WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT, AND WHAT THE STUDY ADDS
The number of home visits by general practitioners (GPs) has decreased in recent years, in contrast to the increasing number of frail and older patients in western countries. Current data on GP home visit numbers and rates are lacking for Switzerland. Our study provides new data on GP home visit numbers and rates, and their associations with patient characteristics.

AIM
Our study aimed at investigating the time trend of GP home visits to older patients from 2014 to 2018 in Switzerland, and associations between GP home visits and patient characteristics including healthcare utilisation and living situation.

METHODS
Retrospective cross-sectional study of insurance claims data from 2014 to 2018 among patients aged ≥65 years (Nextrapolated = 2,095,102; Nraw = 339,301). We compared patient characteristics between patients with and without GP home visits using descriptive statistics. We performed logistic regression analyses to detect associations between patient characteristics and GP home visits, including subgroups of patients aged ≥80 and patients living in a nursing home. Regression models were adjusted for age and sex.

RESULTS
The yearly GP home visit rate declined from 10.7% to 9.3% from 2014 to 2018 (p <0.0001). Among patients aged ≥80, the rate declined from 26.1% to 23.1% (p <0.0001), and among patients living in a nursing home from 68.7% to 65.8% (p <0.0001). Regression analyses revealed increased health care utilisation and a higher burden of morbidity and mortality in patients receiving GP home visits.

CONCLUSION
There is an ongoing decline of GP home visits over the past years, with a potentially negative impact on the quality of care for older and frail patients.


Understanding the immunomodulatory activities of compounds is important to identify the unintended adverse immunomodulatory effects of therapeutic compounds in development and to select novel compounds that may provide benefit for those diagnosed with immunemediated disorders. In both these cases, it is desirable to identify compounds with immunomodulatory activity early in the drug discovery process in a medium-throughput format. A screening strategy has been designed to fulfil these needs.  The first step in designing the strategy was to select informative assays and optimise individual assays to suit medium-throughput drug discovery. These individual assays investigated effects on a broad range of functions associated with innate and adaptive immune cells including macrophages (activation, cytokine production, phagocytosis and motility), helper T cells (activation and cytokine production), cytotoxic T cells (degranulation and cytokine production), and B cells (antibody production and cytokine production). Cost effectiveness and ease-of-use were important considerations during assay design and optimisation.  Using a compound set comprised of positive controls (i.e. compounds known to alter specific immune functions), a data set was generated to guide the strategy design. Assays were ordered to efficiently use resources and reduce the generation of less informative data. Additionally, using data collected from this compound set, strategies to assess and identify immunomodulatory activity were built and analysed. A second set of compounds was used to validate the screening strategy, and this screen highlighted new and novel activities for these known compounds that suggests they possess additional immunomodulatory effects.  Once validated, several novel compounds were run through the screen, including a traditional Samoan medicine, a heparan sulfate mimetic, and a novel anti-cancer agent; unique immunomodulatory activities were discovered. Finally, a hierarchical cluster analysis was used to cluster compounds sharing similar activity profiles and suggested the potential to develop further statistical methods to provide insight into compound characterisation. Together, this research has developed and validated a novel, medium throughput drug discovery system that can facilitate the identification of the immunomodulatory activities of compounds in the drug discovery environment.


Bayesian modelling is a natural fit for tasks in computational linguistics, since it can provide interpretable structures, useful prior controls, and coherent management of uncertainty. However, exact Bayesian inference is intractable for many models of practical interest. Developing both accurate and efficient approximate Bayesian inference algorithms remains a fundamental challenge, especially for the field of computational linguistics where datasets are large and growing and models consist of complex latent structures. Collapsed variational inference (CVI) is an important milestone that combines the efficiency of variational inference (VI) and the accuracy of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) (Teh et al., 2006). However, its previous applications were limited to bag-of-words models whose hidden variables are conditionally independent given the parameters, whereas in computational linguistics, the hidden variable dependencies are crucial for modelling the underlying syntactic and semantic relations. To enlarge the application domain of CVI as well as to address the above Bayesian inference challenge, we investigate the applications of collapsed variational inference to computational linguistics. In this thesis, our contributions are three-fold. First, we solve a number of inference challenges arising from the hidden variable dependencies and derive a set of new CVI algorithms for the two ubiquitous and foundational models in computational linguistics, namely hidden Markov models (HMMs) and probabilistic context free grammars. We also propose CVI for hierarchical Dirichlet process (HDP) HMMs that are Bayesian nonparametric extensions of HMMs. Second, along the way we propose a set of novel algorithmic techniques, which are generally applicable to a wide variety of probabilistic graphical models in the conjugate exponential family and computational linguistic models using non-conjugate HDP constructions. Therefore, our work represents one step in bridging the gap between increasingly richer Bayesian models in computational linguistics and recent advances in approximate Bayesian inference. Third, we empirically evaluate our proposed CVI algorithms and their stochastic versions in a range of computational linguistic tasks, such as part-of-speech induction, grammar induction and many others. Experimental results consistently demonstrate that, using our techniques for handling the hidden variable dependencies, the empirical advantages of both VI and MCMC can be combined in a much larger domain of CVI applications.


