Physician-industry relationships have come a long way since serious debates began after a 1990 Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources report on the topic. On one side, the Sun Shine Act of 2007, now a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that mandates disclosure of payments and gifts to the physicians, has injected more transparency into the relationships, and on the other side, numerous voluntary self-regulation guidelines have been instituted to protect patients. However, despite these commendable efforts, problem persists. Taking the specific case of physician-pharmaceutical sales representative (PSR) interactions, also called as detailing, where the PSRs lobby physicians to prescribe their brand drugs while bringing them gifts on the side, an August 2016 article concluded that gifts as small as $20 are associated with higher prescribing rates. A close examination reveals the intricacies of the relationships. Though PSRs ultimately want to push their drugs, more than gifts, they also bring the ready-made synthesized knowledge about the drugs, something the busy physicians, starving for time to read the literature themselves, find hard to let go. Conscientious physicians are not unaware of the marketing tactics. And yet, physicians too are humans. It is also the nature of their job that requires an innate cognitive dissonance to be functional in medical practice, a trait that sometimes works against them in case of PSR interactions. Besides, PSRs too follow the dictates of the shareholders of their companies. Therefore, if they try to influence physicians using social psychology, it is a job they are asked to do. The complexity of relationships creates conundrums that are hard to tackle. This commentary examines various dimensions of these relationships. In the end, a few suggestions are offered as a way forward.


Laser-induced photoluminescence and photoconductivity in rutile crystal are described. Nd:YAG laser photons were employed which have energies of 1.16 eV (1.06 μm). This energy is just slightly more than ⅓ of the TiO2 band gap. Intensities between 105 and 106 W/cm2 were employed. The photoconductivity is shown to be produced by competing single- and two-photon events. The first-order and second-order photoconductivity cross sections are found to be 3.6 × 10−26 cm2 and 1.54 × 10−50 cm4 sec, respectively. A thermoluminescence study revealed traps with thermal ionization energies between 0.4 and 0.9 eV below the conduction band. Traps with photoionization energies ~1 and ~2 eV below the conduction band are believed to be responsible for the observed results and may or may not be due to alumina impurities known to exist in the samples.


Abstract We review the near-field radiative heat flux between hyperbolic materials focusing on multilayer hyperbolic meta-materials. We discuss the formation of the hyperbolic bands, the impact of ordering of the multilayer slabs, as well as the impact of the first single layer on the heat transfer. Furthermore, we compare the contribution of surface modes to that of hyperbolic modes. Finally, we also compare the exact results with predictions from effective medium theory.


This PhD thesis contains 3 major application areas all within an Intelligent Transportation
System context.
The first problem we discuss considers models that make beneficial use of the large
amounts of data generated in the context of traffic systems. We use a Markov chain
model to do this, where important data can be taken into account in an aggregate form.
The Markovian model is simple and allows for fast computation, even on low end computers,
while at the same time allowing meaningful insight into a variety of traffic system
related issues. This allows us to both model and enable the control of aggregate, macroscopic
features of traffic networks. We then discuss three application areas for this model:
the modelling of congestion, emissions, and the dissipation of energy in electric vehicles.
The second problem we discuss is the control of pollution emissions in
eets of hybrid
vehicles. We consider parallel hybrids that have two power units, an internal combustion
engine and an electric motor. We propose a scheme in which we can in
uence the mix
of the two engines in each car based on simple broadcast signals from a central infrastructure.
The infrastructure monitors pollution levels and can thus make the vehicles
react to its changes. This leads to a context aware system that can be used to avoid pollution
peaks, yet does not restrict drivers unnecessarily. In this context we also discuss
technical constraints that have to be taken into account in the design of traffic control
algorithms that are of a microscopic nature, i.e. they affect the operation of individual
vehicles. We also investigate ideas on decentralised trading of emissions. The goal here
is to allocate the rights to pollute fairly among the
eet's vehicles.
Lastly we discuss the usage of decentralised stochastic assignment strategies in traffic
applications. Systems are considered in which reservation schemes can not reliably be
provided or enforced and there is a signifficant delay between decisions and their effect. In
particular, our approach facilitates taking into account the feedback induced into traffic
systems by providing forecasts to large groups of users. This feedback can invalidate the
predictions if not modelled carefully. At the same time our proposed strategies are simple
rules that are easy to follow, easy to accept, and significantly improve the performance
of the systems under study. We apply this approach to three application areas, the assignment
of electric vehicles to charging stations, the assignment of vehicles to parking
facilities, and the assignment of customers to bike sharing stations.
All discussed approaches are analysed using mathematical tools and validated through
extensive simulations.


One hundred and sixty two phenol chemical sympathectomy were achieved from 1982 to 1987. After one month and one year, 92 patients get a lasting improvement. The benefit is better for rest pain relief than for intermittent claudication and skin lesions of legs. Diabetic ischaemic disease increased risk of failure of sympathetic block. Results of chemical sympathectomy are similar to the surgical procedure and the incidence of complications is lower. It is concluded that the neurolytic block will be a satisfying experience in patients with obliterative arterial disease not suitable for vascular surgery.


Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image processing requires a considerable amount of computational resources. Traditionally, this task runs on a workstation or a server based on Central Processing Units (CPUs) and is rather time-consuming, making real-time processing of SAR data impossible. Based on Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) technology, a new plan for a SAR imaging algorithm operated on an NVIDIA Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) is proposed. The new proposal makes it possible for the data processing procedure and the CPU/GPU data exchange to execute concurrently, especially when the size of SAR data exceeds the total GPU global memory size. A multi-GPU is suitably supported by the new proposal, and all computational resources are fully exploited. It has been shown by an experiment on an NVIDIA K20C and INTEL E5645 that the proposed solution accelerates SAR data processing by tens of times. Consequently, a GPU based SAR processing system that embeds the proposed solution is much more efficient and portable, thereby making it qualified to be a real-time SAR data processing system. Experiments showed that SAR data can be processed in real-time at a rate of 36 megapixels per second by a K20C when the new solution is implemented.


This paper reports the effect of nanogrinding conditions on the formation of subsurface structures of monocrystalline silicon (100) substrates. It was found that the amorphization and the transformation of high pressure phases were related to the grit depth of cut employed in nanogrinding. The formation mechanisms were found to be different from those previously reported from the nanoindentation studies.


This paper is an attempt to examine the empirical evidence of International Fisher Effect (IFE) between Bangladesh and its two other major trading partners, China and India. The IFE uses interest rate differentials to explain why exchange rates change over time. A time series approach is considered to trace the relationship between nominal interest rates and exchange rates in these countries. The estimated value, by applying OLS, is used to determine the casual relationship between interest rates and exchange rates for quarterly data from 4th Quarter, 1995 to the 2nd Quarter, 2008. The empirical results suggest that there is a little correlation between exchange rates and interest rates differential for Bangladesh with China and Bangladesh with India, and the relationship between the variables is also not noteworthy for Bangladesh. Further, the trends advocate that the forecasting of exchange rates with the hypothesis of IFE is not realistic for these countries.


This paper reviews the trends in wind turbine generator systems. After discussing some important requirements and basic relations, it describes the currently used systems: the constant speed system with squirrel-cage induction generator, and the three variable speed systems with doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), with gearbox and fully rated converter, and direct drive (DD). Then, possible future generator systems are reviewed. Hydraulic transmissions are significantly lighter than gearboxes and enable continuously variable transmission, but their efficiency is lower. A brushless DFIG is a medium speed generator without brushes and with improved low-voltage ride-through characteristics compared with the DFIG. Magnetic pseudo DDs are smaller and lighter than DD generators, but need a sufficiently low and stable magnet price to be successful. In addition, superconducting generators can be smaller and lighter than normal DD generators, but both cost and reliability need experimental demonstration. In power electronics, there is a trend toward reliable modular multilevel topologies.


The temperature dependence of the I/SUB C/(V/SUB be/) relationship of bipolar transistors can be characterized by two parameters /spl eta/ and V/SUB go/. The authors discuss a new method for the determination of these parameters. With this method there is no need for accurate temperature measurements. It is shown that the results fit very well with bandgap-reference temperature characteristics. An analytical method for the calculation of V/SUB g0/ and /spl eta/ from values of the base emitter voltage or the bandgap reference voltage at different temperatures is presented.


The transport of scalable media, and in particular of scalable video conforming to the forthcoming Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology, presents challenges not only in the video compression technology, but also in transport and signaling. This paper discusses the current status of standardization of the support for scalable media, and SVC in particular, over IP based networks. Both the transport of SVC over the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), and the signaling support-namely the additional mechanisms in the Session Description Protocol (SDP)-are covered. As it turns out, the support of SVC over RTP is not quite as straightforward as that of nonscalable video bit streams. Specifically, the signaling architecture requires an almost complete overhaul, and new protocol mechanisms need to be introduced into the packetization.


Over the last decade or so Salafism has become one of the West's new political bogey-men. Many regard the movement as the antechamber of violent groups such as al-Qaeda, and as the by-product of a centralized foreign-policy platform shaped by so-called Saudi interests. Based on extensive research conducted throughout Yemen between 2001 and 2009, and particularly in the southern province of Yafi', this book offers an original approach to Salafism and draws a necessary counter-narrative that takes into account the dynamics of the Salafi movement as well as its relationship to its evolving environment, either local, regional and international. Having studied over a hundred recorded sermons and conferences and dozens of books, and carried out interviews with numerous clerics, intellectuals and activists, Laurent Bonnefoy focuses on the allegedly apolitical Salafi doctrine promoted by the renowned Yemeni Salafi figure, Muqbil al-Wadi'i, who died in 2001. Building on IR theory and political sociology, he references the everyday practices of al-Wadi'i's dedicated followers, their rivalries as well as their own evolving trajectories. He demonstrates that, rather than resulting from specifically planned policies, Yemeni Salafism has, since the early 1980s, evolved through a series of spontaneous, grassroots mechanisms, many of which are shaped by transnational flows, that embed this movement in the complex Yemeni context.


