&NA; To address barriers to adequate engagement in medical care among people living with HIV, Wisconsin's AIDS/HIV Program created a new position, the Linkage to Care (LTC) Specialist. Specialists provide intensive, short‐term case management and patient navigation services for small caseloads of individuals at high risk of disengaging with medical care. Clients are eligible if they are newly diagnosed with HIV or new to medical care, recently released from incarceration, recently out of care, nonadherent to scheduled medical care visits, or have detectable viral load while in care. Interviews with 30 clients of Specialists were conducted to understand experiences with the program and medical care. Common themes included the ability of Specialists to navigate complex systems of care and support services, the unique role Specialists played in their clients' lives, and the challenges of transitioning out of the program. Although the primary goal of Specialists is to address barriers to medical care, they often adopted a holistic approach that also included housing, financial assistance, and other social determinants of health. Descriptions of the Specialist's role in implementation manuals focus on their functional roles and the services provided. However, clients often discussed the emotional support they received, especially for clients without strong social support networks. Many clients also desired an ongoing relationship with their Specialists even after discharge, but had been able to establish independence and selfefficacy. The LTC Specialists are resource‐intensive considering their small caseloads, but fill an important gap in existing, often overtaxed case management systems.


There have been significant recent advances in the understanding of the pathophysiology of pulmonary hypertension, and a growing number of therapeutic agents have become available to the treating physician. Traditional methods of diagnosing and monitoring this condition have comprised echocardiography and right heart catheterisation, in addition to functional measures, such as estimation of functional class and the 6-min walk test. An increasing number of biomarkers have been described that are elevated in pulmonary hypertension and which may assist the clinician in diagnosis and in the assessment of disease severity and response to treatment. The present article details the more important biomarkers, their potential applications and the evidence supporting their use.


The paper analyzes the peculiarities of individual self-organization of unemployed. The concept of сoping behaviour, used in the paper, allows to consider concrete mechanisms of overcoming life difficulties and crises. The author works out three main forms of individual self-organization of unemployed:goal-seeking use of social network resources; effective concretization of self image, personal plans and evaluation of the current situation; shaping the context of the current situation. These forms could be the object of social support, provided through professional orientation. The author's definition of professional orientation is given. The author makes a conclusion of that the development of the system of consultancy support for the professional career is needed.


All-inorganic perovskite materials, i.e. cesium lead halide (CsPbX3 (X = I, Br, Cl)), have attracted much attention in the application of photoelectronic devices, especially in solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). However, the solubility issue of CsPbX3 restricts their utilization in solution-processed devices. Herein, we demonstrated efficient all-inorganic perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs) via co-evaporation of cesium bromide (CsBr) and lead bromide (PbBr2) based on a vacuum thermal evaporation process. The molar ratio of CsBr to PbBr2, which can be adjusted via the co-evaporation ratio, is proved to be very critical to the device performance. Excess CsBr in the perovskite layer causes poor surface morphology and affects the charge transport. With an optimization of the molar ratio, the PeLEDs based on the equimolar CsBr and PbBr2 exhibit the best green electroluminescence (EL) performance with a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 1.55%. Meanwhile, the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the green EL spectrum is as narrow as 18.5 nm, which can offer high color purity and large color space in display applications.


Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate, in pediatric patients, the concordance of intraoral scanner for dental measurements, comparing the measurements obtained clinically with digital models, 3D printed filament models, and conventional plaster models. Materials and Methods: For this study, 31 patients with mixed dentition were selected, with at least the upper central incisors and upper first permanent molars erupted. The dental size measurement obtained with 3Shape Trios Scanner was compared with that obtained clinically with the aid of a digital caliper, as well as the measurements made with plaster models and filament printed models. For data analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was performed and the agreement was categorized according to it. The Bland–Altman analysis was also applied to the data to graphically display the concordance. Results: There was no difference in agreement between measurements made in plaster and filament models compared to the reference method, and for measurements in the digital model, the agreement was low or zero in the molar region. Conclusion: According to the present study, we can conclude that both plaster and filament models presented values that are faithful to those obtained clinically and that the evaluated region affected the agreement with the reference method.


Compared with their monometallic counterparts, bimetallic nanoparticles often show enhanced catalytic activity associated with the bimetallic interface. Direct quantitation of catalytic activity at the bimetallic interface is important for understanding the enhancement mechanism, but challenging experimentally. Here using single-molecule super-resolution catalysis imaging in correlation with electron microscopy, we report the first quantitative visualization of enhanced bimetallic activity within single bimetallic nanoparticles. We focus on heteronuclear bimetallic PdAu nanoparticles that present a welldefined Pd−Au bimetallic interface in catalyzing a photodriven fluorogenic disproportionation reaction. Our approach also enables a direct comparison between the bimetallic and monometallic regions within the same nanoparticle. Theoretical calculations further provide insights into the electronic nature of N−O bond activation of the reactant (resazurin) adsorbed on bimetallic sites. Subparticle activity correlation between bimetallic enhancement and monometallic activity suggests that the favorable locations to construct bimetallic sites are those monometallic sites with higher activity, leading to a strategy for making effective bimetallic nanocatalysts. The results highlight the power of super-resolution catalysis imaging in gaining insights that could help improve nanocatalysts.


This paper introduces a new vibration reduction system using a magnetostrictive (Fe-Ga alloy) bimetal actuator. The proposed method (i) uses a magnetostrictive bimetal actuator instead of prevalent single material ones that need an auxiliary temperature control system and (ii) utilises a novel disturbance rejection control scheme that eliminates an unknown disturbance, without needing knowledge of its dynamics. In experiments, the vibration source is demonstrated as an unbalanced motor attached to the tip of a cantilever beam, resembling a beam-like element subject to ambiance vibrations. In the first step, the fundamental of this anti-vibration system is introduced and described. Then, analytical and data-driven modelling for the combination of the beam, the motor, and the bimetal is reported. These follow by model validation and impulse response analysis. Then, the proposed control system is introduced in detail. Experimental results indicate that the control system results in 33.6% decrease in beam vibration amplitude. Furthermore, the presented method in this paper can be employed as a design guideline for future applications.


Abstract: Consecutive patients (n = 114), who had single fiber electromyography of the frontalis muscles for symptoms suggestive of ocular myasthenia gravis, were followed up for a mean of 14 months (3-64 mos). At follow up, based on strict criteria, 23 patients were classified as having ocular myasthenia gravis, 8 patients were diagnosed as having mitochondrial myopathy or oculopharyngeal dystrophy, 18 patients were found to have other diseases and 65 patients remained without a definite diagnosis. The single fiber electromyography data of these patients were then reviewed. The patients with ocular myasthenia gravis had, on average, more than 7/20 single fiber pairs with jitter > 45 μs and mean jitter of 56 μs. The 8 patients with mitochondrial myopathy or oculopharyngeal dystrophy had an average of 5/20 single fiber pairs with jitter > 45 μs and a mean jittter of 52 μs and could not be separated from the group with ocular myasthenia gravis on the basis of the single fiber electromyography results. The 18 patients with definite other diagnosis had an average of less than 1/20 single fiber pair with jitter > 45 μs and a mean jitter of 25 μs. This group could be clearly separated from the group with ocular yasthenia gravis. We conclude that single fiber electromyelography is useful in the separation of ocular myasthenia gravis from other causes of oculomotor weakness except mitochondrial myopathy and oculopharyngeal dystrophy.


Many countries in the Caribbean have been grappling with persistent fiscal imbalances and rising debt levels. The average debt to GDP ratio in the Caribbean in 2017 was 76.6 percent, higher than the negative debt-growth threshold of 60 percent of GDP. Also, the average fiscal deficit as a percent of GDP was 2.8 percent, but with significant heterogeneity across countries ranging from 0.5 percent to 11 percent. Using the inter-temporal budget constraint framework and various panel data econometric estimators, this article examines the issue of fiscal sustainability for a group of 10 Caribbean countries over the period 1991-2017. The evidence from panel cointegration models of government revenue and expenditure shows that past fiscal behavior is "weakly" sustainable. The "weak sustainability" finding is reinforced by evidence from an extended fiscal reaction function which showed that the primary balance improves by about 0.02 for every 1 percentage point increase in the debt ratio.


The aim of this thesis is to examine the impact of new public management (NPM) reforms on teacher professionalism in Swedish ethnic segregated schools. As a result of the various NPM reforms implemented in the education sector, the work of teachers has changed considerably in the last twenty years. The introduction of the new form of control has intensified the work load of professional teachers and led to standardization of teaching. Some scholars argue that NPM has led to professional losing control of their work resulting in de-professionalization of teachers while others argue that professional might acquire new skills that enhance their professionalism leading to re-professionalization.The theoretical basis for the thesis is Evetts (2009) occupational and organizational professionalism which is used to investigate the links between NPM and professionalism in the contexts of the public services professionals.The empirical study consists of five semi structured interviews with teachers working in four ethnic segregated schools.The findings show that teachers working in ethnic segregated schools encounter a challenging teaching environment that affects their teaching quality and diminish their professional autonomy. The result indicates the expansion of organizational professionalism and the demise of occupational professionalism. The only aspect of occupational professional that is apparent in this study is collegial relations. Moreover the findings of this study indicate the tendency towards de-professionalization.


