We propose an integrable spin-1/2 Heisenberg model where the exchange couplings and Dzyloshinky–Moriya interactions are dependent on the sites. By employing the quantum inverse scattering method, we obtain the eigenvalues and the Bethe ansatz equation of the system with the periodic boundary condition. Furthermore, we obtain the exact solution and study the boundary effect of the system with the anti-periodic boundary condition via the off-diagonal Bethe ansatz. The operator identities of the transfer matrix at the inhomogeneous points are proved at the operator level. We construct the T –Q relation based on them. From which, we obtain the energy spectrum of the system. The corresponding eigenstates are also constructed. We find an interesting coherence state that is induced by the topological boundary.


SIR,-Drs. D. G. D. Barr and D. K. B. Fraser (6 March, p. 657) suggest that there may be potential danger in giving large doses of the chelating agent Desferal (desferrioxamine B mesylate) by mouth in the management of acute iron poisoning, because of the possible tissue toxicity of the ferrioxamine complex which is formed when the chelating agent combines with inorganic iron. Acute iron poisoning consequent on the ingestion of inorganic iron is a dangerous and frequently lethal condition: it may be unwise to be too cautious in its treatment ; energetic treatment is called for when it is known that a large amount of inorganic iron has been taken by a child. The first essential is to deal with iron, circulating either freely ionized or loosely combined with plasma proteins, by chelation to a form in which it is completely non-ionized and highly stable. This is achieved by intramuscular injection of intravenous infusion, and this aspect of the use of Desferal would seem to be justified beyond doubt and often life-saving. With regard to oral therapy, the use of Desferal in high dosage would appear to offer an alternative between the further absorption of large amounts of inorganic iron and the possible absorption of similar amounts of iron chelated as ferrioxamine. Even if the chelate were known to have minor toxic properties in high dosage it would still be preferable to chelate the iron in the intestine rather than accept the continued absorption of large amounts of inorganic iron. However, the position is rather more favourable than this, since ferrioxamine appears to be a compound of quite low toxicity. The first suggested use for ferrioxamine was as a possible therapeutic agent in the management of iron-deficiency anaemia, and very large quantities were injected intramuscularly for this purpose without harmful effects.' We have also found that intravenous injections of up to 150 mg. ferrioxamine in adults have produced no toxic effects other than occasional transient facial flushing, and in the intensive treatment of iron overload with intravenous Desferal up to 800 mg. of ferrioxamine has been recovered from the urine in 24 hours. These findings indicate that ferrioxamine circulating in quite high amounts appears to be without toxic effect. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that acute iron poisoning is a serious medical emergency which calls for vigorous treatment. We would agree that the present scheme of dosage recommended2 for the use of Desferal in the management of this condition must in the present state of our knowledge be tentative and may have to be modified in the light of experience.-We are, etc., Clinical Research Dept., D. M. BURLEY. Ciba Laboratories, Horsham, Sussex. Paddington General Hospital, J. FIELDING. London W.9.


A variety of approaches have been proposed in the literature for region-of-interest (ROI) estimation. In most of them the ROI definition is highly subjective, i.e., lacks scientific evidence in supporting the claim that the areas defined as ROIs are indeed perceptually interesting. In this paper we attempt to model ROIs as the visually attended areas indicated by a saliency map in order to lower as much as possible the subjectivity of selection. For evaluation purposes we follow a ROI-based video compression setup and present comparisons with state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of perceived visual quality and video compression improvement. Extended experiments concerning both MPEG-1 as well as low bit-rate MPEG-4 video encoding were conducted showing significant improvement in video compression efficiency without perceived deterioration in visual quality.


: We have described two cases of malignant melanoma of the small bowel which metastasized from occult primaries. Malignant melanoma in the bowel is more common than one might think, being third only to adenocarcinoma of the kidneys and squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. It appears at this time that palliative resection, along with chemotherapy and immunotherapy, is the procedure of choice in patients with this condition.


Learners who are gifted and talented have extra ordinary abilities and interests that require a differentiated curriculum. Kenya's education system does not have a specialized curriculum in schools for them. The main purpose of the study was to establish which instructional strategies teachers use to educate learners who are gifted and talented in Primary schools in Wareng district, UasinGishu County, Kenya. Wareng district was purposively selected for the study because of its good performance in academics and sporting activities. The study adopted a mixed method approachand a descriptive survey research design.Ten schools werepurposively sampled using criteria of performance status. Ten headteachers were purposively picked and ninety nine teachers were selected using simple random sampling technique to get a sample size of one hundred respondents. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using interview guides and questionnaires for headteachers and teachers respectively. Descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme were used to analyse quantitative data and presented in graphs, pie-charts, frequency tables and percentages while qualitative data were analysed according to the themes of the study. Both data were then triangulated to draw conclusions on the findings of the study. The study revealed that majority of teachers were conversant with various strategies of teaching the gifted and talented learners, however, they preferred using only one strategy that is, giving extra work, indicating a limitation on teacher's competence to meet the diverse needs of gifted and talented learners.


The pattern of lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme has been examined for different murine lymphoid cell populations and for T and B lymphocyte populations. LDH-1, LDH-2, LDH-3, LDH-4 and LDH-5 were found in the thymus, LDH-3, LDH-4 and LDH-5 in the spleen, and LDH-4 and LDH-5 in lymph nodes. Enrichment of lymphocytes with T and B cells resulted in the appearance of LDH-4 and LDH-5 in T cell population, and of LDH-5 in B cell population. With the appearance of the autoimmune reaction, activity of LDH-5 in the thymus was seen to decrease. After the thymosin injection (4 fraction), activities of LDH-1, LDH-2 and LDH-3 diminished. A possible application of the LDH isoenzyme distribution pattern as a marker of T cell differentiation is discussed.


: Feedback-related negativity (FRN) refers to the electroencephalogram component induced by feedback processing which reflects the individual's sensitivity to reward. Addiction can be broadly classified into substance addiction and behavior addiction. Both types of addicted individuals show pathological patterns in feedback processing. Comparing with the ordinary feedback (such as money), the FRN amplitude induced by feedback of addiction substance significantly increased in individuals with substance addiction. In the control study with non-addicted subjects, substance addicts also showed abnormal patterns relating to addiction when processing monetary feedback stimuli. Similar FRN irregularities were also observed in individuals with behavioral addiction. However, the classification of addiction disorders in most previous studies is not specific enough, and the characteristics of different subtypes of addiction disorders should be further taken into consideration in future studies. Moreover, addicted individuals are often accompanied by other mental disorders (such as depression, anxiety). Further studies should distinguish the influences of comorbid factors and reveal the unique reward processing mechanisms underlying addiction.


This thesis conducts a robust and granular examination of the concept of 'object' under Article 101(1) TFEU and its resulting legal and practical implications. To that end, a methodology focusing on the case law of the European Courts and other primary sources is adopted. This enables a legal analysis of the meaning, application and role of restrictions of competition by object to be undertaken. The case law reveals three key approaches adopted by the European Courts to restrictions by object: the 'orthodox approach', the 'more analytical approach' and an amalgamation of these two approaches, the 'hybrid approach'. This finding immediately questions the dominance of the orthodox approach within legal discourse over the years. The orthodox approach contends that a limited category of agreements are considered by law to automatically restrict competition by virtue of their object. This is reflected in the European Commission's Article 81(3) Guidelines and is encapsulated by the widely recognised 'object box'. This thesis poses a direct challenge to such narrow interpretation of the law. It argues that this depiction of the law does not fully reflect the jurisprudence of the European Courts. Rather the case law reveals an alternative interpretation of the concept of object based on the seminal case of Societe Technique Miniere concerned more with determining the aim of the agreement within its legal and economic context as opposed to its categorisation. Moreover, the 'more analytical approach' benefits from greater judicial support. Having established the three key approaches and their application under Article 101(1) TFEU, the question of what is the best interpretation of the law on restrictions of competition by 'object' is reflected on.
Based on the case law of the European Courts, it is argued the more analytical approach provides the best interpretation of the law. This is assessed in relation to the framework of Article 101 TFEU as a whole. Finally, this thesis briefly explores whether such conclusion is then consistent with the optimum function of the object criterion from an enforcement perspective.


The characteristics of wet clutches are of great importance for the overall behavior of the drive trains of many modern vehicles. It is considered that the clutch characteristic is affected by the permeability of the friction material. The permeability is considered to influence both the time of engagement and the temperature in the clutch due to the lubricant flow in the permeable material. In this work, a permeability measurement method suitable for wet clutch friction materials is thus used to measure the permeability of a friction material made of sintered bronze. This friction material is suitable for application such as limited slip differentials or other wet clutches that have to withstand high temperature and high torque transfer. The permeability is also investigated for friction materials with pressed groove patterns. Wet clutch friction material permeability is often accounted for in simulations but the method used to measure the permeability is seldom described. The permeability of the investigated friction material is shown to be so small that it will hardly will affect the temperature in the material due to cooling oil flow inside the material. However, the engagement time can be influenced by the permeability. It is also shown that pressed groove patterns can seal the friction material so that it becomes almost impermeable.


