Soil fertility decline is a major constraint to sustain higher agricultural production and productivity in tropical soils due to removal of crop residues from crop fields, low inherent soil fertility and the repeated suboptimal fertilization. A field experiment was conducted at Ambo University research farm, Ethiopia to investigate the effect of different levels of poultry manure (PM) and NP fertilizer rates on growth, yield and nutrient uptake of maize (Zea mays L.). The experiment consisted of eight treatments: control, 15 t ha-1 PM, 30 t ha -1 PM, 15 t ha-1 PM + 25% rec. NP, 15 t ha-1 PM + 50% rec. NP, 30 t ha-1 PM + 25% rec.NP, 30 t ha-1 PM + 50 % rec.NP and 100% recommended dose of NP fertilizer rates which were laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The results showed significantly (P<0.001) higher values of plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf area, leaf area index, number of cobs per plant, cob girth, cob length, number of grains per cob, 1000-grain weight, dry biomass yield, harvest index and grain yield with the application of 30 t ha-1 PM plus 50% recommended NP fertilizer compared to both the absolute and standard controls. The highest maize grain yield (132.7q ha-1) was recorded for the treatment that received 30 t ha-1 PM combined with 50% recommended NP fertilizer. The lowest values of growth parameters, yield and yield components were recorded from the absolute control where no PM and chemical NP fertilizer were applied. Higher total N and P uptake was recorded with the application of 30 t ha-1 PM plus 50% recommended NP fertilizer. Correlation analysis indicated a positive relationship between grain yields and all growth and yield parameters. Moreover, the economic analysis showed higher net benefits from the application of 30 t ha-1 PM plus 50% rec. NP fertilizer rates. The integrated use of organic manure along with inorganic fertilizer improved the total nitrogen and phosphorus uptake.


OBJECTIVE
This study investigated the association between hostility and health and whether it is moderated by the quality of an individual's primary romantic relationship.

METHOD
Longitudinal data were provided by 184 African Americans, including 166 women. Participants averaged 38 years old and were married or in long-term marriagelike relationships. Hostility and relationship quality were measured at the first assessment. Hostility was based on participants' responses to items tapping cynical attitudes about relationships. Relationship quality was based on trained observer ratings of videotaped couple interactions on behavioral scales reflecting warmth, support, and communication skills. At 2 assessments approximately 5 and 7 years later, participants provided health data. Health index scores were formed from responses to five scales of the SF-12 (Ware, Kosinski, & Keller, 1998) as well as to responses to questions about the number of chronic health conditions and the number of prescribed medications.

RESULTS
Stepwise regression analyses controlling for demographic variables and the earlier health score tested the main and interactive effects of hostility and relationship quality on longitudinal changes in health. Whereas no main effects were supported, the interaction of hostility and relationship quality was significant (p < .05). The form of the interaction was such that high-hostile individuals had better health outcomes if they were in a high-quality relationship.

CONCLUSION
Hostile persons in high-quality relationships may be at less risk for negative health outcomes because they do not regularly experience the physiologic reactivity and adverse psychosocial outcomes that they would otherwise experience as a result of recurring interpersonal conflict.


Abstract. Traffic emissions are a significant source of airborne particulate matter (PM) in ambient environments. These emissions contain an abundance of toxic metals and thus pose adverse effects on human health. Size-fractionated aerosol samples were collected from May to September 2013 by using micro-orifice uniform deposited impactors (MOUDIs). Sample collection was conducted simultaneously at the inlet and outlet sites of Hsuehshan Tunnel in northern Taiwan, which is the second-longest freeway tunnel (12.9 km) in Asia. This endeavor aims to characterize the chemical constituents and size distributions, as well as fingerprinting ratios of particulate metals emitted by vehicle fleets. A total of 36 metals in size-resolved aerosols were determined through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Three major groups – namely, tailpipe emissions (Zn, Pb, and V in fine mode), wear debris (Cu, Cd, Fe, Ga, Mn, Mo, Sb, and Sn), and resuspended dust (Ca, Mg, K, and Rb) – of airborne PM metals were categorized on the basis of the results of enrichment factor, correlation matrix, and principal component analysis. Size distributions of wear-originated metals resembled the pattern of crustal elements, which were predominated by super-micron particulates (PM1–10). By contrast, tailpipe exhaust elements such as Zn, Pb, and V were distributed mainly in submicron particles. By employing Cu as a tracer of wear abrasion, several inter-metal ratios – including Fe / Cu (14), Ba / Cu (1.05), Sb / Cu (0.16), Sn / Cu (0.10), and Ga / Cu (0.03) – served as fingerprints for wear debris. However, the data set collected in this work is useful for further studies on traffic emission inventory and human health effects of traffic-related PM.


The use of organic refrigerants or supercritical CO
 (sCO
 ) as a working fluid in closed loop power cycles has the potential to revolutionise power generation. Thermodynamic cycle efficiency can be improved by selecting bespoke working fluids that best suit a given combination of heat source and heat sink temperatures, but thermal efficiency can be maximised by pairing this with a custom made turbine. This work describes the development and design of a new 100kW thermal laboratory-scale test loop at the University of Queensland. The loop has capabil-ities for characterising both simple and recuperated refrigerant and sCO
 organic Rankine cycles in relation to overall cycle performance and for the experimental characterisation of radial inflow turbines. The aim of this facility is to generate high quality validation data and to gain new insight into overall loop performance, control operation, and loss mechanisms that prevail in all loop components, including radial turbines when operating with supercritical fluids. The paper describes the current test loop and provides details on the available test modes: An organic Rankine cycle mode, a closed loop Brayton cycle mode, and heat exchanger test mode and their respective operating ranges. The bespoke control and data acquisition system has been designed to ensure safe loop operation and shut down and to provide high quality measurement of signals from more than 60 sensors within the loop and test turbine. For each measurement, details of the uncertainty quantification in accordance with ASME standards are provided, ensuring data quality. Data from the commissioning of the facility is provided in this paper. This data confirms controlled operation of the loop and the ability to conduct both cycle characterisation tests and turbomachinery tests.


This paper describes a method for correcting lens distortion for digital cameras. A simple but effective distortion model using local spatial transformation was used. In addition, the effect of the effective focal length on the distortion model is considered, and we discuss how to introduce this factor to enhance the model. Finally we present the result of theoretical analysis and experiments demonstrating that the correction improves the accuracy of image stitching.


Rapid adjustments—the response of meteorology to external forcing while sea surface temperatures (SST) and sea ice are held fixed—can affect the midlatitude circulation and contribute to long-term forced circulation responses in climate simulations. This study examines rapid adjustments in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) circulation using nine models from the Precipitation Driver and Response Model Intercomparison Project (PDRMIP), which perform fixed SST and coupled ocean experiments for five perturbations: a doubling of carbon dioxide (2xCO2), a tripling of methane (3xCH4), a fivefold increase in sulfate aerosol (5xSO4), a tenfold increase in black carbon aerosol (10xBC), and a 2% increase in solar constant (2%Sol). In the coupled experiments, the SH eddy-driven jet shifts poleward and strengthens for forcings that produce global warming (and vice versa for 5xSO4), with the strongest response found in austral summer. In austral winter, the responses project more strongly onto a change in jet strength. For 10xBC, which induces strong shortwave absorption, the multimodel mean (MMM) rapid adjustment in DJF jet latitude is ~75% of the change in the coupled simulations. For the other forcings, which induce larger SST changes, the effect of SST-mediated feedbacks on the SH circulation is larger than the rapid adjustment. Nevertheless, for these perturbations the magnitude of the MMM jet shift due to the rapid adjustment is still around 20%–30% of that in the coupled experiments. The results demonstrate the need to understand the mechanisms for rapid adjustments in the midlatitude circulation, in addition to the effect of changing SSTs.


Importance
Facial paralysis (FP) after surgery has substantial functional, emotional, and financial consequences. Most iatrogenic FP is managed by watchful waiting, with the expectation of facial function recovery. A potential treatment is physical therapy (PT).

Objective
To investigate whether noninvasive PT compared with no PT or other intervention improves facial nerve outcomes in adults with iatrogenic FP.

Evidence Review
Patients with noniatrogenic FP, facial reanimation surgery, and invasive adjunctive treatments (acupuncture or botulinum toxin injection) were excluded. A systematic review was conducted for records discussing iatrogenic FP and PT; a search for these records was performed using Ovid MEDLINE (1946-2019), Embase (1947-2019), Scopus (1823-2019), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (2004-2019), and ClinicalTrials.gov (1997-2019). The references of all the included articles were also assessed for eligible studies. All human participant, English-language study designs with at least 2 cases were included. Quality assessment was performed using the Methodological Index for Non-randomized Studies (MINORS) and the revised Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) tool for randomized controlled trials. All search strategies were completed on May 16, 2019, and again on October 1, 2019.

Findings
Fifteen studies (7 of which were retrospective cohort studies) and 313 patients with iatrogenic FP were included in the systematic review. Most iatrogenic FP (166 patients [53%]) was associated with parotidectomy; traditional PT (ie, facial massage) was the most common intervention (196 patients [63%]). The use of various facial grading systems and inconsistent reporting of outcomes prevented direct comparison of PT types.

Conclusions and Relevance
Because of heterogeneity in reported outcomes of facial nerve recovery, definitive conclusions were unable to be made regarding the association between PT and outcomes of iatrogenic FP. Physical therapy probably has benefit and is associated with no harm in patients with iatrogenic FP.


