Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is an acute inflammatory polyradiculoneuropathy and often develops due to the immune reaction that is related with an event such as an acute infection that is just before the syndrome. Up to date there are only two reported cases of pericarditis that are associated with GBS in the literature. We here presented a 52-year-old male patient of who numbness and loss of power developed at distal extremities after an upper respiratory tract infection. The patient was diagnosed as GBS with pericarditis. GBS and pericarditis relationship is discussed in scope of the literature. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4021/jmc1481w


Proposed in 1849 by Charles Morren to depict periodical phenomena governed by seasons, the term "phenology" has spread in many fields of biology. With the wide adoption of the concept of phenology flourished a large number of metrics with different meaning and interpretation. Here, we first a priori classified 52 previously published metrics used to characterize the phenology of births in large herbivores according to four biological characteristics of interest: timing, synchrony, rhythmicity and regularity of births. We then applied each metric retrieved on simulation data, considering normal and non-normal distributions of births and varying distributions of births in time. We then evaluated the ability of each metric to capture the variation of the four phenology characteristics via a sensitivity analysis. Finally, we scored each metric according to eight criteria we considered important to describe phenology correctly. The high correlation we found among the many metrics we retrieved suggests that such diversity of metrics is unnecessary. We further show that the best metrics are not the most commonly used, and that simpler is often better. Circular statistics with the mean vector orientation and mean vector length seems, respectively, particularly suitable to describe the timing and synchrony of births in a wide range of phenology patterns. Tests designed to compare statistical distribution, like Mood and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, allow a first and easy quantification of rhythmicity and regularity of birth phenology respectively. By identifying the most relevant metrics our study should facilitate comparative studies of phenology of birth or of any other life-history event. For instance, comparative studies of the phenology of mating or migration dates are particularly important in the context of climate change.


This paper concerns the optimization and coordination of the conventional FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) damping controllers in multi-machine power system. Firstly, the parameters ofFACTS controller are optimized. Then, a hybrid fuzzy logic controller for the coordination of FACTS controllers is presented. This coordination method is well suitable to series connected FACTS devices like UPFC, TCSC etc. in damping multi-modal oscillations in multi-machine power systems. Digital simulations of a multi-machine power system subjected to a wide variety of disturbances and different structures validate the efficiency of the new approach.


The effect of sodium hypochlorite (SHC) on neuroregulatory systems was studied in patients with acute poisoning with psychotropic drugs infused intravenously as components of infusion therapy. Infusion therapy alone or in complex with SHC does not affect the cholinergic system of the organism. The corrective effect of SHC on the sympathetic, serotonin- and histaminergic systems was more pronounced in comparison with infusion therapy and was the most expressed on day 2 after the treatment.


Abstract. Located in western Inner Mongolia, the Badain Jaran Desert is the second largest desert in China and consists of a regular series of stable megadunes, among which over 70 permanent lakes exist. The unexpected lakes in desert attracted research interests on exploring the hydrological process under this particular landscape; however, a very few literatures exist on the diurnal and spatial variation of the drying front in this area, which is the main issue in the desert hydrological process to characterize the movement of water in soil. In order to understand the drying front in the Badain Jaran Desert, a field campaign was conducted by the observations of soil physical parameters and micrometeorological parameters. With the field data, the performance of a vadose zone soil water balance model, the HYDRUS, was verified and calibrated. Then, the HYDRUS was used to produce the spatial and temporal information of coupled water, water vapour and heat transport in sand to characterize the variation pattern of the drying front before, during and after the rainfall. Finally, the deepest drying front was applied to determine the effective infiltration, which is defined as the amount of soil water captured by the sand beneath the deepest drying front by infiltrating water of an incident rainfall event.


OBJECTIVE
Patients with upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUT-UC) without a history of bladder cancer have a different natural history of intravesical recurrence after nephroureterectomy compared with those with a history of bladder cancer. The aim of this study was to identify predictive factors for post-operative intravesical recurrence in patients with non-metastatic upper urinary tract-localized urothelial carcinoma without a history of bladder cancer and who were not taking medication during the perioperative period.

METHODS
This retrospective study included 133 patients who were treated between 1995 and 2012. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to evaluate the clinical and pathological factors associated with the cumulative incidence of bladder cancer.

RESULTS
Of the 133 patients, 51 (38.3%) developed intravesical recurrence during a median follow-up of 71 months (range, 0.8-210.8). In the multivariate analysis, multifocality (P = 0.03) and high tumour grade (P = 0.007) were significantly associated with the cumulative incidence of bladder cancer. We constructed a prediction classification model on the basis of the total number of risk factors. The 2-year cumulative incidence rates were 5.6, 34.8 and 50.0% in individuals with no, one and two risk factors, respectively. There was a significant difference between patients with no risk factors and those with two risk factors (P = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Although this retrospective study had several limitations, tumour multifocality and tumour grade were found to be potential risk factors for intravesical recurrence in our cases.


Abstract The commercial release of crops with engineered resistance to 2,4-D and dicamba will alter the spatial and temporal use of these herbicides. This, in turn, has elicited concerns about off-target injury to sensitive crops. In 2014 and 2015, studies were conducted in Tifton, GA, to describe how herbicide (2,4-D and dicamba), herbicide rate (1/75 and 1/250 field use), and application timing (20, 40, and 60 DAP) influence watermelon injury, vine development, yield, and the accumulation of herbicide residues in marketable fruit. In general, greater visual injury and reductions in vine growth, relative to the non-treated check, were observed when herbicide applications were made before watermelon plants had begun to flower. Although the main effects of herbicide and rate were less influential than the timing of applications with respect to plant development, the 1/75 rates were more injurious than the 1/250 rates; dicamba was more injurious than 2,4-D. In 2014, the 1/75 and 1/250 rates of each herbicide reduced marketable fruit numbers 13 to 20%, but only for the 20 DAP application. The 1/75 rate of each herbicide when applied at either 20 or 40 DAP reduced the number of fruit harvested per plot in 2015. Dicamba residues were detected in marketable fruit when the 1/75 rate in 2014 and 2015 and the 1/250 rate in 2015 was applied to plants at 40 or 60 DAP. Residues of 2,4-D were detected in 2015 when the 1/75 and 1/250 rates were applied at 60 DAP. Across both years, the maximum level of residue detected was 0.030 ppm. While early season injury may reduce watermelon yields, herbicide residue detection is more likely in marketable fruit when an off-target contact incident occurs closer to harvest. Nomenclature: 2,4-D; dicamba; watermelon; Citrullus lanatus, (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai


There will be a fast-paced shift from conventional network systems to novel quantum networks that are supported by the quantum entanglement and teleportation, key technologies of the quantum era, to enable secured data transmissions in the next-generation of the Internet. Despite this prospect, migration to quantum networks cannot be done at once, especially on the aspect of quantum routing. In this paper, we study the maximizing entangled routing rate (MERR) problem. In particular, given a set of demands, we try to determine entangled routing paths for the maximum number of demands in the quantum network while meeting the network's fidelity. We first formulate the MERR problem using an integer linear programming (ILP) model to capture the traffic patent for all demands in the network. We then leverage the theory of relaxation of ILP to devise two efficient algorithms including HBRA and RRA with provable approximation ratios for the objective function. To deal with the challenge of the combinatorial optimization problem in big scale networks, we also propose the path-length-based approach (PLBA) to solve the MERR problem. Using both simulations and an open quantum network simulator platform to conduct experiments with real-world topologies and traffic matrices, we evaluate the performance of our algorithms and show up the success of maximizing entangled routing rate.


Gastrointestinal hemorrhage is the leading cause of hospitalization in gastroenterology (Gastroenterology 2019;156:254-272). Prognostic scoring systems for acute upper GI bleeding (AUGIB), such as the Glasgow-Blatchford score (GBS) or Rockall score, can help predict which patients require intervention (Lancet 2000;356:1318-21, Gut 1996;38:316-21). Evidence does not strongly favor one particular index, but the GBS has good sensitivity for detecting patients at high risk of re-bleeding and death. Nevertheless mortality in AUGIB remains essentially unchanged over the past two decades. Despite advances in endoscopic and pharmacological therapies, case fatality is approximately 5-10% globally (BMJ 1995;311:222-6). Historically, a major focus to improve outcome has centered on performing timely endoscopy to achieve early hemostatic control.


The goal of this work is studying of the possibilities and properties of the data transfer via power lines. The work deals with remote control of the electrical appliances and problems of data transfer via power line 230 V. The designed devices which provide relative communication via power line are used within the frame of the one family house. Designed devices - concretely input-output unit, PC interface and GSM gate work on a bus principle. The bus is constructed by power line 230 V. Designed devices are composed of microcontrollers AVR and modem TDA5051AT provides their relative communication via power line. Communications protocol with which devices work was developed so that corresponds with hardware resolution of particular devices. Particular devices were practically realized and their activity was checked.


We characterize several complexity measures for the resolution of Tseitin formulas in terms of a two person cop-robber game. Our game is a slight variation of the one Seymour and Thomas used in order to characterize the tree-width parameter. For any undirected graph, by counting the number of cops needed in our game in order to catch a robber in it, we are able to exactly characterize the width, variable space, and depth measures for the resolution of the Tseitin formula corresponding to that graph. We also give an exact game characterization of resolution variable space for any formula. We show that our game can be played in a monotone way. This implies that the associated resolution measures on Tseitin formulas correspond exactly to those under the restriction of Davis-Putnam resolution, implying that this kind of resolution is optimal on Tseitin formulas for all the considered measures. Using our characterizations, we improve the existing complexity bounds for Tseitin formulas showing that resolution width, depth, and variable space coincide up to a logarithmic factor, and that variable space is bounded by the clause space times a logarithmic factor.


