Introduction One of the causes of anterior groin pain is known to be related to insertional tensor fascia lata (TFL) tendinopathy (soft tissue origin). This entity has been very well described a few years ago in ultrasound (US) examination by Bass and Connell as an insertional tendinopathy in the upper lateral iliac crest, demonstrating the ultrasound findings (US) produced in such a pathology. In this report we present two clinical cases that came to our office consulting for chronic groin pain as a new entity in TFL tendinopathy. Method The two cases were active males (30 and 39 years old). Clinical symptoms were longstanding pain and inability for running. MRI studies were done and none of them described any affection of tensor fascia lata tendon (neither of the studies focused in specific TFL tendon). One of the patient (30 yrs.) was diagnosed as having femoroacetabular impingement and underwent surgery for this hip before came to us demonstrating a very unsatisfactory outcome. Specific Sonograms for TFL were obtained with the patient lying in a decubitus position with the symptomatic side uppermost. After confirming the main area of pain as the proximal anterolateral area of thigh, we did and US examination with a Sonosite M-Turbo HFL-50 (6–15 MHz) linear transducer. The US exam area began in the anterior iliac crest and scans were obtained in both longitudinal and transverse planes. Results The proximal "insertional" TFL tendon presented normal size and echogenicity (compared contralateral) in both cases. The US examination of the main body of the proximal tendon or "non insertional" part (above to greater trochanter) demonstrated an increased size of the tendon. In one of the cases (39 yrs.) a large increased size was demonstrated, and the other patient (30 yrs.) showed a focal spindle or fusiform shape as a focal tendinopathy with hipoechogenicity appearance (Figure 1). Discussion The sonographic appearance of non-insertional TFL tendinopathy we describe is the same that has been described for the main lower limb tendinopathies (Achilles, patellar or plantar fascia). In our opinion both, Sonographic and MRI are very operator dependent and in this two cases required a meticulous scanning technique to visualize the non-insertional tendinopathy. Point tenderness in proximal TFL has been described in US as a possible insertional tendinopathy, but the "non insertional" proximal TFL tenderness has not been described up until yet in US examination. US examination of TFL must include the "non-insertional" area of the tendon proximal to greater trochanter of femur. These two cases illustrate an undescribed and atypical presentation of TFL tendinopathy.


Anne Carson's "A Fragment of Ibykos Translated Six Ways" expresses new possibilities for the contemporary retranslation of ancient Classical texts. My article argues that Carson's powerful, ground-shifting retranslation enlists significant procedural constraints to offer a progressive re-reading of the heteronormative, conventionally gendered garden in Ibykos Fragment 286. Carson retranslates Fragment 286 six times using only vocabularies from selected topical and literary source texts with contexts remote from the original. As a result, vocabularies and scenarios shift—from Romantic love to microwave operations—but the structural and rhetorical gestures of the fragment are retained. Conventional gender roles are not merely reversed nor is the garden simply transformed. Carson's six versions transcend the emphasis on gendered textual signals by leaving gender aside to investigate performative reading and translation practices more closely.


Recent destructive earthquakes have shown that many existing buildings, particularly in developing countries, are not safe against seismic actions. Since code-based seismic safety evaluation methods generally require detailed and complex structural analysis, the necessity for simplified, yet sufficiently accurate evaluation methods emerges for reducing cost and duration of assessment procedures. In this study, a performance based rapid seismic safety assessment method (PERA) is proposed for reinforced concrete buildings. The overall structural performance is determined based on the demand/capacity ratios of individual columns, as well as their failure modes (brittle/ductile), confinement characteristics, and levels of axial and shear stresses. The lateral drift of the critical story, calculated through a simplified approach, is also taken into account during determination of the global structural performance. The predictions of this method are compared with the results of conventional detailed seismic safety assessment analyses carried out for 672 different cases representing typical reinforced concrete frame buildings in Turkey. Good agreement is obtained between the predictions of the proposed algorithm and code-based structural performance assessment procedures. Finally, predictions of the proposed approach are compared with actual damages observed in 21 existing buildings in Turkey after destructive earthquakes that have occurred during the last two decades. These comparisons also point to an acceptable level of accuracy and sufficient conservatism for the methodology proposed.


Dynamic programming (DP) is a principled way to design optimal controllers for certain classes of nonlinear systems; unfortunately, DP is computationally very expensive. The reinforcement learning methods known as adaptive critics (AC) provide computationally feasible means for performing approximate dynamic programming (ADP). The term 'adaptive' in AC refers to the critic improved estimations of the value function used by DP. To apply DP, the user must craft a Utility function that embodies all the problem-specific design specifications/criteria. Model reference adaptive control methods have been successfully used in the control community to effect on-line redesign of a controller in response to variations in plant parameters, with the idea that the resulting closed loop system dynamics will mimic those of a reference model. The work (1) uses a reference model in ADP as the key information input to the Utility function, and (2) uses ADP off-line to design the desired controller Future work will extend this to on-line application. This method is demonstrated for a hypersonic shaped airplane called LoFLYTE/spl reg/; its handling characteristics are natively a little "hotter" than a pilot would desire. A control augmentation subsystem is designed using ADP to make the plane "feel like" a better behaved one, as specified by a reference model. The number of inputs to the successfully designed controller are among the largest seen in the literature to date.


Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide and majority of cervical cancers are attributed to HPV. Men's sexual behavior plays a large role in the transmission of HPV and consequently cervical cancer. Awareness among men of HPV and the risks it poses for their female partners is therefore crucial especially because HPV is asymptomatic, and men are unlikely to know if they have been infected. In this study, it is aimed to identify the knowledge and attitudes of young male adults about HPV.
Methods: The research was conducted in Gulhane Military Medical Academy in Ankara during April 2010-May 2011. Research group consisted of 874 private participants who agreed to participate. Data were collected with a form developed by the researchers including socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge level about HPV. In statistical analysis; frequencies and chi-square tests were utilized. For all the analysis, 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: Participants had an average age of 23.4+2.9 and the average age of first sexual intercourse was 17.6+2.2. Three quarters of the participants (70.8%) didn't hear HPV, 71.3% didn't know that sexual partner can spread HPV without warts and 70.9% didn't know that HPV causes cervical cancer in women and penile cancer in men. However, 6.1% of the respondents stated to have genital warts at any one time. 57.6% of the respondents stated that HPV spread through sexual intercourse. 17.3% of the respondents stated that they did not know whether they had HPV suspected sexual partners.
Conclusions: As a result, knowledge level of the respondents was found to be quite low and three of every four respondents were found to have no idea about HPV. In this context, nurses are believed to have an important role in informing young male adults about HPV.


A Manual of the insects of the Hawaiian Islands including an enumeration of the species and notes on their origin, distribution, hosts, parasites, etc.


Objectives Effective secondary stroke prevention strategies are suboptimally used. Novel development of interventions to enable healthcare professionals and stroke survivors to manage risk factors for stroke recurrence are required. We sought to engage key stakeholders in the design and evaluation of an intervention informed by a learning health system approach, to improve risk factor management and secondary prevention for stroke survivors with multimorbidity. Design Qualitative, including focus groups, semistructured interviews and usability evaluations. Data was audio recorded, transcribed and coded thematically. Participants Stroke survivors, carers, health and social care professionals, commissioners, policymakers and researchers. Setting Stroke survivors were recruited from the South London Stroke Register; health and social care professionals through South London general practices and King's College London (KCL) networks; carers, commissioners, policymakers and researchers through KCL networks. Results 53 stakeholders in total participated in focus groups, interviews and usability evaluations. Thirty-seven participated in focus groups and interviews, including stroke survivors and carers (n=11), health and social care professionals (n=16), commissioners and policymakers (n=6) and researchers (n=4). Sixteen participated in usability evaluations, including stroke survivors (n=8) and general practitioners (GPs; n=8). Eight themes informed the collaborative design of DOTT (Deciding On Treatments Together), a decision aid integrated with the electronic health record system, to be used in primary care during clinical consultations between the healthcare professional and stroke survivor. DOTT aims to facilitate shared decision-making on personalised treatments leading to improved treatment adherence and risk control. DOTT was found acceptable and usable among stroke survivors and GPs during a series of evaluations. Conclusions Adopting a user-centred data-driven design approach informed an intervention that is acceptable to users and has the potential to improve patient outcomes. A future feasibility study and subsequent clinical trial will provide evidence of the effectiveness of DOTT in reducing risk of stroke recurrence.


The number of organizations that embrace societal expectations as part of their business strategies is on the rise. Increasing reliance on sustainable issues by a business is critical to the growing interconnectedness and future value of a business. This study aimed at exploring the role of financial management in promoting sustainable business practices and development. Based on thematic analysis of resources from varied scholars, it confirms that appropriate financial management models are necessary to enhance productivity while mitigating issues of financial risks. The findings also indicated that allocating capital budgeting for sustainable issues enhances the competitive advantage of the business, and utilization of western and the Islamic financial are efficient sustainability measures. The study concludes that financial management plays a vital role in promoting sustainable business practices and development.


In Hokkaido, Fusarium basal rot, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cepae is one of the important constrains since 1973 which contributes to a significant loss in onion production, either in the fields or during storage. Development of resistant cultivars is suggested as one of the effective control measures against the disease, however, this should be accompanied with the better understanding of the pathogen's population dynamics. This study was performed to investigate the population structure of F. oxysporum f. sp. cepae based on vegetative compatibility groupings (VCGs). Vegetative compatibility groups of F.oxysporum f. sp. cepae were characterized using nitrate non-utilizing ( nit ) mutants. Four VCGs and 2 single self-compatible (SSC) isolates were identified among 48 isolates, designated as VCG 0420 (33 isolates), 0421 (9 isolates), 0422 (2 isolates), 0423 (2 isolates), and 042-(2 isolates). VCG 0420, to which 4 ATCC isolates out of 6 belonged, was the predominant group within the growing region encompassing Hokkaido Japan. VCGs 0421 and artificial VCG 042- were found less frequently. Four isolates from Welsh onion were not compatible with any recovered VCGs and were assigned to 2 distinct VCGs (VCG 0422 and 0423).