[1] Sub-seasonal variability including equatorial waves significantly influence the dehydration and transport processes in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). This study investigates the wave activity in the TTL in 7 reanalysis data sets (RAs; NCEP1, NCEP2, ERA40, ERA-Interim, JRA25, MERRA, and CFSR) and 4 chemistry climate models (CCMs; CCSRNIES, CMAM, MRI, and WACCM) using the zonal wave number-frequency spectral analysis method with equatorially symmetric-antisymmetric decomposition. Analyses are made for temperature and horizontal winds at 100 hPa in the RAs and CCMs and for outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), which is a proxy for convective activity that generates tropopause-level disturbances, in satellite data and the CCMs. Particular focus is placed on equatorial Kelvin waves, mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG) waves, and the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). The wave activity is defined as the variance, i.e., the power spectral density integrated in a particular zonal wave number-frequency region. It is found that the TTL wave activities show significant difference among the RAs, ranging from ∼0.7 (for NCEP1 and NCEP2) to ∼1.4 (for ERA-Interim, MERRA, and CFSR) with respect to the averages from the RAs. The TTL activities in the CCMs lie generally within the range of those in the RAs, with a few exceptions. However, the spectral features in OLR for all the CCMs are very different from those in the observations, and the OLR wave activities are too low for CCSRNIES, CMAM, and MRI. It is concluded that the broad range of wave activity found in the different RAs decreases our confidence in their validity and in particular their value for validation of CCM performance in the TTL, thereby limiting our quantitative understanding of the dehydration and transport processes in the TTL.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) of fetal fibronectin (fFN) and to determine its usefulness, in conjunction with selected other clinical assessment measures, in the prediction of preterm birth for women with twin gestations.

DESIGN
A prospective, descriptive, longitudinal design.

SETTING
An obstetrical high-risk clinic that received patient referrals from several surrounding communities in central Texas.

PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS
Forty-eight women identified with twin gestations prior to the 22nd week of pregnancy; primarily of Hispanic ethnicity.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
A substantial number of outcome variables were assessed in this study. In the present report, data derived from weekly assessments for the identification of the presence of fFN, the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis, and the measurement of cervical length were reviewed for their relationship to prematurity, birth weight, birth weight discordancy and placental chorionicity.

RESULTS
The relative risk of birth prior to 35 weeks gestation, fetal death, or discordance of twin birth weights of greater than 20% was 2.22 (CI: 1.09, 4.55, P < 0.015) when fFN was found to be positive at any weekly testing after 22 to 24 weeks gestation (sensitivity 76.82%, specificity 58.33%, PPV 66.7%). The presence of fFN was most highly predictive of preterm birth when performed during the 24th to 28th gestational week. Shorter cervical lengths were highly correlated with preterm birth (r = -0.6). An association between bacterial vaginosis and preterm birth was not demonstrated in this sample.

CONCLUSION
Sampling for the presence of fetal fibronectin can be easily accomplished by RNs in labor triage units and by advanced practice nurses in outpatient settings. The identification of fFN, particularly during the 24 to 28 weeks gestational time frame, is highly predictive of preterm birth, and particularly so for women with twin gestations.


Proximate and amino acid composition of the whole body tissue of juvenile Oreochromis aureus, Tilapia rendalli, Tilapia zillii, Tilapia spp. and Oreochromis niloticus were determined. Accordingly, protein and lipid levels in whole body were found higher in Tilapia rendalli than the other species. The amino acid composition was significantly different among species when expressed as g/100g amino acids. Although aspartic acid levels were different in all species, other amino acid levels were not highly different among the species. Similar findings were available for the A/E ratios ((each essential amino acid content/total essanstiel amino acid content) × 1000). However leucine, lysine and aspartic acid were higher, methionine, histidine and tyrosine were lower for all species.


As axons elongate, tubulin, which is synthesized in the cell body, must be transported and assembled into new structures in the axon. The mechanism of transport and the location of assembly are presently unknown. We report here on the use of tubulin tagged with a photoactivatable fluorescent group to investigate these issues. Photoactivatable tubulin, microinjected into frog embryos at the two- cell stage, is incorporated into microtubules in neurons obtained from explants of the neural tube. When activated by light, a fluorescent mark is made on the microtubules in the axon, and transport and turnover can be visualized directly. We find that microtubules are generated in or near the cell body and continually transported distally as a coherent phase of polymer during axon elongation. This vectorial polymer movement was observed at all levels on the axon, even in the absence of axonal elongation. Measurements of the rate of polymer translocation at various places in the axon suggest that new polymer is formed by intercalary assembly along the axon and assembly at the growth cone in addition to transport of polymer from the cell body. Finally, polymer movement near the growth cone appeared to respond in a characteristic manner to growth cone behavior, while polymer proximally in the axon moved more consistently. These results suggest that microtubule translocation is the principal means of tubulin transport and that translocation plays an important role in generating new axon structure at the growth cone.


Penetrating traumatic laryngeal‐pharyngeal injuries are relatively rare and traumatic injuries to the epiglottis are extremely rare. The incidence varies between countries. Most of these cases are dealt with by ear, nose and throat specialists, and trauma surgeons deal with such trauma when concomitant injury is present. In our institution laryngeal‐pharyngeal trauma occurs 3‐5 times per year. The literature records one case of penetrating injury to the epiglottis with complete transection but without an attempt at surgical repair [1] . This report describes a traumatic laceration with subtotal trans-section of epiglottis which was successfully repaired.


First-order methods such as Stochastic Gradient Descent are methods of choice
for solving non-convex optimization problems in machine learning. These methods
primarily rely on the gradient of the loss function to estimate descent direction.
However, they have a number of drawbacks, including converging to saddle points
(as opposed to minima), slow convergence, and sensitivity to parameter tuning. In
contrast, second order methods that use curvature information in addition to the
gradient, have been shown to achieve faster convergence rates, theoretically. When
used in the context of machine learning applications, they offer faster (quadratic)
convergence, stability to parameter tuning, and robustness to problem conditioning.
In spite of these advantages, first order methods are commonly used because of their
simplicity of implementation and low per-iteration cost. The need to generate and
use curvature information in the form of a dense Hessian matrix makes each iteration
of second order methods more expensive.

 In this work, we address three key problems associated with second order methods
– (i) what is the best way to incorporate curvature information into the optimization
procedure; (ii) how do we reduce the operation count of each iteration in a second order method, while maintaining its superior convergence property; and (iii) how do we
leverage high-performance computing platforms to significant accelerate second order
methods. To answer the first question, we propose and validate the use of Fisher
information matrices in second order methods to significantly accelerate convergence.
The second question is answered through the use of statistical sampling techniques
that suitably sample matrices to reduce per-iteration cost without impacting convergence. The third question is addressed through the use of graphics processing units
(GPUs) in distributed platforms to deliver state of the art solvers.
 Through our work, we show that our solvers are capable of significant improvement
over state of the art optimization techniques for training machine learning models.
We demonstrate improvements in terms of training time (over an order of magnitude
in wall-clock time), generalization properties of learned models, and robustness to
problem conditioning.


The demand for reliable statistics in subpopulations, when only reduced sample sizes are available, has promoted the development of small area estimation methods. In particular, an approach that is now widely used is based on the seminal work by Battese et al. [An error-components model for prediction of county crop areas using survey and satellite data, J. Am. Statist. Assoc. 83 (1988), pp. 28–36] that uses linear mixed models (MM). We investigate alternatives when a linear MM does not hold because, on one side, linearity may not be assumed and/or, on the other, normality of the random effects may not be assumed. In particular, Opsomer et al. [Nonparametric small area estimation using penalized spline regression, J. R. Statist. Soc. Ser. B 70 (2008), pp. 265–283] propose an estimator that extends the linear MM approach to the case in which a linear relationship may not be assumed using penalized splines regression. From a very different perspective, Chambers and Tzavidis [M-quantile models for small area estimation, Biometrika 93 (2006), pp. 255–268] have recently proposed an approach for small-area estimation that is based on M-quantile (MQ) regression. This allows for models robust to outliers and to distributional assumptions on the errors and the area effects. However, when the functional form of the relationship between the qth MQ and the covariates is not linear, it can lead to biased estimates of the small area parameters. Pratesi et al. [Semiparametric M-quantile regression for estimating the proportion of acidic lakes in 8-digit HUCs of the Northeastern US, Environmetrics 19(7) (2008), pp. 687–701] apply an extended version of this approach for the estimation of the small area distribution function using a non-parametric specification of the conditional MQ of the response variable given the covariates [M. Pratesi, M.G. Ranalli, and N. Salvati, Nonparametric m-quantile regression using penalized splines, J. Nonparametric Stat. 21 (2009), pp. 287–304]. We will derive the small area estimator of the mean under this model, together with its mean-squared error estimator and compare its performance to the other estimators via simulations on both real and simulated data.


nificant past medical history, presented to the clinic with 3 months of heartburn, dysphagia, and recent regurgitation of food. She had taken antacids and acid suppressive therapy without improvement of her symptoms. She denied weight loss, melena, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory use. Her physical exam, including vitals and abdominal exam, was normal. Laboratory data including a complete blood count, and comprehensive metabolic panel, were all unremarkable. An upper endoscopy demonstrated multiple sessile polyps < 5mm in diameter in the upper two-thirds of the esophagus, all of which were removed with cold forceps (●" Fig. 1). Linear furrows were also noted throughout the esophagus. (●" Fig. 2). The rest of the upper gastrointestinal tract was normal. Histological examination of the esophageal polyps revealed polypoid squamous mucosa with increased numbers of intraepithelial lymphocytes and > 70 eosinophils per high power field (●" Fig. 3). The patient was subsequently placed on fluticasone, and on follow up all of her symptoms had resolved. Eosinophilic esophagitis, first described in the 1970s, is characterized by > 15 eosinophils per high power field in concordance with symptoms of heartburn, regurgitation, dysphagia, or food bolus impactions [1]. The etiology is unknown but its strong association with atopic diseases such as food allergy, asthma, and eczema suggest an allergic pathway. Strictures are sometimes present, and typical endoscopic features described include horizontal rings, linear furrows, whitish exudates, granularity, and ulceration. Treatment options include elimination diets, inhaled or swallowed steroids, and other anti-inflammatory medications. Esophageal dilation must be done with great care, as perforation rates are probably higher in this population than with peptic or malignant strictures [2]. Our case had a unique endoscopic finding of esophageal polyps in the context of eosinophilic esophagitis. This is a rare finding, which has mostly been described in the pediatric literature [3]. There is no evidence to suggest that these polyps are premalignant; however, this case should heighten awareness of the association of eosinophilic esophagitis with polyps of the esophagus.