Large jellyfish are conspicuous members of many coastal plankton communities. They are potentially important as competitors for zooplankton prey with fish larvae and zooplanktivorous fish, as well as being predators of fish eggs and larvae. Nevertheless, few data exist on predation effects of large medusae on zooplankton in situ. Biovolumes and densities of Aurelia labiata, Cyanea capillata and Aequorea aequorea medusae combined, measured in fishing seines, were generally low (<1 l per 1000 m 3 and <10 medusae 1000 m -3 ) at 24 to 44 stations during July in 1998 and 1999 in Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska. Their diets contained mainly copepods, larvaceans and clado- cerans, and also a variety of meroplankton. Few fish eggs and larvae were eaten. Multiple regression analyses showed that the numbers of the main prey taxa in the gut contents usually were significantly correlated with medusa diameter and prey density. Digestion rates for copepods and cladocerans at 14°C averaged 3 h for A. labiata, 2 h for C. capillata and 1.5 h for larvaceans by both predators. Calculations using the above data indicated that individual medusa consumed 100s to 1000s of prey daily. Because of high prey densities and low medusa densities, predation effects on small copepods were low (mean ≤ 0.3% of the standing stock d -1 ). Larvaceans experienced greater predation at an average of ≤ 8.3% of the standing stock d -1 . These predation effects were underestimated in 1998, because sampling did not include the numerous aggregations of A. labiata, and also in 1999, when small hydromedusae were abundant (mean 59 medusae m -3 ). During this study, predation by medusae probably did not reduce prey availability to Age 0 sandlance, herring and walleye pollock, with diets consisting primarily of small copepods; however, medusa predation may have affected larvacean availability to Age 0 pink salmon, which consume them extensively.


The second edition of this work follows the same general pattern as the first edition published in 1935 and most of the subjects discussed are the same. In every case the subject has been brought completely up to date and the only criticism which might be made is that a little too much of the first edition has been retained. Although this has the advantage that each chapter gives a comprehensive picture of the condition discussed it is felt that more of the material contained in the first edition could have been deleted and the space thus obtained used for discussing one or two other subjects or giving more detail of the truly recent advances. The new chapters on chemotherapy and antibiotics, hearing aids and aviation oto-laryngology have been well chosen and present a valuable summary of these subjects with a comprehensive list of references. In the chapter on chemotherapy and antibiotics the author rightly stresses the fact that these methods of treatment in no way obviate the necessity for surgical intervention where it is indicated, although the indications have changed. In the chapter on tonsils a valuable addition has been a section of four pages devoted to the question of tonsillectomy and poliomyelitis, a subject which is of considerable importance at the moment. Stress is laid on the contradictory nature of the evidence. The chapters on deafness and hearing tests are exceptionally well written and those on cancer give valuable information on the present trends in treatment. In the preface the author hopes that the book will be of particular value to postgradutes working for higher qualifications, and it can be thoroughly recommended to them. In addition, those already holding higher qualifications will be grateful for the amount of information available in such a compact form. D.R.


Beam search, which is the dominant ASR decoding algorithm for end-to-end models, generates tree-structured hypotheses. However, recent studies have shown that decoding with hypothesis merging can achieve a more efficient search with comparable or better performance. But, the full context in recurrent networks is not compatible with hypothesis merging. We propose to use vector-quantized long short-term memory units (VQ-LSTM) in the prediction network of RNN transducers. By training the discrete representation jointly with the ASR network, hypotheses can be actively merged for lattice generation. Our experiments on the Switchboard corpus show that the proposed VQ RNN transducers improve ASR performance over transducers with regular prediction networks while also producing denser lattices with a very low oracle word error rate (WER) for the same beam size. Additional language model rescoring experiments also demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed lattice generation scheme.


A "Leap-of-Faith" approach is used to treat patients with previously unknown ultrarare pathogenic mutations, often based on evidence from patients having dissimilar but more prevalent mutations. This uncertainty reflects the need to develop personalized prescreening platforms for these patients to assess drug efficacy before considering clinical trial enrollment. In this study, we report an 18-year-old patient with ultrarare Leigh-like syndrome. This patient had previously participated in two clinical trials with unfavorable responses. We established an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)–based platform for this patient, and assessed the efficacy of a panel of drugs. The iPSC platform validated the safety and efficacy of the screened drugs. The efficacy of three of the screened drugs was also investigated in the patient. After 3 years of treatment, the drugs were effective in shifting the metabolic profile of this patient toward healthy control. Therefore, this personalized iPSC-based platform can act as a prescreening tool to help in decision-making with respect to patient's participation in future clinical trials.


Objective. To determine the effect of activated charcoal (AC) on acetaminophen (APAP) absorption kinetics when administered at 1, 2, or 3 h after combined oral overdose with oxycodone. Methods. IRB-approved, prospective cross-over study of nine healthy human volunteers ingesting 5 g of APAP + 0.5 mg/kg of oxycodone on each of four study days. On the control day, subjects received no AC. On the remaining study days, subjects ingested 50 g of AC at 1, 2, or 3 h after drug ingestion. We measured serum APAP concentration hourly from 0 through 8 h and compared basic non-compartmental pharmacokinetic parameters. Results. Compared to the control, AC reduced area under the curve by 43% when given at 1 h (p < 0.0001), 22% when given at 2 h (p = 0.02), and 15% when given at 3 h (p = 0.26). AC at 1 h resulted in a 25% reduction in peak APAP concentration from 48.6 to 36.3 mcg/mL (p = 0.012) with no significant difference when given at 2 or 3 h. There was no significant difference in elimination half-life among the four study days. Conclusion. The effect of AC rapidly declines between 1 and 3 h after combined oral overdose of APAP and oxycodone. AC is unlikely to be beneficial at or beyond 2 h after an overdose of acetaminophen and oxycodone.


Clock distribution is a major issue when implementing system-on-a-chip in deep sub-micron technologies. This work presents a new mesochronous physical link architecture, named SKIL, which enables full bandwidth communication between macrocells clocked by signals with the same frequency and an arbitrary amount of skew. SKIL is implemented using standard-cells design flows. It introduces two clock cycles of latency and negligible area and leakage power overheads. Implementation results are presented on a 65 nm CMOS technology.


In the steel industry, the determination of the control system set-points of batch processes is a common problem. It consists in adjusting the set-points in order to reach the given product specifications thanks to a process model. Small changes in operating conditions may impact final product quality. This is particularly true for the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) where the information collected during a specific batch serves to adjust the set-points of the next batch. For being able to control that type of process, measurements must be made coherent and it may be convenient to use data reconciliation procedure. The proposed paper describes a method allowing simultaneous data reconciliation and model parameter estimation. Parameter estimation results can either be used to update the process model or to detect abnormal parameter variations due, e.g. to fouling, corrosion, degradation of parts of the process.


The study aimed to evaluate the cardioprotective role of Sonchus arvensis (Linn.) leaves in isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial infarction (MI) in Wistar rats and in the survival of cardiomyocytes in vitro upon starvation challenge. Fractions of an ethanolic extract of S. arvensis leaves (100 and 200 mg/kg bw) were administered orally to Wistar rats (250–300 g) for 14 days. Isoproterenol 85 mg/kg bw was given at day 13 and 14. The rats were then sacrificed on the next day. Serum activities of aspartate transferase (AST), alanine transferase (ALT), creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured using standard commercial kits. The protective effect of S. arvensis on damaged cardiomyocytes was investigated by examining the cell survival. Furthermore, the Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) serum level of the MI rats was also determined. The results show that pretreatment with n-hexane and ethyl acetate fractions of S. arvensis for a period of 14 days could not attenuate the increase of AST, ALT, CK, CK-MB, and LDH levels upon isoproterenol administration. Moreover, viability of the fractions pretreatedcardiomyocytes showed a cardiotoxic effect. However, pretreatment with the water fraction significantly attenuated the increase of AST, ALT, CK, CK-MB, and LDH levels in isoproterenol-induced MI rats and increased the survival of cardiomyocytes upon starvation challenge. The increase of the TNF-α level upon ISO administration in rats was not observed in the water fraction pre-treatment group. In conclusion, the water fraction of Sonchus arvensis L. leaves at a dose of 100 mg/kg bw protects the myocardium and exerts cardioprotective effects, probably by inhibiting TNF-α production.


An entrepreneur who wants to divest his firm suffers a time-inconsistency problem: divesting a stake creates an incentive to divest further since he does not internalize the arising agency costs for the stake already sold. This paper shows that this leads to excessive divestment in equilibrium and entails efficiency losses which can offset "any" potential divestment gains. As a result, firms may stay private even if there are large gains from going public. We show that venture capitalists can reduce these inefficiencies. This is because they have influence over a firm's divestment decisions and can distinguish between an excessive and a desirable dilution of equity (such as in response to liquidity shocks). We also show that the divestment inefficiency gives rise to an optimal time of going public, which trades off the gains from going public early (higher divestment gains) with its costs (higher divestment inefficiency). Copyright (c) 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.


Hairy cell leukemia patients are at increased risk for second malignancies, including both solid and lymphoid neoplasms. Along with other factors, multiple immune defects present in hairy cell leukemia likely contribute to subsequent carcinogenesis. We report herein a case of synchronous high-grade gastric and ampullary adenocarcinomas in a patient with a history of hairy cell leukemia treated eight years prior with pentostatin. We include a review of immune alterations induced by both hairy cell leukemia and its therapies, and link them with the occurrence of second cancers in these patients.


In the middle of fourteenth century in Western Europe, a turning point occurred in the modern inquiry into the nature of money. While political unification of the states made monetary standardization and centralization key issues (establishing the distinction which still exists today between authentic currency and spurious or quasi-currencies), some of the wisest minds of the period, such as Nicolas Oresme, speculated on the reasons and consequences of the rapid loss in the value of money. The Black Plague, which took lives but not goods, left an accursed legacy: inflation, fed by the excess of wealth in the hands of survivors, dedicated to a 'sumptuous consumption.'