This article presents the first part of a study on the interaction between residual stresses and crack driving force. Blunt notched CT specimens were pre-strained to introduce residual stresses at the notch, where a crack is subsequently introduced. FE modelling is used to model the specimen preload and pre-cracking. Modelling predictions are validated by two different methods. The total predicted surface residual strains are compared to image correlation measurements. The predicted residual strains were measured using neutron diffraction, both before and after fatigue cracking. The residual strain profiles show good agreement with the 3D FE model in the far field but the peak strains measured near the notch are smaller those predicted. This is a result of the low spatial resolution of the technique.


Objective: To determine whether glycemic index (GI) differentially affects improved glucose and lipid profiles observed during weight loss in overweight subjects previously diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with variable glucose tolerance. Methods: Twenty-three female and twenty-two male overweight subjects participated in 12 weeks of energy restriction (average BMI 33.2 kg/m2, age 56.7 years, glycated hemoglobin (GHb) 6.7%). After a four-week run-in on a high saturated fat (SFA) diet (1540 kcal/day, 17% SFA), the free-living subjects were randomly assigned to either a high- (75 GI units) or low- (43 GI units) GI diet (1440 kcal/day, 60% carbohydrate, 5% SFA) for eight weeks. Weight, serum lipids, plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin were measured every four weeks. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was also performed at baseline, weeks 4 and 12. From the baseline OGTT results subjects were divided into three groups of low, median and high glucose tolerance. Results: At baseline, BMI, age and glycated hemoglobin concentrations were not different between subjects allocated to the high- or low-GI diets. After four weeks, weight loss was 3.6 ± 0.3 kg. Fasting glucose (−5.6%), glycated hemoglobin (−2.8%), area under the glucose curve (−13.0%) and triglyceride (−13.8%) concentrations were reduced (p < 0.02). Between weeks 4 and 12 reductions were observed in weight (−4.9%), fasting glucose (−4.6%), area under glucose curve (−10.1%), glycated hemoglobin (−7.2%), triglyceride (−7.5%) and LDL-C (−13.2%) concentrations. Weight loss was not different between low and high-GI diets. However, glycated hemoglobin was reduced twofold more in subjects consuming a low-GI diet as compared to subjects consuming a high-GI diet, but this was not statistically significant. LDL concentrations were also reduced more in subjects with low glucose tolerance on the low-GI diet (p = 0.02). Conclusion: Weight loss produces substantial improvements in glycemic control and lipoprotein metabolism. Lowering the glycemic index of high carbohydrate, low fat diets increases the fall in LDL cholesterol in subjects with type 2 diabetes with low glucose tolerance, but has little effect on glycemic control.


PipeWire is a low-level multimedia library and daemon that facilitates negotiation and low-latency transport of multimedia content between applications, filters and devices. It is built using modern Linux infrastructure and has both performance and security as its core design guidelines. The goal is to provide services such as JACK and PulseAudio on top of this common infrastructure. PipeWire is media agnostic and supports arbitrary compressed and uncompressed formats. A common audio infrastructure with backwards compatibility that can support Pro Audio and Desktop Audio use cases can potentially unify the currently fractured audio landscape on Linux desktops and workstations and give users and developers a much better audio experience.


A Monte Carlo computational model has been used to optimize grid design in digital radiography. The optimization strategy involved finding grid designs that, for a constant signal-to-noise ratio, resulted in the lowest mean absorbed dose in the patient. Different examinations were simulated to explore the dependence of the optimal scatter-rejection technique on the imaging situation. A large range of grid designs was studied, including grids with both aluminium and fibre interspaces and covers, and compared to a 20 cm air gap. The results show that the optimal tube potential in each examination does not depend strongly on the scatter-rejection technique. There is a significant dose reduction associated with the use of fibre-interspaced grids, particularly in paediatric radiography. The optimal grid ratio and strip width increase with increasing scattering volume. With increasing strip density, the optimal strip width decreases, and the optimal grid ratio increases. Optimal grid ratios are higher than those used today, particularly for grids with large strip density. It is, however, possible to identify grids of good performance for a range of strip densities and grid ratios provided the strip width is selected accordingly. The computational method has been validated by comparison with measurements with a caesium iodide image receptor.


Efficient integration of a multi-hop wireless network with the Internet is an important research problem. In a wireless neighborhood network, a few Internet transit access points (ITAPs), serving as gateways to the Internet, are deployed across the neighborhood; houses are equipped with low-cost antennas, and form a multi-hop wireless network among themselves to cooperatively route traffic to the Internet through the ITAPs. Furthermore, the placement of Internet TAPs is a critical determinant of system performance and resource usage. We explore the placement problem under three wireless link models. For each link model, we develop algorithms to make informed placement decisions based on neighborhood layouts, user demands, and wireless link characteristics. We also extend our algorithms to provide fault tolerance and handle significant workload variation. We evaluate our placement algorithms and show that our algorithms yield close to optimal solutions over a wide range of scenarios we have considered.


The cost of developing new drugs is estimated at billions of dollars per year. Identification of new molecules for drugs involves scanning existing bio-medical literature for relevant information. As the potential drug molecule is novel, retrieval of relevant information using a simple direct search is less likely to be productive. Identifying relevant papers is therefore a more complex and challenging task, which requires searching for information on molecules with similar characteristics to the novel drug. In this paper, we present the novel task of ranking documents based on novel molecule queries. Given a chemical molecular structure, we wish to rank medical papers that will contribute to a researcher's understanding of the novel molecule drug potential.
We present a set of ranking algorithms and molecular embeddings to address the task. An extensive evaluation of the algorithms is performed over the molecular embeddings, studying their performance on a benchmark retrieval corpus, which we share with the community.
Additionally, we introduce a heterogeneous edge-labeled graph embedding approach to address the molecule ranking task. Our evaluation shows that the proposed embedding model can significantly improve molecule ranking methods. The system is currently deployed in a targeted drug delivery and personalized medicine research laboratory.


In the quantum information processing due to the unavoidable interaction of quantum systems with the environment, the decoherence phenomenon is occurred which leads to the reduction and finally decaying of quantum (nonclassical) properties. Quantum correlations are one of the fundamental quantum properties. In this paper, we study a qutrit-qutrit system which is initially prepared in a maximally entanglement state by solving analytically a master equation for noisy channels, i.e., dephasing and trip-flip. With the help of the entropy as a measure of entanglement, we show that in the transmission through the dephasing channel the entanglement is more preserved than the trip-flip channel.


The herbicides foramsulfuron, trifloxysulfuron, and sulfosulfuron applied in late April followed by a sequential application 2 weeks later in early May were more effective for removing ryegrass than when the sequential application was made 7 weeks later in June. Rimsulfuron at 0.013 lb a.i./A and flazasulfuron at 0.0078 lb a.i./A were highly effective in rapidly removing ryegrass with a single application. Minimal activity was observed for the herbicides at 7 or 9 days after application in April and early May. Ryegrass removal was enhanced when applications were made during warmer temperatures in late May and into June. Rate ranges of sulfosulfuron and flazasulfuron indicated a trend that higher rates may be slightly more effective than lower rates but ryegrass removal was achieved with all rates.


We introduce G-Log, a declarative query language based on graphs, which combines the expressive power of logic, the modeling power of complex objects with identity and the representation power of graphs. G-Log is a nondeterministic complete query language, and thus allows the expression of a large variety of queries. We compare G-Log to well-known deductive database languages, and find that it is the only nondeterministic and computationally complete language that does not suffer from the copy-elimination problem. G-Log may be used in a totally declarative way, as well as in a "more procedural" way. Thus, it provides an intuitive, flexible graph-based formalism for nonexpert database users. >


Very little is known about what family life looked like for settlers in colonial South Africa during the 18th or 19th century, nor how events over these centuries might have affected demographic change. The primary reason for this lacuna is a shortage of adequate data. Historians and genealogists have, over the last century, worked to combine the rich administrative records that are available in the Cape Archives in Cape Town and beyond, into a single genealogical volume of all settlers living in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Until recently, this valuable resource was not in a format that would enable its use for the type of event-history analyses that have come to dominate the field of contemporary historical demography. This is now changing with the introduction of the South African Families database (SAF). SAF is one of very few databases known to document a full population of immigrants and their families over several generations. This article introduces provides a brief background to, and technical overview of, the construction of the SAF. It discusses both the merits and limitations of its use in longitudinal demographic studies and offers a look into the types of studies it can enable.


ABSTRACT We report evidence for the existence of a putative ABC transporter for corrinoid utilization in the extremely halophilic archaeon Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1. Results from genetic and nutritional analyses of Halobacterium showed that mutants with lesions in open reading frames (ORFs) Vng1370G, Vng1371Gm, and Vng1369G required a 105-fold higher concentration of cobalamin for growth than the wild-type or parent strain. The data support the conclusion that these ORFs encode orthologs of the bacterial cobalamin ABC transporter permease (btuC; Vng1370G), ATPase (btuD; Vng1371Gm), and substrate-binding protein (btuF; Vng1369G) components. Mutations in the Vng1370G, Vng1371Gm, and Vng1369G genes were epistatic, consistent with the hypothesis that their products work together to accomplish the same function. Extracts of btuF mutant strains grown in the presence of cobalamin did not contain any cobalamin molecules detectable by a sensitive bioassay, whereas btuCD mutant strain extracts did. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that the BtuF protein is exported to the extracellular side of the cell membrane, where it can bind cobalamin in the absence of BtuC and BtuD. Our data also provide evidence for the regulation of corrinoid transport and biosynthesis. Halobacterium synthesized cobalamin in a chemically defined medium lacking corrinoid precursors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first genetic analysis of an archaeal corrinoid transport system.


Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease from which many children and adults suffer. In the Netherlands, the majority of patients with AD are treated in the primary health care setting. There is no clear consensus about whether or not to conduct allergy testing in patients with AD. Determining sensitization to inhalant allergens in children with AD has no consequences for its treatment and course and is therefore not necessary. Allergy testing is useful if the child is suspected of having allergic asthma or allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. Determining sensitization to food allergens in children with AD without a positive history of acute allergic reactions to food has no therapeutic consequences and could result in the unnecessary prescription or following of elimination diets.- Similarly, determining sensitization to inhalant and food allergens has no influence on the treatment regimen for adults with AD. This type of testing is therefore not useful, unless the medical history reveals indications for the occurrence of acute allergic reactions to certain allergens.


Social comparisons can alter self-evaluations in multiple ways. Recent research highlights the role of an individual's mindset in moderating these comparison outcomes. Mussweiler's (2003) selective accessibility model (SAM) predicts that initial perceptions of either similarity or dissimilarity with the comparison target will lead to differential outcomes. A similarity mindset is predicted to move self-evaluations in the direction of the comparison target and promote assimilation whereas a dissimilarity mindset is predicted to move self- evaluations away from the comparison target and promote contrast. Additionally, Blanton's (2001) three-selves model predicts that the activation of a particular self- representation will moderate comparison outcomes. Activation of a possible-self by focusing one of who they can become is predicted to foster movement toward the target and promote assimilation, whereas activation of a personal-self mindset, focusing on who one is at present, is predicted to foster movement away from the target and promote contrast. The current research extends these social comparison models to the domain of body image, where ample research suggests that exposure to idealized media target produce decrements in body and self- satisfaction for women. Thus, most women demonstrate contrast in their self-evaluations following comparisons with media targets. Both SAM and the three-selves model predict that women adopting certain mindsets, specifically either a similarity or possible-self mindset, should report assimilation, increased self-ratings, instead. Results of 5 studies demonstrate that perceptions of similarity and activation of a particular self- representation moderate social comparison outcomes in the predicted manner. Furthermore, the final study explores the effect of multiple mindsets on comparison outcomes by combining both a selfactivation and similarity mindset, with unexpected results. The implications of these findings for social comparison theory and body-image research are discussed


ABSTRACT The aacA29b gene, which confers an atypical aminoglycoside resistance pattern to Escherichia coli, was identified on a class 1 integron from a multidrug-resistant isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. On the basis of amino acid sequence homology, it was proposed that the gene encoded a 6′-N-acetyltransferase. The resistance gene was cloned into the pET23a(+) vector, and overexpression conferred high-level resistance to the usual substrates of the aminoglycoside N-acetyltransferase AAC(6′)-I, except netilmicin. The level of resistance conferred by aacA29b correlated perfectly with the level of expression of the gene. The corresponding C-terminal six-His-tagged AAC(6′)-29b protein was purified and found to exist as a dimer in solution. With a spectrophotometric assay, an extremely feeble AAC activity was detected with acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) as an acetyl donor. Fluorescence titrations of the protein with aminoglycosides demonstrated the very tight binding of tobramycin, dibekacin, kanamycin A, sisomicin (Kd, ≤1 μM) and a weaker affinity for amikacin (Kd, ≈60 μM). The binding of netilmicin and acetyl-CoA could not be detected by either fluorescence spectroscopy or isothermal titration calorimetry. The inability of AAC(6′)-29b to efficiently bind acetyl-CoA is supported by an alignment analysis of its amino acid sequence compared with those of other AAC(6′)-I family members. AAC(6′)-29b lacks a number of residues involved in acetyl-CoA binding. These results lead to the conclusion that AAC(6′)-29b is able to confer aminoglycoside resistance by sequestering the drug as a result of tight binding.


Zinc is an essential micronutrient, required for a range of zinc-dependent enzymes and transcription factors. In mammalian cells, zinc serves as a second messenger molecule. However, a role for zinc in signaling has not yet been established in the fungal kingdom. Here, we used the intracellular zinc reporter, zinbo-5, which allowed visualization of zinc in the endoplasmic reticulum and other components of the internal membrane system in Candida albicans. We provide evidence for a link between cyclic AMP/PKA- and zinc-signaling in this major human fungal pathogen. Glucose stimulation, which triggers a cyclic AMP spike in this fungus resulted in rapid intracellular zinc mobilization and this "zinc flux" could be stimulated with phosphodiesterase inhibitors and blocked via inhibition of adenylate cyclase or PKA. A similar mobilization of intracellular zinc was generated by stimulation of cells with extracellular zinc and this effect could be reversed with the chelator EDTA. However, zinc-induced zinc flux was found to be cyclic AMP independent. In summary, we show that activation of the cyclic AMP/PKA pathway triggers intracellular zinc mobilization in a fungus. To our knowledge, this is the first described link between cyclic AMP signaling and zinc homeostasis in a human fungal pathogen.


The use of Maritime Unmanned Systems (MUS) is a quickly maturing technology, but for some security and defence operations we are still lacking the required doctrinal development, moreover trust in MUS has been identified as one of the main pillars (more like road-block or mitigation) of the adoption of such technology in the short term. Trust in automation and autonomy is an important and complex mental construct, which has been demonstrated to be based on several underpinning factors (e.g., attention capacity, user workload, prior experience, user situational awareness, system behaviour, dependability, reliability, predictability, level of automation, failure rate, false alarms and transparency). With the goal of increasing the understanding of the operational tasks in future environments and steering future scientific developments, we designed the Maritime Unmanned Systems Trust (MUST) Game. The MUST Game is an analytical game which goal is to capture beliefs, attitude and perspectives of the participants with respect to the employment of MUS in maritime applications. This game aims at better understanding the relation between trust factors and MUS in missions. This paper presents the results of the analysis of the data collected through the deployment of the MUST Game in three distributed exercises, where the term distributed refers both to time and location. The game explored how players make decisions with respect to MUS deployments as the scenario threat level increases. This allows to capture important information on the trade-offs related to MUS use having an impact on mission planning activities (e.g., endurance, logistics, maintenance, cost, number of assets, security and type of assets). Additionally to the relative importance of the decision factors, important observations emerged during gameplay relating to: (i) the unique considerations of the use of MUS in maritime operations compared to other domains, (ii) potential barriers and the political component of the use of MUS, (iii) the importance of the human component, (iv) the legal and ethical dimensions (i.e., interaction with commercial shipping), (v) the tendency towards employing mixed (manned and unmanned) forces and (vi) the need for decision support systems. The outcomes of this analysis are expected to contribute to the development of effective decision support systems and to further research efforts conducted in the field.


Just as the Toronto Star is well known for its left-leaning, Liberal Party tendencies and the National Post for its unbridled support for the right-wing Canadian Alliance, Web sites also develop distinct political personalities. This is particularly true when it comes to health care issues.

With a federal election fast approaching and health care once again providing one of the dominant themes, there is plenty of policy information available on the Web. However, if you want to view Canadian issues in strictly black-and-white terms, 2 sites stand out.

The Dialogue on Health Reform (www.utoronto.ca/hlthadmn/dhr), run out of the University of Toronto's Department of Health Administration, wears its colours on its sleeve. "We are a group of concerned Canadians who think our country's universal publicly funded health insurance system must be strengthened, not taken apart. Canada's unique, exemplary health care system is being questioned, and so far, very few credible voices have been raised in its defence. We aim to change that."

On the other side of the debate stands the Fraser Institute (www.fraserinstitute.ca), a Vancouver-based bastion of free enterprise. It lets its feelings be known on its home page with a welcoming statement — "Competitive market solutions for public policy problems" — and an offer to "calculate your personal tax freedom day here." (In Canada tax-freedom day usually falls around July 1. It is the day when all taxes are considered paid and workers are finally working for themselves rather than the government.)

Neither site pretends to provide balanced coverage. The Fraser Institute rails against waiting lists within the public system, government regulation and prescription drug price controls. Meanwhile, the Dialogue on Health Reform site contains a commentary made during a Friends of Medicare rally in Edmonton, an editorial warning to "Decline Klein's medicine" and a report on the myths and realities of health care financing in Canada.

Both sites are provocative and point to the polarization that will dominate the country's health care debate both before and after the upcoming federal election. And as with most things Canadian, the final answers will probably be found somewhere in the middle. —


As one of the payloads for the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) mission, the Lyman-alpha (Lyα) Solar Telescope (LST) is aimed at imaging the Sun and the inner corona up to 2.5R⊙ (mean solar radius) in both the Lyα (121.6 nm) and visible wavebands with high temporo-spatial resolution, mainly targeting solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and filaments/prominences. LST observations allow us to trace solar eruptive phenomena from the disk center to the inner corona, to study the relationships between eruptive prominences/filaments, solar flares and CMEs, to explore the dynamical processes and evolution of solar eruptions, to diagnose solar winds, and to derive physical parameters of the solar atmosphere. LST is actually an instrument suite, which consists of a Solar Disk Imager (SDI), a Solar Corona Imager (SCI), aWhite-light Solar Telescope (WST) and two Guide Telescopes (GTs). This is the first paper in a series of LST-related papers. In this paper, we introduce the scientific objectives, present an overview of the LST payload and describe the planned observations. The detailed design and data along with potential diagnostics are described in the second (Paper II) and third (Paper III) papers, respectively, appearing in this issue.


In this paper a theoretical and numerical study of impulsive loads over a granular medium free surface has been developed. We will model a real case, as a high deformable solid impacting a less deformable surface, and consequently subject to micro and macro medium failure. Developing a macroscopic approach we resolve the macro-stress in the homogenized two-dimensional medium and subsequently apply a representative volume element (RVE) analysis modeling to the micro-scale. The problem is developed by energetic approach on an elasto-plastic element using an energy functional containing bulk and surface contributions. Finally, a numerical application is presented.


