This thesis discusses the contribution of voluntary associations to the civic ideal in Leicester between 1870 and 1939. It demonstrates the growth in local voluntary associations over the period and illustrates the role they played in public life.
Voluntary associations throughout the period 1870 to 1939 helped in the management of local public affairs and provided an organized social life in the town. They promoted social cohesion and a perception of civic unity as well as allowing an expression of difference. Associational life in Leicester became denser between 1870 and 1939, mutating from an elite to a more inclusive model and involvement in voluntary groups that embraced the civic ideal helped previously marginalised groups to integrate into public life. Although national influence encroached on local associational life over these decades there remained a balance between local bodies and those with a national dimension, with branches of some national associations assuming a strong local identity.
The meetings of the voluntary associations helped structure an annual local calendar that was represented by the Leicester newspapers as part of a shared culture of interest to all Leicester residents. This regular programme of associational life underpinned the organisation and credibility of a 'one off' spectacular, the Leicester Pageant of 1932, an event which was supported by local voluntary associations, through which thousands of Leicester townspeople were mobilised to participate. The success of this occasion demonstrated that, in the 1930s, Leicester residents still retained a sense of civic and local identity. This is contrary to a perception in recent scholarship that the popularity of civic ceremony in provincial towns had decreased from the end of the nineteenth century and that this was symptomatic of a decline in the credibility of the civic ideal.


Blockchain is an innovative technology which enabled new applications for solving numerous problems in distributed environments such as the internet of things (IoT) equipped food supply chains (FSCs). In FSCs, the large volume of IoT data such as audio, video, images, and sensor data will be transferred to ensure the traceability of the food to its source. When blockchain technology is used in an FSC, the storage requirements in the nodes will grow with time, since blockchain only allows information adding, without deleting the already stored information. Therefore, it is evident that offchain storage offers more flexibility than onchain storage in IoT equipped supply chains. This paper proposes a scalable storage scheme using offchain storage, where the data from IoT devices in the supply chain will store offchain. To reduce the growth of offchain storage, we exploit the fact that some information regarding a particular food item may not be required after the expiration date. The scalability of the proposed scheme is validated through numerical and experimental results.


BACKGROUND
Outpatient diverticulitis is commonly treated with either a combination of metronidazole and a fluoroquinolone (metronidazole-with-fluoroquinolone) or amoxicillin-clavulanate alone. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised that fluoroquinolones be reserved for conditions with no alternative treatment options. The comparative effectiveness of metronidazole-with-fluoroquinolone versus amoxicillin-clavulanate for diverticulitis is uncertain.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effectiveness and harms of metronidazole-with-fluoroquinolone versus amoxicillin-clavulanate for outpatient diverticulitis.

DESIGN
Active-comparator, new-user, retrospective cohort studies.

SETTING
Nationwide population-based claims data on U.S. residents aged 18 to 64 years with private employer-sponsored insurance (2000 to 2018) or those aged 65 years or older with Medicare (2006 to 2015).

PARTICIPANTS
Immunocompetent adults with diverticulitis in the outpatient setting.

INTERVENTION
Metronidazole-with-fluoroquinolone or amoxicillin-clavulanate.

MEASUREMENTS
1-year risks for inpatient admission, urgent surgery, and Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and 3-year risk for elective surgery.

RESULTS
In MarketScan (IBM Watson Health), new users of metronidazole-with-fluoroquinolone (n = 106 361) and amoxicillin-clavulanate (n = 13 160) were identified. There were no differences in 1-year admission risk (risk difference, 0.1 percentage points [95% CI, -0.3 to 0.6]), 1-year urgent surgery risk (risk difference, 0.0 percentage points [CI, -0.1 to 0.1]), 3-year elective surgery risk (risk difference, 0.2 percentage points [CI, -0.3 to 0.7]), or 1-year CDI risk (risk difference, 0.0 percentage points [CI, -0.1 to 0.1]) between groups. In Medicare, new users of metronidazole-with-fluoroquinolone (n = 17 639) and amoxicillin-clavulanate (n = 2709) were identified. There were no differences in 1-year admission risk (risk difference, 0.1 percentage points [CI, -0.7 to 0.9]), 1-year urgent surgery risk (risk difference, -0.2 percentage points [CI, -0.6 to 0.1]), or 3-year elective surgery risk (risk difference, -0.3 percentage points [CI, -1.1 to 0.4]) between groups. The 1-year CDI risk was higher for metronidazole-with-fluoroquinolone than for amoxicillin-clavulanate (risk difference, 0.6 percentage points [CI, 0.2 to 1.0]).

LIMITATION
Residual confounding is possible, and not all harms associated with these antibiotics, most notably drug-induced liver injury, could be assessed.

CONCLUSION
Treating diverticulitis in the outpatient setting with amoxicillin-clavulanate may reduce the risk for fluoroquinolone-related harms without adversely affecting diverticulitis-specific outcomes.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE
National Institutes of Health.


In this randomized controlled trial started in October 1990, 354 cadaveric kidney transplant recipients were assigned to receive either cyclosporine (CsA) monotherapy (115 patients), CsA + steroids (117 patients), or CsA + steroids + azathioprine (122 patients). The median follow-up was 85.1 mo. Thirty-one deaths occurred (infection, 12; cardiovascular disease, 11; neoplasia, 4; and others, 4), and 65 grafts were lost, mostly due to acute (15) or chronic rejection (50). The cumulative graft half-life was 18.1 yr. According to the "intention-to-treat," the 9-yr actuarial patient and graft survival were 94.0% and 73.3%, respectively, in monotherapy, 87.3% and 65.9% in dual therapy, and 87% and 72.2% in triple therapy (P = 0.647). At the last follow-up, the percentage of patients who remained with the original treatment was 51.2% in monotherapy, 81.7% in dual therapy, and 63.3% in triple therapy. At the seventh year, the mean creatinine clearances were 54.9 +/- 17.6 ml/min in monotherapy, 57.9 +/- 23.4 in dual therapy, and 60.6 +/- 20.7 in triple therapy (P = 0.375). Cataracts (P = 0.000), osteoporosis (P = 0.000), and cardiovascular complications (P = 0.000) were more frequent in dual or triple therapy than in monotherapy. Actuarial graft survival at 9 yr in patients on monotherapy who had to have steroids added was similar to that of the other two groups (62.2% versus 69.3%, P = 0.134). In conclusion, actuarial patient and graft survivals did not differ among the three schemes. The long-term renal function and survival were not affected in the patients on monotherapy who needed the addition of steroids. Monotherapy was associated with a lower incidence of extrarenal complications than the other two regimens.


Background/objective This systematic review aims to determine the potential effects of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) in patients receiving maintenance dialysis therapy (MDT). Methods Electronic databases were searched without language limits through to July 2018. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that involved comparisons of ONS versus placebo or routine care are included in this meta-analysis. RevMan 5.3 statistical software was used for meta-analysis. Results 15 articles with 589 subjects were included in our study. There are insufficient comparable data of randomized trials to allow meta-analysis of mortality. Albumin levels may be improved by the macronutrient blends or protein/amino acid supplements in MDT patients. Compared with the control group, serum albumin levels and BMI in the ONS group were increased by 1.58 g/L (95% CI, 0.52–2.63, P = 0.003; I2 = 85%) and 0.40 kg/m2 (95% CI, 0.10–0.71, P = 0.01; I2 = 49%), respectively. In the subgroup analysis of patients receiving hemodialysis, albumin levels in ONS group were increased by 2.17 g/L (95% CI, 0.89–3.45, P<0.001; I2 = 90%). ONS may not influence serum phosphorus and potassium levels. Conclusions Very low-quality evidence suggests that Short-term oral energy or protein/amino acid supplements may improve nutritional status by increasing serum albumin levels and BMI in MDT patients, without influence on serum potassium levels. High-quality and large RCTs, particularly regarding the effects of ONS on mortality and quality of life, are needed to further validate our findings.


1 Rahman K, Jenkins JG. Failed tracheal intubation in obstetrics: no more frequent but still badly managed. Anaesthesia 2005; 60: 168–71. 2 Barnardo PD, Jenkins JG. Failed tracheal intubation in obstetrics: a 6-year review in a UK region. Anaesthesia 2000; 55: 685–94. 3 Lyons G. Failed intubation. Anaesthesia 1985; 40: 759–62. 4 Samsoon GL, Young JRB. Difficult tracheal intubation: a retrospective study. Anaesthesia 1987; 42: 487–90. 5 Rocke DA, Murray WB, Rout CC, Gouws E. Relative risk analysis of factors associated with difficult intubation in obstetric anesthesia. Anesthesiology 1992; 77: 67–73. 6 Saravanakumar K, Cooper GM. Failed intubation in obstetrics. British Journal of Anaesthesia 2005; 94: 690. 7 Cormack RS, Carli F, Williams KN. Unexpected difficult laryngoscopy. British Journal of Anaesthesia 1991; 67: 501–2.


Aims To determine maternal and neonatal outcomes for women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in Sweden during 1991–2003, and to compare the outcomes in the two time periods.Methods This is a population-based cohort study using the Swedish Medical Birth Register data for the period 1991–2003. There were 1 260 297 women with singleton pregnancies registered during this time, of whom 10 525 were diagnosed with GDM, based on a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test. The main diagnostic criteria were fasting capillary whole blood glucose ≥ 6.1 mmol⁄l and 2 h blood glucose ≥ 9.0 mmol⁄l.Results Maternal characteristics differed significantly between the GDM and non-GDM group. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) were as follows: for pre-eclampsia, 1.81 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.64–2.00); for shoulder dystocia, 2.74 (2.04–3.68); and for Caesarean section, 1.46 (1.38–1.54).No difference was seen in perinatal mortality, stillbirth rates, Apgar scores, fetal distress or transient tachypnoea. There was a markedly higher risk of large for gestational age,OR3.43 (3.21–3.67), and Erb's palsy, OR 2.56 (1.96–3.32), in the GDMgroup, and statistically significant differences in prematurity 4.5 kg, and major malformation, OR 1.19–1.71. No statistically significant improvement in outcomes was seen between the two study periods.Conclusions Women with GDM have higher risks of pre-eclampsia, shoulder dystocia and Caesarean section. Their infants are often large for gestational age and have higher risks of prematurity, Erb's palsy and major malformations. These outcomes did not improve over time.


