The main goal of neurosurgical intensive care in comatose patients with head injuries is to prevent secondary neuronal damage resulting from ischemia and tissue hypoxia. In his thesis, Olaf Cremer critically examines the rationale and risk-to-benefit ratio of aggressive manipulation of blood pressure, intracranial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure, and temperature in head trauma patients. He concludes that there is little evidence to manage these variables at strictly controlled values in all patients at all times, and stresses the necessity to individualize treatment in the future, so that optimal therapy can be offered with a reduced risk of complications.

The thesis first describes two clinical experiments that sought to determine the effects of varying temperature and blood pressure on the regulation of cerebral blood flow and brain tissue oxygenation in humans. A trial in 19 patients, who were experimentally heated to 41.8°C for two hours, showed that profound hyperthermia causes transient cerebral vasoparalysis and metabolic uncoupling, but does not impair brain oxygenation. Another experiment in 13 patients, designed to find optimal cerebral perfusion pressure, showed that the effects of blood pressure augmentation by vasopressors on intracranial pressure, autoregulation capacity, and brain tissue oxygenation varies considerably between patients and from day to day. However, the intervention generally seemed to be beneficial only when intracranial hypertension was present.

Subsequently, the results of a large cohort study, involving 333 patients in two trauma centers with very different approaches to the management of head-injured patients, are reported. Aggressive management of intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure at strictly controlled values in one of the two centers resulted in increased levels of therapy intensity and a much-prolonged stay in the intensive care unit, but did not improve long-term neurological outcome. Furthermore, aggressive therapy that included the use of both vasopressors and high-dose propofol infusions to suppress cerebral metabolic demand for oxygen was associated with a rare, but lethal cardiac complication (which has since been named 'propofol-infusion syndrome').

The thesis concludes that, due to a large heterogeneity within the head trauma population, clinical algorithms that are designed to retain cerebral and systemic physiological variables within rigid and arbitrary limits at all times, are likely unnecessary or unrealistic for many patients with head injuries. Therefore, to reduce the risk of iatrogenic injury, future management should be targeted more at specific subgroups of head-injured patients with a particular cerebral pathology and an intermediate prognosis. To enable the early selection of patients for more specific treatment, statistical models for outcome prediction can be helpful. Thus, in a cohort of 304 patients, a prediction rule was developed for individuals who remain comatose for more than 24 hours following blunt head trauma. The model was externally validated in another 122 subjects and proved to be robust, providing accurate predictions of the probabilities for death, survival with major disability, and functional recovery


The sresearch is devoted to the study of the biological diversity of the anthropogenically transformed territory, the 217 Highway of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This highway crosses the northern part of the country from west to east. It is of great strategic importance, since it is the link of many settlements of the country. Along with this, the western section of the road, from 107 to 195 km, requires construction work. Reconstruction of the highway will lead to a whole complex of environmental impacts on the natural environment. The assessment of the impact of anthropogenic object, namely the 217 Highway on the environment during the reconstruction and operational phase requires updating of existing data on the biological diversity of the territory located 40-50 meters from each side of the western section of the 217 Highway. The data obtained from the results of our own observations, the analysis of the available materials of descriptive ecology, surveys of local people, hunters, and forestry workers made it possible to clarify the available information on the species diversity of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Species diversity of agricultural ecosystems is characterized by poverty caused by human economic activity. Together with this, the withdrawal of agricultural land for the construction of a highway will result in the death of 31342 individuals of fruit and forest trees in the province of Ba Thyok and 68424 individuals of trees and shrubs in the province of Kuang Shon. The biological diversity of natural ecosystems is much richer. However, the influence of the highway can contribute to the inhibition of plants, contribute to the dissection of the habitat of animals and their death.


Recommender systems extract unseen information for predicting the next preferences. Most of these systems use additional information such as demographic data and previous users' ratings to predict users' preferences but rarely have used sequential information. In streaming recommender systems, the emergence of new patterns or disappearance a pattern leads to inconsistencies. However, these changes are common issues due to the user's preferences variations on items. Recommender systems without considering inconsistencies will suffer poor performance. Thereby, the present paper is devoted to a new fuzzy rough set-based method for managing in a flexible and adaptable way. Evaluations have been conducted on twelve real-world data sets by the leave-one-out cross-validation method. The results of the experiments have been compared with the other five methods, which show the superiority of the proposed method in terms of accuracy, precision, recall.


Ultrasound waves can evaluate the parameters related to bone structure and elasticity. For accurate recognizing of bone condition using the Ultrasonic methods, the wave propagation phenomenon must be cleared. We simulated the cancellous bone based on porosity and thickness and also Ultrasound waves based on frequency, amplitude and bandwidth. Then the interaction of the ultrasound waves and the simulated bone had been checked with the wave equations and the effects of different bone parameters on results were evaluated. The obtained results from the simulation of elastic waves propagation in bone tissue by solving the wave equations with FDTD method illustrates suitable correlation with the experimental results of bone densitometry system. The anisotropic 2-dimensional bone model that is covered in this paper and solving the elastic wave in the time domain is suitable for simulation. However for more accurate simulation we can implement three dimensional models and analysis methods in frequency domain.


Trauma to the optic nerve may be direct, such as from a penetrating object, or indirect, which may result despite lack of direct contact of an object with the nerve. Although indirect injury initially causes no change in the appearance of the nerve head, within a matter of weeks optic atrophy will be manifest. The pathophysiology of nerve damage is incompletely understood. Management is controversial; steroid therapy has been advocated, as has surgical decompression of the nerve. Indirect injuries affecting the optic nerve may also result from torsional rotation of the globe (avulsion) and from subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhage (Terson's syndrome). There is no treatment for optic nerve avulsion; the unaffected eye should be protected with appropriate eyewear. Hemorrhaging in the retina and vitreous in Terson's syndrome should be monitored for resolution and risk of retinal detachment. Computed tomography may be necessary if subarachnoid or intracranial hemorrhages are suspected.


Malaria is major public health problem in Tanzania and increasing trends have been observed in the last two decades. A significant consequence of repeated malaria infections in high transmission areas is anaemia in very young children. The control of malaria in Tanzania includes both preventive and curative strategies. On the preventive side insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) are a promising tool. ITNs have been shown to be effective in reducing malaria morbidity and mortality in controlled trials. Large-scale implementation of the technology is currently being initiated in many African countries. We report the impact of a large social marketing programme of ITNs on malaria morbidity through a series of studies, in a population of about 55,000 people in Tanzania. The ITNs social marketing programme resulted in a rapid increase in any net ownership (from 58 to 83%) and an increase in ITNs ownership (from 10 to 61%) in children under two years of age within 2 years of implementation. As a result the overall mean haemoglobin levels increased (from 8.0 to 8.9 g/dl) in the study children during the successive surveys. The prevalence of anaemia in the study population decreased from 49% to 26%. Comparison between children with ITNs and those without nets showed that ITNs had a protective efficacy of 63% (95% CI: 38 to 77) on the prevalence of parasitaemia, and 63% (95% CI: 27 to 82) on anaemia (haemoglobin £ 8 g/dl). These results endorse the wide scale implementation of ITNs in Tanzania. ITNs can only reduce the risk of malaria dis ease but cannot eliminate it. Hence, appropriate effective treatment is required. Chloroquine is a cheap and safe antimalarial and it was until recently the first line drug of choice in the National Malaria Treatment Policy. Resistance to chloroquine has been reported with increasing frequency in Tanzania and has been linked to the increasing admissions with severe disease in hospitals. A comparative randomised, open clinical trial of chloroquine against Co-artemâ (fixed combination of Artemether + Benflumetol) an alternative new antimalarial, showed seven-day parasitological cure rates of 94% for Co-artemâ and only 35% for chloroquine. Generally, Co-artemâ showed a superior clearance rate, successfully cleared higher parasite densities and suppressed new infections over a longer period of time. Furthermore, Co-artemâ suppressed more effectively gametocytes in these children, indicating a potential benefit for reducing malaria transmission. The unacceptably high chloroquine failure rates call for an urgent review of the National Malaria Treatment Guidelines. The decision to change the first line antimalarial and the choice of a new drug depend on a number of factors that include the clinical, epidemiological and social-economical factors, as well as the health infrastructure. Considering all of these dimensions, sulphadoxinepyrimenthamine (SP) was identified as a good interim replacement for chloroquine. Further Phase IV evaluation of Co-artemâ and other combination therapy regimens are required before considering their inclusion in the national treatment policy. Much work is also needed to identify suitable compounds to be used for home management of malaria, within the national treatment guidelines. Experience gained with these studies gives a description of the different methodologies and tools that can be used to evaluate different components of the National Malaria Control Programme. For example, it was difficult to assess the impact of the ITNs programme using the case-control approach. Repeated cross-sectional assessments were found to be more suitable for assessing the impact of ITNs under programme conditions, especially on malariarelated anaemia in this area of high transmission. Specific indicators for programme evaluation may need to be identified for specific interventions. These may be different from the ones used in randomised controlled trials. The use of molecular markers for monitoring and evaluation of antimalarial intervention programmes illustrate the need to develop and validate novel tools and approaches for programme evaluation. Better malaria control is expected by combining ITNs and an effective antimalarial, especially combination therapy. The evaluation, implementation, and monitoring of all these control activities requires a partnership between researchers, policy makers, health managers, in close collaboration with other stakeholders in the public and private domain, including the beneficiaries - the community.


