Non-erodible or "hard" bottoms are encountered on beaches along many coasts and are often considered a valuable environmental resource that must be protected. Hard bottoms can consist of natural materials such as limestone, coral, shell, worm rock, sedimentary rock, and clay, as well as anthropogenic materials such as rip rap. A hard bottom may be covered or uncovered by sand at various times during a storm, and it imposes a constraint on the sand transport rate. In this study, the SBEACH numerical model was modified to allow calculation of the response to storm waves and change in water level of a sand beach profile with arbitrary configurations of hard bottom. Predictions of the model were compared with one data set from a large wave tank and with several data sets from mid-scale physical model runs. The modified SBEACH model performed well both qualitatively and quantitatively in reproducing the resultant beach profile change in the presence of hard bottom for both monochromatic and random waves. A "scour attenuation coefficient" was introduced to limit unreasonable scour adjacent to vertical or near-vertical side walls of a hard bottom. To numerically simulate the mid-scale physical model runs, a scaling analysis was performed to determine the appropriate values of empirical coefficients in the numerical model. The dimensionless fall speed parameter emerged as the scaling law governing storm-induced beach profile change. Success in numerically simulating the beach-profile change measured in the mid-scale runs provides indirect evidence of the appropriateness of the governing equations of SBEACH in representing the salient physics of storm-induced beach erosion.


Atherosclerosis is main cause of arteriosclerosis. The pivotal role of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation in atherogenesis suggests antioxidants may help prevent cardiovascular disease. Fraxinus rhynchophylla DENCE (Oleaceae) is a traditional medicinal plant from East Asia. During the course of characterizing potential drug candidates from natural products, we isolated two major coumarins, esculetin and fraxetin and found that fraxetin has dual-antioxidative functions. Low concentrations (1-5 microM) of fraxetin potently inhibited LDL oxidation induced by metal and free radicals. Moreover, treatment of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) with higher concentrations (above 30 microM) of fraxetin significantly increased the protein level of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a key enzyme that inhibits vascular proliferation and atherosclerosis. Subcellular fractionation and reporter gene analysis using an antioxidant response element (ARE) construct revealed that fraxetin increased the level of nuclear factor (NF)-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and reporter activity, and these were associated with the induction of antioxidant enzymes, such as HO-1 and glutathione S-transferase-alpha. In conclusion, fraxetin has direct protective properties against LDL oxidation at lower concentrations, and higher concentrations of fraxetin induce antioxidant enzymes via Nrf2/ARE activation. These effects suggest potential anti-atherosclerosis effects of Fraxinus rhynchophylla D.


Inosine 5′‐monophosphate (IMP) dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is an ubiquitous enzyme that catalyzes the NAD+‐dependent oxidation of inosine 5′‐monophosphate into xanthosine 5′‐monophosphate. This enzyme is formed of two distinct domains, a core domain where the catalytic reaction occurs, and a less‐conserved Bateman domain. Our previous studies gave rise to the classification of bacterial IMPDHs into two classes, according to their oligomeric and kinetic properties. MgATP is a common effector but cause to different effects when it binds within the Bateman domain: it is either an allosteric activator for Class I IMPDHs or a modulator of the oligomeric state for Class II IMPDHs. To get insight into the role of the Bateman domain in the dissimilar properties of the two classes, deleted variants of the Bateman domain and chimeras issued from the interchange of the Bateman domain between the three selected IMPDHs have been generated and characterized using an integrative structural biology approach. Biochemical, biophysical, structural, and physiological studies of these variants unveil the Bateman domain as being the carrier of the molecular behaviors of both classes.


This thesis considers computational methods for analysis and verification of the class of automotive safety systems which support the driver by monitoring the vehicle and its surroundings, identifying hazardous situations and actively intervening to prevent or mitigate consequences of accidents. Verification of these systems poses a major challenge, since system decisions are based on remote sensing of the surrounding environment and incorrect decisions are only rarely accepted by the driver. Thus, the system must make correct decisions, in a wide variety of traffic scenarios. There are two main contributions of this thesis. First, theoretical analysis and verification methods are presented which investigate in what scenarios, and for what sensor errors, the absence of incorrect system decisions may be guaranteed. Furthermore, methods are proposed for analyzing the frequency of incorrect decisions, including the sensitivity to sensor errors, using experimental data. The second major contribution is a novel computational framework for determining the errors of mobile computer vision systems, which is one of the most widely used sensor technologies in automotive safety systems. Augmented photo-realistic images, generated by rendering virtual objects onto a real image background, are used as input to the computer vision system to be tested. Since the objects are virtual, ground truth is readily available and varying the image content by adding different virtual objects is straightforward, making the proposed framework flexible and efficient. The framework is used for both performance evaluation and for training object classifiers.


Oxidative stress is involved in many gastrointestinal (GI) disorders as either the primary pathogenesis (radiation, chemotherapy, toxicity, ischemia-reperfusion) or a secondary driving force of disease progression (inflammation and diabetes). The GI tract is innervated intrinsically by the enteric nervous system (ENS) with a diverse role in maintaining gut homeostasis and GI motility. Complications in the physiological functioning of the ENS results in GI dysfunction that can result in debilitating sequelae from dysmotility greatly impacting quality of life and leading to potentially fatal complications. Therapeutics to remedy either oxidative stress or enteric neuronal dysfunction are severely limited, resulting in a critical gap in clinical care for GI disease and neurointestinal complications. Stem cell therapies have shown great promise in the treatment of several gut disorders via mechanisms including cell regeneration, anti-inflammatory activity, providing trophic support, and emerging evidence of antioxidant and neuroprotective functions. The potential of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapies and recent evidence of their antioxidant and neuroprotective activity in several GI conditions are discussed. Finally, future therapeutic aspects of stem cell-based tools for combatting oxidative stress and enteric neuropathies in GI disease are considered.


This chapter examines the Nile and Okavango basins in a comparative manner. Central issues raised include the aspect of scale, not only in terms of actual numbers, but also in terms of political complexity. The teleology of water scarcity and conflict is refuted, with the discourse of cooperation providing the main backdrop to the chapter. Because cooperation is about changing paradigms from water-sharing to benefit-sharing, the case is made that transboundary rivers challenge sovereignty and independent national development priorities – the main theme of this book. Two significant common aspects in both the Nile and the Okavango are the attempts to 'enhance' yield by manipulating wetlands through dredging, and the issues raised by post-conflict reconstruction. Both basins contain wetlands of major proportions, which make them interesting case studies when considering river basins comparatively.


Silver nanoparticles are of interest due to their unique physicochemical and antimicrobial properties. The nanoparticles were produced by chemical reduction using short chain polyethylene glycol (PEG) as reducing agent, solvent and stabilizer in absence of other chemicals. Silver nanoparticles were separated from colloidal dispersion by ultra centrifuge at 14000 rpm. The reduction of silver ion (Ag+) to silver nanoparticles (Agº) was monitored by pH measurement and UV-visible spectroscopy of colloidal dispersion at fixed intervals. Silver nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and diphenyl-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method. Antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles was investigated against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus by agar plate test. Results indicated 51.5% conversion efficiency of silver ions to silver nanoparticles. Colloidal dispersion containing 4.12 mg/ml silver nanoparticles showed uniform size of 5.5 ± 1.1 nm with a typical visible spectra band at 447 nm. Silver nanoparticles showed significant (p < 0.05) antimicrobial efficiency and with concentration of 100 ppm resulted in 46.22%, 66.51% and 69.06% inhibition against S. aureus, E. coli and V. parahaemolyticus, respectively. The nanoparticles were also found to reduce DPPH free radical up to 88.9%. Results of this study proved that the silver nanoparticles produced by polyethylene glycol possess antimicrobial and antioxidant activity.


We utilize the ensemble of trees framework, a tractable mixture over super-exponential number of tree-structured distributions [1], to develop a new model for multivariate density estimation. The model is based on a construction of tree-structured copulas - multivariate distributions with uniform on [0, 1] marginals. By averaging over all possible tree structures, the new model can approximate distributions with complex variable dependencies. We propose an EM algorithm to estimate the parameters for these tree-averaged models for both the real-valued and the categorical case. Based on the tree-averaged framework, we propose a new model for joint precipitation amounts data on networks of rain stations.


Cockroaches are one of the potential vectors on spreading disease and health problems for humans by contaminating foods, ingredients, or food storage. Cause of their habit and life in an unsanitary place, they can carry human pathogens in their body and contaminated. This review aims to know the types and prevalence of human pathogens carried by cockroaches in the food-related environment and discuss the possibility of human pathogens carried by cockroaches that can cause foodborne diseases. This systematic review conforms to the PRISMA guidelines. The initial search was done from four health-related electronic databases (PubMed Central, EBSCOhost, Proquest, and Scopus) for relevant literature on pathogens that isolated from the cockroaches. There are 129 articles identified in the initial search database. After screening and eligibility process, eight articles were identified for this review. It was found that most of the cockroaches captured in/around food handling establishment and human habitation. Furthermore, around 23 species pathogens, predominantly bacteria, were identified from the cockroaches. This review showed that cockroaches carry many pathogens, which can cause severe infections in humans, such as foodborne diseases through contaminated food.


In this paper we present an active video module that consists of a miniature video sensor, a wireless video transmitter and a pan-tilt mechanism driven by micromotors. The video module is part of a miniature mobile robot that is projected to areas of the environment to be surveyed. A single-chip CMOS video sensor and miniature brushless DC gearmotors are used to comply with restrictions imposed by the robotic system in terms of payload weight volume and power consumption. Different types of actuation are analyzed for compatibility with a mesoscale robotic system. Applications of an active video module are discussed.