Language teaching has been strongly influenced over recent years by talk
of notions and functions , most notably through Wilkins' (1976) work on
Notional Syllabuses . Yet the notional/functional syllabus has been
criticized for failing to capture anything more than a superficial
correspondence between form and meaning .
In this thesis I argue for a framework in which a deeper congruence
between form and meaning is developed . I identify regularities in the
lexico-syntactic structure of English which express recognizable notional
relationships , which in turn reflect deeper conceptualizations of
relations between events and participants . These conceptualizations are
represented on a semantic continuum of 'contextual distance' . By
reference to this continuum , I argue that we can identify a clear
congruence between increasing conceptual complexity and increasing lexicosyntactic
complexity . This account gives considerable prominence to the
role of lexis , and to the interdependence between grammar , lexis and
context in the signalling of meaning , something which has not always been
adequately considered within linguistics or within applied linguistics .
I then consider a possible application of these ideas to pedagogy . In
many 'product' approaches to syllabus design and methodology , learners
work with language forms whose meanings are to an extent already fixed ,
with grammar subsuming lexis and with cotext and context already clearly
related by the materials designer . In such approaches the interdependence
between grammar , lexis and context is sometimes lost sight of , and I
argue for a revised approach in which this interdependence is made
central . Thus learners are encouraged to fashion their own meanings by
working with lexical items , and by learning to grammaticize these lexical
items by reference to context . By separating out grammar and lexis in
this way , learners are given direct access to the deeper congruence
between form and meaning - between grammar , lexis and context .
The format of the thesis is as follows . I begin with a selective review
of work in linguistics (chapter one) and applied linguistics (chapter
two) , arguing that the importance of the grammar/lexis relationship has
not (by and large) been much investigated . In chapter three I introduce
the continuum of contextual distance , outlining a general hypothesis in
which relationships between grammar , lexis and context are linked to a
deeper understanding of the congruence between form and meaning . I go on
to develop the detail of this hypothesis , looking both at ideational
meanings (chapter four) and interpersonal meanings (chapter five) .
Stepping back from these detailed arguments , I conclude by presenting an
approach to classroom methodology (chapter six) and to syllabus design
(chapter seven) based on the concept of learner grammaticization .


Restaurant foods can be a substantial source of sodium in the American diet. According to the Institute of Medicine, the significant contribution made by restaurants and food service menu items to Americans' sodium intake warrants targeted attention. Public health practitioners are uniquely poised to support sodium-reduction efforts in restaurants and help drive demand for lower-sodium products through communication and collaboration with restaurant and food service professionals and through incentives for restaurants. This article discusses the role of the public health practitioner in restaurant sodium reduction and highlights select strategies that have been taken by state and local jurisdictions to support this effort.


Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technology, promises to deliver high data rate over large areas to a large number of subscribers in the near future. This paper analyze the effect of overheads over capacity of downlink (DL) of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)–based on the IEEE802.16e mobile WiMAX system with and without overheads. The analysis focuses in particular on the impact of Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) as well as deriving an algorithm to determine the maximum numbers of subscribers that each specific WiMAX sector may support. An analytical study of the WiMAX propagation channel by using Cost-231 Hata Model is presented. Numerical results and discussion estimated by using Matlab to simulate the algorithm for different multi-users parameters.


A best evidence topic in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was: what is the role of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in viability assessment of ischaemic cardiomyopathy? Altogether more than 164 papers were found using the reported search; of which, 6 represented the best available evidence to answer the clinical question and an additional 4 were found by crosschecking the reference lists for further 'best available evidence' papers. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. Using late-gadolinium enhancement-cardiac magnetic resonance (LGE-CMR) imaging, infarcted myocardium can be identified by the presence of hyperenhanced signal. The extent of myocardial hyperenhancement correlates inversely with improved myocardial contractility following surgical or percutaneous revascularization. Furthermore, CMR is able to assess not only viability, but also make gold-standard assessment of ventricular function and volume as well as identify stress perfusion deficits, each of which is relevant to estimating patient prognosis. National bodies have also begun to formally recommend CMR imaging for cardiac viability assessment. For example, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) has stated that 'assessment of myocardial viability in patients with left ventricle dysfunction or akinetic segments for predicting recovery of ventricular function following revascularization is a class I indication for the use of LGE-CMR'. We conclude that cardiac MRI is an excellent tool for predicting myocardial viability, in the context of acute and chronic ischaemic heart disease whether subsequent revascularization is achieved by surgical or percutaneous means. In addition, the versatility of CMR imaging makes it an increasingly attractive tool for the complete assessment of the patient with ischaemic cardiomyopathy.


The efficiency of capital markets has been questioned almost as long as the efficient market hypothesis had been worked out. Numerous critics have been formulated against this hypothesis, questioning notably the behavioural assumptions underlying the efficient market hypothesis. The present contribution does not focus on the behavioural assumptions but rather looks at the implications of focusing purely on the objective of market efficiency when considering market design questions. Hence it aims at discussing the following, possibly rather fundamental issue: Is the objective of efficiency, which has guided most of the market reforms in the last decades, sufficient? Or has it to be complemented by the objective of robustness? Mathematical and engineering control theory has developed the concept of robust control (e.g. Zhou and Doyle, 1998) and it has been shown that there is always a trade-off between the efficiency of a control system and its robustness (cf. e.g. Safonov, 1981, Doyle et al., 1988). The efficiency of the system describes its reactions to disturbance signals. The lower the integral loss function over the so-called transfer or sensitivity function, the less a system is affected by disturbances such as demand fluctuations, and the more efficient is the control. The economic equivalent clearly is the maximisation of welfare, which results in an efficient economic system. Robustness by contrast is defined as stability of the control system in the presence of model uncertainty (deviations in the model parameters or misperceptions of the underlying system). These concepts are applied to the financial markets in their interaction with the real economy. The financial markets being understood as the controllers of real world activity through investments, the implications of misperceptions in the financial sphere are analysed both theoretically and in an application example. From the theory it may readily derived that financial markets providing efficient, i.e. welfare-optimal solutions, must have limitations with respect to robustness. Also in the application example it turns out that in the presence of potential misperception a reduction of irreversible cost shares in investments may lead to an increase in overall expected system costs. Hence improvements in (conventional) market efficiency may be counter-productive by facilitating misallocation of capital as a consequence of misperceptions in the financial markets. This leads to the conclusion that a sole focus on the efficiency objective in market design is problematic and some of the recent turmoil in financial markets may be explained by the lack of consideration given to robustness issues.


There is a large potential for biomass-based renewable energy production Colombia which mostly remains untapped, accounting for a marginal 0.8% of the electricity production. Moreover, Córdoba is a department with important developments in agriculture and agroindustry, where significant amounts of biomass wastes are generated. In total, these wastes have a yearly energy potential of 548 for the use of anaerobic digestion, and 1159 GWh per year using direct combustion. These energy potentials can yield 126 GWh/year of electricity using anaerobic digestion, or 260 GWh/year using direct combustion (i.e. 9 to 18% of the current electricity demand). However, power generation systems based on direct combustion for biomass wastes are economically feasible only for the lower investment costs available in the market, while anaerobic digestion is feasible for the low and average investment costs available in the market. Moreover, the biogas potential is equivalent to 1.4 times the energy demand required to replace firewood for cooking in 32% of the department homes that use firewood. More investigation is needed to more accurately define the potentialities of biomass wastes for energy applications in the department, for more effective promotion of its implementation.


Objective: To explore the correlation between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of uterine fibroids (UFs) and therapeutic effects of high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation (HIFUA), and to provide evidence for UFs diagnosis with MRI in clinical practice. Methods: Forty-three UFs patients who were treated in our hospital from April 2012 to June 2014 were selected, including 72 UFs (48 multiple and 24 single UFs). Transverse, sagittal and coronal MRI scanning was performed one week before and after HIFUA to record UF number, location, type (intramural fibroid, submucosal fibroid and subserosal fibroid), mean diameter, hemoperfusion state, volume and ablation rate. The patients were followed up in the postoperative 1st, 2nd and 3rd months. Results: HIFUA exerted the best ablative effect on fibroids on the anterior uterine wall (F=26.763, P=0.036). Various types of fibroids were ablated significantly differently (F=3.406, P<0.05) by HIFUA that was most effective for ablating the subserosal ones. Having significantly different ablative effects on UFs with different radial line lengths (F=29.94, P<0.05), HIFUA ablated those with radial line lengths of 3-5 cm most effectively. For UFs with different T2WI signal intensities, HIFUA also functioned significantly differently (F=3.179, P=0. 03). Conclusion: HIFUA exerted significantly different ablative effects on UFs with various MRI features. Therefore, these features were well correlated with the therapeutic effects of HIFUA, allowing MRI as a promising diagnostic protocol.


Abstraction and Control of TE Networks (ACTN) refers to the set of
virtual network (VN) operations needed to orchestrate, control and
manage large-scale multi-domain TE networks so as to facilitate
network programmability, automation, efficient resource sharing, and
end-to-end virtual service aware connectivity and network function
virtualization services. The Path Computation Element (PCE) is a
component, application, or network node that is capable of computing a
network path or route based on a network graph and applying
computational constraints. The PCE serves requests from Path
Computation Clients (PCCs) that communicate with it over a local API
or using the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP).
This document examines the applicability of PCE to the ACTN framework.


