Nowadays, natural disasters tend to increase and become more severe. They do affect life and belongings of great numbers of people. One kind of such disasters that hap-pen frequently almost every year is floods in all regions across the world. A prepara-tion measure to cope with upcoming floods is flood forecasting in each particular area in order to use acquired data for monitoring and warning to people and involved per-sons, resulting in the reduction of damage. With advanced computer technology and remote sensing technology, large amounts of applicable data from various sources are provided for flood forecasting. Current flood forecasting is done through computer processing by different techniques. The famous one is machine learning, of which the limitation is to acquire a large amount big data. The one currently used still requires manpower to download and record data, causing delays and failures in real-time flood forecasting. This research, therefore, proposed the development of an automatic big data downloading system from various sources through the development of applica-tion programming interface (API) for flood forecasting by machine learning. This research relied on 4 techniques, i.e., maximum likelihood classification (MLC), fuzzy logic, self-organization map (SOM), and artificial neural network with RBF Kernel. According to accuracy assessment of flood forecasting, the most accurate technique was MLC (99.2%), followed by fuzzy logic, SOM, and RBF (97.8%, 96.6%, and 83.3%), respectively.


The anterior process of the malleus of the middle ear develops irrespective of Meckel's cartilage through an intramembranous ossification center that appears in the human embryo of 26.5 mm crown-rump length at a caudomedial position in relation to Meckel's cartilage. The malleus has a double origin: the anterior process originates from the os goniale through intramembranous ossification, and the rest from Meckel's cartilage, through endochondral ossification.


The need-heirarchy concept and three theories of authority (Formal, Situationist, and Acceptance) are reviewed, and an integrated framework for discussing their interrelationships and importance to organization theory and human relations is developed. The formal theory may be useful in discussions of profit-seeking, formal organizations, but in explaining individual behavior it uses only the lower order needs and expressive behavior. The situationist approach is applicable to a wider range of organizations and uses higher level needs in explaining individual behavior, but does not fully account for the impact of the individual upon his environment. The Acceptance Theory can be used in discussing any form of organization and, in addition, recognizes the full impact of the individual in those organizations using the full range of needs as well as both coping and expressive behavior. The Acceptance Theory is, then, the more general, more inclusive, and more applicable basis for a theory of authority.


This paper provides an understanding of how the export credit worthiness of an importing country affects export sales of agricultural and other manufactured products and how export credit guarantees or insurance can mitigate risks of non-payment. A theoretical model is developed. It shows how risk mitigation through export credit insurance could increase exports to high risk importing countries. The key result is that the export response curve is more inelastic in the presence of payment risk, and the effect of insurance is to make the export curve more elastic. Statistical evidence supports this fundamental premise.


Ideas and images of what is deemed culturally valuable spring, on the one hand, from objects and values that are nationally respected and, on the other hand, from connections that are based on meanings attached to locality and identity. However, one should not experience the evaluation of cultural heritage only in an ossified way, as idolization of aspects of the past. lnstead, what is culturally valuable should rather find its place in modern cultural contexts. The western, modern way of life is generally characterized as being focused on individualism and individual goals, from which the "togetherness" of the past has entirely disappeared. Seen from the point of view of cultural and ethnological studies, the experience of solidarity alongside individualism is part of the elevation and evaluation of locality and identity that acts as a counterpoise to the supposedly levelling effect of globalization. Our recognition of the significance of our own national and local cultural heritage can also be the foundation from which we can learn to understand and respect people who follow different cultural values, ideals and customs in their lives.


The assessment of student's clinical competence is of paramount importance, and there are several means of evaluating student performance in medical examinations. The OSCE is an approach to student assessment in which aspects of clinical competence are evaluated in a comprehensive, consistent and structured manner with close attention to the objectivity of the process. The faculty of general medicine in collaboration with other clinical departments, Mamata Medical College, Khammam first implemented the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in the final MBBS Part-II examination during the internal assessment examination for the 2011-2012 academic years. The study was set out to explore student acceptance of the OSCE as part of an evaluation of final MBBS students. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by successive groups of students immediately after the OSCE. Main outcome measures were student perception of examination attributes, which included the quality of instructions and organization, the quality of performance, authenticity and transparency of the process, and usefulness of the OSCE as an assessment instrum ent compared to other formats. There was an overwhelming acceptance of OSCE in general medicine with respect to comprehensiveness (90%) transparency (90%) & authenticity of required tasks. Students felt that it was a useful form of examination. Student's feedback was invaluable in influencing faculty teaching curriculum direction and appreciation of student opinion and overall the students were agreeable with newer form of OSCE. The majority of the students felt that OSCE is a fair assessment tool compared to traditional long and short cases and it covers a wide range of knowledge and clinical skills in general medicine.


GASTROINTESTINAL hemorrhage and necrosis may result from intestinal ischemia secondary to inadequate cardiac output and increased splanchnic vascular resistance.* A variety of conditions, including severe congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, shock, cardiac arrhythmias, and extensive operative procedures, may precipitate intestinal ischemia. The clinical manifestations which accompany this process are determined by the degree of mesenteric vascular insufficiency and range from transient abdominal angina, nausea, and diarrhea to signs of a perforated viscus. The abdominal symptoms and signs resulting from intestinal ischemia are, however, often obscured by the presence of serious disturbances of the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Detailed descriptions of patients who have developed severe abdominal pain secondary to nonobstructive mesenteric arterial insufficiency are unusual. This report describes the clinical, operative, and pathologic findings in such a patient, who had rheumatic mitral stenosis and congestive heart failure. Report of Case Clinical Summary. —A 41-year-old woman, who had acute rheumatic


The target of this study was obesity's problematic rise in America. It was noted in the research that children developed habits that would potentially last a lifetime and which also dictated their medical fate. The focus of this study was to identify and decrease the factors of childhood obesity through education, healthy eating, and changes in food choices through surveys administered by the researchers of this study. Research linked obesity to the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and chronic diseases in children through decreased physical activity and poor diet due to the lack of essential nutrition knowledge. Other factors in childhood obesity included poor food preparation/creation, deceptive advertising, cultural habits, and an increased demand for fast-paced foods; leaving children's recognition and desire for healthy food choices clouded. The purpose of this study was to create and administer a survey to find results connected to childhood obesity within the Hispanic community in Springdale, Arkansas. The study also assessed parents' education levels in addition to parental perceptions and knowledge of healthy eating choices. The framework of the study will potentially become a catalyst for 'raising a foodie' in other outreach programs, preschools, or any Early Childhood Development Program locally and


ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. Koeleria macrantha, water deficit, tolerance ABSTRACT. Prairie junegrass (Koeleria macrantha) is a native cool-season C3 grass that has shown potential as a low- input turfgrass. An increased understanding of the physiological and molecular responses of prairie junegrass to water-deficit conditions is important for developing cultivars with enhanced drought tolerance. The objective of this study was to characterize the antioxidative responses and candidate gene expression in prairie junegrass subjected to drought stress. Two drought-tolerant (TOL-1 and TOL-2) and two drought-susceptible (SUS-1 and SUS-2) genotypes of prairie junegrass were subjected to 7 days of drought stress. Leaf relative water content (RWC) of SUS-1 and SUS-2 was 72.1% and 73.8% and RWC of TOL-1 and TOL-2 was 90.1% and 85.4% in drought-stressed plants, respectively. Drought stress did not affect chlorophyll fluorescence, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidative enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase (APX), or glutathione reductase for tolerant or susceptible genotypes. The TOL-2 and SUS-2 genotypes were further examined for candidate gene expression. Drought stress did not alter expression levels of CAT and chloroplastic copper/zinc SOD (Cu/ZnSOD), but increased levels of APX in either genotype, compared with their relative controls. Expression of P5CS encoding D 1 - pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase and P5CR encoding D 1 -pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase for proline biosynthesis were up-regulated under drought stress for both genotypes; however, expression of P5CR was more strongly induced under drought stress for TOL-2, compared with its control. The expression of 1-FFT encoding fructan:fructan 1-fructosyltransferase, which is involved in fructan biosynthesis, was strongly induced under drought stress for TOL- 2 but not detected under either control or drought stress conditions for SUS-2. These results indicate that the genes involved in proline and fructan biosynthesis may play an important role in drought tolerance in prairie junegrass.


This Essay begins by rejecting the reasoning of the joined cases Keck & Mithouard. After discussing what passes for reasoning in this case, this Essay examines the case law before and after Keck in order to attempt to draw some conclusions about the consequences of Keck for the earlier case law and about the application of Article 30 since Keck. In part through a comparison with recent case law on EC Treaty Article 59, the conclusion is that the case law on Article 30 has developed in an extremely unfortunate and unsystematic direction, but also that the unity of the internal market within the Community has at the end of the day not been unduly endangered.


The paper concentrates on the possibility of indirect harmonization of compensation awarded for the infringement of the rights protected by the EC law. Within the literature the problem of the influence of the European monetary integration upon the legal harmonization has not been analyzed so far. In the present paper the theory of transactional framework (Calabresi & Melamed 1972, Ayres 2005) has been applied in order to analyze the potential economic consequences of the operation of the multilevel judicial governance structure which has been created in the European Union. The functional framework of the multilevel European judicial governance (Maduro, 2003; Petersmann, 2008) is thus to be analyzed from the perspective of the economic consequences of the European monetary integration (Rogoff, 1996; Rose, 2000).