Malang State University (UM) have design to be the green campus, there is an university haveattention about campus area condition and campus with personality showed by the campus areacondition. Campus with personality care about campus area condition can be created by mixingsocial element and nature element. But, since the program green campus have started, there is nota single observation or research about walkabilty in pedestrian path, this mean to maximizefunction of pedestrian path for support green campus Program. Objective of this research isknowing walkability level in studies location, the result will be evaluation report and reference forplainning in future. In this research using mixed method or qualitative method and quantitativemethod. Qualitative method used to measure assesment researcher and pedestrian paerceptionabout walkability of pedestrian path in studies location basic from US Department Health andHuman Service standard. Result from the research showing that Malang State Universityclassified as walkable enough for pedestrian path that score obtained 46. But there still muchaspect about pedestrian path walkability have to upgrading because less than standard. Forexcample sidewalk, pedestrian conflict, street furniture, accessbility for difabel and aestheticssmust be to fixed. The result of this research can use by goverment or planology for urban design torealize walkable campus and attract students to walk.


Sand dollars (Clypeasteroids) have developed a unique discoidal morphology along the perimeter curvature or ambitus. The distinctive round and flattened morphology appears adaptive to their shallow water habitat and appears in multiple species throughout the group. This analysis applies geometric morphometric analysis to fossil clypeasteroid specimens from the genus Dendraster from the western United States coastline, California, and examines the following: 1) Quantifying morphological, ontogenetic, and developmental variation between the clypeasteroid genera Dendraster and Arachnoides; 2) Quantifying discoidal morphology, petaloid structures, and posterior morphological variation within and between the examined genera; 3) Assessing how regional endemicity may effect variation between and within the assessed Clypeasteroids. This study begins to quantify how this distinctive morphology developed in fossil and extant clypeasteroids and how morphological variation during ontogeny compares between the two clypeasteroid genera. Results demonstrate strongest ontogenetic trends occur in the aboral/oral profiles for the landmark and semilandmark analyses of ambitus morphology and curvature shape. Other morphologic traits including the petaloid structures and posterior profile do not readily demonstrate ontogenetic trends. Interspecific variation or potentially morphological variation due to environmental controls appear to play a larger role in observed morphological variation for these traits. This analysis also demonstrates the utility of geometric morphometric analysis for clypeasteroid genera; building a foundation for broader analysis of discoidal morphologies.


Twenty-nine normal young men were administered the Halstead Battery and two additional tests commonly employed by neuropsychologists and were re-examined by the same instruments 20 weeks later. The results indicate that for our sample of normal Ss the classification of an individual as "normal" by the Halstead Impairment Index is a clinical judgment with a very high degree of reliability. Data from two comparison groups (patients with cerebrovascular disease and patients with chronic schizophrenia) lent support to this conclusion. A similar study with other samples of normal Ss as well as other better defined and matched psychiatric and brain-damaged Ss is needed both to cross-validate and to extend this finding in order to increase the practicing clinician's confidence in his interpretation of an obtained value falling in the normal range for a given individual. Clinical neuropsychology is rapidly developing to the point that such validity (clinical reliability) for such individual judgments is no longer a hope but an increasingly more probable expectation.


Three scenarios of future mortality trends are presented for all countries of the European Economic Area. The high scenario assumes a considerable decline in mortality rates. Consequently life expectancy at birth will continue to increase at about the same rate as during the last decades.... In the low scenario only a small decline in death rates is assumed. This scenario assumes that there will be no convergence between countries. Moreover the current differences between male and female mortality are assumed to persist. (EXCERPT)


This paper revisits flooding problems in Ibadan Metropolis, in the past fifty years, especially the most recent flood of August 2011. Flood disasters can be attributed to the unnecessary risks people take when they encroach on flood plains. There will be no flood disasters if human beings stayed away from the flood plains. The methodology adopted for the flood investigations includes site visits, interviews of affected inhabitants, and analyses of flood data collected during the field investigations. These investigations were complemented with review of past records of flooding, and interpretation of satellite imagery of flood affected areas, especially for inaccessible areas, to produce flood hazard maps. Results of the spatial analysis of flooding in the 11 local government areas of Ibadan indicate that 26,553 buildings were constructed within the statutory set back to the rivers and streams while 2,105 were flooded. Large scale encroachment into the river floodplains was observed throughout the area.  The major cause of flooding in Ibadan Metropolis is due to uncontrolled urbanization of the area. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) predicted that there will be very heavy rains and flooding in a number of states in Nigeria in 2012. In Oyo State, Ibadan is specifically mentioned as a city to experience flooding. This emphasises the urgent need to put in place measures to facilitate effective management of the anticipated floods to prevent the re-occurrence of the damage and losses of the 2011 disaster.


Swift variations in the cloud cover may cause significant power output fluctuations in solar power systems, jeopardizing power quality. Forecasting the power output with a very short horizon below 30 s can be seen as a cloud cover forecasting problem solved by processing images from a sky camera. After a preprocessing stage that identifies clouds with a criterion based on the red-green blue values of each pixel, a probability hypothesis density filter or a more advanced cardinalized probability hypothesis density filter can be used to an unknown and varying number of clouds. The time when cumulus clouds will shade the sun can be forecasted with an absolute precision 6 s ahead and with an acceptable accuracy 27 s ahead. It has been found that both filters are equally well suited for a real-time online nowcasting application. They also have the potential to deal with noise and the swift dynamics and high variability of clouds.


Background: Cross-sectional studies reported a novel set of hydroxylated ultra-long-chain fatty acids (ULCFA) that were present at significantly lower levels in colorectal cancer cases than controls. Follow-up studies suggested that these molecules were potential biomarkers of protective exposure for colorectal cancer. To test the hypothesis that ULCFAs reflect causal pathways, we measured their levels in prediagnostic serum from incident colorectal cancer cases and controls. Methods: Serum from 95 colorectal cancer patients and 95 matched controls was obtained from the Italian arm of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort and analyzed by liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry. Levels of 8 ULCFAs were compared between cases and controls with paired t tests and a linear model that used time to diagnosis (TTD) to determine whether case–control differences were influenced by disease progression. Results: Although paired t tests detected significantly lower levels of four ULCFAs in colorectal cancer cases, confirming earlier reports, the case–control differences diminished significantly with increasing TTD (7 days–14 years). Conclusion: Levels of several ULCFAs were lower in incident colorectal cancer cases than controls. However, because case–control differences decreased with increasing TTD, we conclude that these molecules were likely consumed by processes related to cancer progression rather than causal pathways. Impact: ULCFA levels are unlikely to represent exposures that protect individuals from colorectal cancer. Future research should focus on the diagnostic potential and origins of these molecules. Our use of TTD as a covariate in a linear model provides an efficient method for distinguishing causal and reactive biomarkers in biospecimens from prospective cohorts. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 25(8); 1216–23. ©2016 AACR.


In 1940 and 1941, 712 gravity stations were established in central-eastern Pennsylvania over a region centering about Allentown and Bethlehem. Geologically the area extends from the Triassic Lowlands to the Silurian of Kittatinny Mountain. Bouguer anomalies were computed, and from them gravity contour maps were made of the whole area and certain localities in it. Anomaly variation over the area is found to be both regional and local, the local anomalies correlating in shape with structural trends, and in several cases coinciding geographically with outcropping density contrasts that reasonably account for the gravity anomaly. Rough analysis is made of some of the structures, indicating the possible shape and size of mass anomalies that could produce the gravity anomalies found. Considerable overlapping of local effects makes detailed analysis difficult, but it is believed that the continued use of the gravimetric method in this region will be useful in studying its geologic and structural problems.


This paper introduces the Typographic Markup Language (TML). TML is a parser-driven, micro-typography meta-language for managing the dynamic exchange of formatted content between applications in a Cross Media Publishing environment.

TML is designed to solve the problem of parsing, storing and transferring of the typography meta-data between proprietary industry-standard applications like Content Management Systems and Desktop Publishing Systems.

TML differs from similar procedures in two aspects. First, it stores the grammar rules for the different parsers in a database to allow easy and quick modifications of the transfer rules. Second, it reduces the mapping volume of paragraph-styles by using a meta-typographic language. Instead of n2 mappings only n mappings are required.