Roads are among the vital assets of any nation. Apart from carrying people, vehicles and goods, roads also provide avenues for such service apparatuses as water, electricity, sewerages, etc. thereby serving as a veritable tool for socio-economic development. A close look at the Nigerian road network reveals the enormous infrastructural systems problems. These problems, in the main, are more maintenance related. Since the provision of roads is cost intensive, one would have expected appropriate maintenance to safeguard them from total deterioration which ultimately leads to eventual rehabilitation or reconstruction with its cost implications. Regrettably, this is not so in the country for no sooner these road infrastructure are commissioned than they are abandoned to dilapidate. Roads, like any other development assets function maximally over the whole period of their economic life when regular maintenance is applied. This paper therefore examined the road maintenance situation in Nigeria and concluded that there is virtually no noticeable road maintenance culture in the country. It therefore proffers pro-active road maintenance strategies for sustainable socio-economic development and good governance. Keywords: Infrastructure, Road Maintenance, Sustainability and Economic Development.


Title of Document: THE POWER OF SYNTHESIS: THE PURSUIT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL EQUITY THROUGH DESIGN PRACTICE Boaz Ahi Omri Kedar, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017 Dissertation directed by: Professor Garth Rockcastle, FAIA, School of Architecture The paradigm of architecture and design is changing. Centuries of industrialization and rapid urbanization have placed profound stress on the earth's natural systems, presenting new challenges for architects and urban planners. As our collective awareness towards these challenges increases, designers are increasingly called upon to partake in the global transition towards a low-carbon future. These professionals are re-assessing their priorities and practices, striving for better ecological and social scenarios. This dissertation explores how architects and designers successfully integrate environmental sustainability and social equity deliberations into architectural design practice by implementing more holistic sustainable design approaches. It advocates for a future reality where these considerations are naturally incorporated into the design process of any architectural project, and suggests a framework for their more effective integration. The dissertation opens with a review of current sustainable design approaches and practices in the architectural design profession, focusing on the tools and methods commonly used for their integration in the design process. Next, it presents three case studies of exemplary architectural projects, each demonstrating a progressive design approach that successfully integrates both environmental and social sustainability agendas within the design process. Data collection methods included a series of semistructured interviews with designers, architects, developers, clients and other stakeholders in the respective projects, as well as site visits. In each case study project, the process of its inception, development, settings and design methodologies were explored, aiming to evaluate the potentialities and effectiveness of these attributes for better integration of socially and environmentally sustainable design agendas. Synthesis of the collected data ultimately offers a framework for more effective integration of these virtues within architectural design processes. The conclusions point to a multivariate threshold containing a combination of external conditions, recommended processes and design-based tactics to achieve such projects. The conclusions underscore the method for application of these factors, not as isolated deliberations but as parts of a holistic, integrated process. When applied concurrently, these factors perform synergistically to produce holistic, well-rounded living environments that foster environmental stewardship alongside social and cultural wellbeing, empowering a community to flourish.


Background— Sudden cardiac death (SCD) occurs more often in patients with ECG left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy. However, whether LV hypertrophy regression is associated with a reduced risk of SCD remains unclear. Methods and Results— The Losartan Intervention for End Point Reduction in Hypertension (LIFE) study included 9193 patients 55 to 80 years of age with essential hypertension and ECG LV hypertrophy by gender-adjusted Cornell product (CP) (RaVL+SV3 [+6 mm in women]) · QRS duration>2440 mm · ms) and/or Sokolow-Lyon voltage (SLV) (SV1+RV5/6>38 mm). During follow-up (mean, 4.8 years), 190 patients (2%) experienced SCD. In time-dependent Cox analyses, absence of in-treatment LV hypertrophy was associated with a decreased risk of SCD: every 1-SD-lower in-treatment CP (1050 mm · ms) was associated with a 28% lower risk of SCD (hazard ratio [HR], 0.72; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.79) and 1-SD-lower SLV (10.5 mm) with a 26% lower risk (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.84). After adjustment for time-varying systolic and diastolic blood pressures, treatment allocation, age, gender, baseline Framingham risk score, ECG strain, heart rate, urine albumin/creatinine ratio, smoking, diabetes, congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, and occurrence of myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and noncardiovascular death, both in-treatment CP and SLV remained predictive of SCD: each 1-SD-lower CP was associated with a 19% lower risk of SCD (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.73 to 0.90) and 1-SD-lower SLV with an 18% lower risk (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.98). Absence of in-treatment LV hypertrophy by both SLV and CP was associated with a 30% lower risk of SCD (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.92). Conclusions— Absence of in-treatment ECG LV hypertrophy is associated with reduced risk of SCD independently of treatment modality, blood pressure reduction, prevalent coronary heart disease, and other cardiovascular risk factors in hypertensive patients with LV hypertrophy.


Using data from the 1940-1980 Decennial Census and the 1988-1992 March Current Population Surveys, this paper examines the impact of industrial change on male wage inequality over a period of five decades (1940-1990). Alternative measures of skill such as the wage percentile, education and occupation indicate that wage inequality between more and less skilled male workers fell substantially during the 1940s and increased most dramatically during the 1980s. Examination of industrial change over this longer time period shows that the demand for the most highly educated and skilled male workers relative to the least skilled male workers increased no faster during the 1970s and the 1980s than during the earlier decades. In contrast, the demand for men in the middle skill categories (such as those in basic manufacturing) expanded during the 1940s and the 1950s and contracted severely during the 1970s and 1980s. This suggests that the growth of jobs in the middle skill categories may be closely related to overall wage inequality. Cross sectional regressions based on state level data also show some empirical support for the hypothesis that a decline in demand for medium skilled groups increases overall wage inequality.


Many academics and policy makers have proposed that the European Union
(EU) is a key external actor in the democratic transformation of postcommunist
countries. In this research paper, I examine one projection of the
EU's external governance – the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) on
the democratization process of the Republic of Moldova, a small country in
Eastern Europe. The ENP is part of a political framework that links closer
economic integration with the institutionalization of specific institutions. By
exporting an institutional framework that is meant to increase the capacity of
the Moldovan state to ensure the implementation of reforms, the ENP is
meant to inspire marketization, through the development of rules and policies
intended to complement and strengthen the efficiency of market institutions.
As such, it is an indirect model of democracy promotion, promoting democracy
and liberalism side by side.
In this paper I examine the ontology of the ENP to show how it has inspired
gaps that were exploited by subversive-opportunists in Moldova. By
linking the ENP's design to an ontology that holds relative costs to be the primarily
incentives of political actors, I show why the ENP is techno-managerial
and power insular. Then using the Moldovan state as a unit of analysis, I illustrate
how political legacy and power dynamics have influenced implementation
of the ENP. Then I show how the Party of Communists of the Republic of
Moldova (PCRM) exploited ambiguities for interpretation and implementation
of emerging institutional reforms in the media sector to alter the outcome of
the reform process in ways that promoted their political interests.


The variance and covariance component estimation (VCE) has been extensively investigated. However, in real application, the bottleneck problem is the huge computation burden, particularly when many variance and covariance components are involved for many heterogeneous observations. The objective of this paper is to develop a new method allowing the efficient estimation of variance and covariance components. The core of the new method is to construct an orthogonal complement matrix of the coefficient matrix in a Gauss-Markov model using only the coefficient matrix itself. Therefore, the constructed matrix and the computed discrepancies of measurements with each other, which are the essential inputs for the VCE, are invariant in the iterative procedure of computing the variance and covariance components. As a result, the computation efficiency is significantly improved. As a case study, we apply the new method to evaluate the GPS stochastic model with 15 variance and covariance components demonstrating its superior performance. Comparing with the traditional VCE method, the equivalent results are achievable, and the computation efficiency is improved by 34.2%. In the future, much more sensors will be available, and plentiful data can be acquired. Therefore, the new method will be very promising to efficiently estimate the variance and covariance components of the measurements from the different sensors and reasonably balance their contributions to the fused solution, benefiting the higher time-resolution solutions.


Nanofabrication, offering unprecedented capabilities in the manipulation of material structures and properties, opens up new opportunities for engineering innovative magnetic materials and devices, developing ultra-high-density magnetic storage, and understanding micromagnetics. This paper reviews the recent advances in patterned magnetic nanostructures, a fast-emerging field, including (1) state-of-the-art technology for patterning of magnetic nanostructures as small as 10 nm; (2) engineering of unique magnetic properties (such as domain structures, domain switching, and magnetoresistance) by patterning and controlling the size, shape, spacing, orientation, and compositions of magnetic materials; (3) quantized magnetic disks-a new paradigm for ultra-high-density magnetic storage based on patterned single-domain elements that have demonstrated a storage density of 65 Gb/in/sup 2/ (nearly two orders of magnitude higher than that in current commercial magnetic disks) and a capability of 400 Gb/in/sup 2/; (4) novel magnetoresistance sensors based on unique properties of magnetic nanostructures; (5) other applications of nanoscale patterning in magnetics such as the quantification of magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and a new ultra-high-resolution MFM tip; and (6) sub-10-nm imprint lithography-a new low-cost, high-throughput technology for manufacturing magnetic nanostructures.


