Dental hygiene is a preventive measure to prevent and control diseases, and tooth brushing is the most efficient mechanical method for removing biofilm. The aim of the present study was to analyze the care of children with or without special needs in relation to the maintenance and physical condition of the brushes in relation to stiffness, deformities and the presence of residues. The cross-sectional study, using a questionnaire and visual inspection of the brushes, assessed the knowledge of 60 children without special needs and 60 children with special needs in relation to care after using a toothbrush and visual analysis of toothbrushes. The results showed no statistically significant difference in relation to previous knowledge about toothbrush care if they have already received instructions on toothbrush care, replacement periodicity, storage, brush head size, bristle deformities and presence of residues. There was a statistical difference in relation to the bristle stiffness in which the group of children with special needs used more hard bristles than the children without special needs. The present study concludes that children with special needs use harder bristles than children without special needs and that there is no difference between prior knowledge of the maintenance of toothbrushes with the periodicity of exchange, storage, brush head size, deformities of the toothbrushes, bristles and the presence of waste from children with and without special needs.


Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets have high energy products and are used for various applications. Motors of hybrid vehicles (HEVs) are one of the major applications. For usage of HEVs, Dy is added to Nd-Fe-B magnets to maintain coercivity at high temperature environment. However, due to low natural resources of Dy, Dy-free or Dy-lean Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets are strongly required. To achieve high coercivity, it is necessary that microstructure of sintered magnets is consisted of both fine main phase particles and homogeneously distributed Nd-rich phases around the main phase. In this study, the microstructure of Nd-Fe-B jet-milled powders and the distribution of the Nd-rich phase were investigated. The distribution of the Nd-rich phase was evaluated by the ratio of grains which contain the Nd-rich phase. With decreasing size of the jet-milled Nd-Fe-B powder, the Nd-rich phase tends to aggregate and its distribution becomes inhomogeneous. The powder size of Nd-Fe-B jet-milled powder is much smaller than the average lamella interval of strip cast alloys.


There is significant interest in methods to aid in the removal of carbon dioxide from our environment. The methods range from sequestration to catalytic transformations. In sequestration, CO2 is collected from emission sources, and may be stored in a variety of materials including geological formations. Catalytic research often involves the transformation of CO2 to another compound such as methane. The majority of these latter studies focus on the use of photocatalysis for the conversion of CO2. An alternative method, discussed in this dissertation, is to examine the surface chemistry for the adsorption and thermal reduction of carbon dioxide with magnesium oxide and titanium oxide surfaces. We are also interested in gaining a better understanding of the refractory nature of CO2. The overall goal of these studies is to elucidate the surface reaction mechanism for the reaction of carbon dioxide on metal oxide surfaces with and without UV light. We combine the use of X-ray photoelectron and Auger electron spectroscopies to examine the surface chemistry of CO2. First, carbon dioxide is exposed to the heated metal oxide surface and the surface atomic concentrations are measured after reaction. The substrate temperature and CO2 exposure are varied in the experiment. Similar studies are also performed in the presence of UV light to gain a better understanding of photocatalysis. The results from these experiments will be discussed, as well as, the direction of future studies.


Src is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase that has been associated with carcinogenesis, impairs osteoclast bone resorption, enhances angiogenesis in vivo , and plays a role in the development of breast cancer bone metastases (1-3). Writing in Clinical Breast Cancer , Morris et al . present the results of a single-arm phase II clinical trial evaluating a combination of paclitaxel and dasatinib, a Src inhibitor, in patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (4).


Proteins of the armadillo family are involved in diverse cellular processes in higher eukaryotes. Some of them, like armadillo, beta-catenin and plakoglobins have dual functions in intercellular junctions and signalling cascades. Others, belonging to the importin-alpha-subfamily are involved in NLS recognition and nuclear transport, while some members of the armadillo family have as yet unknown functions. Here, we introduce the Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein Yel013p as a novel armadillo (arm) repeat protein. The ORF Yel013w was identified in the genome project on chromosome V (EMBL: U18530) and codes for an acidic protein of 578 residues with 8 central arm-repeats, which are closely related to the central repeat-domain of Xenopus laevis plakoglobin. We show that Yel013p (Vac8p) is constitutively expressed in diploid and haploid yeasts and that it is not essential for viability and growth. However, the vacuoles of mutant cells are multilobular or even fragmented into small vesicles and the processing of aminopeptidase I, representing the cytoplasm-to-vacuole transport pathway, is strongly impaired. Consistent with these observations, subcellular fractionation experiments, immunolocalization and expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion proteins revealed that Yel013p (Vac8p) is associated with the vacuolar membrane. Our data provide evidence for the involvement of an arm-family member in vacuolar morphology and protein targeting to the vacuole.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of plasma cells within the bone marrow characterized by bone loss, renal disease, and immunodeficiency. Recent advances in the understanding of MM pathogenesis have improved established conventional cytotoxic therapy as well as transplantation regimens. Despite these advances, median overall survival is only 3–5 years. Therefore new therapies are urgently needed. Besides thalidomide, whose antimyeloma activity has only recently been defined, a plethora of novel agents, including the thalidomide-derived immunomodulatory drugs and bortezomib, have been identified to directly target the tumor cell or its microenvironment, and thereby inhibit MM cell growth and survival, and to overcome drug resistance. After validation of their preclinical anti-MM activity, several clinical trials are now ongoing to test the efficacy of these novel therapeutics, administered alone or in combination with conventional or other novel therapeutics and bone marrow transplantation. This article reviews the development of MM therapy, from its initial description approximately 150 years ago to the novel therapy regimens of recent years, highlighting that MM may soon become a chronic disease.


Following the inconclusive results of the Greek election on May 6th 2012, talk of a Greek exit from the Eurozone (known as Grexit in the financial press) has dominated international media. A lot of discussion however by policy makers, political and economic commentators in Greece and internationally ignores the legal realities of an exit from the Eurozone. This short paper offers the results of a preliminary literature review on the issue of withdrawal from a legal perspective. It is hoped that this will offer some context to debates as to the feasibility of a Greek exit. The analysis here suggests that the legal framework shows no obvious route out of the Eurozone. The only technically secure way to leave the Eurozone seems to be via unanimous agreement to Treaty changes at EU level, something logistically and politically challenging. The Greeks cannot choose to leave unilaterally, nor can their partners choose to expel them from the Eurozone. For Greece to leave, both the Greeks and their partners need to wish to terminate the relationship. Even then the legal and institutional barriers to exit remain significant.


Abstract BACKGROUND. Acute and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) are common conditions worldwide. In most cases, the etiology of acute rhinosinusitis (ARS) is viral, but there can be cases complicated by bacterial infection. The bacterial pathogens responsible for acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS) in most cases are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenza and Moraxella catarrhalis. In recent years, some changes regarding this issue have been communicated. Also, the pathophysiology of CRS becomes a problem due to the increasing percentage of resistant or recurrent cases. OBJECTIVE. To identify the bacterial spectrum in patients diagnosed with ABRS and CRS and to establish the actual resistance rates of the most prescribed antibiotics for these affections in order to initiate the correct antibiotic treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS. We performed a prospective study on 40 adult patients with ABRS and 70 patients with CRS. The standard microbiological procedures were performed in order to identify the involved microorganisms. The Antibiotic Susceptibility Test of the clinical isolates was performed to routinely used antibiotics according to EUCAST. RESULT. ABRS: A total of 21 types of pathogenic bacteria were isolated. The results indicated changes in the percentages of the traditionally involved bacteria, other species of streptococci and Staphylococcus aureus representing important pathogens. Almost half of the samples were polymicrobial. CRS: 12 bacteria were incriminated for CRS, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa being the most frequently identified pathogens. Regarding the antibiotic treatment, we established that in our country the resistance rates are higher than the ones communicated by WHO (especially for macrolides) and the fluoroquinolones seem to be the class with the highest safety profile. CONCLUSION. Study results demonstrate some changes of the bacteriologic spectrum in ABRS in this geographic area. The pathogens responsible for CRS are found in approximately the same percentage as presented in other studies. Antibiotic treatment demands attention considering the increasing trend of antibiotic resistance of the bacteria causing ABRS and CRS.


This essay is about side health indicator in FPS, why they look like they do and what function they provide in FPS and their existence in modern FPS. The essay also contains information about traditional health indicators, psychology in colors, the crosshair focus area and research about FPS in modern times. The author research of 44 FPS games is find out the amount of side health indicators against the more traditional types and the reasons a developer would include a side health indicator instead of the others. In his research he found out that in the selected games, a fair amount of them did include only a side health indicator but a far larger amount of the combination type, using a traditional type as a primary health indicator and a side health indicator when an avatar takes too much damage or nearing death. The author also found out a type he had not thought of, called full screen health indicators, which affects the whole screen to indicate the avatars state of health.


Communist revolution in China, one which is highly critical of Washington policy-makers and the domestic pressure groups by which they were influenced. The bibliography, despite some odd omissions on the subject of China and Japan (for example, Mary Wright's China in revolution), refers the reader to some worthwhile books that may not be well known to those who do not specialize in American history.


By using gain-of-function mutations it has been proposed that vertebrate Notch promotes the glial fate. We show in vivo that glial cells are produced at the expense of neurons in the peripheral nervous system of flies lacking Notch and that constitutively activated Notch produces the opposite phenotype. Notch acts as a genetic switch between neuronal and glial fates by negatively regulating glial cell deficient/glial cells missing, the gene required in the glial precursor to induce gliogenesis. Moreover, Notch represses neurogenesis or gliogenesis, depending on the sensory organ type. Numb, which is asymmetrically localized in the multipotent cell that produces the glial precursor, induces glial cells at the expense of neurons. Thus, a cell-autonomous mechanism inhibits Notch signaling.