The author discusses the role of corporate governance in preventing economic crises, both in the enterprise and in the economy. The article is based on the research of literature. It presents the concept of corporate governance, crisis, and factors affecting the effectiveness of the supervisory board. In the final part, it presents the principles of effective corporate governance established by the OECD, and the recommendations for redefining of the rules resulting from the analysis of experiences of the last global financial crisis.


Several important points regarding the treatment of urinary tract infections should be made. Single-dose and short-course antibiotic therapy is appropriate only for women with acute bacterial cystitis due to E. coli. Studies comparing single-dose to full-course therapy have not been sufficiently designed to draw valid statistical conclusions, and only TMP/SMX is recommended at this time. Recurrent UTI in women is almost always due to reinfection, which is best managed by prophylactic antibiotics. Acute bronchitis and acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis are often due to viral infections, and therefore antibiotic therapy is not always needed. In acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis, the clearest success rates for antibiotic therapy have been in patients, who have all three of the following symptoms: increased dyspnea, increased sputum production, and sputum purulence. Mupirocin is an important addition to the agents used to treat bacterial skin infections due to streptococcal and staphylococcal strains. In impetigo, mupirocin has been demonstrated to be as effective or superior to oral erythromycin. In prostatitis, data on the fluoroquinolones appears impressive, but further comparative trials are needed. They may become first-line, empiric therapy. The newer oral antibiotics are not recommended as initial, empiric therapy in the outpatient management of common infections, with the possible exception of the treatment of prostatitis. These newer agents may be more important in the treatment of recurrent or resistant infections.


Traders, explorers and early settlers of the American West traveling the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the Mississippi River eagerly awaited the river's seasonal rises and flooding. Late fall rains in October through November and spring rains and winter snowmelt from the Appalachian Mountains signaled the river would soon rise above its rocky bottom and flood the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, Kentucky (figure 1), enabling navigation. The trip up and down the Ohio River in all seasons was a dangerous adventure with river flows blocked and diverted by fallen trees, floating logs, and rocks. Some summers the water levels were so low that boats were grounded and horse drawn wagons easily crossed the river, and in winter the frozen waters brought all navigation to a halt (Olson and Morton 2016). The Ohio River was and is today a critical transportation artery connecting the East Coast and the Midwest. An economic driver of the region and nation, this inland waterway carries raw materials, agricultural commodities, and finished products used within the United States and exported to countries around the world. It is used by municipalities, industries, fishers, recreational boaters, birdwatchers, and naturalists that value the river ecosystem for…


Commercial radio is seemingly resisting many of the challenges that online media platforms present for print and television. Despite encouraging listener numbers and consistent revenue, there is, however, widespread industry consensus that radio must change to account for an uncertain future. In a highly commercial context, such as New Zealand, radio stations are increasingly converged with complementary platforms as part of a larger integrated media offering. Aligning with a broad political economy critique of contemporary media work and similar investigations into changing radio practices elsewhere, this article examines the negotiation of new responsibilities within New Zealand radio's 'virtual duopoly'. To this end, the research presented here is drawn from an empirical study that conducted in-depth interviews with radio professionals across various levels of management, on-air, and online content production. The interviews reveal the workings commercial radio organisations as they develop strategies to meet new branding objectives by converging broadcast and online media practices. As this article will demonstrate, management tasked with implementing digital initiatives have an informal approach to developing these strategies, encountering limited resistance in the promotion of new tasks. Likewise, on-air staff have largely embraced the opportunity to extend their personal brand and engage with audiences online. A relaxed approach to implementing new practices is perpetuating industry uncertainty, demonstrating some potential to strain existing organisational relationships.


The principles of stratigraphic paleobiology can be readily applied to the nonmarine fossil record. Consistent spatial and temporal patterns of accommodation and sedimentation in sedimentary basins are an important control on stratigraphic architecture. Temperature and precipitation covary with elevation, causing significant variation in community composition, and changes in base level cause elevation to undergo predictable changes. These principles lead to eight sets of hypotheses about the nonmarine fossil record. Three relate to long-term and cyclical patterns in the preservation of major fossil groups and their taphonomy, as well as the occurrence of fossil concentrations. The remaining hypotheses relate to the widespread occurrence of elevation-correlated gradients in community composition, long-term and cyclical trends in these communities, and the stratigraphic position of abrupt changes in community composition. Testing of these hypotheses makes the stratigraphic paleobiology of nonmarine systems a promising area of investigation.


With the increasing demand for large scale micro/nano components in the fields of display, energy and electrical devices, etc, the establishment of a roll imprinting process has become a priority. The fabrication of a roll stamp with high dimensional accuracy and uniformity is one of the key issues in the roll imprinting process, because the roll stamp determines the properties of the replicated micro/nano structures. In this study, a method to fabricate a metallic roll stamp with low internal stress, high flatness, and high hardness was proposed by a pulse reverse current (PRC) electroforming process. The effects of PRC electroforming processes on the internal stress, hardness, and grain size of the electroformed stamp were examined, and the optimum process conditions were suggested. As a practical example of the proposed method, various micro-patterns for electronic circuits were fabricated via the roll imprinting process using a PRC electroformed stamp.


This paper sets up a formalism that is sufficiently general to describe the effects of photofission, photonuclear, (n, xn), (n, n′xγ), and (n, xγ) reactions on the neutron-gamma Feynman-alpha variance-to-mean ratios. Such a formalism is obtained using the Chapman-Kolmogorov (master) forward equation for the above-mentioned set of nuclear reactions. Thereafter, the issue of estimating reaction intensities for gammas in the master equation is highlighted by the paper. As an example, a quantitative evaluation of reaction intensities is given for a case when (n, γ), photonuclear, and (n, 2n) reactions are relevant for the system. However, an evaluation of the influence of these types of reactions to the values of the Feynman variance-to-mean ratios is not within the scope of this paper. Overall, the results obtained in this paper are intended to give an extended systematic framework for the study of the neutron- and gamma-based nondestructive assay problems in nuclear reactor applications and materials control.


Phase equilibria are established in the CaO-TiO{sub 2}-ZrO{sub 2} system at 1,200 C, using X-ray diffraction and electron probe microanalysis. The existence of two previously reported ternary phases, zirconolite (CaZrTi{sub 2}O{sub 7}) and calzirtite (Ca{sub 2}Zr{sub 5}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 16}), is confirmed. Each of these phases exhibits a significant range of homogeneity between TiO{sub 2} and ZrO{sub 2} while maintaining a nearly constant concentration of CaO. The ternary solubilities of the constituent binary phases are found to be negligible, with the exceptions of the perovskites, which display mutual solubility of at least 22 mol.% and may in fact form a series of continuous solid solutions. The solubilities of Hf and Gd in zirconolite are also investigated. While Hf-bearing samples did not reach thermodynamic equilibrium under the experimental conditions employed, the existence of a Hf analog to zirconolite, CaHfTi{sub 2}O{sub 7}, is conclusively demonstrated. The phase is stable at the stoichiometric composition, and its lattice parameters are very close to those reported in the literature for stoichiometric zirconolite. A Gd-bearing sample of the composition Ca{sub 0.88}Zr{sub 0.88}Gd{sub 0.24}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7} is found to be essentially single phase zirconolite, in agreement with previous investigations at higher temperatures.


Rapid advancement in cancerimaging is giving the phrase "seek and destroy" new meaning in the discovery and treatment of cancer. Hybridization of imaging technologies provides high‐resolution visualization of cancer needed to direct tissue‐ablating ultrasound or to guide localized catheter deposition of chemotherapeutic release matrices. The use of Nanomedicine probes, envisioned for almost two decades, have now begun to reach the clinic, promising sensitive image‐based detection, characterization and quantification of cancer in combination with delivering classic chemotherapeutics or newer DNA and RNA‐based treatments. Collectively, these novel image‐guideddrug delivery approaches present a unique opportunity to personalize and focus cancer management strategies toward improved clinical outcomes with reduced morbidity. While the path from bench to patient is challenging, the vision of what can be achieved is evolving in animalmodels and patients alike. In a world economy in which human and economic resources are increasingly precious and pharmaceutical development risk remains high, image‐guideddrug delivery presents an unprecedented opportunity for academic, government, and private sectors to collaborate and to accelerate the clinical translation pace of these high impact technologies.


The modified two-site model for platelet activation by collagen requires tight binding of platelets to collagen through integrin α2β1, after its prior activation by inside-out signals initiated by GP VI. The inside-out signalling to α2β1 is not well characterized although it is currently accepted that GPVI initiates signals that lead to regulation of this integrin. The aim of the study was to determine the role played by actin polymerization and the Rho family GTPase cdc42 in the regulation of α2β1 integrin. We first show that GPVI- and non-GPVI-dependent signals differentially regulate distribution of α2β1 receptors, where binding of platelets to collagen leads to redistribution of the integrin to areas of contact between platelet and collagen fibre. Binding of platelets to collagen also leads to activation of α2β1 integrin, which is dependent upon actin polymerization and cdc42 activity, since activation is blocked by cytochalasin D and secramine A respectively. Adhesion of platelets to collagen is markedly diminished in the presence of these inhibitors, whereas adhesion to CRP- or fibrinogen-coated surfaces is not affected. Platelet aggregation to collagen, but not CRP or thrombin, is also markedly dependent upon actin polymerization and cdc42 activity. In conclusion these data suggest that actin polymerization and cdc42 are required for activation of integrin α2β1, but not αIIbβ3, thereby critically regulating platelet adhesion to and activation by collagen. We therefore suggest a further modification to the current two-site two-step model for activation of platelets by collagen, where actin polymerization and cdc42 mediate a critical step in modulating α2β1 activation, possibly through a positive feedback pathway from α2β1 itself.