The interdependency between filler retention and paper formation is well-known, where a high retention is accompanied by impaired formation. A challenge for today's papermakers is to increase the competitiveness for uncoated and coated fine paper, by improving the formation at the same level of retention. Over the years, the use and the demands of retention aids have increased as a consequence of a higher system closure, increased machine speeds and increased filler content. The knowledge of whether some retention aid systems are more or less detrimental to paper formation than other systems, is very limited. The insuffiency of knowledge is, however, also true for other chemical, mechanical and interacting factors, which influence the retention/formation relationship in a complex manner. In order to investigate the retention/formation relationship (features, retention aids, dosage points, etc.), a pilot-scale fourdrinier former (R/F-machine) has been developed. The R/F-machine provides a short circulation of the white water and controlled experimental conditions and is appropriate for cost-effective investigations. Moreover, the R/F-machine has been designed to have a short residence time to chemical equilibrium and the machine has also shown high reproducibility in the results. This licentiate thesis presents the R/F-machine and examines, during constant experimental conditions, the retention/formation relationships for some different retention aid systems. Three single-component cationic polyacrylamides with varying molecular weights and two polyacrylamide-based microparticulate systems with varying microparticles were examined. The retention aid systems were investigated on the R/F-machine, for a fine paper stock (90 % bleached hardwood and 10 % bleached softwood) with addition of 25 % filler (based on total solids content). The results showed that the retention/formation relationship was not dependent on the retention aid system used. All systems showed the same relationship between retention and formation. On the other hand, the various retention aid systems provided different effects considering their retention performance.


: Food plots are a vital element for the survival of game bird species such as bobwhite quail ( Colinus virginianus ) on Fort Riley Military Installation in Kansas. However, white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) tend to eat the sorghum when it starts to ripen in September and continue feeding on it through November and December, often leaving no food for the quail during the winter. We conducted pen and field trails to determine if repellents were an effective and feasible method to protect grain sorghum food plots from deer damage. Two-choice pen trials with both deer and game bird species were used to determine preference and avoidance of milo treated with Liquid Fence ® and Plantskydd™. Individual food plots on Fort Riley were used to test both repellents' effectiveness in protecting a 6-row perimeter around established food plots. When given a choice both bobwhite quails and pheasants avoided Plantskydd ( P < 0.001). Both repellents were avoided versus the control in the pen trials for white-tailed deer ( P # 0.0001); however, we found no difference in seed head damaged between field control plots and plots treated with Liquid Fence or those with Plantskydd ( F 7,23 = 0.88, P = 0.54). Although milo treated in the pens deterred white-tailed deer, we feel the use of repellents for treating food plots may be cost prohibitive and less effective than other deterrents such as netting fences.


Mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. with altered regulation of starch degradation were identified by screening for plants that retained high levels of leaf starch after a period of extended darkness. The mutant phenotype was also expressed in seeds, flowers, and roots, indicating that the same pathway of starch degradation is used in these tissues. In many respects, the physiological consequences of the mutations were equivalent to the effects observed in previously characterized mutants of Arabidopsis that are unable to synthesize starch. One mutant line, which was characterized in detail, had normal levels of activity of the starch degradative enzymes alpha-amylase, beta-amylase, phosphorylase, D-enzyme, and debranching enzyme. Thus, it was not possible to establish a biochemical basis for the phenotype, which was due to a recessive mutation at a locus designated sex1 at position 12.2 on chromosome 1. This raises the possibility that hitherto unidentified factors, altered by the mutation, play a key role in regulating or catalyzing starch degradation.


ICP-OES emission spectrophotometry is an effective technique for the detection of metals in various samples. However the sensitivity of ICPOES for lead requires improvement. Studies were done with usage of oxidizers and other additives to improve lead by hydride reaction but this present study found the influence of an oxidizing agent without any hydride reaction. In this attempt, three different oxidizers comprising hydrogen peroxide – nitric acid, vanadium pentoxide – nitric acid and potassium permanganate – nitric acid were compared. Then the influencing oxidizer and its reaction conditions were optimized. The proposed method was also applied for the detection of lead in various real samples like old paint scraps, plastic toys and food packaging material. The results revealed that the maximum amount of lead (23.84 mg/g) was present in old paint scraps among the analyzed samples.


Introduction: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in middle and old aged females. Oncological breast surgeries have commonly been performed under General Anaesthesia (GA). Thoracic Epidural Anaesthesia (TEA) is a safe and advantageous technique associated with fewer post surgical recovery complications, shorter hospital stay and consequently, decreased health care costs. TEA provides better control of pain and provides satisfactory analgesia in postoperative period without any respiratory complications. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was carried out in Anaesthesiology and Critical care department of Pt. J.N.M. Medical College and Dr. B.R.A.M. Hospital, Raipur (C.G.) in 40 female patients aged between 30 and 60 years with ASA grade I, II, III underwent for breast surgeries during February 2007 to July 2008. Pre operative assessment of the patient including history, clinical examination and relevant investigations were done. Pre operative assessment of the patient including history, clinical examination and relevant investigations were done. Explanation regarding procedure and consent was taken from all the patients. The procedure and techniques were performed as per standard protocol. Observations: Maximum numbers of cases (32 cases, 80%) were in the age group of 45-60 yrs. Mean age in our study was 49.0 ± 6.6 yrs. The mean duration of onset of block was 7.67±1.14min. The mean duration was 117.12±28.90min. In maximum number of patients (21), duration of surgery was 91-120 min and mean duration of surgery was 123.1.±13.16min.Preoperative mean SBP was 120 ± 7.45mm of Hg. Intraoperative SBP ranged from 119.8 ±7.02mm of Hg to 125.15 ±8.43mm of Hg. Preoperative mean DBP was 77.6 ±4.34mm of Hg. Introperative DBP ranged from 71.±5.61mm of Hg to 77. ±4.63mm of Hg. Preoperative mean of PR was 84.1 ±5.12/min. Intraoperative mean PR ranged from 80.4 ±4.41/min to 83.35 ±4.54/min and minimum PR was 80.4 ±4.41/min. Preoperative mean of RR was 14.52 ±1.3/min. It ranged between 13.35 ±0.97/min to 14.27 ±0.93/min. Conclusion: It is concluded that TEA for breast surgeries is a safe and a reliable alternative of GA.


In many ways, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, crystallized national debate over drug patentsi?½both in Canada and the United States. This became clear when, at the height of the anthrax attacks in October, NBCi?½s Tom Brokaw paid the following homage to the top anti-anthrax drug: i?½In Cipro we trust.i?½ On the one hand, the public was eternally grateful for the research and development that led to the patented, life-saving CIPRO. On the other, the Canadian and United States governments insisted on obtaining national stockpiles of the drug at much-reduced prices. In fact, these conflicting attitudes toward CIPRO revealed a greater reality. Competing policy objectivesi?½providing incentives for pharmaceutical innovation while ensuring timely access to affordable medicinesi?½are the raison di?½i?½tre of many drug patent regimes, including those in Canada and the United States. Legislators and regulators alike keep searching for the best balance between these conflicting goals. This paper explores these issues through a comparative study of Canadian and United States drug patent regimes. Part II is an overview of the legislative and regulatory framework currently in place in both jurisdictions. In at least one significant respect, the regimes in Canada and the United States are unique, vis-i?½-vis the rest of the world. Pursuant to complex procedures, a drug patentee is entitled to an automatic injunction against a proposed generic competitor. Parts III and IV consider how these drug patent rules have played out in the case of CIPROi?½both before and after September 11, again in Canada and the United States. The purpose of the CIPRO case study is twofold: (1) to show how legal incentives provided to drug manufacturers can be misused, leading to possible anticompetitive outcomes; and (2) to demonstrate how current laws may not adequately address the new, suddenly pressing objective of bioterrorism defense. Finally, Part V looks at pending legislation directed at readjusting the balance between pharmaceutical innovation and generic competition.


In the absence of Spanish journals and publications with a high impact factor and since one of the primary reasons to obtain such an impact is the frequency with which the publication is referenced, we wanted to check the general belief by which even in the Spanish journals the proportion of national articles that get referenced is very small. We reviewed all articles published by Actas Urológicas Españolas during 1989 and 1990 (12 issues, 246 articles with 4,549 references), and found that only 14.42% of references were from publications or books edited in Spain or at congresses held within Spain. After excluding books and communications originates in congresses, the figure is 10.9%. On the other hand, we noticed that over 25% articles do not include one single Spanish reference. Finally, the publication most often consulted is the USA Journal of Urology, which approaches some 20% of all mentions.


An eecient dynamic storage allocator is important for time-critical parallel programs. In this paper, we present a fast and simple parallel allocator for xed size block on shared-memory multiprocessors. We show both theoretically and empirically that the allocator incurs very low lock contention. The allocator is tested with parallel simulation applications with frequent allocation and release requests. The results connrm that our allocator is highly eecient and is scalable to more processors. keywords Parallel storage allocators; minimization of lock contention; scalable parallel algorithms.


This work reports a novel lump-element balun for use in a miniature monolithic subharmonically pumped resistive mixer (SPRM) microwave monolithic integrated circuit. The proposed balun is simply analogous to the traditional Marchand balun. The coupled transmission lines are replaced by lump elements, significantly reducing the size of the balun. This balun requires no complicated three-dimensional electromagnetic simulations, multilayers or suspended substrate techniques; therefore, the design parameters are easily calculated. A 2.4-GHz balun is demonstrated using printed circuit board technology. The measurements show that the outputs of balun with high-pass and band-pass responses, a 1-dB gain balance, and a 5/spl deg/ phase balance from 1.7 to 2.45 GHz. The balun was then applied in the design of a 28-GHz monolithic SPRM. The measured conversion loss of the mixer was less than 11dB at a radio frequency (RF) bandwidth of 27.5-28.5 GHz at a fixed 1 GHz IF, a local oscillator (LO)-RF isolation of over 35 dB, and a 1-dB compression point higher than 9 dBm. The chip area of the mixer is less than 2.0 mm/sup 2/.


Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a global norm for organizations to observe. In today's shifting media landscape, social media influencers (SMIs) have become central actors in social-mediated CSR communication, connecting organizations and stakeholders by endorsing organizational CSR initiatives through self-generated messages. This study aimed to investigate how SMIs succeeded in creating positive behavioral and relational outcomes among consumers through the use of social media in the context of CSR communication. Data from a survey of 592 participants in the United States indicated that SMIs' trustworthiness, expertise, uniqueness, and originality contributed to creating a desire in target consumers to emulate the SMIs who had endorsed a CSR initiative on Twitter. Consumers' desire to do so drove their engagement in the CSR initiative directly, and indirectly did so through attribution of an altruistic motivation to the CSR initiative. Moreover, the target consumers' CSR engagement and altruistic attribution further fostered their relationships with the corporation performing the CSR initiative. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.


This paper discusses two multi-experiment studies using the ERP methodology to investigate neural correlates of processing linguistic emojis. The first study examined the use of wink emojis used to mark irony and found the same ERP response complex that has been found in response to word-generated irony. Contingent upon individual differences in interpretation, these emojis are processed the same way as ironic words. The second study investigated the prediction of non-face emojis substituted for nouns. When predictability was high, unexpected emojis elicited the same ERP response patterns as words. Overall, the results of these two studies suggest that emojis used linguistically are processed in the same way as words and that individuals can integrate input from multiple modalities into a holistic representation of a single utterance.


Glasgow has been home to an increasing number of asylum seekers since it became one of the main UK dispersal cities, in 1999 (Wren, 2007). Due to the fluid situation determined by the asylum seeker status, there are no definite figures on the number of asylum seeking women 1 who are at various stages of the asylum process. However, based on 2011 figures, the total number of asylum seeking women in Scotland is between 6,000 and 10,000 (Da Lomba & Murray, 2014).


Wechat is the most widely and frequently used mobile social media and has profoundly integrated into the daily life of many people. Sustainable development is a common challenge for all. Under this background, how to promote public participation in environmental communication has become an important topic. In this paper, a method is proposed to understand the motivating mechanism behind Wechat users' environmental information-sharing behavior by taking China's unique social and cultural background into account. A comprehensive theoretical model for this study is constructed based on the theory of use and satisfaction and the theory of planned behavior (TPB).Initially, the dataset is collected and annotated. The data is preprocessed using normalization method. The theory of use and satisfaction and TPB are employed for predicting the research status of Wechat utilization. For enhancing the accuracy of prediction, we employ Improved Grasshopper optimization algorithm (IGOA). The performance of the proposed system is analyzed and compared with the conventional approaches.


Expertise provides numerous benefits. Experts process information more efficiently, remember information better, and often make better decisions. Consumers pursue expertise in domains they love and chase experiences that make them feel something. Yet, might becoming an expert carry a cost for these very feelings? Across more than 700,000 consumers and 6 million observations, developing expertise in a hedonic domain predicts consumers becoming more emotionally numb—that is, having less intense emotion in response to their experiences. This numbness occurs across a range of domains—movies, photography, wine, and beer—and across diverse measures of emotion and expertise. It occurs in cross-sectional real-world data with certified experts, and in longitudinal real-world data that follows consumers over time and traces their emotional trajectories as they accrue expertise. Furthermore, this numbness can be explained by the cognitive structure experts develop and apply within a domain. Experimentally inducing cognitive structure led novice consumers to experience greater numbness. However, shifting experts away from using their cognitive structure restored their experience of emotion. Thus, although consumers actively pursue expertise in domains that bring them pleasure, the present work is the first to show that this pursuit can come with a hedonic cost.


We propose a technique for test scheduling and design of test bus infrastructure where test application time and test bus length and width are minimized while constraints on power consumption and test resources are considered. Our approach is suitable for repeated use in the design space exploration process due to its low computational cost. For the final design, we use simulated annealing to optimize the solution. Our technique has been implemented and experimental results show the efficiency of our approach.


We present a hardware/software system for support of distributed Extreme Programming, or DXP. It consists of a dual video projector setup with NetMeeting running on a single PC, and a hypervideo system we built called OvalTine. OvalTine allows the creation and automatic tracking of hyperlinks in a video stream, both archived and real-time (as in video conferencing). DXP supports the development of software by a pair of programmers that is non-co-located. One projector displays a shared PC desktop, and another projector displays a life-sized image of each collaborator to the other. OvalTine integration means developers can add hyperlinks to the collaborator camera stream, integrating it with Web pages or other video streams. The DXP work environment gives a better sense of "being there" to the pairs in a pair-programming team. We are experimenting with DXP to measure the productivity of distributed software developers working via different technical processes (paired, individual, full XP, traditional). 1. Pair programming, XP, and distributed collaboration Increasingly, programmers are working in geographically distributed teams. Escalating trends in teleworking, distance education, and globally distributed organizations are making these distributed teams an absolute necessity. These trends are beneficial in many ways, particularly for those in geographically disadvantaged areas. However, it is not believed that any of these arrangements makes a programmer more effective than if all the programmers were, indeed, co-located. Therefore, organizations must strive to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of these unavoidably distributed programmers and teams. This paper describes the development and study of a technique tailored for distributed programming teams. The technique is based on an emerging software engineering methodology known as pair-programming combined with nearly 20 years of widespread and active research in collaborative software systems. We aim to show that geographically distributed programmers benefit from using technology to collaborate synchronously with other programmers. Our objective is to demonstrate that the geographically distributed programmers who collaborate synchronously with other programmers will outperform geographically distributed programmers who work independently. Professional interest in pair programming has risen dramatically in recent years with the success of an agile software development process called Extreme Programming, or XP [1,2] developed by Beck. XP is distinguished from more traditional development processes by emphasizing (even requiring) • pair programming • test-first code development at the unit level • full regression test support (with JUnit [3,4]) • lack of up-front detailed design • frequent code refactoring [5] • on-site client • expectation of requirements changes. XP practitioners develop requirements conversationally with the client, and deliver frequent working prototypes for feedback and changes. No code is written unless it is needed (no programming for the "perhaps" future), and when a design grows to the point that it feels unwieldy it is refactored and re-architected before further extension.


Abstract. The nest environment plays an important role in influencing sea turtle hatchling phenotype. Increasing global temperatures can potentially cause detrimental changes to hatchling size and performance and ultimately influence their recruitment into the adult population. The mass nesting rookeries of olive ridleys in Odisha on the east coast of India are among the largest globally and the only major ones outside Central America. Many nests laid on the east coast of India are translocated to hatcheries as part of hatchery management practices. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the effects of temperature on hatchlings produced in hatcheries as well as site-specific factors in order to undertake appropriate climate-resilient hatchery management measures. This study examined the effect of temperature on the morphology and locomotor performance of hatchlings produced in 2 different hatcheries on the east coast: in Rushikulya, Odisha, and in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. We examined various size (body, flipper, and neck length) and performance (crawl speed, righting ability, and righting propensity) parameters for hatchlings at both hatcheries across a range of temperatures. We found that hatchling size and performance were significantly influenced by nest incubation temperature. Higher incubation temperatures resulted in smaller hatchling size, which in turn was correlated with lower performance variables. Incubation temperature also had a direct effect on hatchling performance independent of hatchling size. The effect of nest temperature on morphology and performance of hatchlings could influence their survival and recruitment rates, thus influencing population dynamics and resilience to climate change.


Study objective —To describe the preva- lence and patterns of use of crack and cocaine hydrochloride among heroin users in Spain. To explore if the expansion of heroin smoking is accompanied by a similar phenomenon for cocaine. Design —Cross sectional study in 1995. Face to face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Participants


Internet-based electronic commerce is a rapidly evolving phenomenon. Organisations have reacted to the opportunities that have been presented through electronic commerce as new class of strategic information system that can be defined as an Internet Protocol Based Information System (IPBIS).

As the demand for IPBIS grows, organisations are looking for ways to use it in order to leverage strategic advantage within their given markets. However, IPBIS are not yet established, and there are many unknowns surrounding its use and the change effects it may have on adopting organisations. Research is emerging that answers some of the organisational and electronic market issues that are being posed by organisations, but which are not being addressed by the increasing amounts of non-academic hyperbole that is in evidence.

This study was conducted using a mixed mode of case study research within a grounded theory framework to explore the role of IPBIS as a contributing factor to organisational change. Twelve cases were studied using semi-structure interviews and observation, to assess technology implementation strategies, change effects, and management of change strategies.

This study has revealed that organisations follow a staged model of integration that may start as a tentative venture with simple email facilities, and then moves through a set of discreet stages to potential full integration with internal information systems, which may be outsourced to third party solution providers.

Evidence supports a substantive theory of 'Push-Pull Decision Taking' that was developed to provide an explanatory framework showing that organisations reach a stage of risk analysis and information elicited, and then feel compelled to participate in IPBIS electronic commerce initiatives, which are not always in the immediate interests of the organisation. The results of this decision taking are that the organisation and its actors try to develop appropriate management strategies, which typically support incremental change. This resulting model of change and a series of working propositions provide a basis for practitioner work, and further academic research in this domain.


We report resistivity, thermoelectric power, and thermal conductivity of MoS2 single crystals prepared by the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method using I2, Br2, and TeCl4 as transport agents. The material presents low-lying donor and acceptor levels, which dominate the in-plane charge transport. Intercalates into the van der Waals gap strongly influence the interplane resistivity. Thermoelectric power displays the characteristics of strong electron–phonon interaction. A detailed theoretical model of thermal conductivity reveals the presence of a high number of defects in the MoS2 structure. We show that these defects are inherent to CVT growth method, coming mostly from the transport agent molecules inclusion as identified by total reflection X-ray fluorescence analysis (TXRF) and in-beam activation analysis (IBAA).