Micro milling force is the main parameter in motoring dynamic cutting process. The natural frequency of dynamometer is the key factor in the accurate measurement of high speed milling force. In this paper, a new structure fixture is designed, and the natural frequency of the fixture is obtained by finite element methods. After optimizing the structure design, the fixture is produced for the force signal acquisition system, together with the forces transducer, signal acquisition card and the software based on the LabVIEW. The experiment shows that the design of the fixture can meet the requirements of force acquisition.


This paper presents the modeling and control of photovoltaic systems considering disturbances in the solar irradiance and the load. Three cases are addressed: step-up/step-down systems using a non-inverting Buck-Boost converter interface, step-down systems using a Buck converter interface, and step-up systems using a Boost converter. Control-oriented models are analytically derived to design controllers that regulate the voltage of the photovoltaic Panel in agreement with the reference provided by a maximum power point tracking algorithm, aimed at maximizing the power production. The proposed models are validated by means of frequency responses analyses, and the designed controllers are validated by means of detailed simulations performed in standard power electronics software. Finally, experimental results illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach to real cases.


We present a simulation framework based on a systematic view on Common Radio Resource Management (CRRM). It enables a cost-benefit investigation of different CRRM algorithms and architectures. Different scenarios, centralized as well as decentralized ones, can be clearly defined based on five standard components, namely the radio access system, the environment, the user equipment, the CRRM information manager, and the CRRM decider. The costs and time consumption of CRRM operations are taken into account via chargeable messages. The clarity of the model enables an efficient investigation of CRRM algorithms based on optimization theory, game theory, physical models and other methods. The resulting framework has been implemented as a hybrid simulation model using OMNeT++. A convenient and straightforward integration of different wireless network technologies and user service demands is also supported; models for UMTS and GSM/EGPRS are already integrated. The scope of the proposed framework is demonstrated by the evaluation of realistic scenarios.


Abstract:This essay throws new light on Dickinson and her writings by viewing them in the context of nineteenth-century celebrity culture. The first part of the essay focuses on Dickinson's participation in a culture of literary fandom driven by a powerful attraction to and near-obsession with admired writers and all things associated with them. In the context of contemporary celebrity tourism, it examines her presentation of speakers who elegiacally describe journeys to sites connected with Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and considers how these poems relate the workings of literary fandom to loss, absence, and death. The second part of the essay considers the ways in which Dickinson deploys celebrity discourse to foreground her poems as enticing spaces that exhibit that which attempts to evade public scrutiny or knowledge. Building on connections between Dickinson's concern with literary immortality and her arresting poems, the final part of the essay focuses on her personification of death as a mysterious celebrity-like figure (Fr166) and her presentation of the experience of death as a "famous - Sleep" (F463) and of the dead as achieving "strange fame" (Fr1398). The various strands of the essay coalesce in pointing not only to Dickinson's complex engagement with and response to the workings of celebrity, but also to her provocative foregrounding of interconnections between her culture's obsession with the dead and its construction of celebrities as absent-present, ghost-like figures who are intimately known individuals, but also otherworldly, transcendent strangers.


This research aims to analyze and expose how the position of the College of law in Agencyowned Country laws and regulations in these rights are examined from the legislation of the national education system. It also seeks to analyze and expose the juridical effects of the verdict of the Constitutional Court No. 11-14-21-126-136/PUU-VII/2009 against Universities State-owned legal entity. Establishment of universities in the form of a Stateowned legal entity is as an attempt to provide unhampered to College for more independent in managing the activities of the Organization of the education in the institution. Lightness of being given to the College would not escape from the framework of the national education system. In order to realize the independence of such an ACT, namely Act No. BHP 9 2003. In the Act that the units are arranged in the shape of Education Education legal entity. The application of the concept of legal entities give rise to various kinds of Education turns pro cons. The concept of a legal entity described as if the Government let go of responsibility in the field of education. The concept of legal entities concerned about making education unit became a non-profit institution. In the end the Constitutional Court decided BHP LAW has no legal binding force. The position of the BHMN if examined through the Sisdiknas Article 53 is a body of legal education. Because it is considered as one legal entity, then the PTN BHMN as supporters of rights and obligations. The concept of PTN BHMN as one legal entity principled profit. As a legal entity has the will and PTN BHMN which will be formulated in the vision and mission of higher education institutions each of which surely should not be contrary to the purpose of national education which have been outlined in the ACT Sisdiknas.


Lipids extracted from Candida albicans and C. tropicalis, but not from the weakly adherent C. pseudotropicalis, significantly blocked in vitro adherence of the respective yeast cells to buccal epithelial cells. The percentage of reduction from control values ranged between 16.4 and 42.1%, depending on the species, the strain, and the solvent used for lipid extraction. The constituent lipid classes of both the acetone and chloroform-methanol extracts of C. albicans ATCC 10231 were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The individual classes were isolated by preparative thin-layer chromatography and then tested for their effects on the adherence of this strain to buccal epithelial cells. Individual phospholipids, sterols, and steryl esters blocked adherence significantly (between 15.5 and 55.7% reduction). Triacylglycerols and free fatty acids showed no effect whatsoever. The same results were obtained when standard lipid samples were investigated.


The initial settlement of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape by Zhizo ceramic-producing farmers around AD 900 is said to be linked to the large elephant population that the region once supported. Elephant ivory was used in the Indian Ocean trade network to obtain exotic trade goods such as glass beads and cloth. However, there has been no attempt to determine whether the local elephant population was large enough to support such trade endeavours. In this paper, we use an inter-disciplinary approach to establish a projection of the past elephant population and demonstrate that the ivory tonnage in the region, including that which could be recovered from natural carcasses, could have supported trade demand. We also argue that at the time of settlement the same environmental productivity supporting the elephant population provided an ecological system amenable to cultivation and could support domesticated livestock. In addition, the local topography, river networks and community of large mammalian herbivores contributed to the attractiveness of the region from a settlement perspective. We believe that the elephant population was only one component present on the landscape that attracted agriculturalists to settle in the area.


Psychological type theory is employed to profile similarities and differences in Methodist ministers in Britain and the Church of England clergy profiled in an earlier study by Francis, Craig, Whinney, Tilley, and Slater (2007). New data were provided by 693 male Methodist ministers and 311 female Methodist ministers who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated that both male and female Methodist ministers were less likely to prefer intuition and more likely to prefer sensing in comparison with their Anglican colleagues. Also male Methodist ministers were more likely to prefer feeling and less likely to prefer thinking in comparison with their Anglican colleagues. In other respects the Methodist ministers and the Anglican clergy recorded similar profiles. These findings are interpreted to illuminate characteristics of strength and weakness in Methodist and Anglican ministry in England and to highlight potential challenges in effecting cooperation between the two denominations.


A pseudomonad obtained from a nicotinic acid enrichment culture had a growth-factor requirement satisfied by high concentrations of nicotinic acid or by minute amounts of quinolinic acid, 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid, or nicotinamide. Nicotinic acid, kynurenin sulphate, and probably 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid, can serve as sole carbon sources. The oxidation of nicotinic acid is adaptive. The finding that low concentrations of nicotinic acid fail to satisfy the growth-factor requirement is discussed. The paucity of records of auxotrophy in pseudomonads may reflect the selection exercised by isolation media devoid of growth factors. Pseudomonads requiring aneurin were isolated from enrichments with uracil and thymine. The utilization as carbon sources of metabolites of the anthranilic acid-tryptophan-nicotinic acid series may prove of taxonomic value in Pseudomonas.


Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) is a promising technology to alleviate the exhaustion of spectral resources. To realize DSA, new technologies that enable fast discovery of the unused spectrum along with efficient spectrum management must be developed. In this paper, we propose a novel scanning algorithm and access etiquette to provide secondary devices differentiated spectrum access in a fully distributed manner. The proposed solution does not use any common control channel or require any a prior knowledge of primary devices' usage pattern. More importantly, hardware limitation such as imperfect sensing or lack of strict synchronization between secondary devices are taken into account in our design. A mathematical model and an Opnet-based implementation are also developed to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution in DSA networks.


Fully dense and single-phase Ti3AlC2 bulk ceramic was successfully fabricated by a high energy milling and hot-pressing with Ti, C and Al as starting materials. The details of reaction and phase evolution in high energy milling and hot pressing sintering were investigated. The results show that most of the starting materials transform to Ti-Al intermetallics and TiC in high-energy milling. The as milled powders react into Ti2AlC firstly in hot pressing sintering. When the temperature raise high enough, the Ti2AlC transform to Ti3AlC2. The content of aluminum is higher than that in the theoretical composition, which is attributing to the volatilization of Al at high temperature.


Initiatives based on the Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework have previously been successful in improving health and well-being yet there is little evidence of how these findings translate into policy. This study therefore aimed to analyse the political considerations that underpinned policymakers' decisions for the design and implementation of a programme based on HPS in middle and high schools in Victoria, Australia. Interpretive policy analysis was undertaken using interviews with a purposive sample of government and non-government policy actors. Interviews explored factors influencing programme design and implementation and were analysed using thematic analysis. Ten in-depth interviews, including 11 participants, were conducted. The analysis revealed four themes. The Achievement Program was designed through (i) the establishment of strategic collaborations and good governance, involving people that made valuable and diverse contributions to the design process while acknowledging their (ii) positions of power, (iii) ensuring careful attention was paid to evidence-informed programme design and (iv) incorporation of real-time feedback from other settings. Policymakers believe this approach has the potential to improve policy adoption. There is a need to explore if this approach to policy development influences adherence and improves health outcomes.