Most of Shakespeare's tragedies have a family drama at their heart. This book brings these relationships to life, offering a radical new perspective on the tragic heroes and their dilemmas. Family Dramas: Intimacy, Power and Systems in Shakespeare's Tragedies focusses on the interactions and dialogues between people on stage, linking their intimate emotional worlds to wider social and political contexts.

Since family relationships absorb and enact social ideologies, their conflicts often expose the conflicts that all ideologies contain. The complexities, contradictions and ambiguities of Shakespeare's portrayals of individuals and their relationships are brought to life, while wider power structures and social discourses are shown to reach into the heart of intimate relationships and personal identity. Surveying relevant literature from Shakespeare studies, the book introduces the ideas behind the family systems approach to literary criticism. Explorations of gender relationships feature particularly strongly in the analysis since it is within gender that intimacy and power most compellingly intersect and frequently collide.

For Shakespeare lovers and psychotherapists alike, this application of systemic theory opens a new perspective on familiar literary territory.


Background Studies show that young children (< 5 yrs) are most at risk among the under 18-year-olds for being hospitalised because of a head injury (Dunning et al. 2004). Despite the high incidence rates in this age group and some publications on a national level (Ellsaesser 2014), little knowledge exists on a European level of the importance of products triggering head injuries in young children. For such questions the European Injury Data Base (IDB) provides a valuable source of information, in particular its full data set (FDS) which is used in 18 EU countries for collecting information on the product involvement.The following study aims to use this data for an in depth analysis on product related head injuries. Method Case analysis of a total of 54,001 injuries collected during a 2-year period (2013–2014) in the under five-year-olds treated in 115 hospitals (either ward or emergency) of 18 European countries. An injury was counted as "head injury" if the body part was documented as head and one of the following injury types were registered: contusion, open wound, abrasion, fracture, concussion or other specified brain injury. An injury has been counted as a product related injury if a product was registered as triggering the injury. Results Head injuries in infants (<1 year) made up 63% (3,486) of all injuries (5,538) in the age group. 65% (2,255) of head injuries were triggered by products. The three most frequent product related head injuries were falling from or out of: #1 bed 20% (459), #2 changing table 10% (226), #3 buggy or carrier 7% (150). Head injuries in 1-to 4-year-olds made up 41% (19,876) of all injuries in the age group (48,463). 59% (6,977) were triggered by a product. The three most frequent products involved were: #1 furniture 8% (1048), e.g. couch, #2 stairs 7% (963), #3 bed 5% (653). Conclusions Product related head injuries in young children are a crucial public health issue and new parents should be given targeted injury prevention measures.


In labor market development in the transition years the policy is concentrated on more active operations directed to the support in re-structuring labor force and increasing its mobility. Planning activities in economic processes and effects on employment are low and continue to be in some short-term character in contrast to the need of long-term provisions. The adequacy and timing of the conducted policy have a determining significance for the effective support to the labor markets parameters and economic development. On the national and regional level there is a lack of data in the information systems about the profile features of employed and unemployed persons. That impedes the analyses in employment trends. An investigation of the general profiles of the unemployed persons participating in the National program "From social support to employment" would help the development of new and update of existing social practices, as well as in achieving conformity of the policies in the sphere of employment to real life conditions, social and economic, educational, qualification and cultural characteristics of the population. Not the least, such an investigation would support the development of an effective information PR strategy and campaigns servicing such types of social policies.


Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) using peripheral insulin pumps is only indicated if optimal conventional insulin treatment fails. If psychosocial variables are associated with chronic metabolic disregulation of the treated diabetes mellitus, it may be difficult to decide what came first: the chronic disregulation or the psychosocial variables. In childhood, disregulation of the diabetes may be related to stress-factors, generating a vicious circle. In two such minors CSII was tried with dissatisfying and potentially dangerous results.


Background  Carers can have a significant impact supporting people with intellectual disabilities to make healthy lifestyle choices. This study examines carers' training needs on diet and physical activity.

Methods  A cross-sectional survey was undertaken of the knowledge and perceptions of carers supporting adults with intellectual disabilities. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to examine carer knowledge of public health recommendations on diet and physical activity; perceptions of the benefits of healthy diets and physical activity levels; and the carer views on the barriers to change experienced by individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Results  Sixty-three carers took part in the study. They generally had a low level of knowledge around public health recommendations on diet and physical activity. Greater importance was attributed to the health benefits of diet than physical activity. Carers rated intrapersonal barriers to change within the person with intellectual disabilities as more important, than interpersonal or external barriers to change, with significant differences in perceived barriers relevant to diet and physical activity.

Conclusions  Carers supporting adults with intellectual disabilities have significant training needs relevant to promoting healthy lifestyles. This highlights the opportunity to promote health improvement via the development, and provision, of effective training initiatives.


Autoencoders have useful applications in high energy physics in anomaly detection, particularly for jets - collimated showers of particles produced in collisions such as those at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We explore the use of graph-based autoencoders, which operate on jets in their"particle cloud"representations and can leverage the interdependencies among the particles within a jet, for such tasks. Additionally, we develop a differentiable approximation to the energy mover's distance via a graph neural network, which may subsequently be used as a reconstruction loss function for autoencoders.


We present new ALMA observations tracing the morphology and velocity structure of the molecular gas in the central galaxy of the cluster Abell 1795. The molecular gas lies in two filaments that extend 5–7 kpc to the N and S from the nucleus and project exclusively around the outer edges of two inner radio bubbles. Radio jets launched by the central active galactic nucleus have inflated bubbles filled with relativistic plasma into the hot atmosphere surrounding the central galaxy. The N filament has a smoothly increasing velocity gradient along its length from the central galaxy's systemic velocity at the nucleus to $$-370\rm \, km\rm \, s^{-1}$$, the average velocity of the surrounding galaxies, at the furthest extent. The S filament has a similarly smooth but shallower velocity gradient and appears to have partially collapsed in a burst of star formation. The close spatial association with the radio lobes, together with the ordered velocity gradients and narrow velocity dispersions, shows that the molecular filaments are gas flows entrained by the expanding radio bubbles. Assuming a Galactic X_CO factor, the total molecular gas mass is 3.2 ± 0.2 × 10^9 M_⊙. More than half lies above the N radio bubble. Lifting the molecular clouds appears to require an infeasibly efficient coupling between the molecular gas and the radio bubble. The energy required also exceeds the mechanical power of the N radio bubble by a factor of 2. Stimulated feedback, where the radio bubbles lift low-entropy X-ray gas that becomes thermally unstable and rapidly cools in situ, provides a plausible model. Multiple generations of radio bubbles are required to lift this substantial gas mass. The close morphological association then indicates that the cold gas either moulds the newly expanding bubbles or is itself pushed aside and shaped as they inflate.


The Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union as a full member on May 1, 2004 in the midst of jubilation among the Greek Cypriot population. The event confirmed the place of the Republic in the European family of states and created great prospects for the political influence of Cyprus's Greek government. Many Greek Cypriots hoped that, at long last, the Republic could secure a permanent solution to the deep political division on the island. This division largely stems from the traumatic conflict of 1974, when Turkey exploited the military coup in Cyprus and invaded in the name of reestablishing constitutional order. On November 15, 1983 the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash declared with the connivance of the Ankara government the de facto Turkish Cypriot state in occupied north Cyprus to be the independent and sovereign "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus." Greek Cypriots, seeking international support to expel the Turkish army, found only hollow declarations of solidarity and pious hope for resolution. Platonic calls for negotiation of the Cyprus problem frustrate most Cypriots. In the Greek view, the essence of the problem stems from the Turkish invasion and persisting occupation. Despite the clear violation of international law, Greek Cypriots realized that no foreign power had the will to force mainland Turks from Cyprus. The Turkish invasion brought 35,000 Turkish troops to the island and over 120,000 mainland Turks have migrated to Cyprus as of 2004. The invasion bore witness to several human rights transgressions from both sides. The Greek Cypriots view these people as illegal aliens and call for their removal. And still, the Greeks look for a just solution from their standpoint. Ultimately, the Greek Cypriot government believes division of the island should be abolished in favor of a unified state embracing both communities. Successive UN Secretaries--General offered their endorsement of good faith negotiations for unification. Denktash, however, had different aims: he argued that mutual recognition of two autonomous and sovereign states in Cyprus was necessary as a preliminary to the creation of a two-state confederation. Greek Cypriot politicians and citizens are at times divided in their view of how far to deviate from the principles of a just settlement to the Cyprus problem. Even if every demand could not be met, many Greek Cypriot politicians, with the support of the majority of their fellow citizens, have decided not to back down, but to hold fast to their claims, if only to preserve the independent status and rights of the Cyprus Republic under international law. These hardliner politicians were regarded by other Greek Cypriots, and indeed by foreign statesmen and UN diplomats, as unrealistic in the aspirations. A second group of politicians evolved that recognized that soon the de facto division of the island would be accepted by the world. In light of this, the Greek Cypriot side should make minimal sacrifices for the sake of settlement. Reconciliation has yet to occur. In November 2002, a new government came to power in Turkey, formed by the Justice and Development Party. Its leadership, hoping to secure EU membership, stood ready to make concessions on the two-state confederal solution, which Denktash had championed for years. Days after installing the new government, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented the first of five versions of a detailed settlement. The Annan Plan, prepared by a team of UN specialists, formed a basis for negotiations. The maximalist Greek Cypriot political parties claimed the Plan could not be accepted; they objected to the system of checks and balances that would empower the small Turkish Cypriot community. Turkish Cypriot groups in northern Cyprus organized demonstrations favoring a UN-sponsored solution. Denktash, who opposed the Plan, lost his majority on the matter. The Cyprus-EU negotiations started in May 1998 and concluded successfully in 2002. …


Activating mutations of the RET gene have been described for both papillary (chromosomal rearrangement) and medullary (missense mutations) thyroid carcinomas. Here, we describe a case of a Warthin-like variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma displaying some morphological aspects that mimic the diffuse sclerosing variant. The tumour harboured BRAF V600E mutation and a novel germline point mutation in the RET gene, with unknown clinical and pathological meaning.