Flesh-footed shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) are considered to be one of New Zealand's seabird species that is most heavily impacted by both commercial and recreational fisheries, yet they have an IUCN ranking of "Least Concern". To resolve this contradiction we conducted surveys on 3 large breeding colonies and compared our results to historical data. We found that the burrow density on the most northerly island (Lady Alice Island/Mauimua) has increased since the last set of surveys; however the density of flesh-footed shearwaters nests has remained stable. At the largest colony we surveyed (Ohinau Island), the density of burrows has remained stable, while the density of nests has declined. At New Zealand's most southerly colony (Titi Island), both burrow and nest densities have remained stable. Our results suggest that the status of flesh-footed shearwaters populations in New Zealand is variable with 2 populations that are stable and 1 that is declining. Nevertheless, due to the short time period between our surveys and the historical data, repeated surveys in the future are needed to determine if further declines in the largest colony warrant a reassessment of the status of this species. Jamieson, S.E.; Waugh, S.M. 2015. An assessment of recent population trends of flesh-footed shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) breeding in New Zealand. Notornis 62 (1): 8-13.


Deep neural networks (DNNs) have become a popular approach for wireless localization based on channel state information (CSI). A common practice is to use the raw CSI in the input and allow the network to learn relevant channel representations for mapping to location information. However, various works show that raw CSI can be very sensitive to system impairments and small changes in the environment. On the contrary, hand-designing features may hinder the limits of channel representation learning of the DNN. In this work, we propose attention-based CSI for robust feature learning. We evaluate the performance of attended features in centralized and distributed massive MIMO systems for ray-tracing channels in two non-stationary railway track environments. By comparison to a base DNN, our approach provides exceptional performance.


Data on individual trades in prediction markets relating to the 2008 and 2012 US Presidential elections reveal that traders vary enormously in their behavior. This contrasts with the standard prediction-market models, which assume relatively homogeneous participants who differ only in their beliefs and wealth. We show that risk-lovers have particularly strong distortionary effects on market outcomes even when beliefs are symmetrically distributed around the truth. Simulations of a model which allows traders to have different motives and tastes for risk indicate that including such traders produce the market outcomes we observe, such as herding, persistent contrariness, a skewed profits' distribution and favorite-long-shot bias. The attraction of such markets to risk-lovers means that caution must be exercised when using prediction-market prices for forecasting


Abstract In most developed countries, competent patients have the legal right to refuse any medical treatment; Advance Care Planning mechanisms extend this right to non-competent patients. However, some groups, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, risk their wishes not being respected if they lose capacity, more than others. Little is known about medical practitioners' knowledge of, or attitudes to, the law in this area, especially in relation to LGBTI people, or how the law influences their decision-making. An Australian postal survey explored knowledge and attitudes of medical specialists to legal issues relating to withdrawing/ withholding life-sustaining treatment from adults without capacity. One scenario (the focus of this paper) asked which of four plausible substitute decision-makers, including a same-sex partner, had the legal authority to make such decisions. The overall response rate was 32% (867/2702). Less than one-third of respondents correctly identified the same-sex partner as the legally authorised decision-maker. LGBTI people face multiple obstacles to having their end-of-life wishes respected. Where healthcare providers are also ignorant of the partner's legal right to make such decisions, the problem is compounded. Improved legal education for clinicians and promotion of educational resources for members of the LGBTI community is needed.


We report here live on LHC Higgs results announcement by CERN on December 13, 2011. The result is very convincing if one starts from the assumption that there should be a Higgs Boson somewhere in the range. Everywhere is ruled out except 115 GeV to 130 GeV and within that window there is a signal with the right strength at around 125 GeV with 3 sigma significance. CERN will have to wait for that to reach 5 sigma to claim discovery and next year's data should be enough to get there or almost. I calculate that they will need 25/fb per experiment at 7 TeV to make the discovery. A big congratulation goes to everyone from the LHC, ATLAS and CMS who found the clear hints of Higgs when it hid in the hardest place.


Phishing attacks are growing rapidly causing financial losses annually particularly in online transactions. Previous solutions exist to address phishing attacks including toolbars and filters that displays user warnings against phishing websites. Despite the existing solutions, there is still a lack of accuracy in real-time solutions causing inadequacy in online transactions. This paper extends our previous work [12] by developing an online toolbar which runs continuously in the background of Internet Explorer web browser checking all websites users request against a set-data in real-time. The proposed approach is a feature-based online toolbar using six sets of inputs, incorporating a voice generating user warning interface with a text directives and color status to detect phishing websites and alert users from phishing attacks. The new toolbar system has been vigorously evaluated using a wide-ranging websites including 200 Phishing websites, 200 suspicious websites and 200 legitimate websites which has demonstrated best performance (96%) compared to previous reported results in the field. The paper has contributed a novel voice generating user warning interface algorithm that has not been considered in phishing website detection field.


Improved agricultural production of essential crops through advanced breeding is important for increasing access to nutritious food for the world's rapidly growing population, which is expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050. Recent advancements in the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein9 (CRISPR/Cas9) genome editing process, which uses single-guide RNA for genome editing, have made it easy, stable and efficient tool for targeted gene mutations, knockout and knock-in/replacement to boost crop yield. The CRISPR/Cas method is constantly being improved, and its applications have greatly expanded. It can be used to modify the genome sequence of any organism, including plants like cassava, to achieve the desired trait. As a result, CRISPR/Cas is regarded as a game-changing technology in plant biology. Here, we discuss the principles of operation, implementations and future prospects of CRISPR/Cas9 for efficient processing of individual genes in cassava cultures. Recent work on cassava crop with regards to the use of CRISPR/Cas9 for the plant improvement was also addressed.

 Key words:  Manihot esculenta, CRISPR/Cas9, genome editing, gRNA, protospacer adjacent motif (PAM).


BackgroundVaccines are one of the main cornerstones in the global initiatives to control the COVID-19 pandemic. National vaccination programs largely depend on vaccine availability and acceptance by a large proportion of the population to confer a measurable impact on SARS-CoV-2 transmission. In this study we determine the acceptance, barriers and facilitators of COVID-19 vaccination amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) in PakistanMethodsA structured and validated questionnaire was used in an online cross-sectional study. Health care workers residing in Pakistan were invited between 31st January to 9th February to participate in this survey ResultsA total of 436 health-care workers took part in this survey and among those 327 (75%) were doctors. 260 (60%) health-care workers indicated that they would accept vaccination against COVID-19. 308 (71%) were completely confident or confident in using USA, UK manufactured COVID-19 vaccine. The acceptance concerning a potential Chinese vaccine was 267 (61%). 292 (67%) strongly agreed or agreed that they are concerned about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination while the concerns for safety were 293 (67%) ConclusionsAbout a third of HCWs, a group generally biased towards early acceptance of health interventions – expressed concerns or refusal of vaccination against COVID-19 in this survey. A dedicated communication plan and information campaign addressing the issues of efficacy, quality, logistics and religious concerns is needed to address these hurdles to allow for a successful national vaccination campaign.


Experimentally, surface carbon hydrogenation on metallic iron forms CH4, ethylene/ethane, and propene/propane, while previous density functional theory studies showed that these reactions are highly endothermic. This disagreement can be attributed to the shortcoming of low coverage of surface carbon atoms and the underestimated role of surface hydrogen. On a p(4 × 4) Fe(110) surface with 0.25 ML carbon coverage (4 C atoms) and other free sites filled with H atoms, we studied surface C hydrogenation with spectators and found that the formation of CH4, ethylene/ethane, and propene/propane becomes exothermic. Coupling of CH + CH and CH3C + CH to acetylene and propylene is favored thermodynamically. Next, CHCH and CH3CCH can be hydrogenated into CH2CH and CH3CHCH, and the subsequent hydrogenation of CH2CH and CH3CHCH determines the formation and selectivity of alkenes and alkanes. The most important surface species is carbide HC for chain initiation or CH3C (RC for higher homolog) for chain propagation. This ...


A successful immune response relies on a tightly regulated delivery of the right signals to the right cells at the right time. Here we show that innate and innate-like lymphocytes use two mechanisms to orchestrate in time and space the functions of conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1) in spleen. Early after murine cytomegalovirus infection, XCL1 production by lymphocytes with innate functions attracts red pulp cDC1 near IFN-γ-producing NK cells, generating superclusters around infected cells in the marginal zone. There, cDC1 and NK cells physically interact reinforcing their reciprocal activation. Targeted IL-12 delivery and IL-15/IL-15Rα transpresentation by cDC1 trigger NK cell activation and expansion. In return, activated NK cells deliver GM-CSF to cDC1, triggering their CCR7-dependent relocalization into the T cell zone. This NK cell-dependent licensing of cDC1 accelerates the priming of virus-specific CD8+ T cells. Our findings reveal a novel mechanism through which cDC1 bridge innate and adaptive immunity.


The main objectives of this study have been to find answers to the questions of whether it is possible to obtain or develop space typologies based on the landscape perception and preferences of users for urban parks which are one of the important elements of urban green areas and whether a relationship can be established between user ideas and expert evaluations regarding the establishment of these space typologies. The main material of the study consists of 20 photographs selected from among the two urban parks in the city of Denizli. Two separate survey studies were carried out to the user group and the expert group based on the images in the photographs. The user group survey results and the expert group evaluations were compared afterwards and spatial characteristics for the most preferred images were put forth. It has been concluded that it is possible to put forth spatial typologies by bringing together spatial characteristics supporting the results of statistically significant previous studies in international literature based on the analysis results of the method used in the study.