The nutritional, phytochemical, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the acetone, methanol and water extracts of the leaves of Amaranthus asper were investigated using standard analytical methods in order to assess the numerous potential of the plant leaves. The proximate analysis showed that the leaves of this plant contained moisture, ash, crude protein, crude lipid, crude fibre, energy and carbohydrate. Elemental analysis in mg/100 g (DW) indicated that the leaves contained sodium (0.0373), potassium (2.872), calcium (2.504), Magnesium (0.569), Iron (419), Zinc (26), phosphorus (0.177), Copper (18), Manganese (91), and Nitrogen (1.78). The chemical composition in mg/100 g (DW) for alkaloid, saponins, and phytate were 0.3, 7.0 and 9.25 respectively. Comparing the nutrient and chemical constituents with recommended dietary allowance (RDA) values, the results reveal that the leaves contain an appreciable amount of nutrients, minerals, and phytochemicals and low levels of toxicants. At 1mg/ml, the acetone extract caused 98.2% ABTS radical scavenging inhibition while the methanol, water and BHT caused inhibition at 95.4, 97.1 and 99.3% respectively. The result for DPPH scavenging activity was close to that of ABTS. The plant was also rich in the different polyphenols analyzed in this study. The ferrous reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values for acetone extract (1084.9) is much higher than that of methanol (143.5), water (42.4), BHT (63.5), and catechin (972.02) but lower than those of ascorbic acid (1632.1) and quercetin (3107.3). The methanol extract has antibacterial activity against all the Gram-positive organisms used in this study. This study has to some extent validated the need for the use of the leaves of Amaranthus asper for nutritional and medicinal purposes.


This study reports a corpus-based study of medieval English herbals, which are texts conveying information on medicinal plants. Herbals belong to the medieval medical register. The study charts intertextual parallels within the medieval genre, and between herbals and other contemporary medical texts. It seeks to answer questions where and how herbal texts are linked to each other, and to other medical writing. The theoretical framework of the study draws on intertextuality and genre studies, manuscript studies, corpus linguistics, and multi-dimensional text analysis. The method combines qualitative and quantitative analyses of textual material from three historical special-language corpora of Middle and Early Modern English, one of which was compiled for the purposes of this study. The text material contains over 800,000 words of medical texts. The time span of the material is from c. 1330 to 1550. Text material is retrieved from the corpora by using plant-name lists as search criteria. The raw data is filtered through qualitative analysis which produces input for the quantitative analysis, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS). In MDS, the textual space that parallel text passages form is observed, and the observations are explained by a qualitative analysis. This study concentrates on evidence of material and structural intertextuality. The analysis shows patterns of affinity between the texts of the herbal genre, and between herbals and other texts in the medical register. Herbals are most closely linked with recipe collections and regimens of health: they comprise over 95 per cent of the intertextual links between herbals and other medical writing. Links to surgical texts, or to specialised medical texts are very few. This can be explained by the history of the herbal genre: as herbals carry information on medical ingredients, herbs, they are relevant for genres that are related to pharmacological therapy. Conversely, herbals draw material from recipe collections in order to illustrate the medicinal properties of the herbs they describe. The study points out the close relationship between medical recipes and recipe-like passages in herbals (recipe paraphrases). The examples of recipe paraphrases show that they may have been perceived as indirect instruction.


The evolution of sex had profound consequences for life on earth as it brought about the origin of males and females. Yet understanding the amazing variety of mechanisms employed by organisms to produce males and females has evaded scientific explanation. Developmental biology provides essential insight to understand how the sexes are formed, and how the regulatory network underlying sexual development changes over evolutionary time. This is a critical step in revealing why the diversity of mechanisms arose in the first place. Here I present significant reciprocal contributions made by evolutionary genetics and developmental biology that bear on this question. In particular, I explore how changes in the timing of events during development can be viewed as heterochronic changes that alleviate the strong selection on the master trigger of male and female sexual development, enabling the evolutionary transitions between genotypic and environmental sex determination.


According to increase in a waste scrap, a process is noticed in which a waste scraps is consumed for sheet steel production within severe restriction of impurities concentration. In this study, evaluation of the effect on environmental load decline by LCA is applied to this new recycling technology.Target of this study is not for closed loop recycling system like aluminum can for drink but for open loop recycling system in which many industries are concerned. Authors suggest taking the interindustry-relations table for open loop recycling system. Evaluation made in this research is based on it. By setting up I/O boundary, though increase of environmental load is predicted to be high comparing to those which are assumed as non-open recycling system, still there is a sufficient effect for it. As the result of the analysis, curtailment was estimated that energy consumption and CO2 emission are 16.8 GJ per ton waste scrap and 1.2 t per ton waste scrap, respectively.


Policies of inclusion challenge the construct of readiness and require schools to prepare for the diversity of children as they transition to school. However, there is limited empirical evidence concerning how this challenge is met. This paper presents two Australian studies that investigate inclusive practices in the transition to school. Study 1 examined the predictors of child outcomes across a sample of 1831 children in 39 schools. The results indicate that both quantity and quality of programme provision influenced outcomes and that programme effects were particularly potent for children with diverse abilities and backgrounds. Study 2 focuses on pedagogy in three of the schools to highlight how this provision can be achieved. Results show that provisions were reactive, that saliency of children's needs directed school practices and that professional knowledge impacted on measures of quality. Inclusive processes accounting for both child progress and broader family and teaching influences are necessary for improved transition to school.


Gotz, Meetham, and Dobson have recently studied the distribution of ozone in the earth's atmosphere by a new method, comparing the intensities, at two wave-lengths, of ultra-violet scattered zenith-light. Regener in a much more direct manner has found strikingly similar results, using a spectrograph carried high into the stratosphere by a balloon. The zenith-light method has great importance for the study of the ozone-distribution, and may be applicable, in modified form, to other atmospheric problems, possibly including problems of radio waves scattered and absorbed in the ionosphere. But it is laborious and in some respects difficult to determine the ozone-distribution from the zenith-light measurements. It seems desirable, and the need has been urged upon me by Dr. Dobson, to examine further some of the mathematical questions involved in the method. This is attempted in the present paper, subject to the limitation that only primary scattered light is considered. The effect of secondary scattered light remains to be discussed in a further paper. The interpretation of their work by Gotz, Meetham, and Dobson has been questioned by Pekeris. His criticism is here shown to be invalid (7.2, 7.21). The plan of this paper is to consider certain special distributions of ozone for which the mathematical analysis can be carried to an advanced stage, though in some cases numerical integration must be resorted to at the final stage. In most of the cases considered, but not all, the air density is supposed to vary exponentially with the height. Complete numerical results have been calculated in a number of cases, mainly referring to an atmosphere on a flat earth ; but some cases relating to a spherical earth have been worked out numerically, and these suffice to show, in a general way, how the curvature of the earth affects the results.


OBJECTIVE
Our purpose in this study was to examine the preclinical curricular content pertaining to driving evaluation and rehabilitation (DE/R) included in professional entry-level occupational therapy programs.

METHOD
An e-mail survey containing questions about the program's structure and extent of course material related to DE/R in the curriculum was sent to directors of all 144 U.S. accredited professional entry-level occupational therapy programs.

RESULTS
Ninety programs responded (62.5% response rate), of which 80 included content related to DE/R in some required courses, and 9 programs offered a required course specifically in DE/R. Approximately 18% of the respondent programs offered electives with DE/R content.

CONCLUSION
Of the respondent professional entry-level occupational therapy programs, few offer a required course specifically devoted to DE/R, butalmost all programs integrate DE/R content into required coursework, thus satisfying the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education standards related to driver rehabilitation.


In a prospective randomized study the durability of tunnelled and non‐tunnelled central venous catheters was investigated in children with malignant diseases. Twenty children were included in the study but four (two in each group) had to be excluded; three because the entry criteria turned out not to be fulfilled and one because of lack of data. The median duration of the tunnelled catheters was 224 days with a range of 25–846 days which was significantly longer than that of conventional catheters (39.5 days, range 9–228 days). In addition six of eight conventional catheters were accidentally removed whereas all catheters in the tunnelled group had to be removed via a small incision. Three cases of catheter related sepsis, two in the tunnelled group and one in the conventional group, were registered. The corresponding number of infections per catheter days were 1 in 1189 days and 1 in 522 days, respectively. In conclusion cuffed, tunnelled central venous catheters are less prone to displacement than traditional percutaneous central venous catheters when used in children with malignant diseases.


This paper explores the influence of mobile marketing tools in the consumer decision-making process. The aim is to provide a better understanding of consumer mobile shopping behaviour. There is limited research on this topic, which mainly explains the use of qualitative method in this study. The dining industry in Lebanon provides the respective service and geographic research contexts for this exploratory study. In-depth interviews conducted with a purposive sample of service providers and consumer opinion leaders. Their views were contrasted. The results show that there is limited use of the traditional mobile marketing tools and a shift from traditional mobile tools to modern or more trendy ones was noticed (e.g., Push Notifications instead of SMS). Moreover, it is found that mobile tools influence consumer shopping differently and their effect varies given the customer type. The decision-making process of loyal customers and influencers is more affected by mobile marketing tools than the regular or ordinary customers. In addition, in some cases mobile marketing may speed up the shopping process and may encourage impulse purchases. Marketers should be aware of the different mobile tools and know how and when to use them to develop effective targeting campaigns.