Coma is difficult to define and the different gradings and scales (Glasgow, Liège) are practically used and usefull. The development of pre-hospital management and patient imaging make clinical evaluation in the acute phase of lesser importance. Brain death pose a problem for diagnostic, features (permanent loss of cerebral functions) and legal aspects. Loss of integrated neuronal functions with persistent brain stem activity will define persistent vegetative state.


This Article explores those features of electronic surveillance that have made it challenging to regulate effectively. In balancing interests, lawmakers must create a workable law for an exceedingly complex topic, rein in law enforcement agents without crippling them, and draw a line between prohibited and permitted conduct despite society's ambivalence about surveillance. This Article demonstrates that lawmakers met those challenges when they regulated traditional wiretapping, but they have failed to meet them in the online context. It argues that the law should extend the significant restrictions on wiretapping to online surveillance, just as judges did in the case of video surveillance in the 1980's. The similarities among online surveillance, video surveillance and traditional electronic surveillance strongly suggest that the legal framework that protects the privacy of telephones and private spaces should be extended to protect the privacy of the Internet.


The interaction between P. indica and A. thaliana results in growth promotion and enhanced seed production. I studied the role of various P. indica-released factors in the interaction and the signalling pathways they activate. We describe the isolation of a growth-promoting factor from the cell wall of P. indica. The cell wall extract (CWE) induces a transient cytosolic Ca2+ elevation in the roots of Arabidopsis and tobacco plants expressing the Ca2+ bioluminescent indicator aequorin. The CWE and the fungus induce a similar set of genes in Arabidopsis roots, among them are genes with Ca2+ signalling-related functions. The CWE does not promote growth of P. indica insensitive lines and the growth promotion is abolished if the Ca2+ inhibitor BAPTA is added. The cellular Ca2+ elevations and are thus crucial for growth promotion, and Ca2+ signalling pathways are activated by incoming fungus. The CWE does not stimulate H2O2 production and the activation of defence gene expression, although it led to phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in a Ca2+-dependent manner. Thus, Ca2+ is likely to be an early signalling component in the mutualistic interaction between P. indica and A. thaliana similar to other interactions like AM symbiosis. P. indica releases isopentenyl-adenine (iP) and cis-Zeatin (cZ)-type cytokinins into axenic cultures, but elevated levels of cis Zeatin (cZ) isomers accumulate in colonized roots. However, our data clearly demonstrate that trans-zeatin (tZ) biosynthesis in Arabidopsis is required for the beneficial interaction as knocking out atipt1 atipt3 atipt5 atipt7 genes required for (tZ) biosynthesis results in no response to the fungus. The double mutant cre1ahk2 shows no growth response to P. indica. The CRE1 AHK2 receptor combination is thus crucial for the response to P. indica.


Captures of compact objects (COs) by massive black holes (MBHs) in galactic nuclei will be an important source for LISA, the space-based gravitational-wave (GW) detector. However, a large fraction of captures will not be individually resolvable--either because they are too distant, have unfavorable orientation, or have too many years to go before final plunge--and so will constitute a source of "confusion noise," obscuring other types of sources. Here we estimate the shape and overall magnitude of the spectrum of confusion noise from CO captures. The overall magnitude depends on the capture rates, which are rather uncertain, so we present results for a plausible range of rates. We show that the impact of capture confusion noise on the total LISA noise curve ranges from insignificant to modest, depending on these rates. Capture rates at the high end of estimated ranges would raise LISA's overall (effective) noise level by at most a factor \sim 2. While this slightly elevated noise level would somewhat decrease LISA's sensitivity to other classes of sources, overall, this would be a pleasant problem for LISA to have: It would also imply that detection rates for CO captures were at nearly their maximum possible levels (given LISA's baseline design). This paper includes several other results that should be useful in further studies of LISA capture sources, including (i) a calculation of the total GW energy output from generic inspirals into Kerr MBHs, and (ii) an approximate GW energy spectrum for a typical capture, and (iii) an estimate showing that in the population of detected capture sources, roughly half the white dwarfs and a third of the neutron stars will be detected when they still have >~10 years to go before final plunge.


The aim of the two studies presented here was to validate the Slovak version of the Basic Empathy Scale (DES, Jolliffe, Farrington, 2006), which reflected on conceptual changes of empathy by measuring both its affective and cognitive components. The first study (n = 429) confirmed the two correlated factor model of the Slovak adaptation of BES as consisting of affective and cognitive component of empathy on a sample of pre-adolescents. The second study (n = 318) provided evidence to support both the convergent and discriminant validity of the BES using two other measures of empathy and two mindreading measures. Taken together, our results are consistent with previous validation studies of the BES and provide additional evidence supporting the two factor model of empathy. Our findings also show that the Slovak validation of BES has satisfactory psychometric qualities and thus endorse use of the BES in research and practice.


Purpose. To describe our surgical technique in the management of pseudophakic malignant glaucoma refractory to conventional treatment. Methods. Two pseudophakic eyes with malignant glaucoma underwent peripheral iridectomy, lens capsulectomy, hyaloidectomy, and anterior vitrectomy through a clear corneal incision by using a vitreous cutter. Results. Prompt resolution of malignant glaucoma was achieved in both cases and no recurrence was observed during postoperative followup of five months. Conclusions. An anterior segment surgeon can treat pseudophakic malignant glaucoma successfully by using a vitreous cutter inserted through a corneal incision and performing peripheral iridectomy, capsulo-hyaloidectomy, and anterior vitrectomy.


As fraudsters understand the time window and act fast, real-time fraud management systems becomes necessary in Telecommunication Industry. In this work, by analyzing traces collected from a nationwide cellular network over a period of a month, an online behavior-based anomaly detection system is provided. Over time, users' interactions with the network provides a vast amount of usage data. These usage data are modeled to profiles by which users can be identified. A statistical model is proposed that allocate a risk number to each upcoming record which reveals deviation from the normal behavior stored in profiles. Based on the amount of this deviation a decision is made to flag the record as normal or anomaly. If the activity is normal the associated profile is updated; otherwise the record is flagged as anomaly and it will be considered for further investigation. For handling the big data set and implementing the methodology we have used the Apache Spark engine which is an open source, fast and general-purpose cluster computing system for big data handling and analyzes. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can perfectly detect deviations from the normal behavior and can be exploited for detecting anomaly patterns.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Mangifera indica (Mango) leaf crude extract on the wound healing properties of Rattus norvegicus (Sprague Dawley). The phytochemical components, bioactivity and wound healing potentials of Mangifera indica leaf crude extract in the wound healing properties of Rattus norvegicus, The wound healing property of Mangifera indica is attributed to a certain phytochemical constituents mainly tannins, which can facilitate the processes of healing by increasing collagen formation and epithelization. The male Rattus norvegicus was divided into three groups was inflicted by excising a full thickness wound created on the predetermined dorsal nape area via surgical procedure. The three groups were treated topically with Bactroban, sterilized distilled water and the leaf crude extract of Mangifera indica once a day from day 0 to 14. Macroscopically, the wounds were evaluated and the measurement were compared by using Mann-Whitney Test to show the significance between the wound size treated with Bactroban and Mangifera indica leaf crude extract and also by comparing the wound size treated with Mangifera indica leaf crude extract and the negative control (sterile distilled water). The Mangifera indica leaf crude extract had significantly (p<0.05) promoted wound healing compared to the positive and negative controls.


The antennal lobes (ALs) are the primary olfactory centers in the insect brain. In the AL of the honeybee, olfactory glomeruli receive input via four antennal sensory tracts (T1–4). Axons of projection neurons (PNs) leave the AL via several antenno‐cerebral tracts (ACTs). To assign the input–output connectivity of all glomeruli, we investigated the spatial relationship of the antennal tracts and two prominent AL output tracts (medial and lateral ACT) mainly formed by uniglomerular (u) PNs using fluorescent tracing, confocal microscopy, and 3D analyses. Furthermore, we investigated the projections of all ACTs in higher olfactory centers, the mushroom‐bodies (MB) and lateral horn (LH). The results revealed a clear segregation of glomeruli into two AL hemispheres specifically supplied by PNs of the medial and lateral ACT. PNs of the lateral ACT innervate glomeruli in the ventral‐rostral AL and primarily receive input from T1 (plus a few glomeruli from T2 and T3). PNs of the medial ACT innervate glomeruli in the dorsal‐caudal hemisphere, and mainly receive input from T3 (plus a few glomeruli from T2 and T4). The PNs of the m‐ and l‐ACT terminate in different areas of the MB calyx and LH and remain largely segregated. Tracing of three mediolateral (ml) ACTs mainly formed by multiglomerular PNs revealed terminals in distinct compartments of the LH and in three olfactory foci within the lateral protocerebrum. The results indicate that olfactory input in the honeybee is processed via two separate, mainly uPN pathways to the MB calyx and LH and several pathways to the lateral protocerebrum. J. Comp. Neurol. 499:933–952, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The use of deep learning for human identification and object detection is becoming ever more prevalent in the surveillance industry. These systems have been trained to identify human body's or faces with a high degree of accuracy. However, there have been successful attempts to fool these systems with different techniques called adversarial attacks. This paper presents an adversarial attack using infrared light on facial recognition systems. The relevance of this research is to exploit the physical downfalls of deep neural networks. This demonstration of weakness within these systems are in hopes that this research will be used in the future to improve the training models for object recognition. A research outline on infrared light and facial recognition are presented within this paper. A detailed analyzation of the current design phase and future steps of the of the project are presented including initial testing of the device. Any challenges are explored and evaluated such that the deliverables of the project remain consistent to its timeline. The project specifications may be subject to change overtime based on the outcomes of testing stages.


