The dairy industry uses substantial amount of water to achieve the production process, especially for the maintenance of hygiene and cleanliness conditions. With this, is generating considerable volume of wastewater requiring treatment to meet the discharge standards before discarded? With the shortage of water resources and charging for water use, minimizing water consumption in industries is of paramount importance to main- tain its market competitiveness. In this sense, there has been increasing interest in the reuse of wastewater, in order to decrease the good water consumption by processes that do not require such high quality feature. Membrane separation processes are highlighted in generating good-quality reuse water that can meet the demand of various industrial processes. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the membrane separation processes for the treatment of dairy industry effluent to reuse.


Born in 1884 in Balıkesir, Turkey, Ömer Seyfettin was a leading figure among modern Turkish short story writers whose death in 1920 at the age of 36 led to long-term speculations about his fatal illness. In order to pay homage to his memory in the centennial of his death and to shed light on his later medical condition, this paper seeks to reexamine his last days from a medico-historical perspective. Our findings indicate that there was a notable decline in his health occurring after 1917 when he was confined to social isolation. A carbuncle was diagnosed in his posterior neck when he was 35-years of age and not satisfactorily treated. In late February 1920, he developed progressive symptoms over two weeks consisting initially of a headache, followed by fever, delirium, hallucinations, and diplopia. These clinical signs and symptoms are clinically suggestive of a septic encephalopathy presumably caused by staphylococcus aureus infection secondary to the carbuncle, or perhaps by one of the myriad causes of viral meningoencephalitis.


Microscopic angio-invasion by carcinoma of the thyroid is known. Extension into the great veins is much more uncommon. Most of the cases which have been previously described were discovered on post-mortem examination. We report the case of a 55 year-old woman who was found to have an asymptomatic small cervical goiter 6 years ago; during the last 12 months she developed superior vena cave (SVC) syndrome radiological investigation (angiography, CT scan) and surgical exploration showed a carcinoma of the thyroid with intraluminal extension of the tumor leading to thrombosis and ectasia of the SVC. Surgery was performed with resection of the whole thyroid, the SVC and the innominate veins. A double prosthetic venous by pass was then inserted between the innominate veins and right atrium. Five years after resection, the patient has no recurrence or metastatis and no clinical symptom of SVC syndrome. To our knowledge, this is only the third reported case successfully treated by surgery.


A study of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) is applied to a set of 24 molecules derived from diarylaniline to predict the anti-HIV-1 biological activity of the test compounds and find a correlation between the different physic-chemical parameters (descriptors) of these compounds and its biological activity, using principal components analysis (PCA), multiple linear regression (MLR), multiple non-linear regression (MNLR) and the artificial neural network (ANN). We accordingly proposed a quantitative model (non-linear and linear QSAR models), and we interpreted the activity of the compounds relying on the multivariate statistical analysis. The topological descriptors were computed with ACD/ChemSketch and ChemBioOffice14.0 programs. A correlation was found between the experimental activity and those obtained by MLR and MNLR such as (Rtrain = 0.886 ; R2train = 0.786) and (Rtrain = 0.925 ; R2train = 0.857) for the training set compounds, and (RMLR-test = 0.6) and (RMNLR-test = 0.7) for a randomly chosen test set of compounds, this result could be improved with ANN such as (R = 0.916 and R2 = 0.84) with an architecture ANN (6-1-1). To evaluate the performance of the neural network and the validity of our choice of descriptors selected by MLR and trained by MNLR and ANN, we used cross-validation method (CV) including (R = 0.903 and R2 = 0.815) with the procedure leave-one-out (LOO). The results showed that the MLR and MNLR have served to predict activities, but when compared with the results given by a 6-1-1 ANN model. We realized that the predictions fulfilled by the latter model were more effective than the other models. The statistical results indicated that this model is statistically significant and showing a very good stability towards the data variation in leave-one-out (LOO) cross validation.


The crust of a neutron star is essentially determined by the low-density region ($\rho<\rho_0\approx0.15-0.16\unit{fm}^{-3}$) of the equation of state. At the bottom of the inner crust, where the density is $\rho\lesssim0.1\rho_0$, the formation of light clusters in nuclear matter will be energetically favorable at finite temperature. At very low densities and moderate temperatures, the few body correlations are expected to become important and light nuclei like deuterons, tritons, helions and $\alpha$-particles will form. Due to Pauli blocking, these clusters will dissolve at higher densities $\rho\gtrsim 0.1\rho_0$.
The presence of these clusters influences the cooling process and quantities, such as the neutrino emissivity and gravitational waves emission. The dissolution density of these light clusters, treated as point-like particles, will be studied within the Relativistic Mean Field approximation. In particular, the dependence of the dissolution density on the clusters-meson couplings is studied.


The weapons of mass destruction are regulated by separate international treaties. The chemical weapons con- vention (CWC) profi ted from the experience of the other two treaties. It was fortunate also in its timing, being concluded during the optimism of the immediate post-Cold War years. Principles of universality, equality and non-discrimination have ensured greater participation in the CWC. It is unique in outlawing an entire class of weapons, instituting a comprehensive verifi cation regime, establishing its own implementing organization, and inte- grating the relevant industry into its programme of work. This policy brief, drawing on a recent book, examines the record to date of the CWC's implementing agency as well as the challenges yet to be met.


Forty-two individually housed entire male pigs weighing 37.5 ± 0.15 kg (mean ± SEM) were used in a randomized block design having 7 dietary treatments (n = 6). The dietary treatments were 5 semisynthetic diets containing 350 g/kg of soybean (Glycine max) meal (SBM) with variable heat treatments (0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 min autoclaved at 135°C), a protein free (N-free) diet, and an enzymatically hydrolyzed casein (EHC) diet. Heat treatment linearly decreased (P < 0.001) total Lys content from 27.5 to 19.2 g/kg and reactive Lys content from 23.4 to 11.7 g/kg. Apparent, standardized, and true ileal digestible total and reactive Lys contents linearly decreased (P < 0.001) with increasing severity of heat treatment and were accurately predictable (P < 0.001) from total and reactive Lys content in heat-damaged SBM. These data indicate that excessive heat processing of SBM reduced both the content (P < 0.001) and digestibility (P < 0.001) of total and reactive Lys in SBM.


The Swedish field of digital X-ray imaging has since several years relied heavily on distributed information systems and digital storage containers. To ensure accurate and safe radiological reporting, Swedish software-firm eCare AB delivers a system called Feedback—the first and only quality assurance IT support product of its kind. This thesis covers several aspects of the design and implementation of future versions of this software platform. The focus lies on distributed directory services and models for secure and robust data propagation in TCP/IP networks. For data propagation, a new application, InfoBroker, has been designed and implemented to facilitate integration between Feedback and other medical IT support systems. The directory services, introduced in this thesis as the Feedback Directory Services, have been designed on the architectural level. A combination of CORBA and Java Enterprise Edition is suggested as the implementation platform.


A 128-Mb SOI DRAM has been developed featuring the floating body cell (FBC). To keep the cell data state from being degraded by the word-line (WL) disturb due to the charge pumping and to reduce the refresh busy rate, a sense amplifier (S/A) is arranged for every bit-line (BL) and replenishes data "1" cells' bodies with holes which are lost by the disturb in every read and write cycle. The power is reduced by operating the S/As asymmetrically between the selected and the unselected thanks to that the number of holes to be replenished in the unselected S/As for charge pumping is two order of magnitude smaller than that required for writing the data "1". The multi-pair averaging of dummy cells generates a very accurate reference current for distinguishing the data "1" and "0" and a Monte Carlo simulation shows that it achieves a sensing scheme robust enough to realize all good parts of the DRAM with a reasonable amount of redundancy. The cell's feature of quasi-nondestructive read-out is also advantageous for making an SRAM interface of the DRAM or hiding refresh from uses without sacrificing the access time.


This paper reports successful collaboration between researchers in the Philippines and Australia since 1993 on a project funded by ACIAR. Three intergeneric crosses were done between C. papaya and Vasconcella spp. resistant to Papaya Ring쳰ot Virus (PRSV-P). Production of F1 plants required embryo rescue and regeneration after an embryogenic phase in vitro. Eleven F1 plants from a cross between C. papaya and V. quercifolia were selected as being PRSV-P resistant and having some fertility, and 4 of these had sufficient fertility to produce embryos when backcrossed to papayas. Cytogenetic studies on one of these intergeneric hybrids revealed variable chromosome counts, presence of univalents, laggards and meiotic aberrations and pollen fertility of 0.2 - 2.2%. Segregating populations of first and second backcross plants were evaluated for PRSV-P resistance, fertility and morphological characteristics including fruit shape, size and quality. All first backcross plants were micropropagated in vitro before glasshouse and field evaluation. Variable reactions to the two viral strains in the two countries were observed. One plant (clone 54) demonstrated a high level of tolerance against multiple inoculations of PRSV-P in the glasshouse and stood up against aphid transmitted PRSV-P in the field for 9 months in Australia, however showed little resistance to PRSV-P in the Philippines. Results indicate that 3 backcrosses may be sufficient to produce fruit that are similar to papaya and commercially acceptable.