OBJECTIVES: To study the clinical and epidemiological features of the first 200 AIDS patients in Hong Kong. METHOD: A retrospective analysis of the data reported to the Department of Health. The patients were divided into two groups of first 100 and second 100 cases for comparison so as to discern the temporal changes. RESULTS: The first 100 AIDS cases were reported from February 1985 through to March 1994 (122 months) while the second 100 in the following 26 months. For both groups, they were predominantly male (94%, 89%), Chinese (66%, 74%) who acquired HIV via sex (83%, 91%). The proportion of Caucasians and homo/bi-sexual contacts in first and second 100 cases have fallen from 26% to 12% (p = 0.012), and from 53% to 31% (p = 0.006) respectively. For primary AIDS-defining illness (ADI), the frequency of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) has decreased (46% to 30%, p = 0.03) while that of tuberculosis (10%, 19%) and Penicillium marneffei (5%, 14%) infection have increased. Mycobacterium avium intracellualare and cytomegalovirus infection have become commoner subsequent ADIs. Frequency of PCP (22%, 9.5%) as the cause of death have dropped while that of tuberculosis has risen (4.8%, 14.3%). Median survival probability had improved from 7.3 months for the first half of patients to 11.9 months for the second half. CONCLUSION: Incidence of PCP has declined among local AIDS patients whereas tuberculosis, penicilliosis, MAI, and CMV diseases have increased. Survival chance of AIDS patients has improved over the years.


NICE (2007) stated that there are approximately 700,000 people in the UK with Dementia. Linked to this is the information provided by the Alzheimer's Society (2008), who stated that 75% of the population of residential care for older persons in the UK is populated by people with dementia, half of which will present with some form of behavioural problem.
People with learning disabilities are growing older, this group have a greater potential to develop dementia's earlier on in their lives. Astonishingly the likelihood of people with Down syndrome developing dementia increases to 75% when they are over the age of 65, (Rasher, 2005). Older People with learning disabilities are also more likely to develop dementia in their later life when compared to the general population, (Department of Health, 2009),
Current service models for people with dementia are typically designed to support older persons with dementia; however they are unlikely to have any specialist knowledge about the needs of a person with a learning disability. Recent evidence has suggested that individuals with learning disabilities who develop early onset dementia are likely to access older people's service provision.


The microgels with semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN) structure based on cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and linear poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) were fabricated by one-step precipitation polymerization technique. The chemical composition of the microgels was determined by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. It was found that the PAA content inside the microgels decreased as the pH value of reaction media increased. The semi-IPN structure of the microgels was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy using uranyl acetate staining method. The pH dependent hydrodynamic diameters obtained by dynamic light scattering revealed that these microgels can reversibly shrink and swell in the pH range from 4.0 to 6.0. The semi-IPN microgels synthesized at pH 3.0 could undergo about 120 times volume change in the pH range.


Genetic mutations in minor fibrillar collagen types Va1 (ColVa1) and XIa1 (ColXI) have been identified in connective tissue disorders including Ehlers–Danlos syndrome and chondrodysplasias. ColVa1+/− and ColXIa1−/− mutant mice recapitulate these human disorders and show aberrations in collagen fiber organization in connective tissue of the skin, cornea, cartilage, and tendon. In the heart, fibrous networks of collagen fibers form throughout the ventricular myocardium and heart valves, and alterations in collagen fiber homeostasis are apparent in many forms of cardiac disease associated with myocardial dysfunction and valvular insufficiency. There is increasing evidence for cardiac dysfunction in connective tissue disorders, but the mechanisms have not been addressed. ColVa1+/− and ColXIa1−/− mutant mice were used to identify roles for ColVa1 and ColXIa1 in ventricular myocardial morphogenesis and heart valve development. These affected cardiac structures show a compensatory increase in type I collagen deposition, similar to that previously described in valvular and cardiomyopathic disease. Morphological cardiac defects associated with changes in collagen fiber homeostasis identified in ColVa1+/− and ColXIa1−/− mice provide an insight into previously unappreciated forms of cardiac dysfunction associated with connective tissue disorders. Developmental Dynamics 235:3295–3305, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract We addressed the inclusion of behavioral analyses in the research and case study articles published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM) over the past 5 years (1992–1997). The amount of behavior analysis included in JOBM articles appears to be greater than that found in JABA in the early 1980s. However, the presence of such analyses in JOBM can still be increased. Further, a significant number of articles do not mention how the particular intervention was chosen to address a specific organizational problem. This lack of a functional assessment makes it difficult for readers to decide if a proposed intervention is applicable to a situation with which they might be dealing. Additionally, we reviewed articles and examined the range of those behavioral principles discussed and found little diversity among the principles used. This paper serves to address some of the problems and ramifications associated with this separation and to offer suggestions as to how this situation coul...


A potential method for tracking neurovascular disease progression over time in preclinical models is multiphoton fluorescence microscopy (MPM), which can image cerebral vasculature with capillary-level resolution. However, obtaining high-quality, three-dimensional images with a traditional point scanning MPM is time-consuming and limits sample sizes for chronic studies. Here, we present a convolutional neural network-based algorithm for fast upscaling of low-resolution or sparsely sampled images and combine it with a segmentation-less vectorization process for 3D reconstruction and statistical analysis of vascular network structure. In doing so, we also demonstrate that the use of semi-synthetic training data can replace the expensive and arduous process of acquiring low- and high-resolution training pairs without compromising vectorization outcomes, and thus open the possibility of utilizing such approaches for other MPM tasks where collecting training data is challenging. We applied our approach to large field of view images and show that our method generalizes across imaging depths, disease states and other differences in neurovasculature. Our pre-trained models and lightweight architecture can be used to reduce MPM imaging time by up to fourfold without any changes in underlying hardware, thereby enabling deployability across a range of settings.


When dealing with electric systems, planning and operation, it is necessary to focus the attention on the problem of security. This is crucial especially when the electricity markets force towards a higher and higher exploitation of the network facilities to improve the business. In particular, the contingency analysis is a fundamental part of the security assessment: several techniques have been implemented in the past to study the impact of such perturbations. In this article, second order information derived from the singular value analysis of the power flow (PF) Jacobian matrix is used to obtain an effective ranking of contingencies with particular respect to the voltage/reactive problems. Besides, a quantification of the risk associated to each contingency is the output of a procedure that evaluates quasi-linear indices useful in both planning and operation.


The spatial distribution of a species is determined by dynamic processes such as reproduction, mortality and dispersal. Conventional static species distribution models (SDMs) do not incorporate these processes explicitly. This limits their applicability, particularly for non‐equilibrium situations such as invasions or climate change. In this paper we show how dynamic SDMs can be formulated and fitted to data within a Bayesian framework. Our focus is on discrete state‐space Markov process models which provide a flexible framework to account for stochasticity in key demographic processes, including dispersal, growth and competition. We show how to construct likelihood functions for such models (both discrete and continuous time versions) and how these can be combined with suitable observation models to conduct Bayesian parameter inference using computational techniques such as Markov chain Monte Carlo. We illustrate the current state‐of‐the‐art with three contrasting examples using both simulated and empirical data. The use of simulated data allows the robustness of the methods to be tested with respect to deficiencies in both data and model. These examples show how mechanistic understanding of the processes that determine distribution and abundance can be combined with different sources of information at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Application of such techniques will enable more reliable inference and projections, e.g. under future climate change scenarios than is possible with purely correlative approaches. Conversely, confronting such process‐oriented niche models with abundance and distribution data will test current understanding and may ultimately feedback to improve underlying ecological theory.


"Is the Separation of Powers Principle Exportable?" That is the question posed to the contributors to this Symposium. The answer I offer here turns not on abstract principles but on my assessment of the real-world consequences of exporting the presidential system of separation of powers to other countries. This approach is grounded in the belief that a system of governance should be judged in significant part by how well it serves the best interests of the people whose lives it governs. If fragile democracies that import our system of separation of powers are more likely to collapse as a result, then we should be exceedingly cautious about aggressively exporting our system to those countries. I begin by clarifying the scope of the debate. I then turn to the normative question on which the debate turns: Is it wise to export the United States's presidential system of separation of powers? Judging on the basis of the available empirical evidence, I conclude that usually it is not. The best empirical evidence points to the conclusion that fragile democracies that adopt a United States-inspired presidential (1) model of governance are, all else equal more likely to collapse than those that adopt a parliamentary system. I want to begin by making clear what is and is not the subject of debate in this Symposium. This debate is not about whether the presidential system is right for the United States. Most commentators would agree that the presidential system works well for the United States--warts and all--and few would advocate that the United States adopt a parliamentary system. (2) The debate is also not about whether there should be limits on the exercise of executive power. All of the contributors to this Symposium agree that there should be limits, although they disagree about what those limits should be. Finally, the debate is not about whether the rest of the world can learn from the United States's constitutional system. Clearly, the rest of the world can learn much from the United States's system, just as the United States can learn much from the rest of the world. Instead, the subject of this Symposium is whether the United States's particular model of separation of powers is right not only for the United States, but also for the rest of the world. It is on this question that the contributors to this Symposium part ways. There are two central reasons that a general policy of seeking to export the United States's presidentialist model of separation of powers to other countries is ill-advised. First, it assumes that there is a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of governance. This assumption is ill-founded. In order to know what kind of governing structure will work for a particular country, it is necessary to understand the local conditions in which that governing structure will work. Is federalism a concern? Are there regional divides? Are there significant ethnic divisions? What is the history of the country? Is the country in recent transition from a military dictatorship? Is there economic stratification that makes certain models of democracy less likely to work than others? And, most important, what form of governance do the citizens of the country prefer? The assumption that we can determine whether a parliamentary or presidential system is better for the rest of the world ignores the importance of these kinds of local conditions. And yet these conditions matter immensely when deciding whether a parliamentary or presidential system suits a particular country, and they are more important than any abstract comparisons scholars can make. Second, the claim that the United States's model of separation of powers should be exported to other countries is contrary to the available empirical evidence. I preface this discussion by noting that I have not done the empirical work on this question myself. When I was asked to participate in this Symposium, I did not know what answer I would give to the question of whether the American-style separation of powers is exportable. …