This study constitutes the first evolutionary investigation of monogenean gill parasites of freshwater catfishes in Africa. Our main aim was to reconstruct molecular phylogeny of dactylogyrids specific to African siluriform fishes and determine their phylogenetic position within other dactylogyridean species parasitizing siluriforms from Africa (Ethiopian region), Asia (Oriental region) and Neotropical region. In 2014, representatives of six dactylogyridean genera (Bagrobdella, Protoancylodiscoides, Quadriacanthus, Schilbetrema, Schilbetrematoides and Synodontella) were collected from ten host species belonging to six families (Bagridae, Claridae, Claroteidae, Malapteruridea, Mochokidae and Schilbeidae) during the field expedition in Sudan (White Nile and Blue Nile). Species identification was performed based on morphological analysis of sclerotized structures and molecular characters (partial 18S rDNA, entire ITS1, partial 28S rDNA). Phylogenetic analyses were conducted using maximum likelihood (ML, RaxML) method. Our results showed the monophyletic nature of the six dactylogyridean genera. Species infecting African, Asiatic and Neotropical siluriforms were split into two strongly supported clades. Clade A included the four genera of dactylogyrids from Neotropical region, while clade B comprised parasites of siluriform fishes from all three regions. Monogeneans of African catfishes formed two separate clades. Species of Schilbetrema, Schilbetrematoides, Synodontella, Bagrobdella and Protoancylodiscoides clustered as a strongly supported monophyletic group together with Asiatic species Chauhanellus, Hamatopeduncularia and Neocalceostomoides. Quadriacanthus species from Africa formed clade with Asiatic species Q. kobinensis and Bychowskiella pseudobagri. This study was supported by ECIP (European Centre of IchthyoParasitology); centre of excellence program on the Czech Science Foundation; project No. P505/12/G112.


In Western societies a prenatal diagnostic test, either chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis (AC), is performed in 5 to 12% of all pregnancies. The safety of these tests has been evaluated in randomized clinical trials performed in the 1980's and 1990's. The procedure-related abortion rate was 1.0% for AC (in week 15–17) as well as for transabdominal CVS. Performing AC at an earlier gestational age (week 12–14) increased the abortion rate by a further 1%. Early Ac has therefore been abandoned. Several non-randomized studies have since then suggested that the abortion risk associated with particularly AC may be lower today than when the randomized controlled trials were performed. This hypothesis is supported by national Danish registry data from the period 1996–2001. Over the last 5–10 years the pattern of prenatal diagnosis has changed, mainly due to the possibility of screening using ultrasonic and biochemical markers. This should reduce the number of invasive procedures; in Denmark the number is expected to be halved. A smaller number of invasive procedures calls for centralization, as it has been clearly shown that the abortion risk is associated with the operator's experience. Those planning the national programs of prenatal screening and diagnosis should take this into consideration.


An area of sky centred on the Kleinmann-Low nebula has been mapped in the J = 3 → 2 and J = 2 → 1 lines of CO. There appears evidence for asymmetry of the "pedestal" emission to the west of the source centre, probably indicative of an irregular mass distribution. This is discussed in the context of two models of the high-velocity gas, namely high-velocity nonisotropic outflow, and rotation within a compact cloud. Although the present observations do not enable us to discriminate between these, the presence of optically thin CO emission in this source is shown to lead to severe structural constraints on any rotational model. The suggestion that such a model may also lead to an over-abundance of high-velocity stars is not verified by the present analyses.


: We prepared fully instrumented sheep with chronic lung lymph fistulas and measured lung lymph and hemodynamic responses to intravenous infusions of prostaglandin (PG) E1. PGE1 decreased lung lymph flow from 8.0 +/- 0.8 S.E.M. ml/h during baseline to 6.5 +/- 0.7 ml/h (p less than 0.05) and 5.4 +/- 0.8 ml/h (p less than 0.05) at 50 and 250 micrograms/min, respectively. Lymph to plasma protein concentration ratio (L/P) did not change during PGE1 infusion and increased after PGE1 was stopped. Systemic and pulmonary vascular pressures decreased without producing reflex tachycardia. PGE1 consistently caused hypoxemia and hemoconcentration. Multiple indicator dilution studies showed consistent decreases in the 14C-urea permeability surface area product (PS urea) during PGE1 infusion. To distinguish effects of PGE1 on perfused lung vascular surface area from effects on vascular permeability, we mechanically increased lung vascular pressures, achieved a steady state lung lymph response, and infused PGE1 (50 micrograms/min) while maintaining constant left atrial pressure. PGE1 decreased lung lymph flow from 14.1 +/- 2.0 ml/h to 10.0 +/- 1.8 ml/h (p less than 0.05). Systemic and pulmonary arterial pressures fell. Cardiac output did not change and heart rate decreased. L/P increased significantly, indicating that the decrease in lymph flow could be attributed to decreased lung microvascular pressure without obligate change in microvascular permeability. During increased lung vascular permeability caused by E. coli endotoxin, PGE1 (250 micrograms/min) decreased lung lymph flow, and systemic and pulmonary vascular pressures fell. Although PGE1 decreased lymph protein clearance, L/P did not change. Decreased lymph flow with PGE1 could be attributed to decreased lung vascular pressure, decreased exchanging vessel surface area, or both.


This article reconceptualizes sampling in social research. It is argued that three inter-related a priori assumptions limit on the possibility of sample design, namely: (a) the ontology of the case, (b) the epistemological assumptions underpinning what properties are necessary to know the case and (c) the logistics involved in the process of 'casing' the case. In considering sampling in this way, not only are key criteria commonly used to gauge the validity of sample problematized, but a genuine epistemological bridge between probability and non-probability sample designs is also forged.


Aim: Clinical practice improvement carried out in a quality assurance framework relies on routinely collected data using clinical indicators. Herein we describe the development, minimum training requirements, and inter-rater agreement of indicators that were used in an Australian multi-site evaluation of the effectiveness of early psychosis (EP) teams. Methods: Surveys of clinician opinion and face-to-face consensus-building meetings were used to select and conceptually define indicators. Operationalization of definitions was achieved by iterative refinement until clinicians could be quickly trained to code indicators reliably. Calculation of percentage agreement with expert consensus coding was based on ratings of paper-based clinical vignettes embedded in a 2-h clinician training package. Results: Consensually agreed upon conceptual definitions for seven clinical indicators judged most relevant to evaluating EP teams were operationalized for ease-of-training. Brief training enabled typical clinicians to code indicators with acceptable percentage agreement (60% to 86%). For indicators of suicide risk, psychosocial function, and family functioning this level of agreement was only possible with less precise 'broad range' expert consensus scores. Estimated kappa values indicated fair to good inter-rater reliability (kappa > 0.65). Inspection of contingency tables (coding category by health service) and modal scores across services suggested consistent, unbiased coding across services. Conclusions: Clinicians are able to agree upon what information is essential to routinely evaluate clinical practice. Simple indicators of this information can be designed and coding rules can be reliably applied to written vignettes after brief training. The real world feasibility of the indicators remains to be tested in field trials.


PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of carboxytherapy in auricular composite grafts in rabbits. METHODS: An experimental study was conducted using 20 rabbits randomly assigned to a treatment group of carboxytherapy or a control group of saline solution. In each ear, a circular graft with 1.5 cm or 2 cm of diameter was amputated and reattached. Animals underwent carbon dioxide or saline injection four times during the experiment. We analyzed clinical evolution of the animals, grafts survival, histopathology features and histomorphometry of collagen. RESULTS: The treated group had a significantly lower weight gain (p=0.038). Histopathology was not significantly different between groups. There was an increase in amount of collagen in 2 cm grafts submitted to carbon dioxide therapy (p=0.003). Carboxytherapy didn't influence graft survival rate for 1.5 cm grafts or 2 cm grafts (p=0.567 and p=0.777, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Carbon dioxide therapy increased the amount of collagen in 2 cm grafts. CO2 was not significantly different from saline infusion on composite grafts survival, but this study suggests that there is a mechanical effect caused by distension which favored graft survival.


An important dimension of poverty is access to food. Household food security implies access to the food needed for a healthy and productive life. Lack of access to and/or impaired utilization of food contribute to household food insecurity. This study compares the usefulness of a standardized food insecurity scale for determining the food insecurity status of rural and urban households in Bangladesh and Uganda, and for predicting poverty status. The analysis uses data from the IRIS Composite Survey Household Questionnaire (2004), which consists of 1,587 households (approximately 800 households in each country). The coping mechanisms adopted in the presence of food shortages represent the building blocks for the development of the scale (7 items). In order to assess the suitability of the scale as an estimator of the households' poverty status, the benchmark indicator "daily expenditures per capita" and its relation to the corresponding poverty line serves as the basis for evaluation for each country. The scale provides the means for classifying the households into 3 main groups: Non Food Insecure, Moderately Food Insecure, and Severely Food Insecure. The reliability of the scale is measured via the Cronbach's Alpha statistic. In addition, the scale is used in regression analysis in order to predict per capita daily expenditures and the poverty incidence. The results show that food insecurity does not always reflect (income) poverty. However, the use of the scale as a predictor of poverty status produces rough estimates of poverty incidence that could be useful as background information. The differentiation of households according to their food security status may be valuable for focusing and developing improved food insecurity mitigation strategies.


During September 2009, we performed a rapid cross-sectional study to investigate the extent of aflatoxin contamination among common Bangladeshi foods. We collected eight common human food commodities (rice, lentils, wheat flour, dates, betelnut, red chili powder, ginger and groundnuts) and poultry feed samples from two large markets in each of three cities in Bangladesh. We quantified aflatoxin levels from pooled subsamples using fluorescence high-performance liquid chromatography. Aflatoxin levels were highest in dates and groundnuts (maximum 623 and 423 ng/g), respectively. Samples of betelnut (mean 30.6 ng/g), lentils (mean 21.2 ng/g) and red chili powder (>20 ng/g) also had elevated levels. The mean aflatoxin level among poultry feed samples was 73.0 ng/g. Aflatoxin levels were above the US maximum regulatory levels of 20 ng/g in five of eight commonly ingested human food commodities tested.


