OBJECTIVE
Mouthing behavior in infants and young children <3 years old is a poorly quantified yet normal part of early childhood development. Increasingly, safety and risk assessments involving materials that may be mouthed depend on accurate estimates of oral contact time. This study reports the results of an observational study performed to investigate and obtain data on mouthing behavior of objects for children up to 3 years old.

METHODOLOGY
The study used a standard diary form with instructions for participating parents to observe their child in a normal environment (primarily home), and to document both the type and duration of each item mouthed. Phase I (pilot) consisted of 30 children each observed for 1 day, divided equally between the ages of 0 to 18 months (n = 15) and 19 to 36 months (n = 15), whereas Phase II included more participants (n = 92 aged 0-18 months; n = 95 aged 19-36 months). Phase III included observations for 5 nonconsecutive days over a 2-month period on 168 children between the ages of 3 to 18 months (at study initiation), and focused on total mouthing time of objects, exclusive of pacifiers.

RESULTS
The data collected during the first 2 phases were pooled and analyzed together. For all participants between the ages of 0 and 18 months (n = 107), the average daily duration of mouthing objects included: pacifiers (108 minutes), plastic toys (17 minutes), teethers (6 minutes), and other objects (9 minutes). The results for children 19 to 36 months old (n = 110) included: pacifiers (126 minutes), plastic toys (2 minutes), teethers (0 minutes), and other objects (2 minutes). Although no significant difference existed between the 2 age ranges for pacifier mouthing duration, a statistically significant difference was observed for nonpacifier objects. For Phase III, the average daily mouthing time for all objects (excluding pacifiers), based on 5 nonconsecutive days of observation for 168 children, was 36 minutes (n = 793 valid child observation days).

CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study indicate that mouthing behavior is dependent on age and the types of items that are mouthed. Duration of mouthing varies among children, with some consistently not mouthing any objects and with a very small number mouthing objects for >2 hours a day. The study also revealed wide variability in the types of objects mouthed, including many nontoy objects. Children mouth pacifiers significantly longer than other objects, regardless of age. Significantly increased mouthing time of all nonpacifier objects is reported for children in the 0- to 18-month range compared with the 19- to 36-month range.


People with learning disabilities are at just as much risk as the general population are of contracting cancer. Mainstream men's healthcare needs are often neglected and this is also true for men who have learning disabilities. Testicular self-examination (TSE) is seen as an important activity that men should be taught to detect any early changes that may be signs of physiological significance. While testicular cancer is rare, its incidence is rising. In the majority of cases of testicular cancer, over 90% are curable (Cancer Research UK, 2002). TSE, for the purposes of this article, is seen as an activity that can be carried out independently (by the man himself) or with the assistance of another person (for example, carer or partner). This article discusses the importance of TSE and, in particular, with men who have a learning disability.


Monte Carlo (MC) and finite difference (FD) hybrid method is applied to numerically model the growth of austenite grains caused by welding thermal cycle in the heat affected zone (HAZ) of steel welds. The grain growth behaviors and pinning effects by dispersed particles are modeled by MC method while steep changes in temperatures with time and over space are by FD method. The connection of the two methods is made possible by correlating MC step to the real time through the grain growth theory. The model results are in a good agreement with experiments as well as previous experimental results published, and it is indicated that the developed model can be used to obtain a better understanding of the austenite grain structure development in HAZ and even to improve the grain refinement technology using dispersed particles.


: Aim of the investigation consisted in to study parameters of " QT-dynamics " in healthy children and adolescents. We examined 26 children aged 7 - 17 years (mean 11,6 +/- 7 years) - 7 girls (9,3 +/- 2,3 years) and 19 boys (12,5 +/- 3,6 years). Holter monitoring with manual and automatic estimation of QT and QTc intervals. Dynamics of magnitude of QT interval was determined with the use of equation of linear regression Y = aX+b, where aX - coefficient of linear regression QT/RR (slope QT/RR), b - shear coefficient (intercept QT/RR). Values of QT interval at automatic analysis were 368,8 +/- 18,04 (340 - 410) ms for absolute QT and 424 +/- 14,99 (390 - 450) ms - for QTc, 289,4 +/- 14,6 (260 - 320). Mean values of " QT dynamics " were for slope QT/RR: 0,18 +/- 0,03 (0,13 - 0,24) for 24 hours, 0,16 +/- 0,03 (0,10 - 0,22) for daytime period, and 0,11 +/- 0,13 (0,05 - 0,18) for night time period; for intercept: QT/RR - 230,4 +/- 20,7 (192 - 282) for 24 hours, 299 +/- 25,5 (258 - 364) for day time period, and 242,7 +/- 21,8 (204 - 295) for night time period. Coefficient of correlation of intervals QT and RR (r QT/RR) was 0,79 +/- 0,05 (0,69 - 0,89) for 24 hours; 0,68 +/- 0,07 (0,52 - 0,82) for day time period, and 0,52 +/- 0,13 (0,19 - 0,74) for night time period. All values of " QT-dynamics " significantly differed from each other during various periods of day (p < 0,05). Negative relation was noted between 24 hour slope and intercept QT/RR (r= -0,88, p < 0,05), diurnal (r= -0,87, p < 0,05) and nocturnal slope and intercept QT/RR (r= -0,72, p < 0,05), positive relation was noted between 24 hour values of slope QT/RR and QT (r=0,49, p < 0,05), and intercept QT/RR with absolute QT (r=0,41, p < 0,05). Significantly higher values (p < 0,01) of slope QT/RR were in girls. Thus, increase of slope QT/RR is noted during augmentation of tone of sympathetic part of vegetative nervous system, lowering - when vagal influences are also enhanced. Intercept QT/RR appears to be combination parameter, increase of which reflects both lengthening of absolute mean value of QT interval and reciprocal nocturnal lowering of the slope parameter. It is necessary to assesses clinical and diagnostic significance of changes of novel parameters of " QT-dynamics " on the basis of normative sexual-aging values and physiological mechanisms, determining their variability.


Recent data suggests that one of the major actions of sulfonylureas is to potentiate the anabolic cellular effects of insulin. This is the first study to examine the use of sulfonylureas as adjunctive therapy in newly-diagnosed type I diabetic children. A random, prospective, double blind study over 15 months, stratified by age at diagnosis, was conducted. The treatment group (n = 13) received daily oral weight-adjusted tolazamide whereas the control group (n = 11) received placebo. Monthly comparison of the HbA1 values between groups revealed no statistical difference; likewise, the fasting serum C-peptide values were not dissimilar. The mean daily insulin dose per kilogram, however, was less in the tolazamide group (P less than 0.001). The data suggests that the addition of tolazamide may not be of therapeutic benefit in newly diagnosed juvenile diabetics, although insulin requirements may be reduced.


Single-channel speech separation has recently made great progress thanks to learned filterbanks as used in ConvTasNet. In parallel, parameterized filterbanks have been proposed for speaker recognition where only center frequencies and bandwidths are learned. In this work, we extend real-valued learned and parameterized filterbanks into complex-valued analytic filterbanks and define a set of corresponding representations and masking strategies. We evaluate these filterbanks on a newly released noisy speech separation dataset (WHAM). The results show that the proposed analytic learned filterbank consistently outperforms the real-valued filterbank of ConvTasNet. Also, we validate the use of parameterized filterbanks and show that complex-valued representations and masks are beneficial in all conditions. Finally, we show that the STFT achieves its best performance for 2 ms windows.


Mars is a rocky planet, with only half the diameter of Earth, a far thinner atmosphere (composed mainly of CO2) and a cold and SiO 2-rich desert-like surface; moreover, from time to time, Mars experience dust storms, growing thousands of kilometers across the atmosphere. These extreme conditions pose questions about propulsion and fuels useful to Mars exploration. The density of Mars atmosphere being less than one-hundredth of a bar makes chemical ground propulsion difficult, and in any case very slow due to the rugged terrain. Rapid survey and excursions over significant planetary distances become feasible only by flying; however, the thin Mars atmosphere cannot provide sufficient lift, unless by flying sufficiently fast to collect the 'right' amount of CO2. The Martian CO2 collected could then be reacted with light metals, as already proposed by Shafirovitch et al in the US and by Golovitchev in Sweden. Here we propose instead to rely on combustion reactions between Martian CO2 and hydrides. In particular, this paper focuses on silicon hydrides ('silanes') because of their interesting combustion and energetic properties; when used as fuels for ramjets and SCRJ, silanes in combination with atmospheric CO 2 seem, at this preliminary stage of analysis, an intriguing conceptual alternative to a conventional LOX/LH2 or LCH4 'hopping' rockets. That gas-turbine propulsion should be excluded on Mars because of dust storms effects on blades. Accordingly, this work explores the practical limits of application of silanes, including their performance for cruising and accelerating. Equilibrium composition of the combustion products of silanes, from monosilane up to pentasilane were calculated. Ideal ramjet and scramjet performance (specific thrust and specific impulse) were evaluated along constant dynamic pressure trajectories in the Mars atmosphere and compared to those with CH4/Air and H2/Air mixtures. High specific thrust is obtained as the equivalence ratio is increased; the Isp trend is the reverse, but still very appealing when weighted with the bulk density of silanes.


