HGG produces CNC-driven cutting devices to cut pipes and profiles. When the contour of a pipe is deviated from the programmed contour, the software is not able to cut on the right places. Therefore a method is sought to compensate for unroundness by pipes. Before the right places to cut can be found, the real contour of the pipe should be known. An encoder wheel is placed on top of the pipe to measure the angular displacements. It is assumed that it rotates on the pipe without slip. The contour of the pipe will be reconstructed based on the data of the encoder and its height.
In order to found the contact points between the pipe and the encoder and the support wheels, force equilibria are evaluated. The velocities of those points are used to find the pivot of the pipe. However, from a simulation in SolidWorks became clear that the force equilibria contain a mistake. Therefore an alternative method is developed. This method makes use of estimations for the angle of the contact point between the encoder and the pipe and for the location of the com. The estimations are used for the reconstruction from which new estimates are done, this is an iterative method.
The reconstruction is based on the location of the measured point, the com and the pivot of the pipe. By defining their relations, the locations of the previous measured points are defined on later time steps. Interpolating between those points gives the reconstructed contour of the pipe. From the contour, the points with the right coordinates where the machine has to cut can be found. Based on the closest measured point and the data from the main drive can be determined how much the main drive has to rotate to get the places to cut in upper position.
Since there is too much time consumed by seeking the error in the force equilibria, is also the alternative method still not working properly. A working method using these measurements is therefore not found.


Abstract 2830 Introduction Myeloid and lymphoid neoplasms with eosinophilia and abnormalities of PDGFRA, PDGFRB, or FGFR1 is a new major category in the 2008 WHO classification of myeloid malignancies. FIP1L1-PDGFRA fusion gene is currently the most common abnormality in this category, but there are some other fusion genes incorporating part of PDGFRA. In a case of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) with eosinophilia and hepatosplenomegaly, karyotype by G-banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for 4q12 rearrangements indicated a PDGFRA rearrangement other than FIP1L1-PDGFRA, and a novel FOXP1-PDGFRA fusion gene was identified. Case presentation A 44-year-old male visited a clinic because of wet cough for one year. His peripheral blood showed leukocytosis of 43.15 × 109 /L with eosinophilia up to 57.5%, mild erythrocytosis (Hb 17.3 g/dL), and thrombocytopenia of 86 × 109 /L. CT scan of the abdomen revealed hepatosplenomegaly. He was referred to our hospital and received oral PSL (1 mg/kg) first, because pulmonary eosinophilic infiltration was suspected by follow-up CT findings. Pulmonary infiltration and his cough disappeared rapidly in a week, but his leukocytosis with eosinophilia was exacerbated again with PSL tapering. His bone marrow at the time of admission disclosed hypercellular marrow with myeloid hyperplasia and eosinophilia, of which karyotype was 46, XY, t(3:4)(p13;q12), inv(9)(p12q13) in all of 20 metaphases. FISH analysis with tricolor 4q12 rearrangement probe set indicated that PDGFRA was disrupted in 97.3% of his peripheral blood cells. These cytogenetic abnormalities of his bone marrow cells suggested involvement of PDGFRA fusion gene except for FIP1L1-PDGFRA and did not disappear after steroid administration for 2 weeks. After low-dose of imatinib (100 mg/day) was started, he achieved a hematological response within 5 days, and PSL could be gradually tapered off. 3 months after therapy, he obtained complete cytogenetic response (CCyR). He has been in CCyR and free of symptoms for more than 6 months with only low-dose imatinib. Methods and Results Genomic DNA and total RNA were isolated from white blood cells in his peripheral blood at diagnosis. Complementary DNA was synthesized from total RNA. FIP1L1-PDGFRA fusion transcript was proved to be negative by RT-PCR. Molecular cloning with 5′-RACE-PCR revealed a novel mRNA in-frame fusion between exon 23 of FOXP1 and a truncated PDGFRA exon12. Reciprocal PDGFRA-FOXP1 transcripts were confirmed by RT-PCR analysis and FOXP1-PDGFRA genomic DNA sequence was determined with genomic PCR. As in the case with FIP1L1-PDGFRA, the breakpoint of PDGFRA in FOXP1-PDGFRA was located between the two tryptophan (W) residues of the putative WW-domain. Meanwhile, the other breakpoint was near inverted repeat in intron 23 of FOXP1, which is presumed to be very fragile site. By FISH analysis after magnetic cell sorting with MicroBeads, the 4q12 abnormality attributed to FOXP1-PDGFRA fusion gene was detected in granulocytes, but not in CD19-positive B or CD3-positive T cells. Discussion In a case with chronic eosinophilia harboring 46, XY, t(3:4)(p13;q12), inv(9)(p12q13), novel FOXP1-PDGFRA fusion gene was identified. Similar karyotypic abnormality harboring t(3:4)(p13;q12) was reported in a case of MPN with chronic eosinophilia, but responsible fusion gene was not identified (Myint H, et al. Br J Haematol. 1995). FOXP1 is a transcription factor which is implicated in a variety of cellular processes and has a role in immune regulation and carcinogenesis (Wlodarska I, et al. Leukemia. 2005). As a fusion partner of FOXP1, PAX5 and ABL1 are reported in cases with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Thus, this is a first report showing that FOXP1-PDGFRA fusion gene is involved in hematologic malignancy. It is likely that FOXP1-PDGFRA is constitutively activated tyrosine kinase, which does not depend on dimerization but on the disruption of an autoinhibitory juxtamembrane domain encoded by exon 12 of PDGFRA from its structure. Eosinophilia responded well to low dose of imatinib as observed in CEL with FIP1L1-PDGFRA. Conclusion FOXP1-PDGFRA was identified in CEL for the first time. This is the eighth reported fusion gene associated with PDGFRA in CEL so far. Our patient with FOXP1-PDGFRA promptly responded to low-dose of imatinib as same as other cases with PDGFRA abnormalities. Further investigation is still in progress. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Drug-drug interactions (DDI) are a cause of adverse drug reactions. They occur when a drug has an impact on the effect of another drug. There is not a complete, up to date database where health care professionals can consult the interactions of any drug because most of the knowledge on DDI is hidden in unstructured text. In last years, deep learning has been succesfully applied to the extraction of DDI from texts, which requires the detection and later classification of DDI. Most of the deep learning systems for DDI extraction developed so far have addressed the detection and classification in one single step. In this study, we compare the performance of one-stage and two-stage architectures for DDI extraction. Our architectures are based on a bidirectional recurrent neural network layer composed of Gated Recurrent Units. The two-stage system obtained a 67.45 % micro-average F1 score on the test set.


Many governments and institutions mandated COVID-19 vaccines. In late 2021, we sought to ascertain the perspectives of staff and students from The University of Western Australia about the State or the University mandating COVID-19 vaccines. The survey captured vaccination status and intentions along with attitudes towards mandates and potential types of exemptions with 2878 valid responses which were quantitatively analysed and 2727 which were qualitatively analysed. The study found generally high levels of vaccination or intent, and strong support for mandates, underpinned by beliefs that vaccination is a moral duty and that mandates make campus feel safer. These sentiments were not more prevalent amongst individuals with comorbidities; often healthy individuals supported mandates to reduce their risk of transmitting disease to vulnerable family members. Individuals with comorbidities were, however, more supportive of excluding the unvaccinated from campus. Most opponents were unvaccinated, and many indicated that mandate policies would backfire, making them less likely to vaccinate. Despite the strong overall support, 41% of respondents did not want to see non-compliant staff or students lose their positions, and only 35% actively sought this. Institutions or governments introducing mandates should emphasise community concerns about catching COVID-19 and becoming sick or transmitting the disease to vulnerable loved ones.


Abstract : The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) requested the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to perform a metallurgical investigation on 20mm M61A1 Gatling gun system breech bolt assembly components. An unused breech bolt assembly, and an individual locking block (a component of the breech bolt assembly) were both examined. Each part was taken from inventory at NAWCAD, Patuxent River. The Navy had experienced numerous failures of this system in practice gun mount testing and in service. Failures have coincided with the use of a recently developed more potent replacement for the 20mm M50 Series ammunition. This new ammunition is designated as 20mm PGU Series ammunition. The investigation performed by ARL concentrated on determining the conformance of each component to the governing specifications. The examination included high-voltage testing, visual examination, surface finish measurement, dimensional analysis, magnetic particle inspection, metallography, mechanical testing, chemical analysis, and coating measurements. Findings included a nonconforming surface finish upon the individual locking block, a complete layer of decarburization around the periphery of the individual locking block, and an improper hardness level within the individual locking block. In addition, the firing pin had a nonconforming chemistry, the top and bottom bolt shafts did not contain a nitrided case and had nonconforming chemistry, the assembly locking block had nonconforming chemistry, and the spring pins failed to achieve the minimum double shear load, and had nonconforming chemistry. The author presented these findings to Navy, Air Force and AMCCOM representatives on three separate occasions.


Graphite and selected fluoride salts have their place in historic, as well as in most advanced nuclear reactors. Integral benchmarking of materials used in nuclear technology is very important for validation of calculation codes used at advanced reactor modelling. Discovered discrepancies can also point at inaccurate description of nuclear data. Benchmark experiments have been carried out in zero power light water reactor, LR-0, which is suited for these tasks thanks to the well-defined criticality. Criticality and neutron spectrum in graphite and fluoride salt has been benchmarked in experimental phase. The results of critical benchmark for graphite are showing good coincidence with calculation in ENDF/B-VII.0 nuclear library, however discrepancies exceeding 3a interval of uncertainties have been demonstrated with fluoride salt. Large discrepancies are apparent from C/E-1 comparison of neutron spectrum in fluoride salt. These discrepancies are likely caused by improper description of 19F.