Background: Given the limited availability of critical care resources in our country, it is important to identify reliable predictors of hypoxia in patients with COVID-19 infection. We thus sought to compare differential predictive values of demographic, clinical, and laboratory measures and identify predictor for hypoxia in COVID-19 infection. Materials and Methods: This is single-center retrospective analysis of patient admitted at AIIMS Patna between 15th June and 15th Aug. All the patients who had oxygen saturation less than 94% grouped under hypoxic group while ≥94% in non-hypoxic group at room air. Statistical analysis: Logistic regression model used to determine the predictor of hypoxia in COVID-19 infection. Results: Total 73 were used for analysis. Study patients had a mean age of 55.05 ± 12.7 year, of whom 78.08% were male (57/73). 39 (53.42%) patients were found hypoxic at time of admission while 34 (46.56%) were non-hypoxic. Presence of dyspnoea significantly found more frequently in hypoxic patients (P = 0.0003). Patients with O2 saturation of less than 94% have more likely to have diabetes (P = 0.002) and hypertension (P = 0.02). Analysis of laboratory variables showed that leucocytosis (P = 0.007) and neutrophilia (P = 0.01) were significantly higher in hypoxic group compare to non-hypoxic group. Univariate regression model showed patient with any one comorbidities, diabetes, or hypertension was found as strong risk factor for hypoxia after COVID-19 infection (P < 0.05). Conclusion: This is the first study to identify predictor of hypoxia in COVID-19 infection. Patient with any one comorbidities, diabetes, or hypertension was found strong risk factor for hypoxia after COVID-19 infection. Among lab variable, leucocytosis, neutrophilia, lymphocytopenia, and CRP (>27.5 mg/L) were found as predictor of hypoxia in COVID infection.


Type II collagen, generally considered to be characteristic of cartilage, has been localized in specific non‐cartilaginous structures during embryogenesis and development of the skeleton. Type II procollagen is synthesized in two different forms generated by alternative splicing of exon 2 in the precursor mRNA transcript. One form (type IIA procollagen) contains a large cysteine‐rich domain in the NH2‐terminal propeptide, while the second form (type IIB procollagen) does not. These two forms are spatially expressed during development and chondrogenesis with the type IIB procollagen mRNA primarily expressed by chondrocytes while the IIA form is expressed in chondroprogenitor cells (Sandell et al. [1991] J. Cell Biol. 114:1307–1319). The present study demonstrates that the early non‐cartilage expression, by somites, mesenchymal and epithelial cells, is predominately the alternate splice form, type IIA procollagen mRNA. Later in development, the type IIB mRNA splice form is expressed by chondrocytes. During the development of intramembranous bones, such as the mandible, type IIA procollagen mRNA is also expressed. In this tissue, the splice form does not switch to type IIB mRNA and no cartilage is formed. These results show that expression of type IIA mRNA, whether by epithelial or mesenchymal cells, precedes formation of overt skeletal structures. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The primary muscles of mastication (chewing food) are the temporalis, medial pterygoid, lateral pterygoid, and masseter muscles. The four main muscles of mastication attach to the rami of the mandible and function to move the jaw (mandible). The cardinal mandibular movements of mastication are elevation, depression, protrusion, retraction, and side to side movement. To augment the process of eating, the muscles of mastication also move the mandible in a side to side motion to assist in the grinding of food. The muscles of mastication also function to approximate (bring together or close) the teeth. The superficial muscle of the neck, the platysma muscle, also assists with depression of the mandible against resistance.[1]


Luck touches us all. "Why me?" we complain when things go wrong though seldom when things go right. But although luck has a firm hold on all our lives, we seldom reflect on it in a cogent, concerted way.In "Luck," one of our most eminent philosophers offers a realistic view of the nature and operation of luck to help us come to sensible terms with life in a chaotic world. Differentiating luck from fate (inexorable destiny) and fortune (mere chance), Nicholas Rescher weaves a colorful tapestry of historical examples, from the use of lots in the Old and New Testaments to Thomas Gataker s treatise of 1619 on the great English lottery of 1612, from casino gambling to playing the stock market. Because we are creatures of limited knowledge who do and must make decisions in the light of incomplete information, Rescher argues, we are inevitably at the mercy of luck. It behooves us to learn more about it."


The modeling of behavior by monitoring activities of daily living allows caregivers to recognize early stages of dementia. Therefore, many monitoring systems were presented in recent years. In this work, we present a behavior modeling system that is based only on two adjustable parameters and provides a single standardized output statistic. Therefore, this system enhances the comparison of recent and future activity monitoring systems. The approach is comprised of three parts: First, the clustering of power plug data to detect time windows in which appliances are used regularly. Second, the calculation of a comparison Matrix. Third the test of change using the χ2-statistic. We tested this approach successfully in a seven-month field study with two healthy subjects. We showed that the χ2-statistic reflected how regular activities were performed and that one to two months, depending on the regularity of the performed activities, provide the necessary amount of reference data for our approach to work.


Professor Helfand introduces this symposium on Religious Law in the 21st Century. Helfand notes that a recurring theme in recent debates over the relationship between law and religion is the unique challenge of reconciling conflicts not just between law and religion, but between the law of the nation-state and "religious legal communities" -- that is, communities that primarily experience their religious norms through the prism of legal rules. Muslim and Jewish communities serve as prime examples of such religious legal communities, and the challenges faced by these communities often parallel each other in important ways. Thus, an important subset of contemporary religious controversies -- from circumcision bans to anti-Sharia laws -- emerge as not only conflicts between law and religion, but as conflicts between law and law. And it is to this unique set of questions that the jointly-sponsored program of the Islamic Law and Jewish Law Sections of the American Association of Law Schools was addressed. The program was split into two thematic panels, and the articles in this symposium reflect those themes. The first -- titled "Religious Law in U.S. Courts" -- considered the various contexts in which U.S. courts have been asked to address religious questions that touch upon religious law. The second -- titled "Religious Law in the Secular State" -- considered contemporary issues related to the practice and implementation of religious law in secular democracies. Together, these papers bring new insight to these questions and serve as a springboard for discussion and debate about how religious law will fit into the ever-evolving landscape of the 21st century.


OBJECTIVE
Maternal vitamin D deficiency is an important risk factor that causes infantile rickets in the neonatal and infantile period. The aim of this study was to review the prevalence, clinical characteristics and treatment of vitamin D deficiency andthe follow-upswith infants and their mothers by the neonatal intensive care unit of Afiyet Hospital in Turkey.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P) and 25 (OH) vitamin D were studied and prospectively recorded in infants and their mothers detected to have hypocalcemia during routine biochemistry tests performed on the third postnatal day of the patients follow up and treated with different diagnoses.

RESULTS
A total of 2,460 infants were admitted into the neonatal intensive care unit between August 2014 and January 2018. Of the infants included in the study, 324 (66.1%) were male and 166 (33.8%) were female, and 366 (74.6%) of them had been delivered by cesarean section (C/S), 124 (25.3%) of them had been delivered by normal spontaneous delivery (NSD).Hypocalcemia was detected in 490 (19.9%) of the infants. In a total of 190 (38.7%) infants and 86 mothers (17.5%), the levels of 25 (OH) vitamin D were found to be below the laboratory detection limit of <3 ng/ml.When vitamin D deficiency + insufficiency is assessed by season, 151 of them were found to be in summer(30.99%), 118 in spring(24.18%), 117 in the winter season(23.87%), and 93 in autumn(18.97%) respectively. There was a statistically significant positive correlation of 78.7% between the vitamins D values of the mothers and the infants (p: 0.000, p<0.05). Conclusion; This study conducted that a positive correlation of between the vitamin D values of the mothers and the infants. In order to prevent maternal vitamin D deficiency, the appropriate dose of prophylaxis providing optimal levels of vitamin D and should be given by acording to the levels of 25 (OH) D vitamin during pregnancy.


We present an extended version of a tool developed for calculating linguistic distances and asymmetries in auditory perception of closely related languages. Along with evaluating the metrics available in the initial version of the tool, we introduce word adaptation entropy as an additional metric of linguistic asymmetry. Potential predictors of speech intelligibility are validated with human performance in spoken cognate recognition experiments for Bulgarian and Russian. Special attention is paid to the possibly different contributions of vowels and consonants in oral intercomprehension. Using incom.py 2.0 it is possible to calculate, visualize, and validate three measurement methods of linguistic distances and asymmetries as well as carrying out regression analyses in speech intelligibility between related languages.


In this study, we propose a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN)-based approach to behavioral modelling of community dwelling older adults at risk for falls during the daily sessions of a hologram-enabled vestibular rehabilitation therapy programme. The component of human behavior being modelled is the level of frustration experienced by the user at each exercise, as it is assessed by the NASA Task Load Index. Herein, we present the topology of the DBN and test its inference performance on real-patient data. Clinical Relevance— Precise behavioral modelling will provide an indicator for tailoring the rehabilitation programme to each individual's personal psychological needs.


A procedure for the estimation of D- and D,L-amygdalin in urine is described. Amygdalin is hydrolyzed by beta-glucosidase and base to benzaldehyde, glucose and cyanide. Benzaldehyde is extracted with methylene chloride and the ultraviolet (UV) absorbence determined at 243 nm. The response of human urine "spiked" with amygdalin was linear between 10 and 75 microgram/ml. Mice administered 100 mg/kg of amygdalin intravenously or orally excreted about 70 and 20% of the administered dose, respectively, over 96 hours. In each instance more than 96% of excreted drug equivalents were obtained within the first 24 hours.


In the 1960s and '70s, Gemany played a leading role in the field of gynaecological endocrinology, which was reflected by the scientific activity of German universities during this period. More recently, however, a dramatic change occurred, resulting in a decreasing number of publications in this field. This has undoubtedly contributed to the marginal scientific position of Germany in this gynaecological endocrinology today. This change is reflected by the decreasing number of university centres carrying out active scientific research in the fields of gynaecological endocrinology, reproductive medicine and andrology. Universities now lack mid- and upper-level faculty staff, as interesting and senior positions in the field of reproductive medicine, andrology and reproductive medicine no longer exist. Moreover, in 1991 the German embryo protection law came into force, which severely curtailed scientific research and blocked scientific efforts in this area. German scientists and, of course, childless couples were cut off from scientific advances, e. g. the possibility of "single embryo transfer". Germany's scientific position in the fields of gynaecological endocrinology, reproductive medicine and andrology needs to be strengthened. The creation of appropriate structures in German universities is therefore necessary. These would include important cooperations with private medical practices, which currently account for about 75 % of patient care. The lines of communication between the groups representing reproductive medicine in Germany need to be greatly improved. Moreover, we suggest that an important step would be the development of a general human embryology and fertilisation act which would allow German couples to benefit from the global advances in the field of reproductive technology. Germany must stop its policy of scientific obstruction and permit scientific progress in this field in German universities.