Comment & Response Anticholinergic Use With Incident Dementia To the Editor The report by Gray et al1 on the association of anticholinergic use with incident dementia may have overestimated the risk of anticholinergic use due to residual confounding. Participants with the highest level of cumulative exposure had, at baseline, more than double the rate of stroke and triple the rate of fair or poor health by self-report than participants with no exposure. They also had higher rates of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and obesity; were twice as likely to be women; and 4 times as likely to have high levels of depressive symptoms. Since these independent risks for dementia were present at baseline and were correlated with anticholinergic exposure, the anticholinergic-dementia association may reflect residual confounding and could persist despite lagtime analysis, which discounts exposure only in the 2 years prior to dementia onset. Stratified analyses limited to women or men who were free of these potential confounders at study entry may reduce error due to residual confounding and give more accurate estimates of effect size.


We have designed and develop a novel class of nanocomposites for inflammation based hallmark functions using biocompatible metallic nano-objects (SPION, nanorod) assembled with a pH sensitive amphiphilic azide terminated block polymer, polystyrene-b-poly (acrylic acid) and temperature-responsive polymer Poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) in a single nanoscopic platform. The nano-architecture is a uniform core-shell micellar assembly of polymer around the biocompatible metallic core. Doxorubicin and methotrexate are loaded within the architecture as the model therapeutic module. The drugs are linked through pH and enzyme sensitive bonds. The complete nano-architecture and linkages are characterized by electron microscopy, NMR and Photon Correlation Spectroscopy. The drug release response has been optimized with different cell line in vitro. The model suggest that change/increase in temperature, reduction of pH and the redox enzymatic activities are increased at the localized inflammatory sites, can be addressed by the developed module and the drug will be released at the inflammation sites only due to their specific linkage to the module. Again we have explored order–disorder micellar structures dependent T1 & T2 MRI properties of the module. This results indicate that the fabricated module can also be useful not only probing the inflammation site non invasively through MRI but also will give us idea on the extent of release of drugs at the inflammation sites. The outcomes of these results elucidate the potential of this fabricated nano-architecture for smart theranostics through physicochemical and microenvironment feature based drug delivery, site-specific therapy, real-time probing and non-invasive monitoring of the drug action course for personalized therapy.


The present study was undertaken to detect the possible association of V825I polymorphism in the ABCA1 gene and several environmental factors with serum lipid levels among 100 T2DM patients and 50 healthy control subjects. Each patients and controls are classified into three groups according to their BMI (18.5-24.9 normal, 2529.9 over weight and ≥30 kg/m 2 obese), and also classified into three groups according to their ages (40-49.9 G1, 50-59.9 G2, ≥60 year G3). The genomic DNA extraction to PCR and PCR-RFLP assay was detected on gel electrophoresis. PCR was carried out to amplify 525bp fragment of ABCA1 gene contained V825I polymorphic position by using restriction enzyme Taq1. The presence of the cutting site indicates the A allele, while its absence indicates the G allele. Thus, the GG genotype indicates the absence of the site (band at 525 bp), GA genotype indicates the absence and presence of the site (bands at 525, 302 and 223bp) and AA genotype indicates the presence of the site (bands at 302 and 223 bp). The present study found that the frequency of GG genotype and G allele are higher in healthy controls compared to patients, converse to AA genotype which was higher in patients compared to healthy controls. The data also shows significant relationship between ABCA1 gene polymorphism with each of TG and VLDL (p<0.01for each). Our results found that the frequency of GG genotype for overweight and obese and frequency of AA for obese are significantly higher (p<0.05) in patients compared to healthy controls. The results confirmed that the frequency of GG genotype is significantly higher (p<0.01) in healthy compared to patients according to the age of more than 50 year only. The results indicate the highly significant (p<0.01) in frequency of GG genotype, higher in female patients compared to healthy controls. We have found the presence of significant relationship between ABCA1 gene polymorphism and serum levels of TG and VLD in patients. The frequency of A allele is lower than that of G allele in each male and female groups. The presence of significant differences of GG genotype with the advancement of age in patients group was observed. The results confirmed that G allele may be a protective factor against diabetes mellitus. Accepted: 17 May 2016 Available Online: 06 June 2016


Aims Use of paediatric jejunal feeding (JF) is increasing. There is limited information on its long-term use with a notable absence of national guidance on JF in children. We present an audit of paediatric jejunal feeding practice in the Wessex Region over the last 5 years. Methods Paediatric patients initiating JF for longer than three months, across the 12 centres in Wessex, were included in the study. The total review period was last 5 years. Patients were identified from a paediatric surgical database with analysis of data including demographics, underlying diagnosis, placement indication, previous enteral feeding intervention, insertion technique, tube type and complications including tube survival and replacement frequency. Results 50 children (54% male, median age 1.68 yrs – IQR 0.74–7.46 yrs) initiated JF during the study period; 60% of children < 2 years of age. 48% had a syndrome and 62% a neurological diagnosis. Severe gastroesophageal reflux with inability to tolerate gastric feeding was the primary indication for JF in 84% of children with a median weight of –1.86 SDS (IQR −3.7 – −0.81) with 78% receiving feeds via gastrostomy immediately prior to JT insertion. 18/50 of children initiated JF via nasal and 32/50 via gastrojejunal route (26/50 via Balloon-button G-J tube and 6/50 Freka PEG- J tube). The median follow up period was 2.9 years (IQR 1.6–6.4 yrs) during which 35 elective and 103 emergency replacements were needed; tip dislodgement being the commonest reason. The jejunal tube was successfully removed in 17 (median use 1.3 yrs – IQR 0.5–3.3), with 10% exclusively oral fed at last follow up. Conclusion We report a large cohort of jejunally fed children in the Wessex with more than 60% dependent on jejunal feeding at 5 years follow up. Paediatric JF is resource intensive requiring radiologic, surgical, gastrointestinal and dietetic services for insertion, feed management and replacement of jejunal tubes when required. We raise the need for national guidelines for indications of J tube placement, monitoring and management.


[Purpose] Over the years physiotherapy has been recognized as a popular mode of treatment that decreases the disability and dependency rate of patients. However, there is still a need for its recognition in multidisciplinary health care structures. If a physician were well aware of how a physical therapist could help with treatment if patients and prevent complications, hospital patient load could be decreased to a greater extent. The aim of this study was to study the awareness, perception and beliefs of physicians working in Saudi Arabia about physiotherapy. [Subjects and Methods] Three hundred fifteen members of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) with different specialties, nationalities, designation, and work experience, working in various hospitals in 5 regions of Saudi Arabia were invited to participate in this study. A 22-item questionnaire was used for data collection including sections on physicians' demographics, educational levels and knowledge about physiotherapy. [Results] After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, data from 280 respondents was used for analysis. Seventy-five percent of respondents reported to having some knowledge of physiotherapy, and 11% of them referred patients to physiotherapy departments regularly, while 14% referred patients occasionally. To the best of our knowledge, this is first study performed in Saudi Arabia to evaluate awareness of physicians about the physiotherapy profession. [Conclusion] The results of this study highlight the need to organize various workshops and lectures about the effectiveness of physiotherapy in various diseases for physicians, on a regular basis, to update them with evidence-based treatment. It is the responsibility of physical therapists to raise the perceptions of other healthcare professionals about their profession.


Creating realistic human videos introduces the challenge of being able to simultaneously generate both appearance, as well as motion. To tackle this challenge, we propose the novel spatio-temporal GAN-architecture $G^3AN$, which seeks to capture the distribution of high dimensional video data and to model appearance and motion in disentangled manner. The latter is achieved by decomposing appearance and motion in a three-stream Generator, where the main stream aims to model spatio-temporal consistency, whereas the two auxiliary streams augment the main stream with multi-scale appearance and motion features, respectively. An extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis shows that our model systematically and significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on the facial expression datasets MUG and UvA-NEMO, as well as the Weizmann and UCF101 datasets on human action. Additional analysis on the learned latent representations confirms the successful decomposition of appearance and motion.


Abstract Urbanization creates novel problems for wildlife, potentially altering the foraging behavior of passerine birds. Foraging is driven by factors like food preference and food accessibility; the foraging of urban birds may be more innovative due to frequent exposure to unfamiliar items. I hypothesized that high novelty exposure in urban birds would promote faster discovery and longer visits to novel feeders compared to rural conspecifics. Additionally, I hypothesized that birds would prioritize food quality over access regardless of habitat, but when faced with barriers, urban birds would be better at accessing food compared to rural birds because of frequent exposure to novel obstacles. Recording bird visitations to paired bird feeders of differing food quality, I found that feeder discovery was not significantly different between the seed types or habitats. Rural birds spent half as much time at low access feeders compared to urban birds; when feeders were caged, rural birds discovered both seed types more quickly than the urban counterparts. Additionally, higher-quality food had greater consumption in both environments regardless of accessibility, although rural birds removed more low-quality food than urban birds when the more nutritional option was obstructed. This study reveals the importance of food preferences in driving avian feeding behaviors and how bird communities may be shaped by the food quality and degree of fragmentation of the habitat.