Corruption and gender inequality are in many ways closely connected. Men and women are affected by corruption in different ways, and are subjects and objects of different corrupt practices and behaviours. Gender inequality breeds corruption and vice versa: corruption tends to exacerbate gender inequalities. A gender per-spective is necessary if we are to find effective strategies to combat corruption and achieve sustainable development. This brief provides an introduction to linkages between gender and corruption relevant in CERC's work, and gives suggestions on how to address corruption in gender policies and gender in anti-corruption strategies.


In this article, the author addresses the issue of flash animation and humour in computer-mediated communication. He traces Russian national graphic traditions of humour and publicity and provides historical insight into the aesthetics of flash animation. He also suggests a notion of the video anekdot, a form of flash animation that relies on the tradition of oral humorous performances that proliferated in the USSR as an attempt to overcome state censorship. With the abolishing of censorship, the anekdot continues to exist on the internet in the form of short flash animation films. The author analyses new structures of the anekdot and its relation to the previous forms of humorous and satirical art (lubok, the Soviet poster and caricature). Reflecting on the dominating themes and narrative structures of the video anekdot, he concludes with general remarks on transformations in Russian culture in regard to its traditions of oral performance and visual representations.


ABSTRACT What makes a musical interval consonant? Since the early Greeks, there have been two contrasting views: an "objective" approach, focusing on the mathematical relationship of frequencies, and a "subjective" approach, emphasizing auditory perception. These approaches are reviewed, as are several proposed measures of consonance. The author then presents a composition that uses intervals that are rated highly by the measures of consonance but are outside the scales of Western music and so are subjectively unfamiliar. The goal is to see whether, via repetition and other devices for overcoming unfamiliarity, the consonance of these intervals can be conveyed.


Two pregnant women with secondary syphilis underwent amniocentesis and evaluation for fetal syphilis. In both cases, motile spirochetes, typical of Treponema pallidum, were observed during dark-field microscopic examination of the amniotic fluid. The presence of T pallidum was confirmed by antitreponemal monoclonal antibody immunofluorescence assays and by rabbit infectivity tests using the amniotic fluid. In the first case, an infant at 35 weeks' gestation delivered within 24 hours of amniocentesis had hepatosplenomegaly, osteochondritis, and neurosyphilis. In the second case, a fetus at 24 weeks' gestation was hydropic and a fetal blood sample showed anemia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated liver enzymes. Fetal syphilis was confirmed by rabbit infectivity testing using fetal blood obtained by funipuncture. This is the first report of the diagnosis of fetal syphilis by funipuncture and confirmation of the presence of virulent T pallidum in the blood of a human fetus. The mother was treated for secondary syphilis, but the infant had residual signs of congenital infection at birth 14 weeks later. Neonatal serum from the first case and fetal serum from the second case showed specific immunoglobulin M reactivity with the 47-kd antigen of T pallidum by Western blot assays. A new wild-type strain of T pallidum, designated DAL-1, was isolated from the amniotic fluid of the first case and is available for future studies. We conclude that the presence of T pallidum in amniotic fluid or fetal blood indicates fetal-placental infection. Further investigation is necessary to determine the pathogenesis of amniotic fluid infection and its role in the prenatal diagnosis of congenital syphilis.


Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems provide a robust, scalable and decentralized way to share and publish data. Although highly efficient, current P2P index structures based on Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) provide only exact match data lookups. This compromises their use in database applications where more advanced query facilities, such as range queries, are a key requirement. In this paper, we give a new P2P indexing structure that supports range searches over shared data while maintaining DHTs logarithmic search time. Our index structure can be seen as an extension of the Chord P2P overlay so that data items are mapped to the Chord address space in an order-preserving way, hence supporting range query executions. Load balancing of skewed data is then achieved deterministically using the underlying DHT infrastructure. Experimental evaluations show that our mechanism provides strong load balancing guarantees in systems with high data skews.


Varying the symbol rate is an alternative or complementary approach to varying the modulation format or the channel spacing to turn optical networks into elastic networks. We propose to allocate just-enough bandwidth for each optical connection by adjusting the symbol rate such that the penalty originating from long cascades of optical filters is contained. This helps reduce overprovisioning for lightpaths where full capacity is not needed, by (i) eliminating unnecessary regenerators and (ii) reducing the power consumption of terminals, when the clock rate of electronics is reduced along with the baudrate. We propose a novel architecture for an elastic optical interface by combining a variable bitrate transceiver, paired with an elastic aggregation stage, with software-defined control. We then report a real-time field-programmable-gate-array-based prototype that delivers flexible transport frames to be sent with a polarization-division multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying modulation format. We interconnect this prototype with a commercial optical transport network switch and a centralized controller. We demonstrate fast and hitless reconfiguration of the interface and measure the reconfiguration time of hardware logic (<450 μs), as well as end-to-end control and the data plane (<0.9 s).


Purpose To gain insight into how early clinical experiences contribute to medical students' professional development. Method Qualitative content analysis of second-year Mayo Medical School students' reflective journal essays pertaining to their first experiences with inpatients (from 2002 to 2004) was done using a grounded theory approach. The apprenticeship model of professional learning (knowledge and cognitive abilities, technical skills, and ethical standards) and perspectives from learning theory provided the conceptual framework. Major themes were identified, and member checking and interrater reliability was assessed to support the validity and reliability of the content analysis. Results Four major themes related to the purposes that the early clinical experiences with patients served for students were identified in analysis of reflections from 76 students (participation rate 95%). The themes were issues related to relationships and learning in early encounters with hospitalized patients; integration with learning in the entire curriculum; aspects of doctoring learned; and affiliation with the physician role and professional development. Select quotes illustrate these themes and provide thick description. Member checking supported the analysis; interrater reliability was 91%. Conclusions Early hospital-based clinical experiences provide opportunities for apprenticeships in the habits of the head, hand, and heart. Medical students' growth and learning occurs within these apprenticeship domains through contextual experiential learning.


OBJECTIVE
Pituitary apoplexy (PA) is an endocrinologic emergency characterized by headache, visual abnormalities, and hemodynamic instability in the context of hemorragic infarction of a pituitary adenoma. Our goal was to estimate the incidence, precipitating factors, clinical characteristics, and outcome of PA in a cohort of patients with nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFPMAs).

METHODS
A retrospective, case-control study of 46 patients with PA and 47 controls matched for age, gender, and tumor invasiveness. Clinical, hormonal, and tumoral charactersitics, as well as the presence of potential precipitating factors and long-term outcome were evaluated using both bivariate and multivariate analysis.

RESULTS
The prevalence of PA was 8%. Cases and controls were similar in regards to the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, use of antiplatelet agents, and the presence of headaches and visual field defects. Oculomotor paralysis was present in 18% of cases and in none of the controls (P = .001). Prior use of dopamine agonists was significantly more frequent among cases than in controls on both bivariate and multivariate analysis. Pituitary hormone deficiencies were more common among cases than in controls on bivariate but not on multivariate analysis. Early and late surgical treatment was carried out in 11 and 25 patients, respectively; 11 patients were managed conservatively. Visual and endocrine outcomes were similar among the 3 groups.

CONCLUSION
PA represents a life-threatening medical emergency. Prior use of dopamine agonists and the presence of oculomotor abnormalities clearly distinguished patients with NFPMA who developed PA from those who did not.


Norepinephrine (NE) in graded doses of 1, 2, and 4 μg/kg/min was infused for four hours into 14 dogs; 5 dogs served as controls. The systemic pressure and flow, blood volume, hematocrit, arterial blood pH, and oxygen saturation were measured at selected intervals throughout the infusion period. Cardiovascular performance was augmented during the first 15 minutes of the NE infusions, but this effect was not sustained. Thereafter, there was a dose-related decline in cardiac output, systemic pressure and left ventricular work, and an increase in the calculated peripheral vascular resistance. At the highest NE dose rate employed, significant left ventricular failure developed by the second hour of NE administration. The hematocrit increased during the first 15 minutes of NE infusion and remained elevated throughout the infusion period. Sustained hypovolemia was not found during the prolonged NE administration, and severe acidosis (pH < 7.20) was inconstant. The processes which lead to cardiovascular dysfunction during prolonged NE infusion are discussed.


Abstract This paper explores the spatial dimensions of a northern landscape – the Flodden battlefield. This is the focal site of the Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum; the centre to a network of 40 other sites around the United Kingdom which together interpret the Flodden story. However, this distributed network does not fit easily with the foundational ecomuseum concept of 'territory' as the boundary around a shared heritage, memory and community. The relative merits of three concepts of ecomuseums are discussed in relation to the Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum. Inspired by Doreen Massey's interpretation of space, this study explores multiple dimensions of Flodden space through four semiautobiographical journeys to the Flodden battlefield during the author's life: as a family holiday; a teenager with interest in military strategy; an early career field geologist; a project manager working with the local community and artists. The article concludes by suggesting the word territory may not be appropriate for ecomuseums: it suggests that Peter Davis's favoured term place may be an improvement; however, it ends by proposing that space may be an even better word for the geographic context of ecomuseums.


This research investigated the impact of an Urban Immersion (UI) program which partnered urban schools with a university's teacher preparation program. The UI program provided experiences for pre-service teachers by completely immersing them, along with their university instructors, in urban schools where they worked and learned alongside K-12 teachers and students. Data collected from pre and post experience surveys provide statistically significant evidence that the UI program reshaped the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding urban schools and also increased their confidence and interest in teaching in an urban setting. The success of traditional field experiences is indecisive (Mason, 1999; Sleeter, 2001); however, approaches such as the UI program may positively impact the recruitment of teachers to urban schools. This innovative approach to pre-service teacher preparation has tremendous potential. Longitudinal research will be important as this urban university and the local urban school district work together to provide high-quality educational opportunities for all of their students.


