During 1980 and 1981, we compared antibiotic regimens in 108 adult patients with early Lyme disease. Erythema chronicum migrans and its associated symptoms resolved faster in penicillin- or tetracycline-treated patients than in those given erythromycin (mean duration, 5.4 and 5.7 versus 9.2 days, F = 3.38, p less than 0.05). None of 39 patients given tetracycline developed major late complications (meningoencephalitis, myocarditis, or recurrent attacks of arthritis) compared with 3 of 40 penicillin-treated patients and 4 of 29 given erythromycin (chi square with 2 degrees of freedom = 5.33, p = 0.07). In 1982, all 49 adult patients were given tetracycline; again, none of them developed major complications. However, with all three antibiotic agents nearly half of the patients had minor late symptoms such as headache, musculoskeletal pain, and lethargy. These complications correlated significantly with the initial severity of illness. For patients with early Lyme disease, tetracycline appears to be the most effective drug, then penicillin, and finally erythromycin.


A triple duty valve is used to control the functions such as on-off, throttling and non-return on the discharge side of hydronic pump systems. In this paper, computational fluid dynamic techniques are used to simulate the 2 inch triple duty valve performance characteristics for various stroke lengths with uniform outgoing velocity. The performance characteristics such as flow coefficient and pressure loss coefficient for triple duty valve are calculated for different stroke lengths (8 mm, 12 mm and 20 mm) through simulation. Numerical simulation is conducted to study effect of various Reynolds number and valve openings on the performance characteristics of triple duty valve. The permanent pressure loss coefficient and its dependence on Reynolds number is computed and analyzed respectively so that the recovery of pressure after passage through valve could be quantitatively understood. The comparison of flow pattern at different stroke length is investigated. Pressure drop across the triple duty valve and formation of vortex flow after the valve section have been discussed. Magnitude of flow coefficient, pressure loss coefficient and permanent pressure loss coefficient calculated through numerical analysis are compared with the experimental results. Furthermore, this study can be used for the evaluation of performance characteristics of triple duty valve at different sizes.


In this study, the authors derive the effective capacity limits for multiple antenna channels which quantify the maximum achievable rate with consideration of link-layer delay-bound violation probability. Both correlated multiple-input single-output and multiple-input multiple-output keyhole channels are studied. Based on the closed-form exact expressions for the effective capacity of both channels, the authors look into the asymptotic high and low signal-to-noise ratio regimes, and derive simple expressions to gain more insights. The impact of spatial correlation on effective capacity is also characterised with the aid of a majorisation theory result. It is revealed that antenna correlation reduces the effective capacity of the channels and a stringent quality-of-service requirement causes a severe reduction in the effective capacity but can be alleviated by increasing the number of antennas.


Many scholars argue that diverse preferences and coordination failure stemming from high ethnic diversity results in high social frictions, leading to socio-political failure. Criminological theories suggest that crime is driven by very similar processes. The specialized literature on civil war, however, reports a diversity dividend, arguing that when two large groups (polarization) make up a society, the risk of armed violence is increased. Using data on global homicide rates from the period 1995–2013 for over 140 countries, we find that ethnic heterogeneity is associated with homicide rates in an inverted U-shape relationship. Measures of ethnic polarization confirm these results directly. The results suggests that ethnic polarization and ethnic dominance rather than diversity are what matter for personal security measured as homicide rates. The conditional effect of high diversity and income inequality is associated with lower homicide rates, results that reject the view that societal heterogeneity and income inequality drive social dislocation. Several possible intervening variables, such as unemployment among males and youth, ethnic exclusion and discrimination, good governance and institutional quality, as well as several demographic and political variables, do not affect the basic results. It seems that the heavy emphasis placed on ethnic diversity for explaining social dislocation and violence, in so far as it relates to a country's homicide rate, seems to be misplaced.


The magnification and excellent lighting provided by the colposcope make it an excellent diagnostic tool when enhanced direct observation is required. What can be accomplished with this tool in a pediatric or adolescent patient depends upon the examiner understanding how to best perform the examination related to these age groups and knowing what they see. This article describes common techniques used in the examination of the young gynecologic patient and common normal and abnormal findings. This knowledge should be especially helpful to the practitioner who is called upon to perform a sexual abuse examination in this population.


Background: Phytomedicines are gaining a spotlight in wound management, where much research has suggested the wound healing potential of Barringtonia racemosa. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of B. racemosa kernel extract in accelerating wound healing process in animal models. Methods: B. racemosa kernel was extracted using ethanol:water (7:3) solvent and was then used as a bioactive ingredient in a Carbopol 940-based gel formulation in four different concentrations (1, 3, 5 and 7 ppm). A 3 cm diameter wound was made in the dorsal area of Rattus norvegicus rat and wound healing process was assessed up to 12 days using DESIGN (Depth, Exudate, Size of Inflammation/Infection, Granulation tissue, and Necrotic tissue) scoring system. Results: Our data suggested that the DESIGN scores were significantly different among concentration groups after the 3 rdday onward suggesting B. racemosa extract accelerated the wound healing process. Rats treated with gel formulation containing 7 ppm of B. racemosa kernel extract had faster wound healing than that treated with topical Metcovazin. On day 6, macroscopic observation on 7 ppm group revealed that the wound had persistent redness, lesion area of < 3 cm 2, and 80% healthy granulation, where presence of exudate and redness were not observable. Conclusion: B. racemosa kernel extract was effective in accelerating wound healing on rats. Further study is warranted to purify the bioactive component and the action mechanism in wound healing process.


Several first-row transition metal complexes of the 1,9-bis(2',4',6'-triphenylphenyl)-5-mesityl dipyrrinato ligand and its tetrahalogenated analogues have been synthesized and their luminescence spectra obtained. The protonated ligands, as well as the Li(i), Mn(ii), Cu(i), Cu(ii), and Zn(ii) chelates show appreciable luminescence, despite the paramagnetism of the Mn(ii) and Cu(ii) ions. Fluorescence quantum yields (ΦF) as high as 0.67 were observed for the zinc complex. Luminescence was partially quenched by the introduction of heavy halogens to the backbone of the ligand, as well as by the introduction of paramagnetic metal ions. Room-temperature, solution state phosphorescence was observed from the halogenated dipyrrinato lithium salts, as well as from the non-halogenated Mn(ii) complex.


A model for characterizing communications behaviors has been generalized to a probabilistic model for intentional behavior. Responsive actions are decomposed into measurement, inference, planning and control components) and are predicted as a function of the estimated capability, opportunity and intent of given agents to perform such component actions. This representational scheme enables the generation of process models for predicting capabilities development (technical intelligence) and tactical operations (operational intelligence).


We describe a highly sensitive refractive index sensor based on a twin-core coupler in an all-solid photonic bandgap guiding optical fiber. A single hole acts as a microfluidic channel for the analyte, which modifies the coupling between the cores, and avoids the need for selective filling. By operating in the bandgap guiding regime the proposed sensor is capable of measuring refractive indices around that of water, and because the analyte varies the coupling coefficient (i.e., instead of phase matching condition) the device is capable of both high sensitivity and a relatively large dynamic range.


Laboratory instruction is an important component of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) programs (Phipps, Osborne, Dyer, & Ball, 2008). Early field experience (EFE) coursework can be an important component of agricultural teacher preparation programs (Retallick & Miller, 2007). Through the use of a modified photovoice technique, we sought to identify the perceptions of students (i.e., preservice teachers) enrolled in an EFE course in relation to the laboratory environment component of the SBAE model. Students enrolled in a 40-hour EFE course photographed a laboratory environment at their placement site and completed a 250-word descriptive/reflective summary of the laboratory. Through open coding of the summaries, three prominent themes emerged: 1) project-based learning is widely used for instructional purposes; 2) laboratory environments are set up and arranged in particular fashions based on needs; and 3) laboratory environments are arranged as settings for effective learning. Within the photographs, the agricultural mechanics laboratory was most commonly identified as a laboratory environment. The EFE students identified laboratory environments are not always traditional in their scope, and classrooms can serve as laboratory environments. We recommend photovoice be further used as a tool to explore students' perceptions of the realities of modern SBAE programs.


Background: Given that the share of imported rice from India and Pakistan, the current study was conducted to determine the concentration of lead, arsenic and cadmium in the rice imported from the two mentioned countries in comparison to Iranian rice. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014 in Bandar Abbas, using a completely randomized block design. Five samples of each brand (India,Pakistan and Iran) and a total of 75 samples were selected. To measure the amount of arsenic in them, atomic spectrum poll and to determine the amount of lead and cadmium, the graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer optical-compliant were used. To analyze the data, we applied descriptive statistics and analysis of variance using SPSS software. Results: The mean of Cd, As and Pb were 0.045, 0.057, and 0.022 mg/kg, respectively. There was a significant difference for Cd in the local and imported rice (P=0.002). Difference for As in the local and imported rice was not significant (P=0.218). A statistically significant difference was found between the imported and Iranian rice (P=0.354). There were no significant differences among all the measured heavy metals in the tested samples of India and Pakistan rice, both legally and illegally (P=0.144). Conclusion: It was found that the rice was contaminated with heavy elements; it is recommended that measures should be taken to promote healthy rice production, including periodic monitoring of heavy metals in the water and rice seeds, establishing an appropriate operating system to reduce heavy metal emissions, using international experiences on the effects and complications of heavy metals in water resources and farming, and performing quality control measures on the imported rice.