Using the von Mises expansion, we study the higher-order infinitesimal robustness of a general M-functional and characterize its second-order properties. We show that second-order robustness is equivalent to the boundedness of both the estimator's estimating function and its derivative with respect to the parameter. It implies, at the same time, (i) variance robustness and (ii) robustness of higher-order saddlepoint approximations to the estimator's finite sample density. The proposed construction of second-order robust M-estimators is fairly general and potentially useful in a variety of relevant settings. Besides the theoretical contributions, we discuss the main computational issues and provide an algorithm for the implementation of second-order robust M-estimators. Finally, we illustrate our theory by Monte Carlo simulation and in a real-data estimation of the maximal losses of Nikkei 225 index returns. Our findings indicate that second-order robust estimators can improve on other widely applied robust estimators, in terms of efficiency and robustness, for moderate to small sample sizes and in the presence of deviations from ideal parametric models. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Background/Aims: Chronic kidney disease is characterized by accumulation of extracellular matrix in the tubulointerstitial area. Fibroblasts are the main matrix-producing cells. One source of activated fibroblasts is the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). In cultured tubular epithelial cells, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β1) induced Gremlin production associated with EMT phenotypic changes, and therefore Gremlin has been proposed as a downstream TGF-β1 mediator. Gremlin is a developmental gene upregulated in chronic kidney diseases associated with matrix accumulation, but its direct role in the modulation of renal fibrosis and its relation with TGF-β has not been investigated. Methods: Murine renal fibroblasts and human tubular epithelial cells were studied. Renal fibrosis was determined by evaluation of key profibrotic factors, extracellular matrix proteins (ECM) and EMT markers by Western blot/confocal microscopy or real-time PCR. Endogenous Gremlin was targeted with small interfering RNA. Results: In murine fibroblasts, stimulation with recombinant Gremlin upregulated profibrotic genes, such as TGF-β1, and augmented the production of ECM proteins, including type I collagen. The blockade of endogenous Gremlin with small interfering RNA inhibited TGF-β1-induced ECM upregulation. In tubular epithelial cells Gremlin also increased profibrotic genes and caused EMT changes: phenotypic modulation to myofibroblast-like morphology, loss of epithelial markers and in-duction of mesenchymal markers. Moreover, Gremlin gene silencing inhibited TGF-β1-induced EMT changes. Conclusions: Gremlin directly activates profibrotic events in cul-tured renal fibroblasts and tubular epithelial cells. Moreover, endogenous Gremlin blockade inhibited TGF-β-mediated matrix production and EMT, suggesting that Gremlin could be a novel therapeutic target for renal fibrosis.


While the formation of a wrinkle in an onshore pipeline is an undesirable event, in many instances this event does not have immediate pipeline integrity implications. The magnitude or severity of a wrinkle formed due to displacement controlled loading processes (e.g. slope movement, fault displacement, frost heave and thaw settlement) may increase with time, eventually causing serviceability concerns (e.g. fluid flow or inspection restrictions). Pipe wall cracking and eventually a loss of containment involves contributions from the wrinkle formation process, as well as wrinkle deformations caused by in-service line pressure, temperature and seasonal soil displacements. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the ongoing research efforts, sponsored by TransCanada PipeLines Ltd, towards the development of a mechanics based wrinkle ultimate limit state that may be used in future to evaluate the long term integrity of wrinkled pipeline segments. The research efforts include testing and non-linear finite element modeling of a full scale wrinkled pipeline segment. This paper outlines the development of the full scale finite element model, including the detailed material model development, used to estimate the fatigue life of the experimental full scale fatigue test specimen. A comparison is then carried out between the experimental results and the results from the finite element analysis.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


This investigation evaluates women's attitude as an overall inclination towards apparel shopping online via email questionnaire. Its findings suggest that women generally show positive attitudes towards shopping online for apparel. Women who shop for apparel online are aware of some of the discouraging features of online shopping, but these features do not deter them from buying online. The implication for online retailers is that they should focus on making the experience of online shopping more accommodating and more user-friendly. This is important because the positive features of online shopping ('convenience', 'usefulness', 'ease of use', and 'efficiency') appear to be more important than the negative features ('lack of security', 'privacy of information' and 'online fraud').


The author points out that psychoanalytic work in group discussions and requires special skills. Starting from the Freudian metapsychology and examining the theories of Bleger, he examines in particular the model of the double limit of Green, developed by Freud's first topography, distinguishes between inside and outside, between the conscious and unconscious. regarding the narcissistic ideal, it acts through a pact of denial, which ensures the maintenance of the link through the rejection and denial of the bond itself.


Abstract The turtle Cuora amboinensis has an extensive distribution covering most of southern mainland Asia, Indonesia, and extending to the Philippine Islands. Unlike many species, C. amboinensis occurs on both sides of Wallace's Line separating Asian and Australian flora and fauna. Four subspecies are currently recognized; Cuora a. kamaroma (southern continental Asia, Java and the northern Philippines [introduced]), C. a. lineata (Kachin Province, Myanmar [Burma] and adjacent Yunnan Province, China), C. a. couro (Sumatra, Java, Sumbawa, and adjacent smaller Indonesian islands); and C. a. amboinensis (Moluccas, Sulawesi, Philippines). Five pattern and 33 morphological characters were examined for variation in 691 individuals from throughout the species' range. Our analyses suggest that only two presently recognized subspecies are valid: amboinensis and kamaroma. Neither couro nor lineata are supported by our analysis. We recommend that C. a. couro should be synonymized with the species C. amboinensis and C. a. lineata with the subspecies C. a. kamaroma.


We examine possible correlations between occurrences of nighttime E‐region plasma line (PL) enhancements over Arecibo and 40.75 kHz NAU emissions. On the night of January 1–2, 2006, the experiments were conducted from 22:00 to 6:00 local time (LT). NAU transmitter was initially turned off until 01:45 LT, when continuous operations resumed for the remainder of the experiments. Enhanced PL events lasting <10 s had central frequencies and bandwidths of about 2.5 and 1.5 MHz, respectively, indicating that Arecibo radar detected 2.3 to 8.5 eV suprathermal electrons streaming along geomagnetic fields. The rate of PL event detections increased by a factor of 2.8 after NAU turn‐on. We suggest that 40.75 kHz radiation sporadically leaked though local ionosphere, probably abetted by field‐aligned irregularities. The radiation propagated in whistler mode into the L = 1.35 inner radiation belt where gyroresonant interactions with trapped 390 keV electrons increased the precipitation rate.


The capacitance of a small-area circular submillimeter wave diode is strongly affected by the edge effect of the charged anode. The correction factor due to the edge effect cannot be obtained analytically and the capacitance of a circular diode must be calculated using numerical methods. In this work a new, numerically derived formula for the junction capacitance of a small circular diode is presented.<<ETX>>


This paper studies the frequency reliability of the main shaft system of Francis turbine-generator units based on nonlinear vibration. Taking the generator and turbine as an integrated system, the nonlinear coupling dynamic equations of the system are established by the finite element method. According to the dynamic equations, the frequent factors of system are obtained by the method of multiple scales. The criterion is used that the difference between the natural frequencies and driving frequencies including the frequent factors should be less than specific values. The reliability mode and the safety probability of the main shaft system of Francis turbine-generator units are defined as a series mode, and the frequency reliability analysis method for avoiding the resonance is proposed. Finally, an example is presented.


Abstract In studies devoted to the problem of tourism development in the host regions (destinations), the economic component is always taken into account, sometimes the environmental component, and almost never the sociocultural component is taken into account. However, today the problem of organizing investment in the tourism business, taking into account the environmental and cultural impact, is becoming more and more urgent. It causes a great practical need for conducting research on the investment process in the tourism business and theoretical justification of the choice of areas of investment activity activation in compliance with the criteria of economic efficiency, sociocultural sustainability and environmental safety. In the course of writing the article, the authors set a goal to demonstrate the possibilities of taking into account cultural factors in the process of modeling the socioeconomic sustainability of regional tourist clusters based on qualitative methods. Qualitative methods were chosen as the methodological basis for modeling, which allow us to systematize and formalize the main patterns of development and identify the vector of the most effective use of available resources. The formation of models describing the economic, environmental and sociocultural sustainability of the destination, which allow identifying key factors of sustainable development, can help ensure a long-term positive effect from the development of tourism in the region. The results of this study have theoretical and practical significance. They can be used as a basis for further scientific research and can also be used in the practical activities of tourism business entities, as well as state and local authorities and other stakeholders in the process of analytical justification of investment activities implemented on the basis of the principles of sustainable development.


The presence of active fumarate reductase system in mitochondria of the trematode Calicophoron ijimai was shown. Fumarate reductase activities in different collections of C. ijimai vary considerably. Maximum activity accounts for 47.7 +/- 1.0 nM/min/mg protein whereas minimum--for 15.1 +/- 0.1. Some properties of the enzyme were studied. The effect of thiabendazole, bitionol, oxinid and preparations of G-1026 and G-937 on the fumarate reductase activity was investigated. G-1026, G-937 preparations and bitionol have the strongest inhibitory effect on the enzyme. Thiabendazole inhibited but little the fumarate reductase reaction in C. ijimai. The enzyme activity was not affected by oxinid.


Fog computing provides a conceptual approach for virtualizing and orchestrating computing, networking, and storage resources to process data. This issue helps toprogress the fog computing research field and offer solutions. It is clear that we are still in the formative phase of fog computing, and only the future will reveal which parts of the (sometimes competing) visions, solution proposals, and application areas will prove to be of most value to society and industry. However, as the four papers in this special issue show, the opportunities, as well as the challenges, are manifold. Some of these challenges can be addressed by adapting solutions that have proven their value before, such as the contributions on load balancing, scheduling, and NFV in this special issue.