Human learning benefits from multi-modal inputs that often appear as rich semantics (e.g., description of an object's attributes while learning about it). This enables us to learn generalizable concepts from very limited visual examples. However, current few-shot learning (FSL) methods use numerical class labels to denote object classes which do not provide rich semantic meanings about the learned concepts. In this work, we show that by using 'class-level' language descriptions, that can be acquired with minimal annotation cost, we can improve the FSL performance. Given a support set and queries, our main idea is to create a bottleneck visual feature (hybrid prototype) which is then used to generate language descriptions of the classes as an auxiliary task during training. We develop a Transformer based forward and backward encoding mechanism to relate visual and semantic tokens that can encode intricate relationships between the two modalities. Forcing the prototypes to retain semantic information about class description acts as a regularizer on the visual features, improving their generalization to novel classes at inference. Furthermore, this strategy imposes a human prior on the learned representations, ensuring that the model is faithfully relating visual and semantic concepts, thereby improving model interpretability. Our experiments on four datasets and ablation studies show the benefit of effectively modeling rich semantics for FSL.


The aim of the present study was to investigate the anthelmintic activity of the Annona squamosa (Annonaceae),leaf extract using adult earthworm, Peritima posthuma. The hexane, ethylacetate, ethanolic extracts of the crude drug at concentrations of 100mg/ml, 200mg/ml, were tested which involve determination of paralysis time and death time. Albendazole(10mg/ml) was used as standard and it was found that the Annona reticulata leaf extracts showed dose dependent activity ethyl acetate extract at a dose of 200mg/ml has shown very high significant action.


OBJECTIVE
This study included 100 patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis who presented at Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine Gastroenterology clinic and polyclinic.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The etiology of liver cirrhosis and the incidence of its complications have been investigated.

RESULTS
The etiological classification of liver cirrhosis in our patients was as follows: 47 hepatitis B virus hepatitis, 11 hepatitis C virus hepatitis, 5 HBV+HDV hepatitis, 4 Budd Chiari syndrome, 2 chronic alcohol abuse, 2 ischemic heart disease, 1 autoimmune hepatitis, 1 sclerosing cholangitis, 1 hydatid cyst. In 26 patients we could not find any etiological condition. These patients were called cryptogenic cirrhosis patients.When we examined the complications of liver cirrhosis, it appeared that there were ascites in 83 patient. In 56 patients, esophageal variceal bleeding occurred. There was spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in 42 patients. Hepatorenal syndrome occurred in 26 patients. Finally, in 3 patients we detected hepatorenal syndrome.

CONCLUSION
The most common causes in the etiology of liver cirrhosis are viral, especially HBV. Many of the patients were in decompensated phase when diagnosed. We found that there was a close relation between the frequency of complications and mortality in liver cirrhosis.


The first commentary on Isocrates' Busiris explores the work's contribution to rhetorical theory, its parody of Plato's Republic, and its strategies in advertising Isocratean political rhetoric as a middle way between sophistic education and the abstruse studies of Plato's Academy.


Endophytes are microorganisms that colonize within the living plant cell and mostly have a symbiotic association with the host plant. There is a growing interest to recognize the involvement of the endophytes in the production of the growth promoting bioactive compounds and secondary metabolites that are produced by the plants. Medicinal plants are known to produce several phytochemicals with potential biological activities. In the current study the endophytic bacterial diversity of two valuable medicinal plants Gymnema sylvestre, and Tabernamontana divaricate are studied. The study aimed at understanding the involvement of the endophytic bacterial community in growth beneficial trait of the host plant viz. IAA( Indole Acetic Acid) production, Phosphate solubilisation and their capacity to grow on Nitrogen free medium so as to assert their role in Nitrogen fixation. A total of 14 bacterial strains were isolated from both the taxa. 11 isolates from Gymnema sylvestre and 03 from Tabernamontana divaricate. The morphological and biochemical characterization of the isolates were performed. It was found that 13 out of 14 isolates were capable of producing IAA, 04 isolates were able to grow on Nitrogen free media and only one was capable of Phosphate solubilisation. The study showed that the isolated strains of endophytes have immense plant growth promoting potential which can be used for improvement of growth of crops.


the World Wide Web consists of million of the web pages that are interconnected to each other. Day by day the growth of the World Wide Web is increasing very rapidly. With rapid growth of web it becomes very difficult to provide the relevant information in response to user query. The search engines help the user to surf the web. Due to the vast number of web page it is highly impossible to provide the proper, relevant and quality information. Thus web search engines need efficient ranking algorithm, so that the user could retrieve the web page which is most relevant to user query. In this paper, a survey of page ranking algorithms and competition of some important ranking algorithms. Index Term — WWW, Web Mining, search engines, Page Ranking.


This study evaluated the effectiveness of soil and water conservation structures for soil erosion control by applying a semi-distributed Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in various small watersheds of the Chakwal and Attock districts of Pothwar, Pakistan. The validated model without soil conservation structures was applied to various ungauged small watershed sites with soil conservation stone structures. The stone bund-type structure intervention was used in the model through the modification of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) to support the practice factor (P-factor), the curve number, and the average slope length for the sub-basin (SLSUBBSN). The structures had significant effects, and the average sediment yield reduction caused by the soil conservation stone structures at these sites varied from 40% to 90%. The sediment yield and erosion reductions were also compared under conditions involving vegetation cover change. Agricultural land with winter wheat crops had a higher sediment yield than fallow land with crop residue. The fallow land facilitated sediment yield reduction, along with soil conservation structures. The slope classification analysis indicated that 60% of the agricultural area of the Chakwal and Attock districts lie in a slope range of 0–4%, where considerable potential exists for implementing soil conservation measures by installing soil conservation stone structures. The slope analysis measured the suitability of conservation structures in the semi-mountainous Pothwar area in accordance with agriculture practice on land having a slope of less than 5%. The SWAT model provides reliable performance for erosion control and watershed management in soil erosion-prone areas with steep slopes and heavy rainfall. These findings can serve as references for policymakers and planners.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of temperature and heating duration on the kinetics of thermal shrinkage in corneal strips using a custom-made shrinkage device. Methods: Thermal shrinkage was induced and measured in corneal strips under a constant load placed while bathed in 25% Dextran irrigation solution. A study was performed on 57 Florida Lions Eye Bank donated human cadaver eyes to determine the effect of temperature on the amount and rate of thermal shrinkage. Further experiments were performed on 20 human cadaver eyes to determine the effects of heating duration on permanent shrinkage. Data analysis was performed to determine the effects of temperature, heating duration, and age on the amount and kinetics of shrinkage. Results: Shrinkage consisted of two phases: a shrinkage phase during heating and a regression phase after heating. Permanent shrinkage increased with temperature and duration. The shrinkage and regression time constants followed Arrhenius type temperature dependence. The shrinkage time constants where calculated to be 67, 84, 121, 560 and 1112 (s) at 80, 75, 70, 65, and 60°C respectively. At 65°C the permanent shrinkage time constant was calculated to be 945s. Conclusion: These results show that shrinkage treatments need to raise the temperature of the tissue above 75°C for several seconds in order to prevent regression of the shrinkage effect immediately after treatment and to induce the maximum amount of permanent irreversible shrinkage.


This paper presents preliminary work on the segmentation of Computed Tomography data using a model-based approach. Conventional image processing of CT data is aimed at the production of simple iso-surfaces for surgical planning or diagnosis — such methods are not suitable for the automated detection of fractures, which is the ultimate application of our work. To address these deficiencies a surface-based technique with appropriate constraints is introduced. The output of the segmentation phase is a triangulated surface representing the bone or bones of interest. We illustrate the method applied to low resolution CT test data and discuss its robustness and performance.