Protein conjugation with ubiquitin, known as ubiquitination, is a key regulatory mechanism to control protein abundance, localization, and activity in eukaryotic cells. To identify ubiquitin-dependent regulatory steps in plants, we developed a robust affinity purification/identification system for ubiquitinated proteins. Using GST-tagged ubiquitin binding domains, we performed a large scale affinity purification of ubiquitinated proteins from Arabidopsis cell suspension culture. High molecular weight ubiquitinated proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE, and the trypsin-digested samples were then analyzed by a multidimensional protein identification technology (MudPIT) system. A total of 294 proteins specifically bound by the GST-tagged ubiquitin binding domains were identified. From these we determined 85 ubiquitinated lysine residues in 56 proteins, confirming the enrichment of the target class of proteins. Our data provide the first view of the ubiquitinated proteome in plants. We also provide evidence that this technique can be broadly applied to the study of protein ubiquitination in diverse plant species.


Children who read more tend to be better readers than children who read less. Reading exposure captures not only the number of times words are experienced but also the breadth of the contexts words appear in. Using a large children's corpus of written language, we quantified the former as word frequency and the latter as Semantic Diversity (SemD) (Hoffman et al., 2013). SemD was indexed using Latent Semantic Analysis to calculate the degree of semantic dissimilarity between the contexts in which each appeared. We selected 300 words that varied in SemD for a visual lexical decision and naming task with 9-year-old children (N=114). Results showed that both frequency and SemD were associated with performance, independently accounting for variation in speed and accuracy. Those words high in frequency and high in SemD were read more efficiently. These findings show that factors beyond frequency are important in determining children's word reading.


The Federal Communications Commission's fairness doctrine holds radio and television broadcasters responsible for presenting full and fair discussions of controversial issues of public importance.1 This requirement has generated intense disputes among three distinct groups: broadcast licensees, who desire to present material of their own choice;2 individual members of the public, who wish to speak out on the airwaves; 3 and the FCC, the protector of the public's right to be fully and fairly informed, 4 which seeks to assure balanced treatment of controversial issues. There are three primary issues in dispute: What is an issue of public importance? What is a fair presentation of differing viewpoints? and Whose differing viewpoint is to be presented?


Abstract. Mining is one of the main causes of environmental pollution by heavy metals and (re)vegetation of mine spoils is the most effective method of preventing wind and water erosion and the consequent spread of contaminants to surrounding areas. However, plant establishment and growth are conditioned by some limiting factors of mine soils, such as low pH, low fertility, high heavy metal concentration, and a small seed bank to initiate plant establishment. Improving soil physical and chemical properties is required in many cases for successful (re)vegetation programs. In the copper mine of Touro, Galicia, Spain there is a large-scale project of soil amendment underway using technosols, a mixture of several organic residuals, to improve the conditions of mine soils. We evaluated the seed bank of several types of technosols, mine soil and soil from a control area outside the mine by studying seedling emergence in these soils. In a second experiment we evaluated the impact of increasing pH with liming and the admixing of nutrient-rich soil on the growth of two grasses (Lolium perenne and Dactylis glomerata) and two legumes (Medicago sativa and Trifolium subterrraneum) both sown individually and in mixtures. Seedling emergence and species richness were highest in the technosols. Soil amendments promoted plant growth, with the addition of high-nutrient soil being the best amendment for the four plant species tested. Plant growth was impaired in the mine soil. Lolium perenne was the only plant species that germinated and grew in this soil. We found that soil amendments, either through the addition of technosols, pH buffering or nutrient enrichment, are essential for promoting the revegetation of mine areas.


ABSTRACT This paper discusses the creation of a growth deal for North Wales (The North Wales Growth Deal – NWGD). North Wales is primarily a rural region within the UK, without a core-city or large metropolitan centre. The paper examines how this urban dynamic, fostered around a pushing of the agglomerative growth model out of the city-region, is being transferred largely across rural space and place in terms of how growth is envisioned and how policy is implemented. It contributes to regional studies knowledge by raising the importance of the non-metropolitan city-regional alternatives in the context of the (academic and policy) city-regional debate.


The present paper intends to closely analyze the character of Handel as a transsubject who evolves in the process of the novel of Jeanette Winterson, Art and Lies. His oscillation between a priest and a physician would be lime lighted through Catherine Malabou's perspective of plasticity and trans-subjectivation. Hence, the character's mutable stance in regarding his body as a cleric and a doctor would be spotlighted. Significantly, his encounter with a feminine body would be expounded as a path in which he faces the gap within the doctor character and the ecclesiastic one. The procedure of his treating a female body would serve as the rupture inside where he fluctuates between treating the womanly body as a man of God and a medical doctor. Moreover, the transition from destructive plasticity (trauma) to constructive self-realization would be illustrated as trans-subjectivityin Picasso. Demonstrating art as the catalyst which brings about the evolution of traumatic identity, the plasticity of art would be argued. Body as the realm in which I and the other encounter would be spotlighted and the role of other as the path to trans-subjectivation could be analyzed.


A prototype autonomous surface craft (ASC) has been developed at the MIT Sea Grant College Program's Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory to collect bathymetric data in littoral regions economically. Potential uses of this data include coastal surveys and monitoring, mine countermeasure operations, and physical and biological oceanography. This paper describes the ASC and presents field experiment results.

For bathymetric data to be of value, the precise location of each data point must be known. To accomplish this, the ASC uses a differentially corrected GPS-based fuzzy guidance controller to track to and cross a series of transect-defining way-points. The fuzzy controller is programmed in C and downloaded to a small on-board computer for execution. The fuzzy controller was found to be relatively easy to develop (not requiring a complex mathematical model of the vehicle's dynamics), simple to tune, and robust to external disturbances. Field test results are presented and show that the guidance controller performed well on complex paths.


Investment in stocks is an alternative for investors and companies to obtain external funding sources. In the investment world there is a strong relationship between risk and return (profit), if the risk is high then return will also be high. Risks can be minimized by performing stock portfolio. Stock is the time series data in the financial sector, which usually has a tendency to fluctuate rapidly from time to time so that variance of error is not constant. Time series model in accordance with these condition is Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH). This research will apply asymmetric GARCH covering Exponential GARCH (EGARCH), Threshold GARCH (TGARCH), and Autoregressive Power ARCH (APARCH) in stock data Indocement Tunggal Tbk (INTP), Astra International Tbk (ASII), and Adaro Energy Tbk (ADRO) commencing from the date of March 1, 2013 until February 29, 2016 during an active day (Monday to Friday). The purpose of this research is to predict the value of the volatility of a portfolio of three assets stocks. The best models used for forecasting volatility in asset stocks which have asymmetric effect is ARIMA ([13],0,[2,3]) EGARCH (1,1) on a single asset data INTP, ARIMA ([2],0,[2,3]) EGARCH (1,1) on the 2 asset portfolio data ASII INTP, and ARIMA ([3],0,[2]) EGARCH (1,1) on the 3 asset portfolio data INTP-ASII-ADRO. Keywords: Stocks, Portfolio, Return, Volatility, Asymmetric GARCH.


Cardiac diseases are mainly caused by malfunction of or injuries to the hearts. Although significant advances have been made during the past decades to improve the successful rate of treatments of these diseases, they still remain the top leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Currently, cardiac diseases are defined according to the traditional system- or organ-based classification and the identification of diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers has been focused on the heart. Therefore, the "golden standard" biomarkers are mainly cardiac muscle-related. For example, the conventional troponin (cTn) has been widely utilized for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction in the clinics. However, multiple limitations exist with clinical applications of these types of biomarkers. The ELISA based cTn detection assay is time consuming, and the dynamics of the biomarkers are not sensitive enough to represent the development of the diseases. Clearly, there is an urgent need for identifying sensitive, specific biomarkers of different types of cardiac diseases and development of new therapies for this unmet medical need. In this special issue, we have assembled a series of articles of reviews, perspectives, and original contributions from experts in current research of novel biomarkers and treatments of cardiac diseases in both basic research and clinical practice.


Abstract Uncovering links between processing conditions, microstructure, and properties is a central tenet of materials analysis. It is well known that microstructure determines properties, but expressing these structural features in a universal quantitative fashion has proved to be extremely difficult. Recent efforts have focused on training supervised learning algorithms to place microstructure images into predefined classes, but this approach assumes a level of a priori knowledge that may not always be available. In this paper, we expand this idea to the semi-supervised context in which class labels are known with confidence for only a fraction of the microstructures that represent the material system. It is shown that classifiers which perform well on both the high-confidence labeled data and the unlabeled, ambiguous data can be constructed by relying on the labeling consensus of a collection of semi-supervised learning methods. We also demonstrate the use of novel error estimation approaches for unlabeled data to establish robust confidence bounds on the classification performance over the entire microstructure space.