Abstract : This investigation draws on a theoretical framework developed by Kanfer & Ackerman to: (a) assess individual differences in reactivity to stress, particularly from information processing, and (b) to develop a battery of cognitive ability tests/self-regulation measures for predicting performance under stress. Three studies were conducted. Two studies used a dynamic Target/Threat Identification Task under time-pressure. The remaining study used a complex air traffic controller task (TRACON) over extended practice. Personality, motivation, and self-regulatory activity measures are often significantly associated with performance under task load. However, the mixture of cognitive ability influences and stress-reactions associated with performance on cognitive and perceptual speed abilities account for the major amount of individual differences in performance, and also account for variance that is common to the non-ability predictors and task performance. The Dial Reading and Directional Headings Tests are promising predictors of performance in stressful information processing activities. We conclude that such measures have definite advantages to self-reports in predicting individual differences in performance under stress.


In many vertebrate species, a bipotential gonad develops into either testes or
ovaries based on the action of an initial sex determination signal. Sex determination
signals vary widely among species and can be genetic or environmental signals.
Closely related species can have different sex determination mechanisms. Among
species with genetic sex determination mechanisms, such rapid turnover is easily
seen in species with independently evolved sex chromosome systems. However,
the mechanisms by which sex chromosome systems and sex determination
mechanisms turnover are poorly understood.
Within the stickleback fish family (Gasterosteidae), at least five sex chromosome
systems arose in the past 40 million years. However, we do not know the
evolutionary relationships among these sex chromosome systems, nor do we know
if the same sex determination gene is found in different stickleback sex chromosome
systems. To help understand the evolutionary relationships among the stickleback
sex chromosome systems, I undertook genetic and cytogenetic screens to map the
ZZ-ZW sex chromosome system of the fourspine stickleback, Ape/tes quadracus,
relative to the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. I discovered that the
A. quadracus ZZ-ZW sex chromosomes arose independently of the other stickleback
sex chromosome systems. I also discovered one A. quadracus population with no
visible sex chromosomes. To address whether sticklebacks share the same sex
determination gene, we first wish to identify the sex determination gene in G.
aculeatus, which has a XX-XV sex chromosome system. Thus, I designed and
executed a high-throughput sequencing transcriptome screen and identified
hundreds of genes that are differentially expressed between the sexes during the
early stages of gonadal differentiation. These genes will shed light on how sexual
differentiation pathways have evolved in the stickleback family and assist in the
continued search for the G. acu/eatus sex determination gene. In addition, my
screen confirmed the lack of a global dosage compensation mechanism for X
chromosome genes in this species. These results will spawn future studies to
understand how sex chromosomes arose in this family, how the gene content of sex
chromosomes can change over time, and how dosage tolerance evolves in a
complex vertebrate genome.


Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream – attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of nature, then this should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being. In practice, however, we have not yet developed the scientific basis, nor the policy and finance mechanisms, for incorporating natural capital into resource- and land-use decisions on a large scale. Here, we propose a conceptual framework and sketch out a strategic plan for delivering on the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging examples from Hawai'i. We describe key advances in the science and practice of accounting for natural capital in the decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments.


Public monopolies in public utilities have been dismantled in many OECD countries over the last two decades. When public authorities were not in the position to replace them with a proper market competition, they have often implemented the competition for the market model. In this model, firms compete to win the auction and to acquire a legal monopoly (total or local) for a given period of time. This article argues that there are some significant costs associated to the periodic replacement of a supplier with another one and these costs are defined as transition costs. Public authorities should be aware of them since there are several policies which can reduce the risks and costs associated to competition for the market in public utilities.


I n the fall of 2004, two diverse species prairie mixtures, composed of 9-prairie species and 20-species, were broadcast on a recently harvested soybean field. The soil was mostly bare, with minimal crop residue or weeds. The site was mowed several times during the summer of 2005 for weed management. There was some broadleaf and grass weed competition during the 2005 growing season, but some prairie grass and legume seedlings were seen. No systematic stand evaluations were conducted in 2005. In mid-May of 2006 there was such a uniform and significant growth of the native grasses Canada and Virginia wildrye, that the co-PIs decided to revise the management plans for the Lewis site. The overall intent was to establish a coolseason/ warm-season dual forage system, using alfalfa and red clover as the 'cool-season' component. With the presence of the native, cool-season wildrye component, it was decided to use an all 'native species' system at the Armstrong Farm, to contrast with the alfalfa/warm-season prairie mixtures study being managed at a site near Ames, IA.


REPORT OF A CASE A 53-year-old woman with Down's syndrome was referred from a nursing home for evaluation of a severe diffuse rash. She had lived in the same institution for nine years. She had a seven-year history of a nonspecific dermatitis and dry skin. Four months previously, she had been treated with lindane lotion on two occasions with minimal benefit. Subsequently, betamethasone diproprionate was applied to the hands and elbows regularly with some improvement until one month previously, when her dermatitis worsened. One week prior to evaluation, a lotion containing triamcinolone acetonide was applied for two days. On the third day her hands became red and swollen. Heavy crusts formed "overnight" on the swollen areas. She developed a diffuse erythroderma within a few days. Allergic contact dermatitis was suspected, and the steroid lotion therapy was discontinued. At the time of our evaluation, her treatment consisted of clear water compresses


The basic causes of dissimilar metal weld (DMW) failures in boilers are now well understood. Guidelines have emerged for achieving significantly improved DMW life, in terms of operational parameters, weld filler metals, and weld designs. Analytical, as well as experimental, nondestructive techniques have been developed that enable assessment of the condition of DMWs in service so that intelligent run-replace decisions can be made. Techniques for assessing the remaining life of superheater/reheater (SH/RH) tubes are under development. The techniques utilize information on steamside oxide scale growth and dimensional changes on the fireside due to corrosion to compile the temperature–stress profile of operation in the tubes. This information is then combined with standard creep data to estimate the remaining life of the tubes more accurately than was possible heretofore. The potential of a replication technique that allows nondestructive monitoring of creep damage in heavy section pipes has been successfully demonstrated at several utility sites. It has been possible to detect early stages of incipient creep damage and to recommend specific courses of action to affected utilities. Laboratory and field studies currently in progress are expected to result in metallographic and miniature test specimen techniques that would further augment the capabilities of the replication technique, and render it into a more quantitative tool for life assessment of heavy section components.