Some processes in nervous tissue are essentially discontinuous in nature, others, like heat and carbon dioxide production, and positive after-potential, are cumulative; they tend to develop in some relation to the number of impulses carried, not infrequently to appear in measurable form only after a number of actions have been compressed into a limited time. In such conditions of activity not only are cumulative processes demonstrable in nerve, but indications of their influence may be found in the altered responsiveness of simple synaptic relays and of neuromuscular junctions. The usual sequel to a period of tetanic stimulation in junctional tissues is a more or less prolonged increase in the transmitted response to standard, iterative, but infrequently elicited pre-junctional nerve volleys into which train of volleys the tetanus has been interpolated (2, 7, 10, 11, 23, 35, etc.). The observed phenomena have been called post-tetanic facilitation, or post-tetanic potentiation; the latter designation is to be preferred. A number of mechanisms with varying degree of experimental justification have been proposed to account for the phenomena that have been described. However it is not strictly a matter for rivalry between hypothetical alternative mechanisms (cf. in particular reference 10), for the descriptions of post-tetanic increases in response or responsiveness of various tissues preclude the possibility of fitting the phenomena to a common mold. Post-tetanic increments of response have been encountered too in the study of spinal reflex mechanisms (5, 14, 36, 38). However, it is widely recognized that analysis of mechanism in the central nervous system at once is confronted with a new factor, the activity of internuncial chains. The potentialities for explaining prolonged effects in the central nervous system with the aid of a flexible internuncial system are enormous. On the other hand, it is logical that cumulative processes, as elementary properties of nerve tissue, should influence action there as elsewhere. Again, the aim is not to support a rivalry of hypothesis, but rather to extricate the cumulative process from supposed domination by the internuncial system, so to assess the respective r6ies of discontinuous (i.e. internuncial barrage) and cumulative processes in the mechanisms for enduring alteration of transmission in the central nervous system. The description of experiments that follows relates an attempt to account for the striking post-tetanic potenti-


Benzothiazepines and its derivatives showed a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities such as anticonvulsant , antidepressant , antiviral , and antimicrobial activities. Therefore , some benzothiazepines substituted derivatives like Schiff bases and Mannich bases were prepared. These compounds were identified by m.p ,Rf-value and spectral analysis. All the synthesized compounds were screend for anticonvulsant activities(chemoshock)


Oscillatory textures are not only ubiquitous in natural images, but also in some inverse imaging problems involving oscillatory date, such as seismic databases, fingerprint images, et al. In this paper, we propose a three-step denoising scheme for for oscillatory textural images by combining bilateral filtering in spacial domain with wave atoms shrinkage method in transformed domain. That is, we first pre-process noisy image with bilateral filtering, then to process image with wave atoms shrinkage, finally post-process image with bilateral filtering again. Above all, we offer a reasonable interpretation of proposed method from the point of nonlinear diffusion filtering. Numerical experiments illustrate the good performance in comparison to the wave atoms shrinkage method and the bilateral filtering method by using two measures: peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM).


Incentive programs the Ministry of Research and Technology (KRT) is a stimulant in order to increase collaborative research in Indonesia. Collaborative research to be a bridge of cooperation between researchers and organizations, both in terms of human resources, equipment, funds, ideas, and so forth, all through the funding support of KRT. In order to reveal the research activities financed from the Incentive Program, the research was conducted. Another objective of this research is to see how the level of collaboration/cooperation on research conducted by the researchers conducting incentive. This research is a descriptive study using quantitative data. Source data from KRT incentive program managers. Analysis was performed on all activities financed incentive incentive program KRT during 2008-2010. The results of this study concluded that from 1226 the activities carried out in the years 2008-2010 incentive program KRT greatest activity conducted applied research on the types of incentives (498 events). Meanwhile, according to the focal plane, most activities are in the areas of food security (386 events) and according to science should be in the field of engineering sciences (553 events). Collaboration of researchers at the activity level incentives earned 20.43% done in collaboration by two or more researchers.


We will demonstrate a simple method to generate modified duobinary return-to-zero (MD-RZ) signals by using only one single dual-arm Mach-Zehnder LiNbO/sub 3/ modulator (LN-MOD). Different duty cycle signals can be generated only by changing the time delay between two-arm electrical signals added on the LN-MOD. MD-RZ signals show high receiver sensitivity relative to duobinary nonreturn-to-zero signals.


ALTHOUGH eventration of the diaphragm has been recognized as an entity since Petit's 1 description in 1774, it has been considered a clinical and pathologic curiosity worthy of repeated description and review but of no real importance. Until Bisgard's 2 article in 1947, operative correction of the lesion had been reported in 6 patients, all adults. Bisgard, however, recognized the significance of the abnormality and performed an operative repair in an infant. Operative repair has subsequently been performed in children by State and by me. Thoma 3 in 1882 suggested that the lesion of eventration of the diaphragm was a congenital one and presented several proofs of his contention which have gained validity in the intervening years; it is to these that I wish to add emphasis and reenforcement. Furthermore, if this condition is a congenital one, if it is or can be injurious to health and to normal development


Chaperone-like activity (CLA) of α-crystallin is known to be compromised in diabetic conditions and associated with cataract formation. Protecting α-crystallin CLA may help in delaying and/or preventing cataracts. In this study, we employed a lens organ culture model to study the effect of hyperglycemia on the CLA of α-crystallin and investigated the protective effect the tannoids of Emblica officinalis had on the CLA of α-crystallin. Goat lenses were treated with 30 mM glucose with or without an aqueous extract of E. officinalis tannoids (25 or 50 μg/ml) for 12 days. Cataract development due to hyperglycemia was monitored and a lens soluble protein profile was analyzed using HPLC. α-crystallin fractions from cultured lenses were isolated by gel filtration; CLA, hydrophobicity and structural confirmation of α-crystallin were assessed using light scattering methods. Culturing the lenses with 30 mM glucose resulted in the development of cortical cataracts and the formation of high molecular weight aggregates. α-crystallin isolated from lens incubated in hyperglycemic conditions displayed a significant decrease in CLA. Co-culturing lenses with glucose and tannoids normalized the altered crystallin profile, preserved α-crystallin CLA and prevented cataract formation. This suggests that tannoids may mitigate hyperglycemia mediated manifestations to α-crystallin thereby preventing cataract formation. Tannoids of E. officinalis prevented the loss of α-crystallin CLA and cataract formation in lens organ culture. Thus, lens organ culture can be employed to investigate the pharmacological potential of compounds that modulate α-crystallin CLA and consequently delay or prevent cataractogenesis.

 Key words: α-Crystallin, chaperone-like activity, hyperglycemia, lens organ culture, tannoids.


Channel-levee systems are responsible for constructing deep sea fans, among the largest
 sedimentary deposits on Earth. Levee height plays a key role in defining the volume and texture of the
 material that is deposited in the bounding levees, and thus the morphology of submarine fans. Models
 of channel formation and evolution generally assume that the levees aggrade in response to the
 cumulative overspill of turbidity flows, and that their height is controlled by these flows. In
 contrast, we show that levee growth in the Ursa Basin (Gulf of Mexico) is limited by the mechanical
 strength of the levee, not the flow behavior. While many studies document sidewall failures in levee
 systems, our poro-mechanical model is the first to demonstrate that collapse of levees is a large-scale,
 deep-seated process driven by the interaction of levee formation and high fluid pressure. Rapid
 deposition of a regional sand unit induced large fluid overpressure in the underlying mud, which
 preconditioned the system for levee failure, which then fed a large volume of sediment back into the
 channel-levee system. Long-lived levee failures continually reintroduced previously deposited levee
 material back into the channel system. This implies that a large volume of sediment is continuously
 recycled, which has not been previously understood. Turbidite flow models generally assume that flows
 progressively lose their fine-grained component due to levee overspill as they traverse the channel.
 In contrast, we show a mechanism by which fine-grained material can re-enter the system in large
 quantities, and this has significant and broad importance for models of channel and fan evolution.
 We also show that that levee failure introduces significant unconformities, in contrast with the common
 assumption that levees offer complete and high-resolution records of climate, tectonics, and sea level.


Nudging the general population into healthier lifestyles does have a role to play but should not be the sole approach that the government uses to tackle health inequalities, public health and social care experts agreed.

Nudge or fudge—can a gentle push really tackle health inequalities? was the issue debated at the inaugural meeting of the Health Equalities Alliance, a cross-sector group of organisations collaborating to improve health inequalities in the UK. The alliance was launched at the annual conference of the Royal Society for Public Health in September 2010 to build on the proposals of Sir Michael Marmot's review Fair Society, Healthy Lives published in February last year.

The UK government's preferred strategy for promoting public health is to persuade, or nudge, individuals into …


The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski, Kraaij et al., 2002), using a sample of adolescents from Egypt, aged 13, 14 and 15 years. The results indicate that the nine-factor model was successful, obtaining adequate fit indexes: ?2, df=381.3, ?2/df=5.5, CFI=.92, TLI=.92, RMSEA=.05 and GFI=.93. Model fit indices showed acceptable goodness of fit values for nine factors structure of 36 items of the scale.  Standardized factor loadings for one factor structure of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire have values between .39 and .75 and all t values are significant for all of the items. According to Spearman correlation analyses, there were significant positive correlations between the adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and all factors of Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale. However, negative correlations were noticed between the maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and all factors of Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale. The test-retest reliability was acceptable. The test-retest coefficient for the total scale score was .92.


Possibilities for behavior (i.e., affordances) can be perceived with units spanning anatomical components and external objects. For example, affordances for standing on an inclined surface can be perceived with an object held in the hand or attached to the head. We investigated whether these two person-plus-object perceptual systems exhibit the same pattern of nonlinear phase transitions in perception of this affordance. Blindfolded participants explored an inclined surface with a rod held in the hand or attached to the head and reported whether they could stand on that surface. Inclinations were presented in ascending or descending sequences. In both conditions, responses exhibited negative hysteresis – perceptual boundaries occurred at steeper angles for descending than for ascending sequences. The generalization of this pattern across components that differ in physiology, sensitivity, and experience is consistent with both the soft assembly of perceptual devices and with a dynamical systems perspective on perception of affordances.


Research into influence campaigns on Twitter has mostly relied on identifying malicious activities from tweets obtained via public APIs. By design, these approaches ignore deleted tweets. However, bad actors can delete content strategically to manipulate the system. Here, we provide the first exhaustive, large-scale analysis of anomalous deletion patterns involving more than a billion deletions by over 11 million accounts. Estimates based on publicly available Twitter data underestimate the true deletion volume. A small fraction of accounts delete a large number of tweets daily. We uncover two abusive behaviors that exploit deletions. First, limits on tweet volume are circumvented, allowing certain accounts to flood the network with over 26 thousand daily tweets. Second, coordinated networks of accounts engage in repetitive likes and unlikes of content that is eventually deleted, which can manipulate ranking algorithms. These kinds of abuse can be exploited to amplify content and inflate popularity, while evading detection. Our study provides platforms and researchers with new methods for identifying social media abuse.