Lipomas are the most common type of tumor of soft tissue and can occur anywhere in the body. Giant lipomas, which are defined as lesions greater than 5 cm, are associated with the risk of malignancy. Preoperative assessments, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and biopsies, are the optimal methods for making diagnoses and designing treatment plans. Incomplete excisions may cause recurrence of the masses, causing complications in the management of patients. In this report, we present a case of a giant lipoma that is located in an upper extremity of a patient, causing nerve compression, as well as a review of related literature.


This paper presents a modified Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) technique to obtain compressive stress-strain data for rubber materials. An experimental technique that modifies the conventional SHPB has been developed for measuring the dynamic compressive stress-strain responses of rubber materials with low mechanical impedance and low compressive strengths. This paper introduces an all-polymeric pressure bar set-up which achieves a closer impedance match between the pressure bar and the specimen materials. In addition, a pulse shaper is utilized to lengthen the rising time of the incident wave which helps the stress equilibrium and homogeneous deformation of rubber materials. It is found that the modified technique can determine the dynamic deformation behavior of NR and NBR rubber more accurately than those from the conventional SHPB technique.


This book provides a compelling insider's account of how Nike became the world's largest sports and fitness company.It includes a dedicated mailing and e-mail campaign to targeted sports interest media & organisations.How does a young boy from a small Oregon town get swept up in the politics of his chosen sport and become an integral part of possibly the most influential sports company of all time - Nike.Nike began with a handshake and a few hundred dollars passed between Phil Knight and legendary track coach Bill Bowerman more than 35 years ago - and since then it has grown into the world's largest sports and fitness company."Out of Nowhere" provides an unrivalled glimpse into the first 33 years of Nike - from its humble beginnings to its modern guise as a global giant - and takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through all of the company's successes and failures.


Problem statement: Extensive use of digital media like text, images, audio and video on the internet generated a requirement for providing traffic security. For carrying out confidential communications over public networks, it was found that simply concealing the contents of a message using cryptography was not adequate. Concealing the very fact that a communication has taken place could provide an additional layer of security. In this study several methods are used to fulfill this goal. This study produced new procedures in steganography for hiding ciphered information inside a digital color bitmap image. Approach: In this project we were using quadratic method depending on the locations concluded by the binary image, beside of public key cryptography. Results: Very immune information from hacking and breaking. Conclusion: In this study, we had concluded that the conjunction between cryptography and steganography produce immune information. The Unicode made any language to be used. The conversion to binary image is for selecting the locations of the message to be saved and it gives somewhere randomly locations for the pixels to be used for hiding.


The future GSE experiment is based on a global seismic monitoring system, that should be designed for monitoring compliance with a nuclear test ban treaty. Every country participating in the test will transmit data to the International Data Center. Because of the high quality of data required, we decided to conduct this study in order to determine the set of stations to be used in the experiment. The Italian telemetered seismological network can detect all events of at least magnitude 2.5 whose epicenters are inside the network itself. For external events the situation is different: the capability of detection is conditioned not only by the noise condition of the station, but also by the relative position of epicenter and station. The ING bulletin (January 1991-June 1992) was the data set for the present work. Comparing these data with the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) bulletin, we established which stations are most reliable in detecting teleseismic events and, moreover, how distance and back-azimuth can influence event detection. Furthermore, we investigated the reliability of the automatic acquisition system in relation to teleseismic event detection.


abstract:Analyses of a sample of 68 carnelian and agate beads from Korea's late Proto-Three Kingdoms and Three Kingdoms period (c.e. 100–668) provide evidence for long-distance exchange with South Asia. Three Kingdoms period elites were rejecting locally made stone beads made of local materials for stone beads obtained from long distance trade and made of non-local materials. Some of these beads may also be derived from South, Central, or Southeast Asia as well as from regions of modern China or Mongolia. The beads were recovered from burials at sites associated with the Paekche (RR: Baekje), Kaya (RR: Gaya), and Silla cultural traditions. There have been no local bead workshops found during the Three Kingdoms period and the carnelian beads were manufactured using different drilling technologies compared to earlier Korean drilling. Faceted hexagonal, spherical, and irregularly shaped carnelian beads were perforated using diamond drills, a technology originally developed in South Asia ca. 600 b.c.e. Quantitative analyses of drill hole size and overall size and shape of the beads points to multiple workshops supplying the imported beads. The distribution patterns of the beads in different polities may reflect changes in trade networks over time as well as stylistic choices of bead shapes used as a means of differentiating specific groups or individuals. Evidence for string wear and external weathering indicate that some beads were used for long periods of time enroute to Korea or in Korea itself before burial in mortuary contexts.


Background Closely related invasive species may often displace one another, but it is often difficult to determine mechanisms because of the historical nature of these events. The leafmining flies Liriomyza sativae and Liriomyza trifolii have become serious invasive agricultural pests throughout the world. Where both species have invaded the same region, one predominates over the other. Although L. sativae invaded Hainan Island of China first, it recently has been displaced by the newly invasive L. trifolii. We hypothesized that differential susceptibilities to insecticides could be causing this demographic shift. Methodology/Principal Findings Avermectin and cyromazine are the most commonly used insecticides to manage leafminers, with laboratory bioassays demonstrating that L. trifolii is significantly less susceptible to these key insecticides than is L. sativae. In trials where similar numbers of larvae of both species infested plants, which subsequently were treated with the insecticides, the eclosing adults were predominately L. trifolii, yet similar numbers of adults of both species eclosed from control plants. The species composition was then surveyed in two regions where L. trifolii has just begun to invade and both species are still common. In field trials, both species occurred in similar proportions before insecticide treatments began. Following applications of avermectin and cyromazine, almost all eclosing adults were L. trifolii in those treatment plots. In control plots, similar numbers of adults of the two species eclosed, lending further credence to the hypothesis that differential insecticide susceptibilities could be driving the ongoing displacement of L. sativae by L. trifolii. Conclusions/Significance Our results show that differential insecticide susceptibility can lead to rapid shifts in the demographics of pest complexes. Thus, successful pest management requires the identification of pest species to understand the outcome of insecticide applications. These results further demonstrate the importance of considering anthropogenic factors in the outcome of interspecific interactions.


Hornby, the company that systematically gave the world Meccano, Hornby Dublo electric trains, Dinky Toys and Scalextric, remains an independent British company a century after it was started by entrepreneur Frank Hornby in Liverpool. This is something of a rarity in the UK toy industry, which has seen many brands disappear in the face of global competition and many businesses either close or be sold to foreign ownership. During the last forty years Hornby has been continually swimming against the tide. Strategies have changed. Innovation, new products and diversification have been important - so too have divestments. There have been different owners and several changes of strategic leadership. But recently the company's prospects have been transformed. Production has been moved to China, enabling the company to provide more detail without increasing prices. Pre-tax profits more than doubled between 2001 and 2002 and the latest interim results show a further doubling. Hornby's survival is testimony to the importance of branding and reputation.


A model for the thermal properties of holographic planar concentrators on module performance is presented and verified with experimental data. The holographic planar concentrator modules consist of ribbons of volume holograms placed next to photovoltaic cells to achieve a low level concentration effect. The holographic ribbons increase the surface area required to produce a fixed amount of output power but reduce the cost of the module by eliminating approximately half of the photovoltaic cell material, in this case monocrystalline bifacial silicon cells. Due to the low concentration, the temperature reduction effect of the added surface area overcomes the added heat provided by the holograms. The theoretical point at which the added concentration by holograms overcomes the cooling effect provided by the extended region for varying theoretical holographic contributions is also presented.


Artificial intelligence (AI) generally and machine learning (ML) specifically demonstrate impressive practical success in many different application domains, e.g. in autonomous driving, speech recognition, or recommender systems. Deep learning approaches, trained on extremely large data sets or using reinforcement learning methods have even exceeded human performance in visual tasks, particularly on playing games such as Atari, or mastering the game of Go. Even in the medical domain there are remarkable results. The central problem of such models is that they are regarded as black-box models and even if we understand the underlying mathematical principles, they lack an explicit declarative knowledge representation, hence have difficulty in generating the underlying explanatory structures. This calls for systems enabling to make decisions transparent, understandable and explainable. A huge motivation for our approach are rising legal and privacy aspects. The new European General Data Protection Regulation entering into force on May 25th 2018, will make black-box approaches difficult to use in business. This does not imply a ban on automatic learning approaches or an obligation to explain everything all the time, however, there must be a possibility to make the results re-traceable on demand. In this paper we outline some of our research topics in the context of the relatively new area of explainable-AI with a focus on the application in medicine, which is a very special domain. This is due to the fact that medical professionals are working mostly with distributed heterogeneous and complex sources of data. In this paper we concentrate on three sources: images, *omics data and text. We argue that research in explainable-AI would generally help to facilitate the implementation of AI/ML in the medical domain, and specifically help to facilitate transparency and trust.