In the present work, the carbonization of porous silicon for the subsequent 3C-SiC growth has been systematically studied. The effect of temperature and acetylene flow-rate on the chemical state of the surface and structure relaxation was studied. It was found that the porous nano-crystalline morphology is unstable and tends to recrystallize in temperature range typical of 3C-SiC growth on Si (10000C-13000C). The carbonization impedes recrystallization at 10000C, but at 13000C the full recrystallization takes place. Pyrolytic amorphous graphite-like carbon was found on porous silicon carbonized at temperature and with acetylene flow-rate above critical values.


Objective: We examined narrative discourse in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to assess the role of executive functioning in support of language and the neuroanatomical basis for such support. Methods: We analyzed a semistructured speech sample in 26 patients with ALS and 19 healthy seniors for narrative discourse features of coherence. Regression analyses related a measure of discourse coherence ("local connectedness") to gray matter atrophy and reduced white matter fractional anisotropy. Results: Patients with ALS were impaired relative to controls on measures of discourse adequacy, including local connectedness and maintenance of the theme. These discourse measures were related to measures of executive functioning but not to motor functioning. Regressions related local connectedness to gray matter atrophy in ventral and dorsal prefrontal regions and to reduced fractional anisotropy in white matter tracts mediating projections between prefrontal regions. Conclusion: Patients with ALS exhibit deficits in their ability to organize narrative discourse. These deficits appear to be related in part to executive limitations. Consistent with the hypothesis that ALS is a multisystem disorder, this deficit is related to disease in prefrontal regions.


The article considers the significance of bilingual education in the revitalization of the indigenous language in New Zealand. New Zealand has three national languages: English, Maori, and the New Zealand Sign Language, with English being the most commonly used. Maori make up approximately 15 percent of the population. Maori is one of the well-known endangered languages. Since 1987, Maori has been legislated as an official language. It is worth noting that there have been a lot of initiatives to revitalize and encourage the Maori language. An important development for the preservation of the Maori language has been an initiative aimed at very young children. We have highlighted the importance of Maori language immersion primary schools (Kura Kaupapa Maori) and secondary schools (Wharekura). Te Kohanga Reo (language nests) was the first Maori language school where Maori grandparents passed on their language and customs to their grandchildren. It has since developed to all levels of education and has been incorporated into the state education system. The first bilingual Maori programs were created either entirely independently of the New Zealand Ministry of Education (Kura Kaupapa Maori), or as a part of the current education legislation within the core English programs (immersion programs and bilingual programs). It needs to be noted that the immersion program has some advantages over other programs, as it can create a favourable environment for teaching Maori children. The most effective bilingual schools are also those with the highest level of immersion. The authors come to the conclusion that in the past decade there has been a steady increase in the percentage of Maori at all levels of education, and at the same time there has been a renaissance in the teaching and learning of the Maori language and culture, partly through increasing numbers of bilingual classes in primary and secondary schools.


Cohort studies are the analytical design of observational studies that are epidemiologi- cally used to identify and quantify the relationship between exposure and outcome. Due to the longitudinal design, cohort studies have several advantages over other types of observational studies. The purpose of this chapter is to cover the various characteristics of prospective cohort studies. This chapter is divided into three main sections. In the first we introduce the concept and ranking of cohort studies, as well as the advantages and disadvantages. In the second we focus on the design of cohort studies, mainly its prospec- tive aspect, and the distinguishing features from the retrospective type. The section also covers the essential characteristics of a cohort study design and its varied applications in medical research. In the third we go over examples of prospective studies in the medical field. For each, an overview of the study design is given, along with a random selection of study findings/impact, strengths and weaknesses.


The paper discusses the data security on wireless communications. In recent years, several authors began to work on the concept of security attacks against wireless communication protocols- in particular, the propagation of malware through them. It was fun to design covert attack devices and evaluate the Bluetooth user population's exposure to them. However, the latest "developments" on these threats are stepping progressively away from reality and into an abstract, academic world of their own, something that might be just as fun, but that should be brought back into perspective when assessing the actual risks related to these scenarios. The author presents two distinct examples, the wireless LAN contagion and Bluetooth epidemics. The author concludes that wireless and mobile security, and, in particular, worm propagation over wireless networks, is an interesting and novel concept. It challenges and thrills, creating appealing newspaper headlines along the way. However, it must be sure to check our models against reality, and after predicting threats that failed to materialize, it must be able to understand where it went wrong.


Despite the disasters of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and ever more visible evidence of the horrors of war, the concepts of "Humanitarian Intervention" and "Just War" enjoy widespread legitimacy and continue to exercise an unshakeable grip on our imaginations. Robin Dunford and Michael Neu provide a clear and comprehensive critique of both Just War Theory and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, deconstructing the philosophical, moral and political arguments that underpin them. In doing so, they show how proponents of Just War and R2P have tended to treat killing in a way which obscures the complex and often messy reality of war, and pays little heed to the human impact of such conflicts. Going further, they provide answers to such difficult questions as "Surely it would have been just for us to intervene in the Rwandan genocide?" An essential guide to one of the most difficult moral and political issues of our age.


BACKGROUND
Intraprocedural catheter tip location is currently recommended. Intracavitary EGC and ultrasound are the preferred methods of tip location for catheters with their tip in the superior vena cava or in the right atrium. Though, the best method of intraprocedural tip location for catheters with their tip in the inferior vena cava is still uncertain. One possibility is to visualize the subdiaphragmatic inferior vena cava by ultrasound, using either the transhepatic or the subxiphoid view.

METHODS
In this prospective study, we compared two different ultrasound windows for the visualization of the inferior vena cava (transhepatic vs subxiphoid) for the purpose of localizing the catheter tip during the insertion of femorally inserted central catheters.

RESULTS
We studied 249 consecutive insertions of central catheters via the superficial femoral vein. Intraprocedural location of the catheter tip was performed by ultrasound, using both transhepatic and subxiphoid view. Visualization of the inferior vena cava was possible only in 81 cases (32.5%) with the subxiphoid view, but it was always possible in all 249 cases with the transhepatic view. The catheter tip was localized in 15 patients out of 81 with the subxiphoid view (18.5%); the transhepatic view allowed the visualization of the tip in all 249 patients.

CONCLUSIONS
The applicability of the subxiphoid window has several limitations, both in terms of visualization of the inferior vena cava and localization of the catheter tip. The transhepatic view should be the preferred method for intraprocedural ultrasound localization of the catheter tip in the inferior vena cava.


A prominent positive magnetic anomaly spans the 100 km distance between Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. The anomaly occurs in an area of complex structure where Appalachian terrane boundaries are poorly resolved because of thick late Paleozoic sedimentary cover. Analysis of the magnetic anomaly led to the interpretation that it is produced by four separate, approximately circular, source bodies aligned along the northwesterly trend of the anomaly. Seismic data, physical property measurements, and magnetic and gravity anomalies were used to further investigate the anomaly sources through forward modeling techniques. The four source bodies have densities and magnetic susceptibilities compatible with dioritic to granitic compositions. Modeling also suggests that basement to the north of the plutons has higher density and susceptibility than basement to the south, and hence the source bodies are interpreted as plutons emplaced along the boundary between Ganderian composite terranes to the north and the Ganderian Brookville – Bras d'Or terrane to the south. This interpretation suggests that the Ganderia–Avalonia boundary is located farther south, and shows the need for re-evaluation of the location and role of the Canso fault in offsetting terranes between Cape Breton Island and southern New Brunswick.


Introduction: Stuttering is portrayed by involuntary disruptions in the flow and rhythm of speaking despite the fact that the individual knows precisely what he/she needs to state [1]. Over the past decades, many studies have examined neural mechanisms of stuttering in adults who stutter and have proposed that stuttering may be associated with deficits in the sensorimotor system. Many neuroimaging studies investigating underlying neural deficits of stuttering have reported abnormal brain activation in auditory and motor regions of adults who stutter that may result in deficits in the integration of auditory feedback for speech production. Previous studies have shown that individuals who stutter were found to have deficits in auditory tone monitoring. Additionally, literature underpins the possibility of auditory tone monitoring deficits in adults and children who stutter. Various paradigms have been utilized to contemplate the auditory tone deficits; however, results are inconclusive. Most of the paradigms used to study auditory tone monitoring are indirect. None of these paradigms pin pointed the presence of monitoring deficits as the cause for stuttering but rather identified auditory tone monitoring to be one among various other factors contributing towards stuttering. Therefore, the present study had taken up the auditory tone monitoring task which specifically targets the tone monitoring deficits. Objective: The present study attempted to analyze the auditory tone monitoring with sequence of two pure tones and to compare between adults with stuttering and adults with no stuttering. Material and Method: The task was designed in two phases: Stimulus Preparation and Task Design and Programming; Administration of the tasks on adult with stuttering (AWS) and adult with no stuttering stutter (ANS) groups. The reaction time and accuracy of the participants' responses, i.e., 1 KHz in the presented tone sequence were measured automatically using DMDX software. The error responses were demonstrated by a negative sign in the software and time-lapsed errors were shown by -4000 ms. Results: The results of the study determined that AWS took longer time to respond to the presence/absence of the target tone and was less accurate when compared to ANS. On comparing the mean values it was found that the ANS was found to be more accurate than AWS in eliciting "Yes" responses and "No" responses but the differences were not statistically significant. AWS were less accurate in monitoring the presence of target tone occurring in the initial, medial and final positions when compared to ANS. On comparing the mean values differences were noted inaccuracy measure between the groups across all the positions but the differences found to be not significant. Conclusion: It can be concluded that a subgroup of AWS may experience subtle deficits in auditory tone monitoring process. The present study adds on to the theoretical knowledge on the nature of stuttering in adults, especially supporting the auditory deficits to some extent in adults with stuttering. Keywords: Adult who Stutter, Auditory Tone Monitoring, Reaction Time, Accuracy Cite this Article Sangeetha M, Amulya S, Sabeena T, Geetha M. P. Auditory Tone Monitoring In Adults With Stuttering. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Bioinformatics. 2019; 6(2): 16–25p.