The dielectric response of the relaxer ferroelectric PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3 (PMN) is found to be a non-analytical function of the ac field, with the absolute value of the non-linear component of the polarization given by \P-nl\ alpha E-m(gamma(omega,T)). The dependence on the temperature, T, and frequency, omega, of the exponent gamma manifests itself in the form of a crossover in gamma(T) from approximately 2 to 3 upon cooling, whose position depends upon the frequency of the applied ac held. From the comparison of y(w, T) with the linear complex dielectric permittivity, epsilon(l)* (omega, T), of PMN, the following can be correlated: (i) gamma approximate to 2 in the regime of the quasi-static response, and y starts deviating from 2 simultaneously with the onset of the frequency dispersion; and (ii) gamma approximate to 3 when the spectrum of relaxation times in PMN becomes flat. These findings can be understood in terms of the change in the type of the motion of the interphase boundaries of the microscopic polar regions existing in PMN, namely in the change of the scale on which the interphase boundaries can move.


In this study, the stability of a generic three-layered truncated conical shell containing a functionally graded (FG) layer subjected to uniform external pressure is investigated. The material properties of the functionally graded layer are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness of the shell. The variation of the properties follows an arbitrary distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The fundamental relations, the stability and compatibility equations of three-layered truncated conical shells containing a FG layer are obtained, first. Then, applying Galerkin's method, the closed form solution for critical external pressure is obtained. The results show that the critical parameters are affected by the configurations of the constituent materials, the variations of the thickness of the FG layer and the variation of the shell geometry. Comparing the results with those in the literature validates the present analysis.


From whirling ceiling fans to ticking clocks, the sounds that we hear subtly vary as we move through a scene. We ask whether these ambient sounds convey information about 3D scene structure and, if so, whether they provide a useful learning signal for multimodal models. To study this, we collect a dataset of paired audio and RGB-D recordings from a variety of quiet indoor scenes. We then train models that estimate the distance to nearby walls, given only audio as input. We also use these recordings to learn multimodal representations through self-supervision, by training a network to associate images with their corresponding sounds. These results suggest that ambient sound conveys a surprising amount of information about scene structure, and that it is a useful signal for learning multimodal features.


Demand for reproductive health services by people with HIV is increasing, as is the urgency of protecting and promoting their reproductive rights. The reproductive rights of Mexicans with HIV are formally protected by the constitution and by health and anti-discrimination legislation, as well as by international conventions. However, the reproductive rights of women with HIV continue to be violated in public clinics and hospitals. This paper discusses three violations identified as priority problems by Mexican women with HIV, illustrating these problems with cases identified during a participatory skills building workshop. The violations cover the following rights: the right to non-discrimination, the right to adequate information and informed consent to medical procedures, and the right to choose the number and spacing of children. Physicians can either violate or promote reproductive rights. Unfortunately, in many instances Mexican physicians continue to perpetrate reproductive rights abuses against women with HIV. Collaborations between women with HIV, civil society, government, and international organizations are needed to educate and sanction health care providers and to support women with HIV in their pursuit of reproductive rights. Demanding accountability from health care practitioners and the State to guarantee reproductive rights in countries where these rights are formally protected will improve the quality of life of people with HIV and can demonstrate that rights-based approaches are compatible with and indeed, crucial for public health.


This Major Research Paper will examine health professionals' interpretation of social media and their motivation for using it in health promotion. Four health professionals' were interviewed in order to better understand their unique perspective on the use of social media within health promotion. The analysis was grounded in the theories of technological affordances and social learning theory. It was found that while health professionals' had a variety of reasons for using social media in their professional practice, the prospect of engaging with the public regarding health topics was a main motivation for using social media. As the use of social media within the field of health promotion is an important topic and will likely continue to be in the future, it is critical to gain a more complete understanding of how health professionals' interpret social media and what motivates them to use social media to promote health.


Hybrid composites of semiconducting polymers and metal oxides are promising combinations for solar cells. However, forming a well-controlled nanostructure with bicontinuous interpenetrating networks throughout the photoactive film is difficult to achieve. Pre-structured "mesoporous" metal oxide electrodes can act as a well-defined template for latter polymer infiltration. However, the long range infiltration of polymer chains into contorted porous channels has appeared to elude the scientific community, limiting the advancement of this technology. Here we present a structural and electronic characterisation of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) infiltrated into mesoporous dye-sensitized TiO2. Through a combination of techniques we achieve uniform pore filling of P3HT up to depths of over 4 μm, but the volumetric fraction of the pores filled with polymer is less than 24%. Despite this low pore-filling, exceptionally efficient charge collection is demonstrated, illustrating that pore filling is not the critical issue for mesoporous hybrid solar cells.