The portability of modern voice processing devices allows them to be used in environments
where background noise conditions can be adverse. Background noise
can deteriorate the quality of speech transmitted through such devices, but speech
enhancement algorithms can ameliorate this degradation to some extent. The development
of speech enhancement algorithms that improve the quality of noisy speech
is the aim of this thesis, which consists of three main parts. In the first part, we propose a framework of algorithms that estimate the clean speech
Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) coefficients. The algorithms are derived from
the Bayesian theory of estimation and can be grouped according to i) the STFT
representation they estimate ii) the estimator they apply and iii) the speech prior
density they assume. Apart from the introduction of algorithms that surpass the
performance of similar algorithms that exist in the literature, the compilation of the
above framework offers insight on the effect and relative importance of the different
components of the algorithms (e.g. prior, estimator) to the quality of the enhanced
speech. In the second part of this thesis, we develop methods for the estimation of the power
of time varying noise. The main outcome is a method that exploits some similarities
between the distribution of the noisy speech spectral amplitude coefficients within a
single frequency bin, and the corresponding distribution of the corrupting noise. The
above similarities allow the extraction of samples that are more likely to correspond
to noise, from a window of past spectral amplitude observations. The extracted
samples are then used to produce an estimate of the noise power. In the final part of this thesis, we are concerned with the incorporation of the time
and frequency dependencies of speech signals in our estimation model. The theoretical
framework on which the modelling is based is provided by Markov Random
Fields (MRF's). Initially, we develop a MAP estimator of speech based on the Gaussian
MRF prior. In the following, we introduce the Chi MRF, which is employed in
the development of an improved speech estimator. Finally, the performance of fixed
and adaptive schemes for the estimation of the MRF parameters is investigated.


This article contributes to an understanding – presently undeveloped – of the production of hospitality spaces in South Africa, and in particular examines the country's growing hotel sector. The specific focus is upon the hotel as a form of property investment and the hotel sector as a specific property asset class. Against the backdrop of an overview of existing scholarship on the hotel sector in sub-Saharan Africa and of international debates around hotels as property investment, the findings of detailed interviews undertaken with key stakeholders of South Africa's hotel and property industry are presented. Common patterns and differences are recorded between South Africa and the situation in advanced economies concerning the hotel as a property asset class.


In this study I examine a large number of verbalizations in the Chinese Pear narratives and find that for each scene examined there is usually one or at most two favored and stabilized verbalizations, with variability around the stabilized forms. These favored verbalizations are the preferred states of the system for expressing concurrent events, transfer of objects, perfectivity in event construal etc., and they may be thought of as strong attractors in the behavior space in terms of complexity theory. These attractors exert a force on the grammatical system, and impose a frame on them and model the development of new forms. Further research in Chinese grammar into the wide ranging, dynamic and systematic variability as well as stability within and across individuals is urged.


Background: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of melatonin on intestinal anastomosis in the presence of peritonitis. Material and Methods: 32 Wistar albino rats were randomized into four groups (n = 8): A (sham), B (control), C (melatonin 5 mg/kg), and D (melatonin 10 mg/kg). In group A, only cecal dissection was carried out. In the other groups, cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) followed cecal dissection in order to induce bacterial peritonitis. 24 h after the previous operation, cecal resection and iliocolic anastomosis were performed in the rats of all groups. In group C (5 mg/kg) and group D (10 mg/kg), melatonin was injected for 5 consecutive days starting after CLP. At the 48th hour of the CLP procedure, blood was drawn via the tail vein for tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) analysis, and on the 4th day of the experiment relaparotomy was carried out for bursting pressure (BP) measurements. The intestinal tissue containing the anastomotic line was then snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at –80°C for determination of tissue levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH). Results: The tissue MDA level, blood TNF-α and IL-6 levels of group B were significantly higher than in the other groups, whereas the BP results and GSH levels of group B were found to be significantly lower than in the other groups. The results of groups C and D are statistically different from those of group B. When we compared the results of groups C and D, we found significantly higher results in terms of BP and GSH levels in group D and also significantly lower results in terms of MDA, blood TNF-α and IL-6 levels in group D. Conclusion: The findings of this experiment suggest that melatonin has a dose-independent positive effect on wound healing of colonic anastomosis.


We present a theoretical study on aluminium triisopropoxide (Al(O'Pr)3) using both empirical (Molecular Mechanics, MM, with Dreiding II force field) and quantum-chemical (Austin Model 1, AM1, semiempirical Hartree-Fock) techniques. We determine the most stable geometries for both the tetramer and trimer of aluminium triisopropoxide as well as the thermodynamic characteristics of the equilibrium existing between these two aggregated structures. The theoretical results are compared to experimental data from X-ray diffraction and 27 Al NMR measurements. For the tetramer, it appears that the optimal equilibrium geometries are in good agreement with the experimental X-ray diffraction geometry; another geometry is also obtained with both theoretical approaches, which is slightly less stable but of higher symmetry. On the basis of the most stable configurations for the tetramer and trimer aggregates, the variation of free enthalpy (ΔG) between the two aggregated structures has been estimated. The evolution of the theoretical ΔG values indicates a displacement of equilibrium towards the trimer species with temperature, in good agreement with experimental 1 H and 27 Al NMR data. Moreover, the AMl heats of formation show a gain of 33.9 kcal/mol due to the aggregation of four Al(O'Pr) 3 instead of three, and thus a better stability of the tetramer. The molecular geometries being well described by the theoretical methods used in this study, we also present a model for the ring-opening polymerization complexes of e-caprolactone and lactides.


Platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome (POS) is an unusual cause of hypoxia characterized by enormous variation in oxygen saturation during postural changes. We describe here the clinical presentation, the diagnostic challenge of POS and discuss the main pathophysiological etiologies of the disease in a 75-year-old woman who was admitted because shortness of breath. After ruling out the most important causes of dyspnea we observed that the symptoms improved when the patient was lying flat. The diagnostic workup with computed tomography scan and air bubble saline echocardiography lead us to a correct diagnosis.


This study intends to valorize by-products of the industrial processing of tobacco to obtain nicotine and phenolics as value-added compounds. Three influential parameters of the microwave-assisted extraction-MAE (temperature, treatment time, and solvent/solid ratio) were studied for the optimization of the extraction protocol for tobacco leaves and three types of waste—scrap, dust, and midrib, respectively. Nicotine was the dominant bioactive compound in all extracts, ranging from 1.512 to 5.480% in leaves, 1.886 to 3.709% in scrap, 2.628 to 4.840% dust, and 0.867 to 1.783% in midrib extracts. Five phenolic compounds were identified and quantified, predominated by chlorogenic acid and rutin. Additionally, total phenol content and antioxidant activity were determined using spectrophotometric assays. Optimization was performed in two aspects: to obtain a maximum extraction yield with minimum nicotine content and to obtain a maximum extraction yield with maximum nicotine content. These findings demonstrate that tobacco waste is a valuable source of bioactive compounds and MAE can be a promising alternative technique to obtain extracts rich in targeted bioactive compounds, especially nicotine.


The paper deals with a letter of emperor Isaakios II Comnenos to the archbishop Iob of Esztergom (ca. 1190), a document which became known through the edition of the letters of the court officer Demetrios Tornikes in 1970. It concerns theological questions (eating of sacrifice meat, filioque) which the emperor (or rather his ghost writer Tornikes) uses to disprove the western practice. In a political explosive time of permanent menace and invasions at all corners of the empire the emperor on the one hand has to underline the orthodox position as the real acceptable in these questions (by sophistically refuting the archbishop's objections) and to simulate an unshakeable imperial power, on the other hand he wants to give the impression that the archbishop has a special status for the emperor and his patience (which might have consequences for the relation between Byzantium and Hungary, always a needful ally). The paper concentrates especially on the illocution and perlocution aspects of the letter.


It is challenging to annotate large-scale datasets for supervised video shadow detection methods. Using a model trained on labeled images to the video frames directly may lead to high generalization error and temporal inconsistent results. In this paper, we address these challenges by proposing a Spatio-Temporal Interpolation Consistency Training (STICT) framework to rationally feed the unlabeled video frames together with the labeled images into an image shadow detection network training. Specifically, we propose the Spatial and Temporal ICT, in which we define two new interpolation schemes, i.e., the spatial interpolation and the temporal interpolation. We then derive the spatial and temporal interpolation consistency constraints accordingly for enhancing generalization in the pixel-wise classification task and for encouraging temporal consistent predictions, respectively. In addition, we design a Scale- Aware Network for multi-scale shadow knowledge learning in images, and propose a scale-consistency constraint to minimize the discrepancy among the predictions at different scales. Our proposed approach is extensively validated on the ViSha dataset and a self-annotated dataset. Experimental results show that, even without video labels, our approach is better than most state of the art supervised, semi-supervised or unsupervised image/video shadow detection methods and other methods in related tasks. Code and dataset are available at https://github.com/yihong-97/STICT.


This study of language acquisition in children between the ages of six and ten investigates their linguistic competence with respect to complex aspects of English syntax. Thirty-six children were tested for knowledge of nine complex syntactic structures. Five of the structures proved to be acquired in sequence, revealing five developmental stages in acquisition of syntax. The nature of specific disparities between adult grammar and child grammar are discussed, and the gradual reduction of these disparities as the children's knowledge of their native language increases is traced. Of particular interest is the regular order of acquisition of structures, accompanied by wide variation in rate of acquisition in different children.


Peripheral artery disease represented predominantly by atherosclerosis obliterans is a common social burden all over the world. The main method of treatment for peripheral artery disease (PAD) is considered to be open surgical or endovascular revascularization. Unfortunately, despite a steadily growing number of operations and implementation of new types of interventions, including endovascular ones, the prognosis in patients with peripheral artery diseases still remains unfavourable. Moreover, patients having endured revascularization are susceptible to especially high risk of subsequent ischaemic complications from the side of both the cardiovascular system as a whole (strokes, infarctions, cardiovascular death) and the limb in the form of progressing ischaemia, development of critical and/or acute ischaemia. All the above mentioned determines the necessity of carrying out intensive accompanying medicamentous therapy. At the same time, the contemporary literature contains contradictory results of using different drugs in order to decrease the risk for progression of lower limb ischaemia, as well as the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in the form of strokes, infarctions, and cardiovascular death. Disputable remains the question of whether monotherapy with acetylsalicylic acid still remains the only well evidence-based method of treatment in randomized multiple-centre studies. There are various opinions on the place of dual anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy in treatment of PAD. The findings of the multi-centre randomized COMPASS trial published in 2018 significantly altered the approaches to medicamentous therapy of this patient cohort. The purpose of our study was to carry out a systematic review of literature, making it possible to assess the risks and prognosis in patients presenting with peripheral artery disease after a vascular intervention, as well as to determine therapy capable of improving the outcomes of surgical treatment.


