Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an oligosymptomatic disease, that is usually diagnosed in an advanced tumor stage. Traditionally, only the small subset of patients with tumors that showed no signs of vascular infiltration and distant metastases proceeded to surgery-still the only curative therapeutic modality to date. The remaining majority of patients received palliative chemotherapy or chemoradiation, usually with gemcitabine monotherapy. While gemcitabine monotherapy results in improved survival compared to best supportive care, most patients still succumb to the disease under therapy in a relatively short amount of time. Over the last years and decades, paradigms have shifted in PDAC treatment and potent multidrug chemotherapy protocols, including gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel and FOLFIRINOX, result in sufficient downstaging of advanced tumors in many patients. In this context, more and more patients are eligible for exploration and often resection. In this review we discuss the current state of the art in the clinical management and surgical treatment of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, including classifications of locally advanced and borderline disease and surgical strategies for extended resections. An emphasis is put on arterial and venous resections and their outcome. In the end, we discuss current gaps in the literature and propose directions future research endeavors should focus on.


We generalise Fiore et al's account of variable binding for untyped cartesian contexts to give an account of binding for either variables or names that may be typed. We do this in an enriched setting, allowing the incorporation of recursion into the analysis. Extending earlier work by us, we axiomatise the notion of context by defining and using the notion of an enriched pseudo-monad S on V-Cat, with leading examples of V given by Set and ωCpo, the latter yielding an account of recursion. Fiore et al implicitly used the pseudo-monad T$_{fp}$ on Cat for small categories with finite products. Given a set A of types, our extension to typed binders and enrichment involves generalising from Fiore et al's use of [F, Set] to [(SA)$^{op}$, V$^{A}$]. We define a substitution monoidal structure on [(SA)$^{op}$, V$^{A}$], allowing us to give a definition of binding signature at this level of generality, and extend initial algebra semantics to the typed, enriched axiomatic setting. This generalises and axiomatises previouswork by Fiore et al and later authors in particular cases. In particular, it includes the Logic of Bunched Implications and variants, infinitary examples, and structures not previously considered such as those generated by finite limits.


Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. [teleomorph Athelia rolfsii (Curzi) Tu et Kimbrough] is a soil- borne polyphagous phytopatho- genic fungus characterized by prolific growth and ability to produce persistent sclerotia. In Tunisia, S. rolfsii has al- ready been reported on potato (Daami-Remadi et al., 2007) and olive (Boulila, 2001). In spring 2012, a sudden death of 2-year-old apple trees (Malus domestica) cv. Royal Gala grafted on MM106 rootstock was observed in an orchard near Tunis showing leaf chlorosis, root and collar rot. Isola- tions from necrotic wood on PDA medium, yielded consis- tent white fungal colonies, producing only sclerotia and no fruiting bodies or spores. Based on morphological charac- teristics, the fungus was tentatively identified as Sclerotium sp., then confirmed by sequencing the ITS region of rDNA. The obtained sequence (accession No. KF021301) matched the sequence of Athelia rolfsii (ATCC 201126). A pathoge- nicity test was performed on 2-year-old grafted apples of cv. Royal Gala in a glasshouse at 25-28°C and 80% relative hu- midity. Mycelial plugs of S. rolfsii were inoculated into the basal stem of 10 plants, whereas an equal number of non inoculated plants served as controls. Symptoms like those observed in the field developed in inoculated plants, but not in the controls, 35 days post inoculation. S. rolfsii was consistently re-isolated from infected wood tissues fulfill- ing Koch's postulates. Apple collar tot (ACR) was originally described as apple southern blight in the USA and has also been reported in India, China, Israel and Italy (Corazza et al., 1999). To our knowledge this is the first report of ARC in Tunisia. The Tunisian Apple industry is mostly grown on MM106 rootstocks, and therefore, ACR represents a serious threat.


The medium of video games often fails to depict queerness with positive representations. To combat the harmful stereotypes or optional queerness in the medium, I advocate for an application of queer archival methodologies to define and locate queerness in gaming. Queer archiving, with a focus on emotions, trauma, establishment of identity, and multimodality, pairs well with the digital nature of video games. Gone Home (2013) and Life Is Strange (2015), two video games with narratives reliant on the developing romantic relationships between teenage girls, grant us examples in which the inclusion of queerness is reliant on such archiving. Within each game, players gather artefacts to compile archives. In turn, these archives create irrefutable spaces in which queer content is included.


data is an imperative issue because of fast evolution of digital data exchanges over an unsecured

network. Multimedia data security is achieved by methods of cryptography, which deals with

encryption of data. Standard symmetric encryption algorithms provide better security for the

multimedia data, but applying symmetric key encryption algorithm on more complex multimedia data,

problem of computational overhead might be faced. Over the last few years, several encryption

algorithms have applied to secure video transmission. While a large number of multimedia encryption

schemes have been proposed in the literature and some have been used in real time applications,

cryptanalytic work has shown the existence of security problems and other weaknesses in most of the

proposed multimedia encryption schemes. Encryption is a common technique to uphold multimedia

security. MPEG video stream is quite different from traditional textual data because inter frame

dependencies exist in MPEG video. Special MPEG video encryption algorithms are required because

of their special characteristics, such as coding structure, large amount of data and real-time

constraints. Image and video encryption have applications in various fields including internet

communication, multimedia systems, medical imaging, and military communication. The Advanced

Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm is used and modified it, to reduce the calculation of the

algorithm and for improving the encryption performance.


Assigning intonation to dialogue system output in a way that reflects relationships between entities in the discourse context can enhance the acceptability of system utterances. Previous research concentrated on the role of linguistic context; dialogue situatedness and the role of visual context in determining accent placement has not been studied. We present an experimental study on the influence of visual context on the perception of nuclear accent placement in synthesized clarification requests. We found that utterances are perceived as appropriate more often when the visual scene licenses the nuclear accent placement than when it does not.


: According to current Spanish law, patients are guaranteed the right to make decisions on the medical treatment they receive. However, this exercise of autonomy in health care causes ethical conflicts which are hard to resolve. Health workers' duty to assist patients and the concept of personal rights may lead health professionals to prescribe actions which are contrary to the patient's wishes. For example, in the case of Jehovah's Witnesses, the conscience of health professionals may prevent them from accepting the restrictions on treatments demanded by the patient's religious principles. The same right to moral autonomy which is guaranteed to the patient would also seem to guarantee the health professional's right to exercise conscientious objection. On the other hand, the right to medical assistance and to religious freedom will be observed only if both medical institutions and health professionals treat patients in a way which respects their beliefs. This text offers an ethical and legal analysis of the issue based on Spanish law, as well as a proposal on how these problems should be dealt with in everyday practice.


In the interest of publicizing examples of funded qualitative health research, the authors share a proposal to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Washington, D.C., in which they sought to elicit patient stories of preventable problems in their primary health care that were associated with psychological or physical harms. These stories would allow for the construction of a tentative typology of errors and harms as experienced by patients and the contrasting of this with errors and harms reported by primary care physicians in the United States and other countries. The authors make explicit the anticipated concerns of reviewers more accustomed to quantitative research proposals and the arguments and strategies employed to address them.


Carbon nanofiber (CNF)-nanocatalyst hybrids hold great promise in fields such as energy storage, synthetic chemistry and sensors. Current strategies to generate such hybrids are laborious and utterly incompatible with miniaturization and large-scale production. Instead, this work demonstrates that Ni-nanoparticles embedded in 3D CNFs of any shape and design can be easily prepared using electrospinning followed by laser carbonization under ambient conditions. Specifically, a solution of Ni(acac)2/Polyimide is electrospun and subsequently a design is printed via CO2 laser (Ni-LCNFs). This creates uniformly distributed small Ni nanoparticles (~ 8nm) very tightly adhered to the CNF network. Morphological and performance characteristics can be directly influenced by metal content and lasing power and hence adapted towards desired performance. Here, Ni-LCNFs are optimized for non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing of glucose with a great sensitivity of 2092 µA mM-1 cm-2 and a detection limit down to 0.3 µM. Its selectivity for glucose versus interfering species (ascorbic and uric acid) is essentially governed by the Ni content. Most importantly, this strategy can be adapted to a whole range of metal precursors and hence provide opportunities for such 3D CNFs nanocatalyst hybrids in point-of-care applications where high performance but also sustainable and low-cost fabrication are of utmost importance.