Author(s): Derezinski, Michal | Advisor(s): Warmuth, Manfred K | Abstract: In this thesis we study the following basic machine learning task: Given a fixed set of n input points in a d-dimensional linear regression problem, we wish to predict a hidden response value for each of the points. We can only afford to attain the responses for a small subset of the points that are then used to construct linear predictions for all points in the dataset. The performance of the predictions is evaluated by the total square loss on all responses. We show that a good approximate solution to this least squares problem can be obtained from just dimension d many responses by using a joint sampling technique called volume sampling. Moreover, the least squares solution obtained for the volume sampled subproblem is an unbiased estimator of optimal solution based on all n responses. This unbiasedness is a desirable property that is not shared by standard subset selection techniques.Motivated by these basic properties, we develop a theoretical framework for studying volume sampling, which leads to a number of new expectation formulas and statistical guarantees which are of importance not only to least squares regression but also numerical linear algebra in general. Our methods lead to several novel extensions of volume sampling, including a regularized variant, and we propose the first efficient algorithms which make this technique a practical tool in the machine learning toolbox. Finally, we provide experimental evidence which confirms our theoretical findings.


Why has the expansion of women's economic and political rights coincided with economic development? This paper investigates this question, focusing on a key economic right for women: property rights. The basic hypothesis is that the process of development (i.e., capital accumulation and declining fertility) exacerbated the tension in men's con‡icting interests as husbands versus fathers, ultimately resolving them in favor of the latter. As husbands, men stood to gain from their privileged position in a patriarchal world whereas, as fathers, they were hurt by a system that a¤orded few rights to their daughters. The model predicts that declining fertility would hasten reform of women's property rights whereas legal systems that were initially more favorable to women would delay them. The theoretical relationship between capital and the relative attractiveness of reform is non-monotonic but growth inevitably leads to reform. I explore the empirical validity of the theoretical predictions by using cross-state variation in the US in the timing of married women obtaining property and earning rights between 1850 and 1920. I wish to thank Matthias Doepke, Lena Edlund, Shelly Lundberg, and Matt Wiswall for many helpful suggestions. I thank Eduardo Zilberman for providing excellent research assistance and the NSF and the Russell Sage Foundation for …nancial support.


Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) system is a broadly used imaging modality
in dentistry nowadays. It allows the imaging of high contrast structures of the oral
region at a high resolution. The effect of CBCT scan parameters on trabecular bone
microstructure (Tb.N), (Tb.Th), (Tb.Sp), and (BV/TV) has been studied, while the
effect of CBCT reconstruction parameters is still lacking. Five sectioned maxillae of
adult Dorper male sheep (age ranging from 20-48 months and body weight 50-60 kg)
were scanned using a CBCT system (Carestream 9000, Kodak) and a Micro-CT (μCT)
system (SkyScan 1076, Kontich, Belgium). In the first part of this study, the images for
μCT and CBCT were processed and analyzed to study the reliability of CBCT
trabecular bone microstructure assessment in comparison with Micro-CT. In the second
part of this study, the effect of CBCT reconstruction parameters (reconstruction voxel
size, threshold value, and the size and content of the region of interest) on trabecular
bone microstructure assessment were evaluated. The statistical analysis showed that
CBCT is reliable for the trabecular microstructure measurement in comparison with
μCT. For the reconstruction voxel size, there was no significant difference between
different reconstruction voxel sizes (76, 100, and 200 μm3
). For the threshold value, an
increase and decrease in the chosen optimal value by 15% was done. Decreasing the
chosen optimal value (by 15%) showed significant difference on all trabecular bone
parameters, whereas increasing the value had no significant effect. Lastly, the region of
interest (Group 1, ROI that only contained trabecular bone, Group 2, ROI contained
cortical bone and trabecular bone) showed the inclusion of cortical bone in the ROI
showed significant difference on the Tb.Th and BV/TV measurements. In conclusion,
BONE MICROSTRUCTURE ASSESSMENT USING CONE BEAM
COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY DATASET
iv
CBCT (Carestream 9000, Kodak) is reliable for the trabecular bone microstructure
assessment. However, the selected CBCT reconstruction parameters can compromise
the trabecular bone microstructure measurement


The purpose of this paper was to look for non-local designs of particles. We show that the Bell-type theorems are not proof against a hidden variable solution, by presenting such a model complete with the first level of internal functional structures. A design method was used to infer the internal structures that would be necessary to explain the observed phenomena of entanglement. The result is a novel model called the cordus particule, which is proposed to have two reactive ends that are separated in space. The model proposes the internal structures and provides mechanisms showing how the external behaviour arises from those structures. A mechanism is given for superluminal entanglement. The model predicts outcomes from Bell-type tests that are consistent with empirical results. This shows that it is conceptually possible to create hidden-variable solutions that are based on physical sub-structures. We suggest that the better interpretation of entanglement and the Bell-type theorems is that both local realism and the zero-dimensional point construct are false. The cordus model produces a new concept for the mechanism for locality and the extents thereof, and implies the need to abandon strict locality and local realism, at least at the deeper level. Nonetheless an approximate retention of both locality and realism is provided. The results suggest it is worthwhile questioning the established ideas of physics regarding the composition of particules, and we particularly identify the zero-dimensional point construct as ripe for revision.