Background There are few longitudinal studies that have examined the association of lung function decline with indoor mould and dampness. Lung function decline in relation to dampness and mould in the home has studied in adults over a 9 year period. Methods Spirometry was performed twice in participants in the European Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS I and II) who were initially examined aged 20–45 years, in 1990–1995 and 9 years later (n=6443). Information on their current home was collected twice by interview. Dampness (water damage or damp spots) and indoor mould, ever and in the last 12 months, were assessed. A dampness score and a mould score were calculated. In addition, 3118 homes at 22 centres were inspected directly at follow-up for the presence of dampness and mould. Results Dampness and mould were common. Overall, 50.1% reported any dampness and 41.3% any indoor mould in either ECRHS I or ECRHS II. Women with dampness at home had an additional decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) of −2.25 ml/year (95% CI −4.25 to −0.25), with a significant trend in increased lung function decline in relation to the dampness score (p=0.03). The association in women was significant when excluding those with asthma at baseline. Observed damp spots in the bedroom was associated with a significant additional decline in FEV1 of −7.43 ml/year (95% CI −13.11 to 1.74) in women. Conclusion Dampness and indoor mould growth is common in dwellings, and the presence of damp is a risk factor for lung function decline, especially in women.


The high costs of textbooks have put a big financial burden for many college students, and may become a roadblock for students' ability to complete their education. In addition, many textbooks are outdated at the publication date, given the dynamic nature of the technology field. In this study, our team of investigators took a collaborative effort to select, organize, and integrate publicly accessible information, and transform those resources into instructionally rigorous learning materials on a series of database related courses in the IT curriculum. The authors also designed and conducted several experiments to evaluate the educational effectiveness of the developed no-cost-to-students learning materials. Our team-oriented and systematic approach on development of cost free course material could be beneficial to our colleagues in the academic community who strive to make higher education more affordable to the students.


Identification of unwanted components of a received echo is critical to improving the radar detection performance. Previously proposed parametric parameter estimation methods, such as MUSIC, ESPRIT, and Burg were implemented to estimate moments of radar clutter. Since none of these methods could estimate the value of Doppler spread and have sufficient accuracy, the Stochastic Maximum Likelihood (SML) technique was implemented. Since its estimation accuracy was profoundly initial point dependent and computationally costly, a novel estimation method (Turbo SML) is proposed. The proposed method outperformed the strategies proposed in the literature with its high Doppler resolution, accuracy, and low computational complexity. Besides, Turbo SML performance was optimized by using Burg estimates for starting point choice. After accomplishing nearly optimal estimation, its estimates were utilized to implement an approximately Max-Normalized Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) filter. Superior to detection filters in literature, the proposed filter can maximize its output Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) with a few numbers of secondary data.


Cesarean section (CS) delivery is increasing globally, in many countries exceeding the World Health Organization recommended upper limit of 15% of births in all regions. The CS rate is also increasing nationally in India, where the factors and outcomes associated with CS have not previously been explored.

We sought to determine maternal factors and infant outcomes associated with mode of delivery in India from two data sources. First, we assessed the independent association of several maternal factors with mode of delivery in the Longitudinal Indian Family hEalth (LIFE) study cohort. Second, we assessed whether mode of delivery in the LIFE study was associated with diarrhea and respiratory infection in infants. Lastly, we assessed the maternal, socioeconomic, and healthcare factors, and infant outcomes associated with mode of delivery in the 2005-2006 India National Family Health Survey.

Of the 1,164 singleton births in the LIFE study between 2010 and 2015, 46% were delivered by CS. Prior pregnancy complications, history of prior CS, pre-pregnancy body mass index, and labor and delivery complications contributed to the high CS rate. In regards to infant outcomes, after adjusting for pre-delivery maternal factors, mode of delivery was not associated with infants having diarrhea or respiratory infection at six months in the LIFE study. In the India national data, 12% of the 35,601 most recent singleton births in the 2005 and 2006 survey were delivered by CS. Factors associated with CS nationally were high wealth index, high level of maternal education, maternal receipt of >5 antenatal care visits, and delivery at a private care facility. After adjusting for these factors, mode of delivery was not associated with infant diarrhea and acute respiratory infection, but an association was found with neonatal death.

Our studies yield public health significance in showing that a range of maternal factors are associated with mode of delivery in India, and that mode of delivery is not a determinant of some adverse infant health outcomes. Further research is needed on the effect of CS delivery on infant and maternal outcomes in India and other countries as the CS rates continue to increase.


OBJECTIVES
Biologics are new treatment alternatives in Takayasu arteritis (TA), although data in childhood is limited. The aim of this study was to share our experience in seven childhood-onset TA patients who received a TNF-α inhibitor (adalimumab) or the IL-6 receptor inhibitor (tocilizumab) and the effect of switching therapy.

METHODS
We retrospectively evaluated the medical treatment records of seven patients with TA, followed between August 2005 and January 2021 at the Pediatric Rheumatology Department of Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine.

RESULTS
The median age of patients was 14 (11-15) years, and six were female. All of the patients had severe disease and high acute-phase reactants. The patients initially received only steroids or steroids+CYC. Prednisone was decreased, and biological agents were started once the acute phase reactants decreased, and the Indian Takayasu Activity Score (ITAS) returned to normal. Initially, four patients received tocilizumab (TCZ) [median 25.5 (11-52) months], and three patients received adalimumab (ADA) [median 13 (10-41) months]. However, due to the progression of MR angiography findings or persistent elevation in acute-phase reactants, the biological agents were switched from TCZ to ADA in four patients and from ADA to TCZ in three patients. The patients' median follow-up time after changing was 50 (12-89) months, and median ITAS was evaluated as "0" after 2 (1-5) months.

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, both TNF-α and IL-6 inhibitors are effective alternatives in treating patients with childhood-onset TA. However, prospective randomized controlled trials are needed for the comparison of their effectiveness.


Introduction: Delirium, a disorder of attention and arousal, poses a large public health burden. Inattention and fluctuating cognitive status, two primary delirium symptoms, also occur when specialized right brain systems are impaired. Although right hemisphere stroke may predispose to delirium, systematic assessment methods and management of these patients are not yet available. We sought to characterize the incidence of delirium in right hemisphere stroke patients and explore whether stroke localization was associated with delirium. Methods: We identified consecutive patients admitted to our stroke service with acute right hemisphere stroke over a 6-month period from our prospective stroke registry. We reviewed the medical record for core delirium symptoms: inattention, cognitive fluctuation, and either disorganized thinking, or altered level of consciousness. Delirium was assessed by systematically screening for trigger words. We compared baseline characteristics with Fisher's exact and t-tests and assessed relation of stroke localization to delirium with logistic regression. Results: Of 105 patients with acute right hemisphere stroke, 27 (26%) had delirium. Delirium patients were older (mean age 78 vs. 68, p Conclusion: The high delirium incidence we found supports routine delirium screening in acute stroke patients. Stroke localization may be one factor to incorporate into screening tools. Studies to prospectively identify and treat delirium in both right and left hemisphere stroke patients are warranted.


This paper focuses on Swedish nominal compounds with a personal proper name as their first component (PropN-compounds), e.g. en Mozart+sonat 'a Mozart sonata' or Palme+mord-et 'the Palme murder' ('Palme+murder-the'). Although these expressions have so far hardly appeared in the scientific discourse on possession, they do in fact constitute an important resource for expressing possession in the broadest sense in Swedish and, further, in Germanic. For instance, many PropN-compounds are more or less synonymous with nominals modified by preposed s-genitives and/or by postposed prepositional phrases, i.e. by the two constructions that make up the core of adnominal possession in Swedish. In the present paper I will be mostly interested in the structure and meanings/uses of PropN-compounds, in particular, as compared to the other "possessive" constructions in Swedish.


This paper presents in-depth research into the reading lists used by a new criminology Bachelor of Arts degree programme at a post-92 English University. Previous research into structural inequalities in relation to race, ethnicity, and gender that exist within academia in relation to scholarly outlets, and that have focussed on scholarly influence, have charted the most cited or most significant texts in the field or explored gender and race discrepancies within elements of the publication process. In this paper we explore how scholarly work is included in our teaching practice and the impact reading lists have on the student experience of criminology. We highlight a distinct lack of representation and diversity within the authorship of texts in the context of both core and recommended reading for students. We found reading lists to be overwhelmingly white and male. Work by women and people of colour only tended to feature on distinct modules which focussed on gender or ethnicity, race, and crime. Voices from the global majority are excluded from fundamental concepts and criminological theory modules. This paper will discuss our research findings in depth, highlighting where Black and female voices are neglected, marginalised, and excluded in the criminology curriculum.