Background: HIV medication nonadherence is a major problem, yet many providers lack the time and training to carefully ask patients about their adherence. Objective: To design and pilot a technology-assisted intervention, for use in clinical settings, to identify nonadherent patients. Methods: The intervention uses audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) to improve the assessment of adherence and medication-related problems. Patients completed a touch screen computer ACASI which generated graphic clinician and patient reports for discussion during the clinical encounter. Results: 72 patients and 11 providers participated in this study. The patients easily completed the ACASI. Adherence was 63% (3-day) and 47% (30-day). Using the ACASI, 22% of patients identified themselves as nonadherent, when their providers perceived them as adherent. Conclusions: This ACASI-based intervention is easy to use and helps identify nonadherence. The pilot test engendered enhancements including the addition of phone-based adherence counseling. A larger trial is underway to evaluate whether the intervention leads to improved HIV-related outcomes.


This paper deals with three-dimensional Mixed-Mode Fracture and Fatigueproblems and the simulation of 3D crack growth under Mixed-Mode I+II+III loading. Incontrast to pure Mode I loading, where the crack surface develops self-similar (co-planar)from the initial crack, the growth of Mixed-Mode loaded cracks generally leads to nonplanarcrack surfaces. Furthermore, the paper presents the software systemADAPCRACK3D that has recently been developed at the Institute of Applied Mechanics(FAM) to predict crack growth in complex three-dimensional structures under multiaxialloading. Its main focus is on the determination of 3D-crack paths and the evaluation ofcomponents' lifetimes as part of the damage tolerant assessment. A simulation example willshow the capability of ADAPCRACK3D's advanced three-dimensional crack growthsimulation.


Visual working memory is an online workspace for temporarily representing visual information from the environment. The two most prevalent empirical characteristics of working memory are that it is supported by sustained neural activity over a delay period and it has a severely limited capacity for representing multiple items simultaneously. Traditionally, such delay activity and capacity limits have been considered to be exclusive for maintaining information about objects that are no longer visible to the observers. Here, by contrast, we provide both neurophysiological and psychophysical evidence that the sustained neural activity and capacity limits for items that are continuously visible to the human observer are indistinguishable from those measured for items that are no longer visible. This holds true even when the observers know that the objects will not disappear from the visual field. These results demonstrate that our explicit representation of objects that are still "in view" is far more limited than previously assumed.


The significance of Th17 cells and interleukin- (IL-)17A signaling in host defense and disease development has been demonstrated in various infection and autoimmune models. Numerous studies have indicated that Th17 cells and its signature cytokine IL-17A are critical to the airway's immune response against various bacteria and fungal infection. Cytokines such as IL-23, which are involved in Th17 differentiation, play a critical role in controlling Klebsiella pneumonia (K. pneumonia) infection. IL-17A acts on nonimmune cells in infected tissues to strengthen innate immunity by inducing the expression of antimicrobial proteins, cytokines, and chemokines. Mice deficient in IL-17 receptor (IL-17R) expression are susceptible to infection by various pathogens. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in unraveling the mechanism behind Th17 cell differentiation, IL-17A/IL-17R signaling, and also the importance of IL-17A in pulmonary infection.


This paper describes two infections with Clostridium tetani (C. tetani). One outbreak occurred after dehorning of calves, the second infection happened after ear tagging of a goat. In the first case 3 young Holstein Friesian calves showed generalized stiffness, severe lock-jaw and bloat two weeks after dehorning. The thermal dehorning wounds were identified as the infection sites of C. tetani by bacterial culture and PCR. The second case was a three-year old male castrated goat, with generalized stiffness. The animal had been ear tagged one week prior to the onset of the symptoms. C. tetani could be cultured from pus on the ear tag. Treatment was attempted in two calves and the goat. Wounds were debrided and disinfected, penicillin and anti-tetanus serum were administered and polyionic perfusions provided. In addition, the goat was vaccinated against tetanus. The goat and one calf fully recovered after 36 and 8 days respectively. To the authors' knowledge a tetanus outbreak in association with thermal dehorning has not been described previously. Also ear tagging as a possible cause for C. tetani infection has not been described in goats.


The following essay is designed as a short introduction to a collection of papers relating to assisted emigration from the Shirley estate in Farney in Co. Monaghan in the
years before and during the Famine, 1843-54. The papers are in the care of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The aim of this essay is to outline the background
to the subsidized emigration of at least 1,300 people to America, Canada, England and Australia in the most populous years of the mid-nineteenth century. The documents record the wish of many to leave Monaghan, the names of the people who left and the manner in which they were despatched overseas. The material is useful for a number of reasons - as a detailed record of probably most of the assisted emigration from the Shirley estate, as a genealogical source for local research into a small group of significant emigrants from this area and for providing important new insights into the running of affairs on an estate in south Monaghan which has left a sometimes sour memory among local communities.
The archival material has been assembled into a number of distinct sections: Lists of names and family details; correspondence and other documents relating to the administration of the emigration and petitions to the Estate Office in Carrickmacross seeking assistance to emigrate. In addition, there is material relating specifically to the emigration of two parties from the estate to Australia in August and December 1849. A
previously unpublished report on the condition of Shirley's estate in 1843, undertaken by William Steuart Trench exists. This is important because it was Trench who proposed that the estate should assist poor tenants to emigrate. It is also significant because of the light which it throws on the personality of this controversial land agent. It is hoped to reproduce this report in a future issue of the journal.


The ALTEA project studies the problems related to possible functional damage to the Central Nervous System (CNS) due to particle radiation in space environment. The project is a large international and multi-disciplinary collaboration. The ALTEA instrumentation is an helmet-shaped multi-sensor device that will measure concurrently the dynamics of the functional status of the visual system and the passage of each particle through the brain within a pre-determined energy window. ALTEA is scheduled to fly in the International Space Station in February 2003. One part of the multi-sensor device, one of the advanced silicon telescopes, will be launched in the ISS in early 2002 and serve as test for the final device and as discriminating dosimeter for the particle fluences within the ISS.


Village-level economy is not only the important foundation for promoting grass-roots agricultural and rural modernization, but also an essential guarantee for sustainable development of small scale economy of rural farmer households. Research on this field will play a significant role in rural economic development of Guizhou Province. Taking the observation data from 1999 to 2009 in 10 fixed observation villages in Guizhou Province, we carried out empirical survey and analysis on land scale and use structure, scale and composition of fixed assets for production, level and composition of operational income, and level and composition of financial revenue and expenditure at village level. Finally, we put forward conclusions and recommendations.


In protoplanetary discs, the inner radial boundary between the MRI turbulent ('active') and MRI quiescent ('dead') zones plays an important role in models of the disc evolution and in some planet formation scenarios. In reality, this boundary is not well-defined: thermal heating from the star in a passive disc yields a transition radius close to the star (<0.1 au), whereas if the disc is already MRI active, it can self-consistently maintain the requisite temperatures out to a transition radius of roughly 1 au. Moreover, the interface may not be static; it may be highly fluctuating or else unstable. In this paper, we study a reduced model of the dynamics of the active/dead zone interface that mimics several important aspects of a real disc system. We find that MRI-transition fronts propagate inwards (a 'dead front' suppressing the MRI) if they are initially at the larger transition radius, or propagate outwards (an 'active front' igniting the MRI) if starting from the smaller transition radius. In both cases, the front stalls at a well-defined intermediate radius, where it remains in a quasi-static equilibrium. We propose that it is this new, intermediate stalling radius that functions as the true boundary between the active and dead zones in protoplanetary discs. These dynamics are likely implicated in observations of variable accretion, such as FU Ori outbursts, as well as in those planet formation theories that require the accumulation of solid material at the dead/active interface.


This article examines the common practice of considering the relevance of an investor's 'legitimate expectations' in determining whether they have been afforded fair and equitable in investment treaty law disputes. The legitimate expectations doctrine has been divined from fair and equitable treatment provisions commonly found in international investment treaties. This article examines the different types and sources of fair and equitable provisions from which the legitimate expectations doctrine has been derived, and examines the development of both the customary international law minimum standard and the development of the law in arbitral practice. On examination, it is considered that neither customary international law nor the standard fair and equitable treatment provisions found in international investment treaties provide a sufficient basis for the consideration given to an investor's legitimate expectations in investment treaty law; this has been rather an invention of arbitrators. Furthermore, many arbitral tribunals have been severely lacking in grounding their decisions in law, generally citing other tribunal decisions which do not create law, or no law at all. Finally, it is considered that in addition to being a doctrine that has made its way into the canon of investment treaty law without any legal basis, the expectations of investors should be disavowed as an inappropriate standard by which to judge state conduct.