Grb10 is an adaptor-type signaling protein most highly expressed in tissues involved in insulin action and glucose metabolism, such as muscle, pancreas, and adipose. Germline deletion of Grb10 in mice creates a phenotype with larger muscles and improved glucose homeostasis. However, it has not been determined whether Grb10 ablation specifically in muscle is sufficient to induce hypermuscularity or affect whole body glucose metabolism. In this study we generated muscle-specific Grb10-deficient mice (Grb10-mKO) by crossing Grb10flox/flox mice with mice expressing Cre recombinase under control of the human α-skeletal actin promoter. One-year-old Grb10-mKO mice had enlarged muscles, with greater cross-sectional area of fibers compared with wild-type (WT) mice. This degree of hypermuscularity did not affect whole body glucose homeostasis under basal conditions. However, hyperinsulinemic/euglycemic clamp studies revealed that Grb10-mKO mice had greater glucose uptake into muscles compared with WT mice. Insulin signaling was increased at the level of phospho-Akt in muscle of Grb10-mKO mice compared with WT mice, consistent with a role of Grb10 as a modulator of proximal insulin receptor signaling. We conclude that ablation of Grb10 in muscle is sufficient to affect muscle size and metabolism, supporting an important role for this protein in growth and metabolic pathways.


Few political transformations have attacked social inequalities more thoroughly than the 1959 Cuban Revolution. However, as the survey data in this paper shows, 60 years on, structural inequalities which echo the pre-revolutionary socio-ethnic hierarchies are returning. While official Cuban statistics are mute about social differences along racial lines, the authors were able to conduct a unique, nationwide survey which shows the contrary. If the revolutionary, state-run economy and radical social policies were the main social elevators for the formerly underprivileged classes in socialist Cuba, the economic crisis and depressed wages of the past decades have seriously undercut these achievements. Moreover, previously racialised migration patterns have produced highly unequal levels of access to family remittances, and the gradual opening of the private business sector in Cuba has largely disfavoured Afro-Cubans, due to their lack of access to pre-revolutionary property and remittances in the form of start-up capital. While social and racial inequalities have not yet reached the levels of other Latin American countries, behind the face of socialist continuity a profound restructuring of Cuban society is taking place.


Marine Board-ESF The Marine Board provides a pan-European platform for its member organisations to develop common priorities, to advance marine research, and to bridge the gap between science and policy in order to meet future marine science challenges and opportunities. The Marine Board was established in 1995 to facilitate enhanced cooperation between European marine science organisations (both research institutes and research funding agencies) towards the development of a common vision on the research priorities and strategies for marine science in Europe. In 2010, the Marine Board represents 30 Member Organisations from 19 countries. The Marine Board provides the essential components for transferring knowledge for leadership in marine research in Europe. Adopting a strategic role, the Marine Board serves its Member Organisations by providing a forum within which marine research policy advice to national agencies and to the European Commission is developed, with the objective of promoting the establishment of the European Marine Research Area.


ABSTRACT The public–private development (PPD) model created in Tübingen, Germany, exemplifies an alternative to traditional PPD practices that engage high-capacity business stakeholders, such as large developers and real estate investment firms. Although working in a context of fiscal duress, the local progressive urban regime created a PPD partnership to impede private investment from distorting development patterns. Public authorities deployed a 3-pronged approach: they maintained an authoritative position, created different stages and modes for participation, and diffused power over multiple small developer groups. They did not pursue a progrowth policy agenda but sought to produce broader social values through a community-building governance strategy and the promotion of what Imrobscio (2013) calls an "ownership paradigm." The model points to a well-calibrated urban regeneration strategy that creates a positive synergy between the regulatory authority and the administrative and fiscal capacity of the local state and private sector and community entrepreneurialism.


: In a prospective, randomised study, 40 primi- and plurigravida were treated either intracervically with 50 micrograms Sulprostone gel or vaginally with a pessary containing 1 mg Gemeprost in order to soften the cervix prior to first trimester termination of pregnancy. Curettage was performed on average 6.0 and 3.2 hours, respectively, after prostaglandin administration. For objective demonstration of the priming effect, the force required for dilatation of the cervical canal was measured in Newton by a special tonometer before prostaglandin treatment and before operation. The free passability of the cervical canal, the maximal dilatability with a force of 10 N and the increase in dilatability after local prostaglandin application were measured. A modified visual analogue scale was used to evaluate the subjective pain experience. During the time between administration and curettage, no abortion occurred in any of the patients. There were no statistically significant differences between both groups regarding the free passability and the maximal dilatability, however, the increase in dilatability was significantly greater in the Gemeprost group. The visual analogue scale allows the patient to quantify, at least to some extent, her experience of pain, but there were no differences in the rate of uterine cramps between both groups; gastrointestinal symptoms did not occur. Both methods were found to be equally efficient; the advantages of Gemeprost are the ease of administration and the short application-curettage interval; however, the cost for one Gemeprost application is nearly 6-fold higher than that of one Sulprostone gel application.


In order to deal with known limitations of the hard margin support vector machine (SVM) for binary classification — such as overfitting and the fact that some data sets are not linearly separable —, a soft margin approach has been proposed in literature [2, 4, 5]. The soft margin SVM allows training data to be misclassified to a certain extent, by introducing slack variables and penalizing the cost function with an error term, i.e., the 1-norm or 2-norm of the corresponding slack vector. A regularization parameter C trades off the importance of maximizing the margin versus minimizing the error. While the 2-norm soft margin algorithm itself is well understood, and a generalization bound is known [4, 5], no computationally tractable method for tuning the soft margin parameter C has been proposed so far. In this report we present a convex way to optimize C for the 2-norm soft margin SVM, by maximizing this generalization bound. The resulting problem is a quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problem, which can be solved in polynomial time O(l) with l the number of training samples.


A comparative study of Scotland's global military diaspora, focusing on the impact of the Great War.

Between the 1820s and 1914 over two million people emigrated from Scotland, settling primarily in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. One of the most distinctive ways in which the influence of the Scottish diaspora overseas expressed itself was the formation of military units which identified with Scotland.
This volume provides a comparative overview of the nineteenth century emergence of military Scottishness and explores how the construction and performance of Scottish military identity has evolved in different Commonwealth countries over the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, it looks at the ways in which Scottish volunteer regiments variously sought to draw upon, align themselves with or, at certain key moments, redefine the assertions of martial identity which Highland regiments represented.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a supply-side review of policies and practices that impact on the shortage of supply in the contemporary specialist housing market for older people in the UK.

Design/methodology/approach
The review is based on a review of academic literature, policy documents, reports and other sources.

Findings
There is a critical conflict between the key social purpose of specialist housing (i.e. living independent of socially provided care) and the values that underpin and ultimately limit the quantity of units in both the social and private sector. In the social sector, government policies prohibit rather than encourage local authorities and housing associations from increasing specialist housing stock. The nature of leasehold tenures in the private sector tends to commodify not only housing stock but also those who use it and therefore acts to instrumentalise housing supply in favour of the profit motive and the focus on the person and her or his needs is largely ignored.

Originality/value
While the shortage of specialist housing is well known, this paper is unique in that it provides a comprehensive and critical supply-side review of the factors that have created such conditions.


The Uppsala Corpus of Student Writings consists of Swedish texts produced as part of a national test of students ranging in age from nine (in year three of primary school) to nineteen (the last year of upper secondary school) who are studying either Swedish or Swedish as a second language. National tests have been collected since 1996. The corpus currently consists of 2,500 texts containing over 1.5 million tokens. Parts of the texts have been annotated on several linguistic levels using existing state-of-the-art natural language processing tools. In order to make the corpus easy to interpret for scholars in the humanities, we chose the CoNLL format instead of an XML-based representation. Since spelling and grammatical errors are common in student writings, the texts are automatically corrected while keeping the original tokens in the corpus. Each token is annotated with part-of-speech and morphological features as well as syntactic structure. The main purpose of the corpus is to facilitate the systematic and quantitative empirical study of the writings of various student groups based on gender, geographic area, age, grade awarded or a combination of these, synchronically or diachronically. The intention is for this to be a monitor corpus, currently under development.


Isomer-specific, high-resolution photoelectron spectra of cryogenically-cooled pyridinide anions obtained using slow photoelectron velocity-map imaging are presented. New vibrational structure in the detachment spectrum of para-pyridinide is resolved, and the spectra of meta- and ortho-pyridinide are reported for the first time. These spectra yield electron affinities of 1.4797(5), 1.4473(5), and 0.8669(7) eV for the para-, meta- and ortho-pyridyl radicals, respectively, as well as a number of vibrational frequencies for each neutral isomer. While most of the resolved structure in all three spectra is readily assigned by comparison to B3LYP/6-311+G* Franck-Condon simulations, the para-pyridinide spectrum shows newly-resolved fine structure attributed to anharmonic coupling within the vibrational manifold of the corresponding neutral radical. Isomeric trends in the photoelectron angular distributions are rationalized by approximating the detached anion orbitals as superpositions of s, p, and d-like hydrogenic orbitals, based on an application of Sanov's generalized mixing model [J. Chem. Phys. 141, 124312 (2014)]. The presented experimental and theoretical results are used to address the relative energies of the anion and neutral isomers, as well as the site-specific bond dissociation energies of pyridine.


Emerging of hybrid systems comprising of different renewable energy sources and storages needs integrated power converter topologies to provide the possibility of power delivery between renewable energy sources and the electrical grid. In this paper, positive Buck-Boost (BB) converter topology is selected and modified to a multi-input (MI) topology that could be controlled suitably by sliding mode control (SMC) technique. The methodology is based on controlling a MI single output system. Within the SMC method, besides robust dynamic behavior of the closed-loop system, power sharing between different sources of energy is achieved. Simulation results show powerful characteristics of sliding mode technique such as robustness in terms of dynamic stability of the converter.