This article discusses the early phase of the Hungarian reception of the aesthetic views
of Edmund Burke. It does so by considering two reference works on aesthetics, one by
Gyorgy Alajos Szerdahely (1740–1808), the other by Johann Ludwig Schedius (1768–1847).
Both authors were, in their day and later, well known amongst the scholars of Europe.
Their reference works became university textbooks, and should therefore not now be
neglected. The specialist literature has, however, to this day one-sidedly interpreted
their conceptions as eclectic mixtures of German, English, and French works on
aesthetics. In this article, the author seeks to surmount the poor methodology and
unsatisfactory conclusions concerning the reception of foreign authorities in Hungarian
aesthetics. She does so by using the example of Burke, reconstructing the context
of the places that he is mentioned, presenting them as period topoi, and analysing
the narrative strategies of the two Hungarian authors. These approaches allow her
more profoundly to explore the relationship between Burke's Enquiry and the two
reference works. In the foreground of the comparison are the key terms 'beauty' and
'the sublime', the use of narration and metaphor, and also reflections on art, society,
and sociability.


The rapid growth of data applications is forcing service providers to seek efficient means of carrying packet data over their legacy SONET/SDH networks, designed for circuit-switched voice traffic. This problem is exacerbated by the increased deployment of new Ethernet-based VPN services over their metro networks. To support Ethernet traffic, two packet-aware SONET/SDH transport architectures have been proposed-Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH (EoS) and packet-rings (PR). In this paper, we argue that both architectures make inherent tradeoffs that limit the volume of data traffic that may be supported. Instead, we propose a hybrid architecture called CyBorg that makes selective use of EoS pipes in conjunction with a PR capability. We formulate and propose a solution to the setup failure re-arrangement problem that dynamically creates EoS pipes to supplement the existing PR if the system fails to satisfy incoming demands. We show through extensive simulations that by doing so, this novel architecture not only enables higher data traffic loads but achieves it with lower data switching capacity. We believe that this hybrid architecture and the efficiency it provides, makes for a cost-effective solution for the dilemma facing service providers.


The Krukenberg tumor is a rare malignant tumor of the ovary, accounting from 1% to 2% of all ovarian tumors. It is usually a bilateral involvement of ovaries from the metastatic deposit from adenocarcinoma of the stomach. We present a patient at the age of 45, who visited a doctor because of pain in the stomach, nausea, and vomiting and weight loss of more than 20 kg. Clinical, biochemical, endoscopic, pathohistological, radiological and imaging studies [ultrasound (US) and computed tomography (CT)] have been performed. The radiological examination was performed using a noncontract and double-contrast technique. The US examination was performed with a 3.75 MHz convex probe, using a standard overview technique. CT was made after oral administration of 700 mL of water, i.v. application of a non-ionic contrast agent of 90 mL in bolus, in hypotonia achieved by i.v. glucagon application, with a scanning width of 10 mm. The radiological finding is in favor of diffuse neoplastic submucosal infiltration of the stomach wall in the region of the corpus and antrum with expressed desmoplastic reaction (linitis plastica). CT findings confirm the radiological findings of the stomach, clearly visualize metastases in the ovaries and peritoneum-ascites, thus diagnosing the primary inoperable neoplastic stomach process—linitis plastica, with metastases in the ovaries—Krukenberg tumor. A comparison of the obtained radiological and imaging results with the endoscopic and pathohistological findings has been made. Krukenberg tumor is an ovarian metastasis of digestive tract cancer. Radiological and especially imaging methods have high diagnostic value and accuracy.


One of the most challenging issues in low dose computed tomography (CT) imaging is image denoising and signal enhancement. Sparse representational methods have shown initial promise for these applications. In this thesis we present a wavelet based sparse representation denoising technique utilizing dictionary learning and clustering. By using wavelets we extract the most suitable features in the images to obtain accurate dictionary atoms for the denoising algorithm. To achieve improved results we also lower the number of clusters which reduces computational complexity. In addition, a single image noise level estimation is developed to update the cluster centers in higher PSNRs. A new image enhancement technique is developed for low-dose CT images to improve the quality of image for diagnostic purpose and reduce the blurring artifacts. The accuracy along with the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm are then compared with recent approaches and clearly demonstrate the improvement of the proposed algorithm proposed in this thesis.


Carpet plant used as temporary grassland is an essential component of forage systems applied in regions lacking natural grasslands (permanent), as is Burnazului plain. It provides the cheapest animal feed during the growing and most balanced in terms of nutrient feed for a period of calves. For quality measurements and analyzes I performed in the dynamic field floristic composition, the vegetation cover density, the permanence, the aesthetic appearance of the vegetation and landscape and I have harvested plant material for laboratory testing and the amount of dry matter content of macro and micronutrients. Based on botanical analysis I found that the mixtures in organic fertilized variants, lucerne reaches a weight of 70-80%. Structure determinations on the vegetative organs of the species yield components shows that both the pure culture of lucerne, and mixtures with Dactilis glomerata variants leaf share increase from cycle 1 to cycle 3-century. Crude fibre content of plants, indicator of consumption and digestion, is very low, 20-28% of dry matter. The lowest values of 20-22%, occurred in pure culture variant lucerne and Trifolium alexandrinum version, fertilized with manure. Microelement content in plants falls within normal parameters.


While the process of community development has been studied in terrestrial habitats since the turn of the 20th century, similar information is not as readily available in marine systems. Understanding patterns of community development is essential to predicting recovery potential and to designing effective marine protected areas. In the South Atlantic Bight, invertebrate communities on hard substrata can differ significantly from one rocky outcrop to another, but the factors driving these differences are not well understood. I documented the initial development of the benthic invertebrate community at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) to address the prediction that this system does not demonstrate a predictable pattern of succession. This prediction was investigated by tracking community development on natural substrate plots (30 x 30 cm) that were cleared of benthic organisms each summer between 2010 and 2015, and in each case were allowed to recover for one year. Comparisons of species richness, diversity, and percent cover showed that one year was not sufficient for the plots to recover to their original composition. While plots cleared in different years did exhibit similar patterns of species richness and diversity after one year of recovery, closer inspection revealed that the particular species present was not consistent across years. In addition, the percent cover varied from year to year. These results indicate that succession models do not apply to the sessile benthic invertebrate community of GRNMS. Thesis Mentor:________________________


This thesis contends that the encounter between Chinese Buddhism and the periodical publication industry played a crucial part in the reform and transformation of Buddhism in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China. By delineating Buddhism's initial encounter with modern print technology and the subsequent development of Buddhist periodical publications, this thesis highlights the ways in which the monastic community used modern print technology to spread the voice of Buddhism in this era of drastic social change. Buddhist print culture also serves to illustrate another historical reality often neglected when studying modern Chinese Buddhism: the initiative of the Buddhist monastic order to participate in social transformation as well as Buddhist reform by combating the continuing degradation caused by national and ideological crises. Taking prominent Buddhist monks such as Zongyang, Yinguang, and Taixu as examples of various manners of engaging with periodical publication, this thesis reveals the different strategies implemented by the Buddhist sangha and the mixed attitudes they held toward modern communication techniques. The thesis ends by discussing advertisements printed in early twentieth-century Buddhist periodicals, which present a picture of a prosperous, active, and vivified—but not unified—Buddhist community which not only served its own members but also adapted to a changing social environment that incentivized proposals for both reform and preservation of Chinese Buddhism.


The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NAVMETOCCOM) produces operational image products referred to as performance surfaces. A performance surface is the projection of numerical values that reflect the performance of a system or phenomenon into a Geographic Coordinate System layer portraying a physical representation of the earth's atmosphere, surface, or ocean. That is, a performance surface is a graphic that indicates optimal performance through visual cues. To date, performance surface algorithms exist for AntiSubmarine Warfare (ASW) and Piracy, and future performance surfaces are anticipated. A characteristic of performance surfaces is their computational complexity, which can be either deterministic or stochastic in nature. The use of stochastic processes drives a significant computational burden based on the sheer volume of individual simulations that must be run and then combined to form a probabilistic prediction. To mitigate the difficulties imposed by large volume stochastic processes, NAVMETOCCOM chartered an Integrated Product Team (IPT) to characterize a suitable computational architecture for existing and future performance surfaces. The IPT was also tasked to document an engineering process by which emergent performance surfaces could implement suitable architectures. This engineering process used tailored DoD acquisition best practices that were agile and easily repeatable for use by future NAVMETOCCOM IPT efforts.


The purpose of the study is to model the impact of oil prices on stock prices in Kenya using monthly data for between 2003 and 2015. The study uses the Johansen's multivariate cointegration test and the vector error correction model (VECM). The Johansen's cointegration test shows that the variables are cointegrated with at most one cointegrating vector and the cointegration estimate reveals that oil prices have a significant relationship with stock prices in the long-run in Kenya. The VECM model reveals that in the short-run, oil prices have a significant influence on stock prices. Similarly, in the long-run, the study finds that oil prices have a negative effect on stock prices in Kenya. To address the impact of oil price shocks on stock prices, the study uses impulse response and variance decomposition analysis. The impulse response results show that oil price shocks cause an immediate decline in stock prices. On the other hand, the cumulative effects of oil price shocks account for 9.02% ofthe variation in stock prices in the long-run. The study recommends policymakers, financial analysts and shareholders to take into consideration the effects of oil prices in their financial decisions given the significant impact of oil prices on stock prices in Kenya.