This study evaluated the acceptability of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in teaching English literature to Grade 10 students in Soom Integrated School, Trinidad, Bohol during the School Year 2019-2020. It identified the academic performance of the respondents in specified learning competencies in English literature and the DI's level of acceptability as perceived by the students as well as the significant relationship between the two variables. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to complete the descriptive-inferential/correlation research method. The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between the students' academic performance and DI's perceived level of acceptability. It is recommended that an enhanced DI learning packet be applied in teaching English literature. This includes strategies like RAFT (Role, Audience, Format,Topic), flipped classroom, cubing, tune up stations, tic-tac-toe, exit cards, journal writing and jigsaw activities.


Aims. We analyse the distribution of matter around the progenitor star of gamma-ray burst GRB 021004 and the properties of its host galaxy with high-resolution echelle and near-infrared spectroscopy. Methods. Observations were taken by the 8.2 m Very Large Telescope with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle spectrograph (UVES) and the Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC) between 10 and 14 h after the onset of the event. Results. We report the first detection of emission lines from a GRB host galaxy in the near-infrared, detecting Hα and the [O III] doublet. These allow us to independently measure the systemic redshift (z = 2.3304 ± 0.0005), which is not contaminated by absorption as the Lyα line is, and infer the host galaxy properties. From the visual echelle spectroscopy, we find several absorptionline groups spanning a range of about 3000 km s −1 in velocity relative to the redshift of the host galaxy. The absorption profiles are very complex with both velocity-broadened components extending over several 100 km s −1 and narrow lines with velocity widths of only ∼20 km s −1 . By analogy with QSO absorption line studies, the relative velocities, widths, and degrees of ionization of the lines ("line-locking", "ionization-velocity correlation") show that the progenitor had both an extremely strong radiation field and several distinct mass-loss phases (winds). Conclusions. These results are consistent with GRB progenitors being massive stars, such as luminous blue variables (LBVs) or Wolf-Rayet stars, providing a detailed picture of the spatial and velocity structure of the GRB progenitor star at the time of explosion. −


We study the appearance of anomalies of the Master Ward Identity, which is a universal renormalization condition in perturbative QFT. The main insight of the present paper is that any violation of the Master Ward Identity can be expressed as a local interacting field; this is a version of the well-known Quantum Action Principle of Lowenstein and Lam. Proceeding in a proper field formalism by induction on the order in , this knowledge about the structure of possible anomalies as well as techniques of algebraic renormalization are used to remove possible anomalies by finite renormalizations. As an example the method is applied to prove the Ward identities of the O(N) scalar field model.


Abstract A unique in blow sampling system has been applied to a blowing converter to retrieve simultaneously representative bulk metal bath and slag/metal emulsion samples from seven specified positions and every 2 min from start of blow. Full sample datasets from 20 heats have been grouped according to differences in the bulk bath phosphorus removal profiles and analysed with respect to relative refining ability of the slag/metal emulsion and the bulk metal bath. The complexity of the thermokinetic relationships behind the removal of carbon and the transfer of silicon, phosphorus, manganese and sulphur between the metal and slag is highlighted and the metal circulation rate in the emulsion is derived.


When the full weathered granite is regarded as highway subgrade filling material, it is restricted to the application because of its high mica content, lax construction, bad water stability, and small cohesion. For these reasons, the full weathered granite soil should be improved before using for subgrade filling, and the cement was taken as an improver in this paper. The dynamic and static characteristics of cement stabilized soils were studied systemically. It was shown from the experiment results that there is a decrease in the content of mica and clay, and an increase of quattz of the cement stabilized soils. The unconfined strength of the cement stabilized full weathered granite increases linearly with the increase in cement content. There is power function relationship between water stability coefficient and the cement content. The unconfined strength and water stability coefficient increases with degree of compaction and with age as well, while the increasing rate decrease with age. The dynamic strength of the cement stabilized full weathered granite increased with the increase of the degree of compaction and the cement content. However, as the water content increases, the dynamic strength increased first and then decreases, there is an optimum moisture content. A linear model was proposed to describe the dynamic modulus and dynamic relationship between the stress amplitude. The results can provide an important reference for engineering practice.


OBJECTIVE
In childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), cytogenetics plays an important role in diagnosis, allocation of treatment and prognosis. On the basis of the conventional cytogenetic analysis, molecular methods have improved pediatric hematologists/oncologist's ability to accurately and rapidly perform risk-stratification on patients with childhood ALL during the last few years. The aim of the present study was to assess the demography of cytogenetic abnormalities in childhood ALL.

METHOD
The study subjects consisted of 124 newly diagnosed ALL patients younger than 16 years of age, who were diagnosed at the Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Soochow University Children's Hospital. The diagnosis and FAB subtypes of ALL was determined by Wright-Giemsa-stained bone marrow smears and cytochemical staining. Immunophenotyping of the bone marrow samples was performed by flow cytometry. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (Multiplex PCR) analysis was performed to detect the 29 most common leukemia translocations for routine molecular diagnostic hematopathology practice, and complement the information gained from conventional cytogenetic analysis.

RESULTS
Cytogenetic analysis was successful in 112 of 124 children with ALL. Sixty-eight (60%) of them had clonal chromosomal abnormalities. Numerical imbalances consisted of hyperdiploid (> 47 chromosomes, 36 cases), hypodiploid (< 46 chromosomes, 14 cases), pseudodiploidy (18 cases). Chromosomal translocations were observed in 13 patients by conventional cytogenetic analysis. Three cases were found positive for 4; 11 translocation, 3 cases for 9; 22 translocation, 1 case for 1; 19 translocation and 6 cases for other rare translocations. Multiplex-PCR analysis detected 116 of the 124 ALL patients. Thirteen cases of TEL-AML1, 10 cases of rearrangement in the MLL gene, 4 cases of E2A-PBX1, 4 cases of E2A-HLF, 3 cases of BCR-ABL, 2 cases of TLS-ERG, 32 cases of HOX11 were detected by Multiplex PCR in B-lineage leukemias. SIL-TAL1 had been found in 4 of 7 of T-lineage leukemias.

CONCLUSIONS
Sixty-eight cases of ALL showed chromosomal aberrations. Multiplex PCR positivity was detected in 59 (50%) of the 116 ALL patients studied. Multiplex PCR combined with chromosomal analysis uncovered chromosomal abnormalities in 95 of 124 (77%) of ALL patients and supplemented each other in detecting chromosomal abnormalities.


BACKGROUND
Ultrasound utilization studies in the developing world are important to support appropriate use.

METHODS
A prospective, cross-sectional study in the medical wards at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi, was performed which aimed to assess referrals, reports and usefulness of scans to develop local recommendations. The primary outcome of a 'useful scan' was based on scan results and utilization of the report. Indication, quality of requests and reports, and operator were documented. Recommendations for request and report writing were developed.

RESULTS
During 28 April-1 June 2011, 96 scans were analysed of which 66 (69%) were useful. Scans were not useful when the report was non-diagnostic, not documented or not acted upon. Seventy-eight scans (82%) were requested without prior laboratory investigations. A working diagnosis of a pericardial effusion was significantly associated with a useful scan (p = 0.01) as was a medical history of HIV (p ≤ 0.001). The quality of requests and reports in terms of clinical information was moderate or poor in 73% and 33% of cases respectively. Scans by clinicians were at greater odds (OR = 4.0, p = 0.01) of being useful compared with those by radiology technicians.

CONCLUSION
Despite the majority of ultrasound scans being useful, underutilization and non-useful scans were common, indicating the need to identify appropriate indications and develop relevant guidance and training.


This paper discusses a ray optic approach to the magnetostatic wave propagation in a normally magnetized YIG film. The dispersion relation is obtained using the method of transverse resonance. The Iateral shift due to reflection at the boundaries has been obtained from energy flow analysis. The path of the rays has been traced from which an approximate expression for the group delay time has been obtained. It is seen that, for the first-order mode, the agreement between this approximate expression for the delay with the rigorous one is satisfactory except near the lower cutoff. In the case of higher order, modes the two compare satisfactorily throughout the frequency range of guided waves.


This study was conducted in Khartoum State in order to evaluate the quality of the drinking water in dairy farms based on bacteriological examinations and viable counts. A total of 39 water samples were obtained from dairy farms (13 in Khartoum, 13 in Omdurman and 13 in Khartoum North). All samples were cultured on Blood Agar and MacConkey for bacterial isolation and on nutrient agar for viable counts. The main result revealed that 39 bacterial isolates were detected in drinking water of the dairy farms in Khartoum state. Micrococcus spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Bacillus spp. were dominant in Khartoum, giving a percentage of 7.69 (n=3) for each. Staphylococcus spp. and Corynobacterium spp. were also observed in the samples of dairy farms in Khartoum (5.12%) (n=2) for each. The bacteria isolated from dairy farms in Omdurman were Micrococcus spp. and Aeromonas spp. (5.12%) (n=2) for each. In the same site, Staphylococcus spp., Actenobacillus spp., Moraxella spp. and Flavibacterium spp. were also detected with percentage of 2.56% and frequency of one for each. The most frequent isolate in Khartoum North was Micrococcus spp. (17.95%) (n=7) followed by Aeromonas spp. (10.26%) (n=4) and Staphylococcs spp. (5.12%) (n=2). Regarding bacterial counts, the results have shown high level of contamination of drinking water for all dairy farms in Khartoum State. The results were inter-operated, depending on international critical level (cut-off point) (100 CFU ml-1). For instance, high mean of bacterial counts 6.44 × 108 was observed in dairy farm in Omdurman, followed by Khartoum and Khartoum North, with mean bacterial counts of 4.93 × 108 and 3.81 × 108, respectively. Application of analytical statistic using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that there was no statistical significance (F-value = 0.198, p-value > 0.05) for bacterial counts of the drinking water of dairy farms in different sites of Khartoum state.