The communications sector in Nigeria has witnessed an enormous growth since 1992 when it was liberalized and deregulated. However, much more significant developments have been witnessed since 2001 when the Global System for Mobile Networks (GSM) were licensed to operate as private players in the sector. This examined the existing legal and institutional framework for the operations of these GSM providers in the country. The main aim was to determine how far the regulatory framework in the sector has improved the quality of service provided to subscribers by these GSM operators. This study revealed that in spite of the elaborate legal and institutional framework for the regulation of GSM operators in the country, their services are far from been satisfactory, and consumers in the sector do not feel adequately protected by these measures. Accordingly, the study recommended that the enactment of a generic competition law in the country should address the imperfections in the sector.

 Key words: Nigeria, global system for mobile networks (GSM), sector.


Up to 90% of patients with metastatic or advanced stage cancer will experience significant cancer-related pain. Approximately half or more of patients diagnosed with cancer may experience bone pain. It has been estimated that tumor metastases to the skeleton affects roughly 400,000 US citizens annually. Carcinoma from breast, lung, and prostate cancers account for approximately 80% of secondary metastatic bone disease. Bone metastases may cause devastating clinical complications associated with dramatic reductions in quality of life, mobility, and independence, as well as excruciating refractory pain. Associated complications from osseous metastases also present a substantial economic burden. Currently, there are still a significantly high number of patients suffering with unrelieved pain from osseous metastases. Treatments for painful osseous metastases may not only diminish pain but also may improve quality of life and independence/mobility, and reduce skeletal morbidity, potential pathologic fractures, spinal cord compression, and other "skeletal-related events." Treatment strategies for painful osseous metastases include the following: systemic analgesics, intrathecal analgesics, glucocorticoids, radiation (external beam radiation, radiopharmaceuticals), ablative techniques (radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation), bisphosphonates, chemotherapeutic agents, inhibitors of RANKL–RANK interaction (eg, denosumab), hormonal therapies, interventional techniques (eg, kyphoplasty), and surgical approaches. Although the mechanisms underlying the development of bone metastases remain incompletely understood, there appears to be important bi-directional interactions between the tumor and the bone microenvironment. A greater understanding of the pathophysiology of painful osseous metastases may lead to better and more selective targeted analgesic therapy. Additionally, potential future therapeutic approaches to painful osseous metastases may revolutionize approaches to analgesia for this condition, leading to optimal outcomes with maximal pain relief and minimal adverse effects.


Ten monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were prepared against the nonstructural protein sNS of avian reovirus S1133. Eight of them were selected for two-way competitive binding assay after coupling with horseradish peroxidase. The results allowed the definition of three epitopes, designated A, B, and C. Blocking assay of poly(A)–Sepharose binding activity of sNS with MAbs indicated that MAb recognizing epitope B was able to block poly(A) oligomer binding, suggesting that epitope B is involved in ssRNA binding of sNS. An immuno-dot binding assay was used to analyze the effect of denaturation on antibody recognition of the epitopes. All MAbs bound to protein sNS in its native form. After denaturation by boiling in SDS and 2-mercaptoethanol, the binding of MAbs recognizing epitopes B and C was not affected. The reactivity of MAbs recognizing epitope A was fully abolished by denaturation. These results suggest that the binding of MAbs directed against epitope A is conformation-dependent; however, the recognition by MAbs of epitopes B and C is not conformation-dependent. In addition, the results from the cross-reactivity of MAbs to heterologous avian reovirus strains suggest that the three epitopes are highly conserved among these virus strains. © 2001 Academic Press


This study was conducted to quantify structural change associated with human nuclear fiber compaction as a function of ageing and nuclear cataract formation. Normal donor lenses in three age ranges, young (15--25 years), middle-aged (36--46 years) and aged (59--81 years) were compared to each other and to age-related nuclear cataracts (55--81 years) surgically removed by extracapsular extraction. Several structural modifications which occurred as a manifestation of fiber compaction were noted. In the fetal nucleus (FN), the average anterior and posterior fiber angles decreased approximately 20% with age. Additionally, there was a reduction in the thickness of both the anterior and posterior segments of fetal fibers with age. On average, the anterior--posterior (A--P) axis in the embryonic nucleus (EN) decreased 33% with age. The average length of EN fibers decreased significantly (37%) as a function of age. This change in EN fiber length was accomplished by effecting compaction folds along fiber length. By comparison, in nuclear cataracts the anterior and posterior angles of FN fibers were about 12% smaller than comparably aged normal lenses. Similarly, the A--P axis and the length of EN fibers were 13% smaller than age-matched normals. Nuclear fiber compaction in early adulthood was significant and may contribute to the lens hardening and loss of accommodative ability symptomatic of presbyopia. 3D-CAD reconstructions of fiber compaction show how the reduction in the spacing of lateral interdigitations along fiber length causes an increase in the fiber membrane complexity along the A--P axis in relation to fiber cytoplasm as light passes through lenses. These results may explain, at least in part, how an increase in large particle scatter occurs as light is transmitted through fiber membranes, resulting in reduced lens optical quality as a function of age. By extrapolation, the significantly increased compaction of nuclear fibers in age-related nuclear cataracts may be a contributing factor for excessive scatter in nuclear opacification.


The combination of increased power dissipation and increased packaging density has led to substantial increases in chip and module heat flux in high-end computers. The challenge has been to limit the rise in chip temperature. In the past virtually all-commercial computers were designed to operate at temperatures above the ambient. However researchers have identified the advantages of operating electronics at low temperatures. The primary purpose of low temperature cooling using vapor compression system are faster switching times of semiconductor devices, increased circuit speed due to lower electrical resistance of interconnecting materials, and a reduction in thermally induced failures of devices and components. Achievable performance improvements range from 1 to 3% for every 10°C lower transistor temperature, depending on the doping characteristics of the chip. The current research focuses on IBM's mainframe, which uses a conventional refrigeration system to maintain chip temperatures below that of comparable air-cooled systems, but well above cryogenic temperatures. Although performance has been the key driver in the use of this technology, the second major reason for designing a system with low temperature cooling is the improvement achieved in reliability to counteract detrimental effects, which rise as technology is pushed to the extremes. A mathematical model is developed to determine the time constant for expansion valve sensor blub. This time constant varies with variation in thermo-physical properties of sensor element that is bulb size and blub liquid. An experimental bench is built to study the effect of variation of evaporator outlet superheat on system performance. The heat load is varied from no load to full load (1KW) to find out the system response at various loads. Experimental investigation is also done to see how the changes in thermo-physical properties of the liquid in sensor bulb of expansion valve affect the overall system performance. Different types of thermostatic expansion valves are tested to investigate that bulb size; bulb constant and bulb location have significant effect on the behavior of the system. Thermal resistance between the bulb and evaporator return line can considerably affect the system stability and by increasing the thermal resistance, the stability can be further increased.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


This article focuses on the recent academic assertion that police attempts to engage in dialogue before and during protest events (ostensibly to facilitate the participants' preferred means of political expression) are perhaps more realistically concerned with collecting useful intelligence about demonstrators' likely motives and activities, and preparing advance justification for possible police interventions. A case study is presented of the work carried out by a 15-person South Yorkshire Police 'Police Liaison Team' (PLT) in relation to the 'anti-Lib Dem' political protest occurring in the major English city of Sheffield in March 2011. Using a combination of participant observation and interviews with police and demonstrators, the study highlights compelling similarities between the tactical approach and underlying objectives of the PLT and those subscribed to by public order specialists in the Metropolitan Police Service in the early 1990s. In common with their 'Met' counterparts, the PLT used carefully cultivated exchange relationships with protest organisers as means of gathering intelligence, securing compliance with police preferences for the routes of marches and establishing parameters of 'acceptable' behaviour. However, by using the relatively new tactic of immersing themselves in the crowd, PLT members were also able to maintain 'open' lines of communication with protesters and provide a stream of unerringly accurate 'dynamic risk assessments' to remote senior commanders. This tactic helped to ensure that there were few unsettling 'surprises' on both sides, that there were no unnecessary, indiscriminate or over-punitive police interventions, and that the police operation was ultimately regarded by protest organisers as having been exceptionally tolerant and 'facilitating'.


In this study, the theoretical basis and limitations of magnesium ammonium phosphate (MAP) precipitation are investigated and experimentally tested for leather tanning industry. The MAP precipitation is applied to leather tanning wastewaters for both segregated flows containing high ammonia concentrations and combined flows. Segregated flow treatment on smaller volumes of wastewater provided an ammonia concentration of down to 150 mg l−1 NH3-N. The resulting ammonia concentration of MAP precipitation on combined wastewater is at the level of domestic wastewater which eliminates the need of further nitrogen removal in the biological treatment and provides an effluent quality acceptable for the public sewer.