A number of post-Keynesian authors, called the neo-chartalists, have argued that the government does not face a budget constraint similar to that of households and that government with sovereign currencies run no risk of default, even with high debt-to-GDP ratio. This stands in contrast to countries in the eurozone, where the central bank does not normally purchase sovereign debt. While these claims now seem to be accepted by some economists, neo-chartalists have also made a number of controversial claims, including that the government spends simply by crediting a private-sector-bank account at the central bank; that the government does need to borrow to deficit-spend; and that taxes do not finance government expenditures. This paper shows that these surprising statements do have some logic, once one assumes the consolidation of the government sector and the central bank into a unique entity, the state. The paper further argues, however, that these paradoxical claims end up being counter-productive since consolidation is counter-factual.


An incidence matrix approach for mitigating congestion in transmission network is presented in this paper. Based on this methodology, all congested power transmission lines is identified and main economical signals for investment planning is introduced. In this method, we can determine strong and weak transmission corridors in the network. The Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) device has been applied to enhance the controllability of power systems. New generations of FACTS device called Distributed FACTS such as distributed series impedance or distributed static series compensator have recently received increasing interests for power system control and are expected to be broadly deployed. This paper presents a detailed formulation and algorithm to find the best location and size of DFACTS to achieve the optimal utilization of transmission capacity to mitigate congestion. This approach can be applied in market simulation and planning owing to its robustness and speed. Unlike, previous admittance based matrix methodologies, which solidly depended on the network topology, independency of network in the presented approach; it would be an effective tool for long-term expansion planning criteria or implementing D-FACTS devices in modern power systems. The simulation results show that the presented method is both satisfactory and consistent with expectation. Simulation results are presented with the PJM 5-bus system to illustrate the capabilities of presented approach in compression with previous works.


Bauhaus design schools are the most important wing of tradition. Bauhaus is the most important representative of this tradition. This innovative structure, which redesigns the design culture itself, while recognizing the problems of the industrialist correctly and creating its own design concept, provides very important successes in a short time. Bauhaus sheds light on many design schools established after it and led them. One of these schools is Marmara Practical Fine Arts School which is the continuation of this tradition. The Marmara Practical Fine Arts School has a mission to play an important role in the development of our country. The aim of the school was to educate individuals who developed aesthetic taste, creative, contemporary, original and following the understanding of the art of the age, to overcome the collective art taste. In addition to this, the Marmara Practical Fine Arts School, founded in 1957 with the purpose of designing all kinds of products used in everyday life such as Bauhaus, was established as an example. The name of the school changed to Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts later and changed its name only and its aims remained the same. In what way is the Practical Fine Arts School influenced by the Bauhaus? Do we see these effects nowadays? We can say that these dimensions are very comprehensive. From the educational programs to the understanding of art, to the departments of art education, it is possible that we can see the reflection of Bauhaus in many places such as student activities.


Corrosion of metals and alloys, on which the modern world depends completely, fromelectronic components to printed circuit boards, from nuts and bolts to bridges, fromautomobiles to railway parts to boiler tubes and nuclear reactors, is a practical problem oftremendous technological significance. Corrosion leads to colossal financial losses, whichare estimated to be 3-4% of GNP of a nation, not to speak of the loss of human lives,reputation, environment, aesthetics as well as shut-down and production losses. Of thevarious preventive measures like alloying, corrosion inhibitors, protective coatings, paints,design etc. to combat corrosion, only cathodic protection can guarantee 100% protection, ifproperly designed, executed and supplemented by protective coatings.The ABC ofcorrosion, principle of cathodic protection, with special reference to the development ofaluminium based sacrificial anodes like SUPERAL (medium output) and HOPAL (highoutput) as also insoluble anode like Sintered Magnetite Anode (SMA) in the NationalMetallurgical Laboratory in India, have been included in the paper. While the technology forthe sacrificial Al-based anodes has been transferred to two parties in India, SMA developedby NML is found to be the best because of its unique properties and low cost, compared to theconventionally used insoluble anodes. A cathodic protection system has also been designedand developed by NML with SMA, which is auto-controlled and very economical.AML hasalso successfully designed and executed the cathodic protection of the old water main lines(made from bare steel) in Calcutta, using Al-based sacrificial anodes.Merits and demerits ofgalvanic system compared to impressed current system and major research institutesengaged in corrosion area are listed Pertinent references have been cited for access to theoriginal and detailed literature.


The walls of isolated upper Malpighian tubules of the insect, Rhodnius prolixus, are much more permeable to small relatively unchanged solutes (ethanol, xylose, and mannitol) than to larger or more charged solutes (acetate, glycine, tyrosine, and inulin). The more permeable solutes rapidly reach concentrations in the tubule cells equivalent to their concentrations in the bathing medium; the less permeable solutes do not penetrate into the cells. The time course of accumulation of permeable solute in the cells matches the time course of the appearance of solute in the lumen. Substances injected into the hemolymph of fed R. prolixus appear in the urine at concentrations predictable from the permeability of in vitro tubules, supporting the idea that the in vitro permeability of the tubules is representative of their properties in the intact insect. It is suggested that the rapid transcellular penetration of small solutes through the Malpighian tubules reflects the large areas of cell membrane. The area of cell membrane exceeds that of the paracellular clefts by a factor of 10(5).


Music is increasingly seen to have an essential non-pharmacological therapeutic role within healthcare and in particular for the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As Thaut (2005: 115) has argued, 'brain research involving music has shown that music has a distinct influence on the brain by stimulating physiologically complex cognitive, affective, and sensorimotor processes. [...] This is a very critical step in the historical understanding of music in therapy and medicine'. In this keynote lecture, Emilie Capulet will present and discuss a wide array of musical activities, including Guided Imagery and Music (Dukic, H., Parncutt, R., & Bunt, L. (2019)) and the neurochemistry of music (Chanda ML, Levitin DJ. 'The Neurochemistry of Music'. Trends Cogn Sci. 2013. Apr. 17(4):179-93), as well as music therapy activities (Landis-Shack, Nora et al. "Music Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress in Adults: A Theoretical Review." Psychomusicology vol. 27,4 (2017): 334-342) which have a positive impact on cognitive, emotional, behavioral and physiological levels.


The effects of oral fructose on hepatocarcinogenesis were investigated with cytomorphological, cytochemical and stereological methods. Carcinogenesis was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats by application of N-nitrosomorpholine (NNM) for 7 weeks. Afterwards, the animals received fructose in the drinking water (120 g/l) and food ad libitum (group I) or tap water and food ad libitum (group II). The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in rats treated with NNM plus fructose was 46% as compared to 24% in animals receiving NNM alone (P less than 0.05). There was no difference in the incidences of other malignancies between the groups (group I: 32.1%, group II: 32.0%). Morphometric evaluation of preneoplastic liver lesions indicated the enhancing effect of the fructose treatment several months before malignant tumors appeared. As early as 6 weeks after treatment the hepatic parenchyma occupied by focal lesions was increased from 6.7% in the animals which had received NNM alone to 8.5% (P less than 0.05) in animals having received NNM plus fructose. This increase was predominantly caused by an increase in glycogen storing foci (P less than 0.0005). In addition, the fructose treatment caused a histochemically detectable increase in the activity of glucose-6-phosphatase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in both the hepatocytes of the focal lesions and the surrounding parenchyma. In the NNM plus fructose group the activity of the glucose-6-phosphatase in the foci was frequently approximately equal to the activity in the parenchyma of untreated controls. The striking increase in the activity of this enzyme in the surrounding hepatocytes, however, still sharply demarcated the lesions. The potential mechanisms by which fructose enhances hepatocarcinogenesis are discussed.


We retrospectively reviewed 175 patients (191 hips) who had undergone primary cemented total hip replacement between November 1992 and November 1995 using a collarless polished double-tapered femoral component after a minimum of ten years (mean 11.08; 10 to 12.8). All stems were implanted using contemporary cementing techniques with a distal cement restrictor, pressurised lavage, retrograde cementing with a gun and proximal pressurisation. Clinical outcome was assessed using the Harris Hip score. Radiological analysis was performed on calibrated plain radiographs taken in two planes. Complete radiological data on 110 patients (120 hips) and clinical follow-up on all the surviving 111 patients (122 hips) was available. The fate of all the hips was known. At final follow-up, the mean Harris Hip score was 86 (47 to 100), and 87 of 116 patients (75%) had good or excellent scores. Survival with revision of the stem for aseptic loosening as the endpoint was 100%; and survival with revision of the stem for any reason was 95.9% (95% confidence interval 87.8 to 96.8) at ten years. All the stems subsided vertically at the stem-cement interface in a predictable pattern, at an overall mean rate of 0.18 mm per year (0.02 to 2.16), but with a mean rate of 0.80 mm (0.02 to 2.5) during the first year. The mean total subsidence was 1.95 mm (0.21 to 24). Only three stems loosened at the cement-bone interface. There was excellent preservation of proximal femoral bone stock. There was a high incidence of Brooker III and IV heterotopic ossification affecting 25 patients (22%). The collarless polished tapered stem has an excellent clinical and radiological outcome at a minimum of ten years' follow-up. The pattern and magnitude of subsidence of the stem within the cement mantle occurred in a predictable pattern, consistent with the design philosophy.