To date, studies investigating the consequences of shiftwork have predominantly focused on external (local) time. Here, we report the daily variation in cognitive performance in rotating shiftworkers under real-life conditions using the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and show that this function depends both on external and internal (biological) time. In addition to this high sensitivity of PVT performance to time-of-day, it has also been extensively applied in sleep deprivation protocols. We, therefore, also investigated the impact of shift-specific sleep duration and time awake on performance. In two separate field studies, 44 young workers (17 females, 27 males; age range 20–36 yrs) performed a PVT test every 2 h during each shift. We assessed chronotype by the MCTQShift (Munich ChronoType Questionnaire for shiftworkers). Daily sleep logs over the 4-wk study period allowed for the extraction of shift-specific sleep duration and time awake in a given shift, as well as average sleep duration ("sleep need"). Median reaction times (RTs) significantly varied across shifts, depending on both Local Time and Internal Time. Variability of reaction times around the 24 h mean (≈ ±5%) was best explained by a regression model comprising both factors, Local Time and Internal Time (p  <  .001). Short (15th percentile; RT15%) and long (85th percentile; RT85%) reaction times were differentially affected by Internal Time and Local Time. During night shifts, only median RT and RT85% were impaired by the duration of time workers had been awake (p < .01, consistent with the highest sleep pressure), but not RT15%. Proportion of sleep before a test day (relative to sleep need) significantly affected median RT and RT85% during morning shifts (p < .01). RT15% was worst in the beginning of the morning shift, but improved to levels above average with increasing time awake (p < .05), whereas RT85% became worse (p < .05). Hierarchical mixed models confirmed the importance of chronotype and sleep duration on cognitive performance in shiftworkers, whereas the effect of time awake requires further research. Our finding that both Local Time and Internal Time, in conjunction with shift-specific sleep behavior, strongly influence performance extends predictions derived from laboratory studies. (Author correspondence: firstname.lastname@example.com)


One of the often-raised arguments against the global same-sex marriage movement in Asia is the traditional 'Asian values' which deems Eastern communitarian values such as filial piety, loyalty towards family, corporation, government or nation more important than the Western individual freedom and sexual rights. This is evidenced in the recent speeches of the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad. This renewed interest in the 'Asian values' debate is ever more important when the call for personal freedom in the region seems to be escalating. Starting from the Bangkok Declaration (1993), Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations (1993) and Graham Allison's Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides Trap? (2017), this paper intends to investigate the validity of 'Asian values' from an alternative viewpoint, Queer Legal Theory (QLT), a sexual minorities perspective of law and society. Using dialectic juxtapositions during the Asian values debate in the 1990s represented by Lee Kuan Yew and Kim Dae-jung, this paper also intends to explore the development of majoritarian rule, democracy and human rights in Asia. In short, it aims to answer the question, is a democracy based on human rights and dignity feasible in Asia despite of its presumably different values from the rest of the world?


Several aspects of plume effects of field-effect electric propulsion (FEEP) were studied. We first estimated the contamination by cesium deposit due to charge exchange of fast ions and slow neutrals and to direct neutral impingement. Levels are rather low, with local maximums of a few tens or hundreds of angstroms per year, and not much more than 1-10 Aring farther from thruster nozzles. Neutralization of the ions emitted by FEEPs was also addressed, both concerning FEEP ion space-charge compensation and spacecraft net current, i.e., the floating potential issue. With the presence of a cathode-grounded neutralizer, the spacecraft was shown to float somewhat negatively with little dependence on the ambient environment.


We investigate whether global cooperation for emission abatement can be improved if asymmetric countries can sign different parallel environmental agreements. The analysis assumes a two-stage game theoretical model. Conditions for self-enforcing sets of agreements and the resulting total emission abatement are determined. We allow for multiple coalitions with multiple types of asymmetric countries. We then analyze the effect of multiple coalitions for the case of increasing marginal costs of abatement as well as for decreasing marginal benefits of abatement more generally. The results are sensitive to the assumptions on the benefits from abatement. For constant marginal benefits, the possibility of multiple agreements increases the number of cooperating countries and total abatement (compared to the standard case with a single agreement). For decreasing marginal benefits, total emissions are independent of the number of admitted agreements. The paper thus contributes to the emerging discussion on the scope and limits of climate clubs.


NASA's ACCESS Program is sponsoring an evolution of a mission-based ozone data processing system into a measurement-based Atmospheric Composition Processing System (ACPS). Services currently available only to mission science team members will be extended to members of the Atmospheric Composition Community. Data and information technologies developed for the BUV, TOMS, OMI, and OMPS science teams will be made available to a wider base of science users. Community scientists will have access to current processing algorithms and resources. They will be able to run modified forms of existing algorithms or develop and run new algorithms on the ACPS. Development costs will be minimized by utilizing elements of existing and proven systems. Implementation costs for external scientists will also be minimized by utilizing Linux-based commodity processors, open standards, and open source software. This presentation introduces the architecture of the ACPS and describes how external scientists will be able to interact with it.


Each year, the coffee machines at Ericsson in Kista produce around 100 tons of ground coffee waste.
The companies Coor Service Management, Lofbergs Lila and Selecta are all responsible for different stages in the logistical chain in delivering coffee and, together with Ericsson, they want to increase their environmental benefit. The plan is to produce biogas through anaerobic digestion instead of incinerating the coffee waste in a heating plant. The results are to be presented as different business cases in which different biogas plants are compared with the reference case (heating plant),
comparing costs and environmental impacts.

There are two major environmental benefits from producing biogas; reduced carbon dioxide emissions from when fossile fule is replaced by carbon neutral biogas, and reduced emissions from returning digestate from the bio reactor to farmland instead of using industrial fertelizer.

In order to determine the biogas potential in coffee waste, a couple of properties had to be determined in a laboratory. Properties such as the dry substance content, heating value, moisture content and ash content. The results show that 100 tons coffee waste could produce around 16 500 Nm3 biogas which would contain 163 MWh.

The biogas reactor and upgrade plant both need energy gas to function and uses around 14 MWh of the produced gas. In the end, the resulting upgraded biogas contains 149 MWh energy. Such an amount of gas can replace 15,1 m3 of diesel and thus reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 39,4 ton.
The emissions from running the reactor and upgrade plant, combined with methane leakage amounts to 4,8 ton carbon dioxide.

All of the biogas plants that were examined returns digestate and nutrients to farmlands which reduces the need for industrial fertelizer. The production of fertelizer uses alot of energy, and by returning digestate a reduction of 58 GJ energy and 3 ton CO2 can be achieved. This is not the case with the heat plant which instead has to place some of its produced ashes in landfills.

If the exergy content in the biogas is compared to that of the heat it shows that there is a point to making gas instead of incinerating the waste. The biogas has about 50 % higher exergy content than the heat has and therefore it is possible to utilize the substrate more efficiently.

Transporting coffee waste from Ericsson to different biogas plants will result in increased carbon dioxide emissions. The three plants investigated in this thesis are Henriksdals sewage treatment plant, the Himmerfjard plant and Uppsala biogas plant. For each plant, drivning distance, pre treatment requirements of the coffee waste, and related costs were determined. Using methods from the Network for transportation and enviroment, the emissions for each case were calculated.

The results show that the Henriksdal case will increase carbon dioxide emissions by two tons per year, and the other cases will increase emissions by four tons.

The result from combining laboratory work, simulations and calculations show that the case where Henriksdal recives the coffee waste will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 15,1 ton at a cost of 72 000 kr per year. The case with the Himmerfjard plant will reduce emissions by 13,8 ton at a cost of 74 000 kr per year. The final case with Uppsala biogas plant will reduce emissions by 13,7 ton at the
cost of 107 000 kr per year. And thus there are environmental benefits from producing biogas from the coffee waste, but they do come at a cost.


Resilience to errors in the underlying hardware is a key design objective for a large class of computing systems, from embedded systems all the way to the cloud. Sources of hardware errors include radiation, circuit aging, variability induced by manufacturing and operating conditions, manufacturing test escapes, and early-life failures. Many publications have suggested that cross-layer resilience, where multiple error resilience techniques from different layers of the system stack cooperate to achieve cost-effective resilience, is essential for designing cost-effective resilient digital systems. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of cross-layer resilience by addressing fundamental cross-layer resilience questions, by summarizing insights derived from recent advances in cross-layer resilience research, and by discussing future cross-layer resilience challenges.


The performance of traditional direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm based on uniform circular array (UCA) is constrained by the array aperture. Furthermore, the array requires more antenna elements than targets, which will increase the size and weight of the device and cause higher energy loss. In order to solve these issues, a novel low energy algorithm utilizing array base-line rotation for multiple targets estimation is proposed. By rotating two elements and setting a fixed time delay, even the number of elements is selected to form a virtual UCA. Then, the received data of signals will be sampled at multiple positions, which improves the array elements utilization greatly. 2D-DOA estimation of the rotation array is accomplished via multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithms. Finally, the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) is derived and simulation results verified the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with high resolution and estimation accuracy performance. Besides, because of the significant reduction of array elements number, the array antennas system is much simpler and less complex than traditional array.


PURPOSE
To investigate the use of a system using electromagnetic tracking (EMT), post-processing and an error-detection algorithm for detecting errors and resolving uncertainties in high-dose-rate brachytherapy catheter digitization for treatment planning.

METHODS
EMT was used to localize 15 catheters inserted into a phantom using a stepwise acquisition technique. Five distinct acquisition experiments were performed. Noise associated with the acquisition was calculated. The dwell location configuration was extracted from the EMT data. A CT scan of the phantom was performed, and five distinct catheter digitization sessions were performed. No a priori registration of the CT scan coordinate system with the EMT coordinate system was performed. CT-based digitization was automatically extracted from the brachytherapy plan DICOM files (CT), and rigid registration was performed between EMT and CT dwell positions. EMT registration error was characterized in terms of the mean and maximum distance between corresponding EMT and CT dwell positions per catheter. An algorithm for error detection and identification was presented. Three types of errors were systematically simulated: swap of two catheter numbers, partial swap of catheter number identification for parts of the catheters (mix), and catheter-tip shift. Error-detection sensitivity (number of simulated scenarios correctly identified as containing an error/number of simulated scenarios containing an error) and specificity (number of scenarios correctly identified as not containing errors/number of correct scenarios) were calculated. Catheter identification sensitivity (number of catheters correctly identified as erroneous across all scenarios/number of erroneous catheters across all scenarios) and specificity (number of catheters correctly identified as correct across all scenarios/number of correct catheters across all scenarios) were calculated. The mean detected and identified shift was calculated.