Introduction 40 years old married goldsmith presented with features of numbness of both lower limbs, swelling of the neck, bilateral pedal oedema and abdominal distension of 4 months duration. In addition he had asthenia, effort dyspnoea and pigmentation. Systemic inquiry revealed no other significant symptoms and he was on treatment for hypertension. He was a non-alcoholic and a non-smoker. He had many social and psychological problems due to his current illness. Examination revealed mild pallor, pigmentation not involving oral mucosa but involving skin creases, generalised lymphadenopathy in the cervical, supraclavicular and inguinal areas rubbery and non-discrete in certain areas, leuconychia without clubbing, ankle oedema. CVS and respiratory system examination were normal. Abdomen revealed non-tender hepatomegaly 4 cm below right costal margin shifting dullness, while CNS examination revealed presence of peripheral neuropathy with bilateral foot drop without thickened nerves and bilateral papilloedema. Following were the results of laboratory investigations; FBC: Hb-9.3 g/dl, MCV-70.2 fl and rest normal. LFT: normal. Renal profile normal. ESR:40 mm first hour, C-RP 48 mg/dl. FBS-100 mg/dl. Normal ferritin, calcium and ceruloplasmin levels. Clotting profile: INR-1.6, rest normal. UFR normal. HIV screening negative. CXR-PA normal. Abdomen and pelvic USS: minimal hepatomegaly and splenomegaly with ascites. Mantoux negative. OGD: no evidence of portal hypertension. Bone marrow normal. Nerve conduction study and EMG: severe demyelinating sensory and motor neuropathy. 2D echo: moderate LVH and pulmonary hypertension with small pericardial effusion. TSH- 23.8 μiu/l (0.4–4.0 μiu/l) Ascitic fluid analysis: 64.5 g/l, white cells- 344/mm3 90% lymphocytes and 10% neutrophils. LDH and amylase levels normal. Screening for mycobacterium negative. Liver biopsy: interphase hepatitis. Immunoglobulin Profile – elevated α 2 Globulins and a mild polyclonal gammopathy Free κ light chains 569.0 mg/dl (138–375) Free λ light chains 258.7 mg/dl (93–242) Lymph node biopsy revealed unifying diagnosis which was compatible with other clinical and laboratory findings. The patient was treated with a single drug for 6 months which resulted in improvement of his clinical features and resolution of ascites. Conclusion Ascites is a common condition encountered by a Gastroenterologist with or without other signs, and the aeotiology could be unusually extraordinary as in this report with an unusual therapeutic strategy. Methods BSG – interactive case presentation Results BSG – interactive case presentation Conclusion BSG – interactive case presentation


Objective The oblective of this study was to evaluate the endometrial response of women with unexplained infertility after treatment with sildenafil citrate (viagra) suppositories. Background Unexplained infertility refers to failure to conceive in a couple with no definitive cause. Endometrial thickness (ED TH) and perfusion may have an important contribution to etiopathogenesis of unexplained infertility. Patients and methods A total of 50 women with unexplained primary infertility were treated with 25 mg of sildenafil citrate suppositories four times per day for 7 days starting from the fifth day of the menstrual cycle for three cycles. Ultrasonographic measurement of ED TH and the mean resistance index (RI) values of endometrial spiral artery (SA) assessed by transvaginal color-pulsed Doppler ultrasound were measured in women with unexplained infertility before and after sildenafil citrate treatment and compared with an equal number of a fertile control group receiving no treatment. The conception rate and pregnancy outcome were recorded in the two groups. Results Women with unexplained infertility in the present study had a significantly thinner endometrium and a higher SA-RI (6.52 + 0.77; 1.00 + 0.23 mm, respectively), meaning lower peri-implantation blood flow compared with fertile controls (11.98 + 1.23; 0.58 + 0.06 mm, respectively). Sildenafil citrate-treated women showed a statistically significant increase in ED TH (8.87 + 0.56 mm; P < 0.001) and a significant decrease in the mean SA-RI (0.61 + 0.07; P < 0.001), yielding a better conception rate. Conclusion Treatment with viagra suppositories enhances endometrial blood flow by decreasing the SA-RI and consequently improves endometrial growth and receptivity in cases of unexplained infertility, thus yielding a better conception rate.


As modern industrial processes become more and more complex, machine learning is increasingly used to gain additional knowledge about the process from production data. Up to now these methods are usually based on correlations between process parameters and hence cannot describe cause-effect relationships. To overcome this problem we propose a hybrid (constraint and scoring-based) structure learning method based on a Bayesian Network to detect the causal structure out of its data. Starting with an empty graph, first the underlying undirected graph is learned and edges coming from root nodes are directed using a constraint-based approach. Next a scoring-based method is used in order to calculate the uncertainty for each possible directed edge and out of this construct the Bayesian Network. Finally soft interventions are applied to the process in order to learn the real causal structure. Our approach is tested in simulations on a chemical stirred tank reactor and on an experimental laboratory plant.


Computational modeling has become a central aspect of research in the cognitive neurosciences. As the field matures, it is increasingly important to move beyond standard models to quantitatively assess models with richer dynamics that may better reflect underlying cognitive and neural processes. For example, sequential sampling models (SSMs) are a general class of models of decision making intended to capture processes jointly giving rise to reaction time distributions and choice data in n-alternative choice paradigms. A number of model variations are of theoretical interest, but empirical data analysis has historically been tied to a small subset for which likelihood functions are analytically tractable. Advances in methods designed for likelihood-free inference have recently made it computationally feasible to consider a much larger spectrum of sequential sampling models. In addition, recent work has motivated the combination of SSMs with reinforcement learning (RL) models, which had historically been considered in separate literatures. Here we provide a significant addition to the widely used HDDM Python toolbox and include a tutorial for how users can easily fit and assess a (user extensible) wide variety of SSMs, and how they can be combined with RL models. The extension comes batteries included, including model visualization tools, posterior predictive checks, and ability to link trial-wise neural signals with model parameters via hierarchical Bayesian regression.


This paper uses the example of foreign languages to explore the integration of critical information literacy into the curriculum of various disciplines. By closely examining the practices and values inherent in the foreign language information environment, the paper suggests that a critical vision of information literacy provides the most appropriate approach to help meet campus goals of educating students for transcultural competence. As such, the paper provides an example of the process and role of the librarian in integrating critical information literacy into disciplinary fields and proposes that this approach could be effective in global learning initiatives.


Abstract Background: Europe is in the midst of the largest refugee migration since the Second World War; there is an urgent need to provide an updated systematic review of the current best evidence for managing mental distress in refugee populations. Aims: The aim of this review is to provide an exhaustive summary of the current literature on psychosocial interventions, both trauma- and non-trauma-focused, for refugee populations experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive or anxiety symptoms. To produce recommendations for future research and current clinical practice. Method: Searches were conducted in PubMed, PsychINFO (Hosted by Ovid), PILOTS and Social Services Abstracts; 5305 articles were screened and 40 were included. Results: This review found medium to high quality evidence supporting the use of narrative exposure therapy (NET). A lack of culturally adapted treatments was apparent and there was less evidence to support standard cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and multidisciplinary treatments. Conclusion: NET produced positive outcomes in refugees from a diverse range of backgrounds and trauma types. There is a general dearth of research in all intervention types: further research should include more "real-world" multidisciplinary interventions that better model clinical practice. Recommendations for evaluating local need, and creating a culturally sensitive workforce are discussed.


Problem. With bilingualism now a world-wide phenomenon, language has become a powerful force for unity both at home and abroad. This, along with increased immigration, has emphasized the need for the study of second or foreign languages. In the United States, bilingualism and the learning of English as a second language are outstanding educational problems. Psycho-socio-cultural factors, attitudes, and motivation affect second language learning perhaps even more than age, aptitude, or methodology. The second language teacher must be aware of the existence and importance of these factors and their inherent problems. This study sought to classify and rate the importance of certain factors influencing the learning of a second language; to compare the interests, attitudes, activities, concerns, and study habits of students learning English as a second language with those of students learning French, German, and Spanish; and to recommend a counseling-teaching approach which would alleviate psychosocial or socio-cultural problems related to the learning of a second language. Method. Forty- four teachers and forty-five students responded to a Factor Rating List (FRL) to classify, rate, and rank factors influencing the learning of a second language. The Second Language Attitude Questionnaire (SLAQ) was administered to one hundred and eighty-nine students in the French, German, Spanish, and English as a second language (ESL) classes at Andrews University during the winter quarter, 1978. The questionnaire was used to compare six variables related to learning a second language: interests, importance, attitudes, activities, satisfaction, and study habits. Five null hypotheses were tested using chi-square analysis, categorical scaling, product-moment correlation, paired-comparison scaling, multivariate analysis, and discriminant analysis. Findings. Teachers and students responded very similarly in most of their classifications of factors related to second language learning, classifying the majority of the factors as primarily pychosocial or socio-cultural. Both groups indicated that motivation and the willingness to learn and be taught were the most important factors. Hypothesis 1, that there is no significant difference in the classifications by teachers and students of a second language of certain factors related to the learning of a second or a foreign language, was partially supported. Hypotheses 2 and 3, that there is no significant correlation between the ratings and rankings of these factors, were both rejected. Results of the statistical tests for hypotheses 4 and 5 revealed significant differences in the responses of the language groups to the items in the six subscales of the SLAQ. The major differences among the groups were in their activities involving the use of the language, their satisfaction with various aspects of, and their attitudes towards, the learning of the language. The ESL students were generally more negative in their attitudes towards learning the language than were the students of Spanish, German, or French. There was no significant difference in the study habits of the four groups. Conclusions. Second language learning involves the interaction of motive, attitude, method, and teacher-student relations. Psycho-socio-cultural factors may determine the success or failure of second language learners. The teacher must be aware of these factors as he seeks to help the student. Teacher-student interaction is a primary step towards breaking down language and cultural barriers. A Counseling Approach for Language Teaching (CALT) will aid in understanding and alleviating psycho-socio-cultural problems related to learning a second or a foreign language.