Dientamoeba fragilis is a protozoan parasite of the human gastrointestinal tract and still controversial in association with gastrointestinal symptoms. We present cross-sectional study of the prevalence of D. fragilis, and sociodemographic and clinical features in the patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. A total of 490 fecal specimens were collected from outpatients with gastrointestinal symptoms in the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University and Celal Bayar University, Turkey. Fecal specimens were examined with microscopy and inoculated in Robinson medium. D. fragilis-positive samples were examined for the presence of other intestinal parasites using enzyme immunoassay. Real-time PCR analysis was performed on all samples. Of the 490 stool specimens examined by real-time PCR, 59 patients were positive for D. fragilis infection with prevalence rate of 12.04%. Forty-four of positive patients (74.5%) were found to be infected with only D. fragilis, while 23.7% were co-infected with Blastocystis and 1.7% were co-infected with Rotavirus. No statistically significant difference was found in all the examined patients in terms of D. fragilis positivity for all sociodemographic parameters. Loose stool consistency was associated with the presence of D. fragilis, with 18.3% (P = 0.001). When the clinical symptoms of all the patients participating in this study were examined, diarrhea was statistically more significant in patients with the presence of D. fragilis (16.3%; P = 0.001). The rate of diarrhea in D. fragilis-positive patients (84.09%; P = 0.0005) was higher than that of D. fragilis-negative patients and it was statistically significant. This study is important for assessing the prevalence of D. fragilis and its association with other factors in symptomatic patients in a large sample group in Turkey, as well as investigating the relationship of identified symptoms with the D. fragilis pathogenicity. It is suggested that D. fragilis in this case is not a commensal parasite but a pathogenic parasite and that the most common clinical symptom is diarrhea.


We present the results of a study of the dimming-brightening phenomena in the Wider Caribbean. The dataset consisted of time series of global radiation from 30 surface stations covering the period 1961-1990. The stations were distributed over the entire region: three in Florida, USA, five in the Caribbean, three in Mexico 17 Venezuela and one in Honduras. Results showed in general a predominance of the dimming over this period, registered at 20 of the stations, while brightening was only noted at the remaining 10 sites. Associated trends were statistically significant, at 5% level, at 21 of the total 30 stations (70%). In particular 16 of the stations registering dimming and 5 of the ones showing brightening had statistically significant trends. Considering the physico-geographical distribution of the stations they were grouped in continental and insular-peninsular. The significant trends averaged –0.72 Wm –2 per year for continental stations and –0.82 Wm –2 per year for the insular-peninsular ones. Dimming was more frequent in continental areas, but more intense in the insular peninsular ones.


The BEPS project has left untouched very relevant opportunities for base erosion and profit shifting, mainly with payments for services and royalties, by MNE groups or even smaller enterprises. It is surprising that the debate about the digital or digitalized economy focuses so much on solutions (the concept of PE based on significant digital economic presence, withholding taxes for digital provision of services or goods or equalization levies) that do not contribute significantly to end up the base erosion and profit shifting opportunities that the BEPS project did not consider, is concentrating on solutions that will not be very helpful in fully aligning tax bases and economic activity and even abandons the BEPS already agreed standards to create a high degree of uncertainty and fragmentation. The article explains why the solutions proposed in the current debate on Action 1 BEPS are insufficient or disproportionate (they may be more political patches than effective remedies), and why more attention should be paid to a more evolutionary approach of the already BEPS agreed principles and standards or the traditional thresholds for taxing business profits, including the UN MC as it is evolving. A more robust international tax order will require to ponder more carefully if already known and agreed principles (including some BEPS outcomes within them), as they can evolve, will be better options to permit 'market states' to tax economic activity and will create less uncertainty than the revolutionary solutions proposed in the debates on Action 1 BEPS or unilaterally by the EU or some States.


Transmission line pulsing (TLP) is a useful technique to characterize electrostatic discharge (ESD) events in semiconductor devices. The pulse waveforms generated by a typical TLP setup, however, are often distorted and oscillatory. In this paper, a new and simple experimental setup is developed to improve the shape of the TLP waveforms and thus to increase the effectiveness of the TLP technique. Experimental results obtained from the conventional and improved setups are presented and compared.


Osteoporosis is a common highly prevalence public health problem affecting both gender in all age stages in worldwide. Little information is known about the bone health and lifestyle characteristics of women living in Middle Eastern countries in general and Saudi Arabia in specific. The complete information and statistical figures of osteoporosis prevalent and vitamin D deficiency among population it has not yet been identified. The strong correlation between dietary intake and bone health has been explored in Western populations but no data are available in Middle Eastern countries. The aims of this study were four fold: (i) to examine the extent of poor bone health in the Saudi population of postmenopausal and premenopausal women; (ii) to investigate the effect of lifestyle factors including physical activity levels and sun-time exposure on bone integrity; (iii) to determine the extent of vitamin D deficiency in the population and the effect of this status on bone mass and calcium/bone metabolism; (iv) to evaluate the dietary quality and quantity in Saudi women and investigate fully the effect of diet on bone health indices. As part of our investigation, a total of 212 Saudi Arabian apparently healthy women were voluntarily participated in this study. A total of 112 postmenopausal and 100 premenopausal women. They were aged 45-60 years and 20-30 years respectively. Bone mineral density (BMD) was determined at the lumbar spine (L2-L4) and femoral neck using dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Calcaneal bone mass was measured by broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA). All subjects were interviewed concerning their habitual dietary intake, physical activity levels and general lifestyle. Information on dietary intake of each individual was obtained using 3-day estimated food diaries. The amount of food consumed (in grams) for the five food groups was calculated for each subject. Intakes were converted to frequency of consumption (time/d) by dividing food groups by average portion sizes. Using the only existing Food Composition Table for the Middle East, the nutrient values for energy, protein, fat, fibre, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin C, vitamin D and potassium were chosen for the five food groups identified and calculated per 100g. Bone resorption was assessed by measurement of pyridinium crosslinks (PYD) and (DPD) using a second morning urine sample. Bone formation was assessed by bone specific alkaline phosphatase (BSAP) and osteocalcin (OC). Serum 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)D, PTH, calcium, and phosphorus were measured. Bone health indices indicated a high prevalence of low bone mass in these groups. According to WHO criteria (WHO, 1994), a total of 52% of postmenopausal and 37% of premenopausal women were osteopenic at the lumbar spine. Osteoporotic prevalence was 13% and 2% respectively. Similar results were found for the femoral neck. Physical activity levels were low and exposure to sunlight was low. A significant correlation was found between period of sunlight exposure (min/d) and axial BMD and calcaneal bone mass. The 'quality' of food consumption by Saudi Arabian women does not follow the recommended food guidelines, and the intakes of energy, fibre and potassium in women are lower than those recommended in western population but intakes of phosphorus are somewhat higher. Calcium, vitamin C and iron are around recommended levels. Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in Saudi women, with 78% of women being below the classical threshold of 12ng/ml. A low milk consumption was associated with higher bone resorption in both postmenopausal and premenopausal women which remained significant after adjustment for the key confounding factors of age, weight, height and menopausal status. A low intake of fruit and vegetables and nutrients associated with high fruit and vegetable intake including vitamin C, potassium and estimates of net endogenous acid production were found to be related to poorer indices of bone health. These results are a cause for concern. It indicates that bone health is poor and dietary and lifestyle factors are not favourable to skeletal integrity in Saudi Arabian women.


We propose an algorithm based on variational quantum imaginary time evolution for solving the Feynman-Kac partial differential equation resulting from a multidimensional system of stochastic differential equations. We utilize the correspondence between the Feynman-Kac partial differential equation (PDE) and the Wick-rotated Schrödinger equation for this purpose. The results for a (2+1) dimensional Feynman-Kac system obtained through the variational quantum algorithm are then compared against classical ODE solvers and Monte Carlo simulation. We see a remarkable agreement between the classical methods and the quantum variational method for an illustrative example on six and eight qubits. In the non-trivial case of PDEs which are preserving probability distributions – rather than preserving the ℓ2-norm – we introduce a proxy norm which is efficient in keeping the solution approximately normalized throughout the evolution. The algorithmic complexity and costs associated to this methodology, in particular for the extraction of properties of the solution, are investigated. Future research topics in the areas of quantitative finance and other types of PDEs are also discussed.