RESULTS
The maximum noise ±1 standard deviation associated with the EMT acquisitions was 1.0 ± 0.1 mm, and the mean noise was 0.6 ± 0.1 mm. Registration of all the EMT and CT dwell positions was associated with a mean catheter error of 0.6 ± 0.2 mm, a maximum catheter error of 0.9 ± 0.4 mm, a mean dwell error of 1.0 ± 0.3 mm, and a maximum dwell error of 1.3 ± 0.7 mm. Error detection and catheter identification sensitivity and specificity of 100% were observed for swap, mix and shift (≥2.6 mm for error detection; ≥2.7 mm for catheter identification) errors. A mean detected shift of 1.8 ± 0.4 mm and a mean identified shift of 1.9 ± 0.4 mm were observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Registration of the EMT dwell positions to the CT dwell positions was possible with a residual mean error per catheter of 0.6 ± 0.2 mm and a maximum error for any dwell of 1.3 ± 0.7 mm. These low residual registration errors show that quality assurance of the general characteristics of the catheters and of possible errors affecting one specific dwell position is possible. The sensitivity and specificity of the catheter digitization verification algorithm was 100% for swap and mix errors and for shifts ≥2.6 mm. On average, shifts ≥1.8 mm were detected, and shifts ≥1.9 mm were detected and identified.


From the Gordon Parks of hip hop, a fully illustrated, four-colour photographic history of the most popular music movement since rock and roll, as captured by its most prolific and critically acclaimed photographer. With an introduction by Kevin Powell, hip hop's most eloquent spokesperson. Nearly thirty years ago, Ernie Paniccioli began photographing the graffiti art throughout New York City as well as the young people creating it. Armed with a 35-millimeter camera, Paniccioli literally recorded the beginning salvos of hip hop, today the most dominant youth culture on the planet. Be it Grandmaster Flash at the Roxy, a summer block party in the Bronx, the fresh faces of Queen Latifah and Will Smith, the cocksure personas of Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., and Emimem, or the regal grace of Lauryn Hill, Ernie Paniccioli has been there to showcase hip hop's evolution much in the same way Gordon Parks recorded the Civil Rights Movement, or akin to the manner in which James Van Der Zee, the great photographer of Harlem in the 1920s, met the energy and spirit of his times. Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography is the first major pictorial history of hip hop culture based around the work of one photographer. Culled from a vast archive, the approximately 150 images in Who Shot Ya? represent the visual diary of a generation, essentially following this socio-political art form from the streets of New York City to the billion-dollar global industry it has become. While some of these iconic renderings have graced the pages of magazines and fanzines through the years, most are published here for the first time. This is for the generation that has only known hip hop; the generation for whom Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight is as cherished and remembered as the Beetles White album. They're black and white, brown and yellow. They live in cities and rural areas. They go to private academies schools and public schools. They've heard of rock and roll and R&B-it's something their parents enjoy. Their passion has inspired a similar reaction from Japan to France.


Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is commonly used to determine the soil bulk electrical conductivity. To obtain accurate measurements, the three parameters of a series resistor model (probe constant, K p ; cable resistance, R c ; and remaining resistance, R 0 ) are typically calibrated using liquids with known electrical conductivity. Several studies have reported discrepancies between calibrated and directly measured parameters of the series resistor model. In this study, we examined the possibility that a technical issue with the TDR100 cable tester contributed to part of these inconsistencies. Our results showed that with an increasing level of waveform averaging, the reflection coefficient, as well as K p , R C , and R 0 , approached a maximum value. A comparison with independently determined values indicated that a high level of waveform averaging provided the physically most plausible results. Based on our results, we propose averaging at least 16 waveforms, each consisting of at least 250 points. An oscilloscope-based signal analysis showed that the increase in the reflection coefficient with increasing waveform averaging in saline media is related to a capacitance associated with electrode polarization in combination with a change in the pulse period of the pulse train when the TDR100 starts collecting data points. This capacitance resulted in a slow change of the average voltage in the TDR pulse train until a stable average voltage was reached. Higher levels of waveform averaging cancel the impact of the first erroneous voltage measurements out. In practical applications, the errors in the determination of the bulk electrical conductivity can be as high as 5% for the low-conductivity range (<0.1 S m -1 ) and up to 370% in saline media (1.4 S m -1 ) when waveform averaging is changed after calibration.


Project 24 is an urban art project in the underpass (M1 metro) in the north district of EPFL. This underpass is a key way for access to the EPFL campus, and to reach the new northern district and the SwissTech Convention Center. The project is focused on the design of the lighting concept of the renovated underpass, taking into consideration aesthetics, colour and energy concepts.


We present an identification algorithm for determining the variables characterizing a circadian rhythm. This method is based on a recursive least square algorithm combined with an appropriate observer. It has the advantage of determining all the parameters of a time-varying circadian rhythm without requiring the knowledge of the period. A comparison study with respect to the Lomb & Scargle method has been carried out to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. The presented algorithm has been applied to data collected during a laboratory experiment.


All of us that are concerned about the environment should ask if the increase in capital mobility associated with the world-wide process of liberalization, deregulation and privatization known as the Neo-liberal global regime has contributed to the problems of higher emissions, ozone layer destruction, and pollution of water sources, as well as to create false economic bubbles that lead to increase consumption in these regions and force the poor to destroy the environment in order to survive and cope with the roles their society demands. Neo-liberal practices such as those enforced in developing countries like Colombia, seeking to attract foreign investment to push their economies tend to generate a false aggregated demand growth, that in most cases is not sustainable in the long term, and thus high global unemployment, unleash destructive competitive processes, and weaken government's ability to regulate business in the citizens best interests. The forces of global Neo-liberalism are now so powerful that it has become difficult if not impossible for countries like Colombia to maintain non-Neo-liberal economic structures, in which countries are forced to deregulate FDI policies and receive inflows of capital no matter the terms and the objectives as long as it helps to maintain consumption levels.


Image fusion refers to the acquisition, processing and synergistic combination of information provided by various sensors or by the same sensor in many measuring contexts. The aim of this survey paper is to describe three typical applications of data fusion in remote sensing. The first study case considers the problem of the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry, where a pair of antennas are used to obtain an elevation map of the observed scene; the second one refers to the fusion of multisensor and multitemporal (Landsat Thematic Mapper and SAR) images of the same site acquired at different times, by using neural networks; the third one presents a processor to fuse multifrequency, multipolarization and mutiresolution SAR images, based on wavelet transform and multiscale Kalman filter. Each study case presents also results achieved by the proposed techniques applied to real data.


This thesis research describes the simulation of near future land use changes in the Poas canton in Costa Rica. For simulating the land use changes the CLUE-S model (Conversionof Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent) is used.
The main objective of this research is to provide an overview of the possibilities and limitations of the application of the CLUE-S model on cantonal level in Costa Rica. Achieving maximum precision is not an objective of this research.
An application of the CLUE-S model on the Poas canton is evaluated using a modified version of the risk evaluation criteria of Covello & Merkhofer (1993). It is concluded that both the model and the potential users are not ready for a successful implementation. The model lacks an easy-to-use interface and has problems incorporating discontinuities in trends. The potential users lack experience with computational methods and limited knowledge of English reduces the changes of acquiring the knowledge out of the model documentation.
The low chances for success do not justify the necessary investment of time and effort. Furthermore the possibility that failure during implementation could lead to a set-back, makes a test application aimed at achieving maximum precision not desirable. However, the developments of CLUE-S (or eventual new land use cover change models) should be closely monitored. A similar model, but aimed at policy makers / incidental users could be a great tool for enlightenment and policy assessment.


Aim:  Through the St. Luke's College of Nursing 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program, we also aim to develop and serve as a center for Nursing for People-Centered Initiatives in Healthcare and Health Promotion, which creates innovative ways of health care chiefly using partnerships and collaboration with people.

Methods:  Under the direct supervision of the president of St. Luke's College on Nursing, the program leader and COE Committee work together to ensure systematic coordination and control over research projects.

Results:  People-centered initiatives in healthcare and health promotion have given efficient feedback of tacit knowing, gained from people's innate experience encompassing birth, aging, illness, and death, following collaborative research with care consumers. By applying such knowledge to nursing care, the initiatives could be theorized and verified as the formation of a healthy community in which limited medical resources efficiently circulate. The development of this practical theory marked a milestone, producing a paradigm shift in medical care from the "product-out" to "market-in" approach, the results of which led to worldwide collaborative research. Collaboration through the global network of our WHO center was also enhanced, facilitating diverse international collaborative projects. As a result, research and education programs involving the exchange of novice researchers and graduate students have been encouraged.

Conclusions:  Through our five-year research activities, people-centered care has come to characterize itself as a combined, cooperative care that promotes systematic service in a comprehensive manner to meet the needs of consumers.