"This paper shows the economic efficiency of allowing longer combination vehicles in Texas. First, an overview of the truck size and weight policies is explained, with an emphasis on those that affect Texas. Next, LCV operations in other countries are described. Then, an LCV scenario for Texas is chosen, with specific routes and vehicle types. Operational costs for these vehicles are calculated on a cost per mile and cost per ton (or cubic yard) mile. The LCV scenario and the current truck base case are analyzed to find the number of truck trips, the number of mile, and the cost per mile for the chosen routes. These are then compared to estimate the change if LCVs were allowed in Texas."


The advantages of the nonpenetrating deep sclerectomy (NPDS) compared with the trabeculectomy are based on faster recovery and lower incidence of complications. The incarceration of the iris at the trabeculo-Descemet's membrane is one complication of NPDS and leads frequently to the reoperation of the patient. We report one case operated of NPDS with iris incarceration post-Nd:YAG goniopuncture in which we also documented spontaneous returning of the prolapsed iris during gonioscopy 3 hours after the onset of symptoms. With an argon laser iridoplasty, the iris returned completely to its position and a wide Nd:YAG laser iridotomy prevented recurrences. After this episode, the patient have always had intraocular pressure measures lower than 15 mm Hg. How to cite this article: Perez AV, Arenas JL, La Camara Hermoso JD. Laser Treatment to avoid Trabeculectomy and to recover the Aqueous Outflow after Iris Incarceration in a Patient with NPDS. J Current Glau Prac 2013;7(1):36-37.


Any ethical treatment of liberal eugenics and of biotechnology in general must presuppose, if not explicitly expose, an understanding of biology in general and of human biology in particular. Critical Theory distinguished itself as, amongst other things, a philosophically guided, cross-disciplinarily oriented expression of the social and human sciences that understood the enterprise of knowledge as a practical human pursuit that could not hide behind a veil of neutrality but rather had to expose and defend its guiding normative commitments. Scientific knowledge could not be construed as a neutral instrument to use or abuse but rather as itself already structurally embedded and implicated in the social reproduction of a society or specifically poised to stand in a reflective and critical relationship to it. How we understand what it means to be human is a normatively structured and norm constitutive enterprise no matter what level of analysis is undertaken. A normative stand on biotechnology is ipso facto a normative stand on what it is to be human, that is, an 'anthropology' in the philosophical sense. In a recent book entitled The Future of Human Nature, Jurgen Habermas has, for the first time despite a large and extensive oeuvre, directly addressed questions concerning biology, biotechnology and the prospects of liberal eugenics. Rather, however, than extending the Critical tradition into this timely domain, Habermas (even if contrary to cursory appearance) has retreated from the anthropological perspective of his earlier work and rather set forth a thin neo-Kantian based ethics of abstention that swallows and regurgitates the media-hyped jargon of genetic programming holus-bolus. Where unconditional condemnations of reproductive technologies have previously been predicated upon 'metaphysical' criteria, as for example in the case of the Roman Catholic Church, Habermas' goal and presumed achievement appears to have been that of arriving at comparable conclusions on 'post-metaphysical' grounds (a phrase that is peppered throughout the text). But the cost of matching the metaphysically-based categorical rejection of liberal eugenics on the grounds of a putatively post-metaphysical argument is, for Habermas, the need to embrace a preformationistic jargon of 'genetically programmed individuals' and yet in so doing entering into a paradoxical and ultimately untenable relationship with exactly those anthropological presuppositions that his entire argument must depend upon. In order to best elucidate the sense in which Habermas has retreated from the Critical tradition and the very different kinds of considerations it might have led him to, I will attempt to first explicate the unavoidable anthropological dimensions of Critical Theory and then provide a schematic reconstruction of Habermas' oeuvre in terms of its changing anthropological orientation. Finally, I will address the question as to whether Habermas' retreat from Critical Theory, for the sake of an unconditional dismissal of liberal eugenics, has provided a cure worse than the disease, and point in the direction of an alternative standpoint still in tune with the intentions of the Critical tradition. What would constitute being within the 'Critical tradition'? In his early 'Remarks on Philosophical Anthropology', Max Horkheimer suggested that 'there is no formula that defines the relationships among individuals, society, and nature for all time'. (1) Under the heading of 'nature' Horkheimer surely meant to include the nature within, as well as the nature without, given that the primary purpose of his essay is to eschew the intentions of a philosophical anthropology that would seek to secure a fixed norm with which to guide human life. Critical Theory was conceived as a normative enterprise, but one that, to use Thomas McCarthy's words, seeks to derive its normative standpoint by way of an on-going, 'dialectical interpenetration of philosophy and empirical research'. …


Abstract. The width of spiral-patterned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod coatings on plastic optical fiber (POF) was optimized theoretically for light-side coupling and found to be 5 mm. Structured ZnO nanorods were grown on large core POFs for the purpose of alcohol vapor sensing. The aim of the spiral patterns was to enhance signal transmission by reduction of the effective ZnO growth area, thereby minimizing light leakage due to backscattering. The sensing mechanism utilized changes in the output signal due to adsorption of methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol vapors. Three spectral bands consisting of red (620 to 750 nm), green (495 to 570 nm), and blue (450 to 495 nm) were applied in measurements. The range of relative intensity modulation (RIM) was determined to be for concentrations between 25 to 300 ppm. Methanol presented the strongest response compared to ethanol and isopropanol in all three spectral channels. With regard to alcohol detection RIM by spectral band, the green channel demonstrated the highest RIM values followed by the blue and red channels, respectively.


INDUSTRIES Abstract This article deals with the determination of the stages of development of Ukrainian industries with regard to the factors driving innovation. Based on an analysis of literary sources carried out, the most common indicators of the stages of development of industries have been identified, and it is proposed to classify them into structural, volumetric, dynamic, and innovation ones, given the specificity of the relevant statistical data regarding Ukraine. Calculations have shown that most industries are in a declining phase in terms of the majority of volumetric and innovation criteria. In some industries there are positive trends to intensify the innovation activity of businesses, while the chemical and engineering industries, which have the highest level of technological development, are in a decline


Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) is a widespread and potent calcium-mobilizing messenger that is highly unusual in activating calcium channels located on acidic stores. However, the molecular identity of the target protein is unclear. In this study, we show that the previously uncharacterized human two-pore channels (TPC1 and TPC2) are endolysosomal proteins, that NAADP-mediated calcium signals are enhanced by overexpression of TPC1 and attenuated after knockdown of TPC1, and that mutation of a single highly conserved residue within a putative pore region abrogated calcium release by NAADP. Thus, TPC1 is critical for NAADP action and is likely the long sought after target channel for NAADP.


Objectives Patients who want to return to pre injury recreational sport performance after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) should restore specific motor abilities such as balance, lower limb symmetry in strength and power. Low to moderate intensity plyometric and landing technique drills are exercises for regaining jump abilities and improvement of intra-muscular and global coordination. Intensity and volume of these exercises should be dosed cautiously for ACLR patients in latter stages of postoperative physiotherapy. Limb symmetry index (LSI) between involved and uninvolved side lower than 5–10% is a good predictor for reducing risk of ACL reinjury. Assessment of relative load and LSI is possible by vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) measurements in two-legged or one-legged jumps. The purpose of the study was to assess two-legged and one-legged vertical jumps limb symmetry in patients after ACLR with a different time of postoperative physiotherapy attendance. Methods Group I (n = 20) and the Group II (n = 15) consisted of patients after unilateral ACLR with the use of autologous ipsilateral hamstring graft. The time since ACLR in both groups was statistically insignificant (28 weeks in Group I and 32 weeks in Group II), however there were statistically significant differences between the time of postoperative physiotherapy attendance between the two groups (28 weeks in Group I and 11 weeks in Group II). The Group III consisted of 20 volunteers without known orthopaedic problems in history. In the three groups the measurements of vGRF during two-legged and one-legged vertical jumps were performed with the use of MTD-Balance system. Prior to the study the intra-rater and inter-rater test-retest reliability was carried out. In the three studied groups the LSI was calculated. One-way ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey's test were used to assess the significance of differences between LSI of three studied groups. Shapiro-Wilk test was performed to study the distribution normality. Additionally, for the intra-group comparison of vGRF values the Student's t-test was used. Results The analysis didn't reveal any statistically significant differences in the one-legged jump LSI between the three studied groups (LSI = 98 in Group I, LSI = 94 in Group II, LSI = 99 in Group III), nevertheless there were found statistically significant differences in the two-legged vertical jump LSI. The statistically significant difference concerned the comparison between the Group II (LSI = 83) and Group III (LSI = 100). The difference between Group I (LSI = 99) and Group III was insignificant. The intra-group analysis didn't reveal any significant differences between involved and uninvolved leg in two-legged and one-legged jumps in Group I and in one-legged jump in Group II. Nevertheless, there were noted statistically significant differences between two legs in two-legged jump in Group II. Conclusions In patients after ACLR who didn't undergo the half-yearly postoperative physiotherapeutic procedure the two-legged LSI was significantly different in comparison to individuals with no orthopaedic problems in history even though the one-legged vertical jumps LSI was similar in the three studied groups. The two last stages of postoperative physiotherapeutic procedure may have impact on regaining two-legged jump LSI in patients after ACL reconstruction on the level of healthy individuals.