The scratchiness of ramie fabric, to some extent, restricts the development of ramie products, although it has been improved of the underwear ramie fabric to a certain degree, however, it is at the cost of sacrificing the unique style of ramie fabric. How to keep the special style of ramie fabric and eliminate scratchiness in the meantime is yet to be solved. This study analyzed the causes for scratchiness, discussed how to choose the fabric's geometry, density and tightness, and established a theoretical formula for the geometric structure of non-tight structure ramie fabric, as well as warp and weft density and tightness, further more, the study proposed a structural phase range and maximum weave tightness to overcome the ramie fabric's scratchiness. All of these offered the theoretical basis for ramie fabric design.


A novel fraction of c-phycocyanin from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechcoccus vulcanus, with an absorption maxima blue-shifted to 612 nm (PC612), has been purified from allophycocyanin and crystallized. The crystals belong to the P63 space group with cell dimensions of 153 Å × 153 Å × 59 Å with a single (αβ) monomer in the asymmetric unit, resulting in a solvent content of 65%, and diffract to 2.7 Å. The PC612 crystal structure has been determined by molecular replacement and refined to a crystallographic R-factor of 20.9% (Rfree = 27.8%). The crystal packing in this form shows that the PC612 form of phycocyanin does not associate into hexamers and that its association with adjacent trimers in the unit cell is very different from that found in a previously determined structure of the normal form of T. vulcanus phycocyanin, which absorbs at 620 nm. Analysis of the PC612 structure shows that the α subunits, which typically form the interface between two trimers within a hexamer, have a high degree of flexibility, as indicated by elevated B-factors in portions of helices B, E, and G. Examination of calculated electron density omit maps shows that unlike all other structures of phycobiliproteins determined so far, the Asnβ72 residue is not methylated, explaining the blue-shift in its absorption spectra. On the basis of the results presented here, we suggest that this new form of trimeric phycocyanin may constitute a special minor component of the phycobilisome and may form the contact between the phycocyanin rods and the allophycocyanin core.


One hundred and seven cases of suspicious or positive colposcopic or cytologic findings were histologically analyzed. In cases of colposcopically detectable, atypical changes or suspicious findings as well as of cytologic dysplasias or carcinomas, the histologic diagnoses were almost the same. The results demonstrated that colposcopy and cytology with a quick staining method are of value. Biopsy can quickly follow in cases of suspicious findings.


Interest in Africa on therapeutic use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) has increased with continental spread of the pandemic of SARS -CoV-2. Consequently, blood organisations in several countries have established governmentally approved investigational protocols for collection and use of CCP. However, other countries still seek advice in this area. Sources of guidance can be found in recent publications by the Working Party on Global Blood Safety of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT), the ISBT Convalescent Plasma Working Group, and the World Health Organization. Additionally, resources on CCP policies and protocols can be found at an ISBT open-access website: http://isbtweb.org/coronaoutbreak/convalescent-plasma-covid-19-resources/.The effectiveness and safety of CCP remain uncertain based on limitations of the available controlled studies and reported case series and fundamental questions regarding optimal use in patient management are unanswered. Nevertheless, in the absence of an established treatment for COVID-19, with promising trends supporting its safety and effectiveness, and with the potential for local production, CCP remains a priority for investigational use. In all countries, experimental collection and use of CCP require ethical oversight and the assurance of product quality and safety through an organized national program.
Disclaimer: "Jay Epstein's contributions to this article reflect his own views and should not be construed to represent FDA's views or policies.


Recent earthquakes worldwide have shown that even countries with well-established building codes are still vulnerable to economic and societal losses. To properly assess these seismic losses, risk managers and insurers need a well-defined tool to quantify the seismic performance of the facilities. In this paper, detailed performance-based earthquake engineering methodology is applied to assess the seismic vulnerability of a high-value-contents laboratory facility, in Vancouver, Canada. The study demonstrates a detailed implementation of the state-of-the-art performance assessment tools to quantify the seismic loss of facilities that can be readily used by practicing engineers. The results show the first benchmark study to quantify the performance of code-based design and provide valuable information for engineers and facility stakeholders to make informed risk-management decisions.


Ultraviolet (UV) powers of over 1 W have been obtained by second harmonic and sum frequency generation from a single medium scale (20 W) copper vapor laser (CVL) using a new focal geometry in which the CVL beam is focused in only one direction to produce a line focus within a BBO crystal. High optical conversion efficiencies, 20 and 30%, are observed for the low divergence ( approximately -10 times the diffraction limit) and diffraction-limited components of the CVL output, respectively. Wall-plug efficiencies for UV generation are up to 0.04%. Efficient frequency conversion has also been demonstrated for CVL operating conditions unsuited to the generation of diffraction limited output. >


Interference between jobs competing for network bandwidth on a fat-tree cluster can cause significant variability and degradation in performance. These performance issues can be mitigated or completely eliminated if the resource allocation policy takes the network topology into account when allocating nodes to jobs. We implement a fat-tree network topology aware node allocation policy that allocates isolated partitions to jobs in order to eliminate inter-job interference. We compare the impact of this node allocation policy to a topology-oblivious policy with respect to the execution time of individual jobs with different communication patterns. We also evaluate the cluster's quality of service using metrics such as system utilization, schedule makespan, and job wait time for both policies. The results obtained for production workloads indicate that a topology-aware node allocation can provide interference-free execution without negatively impacting the cluster's quality of service.


Background: The optimal choice of antimicrobial therapy is an important problem in hospital environment in which the selection of resistant and virulent strains easy occurs. S. aureus and especially MRSA(methicillin-resistant S. aureus) creates difficulties in both treatment and prevention of nosocomial infections. Aim: The purpose of this study is to determine the sensitivity and the resistance to chemotherapy of staphylococci strains isolated from various pathological products. Material and Method : We identified Staphylococccus species after morphological appearance, culture properties, the production of coagulase, hemolisines and the enzyme activity. The susceptibility tests were performed on Mueller-Hinton medium according to CLSI (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute). Results: The strains were: MSSA (methicillin-susceptible S. aureus ) (74%), MRSA (8%), MLS B (macrolides, lincosamides and type B streptogramines resistance) (12%) and MRSA and MLS B (6%). MRSA strains were more frequently isolated from sputum. MRSA associated with the MLS B strains were more frequently isolated from pus. MLS B strains were more frequently isolated from sputum and throat secretions. All S. aureus strains were susceptible to vancomycin and teicoplanin. Conclusions : All staphylococcal infections require resistance testing before treatment. MLS B shows a high prevalence among strains of S. aureus . The association between MLS B and MRSA remains a major problem in Romania.


This thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the influence of various parameters on surface distress in gears. The types of gears of concern in this study are the ones found in gas turbine engines and helicopter gearboxes where tooth contacts are particularly heavily loaded. The work is concerned with the influence of surface roughness, gear material and hard coatings and their effect in reducing the occurrence of scuffing, which is a form of surface distress that can occur under severe conditions of sliding and high temperature. An extensive experimental programme has been carried out using a two-disc machine developed to simulate gas turbine gearing and micro-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (micro-EHL) contacts under realistic conditions of load, speed, surface finish and temperature. The project involved a large number of disc tests with the aim of quantifying the effects of: a significant improvement in surface finish the use of a different gear material and surface hardening and the use of different hard coatings on the resistance to scuffing. This work was conducted using an existing disc machine to extend the work carried out by Patching (1994) who used a single material. The scuffing performance of axially ground (roughness average, Ra = 0.4 urn) case-carburised steel discs was used as a benchmark against which the performance of alternative materials/surfaces could be measured. Different materials and surface conditions were investigated as follows. The ground discs were superfinished to better than Ra = 0.1 um using a proprietary polishing method. A nitriding steel was used. Two different super-hard coatings were investigated. The main conclusions to be drawn from the work are: the scuffing resistance of nitrided surfaces is superior to case-carburised surfaces, but it is essential to remove the compound layer ('white layer') to achieve durability at high sliding speeds. The benefits of superfmishing are clearly demonstrated better finish improves the scuffing performance and also gives lower friction and bulk temperatures during operation. Hard coatings show promise, and the triple combination of nitriding, superfmishing and hard coatings gave particularly impressive scuffing resistance in this investigation. A micro-EHL solver was used to simulate the conditions of the various tests. The solver, which was developed at Cardiff by Professor H P Evans and his associates, can be used to simulate the lubrication of rough surfaces in contact under realistic thin film conditions in which there is significant asperity interaction including momentary 'dry' contact. Surface profiles acquired from the discs used in the tests were used as input to the solver. Using the solver a number of objective performance parameters were obtained including high pressure cycling and occurrences of thin or zero film within the nominal contact between the discs. The results of the simulations confirmed the distinct advantages of using smoother surfaces and contributed to an understanding of the way in which hard coatings can lead to surface improvement. In addition to work on scuffing the project included the design and manufacture of a test rig, complete with data acquisition and control system, for research on contact fatigue and micropitting in particular.


From the beginning of the 20th Century, we have seen tremendous advances in knowledge and understanding in almost all biological disciplines, including genetics, molecular biology, structural and functional genomics, and biochemistry. Among these advances, cytogenetics has played an important role. This paper details some of the important milestones of modern cytogenetics. Included are the historical role of cytogenetics in genetic studies in general and the genetics stocks produced using cytogenetic techniques. The basic biological questions cytogenetics can address and the important role and practical applications of cytogenetics in applied sciences, such as in agriculture and in breeding for disease resistance in cereals, are also discussed. The goal of this paper is to show that cytogenetics remains important in the age of molecular genetics, because it is inseparable from overall genome analysis. Cytogenetics complements studies in other disciplines within the field of biology and provides the basis for linking genetics, molecular biology and genomics research.