The use of many traditional medicinal plants is often hampered by the absence of a proper biochemical characterization, essential to identify the bioactive compounds present. The leaves from five species endemic to the Macaronesian islands with recognized ethnobotanical applications were analysed: Apollonias barbujana (Cav.) Bornm., Ocotea foetens (Ainton) Baill, Prunus azorica (Mouill.) Rivas-Mart., Lousã, Fern. Prieto, E. Días, J.C. Costa & C. Aguiar, Rumex maderensis Lowe and Plantago arborescens Poir. subsp. maderensis (Dcne.) A. Hans. et Kunk.. Since oxidative stress is a common feature of most diseases traditionally treated by these plants, it is important to assess their antioxidant capacity and determine the molecules responsible for this capacity. In this study, the antioxidant capacity of these plants against two of the most important reactive species in human body (hydroxyl and peroxyl radicals) was determined. To trace the antioxidant origin total phenol and flavonoid contents as well as the polyphenolic profile and the amount of trace elements were determined. There was a wide variation among the species analysed in what concerns their total leaf phenol and flavonoid contents. From the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) electrochemically detected peaks it was possible to attribute to flavonoids the antioxidant capacity detected in A. barbujana, O. foetens, R. maderensis and P. azorica extracts. These potential reactive flavonoids were identified for A. barbujana, R. maderensis and P. azorica. For R. maderensis a high content (7 mg g-1 dry weight) of L-ascorbic acid, an already described antioxidant phytomolecule, was found. A high content in selenomethionine (414.35 μg g-1 dry weight) was obtained for P. arborescens subsp. maderensis extract. This selenocompound is already described as a hydroxyl radical scavenger is reported in this work as also possessing peroxyl radical scavenging capacity. This work is a good illustration of different phytomolecules (flavonoids, organic acids and selenocompounds), presents in leaves of the five traditional medicinal plants endemic to Macaronesia, all exhibiting antioxidant properties.


Today's rapidly growing document volumes pose pressing challenges to modern document analytics frameworks, in both space usage and processing time. Recently, a promising method, called text analytics directly on compressed data (TADOC), was proposed for improving both the time and space efficiency of text analytics. The main idea of the technique is to enable direct document analytics on compressed data. This paper focuses on the programming challenges for developing efficient TADOC programs. It presents Zwift, the first programming framework for TADOC, which consists of a Domain Specific Language, a compiler and runtime, and a utility library. Experiments show that Zwift significantly improves programming productivity, while effectively unleashing the power of TADOC, producing code that reduces storage usage by 90.8% and execution time by 41.0% on six text analytics problems.


Biorefineries face logistical problems that may affect the price a biorefinery is willing to pay. One of the driving factors in storage and transportation of biomass is the moisture content (MC) at harvest. Delaying switchgrass harvest from profit-maximizing times of October through November, when moisture and nutrient concentrations of the standing crop are still high, to January or February, when moisture in the standing crop has declined and more nutrients have translocated back to the roots of this perennial plant, may result in production cost savings at the expense of lower yield. Using 20 and 30% MC thresholds in the standing crop as a determining factor, harvesting requires a separate cutting pass above this threshold to allow drying in the swath before chopping with a forage harvester. Below that threshold, a forage harvester may be equipped to perform both cutting and chopping functions in a single pass. Using switchgrass trial data from several environments, this study calculates harvest date-driven changes in yield, harvest cost and nutrient replacement between a profit-maximizing harvest date, requiring two harvest equipment operations vs. delayed, single-pass harvest at lower standing crop MC of 30% and 20% to show whether delayed harvest is feasible.


Of all the major pools of terrestrial carbon (C), the dynamics of coarse woody debris (CWD) are the least understood. In contrast to soils and living vegetation, the study of CWD has rarely relied on ex situ methods for elaborating controls on decomposition rates. In this study, we report on a mesocosm incubation experiment examining how clay amount (8%, 16%, and 24% clay), clay type (soil reconstructed with kaolinite vs. montmorillonite), wood placement (on litter layer surface, at the litter layer–soil interface, buried in the mineral soil), and laboratory incubation temperature (10°, 20°, or 30°C) control decomposition rates of highly standardized stakes and blocks of coarse aspen wood. Clay type effect was pronounced, with wood decomposing more quickly in kaolinite- than in montmorillonite-amended soils, perhaps due to a combined effect of moisture and microbial access to the substrate. Clay amount had only very limited effect on wood decomposition, which was a function of contact with the mineral soil (Surface < Interface < Mineral), perhaps due to greater contact with the decomposer community. Temperature effects were significant and dependent on interactions with clay type and wood placement. Effects of temperature on wood decomposition declined as the effects of soil variables increased, suggesting a hierarchy of controls on wood decomposition rates. Both water content and temperature had a strong effect on wood decomposition. Our results highlight that multiple interacting factors likely regulate wood decomposition processes. Multifactorial field experiments are needed to examine the physical, chemical, and biological factors controlling wood decomposition.


We propose a first-order Markov model for generalized Nakagami-m (1960) flat fading channels. Using a moment generating function (MGF) approach, we derive the parameters of the proposed model for any value of the fading severity index m /spl ges/ 0.5. The proposed model is a generalized version of the one proposed earlier by Zorzi et al. (1995) for flat Rayleigh fading channels. For m = 1, we show that our generalized model gives the same parameter values obtained using Zorzi's approach. Our generalized model thus encompasses Zorzi's model as a special case. We illustrate the usefulness of our proposed Markov model by applying it to the analysis of the throughput and energy efficiency performance of a link layer (LL) protocol with backoff on wireless fading links with different values of the m-parameter (= 0.5,1,4).


We investigated the molecular mechanism of 50 penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae strains (penicillin: MIC, > or = 0.125 microgram/ml) having neither class A nor class B mutations in the penicillin-binding protein 2B gene (pbp2b). An analysis of the nucleotide sequences of the pbp2b genes from seven strains revealed an unique direct repeat of 9 nucleotides (TGGTATACT) between active-site serine (residue 385) and Ser-X-Asn (residues 442 to 444) motifs. The same insertion was detected in 13 strains.


When analyzing bilateral trade flow data, zero trade flows are quite common and problematic when a gravity equation is estimated with a log-linear functional form. This has caused many researchers to either ignore the zero trade flows or to replace zero with a small positive number. Both of these actions bias the resulting parameter estimates of the gravity equation. In this study we correct for this misspecification by using the Heckman selection model to estimate the bilateral trade flows for 46 agrifood products, for the period 1990 to 2000, for 52 countries. In our sample, selection bias rarely affects the signs of variables but often has a substantial effect on the magnitude, statistical significance and economic interpretation of the marginal effects. Hence, treating zero trade flows properly is important from both a statistical and an economics perspective.----------------------------------------------------------------------Revised and published as: Haq, Zahoor Ul, Karl Meilke and John Cranfield. 2013. "Selection bias in a gravity model of agrifood trade." European Review of Agricultural Economics 40(2):331-360.


In 1999, Brodal and Fagerberg (BF) gave an algorithm for maintaining a low outdegree orientation of a dynamic uniformly sparse graph. Specifically, for a dynamic graph on n -vertices, with arboricity bounded by α at all times, the BF algorithm supports edge updates in $O(łog n)$ amortized update time, while keeping the maximum outdegree in the graph bounded by $O(α)$. Such an orientation provides a basic data structure for uniformly sparse graphs, which found applications to a plethora of dynamic graph algorithms. A significant weakness of the BF algorithm is the possible temporary blowup of the maximum outdegree, following edge insertions. Although BF eventually reduces all outdegrees to $O(α)$, some vertices may reach an outdegree of $Ømega(n)$ during the process, hence local memory usage at the vertices--an important quality measure in distributed systems--cannot be bounded. We show how to modify the BF algorithm to guarantee that the outdegrees of all vertices are bounded by $O(α)$ at all times, without hurting any of its other properties, and present an efficient distributed implementation of the modified algorithm. This provides the first representation of distributed networks in which the local memory usage at vertices is bounded by the arboricity (which is essentially the average degree of the densest subgraph) rather than the maximum degree. For settings where there is no local memory constraints, one may take the temporary outdegree blowup to the extreme and allow a permanent outdegree blowup. This allows us to address the second significant weakness of the BF algorithm -- its inherently global nature: An insertion of an edge $(u,v)$ may trigger changes in the orientations of edges that are arbitrarily far away from u and v . We suggest an alternative local scheme, which does not guarantee any outdegree bound on the vertices, yet is just as efficient as the BF scheme for some applications. For example, we obtain a local dynamic algorithm for maintaining a maximal matching with sub-logarithmic update time in uniformly sparse networks, providing an exponential improvement over the state-of-the-art in this context.