Membrane-bound [NiFe]-hydrogenase from Hydrogenophaga sp. AH-24 was purified to homogeneity. The molecular weight was estimated as 100+/-10 kDa, consisting of two different subunits (62 and 37 kDa). The optimal pH values for H(2) oxidation and evolution were 8.0 and 4.0, respectively, and the activity ratio (H(2) oxidation/H(2) evolution) was 1.61 x 10(2) at pH 7.0. The optimal temperature was 75 degrees C. The enzyme was quite stable under air atmosphere (the half-life of activity was c. 48 h at 4 degrees C), which should be important to function in the aerobic habitat of the strain. The enzyme showed high thermal stability under anaerobic conditions, which retained full activity for over 5 h at 50 degrees C. The activity increased up to 2.5-fold during incubation at 50 degrees C under H(2). Using methylene blue as an electron acceptor, the kinetic constants of the purified membrane-bound homogenase (MBH) were V(max)=336 U mg(-1), k(cat)=560 s(-1), and k(cat)/K(m)=2.24 x 10(7) M(-1) s(-1). The MBH exhibited prominent electron paramagnetic resonance signals originating from [3Fe-4S](+) and [4Fe-4S](+) clusters. On the other hand, signals originating from Ni of the active center were very weak, as observed in other oxygen-stable hydrogenases from aerobic H(2)-oxidizing bacteria. This is the first report of catalytic and biochemical characterization of the respiratory MBH from Hydrogenophaga.


In this paper, we present parallel algorithms for lossless data compression based on the Burrows-Wheeler Transform (BWT) block-sorting technique. We investigate the performance of using data parallelism and task parallelism for both multi-threaded and message-passing programming. The output produced by the parallel algorithms is fully compatible with their sequential counterparts. To balance the workload among processors we develop a task scheduling strategy. An extensive set of experiments is performed with a shared memory NUMA system using up to 120 processors and on a distributed memory cluster using up to 100 processors. Our experimental results show that significant speedup can be achieved with both data parallel and task parallel methodologies. These algorithms will greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to compress large amounts of data while the compressed data remains in a form that users without access to multiple processor systems can still use.


ABSTRACT We examined the effect of antibiotic treatment on establishment of intestinal colonization by Candida glabrata in adult mice. Subcutaneous ceftriaxone, piperacillin-tazobactam, clindamycin, and metronidazole promoted increased density of stool colonization, whereas cefepime, levofloxacin, and aztreonam did not. These findings suggest that antibiotics that inhibit intestinal anaerobes promote C. glabrata colonization.


The quantitative ethnobotany deals with the computation of the importance of the plants and vegetation to people. It helps in quantification of qualitative data in the biological and social science. The various quantitative tools in ethnobotany help in the calculation of plant taxon. Ethnobotanical approach provide data which is agreeable to the hypothesis-testing, subsequent statistical validation and comparative analysis. The traditional source of medicinal plants is an important way for daily curative uses in the rural area throughout Kerala. Moreover, among the plant studied habit wise analyzed they are 12 herbs, 13 shrubs, 12 trees and each one of climbing shrub, twining shrub, prostrate shrub, climber. The status of plants are also analyzed and recorded as 26 are common, 14 are rare, 5 are common & Cultivated and 2 are sporadic are described under this study. In this communication, the informations got from the rural inhabitant were compared with the already existing literature. The medicinal plants used by people are arranged alphabetically followed by Botanical name, Family name, Voucher specimen number, Local name, Unani name, Part used, Mode of preparation and Disease cured are discussed. The data were collected randomly from tribal and traditional healers of 85 informants the data were statistically analyzed by using suitable statistical tools such as Use Value (UV), Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), Fidelity Value (FL) and various ranking methods.


The large availability of repositories storing various types of information about individuals has raised serious privacy concerns over the past decade. Nonetheless, database technology is far from providing adequate solutions to this problem that requires a delicate balance between an individual's privacy and convenience and data usability by enterprises and organizations - a database which is rigid and over-protective may render data of little value. Though these goals may seem odd, we argue that the development of solutions able to reconcile them will be an important challenge to be addressed in the next few years. We believe that the next wave of database technology will be represented by a DBMS that provides high-assurance privacy and security. In this paper, we elaborate on such challenges. In particular, we argue that we need to provide different views of data at a very fine level of granularity; conventional view technology is able to select only up to a single attribute value for a single tuple. We need to go even beyond this level. That is, we need a mechanism by which even a single value inside a tuple's attribute may have different views; we refer them as micro-views. We believe that such a mechanism can be an important building block, together with other mechanisms and tools, of the next wave of database technology.


This paper reports on some initial results from a research project investigating a novel technology for the manufacture of recyclable polymeric modules with embedded electronic systems. The aim of this project is to develop a technology that fully encapsulates electronics for use in the demanding automotive environment. A two shot moulding technology protect delicate electronic circuitry mounted outside of the passenger compartment from extremes of temperature, vibration and humidity. The resultant components also be readily recyclable, making it possible to cost-effectively separate electronic components from the polymer at the end of vehicle life, allowing the recovery of high purity recyclate. The encapsulating polymers have low thermal conductivity, so the process of encapsulation introduce a thermally insulating barrier around the electronics, which impact on the dissipation of heat from the components. In addition, the thermal performance of the assembly is further affected by the high temperature environments within which some of these electronic modules have to operate, such as under the bonnet of a vehicle. This paper presents the results of preliminary models developed for investigating the thermal and mechanical issues arising during the operation of such encapsulated electronics. Analytical models and finite element techniques have been employed to simulate the thermo-mechanical behaviour of overmoulded printed circuit boards.


A blockchain is a Distributed Ledger Technology that has been defined as a "distributed, shared, encrypted database that serves as an irreversible and incorruptible repository of information. Blockchain can be defined as a peer-to-peer distributed ledger that is cryptographically secure, append-only, immutable and updatable only via consensus or agreement among peers. In blockchain platforms, each transaction in the public ledger is verified by consensus of the majority of the system participants in a transparent and secure way. The consensus algorithm refers to the process of attaining an unified agreement on the state of the network in a decentralized way and to facilitate the verification and validation of information being added to the blockchain. This paper aims at providing a comparison between most of the recent consensus algorithms regarding the scalability of the algorithm; the type of blockchain, node identity, the performance of the algorithm (in terms of throughput & latency) and Adversial Tolerance and to deliver a solid basis for discussions about current statistics. In this research, we also presented a new category of the Blockchain consensus algorithms, which consist of three groups as follows; the proof based on Hardware, the proof based on stake, and the proof based on voting.


Basic guidelines for the preparation of a technical work for the IEEE Power Engineering Society are presented. This document is itself an example of the desired layout (inclusive of this abstract) and can be used as a template. The document contains information regarding desktop publishing format, type sizes, and typefaces. Style rules are provided that explain how to handle equations, units, figures, tables, abbreviations, and acronyms. Sections are also devoted to the preparation of acknowledgments, references, and authors' biographies. The abstract is limited to 150 words and cannot contain equations, figures, tables, or references. It should concisely state what was done, how it was done, principal results, and their significance. (4 pages)


Introduction: Lichen planopilaris (LPP) and frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) are skin diseases that affect the quality of life. Although a systematic review on LPP and FFA treatment was published in 2013, further updates are needed. The aim of this study is to review systematically the studies published after the last systematic review.Methods: We searched Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and ISI Web of Science. All the studies published during March 2012-June 2017 were included in this review. Two reviewers separately selected the studies and extracted the data. The results of studies were categorized as unimproved, stabilized, and improved based on the articles reports.Result: Among the 38 studies, 20, 17, and one studies assessed LPP, FFA, and both treatments, respectively. The papers were case reports, case series, cohorts, and randomized controlled trials. Antimalarial agents and pioglitazone resulted in enhancement in 73 and 71% of the LPP patients, respectively. Improvement and stabilization were observed in almost one third of the topical steroid users and 6/12 of Tacrolimus/Pimecrolimus users in LPP. Improvement and stabilization in FFA was found in 68% of the individuals using antimalarial agents, 83% of intralesional steroid users, all cases of finasteride users, and 95% of the people utilizing dutasteride.Conclusion: Contrary to the previous systematic review, we found antimalarial agents more effective than steroids in LPP. Finasteride/dutasteride may have favorable impacts on FFA. Intralesional steroids showed to be more effective than antimalarial agents in FFA. Still further studies are needed in order to define a treatment protocol. Low quality and heterogeneity of the articles were among the limitations for making a conclusion.


During the last decade, serious issues such as energy demand, depletion of fossil fuels and their environmental impacts draw attention towards renewable energy sources. In addition, the energy supply chain of Iran is deeply reliant upon fossil fuels. Further obstacles such as electricity blackouts in the hot season and future energy security require us to address these issues. For this reason, the growing consensus is to dominate a sustainable energy system on the grounds of energy, especially renewable energies, with low emission and pollution. The mean annual solar radiation in Iran is 2200 kWh/m2 which is greater than the worldwide average, due to locating on the world's Sun Belt. The total installed capacity of solar energy in Iran is not significant, however, it is growing annually. .Moreover, the Persian Gulf coasts, could provide the possibility of using the tidal energy of the ocean as well as the Caspian Sea coast which are suitable sites for thermal energy. Currently, 550 MW of renewable energy is being built in Iran and the installed capacity of renewable energy has reached 575 MW. Renewable energy has also led to the employment of 47,321 people directly and indirectly in the country. The installed capacity of Iran's wind power is about 259 MW (45% of total renewable energies installed capacity), which is mostly located in Manjil and Roodbar. The biogas energy in Iran is mainly produced from domestic and industrial sewage/waste, animal waste, and agricultural product waste.