An experimental study was undertaken to characterise moisture sensitivity of asphalt mixtures by comparing certain physico-chemical properties of selected aggregates of different mineralogies to the moisture-induced strength degradation of the aggregate–mastic bonds. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of using different aggregate types (as substrates) with a single mastic type that had shown severe moisture sensitivity in the past when combined with a susceptible aggregate substrate. Four different aggregate types and an asphalt mastic (made with a 40/60 pen base bitumen) were used. Aggregate moisture sorption at ambient temperature was characterised using gravimetric techniques. Aggregate specific surface area was determined by octane adsorption using a dynamic vapour sorption device. Dynamic mechanical analysis techniques based on data from a dynamic shear rheometer were used to characterise the rheological properties of the asphalt mastic. Aggregate–mastic bond strength as a function of moisture conditioning time was determined using a tensile pull-off test set-up. The results were used to estimate equilibrium moisture uptake, diffusion coefficient, characteristic diffusion time, and aggregate 'porosity'. The effect of moisture on bond strength was aggregate substrate-type-dependent with three out of the four aggregates performing well and the fourth performing poorly. The moisture absorption and diffusion properties of the poorly performing aggregates were worse than the 'good' performing aggregates. Susceptible aggregate–mastic bonds had high porosity, high moisture absorption, high diffusion coefficient and contained granite as substrates. Results of statistical analyses suggested that the differences in moisture sensitivity of the other three aggregates were not significant. Therefore, two unique damage models, one for 'good' performing and another for 'poor' performing were proposed to characterise moisture damage sensitivity of asphalt. The influence of aggregate moisture absorption and diffusion on asphalt mixture moisture damage was found to be aggregate-type-dependent. The results also suggested that in a susceptible mixture, the effect of the substrate aggregate may be more influential than the effect of mastic. The results have important implications for the selection of coarse aggregate for asphalt mix design.


This paper reviews the use of outlier detection approaches in urban traffic analysis. We divide existing solutions into two main categories: flow outlier detection and trajectory outlier detection. The first category groups solutions that detect flow outliers and includes statistical, similarity and pattern mining approaches. The second category contains solutions where the trajectory outliers are derived, including off-line processing for trajectory outliers and online processing for sub-trajectory outliers. Solutions in each of these categories are described, illustrated, and discussed, and open perspectives and research trends are drawn. Compared to the state-of-the-art survey papers, the contribution of this paper lies in providing a deep analysis of all the kinds of representations in urban traffic data, including flow values, segment flow values, trajectories, and sub-trajectories. In this context, we can better understand the intuition, limitations, and benefits of the existing outlier urban traffic detection algorithms. As a result, practitioners can receive some guidance for selecting the most suitable methods for their particular case.


Campylobacter jejuni is a worldwide cause of human diarrhoeal disease. Clustered Repetitively Interspaced Palindromic Repeats (CRISPRs) and associated proteins allow Bacteria and Archaea to evade bacteriophage and plasmid infection. Type II CRISPR systems are found in association with combinations of genes encoding the CRISPR-associated Cas1, Cas2, Cas4 or Csn2, and Cas9 proteins. C. jejuni possesses a minimal subtype II-C CRISPR system containing cas1, cas2, and cas9 genes whilst cas4 is notably absent. Cas4 proteins possess 5′-3′ exonuclease activity to create recombinogenic-ends for spacer acquisition. Here we report a conserved Cas4-like protein in Campylobacter bacteriophages that creates a novel split arrangement between the bacteriophage and host that represents a new twist in the bacteriophage/host co-evolutionary arms race. The continuous association of bacteriophage and host in the carrier state life cycle of C. jejuni provided an opportunity to study spacer acquisition in this species. Remarkably all the spacer sequences observed were of host origin. We hypothesize that Campylobacter bacteriophages can use Cas4-like protein to activate spacer acquisition to use host DNA as an effective decoy to bacteriophage DNA. Bacteria that acquire self-spacers and escape phage infection must overcome CRISPR-mediated autoimmunity either by loss of the interference functions leaving them susceptible to foreign DNA incursion or tolerate changes in gene regulation.


The study found that training needs assessment(TNA) using the dimensions of strategic competence, organizational performance gap & competencies gap, which is consistent with McGhee and Thayer's three-fold analysis. This study used questionnaires and exploratory factor analysis found four factors that affect TNA: (1) mastering problems and analyses, (2) mastering organizational development, (3) mastering resource applications, and (4) capability for intervention implementation. In this study, 193 HRD practitioners in charge of organizational training were regarded as the research samples to analyze the influential factors of TNA, and it was found that "mastering organizational development" was significantly related to organizational scale, and "capability for intervention implementation" was significantly related to training performance.


Two cDNA probes, cf23a and cf56a, identify deletions of selected exons in about 50% of our DMD/BMD patients. We have estimated the most likely order of the 11 exons detectable with both probes with respect to the different extensions of the deletions. In one of our BMD pedigrees, the observed deletion could be traced in the affected males through three generations. This result shows that with the use of cDNA probes detecting deletions, the only risk of error in genomic prenatal diagnosis is the general high frequency of new mutations for DMD/BMD. This is important progress in diagnosis compared to the 2 to 5% risk of misdiagnosis because of crossing over events using conventional linkage analysis with bridging or intragenic probes. The first prenatal diagnosis of an unaffected fetus of a woman who is a DMD carrier according to ultrasound examination is described. In one of our DMD males, the cDNA probe cf56a detects a deletion breakpoint. His sister also shows the altered band and is therefore a DMD carrier, while his mother has a totally normal band pattern. The interpretation of this observation could be either germline mosaicism or two identical new mutations. The identification of deletion breakpoints is a new diagnostic strategy, especially for carrier determination, which excludes misdiagnosis owing to crossing over events and the problems of dosage estimation. It is, however, limited by the low frequency of breakpoints detectable with cDNA probes. Therefore, the generation of new intron probes in this region is an important goal.


We address the problem of resource allocation in a large-scale cloud environment, which we formalize as that of dynamically optimizing a cloud configuration for green computing objectives under CPU and memory constraints. We propose a generic gossip protocol for resource allocation, which can be instantiated for specific objectives. We develop an instantiation of this generic protocol which aims at minimizing power consumption through server consolidation, while satisfying a changing load pattern. This protocol, called GRMP-Q, provides an efficient heuristic solution that performs well in most cases — in special cases it is optimal. Under overload, the protocol gives a fair allocation of CPU resources to clients. Simulation results suggest that key performance metrics do not change with increasing system size, making the resource allocation process scalable to well above 100,000 servers. Generally, the effectiveness of the protocol in achieving its objective increases with increasing memory capacity in the servers.


With this opinion piece, the author highlights certain methodological and thematic patterns characterizing his ten-year-long research into festivals, public rituals, and collective events, completing such recapitulation with a statement of ongoing commitment as well as with ideas about possible further scholarly developments. His final aim is to show how research about festivals, festivities, and festive events has benefited and still benefits from being conducted on the basis of a methodology involving critical comparison, intensive and in-depth ethnography, and a thorough study of historical sources.


In 2014, after years of planning, I finally got my visa to start my Ph.D. studies in the United States. I chose to come to this country—leaving behind my family and other loved ones in Iran—because I thought it would be the best way to grow as a scientist. I also felt I could be happy in a country built on a foundation of freedom, tolerance, and diversity. And that was pretty much the case for the first 2 years of graduate school, when I focused on my science, excited to be investing in my career and my personal growth. But the new U.S. president and the climate he has fostered have changed everything for me and people like me, and I need to speak out.

![Figure][1]

ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER

> "The new U.S. president and the climate he has fostered have changed everything."

Casual interactions now make me feel unwelcome and unsafe. When the first attempted travel ban was announced, for example, a conversation with one of my former students—whom I had always had a good relationship with—turned to politics. I said that this country promises religious freedom for everyone. "Not for you, only for U.S. citizens," he responded, adding that he supported the travel ban because he does not think that people with "different beliefs" should be allowed in this country. I was shocked at his ignorance of the law, and hurt that he seemed so eager to take away my rights. In a similar conversation about the effects of anti-immigrant sentiment, someone whom I had considered a friend told me bluntly that if I left an American would take my place—implying that this outcome would be preferable.

I never heard any comments like these before the election, but now they're common. And I am not alone. I am in touch with international students across the country who are also facing this type of hostility in various forms and are afraid.

We are dealing with practical and logistical issues too. Even though the travel ban is currently blocked by the court, uncertainty about what will happen if we travel outside the United States is a major concern. Some of my Iranian friends who don't have funding for the summer had planned to go back home; now they worry that they might not be readmitted to this country if they leave. In the long term, if I cannot even go abroad for a conference, I will effectively be a prisoner in the United States because I cannot risk losing my position. Moreover, most of my network will be in the United States, so as my career progresses, it will be hard to get a job elsewhere.

We need our institutions to support us as we confront these challenges. The best way to make this happen at my own university, I thought, would be to talk to our new interim president, whom I met at a reception. I worried that he would already know everything I wanted to tell him, making it a waste of time for both of us. But I believe that his job is to serve the students, so I felt it was important to reach out. It turns out that he was not aware of the deep fear among international students and our desperate need for support. He agreed to meet with me a few more times, and I was happy to have the opportunity to share my experience and the challenges that students like me are facing.

Raising my concerns did not produce the immediate, concrete results that I hoped for, such as a strong statement in support of international students. Even so, I'm happy that I took the initiative. Administrators need to know that the current uncertainty will harm their students. U.S. institutions will keep admitting international students, and it is crucial that they develop and implement plans to protect and nurture us.

I am considering leaving the United States to find a better place to build my life and career. But for as long as I'm here, I plan to stand up for immigrant scientists so that, hopefully soon, I can again spend my time thinking about scientific problems instead of my country of origin, my religion, or the color of my skin.