Welcome to TITUS ANONYMOUS where 'Rome is Rome is a fiction is Rome.' During the 2017-18 academic year, Drama students at the University of Northampton (UK) were tasked with deconstructing Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus in a collaborative process with their tutors, who modelled their own creative and professional practices as theatre-makers. The students were challenged with the need to find contemporary relevance and resonance in this early Shakespeare work, which many scholars argue is the bard's most flawed text. Rossi, who led the process, argues that Titus is the work of a young practitioner experimenting with the form of the revenge tragedy, and establishes ground for absurdist theatre, which wouldn't take shape until centuries later. The term-long exploration and reconstruction of the text led to our need to grapple with the racist language exchanged between Shakespeare's Romans and Goths in light of the Black Lives Matter movement; and overt misogyny in both language and action; no longer norms but points of critical debate through the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. To add to the complexity of this process; student learning around professional practices of theatre-making was framed by an experimentation in DIY Theatre aesthetics, working with a limited budget but a wealth of space, a robust costume, props and set stock, and the power of our collective imagination. This text represents 'fragments of' the process, including the final script, production design details, reflective essays by students, and introductory essays by Drama tutors, Sarah Mullan and Rory O'Neill, writing from their unique perspective in their roles as Dramaturg and Actor, respectively. These fragments aim to give a sense of the hybridized world that was inspired by the Wild West, Ancient Rome, pop culture and today's political landscape; while hopefully providing interpretive space for future theatre-makers to develop their own production concept.


Projects are becoming increasingly interorganizational; therefore, typically, the project management office (PMO) of a single corporation is neither capable of nor authorized to supplying all partners of a project network with services and knowledge. On the interorganizational level, a network administrative organization (NAO) may be founded providing similar services such as those provided by PMOs, but then to all network partners. This conceptual article seeks to integrate these streams of research by comparing the roles and tasks of PMOs and NAOs, as well as their organizational embeddedness. Thereupon, four modes of interplay between these organizational entities are developed and underpinned with exemplary configurations.


Melatonin has been shown to have an antinociceptive effect and its administration could enhance the antinociceptive effect of other drugs. This study assessed the antinociceptive effects of melatonin in combination with paracetamol and N-palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) using the formalin test in mice. Melatonin, paracetamol, and PEA were administered intraplantarly (paw) alone or combined to mice. A concentration-response curve was generated to determine the concentration needed to reach 30% of the maximal antinociceptive effect (EC30). Melatonin, paracetamol and PEA induced a concentration-dependent antinociceptive effect in both phases of the formalin test, being PEA more potent (EC30 = 7.4±0.2 mg/paw) than melatonin (EC30 = 20.5±3.1 mg/paw) or paracetamol (EC30 = 41.8±2.6 mg/paw). Combinations of melatonin with paracetamol or PEA also induced a concentration-dependent antinociceptive effect in the formalin test. Isobolographic analysis showed that melatonin interacts synergistically with either paracetamol or PEA to reduce formalin-induced inflammatory pain. However, the experimental values of EC30 were significantly smaller than those calculated theoretically.


Regularization is a method used in mathematics and statistics to deal with insufficient information. The reader must supply additional information in the form of an operator. From where is this operator to come, and what does it mean? It amounts to us, as practitioners, specifying a "style" of model. Where the model is a signal or an image, it amounts to specifying one weighting function in physical space and another in Fourier space.


TC "ABSTRACT" \l 1 } Ground coupled heat pumps are an efficient alternative to conventional methods of conditioning homes, because instead of using the ambient air they utilize the ground as an energy source or sink. However, ground coupled heat pumps have high installation costs that makes it critical to design the system to maximize performance. Vertical u-tube heat exchangers are commonly used as the ground coupled heat exchanger, but estimating their performance is difficult because of the unique heat transfer conditions of this configuration. This thesis focuses on modeling the vertical u-tube heat exchanger. Several initial attempts to model the heat exchanger were made, and finally an explicit euler finite difference numerical technique was employed. The ground storage volume is divided axially into sections, and each section is a two dimensional cylindrical mesh representing the fluid, tubes, grout, and soil at a specific depth. The tubes are approximated by non circular sections of the mesh, and is accurate to within 8%. A local coupling factor can increase this accuracy to 3% for most systems, and comparisons with an existing model showed good agreement. The finite difference model has provided an approach that is fundamental and readily extended to more realistic conditions. It is accurate and fast enough to be useful as both a comparison to existing models and as a design tool.


Pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is a pathological condition determined as an increase in mean pulmonary arterial pressure ≥25 mmHg. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is precapillary PHT and a life-threatening disease group which consists of different etiologies with the same pathological and clinical findings, and which is characterized by elevated pulmonary vascular resistance. Dasatinib is a dual Src/Abl kinase inhibitor associated with higher affinity for BCR/ABL kinase than imatinib, and is used in the treatment of chronic myelocytic leukemia and Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We describe a case with ALL, in whom dasatinib treatment induced PAH, and who recovered with bosentan treatment.


The Food and Drug Administration's regulation of drugs, cosmetics, and devices takes the form of risk-benefit analyses on the basis of two criteria: safety and efficacy. The problem is that enhancement uses cannot be singled out effectively in FDA review. The FDA's evaluative framework is one-size-fits-all. It requires the agency to express concerns about competitive fairness or resource allocation in the language of safety and efficacy, or to filter arguments about social prejudice and subtle coercion through the lens of cost-benefit analysis. This stacks the deck in favor of automatic approval for safe uses of enhancement products, which merit more careful scrutiny. Instead of, Do the product's benefits outweigh its harms? we should be asking, Is this a good use of medical technology? What we need is a more holistic decision-making strategy to govern biomedical enhancement activity. I propose four structural changes that we should make to the FDA's decisionmaking process.


The metastatic cascade is a complex process that requires cancer cells to survive despite conditions of high physiologic stress. Previously, cooperation between the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF) was reported as a point of convergence for host and cellular stress signaling. These studies indicated p38 MAPK-dependent phosphorylation of GR on Ser134 and subsequent p-GR/HIF–dependent induction of breast tumor kinase (PTK6/Brk), as a mediator of aggressive cancer phenotypes. Herein, p-Ser134 GR was quantified in human primary breast tumors (n = 281) and the levels of p-GR were increased in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) relative to luminal breast cancer. Brk was robustly induced following exposure of TNBC model systems to chemotherapeutic agents (Taxol or 5-fluorouracil) and growth in suspension [ultra-low attachment (ULA)]. Notably, both Taxol and ULA resulted in upregulation of the Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a known mediator of cancer prosurvival phenotypes. Mechanistically, AhR and GR copurified and following chemotherapy and ULA, these factors assembled at the Brk promoter and induced Brk expression in an HIF-dependent manner. Furthermore, Brk expression was upregulated in Taxol-resistant breast cancer (MCF-7) models. Ultimately, Brk was critical for TNBC cell proliferation and survival during Taxol treatment and in the context of ULA as well as for basal cancer cell migration, acquired biological phenotypes that enable cancer cells to successfully complete the metastatic cascade. These studies nominate AhR as a p-GR binding partner and reveal ways to target epigenetic events such as adaptive and stress-induced acquisition of cancer skill sets required for metastatic cancer spread. Implication: Breast cancer cells enlist intracellular stress response pathways that evade chemotherapy by increasing cancer cell survival and promoting migratory phenotypes. Mol Cancer Res; 16(11); 1761–72. ©2018 AACR.


Research indicates that anxiety sensitivity may be related to the negative experience of pain, especially amongst women. Further evidence with chronic pain patients indicates that anxiety sensitivity may result in avoidance pain‐coping strategies. However, this effect has not yet been experimentally investigated in healthy groups. Therefore, the current study sought to investigate the effect of anxiety sensitivity and coping on women's responses to pain. Thirty women who were classified as high in anxiety sensitivity and 30 women classified as low in anxiety sensitivity participated. Within each anxiety sensitivity group, half the participants (n = 15) were randomly instructed to either focus on or avoid cold pressor pain sensations. As expected, women high in anxiety sensitivity were found to report higher levels of sensory and affective pain. Also, and consistent with previous research into anxiety sensitivity, no differences were found between anxiety sensitivity groups for measures of pain threshold or pain tolerance. The pain coping instruction manipulation was found to moderate pain experience, in that the avoidance strategy resulted in higher pain ratings compared to when instructed to focus. Finally, high anxiety sensitive women reported greater pain when instructed to avoid rather than focus on cold pressor pain. These results are discussed in light of previous research and future directions for pain management.


The map is a higher-order function that applies a given
function to the list of elements producing the list of results.
The mapped function is applied to each element independently,
thus can be performed for all elements in parallel, making the
GPU an interesting platform to be implemented on. Although the
map introduce a high level of parallelism when it is applied to
sufficiently large number of elements, its implementation can
be difficult with respect to utilizing GPU parallel model
granularity by mapped functions. In this paper, we show the
performance gap between fine-grained (per-thread) and
coarse-grained (per-block) implementation of mapped function
and introduce the medium-grained implementation that can fill
this gap. We also discuss some memory access implications
arising from this method and show example how to use them to
estimate the performance of different implementations.