This paper presents a topical review of the current state of the art in modelling the magnetization of bulk superconductors, including both (RE)BCO (where RE = rare earth or Y ) and MgB 2 materials. Such modelling is a powerful tool to understand the physical mechanisms of their magnetization, to assist in interpretation of experimental results, and to predict the performance of practical bulk superconductor-based devices, which is particularly important as many superconducting applications head towards the commercialization stage of their development in the coming years. In addition to the analytical and numerical techniques currently used by researchers for modelling such materials, the commonly used practical techniques to magnetize bulk superconductors are summarized with a particular focus on pulsed fi eld magnetization (PFM), which is promising as a compact, mobile and relatively inexpensive magnetizing technique. A number of numerical models developed to analyse the issues related to PFM and optimise the technique are described in detail, including understanding the dynamics of the magnetic fl ux penetration and the in fl uence of material inhomogeneities, thermal properties, pulse duration, magnitude and shape, and the shape of the magnetization coil(s). The effect of externally applied magnetic fi elds in different con fi gurations on the attenuation of the trapped fi eld is also discussed. A number of novel and hybrid bulk superconductor structures are described, including improved thermal conductivity structures and ferromagnet – superconductor structures, which have been designed to overcome some of the issues related to bulk superconductors and their magnetization and enhance the intrinsic properties of bulk superconductors acting as trapped fi eld magnets. Finally, the use of hollow bulk cylinders/tubes for shielding is analysed.


Silicate glasses containing lead, also called lead crystal glasses, are commonly used as food product containers, in particular for alcoholic beverages. Lead's health hazards require major attention, which can first be investigated through the understanding of Pb release mechanisms in solution. The behavior of a commercial crystal glass containing 10.6 mol % of PbO (28.3 wt %) was studied in a reference solution of 4% acetic acid at 22, 40, and 70 °C at early and advanced stages of reaction. High-resolution solid-state 17O and 29Si NMR was used to probe the local structure of the pristine and, for the first time, of the altered lead crystal glass. Inserted into the vitreous structure between the network formers as Si-O-Pb bonds, Pb does not form Pb-O-Pb clusters which are expected to be more easily leached. A part of K is located near Pb, forming mixed Si-O-(Pb,K) near the nonbridging oxygens. Pb is always released into the solution following a diffusion-controlled dissolution over various periods of time, at a rate between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude lower than the alkalis (K and Na). The preferential release of alkalis is followed by an in situ repolymerization of the silicate network. Pb is only depleted in the outermost part of the alteration layer. In the remaining part, it stays mainly surrounded by Si in a stable structural configuration similar to that of the pristine glass. A simple model is proposed to estimate the Pb concentration as a function of glass surface, solution volume, temperature, and contact time.


Background There is a growing interest among the developing countries on advance care planning (ACP) due to the reported benefits of planning ahead in the developed countries. Validated instruments in various languages have been developed to facilitate study on the views of public prior to its implementation. However, instrument to explore the views on advance care planning (ACP) in Malay has not been developed and validated yet, even though Malay is spoken extensively by approximately 220 million people in the Malay Archipelago. There is also a need for instrument in Malay language to facilitate the assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of Malaysians regarding advance care planning (ACP). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to cross-culturally adapt, and examine the internal consistency and reliability of the Malay Advance Care Planning Questionnaire (ACPQ-M) among the Malay speaking community dwellers. Methods The ACPQ was translated according to international guidelines. This validation study was conducted from January to June 2018. Participants who were ≥21 years old, and able to understand Malay were recruited from an urban primary care clinic and a tertiary education institution in Malaysia. A researcher administered the ACPQ-M to participants via a face-to-face interview at baseline and two weeks later. Each interview took approximately 15-20 minutes. Results A total of 222/232 participants agreed to participate (response rate=96.0%). Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis found that the ACPQ-M was a 4-factor model. The Cronbach's α values for the four domains ranged from 0.674-0.947. Only 157/222 participants completed the test-retest (response rate=71%). At test-retest, quadratic weighted kappa values for all domains ranged from 0.340-0.674, except for two domains which ranged from -0.200-0.467. Conclusions The ACPQ-M was found to be a 4-factor model, and a valid and reliable


Hierarchical agent monitoring design platform (HAM) is presented as a generic design approach for the emerging self-aware and adaptive embedded systems. Such systems, with various existing proposals for different advanced features, call for a concrete, practical and portable design approach. HAM addresses this necessity by providing a scalable and generically applicable design platform. This paper elaborately describes the hierarchical agent monitoring architecture, with extensive reference to the state-of-the-art technology in embedded systems. Two case studies are exemplified to demonstrate the design process and benefits of HAM design platform. One is about hierarchical agent monitored Network-on-Chip with quantitative experiments of hierarchical energy management. The other one is a projectional study of applying HAM on smart house systems, focusing on the design for enhanced dependability.


Granular computing (GrC) has emerged as a unified conceptual and processing framework. Information granules are fundamental constructs that permeate concepts and models of GrC. This paper is concerned with a design of a collection of meaningful, easily interpretable ellipsoidal information granules with the use of the principle of justifiable granularity by taking into consideration reconstruction abilities of the designed information granules. The principle of justifiable granularity supports designing of information granules based on numeric or granular evidence, and aims to achieve a compromise between justifiability and specificity of the information granules to be constructed. A two-stage development strategy behind the construction of justifiable information granules is considered. First, a collection of numeric prototypes is determined with the use of fuzzy clustering. Second, the lengths of the semi-axes of ellipsoidal information granules to be formed around such prototypes are optimized. Two optimization criteria are introduced and studied. Experimental studies involving synthetic data set and data sets coming from the machine learning repository are reported.


Wayne Shorter is a Grammy award winning jazz saxophonist, NEA jazz master and Guggenheim Music Composition Fellow. While he is revered by historians for his recorded oeuvre during the 1960s, he is simultaneously regarded as being at the cutting edge of the contemporary jazz scene due to the reception of his current quartet, formed in the year 2000. The band, composed of Shorter (saxophone), Danilo Perez (piano), John Patitucci (bass), and Brian Blade (drums), has evaded scholarly treatment because they elude normative customs associated with the performance and presentation of jazz compositions made famous by Shorter earlier in his recording career. This research takes significant steps to advance the field of jazz studies not only by focusing on a previously under-researched segment of Shorter's career, but by recasting the site for study as the band itself. The band serves as a site for understanding the ruptures and continuities at play in contemporary jazz when expectations, predicated upon the relationship between band and the jazz community, are challenged or even undermined. In order to interpret the Wayne Shorter Quartet, this dissertation presents a multi-tiered methodology. Four frames of reference are presented: The Band, The Repertoire, The Audience and The Concert. This approach necessitates a constant negotiation amongst cultural and historical imaginaries which implicates memory and present experiences mediated via understandings of a canon. Analysis of performance practice, through the historical lineage of recordings as well as live concert recordings, reveals the flexibility and malleability of a musical concept devised by Shorter – "zero gravity." By engaging with performance practice, socio-cultural and historical context, this project is in dialogue with multiple disciplines, including performance studies, sound studies and cultural studies. Ultimately, the Wayne Shorter Quartet is a site of nested knowledge that clarifies and recasts historical understandings of Shorter as the band forges a new kind of performance practice that gestures to contemporary and future understandings of jazz.


A new control method of the particle orientation structure with super high magnetic field is studied for Al2O3 ceramics. Al2O3 slurry was made with two types of Al2O3 particles, which one was spherical shape of, and the other one was elongated shape of. The Al2O3 ceramics of orientation structure was fabricated by drying the Al2O3 slurry under the super high magnetic field, cold isostatic pressing (CIP) and sintering. Effects of particle shape, particle size, the solid loading, slurry viscosity, dispersant content and the magnetic field strength on the particle orientation structure were examined in detail. The experimental results indicate that even the spherical Al2O3 particles can align under the magnetic field; the particle orientation degree changes with the particle shape and the solid loading under same magnetic field strength conditions, and the elongated particle system is easier to align than the spherical particle system; the particle orientation degree of the Al2O3 ceramics can be controlled by adjusting the particle shape, particle size, solid loading, slurry viscosity, dispersant content and magnetic field strength.


How many correct logics are there? Monists endorse that there is one, pluralists argue for many, and nihilists claim that there are none. Reasoning about these views requires a logic. That is the meta-logic. It turns out that there are some meta-logical challenges specifically for the pluralists. I will argue that these depend on an implicitly assumed absoluteness of correct logic. Pluralists can solve the challenges by giving up on this absoluteness and instead adopt contextualism about correct logic. This contextualism is naturalistically appealing.


The fiscal year (FY) 1999 budget for National Institutes of Health funding totals more than $15 billion. This figure reflects an increase of 15% over the FY 1998 budget and is $320 million less than President Clinton's requested budget for FY 2000 (Varmus, 1999). The Foundation Center reports the funding from U.S. grant-making foundations in 1998 as $15.4 billion from independent foundations, $2.37 billion from corporate foundations and $1.48 billion from community foundations (Foundation Center, 1999). Additional funds are available from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has a $3.95 billion budget request for FY 2000, up almost 6% from FY 1999 (NSF, 1999). With all of this available funding, how can medical clinicians and researchers increase their chances of obtaining a medical grant?