Abstract The French woman composer Mel Bonis (1858-1937) remains little known, despite a considerable oeuvre comprising over three hundred works in a variety of instrumental and vocal genres. Recent efforts to rediscover her life and work have resulted in new editions of scores, performances, and recordings of her work, as well as a biography, but few have even heard her name outside of her native France. Although she lived through almost four decades of the twentieth century, Bonis' works invite analysis within the historical contexts of late nineteenth-century French nationalism and Romantic nostalgia. In addition to her cultural milieu, her own personal circumstances also left their traces. Bonis' strict Catholic upbringing led to internal conflicts with her religious identity throughout her adult life. This thesis shows some of the ways in which Bonis responded to these national and individual circumstances. In particular, I analyze two of her mélodies for voice with piano – Élégie sur le mode antique (Op. 110, 1918) and Pourriez-vous pas me dire (Op. 55, 1901) – as well as her instrumental Scènes de la forêt (Op. 123, 1928) as case studies from Bonis' vast chamber music repertoire. I argue that Bonis' works are better understood when considered in relation to her life events, including her fraught relationship with her Catholic faith. I speculate that the influence of Bonis' Catholicism can be felt in her secular as well as sacred works. To this end, I propose new extensions of music analysis techniques that build on theories of harmony and of musical meaning. I situate my analytical approaches by drawing on literary ideas of the pastoral and on the fin-de-siècle French historical context for the kind of nostalgia that is inherent in the pastoral sensibility. I hope that my work will provide a new way of understanding the complex relationships between music and religious identity in late nineteenth-century France, and that this work will help to make Mel Bonis and her music more accessible to Anglophone readers and listeners.


The fourth industrial revolution presents society with significant opportunities to incorporate emerging creative and technology innovations and strategies for youth and women empowerment. This paper uses content analysis in 1) identifying the fourth industrial revolution technologies available for youth and women's empowerment 2) exploring the capacity of 4IR technologies for empowering youth and women 3) investigating the difficulties faced by young and women in using these (4IR) technologies 4) exploring approaches that may encourage the use of these (4IR) innovations by young people and women. An analysis of the literature was carried out and included reports, scholarly journal articles, and conference proceedings. The keywords used were the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Youth, and women. The study concludes that the fourth industrial revolution promotes social change, improves service accessibility, improving global income levels, promoting the standard of living for youth and women, and enhancing the equitable digital economy


An expression for the heat storage coefficient (HSC) of loose multi-phase systems at interstitial gas pressures is developed in terms of the characteristic pressures. To test the validity of the derived expression, experimental measurements of the HSC of loose multi-phase systems have been carried out at both normal and a range of other interstitial gas pressures using a plane heat source. Good agreement has been found between the determined and the predicted values.


This book analyzes the political and economic development of the ethnic republics of the North Caucasus in post-communist Russia and the prospects for greater stability in the region, including the resolution of existing conflicts. It assesses the main dilemmas for regional leaders and their policy responses. The author studies the dynamics within the region overall, between the republics of the Russian Federation and the Caucasus states, as well as the main tendencies in relations between these republics and the Russian federal authorities. The implications for security and the prospects for economic cooperation are emphasized. Central Asian and Caucasian Prospects Series


Purpose
In this paper, the applicability of shear stress transport k-ω model along with the intermittency concept has been investigated over pitching airfoils to capture the laminar separation bubble (LSB) position and the boundary layer transition movement. The effect of reduced frequency of oscillations on boundary layer response is also examined.

Design/methodology/approach
A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic code was developed to compute the effects of unsteadiness on LSB formation, transition point movement, pressure distribution and lift force over an oscillating airfoil using transport equation of intermittency accompanied by the k-ω model.

Findings
The results indicate that increasing the angle of attack over the stationary airfoil causes the LSB size to shorten, leading to a rise in wall shear stress and pressure suction peak. In unsteady cases, both three- and four-equation models are capable of capturing the experimentally measured transition point well. The transition is delayed for an unsteady boundary layer in comparison with that for a static airfoil at the same angle of attack. Increasing the unsteadiness of flow, i.e. reduced frequency, moves the transition point toward the trailing edge of the airfoil. This increment also results in lower static pressure suction peak and hence lower lift produced by the airfoil. It was also found that the fully turbulent k-ω shear–stress transport (SST) model cannot capture the so-called figure-of-eight region in lift coefficient and the employment of intermittency transport equation is essential.

Practical implications
Boundary layer transition and unsteady flow characteristics owing to airfoil motion are both important for many engineering applications including micro air vehicles as well as helicopter blade, wind turbine and aircraft maneuvers. In this paper, the accuracy of transition modeling based on intermittency transport concept and the response of boundary layer to unsteadiness are investigated.

Originality/value
As a conclusion, the contribution of this paper is to assess the ability of intermittency transport models to predict LSB and transition point movements, static pressure distribution and aerodynamic lift variations and boundary layer flow pattern over dynamic pitching airfoils with regard to oscillation frequency effects for engineering problems.


In 19 patients who have undergone orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), the trend and degree of cholestasis was statistically monitored in terms of plasma levels of L‐gamma‐glutamyl transferase (GGT) and total bilirubin. In addition, the ultrastructure of the bile canaliculus was examined during the entire OLT procedure, i.e., during explantation, cold ischemia, and after 60 to 90 minutes of organ reperfusion. Cholestasis was evident from the second day after surgery, with a peak after approximately 10 to 16 days. Defined, small changes in the functional state of actin filaments were noted in the bile canalicular area after prolonged ischemia. But the morphological status of the bile canaliculi changed dramatically after reperfusion. In fact, the mean area and perimeter of the canaliculi had increased significantly, and there was a marked loss in the number of bile microvilli per unit of canalicular area. The bile canaliculus appears to be one of the liver structures most susceptible to ischemia‐ reperfusion damage. A series of biochemical changes occurring during ischemia and after reoxygenation of the transplanted liver, especially, would provide a reason for the observed early morphological damage of the bile canaliculus, which, in turn, would explain the cholestasis of these patients in the first posttransplantation period.


In the last quarter of 2020 the Costa Rican Ministry for the Environment and Energy (MINAE), announced the signing of two major agreements, the first for US$63 million with the World Bank cooperative program for forest emissions reductions, and the second for US$54 million with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) under the results-based program. These two agreements, are the last of the first-generation of Payment for environmental services (PES), signifying the culmination of a long process that attained a reduction of 14.7 million tC02e for the results-based payment with the GCF and 12 million tCO2e emissions fixed in regenerated forestland and forest fires control with the WB.The first generation of PES was critical in the country´s effort to increase forest cover from the lowest historic point of 21% in 1987 to 57% mark by 2017. There is, however, a new national goal to become CO2 neutral by 2050 as recommended by the Paris agreement since 2015. As a consequence, Costa Rica pledge to further increase forest cover, fixed CO2 in soils and combat forest fires.Costa Rica is one of more than 120 countries committing -under the Paris agreement-to become CO2 neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal each country needs to transform every economic sectors in order to become carbon neutral, either by reducing emissions or by compensating at the national level. However, the country is reaching its maximum capacity to increase forest cover, hence, it needs to consider an integral approach to reach the c-neutral goal. This approach requires to keep generation of electricity based on renewables; to switch transportation from fossil fuels dependency to a cleaner source of energy; and to use every available land to fix as much carbon as possible. That means ensuring the most effective and efficient use of the forest cover that exists today and shifting the focus from a primarily quantitative measurement of forest cover, to a new one that further values the qualitative benefits of species utilized and services produced. In addition, halting deforestation in sensitive areas, increasing forest coverage in areas still available (approximately 3% for forest and 5% for agroforestry) incorporating agroforestry, silvopastoral and multi-use systems that will allow for more sustainable production systems, increasing ecosystem services.Nevertheless, the government's plan will only succeed if there are negative CO2 emissions from the land use sector (therefore compensating emissions added in other economic sectors); which will require a second-generation of PES (PES 2.0), evolving to an inter sectorial economic instrument. MINAE is currently working on this second-generation instrument. The new PES 2.0 should concentrate in ecosystem services rather than only in forest service and should promote the conversion of land under agricultural production (i.e. cattle and diary) into agroforestry operations. Costa Rica also need to replace the PES funding sources coming mainly from the 1996 fossil fuel tax, ideas such as CO2 trade may provide on future funding option. This paper syntheses government pledges, interviews and the authors' experience working with the first generation of PES, and presents initial recommendations to increase the effectiveness and impact of PES 2.0.


Article History: Received 10.05.2012 Received in revised form 06.07.2012 Accepted 08.07.2012 Available online 10.04.2013 The purpose of the study is to define undergraduate students' assessment preferences and learning strategies and to investigate the relationship between these variables. The study was designed according to correlational survey model. The population of this study was 291 students studying at primary school education department at Cukurova University in 2010-2011 academic falls. As data collection tools, "Assessment Preferences Scale" and "Motivation and Learning Strategies Scale" were used in the study. For analyzing data, descriptive statistics, Multivariate analysis of variance and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used respectively. At the end of the study it was found out that while the students preferring the assessment tools that bring to light their cognitive processes in mathematics classes, they mostly use "organizational", "exploratory" and "metacognitive" learning strategies. In addition, it was also figured out in the study that there is a "middle-level" meaningful relationship between students' assessment preferences sub factor scores and learning strategies sub factor scores. In line with these results, defining students' assessment preferences and assessment strategies as well as providing them with different choices may enhance students' learning. © 2013 IOJES. All rights reserved


One of the aims of this research is to determine the sustainability of the Romanian fiscal system on medium term, or the need of its consolidation, in order to meet the new demands imposed internationally. Fiscal sustainability appeared as an essential political issue all over Europe, during last few years, partially because the fiscal policies of many European countries were strongly affected by the global financial and economical crisis, and, at the same time, because of the high impact of demographic changes, especially aging of the population, on the long term fiscal costs. This paper summarizes the results of surveys based on the opinions of more than 350 legal entities from Romania and offers solutions and future directions. The 56 pages presented summarize more than 400 pages from my PhD thesis, a research conducted on 3 years basis.