Abstract. Effective monitoring of Mediterranean forest is essential to determine the role of forest management in mitigating climate change and ensuring the maintenance of its environmental services. Most of the allometric models to estimate dry above-ground biomass (AGB) at tree level are based on knowing the diameter of the trunk at breast height (DBH). However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to estimate DBH from airborne/spaceborne sensors within the context of a remote sensing-oriented approach, being common to draw upon regression models to relate DBH to remotely sensed dendrometric variables such as total tree height (H) and tree crown diameter (CD). This study uses UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) image-based data to estimate the dendrometric variables H and CD of the repopulated Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.) located in a semiarid continental Mediterranean forest of Almería (southeast of Spain). DBH data were gathered through field work. Both bivariate (DBH = Φ(H)) and multivariate (DBH = Ψ(H, CD)) allometric models were developed by applying least-squares-based regression and machine learning regression methods. The results showed that multivariate allometric models performed better than bivariate at predicting DBH, both in terms of goodness-of-fit and stability against changes in training or testing samples. In addition, least-squares-based regression (linear and potential) provided statistically similar results to those obtained from complex machine learning ensemble algorithms. In this way, the easy-to-apply multivariate linear allometric model DBH = −4.84 + 1.73149H + 3.08114CD (R2 = 89.23%) would be recommended to locally estimate DBH in Aleppo pine from remotely sensed H and CD data.


In clinical evaluation of 13 kid goats with viral leukoencephalomyelitis, diseases goats were found to be usually 2 to 4 months old, afebrile, and with unaltered mental status. The most frequent neurologic signs were posterior paresis and ataxia. Pleocytosis and lymphopenia were consistent antemortem laboratory findings. Absence of other abnormal laboratory and radiographic changes were also typical of the disease. Confirmation of the diagnosis can be obtained only be thorough histologic examination of the brain and spinal cord.


Abstract. A large number of bat fatalities have been reported in
wind energy facilities in different regions globally. Wind farm operators
are required to monitor bat fatalities by conducting carcass surveys at wind
farms. A previous study implemented the ballistics model to characterize the
carcass fall zone distributions after a bat is struck by turbine blades. The ballistics
model considers the aerodynamic drag force term, which is dependent upon
the carcass drag coefficient. The bat carcass drag coefficient is highly
uncertain; no measurement of it is available. This paper
introduces a methodology for bat carcass drag coefficient estimation. Field
investigation at Macksburg wind farm resulted in the discovery of three bat
species: the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), and evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis). Carcass drop
experiments were performed from a dropping platform at finite height, and
carcass position time series data were recorded using a high-speed
camera. Falling carcasses were subjected to aerodynamic drag and
gravitational forces. Carcasses were observed to undergo rotation, often
rotating around multiple axes simultaneously, as well as lateral
translation. The complex fall dynamics, along with drop from a limited height,
prohibit the carcasses from attaining terminal velocity. Under this
limitation, the drag coefficient is estimated by fitting a ballistics model to
the measured velocity. Multivariable optimization was performed to fit the
ballistics model to the measured velocity resulting, in an optimized estimate of
the drag coefficient. A sensitivity analysis demonstrated significant variation
in the drag coefficient with a small change in initial position, highlighting the
chaotic nature of carcass fall dynamics. Based on the limited sample, the
bat carcass drag coefficient and terminal velocity were found to be between
0.70–1.23 and 6.63–17.57 m s−1, respectively. The maximum distance
carcasses are predicted to fall after impact with a typical utility-scale
onshore wind turbine was computed using a 2-D ballistics model. Based on
the range of drag coefficients found in this study, hoary and evening bats
are estimated to fall within the rotor plane up to a maximum distance of 92 and 62 m, respectively, from the wind turbine tower. The ballistics model of
carcasses after being struck by wind turbine blades can be used to obtain fall
distributions for bats, guide carcass survey efforts, and correct survey
data for limited or unsearched areas.


Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a member of a family of related neurotrophic proteins which includes nerve growth factor (NGF) and hippocampus‐derived neurotrophic factor/neurotrophin‐3 (NT‐3). To obtain information regarding possible roles for BDNF during postnatal brain development, we have examined the temporal and spatial expression of this trophic factor using in situ hybridization. In specific neocortical regions BDNF mRNA‐expressing cells were seen at 2 weeks of age and thereafter. One particular neuronal cell type strikingly labelled was the inverted pyramidal cell population in the deep layers of parietotemporal cortex. In pyriform and cingulate cortices, BDNF mRNA was detected at postnatal day 1 and 1 week of age, respectively, with increasing levels during ontogeny. Several forebrain regions, including the thalamic anterior paraventricular nucleus, hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus as well as the preoptic area, contained moderate levels of BDNF mRNA throughout development. BDNF mRNA was detected transiently in several brainstem structures, notably in the substantia nigra and interpeduncular nucleus. Expression of this trophic factor in hippocampus was relatively low in the early neonatal brain, but attained high levels in the CA3 and CA4 regions as well as in the dentate gyrus by 2 weeks of age. At this early age, which is still during the period of neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus, labelling was restricted to the outer layer, which contained cells with a more mature appearance. However, by 3 weeks of age labelling was distributed throughout the granule cell layer. Our results show both transient and persistent expression of BDNF mRNA in various regions of the developing rat brain and suggest that there is a caudal to rostral gradient of BDNF expression during postnatal brain development, which may be correlated to neuronal maturation.


Tribal Nations in the United States are afflicted by a number of disparities including health, socioeconomics, education, and contaminant exposure to name a few. To understand drinking water quality disparities, we analyzed Safe Drinking Water Act violations in Indian Country found in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) and compared them to violations in non-tribal areas of the same state for the time period 2014 – 2017. The violations assessed were total point accumulations per year per 1,000 customers, health-based maximum contaminant limit (MCL), reporting and monitoring, and public notice for each state reporting tribal data. Violation point disparities were evident, as tribal facilities acquired nearly six times the points of the national average. In some states, health-based tribal water quality was better than in non-tribal communities, however Arizona, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming had MCL violations affecting a greater percentage of tribal populations than non-tribal. Nation-wide, monitoring and reporting violations affected tribal communities at nearly twice the rate of non-tribal customers. Public notice reporting was high and comparable for both tribal and non-tribal facilities. Finally, a comparison of small drinking water facilities, under which ~97% of the surveyed tribal drinking water falls, confirmed state-wide disparities. Solutions for the apparent disparities in Indian Country and on non-tribal lands may be as simple as rectifying monitoring and reporting violations, though this correction will not shift the overall water quality difference. Addressing MCL and treatment violations is the next step to reduce the disparity.


ABSTRACT Napeantheae is a monogeneric tribe of Gesneriaceae (with Napeanthus Gardner), that presents species with different morphology from other Gesnerioideae, being herbs with rosulate leaves that grow in pits, banks or at the base of rocks in humid forests. The tribe's palynology is poorly known. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the pollen morphology of the Brazilian native species of Napeanthus (Napeantheae) in order to expand the morphological knowledge of the tribe and compare it with existing studies on Gesneriaceae. For the analysis, the pollen grains were removed from flower buds of exsiccatae deposited in herbaria; they were acetolyzed, measured, photographed using light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and described qualitatively. The analyzed species present differences in amb, polar area, shape, size of ectoapertures, type of endoapertures and exine thickness. The pollen grains are monads, isopolar, small, tricolporate, circulaperturate, ectoaperture rounded at the polar ends and without margo; the exine is semitectate, microreticulate-fossulate, sexine is thicker than nexine. An artificial pollen key is presented to help distinguish species. Quantitative pollen grain data confirm the qualitative differences observed, especially in relation to the type of endoaperture. The microreticulate-fossulate exine ornamentation observed in Napeanthus has not previously been recorded for Gesneriaceae, especially in Gesnerioideae.


The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is a critical regulator of sodium balance, extracellular fluid volume, vascular resistance, and, ultimately, arterial blood pressure. In the kidney, angiotensin II exerts its effects to conserve salt and water through a combination of the hemodynamic control of renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate and tubular epithelial cell sodium chloride and water transport mechanisms. Pharmacological inhibition of the actions of the RAS are widely used in the treatment of patients with hypertension, congestive heart failure, left ventricular dysfunction, pulmonary and systemic edema, diabetic nephropathy, cirrhosis of the liver, scleroderma, and migraines. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the influences of the RAS on normal renal physiology is of major importance for first-year medical students.