We previously observed genotoxic effects of carbon black nanoparticles at low doses relative to the Danish Occupational Exposure Limit (3.5 mg/m3). Furthermore, DNA damage occurred in broncho‐alveolar lavage (BAL) cells in the absence of inflammation, indicating that inflammation is not required for the genotoxic effects of carbon black. In this study, we investigated inflammatory and acute phase response in addition to genotoxic effects occurring following exposure to nanoparticulate carbon black (NPCB) at even lower doses. C57BL/6JBomTac mice were examined 1, 3, and 28 days after a single instillation of 0.67, 2, 6, and 162 µg Printex 90 NPCB and vehicle. Cellular composition and protein concentration was evaluated in BAL fluid as markers of inflammatory response and cell damage. DNA strand breaks in BAL cells, lung, and liver tissue were assessed using the alkaline comet assay. The pulmonary acute phase response was analyzed by Saa3 mRNA real‐time quantitative PCR. Instillation of the low doses of NPCB induced a slight neutrophil influx one day after exposure. Pulmonary exposure to small doses of NPCB caused an increase in DNA strand breaks in BAL cells and lung tissue measured using the comet assay. We interpret the increased DNA strand breaks occurring following these low exposure doses of NPCB as DNA damage caused by primary genotoxicity in the absence of substantial inflammation, cell damage, and acute phase response. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 56:41–49, 2015. © 2014 The Authors. Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Environmental Mutagen Society


This paper is concerned with developing a technique for an ultrasonic determination of the acoustical properties (thickness, wave speed, density, attenuation) of the individual layer in a layered medium. The layered medium is surrounded by an identical host medium (water) of infinite extent on either side. Normally incident plane longitudinal waves are considered. Transfer functions have been calculated in time domain as well as in frequency domain. A satisfactory comparison between the theory and the experiment was observed for a three‐layered medium (forward problem). An inverse problem is defined as a simultaneous determination of several acoustic parameters from the measured transfer functions. A systematic analysis of the sensitivity of the transfer functions to the acoustic parameters has been carried out. The following inverse problems have been solved for a three‐layered medium: three thicknesses for a three‐layered medium; and wave speed and thickness of any one of the layers (given those of the ...


This thesis examines the relationship between state identity and pacific blockade, a nineteenth century custom involving the stopping of traffic to a coast without a declaration of war. Drawing on via median constructivism, diplomatic history and international law's histories, it attempts to explain how pacific blockade emerged despite contradicting contemporary international law, what significance it had for blockading states, and how it could disappear without an explicit rejection. The thesis argues that this practice acquires legitimacy for British decision-makers by performing multiple, conflicting identities in the Ottoman Empire and Latin America. It links pacific blockade to cultural and material hierarchies that legitimized ignoring blockaded states' interpretations of events. When the institutional and normative context of the practice changes, the thesis argues that pacific blockade loses its legitimacy to states and international law. Thus it provides an example of an exclusive norm disappearing despite its performance of multiple state identities.


The paper proposes a wireless solution, based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) networks for the monitoring of the device, soil humidity and water level of the container in a small scale plantation. This system provides ideal solution for monitoring critical conditions in the plantation. Utilizing soil humidity sensor, water level sensor, water pump, microcontroller, LCD and GSM technology, this system offers a low cost and effective solution to wide range of remote monitoring. The system can configure to transmit data on the status of the plantation, to a mobile phone. Whenever it finishes the water irrigation, the system will send an SMS to the user. The user can monitor the system through his mobile phone by sending commands to GSM modem, and then passed to the microcontroller. The system provides global access to the user since it used GSM as its mobile communication. It has also additional features such as the user can monitor the balance of the load from the system, the user can also control the pump manually or through mobile phone and the system can send the monitoring status via SMS to any number inputted by the user via mobile phone.


Studies of the hypophyseal-thyroid system in patients with cancer of the lung, stomach, mammary gland have revealed similar changes, manifested in the increased TTH concentration with simultaneous fall in the T3 and T4 content with the resultant increase of TTH/T3 and TTJ/T4 coefficients. The changes observed are characteristic of oncological patients only and may be used for diagnostic purposes.


This study investigates the long-run relationship between employment and exchange rate shocks at the industry level for France. Using panel unit roots and panel cointegration analysis, it is found that the French industries are quite sensitive to exchange rate changes. The estimated long-run elasticities reveal that exchange rates do influence industry employment in the expected way, that is, real appreciations are associated with decline in manufacturing for all industries in the sample.


The purpose of the present work has been to produce knowledge as regards the rheological behavior of polymer matrix in nonwoven fibrous reinforcing structures for composites. The results are expected to contribute toward a better understanding of flow mechanisms in fibrous systems in order to develop better techniques for fabricating elastomer-based composites. Theoretical and experimental analyses have been made of interactions between the structural parameters of the fibrous mats and the flow characteristics of the matrix with systematically varied material and process parameters. In nonwoven mats with fibers laid lengthwise, the flow rate along the fiber direction was found to be significantly higher than the flow rate crosswise to the fiber direction. Nonwoven mats with multidirectionally laid fibers exhibited a practically radial flow front pattern. Nonwoven mats made of coarser fibers showed greater matrix polymer flow rate as compared with finer fibers. The matrix flow distance was proportional to the logarithm of injection time. The decrease of pressure in the mold cavity was linearly proportional to the matrix flow distance. The dependence of permeability on the level of compression of the fibrous structure is in agreement with the results published by other workers. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Occupancy of the T-cell receptor complex does not appear to be a sufficient stimulus to induce a T-cell-mediated immune response. Increasing evidence suggests that cognate cell-cell interaction between an activated T cell and an antigen-presenting cell may provide such a stimulus. A candidate T-cell surface molecule for this costimulatory signal is the T-cell-restricted CD28 antigen. Following crosslinking with anti-CD28 mAb, suboptimally stimulated CD28+ T cells show increased proliferation and markedly increased secretion of a subset of lymphokines. Recently, the B-cell surface activation antigen B7 was shown to be a natural ligand for the CD28 molecule, and both B7 and CD28 are members of the immunoglobulin superfamily. Here we report that B7-transfected CHO cells can induce suboptimally activated CD28+ T cells to proliferate and secrete high levels of interleukin 2. The response is identical whether T cells are submitogenically stimulated with either phorbol myristate acetate or anti-CD3 to activate the T cells. This response is specific and can be totally abrogated with anti-B7 monoclonal antibody. As has previously been observed for anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody, B7 ligation induced secretion of interleukin 2 but not interleukin 4. We have previously demonstrated that B7 expression is restricted to activated B lymphocytes and interferon gamma-activated monocytes. Since these two cellular populations are involved in antigen presentation as well as cognate interaction with T lymphocytes, B7 is likely to represent a central constimulatory signal that is capable of amplifying an immune response.


Several features on the Cocos plate appear to be anomalous or of unclear origin. Specifically, the eastern extension of the Orozco Fracture Zone near lat 15°N has a northeast trend, which differs significantly from the nearly east-west motion of the Pacific and Cocos plates. Moreover, the Tehuantepec Ridge has a similar northeast strike and separates the deep Guatemala Basin on its southeast side from shallower crust to the northwest.

The origin of these features can be adequately described by a small change in Cocos-Pacific plate motion and a 20° reorientation of the East Pacific Rise. This reorientation is strongly substantiated by a "fanning" of magnetic anomaly lineations over the Cocos plate between the Orozco Fracture Zone and the Tehuantepec Ridge. The reconstruction assumes that the Tehuantepec Ridge is a relict fracture zone; this interpretation is supported by recent gravity models across the ridge. The Guatemala Basin is the result of older crust formed prior to a ridge-axis jump (Clipperton Ridge to East Pacific Rise) and the reorientation of the East Pacific Rise.


Metasurfaces have shown promising potentials in shaping optical wavefronts while remaining compact compared to bulky geometric optics devices. Design of meta-atoms, the fundamental building blocks of metasurfaces, relies on trial-and-error method to achieve target electromagnetic responses. This process includes the characterization of an enormous amount of different meta-atom designs with different physical and geometric parameters, which normally demands huge computational resources. In this paper, a deep learning-based metasurface/meta-atom modeling approach is introduced to significantly reduce the characterization time while maintaining accuracy. Based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) structure, the proposed deep learning network is able to model meta-atoms with free-form 2D patterns and different lattice sizes, material refractive indexes and thicknesses. Moreover, the presented approach features the capability to predict meta-atoms' wide spectrum responses in the timescale of milliseconds, which makes it attractive for applications such as fast meta-atom/metasurface on-demand designs and optimizations.


Knowledge of dynamic parameters of mechanical systems is required in different applications, particularly in the simulation and control problems. In this paper, the standard identification methods are discussed and a new methodology for identification of inertial parameters is raised when the closed chain has low mobility. The methodology includes formulating a symbolic model based on the transfer of inertial properties and a reduction using dynamic contribution indices based on CAD approximations. The new method is applied to the front suspension of an electrical vehicle. After applying the procedure, a model with few parameters that allows accurately reproducing the dynamic behaviour of the system is obtained. A novel methodology has been developed that allows the identification of dynamic parameters in low mobility mechanical systems.


In most design codes, soils are classified as either sand or clay, and appropriate design equations are used to represent their behaviour. For example, the behaviour of sandy soils is expressed in terms of the soil's relative density, whereas consistency limits are often used for clays. However, sand-clay mixtures, which are typically referred to as intermediate soils, cannot be easily categorized as either sand or clay and therefore a unified interpretation of how the soil will behave at the transition point, i.e., from sandy behaviour when fines are few to clay behaviour for high fines content, is necessary. In this paper, the cyclic shear behaviour of sandsilt mixtures was investigated by considering variations in fines content and compaction energy, while paying attention to the void ratio expressed in terms of sand structure. Then, by using the concept of equivalent granular void ratio, it was noted that the contribution of silt on the cyclic shear strength of the soil was about 43% of that of sand.


