The objective of this study was to obtain three-dimensional (3D) images and to perform biomechanical simulations starting from DICOM images obtained by computed tomography (CT). Open source software were used to prepare digitized 2D images of tissue sections and to create 3D reconstruction from the segmented structures. Finally, 3D images were used in open source software in order to perform biomechanic simulations. This study demonstrates the applicability and feasibility of open source software developed in our days for the 3D reconstruction and biomechanic simulation. The use of open source software may improve the efficiency of investments in imaging technologies and in CAD/CAM technologies for implants and prosthesis fabrication which need expensive specialized software.


Mental health has been a major concern worldwide even before the emergence of novel coronavirus The evolving nature of the virus and the fatality rate has increased the psychological distress among people across all age groups This study is an attempt to explore the research productivity on mental health research during COVID-19 pandemic to combat the disease by means of enhancing awareness and preventive measures as some countries are going through the second wave of the viral attack The research contribution on mental health during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic appears to be slow in pace not going with the need of the time During the study period 1st January 2020 to 5th November 2020, only 1690 scholarly documents were published with average number of articles per author less than one United States emerged as the most prolific country in the research on 'Mental Health' followed by China and U K Most of the scholarly output were predominantly in English language and most of the universities were in the forefront in conducting research on mental health Many researchers got funding encouragement from multiple agencies for their research on mental health stimulating collaborative research trend with Canadian Institutes of Health Research being the top funder Most of the research publications got concentrated in only few top ranked journals in the field of mental health These findings reinforce the need to increase the research on mental health © 2021 All Rights Reserved


Green Building is a concept that mitigates against the negative side effects of developmental activities on the environment. This paper assessed the feasibility of green building for environmental sustainability and life cycle of construction works. Various constructions related to green building were examined. The construction materials and methods used in Nigeria today, tend to have a deleterious effect on the environment around the construction site either by the clearing of vegetation which leads to loss of wildlife, or the use of fossil fuels such as coal which emit greenhouse gasses. It has been discovered that lack of renewable energy harvesting plants assists in countering the effects of the depleting natural resources, as well as water/sewage treatment plants, recycling plants and so on. This do not encourage green environments as these have adverse effects on the depletion of raw materials, and this therefore helps increase the prices of newly manufactured goods. This also has adverse effects on the economy as it can lead to inflation and high demand for products. More research work should be done on this for economy of construction works, possible, implementation and sustainable environment.


We examine the multi-faceted effect of creditor rights on the way banks monitor, operate and finance themselves. We present a simple analytical model that shows that a strengthening of creditor rights reduces the need for banks to monitor their borrowers; and that banks, as a result, tilt their capital structures away from capital that provides the strongest monitoring incentives. To determine whether this capital is deposits or equity, we use the staggered passage of legal reforms across countries as identifying variation in creditor rights, and find that banks tilt their capital structures away from equity and towards deposits when creditor rights become stronger. These results suggest that bank equity, rather than deposits, is the predominant form of monitoring-inducing capital. Next, we examine how creditor rights and the ensuing increase in bank leverage affect bank risk-taking. We find that increases in creditor rights increase bank risk-taking, but only in countries with government safety nets that encourage risk-shifting, not in countries without such perverse incentives. We also find that a strengthening of creditor rights results in an increase in banks' cost of debt, but here too only in countries with government safety nets. These results indicate that lenders punish banks' higher risk-shifting propensities with higher costs of debt. Overall, our study sheds light on the complex role of country-level creditor rights on the way banks within the country function, and in doing so, contrasts the effect of creditor rights on banks from that on industrial firms.


The growing demand for the use of photovoltaic (PV) systems integrated in buildings, having the need to be versatile, to provide design and multifunctional features more evolved than the only energy production, is imposing a profound change in the sector of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), with major challenges to be addressed in the coming years. Supported by an increasing technological development, by digitization and process innovation, such systems will progressively be implemented in the construction market allowing the achievement of the nZEB policies. BIPV products are evolving from the basic architectural integration towards multifunctional products, aggregating essential PV requirements with additional requirements from the building skin such as thermal insulation, solar control, fire safety, water tightness, etc.
However, to effectively enter the building market, the BIPV products will necessarily have to respect the goal of cost-effectiveness as well as the compliance with adequate quality, safety and reliability levels. In this context, the H2020 project "BIPVBOOST" is focused on obtaining a reduction in costs along the entire value chain by pursuing product and process innovation, thus supporting the BIPV implementation in a wider mass market of the built environment. In addition to a technological development, it is essential to solve the interconnection between PV product standards, construction industry standards and specific rules for the installation and use in buildings. The EN 50583-1:2016 and EN 50583-2:2016 made a first step in this direction by defining the properties and the applicable regulatory framework for PV systems modules used as construction products. Nevertheless, the current regulatory framework collects norms created for standard PV or, on the other hand, for "non-active" building elements, so that a significant progress regarding BIPV qualification is still needed, and it represents a current barrier for the market access. It arises the need to identify new "multi-disciplinary" reference requirements, to improve the definition of the performance levels and to develop new test methodologies better suited to the use of PV in the building skin. Therefore, these issues will be addressed within the project by identifying the gaps in the current standards and by implementing a performance-based approach for the qualification of BIPV products. The paper, summarizing the first investigations of the project, will provide an overview on the current normative framework, reporting the main missing gaps and a roadmap to define new reference procedures for BIPV products qualification, setting the basic ground for next developments in the coming years.


ZnO/SnO2 equal-cosubstituted In2O3 (ZITO) films were deposited by ion beam assisted deposition onto n-InP and p-GaAs substrates. Rapid contact annealing processes (RCP) at different temperatures were done to study the thermal stability of their interfacial contact properties between ZITO films and the semiconductor substrates. Oxygen flow rate during deposition is the main tuning parameter for ZITO films growth. Highest conductivity for ZITO film deposited at the oxygen flow rate of 0 sccm (ZITO-0) was got at 525.2 S cm−1; lowest optical loss at wavelength of 1550 nm for ZITO film prepared at the oxygen flow rate of 7 sccm (ZITO-7) was obtained at 592.7 cm−1. Ohmic contacts have been achieved between ZITO films and n-InP pretreated both by hydrogen plasma and by oxygen plasma (H2-cleaned n-InP and O2-cleaned n-InP). The contact between ZITO-0 film and H2-cleaned n-InP substrate shows good thermal stability in RCP, the specific contact resistivity of 1.84 × 10−4 Ω cm2 for as-deposited ZITO-0 film contact to H2-cleaned n-InP and 1.24 × 10−4 Ω cm2 for the one annealed at 450 °C. While, RCP at proper temperature (360 °C and 400 °C) is the key to achieve ohmic contact between ZITO-0 film to H2-cleaned p-GaAs substrate.


In multispectral imaging systems, correction for lens distortion is required to allow pixel by pixel fusion techniques to be applied. While correction of optical aberration can be extended to higher order terms, for many systems, a first order correction is sufficient to achieve desired results. In producing a multispectral imaging system in production quantities, the process of producing the corrections needs to be largely automated as each lens will require its own corrections. We discuss an auto-correction and bench sighting method application to a dual band imaging system. In principle, we wish to image a dual band target and completely determine the lens distortion parameters for the given optics. We begin with a scale-preserving, radial, first-order lens distortion model; this model allows the horizontal field of view to be determined independently of the distortion. It has the benefits of simple parameterization and the ability to correct mild to moderate distortion that may be expected of production optics. The correction process starts with imaging a dual band target. A feature extraction algorithm is applied to the imagery from both bands to generate a large number of correlated feature points. Using the feature points, we derive an over-determined system of equations; the solution to this system yields the distortion parameters for the lens. Using these parameters, an interpolation map can be generated unique to the lenses involved. The interpolation map is used in real-time to correct the distortion while preserving the horizontal field of view constraint on the system.


Norsk Ordbok, a 12 volume scholarly dictionary of the Nynorsk written language and all Norwegian dialects, was completed in 2015 and launched in March 2016. The publishing history of Norsk Ordbok lasted for 66 years, with 4 volumes published in the first 52 years and 8 in the following 13, after the dictionary was redefined as a project and moved to a digital platform. With this publishing history as its basis, this article explores the development of scholarly lexicography in terms of scientific theory and technology underlying macrostructure, microstructure and the genre itself. Finally relevance, legitimacy and societal and scientific worth of scholarly lexicography are briefly summed up.


Objective: The aim of this study was to determine utility and sensitivity of lung clearance index (LCI) testing as a marker of lung injury in symptomatic military deployers compared with healthy controls. Methods: We tested 24 healthy controls and 28 deployers with respiratory symptoms (17 of 28 with definite and 11 of 28 with probable deployment-related lung disease). We compared mean LCI scores between deployers and controls using t tests; adjusted tests were derived from multiple regression models. Results: Mean LCI scores were significantly higher (P = 0.001) in deployers [7.76, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 7.34 to 8.17] than controls (6.95, 95% CI 6.73 to 7.17). Adjusting for body mass index (BMI), smoking, and age, there were no significant differences (P = 0.10) between mean LCI scores in deployers (7.42, 95% CI 7.13 to 7.71) and controls (7.06, 95% CI 6.74 to 7.39). Conclusions: The trend toward higher LCI scores in symptomatic deployers may be linked to underlying lung disease and/or BMI but requires further investigation in a larger population.