Quantum and relativistic phenomena can be explained by the hypothesis that both the universe and the elementary particles are formed by atoms' four spatial dimensions. It is also possible to deduce and calculate properties of elementary particles, such as mass, electric charge, spin, radio, etc. Based on this hypothesis, the fundamental constants can be calculated depending only on the speed of light c. Moreover, the Schrodinger equation can be deduced and the equality of inertial and gravitational mass can be demonstrated. The aim of this article is to establish a relationship between electron mass and electron charge, and thereby calculate the electrical charge depending on the mass of the electron, Planck's constant h and the speed of light c. Through this relationship, extended to the gravitational and magnetic fields, it is possible to establish a relationship between the constants of both fields.


Jacob Klapwijk appeals to Augustine on two distinct issues which are closely linked. The first concerns the approach to which Klapwijk commits himself: faith seeking understanding. He calls it Augustinian. I show in this essay that there is a considerable gap between what Augustine means by it and what Klapwijk does with it. Augustine means that what I believe I must seek to understand. Klapwijk means that faith opens up the whole world of science and philosophy to the believer. The second issue is that Klapwijk finds in the Church Father a view of time which he wants to appropriate: God created out of nothing and thus time itself is also a creature which began with the creation. I show that his affirmation of this doctrine comes with a price. He cannot simply set aside what he calls Scholasticism. In the final paragraph I attempt to show that at a deeper level Klapwijk does indeed stand in the Augustinian tradition.


Abstract Voriconazole, a second-generation triazole frequently used for the prophylaxis and treatment of invasive fungal infections, undergoes complex metabolism mainly involving various (polymorphic) cytochrome P450 enzymes in humans. Although high inter- and intraindividual variability in voriconazole pharmacokinetics have been observed and the therapeutic range for this compound is relatively narrow, the metabolism of voriconazole has not been fully elucidated yet. The available literature data investigating the multiple different pathways and metabolites are extremely unbalanced and thus the absolute or relative contribution of the different pathways and enzymes involved in the metabolism of voriconazole remains uncertain. Furthermore, other factors such as nonlinear pharmacokinetics caused by auto-inhibition or -induction and polymorphisms of the metabolizing enzymes hinder safe and effective voriconazole dosing in clinical practice and have not yet been studied sufficiently. This review aimed at amalgamating the available literature on the pharmacokinetics of voriconazole in vitro and in vivo, with a special focus on metabolism in adults and children, in order to congregate an overall landscape of the current body of knowledge and identify knowledge gaps, opening the way towards further research in order to foster the understanding, towards better therapeutic dosing decisions.


Osteogenesis imperfecta is a disease of infancy and childhood, but it has been observed in all age groups. It is characterized by increased fragility of the bones, which fracture on minor trauma, resulting in severe or lesser degrees of crippling. The eyes may be prominent and the sclerotics blue. The neck is usually short, the thorax misshapen, the vertebral column angulated, and the limbs bent.


Discovery of clay minerals as a basic material in producing ceramics products well existed and has never been questioned in terms of Halal or Haram of its content. However, the issue of non halal ceramic was debated around 2007 when they found of non halal materials in (pig bone ash) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of ceramic Bone China product. Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) as leading agency of Islamic affairs management at the federal level has begun investigating towards local and international ceramics products in determination of non halal material contains in the product. The investigation process becomes complicated when JAKIM does not have specific guidance regarding ceramics product which are using material from non halal sources in the production. The issue has challenged JAKIM's to decide on the law of using Bone China products and since then, discussions among scholars' in deciding on fatwa using non halal ceramic products are debatable. In 2010, Ulama' unity established the fatwa: Haram using Bone China products among Muslim users. Based on the fatwa, the sensitivity aspect involved Muslim users have been investigated including foods stuff, cosmetics, daily use products, perfumes and many more item by JAKIM's team all over Malaysia. However, the Muslim user has no specific guidance on what aspect they have to aware and how to they recognize of non halal ceramic product in the market. In general terms, halal is not only referring to material in the product, but also covers all aspect of Patuh-Syariah and Halalan-Toyyiban concept in Islam. The objective of the study is to classify the halal concept among Muslim user in using ceramic products. It does will create awareness to Muslim user about non halal product issue and what are their rights as consumer in Islamic country. The research methodology focuses on quantitatively encompassing observations and data analysis from related research previously on the halal perception in Malaysia. Recommendation of this classification can be used as model guideline for JAKIM and related departments in handling ceramic halal issue and provide awareness of Muslim user as well as for manufacturers of ceramics productions.


Objectives: To report a case of potentially lethal hyperkalemia related to succinylcholine administration. Design: Case report. Setting: A 13-bed pediatric intensive care unit in a tertiary level, university-based children's hospital. Patient: A 16-yr-old boy treated in the intensive care unit due to Klebsiella pneumoniae sepsis, which developed after chemotherapy for nonlymphoblastic leukemia. Interventions: After admission to the intensive care unit, the patient required intubation (uneventful under ketamine and succinylcholine) and mechanical ventilation. On the 15th day of therapy, when his respiratory variables improved significantly, he was extubated. His cardiac rhythm, respiratory rate, arterial blood pressure, and hemoglobin oxygen saturation were continuously monitored. Several hours later, however, he required reintubation due to respiratory insufficiency. For intubation, precurarization with pancuronium, ketamine, propofol, and succinylcholine was used. Measurements and Main Results: Before and immediately after reintubation, serum potassium levels were measured. Two minutes after intubation, premature ventricular contractions, ventricular fibrillation, bradycardia, and finally cardiac arrest were recognized. An increase of serum potassium from 3.19 to 8.64 mmol/L was observed in arterial blood. The patient was immediately resuscitated with chest compressions, intravenous adrenaline, atropine, lidocaine, and sodium bicarbonate. Potassium values normalized within 30 mins. Further treatment in the intensive care unit was uneventful, and the patient was weaned from mechanical ventilation and discharged to a hematology clinic. At present his mental and physical state is satisfactory. Conclusions: Succinylcholine may cause dangerous arrhythmias in septic and immobilized children. The alternative nondepolarizing agents should be used in such cases.


Recension av  Marsha Keith Schuchard, Emanuel Swedenborg, Secret Agent on Earth and in Heaven. Jacobites, Jews, and Freemasons in Early Modern Sweden, The Northern World 55 (Leiden & Boston: Brill 2012). xviii+804 s


Abstract A perturbation method is developed for estimating the change in the solution of a reactive system to any order for a perturbation in the boundary condition in diffusion theory. The method derived gives formalisms for the eigenvalue, normalized flux, and homogenized parameters. Five examples are provided to verify the method as well as analyze the errors associated with it. The first example is very simple and solves the state of the system up to eighth order and gives a simple numerical analysis of a large perturbation. The next example gives an analytical solution up to second order. A two-region example is also given, which is partially numerical and partially analytical. An albedo test example shows that the higher-order terms all appear to be present in the formalism. The final example presents a simplified one-dimensional boiling water reactor core analyzed up to third order numerically. Applications of this method, error propagation, and future work are also discussed.


Building the innovative blockchain-based architecture across the Internet of Things (IoT) platform for the
education system could be an enticing mechanism to boost communication efficiency within the 5 G network. Wireless
networking would have been the main research area allowing people to communicate without using the wires. It was
established at the start of the Internet by retrieving the web pages to connect from one computer to another computer
Moreover, high-speed, intelligent, powerful networks with numerous contemporary technologies, such as low power
consumption, and so on, appear to be available in today's world to connect among each other. The extension of fog features on
physical things under IoT is allowed in this situation. One of the complex tasks throughout the area of mobile
communications would be to design a new virtualization framework based on blockchain across the Internet of Things
architecture. The goal of this research is to connect a new study for an educational system that contains Blockchain to the
internet of things or keeping things cryptographically secure on the internet. This research combines with its improved
blockchain and IoT to create an efficient interaction system between students, teachers, employers, developers, facilitators
and accreditors on the Internet. This specified framework is detailed research's great estimation.


Thin summer fabrics without anti-UV finishing were used as experimental samples and the influences of fabric thickness, tightness, structure and fiber on the anti-UV properties were observed carefully. The measured performance parameters were normalized, to make UV protection properties of different thickness, tightness, fabric structures and fiber materials are comparable. This investigation revealed that the dominant factors affecting fabric anti-ultraviolet property were fabric structure, thickness and fiber type. The anti-UV performance from strong to weak is satin, twill and plain weave in terms of fabric structure; and polyester, silk, hemp and cotton in terms of fiber material. In addition, the anti-UV performances of fabrics positively increase with their thickness, when the other parameters were kept the same.


We study and compare decision-making behavior under the newsvendor and the two-class revenue management models, in an experimental setting. We observe that, under both problems, decision makers deviate significantly from normative benchmarks. Furthermore, revenue management decisions are consistently higher compared to the newsvendor order quantities. In the face of increasing demand variability, revenue managers increase allocations; this behavior is consistent with normative patterns when the ratio of the selling prices of the two customer segments is less than 1/2, but is its exact opposite when this ratio is greater than 1/2. Newsvendors' behavior with respect to changing demand variability, on the other hand, is consistent with normative trends. We also observe that losses due to leftovers weigh more in newsvendor decisions compared to the revenue management model; we argue that overage cost is more salient in the newsvendor problem because it is perceived as a direct loss, and propose this as the driver of the differences in behavior observed under the two problems.