 Key words: Bacterial counts, bacterial isolation, drinking water, Khartoum State, Sudan.


Deficient disinfection systems enable bacteria to form in drinking water; these can invade plumbing systems even if the pipes are composed of antibacterial materials such as copper. Severe copper corrosion by microorganisms and their subsequent release into the water system are evidenced by the blue water phenomenon. Proper monitoring and control can reduce such undesirable effects on water quality. However, a lack of data from analysis under actual conditions has limited the development of useful predictive tools and preventive strategies. In this work, an experimental aging system was connected to a drinking water network affected by the blue water phenomenon. The microbially influenced corrosion (MIC) was evaluated by studying the dynamics of the formed bacterial community and its relationship with copper corrosion and the release of copper. The results suggest that the conformation and composition of the biofilm attached to the surface influence the measured parameters. The corrosion rate was variable throughout the sampling time, with the highest value recorded after one year of aging. The composition of biofilms also changed with time; however, the genus Pseudomonas was ubiquitous over the sampling time. No relationship between the corrosion rate and the biofilm age was observed, thereby suggesting that MIC is a dynamic phenomenon that requires further study.


Expectations of migration and mobility steadily increasing in the longer term, which have a long currency in migration theory and related social science, are at odds with the latest US research showing a marked decline in internal migration rates. Given the similarity in demographic, economic and social trends between the USA and the UK, this paper reports the results of research that investigates whether the latter has been experienced any similar change in more recent decades. Using the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (ONS-LS) of linked census records, it examines the evidence provided by its 10-year migration indicator, with particular attention to a comparison of the first and latest decades available, 1971-1981 and 2001-2011. This suggests that, as in the USA, there has been a marked reduction in the level of shorter-distance (less than 10km) moving that has involved almost all types of people. In contrast to this and to US experience, however, the propensity of people to make longer-distance address changes between decennial censuses has declined much less, though the 2.6% fall between the 1970s and the 2000s may be an underestimate owing to the inclusion of moves to and from university in the latest decade. This finding is consistent with the results of a companion study which analysed data on migration between the health areas of England and Wales (Champion and Shuttleworth, 2015). There is therefore a strong case for now probing the causes of the sharp reduction in shorter-distance moving in Britain as well as the USA, as well as for investigating why the two countries differ in terms of their experience of longer-distance migration trends.


An intriguing phenomenon observed during training neural networks is the spectral bias, which states that neural networks are biased towards learning less complex functions. The priority of learning functions with low complexity might be at the core of explaining the generalization ability of neural networks, and certain efforts have been made to provide a theoretical explanation for spectral bias. However, there is still no satisfying theoretical result justifying the underlying mechanism of spectral bias. In this paper, we give a comprehensive and rigorous explanation for spectral bias and relate it with the neural tangent kernel function proposed in recent work. We prove that the training process of neural networks can be decomposed along different directions defined by the eigenfunctions of the neural tangent kernel, where each direction has its own convergence rate and the rate is determined by the corresponding eigenvalue. We then provide a case study when the input data is uniformly distributed over the unit sphere, and show that lower degree spherical harmonics are easier to be learned by over-parameterized neural networks. Finally, we provide numerical experiments to demonstrate the correctness of our theory. Our experimental results also show that our theory can tolerate certain model misspecification in terms of the input data distribution.


Human resource is one of those capital resources of an organization which not only increases the efficiency and the effectiveness of the organization but it act as a sheer source of competitive advantage which is inimitable. Employee commitment is as the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wants to continue actively participating in it. Commitment is one of the important consequences of perceived organizational support. Organizational support is studied as something that is perceived by an employee. This is a perception or judgment of how much support an employee feels or thinks an organization provides to him or her. Employees with high perceived organizational support feel indebtedness to respond favorably to the organization in the form of positive job attitudes and organizational behaviors and also support organizational goals. Studies show perceived organizational support increases commitment. It can also be inferred from the discussion that when employees feel supported their outcomes towards organization are always positive which helps organization to achieve its goals. It is suggested that not only the perceptions on organizational support and external prestige are important to employees' perceptions of the quality of their exchange relationships with their organizations, but also suggest that these perceptions affect employees commitment, through the quality of exchange relationships with their organization.


Prostate cancer is the second most prevalent malignancy in men. Biomarkers for outcome prediction are urgently needed, so that high‐risk patients could be monitored more closely postoperatively. To identify prognostic markers and to determine causal players in prostate cancer progression, we assessed changes in chromatin state during tumor development and progression. Based on this, we assessed genomewide androgen receptor/chromatin binding and identified a distinct androgen receptor/chromatin binding profile between primary prostate cancers and tumors with an acquired resistance to therapy. These differential androgen receptor/chromatin interactions dictated expression of a distinct gene signature with strong prognostic potential. Further refinement of the signature provided us with a concise list of nine genes that hallmark prostate cancer outcome in multiple independent validation series. In this report, we identified a novel gene expression signature for prostate cancer outcome through generation of multilevel genomic data on chromatin accessibility and transcriptional regulation and integration with publically available transcriptomic and clinical datastreams. By combining existing technologies, we propose a novel pipeline for biomarker discovery that is easily implementable in other fields of oncology.


The purpose of this paper was to outline suggestions for future logotherapy applications and research. Empirical studies are available on logotherapy constructs, but additional research is sorely needed. The psychometrics of logotherapy measures need to be expanded. Carefully conducted experimental studies may aid in refining long-standing logotherapy concepts and supporting or refuting new ones.


Forest fire is one of the most common natural hazards occurring in the Western Ghats region of Kerala and is one of the reasons for forest degradation. This natural disaster causes considerable damage to the biodiversity of this region during the dry fire season. The area selected for the present study, Eravikulam National Park, which is predominantly of grassland vegetation, is also prone to forest fires. This study aims to delineate the forest fire risk zones in Eravikulam National Park using remote sensing (RS) data and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. In the present study, methods such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Frequency Ratio (FR) were used to derive the weights, and the results were compared. We have used seven factors, i.e. land cover types, normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference water index, slope angle, slope aspect, distance from the settlement, and distance from the road to prepare the fire risk zone map. The area of the prepared risk zone maps is divided into three zones, namely low, moderate, and high. From the study, it was found that the fire occurring in this area is due to natural as well as anthropogenic factors. The prepared forest fire risk zone maps are validated using the fire incidence data for the period from January 2003 to June 2019 collected from the records of the Forest Survey of India. The investigation revealed that 72% and 24% of the fire incidences occurred in the high risk zone of the maps prepared using the AHP and FR methods, respectively, which ascertained the superiority of the AHP method over the FR method for forest fire risk zone mapping. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis gives an area under the ROC curve (AUC) value of 0.767 and 0.567 for the AHP and FR methods, respectively. The risk zone maps will be useful for staff of the forest department, planners, and officials of the disaster management department to take effective preventive and mitigation measures.


Summary
1. Leaf morphology at the site/species level should reflect environmental constraints on plant growth. One of the oldest controversies in ecology is the environmental basis for sclerophylly. The dominant view (Beadle's theory) is that it has a nutritional, rather than a drought, basis, especially low phosphorus.

2. Using leaf mass per area (LMA) as an index of sclerophylly, we assessed its relationship with leaf phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) along extensive rainfall gradients in southwestern Australia and the Cape of South Africa. Leaf 13C/12C discrimination (Δ13C), as an index of intrinsic water-use efficiency, was also examined in the Cape. All Hakea species (Proteaceae) were sampled at 10 sites in Australia (96 species), and all Proteaceae at 14 sites in the Cape (82 species). All were evergreen shrubs with iso(bi)-lateral leaves.

3. In each region there was a strong (inverse) curvilinear relationship between mean LMA per site and mean annual rainfall and Δ13C, but none with mean P or N on a mass basis (although P and N on an area basis declined with rainfall). The Cape study was a particularly good test of Beadle's theory, as P varied as much between sites as rainfall, and more between sites than within sites.

4. Leaf thickness and dry density were not as well correlated with rainfall as LMA, and leaf area and mass showed no relationship with rainfall. Area and mass had much greater variation within sites than between sites, limiting their value in plant–environment studies, while LMA was the most site-stable of the eight leaf attributes measured, except for Δ13C.

5. For all species considered individually in each region, there was a similar pattern as the site level, with LMA most strongly correlated (negatively) with rainfall and Δ13C and (positively) with leaf thickness, but no consistent relationship with P, N or density.

6. We conclude that when water and nutrient supply vary independently in the field, rainfall (as an index of water status) and Δ13C may be more closely correlated (inversely) with level of sclerophylly than nutrient status among evergreens, so that the role of sclerophylly as a drought adaptation warrants further consideration.