A location-aware news feed (LANF) system generates news feeds for a mobile user based on her spatial preference (i.e., her current location and future locations) and non-spatial preference (i.e., her interest). Existing LANF systems simply send the most relevant geo-tagged messages to their users. Unfortunately, the major limitation of such an existing approach is that, a news feed may contain messages related to the same location (i.e., point-of-interest) or the same category of locations (e.g., food, entertainment or sport). We argue that diversity is a very important feature for location-aware news feeds because it helps users discover new places and activities. In this paper, we propose D-MobiFeed; a new LANF system enables a user to specify the minimum number of message categories (h) for the messages in a news feed. In D-MobiFeed, our objective is to efficiently schedule news feeds for a mobile user at her current and predicted locations, such that (i) each news feed contains messages belonging to at least h different categories, and (ii) their total relevance to the user is maximized. To achieve this objective, we formulate the problem into two parts, namely, a decision problem and an optimization problem. For the decision problem, we provide an exact solution by modeling it as a maximum flow problem and proving its correctness. The optimization problem is solved by our proposed three-stage heuristic algorithm. We conduct a user study and experiments to evaluate the performance of D-MobiFeed using a real data set crawled from Foursquare. Experimental results show that our proposed three-stage heuristic scheduling algorithm outperforms the brute-force optimal algorithm by at least an order of magnitude in terms of running time and the relative error incurred by the heuristic algorithm is below 1 percent. D-MobiFeed with the location prediction method effectively improves the relevance, diversity, and efficiency of news feeds.


RSVP-TE relies on periodic refresh of RSVP messages to synchronize and
maintain the LSP related states along the reserved path. In the
absence of refresh messages, the LSP related states are automatically
deleted. Reliance on periodic refreshes and refresh timeouts are
problematic from the scalability point of view. The number of RSVP- TE
LSPs that a router needs to maintain has been growing in service
provider networks and the implementations should be capable of
handling increase in LSP scale. RFC 2961 specifies mechanisms to
eliminate the reliance on periodic refresh and refresh timeout of RSVP
messages, and enables a router to increase the message refresh
interval to values much longer than the default 30 seconds defined in
RFC 2205. However, the protocol extensions defined in RFC 4090 for
supporting fast reroute (FRR) using bypass tunnels implicitly rely on
short refresh timeouts to cleanup stale states. In order to eliminate
the reliance on refresh timeouts, the routers should unambiguously
determine when a particular LSP state should be deleted. Coupling LSP
state with the corresponding RSVP-TE signaling adjacencies as
recommended in RFC 8370 will apply in scenarios other than RFC 4090
FRR using bypass tunnels. In scenarios involving RFC 4090 FRR using
bypass tunnels, additional explicit tear down messages are necessary.
Refresh-interval Independent RSVP FRR (RI-RSVP-FRR) extensions
specified in this document consists of procedures to enable LSP state
cleanup that are essential in scenarios not covered by procedures
defined in RSVP-TE Scaling Recommendations. Hence, this document
updates the procedures defined in RFC 4090 to support Refresh-Interval
Independent RSVP (RI-RSVP) capability specified in RFC 8370.


This study aimed at identifying the impact of strategic awareness on enhancing the regulatory immune system, an applied study on Jordanian food processing companies. For the purpose of achieving the objectives of the study, the researcher used the descriptive and analytical approach, the researcher developed a questionnaire to collect data related to the study variables. (160) questionnaires were distributed on an intentional sample consisting of (13) food processing companies. The questionnaire targeted managers and workers in the directorates of production, quality, and planning in the searched companies. The number of retrieved questionnaires reached (150) questionnaires are suitable for analysis, the researcher used multiple regression analysis through the Statistical Package in Social Sciences (SPSSv.19) to test the study hypotheses, and the study reached results, the most important results are: That the study sample individuals 'perceptions of the strategic awareness in the researched companies were of a high level, and the study sample's perceptions of the organizational immune system in the researched companies were of a high level. The study recommends the need to strengthen the supporting culture to the concept of organizational immunity between senior management and employees, the need to work with strategic awareness because of its great impact on strengthening the regulatory immune system and its ability to convert knowledge into applied practices, in addition to following an interest in strategic awareness in its various dimensions, development and enhancing it among Jordanian food processing companies.


This volume is a comprehensive examination of the benefits and potential pitfalls of employing prospect theory---a leading alternative to expected utility as a theory of decision under risk---to understand and explain political behavior. The collection brings together both theoretical and empirical studies, thus grounding the conclusions about prospect theory's potential for enriching political analyses in an assessment of its performance in explaining actual cases.The theoretical chapters provide an overview of the main hypotheses of prospect theory: people frame risk-taking decisions around a reference point, they tend to accept greater risk to prevent losses than to make gains, and they often perceive the devastation of a loss as greater than the benefit of a gain. The three case studies---Roosevelt's decision-making during the Munich crisis of 1938, Carter's April 1980 decision to rescue the American hostages in Iran, and Soviet behavior toward Syria in 1966-67---generally support these hypotheses. Nevertheless, the authors are frank about potentially difficult conceptual and methodological problems, making explicit reference to alternative explanations, such as the rational actor model, which posits the maximization of expected value.Contributors to the volume include Jack Levy, Robert Jervis, Barbara Farnham, Rose McDermott, Audrey McInerney, and Eldar Shafir.


Abstract Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) play a vital role in genome analysis and have potential benefit in study of carcinogenesis and cancer drug therapy. As the dimension of data is extremely large and shows large numbers of SNPs, representation as feature elements with respect to cancer subject dataset. This research shows SNPs associations with cancer growth. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) along with DNA microarrays provide the genetic variability in the study. As the data acquisition collects millions of data elements within genome and provides voluminous genetic information, arrays are best in the exploration of molecular medicine. Thus there is a major requirement of efficient mathematical modeling to conduct genome-wide pattern searches for SNPs associations with phenotype. Objective: To analyze high dimensional datasets of oncology to detect cancer, cancer prognosis, identifying gene expression that is responsible for tumor formation and assess the potential of these machine learning algorithms in identifying cancer. Methods: Oncology high dimensional data sets were fed into the database. Subjects investigated were primarily from the brain tumor family, such as •Acoustic Neuroma, Astrocytoma: ∘Grade I - Pilocytic Astrocytoma ∘Grade II - Low-grade Astrocytoma ∘Grade III - Anaplastic Astrocytoma ∘Grade IV - Glioblastoma (GBM) •Chordoma •CNS Lymphoma •Craniopharyngioma •Other Gliomas: ∘Brain Stem Glioma ∘Ependymoma ∘Mixed Glioma ∘Optic Nerve Glioma ∘Subependymoma •Medulloblastoma •Meningioma •Metastatic Brain Tumors •Oligodendroglioma •Pituitary Tumors •Primitive Neuroectodermal (PNET) •Other Brain-Related Conditions •Schwannoma •Brain Stem Glioma •Craniopharyngioma •Ependymoma •Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma (JPA) •Medulloblastoma •Optic Nerve Glioma •Pineal Tumor •Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors (PNET) •Rhabdoid Tumor. A mathematical framework is proposed that runs machine-learning algorithms to predict and forecast disease and assess the gene profiling. Proposed Wavelet Transform is able to hold a large amount of data and reduce data dimensions. Feature selection and feature extraction provides the relevant information that is required for the cancer detection and mapping with SNPs. Results: Identified were the following: TP53 mutations, PDGF/PDGFR expression, EGFR/MDM2 amplification, CDKN2A and PTEN mutation and deletion for precursor cells to Glioblastoma IV and Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma IV with the 10 - 19 p loss. Conclusions: Proposed mathematical framework and machine learning algorithm is extremely fast for the computation of large volume of data and provides an approximation of cancer recurrence Note: This abstract was not presented at the conference because the presenter was unable to attend. Citation Format: Akash Singh. High-dimensional data analysis in oncology. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Post-GWAS Horizons in Molecular Epidemiology: Digging Deeper into the Environment; 2012 Nov 11-14; Hollywood, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2012;21(11 Suppl):Abstract nr 01.


This study empirically examines the competitiveness of different forecasting sets of realized volatilities and correlations using linear and nonlinear specifications of time series based on high frequency data. The linear specification uses lagged explanatory variables to explain fractionally integrated series of realized volatilities and correlations. The nonlinear specification consists of a two-step approach. In the first step, joint time series of realized volatilities and correlations are filtered using a multivariate singular system analysis approach. Based on the cleaned series, vectors of nearest neighbors are identified in space and casted into a local linear regression to generate forecasts in the second step. The empirical performance of those specifications is compared to a GARCH diagonal-BEKK model in the context of a trader who would simultaneously quote a call spread option price based on the forecasted parameters and delta-hedge her position with a replicating portfolio. More traditional loss functions based on the absolute forecasting error are also used. The forecasting methodologies based on time series of realized volatilities and correlations generally (but not unanimously) dominate the GARCH approach. Evidence of nonlinearity seems apparent for time series of volatilities irrespective of the return sampling frequency. General performance ranking for the approaches based on realized volatilities and correlations is not robust to the chosen loss function and the return sampling frequency.


Srm-3Bi4TimO3m+3 (m =3, 4, 5, and 6) bulk ceramics were prepared by conventional solid-state reaction process. Their phase structures and morphologies were observed by XRD and SEM respectively. The dielectric properties and hysteresis loops of the ceramics were measured by impedance analyzer and hysteresis meter respectively. Results showed that the lattice parameters along the c axis are 32.79, 41.11, 48.83, and 58.17Ǻ for m=3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively. The microstructures of plate-like crystalline phases are shown in all the ceramics with different m. Curie temperature of Srm-3Bi4TimO3m+3 decreases from 668°C to 295°C with increasing m from 3 to 6. The remnant polarizations Pr are 32.46 and 19.44 μC/cm2 for odd m of 3 and 5, and 11.84 and 10.58 μC/cm2 for even m of 4 and 6 respectively.