Abstract. Flood is one of the most disruptive natural hazards, leading to massive loss of lives and considerable damage to properties. Coastal cities in Asia face floods almost every year due to monsoons influences. Early notification of flood incidents benefits the authorities and public to devise both short and long terms preventive measures, prepare evacuation and rescue missions, and relieve the flood victims. Based on time series prediction and machine learning regression algorithm, an innovative multi-strategy-mode-waterlogging-prediction framework for predicting waterlogging depth is proposed in this paper. The framework combines the historical rainfall and waterlogging depth to predict the near future waterlogging in time under future weather conditions. An expanding rainfall model was proposed to consider the positive correlation of future rainfall on the waterlogging. By selecting a suitable prediction strategy, adjusting the optimal model parameters, and then comparing the different algorithms, the optimal configuration of prediction is selected. In the actual value testing, the selected model has high computational efficiency, and the accuracy of predicting the waterlogging depth after 30 minutes can reach 86.1 %, which is superior to many data-driven prediction models for waterlogging depth. The framework is helpful to timely predict the depth of target point with a high level of accuracy. It's of great significance to timely release early warning information to avoid casualties and property losses.


Abstract: Empirical models were developed to predict some selected antioxidants present in stored oranges under a modified atmosphere. Three sets of four different types of passive evaporative cooling structures made of two different materials; clay and aluminium were designed and constructed as part of the study. One set consisted of four separate cooling chambers. Two cooling chambers were made with aluminium container (cylindrical and rectangular shapes) and the other two were made of clay container (cylindrical and rectangular). These four containers were separately inserted inside a bigger clay pot inter-spaced with clay soil of 5 cm (to form tin-in-pot, pot-in-pot, tin-in-wall and wall-in wall) with the outside structure wrapped with jute sack. The other two sets followed the same pattern with interspacing of 7 and 10 cm respectively. The set with 7 cm interspace served as the control in which the interspace soil and the jute sacks were constantly wetted at intervals of two to four hours depending on the rate of evaporation with water at room temperature. The other two sets (5 and 10 cm interspaced soil) were constantly wetted with salt solution (Table salt (Nacl)) at the same interval to keep the soil in moist condition. Freshly harvested matured oranges were used for the experiments and the temperature and relative humidity were monitored daily. The vitamin A, C and E, bacterial and fungal counts of this produce were determined at intervals of three days for a period of 21 days. Mathematical models ( using essential regression software package ) were developed to predict the vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E contents of the stored oranges at various conditions considered in the study. The existence and sufficiency of the regression models given in the equations were also examined using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the multiple regression models. The models were found to be at 5% level of significant. The models were validated using pair-wise T-test and the results of the pair-wise shows that there is no significance difference between the mean of observed and the predicted for all the models developed. The R adj 2 value obtained were 82.43%, 86.63% and 76.48% for vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E contents respectively for the stored oranges. Keywords: model, validation, predicted, structures, oranges


The US plays a key role in the global financial system. At the same time, its payments system lags behind the global frontier. The primary task of any payment system is to move value in a low cost, convenient, and timely manner. Across all of these dimensions, the US experiences substantial frictions due to legacy infrastructure, market fragmentation, and lack of competition. Low-income households end up bearing the burden of these frictions, and there are stark income and racial differences in both access and participation in the financial system. In the absence of regulatory and technical developments targeted at improving market structure, lowering barriers to entry, and facilitating collaboration between public and private sector efforts in digital payments, these dynamics are unlikely to change.


We present the first set of XMM-Newton EPIC observations in the 2 deg2 COSMOS field. The strength of the COSMOS project is the unprecedented combination of a large solid angle and sensitivity over the whole multiwavelength spectrum. The XMM-Newton observations are very efficient in localizing and identifying active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and clusters, as well as groups of galaxies. One of the primary goals of the XMM-Newton Cosmos survey is to study the coevolution of active galactic nuclei as a function of their environment in the cosmic web. Here we present the log of observations, images, and a summary of first research highlights for the first pass of 25 XMM-Newton pointings across the field. In the existing data set we have detected 1416 new X-ray sources in the 0.5-2, 2-4.5, and 4.5-10 keV bands to an equivalent 0.5-2 keV flux limit of 7 × 10-16 erg cm-2 s-1. The number of sources is expected to grow to almost 2000 in the final coverage of the survey. From an X-ray color-color analysis we identify a population of heavily obscured, partially leaky or reflecting absorbers, most of which are likely to be nearby, Compton-thick AGNs.


An effective visual representation of dynamical flow behavior is still a challenging problem of modern flow visualization. Path-lines are important characteristic curves of dynamical flow fields. In this thesis, we focus on the visual analysis of path-line behaviors and uncover the dynamical nature of a flow field. We propose a topological segmentation of periodic 2D time-dependent vector fields based on asymptotic path-line behaviors. A flow domain is classified into different areas based on the converging or diverging path-line behaviors relating to the identified critical path-lines. We also offer an alternative algorithm to extract the separation surfaces of the path-line oriented topological structure. For the interactive visual analysis of fluid motion, we propose an information visualization based approach to explore the dynamical flow behaviors. Attributes associated with path-lines are identified and analyzed and the interesting features or structures are extracted and visualized with human interaction. We also investigate the property transport phenomenon and propose an approach to visualize the finite-time transport structures of property advection which is similar to carry out a line integral convolution over physical properties along path-lines. We demonstrate our approaches on a number of applications and present some interesting results.


Purpose: Laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) has become a viable alternative treatment for patients suffering with early gastric cancer. Surgeons have long thought that obesity might increase the rate of intraoperative or postoperative complications. This study was performed to evaluate the impact of obesity, according to the learning curve, in patients who underwent laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 100 patients who had undergone LADG for gastric cancer between September 2004 and May 2007 at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. We measured the degree of obesity by using the body mass index (BMI: ㎏/㎡), and we compared the surgical outcomes between the low BMI group (BMI <25 ㎏/㎡, n=72) and the high BMI group (BMI >25 ㎏/㎡, n=28). We further subdivided the patients into the surgeons' number of cumulative LADG cases, the early learning curve group (from the first patient to the 50th patient) and the late learning curve group (from the 51th patient to the 100th patient). We analyzed them in terms of the operation time, the amount of intraoperative bleeding, the number of retrieved lymph nodes, the rate of operative morbidity and the length of the postoperative hospital stay. Results: There no significant differences between the high and low BMI groups in terms of the patients' clinicopathologic characteristics and surgical outcomes, but there was a statistically significant difference in the operation times between the high BMI (303.3 min) and low BMI groups (269.3 min, P=0.029). The postoperative morbidity was not different between the high BMI (25%) and low BMI groups (12.5%, P=0.12). However, when we subdivided the patients by the learning curve, there was a statistically significant difference for the operation time (360 vs 297 minutes, respectively), postoperative morbidity (41.7 vs 10.5%, respectively) and the postoperative hospital stay (15.5 vs 8.6 day, respectively) between the high BMI and low BMI groups at the early learning curve period. Especially for male patients, the early learning curve period showed significant differences in the operation time, the postoperative morbidity and the postoperative hospital stay between the high BMI and low BMI groups, but in case of the female patients, there was no difference in postoperative morbidity and the length of the postoperative hospital stay. At the late learning curve period, there was no difference according to gender and obesity. Conclusion: Obesity itself does not increase operative morbidity when performing LADG in patients with gastric cancer. However, at a surgeon's initial period of performing LADG, a careful approach seems to be required for male obese patients.


Development of photocatalysts active under visible light has been achieved through the modification of titania with rhodium (Rh) ions. Depending on the concentration of the precursor of Rh species, various crystalline phases and modification modes have been obtained. Lower Rh concentrations (below 0.5%) resulted in doped rutile particles, while higher (above 1%) gave mainly surface modified anatase particles. High photocatalytic activities were obtained for surface enriched doped rutile-titania with an extremely low amount of trivalent rhodium (Rh3+) ions (about 0.0005 mol%). Almost four orders of magnitude higher Rh concentration (2%) also provided highly active materials, however, they were composed of mainly anatase particles with photoactive surface RhOx species. Extremely low Rh concentration allowed to limit the amount of intrinsically present tetravalent rhodium (Rh4+) species, which may decrease charge mobility in the titania lattice and promote the recombination route in Rh-doped materials. Photoactive Rh species created in low concentrated samples were able to drive reversible redox processes controlled by the range of light energies. Photocatalytic activity tests, action spectra and photoelectrochemical measurements allowed to propose a unique photosensitization mechanism, involving an Rh3+/Rh4+ redox couple acting as built-in redox mediator, in which both electrons in the conduction band (CB) and positive holes in the valence band (VB) might be generated upon irradiation with visible light. Such a mechanism was not valid for materials containing higher amounts of Rh composed of mainly anatase. Detailed studies on the properties of the materials containing various amounts of Rh species (0.0001–3 mol%) showed the dependency of efficiency of photoinduced processes on Rh concentration.


This paper proposes a mixed-integer stochastic programming approach to the solution of generation and transmission line expansion planning problem including consideration of system reliability. Favorable system reliability and cost trade off is achieved by the optimal solution. The problem is formulated as a two-stage recourse model where random uncertainties in area generation, transmission lines, and area loads are considered. Reliability index used in this problem is expected cost of load loss as this index incorporates duration and magnitude of load loss. The objective is to minimize the expansion cost in the first stage and the operation and expected cost of load loss in the seconds stage. Due to exponentially large number of system states (scenarios) in large power systems, direct application of the L-shaped algorithm seems impractical. The expected cost of load loss is therefore approximated by considering only sampled scenarios and evaluated in the optimization. The estimated objective value is called sample-average approximation (SAA) of the actual expected value. In this paper, Monte Carlo sampling and Latin Hypercube sampling techniques are implemented. Confidence intervals of upper and lower bound are discussed. The method is implemented to an actual twelve area power system for generation expansion planning and transmission line expansion planning.