A store is no good if its contents cannot be accessed. On page 991, Jiang et al. suggest that plant seeds might solve this problem by storing digestive enzymes in a membrane-bound structure called the globoid that is fully contained within the seed's protein storage vacuole (PSV). In theory, such a structure could protect the stored proteins from cleavage early in development, but then later allow access so the proteins can be mobilized for growth of the young seedling.

Figure

A proton pump (green) identifies a vacuole within the PSV (red).

The globoid has been known for many years as a site where crystals of phytic acid (a phosphate source) are stored. Jiang et al. use permanganate staining to reveal that the compartment has a limiting membrane surrounding it. The membrane includes a vacuolar transmembrane protein, and the contents of the compartment include a lytic vacuolar protein. Thus, the authors suggest that this may be a degradative vacuole contained within the storage vacuole.

How this double vacuole structure might be generated remains a mystery. The lack of a double membrane suggests that the putative degradative compartment is probably not enveloped by the PSV. Choosing between other models for vacuolar formation will be easier once the relative orientation of globoid transmembrane proteins is known. ▪


Baackground: Precancerous lesions are the most commonly cited factor in gastric cancer etiology. The sequence of events in intestinal-type gastric carcinogenesis is considered to be chronic gastritis, atrophy, intestinal metaplasia (IM), dysplasia, and carcinoma, respectively. Early diagnosis and treatment of advanced precursor lesions and gastric cancer is possible by identifying and monitoring patients with such premalignant lesions. Aim: In our study, we aimed to evaluate the long-term follow-up results of intestinal metaplasia in our hospital and the rate of progression to malignancy by comparing these patients with patients who have undergone gastroscopy without a diagnosis of intestinal metaplasia. Material and Method: One hundred and fifty-six followed-up patients out of 700 between the ages of 18 and 85 who were admitted to our hospital between 2009 and 2019, who were diagnosed with IM by pathological examination from biopsy material, and 150 patients who were not diagnosed with IM between 2009 and 2011 were included. The results of the cases were evaluated first retrospectively; then, the patients who were invited for control and underwent endoscopy were evaluated prospectively. IM and control groups were compared in terms of dysplasia and gastric cancer development. In addition, the IM group was compared in terms of 5 and 10 years of follow-up, extensive or local involvement, and complete and incomplete involvement in terms of dysplasia and cancer development. Results: The follow-up period of the patients ranged from 1 to 10 years, and the mean follow-up interval was 4.2 ± 2.8 (min: 1; max: 10) years. Age, gender, and pathology results of the patients were examined in terms of IM type, localization of IM, pathology accompanying IM, and presence of Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection and compared with the control group. While gastric carcinoma was detected in three of 156 patients in the IM group, gastric carcinoma was not detected in the follow-up of 150 patients in the control group. IM was most common in the antrum. Incomplete IM was detected in 89 patients, and complete IM in 69 patients. While two of the three patients with gastric carcinoma were localized to the antrum, one patient had incomplete-type IM and two patients had complete-type IM, and Hp was positive in two patients. While dysplasia was detected in nine of the patients diagnosed with IM, it was detected in two patients in the control group. A statistically significant difference was found between the IM and control groups in terms of dysplasia positivity (p = 0.037). On the other hand, no statistically significant difference was found between the IM and control groups in terms of age-group, gender, follow-up time group, and Hp positivity (p > 0.05). There was no significant difference between those who were followed up for 5 and 10 years in the IM group in terms of dysplasia and cancer development. Conclusion: Therefore, it is considered that patients with intestinal metaplasia may be followed up at longer intervals, except for patients with race, ethnicity, incomplete type, extensive involvement, and a family history of gastric cancer.


Point of care (POC) medical technologies require portable, small, robust instrumentation for practical implementation. In their current embodiment, optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) systems employ large form-factor wavelength-swept lasers, making them impractical in the POC environment. Here, we describe a first step toward a POC OFDI system by demonstrating a miniaturized swept-wavelength source. The laser is based on a tunable optical filter using a reflection grating and a miniature resonant scanning mirror. The laser achieves 75 nm of bandwidth centered at 1340 nm, a 0.24 nm instantaneous line width, a 15.3 kHz repetition rate with 12 mW peak output power, and a 30.4 kHz A-line rate when utilizing forward and backward sweeps. The entire laser system is approximately the size of a deck of cards and can operate on battery power for at least one hour.


Consumer driven healthcare (CDH) needs to be given a greater amount of consideration in today's healthcare system, considering the revolution consumerism has brought in the other sectors. There are chances that patients and employers can save more on tax by going in for CDH plans. The consumers would be left with greater number of options. The costs, quality and the access to healthcare would be in favor of the consumer. There would be a shift in certain responsibilities towards the consumer, but this would also mean that the consumers would be having greater control over their health. The consumer would also save on the unspent amount. The legislation needs to consider the advantages of CDH and also argue on the limitations in order to implement the best policy. Currently, there are very few elders who have taken CDH plans and studies have clearly shown that this is one of the groups which need CDH the most. Hence a lot needs to be done to implement the CDH in the US.


Arctic sea ice has been shrinking at unprecedented rates over the past three decades. These cryospheric changes have coincided with greater incidence of global extreme weather conditions, including increased severity and frequency of summer heatwaves and extreme rainfall events. Recent studies identify potential physical mechanisms related to Rossby wave and resonance theories that may attribute the observed changes in extreme summer weather patterns to Arctic sea ice decline. This study explores the linkages between summer Arctic sea ice variability and hydroclimate of the north‐central United States (US) during the 1979 to 2013 period. Since 1979, summers with low sea ice conditions have coincided with significant increases in mean, minimum, maximum, and dew point air temperatures. Also apparent are increases in seasonal precipitation, the number of wet days, heavy (>95th percentile) precipitation days, and accumulated precipitation over the region. These moisture changes coincide with atmospheric patterns typically observed during anomalously wet summers, known to prompt flooding across the Upper Mississippi River Valley (UMRV) region. Low sea ice summers have coincided with (1) enhanced southerly air flow and increased activity of the Great Plains Low Level Jet (GPLLJ) over the study area, (2) increased occurrence of moist tropical air masses over the UMRV region, and (3) amplified 500 hPa flow over the Pacific‐North American region with a ridge situated over the central‐eastern portions of the North American continent emanating from Greenland and the central Arctic basin. The results suggest summer Arctic sea ice variability has been associated with recent hydroclimate anomalies of the north‐central United States and the UMRV region and add to our growing knowledge of the connections between a changing Arctic environment and concurrent mid‐latitude climate variability.


Alaska has long relied on taxing petroleum extraction as a key source of funding for the State. The oil production tax has changed dramatically since the first barrels of oil were taken from Alaskan land. Most noticeably, the production tax has adjusted its progressivity element and has moved from a gross tax to a net tax. This Note provides a historical reference to Alaska's oil production taxation scheme in an effort to address whether it is a "true" production tax. Asserting that Alaska has departed from a "true" production tax scheme insofar as it more resembles an income tax, this Note assesses whether the State should return to a "true" production tax.


The tectonic significance of the internal metamorphic zones of the North American Cordillera remains elusive. We propose a general interpretation in which the tectonic features (pervasive unidirectional transverse lineation, recumbent folding, eastward thrusting) of the Shuswap Complex (Canada) are related to a large-scale intracontinental alpine-type eastward shearing. This shearing results from the Jurassic collision between the allochthonous Stikine block and the North American craton, after a westward Triassic subduction. We extend this model to the United States Cordillera, despite some differences due to the late occurrence of a major extension.


10 Sensible heat fluxes (QH) are determined using scintillometry and eddy covariance over a 11 suburban area. Two large aperture scintillometers provide spatially integrated fluxes across path 12 lengths of 2.8 km and 5.5 km over Swindon, UK. The shorter scintillometer path spans newly built 13 residential areas and has an approximate source area of 2-4 km, whilst the long path extends from 14 the rural outskirts to the town centre and has a source area of around 5-10 km. These large-scale 15 heat fluxes are compared with local-scale eddy covariance measurements. Clear seasonal trends are 16 revealed by the long duration of this dataset and variability in monthly QH is related to the 17 meteorological conditions. At shorter time scales the response of QH to solar radiation often gives 18 rise to close agreement between the measurements, but during times of rapidly changing cloud 19 cover spatial differences in the net radiation (Q*) coincide with greater differences between heat 20 fluxes. For clear days QH lags Q*, thus the ratio of QH to Q* increases throughout the day. In 21 summer the observed energy partitioning is related to the vegetation fraction through use of a 22 footprint model. The results demonstrate the value of scintillometry for integrating surface 23 heterogeneity and offer improved understanding of the influence of anthropogenic materials on 24 surface-atmosphere interactions. 25


This paper explores gender and feminist aspects of an ongoing multi-year, multi-country,
interdisciplinary research project, that seeks to develop a new measure of deprivation, that is
genuinely gender-sensitive and responsive to the expressed interests and views of poor women and
men. The rationale for engendering the measurement of poverty and deprivation, and the ways in
which feminist research approaches inform the research methodology and methods will be discussed.
Key findings to date regarding the gendered dimensions of poverty and hardship will be presented
in this paper, and what these suggest as potential dimensions of a new gender-sensitive measure of
deprivation that can be used to construct poverty indices and gender equity indices. The paper presents
findings from two phases of fieldwork from Fiji which was conducted as part of this international
research project. Based on these two phases of research, it is hoped, that future academic research
into poverty measurement and social valuation, will lead towards the design of an individual level
of measure of multidimensional deprivation. This individualised level measure of deprivation can be
used for two purposes. The first is to identify those who should be categorised as poor. The second
is to construct population level indices that reflect the level of poverty and gender inequity in that
population. The paper also aims to contribute more broadly to our knowledge of how people with
experience of poverty think it should be defined and measured. It is hoped that the gender perspective
will contribute to widening the concept of poverty by identifying the need to measure poverty in a way
which accounts for its complexity and multidimensionality.