The diagnosis of paramyotonia congenita (PC) can be aided by demonstrating a decrease in compound motor action potential amplitude after exercise and a decrement on repetitive stimulation, following cold exposure. We report a patient with PC who presented with complaints of cold‐induced hand and jaw stiffening, in the absence of any episodes of weakness. Treatment with mexiletine led to resolution of the abnormalities exhibited during a short exercise test and repetitive stimulation following ice bath immersion. Molecular genetic analysis revealed a missense mutation (cytosine to thymidine) on chromosome 17 in the alpha‐subunit of the skeletal muscle sodium channel gene that results in the replacement of threonine with methionine. This case demonstrates that, despite the absence of weakness, the short exercise test following cold exposure can be used to confirm the diagnosis of PC in patients without episodic weakness. Furthermore, improvement of the electrophysiologic abnormalities with mexiletine was documented, corresponding with clinical improvement. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Transmembrane protein 114 (TMEM114) is an uncharacterised predicted transmembrane protein expressed in the lens epithelium. A balanced translocation that transects the putative promoter of TMEM114 is associated with autosomal dominant congenital cataract (ADCC), however, coding sequence variants in TMEM114 were not identified in a panel of ADCC patients. Subsequent to the identification of TMEM114 a similar novel transmembrane protein named TMEM114-like protein 1 (TMLP1) was identified. This study aimed to functionally characterise the two novel proteins TMEM114 and TMLP1.TMEM114 and TMLP1 showed homology to voltage dependent calcium channel gamma (?) subunits, but TMEM114 and TMLP1 lacked some of the key domains present in these proteins. Expression of TMEM114 and TMLP1 in the developing human eye was identified. TMLP1 was also expressed in developing neural tissue. To aid functional characterisation, the murine orthologues of Tmem114 and Tmlp1 were cloned and polyclonal antibodies were generated. Bioinformatic tools predicted co-and post-translational modifications. The predicted plasma membrane localisation of Tmem114 was confirmed in vitro in polarised MDCK II cells and the membrane localisation was shown to be dependent on the presence of N-linked oligosaccharides. Murine Tmlp1 was localised in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in MDCK II cells, possibly due to the fact that murine Tmlp1 lacks an N-glycosylation site present in other species.The knockdown of Tmem114 in Xenopus tropicalis using antisense morpholinos results in microphthalmia (small eye) confirming the protein?s role in eye development and growth. Sequencing of patients with microphthalmia and anophthalmia identified a novel heterozygous missense mutation (p.R2Q) not present in controls. The p.R2Q variant was not found to affect the expression or localisation of the protein. The p.A147V variant, previously reported as a SNP, mis-localises to the endoplasmic reticulum.In conclusion, this study identifies that TMEM114 is a transmembrane glycoprotein with an important role in ocular development in vertebrates, although its precise functional role remains to be elucidated. Knockdown of Tmem114 in X. tropicalis results in microphthalmia, suggesting that loss of function mutations in TMEM114 may be associated with human ocular disease. Further characterisation of TMLP1 is required to identify its role in human biology.


Fluorine-based excimer gas lasers are powerful sources of coherent radiation in the UV and VUV part of the electro-magnetic spectrum. Due to their short wavelengths and high output power they are widely employed in high resolution material processing like micromachining and in lithography. In this field pattern sizes several times shorter than the used wavelength can be achieved using an immersion technique. However due to the short duration of the laser pulse (typically of few tens of ns for commercially available fluorine-based excimer lasers), the laser pulse makes only a few round-trips inside the laser resonator cavity. As the result, the optical quality of the laser beam of such an excimer laser is poor, leading to non optimal focusing conditions. The purpose of this work was to investigate different methods and techniques to produce excimer lasers, based on fluorine containing gas mixtures, emitting optical pulse lengths of 100 ns or longer. In order to achieve this goal we have studied different gas discharge excitation techniques in a small scale discharge chamber (0.5 – 4 cm discharge gap, 5 cm electrodes diameter) at gas pressures varying from 2 to 5 bar. We have thoroughly investigated a pre - main pulse gas discharge pumping scheme with X-ray preionization and a single pulse excitation scheme with X-ray preionization. As preionization source we investigated two homemade X-ray sources. We have developed a high voltage open barrier discharge device producing a fast electron beam directly in the gas. It was shown that it was possible to generate soft X-ray radiation (10 – 100 keV) directly in gases by means of this beam. With this and with an earlier developed traditional X-ray source the produced electron densities in different gases and gas mixtures have been measured. During our experiments we discovered that, apart from the well known direct electron generation in the gas, a substantial part of the measured preionization electrons were generated indirectly by the Xrays via the photo-electric effect at the electrode. With the single pulse excitation scheme we succesfully ignited a homogeneous discharge and were able to sustain it as a stable, homogeneous pulsed gas discharge in gas mixtures typically containing 5 % of Ar and 0.1 % of F2 at a total gas pressure of 2 bar and an electrode distance of 1 cm. In this laser gas mixture the typical achieved peak power deposition density was 1 – 2 MW cm-3 with a pulse duration (FWHM) of ~ 100 ns. Under these conditions the observed spontaneous emission intensity was 119 kW cm-3 at the ArF* excimer wavelenth (193 nm). The width of this emission signal was ~ 60 ns (FWHM). With a probe laser (λ = 193 nm) the amplification of the probe signal in the excited laser medium was measured. Under the same conditions a net gain was measured of ~ 34±20 % cm-1 with a FWHM of ~ 60 ns. The combination of such high gain and the reasonably long optical pulse duration makes our gas discharge excitation system a promising device for the development of small scale fluorine-based excimer gas lasers. The short resonator length of several cm will result in a higher number of the intra cavity round-trips and thus to a better beam quality compared to the usual excimer lasers.


Purpose: Despite continuous improvement of treatment regimes, the mortality rates for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remain disappointingly high and novel anticancer agents are urgently awaited. Experimental Design: We combined the data from genome-wide siRNA screens on tumor cell lethality in a lung and a head and neck cancer cell line. Results: We identified 71 target genes that seem essential for the survival of both cancer types. We identified a cluster of 20 genes that play an important role during G2–M phase transition, underlining the importance of this cell-cycle checkpoint for tumor cell survival. Five genes from this cluster (CKAP5, KPNB1, RAN, TPX2, and KIF11) were evaluated in more detail and have been shown to be essential for tumor cell survival in both tumor types, but most particularly in HNSCC. Phenotypes that were observed following siRNA-mediated knockdown of KIF11 (kinesin family member 11) were reproduced by inhibition of KIF11 using the small-molecule inhibitor ispinesib (SB-715992). We showed that ispinesib induces a G2 arrest, causes aberrant chromosome segregation, and induces cell death in HNSCC in vitro, whereas primary keratinocytes are less sensitive. Furthermore, growth of HNSCC cells engrafted in immunodeficient mice was significantly inhibited after ispinesib treatment. Conclusion: This study identified a wide array of druggable genes for both lung and head and neck cancer. In particular, multiple genes involved in the G2–M checkpoint were shown to be essential for tumor cell survival, indicating their potential as anticancer targets. Clin Cancer Res; 19(8); 1994–2003. ©2013 AACR.


Abstract. The current study explored how graduate students in education, school psychology, and counseling are being prepared to help ensure an equal and safe learning environment for youth identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT). Focus groups were conducted with graduate students in a school of education that has made social justice a cornerstone of its conceptual framework. Focus group questions directed students to reflect on their knowledge and behaviors in addressing social justice issues in schools, and more specifically on issues pertaining to LGBT youth, such as antigay harassment and expression of sexual orientation for youth in schools. Responses were transcribed and organized using the constant comparative process. Broad response themes were organized using the framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). TPB postulates that our attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control predict behavioral intention and our subsequent behaviors. Results indicated that although the graduate students had strong positive attitudes to overall themes of social justice, such as race, class, or language, they revealed inadequate attitudes and knowledge of issues faced by LGBT youth. They reported an indifferent or unsympathetic subjective norm in reference to their school colleagues, and barriers to engaging in LGBT advocacy, including lack of administrative support. The TPB model provided a useful organizational framework with which to examine graduate students' preparation and intention for proactive behavior change in schools.


: Broadcillin 'Banyu', which contains an equal amount of ampicillin and oxacillin was given intravenously to children with acute bacterial infections and the following results were obtained. 1. Patients were 55 children with the following bacterial infections; respiratory tract infections (8 cases), pneumonia (34), sepsis (1), meningitis (1), cutaneous and subcutaneous suppurative inflammation (5), osteomyelitis (1), urinary tract infection (2), enteritis (1), and chemoprophylaxis (2). They ranged in age from newborns to 8 year old, but most of them were infants. In the majority of the patients, broadcillin 'Banyu' was administered 50 approximately 150 mg/day in three to four equally divided doses by one shot-injection or by a continuous drip infusion for a period of 2 approximately 10 days. The overall efficacy rate was 88.7% in 53 cases after two cases of chemoprophylaxis were excluded, i.e., excellent in 28, good in 19 and failure in 6: excellent in 4 and good in 4 in 8 cases of respiratory tract infections; excellent in 20, good in 11 and failure in 3 in 34 cases of pneumonia (an efficacy rate 91.2%); failure in sepsis and meningitis: excellent in 2 and good in 3 in 5 cases of cutaneous and subcutaneous suppurative inflammation; excellent in osteomyelitis; excellent in 1 and good in 1 of 2 cases of urinary tract infection; failure in enteritis. 2. Adverse reactions were noted on 10 occasions in 9 cases (16.4%), including 1 case of skin eruption, 1 case of eosinophilia, 5 cases of slight elevation of GOT, 1 case of slight elevation of GPT and 2 cases of slight elevation of BUN. 3. Based on the above results, it was concluded that clinical effect of broadcillin 'Banyu' by an intravenous administration is comparable to its intramuscular route and that safety of intravenous usage seems to be verified as long as the above described dosage is followed.