Abstract. Based on the principles of social comparison theory, the relative percentile (RP) method is an alternative approach to the measurement of psychological characteristics. It involves asking raters to explicitly estimate the percentage of a comparison group that they believe is lower than the target on a characteristic. This study explored the RP method for the measurement of personality. Specifically, we investigated the convergence of the RP with traditional (i.e., Likert-type) personality measures and the convergence between self- and observer reports. Both members of 142 Australian well-acquainted dyads rated themselves and their counterpart using the traditional Likert-type HEXACO-100 and a 25-item RP assessment of the HEXACO facets. Two weeks later, 78 participants completed the RP assessment again, allowing the assessment of test-retest reliability. The RP ratings showed mostly moderate reliability, though generally lower reliability than their corresponding traditional scales, and a relatively clear HEXACO factor structure. Furthermore, the RP ratings correlated significantly with the Likert-type ratings from the same rater (e.g., self–self) and with RP ratings from a different rater (i.e., self–observer), although convergence did vary by HEXACO domain. One potential issue with RP ratings, however, is that they mostly yielded Gaussian distributions, instead of the theoretically expected uniform distribution, which may suggest that it is challenging for respondents to estimate percentiles.


Abstract Two hundred and eight wild-caught cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) were live trapped on Namibian farmlands and examined for signs of dental anomalies. Three anomalies were recorded: erosion of the upper palate (possibly a predisposition to focal palatine erosion, where the first lower molar penetrates the palatine mucosa), crowding of lower incisors, and absence of one or both upper premolars. Just over 40% of cheetahs examined showed deep palatine erosion, and 15.3% of these had perforated upper palates. In addition, 31.7% of cheetahs examined had crowded lower incisors and 20.9% had one or both upper premolars missing. The incidence of focal palatine erosion is of particular interest as it has previously been recorded only in captive cheetahs, where it was attributed to a soft captive diet, and not previously recorded for wild individuals. To attempt further understanding of potential causes of such erosion, degree of erosion was examined in relation to sex, age, region, time in captivity, and occurrence of other dental anomalies. No relationship was found between severity of erosion and time spent in captivity, while juveniles showed more severe erosion than adult cheetahs. Cheetahs missing either one or both upper premolars showed a higher incidence of deep erosion, as was true for cheetahs that exhibited crowded lower incisors. The traditional explanation of focal palatine erosion being an artifact of captivity does not explain its occurrence in this sample population of cheetahs, the majority of which were raised entirely in the wild.


This paper presents a self-testable BIST application for non-linearity test in high-speed high-performance ADCs in nanometric CMOS technologies. The technique makes use of an on-chip low-frequency signal generator optimized toward high accuracy, followed by a dedicated buffer based on a resistive feedback amplifier. This buffer has two main features: it isolates the on-chip generator output from the high-frequency switching noise at the input sampling of the ADC under test, and it allows a robust injection of a controlled offset to apply double-histogram techniques for linearity evaluation. This approach results in a true self-testable BIST strategy making feasible the simultaneous estimation of the non-linearity for both the generator and the ADCUT. In order to verify the feasibility and performance of the proposed circuitry, a practical design in a 1.8V 0.18μm CMOS process is presented here as demonstrator. Transistor-level simulation results with a 2Vpp sinusoidal test-stimulus show an effective resolution in static conditions greater than 15 bits, being a suitable solution for the ADC static test with effective resolutions in the order of 13 bits and 100Msps of sampling frequency.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital (IC), measured in terms of the market to book (MTB) ratio, and potential key determinants of IC value such as intangible assets (IA) and a range of other factors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is conducted for a sample of 140 Italian corporations over the period 2009-2013. Applying a holistic market-based approach, the relationship between IC value and selected determinants from the extant literature is tested. Five hypotheses are tested using a pooled OLS regression model, while controlling for time. ROE is employed as a useful firm profitability indicator from the perspective of an equity investor. Moreover, four robustness tests are undertaken.

Findings

The results show that IA, profitability, leverage, industry type, auditor type, and family ownership positively affect IC value, whereas SIZE and AGE negatively affect IC value. Moreover, the findings of the robustness tests suggest that all firms, and not just knowledge-intensive business service industry firms, manage knowledge.

Research limitations/implications

The validity of the findings is limited to the Italian context, as the study focuses on a sample of companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, all of which prepare their individual financial statements according to IFRS. Further limitations are related to the use of market value in the short term, as it is influenced by market volatility. The study may allow academic researchers to investigate the impact of other non-accounting sources of information on market value within a multidisciplinary perspective.

Practical implications

This paper also has implications for managers and practitioners. The findings suggest that managers should not take for granted that firm growth (an increase in SIZE) alone will lead to an increase in IC value, in the absence of a consistent IC-oriented investment strategy. Managers should also avoid smoothing their IC investment as the company grows, in order to maintain a stable MTB ratio. Further, standard setters should seek to explore better means of disclosing non-accounting information relating to IC value.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the IC literature as it is the first study which applies the market capitalization approach to analyze IC value determinants in the Italian context, within the framework of IFRS. The findings reveal some interesting relationships between the MTB ratio and recognized intangible investments, which are found to be insignificant in previous studies, confirming that, through the holistic effect, the MTB ratio may be a good proxy for IC.


In the early 1920's, Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) and Coal-To-Liquids (CTL) technologies were developed to account for the depleting crude oil resources [1]. During this period, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch developed a process to convert synthesis gas (syn gas), derived from coal gasification, to a wide range of high value-added products. This process later came to be known as Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis [2]. F-T synthesis was an experimental success but its economic viability became a topic of concern as refining of crude oil was a more developed and an economically attractive option. The syn gas used in F-T synthesis can be derived from various feed stocks such as coal, natural gas, biomass, and waste. This indirect liquefaction process, also termed as feed-to-liquids, is often referred to as XTLs (Where X: C=coal, G=natural gas, B=biomass, W=waste) [3]. Multi-Tubular Fixed Bed Reactors (MTFBR) and Slurry Bubble Colum Reactors (SBCR) are widely employed for FTS. An MTFBR is similar to a shell and tube heat exchanger with a catalytic reaction taking place on the tube-side and a typical MTFBR contains about 10 to 50,000 tubes. A coolant, such as water or a molten salt, flows on the shell-side to control the catalyst bed temperature within proper design limits. To model such a system, detailed knowledge about shell-side fluid-solid interactions coupled with tube-side fluid-solid transport-kinetic interactions is required. The primary objective of this study is two-fold: (1) Analyze the performance of different catalyst particle shapes (sphere, cylinder & ring) on a catalyst scale; (2) Use the catalyst pellet results and analyze the catalyst performance on a reactor scale. The micro kinetic olefin readsorption model proposed by Wang et al. (2003) for a Fe-based catalyst was used as the basis for development of the particle-scale transport-kinetics model. The formation of linear olefins and paraffins up to carbon number of 20 are described by a reaction network that consists of 43 species that participate in 40 reactions, which includes the water-gas shift reaction. The phase behavior of the FT reaction products are described using the Soave-Redlich Kwong equation of state. The coupled system of nonlinear ODE's are solved using COMSOL Multiphysics® software. A 1-D axial dispersion model with finite heat and mass inter-particle film resistances was used to describe species transport in the gas bulk. The Ergun equation was used to compute the gas-phase pressure drop. To obtain the observed rate on the particle-scale, the overall effectiveness factor was calculated from the integral rate at each grid point on the boundary that was coupled to the reactor geometry using extrusion coupling. The 2D particle domain was meshed using triangular elements and the coupled boundaries were meshed with equal number of elements. The concentration profiles of the species in a typical Febased spherical catalyst pellet along the dimensionless reactor bed length and the concentration profiles of key components in the fixed-bed under typical process conditions are shown in Figure-1.


Modern realia of rapid informatization of society trigger the increase of labor research intensity level when science becomes an immediate productive force. In turn, the innovation processes underpin the changes in social production as well as in public administration. The service sector is developing rapidly. Economic activity of business entities goes beyond the national economy boundaries and becomes more global, as evidenced by the growing role and significance of the information component in both the economic and the social domains. Based on the analysis of the total expenditure in a particular area out of all funding sources (S) and the ratio of total costs for a specific area in the total expenditure (E), with regard to a number of other indicators, the author suggests an overview of the current state, structure and major trends in the field of funding innovative activity in Ukraine. The recent research and publications review offered the opportunity to verify the relevance of the need to explore the contemporary issues relating to the state and the basic tendencies of funding innovations in Ukraine. To accomplish the objectives of the study, the following general and specific economic research methods have been applied, in particular, the methods of aggregation, data grouping and graphical display along with making use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to build cross-tabulation and the graph that enables to visualize the trend embedded in numerical information. The study provides data revealing the actual state and the key trends in the area of innovation funding in Ukraine in recent years and argues that despite minimization of the financial factor effect as a disincentive to business innovations within 2008–2016, this factor challenges further in-depth analysis and research. It is demonstrated that the situation as to government financing of innovations in Ukraine is characterized by a drop of innovation expenses by domestic enterprises in 2018 compared to 2015 by 11.8%; the dominance of the enterprise equity capital in total structure of innovation expenditures and the increase of loans in the structure of innovation costs; the increased share of innovation expenditure from state and local budgets; growth in business spending on R&D in the structure of innovation expenditures; the spending pattern of industrial enterprises is biased towards domestic R&D rather than to external R&D investments. The research findings revealed a slight reduction in the volume of total operating expenditure of industrial enterprises for the purchase of machinery, equipment and software within the period 2015–2018. The highest expenditures of industrial enterprises for the purchase of machinery, equipment and software have been observed in the enterprises of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions and in the city of Kyiv. The suggested characteristic of one of the main factors of impact on innovative activities (financing) contributes to expanding the understanding of the current state, scale, structure and trends in the area of innovation funding in Ukraine.