An extension to the penalty alternating least squares (P-ALS) method, called multi-way penalty alternating least squares (NWAY P-ALS), is presented. Optionally, hard constraints (no deviation from predefined constraints) or soft constraints (small deviations from predefined constraints) were applied through the application of a row-wise penalty least squares function. NWAY P-ALS was applied to the multi-batch near-infrared (NIR) data acquired from the base catalyzed esterification reaction of acetic anhydride in order to resolve the concentration and spectral profiles of 1-butanol with the reaction constituents. Application of the NWAY P-ALS approach resulted in the reduction of the number of active constraints at the solution point, while the batch column-wise augmentation allowed hard constraints in the spectral profiles and resolved rank deficiency problems of the measurement matrix. The results were compared with the multi-way multivariate curve resolution (MCR)-ALS results using hard and soft constraints to determine whether any advantages had been gained through using the weighted least squares function of NWAY P-ALS over the MCR-ALS resolution.


Diffusion tensor-magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (DT-MREIT) is an imaging modality to obtain low-frequency anisotropic conductivity distribution employing diffusion tensor imaging and MREIT techniques. DT-MREIT is based on the linear relationship between the conductivity and water self-diffusion tensors in a porous medium, like the brain white matter. Several DT-MREIT studies in the literature provide cross-sectional anisotropic conductivity images of tissue phantoms, canine brain, and the human brain. In these studies, the conductivity tensor images are reconstructed using the diffusion tensor and current density data acquired by injecting two linearly independent current patterns. In this study, a novel reconstruction algorithm is devised for DT-MREIT to reconstruct the conductivity tensor images using a single current injection. Therefore, the clinical applicability of DT-MREIT can be improved by reducing the total acquisition time, the number of current injection cables, and contact electrodes to half by decreasing the number of current injection patterns to one. The proposed method is evaluated utilizing simulated measurements and physical experiments. The results obtained show the successful reconstruction of the anisotropic conductivity distribution using the proposed single current DT-MREIT.


A new kind of suspending combination ecological filter bed was constructed, which took floating baskets as basic units and took flyash cenospheres and attapulgite clay ultra light filter material as loading material. It integrated plant absorption, filter material adsorption with biofilm colonization to purify wastewater. Experiment showed that by the use of filter bed, TP, TN and COD can be removed effectively. Three kinds of plants, including green vegetables, spinach and American-four-season-green grass were cultivated in the filter bed and grew better than those planted in soils. Germination rate and speed of growth were faster than the controlled group. The application of filter bed didn't need land occupation and civil engineering construction. Meanwhile, it can restore the polluted water, reduce the operation costs and fulfill the recycling of eutrophia water.


Recently, many pundits, activists, and politicians have coalesced around the same narrative: Consumers, workers, and small businesses have suffered from increasing industry concentration. Monopoly, we are told, is the scourge of the U.S. economy, the cause of all that is going wrong. And only breaking up Big Industry can restore America to its prior greatness. But as Rob Atkinson writes for Arc Digital, the airline industry demonstrates why this narrative is wrong. Today, we have four major carriers, and they cuts prices, boosts productivity, and invests in new equipment while earning lower-than-average profits. The industry should be emulated, not broken up.


Purpose: This study is an examination of the efficacy of a virtual walking protocol to treat spinal cord injury (SCI)-related pain. Method: A total of 59 individuals with SCI and neuropathic pain (NP) were randomly assigned to receive 20 min of virtual walking, the treatment condition, or virtual wheeling, the control condition. Although having NP was a requirement to participate in the study, participants also underwent pain classification of up to 3 worst pain sites to also examine the effects of virtual walking on nonneuropathic pain. Pain outcomes included changes in pain severity across all pain types, NP unpleasantness, and severity of various sensory qualities of NP. Design: This was a randomized, controlled, single-blinded trial. Results: There was no significant difference in change in pain between groups, though there was a significant pre- to posttreatment reduction across all pain types in the virtual walking condition, but not the control condition. Specific to NP, there was a significant reduction in pain unpleasantness, but not neuropathic pain intensity. NP experienced as "cold," "deep," and with increased skin sensitivity were significantly reduced following virtual walking compared with the control condition. Conclusion: Results from this trial suggest that virtual walking treatment may benefit certain aspects of NP, such as associated unpleasantness, as well as certain sensory qualities of that pain. Efficacy of this treatment modality to reduce overall pain severity remains unclear, and may be modulated by other injury, individual, or personality characteristics.


Background Large-scale synchronous neural activity produces electrical fields that can be measured by electrodes outside the head, and volume conduction ensures that neural sources can be measured by many electrodes. However, most data analyses in M/EEG research are univariate, meaning each electrode is considered as a separate measurement. Several multivariate linear spatial filtering techniques have been introduced to the cognitive electrophysiology literature, but these techniques are not commonly used; comparisons across filters would be beneficial to the field. New method The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare the performance of several linear spatial filtering techniques, with a focus on those that use generalized eigendecomposition to facilitate dimensionality reduction and signal-to-noise ratio maximization. Results Simulated and empirical data were used to assess the accuracy, signal-to-noise ratio, and interpretability of the spatial filter results. When the simulated signal is powerful, different spatial filters provide convergent results. However, more subtle signals require carefully selected analysis parameters to obtain optimal results. Comparison with existing methods Linear spatial filters can be powerful data analysis tools in cognitive electrophysiology, and should be applied more often; on the other hand, spatial filters can latch onto artifacts or produce uninterpretable results. Conclusions Hypothesis-driven analyses, careful data inspection, and appropriate parameter selection are necessary to obtain high-quality results when using spatial filters.


Technological progress in computer science and neuroimaging has resulted in many approaches that aim to detect brain states and translate them to an external output. Studies from the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and neurofeedback (NF) have validated the coupling between brain signals and computer devices; however a cognitive model of the processes involved remains elusive. Psychological parameters usually play a moderate role in predicting the performance of BCI and NF users. The concept of a locus of control, i.e., whether one's own action is determined by internal or external causes, may help to unravel inter-individual performance capacities. Here, we present data from 20 healthy participants who performed a feedback task based on EEG recordings of the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR). One group of 10 participants underwent 10 training sessions where the amplitude of the SMR was coupled to a vertical feedback bar. The other group of ten participants participated in the same task but relied on sham feedback. Our analysis revealed that a locus of control score focusing on control beliefs with regard to technology negatively correlated with the power of SMR. These preliminary results suggest that participants whose confidence in control over technical devices is high might consume additional cognitive resources. This higher effort in turn may interfere with brain states of relaxation as reflected in the SMR. As a consequence, one way to improve control over brain signals in NF paradigms may be to explicitly instruct users not to force mastery but instead to aim at a state of effortless relaxation.


Direct methods for SLAM have shown exceptional performance on odometry tasks. However, they still suffer from dynamic lighting/weather changes and from a bad initialization on large baselines. To mitigate both of these effects, we propose an approach which feeds deep visual descriptors for each pixel as input to the SLAM system. In this work, we introduce GN-Net: a network optimized with the novel Gauss-Newton loss for training deep features. It is designed to maximize the probability of the correct pixel correspondence inside the Gauss-Newton algorithm. This results in features with a larger convergence basin when compared with single-channel grayscale images generally used in SLAM-based approaches. Our network can be trained with ground-truth pixel correspondences between different images, produced either from simulation data or by any state-of-the-art SLAM algorithm. We show that our approach is more robust against bad initialization, variations in day-time, and weather changes thereby outperforming state-of-the-art direct and indirect methods. Furthermore, we release an evaluation benchmark for what we refer to as relocalization tracking. It has been created using the CARLA simulator as well as sequences taken from the Oxford RobotCar Dataset.


AIMS: To investigate the potential associations between daily bedtime routines, evening fluctuations in parent mood, and sleep patterns for a sample of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS). This study also investigated whether the association among these factors varies dependent upon the severity of the genetic mutation. SAMPLE: Children ages 3 years, 0 months to 17 years, 11 months with a full or partial mutation of FXS (N = 95). METHOD: In-home assessments were completed including a demographic form, bedtime routine information sheet, and abbreviated Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), followed by a 14-day sleep diary. Actigraphy was added to the protocol for the local sample of participants (n = 7) from the Fragile X Center of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. RESULTS: Parents reported that 48% of their children with FXS have sleep problems at a level worthy of a sleep clinic referral; 20% of participants received medication to induce sleep, but 58% continued to score in the clinical range on the CSHQ despite receiving medications. Actigraphy showed children with FXS had significantly different sleep parameters than a control group (n =14). Caregiver mood was a significant correlate of sleep disturbances; children with FXS whose caregivers reported feeling more overwhelmed or poorer mood had more sleep disturbances. Inconsistent bedtime routine was also associated with sleep disturbances. CONCLUSIONS: These data strongly suggest that routine clinical care of children with FXS should include careful screening of sleep. Interventions to assist parents in establishing and/or maintaining bedtime routines and managing their mood may be warranted. Effective use of medication to enhance sleep requires further investigation. Additional research is needed to identify specific problems with sleep so that clinical trials focusing on key parameters can be initiated.