Abstract In Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s churches and denominations of all kinds grew quickly. Among those that grew most quickly were the Pentecostals. My impression is that by the mid-1990s, however, the growth rate for the leading Pentecostal denominations had slowed down considerably. In this paper I try to ascertain whether this in fact is the case and if so, what the causes for the slowdown in growth might have been. Because denominations have been reticent in sharing official membership statistics, I have looked for evidence of denominational growth rates in other places and have found evidence for a slowdown. I have then sought to explain the end of the revival among the Pentecostals. I find that the weakening of the Pentecostal churches is coupled with the strengthening of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian society. The Orthodox Church has come to serve as an ethnic marker and it has successfully persuaded its adherents that non-Orthodox forms of Christianity are foreign sects. While I present little new empirical material, I ask new questions of the material available which help explain the slowdown in church growth among Russian Pentecostals.


In order to elucidate the role of T cell subsets in protective immunity against infection with high virulent and low virulent strains of Toxoplasma gondii, monoclonal antibodies specific for T cell subsets were injected into mice before immunization or challenge infection. Treatment of mice with monoclonal antibody to either L3T4+ or Lyt‐2+ T cells before they were immunized with Toxoplasma cell homogenate prepared from high virulent RH strain tachyzoites markedly reduced survival after mice were challenged with low virulent bradyzoites of the Beverley strain. Thus, induction of protective immunity against bradyzoites of the Beverley strain requires the presence of both L3T4+ and Lyt‐2+ T cells. In contrast, mice injected with living bradyzoites of the low virulent Beverley strain after immunization with Toxoplasma cell homogenate acquired protective immunity against high virulent tachyzoites of the RH strain. Lyt‐2+ T cells alone appear to be final effector cells for protection against the challenge with high virulent RH strain tachyzoites, since treatment of the bradyzoite‐immune mice with anti‐Lyt‐2 antibody, but not anti‐L3T4 antibody, before challenge significantly increased mortality.


Mangrove trees dominate coastal vegetation in tropical regions, but are completely replaced by herbaceous salt marshes at latitudes above 32 degrees N and 40 degrees S. Because water deficit can increase damage caused by freezing, we hypothesized that mangroves, which experience large deficits as a result of saline substrates, would suffer freeze-induced xylem failure. Vulnerability to freeze-induced xylem embolism was examined in the most poleward mangrove species in North America, in an area where freezing is rare but severe, and in Australia, in an area where freezing is frequent but mild. Percentage loss in hydraulic conductivity was measured following manipulations of xylem tension; xylem sap ion concentration was determined using X-ray microanalysis. Species with wider vessels suffered 60-100% loss of hydraulic conductivity after freezing and thawing under tension, while species with narrower vessels lost as little as 13-40% of conductivity. These results indicate that freeze-induced embolism may play a role in setting the latitudinal limits of distribution in mangroves, either through massive embolism following freezing, or through constraints on water transport as a result of vessel size.


Activated protein C is the first effective biological therapy for the treatment of severe sepsis. Although activated protein C is well established as a physiological anticoagulant, emerging data suggest that it also exerts anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic effects. In this study, we investigated the ability of activated protein C to modulate monocyte apoptosis, inflammation, phagocytosis, and adhesion. Using the immortalized human monocytic cell line THP-1, we demonstrated that activated protein C inhibited camptothecin-induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. The antiapoptotic effect of activated protein C requires its serine protease domain and is dependent on the endothelial cell protein C receptor and protease-activated receptor-1. In primary blood monocytes from healthy individuals, activated protein C inhibited spontaneous apoptosis. With respect to inflammation, activated protein C inhibited the production of TNF, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 by LPS-stimulated THP-1 cells. Activated protein C did not influence the phagocytic internalization of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bioparticles by THP-1 cells or by primary blood monocytes. Activated protein C also did not affect the expression of adhesion molecules by LPS-stimulated blood monocytes nor the ability of monocytes to adhere to LPS-stimulated endothelial cells. We hypothesize that the protective effect of activated protein C in sepsis reflects, in part, its ability to prolong monocyte survival in a manner that selectively inhibits inflammatory cytokine production while maintaining phagocytosis and adherence capabilities, thereby promoting antimicrobial properties while limiting tissue damage.


A discussion of how the criticisms of ethical theory in Soren Kierkegaard and Bernard Williams both reinforce each other and also provide some challenges to each other. Despite Williams' brief and dismissive encounter with Kierkegaard around the reading of a ancient tragedy, both oppose any tendency to see the characters in those tragedies as lacking in agency. Both are consistently concerned with how the individual struggles for some ethical agency and how no individual can be free of the influence of chance or error. Kierkegaard and Willliams are shown to both oppose relativism and communitarianism in ethics, along with utilitarianism and to both have an interest in plurality of ethical ideas of how to live.


As health care systems and providers move towards meaningful use of electronic health records, the once distant vision of collaborative patient-centric, interdisciplinary plans of care, generated and updated across organizations and levels of care, may soon become a reality. Effective care planning is included in the proposed Stages 2-3 Meaningful Use quality measures. To facilitate interoperability, standardization of plan of care messaging, content, information and terminology models are needed. This degree of standardization requires local and national coordination. The purpose of this paper is to review some existing standards that may be leveraged to support development of interdisciplinary patient-centric plans of care. Standards are then applied to a use case to demonstrate one method for achieving patient-centric and interoperable interdisciplinary plan of care documentation. Our pilot work suggests that existing standards provide a foundation for adoption and implementation of patient-centric plans of care that are consistent with federal requirements.


As the realization of Cloud computing environments advances from a simple and single private Cloud towards a more complex Cloud Service Ecosystem consisting of multiple coexisting public or hybrid Clouds, there are emerging high level concerns such as risk, trust, ecological, security, cost and legal factors that underpin the non-functional properties of the ecosystem. These concerns are beyond the traditional focus of providing functionalities at levels close to a single Cloud infrastructure such as hardware resource virtualization. In this paper we present ongoing research work to analyze and address the risk factor in such a Cloud Service Ecosystem for the purpose of optimizing Cloud service. The main contributions of the work are the design and implementation of an effective and efficient risk assessment framework (methodologies of risk identification, evaluation, mitigation and monitoring) for Cloud service provision. Together with the corresponding mitigation strategies, the framework provides technological assurance that will lead to a higher confidence of Cloud service consumers on one side and a cost-effective and reliable productivity of Cloud Service Provider (SP) and resources organized by individual Infrastructure Provider (IP) on the other side. The design of the risk assessment framework and its software toolkit implementation is part of the research and development work of the OPTIMIS (Optimized Infrastructure Services) project whose objective is to enable an open and dependable Cloud Service Ecosystem that delivers IT services that are adaptable, reliable, auditable and sustainable both ecologically and economically. Keywords-risk assessment; Cloud services; service provider; infrastructure provider; optimization.


Background: In clinical trials, research nurses play a particularly important role in promoting cancer care best practices. However, no Korean questionnaire has been developed to define the clinical trial nursing roles based on Good Clinical Practice standards. Objective: The aim of this study was to cross-culturally evaluate the reliability and validity of a Korean version of the Clinical Trials Nursing Questionnaire (CTNQ) among Korean clinical research nurses. Methods: Cross-cultural adaptation was performed, with forward and backward translation, a pilot test (linguistic validation), and a field test. Validation was performed by questioning 53 clinical research nurses who were working in clinical cancer centers at 5 tertiary university hospitals. The distribution of the item responses and internal consistency reliability were assessed using the ceiling and floor effects, Cronbach's &agr;, and the item-total correlation. Construct validity was assessed using Spearman correlation analysis and principal-component factor analysis. Results: The distributions of the item responses and the item-total correlation were generally appropriate. The Cronbach's &agr; values for the frequency scale and the importance scale were 0.852 and 0.899, respectively. Eight sections of the Korean CTNQ were generally correlated with each other. The frequency subscale loaded on 1 factor, and the importance subscale loaded on 2 factors, with broadly similar factor loadings. Conclusion: The Korean version of the CTNQ is reliable, valid, and interchangeable with the original CTNQ. Implications for Practice: The Korean version of the CTNQ can be used to validly and reliably assess the clinical trial nursing roles in Korea.


ObjectiveBecause medical students experience a considerable amount of stress during training, academic leaders have recognized the importance of developing stress-management programs for medical students. The authors set out to identify all controlled trials of stress-management interventions and determine the efficacy of those interventions.MethodsThe authors searched the published English-language articles on PsycINFO and Pub Med, using a combination of the following search terms: stress-management, distress, burnout, coping, medical student, wellness. Both randomized, controlled trials and controlled, non-randomized trials of stress-management programs were selected and critically appraised.ResultsA total of 13 randomized, controlled trials or controlled, non-randomized trials were identified. Interventions included self-hypnosis, meditation, mindfulness-based stress-reduction, feedback on various health habits, educational discussion, changes in the length and type of curriculum, and changes in the grading system. Only one study was identified to be of very high quality, although several had described group differences at baseline, used blinding, had good follow-up, and used validated assessment tools. There was a wide heterogeneity of outcome measures used. Interventions that were supported by a reduction in stress and anxiety in medical students included mindfulness-based stress-reduction or meditation techniques, self-hypnosis, and pass/fail grading.ConclusionsSignificant opportunities to advance educational research in this field exist by developing more high-quality studies with particular attention to randomization techniques and standardizing outcome measures.


Four high-purity germanium 4-fold segmented Clover detectors have been applied in the experiment of neutron-rich nucleus 21N. The performance of those four Clovers have been tested with radioactive sources and in-beam experiments, and the main results including energy resolution, peak-to-total ratios, the variation of the hit pattern distribution in different crystals of one Clover detector with the energy of γ ray, and absolute full energy peak detection efficiency curve, were presented.