Research suggests that individuals who believe their intelligence has the capacity to incrementally grow may make less accurate judgements of learning (JOLs) than those who believe intelligence is a fixed entity. JOLs represent a prediction of future recall, and have implications for real world study behaviour. The present study aimed to determine whether delaying JOLs could improve JOL accuracy for incremental theorists. It was hypothesised that there would be an interaction effect of theory of intelligence (TOI) and time on metacognitive accuracy, and that overall metacognitive accuracy would be better for delayed than immediate JOLs. 56 participants (46 females, 10 males) completed a pairedassociate learning task, provided immediate and delayed JOLs and completed a cued-recall test and Dweck's (1999) TOI measure. There was no effect of TOI on either immediate or delayed JOLs (all p's > 0.1), negating the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis was supported, F(1, 54) = 124.02, p < .001, d = 1.25, replicating the delayed-JOL effect. These findings suggest that poor metacognition is not a concern for incremental theorists, and speak to the utility of learning techniques that use retrieval cues as a basis for study behaviour.


Objectives: The purpose of this study is to report the improvement of multiple rib fracture after korean medical treatment; adhesive treatment and herb-medicine treatment. Methods: A patient with multiple rib fracture was treated with Daewhangchija-paste(大黃梔子膏) adhesive and herb-medicine treatment. Verbal numeric rating scale, medical examination by interview and rib series x-ray were used to assess progress of treatment. And we took pictures of left flank after attaching Daewhangchija-paste to observe the changes of the skin colors. Results: Rib series x-ray taken after 2 months of treatment revealed hard callus which added stability against external force on rib cage. After taking off Daewhangchija-paste, left plank skin turned into blue, green and yellow. And the pain level(VNRS) of left plank decreased from 10 to 0.5 for 4 months. Conclusions: Pain reduction on trauma site and improvement of general health condition were observed during combination treatment of Daewhangchija-paste adhesive and herb-medicine.


Clustering and visualization are essential parts of single-cell gene expression data analysis. The Euclidean distance used in most distance-based methods is not optimal. Batch effect, i.e., the variability among samples gathered from different times, tissues, and patients, introduces large between-group distance and obscures the true identities of cells. To solve this problem, we introduce Batch-Corrected Distance (BCD), a metric using temporal/spatial locality of the batch effect to control for such factors. We validate BCD on a simulated data as well as applied it to a mouse retina development dataset and a lung dataset. We also found the utility of our approach in understanding the progression of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). BCD achieves more accurate clusters and better visualizations than state-of-the-art batch correction methods on longitudinal datasets. BCD can be directly integrated with most clustering and visualization methods to enable more scientific findings.


Background: Tocotrienols have hypocholesterolemic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. Clinical studies using tocotrienol-rich fraction (TRF) from palm oil yielded inconsistent results with regards to its efficacy due to presence of tocopherols in TRF mixture. Objectives: The impact of tocopherol-free δ-tocotrienol on inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers, plasma cytokines/proteins, their gene expression, and microRNAs was studied in hypercholesterolemic subjects.
Design: Hypercholesterolemic (n=31; serum cholesterol >5.2 mmol/L) subjects were enrolled in the study. All hypercholesterolemic subjects were given increasing doses of δ-tocotrienol (125, 250, 500, 750 mg/d) plus AHA Step-1 diet for 4 weeks each during a 30 week study period. Serum nitric oxide (NO), C-reactive protein (CRP), malondialdehyde (MDA), δ-glutamyl-transferase (δ-GT), total antioxidant status (TAS), cytokines/proteins, cDNA, and microRNAs were determined. Results: All concentrations of δ-tocotrienol reduced serum levels of NO, CRP, MDA, δ-GT. The most effective dose (250 mg/d) decreased serum NO (40%), CRP (40%), MDA (34%), δ-GT (22%) significantly (P<0.001), while TAS levels increased 22% (P<0.001). The 500 mg/d and 750 mg/d doses were less effective in improving oxidative stress compared to the 250 mg/d dose. Inflammatory plasma cytokines (resistin, IL-1α, IL-12, IFN-γ) were reduced 15-17% (P<0.05-0.01), while cardiac angiogenic fibroblast growth factor-b (FGF-b) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) were decreased by 11% and 14% (P<0.05-0.01), respectively, with 250 mg/d δ-tocotrienol treatment. Similar results were obtained for cytokine gene expression. Several plasma miRNAs (miRNA-16-1, miRNA-125a, miRNA-133, miRNA-155, miRNA-223, miRNA-372, miRNA-10b, miRNA-18a, miRNA-214) associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer were modulated by δ-tocotrienol treatment.
Conclusions: In a dose-dependent study of 125-750 mg/d, δ-tocotrienol maximally reduced inflammation and oxidative stress parameters with a 250 mg/d dose in hypercholesterolemic subjects, and may be a potential therapeutic alternative natural product for the maintenance of health during aging process.


Effect of thermal treatment on the friction and wear of monomolecular layers of SAMs (Self-assembled monolayers) overcoated with PFPE was studied using ball-on-disk tribometer. Two SAMs, Octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) and 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) were formed on the Si substrate by self-assembly followed by dip-coating with perfluoropolyether (PFPE). Modified Si samples are thermally treated at 150 °C under vacuum for 2h. The physical and chemical properties of modified samples, before and after thermal treatment, are analyzed using contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Tribological properties are evaluated using Universal Micro Tribometer (UMT). A Si3 N4 ball of 4mm diameter is used as the counterface. Thermal treatment of the PFPE coated SAMs and Si surface reduced the coefficient of friction to slightly lower values in all cases. Thermal treatment has shown slight increase in wear life in the case of PFPE coated APTMS SAM surfaces whereas it decreased the wear life in the case of PFPE coated OTS SAM and Si surfaces. The exact reasons for this behavior are not clear at present, but it is being speculated that thermal treatment effects the extent of bonding between the surface groups of PFPE and SAMs and mobile characteristics of the PFPE, which finally influence the wear durability characteristics. Therefore, the differences in the wear durability characteristics are analyzed using changes in the surface energies and the amount of strongly adsorbed PFPE, as a result of thermal treatment.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


A Review of:
Gross, Melissa, and Don Latham. "Attaining Information Literacy: An Investigation of the
Relationship between Skill Level, Self-Estimates of Skill, and Library Anxiety." Library & Information Science Research 29.3 (2007): 332-53.

Objective – The objective of this study is an investigation of the relationship between students' self-assessment of their information literacy skills and their actual skill level, as well as an analysis of whether library anxiety is related to information skill attainment.

Design – Quantitative research design (Information Literacy Test (ILT), Library Anxiety Scale (LAS), pre and post surveys).

Setting – Florida State University, United States.

Subjects – Students, incoming freshmen.

Methods – Information literacy skills were measured using the Information Literacy Test (ILT), presenting subjects with 65 multiple choice items designed around four of the five ACRL information literacy standards, in which students were expected to: 1) determine the nature and extent of the information needed; 2) access needed information effectively and efficiently; 3) evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his/her knowledge base system; 4) understand many of the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally. The ILT categorized participant scores as non-proficient (<39), proficient (30-53), or advanced (54 or higher). The test had earlier been validated and tested for reliability (Cameron, Wise & Lottridge).

Library anxiety was measured using the Library Anxiety Scale (LAS). The LAS test asks participants to rate 43 statements using a Likert-type scale, with ratings from 1 to 5. The scale can also be used to produce five subscales, identified as 1) barriers with staff; 2) affective barriers; 3) comfort with the library; 4) knowledge of the library; 5) mechanical barriers. Fifty percent of the students were given the ILT first, and the other half of the respondents was given the LAS first, in order to neutralize the effect of the ILT itself.

The two tests were sandwiched between pre- and post-surveys that were designed to collect demographic information, measure self-assessment of skills, and gather information about exposure to information literacy skills instruction. The students were asked to estimate their performance on the ILT both before and after taking the test, in terms of the expected percent of questions they would be able to answer correctly, the number of questions they would answer correctly, and how their performance would compare to the scores of the other incoming freshmen (in percentages).

The students participating in the study represented the top and the bottom 25 % of the incoming class (as assessed by GPA and SAT/ACT scores) who were participating in summer session. They were contacted via e-mail and asked to participate in the study. There were 51 participants in the study, 33 in the top quartile and 18 in the bottom quartile. They were given the incentive of a gift certificate for the university bookstore, and that those scoring in the top 15 % of all participants would be included in a raffle for an additional 4 gift certificates. Also, a response time effort analysis was performed, data produced being consistent with times suggesting all participants were engaged in the test.

All data were coded and analyzed using SPSS, for all tests alpha was set at p=0.05.

Main Results – The main aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that students who test non-proficient on an information literacy test tend to overestimate their competency to a higher degree than proficient and advanced students.

In the pre- and post-surveys, the students were asked to estimate their performance on the ILT in terms of the expected percentage of questions they would answer correctly, the number of questions they expected to answer correctly, and how their performance on the ILT would compare to others taking the test (in percentage).

The results of the study show that all students overestimate their abilities, both in terms of performance and relative performance, in the pre-survey. The estimated percentage correct answers for the whole group was 75%, but the actual percentage correct was 65%. The estimated score was 50 and the actual 39, and the estimated comparison with their peers was 77% and the actual 53%. All three measures demonstrated a significant difference between estimated and actual values.