It has been suggested in the lay literature that static stretching and/or warm-up will prevent the occurrence of Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effects of static stretching and/or warm-up on the level of pain associated with DOMS. Sixty-two healthy male and female volunteers were randomly assigned to four groups: (a) subjects who statically stretched the quadriceps muscle group before a step, (b) subjects who only performed a stepping warm-up, (c) subjects who both stretched and performed a stepping warm-up prior to a step test, and (d) subjects who only performed a step test. The step test (Asmussen, 1956) required subjects to do concentric work with their right leg and eccentric work with their left leg to voluntary exhaustion. Subjects rated their muscle soreness on a ratio scale from zero to six at 24-hour intervals for 5 days following the step test. A 4x2x2 ANOVA with repeated measures on legs and Duncan's New Multiple Range post-hoc test found no difference in peak muscle soreness among the groups doing the step test or for gender (p greater than .05). There was the expected significant difference in peak muscle soreness between eccentrically and concentrically worked legs, with the eccentrically worked leg experiencing greater muscle soreness. We concluded that static stretching and/or warm-up does not prevent DOMS resulting from exhaustive exercise.


Several fast and low-overhead distributed mutual exclusion algorithms have been proposed. Each of these algorithms required O(log n) messages per critical section entry and O(log n) bits of storage per processor. In this paper, we make a comparative performance study of four distributed mutual exclusion algorithms. Since the algorithms we study are the basis for distributed synchronization, distributed virtual memory, coherent caches, and distributed object systems, our results have implications about the best methods for their implementation. We find that the distributed synchronization algorithm of Chang, Singhal, and Liu (1990) has the overall best performance, though other algorithms are more efficient in special cases. In a system of 350 processors, the CSL algorithm requires only six messages per critical section entry, including the initial request and the token response messages.<<ETX>>


The expansion of production and development in the industrial sector, it is necessary to increase the investment in that. But limits of the financial resources to the investment and high risk for investments in industrial and production activities on the one hand, and the frequency of necessities and goals of the other hand, is inevitable to planning and priorities of investment. This study to follow, in condition of risk and uncertainty and the exist fluctuations in supply and demand market of industry, optimization of model to determine priorities and economic feasibility to the investment in this sector. This study, in three approach (TOPSIS, VIKOR and COPRAS), will examine its purpose. This research has been made for Gilan Province from 2012 to 2015. The results of this research involve the investment criteria and specify the priority of these sectors. The final results of this study indicate based on TOPSIS, VIKOR and COPRAS, the current pattern of investment in the industrial sector was not optimal and needs to be adjusted in the percentages and amounts of investment.


High number of regulatory T cells (Tregs), both circulating and at the tumor site, often indicates a poor prognosis in CRC patient's possibly impairing natural killer (NK) cell function. To determine the role of Tregs in CRC development and their effects on NK cells, we created novel transgenic Rag‐Apc mice that lack T cells and develop spontaneous intestinal tumors, and we adoptively transferred Tregs or transiently depleted NK cells during initial stages of tumorigenesis. In 6‐weeks old Rag‐Apc mice containing microscopic intestinal tumors adoptive transfer of Tregs or transient NK cell depletion dramatically associated with an increase in intestinal tumor multiplicity and tumor size, with significantly decreased survival rates. Importantly, Treg transfer increased small intestinal polyp formation up to 65% (P < 0.0005) and increased colon tumors multiplicities by 84% (P < 0.0001) with a significant decrease in NK cells as compared to control mice. Similarly, in NK depleted mice, colon tumor multiplicities increased up to 40% and small intestinal polyp formation up to 60% (P < 0.0001). Treg transfer or NK cell transient depletion markedly increased interleukin (IL)‐22 systemically and the inflammatory signaling molecules P2X7R, and STAT3 in the tumors; and impaired production of the tumor suppressor interferon (IFN)‐γ systemically. Notably, IL‐22 binding protein (IL‐22 BP) was associated with NKs and a significant decrease was seen at the tumor site in mice adoptively transferred with Tregs or depleted of NK cells. Our results suggest that adoptive transfer of Tregs aggressively promote intestinal tumorigenesis by decreasing NK cell number and activity by modulating IL‐22 BP. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


We consider the distribution of the complex phase of the fermion determinant in QCD at nonzero chemical potential and examine the physical conditions under which the distribution takes a Gaussian form. We then calculate the baryon number as a function of the complex phase of the fermion determinant and show 1) that the exponential cancellations produced by the sign problem take the form of total derivatives 2) that the full baryon number is orthogonal to this noise. These insights allow us to define a self-consistency requirement for measurements of the baryon number in lattice simulations.


The establishment of the UK Financial Policy Committee is a landmark development in macroprudential oversight. However, its purview may be overly narrow. Macroprudential policy ought to be concerned with the overall e¢ ciency of the …nancial system. Macroprudential policymakers should have a role as much concerned with providing authoritative, public advice on areas of policy relevant to aggregate …nancial e¢ ciency as with imposing additional restrictions on bank lending. Issues of independence and transparency loom large under the current regime as well as with some suggestions we make.


Abstract Previous findings indicated that cAMP had an inhibitory effect of on tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha production. Angiotensin II (Ang II) may activate the cAMP-protein kinase A (PKA) pathway in renal mesangial cells through synthesis of prostaglandins (PGs) and the possibility arises that inhibition of Ang II-induced cAMP formation might result in the overproduction of TNF-alpha in the cell and this hypothesis was tested in the present study. Rat mesangial cells were exposed to Ang II in the presence or absence of cyclooxygenase inhibitor (indomethacin) or cAMP-PKA inhibitor (H-89). Exposure of mesangial cell to Ang II (10 −6  M–10 −8  M) significantly increased intracellular cAMP level through type 1 Ang II receptor but had no effect on TNF-alpha protein release, transcriptional activity, or mRNA. However, following the addition of indomethacin or H-89, Ang II significantly increased TNF-alpha release, transcriptional activity, and mRNA level. These data suggested that in mesangial cells after blockade of cAMP-PKA by PG inhibition, Ang II was capable of stimulating TNF-alpha transcription which subsequently increased TNF-alpha mRNA accumulation and protein release.


Visible-light optical coherence tomography (Vis-OCT) is an emerging technology that can image hemodynamic response in microvasculature. Vis-OCT can retrieve blood oxygen saturation (sO2) mapping using intrinsic optical absorption contrast while providing high-resolution anatomical vascular structures at the same time. To improve the accuracy of Vis-OCT oximetry on vessels embedded in highly scattering medium, i.e., brain cortex, we developed and formulated a novel dual-depth sampling and normalization strategy that allowed us to minimize the detrimental effect of ubiquitous tissue scattering. We applied our newly developed approach to monitor the hemodynamic response in mouse cortex after focal photothrombosis. We observed vessel dilatation, which was negatively correlated with the original vessel diameter, in the penumbra region. The sO2 of vessels in the penumbra region also dropped below normal range after focal ischemia.


This work is a study of the changing nature of US print media coverage of the Russo-Chechen conflict before and after the attacks of September 11, 2001. More specifically, it analyzes three major print news publications–The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal–and their coverage of six separate alleged Chechen terrorist attacks on Russian soil, all of which were related to the Russo-Chechen conflict. The importance of this work rests in the power of language and rhetoric in the media and the way that this power can influence readers' perceptions of external events. This study highlights the way in which the experience of September 11th influenced the US print media's perception and presentation of Russian-Chechen conflicts. In analyzing the three newspapers, this author collected all relevant articles covering each event within a seven-day radius after the occurrence of the event. This author then used critical language analysis to determine specific and repetitive frames of representation that occurred within the coverage of each event, and compared the patterns of frames of representation presented by the newspapers before and after the attacks of September 11th. The shifting frames of representation within the coverage of the three newspapers indicate there was a significant change in interpretation of the Russo-Chechen conflict after the attacks of September 11th. While the newspapers' coverage shifted by varying degrees, the post-9/11 reporting was characterized by an overall trend of more personal, less balanced, and less historically grounded reporting. As a result of this, readers of these three publications encountered a much different interpretation of the Russo-Chechen conflict in the post-9/11 era than had been the case prior to 9/11. Overall, this work contributes to a discussion of the bias within media coverage that occurs as the result of the personal experience and ideology of the editorial staff. This work is also a cautionary tale that highlights the need for a critical analysis in the consumption of authoritative media sources.


We consider the issue of strategic behaviour in various peer-assessment tasks, including peer grading of exams or homeworks and peer review in hiring or promotions. When a peer-assessment task is competitive (e.g., when students are graded on a curve), agents may be incentivized to misreport evaluations in order to improve their own final standing. Our focus is on designing methods for detection of such manipulations. Specifically, we consider a setting in which agents evaluate a subset of their peers and output rankings that are later aggregated to form a final ordering. In this paper, we investigate a statistical framework for this problem and design a principled test for detecting strategic behaviour. We prove that our test has strong false alarm guarantees and evaluate its detection ability in practical settings. For this, we design and conduct an experiment that elicits strategic behaviour from subjects and release a dataset of patterns of strategic behaviour that may be of independent interest. We use this data to run a series of real and semi-synthetic evaluations that reveal a strong detection power of our test.


The authors report a case of status epilepticus secondary to limbic encephalitis that was successfully treated with temporal lobectomy. A 45-year-old woman presented in status epilepticus refractory to high-dose suppressive medical therapy. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed T2- and FLAIR-weighted hyperintensities in the right temporal lobe, left and right frontal lobes, and pons. A lumbar puncture revealed normal findings. Continuous electroencephalography monitoring showed continued right temporal seizure activity. A paraneoplastic panel was positive for N-type voltage-gated calcium channels. Subsequent bronchial biopsy revealed small cell carcinoma of the lung. A right temporal lobectomy was performed due to refractory status, resulting in resolution of seizure activity and recovery of good neurological function. The authors describe their case and review the literature on surgical therapy for refractory status epilepticus and limbic encephalitis.