The spectral distribution patterns of downward irradiance were studied in the squid jigging grounds of the Sea of Japan to examine fishing light transmittance according to the optical characteristics in areas and seasons. The optical water types in the summer season in the Sea of Japan can be classified into oceanic type IB-II for Shakotan peninsula offshore to western Akita prefecture, oceanic type II for northern Hyogo prefecture to San-in offshore, oceanic type II-III for northern Noto peninsula, northern San-in offshore and Tsushima offshore waters. In autumn, oceanic type II-III for San-in and III for Tsushima offshore waters were determined. The fishing light transmittance at 510nm wavelength was calculated as 6.27% at the depth of 50m for the optical condition of oceanic type IB-II, 2.77% for oceanic type II and 1.54% for oceanic type II-III. According to optical observations in the San-in and Tsushima fishing ground in autumn, the relative irradiance of fishing light at the depth of 50m can be estimated to be 34-51% of that in summer.


This study explored the relationship between age, sex and bone microarchitecture. Using high-resolution images, we may better understand the factors affecting different aspects of bone microstructure. Statistical support was provided for the quantitative differences in bone microarchitecture between the sexes. The significant differences noted in Canal Volume (Ca.V), Cortical Porosity (Ca.V/TV), Canal Surface (Ca.S) and Canal Surface to Tissue Volume (Ca.S/TV) offer several interesting points when compared with pre-existing literature. All four parameters listed above that reported significance did so with respect to sex, in that each parameter differed between sexes. However, no significant difference was noted among age within either sex. The biggest problem regarding the efficacy of this study was the small sample size for each age group. For any given age group, the sample size was not larger than 2 for each sex. This made it difficult to determine the effects of age on bone microstructure within one sex quantitatively. This may be due to the large of variation in the parameters we tested for. Support for age-related changes in bone microarchitecture within one sex, and additional support for changes between sex may be provided in the future when using a larger sample size.


Dermatophytes are a group of morphologically and physiologically related molds some of which cause well defined infections: dermatophytoses (tineas or ringworm). The present study aims at identification of dermatophytes species and varieties from patients in Wasit province-Iraq using molecular approach based PCR fingerprint. The short oligonucleotide (GACA)4 is a microsatellite primer was used in this study for identification of dermatophyte isolates. The results identified different species and varieties among dermatophytes. The numbers of resulting PCR bands ranged from 1 to 4 (size range, 600bp to 1600bp) for each species. The resulting patterns were distinct for Trichophyton and Microsporum species and varieties. Trichophyton soudanense and Trichophyton verrucosum revealed distinguishable profiles with four largest bands (800bp to 1900bp) among Trichophyton species. (GACA)4 is able to amplify all species of Microsporum producing intraspecies variation which is observed with Microsporum canis (rough strain) and Microsporum canis (smooth strain), all of which had different band pattern. We conclude that (GACA)4-based PCR has utility as a rapid method for identification of dermatophytes species as well as its utility for differentiation of Trichophyton and Microspmoru species and varieties.


A new, simple, rapid and novel spectrophotometric method has been developed for estimation of Ramipril (RAM). For this Absorption maximum Method (method A) and Area under Curve Method (Method B) is used. The method involved measurement of absorbance at wavelengths 210 nm for method A and method B involved measurement of area under curve in the wavelength range 202 to 237.5 nm for RAM. Beer's law obeyed in concentration range of 0.1 to 3.5 μg/ mL by both the methods. The proposed methods are recommended for routine analysis since they are rapid, simple, accurate and also sensitive and specific. The results obtained are reproducible with a coefficient of variation less than 2%. These methods were validated for precision, reproducibility, linearity and accuracy as per ICH guidelines.


Abstract This essay considers the problematic of dissent being rendered Oxymoronic with democracy in the United States under conditions of a weak democratic culture and an aggressive prosecution of the war on terror. It examines obstacles to democratic dissent in the U.S. and potential resources for rehabilitating it, sketching a preliminary map of the theoretical and cultural ground to be covered in a resistance to the further militarization of global politics. Suggesting that democracy is dissent, and democratic dissent is rhetorical critique, the essay argues that extant political culture might be rearticulated to dissent by language critiques that produce persuasive re-descriptions and symbolic merging.


The article describes a clinical case of treatment of complications of the May–Thurner syndrome. Asymmetry of blood flow in the iliac veins and signs of their narrowing were observed. Phlebography showed special characteristics of pelvic vessels, trajectory of the surgery was planned. Stenting of the left iliac vein is considered the optimal treatment for such patients if the pressure in it is above 5 mmHg compared to the inferior vena cava. Specialized venous self-expanding stents are an efficient choice for stenting. Access can be performed through the popliteal vein on the unilateral side and / or the femoral or humeral artery, jugular or subclavian access can be used depending on the patient's anatomy and the size of the delivery device. The female patient underwent coil embolization of varicocele of the lower pelvic veins. At repeat examination after 3 months, pelvic pain was minimal, no pain during sex, no varicocele in the groin and lower extremities. Contrastenhanced spiral computed tomography with 3D reconstruction of the pelvic veins didn't show any signs of pelvic congestion syndrome.


Rural social movements have in recent years adopted agroecology and diversified farming systems as part of their discourse and practice. Here, we situate this phenomenon in the evolving context of rural spaces that are increasingly disputed between agribusiness, together with other corporate land-grabbers, and peasants and their organizations and movements. We use the theoretical frameworks of disputed material and immaterial territories and of re-peasantization to explain the increased emphasis on agroecology by movements in this context. We provide examples from the farmer-to-farmer movement to show the advantages that social movements bring to the table in taking agroecology to scale and discuss the growing agroecology networking process in the transnational peasant and family farmer movement La Via Campesina.


Summary In an exploratory study of affective responsiveness as a component of esthetic sensitivity 62 college Ss took the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values and described on an antonym checklist their affective responses to photographs portraying "forces of nature." One-third of the group with extreme high and low AVL Aesthetic value scores were compared on measures of affective responsiveness and on Sensation-Intuition and Perceiving-Judging scales of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. As predicted, high esthetic value Ss were more acceptant of stimulus materials (p = .005), more often perceptive (p = .025) and intuitive (p = .05) types on the MBTI. Results support a typological conception of esthetic sensitivity, and suggest that direct, "pre-artistic" emotional responsiveness to phenomena expressed in art forms is a component of this personality pattern.


Early prediction of premature pregnancy reduces neonatal death and helps in adoption of treatment well suited for the pre-term pregnancy state. There are scads of work done in the area of term and pre-term pregnancy analysis like artificial intelligence, regressive models, and higher order statistical models. This paper proposes a four-level decomposition of Electrohysterography (EHG) signals using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) based on pyramid algorithm to obtain the final feature vector matrix. Classification is done using Support Vector Machines (SVM) by dividing the data into test and training sets. It is validated on a well-known benchmark database from Physionet Database. The proposed method can be used for real time implementation owing to low computational cost, high speed and its feasibility to be implemented on hardware. The encouraging experimental results show that the technique gives an accuracy of 97.8% and can be a promising tool for investigating the risk of preterm labor.


The existence of the two-phase region (icosahedral phase (I-phase) + α-Mg) in the Mg-rich corner of the Mg-Zn-Y system indicates that composites consisting of I-phase and ductile α-Mg can be fabricated by a simple solidification process. Alloys with a range of combined strength and ductility can be designed by changing the fraction of the I-phase. Strengthening in proportion with increasing the volume fraction of I-phase can be explained by the effect of dispersion hardening due to the presence of finely dispersed I-phase particles. When quasicrystals exist in the α-Mg matrix as a second phase in Mg-Zn-Y alloys, the quasicrystals are stable against coarsening during thermomechanical processes such as hot rolling and high-temperature forming, due to the low interfacial energy of the quasicrystals with the α-Mg crystalline matrix, which provides strong bonding properties at the I-phase/matrix interface. Therefore, quasicrystal-reinforced Mg-Zn-Y alloys exhibit a much better combination of mechanical properties and formability than commercially used alloys such as AZ31 and AZ 61.


Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) play an important role in healthcare system by enabling medical experts to guide patients without measuring face-to-face. The unauthorized access of medical data from WBAN controller as well as the unreliable data communication may leads to risk for patients life. Currently, Chunqiang Hu et al., [1] proposed a data communication protocol by using Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) for a single file. The major limitation of Chunqiang Hu et al., [1] is that as the number of files increases, CP-ABE will suffer from parameters such as message size, energy consumption and computation cost. This paper proposes a more secure and efficient data communication protocol for WBANs by using an efficient File Hierarchy CP-ABE (FH-CP-ABE). We propose a more efficient Secure and Efficient data communication protocol for WBANs by using an efficient File Hierarchy CP-ABE (FH-CP-ABE). We use the integrated access structure which is a combination of two or more access structures and with the hierarchical files are encrypted. We evaluate the performance analysis of the proposed data communication protocol in terms of message size, energy consumption, computation cost and compared with Chunqiang Hu et al., [1] while the number of files increases.