On the ILT, the mean score for the bottom tier of the students was 34, and the mean score for the top tier was 42, showing a significant difference between the top and bottom tier in a t-test. On the ILT, 23 students scored less than 39 (= non-proficient), 27 scored between 39-53 (proficient). Only one student, a top quartile participant, showed advanced information literacy skills (a score above 53).

In the post-survey, the students still overestimated their performance, but to a lesser degree. All three groups adjusted their self-estimates in the post-survey in response to information skills testing, but the non-proficient group overestimated their skills to a higher degree, on both pre-and post-surveys. The estimated percentage correct answers for the whole group was 69%, but the actual was 65%, the estimated score was 44 and the actual 39, and the estimated comparison with their peers was 70% and the actual 53%. All three measures demonstrated a significant difference. All results show that the original hypothesis holds: non-proficient students overestimate their abilities to a greater degree, both in terms of score and performance relative to their peers.

The LAS was used to see if there was a relationship between student scores on the ILT and library anxiety. Bi-variate analysis was performed on the ILT scores and student total scores on the LAS, and the results show that library anxiety tended to decrease with higher scores on the ILT. This result was not expected from the theory.

In the pre-survey, the students were asked how they had obtained their information literacy skills. The top tier indicated a reliance on more formal sources (e.g. school library media center, classroom, and/or public library), while the bottom tier relied on less formal sources (e.g. friends and self-teaching). This suggested that library instruction was not effective reaching the weakest group of students. In addition, nearly 75% of all participants responded that they were largely self-taught. Conclusions – The results show a difference between the level of information literacy skills between lower-performing and higher-performing freshmen, but the study as a whole gives some evidence that many students could be information illiterate when entering university (45% tested non-proficient).
There is an association between scores on an information literacy test and students' estimates of their information literacy skills. Students who demonstrate low-level skills hold even more inflated views of their abilities, and the very competent may tend to underestimate their performance. However, the limited number of subjects in this study makes further analysis impossible.

No correlation was found between performance on the ILT and the experience of library anxiety as measured by the LAS, although the subscale "knowledge of the library" demonstrated a negative relationship with information literacy skills. That is, the higher the score, the less the anxiety.

There are several limitations of the study (which the authors acknowledge). One limitation that is important to note the small sample size, which limits the possibility to generalize the findings to the broader population of incoming students.

More research is needed on how to best design, market, and deliver information literacy education to students with non-proficient information literacy skills since they seem to be unaware of their deficiencies.


The neologism 'sexist' has gained entry to an Oxford Dictionary, The Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, third edition (1974), where it is defined as 'derisive of the female sex and expressive of masculine superiority'. Thus 'sexpot' and 'sex kitten', which are still defined in exclusively feminine terms in the fifth edition of The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1976), have finally met their lexicographical match. This point about current English usage has of course a serious, and general, application. For language reflects, when it does not direct, prevailing social conceptions. Thus it is not accidental that there is no masculine counterpart to the word 'feminism'. 'Male chauvinism', the nearest we have come to coining one, is more emotive than descriptive and so involves ambiguity; while 'sexism', even when it is given an exclusively masculine connotation, is still, formally, sexually neutral. 'Feminism', by contrast, unequivocally denotes the striving to raise women to an equality of rights and status with men. It has been suggested, it is true, that there were inchoate feminist movements or tendencies in the ancient Greek world, for example in the Classical Athens of Aristophanes and Plato (where, as we shall see, they would certainly have been in place). But feminism in the modern sense did not really emerge before the eighteenth century; and in Britain, for instance, it was only with the passage in 1975 of the Employment Protection, Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts that women raised themselves on to an all but equal footing with their male fellows — at any rate in the technical, juridical sense.


We establish the formalism of nuclear spin-isospin excitations, especially the Gamow-Teller resonance in a fully consistent relativistic random-phase approximation. A relativistic form of the Landau-Migdal parameter g' is adopted as a residual spin-isospin correlation force. In the non-relativistic limit it reproduces the excitation energy of the giant Gamow-Teller resonance state obtained in the non-relativistic model. The Gamow-Teller resonance for finite nuclei is investigated in a relativistic approach for the first time. It is found that the Ikeda sum rule of Zr-90 is quenched about 8% in the Hartree as well as the correlated strengths due to the poles of the negative Dirac states at energies above 1 GeV.


Using the pseudo-spectral method for wave-packet evolution, we formulate and implement a new theoretical approach for studying the Bloch oscillation effect in a general number of dimensions. For this purpose, a novel recursive formula is obtained in the representation of Wannier functions for the infinitesimal time evolution of an electronic wave packet within the single-band approximation. This formula is valid for general position-dependent applied electric fields and arbitrary initial wave-packet shapes and crystal structures, and can also be generalized for time-dependent fields. For a tight-binding simple `cubium' band, the infinitesimal time evolution can always be expressed in terms of Bessel functions of integer order; and for the `empty-lattice model' band it can be expressed in terms of Fresnel functions for arbitrary electric fields also. As a further analytical application of our formalism, we derive an exact (finite-time) wave-packet evolution for the homogeneous and static electric field in the simple `cubium' band. For this case, an estimate of the numerical error of the pseudo-spectral method is obtained for the mean position of the wave packet. As an illustrative example of the numerical implementation of our theoretical formalism, we present a simple one-dimensional numerical simulation for a Gaussian wave packet moving in a parabolic potential well. Finally, a general proof of the unitarity of the predicted time evolution is also presented, and different properties of our formalism pointed out.


This study describes the morphology and investigates the possible function of the air bags found on the nestlings of Monteiro's Hornbill Tockus monteiri. These air bags increased in size with age and mass of the nestling until 14 d of age, and then decreased in size. By 20 d of age, the air bags were absent. Histological examination of the air bags showed that they were integumentary structures composed of an outer epidermis and an inner dermis. The air bags were not connected to the respiratory system. The body temperature (Tb) of Monteiro's Hornbill nestlings increased significantly with increasing age. Comparisons of ambient, nest and female body temperatures were made. Female Tb was higher than ambient and nest temperatures. It appears that airbags may provide an effective intermediate insulatory mechanism for the nestlings while they are developing their thermoregulatory ability. Therefore, it is suggested that the dorsal air bags evolved primarily for thermoregulatory benefits to nestlings, although further research is required.


The present invention discloses an integrated multi-application data system, comprising means for generating, storing, and access to the tool data file, and a program architecture. The data file having data of a multidimensional array of cells, and the program architecture provides common user interface is at least one application, so that user interaction with one or more data files, the techniques disclosed in the present invention further comprises a compatible version of a data processing method system having applications for users to interact with the stored data, and versions of the application using the data processing, and integrated data processing system, comprising the application data file includes generating and editing tool.


This case note provides an objective notion regarding limited liability in Brazilian law. Francisco de Assis Marques v Center Trading Industria e Comercio Ltda is a recent case from February, 2013, decided by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court. The case note is divided into five parts. The first part provides a notion about the Brazilian courts' system and its decisions on limited liability. The second part presents the Brazilian Superior Labour Court's position on this subject. The third part discusses the interpretation given on this issue by the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice regarding limited liability. In the fourth part the proper case study is developed, clarifying the facts involved, the Court's decision and its effects. Finally, in the fifth part I present my conclusions linking this subject to the initiative of a new Brazilian Commercial Code, affirming that this important event may have a great efficacy not just by the means of well-drafted general rules but also as a great opportunity to the Brazilian legal community to unify its position about the matter, and to provide more legal certainty for investments in the country.


The aim of this study is to examine the impact of using the reciprocal teaching model on Jordanians' first year students at Mutah University in the academic year 2015/2016. 176 participants took part and were arbitrarily selected and divided into two gender mixed groups; the experimental group which was exposed to the reciprocal teaching model (RT), and the control group which was taught using the traditional method (TM). A total of fourteen  independent sample T-tests and paired samples T-tests were used for the purpose of comparing and analysing the scores of the pre-tests and the post-tests, and with the intention to pinpoint the effect of using RT as well as to measure the extent of such effect on the development of the students' reading comprehension skills. Through the analysis of the results and in line with the two questions of this study, it has emerged that the use of the RT model has a positive effect on the first year students' reading comprehension achievement in the experimental group; a fact that is reflected in the significant statistical difference when compared to the reading comprehension achievement of the students from the control group taught using the TM. It has also emerged that although the male students' scores are better than the scores attained by the female students, the use of the RT remains of great benefits for both; male and female students.


Over the past two decades, the Asante Akyem North District of Ghana has had limited peace and stability, which are preconditions for sustainable development due to protracted farmer-herder conflicts. This study provides an alternative perspective to the underlying causes of this resource conflict by arguing that mental constructions based on the formation of frames are the precursor, as contended by the framing theory. The study further investigated the psychosocial implications of the conflict on the well-being of the herders and farmers. The study also explored the resources that the actors employed to deal with the stressful event. Using a mixed-method but a qualitatively driven approach, the study used observation guide, interview guide, interview schedule, and focus group discussion guide for the data gathering. The findings highlighted that the conflict actors formed frames such as identity-relational, affective-intellectual, and compromise-win frames as the drivers of the conflict. The findings revealed that these frames and their attended hostile reactions between the actors, usually led to psychosocial problems. The study revealed that the actors adopted different coping strategies such as religion, voluntary migration, working harder, avoidance, and socio-cultural support to deal with the conflict. There is the need for a community-level education that emphasises constructive framing relationships between the transmigrant pastoralists and the host farming populace to ensure their peaceful coexistence and minimise conflict eruptions.