The Asal‐Ghoubbet Rift (AG Rift) in Djibouti lies in the subaerial continuation of the Aden ridge system, thereby constituting a unique location to study rifting processes and mechanisms involved in continental breakup and oceanic spreading. Continually upgraded and expanded geodetic technology has been used to record the 1978 Asal rifting event and postdiking deformation. In light of recent results obtained for the Manda Hararo‐Dabbahu rifting event (2005–2010), we propose that the horizontal and vertical geodetic data can be modeled with a double source, involving a dike‐like inflation component aligned along the rift axis and a spherical pressure source located at midsegment below the Fieale caldera. By revisiting the codiking data, we propose that the reservoir below Fieale could have fed, at least partially, the 1978 injection and the contemporaneous Ardoukôba eruption and potentially induced local subsidence due to magma draining out of the central reservoir. As an alternative to previously proposed viscoelastic relaxation models, we reinterpret postdiking observations using a purely elastic rheology. We determine the relative contribution of a midsegment reservoir inflation and a dike‐like opening component, together with their respective time evolutions. Our results suggest that interactions between steadily accumulating tectonic strain and temporal variations in melt supply to the shallow magma plumbing system below the AG Rift may entirely explain the geodetic observations and that viscoelastic deformation processes played a minor role in the 30 years following the 1978 rifting event.


Field experiments were conducted during 1989 and 1990 to study the effect of localized application of 0.1 mL plant growth regulators (0.05 mM and 0.5 mM) on flower shedding and yield attributes in indeterminate (H-77-216) and determinate (ICPL-151) cultivars of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.). Flower shedding was significantly reduced in both cultivars with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and ascorbic acid (AA). Treatment with 0.5 mM ethrel was most effective in promoting flower shedding followed by abscisic acid (ABA). Application of IAA and AA significantly increased pod weight in cv. H-77-216. However, benzylaminopurine (BAP) was found to be equally effective along with these two treatments in cv. ICPL-151 for increasing pod weight. Treatment 0.5 mM ABA reduced pod weight by 17.46 and 7.79% in cv. H-77-216 and cv. ICPL-151, respectively. Application of gibberellic acid (GA3) did not influence flower shedding and pod weight but significantly increased seed weight per pod in both cultivars. None of the regulators proved to be effective in improving seed number per pod. Treatment with AA (0.05 mM) was the most satisfactory for increasing 18.8% seed weight per pod in cv. ICPL-151. Differential behaviour of cultivars towards plant regulator concentrations could be due to their growth behaviour.


This paper examines how outside and inside competition affect the number and composition of product offerings. The question is addressed using the example of the U.S. motion picture industry, which has experienced declining attendance in the past decade due to outside competition from streaming services and smart phone applications. Using data on 1,486 releases between 2009 and 2018, we estimate a structural model of endogenous product choice in which studios allocate a fixed budget to low-, medium-, and high-budget movie projects each year. Counterfactual estimates using our parameter estimates indicate that an increase in the value of the outside option leads to a significant reduction in the number of medium-budget movies but little change in the number of low- and high-budget movies. Additional counterfactual exercises that simulate a change to the level of competition inside the market, such as a merger between two studios or the entry of a new studio, confirm the existence of an inverse relationship between competition and the number of medium-budget movies.


In a number of direction of arrival (DOA) estimation applications there exists prior knowledge about the sources whose bearings are to be determined. We study the case when this prior information concerns some of the source positions and their correlation state, which is a relevant case in, for example, RADAR scenarios where stationary objects exists in the regions of interest. Traditional DOA methods are not designed to exploit such information, and thus cannot obtain the highest theoretical accuracy. We present a method that can utilize in an asymptotically efficient manner both knowledge on some source positions and that the source signals are uncorrelated.


Given a directed graph
 G
 and integers
 k
 and
 l
 , a D-core is the maximal subgraph
 H
 ⊆
 G
 such that for every vertex of
 H
 , its in-degree and out-degree are no smaller than
 k
 and
 l
 , respectively. For a directed graph
 G
 , the problem of D-core decomposition aims to compute the non-empty D-cores for all possible values of
 k
 and
 l.
 In the literature, several
 peeling-based
 algorithms have been proposed to handle D-core decomposition. However, the peeling-based algorithms that work in a sequential fashion and require global graph information during processing are mainly designed for
 centralized
 settings, which cannot handle large-scale graphs efficiently in distributed settings. Motivated by this, we study the
 distributed
 D-core decomposition problem in this paper. We start by defining a concept called
 anchored coreness
 , based on which we propose a new H-index-based algorithm for distributed D-core decomposition. Furthermore, we devise a novel concept, namely
 skyline coreness
 , and show that the D-core decomposition problem is equivalent to the computation of skyline corenesses for all vertices. We design an efficient D-index to compute the skyline corenesses distributedly. We implement the proposed algorithms under both vertex-centric and block-centric distributed graph processing frameworks. Moreover, we theoretically analyze the algorithm and message complexities. Extensive experiments on large real-world graphs with billions of edges demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms in terms of both the running time and communication overhead.


Abstract Background The ATLAS trial compared axitinib versus placebo in patients with locoregional renal cell carcinoma (RCC) at risk of recurrence after nephrectomy. Patients and methods In a phase III, randomized, double-blind trial, patients had >50% clear-cell RCC, had undergone nephrectomy, and had no evidence of macroscopic residual or metastatic disease [independent review committee (IRC) confirmed]. The intent-to-treat population included all randomized patients [≥pT2 and/or N+, any Fuhrman grade (FG), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group status 0/1]. Patients (stratified by risk group/country) received (1 : 1) oral twice-daily axitinib 5 mg or placebo for ≤3 years, with a 1-year minimum unless recurrence, occurrence of second primary malignancy, significant toxicity, or consent withdrawal. The primary end point was disease-free survival (DFS) per IRC. A prespecified DFS analysis in the highest-risk subpopulation (pT3, FG ≥ 3 or pT4 and/or N+, any T, any FG) was conducted. Results A total of 724 patients (363 versus 361, axitinib versus placebo) were randomized from 8 May 2012, to 1 July 2016. The trial was stopped due to futility at a preplanned interim analysis at 203 DFS events. There was no significant difference in DFS per IRC [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.870; 95% confidence interval (CI) : 0.660–1.147; P = 0.3211). In the highest-risk subpopulation, a 36% and 27% reduction in risk of a DFS event (HR; 95% CI) was observed per investigator (0.641; 0.468–0.879; P = 0.0051), and by IRC (0.735; 0.525–1.028; P = 0.0704), respectively. Overall survival data were not mature. Similar adverse events (AEs; 99% versus 92%) and serious AEs (19% versus 14%), but more grade 3/4 AEs (61% versus 30%) were reported for axitinib versus placebo. Conclusions ATLAS did not meet its primary end point; however, improvement in DFS per investigator was seen in the highest-risk subpopulation. No new safety signals were reported. Trial registration number NCT01599754


Electronic commerce can dramatically alter the current delivery and sales channels, as well as value chains in many industries. Accordingly, consumers will change or supplement their channel preferences with increasing amount of electronic services available. This study focuses on the different types of business models used in the grocery retailing industry, to serve consumers. The empirical part of he analysis is based on a longitudinal analysis of existing EGS' in 1998 and 1999 in Europe, North America and Pacific Asia. The analysis shows that the majority of the electronic grocery shops are extensions of existing physical stores. There are, however, some signs of interesting new business strategies. These strategies are compared to the theoretical alternatives proposed by the model of Customer Channels and conclusions are drawn regarding the development of electronic commerce in grocery industry.


Author(s): Baggott, Christina Rasco | Advisor(s): Miaskowski, Christine | Abstract: Children with cancer experience a myriad of disease or treatment related symptoms. Little is known about the multiple dimensions of these symptoms, how these dimensions change during treatment, and the relationship between symptoms and health related quality of life (HRQOL).The purposes of this study, in a sample of children who underwent myelosuppressive chemotherapy were to: describe changes in symptom occurrence and severity during a course of chemotherapy. In addition, these children's scores on a generic measure of HRQOL were compared to a normative sample of healthy children and relationships between demographic, clinical, and symptom characteristics and generic and disease-specific dimensions of HRQOL were examined in the children with cancer.Children completed the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS), the PedsQL Generic and Cancer Modules, and the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) at the start of chemotherapy (T1) and weekly for the next two weeks (T2 and T3). Patients (n=66), were predominantly male (51.5%), minority (62.1%), and 14.9 years of age.The mean number of symptoms per patient was 10.6 at T1, 10.7 at T2, and 8.4 at T3. Using multilevel logistic regression, fatigue, sadness, irritability, worrying, weight loss, and sweating showed a decreasing linear trend. Significant quadratic patterns of change were found for feeling drowsy, nausea, and vomiting. Using multilevel negative binomial regression, no significant differences, over time were found in any of the MSAS symptom severity scores.Compared to the normative sample, children with cancer reported significantly lower total and subscale scores except for emotional and social functioning. No significant differences were found between any demographic characteristics and any total or subscale scores on the generic or disease specific measures of HRQOL. Lower KPS scores were associated with poorer generic and disease specific HRQOL scores. A higher number of symptoms and higher symptom distress scores were associated with poorer generic and disease specific HRQOL scores.Children experienced a high number of symptoms at the initiation of a chemotherapy cycle that persisted over the subsequent two weeks. Among the demographic, clinical, and symptom characteristics studied, poorer functional status and higher symptom burden were associated with significant decreases in HRQOL.