Both peer tutoring and cooperative learning are types of peer assisted learning; they involve people from similar social groupings who are not professional teachers helping each other to learn and learning themselves by teaching. Peer tutoring usually involves pairs of students, one in the role of tutor and the other as tutee, with the more able or experienced member helping the other to learn material which is new to the tutor but not to the tutee. By contrast, cooperative learning is usually done in small groups of perhaps four students, often of mixed ability. The group works toward a consensus on a problem. Because it is easier to dominate or hide in a group, roles are often assigned to each group member.
 Earlier perspectives tended to use the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, perhaps with some consideration of Bandura and Dewey. Chi, King, and Graesser have been prominent in more recent work. However, a theoretical perspective is offered that integrates these elements with more practical issues.
 In general, both peer tutoring and cooperative learning "work"— in a wide range of curricular subjects and with a wide range of ages. Given the appropriate form of organization, cognitive gains ensue for both helpers and those who are helped. This is not the main research issue, which is exploring how and why these practices work, in order to improve effectiveness. There are several meta-analyses (a statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies) which are relevant, and beyond this, key individual papers of specific importance are highlighted.
 Over the years, we have become wiser about some of the key issues. In peer tutoring, same-ability tutoring has appeared in recent years, sometimes reciprocal, and we need to know under what conditions it works. Cooperative learning has issues regarding the most effective roles for group members and how these integrate with student ability and personality. There has also been much recent work in online peer tutoring which raises different issues. The existing literature is well-developed since these are not new methods. Future research should include more tightly defined studies focusing on more minor variables of context and organization.
 Many teachers will say they use both peer tutoring and cooperative learning, but very often they overestimate how often anything like good practice takes place. Simply putting students together and hoping for the best will not do, although it might have mild effects. Teachers using these methods need to be clear about what organizational parameters are vital in their context with their type of peer assisted learning. These features then need to be maximized in practice and an eye must be kept on implementation fidelity throughout. Education administrators need to organize professional development for teachers which is thorough, including initial instruction and practice followed up by support and monitoring in the classroom.


Due to technological advancement, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms have allowed significant cost reduction in lending. However, this improved allocation comes at the price of a higher credit risk. In this paper, the authors investigate the effectiveness of credit scoring models employed by P2P platforms with respect to loan default prediction. We claim that, because of differences in risk ownership with respect to traditional lenders, the rating grades obtained from P2P scoring models may not be the best predictors of loan default.


This study suggests a model for continuing and comprehensive management of hypertension or Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Korea. Moreover, this paper computed the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM management using the healthcare medical cost, which could have occurred from stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) that were successfully prevented from the effective hypertension or T2DM management. Additionally, these costs were compared with the cost of implementing the hypertension or T2DM management model suggested in this study. This study used the medical fee summary of the health insurance claims submitted to National Health Insurance Corporation by medical facilities for services provided during the period from January 1st 1999 to December 31st 2006. The prevalence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients submitted their medical claims at least once during the period, along with an accordant diagnosis. The incidence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients who never submitted claims for the accordant disease during the five years from 1999 to 2003 submitted claims for the accordant disease in 2004 and 2005. The relative risk of the occurrence of stroke, MI and ESRD was 11.0, 13.6, and 30.3, respectively. The attributable risk of hypertension or T2DM for stroke was 0.730, and that for MI and ESRD were 0.773 and 0.888, respectively. Based on these, the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM is estimated to be 986.3 billion Korean Won(KRW) for stroke patients, 330.5 billion KRW for MI patients, and 561.7 billion KRW for ESRD patients as in 2005. Hence, the total contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM to stroke, MI, and ESRD is 1.878 trillion KRW. The estimate for operational costs included an annual expenditure of 50,000 KRW per each recipient and an annual subsidy of 0.22 million KRW per person for the 1.6 million low.income individuals with hypertension or T2DM to cover their out.of.pocket medical expenses. Under this assumption, it took approximately 0.6 trillion KRW to manage 5 million high.risk patients in the low. and mid.income range, coverings up to 50% of costs. In conclusion, considering the potential benefits of preventing stroke, MI, and ESRD, the costs seems to be reasonable.


Background: To determine the relationship between country-level prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC), malnutrition and anemia in infants and preschool children.

Methods: Matched country level ECC, malnutrition and anemia prevalence information were generated from databases covering the period from 2000 to 2017. Multivariate general linear models were developed to assess the relationship between outcome variables (prevalence of stunting, wasting, overweight, and anemia) and the explanatory variable (ECC prevalence) adjusted for Gross National Income per capita. Adjusted regression coefficients (B) and partial eta squared were computed.

Results: The mean (standard deviation (SD)) ECC prevalence for 0-2 year-olds was 23.8 (14.8)% and 57.3 (22.4)% for 3-5 year-olds. The mean (SD) prevalence of wasting was 6.3 (4.8)%, overweight was 7.2 (4.9)%, stunting was 24.3 (13.5)%, and anemia was 37.8 (18.1)%. For 0-2-year-olds, the strongest and only significant association observed was between the prevalence of ECC and overweight (η2= 0.21): one percent higher ECC prevalence was associated with 0.12% higher prevalence of overweight (B= 0.12, P= 0.03). In 3-5-year-olds, the strongest and only significant association was observed between the prevalence of ECC and anemia (η2= 0.08): one percent higher prevalence of ECC was associated with 0.14% lower prevalence of anemia (B= -0.14, P= 0.048).

Conclusion: Age-related disparities in the relationship between country-level prevalence of ECC, malnutrition and anemia were observed. The relationship between ECC and overweight may be due to intake of sugars. The relationship between ECC and anemia needs further investigations.


Are retraining programs for the unemployed more effective than job search assistance? Governments of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have considerable experience with retraining programs in a variety of industrial settings. Evaluations of these programs show that the results are disappointing, however. This article discusses the factors associated with retraining programs for two types of workers: those laid off en masse and the long-term unemployed. Evaluations indicate poor results for both groups: retraining programs are generally no more effective than job search assistance in increasing either reemployment probabilities or post intervention earnings, and they are between two and four times more expensive than job search assistance.


To the Editor, Several studies have shown an increased incidence of malignancy in patients with celiac disease (CD). Such a trend is detectable both in Europe, where CD has a high prevalence, and in the USA, where CD was considered uncommon until recently. We report some data taken from an Italian group of patients affected by CD that show that there was a higher risk, with respect to the general population, of developing intestinal nonHodgkin's lymphoma. In the present study, 1968 patients diagnosed with CD over a 20-year period (between January 1982 and December 2002) in 20 Italian clinical centers specializing in gastrointestinal diseases were observed. The diagnosis of CD was made according to revised ESPGHAN criteria as follows: (i) histological evidence of atrophy of duodenal or jejunum mucosa; (ii) recovery at control biopsy after a glutenfree diet; and (iii) serological positivity for AGA IgG or IgA and EMA IgG. For each patient, demographic data and symptoms, and concomitant pathology results at the time of the diagnosis of CD were collected. Each patient gave their informed consent to take part in the study and the protocol was approved by the ethics committee of each participating center. Of the 1968 patients, 20 patients had already been diagnosed with gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at diagnosis of CD (17 cases of intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and three cases of gastric non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). We found CD predominantly affected men (2:1). The standardized morbidity ratio (95% CI) for the malignancy results was 6.25 (3.8–9.6). In addition, we noticed that the risk of developing gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma correlates with the age at diagnosis. The mean age of the patients with a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at diagnosis of CD is 46.1 ± 13.8 years, whereas the mean age of the control group, represented by the patients with no neoplasm at diagnosis, is equal to 36.6 ± 13.7. Therefore, the delayed diagnosis of CD is likely to be a risk factor for developing a lymphoma, probably because of the prolonged exposure to gluten. These data are consistent with those of other studies, indicating a relationship between CD and the development of gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It is noteworthy that most of these cases occur before the diagnosis of CD. Celiac disease is often an asymptmonatic condition, with a high rate of associated pathologies and malignancies, often diagnosed before CD is diagnosed. Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas are very frequent and can develop in sites other than the gastrointestinal tract, such as the skin, spleen, liver and central nervous system. The mechanism for the development of nonHodgkin's lymphoma in patients with CD is not known. However, chronic inflammation and antigenic stimulation, increased intestinal permeability and the release of inflammatory cytokines have been suggested. In our group of patients, we found only one case of extra-intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a lymphoma of the spleen. Sometimes the concomitant pathologies suggest the diagnosis of CD. Our results stress the importance of implementing programs aimed at making an early diagnosis of CD in order to prevent its complications, even if the best method of screening has yet to be determined.


Abstract The traditional Tibetan medicine Oxytropis falcata Bunge, in the Leguminosae family, is widely used in the west area owing to its significant anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. O. falcata is rich in flavonoids, which are the main secondary metabolites and key bioactive components of this plant. Up to now, 91 flavonoids have been isolated from O. falcata, including isoflavone, flavone, flavonone, flavonol, homoisoflavonoid, chalcone, dihydrochalcone, chalcone dimers, and pterocarpans. The flavonoids in O. falcata have good anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities, which are comparable to those of a positive drug control (indomethacin). Furthermore, these flavonoids exhibit antibacterial, antioxidant, antitumour, anti-cardiovascular disease, and haemostatic activities. However, to date, O. falcata has not been reviewed comprehensively. Herein, the main secondary metabolites, biosynthetic pathways, and bioactivities of O. falcata are discussed. Graphical Abstract


Annealed oxygen-free and tough-pitch copper samples have been processed by equalchannel angular pressing (ECAP) by route BC. The samples included 8 x 8 mm section pieces and a 40 mm diameter bar. Thermal stability was assessed based on the changes in the standard mechanical properties (conventional yield strength, tensile strength, elongation, proportional elongation and contraction) after annealing at different temperatures for 1 hour. Thermal stability of the same grade of material has been found to be different for different batches and to depend on the structural conditions of deformed material. The zone of thermal stability for copper of the two grades of interest does not depend on the material's chemical composition.