 [1]: pending:yes


This paper aims to analyse the novel Mañana, las ratas by German-Peruvian writer José Bernardo Adolph. Written in 1977 and published in 1984 the text is a dystopian novel set in a distant future, that nevertheless is a vivid representation of the dynamics and the conflicts of the Peruvian society of the 70s and 80s. This study intends to investigate the structure of the novel in order to point out how the author succeeds in blending together two different literary genres such as dystopian fiction and realism, creating a new version of the classic paradigm of dystopic narrative. To do so, the research will concentrate on the study of some significant example of the Adolph's previous books, and on the intertextual connections of Mañana, las ratas with both classic dystopian novels such as 1984, We or Brand New World and writers such as José Diez-Canseco, Sebastián Salazar Bondy, Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Alfredo Bryce Echenique y Mario Vargas Llosa, whose texts explore through different mode of realism social and political issues of their time.


I took William Smaldone's "Observations on the Cuban Revolution" (Monthly Review, April 1996) with me on my visit to Cuba last spring with the U.S./Cuba Labor Delegation. I believe that we would all benefit by discussions of the questions raised by Smaldone, who obviously supports the revolution. Did the thirty years of dependence on Soviet aid following the expulsion of U.S. power lead to over-centralization and over-dependency, e.g. on sugar production for foreign exchange and on grain-fed cows and chickens? Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed, would a continuation rather than an early end to the U.S. economic blockade give the Cubans time to develop more reliance on their own resources and thereby contribute to the long-term independence? If the Cuban people felt that they themselves, rather than the state, owned their homes and workplaces, would they feel more responsible for their upkeep?This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


We study a discrete contextual stochastic (CS) model for complex and variant patterns like handwritten Chinese characters. Three fundamental problems of using CS models for character recognition are discussed, and several practical techniques for solving these problems are investigated. A formulation for discriminative training of CS model parameters is also introduced and its practical usage investigated. To illustrate the characteristics of the various algorithms, comparative experiments are performed on a recognition task with a vocabulary consisting of 50 pairs of highly similar handwritten Chinese characters. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the discriminative training for improving recognition performance.


The thesis reports the synthesis, and the chemical, structural and spectroscopic characterization of a series of new Rhodium and Au-Fe carbonyl clusters.
Most new high-nuclearity rhodium carbonyl clusters have been obtained by redox condensation of preformed rhodium clusters reacting with a species in a different oxidation state generated in situ by mild oxidation.
In particular the starting Rh carbonyl clusters is represented by the readily available [Rh7(CO)16]3- 9 compound. The oxidized species is generated in situ by reaction of the above with a stoichiometric defect of a mild oxidizing agents such as [M(H2O)x]n+ aquo complexes possessing different pKa's and Mn+/M potentials. The experimental results are roughly in keeping with the conclusion that aquo complexes featuring E°(Mn+/M) < ca. -0.20 V do not lead to the formation of hetero-metallic Rh clusters, probably because of the inadequacy of their redox potentials relative to that of the [Rh7(CO)16]3-/2- redox couple. Only homometallic cluster s such as have been fairly selectively obtained.
As a fallout of the above investigations, also a convenient and reproducible synthesis of the ill-characterized species [HnRh22(CO)35]8-n has been discovered. The ready availability of the above compound triggered both its complete spectroscopic and chemical characterization. because it is the only example of Rhodium carbonyl clusters with two interstitial metal atoms. The presence of several hydride atoms, firstly suggested by chemical evidences, has been implemented by ESI-MS and 1H-NMR, as well as new structural characterization of its tetra- and penta-anion. All these species display redox behaviour and behave as molecular capacitors. Their chemical reactivity with CO gives rise to a new series of Rh22 clusters containing a different number of carbonyl groups, which have been likewise fully characterized.
Formation of hetero-metallic Rh clusters was only observed when using SnCl2H2O as oxidizing agent because. Quite all the Rh-Sn carbonyl clusters obtained have icosahedral geometry. The only previously reported example of an icosahedral Rh cluster with an interstitial atom is the [Rh12Sb(CO)27]3- trianion. They have very similar metal framework, as well as the same number of CO ligands and, consequently, cluster valence electrons (CVEs). .A first interesting aspect of the chemistry of the Rh-Sn system is that it also provides icosahedral clusters making exception to the cluster-borane analogy by showing electron counts from 166 to 171. As a result, the most electron-short species, namely [Rh12Sn(CO)25]4- displays redox propensity, even if disfavoured by the relatively high free negative charge of the starting anion and, moreover, behaves as a chloride scavenger.
The presence of these bulky interstitial atoms results in the metal framework adopting structures different from a close-packed metal lattice and, above all, imparts a notable stability to the resulting cluster.
An organometallic approach to a new kind of molecular ligand-stabilized gold nanoparticles, in which Fe(CO)x (x = 3,4) moieties protect and stabilize the gold kernel has also been undertaken. As a result, the new clusters [Au21{Fe(CO)4}10]5-, [Au22{Fe(CO)4}12]6-, Au28{Fe(CO)3}4{Fe(CO)4}10]8- and [Au34{Fe(CO)3}6{Fe(CO)4}8]6- have been isolated and characterized. As suggested by concepts of isolobal analogies, the Fe(CO)4 molecular fragment may display the same ligand capability of thiolates and go beyond. Indeed, the above clusters bring structural resemblance to the structurally characterized gold thiolates by showing Fe-Au-Fe, rather than S-Au-S, staple motives.
Staple motives, the oxidation state of surface gold atoms and the energy of Au atomic orbitals are likely to concur in delaying the insulator-to-metal transition as the nuclearity of gold thiolates increases, relative to the more compact transition-metal carbonyl clusters.
Finally, a few previously reported Au-Fe carbonyl clusters have been used as precursors in the preparation of supported gold catalysts. The catalysts obtained are active for toluene oxidation and the catalytic activity depends on the Fe/Au cluster loading over TiO2.


Introduction This is Number 1 of the series of correlation charts of North American sedimentary formations in preparation by the Committee on Stratigraphy of the National Research Council, with the co-operation of other American stratigraphers (Dunbar, Carl O., et al ., 1942). The Cambrian Subcommittee of that Committee records here its thanks for the assistance which it has received from these friends, who have generously supplied much invaluable unpublished information. The Cambrian chart has been especially difficult to prepare because of the incompleteness of our knowledge of the stratigraphy and faunas of the Cambrian rocks of some parts of this continent. To make it even reasonably complete and accurate it has been necessary for some of the members of the Cambrian Subcommittee to spend many months in field and laboratory work on previously little known sections and unstudied faunas. Some of this work has been made possible by generous grants from the . . .


In this thesis a robust current control strategy is proposed for a grid connected three phase inverter. Current controllers based on proportional-integral (PI) control may not always offer the superior tracking performance and harmonic rejection ability of robust controllers. Robust control design offers the ability to design a controller that is robust to modeled uncertainties in the plant. A typical inverter may experience fluctuations in its input DC voltage due to uncertainties in the DC power source. In the case of a solar-inverter, large fluctuations in the input DC voltage typically occur due to (i) varying irradiance levels and (ii) phase and ground faults. An inverter is usually designed to disconnect from service in case its DC voltage strays outside a pre-defined operating range. With a current controller that's robust with respect to fluctuations in the input DC voltage, the inverter's operating range could be widened, giving the user more flexibility when designing their system. A common step in the PI based current controller operation is the transformation of three phase signals to their direct-quadrature equivalent. With the use of the repetitive control strategy, the transformation step is no longer required. The repetitive control strategy is chosen because it can reject a large number of harmonics simultaneously, while providing a clean sinusoidal current waveform to the grid, even in the presence of grid load and/or voltage distortions. The repetitive control strategy is implemented via the internal model principle. Mu-synthesis based control is chosen to attain robust reference tracking in the presence of plant uncertainties. Uncertainty in the inverter input DC voltage is considered and expressed as a static uncertainty. By applying mu-synthesis principles, a feedback controller that simultaneously achieves robust stability and robust tracking performance is obtained.


Pharmaceutical companies in Eastern European region are facing urgent quality tools implementation due to fierce global competition. The aim of this research is to provide current understanding of TQM in this region and provide further guidance on how to improve quality standards and techniques. The study follows a qualitative method and data was collected through 5 semi-structured interviews. The study highlights that TQM in pharmaceutical industry in this region is not well developed. The findings shows that there is lack of senior management commitment to TQM principles explanation and emphasises on its importance. Additionally, lack of governmental influence on quality standards and budgeting problems also affects TQM development. Moreover, there is a believe that TQM will not influence the overall performance of the company in the positive manner, since the development of such quality improvement method has to be efficiently budgeted and under current economic and political circumstances it is not possible.


Abstract Computers and computer networks are one of the most incredible inventions of the 20th century, having an ever-expanding role in our daily lives by enabling complex human activities in areas such as entertainment, education, and commerce. One of the most challenging problems in computer science for the 21st century is to improve the design of distributed systems where computing devices have to work together as a team to achieve common goals. In this book, I have tried to gently introduce the general reader to some of the most fundamental issues and classical results of computer science underlying the design of algorithms for distributed systems, so that the reader can get a feel of the nature of this exciting and fascinating field called distributed computing. The book will appeal to the educated layperson and requires no computer-related background. I strongly suspect that also most computer-knowledgeable readers will be able to learn something new. Table of Contents: Preface / Acknowledgments / ...