An estimated 1.2 billion citizens of the world are smokers. In developing coun- tries, half the males smoke. WHO projects a global smoking population of 1.6 billion by the end of the next two decades. Collectively, today the world's smokers annually consume nearly 1,000 cigarettes for every man, woman and child on the planet. Almost 5 million people die as a result of smoking, half during their productive working years, with half occurring in developing countries. Two dec- ades hence, tobacco products will kill an estimated 10 million people every year, 70% of them in the world's poor nations. During the 20 th century, smoking killed 100 million peo- ple. Without significant public health progress, cigarettes will claim the lives of an estimated one billion during the 21 st century. Progress can be achieved, however, through the adoption and enforcement of effective tobacco control policies. Such policies are embedded in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first international health treaty. They include protecting nonsmokers from the hazards of secondhand smoke in all indoor workplaces and public places, banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship, raising tobacco taxes and eliminating the smuggling of untaxed cigarettes. The future health of the world's population rests on the success that will be achieved in global tobacco control. (Ethn Dis. 2007;17(Suppl 3):S3-10-S3-12)


C hapter 5 presents a selection of various molecular and biochemical techniques with important applications to neuroscience research. Initially, three major areas of technology have been addressed. These include the analysis and manipulation of RNA, the production and use of antisera/antibodies, and the purification and characterization of proteins. Broader coverage of each of these areas can be found in other Current Protocols volumes, including Current Protocols in Molecular Biology (CPMB; Ausubel et al., 1999), Current Protocols in Immunology (CPI; Coligan et al., 1999a), and Current Protocols in Protein Science (CPPS; Coligan et al., 1999b), from which certain of the units that follow have been adapted. Appropriate cross-references to other specific protocols in those volumes (especially CPMB) will be provided as necessary. Our goal here is to provide a selection of basic as well as novel techniques that will be of particular use to neuroscientists. In some cases, the methods may have specific neuroscience applications; in others (e.g., UNITS 5.3 & 5.4) they may be unique to research on neural systems. Future units in this chapter will expand on each of these topics and will also address other methods, including various techniques based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).


Introduction: The identification of complications of primary palatoplasty may vary among professionals from different areas of health due to the lack of standardization of the fistula classification. This study aimed to verify the consensus among professionals of plastic surgery (PC) and Speech-Language Pathology (SLP), regarding the occurrence of fistula, according to what was reported in the same craniofacial service. Methods: Analysis of the chart's records of the areas of the PC and SLP of 466 patients with cleft lip and palate was performed about the presence and location of fistula about the presence and location of fistulas, as reported in 466 medical records of patients with a history of unilateral cleft lip and palate. To compare the findings between both areas, a gold standard classification for the occurrence of fistula (GSF) was established by an experienced plastic surgeon. Results: The PC area reported that 25% of the 466 patients had a fistula compared to the 37% reported by the SLP, while the GSF indicated fistula in 35% of the cases. The Kappa statistic reveals regular agreement between GSF and PC (r = 0.32) and substantial agreement between GSF and SLP (r = 0.63). Conclusion: There was a discrepancy between the areas of Speech-Language Pathology and plastic surgery regarding the occurrence and location of the fistula after primary palatoplasty in the same craniofacial center. The data indicates the need to create and implement a standardized fistula classification system. In this way, craniofacial teams can use it effectively, taking advantage of the scientific evidence that emerges from the results of cleft lip and palate treatment. ■ ABSTRACT


Asymmetric resistive switching processes were observed in W:AlOx/WOy bilayer RRAM devices. During pulse programming measurements, the RESET speed is in the range of hundreds of microseconds under −1.1 V bias, while the SET speed is in the range of tens of nanoseconds under 1.2 V bias. Electrical measurements with different pulse conditions and different temperatures were carried out to understand these significant differences in switching time. A redox reaction model in the W:AlOx/WOy device structure is proposed to explain this switching time difference.


Attention-based sequence-to-sequence models for automatic speech recognition jointly train an acoustic model, language model, and alignment mechanism. Thus, the language model component is only trained on transcribed audio-text pairs. This leads to the use of shallow fusion with an external language model at inference time. Shallow fusion refers to log-linear interpolation with a separately trained language model at each step of the beam search. In this work, we investigate the behavior of shallow fusion across a range of conditions: different types of language models, different decoding units, and different tasks. On Google Voice Search, we demonstrate that the use of shallow fusion with an neural LM with wordpieces yields a 9.1% relative word error rate reduction (WERR) over our competitive attention-based sequence-to-sequence model, obviating the need for second-pass rescoring.


Context: Aminoglycosides and cephalosporins are widely used antibacterial agents for the treatment of both severe aerobic Gram negative and Gram positive bacterial infections. Though the combination therapy scores over single antibiotic therapy in terms of efficacy but the risk of associated nephro-toxicity and hepato-toxicity is a cause of concern. Objective: The present study was undertaken to determine the comparative effect of co-administration of cefepime and amikacin one after the other verus Potentox® (single injection combination of cefepime and amikacin supplemented with chemical vector having antioxidant property) and their effect on liver and kidney functions in a healthy albino rat model. The purpose is to compare both regimens for comparative nephro and hepato-toxicity profile and effect of chemical vector, in Potentox®. Materials and Methods: Eighteen healthy albino rat were used in the experiment and divided in three groups containing six each. The respective drugs (amikacin, cefepime, Potentox®)were administered through intravenous route for 10 days. At the end of 3rd and 10th days of treatments blood samples were collected and tests were performed for catalase activity, reduced glutathion, total thiol, malonaldialdehyde, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, uric acid and urea. Results: Experimental results showed that catalase activity, reduced glutathion and total thiol levels decreased significantly in cefepime followed by amikacin treated group, while no significant change occurred in Potentox® treated group. The malonaldialdehyde, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, uric acid and urea levels were significantly increased in cefepime followed by amikacin treated group and this increase was not of much significance in Potentox® treated group. Conclusion: These findings reveals that the presence of chemical vector in Potentox® has yielded a significant free radical scavenging property which may contribute in decreasing the aminoglycoside induced nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity.


Arsenic is an environmental toxicant and a human carcinogen. Epidemiology studies link human arsenic exposure to various diseases and cancers, including liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the molecular mechanisms for arsenic toxicity and carcinogenicity are poorly understood. To better understand these mechanisms, we used the human cancer cDNA expression array to profile aberrant gene expression in arsenic-exposed populations in Guizhou, China. The selected patients had a history of exposure to environmental arsenic for at least 6-10 years, and had arsenic-induced skin lesions and hepatomegaly. Samples were obtained by liver needle biopsy. Histology showed degenerative liver lesions, such as chronic inflammation, vacuolation, and focal necrosis. The University of North Carolina Hospitals provided normal human liver tissues from surgical resection or rejected transplants. Microarray was performed with total RNA from liver samples, and signal intensities were analyzed with AtlasImage software and normalized with 9 housekeeping genes. Means and SEM were calculated for statistical analysis. Approximately 60 genes (10%) were differentially expressed in arsenic-exposed human livers compared to controls. The differentially expressed genes included those involved in cell-cycle regulation, apoptosis, DNA damage response, and intermediate filaments. The observed gene alterations appear to be reflective of hepatic degenerative lesions seen in the arsenic-exposed patients. This array analysis revealed important patterns of aberrant gene expression occurring with arsenic exposure in human livers. Aberrant expressions of several genes were consistent with the results of array analysis of chronic arsenic-exposed mouse livers and chronic arsenic-transformed rat liver cells. Clearly, a variety of gene expression changes may play an integral role in arsenic hepatotoxicity and possibly carcinogenesis.


The insitu-fabrication of TiCN ceramic coating by laser cladding-laser nitriding technique (LC-LN) was investigated. Pulsed YAG laser with the power of 500W was used as radiation source. Highly pure N2 was selected as the nitriding element; Titanium powder whose size is 20 m and the pure carbon powder were utilized as the coating materials. The influence of technology parameters such as pulse width, pulse frequency and scanning speed etc. on the insitu-formation of TiCN ceramic coating was studied. XRD results show that the main phases of the coating are TiC0.3N0.7 (or TiC0.2N0.8),TiN and TiN0.3. It was revealed that the appropriate process parameters for insitu-fabrication are the pulse frequency 15 Hz, pulse width 3.0ms, the scanning speed in the range of 9cm/min to 12cm/min, the pressure of N2 0.4MPa. The result of OM showed a metallurgical bonding without crack and bubble between the coating and the substrate was obtained. The microstructure of cladded coating is characterized by fine dentrites. The average microhardness in the coating is more than 1300HV which is about 4 times of that in the substrate.


The availability of immigrant farm-workers from Mexico is a critical factor affecting the fresh fruit and vegetable sector in the United States. This paper uses a retrospective panel data set from rural Mexico to examine the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Immigration Reform and Control Act on the supply of migrant labor to the United States. We find that, in contrast to policy expectations, both policies were associated with an increase in migration to U.S. farm jobs from rural Mexico.


ABSTRACT One of the newest advancements in manufacturing and project management is Building Information Modeling (BIM) which uses creative processes for production, analysis, and management of building information. On the other hand, the output of the Geographic Information System (GIS) model includes one or more actual locations, which satisfy all needs. It provides points related to the BIM tool and it creates a 3D model for visualizing the optimum location. Integration of GIS and BIM can bring about several advantages including optimum locating. The aim of the current study is to propose a useful model for locating warehouses in large manufacturing factories using a BIM-GIS integrated model. To this end, BIM was used for simulation and locating of product warehouses in the casting unit of Esfahan's Mobarakeh Steel Company (EMSC) in Iran. In order to meet these aims, several locations were selected in the EMSC compound, and decision making regarding three superior alternatives which were carried out by creating a 3D model of the warehouse and fitting of the model in three suggested locations. Using the extant literature, interviews with experts and managers, and survey questionnaires, essential criteria affecting the optimum locating of industrial warehouses were extracted based on the Building information modeling data. Then, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used for data analysis. The results indicated that among various criteria, economic–social and crisis management criteria had the highest weights. These results were then used for selecting the optimum locating for the construction of warehouses.