Immigration was a minor political topic in Slovakia before the outbreak of the refugee crisis in Europe in 2015. However, security discourse with regard to migration was institutionalized and represents the dominant view of migration. This paper analyzes the institutional basis for the dominant security discourse in Slovakia, using the concept of moral panic. It argues that the dominance of security discourse results from a consensus among politicians about cultural questions connected to migration and from a technocratic consensus among security professionals, experts and politicians who prioritize the security view of migration. Keywords: Slovakia; migration; European migrant crisis; political discourse; securitization; moral panic DOI: 10.14712/23363231.2017.11


The slow crack growth parameters of several transparent armor ceramics were measured as part of a program to lighten next generation spacecraft windows. Transparent magnesium aluminate (spinel, MgAl 2 O 4) and AlON exhibit superior slow crack resistance relative to fused silica, which is the historical material of choice. For spinel, slow crack growth, strength, and fracture toughness are significantly influenced by the grain size, and alumina-rich phases and porosity at the grain boundaries lead to intergranular fracture in coarse grain spinel. Functions describing the required mass for a desired window life imply that transparent ceramics can lighten window panes from a slow crack growth perspective.


Background and objective: The fruit of Mauritia flexuosa (moriche palm), which is known as "Aguaje," has been used for beverages and processed foods. Recently, we found that several methoxyflavans are contained in the fruit and they exhibit estrogenic activities. Therefore, moriche palm extract (MPE) may function as a phytoestrogen and improve the symptoms induced by estrogen deficiency. However, the clinical effects of MPE on females has not yet been reported. We conducted a clinical trial of MPE on undefined complaints related to premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in healthy Japanese females. Methods: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study examined the effects of MPE (100 mg daily) containing 12.6  g of 5,4'-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-6-methylflavan. Forty-four Japanese women with indefinite complaints in premenstrual and menstrual periods were enrolled in the study. All subjects were randomly allocated into either the MPE (100 mg) group (n=22) or the placebo group (n=22) using a computerized random-number generator. Capsules containing either MPE (100 mg) or placebo were administered for 8 weeks between October and December in 2018. The severity of uncertain complaints and emotional status were evaluated using the Japanese version of the menstrual distress questionnaire (MDQ) as a primary outcome, and Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36-Item Health (SF-36) questionnaire at 4 and 8 weeks of ingestion. Blood, urine, and body parameters were also evaluated. Results: Forty-three subjects completed the trial, and the per protocol set comprised 21 subjects in the MPE (100 mg) group and 22 subjects in the placebo group. After ingesting MPE for 4 weeks, arousal in the premenstrual period significantly improved in the MPE (100 mg) group. After 8 weeks, the summary score, water retention, impaired concentration and control during menstrual period significantly improved in the MPE (100 mg) group. Contrarily, among SF-36 domain scores, significant ameliorating effects of MPE were not observed compared with those of the placebo group. Laboratory tests revealed no abnormalities suggesting adverse effects of MPE. Conclusions: MPE (100 mg/day for 8 weeks) improved several indefinite complaint parameters related to mensuration. MPE was suggested to be useful for improving anxiety related to PMS. Keywords: Menstrual distress questionnaire; SF-36 questionnaire; moriche palm; methoxyflavan; indefinite complaint


Monitoring of the gamma radiation in Valle del Cervo Pluton was performed by determining U and Th contents in the main rock types cropping out over the entire area and pertaining to the granitic complex, syenitic complex and monzonitic complex. In particular, syenitic rocks were largely used as building and ornamental materials (e.g. Sienite della Balma). All the samples are fresh and do not present joints or fractures filled with U minerals. In the crushed samples the activity of uranium varies from 346 to 764 Bq/kg. Concentration of thorium varies from 202 to 478 Bq/kg. For all the analysed rocks uranium activity is higher than thorium one. The lowest value of radioactive concentration is referred to rocks of the granitic complex. The most active rocks are syenites. The data confirm the high activities of Valle del Cervo rock types, strongly connected with high K content of the source magma (geochemical signature); on the contrary, the activity seems to be not related to the location of the samples.


Challenges for global health care are considerable. Increasing healthcare expenditures, ageing, the rise of chronic diseases and the public health threat of infectious diseases give reason to worldwide concern. Many believe eHealth technologies to contribute to the solution of these issues and to the necessary innovation of healthcare systems. Is the widespread trust among public administrations, care professionals, researchers and the general public justified? The present paper aims to assess the risks of eHealth technologies for both patient safety and quality of care. A quick-scan of scientific literature was performed to collect publications on risks associated with the use of eHealth applications in cure and care. Only random clinical trials (RCTs) were included. Data-management issues were excluded. Of 340 identified publications, 17 met the inclusion criteria. Human, technological or organizational risks appear to be no subject of RCTs. But they come into view en marge implementations. As such, the selected studies suggest there is evidence for risks caused by the use of eHealth in healthcare which can negatively affect the quality of care and the safety of patients. A realistic reconsideration of the implementation of eHealth interventions is recommended. The ceHRes roadmap is an evidence-based guideline to systematically avoid or minimize these risks


River Ravi was major source of recharging groundwater table around Lahore City. However, scenario has totally been changed after indus water treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan. In dry season, almost 60 K.M long reach of river (Ravi siphon to Baloki Headwork) passing nearby the Lahore city is converted into drain. The groundwater table which is being recharged from untreated urban as well as industrial sewage is becoming highly contaminated. IWT was signed without carrying out any kind of Environmental Impact Assessment study. Due to this low flow condition many other environmental parameters are being affected, for example, drastically lowering of groundwater table, contamination of ground as well as surface water, degradation of esthetic value of river, endangered aquatic flora and fauna, usage of contaminated water for irrigation, degradation of human health, and increased water borne diseases. These all problems have been associated with low flow in River Ravi. In this research, the effect of low flow condition on the lowering of groundwater table is studied in detail in which groundwater table data of the past 60 years is analysed. Very obviously it can be concluded that there is drastic change in groundwater table depth before and after IWT. As a compensation and mitigation measure very essential recommendations is suggested that extra amount of water should be added at Ravi Siphon. This will not only mitigate sewage dilution problem rather it will also enhance recharging capability of River Ravi. Aus. & NewZe J. Soci Busi. Env. Sus. Vol  4(2),  October 2018, P 65-72


For numerical simulation of wave propagation in optical waveguides, we develop a mode-preserving boundary condition for the popular perfectly matched layer, which truncates the unbounded transverse plane. The method is particularly useful for single-mode longitudinally varying wave-guiding structures and it is easy to use for step-index planar waveguides. With this boundary condition, accurate numerical solutions can be obtained in a much smaller computational window. Numerical results based on the beam propagation method for a tapered waveguide are used to demonstrate the capacity of this boundary condition.


This essay charts the outlines of the historical transition from the artisanal workshop to the artist's studio and the transition from the artisan to the artist, not through the transition from patronage to the art market but through an analysis of the transformation of labour's social division of labour. The essay reassesses the discourses on the artist as genius and the artist as worker through a reinterpretation of the elevation of the Fine Arts above handicraft. This sheds new light, also, on the discourse of deskilling in art. This essay argues that the transition from the artisan to the artist is an effect of the social division of labour in which the knowledge, skills and privileges of the master artisan are distributed among a set of specialists.


BACKGROUND
Biliary mucinous cystic neoplasms (BMCNs) are uncommon neoplastic septated intrahepatic cysts which are often incorrectly diagnosed and have the potential for malignant transformation.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the outcome of surgical resection of BMCNs.

METHOD
A prospective liver surgery database was used to identify patients who underwent surgery at Groote Schuur Hospital Complex for BMCN from 1999 to 2015. Demographic variables including age and gender were documented as well as detailed preoperative imaging, location and size, operative treatment, extent of resection, histology, postoperative complications and outcome.

RESULTS
Thirteen female patients (median age 45 years) had surgery. Eleven were diagnosed by imaging for symptoms. Two were jaundiced. One cyst was found during an elective cholecystectomy. Five cysts were located centrally in the liver. Before referral three cysts were treated with percutaneous drainage and two were treated with operative deroofing. Six patients had anatomical liver resections and seven patients had non anatomical liver resections of which two needed ablation of residual cyst wall. One patient needed a biliary-enteric reconstruction to treat a fistula. Median operative time was 183 minutes (range: 130-375). No invasive carcinoma was found. There was no operative mortality. One surgical site infection and one intra-abdominal collection were treated. Two patients developed recurrent BMCN after 24 months.

CONCLUSION
BMCNs should be considered in middle aged women who have well encapsulated multilocular liver cysts. Treatment of large central BMCNs adjacent to vascular and biliary structures may require technically complex liver resections and are best managed in a specialised hepato-pancreatico-biliary unit.


Incentive compensation has been used through history by those in charge as a means of achieving performance goals and positive financial objectives. Since the early 1990s, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has approached executive compensation as a matter of disclosure. In 1992, the Commission adopted its new executive compensation proxy disclosure rules; the regulatory changes were adopted in response to complaints that the compensation paid to corporate executives had become excessive, and in the hope that the new regulation could produce an increased shareholder awareness that would make executives more accountable to the shareholders. Data on executive pay shows that SEC-mandated, detailed disclosure of information of executive compensation has not reduced the United States level of compensation of officers. While, arguably, disclosure generates a greater understanding of corporate executive pay for the shareholders, the availability of these numbers constitutes also an enormous advantage for CEOs and CFOs. Indeed, unless paid at a level equal to, or above the market average, a CEO/CFO may well decide to move to a different corporation. This problem makes retention a crucial issue in all public corporations and contributes to further driving executive pay to excessive levels. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley has not directly assessed, nor really improved, the mechanisms for compensation. Instead of decreasing excessive executive pay, public knowledge of salaries has created in the United States a sort of "race to the bottom" in which companies have to be willing to pay unjustifiable amounts of money to retain good management. While this history should have shown the Commission that disclosure will not suffice in the area of executive compensation, its staff, once again, has decided to enhance disclosure of executive pay in order to curb the problem of excessive pay packages. This paper argues that there is no reason to believe that enhanced disclosure will produce the desired effect.