Ingroup favoritism, the tendency to favor ingroup over outgroup, is often explained as a product of intergroup conflict, or correlations between group tags and behavior. Such accounts assume that group membership is meaningful, whereas human data show that ingroup favoritism occurs even when it confers no advantage and groups are transparently arbitrary. Another possibility is that ingroup favoritism arises due to perceptual biases like outgroup homogeneity, the tendency for humans to have greater difficulty distinguishing outgroup members than ingroup ones. We present a prisoner's dilemma model, where individuals use Bayesian inference to learn how likely others are to cooperate, and then act rationally to maximize expected utility. We show that, when such individuals exhibit outgroup homogeneity bias, ingroup favoritism between arbitrary groups arises through direct reciprocity. However, this outcome may be mitigated by: (1) raising the benefits of cooperation, (2) increasing population diversity, and (3) imposing a more restrictive social structure.


The Hall scattering factor rH has been determined for holes in high-dose boron-implanted ultrashallow junctions containing high concentrations of boron-interstitial clusters (BICs), combining scanning capacitance microscopy, nanospreading resistance, Hall effect, and secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements. A value of rH=0.74±0.1 has been found in reference defect-free fully activated junctions, in good agreement with the existing literature. In the case of junctions containing high concentrations of immobile and electrically inactive BICs, and independently of the implant or the annealing process, the rH value has been found to be equal to 0.95±0.1. The increase in the rH value is explained in terms of the additional scattering centers associated to the presence of high concentrations of BICs.


We propose a novel approach of using Cross Validation (CV) and Speaker Clustering (SC) based data samplings to construct an ensemble of acoustic models for speech recognition. We also investigate the effects of the existing techniques of Cross Validation Expectation Maximization (CVEM), Discriminative Training (DT), and Multiple Layer Perceptron (MLP) features on the quality of the proposed ensemble acoustic models (EAMs). We have evaluated the proposed methods on TIMIT phoneme recognition task as well as on a telemedicine automatic captioning task. The proposed methods have led to significant improvements in recognition accuracy over conventional Hidden Markov Model (HMM) baseline systems, and the integration of EAMs with CVEM, DT, and MLP has also significantly improved the accuracy performances of the single model systems based on CVEM, DT, and MLP, where the increased inter-model diversity is shown to have played an important role in the performance gain.


Gallbladder cancer is an aggressive malignancy that is associated with a poor prognosis. While surgical resection provides the only curative option, the majority of patients are not considered resectable due to the presence of metastatic disease at the time of presentation. As systemic therapeutic options improve, a treatment dilemma can arise in patients treated with upfront chemotherapy with responsive disease and regionally metastatic disease that is resectable. We present a patient with regionally metastatic gallbladder cancer to segment IVb of the liver with responsive disease after gemcitabine/cisplatin treatment who underwent a radical cholecystectomy and central hepatectomy resulting in a prolonged disease-free interval.


Introduction: Self- evaluation is the process of designing, building and maintaining human behaviors that can lead to maturity and perfection. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine Jahrom Medical University students' attitudes towards the Islamic self-assessment in 2015. Method: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out on the students of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences in 2015. Using purposive sampling, 223 samples were selected.Collection tool was Islamic self-assessment questionnaire in the form of 20 items based on the Likert scale consisting stipulation, calculating, meditation and expostulation. Data analysis was performed using statistical software SPSS 11 and paired T-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation. Results: 223 students participated in this cross-sectional and descriptive study.68.2% were female and the rest were male. Their average age was 2.18 ± 20.4 in the range of 15 to 45 years.28.7 percent of students were medical field and 27.8 percent from the field of Anesthesiology.71.3% were undergraduates. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant correlation between the components of Islamic selfevaluation (stipulation, calculating, meditation, expostulation) and Islamic self-evaluation (P-value <0.05). Conclusion: The students of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences are in relatively good condition in terms of the four stages of Islamic self-evaluation. Keywords: Islamic self-evaluation, students, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences


Cannabis as a medicine was used before the Christian era in Asia, mainly in India. The introduction of cannabis in the Western medicine occurred in the midst of the 19th century, reaching the climax in the last decade of that century, with the availability and usage of cannabis extracts or tinctures. In the first decades of the 20th century, the Western medical use of cannabis significantly decreased largely due to difficulties to obtain consistent results from batches of plant material of different potencies. The identification of the chemical structure of cannabis components and the possibility of obtaining its pure constituents were related to a significant increase in scientific interest in such plant, since 1965. This interest was renewed in the 1990's with the description of cannabinoid receptors and the identification of an endogenous cannabinoid system in the brain. A new and more consistent cycle of the use of cannabis derivatives as medication begins, since treatment effectiveness and safety started to be scientifically proven.


Abstract Despite medical and scientific advances, numerous clinical essays, and research to fight cancer, endless concerns associated with this pathology continue to persist in the twenty-first century, with a strong impact on individuals' lives particularly at the economic, social, emotional, relational, behavioural, and spiritual levels. However, metamorphosing this into reality still seems to be a distant event because this pathology is still considered one of the leading causes of death in different countries worldwide, and Portugal is no exception. This study aims to study the motivations expressed by terminally ill cancer patients and their caregivers, whose main diferences are characterized. The results show that the clinical, social, spiritual, economic, and emotional issues associated with the end -of- life context are numerous, therefore patients and their caregivers may have a number of circumstances to face. The presentation of the patients' and their caregivers' needs, expression of motivations, requests for social work, and emotions experienced at the end of life are some of the core features of the study. We show disparities between patients and their caregivers, including different motivations, needs, requests, and different manifestations related to the place of death that constitute a major challenge for social work in the context of palliative care and care at the end of life. The paper identifies a number of organizational issues relevant to healthcare management contexts. Such issues recognize the importance of integrating innovative social work procedures and protocols into internal medicine departments, planning hospital discharges, making psychosocial and complicated grief risk screening at patients' admission, promoting social work palliative care education and training for hospital social workers, and the creation and development of more hospital palliative care teams in acute care hospitals. Also the relation between cost and quality of healthcare seems to place social workers in a very relevant healthcare management position.


Increased availability of social media and crowdsourced data is becoming a precious source of information in Disaster Risk Management, heralding a new era where the policy makers adapt their strategies to the potential of these new technologies.  This is also happening in the field of Flood Risk Management, where the aid of new technologies can provide important support for disaster risk reduction. On the one hand, they play an important role in the collection, monitoring and data analysis of physical flood processes. On the other hand, they foster the involvement of citizens threatened by the flood risk situation, creating shared knowledge and collaboration and becoming tools to educate and empower citizens' behavior, increasing community resilience.

Evidence shows that community response to flood risk is associated with the social context in which a specific flood occurs. A wide range of sociodemographic characteristics, but also the psychological factor of risk perception, have been identified as factors influencing citizens’ response, contributing in increasing or decreasing the effects of flooding on the environment.

In this study a coupled approach that combine Crowdsourced retrieved data and information from newspaper media is proposed and applied to the urban territory of the city of Brindisi (southern Italy), subject to multiple sources of flood risk, in order to demonstrate potential advantages arising from the implementation of such built analysis.

Crowdsourcing data based on e-survey allowed the collection of social flood data in order to explore how citizens living in the urban area of Brindisi perceive flood risk and assess their preparedness for protective measures. Specifically, the degree of citizen risk perception has been investigated through factors influencing risk perception subdivided into three categories: world view, media influence and social value and trust; the degree of citizens’ preparedness knowledge has been investigated asking citizens to select the recognized Flood Protection Strategies from the set of alternatives in the Civil Protection Behavioral Guide.

Integration of available data about previous floods with a newspaper-based research of historical floods allowed to detect a tendence of Brindisi urban territory to be subject to floods that can be reconducted mainly to pluvial and fluvial type. Journal reports provided precious details not only on affected streets and neighborhoods, but also on type and dynamics of damages. Results of surveys showed how this flood phenomenology is perceived by population, providing an important integration of the information available from current flood maps. Measurement of emergency measures knowledge revealed to be an effective source of information for an a priori modelling of reliable flooding scenarios.Results emerging from proposed approach can constitute a precious support for emergency managers and local Authorities, because of its ability in capture heterogeneities in flood phenomenology and population preparedness. Emergency planning phase can be therefore enriched with elements that contribute to the definition of risk potential situations and therefore make the response and recovery phase more effective.


In the current educational landscape, international accreditations are becoming an increasingly important tool of external evaluation of quality. Academia has ambivalent views on the role of international accreditations and points out the perils of bureaucratization and substitution of quality of outcomes with the quality of reporting. However, preparation for international accreditations stimulates self-reflection of faculty members with respect to their activities, definition development areas and problem-solving. The article discusses the potential of international accreditations in terms of engagement management in business schools and universities. The authors consider faculty engagement as a major development concept reflected in the missions of modern universities and requirements of international accreditations. The article presents comparative analysis of standards, criteria and processes of international accreditations in business education: AACSB, ЕFMD и AMBA and makes a linkage to international accreditations and the development of faculty engagement. The case of HSE St Petersburg School of Economics and Management is provided as an example of managing faculty engagement in the context of international accreditations.