A revolution in cell culturing has been seen in the last two decades in which 3D culturing became the state-of the-art, with the goal to mimic the in-vivo situation more closely and allow for a physiologically more relevant study compared to the environment in a petri dish. This revolution, however, has not been fully incorporated in the field of in-vitro neuroscience and neither in commercial activities, yet.
In this work an attempt has been made to make such a 3D environment available for a conventional planar microelectrode array (MEA) for in-vitro electrophysiology. A reliable platform is realized by combining microfabrication and microfluidics towards a 3D brain-on-chip allowing for drug discovery and the study on diseases.
A novel hybrid microbioreactor has been developed as a tool for hydrogel 3D cell culturing on a conventional MEA towards a more physiologically relevant model for the study on brain tissue. The Hydrogel/ poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) bioreactor enables a low shear stress 3D micro-sized culture environment on top of a MEA surface. Furthermore the hybrid bioreactor is explored to realize an on-chip biochemical readout from a 3D culture by a commercial microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) system with contactless conductivity detection (C4D).
An advanced MEA device, termed a microsieve electrode array (μSEA), has been developed by integration of electrode material to a realized highly uniform silicon microfabricated sieving structure. This μSEA allows for the positioning of neurons in 3D pores containing sensing electrodes for extracellular recordings of 3D cultured neurons. Performed characterization of the μSEA includes the tuning of the shape and size of the sensing electrodes, electrical properties and initial studies on neuronal cells.
In conclusion, by combining microfabrication and microfluidics a platform has been realized towards a 3D brain-on-chip. The conventional microelectrode array principle is engaged to realize a 3D cell environment for the cells positioned at the sensing electrodes (establishing the neuroelectronic interface) and a microbioreactor add-on is realized allows for 3D culturing of the cells in between the electrodes (neuronal network). Hereby a allowing for more physiological relevant studies with an electrophysiological readout.


It has previously been proposed that agency theory (principal-agent approach) might be applied to media organizations to understand how media owners make sure that their companies are managed according to their wishes. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate: a) whether agency theory is applicable to three Icelandic media companies, and b) how the theory manifests itself in the management practices of these companies. The media companies that were examined were: the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV ohf.), 365 miðlar ehf. and Árvakur hf. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three editors-in-chief, two CEOs/publishers, the director general of RÚV and the news director of RÚV in May of 2012. Two of the interviewees were also part- owners of the media companies.
The results indicated that it is, indeed, possible to analyze management practices of media organizations from the perspective of agency theory. However, it varies how much the companies are driven by profit maximization, for instance – on which agency theory places an optimum emphasis. The media house 365 miðlar ehf. turned out to be the best example of how the underlying constructs of agency theory are incorporated into the management practices of a media organization.


It has been reported in the medical literature that in cases of theophylline toxicity a relationship exists between the serum theophylline concentration and the severity of symptoms. We reviewed the records of 20 inpatients receiving long-term theophylline therapy who had serum theophylline concentrations of at least 20 mg/L (111 mumol/L) or who had symptoms of theophylline toxicity. No relationship between the serum concentrations and the severity of toxic effect was seen. Metabolic abnormalities similar to those previously reported in intentional acute intoxication were noted. Cardiac arrhythmias were seen in approximately half of the patients, hypotension in only one. No patient in whom a conservative form of therapy was initiated at diagnosis went on to develop additional toxic effects. It is our finding that severe toxic reactions to theophylline can occur over a wide range of serum concentrations. Conservative treatment measures, specifically drug discontinuation and interference with additional oral absorption by activated charcoal, should be instituted unless life-threatening symptoms are present, when more aggressive therapy (such as charcoal hemoperfusion) is warranted.


This paper examines the emergence and evolution of economic complexity, defined as large-scale specialization and exchange (LSSE), within the context of a simple coordination game in which communication and coordination costs (institutions) are modeled explicitly. The commonly held view that complexity in the form of LSSE (pre- and post-industrial society) emerged and evolved spontaneously (i.e. as a Nash outcome) is examined critically. Specifically, it is shown that spontaneous-occurring LSSE equilibria are less likely than coordination-based ones (i.e. with a third party). Various communication and coordination strategies (CCSs) are examined, the results of which are then used to examine three complexity-increasing periods, namely ancient Mesopotamia and the first and second industrial revolutions. It is argued that in addition to technological innovations, all three were characterized by important institutional innovations (CCS) including the birth of laisser-faire and the rise of the modern-day, vertically- and horizontally-integrated industrial conglomerate.


The use of biologics and thiopurines in patients with inflammatory bowel disease has increased rapidly over the last 2 decades with both classes of drugs being used more frequently and earlier in the disease course. This vogue has come about through a realisation that for some patients Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are progressive diseases and that use of these therapies can sometimes prevent that progression. However, knowledge about the optimal way in which to use these drugs continues to evolve. In this paper, the evidence regarding optimal timing and dosing of thiopurines and biologics will be reviewed as will the role of thiopurine methyltransferase testing along with therapeutic drug monitoring of both thiopurines and biologics. In addition, possible future applications of biologic drug level and anti-drug antibody testing will be considered.


The effect of surface passivation on two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) carrier density in undoped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures is investigated by capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements. All oxides used (SiO2, Al2O3, and Ta2O5) experienced a decrease in 2DEG carrier concentration with increasing thickness of the respective oxide layers between the gate and the AlGaN layer. In contrast, the 2DEG carrier concentration increased markedly with increasing Si3N4 layer thickness. An elementary polarization model was used to fit the behavior for all materials and thicknesses leading to quantitative results. In combination with bowing measurements, the fitting suggests that the effect of the Si3N4 on the 2DEG carrier concentration can be traced back mainly to an increase in piezoelectric polarization charge due to strain, whereby changes in the 2DEG carrier concentration caused by oxides are explained by 2DEG charge accumulation due to fixed interface charges at the AlGaN/oxide interface and in the bulk of the oxides.


Christ and nature: An evangelical eco-theology
This article motivates evangelical environmental care. Theological environmental ethics tends to be based on the doctrine of creation, but evangelical ethics – if it wants to be properly evangelical and convincing to evangelicals – should be based on the heart of the evangelical faith, namely on Jesus Christ. I argue that belief in the resurrection of Christ has relevance for a Christian environmental ethics. Paul's ethics is tied to his eschatology. He argues that the eschatological reality should shape our stance toward the reality of this present age. The eschatological reality is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the disciples meet the resurrected Jesus, they see that the same body that hung on the cross and lay in the tomb is now a resurrected glorified body. As Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 15, the continuity between our earthly bodies and the resurrected body entails that we should take care of our bodies. By pointing to Romans 8, I argue that the same line of reasoning applies to nature: the continuity between creation and the new creation entails that we should take care of nature.


Immunization with a number of different vaccines, including live and killed vaccines, has been linked to the development of insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes in humans and animals. Multiple different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the association between vaccines and diabetes. The current paper reviews multiple different mechanisms by which vaccines are known to manipulate the immune system and can induce an autoimmune disease such as type 1 diabetes. Genetic variability may determine which of these pathways, or possible other pathways, predominate in an individual following immunization.


The Upper San Pedro River is one of the few remaining undammed rivers that maintain a vibrant riparian ecosystem in the southwest United States. However, its riparian forest is threatened by diminishing groundwater and surface water inputs, due to either changes in watershed characteristics such as changes in riparian and upland vegetation, or human activities such as regional groundwater pumping. We used satellite vegetation indices to quantify the green leaf density of the groundwater‐dependent riparian forest from 1984 to 2012. The river was divided into a southern, upstream (mainly perennial flow) reach and a northern, downstream (mainly intermittent and ephemeral flow) reach. Pre‐monsoon (June) Landsat normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values showed a 20% drop for the northern reach (P < 0·001) and no net change for the southern reach (P > 0·05). NDVI and enhanced vegetation index values were positively correlated (P < 0·05) with river flows, which decreased over the study period in the northern reach, and negatively correlated (P < 0·05) with air temperatures in both reaches, which have increased by 1·4 °C from 1932 to 2012. NDVI in the uplands around the river did not increase from 1984 to 2012, suggesting that increased evapotranspiration in the uplands was not a factor in reducing river flows. Climate change, regional groundwater pumping, changes in the intensity of monsoon rain events and lack of overbank flooding are feasible explanations for deterioration of the riparian forest in the northern reach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


: HIV infection in connection with other venereal diseases change greatly there clinic development. Authors discuss comprehensively the peculiarities of infectious process in case of syphilis connection with HIV-infection, and in particular face syphilid, which is met little in practice of venereologists. Syndrome of aggravating influence of HIV-infection on clinic syphilis development is noted. It usually more serious. In given example syphilis was diagnosed only two month later after patient had took medical advice.