This article presents a two-dimensional (2-D) vibration array for detecting dynamic changes in three-dimensional (3-D) space during navigation and provides these changes in real time to visually impaired users (in a form of vibration) to develop a 3-D sensing of the space and assist their navigation in their working and living environment. This vibration array is a part of the Tyflos prototype device (consisting of two tiny cameras, a microphone, an ear speaker mounted into a pair of dark glasses and connected into a portable PC) for blind individuals. The overall idea is of detecting changes in a 3-D space is based on fusing range data and image data captured by the cameras and creating the 3-D representation of the surrounding space. This 3-D representation of the space and its changes are mapped onto a 2-D vibration array placed on the chest of the blind user. The degree of vibration offers a sensing of the 3-D space and its changes to the user. It is concluded that the power conception will be associated with the potential of the batteries of the portable computer (notebook). Thus, the visually impaired user has to recharge the batteries after a certain time or carry additional batteries connected to notebook.


Contemporary theorizing about the nature of personality has neglected typological formulations. Instead, reliance has been placed on multidimensional geometric models that fail to capture the crucial configural nature of personality structure and functioning. As a result, there has been little progress in the development of a comprehensive taxonomy of human personalities or in the establishment of a personological systematics. There is evidence that many psychodiagnostic formulations rely on implicit sets of categories or taxa of individuals together with the various forms of psychopathology that are associated with these types. Some reasons for this neglect are pointed out, related to a general aversion to "pigeon-holing" people and the risk of applying stereotypes rather than theorotypes. However, the recent development of powerful taxometric procedures for locating personological taxa is noted and the potential benefits for the science and art of personality assessment to be gained from a comprehensive personological taxonomy are discussed.


An investigation has been carried out to determine the influence of thickness and width on the elastic-plastic fracture toughness parameters: J value obtained from area under load/displacement curve JR, tearing modulus, and stress intensity factor corrected for plasticity KR. Compact tension specimens prepared from aircraft quality American Iran and Steel Institute (AISI) 4340 (Unified Numbering System [UNS] G43400) steel heat treated to a yield strength of 1000 MPa were used. All specimens satisfied the ASTM Test for JIc, a measure of Fracture Toughness (E 813) standard size requirements. This investigation demonstrates that when the specimens satisfy all ASTM standard size requirements, ductile fracture toughness JIc is independent of size. JIc values were found to vary a maximum of ±16% of mean value even in the present of some shear lips. Conversely, the tearing modulus was found to decrease as specimen thickness increased. A one to one relationship was found to exist between JR and JK, where JR is the J value calculated from the area under the load/displacement curve and JK is the J value computed from KR using the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) relationship.


Innovation has been a topic of considerable interest to researchers and practitioners. Particularly, the networks within which firms operate and their properties (e.g., structural holes) are suggested to affect firms' innovation performance. One stream of research finds that structural holes are conducive to firms' innovation because of the heterogeneous information about alternatives that firms can obtain through spanning structural holes. Another stream of research finds that structural holes inhibit knowledge transfer from knowledge sources and hence deter firms to innovate. This study aims to reconcile the two conflicting streams of research by identifying the conditions under which structural holes will be conducive to organizational innovation. Based on structural holes theory and absorptive capacity literature, this paper constructs a model to explain the moderating effects of ITenabled absorptive capacity on the relationship between structural holes and organizational innovation performance. This paper proposes that independently, structural holes may not influence innovation performance. However, when the exploration and transformation dimensions of ITenabled absorptive capacity are high, structural holes should positively affect innovation performance. Also, the exploitation dimension should positively affect innovation performance. The proposed methodology, measurement, and potential contributions of the study are discussed.


Vav2 is a member of the Vav family that serves as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for the Rho family of Ras-related GTPases. Unlike Vav1, whose expression is restricted to cells of hematopoietic origin, Vav2 is broadly expressed. Recently, Vav2 has been identified as a substrate for the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor; however, the mechanism by which Vav2 is activated in EGF-treated cells is unclear. By the means of an in vitro protein kinase assay, we show here that purified and activated EGF receptor phosphorylates Vav2 exclusively on its N-terminal domain. Furthermore, EGF receptor phosphorylates Vav2 on all three possible phosphorylation sites, Tyr-142, Tyr-159, and Tyr-172. In intact cells we also show that Vav2 associates with the activated EGF receptor in an Src homology 2 domain-dependent manner, with Vav2 Src homology 2 domain binding preferentially to autophosphorylation sites Tyr-992 and Tyr-1148 of the EGF receptor. Treatment of cells with EGF results in stimulation of exchange activity of Vav2 as measured on Rac; however, the intensity of the exchange activity does not show any correlation with the level of Vav2 tyrosine phosphorylation. Introducing a point mutation into the Vav2 pleckstrin homology domain or treatment of cells with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor LY294002 prior to EGF stimulation inhibits Vav2 exchange activity. Although phosphorylation mutants of Vav2 can readily induce actin rearrangement in COS7 cells, pleckstrin homology domain mutant does not stimulate membrane ruffling. These results suggest that EGF regulates Vav2 activity basically through phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation, whereas tyrosine phosphorylation of Vav2 may rather be necessary for mediating protein-protein interactions.


Neuroemergencies are life-threatening situations in which, whatever the cause, common pathologic phenomena result in secondary brain lesions. The goal of critical care management is to stop these self-aggravating processes as soon as possible. Initial resuscitation is devoted to control of the airway and hemodynamic and hydroelectrolytic stabilization. With mass lesions, minimal computed tomographic exploration immediately precedes surgical decompression. Further critical care adapted to the child's needs requires multimodal monitoring. Normoventilation, deep sedation, osmotherapy with mannitol or hypertonic saline solutions, and optimization of mean arterial pressure are the basis of management. A purely pressure-driven approach aimed at controlling cerebral perfusion pressure could be potentially harmful, and associated measurement of blood flow velocity with transcranial Doppler and jugular bulb oxygen saturation monitoring allows an approach to cerebral blood flow and metabolism. Outcome can be improved in dangerous situations such as severe brain injuries, cerebral arteriovenous malformation rupture, status epilepticus, and acute hydrocephalus, provided that emergency management could be applied efficiently.


With the requirements of larger production process and continuous reheating annealing furnace production, quality and the optimization of the energy consumption constantly increasing demand, industrial annealing furnace burning process precise temperature control is particularly important [1]. The working state of the heating annealing furnace will directly affect the process operation and sequence. Combining with the actual requirements of the project an axle, we use the smart and PC temperature control to achieve economic efficient and stable production purpose.


In the past year there have been many advances in the area of small bowel physiology and pathology. In preparation for this review, over 500 papers were assessed; some have been selected and reviewed, with a particular focus on presenting clinically useful information for the practising gastroenterologist.


Kidney and urinary stone disease is a major public health problem which requires a systemic clinical and biochemical evaluation to establish a precise diagnosis and well oriented therapy. This study reviews the results of a protocol designed to establish the metabolic abnormalities that occurred in 626 consecutive renal stone patients studied in two periods; group I (1979-1987) 441 cases and group II (1987-1989) 185 cases. The group I included the following determinations before and after a five day oral calcium load: serum and 24 hr urine electrolytes, divalent cations, phosphate, uric acid, cystine, glomerular filtration rate, parathyroid function evaluation with PTH and Tm Phosphate and since 1982 also (Ia) cAMP. In group II we also determined inhibitors of crystallization (magnesium and citrate) and promoters of nucleation (oxalate). In 185 cases of group I, we monitored months of follow up after metabolic evaluation and the number of stones formed per patient/year before and after treatment was begun. In group I we detected some variety of metabolic abnormality in 88.2 percent of our patients and in group II increased to 96.2 percent. A two year follow up was recorded in 55 percent and four year follow up in 39 percent of our cases. The stone/patient/year formation rate before treatment was 2.8 and significantly decreased to 0.8 after treatment. The highly diagnostic efficiency, the long term follow up and the adequacy of treatment significantly decreased stone activity in this group of patients. We concluded that this protocol should be included in the systematic evaluation of kidney stone patients.


Neutron powder diffraction on the binary intermetallics Er5Mg24 and Tm5Mg24 confirms their isostructural and pure crystallization in the Ti5Re24-type structure (space group I 4 3m, Z = 2)with rare earths located in 2a(0,0,0) and 8c(x,x,x) and Mg in two different 24g(x,y,x) sites. Room temperature lattice constants are 11.263(2) Å and 11.215(1) Å for the Er and Tm compound, respectively. Atomic positions have been refined. Both compounds order ferromagnetically below Curie temperatures of 17.5(5) K and 7.5(5) K for Er5Mg24 and Tm5Mg24, respectively. The magnitudes of the Er moments at 4.2 K are 7.5(2) µB and 4.4(2)µB on the 2a and the 8c sites, respectively. The Tm moments which have been refined from 2 K measurements amount to 3.0(3)µB and 2.8(2) µB, respectively. The temperature dependencies of the magnetic Bragg intensities reveal distinct deviations from Brillouin curves for J = 15/2 (Er) and J = 6 (Tm) systems and indicate a complex magnetic exchange.