Sensitivity to bacteriophage ES18 may be used as an additional test for identification of strains of some serotypes of Salmonella. In the D group, the great majority (100/103) of the strains of S. enteritidis (H = g,m:-) and 7/7 strains of S. blegdam (H = G,m,q:-) are resistant. On the contrary, all the studied strains (111) of S. dublin (H = g,p:-) either Vi+ or Vi- are sensitive, as those of S. gallinarum-pullorum (61). Two strains of S. kiel (possibly derivated from S. dublin) are sensitive as that serotype, whereas 20 strains of S. paratyphi A, possessing the same O factors, are resistant.


English language teaching at the medical university demonstrates the significance of gestures in oral communication. The aim of the study is to investigate the ability of students of the Medical University –Sofia, Bulgaria, to acquire and accompany the use of English language (L2) phrases with the appropriate G2 gestures, characteristic of C2 culture where L2 communication is considered native. The study demonstrates the very limited ability of medical university students' to accompany the use of L2 with the appropriate gestures. It also demonstrates the significance of gestures in second language teaching.


Abstract Introduction. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is now an accepted and patient friendly treatment, but still controversy exists about its comparability to conventional radiation therapy (RT). The purpose of this single-institutional report is to describe survival outcome for medically inoperable patients with early stage NSCLC treated with SBRT compared with high dose conventional RT. Material and methods. From August 2005 to June 2012, 100 medically inoperable patients were treated with SBRT at Odense University Hospital. The thoracic RT consisted of 3 fractions (F) of 15–22 Gy delivered in nine days. For comparison a group of 32 medically inoperable patients treated with conventional RT with 80 Gy/35–40 F (5 F/week) in the period of July 1998 to August 2011 were analyzed. All tumors had histological or cytological proven NSCLC T1-2N0M0. Results. The median overall survival was 36.1 months versus 24.4 months for SBRT and conventional RT, respectively (p = 0.015). Local failure-free survival rates at one year were in SBRT group 93% versus 89% in the conventional RT group and at five years 69% versus 66%, SBRT and conventional RT respectively (p = 0.99). On multivariate analysis, female gender and performance status of 0–1 and SBRT predicted improved prognosis. Conclusion. In a cohort of patients with NSCLC there was a significant difference in overall survival favoring SBRT. Performance status of 0–1, female gender and SBRT predicted improved prognosis. However, staging procedure, confirmation procedure of recurrence and technical improvements of radiation treatment is likely to influence outcomes. However, SBRT seems to be as efficient as conventional RT and is a more convenient treatment for the patients.


The intensification of agriculture has a great influence on grassland, resulting in the disappearance of many plant and animal species and changing open landscape. Sustainable farming practices, which use farm animal grazing, are seen as a potential solution to continued biodiversity loss resulting from overor undergrazing. In the article the influence of grazing animals on grassland biocenoses and their use in active biodiversity protection are reviewed based on over 100 references. It is concluded that animal grazing can be a tool to maintain or restore biodiversity of open landscape and contribute to the aesthetic and leisure importance of grassland. The successful use of grazing for environment protection and biodiversity enhancement requires careful planning and should be adapted to local conditions. A deep understanding of the relationship between herbivores, plant, and small animal communities and the abiotic environment is essential. Therefore, there is a need for comprehensive research programmes in the area of extensive grazing, combining expertise from ecology, botany, agronomy, animal production and rural economics. The research should include both field experiments and development of appropriate models, allowing for the design of agroenvironmental schemes aimed at the protection of grassland biocecenoses.


Contract employment is a predominant form of employment in developing countries. Conventional argument goes that wage polarization between regular and contract workers incentivizes the contracting out of select tasks. But what drives the wage polarization that persists despite the popularity of contract work? This paper formulates a unified model wherein the general equilibrium implications of heterogeneous tasks assignment under imperfect monitoring, polarized wages determined by efficiency considerations, and the coexistence of regular-, contractand involuntary un-employment can be understood together. We classify the forces that drive co-movements of contract and regular wages and discuss their implications on the relative supply of high wage (regular) and low wage (contract) jobs. Using a comprehensive data set with detail records on contract and regular work at the establishment level in India, we find that contract wages do catch up, but do so inelastically in response to increases in the regular wage. These observation allow us to draw very nuanced conclusions concerning the mechanics of high wage job generation in the labor market. JEL Classification: J31, J41, O43


In the few short decades since their commercial deployment, 5 billion people - about three-quarters of all humanity, including children - have become mobile phone users. No technology has even approached the mobile phone's wildfire success. Effects of this success are apparent everywhere, ranging from accident scenes and earthquake rescue efforts to demeanour in the classroom and at dinner tables. No one interested in the next generation of issues provoked by the mobile communication revolution will want to miss this important new collection of essays. The mobile phone has given near-transcendent power to ordinary people. All aspects of social life have been touched by mobile technology. An ever-growing host of tracking, immersion, gaming, and commercial applications are becoming available. The community of mobile communication scholars has blossomed from a handful of pioneers a decade ago to a large and dynamic intellectual community than spans the globe. Area researchers have gained much insight into cultural, symbolic, and social interaction aspects of mobile communication as well as its relevance to commerce. To address the social policy dimension of the mobile communication revolution, this volume presents analyses by leading thinkers in the field. The volume offers novel and keen insights into the topic. Subjects include the role of mobiles in policy formation and evaluation in several areas including the mobile-digital divide and political campaigns. Also explored are processes and policy implications of mobiles in creating or alleviating social problems including social isolation and family dispersion. Other chapters analyze social policies for mobile devices, including attempts to regulate the use of the technology and to understand and moderate its potential harm to human health. The contributors' scope ranges across five continents and they address concerns at local, national, and international levels.


Identification of the biological features of autism is essential for designing an efficient treatment and for prevention of the disorder. Though the subject of extensive research, the neurophysiological features of autism remain unclear. One of the proposed biological causes of autism is malfunction of the pineal gland and deficiency of its principal hormone, melatonin. The main function of melatonin is to link and synchronize the body's homeostasis processes to the circadian and seasonal rhythms, and to regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Therefore, pineal dysfunction has been implicated based on the common observation of low melatonin levels and sleep disorders associated with autism. In this perspective, we highlight several recent findings that support the hypothesis of pineal gland/melatonin involvement in autism. Another common symptom of autism is abnormal neuroplasticity, such as cortical overgrowth and dendritic spine dysgenesis. Here, we synthesize recent information and speculate on the possibility that this abnormal neuroplasticity is caused by hyperactivity of endogenous N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). The pineal gland was proposed as the source of DMT in the brain and therefore, our assumption is that besides melatonin deficiency, pineal dysfunction might also play a part in the development of autism through abnormal metabolism of DMT. We hope that this manuscript will encourage future research of the DMT hypothesis and reexamination of several observations that were previously attributed to other factors, to see if they could be related to pineal gland/melatonin malfunction. Such research could contribute to the development of autism treatment by exogenous melatonin and monitored light exposure.


Eugen Fink was Edmund Husserl's research assistant during the last decade of the renowned phenomenologist's life, a period in which Husserl's philosophical ideas were radically recast. In this landmark book, Ronald Bruzina shows that Fink was actually a collaborator with Husserl, contributing indispensable elements to their common enterprise. Drawing on hundreds of hitherto unknown notes and drafts by Fink, Bruzina highlights the scope and depth of his theories and critiques. He places these philosophical formulations in their historical setting, organizes them around such key themes as the world, time, life, and the concept and methodological place of the "meontic", and demonstrates that they were a pivotal impetus for the renewing of "regress to the origins" in transcendental-constitutive phenomenology.


Abstract A large azhdarchid pterosaur is described from the Late Maastrichtian phosphatic deposits of the Oulad Abdoun Basin, near Khouribga (central Morocco). The material consists of five closely associated cervical vertebrae of a single individual. The mid-series neck vertebrae closely resemble those of azhdarchids Quetzalcoatlus and Azhdarcho in that they are elongate, with vestigial neural spines, prezygapophysial tubercles, a pair of ventral sulci near the prezygapophyses, and without pneumatic foramina on the lateral surfaces of the centra. The Moroccan pterosaur is referred to a new genus and species of Azhdarchidae: Phosphatodraco mauritanicus gen. et sp.nov. It is mainly characterized by a very long cervical vertebra eight, bearing a prominent neural spine located very posteriorly. Based on comparisons with azhdarchid vertebrae, the estimated wing span of Phosphatodraco is close to 5 m. This discovery provides the first occurrence of Late Cretaceous azhdarchids in northern Africa. Phosphatodraco is one of the few azhdarchids known from a relatively complete neck and one of the latest-known pterosaurs, approximately contemporaneous with Quetzalcoatlus.


Context: One of the most common artifacts in contemporary software projects is a product backlog comprising user stories, bugs, chores or other work items. However, little research has investigated how the backlog is generated or the precise role it plays in a project. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to determine what is a product backlog, what is its role, and how does it emerge? Method: Following Constructivist Grounded Theory, we conducted a two-year, five-month participant-observation study of eight software development projects at Pivotal, a large, international software company. We interviewed 56 software engineers, product designers, and product managers.We conducted a survey of 27 product designers. We alternated between analysis and theoretical sampling until achieving theoretical saturation. Results: We observed 13 practices and 6 obstacles related to product backlog generation. Limitations: Grounded Theory does not support statistical generalization. While the proposed theory of product backlogs appears widely applicable, organizations with different software development cultures may use different practices. Conclusion: The product backlog is simultaneously a model of work to be done and a boundary object that helps bridge the gap between the processes of generating user stories and realizing them in working code. It emerges from sensemaking (the team making sense of the project context) and coevolution (a cognitive process where the team simultaneously refines its understanding of the problematic context and fledgling solution concepts).