Abstract. A comparison of HF radar backscatter observed by the CUTLASS Finland radar, meridian scanning photometer data from Longyearbyen, magnetic field variations from IMAGE stations, and particle precipitation measured by the DMSP F12 spacecraft is presented. The interval under discussion occurred in the pre-midnight local time sector, during a period of weakly northward interplanetary magnetic field. A region of HF backscatter, typically 8 degrees wide, occurred in the field of view of the CUTLASS Finland radar. A well defined gradient in the spectral width parameter was present, with mainly low ( 200 ms - 1 ) spectral widths in the higher latitude part. The relationship between the spectral width and the red line (630.0 nm) emission measured by the meridian scanning photometer is considered. The poleward border of the red line emission, which has, in the past, been proposed as being representative of the polar cap boundary, was co-located to within 1° of magnetic latitude with the gradient in spectral width for part of the interval. Statistically, large spectral widths occurred poleward of the red line emission, while small spectral widths occurred within or equatorward of the red line emission. Near simultaneous DMSP particle observations in the 20 eV to 20 keV range indicate that the poleward border of the red line emission and the gradient in spectral width occurred at the same latitude as the transition from auroral oval to polar rain particle energies. We conclude that the large spectral widths were not caused by particle precipitation associated with the auroral oval. There were two periods of special interest when the relationship between the red line and the spectral width broke down. The first of these happened during enhanced red line and green line (557.7 nm) emission, with a drop out of the radar scatter and an enhanced, narrow westward electrojet. We conclude that this event was a magnetospheric substorm occurring at much higher than usual latitudes. The second period of special interest happened when equatorward moving bands of large spectral width occurred within the region of scatter. Up to 4 of these bands were present during an interval of 100 minutes. Associated with these narrow bands of large spectral width were narrow channels of enhanced westward ion velocities. We conclude that these equatorward moving bands of large spectral width may be related to reconnection processes in the tail. The observations demonstrate that the tail continues to be active even under low solar wind energy input conditions. Furthermore, we conclude that the gradient in the spectral width may be used as a proxy for the polar cap boundary, but only with extreme caution. Key words. Ionosphere (ionosphere-magnetosphere inter-actions; polar ionosphere) – Magnetospheric physics (storms and substorms)


Perovskite (CaTiO3) is a model compound for the Earth's most abundant mineral, the perovskite (Mg, Fe)SiO3. High-temperature structural investigations using neutron powder diffraction reveal a phase transition to a highly disordered cubic phase. As one approaches this transition, the TiO6 octahedra become less distorted and their rotational disorder is reflected by the large atomic-displacement parameters of the oxygens in the (a, b)-plane, suggesting that the high-temperature transition to the cubic phase could be triggered by the onset of mobility in the oxygen sublattice. This would account for the fact that no intermediate tetragonal phase is observed.


High-performance wrapped-select-gate (WSG) SONOS (silicon-oxide-nitride-silicon) memory cells with multi-level and 2-bit/cell operation have been successfully demonstrated. The source-side injection mechanism with different ONO thickness in WSG-SONOS memory was well investigated. The different programming efficiency of the WSG-SONOS memory with different ONO thickness can be explained by the lateral electrical field extracted from the simulation. Furthermore, multi-level storage is easily obtained and well Vth distribution is also presented. High program/erase speed (10 us/5 ms) and low programming current (3.5 u/A) are performed to achieve the multi-level operation with excellent gate and drain disturbance, second-bit effect, data retention and endurance.


Gender affirming medical and surgical treatments affect the reproductive potential of transgender individuals. Prior to the development of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), genital gender-affirming surgery frequently eliminated a patient's reproductive potential. Today, all patients should be counseled on their fertility preservation (FP) options before medical and surgical transition, yet this appears to seldom occur in practice. The following review is the result of a systematic literature search of PubMed, Medline and Google Scholar to identify current and future FP options, barriers to treatment patients face, practice patterns of transgender health care providers, and if there were any standardized counseling protocols. Options for transwomen at any point in their transition range from simply providing a semen sample to be used with assistive reproductive techniques to experimental techniques involving testicular cryopreservation followed by in vitro initiation of spermatogenesis. Transmen before and after starting hormone therapy can pursue any assistive reproductive techniques available for ciswomen. Future options currently under investigation include ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) with in vitro oocyte maturation. In addition to counseling about their FP options, patients should be advised prospectively about the requirements, process details, the total costs associated with achieving pregnancy, and the inherent risks associated with using preserved genetic material including risk of failure, and maternal and fetal health risks. Transgender patients report using assistive reproductive services difficult, due to a lack of dialogue about fertility and the lack of information offered to them- presumably because their circumstances do not fit into a traditional narrative familiar to providers. Physicians and health care providers would benefit from better educational tools to help transgender patients make informed decisions and better training about transgender patients in general, and FP options available to them.


In this paper, we propose an intrusion detection framework through multi-agents scheme for wireless home automation networks. Our mechanisms include the wireless sensor network intrusion detection architecture and an intrusion detection scheme for security enhancement. For the performance evaluation of our mechanism, we use the wireless data measured on the real wireless home networks. The simulation results show that the security manager detect the intrusion attack to improve the whole performance of the system, and can prolong the lifetime of the network.


This book tells for the first time the story of the central relationship of novelist Willa Cather's life, her nearly forty-year partnership with Edith Lewis. Cather has been described as a distinguished artist who turned her back on the crass commercialism of the early twentieth century and as a deeply private woman who strove to hide her sexuality, and Lewis has often been identified as her secretary. However, Lewis was a successful professional woman who edited popular magazines and wrote advertising copy at a major advertising agency and who, behind the scenes, edited Cather's fiction. Recognizing Lewis's role in Cather's creative process changes how we understand Cather as an artist, while recovering their domestic partnership (which they did not seek to hide) provides a fresh perspective on lesbian life in the early twentieth century. Homestead reconstructs Cather and Lewis's life together in Greenwich Village and on Park Avenue, their travels to the American Southwest that formed the basis of Cather's novels The Professor's House and Death Comes for the Archbishop, their summers as part of an all-woman resort community on Grand Manan Island, and Lewis's magazine and advertising work as a context for her editorial collaboration with Cather. Homestead tells a human story of two women who chose to live in partnership and also explains how the Cold War panic over homosexuality caused biographers and critics to make Lewis and her central role in Cather's life vanish even as she lived on alone for twenty-five years after her partner's death.


An experiment was conducted to survey the prevalence of disease incidence and severity of Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) at eight locations of four districts in Bangladesh. Papaya is one of the most popular fruits in the world. It suffers from several diseases including fungi, bacteria, nematodes and viruses. Among them, viral diseases are found to cause considerable yield loss, with the most important one being PRSV. The survey was conducted at three plain districts and one hill tract area from July 2016 to December 2016. During the survey period, six different symptoms were found in the selected fields and were identified as PRSV based on symptomology. These symptoms were mild mosaic (MM), mosaic (MO), severe mosaic (SM), fern leaf (FL), leaf distortion (LD) and vein clearing (VC). The highest disease incidence (36.24%) was found in BSMRAU farm in Gazipur whereas the lowest (12.04%) was found in Panchari, Khagrachari hill tract. The maximum severity (11.53%) was found in BSMRAU campus, Gazipur on the country and the lowest severity (2.50%) was found in Panchari, Khagrachari hill tract. The yield and yield contributing parameters of papaya found to be differ significantly among the surveyed area. The lowest fruit weight (324.3 gm) due to PRSV infection was recorded in BSMRAU, Gazipur while the highest fruit weight (643.6 gm) was conducted in SAU Campus, Dhaka.


Despite of the large amount of supporting literature and the significant benefits, up-to-date non-redundant sampling strategies for antenna testing by near-field measurements are not used in an industrial context. The experimental validation of active electronic scanned antennas (AESA) is still performed by using traditional regular sampling strategies. In this paper, the factors that have limited the diffusion of the non-redundant sampling approaches to the industrial world are analyzed and discussed. The successful applicability to actual radar antennas, of interest for industrial applications, is then demonstrated.


We present a detailed statistical analysis of possible non-linearities in the Period-Luminosity (P-L), Period-Wesenheit (P-W) and Period-Color (P-C) relations for Cepheid variables in the LMC at optical ($VI$) and near-infrared ($JHK_{s}$) wavelengths. We test for the presence of possible non-linearities and determine their statistical significance by applying a variety of robust statistical tests ($F$-test, Random-Walk, Testimator and the Davies test) to optical data from OGLE III and near-infrared data from LMCNISS. For fundamental-mode Cepheids, we find that the optical P-L, P-W and P-C relations are non-linear at 10 days. The near-infrared P-L and the $W^H_{V,I}$ relations are non-linear around 18 days; this break is attributed to a distinct variation in mean Fourier amplitude parameters near this period for longer wavelengths as compared to optical bands. The near-infrared P-W relations are also non-linear except for the $W_{H,K_s}$ relation. For first-overtone mode Cepheids, a significant change in the slope of P-L, P-W and P-C relations is found around 2.5 days only at optical wavelengths. We determine a global slope of $\textrm{-}3.212\pm0.013$ for the $W^H_{V,I}$ relation by combining our LMC data with observations of Cepheids in Supernovae host galaxies \citep{riess11}. We find this slope to be consistent with the corresponding LMC relation at short periods, and significantly different to the long-period value. We do not find any significant difference in the slope of the global-fit solution using a linear or non-linear LMC P-L relation as calibrator, but the linear version provides a $2\times$ better constraint on the slope and metallicity coefficient.