In most countries, women have a lower level of financial literacy than men on average. This report demonstrates that differences in income and education and less experience in financial matters only provide a partial explanation for the gender gap. Data from various countries show that cultural differences may also play a role. In order to close the gender gap in financial literacy, schools should do a better job of imparting general knowledge and numerical proficiency. Lessons on the subject of finance must attempt to involve girls so they learn to view financial matters as part of "their job" from an early age. Overall gender equality would also narrow the gender gap in financial literacy.


This thesis examines the interplay between external and internal factors in second language acquisition by analyzing the role of individual differences in experiential (language contact) and cognitive (working memory) factors in linguistic development that takes place in traditional, at home classroom settings and during study abroad. The study aims to provide a multi-dimensional perspective on these relationships by assessing both behavioral and neural evidence. The study assesses changes in linguistic abilities (overall proficiency, grammaticality judgments, and oral production accuracy) and online processing (event-related potentials elicited during grammaticality judgment task) among intermediate-level learners of Spanish as a second language. Changes in proficiency and processing over the course of one semester of study are analyzed with regard to reported language contact hours and working memory abilities. Analyses revealed that learners in both the At Home and Study Abroad groups evidenced behavioral and processing changes from pre- to post-semester. Within the At Home group, language contact and working memory accounted for changes in (1) overall proficiency and (2) online processing of grammatical gender agreement on adjectives. Within the Study Abroad group, language contact accounted for (1) gains in judgment and production accuracy for grammatical gender agreement on adjectives and (2) changes in online processing of adjective agreement violations. Working memory did not account for behavioral or processing changes within the Study Abroad group. Results of this study contribute data to context-based and neurocognitive approaches to second language acquisition research. They also provide preliminary answers to Collentine and Freed's (2004) call for theories of language acquisition and processing to take into consideration cognitive abilities and context of learning. Future research that utilizes a multidimensional approach informed by the fields of second language acquisition and cognitive neuroscience is likely to provide further insights into the relationships between external and internal factors in linguistic development and have significant implications for identifying the predictors of successful second language acquisition among adult learners.


Background Numerous studies reported higher levels of mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic but only a minority used repeated measurements. We investigated change in depressive symptoms in the Czech ageing cohort and the impact of pre-existing and COVID-19-related stressors. Methods We used data on 2853 participants (mean age 73.4 years) from the Czech part of the prospective Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors In Eastern Europe cohort that participated in postal questionnaire surveys before (September 2017–June 2018) and during the pandemic (October 2020–April 2021). Participants reported their depressive symptoms using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale including 10 (CESD-10) tool. A principal component analysis (PCA) was used to create representative components of the pandemic-related stressors. The impact of the stressors on change in depressive symptoms was tested using multivariable linear regression, after adjustment for age and potential confounders. Results Three patterns of the pandemic-related stressors ('financial stressors', 'social and perception stressors' and 'death and hospitalisation stressors') were extracted from the PCA. The mean CESD-10 score increased from 4.90 to 5.37 (p<0.001). In fully adjusted models, significantly larger increases in depression score were reported by older people (β=0.052; p=0.006), those with poor self-rated health (β=0.170; p<0.001), those who experienced death or hospitalisation of a close person (β=0.064; p<0.001), social deprivation (β=0.057; p<0.001), delays in healthcare (β=0.048; p=0.005) and those who suffered from COVID-19 (β=0.045; p=0.008). Conclusion This study confirms an increase in depressive symptoms in older persons during the pandemic and identified several pandemic-related risk factors suggesting that public health policies should address this vulnerable group by adopting the preventing strategies.


Dihydroergotamine (DHE) can be a highly effective , self-administered therapy for acute migraine of moderate to severe intensity or acute cluster headache. It tends to take somewhat longer than injectable suma-triptan to exert its therapeutic effect, and it may be more likely to provoke nausea than sumatriptan, but to balance this it is associated with a lower likelihood of early recurrent headache. Inhibiting more widespread use of DHE has been the lack of a formulated unit dose and a matched " au-toinjector, " with the consequent need for patients to make do with a syringe, needle, and glass ampule. The following instructions should assist in facilitating patient self-administration of DHE. DHE comes in small glass ampules which contain 1 mL of liquid and 1 mg of the drug itself. For your first treatment, carefully break off the top of the ampule and fill the syringe with one-half of the liquid contents (ie, 0.5 mL, containing 0.5 mg of DHE). Wipe off the skin injection site with alcohol (the anterior thigh is easiest to use for self-administering the drug). Holding the syringe nearly parallel to the skin, slide the needle just under the skin and inject the syringe contents. You probably will raise a small wheal at the injection site; if you do, rubbing the wheal gently will help diffuse the drug into the surrounding tissue and thus speed its therapeutic effect. First use of DHE: If you experience severe nausea or other unpleasant side effects within 20 minutes of the initial injection, administer no more DHE. If the * DHE may also be self-administered intramuscularly. initial 0.5 mg dose causes no side effect and leads to no improvement in your headache within 20 minutes of the initial injection, administer the rest of the liquid in the ampule (ie, the remaining 0.5 mL, containing 0.5 mg DHE). If your headache persists unchanged despite your having administered the entire ampule, and if you have no significant side effects from the drug, you may administer a second ampule (all 1 mL at once) 60–120 minutes after the second injection. Subsequent use of DHE: If with your first use of DHE you experienced no side effects but required more than 0.5 mL to obtain relief, you may administer the entire ampule (1 mL) at once with subsequent treatments, again administering a second ampule 60– 120 minutes later if the headache has persisted without change. …


Computer simulation results are reported on transistor design and single-event charge collection modeling of metal-semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs) fabricated in the Vitesse H-GaAsIII(R) process on Low Temperature grown (LT) GaAs epitaxial layers. Tradeoffs in Single Event Upset (SEU) immunity and transistor design are discussed. Effects due to active loads and diffusion barriers are examined.


In Canada, the public interest has always been a significant consideration in the restructuring of insolvent corporations. And with the introduction of new proceedings under Canada's restructuring statute, liquidating proceedings, an important consideration is whether these proceedings are in the public interest. Unfortunately, although the Supreme Court in Century Services traced the history of the CCAA and spoke of its remedial purpose, it did not discuss liquidating CCAAs or how they can be reconciled with the public interest purpose of the legislation, which leaves unanswered questions about the seemingly contradictory purpose of the CCAA and the nature of these liquidating plans of arrangement, and their impact on the public interest.Given the importance of achieving a public interest goal in CCAA proceedings, it is important to determine how to conceptualize liquidating CCAA proceedings as working towards that goal. Eight decades ago, when the CCAA was enacted, the types of proceedings taking place under the legislation were different because the asset bases of corporations were different. Reconciling these changing proceedings with the public interest goal of the legislation is necessary if proceedings are going to continue evolving under the CCAA.The argument in this paper took a broad, value-based approach. I maintain that so long as the 'public interest' can be defined to include the continuance of value in the economy, in any form, then any proceedings, regardless of form or outcome, that add value or serves to maintain the value already there, would fulfill that purpose of the CCAA. Put another way, so long as the proceeding causes value to be retained that is more than the sum of its parts, I argue that it is in the public interest. Conversely, if value is lost in liquidation because certain assets cannot be valued and sold, then these proceedings (or any proceedings) are not achieving the goal of the legislation. But the answer is not to cease taking these proceedings; it is to find a way to acknowledge and account for the value of intangible assets. Once that happens, a more accurate determination can be made as to how to proceed in any restructuring. I drew three conclusions in this paper. First, the public interest in the context of the CCAA should be considered in the context of value maximization rather than the welfare of the different constituencies. This should take into account the changing nature of corporate assets, and the public interest in this paper refers to the interests of directly and indirectly affected stakeholders of the corporation. Second, corporations have changed since the enactment of the CCAA. Their assets have evolved to become less firm or industry specific, and they have also become less tangible. Third, the consideration of value added in a restructuring of a corporation containing intangible assets is difficult because these assets have value not easily quantified. In addition, although tangible assets have evolved to become less firm specific, intangibles remain firm specific, and unless they can be transferred to another company as a whole, much of their value is lost. Once those premises are accepted, then a liquidation of a modern corporation leads to a potential loss of value, which means the public interest, one of the underlying considerations of the CCAA, may well not be served unless a way can be devised to value these evolving intangible assets.


An obstacle to understanding motor pathologies of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is that the physiology of some of the cellular components of the gut wall is not understood. Morphologists identified fibroblast‐like cells in the tunica muscularis many years ago, but little is known about these interstitial cells because of inadequate techniques to identify these cells. Recent findings have shown that fibroblast‐like cells express platelet‐derived growth factor receptor α (PDGFRα) in mice and that antibodies for these receptors can be used to label the cells. We used immunohistochemical techniques to study the phenotype and intercellular relationships of fibroblast‐like cells in the human colon. Fibroblast‐like cells are labelled specifically with antibodies to PDGFRα and widely distributed through the tunica muscularis of human colon. These cells form discrete networks in the region of the myenteric plexus and within the circular and longitudinal muscle layers. Platelet‐derived growth factor receptor α+ cells are distinct from c‐Kit+ interstitial cells of Cajal and closely associated with varicose processes of neurons expressing substance P (excitatory motor neurons) or neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) (inhibitory motor neurons). Platelet‐derived growth factor receptor α+ cells express small conductance Ca2+‐activated K+ channels (SK3), which are likely to mediate purinergic neural regulation of colonic muscles. Our data suggest that PDGFRα+ cells may have an important role in transducing inputs from enteric motor neurons. This study identifies reagents and techniques that will allow investigation of this class of interstitial cells and help develop an understanding of the role of PDGFRα+ cells in the human GI tract in health and disease.