The CMOS based memories are facing major issues with technology scaling, such as decreased reliability and increased leakage power. A point will be reached when the technology scaling issues will overweight the benefits. For this reason, alternate solutions are being proposed in literature, to possibly replace charge based memories. One of the most promising of these solutions is the spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM). To evaluate the viability of such solution, one must understand how it behaves under the effect of the various reliability degradation factors. In this paper we propose a methodology which allows for fast reliability evaluation of an STT-MRAM cell under process, voltage, and temperature variations. Our proposed method allows for a sensitivity analysis which will show the designer/test engineer which is the main reliability concern of a certain design. The method is general, and it can be applied to any memory design.


This review is first and mainly an historical journey across two centuries of Alpine geology, from the early fixist views to the mobilist revolutions produced by the nappe theory and, later, by the global theory of plate tectonics, including the important developments of the last decade. This review is addressed to the Italian students and nonalpine geoscientists, and mainly focusses on the hard rock geology of the Austroalpine-Penninic wedge which is closest to my direct experience. The Alps, made popular by the "Voyages" of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, are the mountain range where the nappe theory was conceived and rapidly consolidated. Mobilist views, cleverly foreseen by Eduard Suess, were developed by Bertrand, Schardt, Lugeon, Termier, Argand and Staub, and between the two world wars the Alps became a model for the evolution of collisional mountain belts. Wegener's theory of continental drift was endorsed by Argand and Staub in the Alpine-Himalayan ranges, and their tectonic views dominated until the unexpected impact of plate tectonics. In a few years the plate tectonic re-interpretation of the Alps was generally accepted and regionally improved by integration of classic groundwork with modern field and laboratory advances, mainly concerning refinements in stratigraphy, sedimentology, structural analysis, petrology of metamorphic units, isotope dating, deep geophysical experiments, paleostructural restoration back to Tethys, the Pangea supercontinent and older creative reconstructions, as well as numerical and analogical models. The existence of a pre-Gosau orogenic event was confirmed, better documented and related to the closure of the Triassic Meliata ocean. At the beginning of the 1970s, the eclogitic metamorphism in the Sesia-Lanzo zone, firmly related to Paleozoic events, yielded Cretaceous isotope ages, and became the signature of an early Alpine deep subduction of the continental crust. From the half of 1990s, a new generation of isotope dating on retentive systems began to spread in the Western Alps and then in the entire belt, providing robust Eocene ages for the closure of the Piedmont ocean and the subduction metamorphism in oceanic and continental units. A growing number of innovative, provocative, and sometimes repetitive papers appeared in the last decade. Based on actualistic models, the concept of ocean-continent-transition was tested in the Central Alps, became popular and rapidly expanded in the western Alps, from the Canavese zone to the ophiolitic Zermatt-Zaas nappe, without trace, however, of continental basement slices as extensional allochthons inside the Combin zone. In the second part of the paper, the Structural Model of Italy at 1:500,000 scale and its contribution to Alpine geology are reappraised. This was the most relevant product in Italy of the fruitful integration of geological and geophysical working groups promoted by the National Geodynamic Project. The entire Alpine chain is represented by the sheets 1-2 (Bigi et al., 1990) and 3 (Bigi et al., 1993), that were printed without explanatory notes. Based on updated general lines of the Structural Model, the third and last part summarizes the structural features and kinematic evolution of the Alps. The Alpine orogeny developed from the Cretaceous through subduction of Mesozoic oceans and the European passive margin below the Adriatic leading plate, including the pre-Gosau Eastern Austroalpine thrust system and the underlying Western Austroalpine wedge. The latter derived from some extensional allochthons with Adriatic affinity, still connected to the Adriatic margin and/or trapped within the Piedmont-Ligurian ocean that completely closed during the Eocene. The Western Austroalpine and Penninic wedge is the core of the collisional belt, a fossil subduction complex which in deep seismic images floats over the European foreland lower plate. It is marked by a blueschist to eclogite facies, locally ultrahigh-P imprint of Late Cretaceous-Eocene age, followed by a post-nappe thermal re-equilibration developing Barrovian greenschist to amphibolite facies mineral assemblages throughout the nappe stack. Soon after, a post-collisional magmatic cycle with calc-alkaline to ultrapotassic affinity widely developed during the Eocene (Adamello) and mainly the Oligocene (32-30 Ma) along the Periadriatic igneous belt and fault system, from the lower Aosta valley to the Slovenian eastern edge of the Alps, and fed from partial melting of previously enriched mantle sources. Thermal perturbation and igneous activity are generally related to slab break-off of the lower plate after continental collision, and rising of hot asthenospheric bodies. During the Neogene the exhumed collisional wedge was accreted outside and below the Penninic frontal thrust by a stack of Helvetic basement slices and decollement cover nappes, pushed up and backward indented by the Southalpine lithosphere which in turn was deformed as an antithetic fold-and-thrust retro-belt. The Alpine tectonics is still active, as documented by seismicity, GPS measurements and foreland subsidence. Citation: 2010. The Italian Alps: a journey across two centuries of Alpine geology . In: (Eds.) Marco Beltrando, Angelo Peccerillo, Massimo Mattei, Sandro Conticelli, and Carlo Doglioni, Journal of the Virtual Explorer, volume 36, paper 8, doi: 10.3809/jvirtex.2010.00234 Journal of the Virtual Explorer, 2010


An experimental study of the interaction between hairy structures modeled as highaspect ratio micropillars (HAMuP) and wall turbulence is presented. Micropillars are elastic, hairlike microstructures which have been inspired by naturally occurring examples like lateral line sensors in fish and air flow sensors in bats. The objective of this thesis was two fold: to develop a manufacturing process for consistent production of HAMuP arrays, and to conduct a study focusing on the interaction of HAMuP arrays with wall turbulence. Hotwire anemometry measurements were carried out in two different experimental facilities at three different streamwise locations to describe the interaction between the HAMuP array and the wallturbulence. There is a shift of the laminar sublayer away from the wall indicated by a shift in the turbulentintensity peak in the inner region of the flow over HAMuP array. The energy spectra also reveals a shift of the energetic structures away from the wall. Measurements taken downstream of the HAMuP array point to a damping of the energetic structures in the flow over the HAMuP array. The amplitude modulation coefficient is increased in the nearwall region which points to a possible mechanism by which the naturally occurring micropillars detect oncoming predators. A parametric approach was adopted to further study the effect of HAMuP arrays on turbulent boundary layer. The parameter study also reveals that a decrease in elastic modulus may lead to a decrease in the amount of energy the HAMuP arrays can extract from the flow. Also, increasing the height of the pillars might increase the potential elastic energy they can store but there is also a potential increase in the form drag due to the micropillars.


Technology trends such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) are transforming networking services in terms of flexibility and faster deployment times. SDN separates the control plane from the data plane with its centralised architecture compared with the distributed approach used in other management systems. However, management systems are still required to adapt the new emerging SDN-like technologies to address various security and complex management issues. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is the most widespread management protocol implemented in a traditional Network Management System (NMS) but has some limitations with the development of SDN-like services. Hence, many studies have been undertaken to merge the SDN-like services with traditional network management systems. Results show that merging SDN with traditional NMS systems not only increases the average Management Information Base (MIB) polling time but also creates additional overheads on the network. Therefore, this paper proposes a dynamic scheme for MIB polling using an additional MIB controller agent within the SDN controller. Our results show that using the proposed scheme, the average polling time can be significantly reduced (i.e., faster polling of the MIB information) and also requires very low overhead because of the small sized OpenFlow messages used during polling.


This article reviews personal injury road accidents in 1998. Further details are shown in the main tables. Part 1 comprises nine tables which depict 1998 casualty numbers. These tables also include revised casualty numbers for 1997 and the average for the years 1981-1985 (the basis for the national target for reducing the number of road casualties by one third by the year 2000). For comparison, the resultant percentage changes are also shown in the tables and these are further depicted in charts 1a-1c. Table 1a shows all casualties and these are further disaggregated by sex in table 1b, by age group in table 1h and by road type in table 1i. Tables 1c-1g concentrate on data for certain types of road user. Casualty rates per 100 million vehicle kilometres, or, in the case of pedestrian casualties, per 100 thousand population, are also shown. Part 2 comprises data on the cost of accidents and motor insurance claims. which have been supplied by the Department's Road Safety Division and the Association of British Insurers (ABI). Articles on these subjects have appeared in previous year's reports, however only the background data is included in this edition. (A) For the covering abstract see ITRD E105430.


From the initiation of chemotherapy until attainment of complete remission, 22 newly diagnosed, hospitalized patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia were studied for the prevalence of periodontal disease at admission and for acute exacerbations during myelosuppressive chemotherapy. Consistent with a normal population, all patients had asymptomatic periodontal disease at admission. In these 22 patients, 47 acute infections developed, including 13 of periodontal origin. All but three acute periodontal infections occurred during pronounced granulocytopenia (less than 100 granulocytes per microliter). Although signs and symptoms of inflammation were minimal, all 13 episodes were associated with pain and fever. Asymptomatic periodontal disease is readily overlooked but can be easily diagnosed by thorough clinical and roentgenographic examination. Its occurrence in patients with acute leukemia and its acute exacerbation during granulocytopenia indicate that this oral infection is associated with considerable morbidity during the treatment of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.


