' suggested that children would understand this relation when it was represented and mediated in ways that gave meaning to them. Language, images and the senses made it possible to induce from observation and logically connect them to former knowledge. It was the task of the teacher to make this mediation possible, and Comenius invented the modern textbook to aid teachers in their efforts. In many respects, modern educational technology, particularly the personal computer and the Internet provides education with the same mediating capacities.The articles of this first issue are invited contributions. Lars Qvortrup, adjunct professor of the Centre for media education at Lillehammer University College, director of KnowledgeLab.Dk as well as professor of Media at the University of Southern Denmark, gives a thorough introduction to the educational theory of Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998), the German sociologist. He played a major role in making Systems Theory applicable to social theory, and introduced a number of new insights to how the modern world functions. Qvortrup is one of Luhmann's finest interpreters, who extends and develops his work into media and communications theory. In this article he shows how Luhmann's theoretical notions fruitfully can stimulate developments in educational theory. David Hamilton, Ethel Dahlgren, Agneta Hult and  Tor Söderström, University of Umeå, present a collaborative paper, which critically looks into the Swedish tradition of "Folkbildning". Folkbildning is deemed to be student-centred, participatory and constructivist, - a materialized version of the ideal of Bildung, in which conversation (Swedish: samtalet) is the fundamental tool. The authors question how various software handle this phenomenon, and seeks to develop a critique of their ability to support the genuine samtalet. As things are, students are confused by a multitude of "threads" and cross-postings that follow the trails intended by the tutors (or the engineers), and it is difficult to emulate the pedagogic practice with its "inherited values of liberal adult education (or folkbildning)" by the on-line education software of today. They finally compare this critique with the conclusions of the policy paper prepared by the On-line Distance Learning (ODL) Liaison Committee (created by the member networks of the European Distance Education Network (EDEN)).Our third contribution is from one of the leading researchers in adult education in the UK, senior lecturer Neil Selwyn, University of Cardiff. His paper delineates reflexivity as a phenomenon in the learning society, and asks whether the use of ICT in contemporary flexible education contribute to the reflexivity of the learner. The empirical research project is presented and a number of interesting conclusions made. The reflexivity of learners using ICT, is not necessarily an effect of using ICT. Some were living "reflexive" lives in many other aspects as well. The relation between reflexivity and flexible learning is in practice a very complex one. The image of the self-directed learner being a reflexive and autonomous entity, is an idealised image, and not representative of the average flexible learner.By these three contributions for our first issue, we hope to have stimulated readers to contribute with their own writing from their theoretical and empirical contexts!


Parastomal hernia (PSH) is a type of incisional hernia defined as a protrusion of abdomi - nal contents through a weakness in the abdominal wall. PSH is the most common and sig nificant complication following enterostomy construction, with an incidence of 30–50%. The risk is higher in colostomies than in ileostomies. Diagnosis of PSH is based on clinical examination or imaging. Most patients with PSH are usually asymptomatic. On the other hand, PSHs may affect an individual's physical function and decrease their quality of life. Surgical repair is indicated in 10–30% of patients with PSH. For repair, no single tech - nique is superior to another. Therefore, several surgical methods have been developed and attempted, including primary repair, stoma relocation, and repair with different types of mesh either via the open or laparoscopic approach. However, high recurrence rates have been reported after repair. Because this is a difficult and problematic entity, the prevention of PSH occurrence is clearly the most appropriate management approach.


We review the cartel penalty and leniency practices of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), in light of the law and economics literature on optimal penalties, as well as current practices in different jurisdictions. Our analysis reveals that although India's Competition Act allows for a much harsher penalty than other jurisdictions in cartel cases, the actual practices followed by the CCI are often inconsistent and non-transparent, resulting in a large number of court cases and very low penalty recovery. This inconsistency also weakens the leniency programme adopted by the CCI in order to induce cartelists to come forward with evidence. In the majority of cases, penalties fall short of restitution and deterrence benchmarks suggested by some earlier literature. We conclude with some suggestions to improve India's penalty and leniency regime.


The Coronavirus pandemic has surprised the world and social media was extremely used to express frustrations and development of the cases found. Social media tools, such as Twitter, show a comparable impact with the number of tweets related to COVID-19 indicating remarkable development in a limited ability to focus time. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Coronavirus on the United States of America (USA) and New Zealand (NZ), and how that is reflected in a sentiment analysis through the examination of American and New Zealand tweets. We have gathered tweets from a March 2020 - August 2020 and used sentiment extraction on the tweets. The major finding of this sentiment extraction is the fact that the overall average sentiment over the 5-month period stayed in a negative range in the USA and NZ. This paper aims to analyze these trends, identify patterns, and determine whether these trends were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or outside sources. One trend that was analyzed was the spike of COVID-19 results in relation to the number of protests occurring in the USA.


We present the design and implementation of an end-to-end architecture for Internet host mobility using dynamic updates to the Domain Name System (DNS) to track host location. Existing TCP connections are retained using secure and efficient connection migration, enabling established connections to seamlessly negotiate a change in endpoint IP addresses without the need for a third party. Our architecture is secure—name updates are effected via the secure DNS update protocol, while TCP connection migration uses a novel set of Migrate options—and provides a pure end-system alternative to routing-based approaches such as Mobile IP.
Mobile IP was designed under the principle that fixed Internet hosts and applications were to remain unmodified and only the underlying IP substrate should change. Our architecture requires no changes to the unicast IP substrate, instead modifying transport protocols and applications at the end hosts. We argue that this is not a hindrance to deployment; rather, in a significant number of cases, it allows for an easier deployment path than Mobile IP, while simultaneously giving better performance. We compare and contrast the strengths of end-to-end and network-layer mobility schemes, and argue that end-to-end schemes are better suited to many common mobile applications. Our performance experiments show that hand-off times are governed by TCP migrate latencies, and are on the order of a round-trip time of the communicating peers.