TERRY D. PEZZOT-PEARCE and JOHN PEARCE Parenting Assessments in Child Welfare cases: A Practical Guide Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2004, 398 pages (ISBN 0-80208-654-3, CDN$39.95 Paperback; ISBN 0-80208-702-7, CDN$75.00 Cloth) This book sets out to fulfil four major goals that can be summarized as follows: 1) presenting a model for comprehensive parenting assessments; 2) setting out the practical steps to be taken in such assessments; 3) identifying potential errors in carrying out assessments; and 4) providing critical considerations, identified by the authors as "practice alerts." These goals are fulfilled in exhaustive fashion, thus providing a comprehensive text for those called upon to make such complex judgments. In fact I would suggest that the book could well be titled a practical and theoretical guide for parenting assessments in child welfare and in consideration of custody and access decision-making. Though there are important differences between the two tasks, the theoretical and experiential background required are the same, as indeed are the processes and practical steps to be taken in conducting assessments. The authors themselves acknowledge that there is a common context. While they indicate that custody and access is not intended as a specific focus of the book, there are references throughout to both scenarios. In addition, it is important to be aware of possible overlaps that may occur, for instance, if an assessor in a custody situation becomes aware of neglect or abuse sufficient to warrant intervention. A refrain throughout the book is the reminder that the central question in parenting assessments is: Can this parent meet the needs of this particular child; Once this is understood then the complexity of the work becomes apparent. The task goes beyond assessing the parent to considering and assessing the child's needs, the relationships and interactions between child, parent, and other caregivers, as well as the broader contextual aspects such as social and community supports, income, occupation, etc. After taking us through preliminary consideration of the common issues involved, the authors use the next five chapters to cover all the factors to be taken into consideration. I appreciated the fact that the two chapters on child factors deal separately with normal or typical child development and specific atypical factors. While coverage of the full range of child development knowledge that any assessor should possess would warrant a text book in itself, it is useful to have the summary information given here. It includes the central and key issue of attachment as well as physical and emotional care and the child's emotional, behavioural, and cognitive development. The chapter on atypical development covers temperament, developmental disorders of various kinds, alcohol- and drug-impacted children, as well as attention and learning problems. The two chapters on parent factors cover personal characteristics and contextual sources of support or stress. Appropriate weight is given to parental history, including experience of being parented themselves, mental health and addictions, presence or absence of abuse or violence in their own experience. There is also discussion of the impact of adolescent parenthood and of the possibility of cognitive limitations. Discussion of parental context includes concrete and practical factors such as income and residence. Social factors concern themselves particularly with whether these are supportive or detrimental to good parenting. Relationships with family and friends as well as partner are covered. A particularly useful and relevant contribution to the literature is the coverage of religion, cultural background, and identity as well as considerations related to homosexuality. Before launching into the assessment itself, the authors present one other chapter that has considerable practical value for anyone in this field of practice, and particularly for beginners. …


CLEVELAND, July 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -Athersys, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATHX) announced today that an international team of researchers has published study results in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine demonstrating that Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells (MAPCTM) increase the long-term survival of organ transplants in instances when the cell donor is not related to the patient or the organ donor, and also appear to alleviate the need for long-term immune suppression. The preclinical research, conducted using a standard heart transplant model, also demonstrated that the transplanted organ retained its immunologically privileged state during a subsequent transplantation procedure into a naïve recipient, illustrating the durability of the effect. The risk of rejection and the requirement for long-term immunosuppression are key challenges in donor organ transplantations, which could be addressed by administering the clinical MAPC product, MultiStem®, to transplant patients.


Sewage treatment plants show only a 90-99% reduction in numbers of salmonellae. And the following chlorination of the effluents produces chlorinated organic derivatives and these are likely to be of great long term environmental danger. Thus for reasons of hygiene, it is desirable to study biological methods to remove salmonellae in waste waster. Therefore, the efficiency of the Felix O 1-bacteriophage for the removal of S. schottmuelleri and S. typhimurium was investigated. The composition and the pH of the medium (Destilled water, Sorensen phosphate buffer solution, pH 6.0-8.0, and sterilized wate water, pH 6.5) seem not to have a considerable importance for the observed salmonellae removal efficiency. As it is shown, the reduction of salmonellae by the O 1-phages is dependent on their concentration (Fig. 1). It is true, there is 90-99% removal of salmonellae as a function of their concentration, but a perfect elimination is not possible.


This paper draws on the narratives of parents of disabled babies in order to conceptualise notions of enabling care. This analysis emerges from the Sheffield site of an ESRC research project Parents, Professionals and Disabled Babies: Identifying Enabling Care, which brings together the Universities of Sheffield and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The linear heroic narrative is a dominant theme within Western culture. It is competitive and individualistic and tends to be future-orientated in that actions conducted in the present are evaluated according to later outcomes. This linear narrative places much store on modernist interventions such as medicine, and tends to uphold professional boundaries and hierarchies. In the lifeworlds of parents, usually mothers, of disabled babies, this narrative can reinforce disempowering interpretations of disability and impairment. On the basis of 25 in-depth interviews, accompanying stories and ethnographic data, this paper suggests that parents are developing counter-narratives which, at times, resist linear life models and free parents to enjoy their children as they are. If life is perceived as an open book rather than as a concluding chapter, parents are able to develop stories that are neither linear nor heroic but present and becoming.


The paper presents the results of studies which investigated farmers' reasoning and behaviour with
regards to the mis‐use of personal protective equipment and pesticide among smallholders in Colombia. First,
the research approach is described. In particular, the structured mental models approach and the integrative
agent‐centred framework are presented. These approaches permit to understand the farmers' reasoning and
behaviour in a system perspective. Second, the results are summarized. The methods adopted allowed not only
for identifying the factors, but also the social dynamics influencing farmers. Finally, suggestions for
interventions are provided, which are not limited to a technical fix, but address the underlying social causes of
the problem.


We search for planar deviations of statistical isotropy in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data by applying a recently introduced angular-planar statistics both to full-sky and to masked temperature maps, including in our analysis the effect of the residual foreground contamination and systematics in the foreground removing process as sources of error. We confirm earlier findings that full-sky maps exhibit anomalies at the planar (l) and angular (ℓ) scales (l,ℓ) = (2,5),(4,7), and (6,8), which seem to be due to unremoved foregrounds since this features are present in the full-sky map but not in the masked maps. On the other hand, our test detects slightly anomalous results at the scales (l,ℓ) = (10,8) and (2,9) in the masked maps but not in the full-sky one, indicating that the foreground cleaning procedure (used to generate the full-sky map) could not only be creating false anomalies but also hiding existing ones. We also find a significant trace of an anomaly in the full-sky map at the scale (l,ℓ) = (10,5), which is still present when we consider galactic cuts of 18.3% and 28.4%. As regards the quadrupole (ℓ = 2), we find a coherent over-modulation over the whole celestial sphere, for all full-sky and cut-sky maps. Overall, our results seem to indicate that current CMB maps derived from WMAP data do not show significant signs of anisotropies, as measured by our angular-planar estimator. However, we have detected a curious coherence of planar modulations at angular scales of the order of the galaxy's plane, which may be an indication of residual contaminations in the full- and cut-sky maps.


Studies and researches on family companies aim a knowledge group that they are highest importance in the diagnoses and interventions in this organization. This study developed a parallel about how the principles of the Quality of Life in the Work (QVT), proposed by WALTON apud FERNANDES (1996), are inserted in the family company. Through this analyzes, indicative variables of QVT proposals for WALTON as: Fair Compensation and joust; Work's Conditions; Use and development of capacities; Opportunity of Growth and Security; Social integration in the Organization; Work and Total Space of Life; Social relevance of Work in Life - part of these, work's conditions, social integration, constitutionalism are precarious in the enterprise branch in the generality. However, family company beyond these obstacles, face the professionalization and the succession, that involves conflicts of personal and family order divergent of other enterprise groups. This analyze facilitated to understand as the variable propose by WALTON to investigate QVT can be useful in the diagnosis of family companies, because this managerial segment to stay competitive and more human should be capable to generate actions that contemplate an pleasant and healthful work's atmosphere.


This work describes the generation of numerical models for the coupled analysis of a semisubmersible platform to be installed in Campos Basin, and presents the results, in terms of platform motions, of a set of analyses under fatigue environmental loading cases. The coupled model comprises the hull, the mooring lines, and all risers connected to the platform. The model includes also a FSHR (Free Standing Hybrid Riser) system to be connected to the platform; this system is composed by a rigid riser, an air can and a flexible jumper. A set of environmental loading cases appropriate for fatigue analyses is defined, in terms of current profile, irregular bi-directional seastate, and wind. For each loading case, nonlinear time-domain dynamic analyses are performed employing the Prosim program. This program is based in a coupled formulation that incorporates, in a single code and data structure, a hydrodynamic model to represent the hull, and a finite element model to rigorously represent the structural/hydrodynamic behavior of the lines. At every time step of the time integration of the equations of motion representing the hull, a series of nonlinear dynamic analysis of the lines is performed following a subcycling procedure. The results of the coupled analysis are expressed as time histories of platform motions. The next step is to proceed to the treatment of these time series, in order to determine, for each loading case: a) The frequency spectra of each motion component; and b) Representative statistical values in terms of static offsets, first and second-order motions (standard deviations and periods for low-frequency and wave-frequency motions). The platform motions that result from the coupled analyses presented in this work can be employed to perform the detailed structural analysis of the FSHR system, by employing an isolated model of the riser in a specialized program.© 2004 ASME


Gems and Jewellery is being consumed by Indians for ages for its aesthetic as well as investment value and also form an essential part of the tradition .We import rough diamonds, cuts and polishes them, and then exports them. Gem and jewellery sector which is a powerful engine, driving India's export-led growth. As per the latest import-export statistics released by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), imports of polished diamonds declined by huge 59% to $944.93 million by value, and by 52% to 1.966 million carats by volume in January 2012 compared to same month previous year. Last year, the import of polished diamond in January 2011 was $.2.2 billion in value and 4.7 million carats in volume. While, polished diamond export in January-2012 fell 19% year-on-year to $1.7 billion and declined by 37% by volume at 3.32 million carats compared to the same month in previous year. On the same time, rough diamond import increased by 7% to $1 billion in January, while the rough exports surged 45% to 153.27 million compared to the same month in previous year. The present study is an attempt to comprehend the import scenario of colored gems and diamonds in India and to observe their future import trend in India.