Objective To describe the temporal relationship between the road traffic mortality rate and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Brazil, and make an annual prediction of the evolution of both indicators until 2020, the end of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) monitoring period. Methods Brazilian road traffic mortality rate official data were described from 2000 to 2015, while the GDP per capita official data were described from 2000 to 2013. GDP per capita and traffic mortality rate predictions were performed until 2020 using fractional polynomial analysis. Correlations were assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results From 2000 to 2015, there were over 446 000 road crashes fatal victims in Brazil. The road traffic mortality rate was positively related to the Brazilian GDP per capita, with a strong correlation (r=0.89; p<0.001) from 2000 to 2013 and a mild correlation (r=0.55; p<0.001) considering the whole period (2000–2020). The predictions show a reduction on the road traffic mortality rates in Brazil; however, if this same reduction pace continues, we estimate that the country will reach 12.4 road crash deaths per 100 000 inhabitants in 2020, a reduction of only 13.4% compared with 2015. Conclusion If the same mortality reduction pace continues in Brazil, the country will not reach the proposed SDG, which is to reduce by half the number of deaths per 100 000 inhabitants. In addition, an intertwined conciliation between economical growth, sustainable development and public policies is needed in order to meet such an overwhelming goal.


A critical question in biology is the identification of functionally important amino acid sites in proteins. Because functionally important sites are under stronger purifying selection, site-specific substitution rates tend to be lower than usual at these sites. A large number of phylogenetic models have been developed to estimate site-specific substitution rates in proteins and the extraordinarily low substitution rates have been used as evidence of function. Most of the existing tools, e.g. Rate4Site, assume that site-specific substitution rates are independent across sites. However, site-specific substitution rates may be strongly correlated in the protein tertiary structure, since functionally important sites tend to be clustered together to form functional patches. We have developed a new model, GP4Rate, which incorporates the Gaussian process model with the standard phylogenetic model to identify slowly evolved regions in protein tertiary structures. GP4Rate uses the Gaussian process to define a nonparametric prior distribution of site-specific substitution rates, which naturally captures the spatial correlation of substitution rates. Simulations suggest that GP4Rate can potentially estimate site-specific substitution rates with a much higher accuracy than Rate4Site and tends to report slowly evolved regions rather than individual sites. In addition, GP4Rate can estimate the strength of the spatial correlation of substitution rates from the data. By applying GP4Rate to a set of mammalian B7-1 genes, we found a highly conserved region which coincides with experimental evidence. GP4Rate may be a useful tool for the in silico prediction of functionally important regions in the proteins with known structures.


Objectives: The expansion of competency based medical education (CBME) has necessitated the development of novel assessment tools. Social media applications hold potential to become entrenched E-learning assessment tools. The objective of this study was to evaluate WhatsApp as an assessment tool to improve trainees' confidence in diagnosis and management of nephrology clinical problems.
Methods: A 16-week pilot study was performed using WhatsApp to disseminate clinical cases to internal medicine trainees. Clinical cases evaluated a comprehensive set of nephrology clinical competencies, and were followed by multiple choice questions. Pre and post-study surveys evaluated trainees' confidence in the diagnosis and management of nephrology topics, using a 5-point Likert scale.
Results: Twenty seven (42.9%) out of 63 trainees enrolled (44.4% Females; 48.2/33.3/18.5% of post-graduate year 1/2/3, respectively). Trainees' confidence improved for the diagnosis and management of clinical problems in transplantation, glomerulonephritis and dialysis. There was no significant improvement in confidence in areas in which respondents likely had previous exposure, such as acute kidney injury.
Conclusions: Trainees confidence improved using WhatsApp as a tool to enhance critical thinking. However, the response rate diminished prior to the end of the 16-week study period, questioning the durability of using such a teaching method.


Author(s): DeVore, Peter | Advisor(s): Jalali, Bahram; Putterman, Seth | Abstract: Outliers or rogue events are found extensively in our world and have incredible effects. Also called rare events, they arise in the distribution of wealth (e.g., Pareto index), finance, network traffic, ocean waves, and e-commerce (selling less of more). Interest in rare optical events exploded after the sighting of optical rogue waves in laboratory experiments at UCLA. Detecting such tail events in fast streams of information necessitates real-time measurements. The Coherent Time-Stretch Transform chirps a pulsed source of radiation so that its temporal envelope matches its spectral profile (analogous to the far field regime of spatial diffraction), and the mapped spectral electric field is slow enough to be captured by a real-time digitizer. Combining this technique with spectral encoding, the time stretch technique has enabled a new class of ultra-high performance spectrometers and cameras (30+ MHz), and analog-to-digital converters that have led to the discovery of optical rogue waves and detection of cancer cells in blood with one in a million sensitivity. Conventionally, the Coherent Time-Stretch Transform maps the spectrum into the temporal electric field, but the time-dilation process along with inherent fiber losses results in reduction of peak power and loss of sensitivity, a problem exacerbated by extremely narrow molecular linewidths. The loss issue notwithstanding, in many cases the requisite dispersive optical device is not available. By extending the Coherent Time-Stretch Transform to the temporal near field, I have demonstrated, for the first time, phase-sensitive absorption spectroscopy of a gaseous sample at millions of frames per second. As the Coherent Time-Stretch Transform may capture both near and far field optical waves, it is a complete spectro-temporal optical characterization tool. This is manifested as an amplitude-dependent chirp, which implies the ability to measure the complex refractive index dispersion at megahertz frame rates. This technique is not only four orders of magnitude faster than even the fastest (kHz) spectrometers, but will also enable capture of real-time complex dielectric function dynamics of plasmas and chemical reactions (e.g. combustion). It also has applications in high-energy physics, biology, and monitoring fast high-throughput industrial processes.Adding an electro-optic modulator to the Time-Stretch Transform yields time-to-time mapping of electrical waveforms. Known as TiSER, it is an analog slow-motion processor that uses light to reduce the bandwidth of broadband RF signals for capture by high-sensitivity analog-to-digital converters (ADC). However, the electro-optic modulator limits the electrical bandwidth of TiSER. To solve this, I introduced Optical Sideband-only Amplification, wherein electro-optically generated modulation (containing the RF information) is amplified at the expense of the carrier, addressing the two most important problems plaguing electro-optic modulators: (1) low RF bandwidth and (2) high required RF drive voltages. I demonstrated drive voltage reductions of 5x at 10 GHz and 10x at 50 GHz, while simultaneously increasing the RF bandwidth.


We tested the effects of the Power Step shoe insert in a group of Facilities Management employees (n=23 staff, seventeen men, six woman, average 15 years of university service), 80% of whom have been clinically diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis. Inserts were handed out to staff that qualified based on diagnosis beginning in 2008, and regular staff surveys were solicited every six months thereafter. New inserts were given to staff each year as they qualified. Over the course of seven years, eight staff personnel retired or left the program, and 10 were added to the program. Wear and tear of the insert, and pain levels based on McGill 1-10 rating scale were used each year. In the seven years of the program- the average length of use was 4.5 years, and pain levels were reduced from 4.83 (year one average) to 1.60, which includes new personnel who were added after 2010. Changes were also seen over time with individual workers who used the Power Steps for more than two years, seeing a decrease and levelling off of pain levels from the first year of use. The results of this program show that over time the chronic pain levels associated with work efforts in staff with Plantar Fasciitis are reduced by a statistically significant amount and clinically based on the addition of long- term Power Step inserts added to work boots and shoes in Facilities Management staff. This trend is continual even for newer users, and comparisons with non-power step usage shows significant variations in pain levels.


Background:
This report presents the process of a bachelor thesis of the study Industrial Design at the University of Twente. The assignment is executed commissioned by TNO at the department Equipment for Additive Manufacturing. TNO is targeting to take additive manufacturing to a higher level. The goal of the assignment is to make a conceptual prototype of an exoskeleton which is produced using additive manufacturing. The exoskeleton should assist elderly with the sit-to-stand transition.
Approach:
The assignment is executed in four different phases. First the analysis phase in which market research is done, the stakeholders are analysed and literature research is done. The analysis phase results in a list of requirements. These requirements are used in the second phase, the concept phase. Three concepts have been developed and have been rated based on the requirements. The concepts have been improved into one final concept. This concepts is then turned into a prototype which brings us to the third phase. The validation phase, in this phase the concept is validated by a user test and theoretical evaluation. The points of improvement that are found in the validation phase are then used in the final phase, the final product design. In this phase a redesign is made which incorporates the points of improvement.
Results:
An innovative solution was found that satisfies most requirements. The final product is a knee brace that helps elderly with the sit-to-stand transition. The product is a form fitting design with an incorporated hinge which can be 3D printed together with the product, which makes sure that an assembly step can be skipped.
Conclusion:
By making the exoskeleton a form fitting knee orthosis all requirements set in the analysis phase are met or can be met with further development. Therefore the recommendations were drawn up which can be used in the continuation of the development process.


The present study was aimed to evaluate the anti-ferlility activity of Caesalpinia pulcherrima Linn in rats. The plant Caesalpinia pulcherrima is a shrub or small tree. The plant is normally considered to be an ornamental shrub which is planted in gardens and parks for its beautiful red or yellow flowers. The phytochemical screening of the plant has shown the presence of various chemical constituents like alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids and triterpenes. The bark extracts of Caesalpinia pulcherrima have exhibited significant estrogenic activity. Both the aqueous and alcoholic extracts have produced reduction in ovarian and increase in uterine weight in a dose dependent manner. Also there is a significant increase in antiimplantation and resorption in a dose dependent manner. The activity shown can be attributed to the presence of phytochemical constituents.


The United States is engaged in a new era of great-power competition partially playing out in the realms of information, ideas, and ideology. The goal of this report is to help U.S. decisionmakers anticipate changes in the global competition of ideas and adapt policy accordingly. The authors examine trends in Chinese and Russian policy and actions, and discuss nonstate actors to analyze what ideological competition might look like in the future.