Abstract Eastern North America holds clear records of two Wilson cycles and hints of two earlier cycles, through which tectonic inheritance is evident at multiple scales. Large-scale transform offsets of rifted margins indicate inheritance through multiple cycles; transform-parallel intracratonic fault systems suggest a transform-parallel fabric in the lithosphere. Rift segments of the continental margins did not inherit the locations of earlier rifts; synrift intracratonic fault systems follow earlier contractional fabrics of supercontinent assembly. Large-scale curves of the Appalachian–Ouachita orogenic belt (closing of the Iapetus Ocean) mimic the shape of the Iapetan rifted margin of Laurentia. Basins along the Iapetan rifted margin reflect inheritance from transform faults in the greater magnitudes of early post-rift thermal subsidence and later synorogenic tectonic loading and flexural subsidence. Older synrift basement faults buttressed the frontal ramps of Appalachian–Ouachita thin-skinned thrust faults. Basement fault blocks and associated synrift stratigraphic variations in the weak layers that host the regional décollement localized transverse alignments of lateral ramps, as well as tectonic thickening of a mud-dominated graben-fill succession in a ductile duplex (mushwad). The many examples of tectonic inheritance attest to the linkages between processes of successive opening and closing of oceans, as well as the break-up and assembly of supercontinents, through successive Wilson cycles.


Physicians throughout medical history knew three possible ways to explain the association between treatment and cure: 1. the beneficial effect of the treatment itself, 2. the healing power of nature, and 3. the placebo effect. In the modern definition by Grünbaum, a treatment is a placebo when the effect cannot be explained by the theory that describes its activity. In clinical practice the placebo phenomenon is commonly misunderstood. Placebos are given to prove the patient wrong or to punish him. Nevertheless, most clinical pain can be reduced to at least half of its intensity by placebos. Also cough, headaches, asthma and other ailments can thus be relieved. Explanatory theories are often much narrower in focus than the phenomenon they seek to explain. A Meaning Model could offer new possibilities, as it includes the doctor-patient relationship, belief systems, social support, and feelings of mastery over the symptoms. One way to make such a model visible is the exploration of the deep-seated cultural assumptions about illness in different countries.


Vesicles composed of block copolymers (i.e., polymersomes) are one of the most versatile nano-carriers for medical purposes due to their tuneable physicochemical properties and the possibility to encapsulate simultaneously hydrophobic and hydrophilic substances, allowing, for instance, the combination of therapy and imaging. In cancer treatment, these vesicles need to remain long enough in the blood stream to be sufficiently taken up by tumors. Here, we have investigated the biodistribution and the pharmacokinetics of polymersomes, composed of poly(butadiene-b-ethylene oxide) having dimensions around 80 nm. The polymersomes have been radiolabeled with ¹¹¹In via the so-called active loading method achieving a loading efficiency of 92.9 ± 0.9% with radionuclide retention in mouse serum of more than 95% at 24 h. The optimized ¹¹¹In containing polymersomes have been intravenously administered in healthy and tumor bearing mice for pharmacokinetic determination using microSPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography). In healthy mice these polymersomes have been found to exhibit relatively long blood circulation (> 6 h), low liver uptake (6 ± 1.5%ID/g, 48 h p.i.) and elevated spleen uptake (188 ± 30%ID/g). The blood circulation in tumor bearing mice is dramatically reduced (< 1.5 h) most likely due to elevated splenic filtration, clearly indicating the importance of in vivo studies in diseased mice. Finally, the polymersomes have been injected subcutaneously in tumor bearing mice revealing retention of 77% in the mice, primarily accumulated at the site of injection, up to 48 hours after administration.


Radicalism has become a serious problem for many countries, including in Southeast Asia. One of its triggering factors is an extreme understanding of religion that leads to the assumption that people with different understandings are wrong and that violence is a legitimate way to change the situation. This often occurs because of a love of lineage or clan, as well as aggressive instincts. Such an extreme understanding results in the religious social conflicts, which in reality—particularly those involving Islam in Southeast Asia—are often influenced by regimes' asymmetric policies. This study, therefore, explores the role of the State as a root of radicalism in the context of the dynamic relationship between Islam and asymmetric policies, with a focus on the southern Philippines and Thailand. Research findings show that the rise of radicalism in the Philippines was caused by social conflict resulting from government manipulation of referendum policy on special autonomy in predominant Muslim areas. Meanwhile, radicalism in Thailand was triggered by social conflict resulting from the cultural assimilation policy imposed upon the Muslim community by the government.


BACKGROUND
The accumulation of fluid in body cavities is a common event in both neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases. However, the distinction between cells of reactive process and those of malignancy in cytology is not always possible. It is especially difficult when reactive mesothelial cells and adenocarcinoma cells are encountered. The aim of the present study was to find out the most accurate or reliable immunocytochemical and histochemical stains to distinguish reactive mesothelial cells from adenocarcinoma cells, and to serve as a standard method in the future when dealing with equivocal cases.

METHODS
Ninety-nine cases of malignant epithelial effusion were collected from 755 cases of effusion obtained from 3 large body cavities in the past one-year period. Among them, 71 cases were histologically as adenocarcinoma and 13 cases as non-adenocarcinoma. The other 15 cases were carcinoma proved by image as well as clinical symptoms and signs. These 99 cases, plus 10 cases of non-malignant effusion, underwent immunocytochemical and histochemical stainings. Five common commercial antibodies used in this immunocytochemical study were epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), carcinoembryonal antigen (CEA), cytokeratin, vimentin and Leu-M1. The histochemical study included periodic acid-Schiff diastase (D-PAS) and mucicarmine stains.

RESULTS
The immunocytochemical study showed that EMA had a high frequency of positive staining with malignant epithelial cells and a negative staining with mesothelial cells. Cytokeratin always stained with malignant epithelial cells but it also stained with mesothelial cells. Almost all the proved adenocarcinomas expressed CEA which was not expressed in the proved non-adenocarcinomas. However, CEA occasionally stained mesothelial cells. Leu-M1 showed a low frequency of staining with the proved adenocarcinoma cells, but it did not stain proved non-adenocarcinoma cells and mesothelial cells. On the contrary, vimentin stained with all mesothelial cells but occasionally with malignant epithelial cells, especially the proved adenocarcinoma cells. In the histochemical study, both mucicarmine and D-PAS showed a low sensitivity but high specificity in detecting the adenocarcinoma cells.

CONCLUSIONS
No single marker is absolutely reliable to distinguish exfoliated, reactive mesothelial cells from adenocarcinoma cells in effusions. However, a panel of 3 antibodies containing EMA, CEA and vimentin, together with D-PAS and mucicarmine stains may help solve this problem.


Abstract The Offshore Floating Nuclear Plant (OFNP) integrates an advanced light water reactor into a cylindrical, double-hull, floating platform. It offers a series of potential benefits in economics and safety. The 300-MW(electric) version, named OFNP-300, uses an ocean-based direct reactor auxiliary cooling system (DRACS) to remove decay heat from the core passively and indefinitely during loss of feedwater or loss of off-site power events. In the ocean, the OFNP platform may roll during storms or even statically tilt following asymmetric flooding of underwater compartments. The effects of rolling motion and static tilt on the engineered safety systems are investigated in this paper using a RELAP5-3D (version 4.3.4) model of OFNP-300. The oscillations of the platform are described as the superposition of sinusoidal motions for the six degrees of freedom, i.e., heave, roll, pitch, yaw, sway, and surge. The plant's thermal-hydraulic responses to two postulated accidents, i.e., loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) and station blackout (SBO), are then studied in three scenarios: (a) a design-basis 100-yr storm, (b) a bounding scenario in which the platform is assumed to pitch and roll with an amplitude of 20 deg, and (c) a bounding scenario in which the platform experiences a static tilt of 30 deg. The results of the RELAP5 analysis show that the safety margins of OFNP-300 are not challenged in the aforementioned three postulated scenarios. From a thermal-hydraulic point of view, the pitch and roll motions affect the flow in the DRACS but have no negative effect on the temperatures in the core during LOCA and SBO. Static platform tilt is tolerable up to 45 deg, beyond which the emergency core cooling system can no longer function.


This report is a learning artifact from the Spring 2020 semester of the UH-4504 Honors Topics in Discovery and Innovation Studios course titled Drug Discovery and Design in the Digital Age. This report should not be used or interpreted as a peer reviewed paper.


ABSTRACT In December 1922 the US magazine Radio Broadcast published a beautifully written article by Alice R. Bourke. Bourke's short account of the installation of radio in her family home heralded a set of complex and transformative potentials that were about to be realised within her own work and home life. The story of her career as a journalist, newspaper proprietor and army signals expert and ham radio operator demonstrates how everyday knowledge of radio as a medium of communication provided women with new sets of skills that contested dominant gender and national ideologies. This arrival of radio within the modern home, and the ripples it created in dominant formations of gender, class and nation bring attention to the ways that individual experiences intersect with broader social changes. This article is organised in three sections: the first briefly explains how I have reconstructed Bourke's work in radio from available sources; the second explains how configurations of biography and history can be read through the concept of intimate geographies; and the third reflects on what Bourke's encounter with radio tells us about intimate geographies that are still with us today.


This study investigates the demographic difference in local communities' perceptions of positive and negative emotions, trust in the government in organising the event, trust in the organising committee in organising the event, their level of attachment and support for the FIFA World Cup held in Brazil in 2014. The data for this study was collected from 12 cities in Brazil which were involved in hosting the World Cup games using a survey approach. Demographic variables used were gender, city of residence, age category, numbers of years lived in a city, marital status, occupation, education, income and ethnicity. The study found significant differences in their perceptions by the city of their residence. Significant differences were also noted in the negative emotions by all the demographic variables considered in this study. However, not all of them were significant for their level of trust, support and attachment to the event.