Keywords: Oedipus, Animation, Installation, Narrative, Digital, Technology, Art Therapy. This workshop used as its theme and starting point the Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex (Sophocles 1988) and took place at the University of Hertfordshire in 2008. The workshop was open to anyone from all of the arts therapies, though only art therapists actually attended the workshop which ran over the course of 2 days. Central to the workshop was in making art using multi media techniques including animation, installation, sound, puppets and more traditional methods such as drawing and painting. The participants were very much encouraged to make work in response to the story rather than try and "˜illustrate' it in a way that is linear and rational. I wanted a personal engagement with the story and not an intellectual analysis of the possible meanings within the narrative. I hoped that by working in this way the participants would almost place themselves in the story and thus come to a deeper and more personal understanding of it via a visual, poetic, physical, emotional and collaborative process.


Machine learning and AI-assisted trading have attracted growing interest for the past few years. Here, we use this approach to test the hypothesis that the inefficiency of the cryptocurrency market can be exploited to generate abnormal profits. We analyse daily data for 1,681 cryptocurrencies for the period between Nov. 2015 and Apr. 2018. We show that simple trading strategies assisted by state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms outperform standard benchmarks. Our results show that nontrivial, but ultimately simple, algorithmic mechanisms can help anticipate the short-term evolution of the cryptocurrency market.


A novel three-dimensional (3D) hierarchically meso/macroporous flower-like architecture of ultra-thin N-doped carbon nanosheets (NCNS) with fine FeCo@NC core–shell units dispersed on their surfaces (denoted as FeCo@NC/NCNS) is reported as an efficient catalyst for two key electrode processes (i.e. the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)) in the development of sustainable energy conversion systems. Upon optimization of the dosages of Fe/Co sources and calcination temperature, the optimal Fe0.5Co0.5@NC/NCNS-800 sample exhibits high activity with a potential of 1.5 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 for the OER in 1.0 M KOH, which even surpassed that of commercial RuO2. Moreover, as an HER electrocatalyst in 1.0 M KOH, Fe0.5Co0.5@NC/NCNS-800 just requires a low overpotential of 150 mV to achieve 10 mA cm−2 with an onset potential of −63 mV. All these results highlight the synergistic effects of the 3D macroporous channels of the flower-like architecture, 2D mesoporous CNSs, high specific surface area, fine FeCo@NC core–shell units, and various active centers for boosting the OER/HER catalytic activities, defining the Fe0.5Co0.5@NC/NCNS as one of the best non-precious metal-based carbonaceous electrocatalysts for oxygen/hydrogen-based electrocatalysis. More importantly, when Fe0.5Co0.5@NC/NCNS was used as positive and negative electrodes in a two-electrode system for overall water splitting, it just required a cell voltage of 1.60 V to achieve ∼10 mA cm−2, which opens a new possibility for the construction of novel water splitting devices. We also believe that our present synthetic strategy can encourage further research for the development of other 3D hierarchically meso/macroporous noble-metal-free catalysts for sensors, batteries, and various other renewable energy applications without any tedious steps or templates.


Background: The intestinal microbiota may influence inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) activity. Histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs) and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can alter the intestinal microbiota. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between H2RAs, PPIs, and IBD-related outcomes. Methods: We conducted a case-control study of IBD patients using the Veterans Health Affairs databases. Cases were defined by their first instance of an IBD-related hospitalization or surgery and the exposure of interest was H2RA or PPI use 30 days prior to the outcome. Incidence density ratios were calculated using conditional logistic regression. Results: In a cohort of 58,459 patients with IBD, we found 4,887 cases and 9,761 controls with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 4,876 cases and 9,745 controls with Crohn disease (CD). Filled prescriptions for H2RAs were associated with an increased risk of IBD-related hospitalization or surgery in CD patients (adjusted incidence density ratio 1.18; 95% CI 1.03-1.34). A similar association was found for PPIs in UC patients (adjusted incidence density ratio 1.11; 95% CI 1.02-1.21) and CD patients (adjusted incidence density ratio 1.12; 95% CI 1.02-1.22). Conclusions: H2RAs and PPIs were associated with a modestly increased risk of IBD-related hospitalization or surgery.


Detection of laser-induced fluorescence simultaneously with an optogalvanic signal in a hollow-cathode discharge provides information about the laser–atom interaction that leads to the optogalvanic effect, resulting in a better comprehension of its spectroscopic applications. Because of the high density of levels in heavy atoms, multiphoton transitions can easily occur and complicate the interpretation of saturation effects. The representative case of the 5915-A uranium transition is reported.


In this paper, the design and analysis of coupled tank water level control system is done using robust control theory. The main aim of this work is to improve level controlling mechanisms in industries and household areas. In this paper, H ∞ and μ –synthesis controllers are designed to improve the level control system. The coupled tank water level control system is designed using the proposed controller's comparison and tested for tracking a reference level signals (step, sine wave and random) and simulation results have been analyzed successfully. Finally the comparative simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed coupled tank water level control system with H ∞ controller for improving the tracking mechanism performance of the system.


Abstract Many studies point out the growing correlations within financial markets, while others highlight the financialization of commodity markets. The purpose of this article is to revisit the relationships between various financial assets and commodity markets by taking into account the U.S. monetary policy and therefore the implementation of non-standard measures. In addition to oil, stock and bond markets, U.S. policy rates and a great deal of agricultural prices have been over time considered through a DCC-GARCH model, between 1995-2015. We find that agricultural markets uphold the financialization hypothesis, implying an increase in market-prices' correlations and so raises the question of agricultural prices' drivers. Interestingly, conditional correlations between the U.S. monetary policy and agricultural prices have decreased since 2010, which indicates that the implementation of non-standard monetary policy measures reduces spillover effects on asset prices, especially raw commodities. Such a result in turn highlights changing relationships between monetary, financial and physical markets, in a context of very weak policy rates over a long period.


In the present study, in order to monitor and project climate change impacts on model of the bioclimatic design, a comparative study was conducted between the Middle East and Eurasia as two different climates. This paper used the basic data from 1990 to 2010, and the CMIP5 climate models have been used to project the climate data (radiation, temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity) from the outputs of CanEMS2 model, which its values have been dynamically downscaled using the RegCM4.6 climate model for the period from 2020 to 2049. In this study, the scenario RCP4.5 was used. The results of this study showed that the average annual temperature for the period 2020–2049 as compared with the present decade can be increased 3.27 °C and 4.71 °C for Tehran and Moscow, respectively. On the other hand, relative humidity changes in future compared to base period can be decreased 4% for Tehran and increased 10.5% for Moscow. The total assessment on climate change in the coming decades can lead to a change in bioclimatic design strategies of buildings for both study areas. Generally, with regard to future climate change for both study areas, the percentage of days needed to provide bioclimatic design strategies in the heating sector can be reduced; however, the need for providing cooling strategies for Tehran can significantly be increased. Although these conditions for Moscow can not change significantly, dehumidification strategies in Moscow can be more significant than of those in Tehran for the coming period.


Download 100 Decisive Battles From Ancient Times To The Present Paul K Davis for you Kindle, iPad, Android, Nook, PC. Best sites to get free books: PDF, ePub, Mobi. Over 100000 free & legal ebooks available! Because of their widespread availability, PDF and ePub are the most popular formats with personal computer users. Many users like the simplicity of PDF ebooks, which exactly reproduce the original printed page and can be viewed with the popular PDF Reader software. Other users prefer the versatility of the ePub format, which is designed especially for online reading, automatically flows the text from page to page and lets you change the font size for easier viewing. The ePub format is also compatible with most portable eReaders and other mobile devices. This means that you can download a single file and view that ebook on your computer, your Nook or iPad, and your iPhone or other smartphone. Related to this 100 Decisive Battles From Ancient Times To The Present Paul K Davis, you can get it right here directly. Pdf documents 100 Decisive Battles From Ancient Times To The Present Paul K Davis has different languages consisting of German, Spanish, French, and Spanish are to be had for download.


Abstract Hot rolled AISI-4012 sheet steels have been heat treated to obtain a ductile dual phase microstructure. The specimens were heat treated in the ferrite (α) and austenite (γ) phase region at temperatures of 740, 760, 790 and 820 °C and corresponding time intervals of 15, 30, 60 and 90 min and then quenched into water. Hardness measurements, tensile, bending, and impact tests were performed in order to determine the mechanical properties of the dual phase steel. These were examined with respect to the martensite volume fraction. Both the flow and tensile stresses increased whereas elongation decreased with increasing dual phase treatment temperature and martensite volume fraction. The optimum mechanical properties and the appropriate dual-phase microstructure are achieved at 740 and 760 °C annealing with subsequent water quenching. From examinations it was deduced that ductile fracture occurred in the tested samples.


The article situates the challenges that higher education faces before the onset of COVID-19. A future that situates disruptive and immediate transformation for higher education curricula is described to save global universities from the ravages of the "stay-at-home" policies. The move to a totally online environment took place overnight, and most institutions of higher education were totally unprepared. Yet, a future of possibilities could be adopted in the coming five years, one, in particular, being game-based learning, an andragogy based upon experiential education.