We present a new upper limit on cosmic microwave background (CMB) circular polarization from the 2015 flight of Spider, a balloon-borne telescope designed to search for B-mode linear polarization from cosmic inflation. Although the level of circular polarization in the CMB is predicted to be very small, experimental limits provide a valuable test of the underlying models. By exploiting the nonzero circular-to-linear polarization coupling of the half-wave plate polarization modulators, data from Spider's 2015 Antarctic flight provide a constraint on Stokes V at 95 and 150 GHz in the range 33 < ℓ < 307 . No other limits exist over this full range of angular scales, and Spider improves on the previous limit by several orders of magnitude, providing 95% C.L. constraints on ℓ ( ℓ + 1 ) C ℓ VV / ( 2 π ) ranging from 141 to 255 μK2 at 150 GHz for a thermal CMB spectrum. As linear CMB polarization experiments become increasingly sensitive, the techniques described in this paper can be applied to obtain even stronger constraints on circular polarization.


Following classical literature in herpetology, we built two five-stage life tables for the endangered hawksbill sea turtle Eretmochelys imbricata in the Gulf of Paria, eastern Venezuela, using data from incidental captures by industrial trawl fisheries from 1991 until 2000, artisanal fisheries effect and regional stranding from 1999 to 2017, and a local conservation project with the nesting females from 2003 to 2018. We estimated the survivorship for the managed, translocated nests, and a portion of the natural in situ nests (≈31%). We used the resultant life graph and matrices to estimate the hawksbills population status in the region and determine differences in population growth rate and elasticity between translocated and in situ nests. Eggs/hatchlings (stage 1) and small juveniles of less than three years old (stage 2), had high mortalities. We controlled stage 1 mortality by translocating nests into a hatchery. The in situ nests suffered almost 88% predation or poaching. Conversely, these non-translocated nests' emergence success was greater than that of managed nests, but overall survivorship was the lower. We propose that fecundity could begin with sub-adults (stage 4) after the 7 th year with 60 cm of curved carapace length. Finite rates of increase of both populations, managed and natural, were significantly higher than 1, and that of the managed population is significantly higher than that of the natural one, meaning that both populations would grow and that the managed one would grow faster than the natural one. Then protection of stage 1 is essential to the population of hawksbills in the region, although uncertainties of survivorship of stage 2 and fecundity of stage 4 were not properly confirmed locally. Notwithstanding, elasticity analysis indicated that the population growth rate was more affected by proportional changes in sub-adults and adults' fecundity than any other life-history element.


The sometimes, selective exclusion by the legislation and the financial houses of the host country, force immigrants of African origin to setup stokvels to sustain their businesses and livelihood in South Africa. Aim: To provide the basis for inclusive policy initiatives, this paper investigated the drivers for the formation of business support stokvels by Cameroonians in South Africa. Method: The paper adopted a mix research paradigm with the survey questionnaire and personal interviews as the tools of choice. The purposive sampling technique was implored to reach the 132 respondents. Results: It was apparent that the participants form stokvels to compensate for the lack of access to finance from formal financial intermediaries. The dire need for startup and later expansion capital drove them to form stokvels and even to belong to multiple stokvels as they strive to improve their chances. Beyond this, stokvels provide the platform for the mobilization of savings and the opportunity to run their own bank on their own terms. Implications: while aligned to the Cameroonian community, other minority groups can draw vital lessons. Beyond this, the paper informs the inclusive finance debate and may therefore be relevant to policy makers and academics.


Results are reported of a study of Y-chromatin of lymphocytes and granulocytes in the peripheral blood of 100 pregnant women. In women who later delivered a male child, a mean of 3.75 % Y-chromatin was found in lymphocytes and 2.8 % in granulocytes. The paternal Y-chromatin was studied before investigating the maternal blood smears, thus defining the Y-chromatin. Nonetheless, even with this method the rate of false diagnosis (14 %) in prenatal sex-diagnosis could be reduced only moderately. Most mistakes were caused by aggregations of strong fluorescent autosomal segments simulating a Y-chromatin in size and frequency. In early pregnancy lymphoid cells with a Y-chromatin could first be found in the 8th week; granulocytes showing a Y-chromatin appeared in the 9th week. The methods used here are not reliable enough to be used in genetic counseling.


This study examines the impacts of a musical social theatre program entitled Stories, Unsung. The findings are based on the experiences of one group who participated in this program in Calgary, AB (N=8). This study uses a grounded theory and design to explore how useful musical social theatre can be in reducing the social exclusion of marginalized people. Findings indicate two factors are critical in enhancing the social inclusion of those who are isolated: 1) a change in understanding of self and 2) a change in the relationships with others. Stories, Unsung was successful in changing the participants understanding of self and others both critical elements in removing the barriers associated with social exclusion. It is recommended that practitioners working with families in family support programs consider musical social theatre as an effective strategy to engage those families who are socially excluded. Implications for future policy development and research are discussed.


Pneumonia, defined as infection of lung parenchyma, is associated with severe complications especially in the very young and old patients. It is the world's leading cause of childhood mortality. The World Health Organization (WHO) classification and guidelines are commonly used in Sudan in the diagnosis and management of pneumonia patients. A group of 224 patients at Gaafar Ibn Oaf Children's Hospital and Omdurman Children's Hospital were assessed and managed for severe presentation of pneumonia. The data collected showed that most of the patients were of low socioeconomic class families. The vast majority (99%) of patients had chronic exposure to tobacco smoke at home. Female patients (52.7%) were more than males, with 42% of the presenting patients in the less than 12 months age group. Pneumonia is a dangerous childhood menace that is associated with severe presentations. Public health community outreach programs should be put in place to raise awareness. The case fatality rate during the study period was 4%.


This paper presents a novel method to manipulate the visual appearance (pose and attribute) of a person image according to natural language descriptions. Our method can be boiled down to two stages: 1) text guided pose generation and 2) visual appearance transferred image synthesis. In the first stage, our method infers a reasonable target human pose based on the text. In the second stage, our method synthesizes a realistic and appearance transferred person image according to the text in conjunction with the target pose. Our method extracts sufficient information from the text and establishes a mapping between the image space and the language space, making generating and editing images corresponding to the description possible. We conduct extensive experiments to reveal the effectiveness of our method, as well as using the VQA Perceptual Score as a metric for evaluating the method. It shows for the first time that we can automatically edit the person image from the natural language descriptions.


Cervical cancer is a leading cause of death among women in low- and middle-income countries, and women living with HIV are at high risk for cervical cancer. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and correlates of cervical cancer and pre-cancer lesions and to examine cervical cancer knowledge among women living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. We conducted cytology-based screening and administered a standardized questionnaire among 598 HIV-infected women. We found 5 (0.8%), 39 (6.5%), 29 (4.9%), and 4 (0.7%) had atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), and squamous cervical carcinoma (SCC), respectively. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, ASCUS/LSIL was independently associated with age >16 years old at first sexual encounter and smokeless tobacco use. We found no factors associated with HSIL/SCC. In total, 101 women (16.9%) had heard of cervical cancer and 28 (27.7%) of them correctly identified HIV infection as a risk factor. In light of the high prevalence of pre-cancer lesions and low level of cervical cancer knowledge in our study population, focused interventions are needed to improve cervical cancer literacy and prevention among rural women living with HIV.


With the development of network technology and electronic commerce, an increasing number of people started on-line shopping. And the information of a probability distribution of the goods market demand is not easy to get due to lack of historical data. To resolve these two problems, this paper gives a system framework and model of returns policy for supply chain with electronic market in fuzzy environment. Basing on the uncertainty theory, this paper characterizes the demand of traditional and electronic market as fuzzy variables. A fuzzy expected value model is formulated for this problem, and a hybrid intelligent algorithm is designed to solve it.


8-epi prostaglandin F2alpha(8-epi PGF2alpha) contracted rat thoracic aorta rings in a concentration-dependent manner in the presence or absence of functional endothelium [median effective concentration (EC50) values, 455+/-52 and 268+/-34 nM, respectively; Student's t test; p=0.006]. U46619 was a more potent agonist with or without functional endothelium (EC50 values, 6.8+/-1.6 and 4.5+/-1.0 nM, respectively). SQ29548 [a thromboxane (TP)-receptor antagonist] inhibited contractions to both 8-epi PGF2alpha and U46619 in a competitive manner, with mean pA2 values of 8.3 and 7.9, respectively. 8-Epi PGF2alpha had a further contractile effect in vessels that had been contracted with noradrenaline and had been shown to possess a functional endothelium. Inhibition of thromboxane synthesis with OKY-046 or blockade of endothelin receptors with bosentan had no effect on responses to 8-epi PGF2alpha or U46619. Preincubation with 8-epi PGF2alpha or noradrenaline shifted the concentration-response curves to U46619 upward at low concentrations of U46619 with no significant change in EC50 values or maximal responses. Reduction of TP-receptor number in rat aorta with dithiothreitol caused a concentration-dependent inhibition of responses to both U46619 and 8-epi PGF2alpha, with no effect on maximal responses and or on the responses to U46619 after the preincubation with 8-epi PGF2alpha. These results indicate that 8-epi PGF2alpha is a potent vasoconstrictor in the rat aorta and are suggestive of an action of 8-epi PGF2alpha at the TP receptor.


The aim of this study is to investigate which aspects and elements significantly influence the final pricing level of Initial Public Offerings. We choose to interview the major investment banks conducting IPOs on the Swedish market during 2004-2012 in an attempt to bring clarity to our thesis purpose. Our main found is the importance of pre-listing elements where signals of interest and demand are shown, as the correspondence with investors is recurrent during the process, thus thoroughly reducing uncertainties concerning its unproven market value.