This book is a revision of "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" which was issued in 1957. It was prepared by the Defense Atomic Support Agency of the Department of Defense in coordination with other cognizant governmental agencies and was published by the U.S. Atomc Energy Commission. Although the complex nature of nuclear weapons effects does not always allow exact evaluation, the conclusions reached herein represent the combined judgment of a number of the most competent scientists working the problem. There is a need for widespread public understanding of the best information available on the effects of nuclear weapons. The purpose of this book is to present as accurately as possible, within the limits of national security, a comprehensive summary of this information.


Will the Opportunity Zone program, America's largest new place-based policy in decades, generate neighborhood change? We compare single-family housing price growth in Opportunity Zones with price growth in areas that were eligible but not included in the program. We also compare Opportunity Zones to their nearest geographic neighbors. All estimates rule out price impacts greater than 1.5 percentage points with 95% confidence, suggesting that, so far, home buyers don't believe that this subsidy will generate major neighborhood change. Opportunity Zone status reduces prices in areas with little employment, perhaps because buyers think that subsidizing new investment will increase housing supply.


The once-forgotten poet Evaristo Carriego, since rediscovered by Jorge Luis Borges in his eponymous work  Evaristo Carriego  (1955), is considered today to be one of the leading Argentinian modernist poets, but also, and most importantly, the inventor of a 'poetry of the outskirts' and the creator of one of the major trends in the poetics of contemporary tango, tango  canyengue  ('rabble' tango).  This article traces the singular trajectory of the poet: first, a singer of the 'low life' of the outskirts of Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century, of the misfortunes and debauchery of outlaws, prostitutes and the working class; inventor of a 'cantatory' poetry, which draws on popular song and dance of the time, and which we propose to consider as a form of  tanguera  poetry. Secondly, his influence on the lyricists of contemporary tango leads us to consider him as the precursor of tango  canyengue . Finally, he became a founding and guardian figure of contemporary tango, the object of tributes from the greatest composers, and whose name alone has become a poetic and musical trope that invokes a picturesque imagination of the end-of-the-century suburbs of Buenos Aires.  Hence, we are faced with an intermedia corpus, that borrows from the world of popular song to produce a written, erudite and precious poetry, and which in turn becomes one of the main sources of popular song. Carriego's tanguera poetry effectively interlaces word, sound and movement. This paper thus analyses the transmedia trajectory along which the poet sings the tango, and the tango then the poet, in a play of 'inversions' that are indicative of the reciprocal exchanges, transfers and mediations occurring between poetry, song and music, both textual and figurative, from the end of the 19th century to the present day. At the same time, we examine how song, music and dance can 'inhabit' poetry, and poetry 'inhabit' song and music, without constituting, strictly speaking, poetic material or an element of repertoire. It also shows how an authoritative author such as Borges has contributed to shaping the tango tradition by inventing its own genealogy.


AIM
To estimate the prevalence and identify the risk factors for metabolic bone disease in patients with cirrhosis.

METHODS
The study was performed on 72 Indian patients with cirrhosis (63 male, nine female; aged < 50 years). Etiology of cirrhosis was alcoholism (n = 37), hepatitis B (n = 25) and hepatitis C (n = 10). Twenty-three patients belonged to Child class A, while 39 were in class B and 10 in class C. Secondary causes for metabolic bone disease and osteoporosis were ruled out. Sunlight exposure, physical activity and dietary constituents were calculated. Complete metabolic profiles were derived, and bone mineral density (BMD) was measured using dual energy X ray absorptiometry. Low BMD was defined as a Z score below -2.

RESULTS
Low BMD was found in 68% of patients. Lumbar spine was the most frequently and severely affected site. Risk factors for low BMD included low physical activity, decreased sunlight exposure, and low lean body mass. Calcium intake was adequate, with unfavorable calcium: protein ratio and calcium: phosphorus ratio. Vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent (92%). There was a high incidence of hypogonadism (41%). Serum estradiol level was elevated significantly in patients with normal BMD. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1 and IGF binding protein 3 levels were below the age-related normal range in both groups. IGF-1 was significantly lower in patients with low BMD. Serum osteocalcin level was low (68%) and urinary deoxypyridinoline to creatinine ratio was high (79%), which demonstrated low bone formation with high resorption.

CONCLUSION
Patients with cirrhosis have low BMD. Contributory factors are reduced physical activity, low lean body mass, vitamin D deficiency and hypogonadism and low IGF-1 level.


Limited sources and rising cost of fossil fuels has instigated researchers to look towards renewable energy resources.  Among renewable energy resources, solar energy is required to become indispensable in the future, as it is inexpensive, abundant, inexhaustible, environmental friendly and non-pollutant.  Most of the people living in developing countries are dependent on agriculture.  Agricultural products are dried to increase the storage life, minimize the packaging requirement and reduce the transportation weight.  Solar drying for drying agricultural products is being practiced since long back throughout the world.  Because of its drawbacks, advance technique, i.e. greenhouse drying, is being adopted for drying crops to reduce the drying time and increase the quality of the food products.  Some new methods have also been attempted to increase the drying efficiency of greenhouse.  In this paper, a comprehensive review of greenhouse drying of various commodities is presented.  Different parameters such as thermal analysis, drying characteristics of crops, energy and exergy analysis, and greenhouse drying performance were discussed.  In addition, the economical aspects of greenhouse dryers were also highlighted.  This review paper will be helpful to the new researchers to know about the various technical aspects of the greenhouse dryer.


Virtual clusters on Grids can greatly extend the current scale and efficiency of high-performance Grid computing through more flexible usage of distributed heterogeneous resources. However, the overhead due to installing virtual clusters often precludes their applicability only to long-running applications. This is especially problematic on heterogeneous Grid environments, since installation time of each virtual node can vary greatly, and the total installation time of a virtual cluster is bottlenecked by the slowest node. To achieve fast virtual cluster installation even on such heterogeneous Grid environments, we propose a model-based resource selection policy that automatically identifies a near-optimal node combination to assemble each virtual cluster. We divide the VM setup process into five logical steps and construct a performance model for each step. The model represents the execution time of each step as a linear combination of hardware and software parameters, including CPU frequency, disk I/O performance, and installed package size. To evaluate the proposed resource selection policy, we have extended our own virtual cluster installer, VPC, to select nodes in the increasing order of predicted installation time. Experimental results show that the model-based selection policy is indeed effective, especially when the package size differs depending on sites. The proposed policy has shown to reduce the installation time by up to 68% compared to the most naïve policy that selects nodes in a random order, 60% and 58% to the policies considering either CPU speed or disk I/O performance, respectively.


In this paper, I argue that one can make a good case for the continuing immaturity of international law in the failure of international organizations to provide the controls of the rule of law which are the mark of a mature legal order. These controls are anchored in the values of fairness which in common law legal orders have been developed by judges in the cause of showing how public administration can be subject to the rule of law. The failure to put in the place the controls is then the way in which this kind of immaturity is self-incurred. But, as I will also argue, how one conceives fairness depends fundamentally on one's answer to the question, What is law? It follows that the question which international lawyers hoped had been settled - Is international law, law? - reemerges within international law, perhaps because of the very maturity which it has achieved. Indeed, I will claim that the necessity of this question, the fact that it will reemerge whether one is confronting the phenomenon of international law or law in general, shows that any distinction between the legitimacy and the justice of international law cannot be firmly drawn.


In the recent years, several indices of trophic status of coastal ecosytems are being used worldwide. However, not all of them can be applied successfully to depict the true trophic status of shallow coastal ecosystems due to their inherent complexities in nutrient circulation and interactions between biotic organisms. The most widely used index is Carlson's Trophic State Index (TSI), while more recently, several environmental indices have been constructed using soft computing techniques such as fuzzy logic. In the present investigation, a comparison of the performances of a conventional trophic state index and a newly developed fuzzy-based trophic state index has been presented in detail. The aim of the work was to highlight the advantages of the newer technique over the existing techniques in light of the inherent variability of both data as well as the sampling procedures undertaken for studying a coastal lagoon ecosystem called Pulicat lagoon in the southeast coast of India. The results of the study have shown that while there are discrepancies in depicting the trophic status of the lagoon using Carlson's index, the newer logic-based index predicted the trophic status accurately which was verified by field assessments. Thus the successful application of a more reliable index to estimate trophic status has been presented.