Edgar Allan Poe was a famous American poet, short story writer, journalist, and literary
critic who lived in 1809-1849. As the saddest and the strangest figure in American literary history,
he had unique style in expressing his works. Death played a major part in many of his writings. He
blended the sorrow, despair, anger and suffer from loss, as in his short stories The Fall of The
House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat. The death in the three short stories
brings the reader to a mystery. This is interesting to be analyzed. In the three short stories there
are some questions, full of secrets, and have surprise endings. Mystery gives reader uncertainty
about the conclusion of the story. In some stories the reader may guess the conclusion before they
even finish reading them, but when author adds mystery into their masterpieces, the stories
become far more interesting and keeps the reader wondering whether the conclusion of the story
would end like they thought and therefore keeps the reader wanting to read more. This research is descriptive; it takes form of statements, quotations, and explanations that
found in the short stories. The method of collecting data is through library research. It is only a
study to book references, which are provided in library. After reading and understanding the short
stories, essays, comments and other writing that support the subject matter of the research, the
researcher can analyze the three short stories. The purpose of the research is to reveal the mystery
in Poe's short stories The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Black Cat.
In order to achieve the purpose, the researcher employs structural approach as the guide step. In those three short stories discussed in this thesis, Poe creates the appearance of mystery
through idiosyncrasy of his characters. His technique of characterization can be identified with
the creation of uniqueness and strangeness. Point of view, setting, plot, foreshadowing, and
diction support his technique of characterization. Based on the analysis, it is found that those
elements work in unity; inside everything contribute to the effect of mystery. Through those three
short stories, it shows that Poe's creation are dominated by mystery.


The evolutionary history of krill (Euphausiacea: Crustacea) was studied through information
held in their DNA. The earliest events in the evolution of this group were investigated by
phylogenetic analysis of slowly evolving nuclear DNA sequences of krill and their near relatives.
These analyses established the sister taxon of krill to be the Mysida. Molecular dating
techniques suggested that krill diverged from the Mysida in the upper Carboniferous, two
lineages of krill survived the end Cretaceous extinctions, and the extant genera of
Euphausiidae radiated during the early Palaeogene. More recent speciation events in the krill
genus Euphausia were studied by phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. A
comparison between the speciation history of Euphausia and that of freshwater crustaceans in
the Anaspididae was made because the Anaspididae are close relatives of krill and have
undisputable barriers to migration between populations that are not present for krill. This
comparison suggests that genetic differentiation in Euphausia may involve parapatric or even
sympatric processes. Microevolution in the krill species Euphausia crystallorophias was
studied by comparing allele frequencies between populations of krill from different parts of its
range. Features of the genome of Euphausia superba were characterized in order to compare
its qualities with the genomes of other metazoans.


24th of November 2016, the President of Russia submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation's Federal Assembly the draft Federal constitutional law «On introducing amendments to the Federal constitutional law «On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation». The bill proposes a new form of the Constitutional court judgment regarding the results of consideration of the case about the verification of constitutionality of a statutory act of public authority or a treaty between bodies of public authority, - the decision to declare the statutory act or the treaty or individual provisions of them corresponding to the Constitution in the interpretation given by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. In the authors' opinion, such a new form (and new legal nature) of the Constitutional Court judgment marks a historic turn of the Russian state policy towards the development of case law, strengthening the place and role of judicial precedent and lawmaking. This means that other (possible) interpretation will not be taken into account by courts, thereby, the judicial system will become more manageable, and decisions taken by courts - in terms of possible interpretations of the Basic law - more predictable. The article also explores the concept of «judge-made law», which in connection with the submission of the draft Federal constitutional law, takes on new meaning and new legal nature: firstly, the judge-made law, as one of the most common concepts in modern Western European jurisprudence and the Anglo-American common law, in fact, starts its development in Russia, secondly, the classic concept of the judge as an «implementer» of the law-making functions of the court right from the beginning starts to be distorted in Russia, because the right to be «interpreter» (commentator) belongs only to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the lower units of the judicial system no longer can, but are obliged to follow the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. In any case, according to the authors, the development of judicial precedent and lawmaking is a significant positive step for the development of the legal system of the state. The question is debatable: what to give preference in case of interpretation of the regulation to - explanation of a will of the legislator which he wanted to express, or to the text of the regulation. The will of the legislator only so makes the law as far as it is expressed in the regulation as there are requirements to the acts, uniform in the territory of the state, establishing the rights and obligations.


When modeling the prognostic changes in the temperature regime over the territory of Ukraine, the data of the research project for modeling the regional climate and assessing the consequences of its change (CORDEX) were used. The climate projection structure is based on a series of global climatic models (GCM) developed within the framework of CMIP5 project. The influence of the temperature factors on passing the phenological phases and oats yield in the South of Ukraine, implementing the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 climate scenarios and comparing them with the long-term data is analyzed. As a result of the analysis of the changes in the temperature regime it was revealed that it will be warming the plants vegetation period. The probable change in the oats yield in the southern part of Ukraine under the conditions of climate change using the crop formation model was considered. It is assumed that by 2050 the timing of sowing and germinating the seedlings will be shifted to an earlier date, and the oats yield will increase by 1.26-1.32 times.