Under the premise of an increasing scarcity of raw materials and increasing demands on construction materials, the mechanical properties of steels and its joints are gaining highly important. In particular high- and highest-strength steels are getting in the focus of the research and the manufacturing industry. To the same extent, the requirements for filler metals are increasing as well. At present, these low-alloy materials are protected by a copper coating (<1μm) against corrosion. In addition, the coating realizes a good ohmic contact and good sliding properties between the welding machine and the wire during the welding process. By exchanging the copper with other elements it should be possible to change the mechanical properties of the weld metal and the arc stability during gas metal arc welding processes and keep the basic functions of the coating nearly untouched. On a laboratory scale solid wire electrodes with coatings of various elements and compounds such as titanium oxide were made and processed with a Gas Metal Arc Welding process. During the processing a different process behavior between the wire electrodes, coated and original, could be observed. The influences ranges from greater/shorter arc-length over increasing/decreasing droplets to larger/smaller arc foot point. Furthermore, the weld metal of the coated electrodes has significantly different mechanical and technological characteristics as the weld metal from the copper coated ground wire. The yield strength and tensile strength can be increased by up to 50%. In addition, the chemical composition of the weld metal was influenced by the application of coatings with layer thicknesses to 15 microns in the lower percentage range (up to about 3%). Another effect of the coating is a modified penetration. The normally occurring "argon finger" can be suppressed or enhanced by the choice of the coating. With the help of the presented studies it will be shown that Gas Metal Arc Welding processes are significantly affected by thin film coatings on solid wire electrodes for Gas Metal Arc welding. The influences are regarding the stability of the arc, the properties of the weld metal in terms of geometric expression, chemical composition and mechanical properties, the composition of the arc-plasma and the dynamics of the molten metal.


X-ray diffraction is used to analyse the fatigue behaviour of carbo-nitrided steel layers. Measurements are therefore carried out on the two major phases of the material, i.e. the martensite (a') and the retained austenite (g). On such gear material, X-ray residual stress evaluations are particularly difficult for three reasons. First, the studied material is multiphase. For that reason, in each phase, the stress component in the direction normal to the surface is non negligible. Second, the diffraction peaks obtained on the martensite are broadened, due to the overlap of different reflections of the tetragonal structure. Third, the material contains also carbide and nitride clusters, which lead to incoherent and diffuse scattering of X-rays thus making quantitative phase determination difficult. In our paper the methods used to solve these problems are presented. The development of a new quantitative phase analysis method which accounts for the variation of diffuse scattering of X-rays is shown first. The second part deals with an iterative micromechanical model implemented for the evaluation of the carbon content and the residual stress components of each phase. These methods are used for analysing the evolution with cycling fatigue of all the parameters derived from our enhanced analysis (phase volume fraction, carbon content, stress components, peak width).


Zakat is a compulsory service run by the Muslims who are able to implement it. Zakat is a means of income redistribution and also can support development of human resources as well as enhance economic growth in Indonesia, particularly in the Lampung Province.  The purposes of this study were to explore the potential of zakat and to analyze the role of zakat in empowering poor communities in Lampung Province. This research result showed that zakat potential in Lampung Province was quite large; Rp644.18 billions with the 2% opinion and Rp1.38 billions with the 4.3% opinion. Meanwhile the Regional Government of Lampung Province in 2007 and 2008, for example, budgeting for social services reached Rp29.15 billions and Rp21.01 billions respectively, including other poverty reduction programs. Therefore, zakat potential should attract the government's attention as one solution to reduce poverty in Indonesia. Zakat is not only the provision of voluntary charity, but it is an obligation that must be paid by Muslims who received the zakat obligation. The results of the analysis showed zakat's potential in empowering poor communities in each district/city in the province of Lampung. Based on the standards meet the needs of the poor with an income of one dollar per day, from ten districts in Lampung province, only two districts were capable of removing the poor families from the poverty line, those are Bandar Lampung and Metro. While the potential zakat of eight other districts had not been able to remove poor families from the poverty line due to the small acquisition of GDRP. This research showed that empowerment of the poor could be done based on the potentials of zakat in each district, the greater the GDRP, the greater the zakat potential that could be obtained. Even if the zakat potential was excessive than the poverty level in the district, it could be used as cross-subsidies with other districts in greater need. Keywords: Zakat Potential, poverty reduction


The article is concerned with the role played by rituals in the politics of advanced industrial societies. First, after considering the disputes of the anthropologists, a working definition of ritual is offered. The central, critical part of the paper discusses a range of attempts that have been made to apply a particular theory of ritual—the Durkheimian theory—to the politics of modern societies, specifically the United States and Britain. These `neo-Durkheimian' analyses (of Shils and Young, Blumler et al., Lloyd Warner, Bellah and Verba) are criticized for using too simple a notion of social integration, and for making too narrow a selection and offering too narrow an analysis of political rituals. Their approach is further criticized for closing off a whole range of significant and critical questions about political rituals—questions which bring out their cognitive role and the cognitive dimension of the exercise of power in stratified, conflictual and pluralistic modern industrial societies. Finally, it is suggested that, once those questions are asked, one arrives at a view of many political rituals that pictures them, not as promoting value integration, but as crucial elements in the `mobilization of bias'.


Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and reduced NAD (NADH) levels have been measured in bacterial cultures. The cofactors were assayed by using the very sensitive cycling assay described previously by Cartier. Control experiments showed that the level of total NAD(H) falls during harvesting, and so samples were taken quickly from growing cultures and extracted immediately without separating the cells from the medium. Total NAD(H) ranged from 4.0 to 11.7 μmoles/g of dry cells for three facultative organisms, Klebsiella aerogenes, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus albus. NADH was remarkably constant in these bacteria; only one out of ten series of determinations was outside the range 1.4 to 1.9 μmoles/g of dry cells. NAD+ showed much greater variation. An anaerobe (Clostridium welchii) had significantly more total NAD(H) whereas an aerobe Pseudomonas aeruginosa had about as much NAD(H) as the facultative organisms. NAD and NADH were measured during growth: once more NADH was much more constant than NAD. During change-over between aerobiosis and anaerobiosis, NADH showed a temporary increase but then returned to a constant level, whereas NAD changed from high aerobically to low anaerobically. These results are discussed in terms of the control mechanisms that may be involved.


Daubert began as a relatively modest political revolution, but in the long-term is likely to be known for the intellectual transformation it imposed on the law. At least, that is the basic premise of this Essay. Daubert and its progeny are best understood as originally intended to give trial courts expanded managerial powers over expert testimony and, thus, the trial process more generally. By employing the scientific sensibilities necessary to effect this social transformation, however, the Court unleashed an intellectual revolution that overturned the "Ancien Regime." Daubert thus began as a modest attempt to expand district courts' management of their dockets but ended up bringing scientific enlightenment to the law.


Beliefs are founded upon the ultimate being as an ultimate cause or principle. Some claim that the ultimate being, God, emanates itself into many, other claims that God created the world out of nothing. Whatever one believes in, one thing is clear : the ultimate being reveals itself in a spatio-temporal world; in a heterogeneous and not in a homogeneous world. The consequence is : revelation is not only one. There are many different communities with their respective faiths. However, many are not aware of the contingency of their faith. They are trapped into absolutism and try to mold the world into the emporium of their true faith. Blinded by their isolated faith, some use any means necessary, including violence, to attain the highest ideal. The reasoning behind such attitude is the instrumental form of reasoning combined with a high dose of encapsulated faith. This article explores the relation between faith, way of life, values and what kind of reasoning is appropriate in a world of multiple faiths.


Ultraviolet (UV) light damages DNA and impairs immune surveillance. The faulty repair of DNA after UV exposure is associated with immune suppression and facilitates photodamage that leads to photoaged skin and the growth of skin cancer. Sunscreens have been developed to filter UV light from entering the skin, but are not beneficial once DNA damage has occurred. Enhancing DNA repair after UV radiation may provide added advantage and prevent UV immunosuppression. This study was performed to determine whether a product with DNA repair ingredients prevents UV‐induced suppression of contact hypersensitivity responses in vivo. Solar simulated radiation was delivered on skin with and without topical treatment with a moisturizer containing DNA repair enzymes (Advanced Night Repair Concentrate). Subjects were then sensitized to the hapten dinitrochlorobenzene, and the level of resultant contact hypersensitivity response was elicited 2 weeks later. Contact hypersensitivity response measured by skin fold thickness was significantly suppressed in untreated UV‐irradiated subjects but not in subjects treated with DNA repair moisturizer after solar simulated radiation. Our results indicate that DNA repair ingredients significantly prevent UV‐induced immune suppression.


To initiate drug therapy a preliminary dosage regimen is often calculated using literature values for pharmacokinetic parameters. However, in some cases literature data are not available or indicate large interindividual variations, or in certain cases an altered volume of distribution (such as in acute congestive heart failure, edema, obesity, etc.) and changes in renal and nonrenal elimination are expected. For such cases the repeated one-point method (ROPM) was suggested. The ROPM like the other methods for dosage regimens assumes equal maintenance doses at equal dosing intervals. Yet, in practice and in most hospitals, doses administered 3 or 4 times daily are often not administered at equal intervals. A modification of the ROPM is suggested for unequal dosing intervals. The following 4 situations are presented: different dose sizes to maintain Cssmin constant, different dose sizes to maintain Cssmax constant, equal dose sizes where the highest peak does not exceed a certain maximum concentration and equal dose sizes where the lowest trough does not fall below a certain minimum concentration.


To determine the relationship between eye movement and postural control on an undisturbed upright stance maintenance protocol, 15 young, healthy individuals were tested in various conditions. These conditions included imposed blinking patterns and horizontal and vertical saccadic eye movements. The directions taken by the center of pressure (CP) were recorded via a force platform on which the participants remained in an upright position. The CP trajectories were used to estimate, via a low-pass filter, the vertically projected movements of the center of gravity (CGv) and consequently the difference CP-CGv. An analysis of the frequency shows that regular bilateral blinking does not produce a significant change in postural control. In contrast, performing saccadic eye movements induces some reduced amplitude for both basic CGv and CP-CGv movements principally along the antero-posterior axis. The present result supports the theory that some ocular movements may modify postural control in the maintenance of the upright standing position in human participants.