Background The growth in patient-centered care delivery combined with the rising costs of health care have perhaps not unsurprisingly been matched by a proliferation of patient-centered technology. This paper takes a multistakeholder approach to explore how digital technology can support the cocreation of value between patients and their care teams in the delivery of total knee replacement (TKR) surgery, an increasingly common procedure to return mobility and relieve pain for people suffering from osteoarthritis. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate communications and interactions between patients and care teams in the delivery of TKR to identify opportunities for digital technology to add value to TKR health care service by enhancing the cocreation of value. Methods A multistakeholder qualitative study of user needs was conducted with Australian stakeholders (N=34): surgeons (n=12), physiotherapists (n=3), patients (n=11), and general practitioners (n=8). Data from focus groups and interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Encounters between patients and their care teams are information-rich but time-poor. Results showed seven different stages of the TKR journey that starts with referral to a surgeon and ends with a postoperative review at 12 months. Each stage of the journey has different information and communication challenges that can be enhanced by digital technology. Opportunities for digital technology include improved waiting list management, supporting and reinforcing patient retention and recall of information, motivating and supporting rehabilitation, improving patient preparation for hospital stay, and reducing risks and anxiety associated with postoperative wound care. Conclusions Digital technology can add value to patients' care team communications by enhancing information flow, assisting patient recall and retention of information, improving accessibility and portability of information, tailoring information to individual needs, and by providing patients with tools to engage in their own health care management. For care teams, digital technology can add value through early detection of postoperative complications, proactive surveillance of health data for postoperative patients and patients on waiting lists, higher compliance with rehabilitation programs, and reduced length of stay. Digital technology has the potential to improve patient satisfaction and outcomes, as well as potentially reduce hospital length of stay and the burden of disease associated with postoperative morbidity.


The present paper first and foremost aims to examine the sociolinguistic phenomenon of diglossia as it was depicted within the 19 and 20 century Greek linguistic community (1830-1976). More specifically, this study tries to explore the social context in general and the political-religious-ideological context in particular within which Modern Greek Diglossia (MGD for short) first presented and developed, and how it eventually declined. The paper at hand adopts a particular sociolinguistic analysis by providing the most suitable definition for the concept of diglossia – among the many variations that have been propounded with the passage of time – under which MGD could best be described and analysed. More concretely, the specific definition adopted in our case is the initial and original Fergusonian one. The term diglossia proposed by Ferguson refers to the social and functional differentiation of two linguistic varieties – namely an (H)igh and a (L)ow one – of the same language and of the same speech community for distinct purposes. Since Katharévousa (i.e., the H code) and Dhimotikí (i.e., the L code) in MGD constitute two varieties of the same language (i.e., the continuum of the Greek language) and of the same speech community, Ferguson's model seems to be rather relevant and fairly applicable. Furthermore, due to the fact that diglossia almost always is interwoven within an historical as well as a social context, emphasis is placed on those two contexts. It has been stated by Mesthrie et al. (2000, p. 42) that 'language is embedded in a social and historical context, and a full understanding of language can only be achieved by paying attention to those contexts'. Thus, both the historico-linguistic perspective and the socio-linguistic approach that are employed in this paper intend to explain the emergence, maintenance, attrition as well as demise of MGD in the light of external socio-politico-historical factors, on the one hand, and to carefully analyse the specific characteristics of the phenomenon of MGD as such, on the other. The raising of the national language query (i.e., which of the existing Greek varieties is going to become the standard, official, symbolic, written language of the Greek nation?) – is another parameter which has to be considered side by side with the modern Greek diglossic situation. In fact, the Language Question in Greece is transformed from a clearly linguistic issue into a sociopolitical issue. Above all, the very existence of MGD is regarded as embedded in the ideological beliefs of its speakers. As a result, the conflicts that took place between the proponents of Katharévousa and the representatives of Dhimotikí in common with the reasons for such conflicts are mentioned. In the case of MGD conflicts exist between the two diglossic varieties, when in other countries the diglossia situation is not problematic at all. In Greece H and L varieties compete because their supporters compete. Last but not least, the predominance of Dhimotikí over Katharévousa is clearly justified.


Egils saga Skalla Grimssonar is unusual among the Islendingasogur in setting most of its action outside Iceland. Its eponymous central figure lives quietly when at home in south-west Iceland: he does not generally meddle in local affairs, and few are anxious to challenge him. The saga might, therefore, seem an unpromising source for a student of the gobar: Icelandic sources very rarely portray gobar exercising their authority outside that country; and the powers and responsibilities of the Icelandic gobar naturally impinged most on those who actively involved themselves in the life of the community. Yet the saga is, in part, the story of the establishment, in their new country, of a powerful and prosperous Icelandic family, the Myramenn, and both Egill and his son, Porsteinn, are gobar. If, as has often been suggested, Egils saga was written by the famous author and statesman Snorri Sturluson (1178/79-1241), it is the work of a man who was a descendant of the early Myramenn, a gobi himself, and a leading panicipant in the thirteenth-century power struggle whose protagonists strove, inter alia, to accumulate goborb ('Chieftainship'), the rights and powers attached to the gobi's office. If, as generally believed, Snorri came to possess the Myramannagoborb, one might expect him to take a shrewd interest in its ninth- and tenth-century origins, and perhaps even to present it in a way which subtly bolstered his own claims to authority in the Borgarfjqor district.


Whether you regard written board examination as a harrowing, life-defining event or as a routine interval task, we can all agree on one basic premise: when you sit down to the test, you would like it to be the only time you have to in the next 10 yr. To that end, the best preparation strategy is likely twofold: first, understand the content, and second, master the medium in which it is tested. Years of reading and clinical practice aid with the first aim, but rehearsal may be the key to the second. Enter Lippincott's Anesthesia Review: 1001 Questions and Answers by Sikka et al. The book is exactly what it claims to be, and nothing more: it is, simply stated, just over a thousand board-style questions, each accompanied by a brief explanation of the answer. With a target audience of residents facing in-training examinations or primary certification and seasoned practitioners facing MOCA examination, Anesthesia Review is organized into 21 chapters, with titles such as "Perioperative Evaluation and Management," "Peripheral Nerve Blocks," and "Neuroanesthesia." Each chapter contains between 26 and 102 questions grouped en bloc, with eagerly awaited answers just a few pages away at the end of every topic. Contributing authors are both trainees themselves and board-certified anesthesiologists, perhaps underlying the book's internal variability. As is often true of books with multiple contributors, each chapter's level of difficulty of questions and lengthiness of explanation vary to some degree. But to its credit, there is consistency in the format and breadth of information covered in each. At a svelte 321 pages, Anesthesia Review is quite portable, and therefore easily smuggled into operating rooms for stolen moments of imminently interruptible study. Even better than its $89.99 paperback form, for around $50 the e-book can be downloaded to the device of your choosing. Of note, its greatest virtue is not the book itself but rather the highly customizable electronic test bank that accompanies its purchase. Through the publisher online, the reader can create tests of varying lengths, from one question to, well, 1,001, including or excluding content from any designated chapter. Each session can be completed in one of two modes. The test mode simulates the examination process in high fidelity and after test completion results are displayed and content can be reviewed for each question. The review mode reveals the explanation after each question is answered, thus allowing for immediate activation of both the amygdala and hippocampus each time a conceptual vulnerability is unmasked with an incorrect answer. Having studied for and taken a staggering number of examinations in the past several years, I can say that an interactive format makes study more engaging and, as a result, more palatable. This book and its test bank make the process of examination preparation more like a game, for which all diplomates-to-be and diplomates should be grateful. However, one strong caveat stands: this book is less about study and more about practice. Each question presents a discrete moment of potential learning, limited in scope, designed for mastering the medium of test taking. The glaring absence of annotated references within the answers does not direct the examinee to a trusted resource for expanding content mastery—it is left to you, the reader, to find a reputable source. This text is unlikely to significantly expand your knowledge base and should certainly not be used as a primary source for preparation of in-training or board certification examinations. Rather, Lippincott's Anesthesia Review: 1001 Questions and Answers is a purist's publication, true to its name. It is merely the icing on the proverbial content cake, designed less to help you learn about the practice of clinical anesthesiology than to aid in its test preparation. And as long as the latter does not replace the former, there's nothing wrong with that.


The sudden death of a 24-year-old Danish man is reported. Autopsy showed acute myocardial infarction (MI) as the immediate cause of death, together with vasculitis in the aorta and coronary vessels. MI and vascular lesions were attributable to Takayasu's arteritis, which is a well-known cause of cardiovascular disease in Asia. It is rarely seen in Scandina-via and this case represents the first reported MI caused by this disease in Denmark.


Mentshlichkeit – Yiddish for the 'art of being a good hu(man)' - is offered as an invitation to participate in practices that may have the power to dispel the haunting of a 'hegemonic masculinity' (Connell 1995). Inspired by 'Action Research', what Reason & Bradbury call inquiry into the 'quality of our acting', the author uses futuristic narrative, interwoven with discussion and dialogue, to see if it is possible to reflect and act generatively, as a man who is mindful of feminism's challenge that 'the personal is political' (Reason and Bradbury 2001). Within a post-modern discourse, the author heads towards the irony and discomfort to be found in a text that explores goodness and masculinity in the same breath. But he is not alone, like some hero on a quest – rather he is inspired by the voices of challenge and support he hears in the course of his roles in diverse communities: as a Jew, a facilitator/consultant at Roffey Park Institute and a father. It is my intention to playfully invite you into this story; to see if it moves you, if it usefully meets your own experience and helps you consider your own action, within the paradoxes and dilemmas you face. Too often we can disappear within the words we write. It is my intention to 'show up', and as a man to meet the challenge of feminism, to live within this territory and act with some awareness of its contours. The characters in this story are inspired by the people I encounter, who remind me I am not 'selfmade', and that we men, in the words of Philip Corrigan, may usefully 're-member our bodies' (Corrigan 1988). Ultimately this is a human-scale story, designed to provoke good conversations. I look forward to hearing what you would like to discuss.