This paper investigates the concept of customers' perceived price fairness in the context of different price increase conditions. Several tourism service industries seem reluctant to systematically vary or occasionally rise prices, mostly because of potential negative consumer responses. Previous studies in behavioral pricing confirm that a price increase may be perceived as highly unfair and, with this, may lead to negative consequences for the firm. However, there is some evidence that not all price increase events are perceived equally and that consumers' fairness perception depends on the situational conditions of the respective price event. Drawing on the principle of dual entitlement and attribution theory, the results of a standardized survey with 1530 cable car customers in Switzerland reveal that cost-based reasons seem to legitimate a price increase, rather than excess demand conditions. Still, within cost conditions, an increase in internally controllable costs is perceived as a less fair reason for raising prices as opposed to an exogenously caused and uncontrollable cost increase. Interestingly, increasing prices without any communicated reason is perceived as the most unfair condition, indicating the crucial role of price communication.


Introduction: Rhabdomyolysis (RM) is a condition where there is injury to striated muscle fibers causing release of myoglobin, creatine phosphokinase (CPK), and other intracellular contents into the circulation. High myoglobin levels cause acute kidney injury (AKI). Trauma is the most common cause of RM and development of complications related to the degree of myoglobin released. Currently, the degree of RM is assessed and treatment is instituted based on serum CPK. As myoglobin is the direct cause of AKI, we set out to determine if serum myoglobin is a more reliable predictor than CPK for the development of AKI in traumatic RM. Methodology: A prospective observational study of 90 patients was admitted to the surgical Intensive Care Unit/high dependency unit of a tertiary hospital with traumatic RM whose serum CPK >5000 U/L. Along with standard treatment including intravascular volume optimization and hemodynamic stabilization, they were treated with "crush protocol." Daily/twice a day, serum CPK and myoglobin were estimated. Categorical data are expressed as frequency and percentage, and the continuous variables are presented as mean (standard deviation) or median (interquartile range) based on normality. Other statistical analyses were done using the Chi-square test, independent t-test, and rank sum test based on normality. Results: Fourteen out of 90 patients developed AKI and one patient required renal replacement therapy. CPK value of >12,000 U/l was identified to have 64% sensitivity and 56% specificity for developing AKI whereas serum myoglobin value of >5000 ng/ml was identified to have 78% sensitivity and 77% specificity for developing AKI. Conclusion: Following traumatic RM, in patients on "crush protocol," serum myoglobin is a more sensitive and specific test than serum CPK, for predicting AKI.


Vamana is the Agrya karma for Kaphaja vikaras. Madanaphala - Randia dumetorum Lam is the drug of choice for Vamana karma because of its property – Anapayitwat (without untoward effect). Specific collection method, season and processing is required to get Phalapippali to possess above quality. Madana shalatu– Unripen fruits of Madanaphala is an Abhavapratinidhi dravya mentioned in Sushrutha Samhita and Ashtanga Hrudaya which does not require this processing- Samskara. So, in the present study comparative qualitative and quantitative physicochemical and phytochemical analysis of the Madana Shalatu, Pakwa Madanaphala  Ripen fruit of Madanaphala and Madanaphala Pippali– Processed fruits of Madanaphala has been carried out. Aim: 1. Pharmacognostic, Physicochemical and Phytochemical analysis of Madana Shalatu, Pakwa Madanaphala, Madanaphala Pippali. 2. Comparative qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis of Madana Shalatu, Pakwa Madanaphala, Madanaphala Pippali. Method: 1. Pharmacognostic study – Macroscopic study and Microscopic study. 2. Preliminary physico chemical analysis. 3. Qualitative phyto chemical evaluation of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the test drugs. 4. Quantitative analysis– UV Spectrophotometry. Result: Microscopic study, qualitative phyto chemical evaluation of all test drugs did not showed much differences. In total saponin estimation by UV Spectrophotometry of methanol and Water extract of ripen processed fruits of Randia, Ripen fruits of Randia and Unripen fruits of Randia is found to contain 73.71, 83.23, 71.35 and 72.62, 92.44, 75.25µg DE/mL of Saponin content respectively. Conclusion: Quantity of Saponin which is the main active principle in Randia Dumetorum responsible for Vamana Karma was similar in the Madana Shalatu and in Phala Pippali, whereas it was highest in Pakwa Madanaphala, thus it may be used like Phala Pippali without any laborious process of Samskara. Further Toxicity studies and clinical trials are required to prove its safety and efficacy in humans.


A fast spectral method (FSM) is developed to solve the Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation for quantum gas mixtures with generalized differential cross-sections. The computational cost of the proposed FSM is O(Mdv−1Ndv+1 logN), where dv is the dimension of the problem, Mdv−1 is the number of discrete solid angles, and N is the number of frequency nodes in each direction. Spatially-homogeneous relaxation problems are used to demonstrate that the FSM conserves mass and momentum/energy to the machine and spectral accuracy, respectively. Based on the variational principle, transport coefficients such as the shear viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diffusion are calculated by the FSM, which agree well with the analytical solutions. Then, the FSM is applied to find the accurate transport coefficients through an iterative scheme for the linearized quantum Boltzmann equation. The shear viscosity and thermal conductivity of three-dimensional quantum Fermi and Bose gases interacting through hard-sphere potential are calculated. For Fermi gas, the relative difference between the accurate and variational transport coefficients increases with fugacity; for Bose gas, the relative difference in thermal conductivity has similar behavior as the gas moves from the classical to degenerate limits, but the relative difference in shear viscosity decreases when the fugacity increases. Finally, the viscosity and diffusion coefficients have been calculated for a two-dimensional equal-mole mixture of Fermi gases. When the molecular masses of the two components are the same, our numerical results agree with the variational solutions. However, when the molecular mass ratio is not one, large discrepancies between the accurate and variational results are observed; our results are reliable because (i) the method does not rely on any assumption on the form of velocity distribution function and (ii) the ratio between shear viscosity and entropy density satisfies the minimum bound predicted by the string theory.


Knutson and Tao's work on the Horn conjectures used combinatorial invariants called hives and honeycombs to relate spectra of sums of Hermitian matrices to Littlewood-Richardson coefficients and problems in representation theory, but these relationships remained implicit. Here, let $M$ and $N$ be two $n ×n$ Hermitian matrices. We will show how to determine a hive $\mathcal{H}(M, N)={H_ijk}$ using linear algebra constructions from this matrix pair. With this construction, one may also define an explicit Littlewood-Richardson filling (enumerated by the Littlewood-Richardson coefficient $c_μν ^λ$ associated to the matrix pair). We then relate rotations of orthonormal bases of eigenvectors of $M$ and $N$ to deformations of honeycombs (and hives), which we interpret in terms of the structure of crystal graphs and Littelmann's path operators. We find that the crystal structure is determined \emphmore simply from the perspective of rotations than that of path operators.


Understanding of shoreline erosion and accretion has been inhibited by the lack of data on bed-level changes at the fundamental time scale of individual waves. A new ultrasonic bed-level technique was used to measure shoreline erosion and accretion on a sand (Truc Vert, Bordeaux, France) and gravel (Slapton Sands, Devon, UK) beach in March and May 2008, respectively. The ultrasonic sensors were deployed in a linear array across the high-tide shoreline and measured bed-level changes on a swash-by-swash basis with an accuracy of 0.001 m (1 mm). A characteristic accretionary (berm-building) tide was selected from each dataset. Both the sand and gravel berms built up close to the high-tide swash limit, accreting around 0.07 m, with the sand berm extending 10 m cross-shore and the gravel berm being half as wide. The net morphological change integrated across the swash zone reached over 900 kg of accretion per metre width on the sand beach and 150 kg m-1 on the gravel beach. Swash-by-swash bed-level changes at the location of berm deposition were < 0.005 m for the sand beach and < 0.01 m for the gravel beach. At both sites during this period of berm building there were almost as many swash-by-swash erosion events as accretion events suggesting that a form of equilibrium acts to limit net bed-level changes. The swash-by-swash accretion events were slightly larger and slightly more numerous than the erosive events, resulting in overall accretion and berm formation.


Radioactive substances are used in vivo to localize and characterize malignant tumours, generally by scintigraphic methods. In this context positron emission tomography (PET) in combination with radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) may provide a sensitive and specific method for detection of cancer. Individual dose calculations, based on such PET measurements, may be carried out to predict the possible use of mAbs labelled with therapeutic nuclides. The positron emitter 76Br, with a half-life of 16 h, is a well-suited candidate for radiolabelling and PET imaging. One drawback of radiobromine is that bromide, the ultimate catabolite after degradation of brominated mAb, is only tardily excreted from the body and is evenly distributed throughout the extracellular space, thereby increasing the background radioactivity. The aim of this work was to produce 76Br-mAb preparations with high accumulation and retention in tumour tissue together with a quick clearance of 76Br-labelled catabolites. Furthermore, the possibility to use brominated or iodinated mAbs in combination with PET to predict 211At-mAb dosimetry was evaluated.Monoclonal Abs directed against colorectal cancer were labelled with 76Br using the direct Chloramine-T-method or indirectly by labelling the precursor molecule N-succinimidyl para-(tri-methylstannyl) benzoate with 76Br, which was subsequently conjugated to the mAbs. Monoclonal Ab A33 labelled with 76Br using the two labelling protocols was characterized in vitro and in vivo in a rat tumour xenograft model. The mAb A33 was also labelled with 125I for comparison. In addition, mAb A33 was labelled with 211At, 125I and 76Br using the indirect labelling protocol and the mAb pharmacokinetics was studied in normal rats in order to estimate if data from brominated or iodinated mAb could be used for dosimetry of 211At in healthy organs and tissue.In conclusion, both direct and indirect labelling resulted in high yields and mAbs with preserved immunoreactivity. In vivo characterization of 76Br-brominated mAb A33 showed that the indirect labelling method makes 76Br-brominated mAb A33 a promising candidate for tumour imaging with PET due to the faster excretion of radiolabelled catabolites compared with direct bromination. Finally, mAb A33 labelled with 76Br and 124/125I can be used to predict the 211At dose of astatinated mAb A33 in most organs given that a correction factor is applied for organs with varying uptake.