Human categorization research is dominated by work in classification learning. The field may be in danger of equating the classification learning paradigm with the more general phenomenon of category learning. This paper compares classification and inference learning and finds that different patterns of behavior emerge depending on which learning mode is engaged. Inference learning tends to focus subjects on the internal structure of each category, while classification learning highlights information that discriminates between the categories. The data suggest that different learning modes lead to the formation of different internal representations. SUSTAIN successfully models inference and classification learning by developing different internal representations for different learning modes. Other models do not fare as well.


Chlorogenic acid, an ester of caffeic acid and quinic acid, is a major phenolic compound in coffee; daily intake in coffee drinkers is 0.5-1 g. Chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid are antioxidants in vitro and might therefore contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. However, data on the absorption of chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid in humans are lacking. We determined the absorption of chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid in a cross-over study with 4 female and 3 male healthy ileostomy subjects. In such subjects, degradation by the colonic microflora is minimal and absorption can be calculated as the amount ingested minus the amount excreted in ileostomy effluent. The ileostomy subjects ingested 2.8 mmol chlorogenic acid and 2.8 mmol caffeic acid on separate days in random order and subsequently collected ileostomy fluid and urine for 24 h. Absorption of chlorogenic acid was 33 +/- 17% (mean +/- SD) and of caffeic acid 95 +/- 4%. Traces of the ingested chlorogenic acid and 11% of the ingested caffeic acid were excreted in urine. Thus, one third of chlorogenic acid and almost all of the caffeic acid were absorbed in the small intestine of humans. This implies that part of chlorogenic acid from foods will enter into the blood circulation, but most will reach the colon.


The story of Tuzigoot National Monument, in Arizona's Verde Valley, is that of a small town taking pride in its ancestral Native American history, securing funds from a mining company and the federal government to excavate a hilltop ruin associated with local tribes, and developing heritage tourism during the Great Depression. Its development, however, was dependent on military campaigns that drove Yavapai and Apache people on to the San Carlos Reservation. Today, despite evidence of environmental degradation caused by industrial-scale mining and smelting during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, heritage and agritourism brings visitors to the area for wine tasting, bird watching, and kayaking. In an ironic twist, the Yavapai-Apache Nation now litigates to protect the health of the river on behalf of the communities who depend upon it.


Cyber security is one of the most attention seeking issues with the increasing advancement of technology specifically when the network availability is threaten by attacks such as Denial of Service attacks (DoS), Distributed DoS attacks (DDoS), and Economic Denial of Sustainability (EDoS). The loss of the availability and accessibility of cloud services have greater impacts than those in the traditional enterprises networks. This paper introduces a new technique to mitigate the impacts of attacks which is called Enhanced DDoS-Mitigation System (Enhanced DDoS-MS) that helps in overcoming the determined security gap. The proposed technique is evaluated experimentally and the result shows that the proposed method adds lower delays as a result of the enhanced security. The paper also suggests some future directions to improve the proposed framework.


Anaerobic digestion technology is one of the emerging and very effective mode of treating the waste in the production of renewable energy. In the present world with the increase in pollution and mankind there is very much necessity for the renewable energy. In this classification system the anaerobic digesters are grouped depend on the various factors like temperature, feeding mode, solid content, number of stages, organic loading rate and biomass. There are several Fullscale case studies on anaerobic digestion technology of different parts on the globe included in the report. The potential is very well examined and explained on how important and better is the method of anaerobic digestion for the treatment of waste with production and utilization of energy which is produced by the waste treated.


Over the last decade, the role of the transition manager has evolved dramatically. Originally conceived as a cost-minimization trading program, transition management is now viewed primarily as a holistic risk management exercise. Transition managers frequently employ derivative overlays to manage the beta risks that may arise across complex restructurings. Consistent with the horizon for most transitions, these derivative overlays have tended to be short-term in nature. In recent years, however, select transition managers have leveraged their experience and derivatives expertise for longer term "beta management" assignments which may be related to ongoing cash equitization, rebalancing, hedging, portable alpha, or liquidity programs. This article explores the wide range of beta management instruments currently available and describes the potential risks which much be balanced to achieve client objectives.


On account of the current global warming, climate researchers warn of a possible increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather conditions in the future. As an alpine canton, the Grisons are particularly exposed to such events. In the article, the effects of climatic change on large avalanches, floods, mud avalanches, landslides and rock falls are discussed, together with the thawing of permafrost and the melting of glaciers. In the case of large avalanches, thanks to present scientific knowledge and existing protective structures, a greater danger is not necessarily to be feared. However, where floods and mud avalanches are concerned, the situation is somewhat different: there is a greater likelihood of an increased frequency of more severe events in the future. In addition, the potentially endangered zones are larger and more difficult to protect. For such events, therefore, the potential for prevention and damage reduction is significantly higher. The future risk of rock falls and landslides is more difficult to predict. These are highly dependent on the local geology and the necessary understanding of the processes involved is still far from complete. Permafrost degradation and the disappearance of many small glaciers will create new sources of danger and hence increase yet again the risk of floods, mud avalanches and rock falls. The responsible authorities in Canton Grisons are aware of these hazards and lay emphasis on the documentation of events, the establishment of systems of measurement and of information, on warning systems and the application of damage reducing measures on site.


Modeling the farm level impact of risk management programs, policies and instruments is traditionally been done on a farm-level basis. Hence, farm simulation models typically use the behavioural assumption of profit or utility maximization is risk aversion taken into account. However, abundant – albeit indirect – evidence from different literature sources suggest that minimization of household risk – being the chance of falling below a certain threshold level of household cash flow – might be more realistic behavioural assumption. In this paper, we present concepts of operational, financial, total farm and household risk. Further, using a stochastic simulation model on two typical Belgian dairy farms, we illustrate possible farmers responses in the presence or absence of farm income stabilization mechanisms. Although some limitations to the current model are mentioned, the results already suggests the usefulness of considering household risk when assessing the impact of risk management programs, policies and instruments.


A virtual model of fibro-bronchoscopy is reported. The virtual model represents in 3D the trachea and the bronchi creating a virtual world of the bronchial tree. The bronchoscope is modeled to look over the bronchial tree imitating the displacement and rotation of the real bronchoscope. The parameters of the virtual model were gradually adjusted according to expert opinion and allowed the training of specialists with a virtual bronchoscope of great realism. The virtual bronchial tree provides clues of reality regarding the movement of the bronchoscope, creating the illusion that the virtual instrument is behaving as the real one with all the benefits in costs that this means.


Ellerman bombs (EBs) are small brightening events in the solar lower atmosphere. By their original definition, the main characteristic of EBs is the two emission bumps in both wings of chromospheric lines, such as Hα and Ca II 8542 Å lines. Up to now, most authors have found that the temperature increase of EBs around the temperature minimum region is in the range of 600–3000 K. However, with recent IRIS observations, some authors proposed that the temperature increase of EBs could be more than 10 000 K. Using non-LTE semi-empirical modeling, we investigate the line profiles, continuum emission and radiative losses for EB models with different temperature increases, and compare them with observations. Our result indicates that if the EB maximum temperature reaches more than 10 000 K around the temperature minimum region, then the resulting Hα and Ca II 8542 Å line profiles and the continuum emission would be much stronger than those of EB observations. Moreover, due to the high radiative losses, a high temperature EB would have a very short lifetime, which is not compatible with observations. Thus, our study does not support the proposal that EB temperatures are higher than 10 000 K.


Bone homeostasis is maintained through a delicate balance between osteoblastic bone formation and osteoclastic bone resorption. Bone loss may be due to decreased osteoblastic bone formation and increased osteoclastic bone resorption. Osteoporosis is induced with its accompanying decrease in bone mass. Nutrition and functional food factors may play a role in the prevention of bone loss. This is worthy of notice in the treatment of osteoporsis. It has been shown that functional food factors including zinc, genistein and vitamin K 2 (menaquinone-7) have potential osteogenic effects in vitro and in vivo. These factors have been shown to have stimulatory effects on osteoblastic bone formation and suppressive effects on osteoclastic bone resorption. Moreover, the osteogenic effects of genistein, menaquinone-7, and vitamin D 3 have been found to be synergistically enhanced with combination of zinc, which plays an essential role in protein synthesis at translational process and gene expression related to zinc finger transcription factors. Intake with their combination has been shown to have potential effects in the treatment of bone loss in animal models of osteoporosis and human subjects. Supplemental intake with these compositions may have potential effects on osteoporosis treatment.


Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and the risk factors of allergic rhinitis in a particular area. Methods: The main study group consisted of all school children in Kemalpasa district aged 13-14 years. Children with current rhinitis based on responses given in ISAAC questionnaire survey were further evaluated for confirmation. Parents responded to a more detailed questionnaire about allergic diseases and risk factors. Then peak nasal inspiratory flow (PNIF) was evaluated to objectively assess nasal patency. Skin-prick test was performed for ten common allergens. Results: The questionnaire was answered by 90.8% (1373) of children. The prevalence of physician-diagnosed AR was 11.1%. Current rhinitis was found to be 31.3%. Of this group, 55.0% were admitted for the parent questionnaire and tests. Precisely, 90.3% of children accepted PNIF evaluation, and %10.1 of them had a nasal obstruction. Skin-prick tests revealed allergy for at least 1 allergen in 16.6% of children. The present study showed that the children with maternal allergic rhinitis history had 2,18 fold, and the children with seasonal allergic rhinitis had 2,11 fold higher possibility of sensitization to an allergen. The probability of perennial allergic rhinitis was 3,1 fold higher in the children who had siblings with allergic rhinitis. Conclusion: We included all children in a specific age group living in an area in our survey. As well as we found the prevalence of current rhinitis with the ISAAC questionnaire; we also evaluated peak nasal inspiratory flow and used skin-prick tests that yielded objective results.