In calculi for modelling communication protocols, internal and external choices play dual roles. Two external choices can be viewed naturally as dual too, as they represent an agreement between the communicating parties. If the interaction fails, the past agreements are good candidates as points where to roll back, in order to take a different agreement. We propose a variant of contracts with synchronous rollbacks to agreement points in case of deadlock. The new calculus is equipped with a compliance relation which is shown to be decidable.


and results from different researchers spread in a wide range. The characterization of mechanical properties of nanocoatings or thin films with nanometer thickness is mostly conducted with nanoindentation test. Fracture and fatigue responses are characterized. The results are usually reliable and consistent. Bulk nanomaterials refer to bulk solids with nanoscale or partially nanoscale microstructures. This category of nanomaterials includes nanocrystalline metals and nanoceramics. They can be manufactured by consolidate of nanoparticles or in the case of nanocrystalline metals from repeated several deformation of conventional metal ingots. At millimeter scale, these samples can be studied using conventional methods used for macro scale samples. Nanoindentation is also used for the characterization of these samples when conventional test is no possible. Comparatively, the mechanical behavior of bulk nanomaterial is well understood.


A down hole vertical seismic array is a sequence of instruments installed at various depths in the earth to record the ground motion at multiple points during an earthquake. Numerous studies demonstrate the unique utility of vertical seismic arrays for studying in situ site response and soil behavior. Examples are given of analyses made at two sites to show the value of data from vertical seismic arrays. The sites examined are the Lotung, Taiwan SMART1 array and a new site installed at Jingliao, Taiwan. Details of the installation of the Jingliao array are given. ARX models are theoretically the correct process models for vertical wave propagation in the layered earth, and are used to linearly map deeper sensor input signals to shallower sensor output signals. An example of Event 16 at the Lotung array is given. This same data, when examined in detail with a Bayesian inference model, can also be explained by nonlinear filters yielding commonly accepted soil degradation curves. Results from applying an ARMAX model to data from the Jingliao vertical seismic array are presented. Estimates of inter-transducer soil increment resonant frequency, shear modulus, and damping ratio are presented. The shear modulus varied from 50 to 150 MPa, and damping ratio between 8% and 15%. A new hardware monitoring system - TerraScope - is an affordable 4-D down-hole seismic monitoring system based on independent, microprocessor-controlled sensor Pods. The Pods are nominally 50 mm in diameter, and about 120 mm long. An internal 16-bit micro-controller oversees all aspects of instrumentation, eight programmable gain amplifiers, and local signal storage.


Production of antigen-specific hybridomas has been achieved by fusion of HGPRT-negative mutant of Jurkat and antigen-specific TH cell lines. Selection of clones for specificity was best accomplished by the binding of radiolabeled hybrid clones to antigen-pulsed monolayers. Functional lymphokines such as IL-2 and BCGF were induced by antigenic stimulation in the presence of AC. AC function of EBV-transformed autologous B cells was as efficient on a per cell basis as autologous monocytes. Loss of specificity and function was observed in the first 5-6 months of culture which was coincident with chromosome loss. Recovery of specific functional hybrids was accomplished by repeated subcloning during this period. After this time, hybrids have maintained function for at least one year. This methodology allows the study of certain T cell functions without the requirement of periodic restimulation with autologous monocytes. Since EBV-B cell lines can serve as AC to induce lymphokines, large quantities of material can be prepared for biochemical studies.


Distribution transformers have always been dried within ovens heated for the effect. Obviously, the efficiency on the drying process is low and the time required for the task is hardly long and dependent upon the transformer volume. The new approach presented in this paper eliminates all these constraints. The process is based on the transformer's windings direct heating. The mean winding temperature is measured and controlled during all the process. This paper shows the design, implementation and results with a high performance controller for this process.<<ETX>>


This paper examines the technique of using a noise-suppressing nonlinearity in the adaptive filter error feedback-loop of an acoustic echo canceler (AEC) based on the least mean square (LMS) algorithm when there is an interference at the near end. The source of distortion may be linear, such as local speech or background noise, or nonlinear due to speech coding used in the telecommunication networks. Detailed derivation of the error recovery nonlinearity (ERN), which "enhances" the filter estimation error prior to the adaptation in order to assist the linear adaptation process, will be provided. Connections to other existing AEC and signal enhancement techniques will be revealed. In particular, the error enhancement technique is well-founded in the information-theoretic sense and has strong ties to independent component analysis (ICA), which is the basis for blind source separation (BSS) that permits unsupervised adaptation in the presence of multiple interfering signals. The single-channel AEC problem can be viewed as a special case of semi-blind source separation (SBSS) where one of the source signals is partially known, i.e., the far-end microphone signal that generates the near-end acoustic echo. The system approach to robust AEC will be motivated, where a proper integration of the LMS algorithm with the ERN into the AEC "system" allows for continuous and stable adaptation even during double talk without precise estimation of the signal statistics. The error enhancement paradigm encompasses many traditional signal enhancement techniques and opens up an entirely new avenue for solving the AEC problem in a real-world setting.


The accepted mechanical model for dipteran wing movements is not compatible with the observations of unanaesthetized flies in tethered flight. In this paper a new model is proposed together with previously undescribed morphological features in support of it. A direct coupling is demonstrated between the indirect flight muscles, consisting of a wing base stop mechanism and a locking of the first axillary sclerite onto the parascutal shelf during the downstroke. We propose that wingbeat amplitude is controlled by axillary muscles which alter the downward force on the wing. We also describe the anatomical basis of the automatic changes in the wing stroke during the wingbeat. These are shown to be a direct consequence of the attachment between the fourth axillary sclerite and the scutellar lever arm. By virtue of their attachments to the sclerite, the fourth axillary muscles are shown to have potential control over the tonic characteristics of these automatic changes. The calypters are connected to the third and fourth axillary sclerites and this suggests an aerodynamic function for these structures which has not previously been proposed. A detailed analysis of the anatomy of the non-fibrillar muscles has allowed a complete functional characterization to be made which is consistent with our new model. The functions given to many of the muscles in this analysis are supported by physiological evidence from other studies. Muscular control of a switch mechanism comprising the radial stop and pleural wing process is discussed, as is the control of a wing base proprioceptor.


Employing ab initio electronic structure methods we study the effect of order on the half-metallicity of Co2MnAl and Co2MnSi Heusler alloys. The occurrence of Co antisites destroys the half-metallic character, while for any degree of Mn-Al(Si) disorder the half-metallicity is preserved and the total spin magnetic moment is found to obey the Slater-Pauling behavior. In the structures, where Co atoms are nearest-neighbors, there is a region of low density of states around the Fermi level in the majority-spin band and a high degree of spin-polarization is exhibited. Thus the control and minimization of the concentration of Co impurities at antisites is imperative to achieve optimal performance of spintronic devices. Our results agree with available experimental results.


The Joslin Medalists study, enrolling people with type 1 diabetes of >50 years, suggested protective factors exist against diabetic retinopathy (DR), even in the presence of hyperglycemia. Proteomic analysis of retina and vitreous suggested that Retinol Binding Protein 3 (RBP3), secreted by photoreceptors, to be elevated in the Medalists without vs. those with advanced DR. This finding was confirmed by ELISA RBP3 assays in replicating vitreous samples of Medalists and other diabetic patients. In contrast, vitreous VEGF levels increased with DR severity; resulting in decreasing RBP3/VEGF with worsening DR. Transgenic mice overexpressing RBP3 targeted to the photoreceptors prevented diabetes induced retinal capillary permeability and formation of acellular capillaries. To determine whether RBP3 can inhibit DR progression, recombinant human RBP3 (rhRBP3) was injected intravitreously (IVT) in rats with VEGF or after 2 months of diabetes. IVT injection of rhRBP3 inhibited VEGF induced increases in retinal vascular permeability both after a few min or 1 day post-VEGF injections (p=0.009 or p=0.01), respectively. After 2 months of diabetes, IVT rhRBP3 reversed capillary permeability to levels of nondiabetic rats (p=0.007), whereas boiled hRBP3 was ineffective. Surprisingly, IVT rhRBP3 also reduced retinal expression of VEGF and IL-6 in diabetic rats and normalized retinal function, as measured by B wave amplitude of electroretinography. Using cultured retinal endothelial cells and Muller cells, the addition of rhRBP3 inhibited VEGF- or high glucose-induced cell migration, possibly by binding to VEGF receptors. Surprisingly, rhRBP3 also inhibited high glucose-induced expression of VEGF and IL-6 mRNA levels (p=0.05) similar to in vivo studies. Thus, IVT application of RBP3 can intervene to delay, stop and reverse diabetes-induced neuro- and vascular-retinal functional and inflammatory abnormalities, strongly supporting a therapeutic potential for the use of RBP3 for DR. Disclosure H. Yokomizo: None. K. Park: None. A. Clermont: Consultant; Self; Kalvista Pharmaceuticals. Y. Maeda: None. W. Fickweiler: None. A. Ishikado: Employee; Self; Sunstar Inc.. Employee; Spouse/Partner; Sunstar Inc.. Q. Li: None. L.J. Tinsley: None. D.M. Pober: None. I. Wu: None. L.P. Aiello: Consultant; Self; Novo Nordisk Inc., Sanofi Genzyme. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Kalvista Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Consultant; Self; Kalvista Pharmaceuticals, Inc. H.A. Keenan: Research Support; Self; Sanofi. Employee; Self; Sanofi Genzyme. J. Sun: Other Relationship; Self; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Research Support; Self; Genentech, Inc., Optovue, Incorporated, Boston Micromachines Corporation, Adaptive Sensory Technology, Kalvista Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Other Relationship; Self; Novo Nordisk Inc. G.L. King: Research Support; Self; Sanofi-Aventis.