Parametric Analyses of Protocols Utilized to Induce Verbal Behavioral Cusps and Capabilities Rebecca Hotchkiss The purpose of this study was to conduct parametric analyses of verbal behavior developmental protocols used to induce verbal behavioral cusps and capabilities. A parametric analysis detects the relationship between different values of an independent variable and its effects on behavior. Researchers manipulate parameters of an independent variable such as its quantity, rate, latency, intensity, or duration. In this study, the goal of the analysis was to determine how different parameters of developmental protocols affect the time required to induce verbal developmental cusps and how these parameters vary as a function of the differences in the cusps and capabilities present prior to initiating a protocol. In Experiment I, I conducted a parametric analysis of the intensity of an Intensive Tact Instruction (ITI) protocol on the induction of Bidirectional Naming (BiN). I selected eight participants due to absence of BiN in their repertoire while still demonstrating listener literacy and echoic, mand, and tact repertoires. I matched the participants into dyads based on their similarity in BiN level and rate of learning to assess the effects of the full (100 learn unit) intensity and the accelerated (50 learn unit) intensity of the ITI protocol. Results found varied results dependent on the students' level of cusps/capabilities and degree of BiN at the onset of the intervention. Students with Unidirectional Naming (UniN) and higher capabilities at the onset of the protocol demonstrated that the intensities produced similar effects on inducing BiN; however, the accelerated protocol produced this outcome in fewer learning opportunities, suggesting the efficiency of the accelerated protocol. Students who demonstrated No-incidental Naming (NiN, or independence of listener and speaker repertoires) at the onset of the study demonstrated mixed results from the intervention, regardless of intervention intensity. While UniN could be established with these students with both the full and accelerated intensity of ITI, results on demonstrating BiN in these students varied. The outcomes are discussed in terms of efficiency and cost effectiveness, as well as the significance of conducting parametric analyses on protocols. In Experiment II, I conducted a parametric analysis of the stringency of an Auditory Match-to-Sample (AM) protocol on the induction of accurate echoics. I again matched participants into dyads based on their rate of learning and their similarity in echoic responses, to test the effects of the full (90% accuracy across 20 trials) criterion and the accelerated (5 consecutive correct responses) criterion of the AM protocol. Participants demonstrated increases in their full echoic emissions following the AM intervention, regardless of the stringency of the criterion delivered (i.e., full vs. accelerated). Results across both Experiment I and II demonstrated the positive effects of conducting parametric analyses on protocols used to induce verbal behavioral cusps, to develop more efficient methods. Despite the manipulation to more accelerated parameters of the protocol intervention, comparable behavior change occurred across verbal behavior developmental cusps for both experiments.


Software systems need to continually evolve during their life cycle. It is, therefore, important to monitor how their quality evolves so that quality assurance activities can be properly planned. In this paper, we analyze empirically the quality evolution of an open source software system (Apache Tomcat). We address software quality from an external perspective. We used the number of defects as a quality indicator. We wanted to investigate if the Qi (Quality Assurance Indicator) metric, which we proposed in a previous work, can be used to observe how quality, measured in terms of defects, evolves in the presence of changes. We performed an empirical analysis using historical data collected from the subject system covering a period of more than seven years (thirty-one versions). Results are reported and discussed in the paper.


Umbilical Pilonidal Sinus (UPS) is a very rare form of umbilical disease. The presenting feature is usually pain and umbilical discharge. It affects active adolescent males with hairy abdomen and a deep naval. Treatment depends on the type of presentation with no consensus guidelines for the management of this disease. Most of the cases are managed conservatively with extraction of the hair and maintenance of personal hygiene. Surgery is indicated on failure of conservative management. Although umbilectomy is usually performed; complete sinus excision with reconstruction is done for cosmetic reasons. The commonest cause of failure of conservative management is incomplete hair extraction from the sinus tract. We present herewith a case of 27-year-old male, with umbilical pain, swelling, purulent discharge and bleeding on and off for the last 4 years. After repeated failed conservative management patient underwent excision of the sinus tract. After 2 years of follow up, the patient has no residual disease and has no complaints. This case emphasises the need for proper clinical examination for early detection of disease.

Keywords: Sinus Excision, Umbilical Pilonidal Sinus, Umbilicus Reconstruction.


Lactococcus garvieae is a gram-positive cocci that has primarily been described as a pathogen in various fish species, but has increasingly been reported to cause endocarditis and other infections in humans [1]. Neonatal infection caused by Lactococcus garvieae has not been previously reported. Here we describe a premature neonate who developed a urinary tract infection with this organism and was successfully treated with vancomycin therapy.


The growing number of applications for both new and existing technologies will act as a catalyst for major changes in the diagnostic testing field over the next decade. The most important single factor affecting diagnostics, however, will be the increasing restrictions on reimbursement for diagnostic tests as traditional payers become much more cost conscious. After decades of growth, we should see a gradual decline in absolute numbers of diagnostic tests and procedures by the early 1990s. The locations of pathology testing may change as well. Free-standing labs will continue to grow in importance while the number of tests in hospitals will decline as hospital admission volumes fall. The number of tests in the home will grow dramatically but will remain a relatively small part of the whole. In diagnostic imaging, rapid growth will occur in the use of some of the newer specialized procedures, but the use of traditional x-rays is likely to fall off slightly. The share of procedures done in hospitals will drop, and the share done in diagnostic imaging centers will show a corresponding growth. These changes are likely to mean fewer radiologists and pathologists, tougher questions about administrative allocation of flat-rate reimbursements, a shift of focus in medical specialist education, and a shift in the role of medical specialty societies.


Lithium titanium oxide spinel (Li4Ti5O12, LTO) is a promising anode material in terms of a very small volume change during cycling, an excellent cycling stability and a relatively high operating voltage ca. 1.55 V vs. Li/Li + providing better safety characteristics. However, recent studies show that cells constructed with LTO produce gas (mainly H2, CO2 and CO) during cycling and storage. This gas formation is related with interactions between the electrode (surface) and the electrolyte. The interactions between the Li4Ti5O12 electrode and the electrolyte have been investigated by in-situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Absorbance band changes on charge and discharge have been identified, and interpreted by five processes which are related to concentration changes in the electrolyte. New compounds, which might have formed due to electrolyte decomposition, could not be identified. In-situ pressure measurements during cyclic voltammetry experiments have been carried out with LTO/Li half cells and Li4Ti5O12/LiFePO4 (LTO/LFP) full cells. In all cases the gas formation starts immediately after the start of the test, at potentials before the actual charging of LTO is started. The gassing rate immediately after charge is slightly higher than the rate before the corresponding charge process, whereas the rate slightly decreases after discharge compared to that before the discharge process. For the LTO/Li half cell a sudden pressure decrease was observed on charge and an increase on discharge, which can be explained by the dissolution and deposition of the lithium metal counter electrode, respectively.


This study presents the results on the investigation of the corrosion behavior of carbon steel in model alkaline medium in the presence of very low concentration of polymeric nanoaggregates [0.0024 wt % polyethylene oxide (PEO)113-b-PS70 micelles]. The steel electrodes were investigated in chloride free and chloride-containing cement extracts. The electrochemical measurements (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization) indicate that the presence of micelles alters the composition of the surface layers (i.e., micelles were indeed absorbed to the steel surface) and influences the electrochemical behavior of the steel, i.e., the micelles lead to an initially increased corrosion resistance of the steel whereas no significant improvement was observed within longer immersion periods. Surface analysis, performed by environmental scanning electronic microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray analysis, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, supports and elucidates the corrosion performance. The product layers in the micelles-containing specimens are more homogenous and compact, presenting protective ?-Fe2O3 and/or Fe3O4, whereas the product layers in the micelles-free specimens exhibit mainly FeOOH, FeO, and FeCO3, which are prone to chloride attack. Therefore, the increased "barrier effects" along with the layers composition and altered surface morphology denote for the initially increased corrosion resistance of the steel in chloride-containing alkaline medium in the presence of micelles.


Diabetes insipidus represents a serious disease that dramatically interferes with the everyday life of patients due to the need to constantly replenish of fluid lost in the urine, which comes amid shortage of synthesis, secretion or action of pituitary hormone vasopressin. The main difficulty is the differential diagnosis of types of diabetes insipidus in patients with the syndrome of polydipsia-polyuria as the correct differential diagnosis of these forms predetermine the safety and efficacy of further treatment. This lecture presents the current concepts of etiology, diagnosis and treatment of central diabetes insipidus (CDI). We give the comparative characteristics of various preparations of desmopressin for the treatment of the central form of the disease. We also consider the features of the management of selected patient populations with CDI: during pregnancy and lactation, pathology of the thirst sensation, after traumatic brain injury and neurosurgery.


The problem of title generation involves finding the essence of a document and expressing it in only a few words. The results of a query to the Informedia Digital Video Library are summarized through an automatically generated title for each retrieved news story. When the document is errorful, as with speech-recognized broadcast news stories, the title creation challenge becomes even greater. We implemented a set of title word selection strategies and evaluated them on an independent test corpus of 579 broadcast news documents, comparing manual transcription results to automatically recognized speech using the CMU Sphinx speech recognition system with a 64000-word broadcast news language model. Using a training collection of 21190 transcribed broadcast news stories, we trained several systems to produce appropriate title words, i.e. Naive Bayesian approach with full vocabulary, Naive Bayesian approach with limited vocabulary, nearest neighbor approach and extractive approach. The F1 results shows that the nearest neighbor approach is a quick and easy way of generating good titles for speech recognized documents (F1 = 15.2%), while a Nave Bayesian approach with limited vocabulary also does well on our F1 measure (F1 = 21.6%), which ignores word order in the titles. Overall, the results show that title generation for speech recognized news documents is possible at a level approaching the accuracy of titles generated for perfect text transcriptions. One surprising phenomenon is that extractive approach performances slightly better for speech recognized documents than for manual transcripts.


The sampling of neural signals plays an important role in modern neuroscience, especially for prosthetics. However, due to hardware and data rate constraints, only spike trains can get recovered reliably. State of the art prosthetics can still achieve impressive results, but to get higher resolutions the used data rate needs to be reduced. In this paper, this is done by expressing the data with exponential and sinusoidal splines. As these signals have a finite number of degrees of freedom per unit of time, they can be analyzed and reconstructed with the Finite Rate of Innovation (FRI) framework. We show, that we can reduce the needed data rate by 90% to achieve the same resolution as without compression. Additionally, we propose analytic boundaries for the reconstruction of these splines and present an algorithm that guarantees the reconstruction within these boundaries. Furthermore, we test the algorithm on real neural stimuli.