Malaria is a global public health concern. It is prevalent in the Blue Nile state of Sudan, where the incidence rate exceeds 34%, according to a 2015 survey. P.falciparum is the dominant infecting species in sub-Saharan Africa; it particularly affects pregnant women, for it tends to sequester in the intervillous space (IVS) of placenta, resulting in placental malaria which can subsequently lead to congenital malaria. Congenital malaria (CM) is defined as the presence of malaria parasites in the peripheral blood of new born infants, in the first week of life. There is quite a lot of controversy associated with the frequency of occurrence of congenital malaria as the mechanism/s of how the parasites crosses the placenta barrier is not yet fully understood.

The main aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of placental malaria and congenital malaria and their effects on the pregnancy outcomes in the Blue Nile state of Sudan. The subsequent aim of this study was to explore the possible mechanism/s by which the malaria parasite crosses the placental barrier. The role of tight junction proteins in the placenta with regards to the crossing of the parasites through the placental barrier will be investigated.

A cross-sectional study has been conducted with 336 pregnant women. The mean (SD) maternal age was (25.13 ± 4.43), who have given birth in the main maternity wards at Complex Centre, Damazin, Roseris hospitals, respectively, between the years 2012–2014 in Sudan. The socio-demographic and the obstetric information of the mothers have also been collected. The peripheral blood smears of pregnant women at delivery have been used for haemoglobin (Hb gm/dl) measurement and the detection of the malaria parasite; the placental blood and tissues, cord blood, and peripheral blood smears of the new born babies have been collected and examined for malaria parasites infection by microscopic using Giemsa staining and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. The placental tissue classification of malaria infection has been done by Haematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) staining and double staining microscopically by Giemsa and Prussian blue respectively. Placental tissues have been examined for two tight junction markers' Zonulaoccludens-1 andClaudin-4 using immunohistochemistry method.

Results showed that PCR technique was more sensitive than Giemsa staining technique in detecting the presence of parasite in the blood samples tested. Results also showed that all cases of malaria infection, that has been detected in the baby's peripheral blood has been found to be positive in the corresponding cord blood.


The live demonstration presents the innovative concept of a portable pen-device able to sense anaesthetic compounds over time for improved anaesthesiology practice. A custom Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manage in the event-based quasi-digital domain the sampling procedure, while a commercial Screen Printed Electrode (SPE) acts as an electrochemical sensor for measuring paracetamol (APAP) as benchmark drug. The system is controlled by an FPGA board implementing a custom logic and the results are displayed through a Matlab® graphical user interface. The visitors can experience and confirm on real-time the reliability of the here presented portable pen for anaesthetic monitoring.


Ghrelin is a peptide hormone with a unique structure comprising a medium chain fatty acid modification. Ghrelin cells are known to be abundantly localized in the gastric mucosa and are released into the blood stream to exert their multifunctional physiological effects. To elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of ghrelin secretion and acyl-modification, we developed novel ghrelin-producing cell lines. Using ghrelinoma cell lines, we focused on the mechanisms of ghrelin secretion and found that several GPCRs were highly expressed in ghrelin cells. Then, we showed that noradrenaline treatment stimulated ghrelin secretion via β1-adrenergic receptor, and fasting-induced ghrelin elevation was completely inhibited by the β1-adrenergic receptor antagonist in mice. In addition, we demonstrated that long chain fatty acids, glucose, and L-glutamate significantly inhibited ghrelin secretion. Furthermore, we recently revealed that the genes involved in fatty acid synthesis and long chain fatty acid metabolism were expressed in ghrelin cells, and that CPT-1 inhibitor treatment dramatically decreased the levels of acyl-modified ghrelin. Here, we introduce the current knowledge of the mechanisms involving ghrelin secretion and its acyl-modification.


The use of drug purchase tasks to measure drug demand in human behavioral pharmacology and addiction research has proliferated in recent years. Few studies have systematically evaluated the stimulus selectivity of drug purchase tasks to demonstrate that demand metrics are specific to valuation of or demand for the commodity under study. Stimulus selectivity is broadly defined for this purpose as a condition under which a specific stimulus input or target (e.g., alcohol, cigarettes) is the primary determinant of behavior (e.g., demand). The overall goal of the present study was to evaluate the stimulus selectivity of drug purchase tasks. Participants were sampled from the Amazon.com's crowdsourcing platform Mechanical Turk. Participants completed either alcohol and soda purchase tasks (Experiment 1; N = 139) or cigarette and chocolate purchase tasks (Experiment 2; N = 46), and demand metrics were compared to self-reported use behaviors. Demand metrics for alcohol and soda were closely associated with commodity-similar (e.g., alcohol demand and weekly alcohol use) but not commodity-different (e.g., alcohol demand and weekly soda use) variables. A similar pattern was observed for cigarette and chocolate demand, but selectivity was not as consistent as for alcohol and soda. Collectively, we observed robust selectivity for alcohol and soda purchase tasks and modest selectivity for cigarette and chocolate purchase tasks. These preliminary outcomes suggest that demand metrics adequately reflect the specific commodity under study and support the continued use of purchase tasks in substance use research.


Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 53 requires that the audit be designed to provide a reasonable assurance of detecting management fraud. Traditionally auditors have utilized personal, business, and economic red flags in risk analysis and audit planning. Touche Ross (1974), Coopers and Lybrand (1977), Price Waterhouse (1985), and SAS Nos. 6, 16, 17, and 53 discuss various red flags associated with management fraud. However, the authoritative literature does not provide any guidance on how to measure and combine red flags. The extant literature primarily measures red flags as "yes" or "no" type binary variables. However, red flags are fuzzy in nature and fuzzy set approach can be used to measure and combine red flags. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for the application of the theory of fuzzy sets to the problem of assessing the risk of management fraud using red flags. This approach can be used to capture the beliefs of one or several auditors concerning red flags and combine these beliefs to estimate the risk of management fraud. This approach can be extended to build fuzzy reasoning systems that assess the risk of management fraud.


In this paper, I investigate whether and how banks align green words with deeds in terms of credit allocation across more or less carbon-intensive industries in France. I use a rich dataset of bank credit exposures across some fifty industries and two size classes of borrowing firms for the main banking groups operating in France, which I merge with information on industries' greenhouse gas emission intensities and a score for banks' self-reported climate-related commitments over 2010-2017. I find evidence that higher levels of self-reported climate commitments by banks are associated with less lending to large corporates in the five brownest industries. However, lending to SMEs across more or less carbon-intensive industries remained unrelated to banks' commitments to green their business. Since SMEs are not required to report on their carbon emissions, while large firms are, these findings suggest that devising an appropriate carbon reporting framework for small firms is likely to enhance the decarbonization of bank lending.


ABSTRACT Renewed interest in middle powers since the late 2000s has seen a surge in research. Yet an agreed definition is more elusive than ever. This compromises the ability to pursue meaningful research programs, communicate practical policy advice, and instruct future generations. Why is an agreed definition so elusive and how can this challenge be overcome? The author contends that the definition of the term 'middle power' has evolved to be less about discovering either 'the meaning of a word' or 'the nature of a thing' in the pursuit of knowledge, and more about persuasion, influence, coercion and, ultimately, the exercise of power. An alternative approach to definition offers the best hope to address this challenge. With this objective, the author first looks into the nature and criteria for definition in the social sciences. Second, he looks at the structure of contemporary attempts to redefine the term. Third, he analyses definitional ruptures to shed light on the rhetorical import of contests. Finally, the author turns to rhetorical theory to offer an alternative approach to the definition of the term 'middle power'.


Henning Mankell describes his goal in the best-selling Wallander novels as an examination of the social antagonisms in his native Sweden, particularly with regard to race and immigration, within the commercial genre of the police procedural. This essay complicates Mankell's claims, which have been widely accepted by critics. Rather, the author situates Mankell's Wallander series in the literary tradition named by Ernest Mandel as the "disintegrative" thriller, which Mandel sees emerging in response to late capitalism's restructuring of electoral politics and in the context of Sweden's recent neoliberal turn. Social and political conditions in Sweden are ripe for the production of the cultural affect Peter Sloterdijk diagnoses as "cynical reason" or "modern cynicism" in his influential work, Critique of Cynical Reason. For Sloterdijk, the conflicted postmodern cynic affirms the post-Enlightenment project of ideological critique, the unmasking of concealed truth, although he has lost faith in the efficacy of this project. Sloterdijk's account provides a fascinating analogue to European detective figures noted for their "authenticity" or "realism," and the Wallander series presents a provocative fable of disillusionment: a melancholic antihero defending the embattled welfare state, while uncovering the corruption of that same state, who gradually descends into the highly symbolic oblivion of Alzheimer's disease. This analysis of the Wallander character as postmodern cynic explores the ironies of a detective who no longer retains firm convictions of the likelihood of justice or the integrity of the individual mind. Ideally, this consideration of Mankell's best-selling series helps to explain its enormous appeal—how it speaks to its multiple audiences—and what constitutes realism in crime fiction today.


Objectives: Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) constitute a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by alterations in mandibular movement. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the Bcl1 variant of NR3C1 gene and TMD susceptibility in Turkish population.
Method: NR3C1 gene BcI1 variant of 100 TMD patients and 105 healthy controls was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method (PCR-RFLP).
Results: There was also no significant difference in regard to genotype and allele frequencies between the patients and the controls (OR 0.216 (95% Cl: 0.85-2.04); p=0.216). However, present study found that numeric pain rating scale was higher in patients with CC and CG genotypes.
Discussion: Although the NR3C1 Bcl1 variant did not show any difference between the TMD and the control groups, we thought that this variant could be correlated with pain intensity in patients. Further studies with different ethnic subjects are needed to confirm the results.