Recent findings from our laboratory and those of others demonstrated that prolactin gene expression (PRL-GE) oscillates in single living mammotropes, but little information is available on the molecular processes that contribute to this phenomenon. To elucidate the source of this activity, we generated a series of constructs containing decreasing lengths of the PRL promoter fused to a luciferase reporter gene. These constructs were injected into single cells and assayed for photonic activity. We found pulse activity with all plasmids tested, even with the smallest promoter fragment of 331 bp. Sequence analysis of this fragment identified two potential E-boxes (elements known to bind CLOCK and BMAL1 circadian proteins). Furthermore, RT-PCR of PRL cells (pituitary, MMQ, and GH(3)) revealed expression of clock and bmal1 as well as five other clock genes (per1, per2, cry1, cry2, and tim), suggesting that the circadian system may function in PRL cells. Next, we mutated the core sequences of both E-boxes within the 2.5-kb PRL promoter and found that only mutation of the E-box133 completely abolished PRL-GE pulses. EMSAs revealed that CLOCK and BMAL1 were able to bind to the E-box133 site in vitro. Our results demonstrate that PRL-GE pulses are dependent on a specific E-box binding site in the PRL promoter. Moreover, the indication that CLOCK/BMAL1 can bind to this site suggests that these circadian proteins, either alone or in conjunction with other factors, may regulate intermittent PRL promoter activity in mammotropes, perhaps by acting as a temporal switch for the on/off expression of PRL.


In the field of dentistry, diagnoses based on data obtained using medical imaging modalities such as digital panoramic radiography and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) have been widely recommended for advanced dental care. In Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos), there are place where advanced dental imaging devices are available in only one university dental hospital. The establishment of an information and communication technology (ICT) system has been expected as telemedicine system, for sharing medical imaging data among medical institutions in Laos. Recently, regional medical cooperation using telemedicine has been developed in Japan, and medical imaging data have been provided and shared among medical institutions, by using a mobile tablet terminal application. Therefore, we have carried out the empirical research on the telemedicine system with the university in Laos. The technologies and research results from our project will be presented in this chapter.


Mutations in the PHEX gene (phosphate-regulating gene with homologies to endopeptidases on the X chromosome) are responsible for X-linked hypophosphataemia, and studies in the Hyp mouse model of the human disease implicate the gene product in the regulation of renal phosphate (P(i)) reabsorption and bone mineralization. Although the mechanism for PHEX action is unknown, structural homologies with members of the M13 family of endopeptidases suggest a function for PHEX protein in the activation or degradation of peptide factors involved in the control of renal P(i) transport and matrix mineralization. To determine whether PHEX has endopeptidase activity, we generated a recombinant soluble, secreted form of human PHEX (secPHEX) and tested the activity of the purified protein with several peptide substrates, including a variety of bone-related peptides. We found that parathyroid-hormone-related peptide(107-139) is a substrate for secPHEX and that the enzyme cleaves at three positions within the peptide, all located at the N-terminus of aspartate residues. Furthermore, we show that osteocalcin, PP(i) and P(i), all of which are abundant in bone, are inhibitors of secPHEX activity. Inhibition of secPHEX activity by osteocalcin was abolished in the presence of Ca(2+). We suggest that PHEX activity and mineralization may be controlled in vivo by PP(i)/P(i) and Ca(2+) and, in the latter case, the regulation requires the participation of osteocalcin.


Merging data from existing electronic patient records, and electronic hospital discharge and cause of death registers, is a fast and relatively inexpensive method for comparing different treatments with regard to clinical outcome. This study compared the effects of antihypertensive treatment with candesartan or losartan on cardiovascular disease (CVD) using Swedish registers. Patients without previous CVD who were prescribed candesartan (n=7329) or losartan (n=6771) for hypertension during 1999–2007 at 72 Swedish primary care centers were followed for up to 9 years. Both medications were given according to current recommendations, and there was no difference observed in achieved blood pressures. The authors have previously shown that candesartan lowered the risk of all CVD (primary composite end point) more so than losartan (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% confidence interval, 0.77–0.96). Candesartan also had a significantly better effect with regards to reducing the development of heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, and peripheral arterial disease. In the present analysis, the authors found that candesartan, compared with losartan, reduced the risk of all CVD, irrespective of sex, age, previous antihypertensive treatment, baseline blood pressure, and presence of diabetes. These clinical findings may reflect differences between candesartan and losartan in their binding characteristics to the angiotensin type 1 receptor. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2011;13:189–197. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


In empirical demand, industrial organization, and labor economics, prices are often unobserved or unobservable since they may only be recorded when an agent transacts. In the absence of any additional information, this partial observability of prices is known to lead to a number of identification problems. However, in this paper, we show that theory-consistent demand analysis remains feasible in the presence of partially observed prices, and hence partially observed implied budget sets, even if we are agnostic about the nature of the missing prices. Our revealed preference approach is empirically meaningful and easy to implement. We illustrate using simple examples.


Recordings of careful readings and unscripted monologues in Swedish and Spanish were auditorily and acoustically analyzed to test the hypothesis that temporal equalization of syllable-sized units typically occurs in casual as opposed to elaborated speaking styles. Results indicated 1) that durations and standard deviations appearing in unscripted Swedish tended to resemble those in Spanish, 2) that durational differences between unstressed and stressed units in unscripted Swedish were smaller than those observed in Swedish careful reading, and 3) that, in both languages and speaking conditions, timing of syllable-sized units was partly determined by their size. Timing was, thus, significantly affected by alterations in speaking style. This suggests that rhythmic patterns associated with stress- and syllable-timing may arise as consequences of more primary phonetic intentions rather than themselves representing such intentions.


The challenge of the mucosal gut associated immune system is to remain unresponsive to food products and commensal microbiota, while mounting an appropriate immune response towards pathogens. This implicates the necessity of tight immune regulation within the gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). Imbalance between tolerance and immunity (e.g. intestinal homeostasis) contributes to the pathogenesis of intestinal diseases like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and food allergies. The first part of this thesis examined strategies to enhance the GALT function and find possible therapies for intestinal inflammation. Prevention of entrance of bacterial products like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into intestinal tissue will diminish immune activation in the gut. Alkaline phosphatase, expressed by intestinal epithelial cells, is able to detoxify LPS. Administration of alkaline phosphatase in a mouse model for intestinal inflammation indeed reduced disease, but only when severe epithelial damage had occurred. An approach including AP treatment holds a therapeutic promise in case of severe IBD. Other studies on intestinal inflammation aimed to increase regulatory cells in the inflamed tissue via administration of heat shock proteins (HSP). It has been shown that administration of mycobacterial HSP results in the induction regulatory T cells in animal models for rheumatoid arthritis, and that these regulatory T cells ameliorate disease onset. However, administration of HSP did not reduce intestinal inflammation in mouse models, probably due to the acute character of those models. The second part of this thesis investigated the changes in the GALT, immediately after induction of peanut allergy in a mouse model. Furthermore, the effects of food components and drugs on allergic responses were evaluated. Normally, feeding a protein induces immunologic non-responsiveness called oral tolerance. Administration of the mucosal adjuvant cholera toxin induces allergic sensitization to co-administered proteins in mice. We found that induction of allergy resulted in a profound decrease in the percentage of gammadelta T cells in intestinal tissues. Blockade of the gammadelta TCR in vivo (using a specific antibody) resulted in elevated food allergic responses upon sensitization with peanut. This demonstrates a regulatory role for gammadelta T cells, suggesting that targeting gammadelta T cells in the intestine may contribute to strategies to prevent and possibly treat food allergy. Food industry claims a beneficial effect of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) on allergic responses. However, feeding mice n-3 PUFA-rich diets resulted in increased mast cell responses after induction of peanut allergy compared to mice fed with normal diets. Whether this effect is the result of modulation of fatty acid-derived prostaglandin contents or of a direct effect on mast cells is subject to further research. The pain-killer diclofenac also enhanced peanut allergic responses in mice but only when other circumstances are also in favor of allergic sensitization. This finding signifies a relevant risk for the human situation and needs further investigation. Together these studies demonstrate both beneficial and detrimental effects of environmental factors (bacterial products, food components and drugs) on mucosal immune responses in the gut. More research is needed to evaluate the risks and the therapeutic possibilities of present findings.


The nature of the multirate dynamics of the process makes it very attractive for applications, since the multirate phenomena are complex. This paper presents a research methodology for describing a three-rate continuous-time stochastic control system as state-space (SS) type decentralized models of multiinput/multioutput (MIMO) stochastic control subsystems with the three neural networks (NNs) of different structure. The block diagram of the decentralized control subsystems with the radial basis control NNs for the "fast" and "intermediate" subsystems, and with one linear layer control NN for the "slow" subsystem is designed. An illustrative design example - NN control of an experimental fighter aircraft model in the short approach to landing task - was carried out using the proposed three-rate SS decentralization technique. The simulation results with use of software package Simulink demonstrate that this research technique would work for real-time MIMO stochastic systems.