The discussion of companies' compliance with corporate governance standards and codes has widely neglected the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Accordingly, the authors examine a sample of 151 SMEs listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2006 (before the financial crisis) and 2012 (after the financial crisis) and, thus, required to declare whether they comply with the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code or not. While code compliance seems to be quite homogenous comparing different branches, the authors found that company size has a positive impact on code compliance. With regard to a remarkably high number of recommendations a lot of companies do not comply to, company size might be a major problem, why the existing GCGC does not fit very well to the situation of SMEs. This is why, most remarkably, code compliance does not exert any significant influence on either market reaction or on operating performance of SMEs.


"Was ist Recycling? Die Wiederverwendung bereits einmal oder mehrfach benutzter Rohstoffe zur Gewinnung neuer Produkte" I Fashion (1944-1994) his clothes comprised a woolen cap a nightshirt with no buttons a small woman's cardigan trousers daubed red old shoes one all holes the other a woman's tiny slipper didn't fit at all fifty years later for casual wear natural fabrics are back wool reigns mixed with polyesters and polyamides woven to recall granny's handknitted waistcoats sweaters caps and scarves dark colours are most popular black grey silver steel dusky orange skyblue and shades of yellow ring the knell for the wild colours that have ruled the ski slopes until now she receives a man's shirt to go with torn long underwear torn old trousers and a Russian soldier's blouse she has a star on white canvas non-Jewish women get a red triangle rags on their shaved heads I seem to be at a masked ball the orchestra's playing G6ralu czy ci nie tall some relieved themselves in their soup bowls fifty years later even the most elegant keep greatcoats or bosun's jackets with shiny double rows of buttons in their winter wardrobe A sailor's blouse a bosun's or bomber jacket an officer's cap a flying suit still have a huge following it's not just the young shoulder-strap brigade who go for the military look he looked into the mouth under the tongue between the fingers and the toes and in the anus and in the ears Schauen wir mal, wer in diesem Sommer die Hosen anhat? Die Designer haben sick viele Modelle ausgedacht: Bleistift - Hose, Marlene - Look, Hippie - Feeling, Gucci - Dress Zitronengelbe HUft - Hose mit Blibnchenmuster Perfekt zu bauchfreien Tops und Pullis they said to women in Auschwitz du vollgestopfter Strumpf du alte Hexe alte Kanone alte Hut alte Fetzen alte Krippe alte Gazette du Scheiladen Scheiflkiibel alte Waschkommode alte Ziege alte Zitrone Krematoriumsfigur welcher Mann hat Lust mich auf meinem weiblichen Planeten kennenzulernen? starke, sinnlich-erotische Schane akad. blond liebst auch Du Theater Musik Literatur Tanzen Ski Tennis Sauna Reisen Wandern Lady seeks gentleman Lady seeks lady Gentleman seeks lady Gentleman seeks gentleman join us for a good time on her head recently shaved for the movie she sports a smart crew cut and her amazing figure is strapped in a pink bikini and wrapped in a big bath towel the greatest mistake is mixing warm and cold colours e.g. warm orange lips with cold pink nails warm poppy red with cold cherry copper lipstick with cyclamen varnish C*ald Gold Sato to aem ... I gold was the first age ages passed the XX century came the XX century passes the christian world nears its end strange signs have appeared in the sky and on earth strange signs have appeared on gold bullion in the vaults of the Riksbank the central bank of Sweden the gold began to weep tears of blood to hide this fact the Riksbank requested the central bank of Switzerland to remove German identification marks from gold bullion and replace them with the stamp of Sweden gold began to speak in the Federal Reserve Bank in the Bank of England in London in New York in Paris in the Banque de France in Madrid and Lisbon a golden silence fell on the capitals of Europe and both Americas then it began to melt gold bricks gold bullion gold bars gold coins spoke gold laundered in Europe and America erupts in stains bleeds armoured vaults are sealed like gas chambers but you can hear grinding teeth muffled cries a dank carrion stench escapes from safes oozing ptomaine blood gold laundered in Switzerland decomposes and rots in antiseptic Sweden there are gold teeth in there gold caps gold rings with diamond eyes spectacle frames hair fountain pens breath banks unveil their bosom secrets banks temples of the golden calf monumental goldscheifiers excrete impurities in an hour glass gold sand flows Joaquin Navarro-Valls press spokesman for the Holy See would not confirm reports broadcast on the American TV network A & E that the Vatican secreted 200 million swiss francs principally gold coins looted by croatian fascists during the second world war croatian fascists who mass murdered Serbs Jews and Gypsies carried 350 million swiss francs out of Yugoslavia before the end of the war the British managed to intercept about 150 million swiss francs the rest reached the Vatican whence rumours suggested it was transferred to Spain and Argentina long poems Newsweek: Nazi-Gold auch in Portugal das lange Gedicht Israel joined in the dispute over the possessions of Holocaust victims this is not the first time jewish organisations have challenged the swiss banks or perhaps the Holocaust never happened you can read more and more often in postnazi german papers in american papers you can read reprints from foreign papers in polish-language "national" papers saying the Holocaust never happened you can read more and more on the walls of our town slogans in polish "gas the jews" and in german "Juden raus" just thoughtless youths just naughty boys children drawing the star of David hanging from gibbets das lange Gedicht my friend Kazimierz Wykal made a note for posterity during the hitler occupation "The Germans' methods for liquidating the Jews weigh on their conscience. …


In our study, we tested biogenic amine concentrations in 20 eviscerated pheasants killed by pithing (the slaughtering technique in which the spinal cord of the animals is severed and their brain is destroyed) and stored at 7 °C for 21 days. Biogenic amine concentrations in breast and thigh muscles were analysed by reverse phase liquid chromatography. In the thigh muscle, the highest increases during the storage time were found in cadaverine (20.17 ± 18.66 mg/kg), putrescine (4.39 ± 4.17 mg/kg) and tyramine (15.20 ± 16.88 mg/kg) concentrations. Changes of biogenic amine concentrations in the breast muscle were minimal during the whole storage time. The concentration of biogenic amines in meat is associated with the presence of contaminating microorganisms. For that reason, biogenic amines are often used as markers of meat spoilage in various livestock species. Based on our results, the biogenic amines cadaverine, putrescine and tyramine may be considered the main indicators of hygienic quality of pheasant meat. We can recommend storing pithed pheasants treated by evisceration no longer than for seven days at 7 °C. After that period, biogenic amine concentrations in meat begin to change. The main significance of this study lies in the extension of the lack information about the content of biogenic amines in the meat of eviscerated pithed pheasant and also about changes of their concentrations during the course of storage. Game meat, hygienic quality, putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine


The Iron Springs mining district of southwestern Utah contains the largest iron deposits in the western United States. These are related to emplacement, at minimum depths of 1 to 2.3 km, of three Miocene laccoliths of porphyritic quartz monzonite. When emplaced, the magma was nearly half crystallized, on the verge of brittle behavior, and contained phenocrysts of plagioclase, amphibole, biotite, and clinopyroxene. Granophyric dikes in quartz monzonite formed from residual liquid, but miarolitic cavities in these dikes are lined with alpha quartz, indicating that deposition continued from a volatile-rich phase below the solidus. Pervasive high-temperature alteration led to: replacement of augite by diopside; oxidation of magnetite and ilmenite; replacement of amphibole (completely) and biotite (partially) by aggregates of diopside, alkali feldspars, smectite-chlorite, magnetite, ilmenite, and calcite; albitization of groundmass alkali feldspar; exchange of Mg for Fe and of F for OH in biotite; and exchange of F and OH for Cl in apatite. This alteration produced whole-rock enrichment in Fe (super 3+) , Na, and H 2 O, and losses in Fe (super 2+) , Ca, and K. Total Fe was effectively unchanged. A chilled, relatively impermeable margin, surrounding the pervasively altered interior of each laccolith, was mechanically bonded to wall rock more strongly than to the magmatic interior, and deformed with the wall rock during subsequent intrusion and structural readjustment. In this peripheral shell, clinopyroxene, amphibole, and biotite were less altered. Where the roof of each laccolith had a radius of curvature of less than 2 km, a heterogeneous jointed zone formed below the peripheral shell. In this zone, pervasively altered quartz monzonite was fractured by renewed intrusion or by structural readjustment of roof rocks. Along the resulting joints, quartz monzonite was altered to bleached zones (selvages) during a second stage of alteration. Within these selvages, complete decomposition of biotite that had survived pervasive alteration was accompanied by further growth of diopside, albitization of feldspars, and dissolution of some apatite. Unlike early pervasive alteration, selvage alteration was fracture controlled and caused strong whole-rock depletion in light REE, total Fe, Mg, P, Rb, Y, Ba, and H 2 O (super -) , but caused enrichment in Na. Magnetite-apatite veins commonly formed along the joint. Adjacent to zones of selvage joints, strata-bound orebodies of magnetite, hematite, and apatite formed in limestone around the three laccoliths. Iron-bearing fluid was derived by subsolidus alteration from quartz monzonite; there is no evidence supporting immiscible separation of iron-oxide-rich liquid from silicate magma. Mass balance calculations indicate that the Fe, P, S, Al, and Mg in the orebodies could have been entirely supplied by selvage alteration of 40 km 3 of quartz monzonite, in agreement with the exposed and confidently inferred volume of altered intrusive rock. A fourth pluton, lacking magnetite veins, orebodies, and selvages, was emplaced closer to the surface and against sandstone and share rather than limestone. Iron liberated from hydrous mafic phenocrysts in this body was oxidized in place, forming disseminated hematite.