In the Duverger's Law (DL) literature, any effects detected in holding down the number of parties in plurality rule or majoritarian systems are conventionally ascribed tout court to the electoral system, and vice versa for proportional systems allegedly encouraging more parties. By contrast, we argue that a DL effect can only be identified when tested against a much more sophisticated null hypothesis that starts by recognizing fundamental variations in the effective competition space, driven by the number of observable parties (or candidates, or coalitions) that enter competition at some low but significant level of support, say, receiving 1 per cent of the vote each. The appropriate null hypothesis has three parts, each of which must be refuted in order for a DL effect to be established: 1. The patterns of election district outcomes observed do not differ from those that would be expected under equiprobability, given the number of observable parties (Nop) competing and the effective competition space (ECS) that this creates. 2. The deviations from equiprobability found do not show two-party drift as DL predicts (but either no pattern, or unipolar drift, or multi-party drift). 3. Measured as deviations from equiprobability, the extent of two-party drift is no greater in plurality/majority systems than in proportional systems, (for example, because two-party drift occurs quite evenly in all systems, or because there are individual electoral system variations in two party drift). We operationalize the first two parts of the test for some recent plurality rule elections in India, Great Britain and the USA, by mapping empirical district outcomes onto the logically feasible competition space for districts with different numbers of observable parties. We develop new criteria for assessing Duvergerian versus equi-probability patterning of district outcomes including: the proportions of all districts in an election spread across different Nop levels; the minimum level of combined support for V3 to VN parties; the degree of patterning of the outcome distribution by a two-party relationship, versus the degree of random scatter of results; the divergence of outcomes in two-party contests from a bi-nomial distribution; the divergence of outcomes in a three-party contest from a multi-nomial distribution; and finally in four or more party contests the clustering of outcomes in relation to the peak densities of 'non-equivalent distributions' across the V1V2 'floorplate' plot. Our analysis is necessarily preliminary, because the third part of the null hypothesis above inherently requires a cumulative research effort beyond the bounds of any single paper. But the tools and measures we set out here make this next stage of research one that is eminently feasible to achieve.


other words, using a non-parametric test the study does lend support for the beneficial effect of sodium restriction. In view, however, of the large fall in blood pressure that occurred irrespective of sodium intake during the first month's treatment period, we believe that the study is inconclusive and should not be used as evidence for the value of sodium restriction in mild hypertension. As we stated in our last letter more evidence for the value of sodium restriction is required. In the meantime, and until this evidence is obtained, our own advice to patients with hypertension is to continue moderate restriction of sodium intake, a manoeuvre which is likely to be as effective as a diuretic but without the metabolic problems associated with diuretic treatment.


Aim: The current study aimed to evaluate the dropout rates and the reasons for dropouts among elderly patients presenting with mental health problems to a community health centre. Methodology: This naturalistic, longitudinal, follow-up study was carried out in the Outpatient Setting of a community health centre in North India. The study included 169 patients, aged ≥ 60 years diagnosed with mental health problems. They were assessed at the baseline and then followed for a period of 1 year. Those who dropped out from the outpatient clinic were contacted over the phone to evaluate the reasons for dropout from treatment. Results: The mean age of the participants was 67.6 years and the mean number of years of education was 2.9. Most of the patients were female, married, Hindu, unemployed, from lower socioeconomic status, and non-nuclear families. The most common diagnosis was that of depression (42.6%), and this was followed by somatoform disorder (11.2%). The mean age of onset of psychiatric disorder was 62.2 years, with a mean duration of illness being 30.3 months. Nearly half (53.3%) of the patients dropped out of treatment after their first visit and 90% dropped out by 1 year. Overall the most common reason of drop out was complete relief of symptoms, and this was followed by the presence of family problems, and farming-related work. Among the very early drop out (never returned to clinic after the first visit) the most common reason for dropout was complete relief in symptoms, followed by inability to follow up due to family problems, no relief in symptoms, and farming-related work. Among those who dropped out within 6 months, the most common reason was complete relief of symptoms followed by lack of time due to personal reasons. When the reason for "late" dropout (dropout between 6 to 12 months) was evaluated, the most common reason was complete relief of symptoms followed by an inability to follow up due to problems in the family. Conclusion: A significant number of elderly patients with mental health-related problems drop out of treatment prematurely. Psychoeducation about the illness, outcome, and course of illness should be done at each step, and prevailing psychosocial issues need to be evaluated to reduce the rate of dropout among elderly patients with mental health-related problems attending the community health centre.


Many phenotypical features traditionally used to classify genera in Parmeliaceae and in lichens in general have evolved several times independently, potentially limiting their taxonomic utility. Here, we aim to elucidate evolutionary relationships of Canoparmelia s. lat. among other parmotremoid taxa. A multilocus dataset (ITS, nuLSU and mtSSU rDNA sequences) was gathered and analyzed within a phylogenetic framework. Canoparmelia s. lat. was recovered as highly polyphyletic within the parmelioid clade, and three divergent lineages representing Canoparmelia s. lat. were identified in addition to the previously segregated Crespoa group. Of these, two formed a sister relationship with Parmotrema . However, no apparent diagnostic morphological features were found distinguishing the distinct Canoparmelia s. lat. clades reconstructed in the phylogenetic analyses. As a consequence, we propose to restrict the circumscription of Canoparmelia to clade 1 (i.e. the C. texana group) and to include clades 2 and 3 in Parmotrema . We propose to recognize these well-supported monophyletic clades at subgeneric level. Consequently, the new subgeneric name Parmotrema subgen. Africanae is proposed for clade 3 recovered in this study. Since clade 4, which clusters with the genera Nesolechia and Punctelia, is only represented by a single sequenced specimen, we refrain from proposing any taxonomic changes. The new combinations Parmotrema epileucum , and P. zimbabwense are proposed.


Abstract While ethnographic accounts of material culture are important to the archaeologist, quantitative studies approached from the perspectives most appropriate for archaeological site analysis are rare. This paper introduces one such study and examines the material culture of the Turkana, a pastoral tribe of northern Kenya. The study is based on an inventory of the contents of an inhabited compound. It compares the contents of the inhabited dwelling with a series of abandoned settlements. Results indicate (1) 63% of the items in the inhabited compound were, in archaeological terms, perishable objects, (2) 48% of the entire material culture in the modern compound consisted of containers, (3) very little, if any, evidence of the artefacts present in the inventory would be found within a year after abandonment of the settlement.


This paper deals with some aspects of prison development during the last five years. Some apparent traits are focused on, in particular where these do not comply with the general, expected trends. Data presented here are primarily collected from the central record of the prison administration in Norway. I will briefly deal with five themes:
1. Crime rate in general and prison consequences
2. The number of prisoners and the level of punishment
3. The level of custody for remand prisoners
4. Age groups and rates of women and foreigners in prison
5. The threat of new crimes


An optical-fiber Michelson interferometric acoustic emission sensor is described. The sensor uses ordinary singlemode fiber and is embedded in the composite material under test. Signals are demodulated through the active homodyne. This system provides a novel approach for material nondestructive evaluation.


Courses such as CS1 and CS2 can present an interesting pedagogical challenge when it comes to the theory-practice relationship, along with aspects that involve the course's logistics, the programming language used, and the characteristics of the students involved in the process. This study presents an innovative didactic approach, oriented towards the accompaniment of CS1 students by CS2 students at Universidad El Bosque, Colombia, seeking with this Godparent Plan, to provide a personalized accompaniment to first semester students, whereby CS2 students enhance their domain over concepts and skills while accompanying, explaining and teaching younger peers. The results of this study are favorable, outlining a didactic scheme that can be adapted and replicated in other curricular scenarios.


With the advancement in technology, the size of electronic components and printed circuit boards (PCB) is becoming small while the pin count of each component is increasing. This has necessitated the use of ball grid array (BGA) type of components where pins are attached under the body of component as a grid. The problem of routing pins from under the body of component to the boundary of the component is known as escape routing. It is often desirable to perform ordered simultaneous escape routing (SER) to facilitate area routing and produce elegant PCB design. The task of SER is non-trivial, given the small size of components and hundreds of pins arranged in random order in each component that needs ordered connectivity. In this paper, first we propose flow models for different inter pin capacities. We then propose linear network flow optimization model that simultaneously solves the net ordering and net escape problem. The model routes maximum possible nets between two components of the PCB, by considering the design rules. Comparative analysis shows that the proposed optimization model performs better than the existing routing algorithms in terms of number of nets routed.