The capacity of MIMO intensity modulation channels is studied. The non-negativity of the transmit signal (intensity) poses a challenge on the precoding of the transmit signal, which limits the applicability of classical schemes in this type of channels. To resolve this issue, capacity lower bounds are developed by using precoding-free schemes. This is achieved by channel inversion or QR decomposition to convert the MIMO channel to a set of parallel channels. The achievable rate of a DC-offset SVD based scheme is also derived as a benchmark. Then, a capacity upper bound is derived and is shown to coincide with the achievable rate of the QR decomposition based scheme at high SNR, consequently characterizing the high-SNR capacity of the channel. The high-SNR gap between capacity and the achievable rates of the channel inversion and the DC-offset SVD based schemes is also characterized. Finally, the ergodic capacity of the channel is also briefly discussed.


IADC member William R. Jones Jr. is a partner in Jones, Skelton & Hochuli, a full-service law firm based in Phoenix. A graduate of the University of Michigan (B.A. 1960, J.D. 1962), he has written Arizona legislation on malpractice, products liability, tort reform and workers' compensation. He expresses his appreciation to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona for his review and comments, and to Walt Davis, Claims Manager of Mutual Insurance Company of Arizona; and to Eileen J. Dennis, an associate at Jones, Skelton Hochuli, and Stephanie Bivens, a law clerk at the same firm, for the research and assistance in the preparation of this article. THE GOAL of the American tort system is to provide reasonable compensation to those who have been injured by the civil wrongdoing of another. Those compensatory damages are separated into two parts: general damages, such as pain and suffering; and special damages, such as lost wages and health care expenses. While special damages may encompass many items, by far the two largest are lost wages and health care expenses. For years, tort reformers have attempted, in various ways, to contain the spiraling costs of our tort system. Remedial measures have focused largely on containing awards for general damages--for instance, caps on damages, no-fault automobile insurance and other devices, which have met with varying degrees of success. Each positive effect these reforms may have offered, however, has been criticized for causing some perceived loss to claimants' rights to "full compensation." What tort reformers have overlooked is the special damages side of the ledger. Billions of dollars in special damage awards can be saved, without any claimed loss of full compensation to claimants, simply by taking into account the fact that one of the major costs of the tort system--health care--is no longer being provided by the fee-for-service contract but at a greatly discounted rate by managed care. Managed health care plans pay health care providers a predetermined fixed fee for particular services. While the actual amount paid for these services is greatly discounted, the tort system still "reimburses" claimants for the much higher "billed" costs of the health care, not the actual lower out-of-pocket managed care cost. Claimants are thus "reimbursed" for costs they never incurred. Moreover, because insurance benefits frequently are not integrated, claimants recover these "phantom" costs multiple times. The expense to the tort system is staggering. Health care costs that are included as an element of special damages should be calculated and reimbursed on the basis of the actual out-of-pocket cost--the predetermined fixed fee that the managed health care plan actually pays the provider--not the inflated "billed but never expended" cost. Insurance benefits also should be integrated so that these costs are reimbursed only once. The entire tort system, not just the health insurance industry, could thereby benefit from the economic efficiencies of managed health care. MANAGED CARE SYSTEM The concept of managed care is not new. Henry J. Kaiser formed the Kaiser Foundation in the 1940s to provide a type of managed care for his employees and eventually for the public. The welfare system has utilized managed care for decades. In the mid-1960s, managed care systems came into their own with the advent of Medicare and Medicaid. In the early 1980s, when health care costs were spiraling to uncontrollable levels, the federal government, through the Medicare program, adopted a system of diagnostic related groups, called DRGs, which abandoned the prior cost-plus approach to reimbursement for health care services, and substituted a predetermined fixed fee to providers for particular services. The DRG system rewarded efficient providers and penalized the less efficient. A premium was paid to providers who could move. patients through the system more quickly and at less expense. …


Abstract International studies have demonstrated associations between sleep problems and poor psychological well-being; however, Canadian data are limited. This study investigated this association using cross-sectional baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, a national survey of 30,097 community-dwelling adults, 45–85 years of age. Short sleep duration, sleep dissatisfaction, insomnia symptoms, and daytime impairment were consistently associated with a higher prevalence of dissatisfaction with life, psychological distress, and poor self-reported mental health. Long sleep duration was associated with a higher prevalence of psychological distress and poor self-reported mental health, but not with dissatisfaction with life. Associations between sleep problems and psychological distress were 11–18 per cent stronger in males. With each 10-year increase in age, the association between daytime impairment and life dissatisfaction increased by 11 per cent, and insomnia symptoms and poor mental health decreased by 11 per cent. Sleep problems in middle-aged and older adults warrant increased attention as a public health problem in Canada.


IXPE, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, has been selected as a NASA SMEX mission to be flown in 2021. It will perform polarimetry resolved in energy, in time and in angle as a break-through in High Energy Astrophysics. IXPE promises to 're-open', after 40 years, a window in X-ray astronomy adding two more observables to the usual ones. It will directly measure the geometrical parameters of many different classes of sources eventually breaking possible degeneracies. The probed angular scales (30") are capable of producing the first X-ray polarization maps of extended objects with scientifically relevant sensitivity. This will permit mapping the magnetic fields in Pulsar Wind Nebulae and Super-Nova Remnants at the acceleration sites of 10-100 TeV electrons. Additionally, it will probe vacuum birefringence effects in systems with magnetic fields far larger than those reachable with experiments on Earth. The payload of IXPE consists of three identical telescopes with mirrors provided by MSFC/NASA. The focal plane is provided by ASI with IAPS/INAF responsible for the overall instrument that includes detector units that are provided by INFN. ASI also provides, in kind, the Malindi Ground Station. LASP is responsible for the Mission Operation Center while the Science Operation Center is at MSFC. The operations phase lasts at least two years. All the data including those related to polarization will be made available quickly to the general user. In this paper we present the mission, its payload and we discuss a few examples of astrophysical targets.