Network monitoring and measurement is commonly regarded as an essential function for understanding, managing and improving the performance and security of network infrastructures. Traditional passive network monitoring approaches are not adequate for fine-grained performance measurements nor for security applications. In addition, many applications would benefit from monitoring data gathered at multiple vantage points within a network infrastructure. This paper presents the design and implementation of DiMAPI, an application programming interface for distributed passive network monitoring. DiMAPI extends the notion of the network flow with the scope attribute, which enables flow creation and manipulation over a set of local and remote monitoring sensors. Experiments with a number of applications on top of DiMAPI show that it has reasonable performance, while the response latency is very close to the actual round trip time between the monitoring application and the monitoring sensors. A broad range of monitoring applications can benefit from DiMAPI to efficiently perform advanced monitoring tasks over a potentially large number of passive monitoring sensors


Introduction: Children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) are known to have airway problems. Introduction of ConeBeam CT (CBCT) and imaging software has facilitated generation of 3D images for assessing the volume of maxillary sinuses and pharyngeal airway. Consequently, the present study aimed at evaluating and comparing the maxillary sinus and pharyngeal airway volume of patients with cleft lip and palate in healthy patients, using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Materials and method: The sample group included 27 individuals (15 with cleft lip and palate subjects and 12 healthy subjects). The pharyngeal airway and each maxillary sinus were three-dimensionally assessed, segmented and their volume was calculated. A comparison between the right and left sinus was performed by Student t-test, and the differences between the control and cleft groups were calculated using ANOVA. Results: No statistically significant differences were found when the maxillary sinuses volumes from each side were compared (p >0.05). The unilateral CLP patients presented the lowest sinus volume. Individuals with CLP did not exhibit a total airway volume smaller than the nonCLP controls. Conclusions: 3D imaging using CBCT and Romexis software is reliable for assessing maxillary sinus and pharyngeal airway volume. The present study showed that the pharyngeal airway is not compromised in CLP individuals. The unilateral CLP individuals present maxillary sinuses with smaller volumes, no differences being recorded between the cleft and non-cleft side.


Ficino's commentary on Plato's Timaeus offers the English reader, for the first time, an opportunity to share the insights of this highly influential Renaissance philosopher into one of Plato's most important and controversial works. Here are discussed the perennial questions which affect us all: What is the nature of the universe? How did it begin? Does it have a cause outside itself? What is our place in it? What is the nature of mind, soul, matter and time? The central portion of the work, focusing on number, harmony, and music, has exerted a strong influence on the history of Western musical theory. Ficino added an appendix which amplifies and elucidates Plato's meanings and reveals fascinating detail about Ficino himself. This volume provides rich source material for all who are interested in philosophy, the history of cosmic theory, and Platonic and Renaissance studies. This completes the four-volume series, including Gardens of Philosophy, 2006 (ISBN 978-0-85683-240-6), Evermore Shall Be So, 2008 (978-0-85683-256-7) and When Philosophers Rule, 2009 (978-0-85683-257-4), which contain all Ficino's commentaries not previously translated into English.


When determining the state of deterioration of book covers made of softened polyvinylchloride, which is essential for the choice of conservation strategy, we are limited by the sample amount available for analytical evaluation. Infrared spectroscopy, as opposed to potentiometric titration, not always allows to unambiguously prove the decrease of sample thermal stability, nor the depletion of the stabilizer, the presence of which slows down dehydrochlorination and neutralizes released hydrogen chloride. For unplastized PVC samples, the time loss of weight determined by thermogravimetric analysis at 180 °C correlates with the amount of released hydrogen chloride obtained from potentiometric titration. The stability of the packages is closely linked to the history and handling of the books. It can be assumed that, with careful use and storing in the library depositories, book covers will remain functional for several decades.


In order to make a contribution to the reduction of raw material costs, in the present study the effect of reused cotton fibres on the quality of conventional ring and OE-rotor yarns was investigated. In the yarn production, three different waste fibres were taken from a cotton yarn production line and blended with primary cotton fibres at five different levels varying from 5% to 40%. In literature, studies have concentrated on the usage of recovered waste fibre in OE-rotor yarn production. However, to date there has been limited extensive and comparative research on the effect of recovered fibre quality on different yarn properties to determine the possibility of high-quality yarn production from reused fibres. In the study, we focused on the effect of different waste types as well as the amount of waste in the blends on the properties of different yarn types.


The particle-induced background of X-ray observatories is produced by galactic cosmic ray (GCR) primary protons, electrons, and He ions. Events due to direct interaction with the detector are usually removed by onboard processing. The interactions of these primary particles with the detector environment produce secondary particles that mimic X-ray events from celestial sources, and are much more difficult to identify. The filter-wheel closed data from the XMM-Newton EPIC-pn camera in small window mode (SWM) contains both the X-ray-like background events, and the events due to direct interactions with the primary particles. From this data, we demonstrate that X-ray-like background events are spatially correlated with the primary particle interaction. This result can be used to further characterize and reduce the non-X-ray background in silicon-based X-ray detectors in current and future missions. We also show that spectrum and pattern fractions of secondary particle events are different from those produced by cosmic X-rays.


Objective: To compare the diagnostic value of the simultaneous evaluation of osteopontin (OPN), insulin-growth factor II (IGF II), leptin, prolactin with the use of transvaginal ultrasonography and CA 125 determination for detection of ovarian cancer. Material and methods: Eighty-three patients with an adnexal mass were included in this study and underwent sonography and ELISA assays of the four serum protein markers before surgery, associated also with the determination of CA125. For the evaluation of diagnostic performance of bio-markers we also used split-point analysis to produce a score-based classification method in which a score of 1 or below is required for benign mass, whereas a score of 2 or above indicates cancer. Results: Ten patients with ovarian cancer and 73 patients with benign ovarian neoplasm were included in the study. The median concentrations of OPN, IGF II, leptin and prolactin were not significantly different in the two groups of patients. With receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the area under the curve was respectively 0.384 for OPN, 0.395 for IGF II, 0.570 for leptin, 0.453 for prolactin and 0.838 for CA125. Using split-point scoring methods, the simultaneous evaluation of the four new serum markers had sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 10%. With the use of only CA125 a sensitivity of 68% and specificity of 40% were obtained. The ultrasonography showed a sensitivity of 80% but a specificity of 92%. Conclusions: Although previously proposed with encouraging results in the screening of ovarian cancer, the simultaneous evaluation of these new biomarkers not seems to be useful in the preoperative evaluation of patients with an adnexal mass when compared with CA125 and transvaginal ultrasonography. This study was supported by Assessorato Igiene e Sanità, Regione Autonoma della Sardegna.


Nowadays, many governments and states are involved in an opening strategy of their public data. However, the volume of these opened data is constantly increasing, and will reach in the near future limitations of current treatment and storage capacity. On the other hand, the MapReduce paradigm is one of the most used parallel programming models. With a master-slave architecture, it allows parallel processing of very large data sets. In this paper, we propose a parallel approach based on Mapreduce to process public open data. Applied, as a case study, to the official data sets from the French Ministry of Communication. We implement a parallel algorithm as a solution to define a ranking of national museums and galleries according to the accessibility degrees for people with disabilities. We studied the feasibility of our approach in two main parts: The performance in terms of execution time, and, the visualization of the obtained results in order to integrate them into solutions such as geographic BI. This work can be applied to other cases with very large data sets.


Discussions about retirement income are unfocused because they blur distinctions between the wealthy and the poor, and between the stable-middle and the precarious-middle. The steady-middle earn adequate incomes throughout their working years and save enough for adequate retirement income. The precarious-middle consists of two groups. Low-earners strive to save from low earnings during their working years, but their meager savings place them precariously close to poverty. High-spenders spend their adequate incomes during their working years, failing to save enough for adequate retirement income. Retirement-income deficiencies are most acute among the precarious-middle and the poor. Mandatory retirement savings plans benefit the precarious-middle by replacing weak self-control with strong outside control, but mandatory retirement savings plans offer little benefit to the poor, who have little from which to save. Help for the poor calls for measures beyond making retirement savings plans mandatory.


We define a new games model of Probabilistic PCF (PPCF) by enriching thin concurrent games with symmetry, recently introduced by Castellan et al, with probability. This model supports two interpretations of PPCF, one sequential and one parallel. We make the case for this model by exploiting the causal structure of probabilistic concurrent strategies. First, we show that the strategies obtained from PPCF programs have a deadlock-free interaction, and therefore deduce that there is an interpretation-preserving functor from our games to the probabilistic relational model recently proved fully abstract by Ehrhard et al. It follows that our model is intensionally fully abstract. Finally, we propose a definition of probabilistic innocence and prove a finite definability result, leading to a second (independent) proof of full abstraction.


Based on a unique dataset of more than 50 000 observations of ice phenology from 1213 lakes and 236 rivers in 12 different countries, we show that interannual variations in the timing of ice‐on and ice‐off on lakes and rivers are not equally pronounced over the entire Northern Hemisphere, but increase strongly towards geographical regions that experience only short periods during which the air temperature falls below 0 °C. We explain our observations by interannual fluctuation patterns of air temperature and suggest that lake and river ecosystems in such geographical regions are particularly vulnerable to global warming, as high interannual variability is known to have important ramifications for ecosystem structure and functioning. We estimate that the standard deviation of the duration of ice cover, viewed as a measure of interannual variability, exceeds 25 days for lakes and rivers located on 7% of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere. Such high variability might be an early warning signal for a critical transition from strictly dimictic, ice‐covered systems to monomictic, open‐water systems. Using the Global Lake and Wetland Database, we suggest that 3.7% of the world's lakes larger than 0.1 km2 are at high risk of becoming open‐water systems in the near future, which will have immediate consequences for global biogeochemical cycles.


For decades, the oil industry has employed a working model for hydrocarbon exploration in which large-scale geophysical surveys are undertaken prior to a second phase of intensive, targeted drilling. This latter phase may be conducted in conjunction with further focused geophysical studies. The geophysical surveys provide lateral coverage and continuity that are used to drive placement of drilling locations. The reason for this approach is simple: wells are expensive relative to geophysical surveys. Also, practical limits on lateral coverage preclude optimization of exploration targets based on well information alone.


While the performance and the efficiency of wind turbines and their energy yields have been improved with time, their reliability still needs improvement, particularly when considering their deployment offshore.