Abstract Marine sandstones of the Lower-Middle Miocene Bear River beds, Upper Miocene-Lower Pleistocene Wildcat Group and Pliocene lower Falor Formation contain an average of 6 % K-spar. 40Ar/39Ar laser probe analyses of Lower Pleistocene Wildcat Group micas yield ages of approximately. 52–57 Ma. Analyses of Pliocene Wildcat Group micas yield three groups of ages: approximately 66–75, 128.5, and 299–303 Ma. A logical source for the three younger groups are Cretaceous-Eocene plutonic rocks in Idaho, a source proposed for subjacent Eocene Yager Formation sandstones in the Coast Ranges by Underwood & Bachman (1986). The source of the older micas remains enigmatic, but may be reset Devonian Abrams Schist of the central Klamath Mountains. Fluvial conglomerates and sandstones of the Upper Oligocene-Lower Miocene Weaverville Formation and Lower Pliocene Wimer Formation in the Klamath Mountains, the Upper Pleistocene upper Falor and Carlotta Formations in the Coast Ranges, and marine sandstones of the Lower Pliocene Wimer and St. George Formations in the Klamaths and Coast Ranges are derived largely from nearby basement rocks. Imbrication of western Weaverville Formation fluvial clasts indicates westerly flow of a major braided river. However, the deltaic facies of this formation is missing, due either to Miocene erosional stripping or removal by faulting. The eastern Weaverville Formation accumulated syntectonically in upper plate grabens above the regional LaGrange detachment fault. Initiation of LaGrange detachment faulting, Weaverville sedimentation and, possibly, Klamaths uplift is coeval with increased oblique convergence of oceanic and continental plates ca. 30 Ma, and with alkalic intrusive activity in the southwest Oregon and northwest California Coast Ranges. The intrusions may reflect an unrecognized rifting event which might have resulted from clockwise rotation of the Klamath Mountains and Coast Ranges provinces. The Bear River beds accumulated at bathyal depths. Basal Wildcat Group sediments are fluvial to littoral. However, rapid submergence of the Coast Ranges region to bathyal depths (2–3 km) occurred following the initiation of Wildcat sedimentation. This abrupt bathymetric changes may relate to greater normal plate convergence ca. 9 Ma. Ca. 5 Ma the northwest Klamath Mountains were at sea level, as is indicated by presence of Wimer marine sediments on the present-day elevated erosion surface. Poorly dated, coarse fluvial conglomerates of the eastern Wimer facies may reflect local uplift and warping of this surface about a northwest-trending axis. Sediment shoaling, and onset of fluvial sedimentation in the Coast Ranges, may relate to the decreased plate convergence rate, lessening of angle of subduction and increased normal convergence ca. 1 Ma.


The widespread use of Optical LANs is dependent on the ability to fabricate low cost transceiver components. These are usually complex, and fabrication involves the integration of optoelectronic and electronic devices, as well as optical components. A number of UK universities are currently involved in a project to demonstrate integrated optical wireless transceiver subsystems that can provide eyesafe line of sight in-building communication at 155Mbit/s and above, using 1550nm eyesafe emitters. The system uses two-dimensional arrays of novel microcavity LED emitters, and arrays of detectors integrated with custom CMOS integrated circuits to implement tracking transceiver components. The project includes design and fabrication of the optoelectronic devices, transimpedance amplifiers and optical systems, as well as flip-chip bonding of the optoelectronic and CMOS integrated circuits to create components scaleable to the large numbers of sources and detectors required. In this paper we report initial results from the first seven channel demonstrator system. Performance of individual components, their limitations and future directions are detailed.


The cone prism introduced is mainly used in applanation tonometers to act as an applanation prism for linear measurement of the applanation diameter or the applanation area of the cornea. Its principles of optical design and linear measurement are expounded in detail. The measuring body, which comprises the cone prism and other optical and electronic parts, is also briefly introduced.


Rural population being the majority of Indian population has the potential of making India an economic superpower and a developed country but in the present scenario this majority is completely oblivious to the power and capability of Information technology in improvement of business opportunities and employment because of the huge costs incurred on infrastructure, software etc. This paper discusses how the 'cloud computing' paradigm can help the rural population in overcoming these hurdles and which will ultimately lead to rural area development and an overall economic progress of the nation.


PurposeEmotional intelligence (EI) reflects an ability to acknowledge one's own emotional state and keep one's emotions in balance while recognizing emotions in others, managing interactions and relationships with them and resolving conflict. Considering that police work largely involves interactions with others, the purpose of this paper is to offer a state-of-the-art review of the research on EI in policing.Design/methodology/approachUsing several online databases, a literature search was performed to collect all peer reviewed studies on EI in policing from around the globe. The authors review the nature of this research and its major findings. They also summarize how EI was conceptualized and measured across studies.FindingsThe authors' search generated a list of 20 studies carried out in 9 countries. Almost all used survey methods and most adopted an ability-based model of EI. The most common area of focus was on correlates of EI in police officers (N = 12), followed by descriptive studies of EI in police officers (N = 5), and finally assessments of the relevance of EI for police training (N = 3).Originality/valuePolicing research has not paid enough attention to EI. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first effort to assess the state of this literature. With law enforcement agencies looking for ways to improve citizen trust and legitimacy worldwide, the preliminary evidence suggests EI warrants considerably more empirical and practical consideration.


: Transient electroluminescent measurement system is used to study the inside charge behavior of prepared organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in this article. Two rectangular pulses with a fixed time interval are supplied on the device. We can analyze the inside charge storage and the emitting process by measuring the transient EL and transient current of the device. OLEDs based on the m-MTDATA∶3TPYMB (1∶1) system was prepared. We found that the stable EL intensity increase when the second pulse is supplied. And the increment reduced with the increased current. We also find the electroluminescent under the second pulse decayed faster than that of the first pulse. This is because of the quenching due to the polaron-exciton effect (TPQ) is more serious in the emitting layer under the second pulse.


The inability to identify a neoplasm upon examination of an initial Mohs histologic section is not uncommon. Although often the neoplasm has been enclosed within the layer or extirpated by a prior biopsy, there are instances when the negative marginal reading is incorrect. This report describes circumstances when the initial Mohs layer failed to show positive tumor margins in the face of residual in situ neoplasm.


As a component of a recent academic review, the Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, developed a questionnaire designed to compare the curricula, direction, and challenges of their department with the approximately 140 anatomy departments in the U. S. and Canada. The response was overwhelming in that over 80% of the schools returned a completed questionnaire. One of the areas of interest revealed by this survey was a growing concern over significant changes in both medical school curricula and the future of anatomy departments. Most departments still used traditional lectures to present course material and the majority of the scheduled contact hours were in the dissection laboratory; however, other teaching formats, such as case studies and small group discussions, accounted for significantly more of the teaching effort. Nearly 20% of the schools were making major modifications in their teaching methods. The general trend was to include more integrated, problem‐based learning and computer‐assisted teaching while reducing overall content, didactic lectures, and rote memorization. The role and need for traditionally trained gross anatomists in medical education appeared to be diminishing as curricular reform moved toward more student‐directed, faculty‐facilitated programs. Concurrently, the recruitment and career development of gross anatomy faculty appeared to be influenced more by funding status than by academic training or teaching experience, as most departmental chairman were willing to hire non‐anatomists and "train" them to assume an often reduced teaching load in gross anatomy courses. In addition, fewer graduate students were being trained in classical gross anatomy, a trend that better suited the emerging student‐directed medical school curricula. The reduction in classically trained anatomists also appeared to reflect the widespread practice whereby anatomy faculty were rewarded far more for research than for teaching. Although the continued inclusion of gross anatomy in medical education appeared to be assured, its traditional mode of presentation and academic prominence will likely change by the turn of the century. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This project addresses scales of production by repositioning the architect as a non-expert. The Littleton Trials consists of a series of solid wood huts designed, fabricated, assembled, and monitored 26 miles northwest of Boston in Littleton, Massachusetts. The huts are an alibi to evaluate not just the thermal performance of different solid wood construction logistics, or the forestry that presupposes them, but to design production anew through trans-scalar and non-expert forms of feedback. The buildings are only small spatially. This project makes the claim that a building can no longer be the sole scale of response to the question of building. The insights made from this project reflect a close collaboration between the members of the Decentralized Design Lab and our advisor, Kiel Moe.


Recently published results from the PAMELA experiment have shown conclusive evidence for an excess of positrons at high ( ~ 10–100 GeV) energies, confirming earlier indications from HEAT and AMS-01. Such a signal is generally expected from dark matter annihilations. However, the hard positron spectrum and large amplitude are difficult to achieve in most conventional WIMP models. The absence of any associated excess in anti-protons is highly constraining on models with hadronic annihilation modes. We revisit an earlier proposal, wherein the dark matter annihilates into a new light (GeV) boson , which is kinematically constrained to go to hard leptonic states, without anti-protons or π0's. We find this provides a very good fit to the data. The light boson naturally provides a mechanism by which large cross sections can be achieved through the Sommerfeld enhancement, as was recently proposed. Depending on the mass of the WIMP, the rise may continue above 300 GeV, the extent of PAMELA's ability to discriminate between electrons and positrons.