Background: Presenteeism is an emerging work-related health problem among train drivers. It is more serious than absenteeism, as it accounts for higher productivity losses over the long term and may increase the risk of occupational accidents. Train drivers have high rates of mental and physical health conditions that may put them at high risk of presenteeism. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 train drivers working in Mansoura railway station and 100 administrative employees working in the Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura university as a comparison group to estimate the prevalence of presenteeism and its associated factors among train drivers working in Mansoura railway station, Egypt. A questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic, occupational and medical data. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was used to measure non-specific psychological distress. The Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS-6) was used to assess productivity loss related to sickness presenteeism. Results: The prevalence of presenteeism was significantly higher among train drivers (76%) compared to the comparison group (31%). All participants (100%) with psychological distress reported presenteeism. Being a train driver (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=5.4) and having hypertension (AOR=4.03) are independent predictors for presenteeism. Conclusions: The prevalence of presenteeism and its associated risk factors were significantly higher among train drivers than the comparison group. There is an urgent need for the railway industry to understand the factors that may contribute to presenteeism.


The smectic-A phase of octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) doped with a photosensitive azo-compound has been reported to exhibit structural changes and formation of periodic layers distortions upon exposure to low-level radiation. It is caused by changes in the smectic layer spacing triggered by light-induced molecular photoisomerization of the dopant azocompound. Our in-situ highresolution x-ray scattering study reveals that the light irradiation controls the smectic spacing. The exposure to UV light increases the layer spacing by as much as 0.5% ( 0.155A for the studied mixture of 8CB and diheptylazobenzene 7AB at T = 24.00°C). Irradiation by He-Ne lasm at 633 nm causes the contraction of the layers.


In this paper, the author primarily established the vehicle dynamics model with seven degrees of freedom by MATLAB / Simulink, which could reflect the longitudinal motion, lateral motion and yaw of the vehicle. Under the environment of MATLAB/Simulink, the Fuzzy PID control system based on yaw and sideslip angle is integrated to the 7-DOF vehicle model. With this model, two kinds of emergency double lane change steering condition of the joint control analysis are carried out to check the effects of the control system on the emergency lane change, passing, avoiding obstacles. The results showed that the vehicle stability control system designed can improve vehicle handling and stability, assisting the driver to adapt to various roads and driving conditions, achieve a good effect on the active control, and greatly improve the driving safety.


Gallbladder filling was studied using computer-assisted cholescintigraphy in normal subjects who had fasted overnight. The gallbladder tended to visualize earlier than the distal part of the common bile duct. It appeared at approximately the same time regardless of whether or not there was passage of activity into the duodenum. This suggests that filling is not dependent on contraction of the sphincter of Oddi. Sequential images demonstrated that the activity entering the gallbladder rapidly reached the fundus. Time-activity curves showed a gradual buildup of activity in the bile ducts followed by sudden entrance into the gallbladder. Time-activity curves of the gallbladder's proximal and distal parts showed signs of an exchange of activity, suggesting that the gallbladder's motor function is not quiescent during fasting. Gallbladder motility could explain the periodic irregularities on the time-activity curve. These irregularities were smaller but no less frequent after morphine administration.


With the development of science and technology, microfludic chip has become the leading edge in biochip research field, representing major development trend of micro-total analysis system (μ-TAS).Having features of high speed, high efficiency, low consumption etc., it possesses extensive application prospect in fields of gene analysis, disease diagnosis, drug screening etc.. Traditional microfludic chip adopts silicon slice, glass etc. materials to conduct processing with complex technique and high cost chip, thus it is not in favor of promotion and application of chip. The research on hot embossing and bonding machine for plastic microfludic chips fabrication is that to provide efficient processing machine for chip market which is expanded with each passing day. Based on present hot embossing technology of plastic microfludic chips and aimed to realize automation and batch process, the thesis conducts design research on mechanical construction of hot embossing and bonding machine for chips.


Georg Simmel's political position has rarely been discussed explicitly – perhaps because many scholars have assumed that Simmel was 'apolitical' before 1914. The present article shows that even before 1914 Simmel held a distinct political position, to wit a peculiar kind of liberal-Nietzschean aristocratic individualism. This individualism is the result of a passage through 'the hard school' of egalitarian socialism in order to reach true individuality. It is closely related to Simmel's central theorem of the so-called 'individual law'. After a socio-historical contextualisation of Simmel's political thought, the article follows this motif in detail through his diagnosis of the times, his theory of socio-cultural development, his engagement in cultural politics, his ideal of personality formation and his engagement in the bourgeois women's movement. Simmel's thought culminates in a conception of 'dialectic aristocratism'. In this respect, the normative core of Simmel's political standpoint is very close to Max Weber's position. The last section argues that Simmel's war writings do not mark a break in his political thinking, but rather apply the same theorem of the 'individual law' to the German state. Through its various stages, the article shows that Simmel's political orientation, linked to key theoretical concepts, is deeply rooted in the educated bourgeoisie's worldview and habitus.


Background and Aim: The mechanisms behind the second-meal effect, i.e., the capability of a small premeal to reduce plasma glucose excursions during a main meal in type 2 diabetes, remain unknown. We investigated the involvement of the gut-derived hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP1) in the second-meal effect in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: In a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, double-dummy, cross-over study, the second-meal effect was investigated in 15 male patients with metformin-treated type 2 diabetes over two days by administering a premeal (30 g of whey protein in 100 ml water) or a non-caloric flavor-controlled drink 30 minutes before a standardized liquid main meal. During both conditions, the second-meal effect was evaluated twice: with concomitant iv infusion of the GLP1 receptor antagonist exendin[9-39] and saline (placebo), respectively. Results: A second-meal effect was observed in 9 out of 15 participants, defined as responders, in whom the premeal significantly reduced postprandial glucose excursions during the main meal by 11% (assessed by area under the plasma glucose curve). The second-meal effect was completely abolished by iv infusion of exendin[9-39], during which the premeal resulted in a 5% exacerbation of postprandial glucose excursions. Significant GLP1-mediated second-meal effects on postprandial insulin (56%) and C-peptide responses (86%) were also observed. Conclusions: By antagonizing the GLP1 receptor, premeal-induced beta cell secretion is significantly reduced and the glucose-lowering effect of a premeal on a subsequent main meal, the second-meal effect, is annulled in patients with type 2 diabetes. This suggests that premeal-induced GLP1 secretion constitutes a significant determinant of the second-meal effect in type 2 diabetes patients. Disclosure S. Bergmann: None. N.C. Bergmann: Employee; Self; Zealand Pharma A/S. L.S. Gasbjerg: Stock/Shareholder; Self; Antag Therapeutics. J.J. Holst: Advisory Panel; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. Board Member; Self; Zealand Pharma A/S. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., AstraZeneca. Research Support; Self; Danish Diabetes Academy, Novo Nordisk Foundation. Other Relationship; Self; Antag Therapeutics. Other Relationship; Spouse/Partner; Antag Therapeutics. T. Vilsboll: Advisory Panel; Self; Amgen Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca, MSD K.K., Sanofi, Novo Nordisk A/S. Consultant; Self; Amgen Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca, MSD K.K., Sanofi, Novo Nordisk A/S. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Amgen Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca, MSD K.K., Sanofi, Novo Nordisk A/S. Research Support; Self; Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk A/S. F.K. Knop: Advisory Panel; Self; AstraZeneca. Consultant; Self; AstraZeneca. Research Support; Self; AstraZeneca. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; AstraZeneca. Advisory Panel; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. Advisory Panel; Self; Amgen Inc.. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.. Advisory Panel; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. Consultant; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. Consultant; Self; Amgen Inc.. Advisory Panel; Self; MedImmune, Sanofi. Consultant; Self; Sanofi. Research Support; Self; Sanofi. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Sanofi.


The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered by the Danish physicist H. Kamerlingh Onnes (1853–1926; Nobel Prize in Physics, 1913), who found a way to liquefy helium, which boils at 4.2 K and 1 atm pressure. To exploit the very low temperatures made possible by this new cryogenic fluid, he began a systematic study of the properties of metals, especially their electrical properties. Because the electrical resistance of a sample is technically easier to measure than its conductivity, Onnes measured the resistivity of his samples. The resistivity and conductivity of a material are inversely proportional:


I test a model of Pareto efficient risk sharing within households using consumption data from Ghana. The results reject this model despite showing that individual consumption is not significantly affected by both agricultural and illness shocks. Turning to transfer data, I find evidence that men share risks with both family members and non-family friends when faced with shocks and that women share risk with non-family friends. The form of these arrangements differ based not only on the gender of the individual, but also the type of shock and nature of the transfer.


Trimmed means are means calculated after setting aside zero or more values in each tail of a sample distribution. Here we focus on trimming equal numbers in each tail. Such trimmed means define a family or function with mean and median as extreme members and are attractive as simple and easily understood summaries of the general level (location, central tendency) of a variable. This article provides a tutorial review of trimmed means, emphasizing the scope for trimming to varying degrees in describing and exploring data. Detailed remarks are included on the idea's history, plotting of results, and confidence interval procedures. Examples are given using astronomical and medical data. The new Stata commands trimmean and trimplot are also included.


The authors propose an equivalent tax rate framework to compare the tax-efficient accumulation and withdrawal of retirement funds across multiple investment vehicles. The method allows for the consideration of a given investment vehicle's expected return, time horizon, and tax treatment relative to a tax-deferred retirement account receiving pre-tax contributions and possible employer matching of contributions. The metric is comparable across alternative investment accounts irrespective of the specific marginal tax rate in place during the accumulation or distribution stages.