Alkaptonuric ochronosis is rare disorder of tyrosin catabolism with an autosomal recessive trait. Alkaptonuric patients are deficient for homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase. This enzymatic deficiency leads to the elimination of large amounts of homogentistic acid in the urine (Alkaptonuria) with accumulation of homogentistic acid oxidized pigment in the connective tissue (Ochronosis). The most common clinical features are dark brown discoloration of urine on exposure to air; ocular and cutaneous pigmentation; calcification of the intervertebral disc and cardiovascular ochronosis, especially calcification and stenosis of the aortic valve. The diagnosis is confirmed by detection of homogentistic acid in urine. We report a case of a 87 year old female which has all these clinical features mentioned above and pericardiac calcification, which had not been previously reported, to our knowledge.


Ten horses of Thoroughbred or Standardbred breeding were used to study the effects of dietary fish oil supplementation on the metabolic response to a high-intensity incremental exercise test. Horses were assigned to either a fish oil (n = 6) or corn oil (n = 4) treatment. The fish oil (Omega Protein, Hammond, LA) contained 10.6% eicosapentaenoic acid and 8% docosahexaenoic acid. Each horse received timothy hay and a textured concentrate at a rate necessary to meet its energy needs. The supplemental oil was top-dressed on the concentrate daily at a rate of 324 mg/kg BW. Horses received their assigned diet for 63 d, during which time they were exercised 5 d/wk in a round pen or on a treadmill. During wk 1, horses exercised for 10 min at a trot. After wk 1, exercise time and intensity were increased so that at wk 5, exercise time in the round pen increased to 30 min (10 min of cantering and 20 min of trotting) per day. Starting at wk 6, horses were exercised 3 d/wk in the round pen for 30 min and 2 d/wk on a treadmill for 20 min. After 63 d, all horses performed an exercise test consisting of a 5-min warm-up at 1.9 m/s, 0% grade, followed by a step test on a 10% grade at incremental speeds of 2 to 8 m/s. Blood samples were taken throughout exercise. During exercise, horses receiving fish oil had a lower heart rate (treatment x time interaction; P < 0.05) and tended to have lower packed cell volume (treatment effect; P = 0.087). Plasma lactate concentrations were not affected by treatment. Plasma glucose concentrations were not different between groups during exercise but were lower (treatment x time interaction; P < 0.01) for the fish oil group during recovery. Serum insulin tended to be lower in fish oil horses throughout exercise (treatment effect; P = 0.064). There was a tendency for glucose:insulin ratios to be higher for fish oil-treated horses throughout exercise (treatment effect; P = 0.065). Plasma FFA were lower (treatment x time interaction; P < 0.01) in horses receiving fish oil than in horses receiving corn oil during the initial stages of the exercise test. Serum glycerol concentrations also were lower in fish oil-treated horses (P < 0.05). Serum cholesterol concentrations were lower in horses receiving fish oil (treatment effect; P < 0.05), but serum triglycerides were not affected by treatment (P = 0.55). These data suggest that addition of fish oil to the diet alters exercise metabolism in conditioned horses.


Abstract. Atmospheric composition measurements at Jungfraujoch are affected intermittently by boundary-layer air which is brought to the station by processes including thermally driven (anabatic) mountain winds. Using observations of radon-222, and a new objective analysis method, we quantify the land-surface influence at Jungfraujoch hour by hour and detect the presence of anabatic winds on a daily basis. During 2010–2011, anabatic winds occurred on 40% of days, but only from April to September. Anabatic wind days were associated with warmer air temperatures over a large fraction of Europe and with a shift in air-mass properties, even when comparing days with a similar mean radon concentration. Excluding days with anabatic winds, however, did not lead to a better definition of the unperturbed aerosol background than a definition based on radon alone. This implies that a radon threshold reliably excludes local influences from both anabatic and non-anabatic vertical-transport processes.


: The staging and treatment of the common presentations of malignant lymphoma are readily familiar to experienced medical oncologists and hematologists. However, because of their rarity and variable and unusual behavior, certain special sites of lymphoma present a major challenge even to experienced clinicians. This article focuses on five such special sites of presentation: the eye, paranasal sinuses, central nervous system (CNS), testicle, and stomach. In each case, an appreciation of the usual histologic types, unique mode of metastatic spread, special patterns of resistance to systemic treatment, and, in the stomach, the remarkable association with a causative organism, Helicobacter pylori, is needed to optimize management. Only if these special characteristics are understood can the clinician plan a multiphase treatment course that offers each patient the best chance of disease control or cure.


This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of Indonesian biomass and biomass residues by considering the contributions of ecological goods and services using exergy calculations, and utilizing a number of aggregate metrics that developed from Indonesian biomass and biomass residues consumption. In this regard, the chemical exergy values of eighteen kinds of biomass and biomass residues in Indonesia were calculated in this article. The goal is to identify desirable attributes that may serve as the basis for decision making for future biofuel options. Calculations showed that the chemical composition of biomass and biomass residues influences strongly the chemical exergy values (e CH ). High proportions of oxygen, compared to carbon or hydrogen, generally reduce the chemical exergy of these biomass samples. In this paper, the calculated exergy values of biomass and biomas residues will be useful for energy experts studied in biomass area and biomass-fired powerplants.


BACKGROUND
This study aimed to assess the responsiveness of the Trapeziometacarpal Arthrosis Symptoms and Disability (TASD) questionnaire after corticosteroid injections and operative management for trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis (TMC-OA).

METHODS
This longitudinal cohort study included patients with TMC-OA who underwent treatment (corticosteroid injection or surgery). Measurements occurred at baseline and follow-up time points: 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Patient measures were collected electronically using a data repository platform. The TASD is a validated psychometric patient-administered scale. We examined responsiveness by correlating the TASD scores with another known effective indicator of change (shortened Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand [QuickDASH]). Repeated score measurements over time were analyzed using analysis of variance, and correlations between questionnaires were reported with repeated measures correlation and Pearson correlation coefficients.

RESULTS
The nonsurgical cohort undergoing corticosteroid injections included 31 (66%) women and 16 (34%) men, and the surgical cohort included 29 (71%) women and 12 (29%) men. Both the QuickDASH and the TASD captured a statistically significant improvement in symptom burden postoperatively (P < .0001 for both questionnaires), whereas no statistical significance was noted after corticosteroid injections (P = .45 and P = .34, respectively). There was a strong correlation between QuickDASH and TASD questionnaires (r = 0.87, P < .0001).

CONCLUSIONS
The TASD is a promising TMC-OA-specific questionnaire to capture responsiveness following treatment, particularly following surgery. The responsiveness of TASD was demonstrated in the TMC-OA cohort. Further research is needed to define a minimal clinically important difference.


We reexamine the relative effects of credit risk and liquidity in the interbank market using bank-level panel data on Libor submissions and CDS spreads. Our model synthesizes previous work by combining the fundamental determinants of interbank spreads with the effects of strategic misreporting by Libor-submitting firms. We find that interbank spreads were very sensitive to credit risk at the peak of the crisis. However, liquidity premia constitute the bulk of those spreads on average, and Federal Reserve interventions coincide with improvements in liquidity at short maturities. Accounting for misreporting, which is large at times, is important for obtaining these results.


The successful treatment of the painful neuroma remains an elusive surgical goal. This report evaluates one approach to the management of this problem which entails neuroma excision and placement of the proximal end of the nerve away from denervated skin, away from tension, and into a well-vascularized environment: muscle. Seventy-eight neuromas in 60 patients with a mean follow-up of 31 months (range 18 to 43 months) were evaluated. Sixty-seven percent of these patients involved Workmen's Compensation and 57 percent had had at least one previous operation to treat their pain. The results demonstrated good to excellent results in 82 percent of the treated nerves in the entire group. Factors that were predictive of a poorer outcome were (1) digital neuroma (p < 0.0005), (2) Workmen's Compensation (p < 0.01), and (3) three or more previous operations for pain (p < 0.01). Transposition of nerves into small superficial muscles or muscles with significant excursion resulted in treatment failures. The etiology and histopathology of treatment failures are reviewed. Treatment of radial sensory neuromas by transposition of the radial sensory nerve into the brachioradialis muscle when any associated injury to the lateral antebrachial cutaneous nerve was also treated, gave good to excellent relief of pain, and improved hand function in 88 percent of the patients.


Probability logic studies the properties resulting from the probabilistic interpretation of logical argument forms. Typical examples are probabilistic Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens. Argument forms with two premises usually lead from precise probabilities of the premises to imprecise or interval probabilities of the conclusion. In the contribution, we study generalized inference forms having three or more premises. Recently, Gilio has shown that these generalized forms ``degrade'' -- more premises lead to more imprecise conclusions, i. e., to wider intervals. We distinguish different forms of degradation. We analyse Predictive Inference, Modus Ponens, Bayes' Theorem, and Modus Tollens. Special attention is devoted to the case where the conditioning events have zero probabilities. Finally, we discuss the relation of degradation to monotonicity.


Chloroethylene oxide, an ultimate carcinogen of vinyl chloride, reacts with DNA giving rise to 7-(2-oxyethyl)guanine adduct in a nearly quantitative yield. This reaction represents an initial step of carcinogenesis associated with vinyl chloride. From experimental data for this reaction we calculated the second-order rate constant of 0.049 s(-1) M(-1), which corresponds to the activation free energy of 19.5 kcal/mol. We also performed a series of medium high ab initio and density functional theory simulations. Effects of hydration were considered in the framework of the Langevine dipoles solvation model and the solvent reaction field method of Tomasi and co-workers. In silico calculated activation free energies are in a good agreement with the experimental value. This fact presents strong evidence in favor of the validity of the proposed reaction mechanism and points to the applicability of quantum-chemical methods to studies of other reactions associated with carcinogenesis. Insignificant stereoselectivity of the studied reaction was also predicted.