Environmental degradation of the Chesapeake Bay (CB) and its sub-estuaries has been linked to population growth in the surrounding coastal zone, rapid development in the watershed and resultant nutrient loading into the Bay. Consequently, the federal government and its partners have developed restoration plans to mitigate the effects of eutrophication and improve essential ecosystem functions, though few restoration plans have considered the interactive effects of climate change. Climate change and other anthropogenic drivers are causing changes in ecosystem structure and function, thereby impacting the beneficial services ecosystems provide. While some studies have attempted to quantitatively predict the benefits of ecosystem restoration under current conditions, research is needed to determine whether restored systems will be sustainable and continue to provide ecosystem services under changing conditions. This study examined how climate warming and sea level rise (SLR) might affect the sustainability of ecosystem services resulting from the proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Lynnhaven River Basin Ecosystem Restoration Plan (LRBERP). A system-wide prediction of marsh survival in the Lynnhaven was calculated by estimating the time period when Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) would submerge based on predicted sea level rise and marsh accretion for the region. In addition, a reduced complexity ecosystem model was applied to the Lynnhaven River to evaluate survival and sustainability of ecosystem services provided by S. alterniflora, Zostera marina (eelgrass), Ruppia maritima (widgeon grass), and Crassostrea virginica (Eastern oyster) reef habitat, under existing conditions as well as predicted climate warming (+1, 2, 3, and 5 °C) and sea level rise (+0.49, 0.99, 1.69, 2.29 m) scenarios for the region. The major findings from the model simulations and marsh analysis indicate that climate warming and SLR will affect the sustainability and capacity of restored submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), oysters and marsh habitat to provide ecosystem services in the Lynnhaven River. This investigation calls into question the assumption that marshes will accrete indefinitely to keep pace with accelerating rates of sea level rise. Predicted submergence of S. alterniflora marshes by 2100 will limit their capacity to provide ecosystem services. Model predictions of S. alterniflora biomass decreased across the temperature scenarios with complete die-off under the +5°C scenario. Z. marina and R. maritima biomass decreased across the SLR scenarios with complete die-off of R. maritima under the 0.49 m scenario. This modeling result is consistent with the literature that R. maritima is more sensitive to light limitation than Z. marina. Z. marina biomass decreased across the temperature scenarios with complete die-off under the 5°C scenario whereas R. maritima biomass increased under the temperature scenarios. The positive effects of warming on R. maritima were offset by the negative impacts from SLR. There was a complete die-off of Z. marina and R. maritima biomass under the combined SLR/temperature scenario. The combination of stressors will likely have negative effects on Z. marina and R. maritima biomass in the polyhaline section of the Bay.


Alterations in fat metabolism, in particular elevated plasma concentrations of free fatty acids and triglycerides (TG), have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1), a member of the large family of membrane-bound O-acyltransferases, catalyzes the final step in triacylglycerol formation. In the intestine, DGAT1 is one of the acyltransferases responsible for the reesterficiation of dietary TG. Following a single dose of a selective pharmacological inhibitor of DGAT1, PF-04620110, a dose-dependent inhibition of TG and vitamin A absorption postprandially was demonstrated in rodents and human subjects. In C57/BL6J mice, acute DGAT1 inhibition alters the temporal and spatial pattern of dietary lipid absorption. To understand the impact of DGAT1 inhibition on enterocyte lipid metabolism, lipomic profiling was performed in rat intestine and plasma as well as human plasma. DGAT1 inhibition causes an enrichment of polyunsaturated fatty acids within the TG class of lipids. This pharmacological intervention gives us insight as to the role of DGAT1 in human dietary lipid absorption.


Digital games and entertainment are a modern area of enormous economic potential and can have a serious social impact. Digital entertainment has become a constant in our society. Exposure to it begins at a young age, sometimes even before children have started to walk. is exposure contin- ues as they age and does not stop at adulthood, in fact the majority of game sales occur to those over the age of 18. is field represents a large and growing portion of the entertainment sector of the economy. e video game industry has surpassed box office motion picture revenue and the revenue of the entire music industry. Games are becoming the highest and most advanced form of escapism as they provide people of all ages the opportunity to see and do things that would not otherwise be possible.


Belanger K, Gent JF, Triche EW, Bracken MB, Leaderer BP. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2006;173:297–303 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY. Chronic exposure to indoor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) may be a public health concern. The primary source of residential NO2 is gas-fueled cooking appliances. The authors' objective was to examine associations of indoor NO2 exposure with respiratory symptoms among children with known asthma. STUDY POPULATION. Subjects were 728 children younger than 12 years with physician-diagnosed asthma living in Connecticut and southwest Massachusetts. All children had active asthma and had lived at the same address for at least 2 months before NO2 sampling. METHODS. At enrollment, a research assistant visited the home and recorded family ethnicity, housing characteristics (multifamily versus single family, number of rooms, water leaks, visible mold), presence of smoking in the home, and the use of household appliances fueled by natural gas. Mothers were also asked about number of days of respiratory symptoms experienced by the child and medications used for each month of the previous year. NO2 was measured in each home by using a Palmes tube placed in the main living area for 10 to 14 days after the enrollment visit. RESULTS. The mean concentration of indoor NO2 was 8.6 ppb in homes with electric ranges and 25.9 ppb in homes with gas stoves. The mean NO2 level measured in multifamily homes was 22.9 ppb, and the mean NO2 level in single-family homes was 10.2 ppb. Measured NO2 (>20 ppb) was associated with ethnicity: white families were least likely to have high exposures, and Hispanic families were the most likely. Among children living in multifamily housing, exposure to gas stoves and high levels of NO2 were associated with wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. For children in single-family homes, neither exposure to gas stoves nor to measured NO2 was associated with any respiratory symptom. CONCLUSIONS. The authors concluded that there is an association between exposure to high levels of indoor NO2 and respiratory symptoms in children with physician-diagnosed asthma. This association, however, was limited to children who lived in multifamily homes, probably because of the smaller size (and air volume) of the apartments. The authors also suggested a strong association of NO2 exposure with housing characteristics, lower socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. REVIEWER COMMENTS. This study demonstrated an association between increased NO2 levels and asthma symptoms of children in multifamily homes. The important potential confounders in the analysis should have been adequately dealt with in the logistic regression analysis used. The biological basis of the association is poorly understood, and the value of intervention to reduce exposure is speculative. Additional studies will be needed to clarify and confirm the association.


Background and aims In 2011 we started implementing flexible bronchoscopy in our PICU for management of critically ill patients and children with home ventilation. It was our goal to implement this technique as a routine diagnostic an interventional tool and to characterise possible benefits and risks. Methods This is a prospective study performed in a 10-bed paediatric ICU of a tertiary care children's hospital. All patients who underwent a bronchoscopy in the years 2012–2013 were included in this study. Olympus and Storz bronchoscopes with 2.2 mm, 2.8 mm and 3.8 mm diameter were used and every procedure was video documented. All procedures were performed by trained paediatric intensive care specialist. Results 151 procedures were performed in 96 patients. Indications were: Treatment of atelectasis and obstruction (78 of 151 procedures), with improvement in ventilation parameters in 61 of 78 procedures (78%); search for airways anatomic pathologies (45 of 151 procedures), with pathological findings in 26 of 45 procedures (58%); Pneumonia and undetermined lung disease in which cases BAL was preformed (29 of 151 procedures), with changed antimicrobial treatment in 17 of 29 cases (59%). We didn't observe any procedure-related mortality or serious complications. Conclusions Flexible bronchoscopy is a very safe and useful procedure in critical ill infants and children with a variety of diseases, and significantly contributes to their management. In our opinion bronchoscopy should be a routine technique in paediatric intensive care units.


The asynchronous mode W-CDMA system is known to be appropriate for the next generation mobile communication system, especially in a non-homogeneous cellular architecture. In this case, however, each base station needs to use a different spreading code for identification, so it is a demanding task for a mobile terminal to find the best cell site and get an accurate code synchronization at the beginning of a communication. Since slow acquisition of a base station could mean the failure of initiation, a fast algorithm to accelerate the cell search process is essential. In this paper, a new cell search algorithm based on the binary code position modulation (CPM) within a code block is proposed. Different cell sites are identified by different hopping code sequences, and each position modulation is performed by the hopping code. The proposed algorithm is proved to make the cell search time in most places in a cell much shorter than the previous algorithms, and to make the receiver implementation simpler.


: Physicochemical characteristics of an anti-LH substance, partially purified from human urine, has been determined. It is an acid-precipitable, sialic acid containing glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 162,000. This substance on mg to mg basis has a 50 fold biological potency when compared to that of the crude gonadotropin inhibiting material. Dialysed human pineal protein extracts also showed anti-LH activity which was not attributed to sialidase activity. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of such pineal extracts revealed a glycoprotein component with the same mobility as that of the urinary anti-LH protein. These observations suggest a possibility that the human pineal gland may be associated either with secretion or storage of this gonadotropin inhibiting entity.


The purpose of this paper is to analyze the working principle of folding machine and it also explains the working mode of the stepper motor. Basing on these, the control-system of folding machine is designed. It is through the AT89C52 MPU and the corresponding circuit of periphery to control the two stepper motors. So it can drive the feeding roller and the paper roller to overlay in accordance with the predefined size. The system achieves the automation of folding. It not only reduces the labor, but also improves the efficiency and accuracy of folding. It has a very broad application prospect.