This paper examines utilization of health services available to the women in the slums on hilly area in Mumbai and also checks whether non utilization of antenatal care (ANC) and having reproductive health problems during pregnancy create complications during child delivery vis-a-vis standard of living index constructed from household amenities, housing quality, drinking water, electricity and toilet facilities. This study uses primary data collected using cluster sampling of a sample size of 346 reproductive women who have given at least one live birth prior to the survey on the education of the study women, antenatal care indicators, antenatal check-ups and reproductive health problems during pregnancy and complications during child delivery among the slum dwellers of Ramabai Nagar was studied. The findings using logistic regression reveal unimaginably low level of utilization of health services by illiterate women in the study area. Besides these, there is evidence that these respondents did not go for ANC and faced reproductive health problems during pregnancy which created problems during child delivery, particularly to illiterate mothers. This paper suggests that awareness is very much required at every stage of ANC particularly to illiterate women with low SLI category in the slums in order to ensure reproductive health during pregnancy.


Humanity has been modifying the natural water cycle by building large-scale water infrastructure for millennia. For most of that time, the principles of hydraulics and control theory were only imperfectly known. Moreover, the feedback from the artificial system to the natural system was not taken into account, either because it was too small to notice or took too long to appear. In the 21st century, humanity is all too aware of the effects of our adaptation of the environment to our needs on the planetary system as a whole. It is necessary to see the environment, both natural and hman-made as one integrated system. Moreover, due to the legacy of the past, the behaviour of the man-madeparts of this system needs to be adapted in a way that leads to a sustainable ecosystem. The water cycle plays a central role in that ecosystem. It is therefore essential that the behaviour of existing and planned water infrastructure fits into the natural system and contributes to its well-being. At the same time, it must serve the purpose for which it was constructed. As there are no natural feedbacks to govern its behaviour, it will be necessary to create such feedbacks, possibly in the form of real-time control systems. To do so, it would be beneficial if all persons involved in the decision process that establishes the desired system behaviour understand the basics of control systems in general and their application to different water systems in particular. This article contains a discussion of the prerequisites for and early development of automatic control of water systems, an introduction to the basics of control theory with examples, a short description of optimal control theory in general, a discussion of model predictive control in water resource management, an overview of key aspects of automatic control in water resource management, and different types of applications. Finally, some challenges faced by practitioners are mentioned.


ABSTRACT: In December 1999, the SEC instituted a new listing standard for NYSE and NASDAQ firms. Listed firms were now required to maintain fully independent audit committees with at least three members. In July 2002, the U.S. Congress legislated these standards through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our research question is whether all investors benefited from the 1999 new rule. Using both an event study and a difference-in-differences methodology, we find no evidence of higher market value or better financial reporting quality resulting from this rule.


The present proceedings include a selection of papers submitted to the International Conference on Engineering Systems 2020 (ICES 2020), which was held during 14-16 October 2020 in the RUDN University, Moscow, Russia. ICES 2020 was dedicated to the 60th anniversary of RUDN University. International Conference on Engineering Systems (ICES), held annually at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), has created a platform for summarizing research in various areas of engineering. The aim of the conference is to foster and conduct collaborative interdisciplinary research amongst the researchers, professionals and industrialists to share their research experiences and indulge in interactive discussions and special sessions at the event. In light of travel restrictions around the world to control COVID-19 pademic, ICES 2020 adopted the format of virtual conference through Google Meet network to provide a forum for experts and scholars to share real-time information and discuss the latest findings on various engineering fields. The conference included keynote speech and online discussion, and each presenter has 20–25 minutes (including Q&A). With the full support from the International Scientific Committee, all submissions have been through rigorous review and process to meet the requirements of international publication standard. Accepted papers were presented in five sessions of the conference: 1) Fundamental Engineering, 2) Civil and Structural Engineering, 3) Mechanical Engineering, 4) Composite Materials, 5) Hydraulic and Geological Engineering. We hope that this collection will be useful for many specialists and researchers from various engineering fields. List of Conference Chair, Conference secretary, International Scientific Committee and Guest Editors are available in this pdf.


The claim by Berrigan et aI.' of 8% of patients with arachnoiditis having had no previous invasive procedures is high. If it were true then it is surprising that in the original 920 patients whose myelograms were reviewed and subsequent viewing of myelograms of over 1500 patients I am aware of only one patient with thecal scarring who has not admitted to any intervention. It would 'seem that "non-invasive" thecal scarring is not common in Australia. Dr Douglas' is incorrect in thinking that myelography was performed to diagnose arachnoiditis. The thecal scarring was found incidentally in this series. However, his query about previous myelography with water soluble compounds is pertinent. These myelograms were performed in the early days of metrizamide myelography and none had had such a previous test. While CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may diagnose arachnoiditis, caution should be exercised. CT shows only the calcification or ossification of long standing severe arachnoiditis. MRI demonstrates well the clumping of nerve roots within the thecal sac' but does not show obliteration of nerve root sheaths and thus will underestimate the presence of arachnoiditis.' Myelography, unfortunately, remains the best way to exclude thecal scarring. Dr Gronow's statements' about surgery in three patients are not relevant to the presence of thecal scarring as the surgery was performed after the "diagnostic myelogram", it just makes the clinical assessment of arachnoiditis-generated pain difficult. In my paper' I went to some lengths to ascribe only an association between intrathecal steroids and thecal scarring. Clinical use of a drug is always a judgement between benefit and possible risk and the major purpose of my paper was to alert the medical community to a potential risk of thecal scarring after intrathecal injection. James Roche, MB ChB, FRACR Staff Specialist Department of Diagnostic Radiology Royal North Shore Hospital St Leonards. NSW 2065


Since the 1970s, Armington has been the workhorse specification of trade in computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Under Armington, agents substitute between products from different countries. Conceptually, Melitz provides a more attractive approach in which substitution is between products from different firms rather than countries. Other attractive features of Melitz are monopolistic competition and economies of scale from fixed establishment costs for firms and fixed set-up costs on trade links. In this paper, we show how, with little change to existing code, an Armington model can be converted to Melitz by adding a few equations and introducing closure swaps. We apply our Armington-to-Melitz method to the Armington-based Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model to derive GTAPArmington-to-Melitz (GTAP-A2M). We show how results from a CGE model with Melitz industries can be interpreted via back-of-the-envelope calculations. In simulations of the effects of a tariff imposed by North America on imports of apparel, we find greater welfare losses for exporting regions under Melitz than under Armington principally because contraction of apparel output in these regions under Melitz generates an increase in the cost to their households of domestic apparel. Finally, we review two other Melitz-based versions of GTAP: GTAP-HET and a recently published model by Bekkers and Francois.


Objectives Vitamin D (VitD) deficiency is a health problem prevalent not only in the elderly but also in young adults. The primary objective of our observational pilot study "MUVY" (Mood, UVR, Vitamin D in Young women) was to test both the short-term and long-term effects of a series of three suberythemal UV radiation (UVR) exposures on the VitD status and well-being of young healthy women during winter in a repeat measure design. Methods 20 healthy young women (Fitzpatrick skin types I–III, aged 21–25 years) received three full body broad band UVR exposures with an escalating erythemally weighted dose schedule during one week in winter, and completed self-report questionnaires monitoring symptoms of depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI) and affective state/well-being (Profile of Mood States, POMS) at baseline and three days after the last UVR exposure. 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) were measured in serum at baseline, and at study days 8, 36 and 50. Results Mean baseline 25(OH)D level was 54.3 nmol/L (standard deviation (s.d.) = 24.1), with seven women having VitD deficient status. Relevant symptoms of depression, as indicated by low BDI total scores (0–8), were absent. After the three UVR exposures the increment of 25(OH)D was an average of 13.9 nmol/L (95% confidence interval (CI) = 9.4–18.4) and 26.2 pmol/L (95%CI = 7.2–45.1) for 1,25(OH)2D. Δ25(OH)D, and corresponding baseline levels were significantly and inversely associated (rho = -0.493, p = 0.027). Only 25(OH)D remained significantly increased above baseline for at least six weeks after the last UVR exposure. A strong inverse correlation of the POMS subscale "Vigor/Activity" and the increment in 1,25(OH)2D was found (rho = -0.739, p<0.001) at day 8. Conclusions Three suberythemal whole body UVR exposures during one week are a simple and suitable method for improving 25(OH)D levels during winter, for at least six weeks, and especially in young women with VitD deficient status. Trial Registration German Clinical Trials Register (Deutsches Register Kinischer Studien) DRKS00009274


An explanation is given of the basic data structures used in a new page analysis technique to create wrappers (data extractors) for the result pages produced by Web sites in response to user qeries via Web page forms. The key structure called a tpGrid is a representation of the web page, which is easier to analyse than the raw HTML code. The analysis looks for repetition patterns of sets of tagSets, which are defined in the paper.