This paper summarises tuberculosis (TB) research over almost 30 years in Karonga District, northern Malawi, an area typical of much of rural Africa. The dominant factor has been the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which arrived in the district about 1980, leading to an increase in TB incidence to a peak of approximately 65 smear-positive pulmonary cases per 100000 population in 2000. Tuberculin surveys indicate annual risks of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of approximately 1%; thus, most of the population is uninfected and at risk of primary infection and disease. Molecular epidemiological studies demonstrate that about two thirds of TB arises from recent infection, but recognisable recent contact is responsible for only about 10% of disease. By 2001, 57% of TB was directly attributable to HIV, implying that it would have declined were it not for HIV. HIV infection increases the risk of TB most among young adults, and greatly increases the risk of recurrence from new infection after treatment. Mortality rates in the HIV-infected are high, but there is no association of HIV with drug resistance. Other risk factors with relatively smaller effects include age and sex, contact, several genetic polymorphisms and area. Neither one nor two doses of the bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine provides protection against adult pulmonary TB, despite protecting against leprosy. Skin test surveys, cohort studies and comparative immunological studies with the UK suggest that exposure to environmental mycobacteria provides some protection against TB and that BCG's failure is attributable partly to this widespread heterologous exposure masking effects of the vaccine. Drug resistance has remained constant (<10%) over more than 20 years. Immunotherapy with M. vaccae provided no benefits, but treatment of HIV-positive patients with cotrimoxazole reduced mortality. The Karonga programme illustrates the value of long-term population-based studies to investigate the natural history of TB and to influence TB control policy. Current studies focus on immunological markers of infection, disease and protection, and on elucidating the impact of antiretroviral treatment on TB incidence at population level.


Adult mosquito flight activity was monitored at a coastal marshland site in Chambers County, TX, before, during, and after a total eclipse of the moon on August 16, 1989. A vehicle-mounted mobile interceptor trap and a stationary, dry ice-baited CDC miniature light trap were used in this monitoring effort. Aedes sollicitans, Anopheles crucians, Culex salinarius, and Psorophora columbiae were mosquito species most abundantly represented in collections made by both traps during the 12-h study period. The numbers of each of these species collected by the vehicle-mounted trap decreased during the lunar eclipse and increased when the full moon was exposed. Collections of these same species by the light trap increased during the lunar eclipse and decreased when the full moon was exposed.


In this paper, we experimentally show the effect of waveguide discontinuity on the propagation of the surface plasmon in metal stripes and tapered terminations. Dual-plane leakage microscopy and near-field microscopy were performed on Au stripes with varied widths to image the surface plasmon intensity distribution in real and reciprocal spaces. We unambiguously demonstrate that edge diffraction is the limiting process determining the cutoff conditions of the surface plasmon mode. Finally, we determine the optimal tapered geometry leading to the highest transmission.


SB validated many aspects of elderly trauma research and physiology. Although he had a prolonged length of stay and several complications, he survived multiple injuries and had a positive outcome. Exact causes for his complications and processes cannot be separated into degenerative or injury-related and are thus difficult to identify. With a review of aging physiology and SB's history, it is clear that his course and physiological responses to treatments were affected by his age and ability to respond to the demands placed on him. (See Table 5 for pertinent nursing diagnoses for SB.) There are physiological, psychological and sociological differences in caring for young and old trauma patients. Nursing, by virtue of its constant surveillance of patients, is in a unique position to help meet the special needs of the elderly trauma patient.


This study discusses the capability of the constitutive laws for the matrix logarithm of the conformation tensor (LCT model) within the framework of the spectral elements method. The high Weissenberg number problems (HWNP) usually produce a lack of convergence of the numerical algorithms. Even though the question whether the HWNP is a purely numerical problem or rather a breakdown of the constitutive law of the model has remained somewhat of a mystery, it has been recognized that the selection of an appropriate constitutive equation constitutes a very crucial step although implementing a suitable numerical technique is still important for successful discrete modeling of non-Newtonian flows. The LCT model formulation of the viscoelastic equations originally suggested by Fattal and Kupferman is applied for 2-dimensional (2D) FENE-CR model. The Planar Poiseuille flow is considered as a benchmark problem to test this representation at high Weissenberg number. The numerical results are compared with numerical solution of the standard constitutive equation.


[Purpose] To clarify the number of floating toes and its association with physical functions, such as balance and walking abilities, in Parkinson's disease (PD). [Participants and Methods] The participants were 16 PD patients (male: 7, female: 9, mean age: 72.4±6.4, and Hoehn & Yahr Staging Scale grade: II: 5, III: 9, and IV: 2) living at home. After screening for floating toes, body composition and physical function measurements were performed, and the association between the number of floating toes and results of each measurement was examined using the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. [Results] The incidence of floating toes was 87.5%, and the mean number of floating toes was 1.0 (1.0-2.3). The number of floating toes was negatively correlated with walking speed (p <0.05) and toe gripping force (p<0.01). [Conclusion] The findings suggest that, in patients with Parkinson's disease, a higher number of floating toes is associated with reduced walking ability and toe function.


Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21) is a hepatokine with multiple important metabolic functions. However, the role of FGF-21 in human insulin sensitivity remains unclear. We report an adolescent female with severe acanthosis nigricans and extremely elevated insulin levels (2446 uIU/mL). Due to her severe insulin resistance, we looked into the possibility that she might have a genetic syndrome of insulin resistance. Whole exome sequencing revealed that she carries 2 variants of unknown significance in genes critical for FGF-21 signaling, Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 1 (FGFR1) and beta-Klotho (KLB). FGFR1 and KLB are transmembrane co-factors that bind FGF-21 leading to downstream signaling. A bicistronic expression plasmid was created recapitulating the above variants found in our subject. These plasmids were transfected into L6 myoblasts, a cell line known to express low levels of endogenous FGF receptor. ERK phosphorylation (pERK), a major downstream signal of FGF-21, was measured after treatment with FGF-21. pERK was strongly upregulated in cells transfected with wild type FGFR1 and KLB (500,710 AU). However, variant FGFR1 and KLB greatly attenuated pERK (107,068 AU). Canonical FGF-2 treatment led to robust upregulation of pERK in both wild type and variant cell lines (374,968 AU and 441,654 AU respectively). Expression of Slc2a1 (Glut1) and Slc2a4 (Glut4) was also measured in response to FGF-21. Cells transfected with wild type FGFR1 and KLB led to a 1.7-fold increase in both Glut1 and Glut4 expression, whereas Glut1 and Glut4 expression was attenuated in cells transfected with the FGFR1 and KLB variants (1.2 and 0.7-fold respectively). These results suggest that the digenic FGFR1 and KLB variants found in our subject lead to an endocrine specific FGF-21 resistance with decreased GLUT1- and GLUT4-mediated glucose uptake. This helps explain our subject's severe insulin resistance, and may represent a novel disorder related to FGF-21. Disclosure S.I. Stone: Research Support; Self; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; AbbVie Inc. D.J. Wegner: None. J.A. Wambach: None. F.S. Cole: None. D.M. Ornitz: None. F. Urano: Board Member; Self; Healthbeat. Research Support; Self; Aetas, Amylyx, JDRF, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Stock/Shareholder; Self; CytRx. Other Relationship; Self; Novus Biologicals. Funding National Institutes of Health (HL120002); Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences/Children9s Discovery Institute (UL1TR00448)


MuZero Unplugged presents a promising approach for offline policy learning from logged data. It conducts Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) with a learned model and leverages Reanalyze algorithm to learn purely from offline data. For good performance, MCTS requires accurate learned models and a large number of simulations, thus costing huge computing time. This paper investigates a few hypotheses where MuZero Unplugged may not work well under the offline RL settings, including 1) learning with limited data coverage; 2) learning from offline data of stochastic environments; 3) improperly parameterized models given the offline data; 4) with a low compute budget. We propose to use a regularized one-step look-ahead approach to tackle the above issues. Instead of planning with the expensive MCTS, we use the learned model to construct an advantage estimation based on a one-step rollout. Policy improvements are towards the direction that maximizes the estimated advantage with regularization of the dataset. We conduct extensive empirical studies with BSuite environments to verify the hypotheses and then run our algorithm on the RL Unplugged Atari benchmark. Experimental results show that our proposed approach achieves stable performance even with an inaccurate learned model. On the large-scale Atari benchmark, the proposed method outperforms MuZero Unplugged by 43%. Most significantly, it uses only 5.6% wall-clock time (i.e., 1 hour) compared to MuZero Unplugged (i.e., 17.8 hours) to achieve a 150% IQM normalized score with the same hardware and software stacks. Our implementation is open-sourced at https://github.com/sail-sg/rosmo.


The application of economic instruments to GHG emissions from dairy farms needs to rely on GHG indicators as actual emissions are impossible or extremely costly to measure. The choice of indicator impacts chosen abatement options, related costs and GHG actually emitted. A tool to quantify these relations is proposed which at its core consists of a highly detailed, mixed-integer dynamic programming model template able to cover a wide range of dairy farm characteristics and promising indicators. It allows deriving and comparing marginal abatement costs of GHGs emission for different farm types and indicators, informing the policy process about promising indicators, abatement strategies and related abatement and measurement costs.