IP based Wireless Sensor Networks (IP-WSN) are gaining importance for its broad range of applications in health-care, home automation, environmental monitoring, security & safety and industrial automation. In all of these applications mobility in sensor network with special attention to energy efficiency is a major issue to be addressed. Host based mobility management protocol is inherently unsuitable for energy inefficient IPWSN. So network-based mobility management protocol can be an alternative to the mobility supported IP-WSN. In this paper we propose a mobility supported IP-WSN protocol based on PMIPv6 called Sensor Proxy Mobile IPv6 (SPMIPv6). We present its architecture, message formats and also analyze its performance considering signaling cost and mobility cost. Our analyses show that the proposed scheme reduces the signaling cost by 67% and 60% as well as reduces mobility cost by 55% and 60% with comparison to MIPv6 and PMIPv6 respectively.


Large pre-trained, zero-shot capable models have shown considerable success both for standard transfer and adaptation tasks, with particular robustness towards distribution shifts. In addition, subsequent fine-tuning can considerably improve performance on a selected downstream task. However, through naive fine-tuning, these zero-shot models lose their generalizability and robustness towards distribution shifts. This is a particular problem for tasks such as Continual Learning (CL), where continuous adaptation has to be performed as new task distributions are introduced sequentially. In this work, we showcase that where fine-tuning falls short to adapt such zero-shot capable models, simple momentum-based weight interpolation can provide consistent improvements for CL tasks in both memory-free and memory-based settings. In particular, we find improvements of over +4% on standard CL benchmarks, while reducing the error to the upper limit of jointly training on all tasks at once in parts by more than half, allowing the continual learner to inch closer to the joint training limits.


Computing is the dominant media of our times and a cultural artifact; generative art is a subject to make art and technology relevant to young people's experiences and bring art and the Stem subjects closer together as a value proposition for Steam. Generative art promotes the value of creativity, the creative industries and smart manufacturing within education to art, design and the core science subjects. It can also address the gender gap in Stem. It makes the scientific become the organic and can be used for young people to express themselves, socially, politically and economically. Whilst there is a declining uptake in GCSE art and design, arguably being not supported by the incoming EBacc curriculum, computer science forms part of the core science subjects. Policy makers are insistent that every child learns to code, but code what? 14–17 year olds, dubbed by the media in the UK as the "Gen Z's" view learning computer science as boring, for the geeks and male dominated. Generative art is a fun and approachable way of teaching programming and fits the curriculum as an extension of existing units of enquiry.


It is known that not aU paths are possible in the run time control flow of many programs. It is also known that data flow analysis cannot restrict attention to exactly those paths that are possible. It is, therefore, usual for analytic methods to consider aU paths. Sharper information can be obtained by considering a recursive set of paths that is large enough to include aUl possible paths, but smaU enough to exclude many of the impossible ones. This paper presents a simple uniform methodology for sharpening data flow information by considering certain recursive path sets of practical importance. Associated with each control flow arc there is a relation on a finite set Q. The paths that qualify to be considered are (essentially) those for which the composition of the relations encountered is nonempty. For example, Q might be the set of all assignments of values to each of several bit variables used by a program to remember some facts about the past and branch accordingly in the future. Given any data-flow problem together with qualifying relations on Q associated with the control flow arcs, we construct a new problem. Considering all paths in the new problem is equivalent to considering only qualifying paths in the old one. Preliminary experiments (with a smaUl set of real programs) indicate that qualified analysis is feasible and substantialy more informative than ordinary analysis.


The paper presents results of experiments which studied the impact of communication control preprocessing on efficiency of parallel programs which compute two-dimensional wavelet transforms on multiprocessor computer Hitachi SR2201. The transforms are computed using the fast Mallat algorithm. Two communication models were applied in the experiments: the MPI persistent communication requests and the Remote-DMA communication based on multiple buffering areas with the reuse of the transmission control word. It has been shown that using the Remote-DMA communication with the preprocessed communication control infrastructure important speed-up of program execution can be obtained.


The concept of brain drain includes not only a physical emigration of highly qualified persons from one country to another but also a transfer from one department of an organization to another, as well as any other loss of skills and knowledge of one economic unit necessary for economic growth and development in favour of another economic unit. Brian drain occurs as a result of the factors of attraction and repulsion of migration of qualified specialists, scientists and students. Three levels of the reason for brain can be distinguished: individual, organization, and state. Brain drain occurs in all countries of the world with a varying extent and character. In the economically developed countries more attention is given to the problem of brain drain. It has become an object of interest and research in these countries much earlier than in the economies of transition. This can be proven by a more extensive and accurate statistics provided in different sources, as well as the abundance of different research. In Lithuania little analysis has been made on this phenomenon. It is difficult to determine the extent of brain drain from Lithuania due to the lack of statistical data and sociological research. The article underlines that the emigration of highly educated specialists from Lithuania may have negative economic, social, cultural and even political effects on the development of the country. Several social groups of Lithuania sensitive to the phenomenon of emigration have been listed in this article. It analyses the migration trends of business world, academic youth, scientists, as well as other highly qualified specialists and civil servants. It is stated in the article that the emigration of specialists from Lithuania is not massive, since the demand of qualified labour abroad is smaller than that of unqualified; however, high qualification and professional competence of workers from both public and private sector becomes a precondition of brain drain from Lithuania to other countries. The article provides the results of the research on the attitudes to migration by civil servants. The majority of the respondents who leave Lithuania are interested not only in the financial benefit; they associate their work abroad with the possibility to satisfy personal needs, first of all selfactualization, career, and professional development. The article maintains that high competence of specialists and knowledge acquired in Lithuania can be easily transferred abroad and this is what encourages the respondents to emigrate. Highly qualified specialists often find a job in their speciality and are satisfied with the evaluation of their work abroad. The analysis of the literature and the study into the migration of civil servants has given theoretical and empirical grounds to the above statement.


Prostate cancer (PC) is a leading cause of cancer death among men in Nigeria. Available evidence suggests poor knowledge of PC as responsible for escalating mortality rate in Cross River State, yet there exists no comprehensive health promotion package on knowledge of PC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a nurse-led educational programme on knowledge of PC in selected hospitals in Cross River State, Nigeria. Quasi experimental nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest study was conducted among men attending Out Patient Departments (OPD) in four randomly selected General hospitals in three senatorial districts: North, Central and South of Cross River State. A sample of 420 men: of which 210 were randomly assigned to Intervention Group (IG) and Control Group (CG) respectively. An educational intervention package of four modules on knowledge of PC was administered for four weeks only in IG. A validated structured questionnaire was used to assess knowledge of PC at pretest (PT1), immediate post intervention (PT2), at three months (PT3) and six months post intervention (PT4). Data were analyzed using chi-square and t-test. Mean age in IG (51.4 ± 8.9) and CG (54.1 ± 8.2) was comparable. At PT1, there was a significant difference in knowledge scores in IG and CG (10.1 ±.0); (9.1 ± 4.8); (t = -2.8). At PT2 knowledge increased only in IG (19.4 ± 2.0); CG (9.8 ± 3.6) (t = 30.0, p < 0.05). At PT3, knowledge of PC reduced in IG (16.6 ± 2.7), while CG increased (11.3 ± 2.1) (t = 22.4, p < 0.05). At PT4, knowledge increased slightly in IG (17 ±2.7) and CG decreased (10.7 ± 2.3) (t = -26.8, p < 0.05). conclusively, the nurse-led educational programme improved the level of knowledge of PC over a short period. Therefore, there is need to integrate health educational programme about PC in hospitals to ensure sustenance of knowledge.


Rotary machine breakdown detection systems are outdated and dependent upon routine testing to discover faults. This is costly and often reactive in nature. Real-time monitoring offers a solution for detecting faults without the need for manual observation. However, manual interpretation for threshold anomaly detection is often subjective and varies between industrial experts. This approach is ridged and prone to a large number of false positives. To address this issue, we propose a Machine Learning (ML) approach to model normal working operation and detect anomalies. The approach extracts key features from signals representing known normal operation to model machine behaviour and automatically identify anomalies. The ML learns generalisations and generates thresholds based on fault severity. This provides engineers with a traffic light system were green is normal behaviour, amber is worrying and red signifies a machine fault. This scale allows engineers to undertake early intervention measures at the appropriate time. The approach is evaluated on windowed real machine sensor data to observe normal and abnormal behaviour. The results demonstrate that it is possible to detect anomalies within the amber range and raise alarms before machine failure.


Summary form only given. This work investigates whether vocal emotion expressions of (i) discrete emotion be distinguished from `no-emotion' (i.e. neutral), (ii) one discrete emotion be distinguished from another, (iii) surprise, which is actually a cognitive component that could be present with any emotion, be also recognized as distinct emotion, (iv) discrete emotion be recognized cross-lingually. This study will enable us to get more information regarding nature and function of emotion. Furthermore, this work will help in developing a generalized vocal emotion recognition system, which will increase the efficiency of human-machine interaction systems. In this work, an emotional speech database consisting of short sentences of six full-blown basic emotions and neutral is created with 140 simulated utterances per speaker of five native languages of Assam. This database is validated by a Listening Test. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is used as classifier. The performance of the prosodic feature set is computed at sampling frequency of 8.1 kHz from the utterances with and without additive white noise of 5 db and 0 db Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs) under matched noise training and testing condition.