1. Eye movements in unanaesthetized rabbits were studied during horizontal neck‐proprioceptive stimulation (movement of the body with respect to the fixed head), when this stimulation was given alone and when it was given simultaneously with vestibular stimulation (rotation of the head‐body). The effect of neck‐proprioceptive stimulation on modifying the anticompensatory fast‐phase eye movements (AFPs) evoked by vestibular stimulation was studied with a 'conditioning‐test' protocol; the 'conditioning' stimulus was a neck‐proprioceptive signal evoked by a step‐like change in body position with respect to the head and the 'test' stimulus was a vestibular signal evoked by a step rotation of the head‐body. 2. The influence of eye position and direction of slow eye movements on the occurrence of compensatory fast‐phase eye movements (CFPs) evoked by neck‐proprioceptive stimulation was also examined. 3. The anticompensatory fast phase (AFP) evoked by vestibular stimulation was attenuated by a preceding neck‐proprioceptive stimulus which when delivered alone evoked compensatory slow‐phase eye movements (CSP) in the same direction as the CSP evoked by vestibular stimulation. Conversely, the vestibularly evoked AFP was potentiated by a neck‐proprioceptive stimulus which evoked CSPs opposite to that of vestibularly evoked CSPs. 4. Eccentric initial eye positions increased the probability of occurrence of midline‐directed compensatory fast‐phase eye movements (CFPs) evoked by appropriate neck‐proprioceptive stimulation. 5. The gain of the horizontal cervico‐ocular reflex (GHCOR) was measured from the combined changes in eye position resulting from AFPs and CSPs. GHCOR was potentiated during simultaneous vestibular stimulation. This enhancement of GHCOR occurred at neck‐proprioceptive stimulus frequencies which, in the absence of conjoint vestibular stimulation, do not evoke CSPs.


Injury to the intestinal mucosa is a life-threatening problem in a variety of clinical disorders, including hemorrhagic shock, trauma, burn, pancreatitis, and heat stroke. The susceptibility to injury of different regions of intestine in these disorders is not well understood. We compared histological injury across the small intestine in two in vivo mouse models of injury, hemorrhagic shock (30% loss of blood volume) and heat stroke (peak core temperature 42.4°C). In both injury models, areas near the duodenum showed significantly greater mucosal injury and reductions in villus height. To determine if these effects were dependent on circulating factors, experiments were performed on isolated intestinal segments to test for permeability to 4-kDa FITC-dextran. The segments were exposed to hyperthermia (42°C for 90 min), moderate simulated ischemia (Po2 ∼30 Torr, Pco2 ∼60 Torr, pH 7.1), severe ischemia (Po2 ∼20 Torr, Pco2 ∼80 Torr, pH 6.9), or severe hypoxia (Po2 ∼0 Torr, Pco2 ∼35 Torr) for 90 min, and each group was compared with sham controls. All treatments resulted in marked elevations in permeability within segments near the duodenum. In severe hypoxia or hyperthermia, permeability was also moderately elevated in the jejunum and ileum; in moderate or severe ischemia, permeability was unaffected in these regions. The results demonstrate increased susceptibility of proximal regions of the small intestine to acute stress-induced damage, irrespective of circulating factors. The predominant injury in the duodenum may impact the pattern of acute inflammatory responses arising from breach of the intestinal barrier, and such knowledge may be useful for designing therapeutic strategies.


Empowerment of women in India is faced with the
challenge of 'violence against women'. As violence in
perpetrated against women everywhere, domestic violence by
the intimate partner or the partner's family assumes more
importance in addressing the broader of problem of violence
against women. In this paper we analyse the factors which
perpetrate domestic violence and how it impinges of women
empowerment. The first section of this paper gives an
introduction to the problem and the second section gives the
basic definitions of the IFAM model. In the third section we
adapt IFAM model to the problem of domestic violence and
finally the fourth section gives the conclusion and suggestions
based on our analysis.


: Hydrocarbonate mineral water balneotherapy in chronic gastritis should be conducted individually, i.e. allowing for the state of the system lipid peroxidation-antioxidant defense and disturbances of lipid metabolism. In impairment of peroxide homeostasis balneocomplex must include antioxidants, in parallel changes of blood lipid spectrum sorption medication must be used.


During the last decade, with the advancement in network technologies and wireless communications, researchers inspired from a new type of network called vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). The Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a new model of Mobile ad hoc network for wireless communication between vehicles on road or in between the vehicle to road side unit to provide the safety and comfort to vehicles in transportation system. Recent research work in VANET emphasis on particular areas like routing, security and quality of service but due to high dynamic nature of this network, designing an efficient routing protocol for all VANET applications is very hard, still there are scope of reconstruction or creation of new design of protocol, services for VANET architectures. The modification in existing approach or proposed a novel way of routing is milestone but a survey of routing protocols based on various parameters of VANET is a necessary issue in vehicle-to- vehicle (V2V) and infrastructure-to- vehicle (IVC) communication for smart ITS. This paper presents modern investigation of ad hoc routing protocols and the approaches that are proposed recently specially for vehicular ad hoc network with their advantages and shortcomings, which can be helpful for researchers to understand the routing protocols of VANET and can be used to enhance of existing protocol or proposed a new approach.


There is growing evidence that patterns of marine fisheries on some Pacific islands underwent significant changes over the period of human occupation. One such island is Aitutaki in the Southern Cook Islands. Over the millennia of human occupation, there were shifts in habitat use, changes in targeted prey, and the abandonment of some fishing technologies. However, the most striking trend was an apparent decline in fishing altogether. This paper brings together several lines of evidence in an effort to understand why fishing became less important on this small Polynesian "almost-atoll." The possibility of over-harvesting or resource depression is considered. Resource depression could have been a factor at one mainland locality, where occupations were at least semipermanent, but was apparently not involved in declines at an offshore islet site where occupations were short term but intensive. However, fishing on the offshore islet, and deeper water fishing in general, may have been adversely affected by the loss of a key raw material traditionally used for fishhooks, namely pearlshell (Pinctada margaritifera). Further consideration of the offshore islet assemblages is assisted by mtDNA analyses, which have allowed for species level determinations within a key family, the Serranidae. Considering the suite of changes as a whole, the costs of fishing apparently increased significantly over the 1000-year period of occupation. What is less certain is the potential role that terrestrial components (i.e., agriculture and animal husbandry) of subsistence played in fishing declines. Stable isotope studies, now underway, may further elucidate the relationships between marine and terrestrial components of subsistence.


The reaction of Cu2+ acetate monohydrate with 2-[N,N'-bis(carboxymethyl)aminomethyl]-4-carboxyphenol (H4cacp), 2-[N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)aminomethyl]hydroquinone (H4cah) and the dinucleating 2,5-bis[N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)aminomethyl]hydroquinone (H6bicah) in water results in the formation of several Cu2+ species, which are in dynamic equilibrium in aqueous solution and their stability is pH dependent. A systematic crystallographic study of these species was pursued, resulting in the characterization of most of the species. Additional techniques were employed to characterize the molecules in the solid state (infrared spectroscopy) and in solution (UV-vis spectroscopy and electrochemistry). These measurements show that the Cu2+ ions are ligated mainly to the iminodiacetate at pH < 6, exhibiting only weak interactions with the phenol oxygen. At pH > 6, the phenol oxygen was deprotonated and dinuclear-bridged species, from the phenolate oxygen complexes exhibiting a Cu2+ 2O2 core, were isolated. The coordination environment around the copper ions varies between trigonal bipyramidal, tetragonal pyramidal and distorted octahedral geometries. The two unpaired electrons of the Cu2+ ions are found to be antiferromagnetically coupled. A survey of the magnetic and structural properties of the dinuclear phenoxide bridged Cu2+ complexes shows that the strength of the antiferromagnetic coupling is linearly dependent on the Cu-Ophenolate bond lengths, at bond distances below 1.98 angstroms. The effect of the Cu-O-Cu angles on the magnetic properties of the complexes is also discussed.


Background: An intimate correlation occurs between obesity and sleep disorders among adolescence which has its impact on their overall performance and quality of life (QL). This study measures the degree of correlation between obesity and sleep apnea, and its impact upon QL and overall performance in Saudi obese adolescents. Methodology: This case-control study has randomly included Saudi obese adolescents and eutrophic adolescents of both genders, aged 12-18 years. Instruments, which were used in the study, included a standardized and validated questionnaire. The questionnaires involved a sleep behaviour questionnaire and paediatric QL inventory. Result: A statistically significant correlation was seen between sleep disorders and obesity and an intimate impact upon their overall performance was also seen in the findings that included physical, emotional and social functioning. Conclusion: The study concluded that there is a great importance of improvements related to lifestyle and sleeping patterns among the Saudi population for reduced state of obesity.


There is significant potential for energy recovery through the use of micro-hydropower installations in water supply systems (WSS). To exploit the full potential of hydro energy in balance with the optimal hydraulic performance and water supply service, multi-objective management tools are needed. This paper presents the application of four management tools: (1) an energy audit to evaluate the potential hydro energy in the water pressurised systems of Alcoy; (2) multi-criteria decision-making methods for the selection of the preferred energy-efficient operation of a system with a pump-storage reservoir and hydro-turbines in the Algarve; (3) a numerical dynamic tool for optimal turbine operation in the water distribution of Langhirano; and (4) an urban water optioneering tool to estimate the hydropower potential of the external aqueduct network in Athens. These methods showed that through an integrated approach the WSS can be optimised for both hydraulic performance and hydro energy production.


A wavelet‐based method is introduced for estimating the arrival times of signals and echoes observed in noisy multipath environments. This problem arises when trying to model any signal containing overlapping segments of direct and reflected components. The method presented is more general than cepstrum‐based techniques since it is not limited to echoes that are scaled replicas of the direct signal. The statistics of the wavelet coefficients are derived for pyramid‐algorithm wavelet decompositions, and these are employed in a statistical detection algorithm for obtaining the arrival‐time estimates. The method will be used to estimate signal and echo arrival times in data observed during underwater transducer calibration experiments conducted in small pressurized tanks.


Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is one indispensable technology to communicate with a service robot. In real-world environments, ASR faces many kinds of sound sources and they should be discriminated to improve ASR performance. In ASR systems, speech is usually detected from the input signal by voice activity detection (VAD) scheme. Speech and music, how ever, are not easily discriminated by the VAD because they share similar characteristics such as periodicity. In this paper, we adopt a speech/music discriminator into the front-end of the ASR system in order to disable music stream not to be an input for the ASR system. Our speech/music discriminator employs the mean of minimum cepstral distances (MMCD) as a feature parameter. Experimental result shows the MMCD parameter outperforms the conventional feature parameter, spectral flux.


In The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, T. S. Eliot famously wrote, 'Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.' Cath Kenneally's eaten cold offers a chain of indelible response-poems to New Zealand poet Janet Charman's book, cold snack. In Kenneally's collection, 'Meanings perpetually eingeschachtelt into meanings', creating new and original poetry that riffs off Charman's book without 'imitating' or 'defacing' it.


Since language models are used to model a wide variety of languages, it is natural to ask whether the neural architectures used for the task have inductive biases towards modeling particular types of languages. Investigation of these biases has proved complicated due to the many variables that appear in the experimental setup. Languages vary in many typological dimensions, and it is difficult to single out one or two to investigate without the others acting as confounders. We propose a novel method for investigating the inductive biases of language models using artificial languages. These languages are constructed to allow us to create parallel corpora across languages that differ only in the typological feature being investigated, such as word order. We then use them to train and test language models. This constitutes a fully controlled causal framework, and demonstrates how grammar engineering can serve as a useful tool for analyzing neural models. Using this method, we find that commonly used neural architectures exhibit different inductive biases: LSTMs display little preference with respect to word ordering, while transformers display a clear preference for some orderings over others. Further, we find that neither the inductive bias of the LSTM nor that of the transformer appear to reflect any tendencies that we see in attested natural languages.


This qualitative study investigated problems in the rehabilitation of women with long-term, musculoskeletal pain disorders. Data were collected by repeated semi-structured interviews and doctor-patient encounters during two years, and analysed in a gender perspective. The "marriage contract", i.e. the pattern of division of duties and power structure within the marital relationship, was of obvious importance to the implementation of rehabilitation measures. We explored situations where the rehabilitation measures disagreed with the terms and patterns in the "marriage contract". The participants' ways of coping with the contract in these delicate situations could be described as three type strategies; accepting the terms, negotiating for new terms, and breaking the contract. The crucial impact of the "marriage contract" and the type strategies on the rehabilitation process are exemplified.


Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility: A guide for students and practicing managers in developing and emerging countries is designed to meet the urgent need for a comprehensive and definitive introduction and teaching text for Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR]. With the aim to become the standard textbook to teach a complete course unit at undergraduate or postgraduate levels, this is a book that can be used by practicing managers to understand the practice of CSR, equipping them with knowledge and skills of how to integrate CSR into business strategy and operations. Edited by a multidisciplinary team of four experts, David Katamba, Dr. Christoph Zipfel, David Haag and Dr. Charles Tushabomwe-Kazooba, along with other contributors, the book stresses the linkage of CSR and modern business management. It starts by defining CSR, then shows how to get involved in CSR, how to identify CSR opportunities, communicating CSR activities to stakeholders and tracking CSR performance. Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility: A guide for students and practicing managers in developing and emerging countries concludes by giving the reader the practical skills in designing CSR strategies in order to use them for competitiveness as well as tracking performance of CSR programs. This is a book that will become essential reading on the topic of CSR for many years to come. About the Author: Mr. Katamba and his fellow Editors wish to thank German International Cooperation (GIZ), Prof. Waswa Balunywa, Mrs. Annet Nabatanzi Muyimba, Jean Hensly Kekaramu (RIP), Dr. Isaac Kayongo, Mr. Sam Musigire, Dr. Cedric Marvin Nkiko, Prof. Dr. Geoffrey Bakunda, Ms. Sabine Gisch-Boie, and Hamid Tenywa. Publisher's website: http://www.sbpra.com/DavidKatamba


Background: Sleep medicine is not considered an essential service, the lack of adequate sleep can reduce immunity, and the ability to handle stress, and organ dysfunctions. Objectives: A cross-sectional exploratory study was conducted to test whether socioeconomic status moderated links between sleep indicators. Setting: Three hundred and seventy-five Households (male head of family) were included in the study and chosen randomly representing their respective wards in equal proportion. Measurements: Assessments included Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Modified Kuppuswamy's Socioeconomic Scale (SES). Results: The study indicates SHI and ESS showed significant negative correlation with SES. This indicates poor sleep hygiene and more day time sleepiness with lower SES group. PQSI showed significant positive correlation indicating upper SES group showing poor sleep quality. Conclusions: We propose developing road map of sleep promotion program, which is a combination of sleep hygiene practice education, video-based visualization (imagery) training, and an educational session with some tips for time management in population of this part of India.


The appeal of the duration concept comes from its simplicity and wide-use in portfolio immunization. Various duration measures are available for fixed income securities with predefined cash flows (Macaulay duration, modified duration) or interest-rate dependent cash flows (effective duration). Real estate shares some features with fixed-income securities (relatively stable cash-flows) but it also has very distinct properties (no fixed maturity, possibility toiupgradei the asset through investment). Furthermore Swiss residential rental real estate is particular within the real estate universe due to the existing legal restriction of the rent revising process. The paper starts with a description of the rent revision process and the interactions between the rent-controlled and the free market. An overview of the existing studies on duration of real estate indicates why the existing measure cannot be used for the Swiss case. I then proceed and try to develop an empirical measure of interest rate sensitivity for the Swiss market. The empirical model starts from the dynamic DCF framework developed by Campbell Shiller 1988. Given the statistical properties of the data, the Campbell Shiller is expanded into an autoregressive distributed lag model. Focus is placed on developing a sound econometric model with significant estimates. The main results indicate an interest rate sensitivity of -3.9% with changes taking up to 3 quarters to be incorporated in the price process. An interesting result in this study is also the existence of an autocorrelation structure in the transaction-based index. Tests of normality and auto-correlation of residuals certify that the OLS assumptions are met.


Diseases of the pulmonary alveolus, such as pulmonary fibrosis, are leading causes of morbidity and mortality, but exceedingly few drugs are developed for them. A major reason for this gap is that after inhalation, drugs are quickly whisked away from alveoli due to their high perfusion. To solve this problem, the mechanisms by which nano‐scale drug carriers dramatically improve lung pharmacokinetics using an inhalable liposome formulation containing nintedanib, an antifibrotic for pulmonary fibrosis, are studied. Direct instillation of liposomes in murine lung increases nintedanib's total lung delivery over time by 8000‐fold and lung half life by tenfold, compared to oral nintedanib. Counterintuitively, it is shown that pulmonary surfactant neither lyses nor aggregates the liposomes. Instead, each lung compartment (alveolar fluid, alveolar leukocytes, and parenchyma) elutes liposomes over 24 h, likely serving as "drug depots." After deposition in the surfactant layer, liposomes are transferred over 3–6 h to alveolar leukocytes (which take up a surprisingly minor 1–5% of total lung dose instilled) in a nonsaturable fashion. Further, all cell layers of the lung parenchyma take up liposomes. These and other mechanisms elucidated here should guide engineering of future inhaled nanomedicine for alveolar diseases.


Productivity growth in southern European countries has been slowing down at least since the early 2000s. In this regard, Portugal has been no exception to this common trend as productivity growth has been sluggish since the beginning of the century, well before the global financial crisis. At the same time, corporate levels of indebtedness of Portuguese firms have built-up quite substantially until recent years. Although with different levels of intensity across sectors, this pattern was particularly prevalent in the construction sector, rendering it to be a compelling case to study the relation between debt and productivity. Using microdata from Portuguese construction firms, in this paper, we investigate the long-term impact of persistent corporate debt accumulation on total factor productivity growth. To do so, we rely on the framework provided by the estimation of heterogeneous dynamic-panel models. This framework allows us to account for dynamics, feedback effects, firm heterogeneity, and cross-sectional dependencies arising from unobserved common factors. After taking into account the effect of unobserved common factors affecting all firms in the sector as well as firm's specific characteristics, we find a negative and significant effect of corporate debt-build up on total productivity growth in the industry. This result is robust to different measures of total factor productivity, labour productivity and firms' indebtedness. Our results suggest that timely measures aiming to reduce debt overhangs by firms may be essential tools to boost productivity growth in the construction sector.


The single cysteine in the ArsB protein subunit of the arsenite resistance pump was changed to serine and alanine residues. Resistance in cells expressing the two mutant arsB genes was the same as in the wild type, and the serine substitution had no effect on the arsenite transport properties. These results eliminate possible thiol chemistry in translocation. Thus, the pump uses soft metal chemistry for metalloactivation and nonmetal chemistry for oxyanion transport.


We offer an account of empathetic pain that preserves the distinctions among standard pain, contagious pain, empathetic pain, sympathy for pain, and standard pain ascription. Vicarious experiences of both contagious and empathetic pain resemble to some extent experiences of standard pain. But there are also crucial dissimilarities. As neuroscientific results show, standard pain involves a sensorimotor and an affective component. According to our account, contagious pain consists in imagining the former, whereas empathetic pain consists in imagining the latter. We further argue that awareness of another's standard pain is part of empathetic pain, but empathetic awareness of another's standard pain differs from believing that another is in standard pain.