In modern traffic management Video Image Detection Systems (VIDS) are becoming increasingly important as traffic sensors. They are getting more affordable and don't require any road construction like commonly used induction loops. Furthermore, due to the fact that they are able to monitor a wide area, they potentially offer the derivation of a whole new set of traffic parameters. Good examples are the derivation of source-destination relations, queue-length, travel-times or general event detection like untypical movements, accidents, blockages and congestions. Additionally, by using more than one camera the surveillance area can be enlarged or the detection accuracy can be increased due to redundancy of observations. However, in order to take advantage of a multiple camera system, the observations from different cameras have to be fused. In the setup that will be presented a geometric fusion is proposed by projecting the observations into a combined geo-referenced coordinate frame. The basic requirement for this transformation is the knowledge of the interior and exterior orientation of every camera. Three different approaches for determining the exterior orientation have been implemented, namely a Newton method, a least squares adjustment based on ground control points and a method based on line features. Furthermore, direct linear transformation and minimum space resection are applied to calculate initial estimates. These algorithms are subject to an in depth evaluation in respect to their application as a traffic monitoring sensor.


Background This study aims to profile dysregulated microRNA (miRNA) expression in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) and to identify key regulatory miRNAs in ccRCC. Methods miRNA expression profiles in nine pairs of ccRCC tumor samples at three different stages and the adjacent, non-tumorous tissues were investigated using miRNA arrays. Results Eleven miRNAs were identified to be commonly dysregulated, including three up-regulated (miR-487a, miR-491-3p and miR-452) and eight down-regulated (miR-125b, miR-142-3p, miR-199a-5p, miR-22, miR-299-3p, miR-29a, miR-429, and miR-532-5p) in tumor tissues as compared with adjacent normal tissues. The 11 miRNAs and their predicted target genes were analyzed by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis, and three key miRNAs (miR-199a-5p, miR-22 and miR-429) were identified by microRNA-gene network analysis. Dysregulation of the three key miRNAs were further validated in another cohort of 15 ccRCC samples, and the human kidney carcinoma cell line 786-O, as compared with five normal kidney samples. Further investigation showed that over-expression of miR-199a-5p significantly inhibited the invasion ability of 786-O cells. Luciferase reporter assays indicated that miR-199a-5p regulated expression of TGFBR1 and JunB by directly interacting with their 3' untranslated regions. Transfection of miR-199a-5p successfully suppressed expression of TGFBR1 and JunB in the human embryonic kidney 293T cells, further confirming the direct regulation of miR-199a-5p on these two genes. Conclusions This study identified 11 commonly dysregulated miRNAs in ccRCC, three of which (miR-199a-5p, miR-22 and miR-429) may represent key miRNAs involved in the pathogenesis of ccRCC. Further studies suggested that miR-199a-5p plays an important role in inhibition of cell invasion of ccRCC cells by suppressing expression of TGFBR1 and JunB.


As a convenient, fast, reliable and economic value-added service, CDMA Short Message Service (SMS) becomes more and more popular in our daily work and lives. In this paper, the software package for sending and receiving short messages is realized, and it has simple interfaces and perfect functions. Based on WINCE 6.0, the USB port of Samsung S3C6410 is used as a virtual serial to realize the transmission of AT commands, and a specific realization of the processes and debugging results are given. The actual test results show that the software package can work stably. It can be used in the devices that support the WINCE 6.0.


Blockchain interoperability, which allows state transitions across different blockchain networks, is critical functionality to facilitate major blockchain adoption. Existing interoperability protocols mostly focus on atomic token exchanges between blockchains. However, as blockchains have been upgraded from passive distributed ledgers into programmable state machines (thanks to smart contracts), the scope of blockchain interoperability goes beyond just token exchanges. In this paper, we present HyperService, the first platform that delivers interoperability and programmability across heterogeneous blockchains. HyperService is powered by two innovative designs: (i) a developer-facing programming framework that allows developers to build cross-chain applications in a unified programming model; and (ii) a secure blockchain-facing cryptography protocol that provably realizes those applications on blockchains. We implement a prototype of HyperService in approximately 35,000 lines of code to demonstrate its practicality. Our experiments show that (i) HyperService imposes reasonable latency, in order of seconds, on the end-to-end execution of cross-chain applications; (ii) the HyperService platform is scalable to continuously incorporate new large-scale production blockchains.


This article explores young people's upper secondary school choices after recent reforms of school choice and competition in Sweden, drawing on interviews with students and school staff. The respondents identify important motives and strategies in students' school choices, for example, the character of school and schooling, the influence of marketing and education policy, as well as young people's identities and positions. Young people's 'horizons of action' and decision-making seem to vary, according inter alia to the degree of urbanity of their geographical locality and exposure to competition. Gender-, ethnicity- and social class-related factors also appear to be influential. We conclude that the school choice and competition reforms draw schools' attention to students' preferences, but the motive for the interest seems to have little to do with a concern to help young people to make educational school choices and future school-to-work transitions. Finally, we advocate modifications in the provision of career information and guidance.


The management of acute and chronic wounds is still a socioeconomic burden for society due to the lack of suitable tools capable of supporting all the healing phases. The exponential spread of diabetes worldwide and the consequent increase of complicated diabetic ulcers require further efforts to develop scalable, low-cost, and easy-to-use treatments for tackling this emergency. Recently, we explored the fabrication of a polyvinylpyrrolidone/hyaluronic acid-based bilayer wound dressing, characterizing its physicochemical features and detailing its excellent antimicrobial activity. Here, we further demonstrate its biocompatibility on fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and red blood cells. The bilayer shows anti-inflammatory properties, statistically reducing the level of IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α, and a capacity to accelerate wound healing in vitro and in healthy and diabetic mice models compared to untreated mice. The outcomes suggest that this bilayer material can be an effective tool for managing different skin injuries.


This paper examined the extent to which youth involvement in HIV/AIDS risk behaviours is related to their patterns of alcohol consumption and differences in family structure. Random surveys were conducted and data collected from pre-degree male and female students at two institutions of higher learning in Akwa Ibom State , Nigeria. Two scales were used for data collection: Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and HIV/AIDS Risk Behaviour Questionnaire (HRBQ) and the collected data were subjected to Chi-square goodness of fit test. Two hypotheses were tested in this study. The first hypothesis predicted a significant association between alcohol-related problems and youth HIV/AIDS risk behavior was confirmed {X2 (4) = 39.91, p < 0.05}. Results also confirmed the second hypothesis which predicted that family type would be significantly related to youth HIV/ AIDS risk behaviour {X2 (1) = 4.48, p <0.05}. The results were discussed in line with existing relevant literature. Practical implications of results and recommendations were also highlighted.


Partial shading conditions (PSCs) can significantly reduce the output energy produced by photovoltaic (PV) systems. Moreover, when such conditions occur, conventional and advanced maximum power point tracking (MPPT) systems fail to operate the PV system at its peak because the bypassing diodes may cause the PV system to become trapped at a low power point when they are in conduction mode. The PV system can be operated at the global maximum power point (MPP) with the help of global peak searching tools. However, the frequent use of these tools will reduce the output of PV systems since they force the PV system to operate outside its power region while scanning the I-V curve in order to determine the global MPP. Thus, the global peak searching tools should be deployed only when a PSC occurs. In this paper, a simple and accurate method is proposed for detecting PSCs by means of monitoring the sign of voltage changes (positive or negative). The method predicts a PSC if the sign of successive voltage changes is the same for a certain number of successive changes. The proposed method was tested on two types of PV array configurations (series and series–parallel) with several shading patterns emulated on-site. The proposed method correctly and timely identified all emulated shading patterns. It can be used to trigger the global MPP searching techniques for improving the PV system's output under PSCs; furthermore, it can be used to notify the PV system's operator of the occurrence of PSCs.


Poxviruses have evolved unique proteins and mechanisms to counteract the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway, which is an essential regulatory pathway of host innate immune responses. Here, we describe a NF-κB inhibitory virion protein of orf virus (ORFV), ORFV073, which functions very early in infected cells. Infection with ORFV073 gene deletion virus (OV-IA82Δ073) led to increased accumulation of NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO), marked phosphorylation of IκB kinase (IKK) subunits IKKα and IKKβ, IκBα and NF-κB subunit p65 (NF-κB-p65), and to early nuclear translocation of NF-κB-p65 in virus-infected cells (≤ 30 min post infection). Expression of ORFV073 alone was sufficient to inhibit TNFα induced activation of the NF-κB signaling in uninfected cells. Consistent with observed inhibition of IKK complex activation, ORFV073 interacted with the regulatory subunit of the IKK complex NEMO. Infection of sheep with OV-IA82Δ073 led to virus attenuation, indicating that ORFV073 is a virulence determinant in the natural host. Notably, ORFV073 represents the first poxviral virion-associated NF-κB inhibitor described, highlighting the significance of viral inhibition of NF-κB signaling very early in infection.