The acquisition of CDMA signals in adverse mobile communication channels has been studied for more than five decades. However, the introduction of new standard proposals for the future European satellite system (i.e., Galileo) and for the modernized GPS has triggered new interest in fast and reliable acquisition strategies for CDMA systems with very high spreading factors (e.g., length of 10230 chips or higher). Typically, the double-dwell serial search strategies have been preferred for CDMA signal acquisition. Few papers have addressed also the problem of hybrid and parallel search strategies, but typically, the choice of the best number of dwells has not been discussed. The goal of this paper is to introduce a generic method for the computation of the mean acquisition time (MAT) for multiple-dwell hybrid-search acquisition blocks and to compare the performance of several multiple-dwell structures for CDMA systems with high spreading factors. It will be shown here that increasing the number of dwells does not always increase the performance from the point of view of the MAT. We also discuss the influence of various parameters on the selection of the multiple-dwell strategy and we present simulation results for a realistic Galileo signal.


Introduction: Genome-wide association studies have identified numerous glycemic traits-associated SNPs with myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. However, conventional regression methods combining these large numbers of highly significant SNPs in a weighted genetic risk score (wGRS) have only explained a small proportion of variance in MI and stroke. Therefore, we used a machine-learning algorithm (gradient boosting) to test the association of genetic risk for glycemic traits with MI and stroke in the UK Biobank population.
 Methods: We identified 4626 SNPs associated with glycemic traits from the NGHRI catalogue for GWAS studies. wGRS were calculated using the effect estimates from the GWAS studies. We used a gradient-boosting machine-learning (GBM) model to identify the relative influence (RI) of baseline variables and wGRS of the glycemic traits on prevalent stroke and MI in the UK Biobank population.
 Results: The study consisted of 409,633 individuals (53% females) with a median age of 58 (51-63) years and a median BMI of 26.7 (24.1-29.8) kg/m2. The prevalence rates of MI and stroke were 3.6% and 2.3%. In the GBM model, top wGRS associated with MI were type 2 diabetes (RI=14.6) , blood glucose levels adjusted for fasting time (RI=12.2) and beta-cell glucose sensitivity (RI=10.06) . In contrast, the top wGRS associated with stroke were HbA1c (RI=12.13) and fasting insulin levels (RI=10.31) . The addition of wGRS's to the model comprising the baseline characteristics slightly improved the AUC for predicting stroke and MI.
 Conclusion: We showed a differential effect of wGRS for various glycemic traits on the risk of MI and stroke in the UK Biobank population. However, even in machine learning models, these wGRS for various glycemic traits had a limited utility in predicting stroke and MI in the general population.

 H.Deshmukh: None. M.Miles: None. A.Bhaiji: None. N.Shah: None. S.Akbar: None. M.Papageorgiou: None. T.Sathyapalan: n/a.

 NIHR Clinical Lectureship


Methylspiperone, carfentanil, and suriclone, labeled with 11C, can be used in assessment of dopamine, mu-type opiate receptors, and benzodiazapine receptors in the brains of lMng human beings. These relatively specific neuronal probes permit measurementof the numberand state of occupancy of receptors in the brain in health and disease, and may be useful to assess endogenous neurotransmitter secretion by decreasing competitive binding of the labeled ligand. To date, the most striking finding has been a decrease in the indices of dopamine and serotonin receptor densities as a function of age in normal men and women. A possible relationship between this decrease and vitamin B6 deficiency is currently under study.


Even after the breathtaking events of 1989 had seemingly made anything possible in Europe, few would have imagined that the two German states would become unified within a year. But that is precisely what will be concluded with the first all-German elections scheduled for December 2, 1990. As recently as July, however, this outcome was still in some doubt, principally because of Soviet opposition to the prospect of a united Germany becoming a member of the opposing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and having no limits on the size of its armed forces. Since the Soviet Union could in principle withhold it's consent to reunification as one of the vestigial rights it retained (along with it's former allies, Great Britain, France and the United States) after the Second World War and also refuse to remove its large contingent of forces from East Germany, these concerns could not be dismissed lightly. As a result, however, of the agreement reached between West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at Zhelznovodsk in the USSR on July 16, 1990, the diplomatic logjam was broken and the way made clear for unification. The Germans recognized, following their reunification, that there were constraints given their past history, but it was also desirable to assuage their neighbors' concerns about German rearmament. By and large they have had their intended effect; fears of German nationalistic aspirations have subsided while military stability in Europe has been enhanced. The argument could grow in Germany, however, that after years of exemplary international behavior, these constraints are anachronistic, discriminatory, and no longer necessary. But to those whoremain fearful about possible German military aggrandizement and aggression, the constraints are sure to be viewed as essential for the maintenance of stability. While Germany must remain sensitive to these concerns, the most fruitful way for allaying whatever latent fears exist about a united Germany's military potential, without " singularizing" it in a way that breeds the kind of pernicious resentment that grew up after the punitive Versailles Treaty, is to reach a set of common security arrangements and guarantees for the whole of Europe. With the end of the cold war, unprecedented opportunities exist to achieve this through a combination of CFE reductions, confidence and security building measures, and the permanent institutionalization of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.


Many communication managers have recognized a growing trend of online community relations in the industry and the need for organizations to develop successful online community relations that promote trust and loyalty on brands. Taking the perspective of online community relations, the study analyze how online community relations mediated PR on the brand's social media fan page influence the loyalty and trust of consumers towards brands. This study has selected the following critical functions of online community relations: brand engagement, brand image and brand credibility in enhancing brand loyalty and brand trust. A survey with 180 respondents was conducted and the data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis. The findings of the results showed that online community relations mediated PR through social media have positive effects in enhancing brand loyalty, and brand trust. Additionally, the study also found that brand engagement, brand image, and brand credibility plays a mediating role and does influence consumer's trust and loyalty on brands. The findings of the study help public relations practitioners and social media managers to have a detailed insight into cultivating loyalty and consumer's trust.


The tensile creep behaviour of a mullite-SiC nanocomposite containing 5 vol% of SiC particles deformed under stresses from 4 to 50 MPa at 1400 °C has been studied. After grain-size effects had been accounted for, the creep-rate of the nanocomposite was found to be approximately 30× less than that of the monolithic mullite. It is suggested that this reduction is caused not by a threshold stress but by the extra work required to drive diffusion in the low diffusivity SiC particles so that they can move with the grain boundaries during creep. A model is presented which predicts the rate of creep under these conditions and gives reasonable agreement with the experiments at low stresses.


The main purpose of this study is to see how effectiveness of the promotional tools and behavioral intention of tourist towards the Melaka River Cruise (MRC). This research has been done in Melaka town area. The problem that face by the company in determining the effectiveness or the suitable promotional tools that can help them increase the Melaka River Cruise (MRC) customer come to get their service.

The first objective of this study is to determine level of intention to use Melaka River Cruise (MRC) to people that come to the Melaka area target customers. The second objective of this research is, to rank promotional mix element that contribute intention to use Melaka River Cruise (MRC). The next objective of this study is to determine the most effective promotional tools that can be used by the Melaka River, and Coastal Development Corporation and Melaka River Cruise (MRC). And the last objective of this study is to identify the solution or recommendation in improving promotional tools in creating customer intention to use Melaka River Cruise (MRC).

For the research methodology, researcher used Exploratory and Descriptive Research in conducted this research study. The populations in this study were the people that come around the Melaka town area. In this study researcher was decide to use Convenience Sampling which is a Non Probability Sampling
Technique that attempt to obtain a sample of convenient elements. The number of respondent for this research is 120 for this study, the researcher will use primary data and secondary data in order to collect data from the sample. The technique for collecting data is by using the questionnaire as a results, there is no relationship or not significant between the independent variable (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, and facilitating condition) with the dependent variable (behavioral intention). For the effectiveness of promotional tools is, sakes promotion represent as a the most effective promotional tools, followed by the exhibition, personal selling, direct marketing and so on. The (PPSPM) should take any appropriate strategies to encourage tourist's intention to use Melaka River Cruise (MRC)


Biochemical process that lay in the core of non-invasive detection of Helicobacter pylori with the help of HELIC Ammonia breath test, manufactured by AMA Co Ltd., St.Petersburg, is shown. Patents from various countries, describing ammonia as H.pylori diagnostic marker, are reviewed. Approaches for evaluation of efficacy of the test-system are analyzed, validation and verification data is provided. High diagnostic characteristics are confirmed by the results of comparative studies on patients of different age groups, reaching 97% sensitivity and 96% specificity.


Price and income elasticities of fat from meats are estimated by decomposing composite demand for meat into the produ ct of total calories, the fraction of calories eat as fat, and a residual measure of quality. This demand-characteristic system provides estimates of the impact of prices and income on the fraction of calories eaten as fat as well as their affect on the total consumption of fat. Empirical estimates of the comp ensated own-price elasticities of meats suggest that a fat tax designed to raise revenues to finance nutritional education efforts may increase the total consumption of fat.


Marine environmental metabolomics studies the interactions of marine organisms with their environment using metabolomics to characterise these interactions. There are many advantages in using this method to study interactions between organisms and the environment and to assess the function and health of organisms at the molecular level. In fact, metabolomics is finding an increasing number of applications in the marine sciences. These range from understanding the response of organisms to abiotic pressure to researching the response of organisms to other biota. These interactions can be studied at different levels, from individuals to populations for more traditional eco‐ physiological or ecological studies. Marine organisms have developed a high diversity of chemical defences to avoid predators and parasites. This study therefore highlights the complexity of chemical interactions in the marine environment. The research methods include 1 H‐ and 13 C‐NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, analytical and preparative chromatography, and a multitude of bio‐assays.