Information communication technology is capable of contributing supplementary teaching and learning strategies that can be used to address various educational challenges faced by higher education. Students who enter South African higher education institutions are often academically under-prepared and have not developed the cognitive skills required to engage in meaningful learning. When students build expert systems they are required to demonstrate the reasoning of an expert and to exhibit an understanding of causal relationships and procedural knowledge. This study formulated design principles in the form of conjectures and principles related to a learning environment that uses technology as a cognitive tool in the form of an expert system shell to promote higher-order thinking skills. The conjectures and principles formulated during this study are expressed in terms of the characteristics, procedures and arguments associated with a learning environment that uses technology in the form of an expert system shell to facilitate higher-order thinking. These conjectures and principles were separated into seven interrelated clusters: initial exposure, guided discovery learning, designing the expert system on paper, creating domain awareness, linking conceptual understanding to a representation of that understanding, hands-on development, and problem engagement.


This Article considers a recent programmatic shift among law and development scholars who have moved from advocating building rule-of-law processes, rules, and institutions to also building rule-of-law cultures. The Article carefully examines how these scholars envision culture as a tool to refashion the relationship between legal institutions and ordinary individuals. It traces the ways in which they use culture as a means to take law - general, universal, and acultural - and to make law specific, local, and embedded within the consciousness of ordinary people. It then suggests that this turn from law to culture produces a conceptualization of culture uncannily analogous to the conceptualization of law that the turn to culture was meant to supplement and correct. This similarity becomes especially apparent when examining development projects. The Article therefore draws on ethnographic examples of development challenges in Nepal to illustrate the difficulties inherent in culture change projects and the dangers of conceptualizing culture apart from the politics and conflict of everyday life.


This study documents the differential requirements of T4+ T helper cells in the induction of virus-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) and antibody responses during acute lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection. Two monoclonal antibodies (GK1.5 and RL172.4) directed against the L3T4 (T4) molecule were used for depleting T helper cells from mice. Depletion of T4+ cells caused a pronounced suppression of antiviral antibody response (20-fold decrease) but had minimal effect on virus-specific CTL response (less than 2-fold reduction). Despite the elimination of greater than 90% of T helper cells, anti-L3T4-treated mice were able to generate a CTL response of sufficient magnitude to control the viral infection. In contrast, depletion of Lyt2+ T cells abrogated the CTL response and the ability to eliminate virus. Thus, our results underscore the importance of the Lyt2+ T-cell subset in controlling infection with this virus and show that a deficiency of T4+ T cells is likely to have a more severe effect on antibody production than on CTL responses.


Cation diffusion facilitator (CDF) proteins are a conserved family of divalent transition metal cation transporters. CDF proteins are usually composed of two domains: the transmembrane domain, in which the metal cations are transported through, and a regulatory cytoplasmic C-terminal domain (CTD). Each CDF protein transports either one specific metal or multiple metals from the cytoplasm, and it is not known whether the CTD takes an active regulatory role in metal recognition and discrimination during cation transport. Here, the model CDF protein MamM, an iron transporter from magnetotactic bacteria, was used to probe the role of the CTD in metal recognition and selectivity. Using a combination of biophysical and structural approaches, the binding of different metals to MamM CTD was characterized. Results reveal that different metals bind distinctively to MamM CTD in terms of their binding sites, thermodynamics, and binding-dependent conformations, both in crystal form and in solution, which suggests a varying level of functional discrimination between CDF domains. Furthermore, these results provide the first direct evidence that CDF CTDs play a role in metal selectivity. We demonstrate that MamM's CTD can discriminate against Mn2+, supporting its postulated role in preventing magnetite formation poisoning in magnetotactic bacteria via Mn2+ incorporation.


The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and impact of right and left bundle branch block on the in-hospital, 5-year and 10-year mortality of patients with acute inferior Q wave myocardial infarction. A retrospective analysis of clinical characteristics, hospital, 1-, 5-, and 10-year mortality of 2215 consecutive patients with acute inferior Q wave myocardial infarction hospitalized in 13 coronary care units in Israel was performed. Bundle branch block during acute Q wave inferior wall myocardial infarction was present in 108 patients (4.9%), 85 of whom had right and 23 left bundle branch block. Patients with bundle branch block had more in-hospital complications than those without, irrespective of the site and time of appearance of the block. In addition, atrial fibrillation (19%), complete atrioventricular block (21%) and congestive heart failure (45%) appeared more frequently in patients with, than in those without, bundle branch block (11%, 9% and 31%, respectively), and in-hospital and 5-year mortality were higher in patients with the block (22%, 33%) than in those without it (13% and 23%, respectively). Bundle branch block emerged as an independent predictor of death only among patients with new right bundle branch block, and right bundle branch block emerged as an independent predictor for the development of complete atrioventricular block (odds ratio 2.13; 90% confidence interval 1.39-3.28). However, hospital mortality among patients with inferior myocardial infarction and complete atrioventricular block was virtually independent of bundle branch block (39% with vs 36% without bundle branch block, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


One of the most significant epidemiological tools for the perceived truth about contemporary Norwegian youth is in Ungdata, Youth Data. This is a continuous online-based survey grounded upon several and varying investigations of youth in Norwegian high schools, now extending to primary schools as well. The knowledge bases, epidemiological practices, technicalities, economic premises for the work and also data publishing is handled by social scientists at Norwegian Social Research, NOVA, located at Oslo Metropolitan University. State bureaucracies, e.g. ministries and directorates, municipalities etc. can ask for investigations and overviews. NOVA has an annual income for running the Youth Data through the Norwegian Directorate of Health of 3,3 mill. NOK (2018). The Youth Data registry has become a leading force in opinions, policies, polities and resource allocations for youth at municipal and state levels for several intended purposes. Based upon NOVA reports, media comments and interviews this article reflects upon some theoretical and methodological approaches to this unique epidemiological tool concerning youth, health and welfare. Questions arise such as: Is epidemiology a taken for granted neutral and objective kind of knowledge? Should there be ethical concerns for youth and their researchers as creators of knowledge, theory and policy – other than the normal ethical rules of scientific conduct?


Cooking separates the way humans and animals consume their food. Man has learned cooking when he discovered fire. With time, the cooking style and mode- both has evolved. From using raw leaves to LPG gas and electric stoves- man has come a long way. However, we need to increase LPG penetration for cleaner cooking methods especially in rural areas. In longer run, we also need to cut our dependence on fossil fuel.


Periodic-group-delay (PGD) dispersion-compensation modules were recently proposed as mechanisms to alleviate collision-induced timing shifts in dispersion-managed (DM) systems. Frequency and timing shifts in quasi-linear DM systems with PGDs were obtained, and it is shown that significant reductions are achieved when even a small fraction of the total dispersion is compensated for by PGDs.


A method is proposed for enhancing SCADA systems survivability using exogenous isomorphic real-time monitor and simulation monitor. The formal definition of monitors is given. The fundamental principles of attack resistance, malicious operation detection and fault prediction are introduced, which are accomplished by using cooperation between the real-time monitor and simulation monitor. The real-time monitor is responsible for monitoring the states of SCADA systems, events and control commands, estimating whether there is faults and risk in systems based on states and implementation commands of system, and creating a simulation monitor if it is necessary. The simulation monitor is responsible for simulating implementation of control command, monitoring the process of simulation, forecasting the results of control commands, and estimating whether the commands are harmful based on the results. Finally, a water treatment system is given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the method.


An emergence of abstract mathematics and philosophy in the VI–IV centuries BC is considered in this article as the third information revolution (IR) associated with the transition of human practice to a higher level of complexity. The author traces in detail the history of philosophy and mathematics as educational disciplines. The problem of renewal of the curricula on philosophy for non-philosophical faculties is clearly posed in the work. The article also proposes a scheme of programs on the course of the philosophy of mathematics.


In the year 2000 the broadest ranging and most specific programme of measures relating to water ever known in Europe, the European Water Framework Directive, EWFD, was implemented across the Community. In compliance with the Directive, Member States of the European Union must implement the Directive and ensure the Good Ecological Status, (GES) of their waters by the year 2015. Amongst the water bodies mentioned in the Directive, river estuaries are of special importance, not only because of their notable social and economic value but also because of their significant ecological value. The Nerbio-Ibaizabal river estuary suffered the negative effects of the surrounding area's economic development for many years, in which time chemical pollution accumulated endlessly in the estuary water and sediment. As a result of a general plan to restore the river estuary, however, the situation is gradually improving. As part of the implementation of the WFD, surveillance monitoring was carried out in the Nerbio-Ibaizabal river estuary, with water and sediment samples collected every 3 months between April 2008 and October 2010. Trace element concentrations in the sediment were determined, along with several other physicochemical properties. The datasets obtained in these three years, as well as similar data gathered by our research group between January 2005 and January 2008, were used in their entirety. The whole data matrix was analysed using different methods (statistical, graphic and chemometric techniques, amongst others) with a view to assessing the spatial and temporal variability of pollution and identifying possible pollution sources, amongst various other objectives. At the same time, with respect for green chemistry, cleaner, safer and faster alternative analytical methods based on non-destructive spectroscopic techniques were developed for the determination of trace elements in sediment.


The major drawback of microsatellites analysis is that they are expensive to develop, labor-intensive and demand skilled personnel. However, such studies might be still simplified and accelerated by multiplexing of the markers and the use of highthroughput systems for genotyping DNA fragments. In this paper we present a single, simple and highly effective PCRmultiplex reaction composed of six chloroplast microsatellites widely used for population studies in pines but here applied to Pinus sylvestris. The reaction allows for rapid genotyping of large sample sizes.