IWES has been gathering operational experience from wind turbines since 1989, being involved in different projects dealing with the topic of availability and reliability. This paper draws statistical data from Germany's '250 MW Wind' programme, evaluated by IWES. The prime objective of the survey was to extract information about the reliability characteristics of wind turbines. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the frequency of failures and duration of downtimes for different wind turbine subassemblies based on existing onshore experience and point out the likely outcomes when turbines are deployed offshore. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We developed an optical module based on silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) designed for a wide variety of applications especially in scintillator detectors and laboratory measurements. To test the module, a Scintillator Surface Detector developed for AugerPrime, the upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory, was modified and is operating in the Argentinean Pampas. It is the first SiPM based scintillator detector successfully measuring air showers induced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays.
The main goal of the development was exploiting the advantages of SiPMs compared to conventional photomultiplier tubes, specifically their mechanical and optical robustness, their high photon detection efficiency and their lower operating voltage.
Two SiPMs are read out in parallel and equipped with light guides to increase the sensitive area. Their signal is split into three independent gain stages to exploit the full dynamic range from a breakdown of a single SiPM cell to a simultaneous breakdown of all cells. The bias voltage supply, which corrects for the temperature, is integrated into the module, and it is powered and controlled through a USB connection. This setup guarantees an easy usage of the module in many applications.
We present the module and will show results from the field measurements.


A Conical Shaped Charge (CSC) is a versatile device utilized in construction, mining, petroleum and defense industries. The geometry and material structure of the metal liner play an integral role in the CSC performance. The performance of CSC liners has been relatively well-characterized for liners manufactured via hydroforming, hydraulic pressing, or turning on a CNC lathe. With advancements in Additive Manufacturing (AM) CSC liners can be 3D printed with metal powders. AM can provide significant design freedom in terms of realizing better properties through introduced hierarchic structuring or anisotropy. However, it is unclear as to how metal liners produced with Selective Laser Melting (SLM), will influence the conical shaped charge's performance. This paper explores the performance, relative to the penetration of steel plates, of CSCs using 3D printed metal liners benchmarked against machined liners. The metal liners were printed with SLM parameters that were optimized to maximize the print density. The metal liner dimensions (thickness, height, and outer diameter) were designed using the recommended ratios of the liner's inner diameter presented by Virgil (1988). The 3D printed metal liners are compared to a CNC machined liner, with the same dimensions. The comparison enables the evaluation of how 3D printing a liner influences penetration performance. The results indicate conical shaped charges could utilize 3D printed liners. These results open a wide range of performance design opportunities that cannot be achieved via conventional manufacturing and justify the current increased cost associated with additive manufacturing metal components. Future work will continue to explore how print density, printed material, and advanced geometries modify the conical shaped charge performance.


OBJECTIVE
Hypertension is a major public health problem in developing countries. There is however very little population based data particularly in South India. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of hypertension and its associated risk factors in an urban South Indian population at Chennai.

METHODS
The Chennai Urban Population Study (CUPS) is an epidemiological study involving two residential areas in Chennai in South India. Of the total of 1399 eligible subjects (age > or = 20 years), 1262 (90.2%) participated in the study. All the study subjects underwent a glucose tolerance test (GTT) and were categorized as having normal glucose tolerance (NGT), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or diabetes mellitus (DM). Subjects were classified as hypertensive using the criteria, systolic blood pressure (SBP) > or = 140 mm Hg, and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > or = 90 mm Hg and/or treatment with anti-hypertensive drugs. Twelve-lead resting electrocardiography (ECG) was performed in 1175 individuals and peripheral Doppler studies were done in 50% of the individuals (n=631).

RESULTS
The overall crude prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in this population is 21.1% (n=266) while the age standardized prevalence is 17.0%. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) were significantly higher (p < 0.001) in the HTN group compared to the non-hypertensive individuals. The prevalence of diabetes (p < 0.001), obesity (p < 0.001), CAD (p = 0.001) and PVD (p = 0.0055) was higher among the hypertensive compared to normotensive group. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed HTN to be significantly associated with age (p < 0.001), body mass index (p < 0.001) and glucose intolerance (p = 0.005).

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of hypertension appears to be high in this urban South Indian population and this calls for urgent steps for its prevention and control.


The necessity for an aggressive approach in the treatment of hepatoblastoma is receiving increasing emphasis throughout the surgical world. Currently available surgical techniques and more knowledgeable appreciation of the postoperative physiological disturbances have made major hepatic resections possible in children with minimal operative risks. As a result, any infant or child with a possible hepatoblastoma deserves surgical exploration as the only hope of survival. The long term follow-up of patients undergoing major hepatic resections for benign lesions 1,2 has proven to be uniformly gratifying. The course of hepatoblastoma, however, even after apparently adequate resection, has characteristically been one of local recurrence, widespread metastases and death. Only in recent years have the first five year survivals been reported. In the period of five years since September 1961, five children have undergone major hepatic resections for hepatoblastoma in the Department of Surgery of the Children's Hospital and the University of Cincinnati. These


Rice crops are important in global food economy and are monitored by precise agricultural methods, in which crop morphology in high spatial resolution becomes the point of interest. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology is being used for such agricultural purposes. Using polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) data, plant morphology dependent electromagnetic scattering models can be used to approximate the backscattering behaviors of the crops. However, the inversion of such models for the morphology estimation is complex, ill-posed, and computationally expensive. Here, a metamodel-based probabilistic inversion algorithm is proposed to invert the morphology-based scattering model for the crop biophysical parameter mainly focusing on the crop height estimation. The accuracy of the proposed approach is tested with ground measured biophysical parameters on rice fields in two different bands (X and C) and several channel combinations. Results show that in C-band the combination of the HH and VV channels has the highest overall accuracy through the crop growth cycle. Finally, the proposed metamodel-based probabilistic biophysical parameter retrieval algorithm allows estimation of rice crop height using PolSAR data with high accuracy and low computation cost. This research provides a new perspective on the use of PolSAR data in modern precise agriculture studies.


In this thesis we consider Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technique by taking into account in the receiver design the fundamental and unique characteristics of Underwater Acoustic (UWA) channels in the context of Relay-Assisted (RA) systems. In particular, OFDM technique is used to combat the problem of Intersymbol Interference (ISI), while to handle the Intercarrier Interference (ICI), a pre-processing unit is used prior to the Minimum
Mean Squared Error (MMSE) frequency-domain equalization called Multiple Resampling (MR), which minimizes the effect of time variation. This pre-processor consists of multiple
branches, each corresponds to a Doppler scaling factor of a path/user/cluster, and performs of frequency shifting, resampling, and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operation. As a suboptimal alternative to MR pre-processing, Single Resampling (SR) pre-processing is also used to reduce the effect of ICI in the system, and it consists of only one branch that performs frequency shifting, resampling, and FFT operation, which corresponds to one approximated resampling factor, that is a function of one or more of the actual Doppler scaling factors. The problem of bandwidth scarcity is considered in the context of Two Way Relaying (TWR) systems in an attempt to increase the bandwidth efficiency of the system, while the problem of fading is
considered in the context of Distributed Space-Time Block Coding (D-STBC) to boost the system reliability. Also, joint TWR-D-STBC system is proposed to extract the advantages of both schemes simultaneously.

Second, motivated by the fact that OFDM is extremely sensitive to time variation, which destroys the orthogonality between the subcarriers, we consider another candidate to UWA channels and competitor to OFDM scheme, namely, block-based Single Carrier (SC) modulation with Frequency Domain Equalization (FDE). We start by the Point-to-Point (P2P) systems with path-specific Doppler model and Multiple Access Channel (MAC) system with user-specific Doppler model. The Maximum Likelihood (ML) receiver in each case is derived, and it is shown that a MR pre-processing stage is necessary to handle the effect of time variation, as it is the case in OFDM. Different from OFDM, however, the structure of this pre-processing stage. Specifically, it consists of multiple branches and each branch corresponds to a Doppler scaling factor per path or per user, and performs frequency shifting, resampling, and followed by and integration. FFT operation is not a part of the pre-processor. The goal of this pre-processing stage
is to minimize the level of time variation in the time domain. So, the output of the pre-processor will still be time-varying contaminated by ISI, and hence an equalization stage is required. To avoid the complexity of the optimum Maximum Likelihood Sequence Detector (MLSD), we propose the use of MMSE FDE, where the samples are transformed to the frequency domain by means of FFT operation, and after the FDE transformed back to the time domain, where symbol-by-symbol detection becomes feasible. Also, the channels are approximated such that all paths or all users have the same Doppler scaling factor, and the pre-processing stage in this case consists of only one branch and it is called SR. Having the basic structure of SC-FDE scheme, we then consider the corresponding schemes that are considered for OFDM systems, namely: TWR, D-STBC, and TWR-D-STBC schemes.

A complete complexity analysis, bandwidth efficiency, and extensive Average Bit Error Rate (ABER) simulation results are given. It is shown that MR schemes outperforms its SR
counterparts within a given signaling scheme (i.e., OFDM or SC-FDE). However, this superiority in performance comes at the expense of more hardware complexity. Also, for uncoded
systems, MR-SC-FDE outperforms its OFDM counterpart with less hardware complexity, because in SC-FDE systems, FFT operation is not part of the MR pre-processor, but rather a part of the equalizer. Finally, under total power constraint, it is shown that TWR-D-STBC scheme serves as a good compromise between bandwidth efficiency and reliability, where it has better bandwidth efficiency with some performance loss compared to D-STBC, while it has better performance and the same bandwidth efficiency compared to TWR.