Through the deep-going investigation and superficial analysis to the grotesque phenomenon in some literature works of the (word),the paper expounds that grotesqueness is an unfixed notion with consistent changes and provides an initial summary and analysis on the characteristics of aesthetic judgment to grotesque,including the formation principles of abnormality,astonishment mixed with fear and comic,and the duality of grotesque.The main difference between grotesque and comic lies in the divergence of the degree of (abnormality),the creating attitude,and the value of aesthetic judgment. In the meantime,the chief difference between grotesque and (absurdness) is that grotesque is qualified with some kind of creating techniques and styles while absurdness is more concerned about (implications) and conceptions.


We report a systematic study of the plasma polymerization of ethyl α-bromoisobutyrate (EBIB) to produce thin film coatings capable of serving as ATRP initiation surfaces, for which they must contain α-bromoisobutyryl functional groups. In the deposition of polymeric coatings by plasma polymerization there generally occurs considerable fragmentation of precursor ("monomer") molecules in the plasma; and the retention of larger structural elements is challenging, particularly when they are inherently chemically labile. Empirical principles such as low plasma power and low pressure are usually utilized. However, we show that the α-bromoisobutyryl structural moiety is labile in a plasma gas phase and in low pressure plasma conditions, below the collisional threshold, there is little retention. At higher pressure, in contrast, fragmentation of this structural motif appears to be reduced substantially, and coatings useful for ATRP initiation were obtained. Mass spectrometry analysis of the composition of the plasma phase revealed that the desired structural moiety can be retained through the plasma, if the plasma conditions are steered toward ions of the precursor molecule. Whereas at low pressure the plasma polymer assembles mainly from various neutral (radical) fragments, at higher pressure the deposition occurs from hyperthermal ions, among which the protonated intact molecular ion is the most abundant. At higher pressure, a substantial population of ions has low kinetic energy, leading to "soft landing" and thus less fragmentation. This study demonstrates that relatively complex structural motifs in precursor molecules can be retained in plasma polymerization if the chemical and physical processes occurring in the plasma phase are elucidated and controlled such that desirable larger structural elements play a key role in the film deposition.


Objectives To describe the long-term socioeconomic and reproductive health outcomes of women in Uganda by adolescent birth history. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Uganda. Participants Women aged 40–49 years at the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. Outcome measures We compared socioeconomic and reproductive outcomes among those with first birth <18 years versus not. Among those with a first birth <18 years, we compared those with and without repeat adolescent births (another birth <20 years). We used two-sample test for proportions, linear regression and Poisson regression. Findings Among the 2814 women aged 40–49 years analysed, 36.2% reported a first birth <18 years and 85.9% of these had a repeat adolescent birth. Compared with women with no birth <18 years, those with first birth <18 years were less likely to have completed primary education (16.3% vs 32.2%, p<0.001), more likely to be illiterate (55.0% vs 44.0%, p<0.001), to report challenges seeking healthcare (67.6% vs 61.8%, p=0.002) and had higher mean number of births by age 40 years (6.6 vs 5.3, p<0.001). Among women married at time of survey, those with birth <18 years had older husbands (p<0.001) who also had lower educational attainment (p<0.001). Educational attainment, household wealth score, total number of births and under-5 mortality among women with one adolescent birth were similar, and sometimes better, than among those with no birth <18 years. Conclusions Results suggest lifelong adverse socioeconomic and reproductive outcomes among women with adolescent birth, primarily in the category with repeat adolescent birth. While our results might be birth-cohort specific, they underscore the need to support adolescent mothers to have the same possibilities to develop their potentials, by supporting school continuation and prevention of further unwanted pregnancies.


Why do fundamental rights and market freedoms attract and repel each other? Why can they neither be together nor remain separate? This paper argues that at least part of the explanation is that they are each governed by different types of "logic." They are at the fault-lines of different discourses. Market freedoms are promoted in a technological discourse, fundamental rights in a teleological discourse. The former are expressed in an observational view from above, while the latter embody the view of a first-person agent. Travelling back and forth between these two discourses, as legal authorities like the European legislator and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) often have to do, is an ambiguous enterprise. It may create opacity, but it may also bring clarity to the otherwise muddy waters of a "common" (now: "internal") EU market under capitalist conditions. Much is dependent on their ability to orientate themselves on a map that recognizes the poles of these discourses, technology and teleology. This paper contributes to drawing that map through analysis of a case study in patent law involving the concept of an embryo. Construed as "an autonomous concept of European law" the notion of an embryo will appear to be paradigmatic of alternative ways in which the two discourses may relate to each other.


As part of a larger European project, alcolocks were installed in 14 public buses in Lillehammer, Norway, for one year to study the psychological, sociological, behavioural and practical impact of alcolocks on some 30 public bus drivers. All buses had override switches in case of malfunction of the alcolocks. Running retests were not included. The bus company and the drivers' unions agreed that the test results would be known to and followed up by the management. Hence, the bus drivers knew that possible positive tests would have severe consequences. Drivers, passengers, company management staff and local authority representatives were interviewed about the alcolocks, and the data registered in the alcolocks were analyzed. No proven case of drunk driving was recorded during the trial. No severe technical or practical problems with the alcolock appeared. The drivers and the management accepted the alcolocks well. The passengers were so positive towards the technology they would accept delays caused by alcolocks. The drivers and the company management accepted the alcolocks well enough to continue the use of alcolocks after the trial, but they did not agree on the conditions for continued use. The drivers' unions made it a condition to the continued used of alcolocks, that all company buses in the town of Lillehammer should be equipped with alcolocks. The company management considered it too costly to have alcolocks installed in 10-15 more buses, and asked the local transport authorities for financial support for this purpose. The local authorities were not willing to provide such support for the continued use of alcolocks, because the accident-reducing effects of alcolocks in buses were not known. The conclusion is that it is feasible to implement alcolocks in public buses, as drivers accept alcolocks when the alcolocks do not interfere with the driving. A careful preparation of the inclusion process and the follow-up procedures are, however, necessary. Clear legal follow-up procedures are needed as well as better knowledge of the accident-reducing effect of alcolocks in public transport. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.


There is not any publication about the use of this technique with midterm follow-up in Colombia. Objective: to evaluate the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation with the use of irrigated monopolar radiofrequency to short and midterm, through clinical follow-up, electrocardiogram and echocardiogram. Methods: 70 patients with diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and some other heart pathology that required surgery were evaluated between September 2003 and October 2005, in a prospective way. An ablation though monopolar radiofrequency (Cardioblate® Medtronic, Inc) was performed. Results were analyzed with the SPSS version 11, 0 statistical package. Results: 70 patients, 52% females and 48% males with mean age 54 years and preoperatory ejection fraction of 47% had mitral insufficiency (49%) and mitral stenosis (26%) as their main cause for primary heart surgery. 87% patients were evaluated at 18 months (3 to 25 months). Sinus rhythm was achieved in 88%. Residual arrhythmias in this group were atrial fibrillation (6%) and atrial flutter (6%). 80% of post-operatory arrhythmias were found in the first 15 days after surgery, being atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter the most common ones. Anticoagulation and anti-arrhythmic medication was suspended in 89% and 90% of the patients, respectively. The surgical technique had no inherent complications. Conclusions: this investigation demonstrated that the surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation with irrigated monopolar radiofrequency is easily reproducible, highly effective and safe for the patient.


Neural networks comprise a fundamentally new type of computer system inspired by the functioning of neurons in the brain. Such networks are good at solving problems that involve pattern recognition and categorisation. An important difference between a neural network and a traditional computer system is that in developing an application, a neural network is not programmed; instead, it is trained to solve a particular type of problem. This ability to learn to solve a problem makes neural networks adaptable to solving a wide variety of problems, some of which have proved intractable using a traditional computing approach. Neural networks are particularly suited to tasks involving the categorisation of patterns of information, such as is required in diagnosis and clinical decision making. In the last three years reports of applications involving neural networks have begun to appear in the medical literature, and these are described in this paper. However, a comprehensive search of the literature has shown that there have not as yet been reports of any applications in psychiatry. This paper discusses the nature of clinical decision making, outlines the sorts of problems in psychiatry which neural networks applications might be developed to address, and gives examples of candidate applications in clinical decision making.


Infection with Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium sequence type (ST) 313 is associated with high rates of drug resistance, bloodstream infections, and death. To determine whether ST313 is dominant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we studied 180 isolates collected during 2007–2011; 96% belonged to CRISPOL type CT28, which is associated with ST313.


Abstract.
 Systematic paleontology of three new species of Petalocrinidae (Crinoidea) are documented from the carbonate-dominated units of the Shihniulan and equivalent Leijiatun formations (Llandovery, Silurian) of the Baisha, Fengxiang, and Shuibatang sections in Guizhou (China). New taxa are from the Upper Yangtze Epicontinental Sea of the South China Block. The new taxa include Petalocrinus stenopetalus new species, Spirocrinus circularis new species, and S. dextrosus new species. They have a narrow spatial and temporal (Aeronian) distribution. Evolutionary patterns of the four genera of Petalocrinidae are outlined based on the specialized characters of the fused arm plates. Phylogenetic analysis was used to assess morphological relationships within the Petalocrinidae. Petalocrinus inferior represents the plesiomorphic condition for the group and nests as a sister group of P. stenopetalus n. sp. and the Spirocrinus species used in this analysis and the clade exclusively comprised of Sinopetalocrinus. The phylogenetic analysis suggests that Petalocrinus, as currently defined, might be a paraphyletic genus.