The Bureau of Mines has been developing and evaluating methods for beneficiating the large deposits of nonmagnetic (oxidized) taconite located on the western Mesabi Range. In this segment of the research, a sample representing about 0.5 billion tons of nonmagnetic taconite from near Grand Rapids, Minn., was beneficiated using a reduction roasting, magnetic separation, flotation process. The sample contained 32.1 pct iron and 49.1 pct silica. Tests were conducted both on a bench scale and with a 1,000-lb/h pilot plant. In the bench-scale research a con centrate containing 69.0 pct iron and 4.5 pct silica was produced with an iron recovery of 82.1 pct. In the pilot plant, reduction roasting was conducted in a 35-ft kiln using lignite as the reductant and major source of fuel. Dust from the kiln exhaust was pelletized and recycled to the kiln. The roasted taconite was beneficiated by magnetic sep aration and flotation to produce a product containing 67.9 pct iron, 5.5 pct silica, and 69.7 pct of the iron in the kiln feed. The cyclone separation in the grinding circuit was sharpened by demagnetizing the cyclone feed in a 400-Hz, 1,000-Oe magnetic field.


In this research, undoped and doped (Fe, Ce, and Ag) antibacterial coatings of nanostructured TiO2 films were prepared by a sol-gel dip coating method. Doped and undoped TiO2 films were excited with ultraviolet (UV) radiation to improve their photo catalytic activity. The antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria was studied using an antibacterial–drop test and colony count method. The Fe doped TiO2 films exhibited higher antibacterial activity than other samples. The percent of bacteria killing or killed (PBK) on bare glass substrate, undoped, Ce, Ag, and Fe doped TiO2 thin films (after UV illumination) were 23.8, 50.3, 57.8, and 70.1%, respectively. Uv-Visible Spectrophotometry, Photoluminescence (PL), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were carried out to study the relation between optical, luminescence, structural, and surface morphological characteristics of the samples with their antibacterial activities. Several parameters such as thickness of the films, porosity in the films, crystallization, and surface morphology affect the antibacterial activity of transition metal doped TiO2 thin films.


Over the past several years there has been a great deal of interest in the design of mixed hardware/software systems, sometimes referred to as hardware/software co-design or hardware/software co-synthesis. However, although many new design methodologies have taken the name hardware/software co-design, they often do not seem to share much in common with one another This partly due to the fact that the problem itself has so many dimensions. This tutorial describes a set of criteria that can be used to compare differing approaches to hardware/software co-design. These criteria are used in the discussion of a number of published hardware/software co-design techniques to illustrate how a wide range of approaches can be viewed within a single framework.


Adenosine acting in the basal forebrain is a key mediator of sleep homeostasis. Extracellular adenosine concentrations increase during wakefulness, especially during prolonged wakefulness and lead to increased sleep pressure and subsequent rebound sleep. The release of endogenous adenosine during the sleep-wake cycle has mainly been studied in vivo with microdialysis techniques. The biochemical changes that accompany sleep-wake status may be preserved in vitro. We have therefore used adenosine-sensitive biosensors in slices of the basal forebrain (BFB) to study both depolarization-evoked adenosine release and the steady state adenosine tone in rats, mice and hamsters. Adenosine release was evoked by high K+, AMPA, NMDA and mGlu receptor agonists, but not by other transmitters associated with wakefulness such as orexin, histamine or neurotensin. Evoked and basal adenosine release in the BFB in vitro exhibited three key features: the magnitude of each varied systematically with the diurnal time at which the animal was sacrificed; sleep deprivation prior to sacrifice greatly increased both evoked adenosine release and the basal tone; and the enhancement of evoked adenosine release and basal tone resulting from sleep deprivation was reversed by the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibitor, 1400 W. These data indicate that characteristics of adenosine release recorded in the BFB in vitro reflect those that have been linked in vivo to the homeostatic control of sleep. Our results provide methodologically independent support for a key role for induction of iNOS as a trigger for enhanced adenosine release following sleep deprivation and suggest that this induction may constitute a biochemical memory of this state.


Rubric is one of the tools teachers use to assess students' performance. This research focuses on whether or not the use of rubrics has any impact on students' performance. This study has reviewed the impact from both students' and teachers' perspectives. To this end, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 18 students of BRAC University. Another questionnaire survey was conducted among 46 Medhabikash students of BRAC University. In addition, a topic was provided to the same group of students (Medhabikash students) to write an essay. The same topic was given again with a set of rubrics to write another essay with a view to observing the differences. Besides, a semi-open ended questionnaire was administered among 8 teachers from the same University to see their perspectives about the impact of rubrics on the students' performance. The results show a significant impact of rubrics on students' performance along with a strong positive attitude of both students and teachers towards the use of rubrics. A wide scope of further research is open in this area.


Evidence is presented for the existence in bacterium N.C.I.B. 8250 of two inducible NAD(+)-linked benzaldehyde dehydrogenases. They may be distinguished in crude extracts by their different thermal stabilities at high pH values, benzaldehyde dehydrogenase I being much more heat-stable than benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II. Only benzaldehyde dehydrogenase I is activated by K(+) and certain other univalent cations. Gel-filtration experiments indicate that both enzymes have molecular weights of about 180000. Both enzymes are induced by growth on l-mandelate or phenylglyoxylate; only benzaldehyde dehydrogenase I is gratuitously induced by thiophenoxyacetate and only benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II is induced by benzyl alcohol, by benzaldehyde, and by a number of heterocyclic compounds which do not support growth. Mutants have been isolated that lack either benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II or benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase, or both of the enzymes. Results obtained in induction experiments with the wild-type bacterium N.C.I.B. 8250 and with the mutants show that benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II and benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase are co-ordinately regulated. Overall, the results suggest that benzaldehyde dehydrogenase I is associated with the metabolism of l-mandelate whereas benzaldehyde dehydrogenase II is associated with the metabolism of benzyl alcohol.


Probably the most important causes of reliability problems in soldered metallic base modules used in the industry and traction applications is the soldering interface between the substrate and the base plate of the module. This is because the surface area of this interface is very large with respect to the chip die area or power terminal soldering area, and there are large differences among the Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) of insulating material and base plate material. This often forces the utilization of special but expensive materials, especially for the base plate manufacturing, having a CTE very similar to the ceramic material used as insulator (typically Aluminium Nitride or Aluminium Oxide-Alumina), in particular Aluminium Silicon Carbide (AlSiC). But failures can not be related to this factor only: wire bond lift-off, die attach degradation, insulator cracking and power terminals detachment should also be evaluated. This article describes an alternative way to look at the problem, by showing how these considerations can influence the design in a real-case situation: a high insulation power module for use in railway auxiliary circuitry applications. The design reliability will be then verified by using the industrial standard stress tests to prove the assumptions.


We report two patients manifesting with involvement of central and peripheral nervous system with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) changes and pathological features of neuropathy possibly due to harmful and chronic use of various nitroimidazole group of medications for recurrent diarrheal illness. Patient 1, a 21-year-old man with obsessive-compulsive disorder, impulsive behavior and harmful use of substance (tinidazole), had developed encephalopathy and biopsy-proven neuropathy with partial remission. The MRI of brain showed involvement of bilateral caudate, lentiform and dentate nuclei, and splenium, with contrast enhancement of the caudate and putaminal lesions and restricted diffusion of the splenial lesion. Patient 2 was a 50-year-old woman with irritable bowel syndrome and was on harmful use of tinidazole and metronidazole. She manifested with encephalopathy, ataxia, and neuropathy. Her MRI of brain revealed involvement of bilateral putamen, dentate nuclei and periventricular white matter with restricted diffusion. Sural nerve biopsy revealed evidence of vasculitic neuropathy. At follow-up, there was definite, though incomplete, recovery in both the patients. The MRI alterations improved completely in patient 2 and substantially in patient 1. Increasing awareness among the physicians may enable early recognition of potentially reversible neurotoxicity and avoid unwarranted prescription of such medications.


On 18 June 2008, while the country was still reeling from outbreaks of xenophobic violence, the Pretoria High Court issued an order proclaiming that the Chinese South Africans fall within the broad definition of 'black people' as contained in the nation's affirmative action policies. Reaction to the decision was swift, angry and overwhelmingly negative; across the board, South Africans were in disbelief that the Chinese South Africans could be viewed as 'black'. In this essay the author, a Korean American long resident in South Africa, addresses concerns about affirmative action and argues that these race-based policies are re-racialising the country. Chinese South Africans have long held an ambiguous, confused, in-between position in South Africa. In light of continuing new Chinese migration to the country, the global rise of China and its growing influence on South Africa's economy and polity, the place and position of Chinese South Africans is further confused. Seen through the lens of the Chinese South African case, affirmative action policies impede progress toward building an inclusive, racially diverse national identity. So long as rewards are doled out solely on the basis of blackness, and blackness increasingly becomes the principal defining characteristic of South Africanness, South Africa fails to construct a national identity that reflects its history and its diversity.


It is widely known that TCP's congestion control algorithm can cause it to under-perform when round trip times and error rates are high. Performance Enhancing Proxies (PEPs) can improve performance by breaking end-to-end TCP connections and using a separate, tuned transport protocol to transit 'stressed' links. While PEPs can be tuned to work well when a single pair of PEPs bracket a fixed-rate link, these systems can be difficult to tune when the stressed link has variable bandwidth as in a Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) scheme, when multiple encrypted enclaves must share the outgoing bandwidth, or when the round trip times vary widely. Previous efforts have shown the effect of using a modified version of the TCP Vegas congestion control algorithm in Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) DAMA systems where bandwidth is allocated based on current queue length and where multiple enclaves must share the outgoing bandwidth. This paper examines the performance of a DAMA based system when the TCP PEP uses flow control between the PEP and the DAMA access terminal. This improves performance by removing an adverse interaction between PEP congestion control and DAMA channel access protocols. We show the effects of employing proxies when the modem provides direct feedback about the amount of data it is willing to consume.