Euryodendron excelsum is a rare and endangered evergreen tree in South China. We conducted two experimental translocations (augmentation and conservation introduction) on this species and assessed morphological, anatomical and physiological traits of leaves after translocation. The introduction plants showed smaller specific leaf area, less developed palisade tissues, smaller palisade/spongy tissue ratio, stomata density and anthocyanin content, lower values of maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry, photochemical quenching coefficient, net photosynthetic rate, light-saturated net photosynthetic rate, light-saturation point, but higher light-compensation point. These differences in traits help explain why augmented plants grew faster than introduced plants. We found that E. excelsum can adapt to wide ranges of light intensity and water availability, including conditions encountered at the introduction site. Our findings suggest that some endemic and endangered plants with narrow distribution may adapt to different habitat conditions by rapidly altering their morphological, anatomical, and physiological traits.


Reperfusion of the heart 30 min. after ischemia causes slight recovery of contractility and content of macroergic compounds in the myocardium tissue. Recovery of perfusion by the hypercalcium medium (0.05 mol/l) improves metabolism of the myocardium 30 min after ischemia. However, further perfusion by solution with physiological content of Ca2+ is followed by the development of the myocardium contracture, essential decrease in extracellular concentration of ATP and phosphocreatine. An increase in the extracellular sodium concentration and addition of macroergic compounds (ATR, phosphocreatine) adenosine, when reperfusing the heart by hypocalcium solution, improve the postischemic state of the myocardium and protect it from injuries during the following recovery of physiological Ca2+ content in the extracellular medium.


In the field of remote sensing, the acquirement of higher resolution of remote sensing images has become a hot spot issue with widely use of high resolution of remote sensing images. This paper focus on the characteristics of high resolution remote sensing images, on the basis of fully considerate of the correlation between geometric features and image pixels, bring forward a fusion of image mosaic processing algorithm. With this algorithm, the surface features can be well preserved after the processing of mosaic the remote sensing images, and the overlapping area can transit naturally, it will be better for the post-processing, analysis and application.


Introduction: Many Mexican immigrants to the US are medically underserved and have a higher risk for type 2 diabetes; early identification of risk factors can prompt referrals to lifestyle changes and primary care in this population. We used a cross-sectional study design to assess diabetes risk using an existing community partnership, a public health professional, and a lay health promoter model to identify individuals at high risk for diabetes without imposing tests that are difficult to perform or sustain in a community setting. Materials and Methods: Between January 1st, 2018, and December 31st, 2019, a community-based approach for type 2 diabetes-risk screening was conducted by lay health workers using a standard protocol including an educational component, the FINDRISC questionnaire, and capillary plasma glucose criteria. Basic descriptive statistics were obtained for demographic, lifestyle, and diabetes risk factors. Results: Our team screened 783 adult individuals (444 females and 339 males) for type 2 diabetes risk. 29% of participants (35.6% of females and 20.6% of males) were at high risk of type 2 diabetes because they had FINDRISC scores of 14 or higher. We also identified other risk factors, 79% of females and 86% of males were overweight or obese, and 39% had high blood pressure; consequently, we referred 427 patients to their PCP or a new medical home. Conclusions: The use of a community-based intervention using the FINDRISC type 2 diabetes risk assessment tool is a suitable, easy to perform intervention that can be applied in community settings by community lay health promoters.


Background Chronic illnesses are recognised as one of the most expensive health problems in industrialised countries. In 2008/2009, an estimated 1.2 million Britons were suffering from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by work. Of these, musculoskeletal disorders and stress were the most common, with those working in some industries more at risk than others. Within the last decade increased levels of participation in adventure activities such as mountaineering has led to an increase in those who lead such activities as a career. The high risk nature of leading adventurous activities may have adverse effects on health, yet very little is known about the cumulative effects of a career in the outdoor industry. Aims and method This study aimed to identify the key factors related to the physical and psychological health of those working as Mountain Instructors within the UK. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 mountaineers to gain information on work-related injury and ill-health. Results A large number of interviewees reported suffering from a musculoskeletal disorder which was related to work activities and many interviewees felt they had to continue to work even when ill or injured. Examples of work-related issues causing stress were also reported including aggressive or challenging behaviours presented by clients and extended working days. Conclusion Those working in the outdoor industry develop a variety of chronic injuries. These data informed the development of a large scale questionnaire study, the findings of which will also be discussed.


Mobility and logistics activities could be supported effectively if the mobile users may know the best path to destination and the loading and unloading paths by means of navigators based on the current traffic and weather conditions. Also, personal data as well user preferences should be considered by the navigators to generate effective recommendations. However, not all the relevant data may be known in a precise way since they often derive from statistical information, as well as knowing all the real time information is not always feasible due to the high cost of the sensing systems. Moreover, we don't have simple mathematical models able to generate fast right recommendations, as required in the rapidly evolving scenarios featuring the activities of walking and driving people. For this reason, the paper aims at illustrating how fuzzy logic may be used for computing measurements and perceptions by qualitative rules and to generate timely recommendations helpful to mobile users. These recommendations will consider the environmental conditions in real time, the current personal constraints and the preferences expressed in the past by the users. The paper not only proposes the methodology, but also illustrates how a Ruby on Rails server provided with a proper JQMobile interface may offer such location intelligence services taking also advantage from the information coming from social networks. A Flash Builder version to save the RoR server time and to improve privacy is also illustrated.


The success of attempts to promote entrepreneurship as a career choice among new graduates in Nigeria has been limited. Despite participating in compulsory entrepreneurship education classes at tertiary institutions and the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme immediately after graduation, their desire to hunt for white collar jobs remains very high. Promoting entrepreneurship among new graduates remains a policy challenge, and requires effectively designed mentorship programmes that address the needs and ambitions of young people. Creating Nigerian Graduate Entrepreneurs through Strengthened Mentorship Programmes


East Africa, one of the most volatile regions in Africa, has been suffering from enormous problems caused by population growth, weak governance, war, and famine. Recently, the advent of climate change has exacerbated these pre-existing problems. These impacts are not felt equally across populations, and, according to various studies, disproportionately affect women. Despite reforms, rural East African women still struggle to access resources or participate in decision-making processes. As a result, they have a weaker ability to adapt to climate change than men. This weaker adaptive capacity influences migration patterns between the genders, and creates its own set of problems. Indeed, migration influenced by climate change forces women to take greater roles at home and confront increased violence. While not fully understood, there is growing evidence of the connection between climate change, migration, and gender disparities. Addressing these issues in isolation cannot bring a sustainable solution, but this article will explore the legal and policy measures needed to solve the complex societal and ecological problems facing the region. Through international collaboration, East Africa can take action to improve the lives of women, limit violence, and fight back against the rapidly changing climate.


Based on the prevalence of asymptomatic kidney stones (5% in our general ward, in accordance with the literature) the value of abdominal ultrasonography in the clinical assessment of a suspected kidney-colic is discussed. The eminent importance of the stone-analysis is emphasized. In addition, the most common causes of kidney stone formation (low urine output, mechanical urinary obstruction in the renal pelvis, hypercalciuria, hyperoxaluria, insufficient urinary citric acid excretion, hyperuricosuria) are highlighted. The cardinal symptom of the urolithiasis is the presence of micro/macrohematuria (which is often absent - according to citations - in 20-80%!). Moreover, the differential diagnosis of acute flank pain, as neoplastic- or infectious diseases, reno-vascular and extrarenal causes (retro-peritoneal and mesenteric vascular processes and rupture of abdominal aneurysms), gynecological problems (e.g. rotation/rupture of ovarian cysts, ectopic pregnancy), appendicitis, diverticulitis, and splenic abscess/infarction, as well as hepato-pancreaticobiliary causes are discussed. Moreover, metabolic syndromes, e.g. the intermittant porphyria or infectious diseases (e.g, Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome) and other rare pathologies (such as the «Mediterranean fever») may be at the origin of acute flank pains. A particular attention is given to possible diagnostic procedures in a primary care setting: in addition to medical history, clinical status and specific laboratory findings the value of diagnostic ultrasound, with special reference to the color-Doppler application, as the «twinkling artefact» from kidney stones and the «urinary-jet phenomenon» for the assessment of urinary outflow obstruction, is emphasized. In this context we point out that a lack of dilatation of the kidney pelvis never excludes a kidney-colic, on the other hand, a dilatation of the kidney pelvis does not necessarily mean congestion! The conservative treatment strategies (avoidance of excessive drinking - an obstructed kidney protects itself - NSAID in combination with Tamsulosin, especially in case of prevesical urolithiasis) are discussed. The critical stone size (≤5 mm) and the absence of «red flags» (especially obstructive and inflammatory signs) allow a non-specialist medical outpatient treatment of acute nephro-and ureterolithiasis. The possible complications of the urolithiasis, especially the urosepsis and the (iatrogenic) fornix rupture are highlighted, as well as the formation of a renal abscess or hydronephrosis. A short look is given to the metaphylaxis of the urolithiasis and its «recurrence rate».


The Indian corporate sector has experienced a major restructuring through mergers and acquisitions, with the changes brought about by the Industrial Policy Resolution of June 1991. In today's globalized economy, mergers and acquisitions are being increasingly used the world over, for improving competitiveness of companies through gaining greater market share, broadening the portfolio to reduce business risk, for entering new markets and geographies, and capitalizing on economies of scale etc. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the impacts of merger and acquisition on profitability and liquidity performance of acquired companies. The study period is ten years before five years and after five years of M & A. This study utilizes secondary data while Ratio analysis, mean, standard deviation and student paired T -test were used in analyzing the data for a selected samples. The results of the empirical findings show that there is positive impact of merger and acquisition on liquidity performance of selected samples