Detailed phylogenetic analysis of the gene family of hemagglutinin H3 of influenza A-type virus was fulfilled, taking into account the domain structure of protein and positions of antigen determinants. The densities of distribution of fixed synonimic replacements between domains HA1 and HA2 were shown to be actually equal (rho (HA1) = rho (HA2], and those of nonsynonimic ones to be unequal: their ratios were rho (HA1): rho (HA2) = 2.8 for nonepidemic branches, and rho (HA1): rho (HA2) = 7.7 for epidemic ones. For the positions of antigen determinants (agd) these densities differ still stronger from HA2: rho (agd): rho (HA2) = 10 for nonepidemic branches, and rho (agd): rho (HA2) = 36 for epidemic ones. In total, the rate of fixation of nonsynonimic replacements per position of antigen determinants for epidemic branches is 32 times higher than for nonepidemic ones. The absolute value of this estimation is K(ns)d = (9.1 +/- 0.7).10(-3) of nonsynonimic replacements per nonsynonimic position per year and seems to be twice as much as the maximum rate of neutral fixations Ks = (4.28 +/- 0.68).10(-3). Therefore, the epidemic reproduction of influenza virus is highly adaptive, exactly being focused on positions of antigen determinants. The evolution of influenza virus is stochastic process, both with the neutral and adaptive fixations.


Simply defined, therapeutic gene transfer involves the transfer of genetic material into the cells with the aim of correcting a disease and/or slowing down the progression of a disease. The public health significance is that therapeutic gene delivery carries the hope of curing currently incurable diseases such as cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), or providing better solutions to current treatments for conditions such as chronic pain. There is high expectation in this new generation of medicine that therapeutic gene transfer would rid the patients of the painful conditions and lead them to better lives.One key component of this procedure is the vehicle that has the capability to deliver the therapeutic gene into different tissues efficiently and safely. A number of vectors based on retroviruses, lentiviruses, adenoviruses and adeno-associated viruses have been developed and their efficacy and safety evaluated in animal models and clinical trials.Possessing several advantages, such as its large genome, the ability to transduce both dividing and non-dividing cells, HSV-1 based vectors represent promising candidates for gene delivery. Three types of HSV-based vectors have been developed: HSV amplicons, replication competent vectors and replication defective vectors. Replication defective vectors based on multiple essential immediate early (IE) gene deletions carrying different transgenes have been constructed.However, HSV vectors have disadvantages. The most prominent one is toxicity. To reduce toxicity, more viral genes are deleted in addition to the essential IE genes. One such gene is the one encoding viral regulatory protein ICP0. However, the deletion of ICP0 gene renders the vector highly inefficient in transgene expression although the toxicity is lowered. Thus, how to restrict the toxicity while retaining the expression is one of the issues that needs to be addressed in HSV vector development.One possible solution is to lower ICP0 level through mutations in the ICP0 promoter region. To test this method, activities of reporter gene driven by mutated ICP0 promoter were assayed and the results showed that deletions in the promoter region did reduce ICP0 expression.However, the optimal level to meet the goal could not be determined by reporter gene assays. Thus, constructs carrying mutant promoters driving ICP0 coding sequence were created. During the construction of these viruses, the positive control virus, later named JDTOZHERO, was found to carry an unexpected deletion in the 5'-UTR. This deletion gave this virus some unique features that fulfilled our goal, i.e., low toxicity and reasonable expression. This virus is characterized in detail in this thesis.


Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous basinal strata are preserved in a discontinuous belt along the inboard margin of the Alexander-Wrangellia-Peninsular terrane (AWP) in Alaska and western Canada, on the outboard margin of terranes in the Canadian Cordillera accreted to North America prior to Late Jurassic time, and along the Cordilleran margin from southern Oregon to southern California. Nearly all of the basinal assemblages contain turbiditic strata deposited between Oxfordian and Albian time. Arc-type volcanic rocks and abundant volcanic detritus in many of the assemblages suggest deposition within or adjacent to a coeval arc complex. On the basis of the general similarities between the basinal sequences, we propose that they record involvement of the AWP in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous evolution of the Cordilleran margin. A geologically reasonable scenario for the accretion of the AWP includes (1) Middle Jurassic accretion to the Cordilleran margin, in particular the Stikine and Yukon-Tanana terranes, in a dextral transpressional regime, (2) Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous overall northward translation of the AWP and evolution of a series of transtensional basins within a complex dextral strike-slip system along the Cordilleran margin, and (3) mid-Cretaceous structural imbrication of the AWP and inboard terranes that either terminated or resulted in a change in the character of deposition in the marginal basins. Mid-Cretaceous deformation along the inboard margin of the AWP was broadly synchronous with contractional deformation throughout the Cordillera and most likely due to changes in subduction zone parameters along the Cordilleran margin, outboard of the AWP, rather than collision of the AWP.