Employing lightweight, tool-based code review of code changes (aka modern code review) has become the norm for a wide variety of open-source and industrial systems. In this paper, we make an exploratory investigation of modern code review at Google. Google introduced code review early on and evolved it over the years; our study sheds light on why Google introduced this practice and analyzes its current status, after the process has been refined through decades of code changes and millions of code reviews. By means of 12 interviews, a survey with 44 respondents, and the analysis of review logs for 9 million reviewed changes, we investigate motivations behind code review at Google, current practices, and developers' satisfaction and challenges.


This paper introduces the CORE methodology for managing risk of multi-market central-counterparties. CORE generalizes the classical SPAN method of stress scenarios by incorporating explicitly market liquidity of listed instruments and modeling the liquidity pro file of OTC instruments and the liquidation-by-auction mechanism. In the presence of liquidity constraints, there is a difference between unrealized ex ante mark-to-market losses, say, on the date of default, and realized losses after liquidation is concluded. This leads us to formulate an optimal liquidation strategy for portfolios under stress-scenarios and liquidity constraints. We formulate this problem as the maximization of an objective function which involves a sequence of potential transient losses (realized and mark-to-market) along the liquidation period. The objective function is designed to minimize transient losses and thus reduce funding liquidity requirements for the CCP along the liquidation period; it is shown to be robust with respect to liquidation-by-auction assumptions and to liquidity constraints.Computationally, we formulate CORE as a Linear Programming problem under linear constraints, which can be solved using high-performance large-scale optimization packages such as CPLEX and GUROBI. We illustrate the computation of the CORE strategy on a series of sample portfolios and compare the anticipated gains in reserve capital due to CORE for the di fferent examples. Preliminary tests indicate that improvements of between 20 and 60% can be realized by applying optimal liquidation schedules which match instruments with common risk factors according to their liquidity profiles in the liquidation process.


This paper presents a probabilistic highway geometric design approach while focusing on the sight distance design basis. Such a probabilistic approach utilizes the reliability analysis to calculate the probability of hazard, which is equal to the probability of a driver having a required stopping sight distance greater than what is actually available. The approach takes into account the variation in the design parameters to provide a safe design for the majority of road users. An application example is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the probabilistic approach in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional types of analysis. Keywords – reliability analysis, sight distance, combined alignment


The authors' group has recently developed an expert system realized by means of fuzzy logic algorithms for monitoring and malfunction diagnosis of the left ventricular assist device (LVAD), one of the many types of artificial hearts developed today. The system is named TOTOMES (Tohoku University and Toyohashi University of Technology, monitoring and estimation system). TOTOMES is suitable for clinical application because it operates in an online and realtime fashion on a widely used personal computer in Japan. This article introduces the structure and function of the TOTOMES and explains its techniques, such as multi-interrupt tasks and dynamic system identification; as well as fuzzy reasoning used for realizing state estimation, detection, and diagnosis of malfunctions; and monitoring for cardiovascular dynamics under ventricular assistance and the LVAD drive system.<<ETX>>


The increasing consumption of technological products may have serious implications due to the worldwide generation of abundant electronic devices that can become contaminating electronic waste or e-waste after their lifespan. This is due to the hazardous nature of some of their components. In Ecuador, despite the presence of some recycling companies and the governmental policies that attempt to establish an appropriate electronic waste management, much must still be done at public and private level in order to implement e-waste recycling and thus avoid the generation of these hazardous waste. In this study we present the results for the first Electronic Waste Recycling Campaign carried out at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, on which the university community and the civil society cooperated. A total of 1.89 t of e-waste were gathered and more than a half of these materials were intended for recycling or reuse within the country or internationally. The main electronic waste gathered included laptops, CRT monitors, keyboards, tablets, CPU, UPS for PC, mouse, PC speakers, wired for power and ICD monitors. Flow charts were made using VENSIM software, basing the calculation on one unit of each electronic waste. This recycling campaign is the first one organized by an Academic Institution in Ecuador and therefore provides useful information about the role that higher education institutions can play in such sustainable initiatives.


Power transformers' failures carry great costs to electric companies. To diminish this problem in four working 40 MVA transformers, the authors have implemented the measurement system of a failure prediction tool, which is the basis of a predictive maintenance infrastructure. The prediction models obtain their inputs from sensors, whose values must be conditioned, sampled and filtered before feeding the forecasting algorithms. Applying Data Warehouse tech- niques, the models have been provided with an abstraction of sensors the authors have called Virtual Cards. By means of these virtual devices, models have access to clean data, both fresh and historic, from the set of sensors they need. Besides, several characteristics of the data flow coming from the Virtual Cards, such as the sample rate or the set of sensors itself, can be dynamically reconfigured. A replication scheme was implemented to allow the distribution of demanding processing tasks and the remote management of the prediction applications.


Excessive cadmium (Cd) accumulation in rice grain is a global issue that affects human health. The drainage of paddy soils during the grain filling period leads to the remobilization of Cd in soils, resulting in most of the Cd accumulated in rice grain. The rate of Cd remobilization during drainage differs markedly among soils, but the mechanisms underlying these differences remain largely unknown. Using microcosm soil incubation, electrochemical experiments, isotope labeling, and microscopic and spectroscopic analyses, here, we discover the voltaic effect as a novel mechanism controlling the remobilization of Cd during soil drainage. During soil flooding, microbial sulfate reduction results in the formation of various metal sulfides. When the soils are subsequently drained, the various metal sulfides can form within sulfide voltaic cells. The metal sulfides with a lower electrochemical potential act as anodes and are prone to oxidative dissolution, whereas the metal sulfides with a higher potential act as cathodes and are protected from oxidation. This voltaic effect explains why the presence of ZnS (with a low potential) suppresses the oxidative dissolution of Cd sulfides, whereas the presence of CuS (with a high potential) promotes the oxidative dissolution of Cd sulfides. The voltaic effect is applicable to all chalcophile trace metals coupled with the sulfur redox cycle in periodically anoxic-oxic environments, thus playing an important role in the biogeochemistry of trace metals.


A prototype skin dose monitor has been constructed and tested successfully. The monitor uses an ion-implanted silicon detector available commercially. The detector was selected since it has a lower leakage current than the other type of silicon detectors. It operates on both a pulse mode and current mode, and there is an overlap in the measurable beat dose rate ranges of these two modes. The prototype device includes an 8-b A/D converter and an 8-b microprocessor to display the skin dose directly. The device presently covers more than five orders of magnitude in the measurable beta skin dose rate ranges. The device has been calibrated using an extrapolation chamber and has been used to measure the dose rates produced by several different beta and beta/gamma sources. >


INTRODUCTION: Cesarean delivery (CD) is the most common inpatient surgical procedure; however, there are no internationally-accepted, standardized clinical guidelines. The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS®) program aims to improve outcomes through the development of international guidelines (IG). The purpose of this study is to obtain and consolidate women's experiences with CD to inform the development of an ERAS international guideline (IG). METHODS: Qualitative methods were used to assess the patient experience with current evidence-based CD protocols across operative phases. Twelve women who experienced CD were interviewed using an open-ended, semi-structured interview guide at six-weeks post-partum. Two researchers coded the emerging themes separately and compared findings. RESULTS: Women described feeling informed, but felt they did not have a choice. Pre-surgery, women wanted more information about the risks of CD. Pre-operatively, women expressed confusion with the procedures, but felt informed about local anaesthesia and thermoregulation. Post-CD, women felt informed about pain and nausea control; however, urinary catheter removal was delayed when compared to the ERAS recommendations. Information about post-partum infant care was not well communicated, as many women were uninformed about delayed cord-clamping and infant thermoregulation. DISCUSSION: This qualitative study provides opportunities to improve communication, the patient-provider relationship, and the overall satisfaction throughout the CD process. The findings support the implementation of patient decision aids and training with the shared decision model. The improved procedures recommended in the ERAS IG for CD have the potential to deliver significant improvements to patient satisfaction, mother-infant bonding and mental wellness.


Cytokinin has been reported to mimic some of the effects of light on de-etiolation responses in dark-grown Arabidopsis seedlings. The interaction between cytokinin and light was examined by analyzing cytokinin dose and light fluence effects on hypocotyl elongation in wild-type and mutant Arabidopsis seedlings with defects in light or hormone responses. It was found that (a) cytokinin and light-response systems have independent and additive effects on the inhibition of hypocotyl elongation and (b) either cytokinin or light can saturate the morphogenic responses. As a consequence, cytokinin has no effect on hypocotyl elongation under normal growth conditions because light levels saturate the hypocotyl inhibition response. To determine whether a functional light-response pathway is required for cytokinin responses, light-insensitive long hypocotyl (hy) mutants were tested for cytokinin responses. The hy mutants (hy1 to hy6) had normal cytokinin responses, except phyB-1 (hy3–1), in which hypocotyl elongation was insensitive to cytokinin. Cytokinin insensitivity in phyB-1 was attributed to an indirect effect of the mutation on cytokinin responses. The effects of cytokinin on the inhibition of hypocotyl elongation are largely mediated by ethylene, and blocking the ethylene-response pathway through the action of a cytokinin-resistant, ethylene-insensitive mutant (ckr1/ein2) had no effect on the light inhibition of hypocotyl elongation. These results do not support the idea that cytokinin mediates the action of light on hypocotyl elongation.


OBJECTIVE
Parent or guardian involvement is implicit in the care of pediatric patients with hydrocephalus. Some parents and guardians are more engaged than others. The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), the level of parental concern about their child's hydrocephalus management and future, and overall health status has not been clearly delineated. In this study, the authors sought to clarify this connection using hydrocephalus patient-reported health outcomes.