Since the late 1950s, the Argentine writer Abelardo Castillo has published the cultural magazines El Grillo de Papel (1959-1960), El Escarabajo de Oro (1961-1974) and El Ornitorrinco (1977-1986). Under Sartre's notorious influence, their pages framed the theater in philosophical, sociological, and political discussions. This study of critical reception shows different ways in which these publications intervened accompanying the irruption of European absurdity in the Río de la Plata cultural field: from the beginning in the transdisciplinary and experimental El Grillo ..., to the interest in avant-garde expressions and the problems they present in front of the models of traditional representation, deployed in El Escarabajo ... This trail inscribes traces of a genealogy of the independent theater, as well as episodes of the debate on the social function of theater.


There are many orthodontic cephalometric analyses available. The emphasis in treatment planning has traditionally been hard tissue focused. This study evaluates a Soft Tissue Arc used in treatment planning. 30 profile images were morphed by 5 orthodontic residents and 5 orthodontic faculty. No statistically significant difference was observed between the morphing of the orthodontic faculty and residents. These same images were changed to match ideal values from a Soft Tissue Arc drawn from nasion with the center at center "O". The Soft Tissue Arc changed the pictures differently than the orthodontic experts, however, there was no statistical difference in the final placement of soft tissue pogonion. These pairs of images (expert morphing vs Soft Tissue Arc changes) were then rated as more attractive or less attractive on a visual analogue scale by 5 orthodontic residents, 5 dental school faculty and 5 laypersons. Across the board, the images morphed by the experts received better ratings than the images changed by the Soft Tissue Arc. Laypersons were considerably less critical in their judgments, and overall gave higher ratings.


Several descriptions of the transition from single to multiword utterances use prosody as an important diagnostic criterion. For example, in contrast to successive single-word utterances, 'real' two-word utterances are supposed to be characterized by a unifying intonation contour and a lack of an intervening pause. Research on the acquisition of prosody, however, revealed that control of the phonetic parameters pitch, loudness, and duration is far from complete at such an early stage. In this study, we examine the interaction between the development of different types of syntactic structures and their prosodic organization. Data from a detailed production record of a monolingual German-learning boy is analysed both auditorily and acoustically with a focus on four different types of two-word utterances produced between 2;0 and 2;3. Two major findings are reported here. First, the different types of two-word utterances undergo individual trajectories of prosodic (re-)organization, in part depending on the time course in which they become productive. This suggests that different types of multiword utterances become prosodically fluent at different points in time. Second, the variability of prosodic features such as pauses and stress pattern is very high at the onset of combinatorial speech. Consequently, fluency or disfluency of individual examples should not be used as a reliable criterion for their syntactic status and we recommend caution when taking prosody as a cue for syntactic development.


Nigeria, like many post-colonial states in Africa, is mired in socio-cultural crisis. This is, understandably, as a result of the eclipse of African culture by western culture during colonial and neo-colonial contact. That eclipse threw Africans into a struggle of redefining their existence and culture. Thus, the on-going cultural, economic, technological and political transition from traditional society to modern society. This paper brackets cultural transition as the primary and, ipso facto, the most important transition and posits that it is the motor that drives the other transitions to societal development. At the base of the cultural matrix, as construed in this paper, are the moral /ethical values or norms and the habit of compliance with their prescriptions. Habit of compliance with ethical/ moral norms is more exigent in Nigeria where administration of law and justice is in seemingly unbridgeable arrears of legislation. To hold the position as this paper holds that cultural (including moral or ethical norms) development is primary to other forms of development may appear quixotic against the prevailing trend where majority has abandoned the quest for first principles and pandered to superficial interpretation and explanation of Nigeria's manifold prob lems in terms of structurally unwieldy federation, consumer (unproductive) economy, imperialism, neo-colonialism, internal and external sabotage, and tribalism. These add up to what new-fangled structuralists call environmentalism. This paper argues that even the best economic policies and political engineering will come to naught if subverted by perverse human will which it is the task of ethics or morality to tame. The basic assumption of this paper is that there is an inextricable link between habit of compliance with ethical/moral norms and Nigeria's socio-economic and political conditions. This paper employs Kant's moral loadstar, the categorical imperative both as explicatory and prescriptive tool to solving the countries moral/ethical crisis which is at the core of her development crisis.


Abstract. A three-dimensional hydrodynamic model (GETM) was coupled with a particle tracking routine (GITM) to study the inter-annual variability in transport paths of particles in the North Sea and English Channel. For validation, a comparison with observed drifter trajectories is also presented here. This research investigated to what extent variability in the hydrodynamic conditions alone (reflecting passive particle transport) contributed to inter-annual variability in the transport of eggs and larvae. In this idealised study, no a priori selection of specific spawning grounds or periods was made and no active behaviour (vertical migration) or mortality was included. In this study, egg and larval development towards coastal nursery areas was based solely on sea water temperature, while settlement areas were defined by a threshold water depth. Results showed strong inter-annual variability in drift direction and distance, caused by a combination of wind speed and direction. Strong inter-annual variability was observed both in absolute amount of settlement in several coastal areas, and in the relative importance of the different areas. The effects of wind and temperature variability are minor for settlement along the western shores of the North Sea and in the English Channel, but have a very significant impact on settlement along the eastern shores of the North Sea. Years with strong south-westerly winds across the Dover Straight resulted in higher settlement figures along its eastern shores of the North Sea (standard deviation 37% of the mean annual settlement value). Settlement in the western Dutch Wadden Sea did not only show inter-annual variability, but patterns were also variable within each year and revealed seasonal changes in the origin of particles: during winter, stronger currents along with colder temperatures generally result in particles originating from further away.


Through crushing, screening and grinding, abandoned mortar power can be used as a mineral admixture to replace cement. Physical-activated, alkali-activated and composite-activated have been researched on activity of abandoned mortar power. Mechanical properties and microstructure were tested by compressive strength, flexural strength, XRD, TG-DSC-DTC and SEM. The results show that: Mechanical grinding and activator can significantly improve the activity of mortar power. Stimulating effect of single activator was not obvious. Composite activator has better effect than signal activator and it can promote further hydration of cement. The mortar which is stimulated by composited activator had higher strength than mortar with single activator. It can be seen from micro-test, the mortar with composite activator had more ettringite and other hydration products, having compact structure.


Despite the efforts of organizations, institutions, car makers, car seat manufacturers and consumer groups to alert parents about the safety threat heatstroke poses for young children left in hot vehicles the number of victims each year is increasing. In fact, one child dies from heatstroke nearly every 10 days from being left in a hot vehicle. For this reason, this work focuses on using current technology to help prevent such fatalities. We have used intelligent agents, which have proved to be rather efficient since they can monitor, coordinate events and disseminate information as well as communicate with each other. We have developed a multi-agent architecture that detects when young children left in child safety seats inside vehicles are at high risk of heatstroke and sends an alert message to the driver's smartphone. The design of the architecture using the INGENIAS methodology is described.


Role of the hospital in primary paediatric care A J R Waterston, MRCP; R J Brereton, FRCS ................................ 1021 Radiation and growth hormone deficiency S M Shalet, MRCP, and others.......... 1021 Danger of salt as an emetic W 0 Robertson, MD .................. 1022 Cimetidine and gastric carcinoma R S Arnot, FRCSED .................... 1022 Perforation of peptic ulcer after withdrawal of cimetidine P V Turkie, MRCP; B D Keighley, MB .... 1022 Cimetidine and gastric ulcer healing R J Machell, MRCP, and others.......... 1023 MRC treatment trial for mild hypertension W S Peart, FRCP, FRS, and W E Miall, MD. . 1023 Care of the elderly sick J G Evans, FRCP ...................... 1023 Joint appointments in general and geriatric medicine J C Brocklehurst, FRCSED, and others .... 1023 Names of drugs G D J Ball, MB; J W Maltby, FRCS; E T Mathews, FFARCS ...................... 1024 The drug bill J F Lowe, FRCGP ...................... 1024 Oestrogen treatment and endometrial carcinoma J Guillebaud, MRCOG .................. 1025 Exercise-induced asthma J P R Hartley, MRCP, and others; Elizabeth R Miller, MB ........................ 1025 Experimental trial of the tri-cycle pill Elizabeth M Elliott, MB; Nancy B Loudon, MB, and R V Short, FRS, SCD ............ 1025 Painless thyroiditis G A MacGregor, MD .................. 1026 The perilous skateboard A R Rogers, MB ...................... 1026 Late infection after total hip replacement W J Fincham, FIMLS, and Josephine Cook, PHD .. .. . .. .... .. . .. ............1026 Coeliac disease and malignancy Irene M Evans, MRCP .................. 1026 Effects of ethanol-induced hypoglycaemia C Miquel, MD, and J Rubies-Prat, MD .... 1027 1x-Hydroxycholecalciferol for renal osteodystrophy R Ahmad, MB, and Beryl Large, SRN...... 1027 Return to work after aortofemoral bypass surgery Felicity C Edwards, DM ................ 1027 Depot tranquillisers for disturbed behaviour M F Green, MRCP .................... 1027 Bruising in thyrotoxicosis J A Thomson, FRCP .................... 1027 Complications of transvenous (transiugular) liver biopsy D Lebrec, MD, and others .............. 1027 SI units and acidity M Hamilton, FRCPSYCH ................ 1028 Modified jejunoileal bypass for obesity A Cuschieri, FRCS .................... 1028 Oxytocin induction and neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia S Singhi, MD, and M Singh, MD........ 1028 Acceptable and unacceptable risks E M Glaser, MRCP .................... 1028 Prevention of retained throat pack B S Crawford, FRCS .................... 1029 Ulceration of face associated with trigeminal neuropathy A G Freeman, FRCP .................. 1029 Study of doctors' career decisions Rosemary Hutt, MA .................. 1029 Obdurate politics C M Fletcher, FRCP .................. 1030 Attachment of community nurses to general practice J F Fisher, FRCGP .................... 1030 Ethics and etiquette of doctor-managers J M Potter, FRS .1030 Training for general practice Anne L Gruneberg, FFARCS ..... ....... 1030