Following the introduction of measles immunization in Serbia in 1971, measles outbreaks were recorded every 3 to 5 years until 1997. The outbreak in 1997 with 4000 cases was the last large outbreak in Serbia. In 2007, an outbreak with 191 laboratory confirmed or epidemiologically linked cases was reported in Vojvodina. In 2008 and 2009, only 3 cases were confirmed. From 2007-2009, measles infections were most frequently detected in the Roma population but also in non-immunized or partially immunized persons from the general population.


A solar power revolution
Solar power has always had a reputation for being expensive and a niche market. However in recent years developments in
innovation and manufacturing mean that we could be on the threshold of a mass market breakthrough. Solar power could
viably provide 20-25% of the world's electricity supplies by 2050 according to a report published by the International Energy
Agency in 2010 [1]. Back in May 2011 Mark M. Little, global research director for General Electric Co., said that solar power
may be cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuels and nuclear reactors within three to five years because of
innovations [2]. And perhaps most importantly, fresh figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance show that the price of
solar panels fell by almost 50 percent in 2011 – and they are now almost a quarter of what they were in 2008 [3]. In fact,
solar power is now the fastest growing industry in America [4]. Being a clean, safe, sustainable energy source, this all makes
solar power a technology that can hardly be ignored by all the nations and organizations that has set ambitious goals for
green energy.
The future of solar power may be curved and 3-dimensional
In 2011 MIT Engineering Professor Jeffrey Grossman and his team set out to investigate the potential of 3D solar panels,
inspired by the way trees spread their leaves [5]. Using a computer algorithm the research team "evolved" 3D solar panels all
designed to take up the same base area [6]. The efficiency of these dynamic shapes was greater and much less affected by
cloudy weather than regular flat panels using the same amount of ground space. And ubiquitous, 3D solar panels are exactly
what the maturing industry of thin-film solar cells may be making possible.
Mathematical model, optimization and methods of flux calculation
Our presentation is based on a 3-week project from the 1st-year introductory course in "Advanced Engineering Mathematics"
(Mat1). For a given configuration of curvilinear solar panels (perhaps on a building), which will be the optimal orientation for
gathering solar energy over day cycle? What is the total energy absorption over a whole day? What problems exist in
calculating the flux of energy in a solar panels and which methods exists for different types of surfaces? In designing a
curved solar panel, what is the relationship between the curvatures and the efficiency? What things matter and doesn't
matter? We have addressed questions of these kinds in our project by using a simplified model of energy absorption on a
limited set of surfaces, namely planar surfaces, convex single-curved surfaces and convex surfaces of revolution,
represented by parametric equations. We have investigated several methods, some of which are very specific to certain
kinds of surfaces and lead to analytic expressions that yield mathematical insight, and some of which are more numerically
inclined but generally applicable to a wider class of surfaces.
References
[1] http://www.iea.org/index_info.asp?id=1320
[2] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/solar-may-be-cheaper-than-fossil-power-in-five-years-ge-says.html
[3] http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328505.000-indias-panel-price-crash-could-spark-solar-revolution.html
[4] http://cleantechnica.com/2011/09/16/record-cost-reductions-in-us-solar-power-spurs-growth-in-green-jobs-too/
[5] http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/future-solar-power-134303743.html
[6] http://www.energytrend.com/Dino_Solar_20120502


Objective Geographic and racial disparities may contribute to variation in the incidence and outcomes of HIV-associated cancers in the United States. Method Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, we analyzed Kaposi sarcoma (KS) incidence and survival by race and geographic region during the combined antiretroviral therapy era. Reported cases of KS in men from 2000 to 2013 were obtained from 17 SEER cancer registries. Overall and age-standardized KS incidence rates were calculated and stratified by race and geographic region. We evaluated incidence trends using joinpoint analyses and calculated adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) for overall and KS-specific mortality using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Results Of 4,455 KS cases identified in men younger than 55 years (median age 40 years), the annual percent change (APC) for KS incidence significantly decreased for white men between 2001 and 2013 (APC -4.52, p = 0.02). The APC for AA men demonstrated a non-significant decrease from 2000–2013 (APC -1.84, p = 0.09). Among AA men in the South, however, APC has significantly increased between 2000 and 2013 (+3.0, p = 0.03). In addition, compared with white men diagnosed with KS during the same time period, AA men were also more likely to die from all causes and KS cancer-specific causes (aHR 1.52, 95% CI 1.34–1.72, aHR 1.49, 95% CI 1.30–1.72 respectively). Conclusion Although overall KS incidence has decreased in the U.S., geographic and racial disparities in KS incidence and survival exist.


During presentation, it is hard to maintain the slide because we need to stand in front of the room and often not able to touch the computer. The presenters need to take attention at both their voice, and body language such eye contact, facial expression, posture, gesture, and body orientation. Microsoft PowerPoint is a simple but very useful tool to create digital presentation. Even though it is simple to use, but this application required the presenter to take control while using it, such as to star the slide show or moving it to the next slide. The purpose of this research is to minimize physical contact between user and the computer during the presentation by controlling the move of the slide using voice. This research will implement the Hidden Markov Model algorithm and Sphinx-4 library.


In this paper we propose the WNMCL algorithm that allows iteratively locate unknown wireless nodes. The algorithm requires only one mobile node, which collects RSS signal from other nodes with unknown position and approximates their distance by path-loss model. These data are used for the probability occurrence correction of the nodes in the space modelled by Monte Carlo. The WNMCL algorithm was validated using simulations and the results are presented in this paper. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.20.6.7260


The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the experiences and perceptions of distance learning among early childhood pre-service teachers in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been spreading worldwide since early 2020. A total of 196 early childhood pre-service teachers with experience in distance learning participated in the survey, and the results of the survey are as follows. While early childhood pre-service teachers perceived a difference between face-to-face (inperson) classes and distance learning, they expressed a high willingness to take part in distance learning in the post-COVID-19 era. Convenience and usefulness were mentioned as key advantages of distance learning, while difficulties in interaction and concentration were emphasised as disadvantages. To improve the quality of distance learning in the future, they suggested that students should increase participation, while instructors should strengthen their distance learning-related capabilities and universities should enhance support through system development. The implications of this study were discussed based on these results. © 2022. by THE PACIFIC EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION


Introduction:
 EMS stroke prenotification (S-PN) expedites and increases tPA use. In 1/15, the New York State Dept. of Health (NYS DOH) began tracking S-PN data; however the baseline S-PN frequency and stroke teams' S-PN experiences and practices in New York City (NYC) and Long Island (LI) had not been established.

 Hypothesis:
 The American Heart Association American Stroke Association NYC Stroke Task Force (NYC STF), a panel of stroke clinicians from NYC and LI, sought to assess current regional S-PN experiences.

 Methods:
 Online survey by the NYC STF was opened to NYS DOH designated stroke centers in NYC and LI from 12/8/14-1/12/15. Hospitals were instructed to respond based on the previous 12 months, using data or best estimation. Results were analyzed with frequency distributions.

 Results:
 Response rate= 75.8% (47/62 hospitals). Respondents: Stroke Coordinators= 66.0%, Stroke Directors= 10.6%, other= 23.4%. Most hospitals received patients from Fire Dept., City of NY (n= 38) and other private/municipal EMS. Many (53.2%) reported receiving S-PN for eligible patients <50% of the time; 27.7% reported receiving S-PN 50-89% of the time; only 14.9% reported receiving S-PN 90-100% of the time. Hospital size did not affect S-PN rate. Only 37.0% reported documenting receipt of S-PN >50% of the time. ED nurses most often received initial S-PN (n= 36), followed by ED clerks (n= 17); 80.4% of hospitals gave stroke triage training to these personnel. Most hospitals (91.5%) used a single-call activation for stroke team/radiology; only 57.5% reported activating it >50% of the time before patient arrival. Contact information for kin/witness (n=37), patient name (n=27) and birthdate (n=25) were most desired to add to S-PN. Frequently perceived barriers: inconsistently receiving S-PN from EMS (n=39), incomplete S-PNs (n=24). Most hospitals (65.8%) perceived positive impact of S-PN; 34.2% perceived no impact/too early to tell.

 Conclusions:
 In 2014, stroke teams in NYC and LI perceived wide variations in the rate of S-PN. ED nurses, clerks and EMS personnel are prime recipients for stroke triage training. Hospitals desire contact/identifying information as part of S-PN. More consistent documentation and review of S-PN data is needed to improve its impact on stroke care.


The vampire/human split in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles is structured like a racial split. Becoming a vampire constitutes an essence, a shared material difference that is not something humans can come close to understanding. In the process of erasing actual racial differences through the "Dark Gift," Rice relies on embodiments of ethnicity and racial specificity in her management of gay male desire (a major factor in her popularity). The complexity of the relationships that shift and multiply between desire, race, sexuality and otherness is captured most strikingly in the fourth novel of the series, Tale of the Body Thief. After establishing the gender and sexuality work accomplished by Lestat's body-switching, the paper examines David Talbot's switch into a young male body himself. Talbot's own becoming-other, and becoming-vampire thereafter, are instances of both general and specific racialized embodiment. Lestat's experience of the human flesh is different from Talbot's, and in fact does more to constitute identity as gender and sexuality than as race. Talbot's assimilation into Lestat's identity formation (erasing ethnicity by way of becoming an other) still produces a specificity, one that exoticizes a youthful otherness overcoded by Portugal, Africa, India and Brazil. However, the othered body can only be animated by an aging white British gentleman's mind and manners.