Abstract. Spanning over 3000 km in length and with a catchment of approximately 1.4 million km2, the Zambezi River is the fourth largest river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from the African continent. We present data on greenhouse gas (GHG: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O)) concentrations and fluxes, as well as data that allow for characterization of sources and dynamics of carbon pools collected along the Zambezi River, reservoirs and several of its tributaries during 2012 and 2013 and over two climatic seasons (dry and wet) to constrain the interannual variability, seasonality and spatial heterogeneity along the aquatic continuum. All GHG concentrations showed high spatial variability (coefficient of variation: 1.01 for CO2, 2.65 for CH4 and 0.21 for N2O). Overall, there was no unidirectional pattern along the river stretch (i.e., decrease or increase towards the ocean), as the spatial heterogeneity of GHGs appeared to be determined mainly by the connectivity with floodplains and wetlands as well as the presence of man-made structures (reservoirs) and natural barriers (waterfalls, rapids). Highest CO2 and CH4 concentrations in the main channel were found downstream of extensive floodplains/wetlands. Undersaturated CO2 conditions, in contrast, were characteristic of the surface waters of the two large reservoirs along the Zambezi mainstem. N2O concentrations showed the opposite pattern, being lowest downstream of the floodplains and highest in reservoirs. Among tributaries, highest concentrations of both CO2 and CH4 were measured in the Shire River, whereas low values were characteristic of more turbid systems such as the Luangwa and Mazoe rivers. The interannual variability in the Zambezi River was relatively large for both CO2 and CH4, and significantly higher concentrations (up to 2-fold) were measured during wet seasons compared to the dry season. Interannual variability of N2O was less pronounced, but higher values were generally found during the dry season. Overall, both concentrations and fluxes of CO2 and CH4 were well below the median/average values for tropical rivers, streams and reservoirs reported previously in the literature and used for global extrapolations. A first-order mass balance suggests that carbon (C) transport to the ocean represents the major component (59%) of the budget (largely in the form of dissolved inorganic carbon, DIC), while 38% of the total C yield is annually emitted into the atmosphere, mostly as CO2 (98%), and 3% is removed by sedimentation in reservoirs.


The main objective was to obtain kinetic and thermodynamic equilibrium of asphaltene sorption onto powder ROCK obtained from the Guadalupe formation (washed and unwashed) at different times, temperatures and concentrations. However, the effect of temperature in the equilibrium sorption is not significant. Rock powders were characterized by N 2 sorption at -196°C. Equilibrium sorption of asphaltenes in rock powders, within a range of concentrations from 250 to 1500 ppm, was determined using a static method. Sorption curves show Type I behavior, according to IUPAC. Langmuir model was used for computing the monolayer asphaltene content values for the sorption at different temperatures, showing a good fit respect to the experimental data. Sorption kinetics of asphaltenes in rock samples is function of the concentration and for concentrations of 1500 ppm equilibrium is reached about 90 min. Pseudo first order and pseudo second order kinetic models were applied to the experimental data for the different concentrations for the two rock samples with a better result for the pseudo-first order kinetic model. The washing effect on the equilibrium was not significant; however the adsorptive capacity of the rock without washing was slightly higher than the rock washed with n-heptane and toluene.


In this paper we address the problem of discretization in the context of learning Bayesian networks (BNs) from data containing both continuous and discrete variables. We describe a new technique for multivariate discretization, whereby each continuous variable is discretized while taking into account its interaction with the other variables. The technique is based on the use of a Bayesian scoring metric that scores the discretization policy for a continuous variable given a BN structure and the observed data. Since the metric is relative to the BN structure currently being evaluated, the discretization of a variable needs to be dynamically adjusted as the BN structure changes.


Laser pyrolysis is one of the most important and emerging techniques used to synthesize thin films, nano-powders and nano-structured materials. The advantages in this technique include: a well defined interaction volume, no interactions with the reactor chamber walls hence less impurities, and the attainment of very fine particles. In this paper we briefly review the development and the current status of laser pyrolysis world wide. However, the main focus is an overview of our efforts to synthesize vanadium and tungsten oxides using this technique since 2006. We discuss the role of the laser pyrolysis parameters: the beam waist, interaction volume, carrier gas flow rates, laser wavelength and power density on the phase, size and shape of the final products obtained.


Background Hospital pharmacists are necessary members of the health team in neurological clinics, to implement rational treatment. Hospital pharmacists are qualified by their knowledge of modern organic approaches to the pharmacotherapy of neurological disorders. In neurological patients, medicines regimens are frequently very complex; specialised calendars or dosing tables and verbal counselling, could be of great benefit to patients. Recording the pharmacotherapeutic history, the efficiency of direct neurological exam inations, evaluation of treatment, counselling and provision of drug pharmacokinetic consultations, are the tasks of hospital pharmacists. Purpose To survey neurological patients on the current method of providing health care. Materials and Methods Patients were given a questionnaire. They stated that health professionals often objectively do not have enough time for detailed conversations, either in hospital or in pharmacies. Results The results indicated that an additional member of the health care team is needed, who would be involved in monitoring treatments targeted on the disease, drug interactions, as well as educating patients about medicines. The most revealing answers were: Would the inclusion of a hospital pharmacist in charge of the neurological disorders improve your treatment? 12% DO NOT KNOW, 14% NO, 64% YES. Are you in compliance with treatment? 17% YES, 27% DO NOT KNOW, 66% NO. Do you think that you needed more information about the disease and the treatment received? 71% YES, 12% DO NOT KNOW, 17% NOT. Conclusions This study aimed to draw attention to new needs in the health system of Montenegro as the health systems develop. The importance of hospital pharmacists has already been identified, and we anticipate that this and future studies on this topic improve health care in this region. No conflict of interest.


Social media remarkably changed the way of interaction between the consumers and organizations. The increased acceptance of social media has given rise to social commerce (s-commerce) and s-commerce usage is gradually increasing over the last few years. The progressive development of technologies suggests that s-commerce will become the mainstream for marketing and a literature survey indicates that there have not been many studies in this area. The purpose of this paper is to predict the factors influencing consumer intention towards the adoption of s-commerce.,This study uses a survey approach with reference to important behavioural factors such as satisfaction, ethics, trust, enjoyment/easiness, social pressure and awareness. The research model was developed to be in line with the available literature. The data were collected using a five-point Likert scale and the research model was tested using least square regression.,The results showed that user intention is significantly and positively related to perceived trust, enjoyment/easiness, social pressure, satisfaction and awareness. Also, "intention" was found to be a significant mediating factor for actual usage.,First, the questionnaire was a "snap-shot" instead of longitudinal study. Second, future research should use other moderating variables that may affect the usage of social media. Also the study could apply a variant of research methods to include other techniques such as interviews, which allow for deeper understanding of the problem and issues.,Social media represents an important platform for electronic commerce and has one of the most metamorphic impacts on business. Therefore, investigating the usage of s-commerce with reference to important behavioural factors could provide valuable information for companies in establishing policies and strategies. It could also be useful for management studies and researchers in understanding the consumers' attitude towards usage of social media for commercial purposes.,S-commerce creates opportunities for firms. Based on findings this research provides insights with major implications for marketers, who would like to generate direct sales on social network platforms.,Existing literature focusses largely on the effectiveness of social media. Only a handful has endeavoured to analyse s-commerce systems and the literature on consumers' behaviour in using s-commerce is not mature yet. This study is one of the few studies in this field, and aims to predict and explain the user acceptance of social media for commercial purposes.


Background Whilst pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) in patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) is shown to provide symptomatic benefit and reduction of right ventricular (RV) volumes, there are scarce data on the rate of ventricular mechanical and biological adaptation. We aimed to assess early and late post-PVR volumetric and functional changes. Methods and Results Patients with rTOF (≥16 years) for PVR were prospectively recruited for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR): pre-PVR (pPVR), early post-PVR at median 6 days (ePVR) and late post-PVR at median 3 years (mPVR). Fifty-seven patients with rTOF (mean age 35.8 ± 10.1 years, 38 male) were included. There was an acute reduction in indexed RV end-diastolic (EDVi), end-systolic (ESVi) volumes and mass early post-PVR, which was sustained at latest time point (RVEDVi pPVR 156.1 ± 41.9ml/m² vs ePVR 104.9 ± 28.4ml/m² vs mPVR 104.2 ± 34.4ml/m2 and RVESVi pPVR 74.9 ± 26.2ml/m² vs ePVR 57.4 ± 22.7ml/m² vs mPVR 50.5 ± 21.7ml/m2;p < 0.01). Seventy percent of patients achieved postoperative normal range diastolic and systolic RV volumes which were predicted by a preoperative RVEDVi≤158ml/m2and RVESVi≤82ml/m2. PVR produced a stepwise reduction in RVESVi (load independent variable) together with an improvement in corrected RVEF after restoring valve competency (which is load dependent). There was also a modest but significant improvement of LVEF, as well as reverse right atrial remodelling. Conclusions Cardiac remodelling is generally regarded as a gradual process post-PVR. We demonstrate for the first time that the major improvement in RV volumes seen at midterm follow-up have already taken place within days after surgery. This occurs with an apparent transient impairment of RVEF, although corrected RVEF more easily illustrates the immediate effect of PVR. However, RVESVi may be a more appropriate, load-independent marker that better reflects the early and sustained benefit of PVR on RV contractility.


Verification of logic controllers can identify errors during the design stage so they can be remedied and prevent some faults from occurring once the system is running. Input order robustness is the property that multiple inputs arriving in a variety of orders, and regardless of the order, produce the same set of outputs and same final state. Verifying this property ensures determinism of the closed-loop system even if the environment is non-deterministic. Because use of the IEC 61499 standard for distributed control is becoming more widespread, we present the application of input order robustness verification to controllers implemented in this formalism. Open issues with IEC 61499 execution semantics are presented and discussed in relation to input order robustness verification.


The extensive Fresco paintings of Qusayr Amra, an Umayyad bath complex, are characterized by their rich iconographic repertoire, which includes hunting and bathing scenes, musicians, dancers, acrobats and wrestlers. It has been proposed that such scenes depict the pastimes of members of the ruling elite as a way of indicating their royal status. The eastern vault of the audience-hall is divided into thirty-two panels arranged in four rows; they depict various craftsmen (e.g. masons, carpenters and blacksmiths) and activities connected with construction works. At first sight these panels appear to be anomalous with no apparent relationship to the other scenes. In addition to describing the sequence of the various crafts and the implements used, this essay attempts to show that these panels were intended to indicate the elevated social status of the patron of Qusayr Amra, and the material resources at his disposal; they were a kind of secular self-celebration of success and wealth.


Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are presently of great interest due to their potential application in high efficiency displays. However, as the number of pixels in a passively addressed display increases, the time available to drive each pixel decreases, the peak pixel brightness increases and the OLED drive current increases. Thin film transistors made with polysilicon can be used to generate a constant current source at each pixel. Each pixel is programmed to provide a constant current throughout the entire frame time, eliminating the high currents encountered in the passive matrix approach. However, polysilicon thin film transistors vary widely in their initial output characteristics due to the nature of the polysilicon crystal growth. A description of some of the important considerations in the design of such an AMOLED pixel and results on improved pixel designs are presented.


The 1990s is a watershed decade for medicine--bringing Medicare reform, new limits on investments, regulation of office labs and possibly comprehensive reform in our health care system. The head of the American Medical Association calls on physicians to muster the courage and cooperation to preserve what is good and fix what is lacking.


Because of its capacity to rapidly convert superoxide to hydrogen peroxide, superoxide dismutase (SOD) is
crucial in both intracellular signalling and regulation of oxidative stress. In this paper we report the
cloning of a Cu/Zn SOD (designated as pfSOD) from the pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata) using rapid amplification
of cDNA ends (RACE) PCR. The full-length cDNA of this Cu/Zn SOD contains an open reading frame
(ORF) of 471 bp coding for 156 amino acids. No signal peptide was identified at the N-terminal amino acid
sequence of Cu/Zn SOD indicating that this pfSOD encodes a cytoplasmic Cu/Zn SOD. This is supported by
the presence of conserved amino acids required for binding copper and zinc. Semi-quantitative analysis in
adult tissues showed that the pfSOD mRNA was abundantly expressed in haemocytes and gill and scarcely
expressed in other tissues tested. After challenge with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), expression of pfSOD
mRNA in haemocytes was increased, reaching the highest level at 8 h, then dropping to basal levels at
36 h. These results suggest that Cu/Zn SOD might be used as a bioindicator of the aquatic environmental
pollution and cellular stress in pearl oyster.


It is shown that for each p. I. homeomorphism / on a convex polygonal disk which is pointwise fixed on the boundary of the disk, there exists a triangulation K of the disk such that / may be obtained by successively moving the vertices of K (with the motion being extended linearly to each triangle of K) in a finite number of steps such that no triangles will be collapsed in the process of motion. An algebraic interpretation of this result is also given.


Background: Store-operated Ca 2+ entry (SOCE) is activated by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca 2+ sensor STIM1 which senses depletion of Ca 2+ from the ER, and induces extracellular Ca 2+ influx through Orai1 to the cytosol to maintain intracellular Ca 2+ homeostasis in various cell types, however the role of SOCE in pancreatic β-cells remains largely unknown. GPR40 plays an important role in potentiation of glucose-induced insulin secretion (GIIS) by long-chain fatty acids and its activation enhances Ca 2+ -release from ER by activating inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3) receptor. Therefore, we hypothesized that SOCE contributed to GPR40-mediated GIIS potentiation. To test the hypothesis, we examined the role of SOCE modulator, STIM1 in MIN6 cells and β-cell specific STIM1-deficient mice (βSTIM1 cKO). Methods: Fasiglifam(fas) was used for GPR40 agonist. STIM1 or Orai1 knockdowned (KD) MIN6 cells were analyzed for insulin secretion or intracellular Ca 2+ -dynamics. MIN6 cells were also transfected with pEX-SP-YFP-STIM1(23-685) and Orai1-CFP to analyze intracellular trafficking of STIM1 in response to fas. Insulin secretion from βSTIM1 cKO islets and OGTT was also analyzed to reveal physiological role of STIM1. Results: STIM1 or Orai1 KD MIN6 cells and islets from βSTIM1 cKO similarly abolished fas-mediated potentiation of GIIS and fas-induced elevation of intracellular Ca 2+ levels, while there was little effect on GIIS itself. STIM1-YFP was rapidly translocated from the ER to the plasma membrane and merged with Orai1-CFP in response to fas which was cancelled by pretreatment of IP3 receptor antagonist, xestospongin C. In OGTT, blood glucose levels were similar in control mice and βSTIM1 cKO without fas administration, however fas-mediated glucose lowering and insulin increasing effect were significantly lower compared with control. Conclusion: GPR40 signal activates STIM1 and SOCE activated by STIM1 is essential for GPR40-mediated potentiation of GIIS. Disclosure R. Usui: None. D. Yabe: Advisory Panel; Self; Abbott. Research Support; Self; Astellas Pharma Inc. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Novo Nordisk Inc., Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sanofi K.K., Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. M. Fauzi: None. A. Botagarova: None. H. Goto: None. S. Tokumoto: None. H. Tatsuoka: None. Y. Tahara: None. S. Kobayashi: None. T. Manabe: None. Y. Baba: None. T. Kurosaki: None. M. Ogura: Research Support; Self; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited, Eli Lilly and Company, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., Merck & Co., Inc., Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Novo Nordisk Inc., Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. K. Nagashima: None. N. Inagaki: Research Support; Self; Astellas Pharma Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited, Japan Tobacco Inc., Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sanofi, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Funding Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; Japan Association for Diabetes Education and Care


A circuit for automatic detection of action potentials (spikes) in neural recording devices is presented. This circuit, designed to operate in discrete time, provides an analogue threshold level based on standard deviation of the analogue samples of the input neural signal. Functionality of the circuit was tested for normal prerecorded neural signals as the input. To examine whether the spike detection threshold level tracks low-frequency baseline variations (e.g. local field potentials), the input neural signal was superposed on both a step function and a low-frequency sine wave. Designed in a 0.18 um CMOS technology, according to simulations the circuit consumes 47 µW from a ±0.9 V supply. A prototype version of the circuit was implemented and successfully tested.


A surrogate modeling framework is developed in this study to circumvent the computational burden of high-fidelity numerical groundwater models for arid coastal aquifers. Two different surrogate models, namely, artificial neural network (ANN) and Gaussian process model (GPM) are trained to replace the computationally expensive numerical flow and transport model OpenGeoSys. A novel time-dependent training scheme is introduced which helps the surrogates in tracking the discrete-time state-space trajectories of the high-fidelity model, thereby making them suitable for variable-time simulations. The surrogates are also tested in the extrapolation range corresponding to some extreme boundary conditions such as a very high rate of extraction. Both the surrogates show comparable accuracy in efficiently approximating the numerical model response; however, ANN is found to be much faster than GPM for the size of the data used. The trained surrogates are then used in developing a long-term planning and management framework for analyzing feasible management scenarios in the coastal aquifer of Oman.


This work investigates legal concepts and their expression in Portuguese, concentrating on the "Order of Attorneys of Brazil" Bar exam. Using a corpus formed by a collection of multiple-choice questions, three norms related to the Ethics part of the OAB exam, language resources (Princeton WordNet and OpenWordNet-PT) and tools (AntConc and Freeling), we began to investigate the concepts and words missing from our repertory of concepts and words in Portuguese, the knowledge base OpenWordNet-PT. We add these concepts and words to OpenWordNet-PT and hence obtain a representation of these texts that is "contained" in the lexical knowledge base.


This article focuses on the issue of applicability of virtue theory to legal theory in civil-law (statutory) jurisdictions and suggests research areas and problems in that respect. The author starts with an assumption that the notion of "virtue" and virtue ethics should be used for the purposes of legal theory starting from references to judicial ethics and normative theory of judicial decision-making. This approach looks especially promising for the purpose of systematizing the chaotic moral language that is being currently used in Poland in reference to judges, their skills, and qualities of their character, which in turn may lead to formulating an explanatory and normative theory of the judicial role that better addresses the observable deficiencies of legal deontology. The author suggests research that could proceed from interpretatively uncovering what are believed to be specific judicial virtues and vices, considering different aspects of the wider Polish and European legal culture of civil law countries (included but not limited to legal and ethical standards, public discourse, legal and other literature, historical and fictional examples, and role models). With respect to judicial ethics, existing virtue theories, including non-eudaimonistic ones, may be examined for the purpose of identifying the model of virtue best suited to the particular nature of the judicial profession. The aretaic (rather than deontological or consequentialist) perspective may enable legal scholarship to take a new path in the debate on the status and qualities of the judiciary, including the problems relating to judicial independence and the selection of candidates for judicial offices.


: The purpose of this double-blind study was to compare the effects on blood pressure of tienilic acid and hydrochlorothiazide in patients with essential hypertension. The biochemical effects of tienilic acid in relation to those of hydrochlorothiazide were also determined over a long-term period of therapy. Sixty-six outpatients with mild to moderate essential hypertension were treated for seven months with either 250 mg of tienilic acid or 50 mg of hydrochlorothiazide after a 3 week placebo period. When warranted, dosage was increased to a maximum of 500 mg of tienilic acid and 100 mg of hydrochlorothiazide daily. Results indicate that tienilic acid reduced blood pressure significantly and to the same extent as hydrochlorothiazide. No significant side effects were observed. The effects on potassium, blood urea nitrogen and creatinine were comparable in both groups. However, serum uric acid rose with hydrochlorothiazide but fell with tienilic acid. In view of this effect, tienilic acid may have certain advantages over thiazide therapy in the treatment of hypertension.