METHODS
This cross-sectional study included children with surgically managed hydrocephalus whose parent or guardian completed the validated Hydrocephalus Outcome Questionnaire (HOQ) and Hydrocephalus Concern Questionnaire for parents (HCQ-P) on a return visit to the pediatric neurosurgery clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center between 2016 and 2018. Patients were excluded if the questionnaires were not completed in full. The calculated Overall Health Score (OHS) was used to represent the child's global physical, emotional, cognitive, and social health. The HCQ-P was used to assess parental concern about their child. Type of insurance was a proxy for SES.

RESULTS
The HOQ and HCQ-P were administered and completed in full by 170 patient families. In the cohort, 91% of patients (n = 155) had shunt-treated hydrocephalus, and the remaining patients had undergone endoscopic third ventriculostomy. The mean (± SD) patient age was 12 ± 4 years. Half of the patients were male (n = 90, 53%), and most were Caucasian (n = 134, 79%). One in four patients lived in single-parent homes or with a designated guardian (n = 45, 26%). Public insurance and self-pay accounted for 38% of patients (n = 64), while the remaining 62% had private or military insurance. In general, parents with higher concern about their child's medical condition indicated that their son or daughter had a higher OHS (χ2 = 17.07, p < 0.001). Patients in families with a lower SES did not have different OHSs from those with a higher SES (χ2 = 3.53, p = 0.06). However, parents with a lower SES were more worried about management of their child's hydrocephalus and their child's future success (χ2 = 11.49, p < 0.001). In general, parents were not preoccupied with one particular aspect of their child's hydrocephalus management.

CONCLUSIONS
More engaged parents, regardless of their family's SES, reported a better OHS for their child. Parents with public or self-paid insurance were more likely to report higher concern about their child's hydrocephalus and future, but this was not associated with a difference in their child's current health status.


Inactivation of the cyclin-p34cdc2 protein kinase complex is a major requirement for anaphase onset and exit from mitosis. To facilitate identification of specific molecules that regulate this event in mammalian cells, I have developed a cell-free assay in which cdc2 kinase associated with a chromosomal fraction from metaphase tissue culture cells is inactivated by a cell-cycle-regulated cytosolic system. In vitro kinase inactivation requires ATP, Mg2+ and the dephosphorylation of one or more sites in the chromosomal fraction by protein phosphatase 1 and/or 2A. Cyclin B is destroyed during inactivation, while the level of p34cdc2 remains constant. Ammonium sulfate fractionation resolves the cytosolic inactivating system into at least two distinct protein components that are both required for inactivation and are differentially regulated during mitosis.


The poor rock quality and matrix permeability several orders of magnitude lower than conventional oil reservoirs observed in unconventional liquid reservoirs (ULR) presents many uncertainties on the storage capacity of the rock and the possibility of enhancing recovery. The technological advances in multiple stage hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have improved the overall profitability of oil shale plays by enhancing the matrix – wellbore connectivity. The combination of these technologies has become the key factor for the operators to reach economically attractive production rates in the exploitation of ULR, causing a lot of focus on their improvement. However, as the reservoir matures, primary production mechanisms no longer drive oil to the hydraulic fractures, making the improvement of matrix – wellbore connectivity insufficient to provide economically attractive production rates. Therefore, the need to develop enhanced recovery techniques in order to improve the displacement of the oil from the matrix, maintain profitable production rates, extend the life of the assets and increase ultimate oil recovery becomes evident. This study presents experimental results on the use of CO2 as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agent in preserved, rotary sidewall reservoir core samples with negligible permeability. To simulate the presence of hydraulic fractures, the ULR cores were surrounded by high permeability glass beads and packed in a core holder. The high permeability media was then saturated with CO2 at constant pressure and temperature during the experiment. Production was monitored and the experiment was imaged using x-ray computed tomography to track saturation changes inside the core samples. The results of this investigation support CO2 as a promising EOR agent for ULR. Oil recovery was estimated to be between 18 to 55% of OOIP. We provide a detailed description of the experimental set up and procedures. The analysis of the x-ray computed tomography images revealed saturation changes within the ULR core as a result of CO2 injection. A discussion about the mechanisms is presented, including diffusion and reduction in capillary forces. This paper opens a door to the investigation of CO2 enhanced oil recovery in ULR.


Various dynamic modulus (E*) predictive models have been developed to estimate E* as an alternative to laboratory testing. The most widely used model is the 1999 I-37A Witczak predictive equation based on North American mixtures laboratory results. The differences in material properties, traffic information, and environmental conditions for Latin American countries make it necessary to calibrate these models using local conditions. Consequently, the National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models at the University of Costa Rica (in Spanish, LanammeUCR) has previously performed a local calibration of this model based on E* values for different types of Costa Rican mixtures. However, further research has shown that there is still room for improvement in the accuracy of the calibrated model (Witczak-Lanamme model) based on advanced regression techniques such as artificial neural networks (ANN). The objective of this study was to develop an improved and more effective dynamic modulus E* predictive regression model for mixtures in Costa Rica by means of ANN based models. A comparison of the predicted E* values among the Witczak model, Witczak-Lanamme model and the new and improved model based on artificial neural networks (ANN-Lanamme model) indicated that the former not only met the model adequacy checking criteria but also exhibited the best goodness of fit parameters and the lowest overall bias. The findings of this study also supported the use of more advanced regression techniques that can become a more attractive alternative to local calibration of the Witczak I-37A equation.


A Deans switch, employing Agilent's Capillary Flow Technology, was configured on an Agilent 7890A GC equipped with dual ECD detectors. A method was developed for the analysis of fish oil for PCB contamination. The Deans switch was used to heart cut 7 indicator PCBs (IUPAC Numbers 28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153, and 180) from the primary DB-XLB column on to a DB-200 column for further separation. Fish oil from a supplement capsule was simply diluted 1:10 in isooctane and injected directly. To prevent carryover, contamination, and retention time shifts, the Deans switch was used to backflush the primary column at the end of each run.


The CELSIUS-WASA setup is used to measure the 3π0 decay of η mesons produced in pp interactions with beam kinetic energies of 1.36 and 1.45 GeV. The efficiency-corrected Dalitz plot and density distributions for this decay are shown, together with a fit of the quadratic slope parameter α yielding α = −0.026 ± 0.010(stat) ± 0.010(syst). This value is compared to recent experimental results and theoretical predictions.


An integrated, image‐guided irradiation system for small animal research has been developed. The system is capable of precise, accurate, reproducible and quantifiable 3D conformal delivery of radiationdose distributions to organs/tumors. The main hardware components are: (1) A Seifert Isovolt Titan 225 kV X‐ray tube with beam collimation provided by a custom‐made variable diameter "cone" or a set of motor‐driven symmetric "jaws", thereby allowing field sizes from 0.5 mm in diameter to 7 cm square field at ∼33.5 cm SSD. (2) A six‐degrees‐of‐freedom (6DOF) robotic arm (Adept Viper s650) was integrated for precise animal positioning/motion (repeatability of ±0.020 mm in XYZ direction and angular precision of ±0.2°). The system is housed in a custom 6 × 6 × 6 ft3 shielded enclosure inside a laboratory. When the beam is aimed horizontally to (3) a flat panel amorphous silicon detector (XRD 0820 CN3, Perkin Elmer, Fremont, CA) a series of 2D‐radiographs can be recorded while the robot rotates the animal. Each image is composed of 1024 by 1024 pixels with a 200 μm pixel size at a frame rate of 7.5 Hz. An open source cone beam computed tomography(CBCT)reconstruction tool (OSCAR‐2, University of Toronto) using the Feldkamp‐Davis‐Kress (FDK) filtered back projection algorithm was implemented for CBCTimage reconstruction. Thus, targeting can be accomplished by the use of orthogonal radiographs and/or CBCT. A dose engine and CBCT‐based treatment planning are ongoing projects. Dosimetric measurements and preliminary animal experiments have demonstrated the basic capabilities of the system in terms of radiationdose,dose rate and precision targeting. The system has also been used successfully in experiments to detect the molecular signaling occurring after spatially fractionated radiation therapy (GRID) in vivo. A description of the system and a summary of experiments performed to date will be presented. Learning Objectives: 1. Appreciate the challenges of developing a high precision 3D conformal irradiator for small animals. 2. Learn about the main hardware components of the system and their integration. 3. Understand the advantages of using a 6DOF robot for imaging (motion) and beam delivery (positioning). 4. Learn about some of the potential research projects that such a system can make possible. This research was sponsored by the Arkansas Biosciences Institute and the Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute.


Contemporary synthetic biology-based biotechnologies are generating tools and strategies for reprogramming genomes for specific purposes, including improvement and/or creation of microbial processes for tackling climate change. While such activities typically work well at a laboratory or bioreactor scale, the challenge of their extensive delivery to multiple spatio-temporal dimensions has hardly been tackled thus far. This state of affairs creates a research niche for what could be called Environmental Galenics (EG), i.e. the science and technology of releasing designed biological agents into deteriorated ecosystems for the sake of their safe and effective recovery. Such endeavour asks not just for an optimal performance of the biological activity at stake, but also the material form and formulation of the agents, their propagation and their interplay with the physico-chemical scenario where they are expected to perform. EG also encompasses adopting available physical carriers of microorganisms and channels of horizontal gene transfer as potential paths for spreading beneficial activities through environmental microbiomes. While some of these propositions may sound unsettling to anti-genetically modified organisms sensitivities, they may also fall under the tag of TINA (there is no alternative) technologies in the cases where a mere reduction of emissions will not help the revitalization of irreversibly lost ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ecological complexity and the biosphere: the next 30 years'.