What are the constitutional limits on a state's power to tax a trust with no connection to the state, other than the accident that a beneficiary lives there? The Supreme Court of the United States will take up this question this term in the context of North Carolina v. Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust. The case involves North Carolina's income taxation of a trust with a contingent beneficiary, meaning someone who is eligible, but not certain, to receive a distribution or benefit from the trust, who resides in that State. Part I of this Essay explains the background of Kaestner Trust and frames the constitutional questions that will be before the Court at oral arguments on April 16, 2019. Part II examines how and why due process applies in the state income taxation context, with a particular emphasis on how familiar concepts of general and specific jurisdiction apply uneasily to donative trusts. Part III articulates the reasons that the Court should hold that a State has no constitutional authority to impose a tax on trust income where the trust's only connection with the forum State is the residence of a contingent beneficiary. Kaestner Trust is the most important due process case involving trusts that the Court has decided in over sixty years; it bears directly on the fundamental meaning of due process.


The debate around actors' network pictures, defined as the cognitive representations of managers' business surroundings, has rapidly grown in the latest years. Notwithstanding the increasing interest shown by scholars, some critiques toward network pictures have been also posed, especially with respect to the doubtful utility of knowing how managers interpret the business surrounding. These doubts have been nurtured by the fact that no research existed until now on the relationship between network pictures and the behavior of business actors, i.e. their networking strategies. In this research direction, recently Corsaro et al. (2011) have conducted an experiment with 445 managers in order to show that a correlation exists between certain relevant network pictures characteristics and actors' networking strategic decisions. Notwithstanding its originality, this study has two main limitations: first it considers managers as undertaking decisions in isolation rather than collectively and second it tests only the relationship between network pictures and networking strategies leaving out the contrary. The purpose of this paper is therefore address these to limitations by understanding if and how specific pertinent network picture characteristics namely power and dynamicare associated with different collective behavioral choices, i.e. collective networking strategies (Hoffman, 2007's model). To accomplish this purpose, we carried out an experiment involving 168 experienced managers, divided in 86 groups of two participants each. This study provides important indications on the relevance of network pictures in addressing the decisions of managers in interaction, especially compared to individual decision making processes. Also, it highlights the impact of networking strategies when actors have the same or heterogeneous views of the business surrounding, their perceptions about the other party' views (i.e. cross understanding) and the level of agreement with the collective decisions (strategic consensus). Finally the study provides evidence on the effect of interaction on parties' re-interpretation of the business surrounding and on the decision undertaken individually.


We report an intertidal, bone-rich peat deposit on the windward (Atlantic Ocean) coast of Abaco, The Bahamas. The age of the Gilpin Point peat (c. 950–900 cal. yr BP) is based on five overlapping radiocarbon dates (one each from single pieces of wood of buttonwood Conocarpus erectus and sabal palm Sabal palmetto, and single bones of the Cuban crocodile Crocodylus rhombifer, Albury's tortoise Chelonoidis alburyorum, and green turtle Chelonia mydas). The short time interval represented by the charcoal-rich peat suggests rapid sedimentation following initial anthropogenic fires on Abaco. The site's diverse snail assemblage is dominated by terrestrial and freshwater species. The peat is exposed today only during exceptionally low tides, suggesting a lower sea level at the time of deposition as well as a degrading shoreline during the past millennium. Fossils from Gilpin Point represent a late-Holocene vertebrate community at the time of first human presence; only 10 of the 17 identified species of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals still live on Abaco. Numerous unhealed bite marks on the inside of the thick carapaces of the green turtle attest to consumption by Cuban crocodiles, which probably scavenged turtles butchered by humans. This concept, along with the dense concentration of bones in the peat, and charring on some bones of the green turtle and Abaco tortoise, suggests a cultural origin of the bone deposit at Gilpin Point, where the only Amerindian artifact recovered thus far is a shell bead.


Although it has been reported that flowing artesian wells could be topographically controlled, there is no quantitative research on artesian flow conditions in unconfined aquifers. In this study, the water table, which has a lower amplitude than the land surface, is damped from the topography and used as the boundary condition to obtain the analytical solution of hydraulic head of a unit basin with a single flow system. The term artesian head is defined to characterize the condition of flowing artesian wells. The zone with positive artesian head is called artesian zone while with negative artesian head is nonartesian zone. The maximum artesian head and the size of artesian zones are found to increase with the damping factor and the anisotropy ratio, and decrease with the ratio of basin width to depth and the depth‐decay exponent of hydraulic conductivity. Moreover, the artesian head increases with depth nearby the valley and decreases with depth near by the divide, and the variation rates are influenced by the decay exponent and the anisotropy ratio. Finally, the distribution of flowing artesian wells and the artesian head measurements in different depths of a borehole in a small catchment in the Ordos Plateau, Northwestern China is used to illustrate the theoretical findings. The change in artesian head with depth was used to estimate the anisotropy ratio and the decay exponent. This study opens up a new door to analyze basin‐scale groundwater flow.


Abstract : A one-dimensional reservoir water quality model, CE-QUAL-R1, is currently being developed for use by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District and Division Offices. Tests are needed which will ensure that model predictions are satisfactory. Although the literature contains much information concerning model evaluation, there is little agreement among authors concerning specific tests. Two general types of tests are proposed. The first group of tests are used to ensure that the coding of the model is correct, and the second group to ensure that the model predictions are suitable for the needs of the Corps. The latter tests include both qualitative and quantitative comparisons of model predictions with field-measured values. It is argued here that a thorough model evaluation must include comparisons of fluxes between variables, as well as comparisons of the mass or concentrations of variables.


Following a proposal by Mrs Pauline Howarth to build an extension and garage at the domestic dwelling of The Limes, Blackburn Road, Ribchester (SD 65861 35410), an archaeological watching brief of the groundworks was requested by the Lancashire County Archaeology Service (LCAS).
The town of Ribchester is an area of very high archaeological potential. It is the site of the Roman Fort of Bremetennacum and associated extra-mural settlement, dating from the first century AD. The fort lies on the south-west edge of town and is protected as a Scheduled Monument (SM 14255). The site is positioned to the north-east of the Roman bath house and may lie on the edge of the vicus or civilian settlement area.
Blackburn Road, on which The Limes is situated is thought to overlie a Roman road leading east from Ribchester Fort.
Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) undertook the watching brief in January 2005.
The foundation trenches were excavated to a maximum depth of 1.35m, revealing topsoil between 0.2-0.5m in depth overlying natural sandy subsoil. The watching brief did not reveal any finds or features of archaeological significance.


Background and aim Despite several studies being conducted to examine the associations between the NUDT15 R139C polymorphism and thiopurine-induced leukopenia in the Asian population, the results remain inconsistent. This meta-analysis determined the risk of thiopurine-induced leukopenia conferred by the NUDT15 R139C polymorphism. Materials and methods All eligible studies published in English up to May 2018 were identified by searching PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. Pooled OR and 95% CI were calculated using fixed- or random-effect model. Results In all, total of 14 studies containing 918 patients and 2,341 controls were included; of these, 8 studies concerned inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and 4 concerned acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Overall, the results indicated that the NUDT15 R139C polymorphism was associated with leukopenia induced by thiopurines (OR =9.04, 95% CI 6.05–13.50, P<0.001 for the dominant model; OR =24.26, 95% CI 11.38–51.71, P<0.001 for the recessive model; OR =7.60, 95% CI 4.97–11.61, P<0.001 for the CT vs TT model; OR =38.47, 95% CI 17.78–83.24, P<0.001 for the CC vs TT model). In subgroup analyses, significant associations were found among patients with IBD (OR =7.57, 95% CI 5.16–11.12, P<0.001 for the dominant model), ALL (OR =13.13, 95% CI 3.43–50.23 P<0.001 for the dominant model), and other diseases (OR =31.22, 95% CI 1.20–814.07, P=0.04 for the dominant model). In addition, the R139C variant was strongly associated with early (<8 weeks) (OR =15.53, 95% CI 7.91–30.50, P<0.001 for the dominant model) and late leukopenia (≥8 weeks) (OR =2.92, 95% CI 2.01–4.24, P<0.001 for the dominant model). Moreover, these findings were sufficiently robust when studies without Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium test were excluded. Conclusion This meta-analysis verified the strong association between the NUDT15 R139C polymorphism and thiopurine-induced leukopenia (both early and late leukopenia) in an Asian population with IBD, ALL, and other diseases. NUDT15 R139C genotyping should be prioritized to predict leukopenia among Asians.


Community-initiated Facebook groups emerged during the 2010/11 Queensland and Victorian floods, gaining a near instant following from local residents within, and family and friends beyond, the impacted areas. Administrators of the groups sourced their data from agencies such as the Bureau of Meteorology, State Emergency Service, Queensland and Victorian Police Departments, local councils and news media. Even more importantly, administrators published near-real time information from the general public: Facebook members posted information and questions; local residents asked for and received help and advice; and, travellers driving through the area posted and received up-to-date information on road closures and flooding. During the floods in Queensland and Victoria, Risk Frontiers used Facebook to distribute a survey to members of community groups such as CQ Flood Update-version 2 and Victorian Floods. The results indicate that most respondents began using the community groups on the floods to get information about their community and almost all found the medium useful and an effective means of communicating with family or friends. In this paper, we discuss the results of this survey and consider the value of social media to the emergency services, not only as a tool to disseminate information but also as an important resource to tap into and review informal communications, something that was previously inaccessible.


Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of Belomycin (BLM) have been evaluated in bone-marroww cells by micronucleus test, as well as the analysis of sperm shape abnormalities in male white mice, considering that BLM is the most wide anticancer drug used with patients. Also, the study includes assessment the effect of crude water and alcoholic extracts of the four o'clock flowers (Mirabilis jalapa Linn) in reducing BLM toxicity and the study was carried out  in the Genetics Laboratory of the Department of biology for the period from 1-10-2017 to 1-5-2019.So the genotoxicity and cytotoxicity were evaluated independently and in conjunction between two different dosages of BLM 0.8 and 1.6 mg.kg-1.bwt. and three orally dosage of different concentration of crud extracts, which is 39.8, 26.52, 13.26 mg.kg-1 and 7.02, 4.68, 2.34 mg.kg-1 o water and alcohol extract respectively.
The results of assessment of BLM genotoxic effects showed that the drug caused induction of micronuclei, here were significant increase in micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MNIPCEs) and significant increase in micronuclei(MNI) in the groups treated with 0.8 and 1.6 mg.kg-1 of BLM, compare to negative control at the level of significance P <0.05
On the other hand, the results showed that BLM has potential to induce sperm shape abnormalities, which include head and tail abnormalities, It included an increase in the proportion of morphological abnormalities in the head and tail of the sperm when compared to negative control at the significant level of P <0.05.
The results also showed, that treatment with low dosages of four o'clock flower crud extracts didn't induce neither micronuclei or any increase in PCEs numbers nor sperm shape abnormalities, although some toxic effects do exist with the higher dosages.
Evaluation of results from dependent treatments of BLM and different concentrations of water and alcoholic crud extracts, we observed significant role of these extracts in reducing toxic effects of the drug BLM in bone marrow cells, which caused significant decrease in mean differences of MNIPCEs and MNI. More over the results showed significant decrease in mean differences of sperm shape and tail abnormalities compared to negative control.
Results of the current study suggest that water and alcoholic four o'clock flower crud extracts have a role in reducing genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of BLM in bone-marrow cells and sperms of white mice

http://dx.doi.org/10.25130/tjps.24.2019.126


Recently Kiryakova and several other ones have investigated so-called multiindex Mittag-Leffler functions associated with fractional calculus. Here, in this paper, we aim at establishing a new fractional integration formula (of pathway type) involving the generalized multi-index Mittag-Leffler function $E_{\gamma, \kappa}[(\alpha_j,\beta_j)_m; z]$. An interesting special case of our main result is also considered.


This study was conducted to determine the effects of inclusion of dry yam peel (YP) on performance characteristics and cost benefits of growing snails. Yam peel was included at 0% (YP1) control, 25% (YP2), 50% (YP3) and 75% (YP4) as replacement for maize fraction of diet of juvenile snails. Each dietary treatment was replicated thrice with 8 snails per replicate in a completely randomized design. Parameters measured were feed intake, weight gain, shell length and width. Feed conversion ratio was calculated. Significant difference was observed in the mean total weight gain (P 0.05) different from YP3. The lowest mean weekly weight gain of 7.26 g was recorded in snail fed highest level of YP in the diet (YP4). The result of feed efficiency shows that snails fed 0.0%YP had the best feed efficiency (P < 0.05) which was almost similar to YP3. The highest dressing percentage of 43.56% was recorded in YP1 (P < 0.05) which was not significantly different from 42.56 and 41.99% in YP2 and YP3 respectively. The highest cost per weight gain of N226.75 was recorded in YP4 while the lowest cost per weight gain of N196.56 was recorded in snail fed diet containing 50% YP as replacement for maize fraction of the diet. It could be concluded that weight gain, feed efficiency and dressing percentage were relatively similar in the snails fed control diet and 50% YP as replacement for maize fraction of the diet and that the lowest cost per weight gain was recorded in YP3 containing 50% YP.  Hence maize fraction of the diet of snails could be replaced up to 50% with yam peel for feed cost reduction.

 Key words: Cost/weight gain, dressing percentage, feed intake, weight gain, snails, yam peel.


The familiar magnetic stripe credit cards used for decades in the United States are being phased out. Read about the new smart-chip credit cards, designed to reduce fraud and improve security, in the March issue of Page One Economics: Focus on Finance.


The clinical trial landscape in ulcerative colitis has evolved significantly in recent decades. Study endpoints have been shifting from mere clinical response to mucosal healing. It has become clear that the choice of combined clinical and endoscopic outcome criteria leads to a reduction in placebo responses, especially when central reading of the endoscopic images is performed. Accumulating evidence suggests that histological remission yields better long-term outcomes for ulcerative colitis patients than mucosal healing alone, and clinical trials with prolonged follow-up will have to address whether histological remission should be the ultimate treatment goal in ulcerative colitis. In recent years there has also been increasing interest in the implementation of patient-reported outcomes in clinical practice and research, and the regulatory authorities have set up guidelines for the development of such outcomes. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of historical aspects of clinical trials in ulcerative colitis and to discuss challenges and perspectives for clinical trials in the near future. A thorough analysis of all available landmark literature (both original papers and reviews) on clinical trials in ulcerative colitis was performed.


The current study documented levels of anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, and COVID-19 fears and impacts among Latinxs in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants of this cross-sectional study were 388 Latinx adults who completed an online survey between June and November 2020. Almost half of participants showed clinical levels of anxiety and depression and more than a quarter of participants showed clinical levels of posttraumatic stress. Latinxs reported on average 22 types of negative pandemic life impacts. Group differences based on gender, educational attainment, income, vulnerability to COVID-19, and essential worker status were found for mental health symptoms. Severity of COVID-19 fears and negative life impact counts were related to gender, nativity, educational attainment, vulnerability to COVID-19, and insurance status. Specific Latinx groups experienced greater levels of psychological distress during the pandemic. Further examination of risk and protective factors is needed for communities of color.


Data analysis is inherently adaptive, where previous results may influence which tests are carried out on a single dataset as part of a series of exploratory analyses. Unfortunately, classical statistical tools break down once the choice of analysis may depend on the dataset, which leads to overfitting and spurious conclusions. In this dissertation we put constraints on what type of analyses can be used adaptively on the same dataset in order to ensure valid conclusions are made. Following a line of work initiated from Dwork et al. [2015], we focus on extending the connection between differential privacy and adaptive data analysis. Our first contribution follows work presented in Rogers et al. [2016]. We generalize and unify previous works in the area by showing that the generalization properties of (approximately) differentially private algorithms can be used to give valid p-value corrections in adaptive hypothesis testing while recovering results for statistical and low-sensitivity queries. One of the main benefits of differential privacy is that it composes, i.e. the combination of several differentially private algorithms is itself differentially private and the privacy parameters degrade sublinearly. However, we can only apply the composition theorems when the privacy parameters are all fixed up front. Our second contribution then presents a framework for obtaining composition theorems when the privacy parameters, along with the number of procedures that are to be used, need not be fixed up front and can be adjusted adaptively Rogers et al. [2016]. These contributions are only useful if there actually exists some differentially private procedures that a data analyst would want to use. Hence, we present differentially private hypothesis tests for categorical data based on the classical chi-square hypothesis tests (Gaboardi et al. [2016], Kifer Rogers [2017]). Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Applied Mathematics First Advisor Michael Kearns Second Advisor Aaron Roth


Symbolic execution is a classical program analysis technique used to show that programs satisfy or violate given specifications. In this work we generalize symbolic execution to support program analysis for relational specifications in the form of relational properties - these are properties about two runs of two programs on related inputs, or about two executions of a single program on related inputs. Relational properties are useful to formalize notions in security and privacy, and to reason about program optimizations. We design a relational symbolic execution engine, named RelSym which supports interactive refutation, as well as proving of relational properties for programs written in a language with arrays and for-like loops.


The anthracenedione antineoplastic agents mitoxantrone and ametantrone are potent inhibitors of basal and drug-stimulated lipid peroxidation in a variety of subcellular systems (Kharasch, E. D., and Novak, R. F. (1983) J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 226,500-506). The mechanism by which these compounds function as antioxidants has been investigated using enzymic and chemical systems. Mitoxantrone and ametantrone inhibited NADPHcytochrome P-450 reductaseand xanthine oxidasecatalyzed conjugated diene formation from linoleic acid in a concentration-dependent manner with halfmaximal inhibition achieved at approximately 0.5 WM anthracenedione. Inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation was not attributable to a decrease in P-450 reductase activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging, or iron chelation by the anthracenediones. Nonenzymic fatty acid peroxidation was also inhibited by the anthracenediones. Linoleic acid oxidation initiated by superoxide (ferrous iron autoxidation) or by hydroxyl radicals (Fenton's reagent) was diminished by mitoxantrone and ametantrone after a brief delay, suggesting an effect subsequent to activated oxygen-dependent initiation. In contrast, linoleic acid oxidation initiated by iron-dependent hydroperoxide decomposition was inhibited immediately. Reinitiation of linoleic acid oxidation in an anthracenedione-inhibited system was accomplished only by superoxide generation, but not by fatty acid hydroperoxide decomposition. These results suggest the anthracenediones diminished neither oxygen radical formation nor oxygen radical-dependent initiation of peroxidation. Rather, inhibition of fatty acid peroxidation by mitoxantrone and ametantrone results from the inhibition f hydroperoxide-dependent initiation and propagation reactions.


A new approach for lossless compression of medical images has been proposed. After preprocessing, the image is split into bit planes to which the compressed technique is applied. These bit planes can be expressed as ordered binary decision diagrams (OBDD) and coding. This approach compared well with WINZIP in terms of compression ratio.