Large-scale re-establishment of wetland buffer zones (WBZ) along rivers is regarded as an effective measure in order to reduce non-point source nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) pollution in agricultural catchments. We estimated efficiency and costs of a hypothetical establishment of WBZs along all watercourses in an agricultural landscape of the lower Narew River catchment (north-eastern Poland, 16,444 km2, amounting to 5% of Poland) by upscaling results obtained in five sub-catchments (1087 km2). Two scenarios were analysed, with either rewetting selected wetland polygons that collect water from larger areas (polygonal WBZs) or reshaping and rewetting banks of rivers (linear WBZs), both considered in all ecologically suitable locations along rivers. Cost calculation included engineering works necessary in order to establish WBZs, costs of land purchase where relevant, and compensation costs of income forgone to farmers (needed only for polygonal WBZs). Polygonal WBZs were estimated in order to remove 11%–30% N and 14%–42% P load from the catchment, whereas linear WBZs were even higher with 33%–82% N and 41%–87% P. Upscaled costs of WBZ establishment for the study area were found to be 8.9 M EUR plus 26.4 M EUR per year (polygonal WBZ scenario) or 170.8 M EUR (linear WBZ scenario). The latter value compares to costs of building about 20 km of an express road. Implementation of buffer zones on a larger scale is thus a question of setting policy priorities rather than financial impossibility.


The strong economic performance of Sub-Saharan Africa's resource-rich countries since the start of the 21st century has been celebrated as a return to more buoyant growth and renewed convergence with the advanced economies.Despite the recent progress in improving living standards and reducing poverty, achieving high and sustainable growth continues to be the main challenge for policymakers.Rwanda and Ethiopia have led Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in terms of per-capita growth since 2000, growing faster than South Asia. However, the gap between the resource-rich countries of Africa with East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), SAR, and the advanced economies has widened since 2010, underlining the difficulty of accelerating growth.Africa has often been portrayed as a continent of boundless natural riches that have helped pull the whole subcontinent forward. Indeed, resource-rich Africa accounts for a dominant part of SSA's economy. Resource-rich SSA accounts for 70 percent of both the subcontinent's GDP and physical capital, 60 percent of its natural capital, and nearly 40 percent of its population. For the continent in aggregate and in per capita terms, however, natural resources are just a bit higher than in the South Asia Region (SAR) and lag all other developing regions.One way of thinking of strengthening economic growth depends on more exploration and development of natural resources that should help increase the continent's natural wealth, as has happened in many other developing regions.More importantly, durable prosperity in resource-rich Africa depends on building up the assets, or components of overall wealth, that are in relatively short supply. In recent years, the literature has started to focus on assets and assets diversification as a path to development, and the World Bank has led in this area. In this report, we emphasize the two complementary types of assets that Africa's resource-rich countries need to build up to accelerate growth: one is within national borders and the other across borders.


The cellular DNA damage response (DDR) is a key factor in tumor suppression and tumor responses to genotoxic chemo- and radiotherapy. Master DDR regulators include three phosphatidyl inositol 3′ kinase–related kinases (PIKK) called ATM, ATR, and the catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent protein kinase, DNA-PKcs. Among their many functions, PIKKs regulate repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) by homologous recombination (HR) and nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ). Ionizing radiation induces DSBs that are either widely dispersed and efficiently repaired, or clustered and poorly repaired by the dominant NHEJ pathway. The inefficient repair of clustered DSBs by NHEJ shifts repair toward the competing HR pathway. In this issue of Cancer Research, Zhou and colleagues revealed a novel synthetic lethal approach in which the greater dependency on HR to repair clustered DSBs induced by protons is exploited to enhance killing of tumor cells and tumor xenografts by suppressing HR with an ATM inhibitor or mutant BRCA1. This is an important step toward precision cancer radiotherapy. See related article by Zhou et al., p. 3333


Abstract. East of Madagascar, the shallow "South Indian Ocean Counter Current (SICC)" flows from west to east across the Indian Ocean against the direction of the wind-driven circulation. The SICC impinges on west Australia and enhances the sea level slope, strengthening the alongshore coastal jet: the Leeuwin Current (LC), which flows poleward along Australia. An observed transport maximum of the LC around 22° S can likely be attributed to this impingement of the SICC. The LC is often described as a regional coastal current that is forced by an offshore meridional density gradient or sea surface slope. However, little is known about the controls of these open-ocean gradients. The regional circulation system is embedded in the subtropical "super gyre" that connects the Indo-Pacific via the Tasman Gateway and the Indonesian passages. The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) circulates through the Indian Ocean back into the Pacific south of Australia. This return pathway appears to be partly trapped in the upper layer north of an outcrop line. It is redirected along this outcrop line and joins the eastward flow of the SICC. To study the connection of the basin-scale and the inter-ocean-scale dynamics, we apply both an ocean general circulation model and a conceptual two-layer model. Shutdown of the ITF in the models leads to a large decrease in Leeuwin Current transport. Most of the SICC was found to then reconnect to the internal gyre circulation in the Indian Ocean. ITF, SICC and LC thus appear to be dynamically connected.


The aldosterone/mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) pathway regulate renal excretory function and control BP. Notably, we identified Rac1 as a novel ligand-independent modulator of MR (Nat Med 2008), and found involvement of the Rac1-MR pathway in rodent models of salt-sensitive hypertension (JCI 2011). In the clinical trial (EVALUATE study), effects of MR antagonist on urinary albumin excretion were assessed in 304 hypertensive CKD patients receiving renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors and sub-grouped according to the estimated dietary salt intake (Lancet Endo & Diabetes 2014). During the 52-week treatment period, albuminuria tended to increase with excessive dietary salt intake in patients receiving placebo, despite standard RAS inhibitor therapy, suggesting salt-induced resistance to RAS inhibitors. The greater suppression of residual albuminuria by MR blockade in patients with higher salt intake, independent of baseline plasma aldosterone, suggests that the ligand-independent activation of MR contributes to high salt-induced resistance to RAS blockade. Thus, add-on therapy of MR antagonists is efficacious for CKD patients receiving RAS inhibitors and taking high salt.


Abstract The major aim of this paper is to demonstrate through the grammar of the verb phrase in Standard English (StdE) and Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) that NPE is a distinct language. The paper draws on data collected from 30 Nigerian University Graduates from three ethnolinguistic regions. Although many scholars have pointed out that NPE is a language (Agheyisi, West African Pidgin: Simplification and Simplicity, University of Stanford, 1971; Elugbe and Omamor, Nigerian Pidgins: Background and Prospects, Heinemann, 1991), not many of them have examined the verb phrase in NPE with a view to showing that its grammar is distinctive. It has been shown in this paper that the NPE verb phrase is sharply different from StdE verb phrase, and because the verb is at the centre of the clause and can determine its argument, it can be argued that NPE whose verbal grammar is radically different from that of English is a separate language. The pattern of clustering of NPE verb phrases with other NPE verb phrases or other crieterial features of NPE is also a demonstration that NPE is a distinct language. Finally, the subjects made sharp switches from StdE to NPE, speaking in blocks of first one code and then the other: this is like the behaviour of bilinguals moving from one language to another.


Abstract Isothermal compression curves of face-centered cubic iron (γ-Fe) were determined at high temperatures (1273 and 1073 K) up to 27 GPa by in situ X-ray diffraction experiments using synchrotron radiation and the Kawai-type multi-anvil apparatus. Fits of the third-order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state to pressure-volume data yielded V0 = 48.997 ± 0.040 Å3, KT0 = 108.3 ± 2.4 GPa, and K′T = 5.8 ± 0.2 for 1273 K, and V0 = 48.600 ± 0.098 Å3, KT0 = 88.9 ± 5.1 GPa, and K′T = 8.9 ± 0.7 for 1073 K, where V0, KT0, and K′T are unit-cell volume, bulk modulus and its pressure derivative, respectively, at ambient pressure. The relatively large values of K′T are attributable to successive electronic spin state transitions from mixed-spin at lower pressures to low-spin at higher pressures. When discussing the constituents of Earth's (or other planets') solid inner core in terms of density and equations of state, one must carefully consider the influence of the electronic spin state.


Objectives: Many acupuncture points have been suggested for the treatment of Bell's palsy, but information on which acupuncture points are more important in treatment is not provided. This study was conducted to investigate the importance of acupuncture points currently used clinically in Bell's palsy.Methods: By reviewing the full text of 11 books that recorded acupuncture prescriptions from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the frequency of use of acupuncture points, their meridians, and their location were investigated.Results: The average number of acupuncture points used for local, adjacent and distal points selection was 10.5, 2, 4 respectively. The number of acupuncture points increased from the Qin Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty 《Bojaebang》 and then decreased, but the proportion of local points has been still high. From the Ming Dynasty, ST4, ST6, GV26, and GV24 were mainly have been used as the local points. Except for the GB12, the use of the rest of the acupuncture points gradually decreased in the adjacent points. In the distal acupuncture points, it was summarized to point of lung and large intestine channel until the Ming Dynasty, and LI4 was mainly used in the Qing Dynasty. Yangming meridian has been most often used at the local and distal area except for the adjacent area.Conclusions: In the treatment of facial paralysis, the lower part of the face had the highest proportion among local acupuncture points, and the Yangming had the highest proportion by meridian.