This paper proposed a new tooth surface modeling method for beveloid gear based on the real cutter surface using two orthogonal variables. Then, the analytical mesh model with and without misalignments were derived and solved to study the influences of geometry design parameters on contact behaviors for paralleled beveloid gear pair. Loaded tooth contact analysis is used to validate the proposed mesh model by abaqus software, and the error is below 5%. Results suggest that the increase in pressure, cone, and helical angles enlarge the contact area for meshing without misalignments. The addendum coefficient has unsubstantial impacts on the contact behaviors. For meshing with axis error in the horizontal direction, the growth of pressure angle, cone angle, helical angle, and addendum coefficient improves the carrying capacity of single tooth. But the transmission error deteriorates with the increase in pressure, cone, and helical angles. All three types of misalignments have little influence on the size of the contact ellipse. The growth of axis errors in horizontal and vertical directions significantly increases the transmission error, but the center distance error has a little influence on the transmission precision.


In this paper, an all optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is proposed for achieving high bit rate and eliminating inter-symbol interference in optical wireless communications. The overall architecture is explained along with the design considerations that should be followed for parameters calculation. Analytical evaluation of the system in terms of probability of error is carried out in a diffused wireless optical channel. As a conclusion, the proposed system shows promising results for a high speed optical wireless channel.


Abstract Lotus was a tri-lingual quarterly brought out by the Afro-Asian Writers' Association. Initially titled Afro-Asian Writings, its inaugural edition was launched from Cairo in March 1968, in Arabic and English, followed by the French. By 1971, the trilingual quarterly acquired the name Lotus. Egypt, the Soviet Union, and the German Democratic Republic funded its production. The Arabic edition was printed in Cairo, and the English and French editions were printed in the German Democratic Republic. The Afro-Asian Writers' Association (AAWA) and its over-arching affiliate, the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization (AAPSO), both had headquarters in Cairo. In 1978, President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords and the Permanent Bureau in Cairo was deactivated. Lotus moved to Beirut despite the raging Civil War, where it was was granted home and hospitality by the Union of Palestinian Writers. Its offices remained there until the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 when it once again relocated along with the Palestinian Liberation Organization to Tunis. The journal was discontinued in the late 1980s or early 1990s with the dismantling of the Soviet Union. The Permanent Bureau in Cairo was reinstated, but the journal was not as such reactivated. The project outlines a partial biography of a forgotten magazine from a bipolar world and its interrupted historical networks. It considers graphic and textual elements from the margins of the magazine for evidence of its trajectory.


A Strategy for Leadership Development at First Presbyterian Church of Kannapolis, North Carolina Darryl C. Evans Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2015 First Presbyterian Church is located in the downtown of the blue-collar city of Kannapolis, NC. The heartbeat of Kannapolis is the city center, which is comprised of one massive company together with an adjoining downtown, which has virtually always been owned by one magnate. For about a century, the dominant business was an enormous textile mill until its closure in 2003. A billionaire then purchased the property, razed the mill and is slowly building a $1.5 billion biotechnology research campus while the once bustling downtown remains largely empty. This unique history has fostered an unhealthy culture of paternalism. Citizens tend to dodge responsibility, lack initiative and feel powerless. Kannapolis' lack of leadership and recent decline has been mirrored at First Presbyterian Church. To address this challenge, this doctoral project seeks to develop the session's leadership by encouraging them to accept willingly their God-given responsibility and pro-actively organize themselves to operate smoothly and effectively. In the process, the session will learn that Christian leadership depends not upon the surrounding downtown or a benefactor; rather, it requires dedication to God's call, perseverance and corporate responsibility. A Reformed and evangelical theology of Christian leadership will be articulated that centers in mutually empowering relational love within a covenant of deep commitment. It will be argued that this changed culture of the session will foster an increase in its functionality. Deeper relationships, accountability and responsibility will spur them to action. This project concludes with an assessment of the session's leadership. This will be measured by specific goals that will include a timeline detailing various changes. It will evaluate how highly the session is functioning in part by how well it is beginning to turn its focus outwardly to the community. This project will conclude with recommendations for the future. Content Reader: Robert E. Logan, DMin


We analyze the performance limits of data dissemination with multichannel, single radio sensors under random packet loss. We formulate the problem of minimizing the average delay of data dissemination as a stochastic shortest path problem and show that, for an arbitrary topology network, an optimal control policy can be found in a finite number of steps, using value iteration or Dijkstra's algorithm. However, the computational complexity of this solution is generally prohibitive. We thus focus on two special classes of network topologies of practical interest, namely single-hop clusters and multihop cluster chains. For these topologies, we derive the structure of policies that achieve an asymptotically optimal average delay, in networks with large number of nodes. Our analysis reveals that a single radio in each node suffices to achieve performance gain directly proportional to the total number of channels available. Through simulation, we show that the derived policies perform close to optimal even for networks with small and moderate numbers of nodes and can be implemented with limited overhead.


Background/objectives: The air pollution level is increasing immensely because of several issues, such as emission of highly inflammable gases from factories, an alarming rise in the use of petrol and diesel vehicles for personal commute, and various other sources that generate smoke; all of this have an seriously harmful impact on human health and are responsible for various diseases. Therefore, the objective of this article is to propose an improved and handy system of mask wearing which will help reduce the hazardous effects of air pollution on human health. Methods/findings: After analysing and comparing several products available in the market, a handy and easy-functioning Adriano-based intelligent pollution mask is proposed. This particular design of mask can detect and filter hazardous air pollutants using various sensors. It can also indicate and communicate the pollution level through an inbuilt app with other mask-wearers, including information about which areas to avoid that have very high air pollution. Improvements/application: Because it can detect and filter out several toxic gasses, this product is can be a great solution for preventing the harmful/dangerous effects of air pollution on the human body and, consequently, preventing diseases resulting from breathing highly polluted and saving many lives.


The use of cellulosic materials in the construction of low-rise housing in tropical climates has great potential. Bambusa blumeana (B. blumeana, J.A. and J.H. Schultes), the most abundantly available bamboo species in the Philippines, is a promising alternative material for the construction of cost-efficient buildings. However, to comply with municipal rules and regulations for construction, a comprehensive understanding of the organic raw material is needed to permit its application as a load-bearing structural member. In this study, the physical and mechanical properties of B. blumeana bamboo from a typical growth region of the Philippines were tested according to ISO 22157-1 (2004) and ISO 22157-2 (2004). The characteristic strength values of B. blumeana were as follows: compressive and tensile strengths parallel to the grain of 20 and 95 MPa, respectively; shear strength of 5 MPa, bending strength of 34.6 MPa, and the mean and fifth percentile modulus of elasticity of 13100 and 8600 MPa, respectively. Based on these results, a recommendation for permissible stresses for structural design was made in line with ISO 22156 (2004).


Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic disabling painful disorder with limited options to achieve therapeutic relief. CRPS type I which follows trauma, may not show obvious damage to the nervous structures and remains dubious in its pathophysiology and also its response to conservative treatment or interventional pain management is elusive. Spinal cord and dorsal root ganglion stimulation (SCS, DRGS) provide good relief, mainly for causalgia or CRPS I of lower extremities but not very encouraging for upper extremity CRPS I. we reported earlier, a case of CRPS I of right arm treated successfully by wireless peripheral nerve stimulation (WPNS) with short term follow up. Here we present 1-year followup of this patient. Objective: To present the first case of WPNS for CRPS I with a year follow up. The patient had minimally invasive peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS), without implantable pulse generator (IPG) or its accessories. Case report: This was a case of refractory CRPS I after blunt trauma to the right forearm of a young female. She underwent placement of two Stimwave electrodes (Leads: FR4A-RCV-A0 with tines, Generation 1 and FR4A-RCVB0 with tines, Generation 1) in her forearm under intraoperative electrophysiological and ultrasound guidance along radial and median nerves. This WPNS required no IPG. At high frequency (HF) stimulation (HF 10 kHz/32 μs, 2.0 mA), patient had shown remarkable relief in pain, allodynia and temperature impairment. At 5 months she started driving without opioid consumption, while allodynia disappeared. At 1 year follow up she was relieved of pain [visual analogue scale (VAS) score of 4 from 7] and Kapanji Index (Score) improved to 7–8. Both hands look similar in color and temperature. She never made unscheduled visits to the clinic or visited emergency room for any complications related to the WPNS. Conclusions: CRPS I involving upper extremity remain difficult to manage with conventional SCS or DRGS because of equipment related adverse events. Minimally invasive WPNS in this case had shown consistent relief without any complications or side effects related to the wireless technology or the technique at the end of 1 year. Implications: This is the first case illustration of WPNS for CRPS I, successfully treated and followed up for 1 year.


There is a need to investigate the travails of teachers in going through job placement issues with the public school system and the imbalance created due to the application of certain corrupt practices in their job placement. It was conducted to understand, describe and document the hardships and difficulties of applicant teachers experience after applying for permanent teaching positions in basic public education in the Philippines. Employing phenomenological approach with 17 teachers, in-depth interviews and focus group discussion, results revealed the high prevalence of impropriety and misconduct of Philippine Department of Education (DepED for brevity)officials, motivated by bureaucratic anomalies in the institution, political affiliations, unabated culture of corruption such as extortion, and money making activities of DepED officials, due to a tradition of decadence in the organization, which the study participants view as incorrigible to change, giving way to a culture of infectious crookedness. Factors in the struggles of teachers in their job placement involve agitation, harassment, legitimacy, adaptation and acquiescence, rationalization, lessons learned, resolutions, shame and remorse, and repulsion. Offered in the study was removing taints of corruption by putting authority over many people representing each sector of the public educational sector such as teacher groups, private stakeholders, and DepED officials as a means for sustained transparency and accountability in pluralistic decision making.