People in different subgroups age at different rates. Surveys containing biomarkers can be used to assess these subgroup differences. We illustrate this using hand-grip strength to produce an easily interpretable, physical-based measure that allows us to compare characteristic-based ages across educational subgroups in the United States. Hand-grip strength has been shown to be a good predictor of future mortality and morbidity, and therefore a useful indicator of population aging. Data from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) were used. Two education subgroups were distinguished, those with less than a high school diploma and those with more education. Regressions on hand-grip strength were run for each sex and race using age and education, their interactions and other covariates as independent variables. Ages of identical mean hand-grip strength across education groups were compared for people in the age range 60 to 80. The hand-grip strength of 65 year old white males with less education was the equivalent to that of 69.6 (68.2, 70.9) year old white men with more education, indicating that the more educated men had aged more slowly. This is a constant characteristic age, as defined in the Sanderson and Scherbov article "The characteristics approach to the measurement of population aging" published 2013 in Population and Development Review. Sixty-five year old white females with less education had the same average hand-grip strength as 69.4 (68.2, 70.7) year old white women with more education. African-American women at ages 60 and 65 with more education also aged more slowly than their less educated counterparts. African American men with more education aged at about the same rate as those with less education. This paper expands the toolkit of those interested in population aging by showing how survey data can be used to measure the differential extent of aging across subpopulations.


Objective. To increase the knowledge of health care pro- vidersunderstanding of and practices on domestic violence, in order to improve care. Materials and Methods. This study was conducted between May and November 2003, In Quintana Roo, Coahuila, and Mexico City, three Mexican states with a high prevalence of domestic violence. Sixty in- depth interviews with health care providers in public health institutions and key informants of health service provision were completed. Results. Health care providers were cat- egorized based on the extent to which they reproduced four "discourses about violence". These discourses influence their daily practice and are related to the informants' gen- der values and social positions. Most informants expressed their willingness to address the issue of domestic violence. Conclusions. Attention to and care for domestic violence is insufficient in health services; this may be due more closely related to a predominant discourse tolerating domestic vi- olence among decision-makers, than to the attitudes of health care providers; the latter demonstrated greater awareness of women's rights.


Background: Sample-size calculations are critical to ensure that randomised control trials return robust and reliable results. The estimated treatment effects used in these calculations is often significantly different from the actual treatment effect and can dramatically impact trial validity. Methods: This study examined sample-size calculations in randomised controlled trials designed to show superiority between two-arm parallel groups with a single primary outcome that were published in the top five anaesthetic journals for 2014 (as per Thomson Reuters impact factors). In particular, it sought to determine treatment effect estimations used in a priori sample-size calculations and compare them with actual treatment effects. Results: A PubMed search identified 209 possible articles; 52 were drawn for full text review; and 28 were included in the final analysis. The relative difference between expected and actual event rates was greater than 20% in 80% of trials and greater than 50% in 44% of trials. Conclusions: Unrealistic assumptions of treatment effects in randomised controlled trials published in anaesthesia journals are common. Trial sample sizes should be calculated thoughtfully and realistically and should be fully reported in both trial protocols and publications. Researchers should be aware of the opportunity cost as well as the possible dangers to patients when unrealistic assumptions are made. Where possible researchers should collaborate to achieve meaningful trial sample sizes to ensure robust clinical findings.


A series of experiments was conducted to examine some factors affecting the absorption and translocation of Cd in young bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Bulgarian). Absorption of Cd by roots was reduced in the presence of other cations of increasing valency or ionic radii. Reduced absorption was also found in the presence of EDTA. Concentration of Cd in exudates from excised stems increased with increased passage of Cd solutions and approached the concentration in the external medium (4.5 μM Cd). This was apparently associated with saturation of adsorption sites in the stems. The stem behaved as a cation exchange column resulting in a chromatographic distribution of Cd towards the top of the plant. These experiments indicate that Cd existed in the xylem fluid as a free or weakly complexed cation. Additional experiments showed that the total amount of Cd absorbed by bean plants was elevated by inducing higher transpiration rates. The effect of water flux on Cd transport indicated apoplastic flow to the stele


Background: Despite recent developments in the methodology for measuring spasticity, the discriminative capacity of clinically diagnosed spasticity has not been well established. This study aimed to develop a simple device for measuring velocity-dependent spasticity with improved discriminative capacity based on an analysis of clinical maneuver and to examine its reliability and validity. Methods: This study consisted of three experiments. First, to determine the appropriate motion of a mechanical device for the measurement of velocity-dependent spasticity, the movement pattern and the angular velocity used by clinicians to evaluate velocity-dependent spasticity were investigated. Analysis of the procedures performed by six physical therapists to evaluate spasticity were conducted using an electrogoniometer. Second, a device for measuring the resistance force against ankle dorsiflexion was developed based on the results of the first experiment. Additionally, preliminary testing of validity, as compared to that of the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), was conducted on 17 healthy participants and 10 patients who had stroke with spasticity. Third, the reliability of the measurement and the concurrent validity of mechanical measurement in the best ankle velocity setting were further tested in a larger sample comprising 24 healthy participants and 32 patients with stroke. Results: The average angular velocity used by physical therapists to assess spasticity was 268 ± 77°/s. A device that enabled the measurement of resistance force at velocities of 300°/s, 150°/s, 100°/s, and 5°/s was developed. In the measurement, an angular velocity of 300°/s was found to best distinguish patients with spasticity (MAS of 1+ and 2) from healthy individuals. A measurement of 300°/s in the larger sample differentiated the control group from the MAS 1, 1+, and 2 subgroups (p < 0.01), as well as the MAS 1 and 2 subgroups (p < 0.05). No fixed or proportional bias was observed in repeated measurements. Conclusion: A simple mechanical measurement methodology was developed based on the analysis of the clinical maneuver for measuring spasticity and was shown to be valid in differentiating the existence and extent of spasticity. This study suggest possible requirements to improve the quality of the mechanical measurement of spasticity.


Virgariella ellipsospora sp. nov., found on dead leaves petioles of Calyptronoma plumeriana in two different localities of central Cuba, is described and illustrated. It differs from previously described species by its broadly fusiform to ellipsoid, sometimes mitrate or ovoid, basally papilate conidia. The main diagnostic features fo the accepted species of the genus are summarized in a table.


Aimed at the design of the radius of flute for solid carbide end mill, a new oblique cutting model for milling was established based on the simplified model of milling layer. Depending on this model, an equation was developed to calculate the maximum chip thickness in milling. An oblique cutting simulation via FEM(Finite Element Method) was conducted to verify the equation. The conclusion was that the result gained from the simulation was in a good agreement with the present model, so the present model is reasonable to predict the maximum chip thickness in milling and to determine the radius of the arc at the bottom of the flute.


We introduce and develop a novel approach to extend the ordinary two-flavor neutrino oscillation formalism in matter using a non-Hermitian PT symmetric effective Hamiltonian. The condition of PT symmetry is weaker and less mathematical than that of hermicity, but more physical, and such an extension of the formalism can give rise to sub-leading effects in neutrino flavor transitions similar to the effects by so-called non-standard neutrino interactions. We derive the necessary conditions for the spectrum of the effective Hamiltonian to be real as well as the mappings between the fundamental and effective parameters. We find that the real spectrum of the effective Hamiltonian will depend on all new fundamental parameters introduced in the non-Hermitian PT symmetric extension of the usual neutrino oscillation formalism and that either i) the spectrum is exact and the effective leptonic mixing must always be maximal or ii) the spectrum is approximate and all new fundamental parameters must be small.


Fluorescence imaging performed in the 1500-1700 nm spectral range (labeled as near-infrared IIb, NIR-IIb) promises high imaging contrast and spatial resolution for its little photon scattering effect and minimum auto-fluorescence. Though inorganic and organic probes have been developed for NIR-IIb bioimaging, most are in preclinical stage, hampering further clinical application. Herein, we showed that indocyanine green (ICG), an US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved agent, exhibited remarkable amount of NIR-IIb emission when dissolved into different protein solutions, including human serum albumin, rat bile, and fetal bovine serum. We performed fluorescence imaging in NIR-IIb window to visualize structures of lymph system, extrahepatic biliary tract and cerebrovascular. Results demonstrated that proteins promoted NIR-IIb emission of ICG in vivo and that NIR-IIb imaging with ICG preserved higher signal-to-background ratio (SBR) and spatial resolution compared with the conventional near-infrared II (NIR-II) fluorescence imaging. Our findings confirm that NIR-IIb fluorescence imaging can be successfully performed using the clinically approved agent ICG. Further clinical application in NIR-IIb region would hopefully be carried out with appropriate ICG-protein solutions.


Focusing on ethics in public relations from a multicultural point of view brings together elements which are critical to international public relations. The Public Relations-Ethics-Multicultural (PREM) model illustrates that articles can he found in the literature on ethics, public relations, and multicultural as individual concepts. The incompleteness of curriculum offerings among the disciplines suggests that colleges and univesities colleges and universities should look for interdisciplinary opportunities. A survey of the few international public relations courses offered further reinforces the need for an interdisciplinary effort. Public relations agencies prefer hiring those with a liberal arts background and allowing the professional to learn the craft later. This finding may have additional significance when examining the PREM model in terms of a professional prepared for handling international public relations. The international public relations professional must learn more than the tools of the trade. The professional must know the multitude of conditions necessary for making, and when to make actions or decisions. The times call for a movement to a liberal arts trained professional with a communication (interpersonal, broadcasting, orgLnizational, public relations, speech) oriented background. (Two diagrams, one table, and a list of "priority research questions for the 1990s" are included; 32 references are attached.) (SG) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original dpcument. *********************************************************************** DIFFERENCES IN ETHICAL STANDARDS: FACTORING IN THE CULTURAL EXPECTATION IN PUBLIC RELATIONS EDUCATION


Correct development of the nervous system requires precise regulation of axon outgrowth, guidance and termination. However, little is known about how signalling and adhesion molecules that control axon development are transcriptionally regulated. Using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, this thesis explores the role of the transcriptional repressor C-terminal binding protein-1 (CTBP-1) in regulating axonal development.


BACKGROUND
We hypothesized that medication adherence is affected by the number of pharmacies a patient frequents.

OBJECTIVES
The objective was to estimate the strength of association between the number of pharmacies a patient frequents and adherence to statins.

METHODS
Using administrative data from the Nova Scotia Seniors' Pharmacare program, a retrospective cohort study was conducted among subjects aged 65 years and older first dispensed statin between 1998 and 2008. The Usual Provider of Care (UPC), was defined as the number of dispensation days from the most frequented pharmacy divided by the total number of dispensation days. Estimated adherence of over 80% of the Medication Possession Ratio was defined as adherent. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear regression.

RESULTS
The cohort of 25,641 subjects was 59% female with a mean age of 74 years. During follow-up, subjects filled prescriptions in a median of 2 (mean = 2; standard deviation = 0.88) pharmacies and visited pharmacies a median of 28 (mean = 30) times. During that time, 61% of patients used one pharmacy exclusively. Among subjects using 1 pharmacy, 59% were adherent while 58% using more than one pharmacy were adherent. However, upon adjustment for differences in distributions of age, sex, and other confounders, subjects who used more than one pharmacy had 10% decreased odds of statin adherence (odds ratio: 0.90, 95% confidence interval: 0.86-0.96). These results were robust in sensitivity analyses.

CONCLUSIONS
Among seniors newly starting statin therapy, using a single community pharmacy was modestly associated with adherence.


Locomotion planning for legged systems requires reasoning about suitable contact schedules. The contact sequence and timings constitute a hybrid dynamical system and prescribe a subset of achievable motions. State-of-the-art approaches cast motion planning as an optimal control problem. In order to decrease computational complexity, one common strategy separates footstep planning from motion optimization and plans contacts using heuristics. In this paper, we propose to learn contact schedule selection from high-level task descriptors using Bayesian Optimization. A bi-level optimization is defined in which a Gaussian Process model predicts the performance of trajectories generated by a motion planning nonlinear program. The agent, therefore, retains the ability to reason about suitable contact schedules, while explicit computation of the corresponding gradients is avoided. We delineate the algorithm in its general form and provide results for planning single-legged hopping. Our method is capable of learning contact schedule transitions that align with human intuition. It performs competitively against a heuristic baseline in predicting task appropriate contact schedules.


Corrosion of reinforcement is the major cause of the deterioration of reinforced concrete structure. Corroded reinforcement induces stresses in concrete cover that leads to cracking and spalling of concrete cover and finally results in the failure of the structure to carry the design loads. The main causes of reinforcement corrosion are carbonation and chloride ions attack. Acid and sulphate attack can also weaken the concrete. The objectives of this research were to look at the possibility of using fibre optic sensors to monitor the corrosion of reinforcement and to detect changes in pH of concrete and mortar. Both sensors used Plastic Clad Silica (PCS) optical fibres which were unclad, 4 cm long, at the centre portion. The light was made incidence to one end of the optical fibre and detected at the other end. For the corrosion sensor, unclad PCS optical fibre was attached to the reinforcement. The formation of rust on the reinforcement surface causes light to be refracted from fibre optic. Consequently, the intensity of light detected at the other end of the fibre was reduced. For the pH sensor, the unclad portion of optical fibre was dip coated in the silica sol-gel film. The color of the silica sol-gel film on fibre optic surface changes as the pH of solution and pore water of concrete changes. The color changes of the film influenced the transmission of light through the optical fibre. The colors of silica sol-gel film darken as if the pH value increases. This state causes the light to be refracted away from the fibre optic that renders the light detected on the other end (receiver) of fibre optic to decrease. The comparison with the measurements using electrochemical corrosion sensor shows that the constructed fibre optic corrosion sensor is capable to detect corrosion of the reinforcement in concrete. This was confirmed by visual inspection of the reinforcement when the concrete sample was broke open at the end of the experiment. Furthermore, the comparison with the measurements using pH meter shows that the fiber optic pH sensor is also capable to detect the changes of the pH in solution. However, the change of pH in mortar and concrete was not clearly distinguished


OBJECTIVE
To determine time intervals between onset of symptoms of a childhood rheumatic disease and first visit to a pediatric rheumatology clinic and to evaluate factors influencing onset to first visit intervals.

METHODS
Onset to first visit intervals were analyzed in 836 children representing the 10 most common diseases in a pediatric rheumatology clinic population of 1093.

RESULTS
Among 836 subjects, 469 (56.1%) could identify month of symptom onset. Among patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) 125 of 195 (64.1%) with pauciarticular, 58 of 105 (55.2%) with polyarticular, and 28 of 36 (77.8%) with systemic subtypes were able to determine time interval between symptom onset and first visit. Month intervals were confidently established in 80 of 250 with a spondyloarthropathy (32.4%), 19 of 52 (36.5%) with psoriatic arthropathy, 65 of 72 (90.3%) with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP), 50 of 56 (89.3%) with Kawasaki disease, 22 of 34 (64.7%) with systemic lupus erythematosus, 13 of 18 (72.2%) with dermatomyositis, and 9 of 18 (50%) with localized scleroderma. Determination of onset was significantly more likely in HSP than in other diagnostic categories except systemic JRA, and more likely in Kawasaki disease than other disease categories except systemic JRA and dermatomyositis. In the group of 469, 287 (61.2%) were seen within 2 months of symptom onset and 447 (95.3%) within 1 year of symptom onset.

CONCLUSION
Diseases ordinarily typified by an abrupt and acute onset of symptoms were referred most promptly, suggesting that acuity of symptoms at disease onset is the factor that most influences promptness of referral. Prospective studies are required to establish how onset to first visit intervals might influence disease outcomes and to devise best practice referral guidelines.


This paper describes the facilities, measurement capabilities, and ongoing research activities in the areas of mass and force at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The first section of the paper is devoted to mass metrology and starts with a brief historical perspective on the developments that led to the current definition of the kilogram. An overview of mass measurement procedures is given with a brief discussion of current research on alternative materials for mass standards and surface profiles of the U.S. national prototype kilograms. A brief outlook into the future possible redefinition of the unit of mass based on fundamental principles is included. The second part of this paper focuses on the unit of force and describes the realization of the unit, measurement procedures, uncertainty in the realized force, facilities, and current efforts aimed at the realization of small forces.


Phosphatocopids are a group of small extinct marine crustaceans, which occur widespread in Cambrian dysoxic benthic lithofacies. Whereas the anatomy of the earliest ontogenetic stages of phosphatocopids, from the head larva with four pairs of appendages onward, is well documented, that of more advanced or adult growth stages has remained almost unknown (except for the external shields). Here we describe a three-dimensionally preserved specimen of a late growth stage of Cyclotron angelini from the Furongian strata (~490 Ma) of northern Poland, which possesses six pairs of appendages (2nd–7th pairs; antennula missing), much of setation, sternum with paragnath humps, and the trunk end with the putative anus. Based on comparisons with known phosphatocopids, the cephalic feeding system of this late larva comprises the antennae with their gnathobase-like median structures on their syncoxa and the mandible with a likewise strong but oblique gnathic coxal endite. Both appendages have a short, specialized endopod bearing a prominent, dentate, stout median spine on its proximal portion. The antennulae are missing but, as in other phosphatocopids, they are not expected to have contributed to the feeding and locomotory system like they do in crustacean stem-lineage representatives and the Eucrustacea, especially in the early larval phase. The lack of an antennal exopod and strong reduction in size of the mandibular exopod of C. angelini suggest that these appendages had lost their function as locomotory and sweeping devices, in contrast to other phosphatocopids (and eucrustaceans). Therefore, they may have served mainly for food gathering in the vicinity of the mouth, which may represent an autapomorphy of this phosphatocopid species. Furthermore, in this developmental stage of C. angelini the production of water currents and movement of food particles toward the median food path was likely achieved by the large, paddle-shaped setiferous exopods of the serially developed post-mandibular limbs. For comparisons, we studied additional phosphatocopid specimens from the Debki 2 borehole belonging to other taxa and representing different ontogenetic stages. This is also the first report of exceptionally preserved cuticular apodemes in phosphatocopids, extending internally and still bearing partly preserved, putative muscle bundles. As known from extant eucrustaceans, these apodemes most likely served as attachment sites for appendage muscles. (Less)


Scientific investigations on lakes started during the 19th century in Europe and the US. Since this time paleolimnological and limnogeological investigations increased distinctly and during the last few years there has been a rapid advance in the understanding of processes operating in lacustrine systems. However, most studies focused on easily accessible locations. Despite major improvements in scientific knowledge of lakes up to now, there still remain gaps especially for the areas investigated in this thesis, i.e., the different rainfall zones of South Africa, the Tibetan Plateau, the steppe parts of Argentinean Patagonia, the Ecuadorian Andes, and the Island of Sulawesi (Indonesia). The papers in this thesis try to close some of these gaps and try to contribute to a better understanding of processes that occurred in the past and their (paleo-)environmental consequences in regions that have rarely been investigated so far. The aim of this thesis is to provide new paleolimnological and limnogeological information and develop process based conceptual models from areas of the world where this kind of information is very scarce to inexistent. A special emphasis will be on the construction of reliable chronologies using multi-dating approaches. In this context one focus will be on the evaluation of chronologies using paleomagnetic secular variations wherever this was possible depending on sediment properties. In order to reach this aim the papers forming this thesis are structured as follows: 1. New conceptual approaches 2. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions using simple magnetostratigraphically not confirmed chronologies since no paleomagnetic secular variation data could be obtained from the sediment and other paleolimnological and limnogeological investigations 3. Paleomagnetic investigations and/or magnetostratigraphic evaluations of chronologies 4. Paleoenvironmental information from magnetostratigraphically corroborated chronologies 5. Other dating approaches


Sustainable development cannot be fulfilled without developing an effective health sector to address health-related issues among children, especially in underdeveloped countries like Ghana. Malaria, in particular, has been identified as a significant disease and cause of death among children under five years of age (U5) in Ghana, although it has drastically reduced in recent years. Against this background, this paper attempts to assess some factors that may have determined the development of U5 mortality due to malaria in Ghana using time series data from 2000-2019. The OLS regression results indicate that domestic government health expenditure, clean drinking water and insecticide-treated nets have a negative connection with children U5 mortality due to malaria in the country. The findings also show a weak positive relationship between malaria infection prevalence and U5 mortality from malaria. Contrary to prior expectations, the results reveal a negative relationship between low birth weight, overweight, stunted, and children U5 mortality from malaria infection. The study concludes that addressing malaria cases among children U5 would greatly depend on building and sustaining resource redistribution through strategic policy, reliable funding, and effective health institutions to tackle malaria incidence and deaths among U5 in the country.
Keywords: healthcare, health expenditure, ITNs, malaria, potable water, U5 mortality


Autoimmunity has been associated with vitamin D deficiency and resistance, with gene polymorphisms related to vitamin D metabolism frequently described in affected patients. High doses of vitamin D3 may conceivably compensate for inherited resistance to its biological effects. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of prolonged high-dose vitamin D3 treatment of patients with psoriasis and vitiligo. Nine patients with psoriasis and 16 patients with vitiligo received vitamin D3 35,000 IU once daily for six months in association with a low-calcium diet (avoiding dairy products and calcium-enriched foods like oat, rice or soya "milk") and hydration (minimum 2.5 L daily). All psoriasis patients were scored according to "Psoriasis Area and Severity Index" (PASI) at baseline and after treatment. Evaluation of clinical response of vitiligo patients required a quartile grading scale. All patients presented low vitamin D status (serum 25(OH)D3 ≤ 30 ng/mL) at baseline. After treatment 25(OH)D3 levels significantly increased (from 14.9 ± 7.4 to 106.3 ± 31.9 ng/mL and from 18.4 ± 8.9 to 132.5 ± 37.0 ng/mL) and PTH levels significantly decreased (from 57.8 ± 16.7 to 28.9 ± 8.2 pg/mL and from 55.3 ± 25.0 to 25.4 ± 10.7 pg/mL) in patients with psoriasis and vitiligo respectively. PTH and 25(OH)D3 serum concentrations correlated inversely. The PASI score significantly improved in all nine patients with psoriasis. Fourteen of 16 patients with vitiligo had 25–75% repigmentation. Serum urea, creatinine and calcium (total and ionized) did not change and urinary calcium excretion increased within the normal range. High-dose vitamin D3 therapy may be effective and safe for vitiligo and psoriasis patients.


Preface Part I. FOUNDATIONS IN WOMEN'S HEALTH * Chapter 1. Historical Perspective of Women's Health Care * Chapter 2. Patient Education in Women's Health * Chapter 3. Psychosocial Issues Associated with Women's Health Care * Chapter 4. Management and Marketing of Women's Health Physical Therapy Services * Chapter 5. Documentation of and Reimbursement for Women's Health Physical Therapy Services Part II. PHYSICAL THERAPY IN GYNECOLOGIC CARE * Chapter 6. Clinical Anatomy of the Pelvis and Perineum * Chapter 7. Physical Therapy Management of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction * Chapter 8. Physical Therapy Management of Pelvic Pain * Chapter 9. Chronic Pelvic Pain Disorders * Chapter 10. Physical Therapy Management Before and After Gynecologic Surgeries Part III. PHYSICAL THERAPY IN OBSTETRIC CARE * Chapter 11. Physiological, Anatomical and Musculoskeletal Changes During the Childbearing Year * Chapter 12. Physical Therapy Management of Musculoskeletal Dysfunction During Pregnancy * Chapter 13. Physical Activity and Exercise During the Childbearing Year * Chapter 14. Prenatal and Perinatal Options: Informed Choices to Promote Normal Birth * Chapter 15. Physical Therapy Intervention During Labor & Delivery and Postpartum Care * Chapter 16. Medical Management and Physical Therapy Management of High-Risk Pregnancy Part IV. MEDICAL AND MUSCULOSKELETAL LIFESPAN ISSUES IN WOMEN'S HEALTH * Chapter 17. The Adolescent Female * Chapter 18. Women in the Workplace * Chapter 19. Musculoskeletal Disorders During the Middle Years and Beyond * Chapter 20. Women and Heart Disease * Chapter 21. Osteoporosis: Physical Therapy Prevention and Intervention Part V. ONCOLOGIC ISSUES WITHIN WOMEN'S HEALTH * Chapter 22. Management of Breast Cancer * Chapter 23. Lymphedema Management Part VI. SPECIAL TOPICS WITHIN WOMEN'S HEALTH * Chapter 24. The Female Athlete * Chapter 25. Exercise Issues and Aging * Chapter 26. Aquatic Therapy Services in Women's Health * Chapter 27. Physical Therapy Management of Women with Long-Term Disabilities


Objectives—To report the long term eVect of the combined treatment with high dose intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) and oral cyclophosphamide (CTX) in patients with multifocal motor neuropathy, and to determine whether the association of oral CTX in these patients may help to delay and, possibly, suspend IVIg infusions. Methods—Six patients with multifocal motor neuropathy responding to an initial course of IVIg (0.4 g/kg/day for five consecutive days) were followed up for 37 to 61 (mean 47) months. All patients were subsequently treated with periodic IVIg infusions (0.4 g/kg/day for two days at clinical worsening) and oral CTX (1-3 mg/kg/day). Improvement was assessed using the Rankin disability scale, a functional impairment scale for upper and lower limbs, and the MRC rating scale on the 20 most aVected muscles. Electrophysiological and antiglycolipid antibody studies were performed before treatment, then yearly during follow up. Results—All patients improved during treatment and, by the end of follow up or before worsening after therapy suspension, the median Rankin (P=0.0335) and upper (P=0.0015) and lower limb (P=0.0301) impairment scores and the mean MRC (P=0.0561) score were improved. By that time the number of nerves with partial motor conduction block was reduced (P=0.0197) and antiglycolipid antibody titres had decreased in all but one patient. All patients required periodic IVIg infusions to maintain improvement but, after three to seven months of oral CTX, the interval between IVIg infusions could be progressively prolonged until, in three patients, both treatments could be stopped for up to two years before clinical worsening. The main complications, both related to oral CTX, were haemorrhagic cystitis in two patients and persistent amenorrhea in one patient. Conclusions—IVIg can induce and maintain improvement in multifocal motor neuropathy but does not eradicate the disease. Oral CTX may help to induce a sustained remission but it is not devoid of side eVects and might therefore be reserved for patients with multifocal motor neuropathy who require frequent IVIg infusions to maintain improvement. (J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1997;63:765‐769)


The overloaded CDMA system, as the solution to the capacity limit of its conventional counterpart, has drawn frequent interest of the researchers in the past. While there exists numerous proposals on the construction of uniquely decodable (UD) signature matrices for overloaded CDMA system with very high value of overloading factor, most of them lag the efficient multiuser detector (MUD) for noisy transmission. Here, by efficient, we imply the MUD to have acceptable BER performance and simplified in design. Whereas the lack of efficiency of several MUDs is primarily due to the impact of excess level of multiple access interference (MAI) because of the rise in the number of active users, its random nature prohibits its accurate estimation and elimination. Under such constraints, if the signature matrices can be intelligently constructed so as to generate a defined and controlled pattern (hierarchy) of MAI so that the designed MUD will exploit the knowledge of this hierarchy to remove the MAI completely and attain better error performance at much lower cost of complexity. We consider this as the motivation for research in this thesis. First, we propose the ternary signature matrix with orthogonal subsets (TSMOS), where the matrix with index-k comprises of k orthogonal subsets with each having different number signatures, and all subsets besides the first (largest) one are of ternary type. The correlation (interference) pattern among the signatures is mapped into a twin tree hierarchy, which is further leveraged to design a simplified MUD using the linear decoding blocks like matched filter (MF) to provide errorfree and better error performance for noiseless and noisy transmission respectively. Next, we generalize the construction of TSMOS to multiple structures i.e.; Type I, Type II, Type III and mixed versions and reveal the complementary feature of 50% signatures of the largest (binary) subset that further results in their optimality. Further, we propose the non-ternary version of SMOS (called as 2k-SMOS), where the binary alphabets in each of the k subsets are different from each other. With vii no complementary feature, 50% signatures of its largest subset are also found to be optimal. The superiority of 2k-SMOS over TSMOS is also verified for an overloading capacity of 150%. Next, we propose and discuss the hybrid SMOS (HSMOS), where the subsets from TSMOS and 2k-SMOS are used as the constituents to produce multiple SMOS structures, of which TSMOS and 2k-SMOS are treated as the special cases. For better understanding of the features of the whole family of SMOS (with an overloading capacity of 200%), the gradual change in the twin tree hierarchy and BER performance of the left and right child of the individual subsets are studied. Similar to SMOS, we also introduce the hierarchy based low density signature (HLDS) matrix, where any UD matrix satisfying particular criterion can be considered as the basis set. For hadamard matrix as the basis set, we design a MUD that uses the MF to implement the decision vector search (DVS) algorithm, which is meant to exploit the advantageous hierarchy of constellation of the transmitted vector to offer errorfree decoding. For noisy channel, the marginal degradation in the level of BER of the MUD (DVS) as compared to the optimum joint maximum likelihood decoder (MLD) is worthy to be overlooked when compared with the significant gain achieved in terms of complexity. For the smallest dimension of the hadamard matrix as the basis, the MUD is further simplified to offer recovery using a comparison driven decision making algorithm, also known as comparison aided decoding (CAD). Despite simplicity, the error performance of the MUD (CAD) is observed to be very close to that of MUD (DVS).