. A conflict-free k -coloring of a graph assigns one of k different colors to some of the vertices such that, for every vertex v , there is a color that is assigned to exactly one vertex among v and v 's neighbors. Such colorings have applications in wireless networking, robotics, and geometry and are well studied in graph theory. Here we study the natural problem of the conflict-free chromatic number \chi  CF ( G ) (the smallest k for which conflict-free k -colorings exist). We provide results both for closed neighborhoods N [ v ], for which a vertex v is a member of its neighborhood, and for open neighborhoods N ( v ), for which vertex v is not a member of its neighborhood. For closed neighborhoods, we prove the conflict-free variant of the famous Hadwiger Conjecture: If an arbitrary graph G does not contain K k +1 as a minor, then \chi  CF ( G ) \leq  k . For planar graphs, we obtain a tight worst-case bound: three colors are sometimes necessary and always sufficient. In addition, we give a complete characterization of the algorithmic/computational complexity of conflict-free coloring. It is NP-complete to decide whether a planar graph has a conflict-free coloring with one color, while for outerplanar graphs, this can be decided in polynomial time. Furthermore, it is NP-complete to decide whether a planar graph has a conflict-free coloring with two colors, while for outerplanar graphs, two colors always suffice. For the bicriteria problem of minimizing the number of colored vertices subject to a given bound k on the number of colors, we give a full algorithmic characterization in terms of complexity and approximation for outerplanar and planar graphs. For open neighborhoods, we show that every planar bipartite graph has a conflict-free coloring with at most four colors; on the other hand, we prove that for k \in  \{  1 , 2 , 3 \}  , it is NP-complete to decide whether a planar bipartite graph has a conflict-free k -coloring. Moreover, we establish that any general planar graph has a conflict-free coloring with at most eight colors.


Based on lithostratigraphic comparisons the Menderes Massif has been correlated with the Cycladic Massif, thereby implying that the eastern Mediterranean consists of a narrow pre-Alpine basement belt which is laterally continuous over a long distance and which experienced a similar Alpine orogenic history. Our work indicates that the architecture, the age of basement and the pre-Alpine and Alpine tectonometamorphic history of both massifs differ fundamentally from each other. The Menderes Massif consists of remnants of the Cycladic Massif which overly an exotic unit, the Menderes nappes. Both massifs do not represent lateral continuations which has implications for palaeogeographic reconstructions.


Background The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of a novel long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), LL22NC03-N64E9.1, and its effect on the phenotype of lung cancer cells and tissues using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) RNA sequencing data and other publicly available profiling data. Material/Methods The lung cancer dataset GSE30219 was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) repository. Differentially expressed lncRNA, LL22NC03-N64E9.1, in 48 lung cancer tissue samples and adjacent normal lung tissues, normal lung cell lines BEAS-2B and A549, and lung cancer cell lines, H1703, and H292, were detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (qRT-PCR). Interference efficiency was performed using small interfering RNA (siRNA). Tumor levels of lncRNA, LL22NC03-N64E9.1, and clinicopathological parameters were statistically analyzed. Results Analysis of the GSE30219 test cohort showed that lncRNA, LL22NC03-N64E9.1 expression was significantly increased in lung cancer. In clinical tissue samples, the level of LL22NC03-N64E9.1 in patients with lung cancer was significantly increased compared with adjacent normal lung tissues (P<0.001). The level of LL22NC03-N64E9.1 in patients with lung cancer was significantly correlated with tumor size and TNM stage (P<0.05), but not with age, sex and the presence of lymph node metastasis (P>0.05). In the H292 cells, following knockdown of LL22NC03-N64E9.1, cell proliferation and cloning were reduced. Conclusions Expression of lncRNA, LL22NC03-N64E9.1, promoted proliferation of lung cancer cells in vitro, was highly expressed in lung cancer tissues and was associated with increased overall survival (OS), tumor size, and tumor stage in patients with lung cancer.


This study aimed to assess the ability of adhesion, detachment, and biofilm formation of the reference strain Staphylococcus aureus CCM 4223 on a stainless steel surface, and the efficacy of three disinfectants: preparation A (based on peracetic acid, 20 mg/l), preparation B (newly developed disinfectant with a combination of two active ingredients, caprylic acid and hydrogen peroxide, 25 mg/l), and preparation C (based on sodium hypochlorite, 200 mg/l) in removing S. aureus cells adhered onto this surface. Cell detachment was around 5 log CFU/cm2 (colony forming units) over the first 6 h and around 6 log CFU/cm2 over 48 h characterizing a high persistence of cells on the tested surface. The number of cells (5–7 log CFU/cm2) needed for biofilm formation was noted already after 6 h of incubation. The decrease in cell counts caused by preparation A was 1.12–2.07 log CFU/cm2 (P < 0.0001), whereas for preparation C and preparation B, the decrease was 1.13–2.08 log CFU/cm2 and 1.61–2.16 log CFU/cm2, respectively (P < 0.0001). Preparation A was found to be the most effective (80.9%) in reducing the adhered cell count in the biofilm matrix. From these results, the assayed S. aureus strain revealed high capacities to adhere and form biofilms on stainless steel surfaces, and the cells in biofilm matrixes were resistant to total removal when exposed to the evaluated disinfectants.


In the ever-increasing development of network storage technology, distributed RAID has been a hot topic for data reliability and availability. To solve the problem of distributed RAID technology, such as: parallel access difficulty, long rebuild time, small write update and strip alignment problem, we design and implement file level distributed RAID system (BW-FILERAID) based on Blue Whale File System (BWFS). Also we do the research on resource allocation strategy, page cache management with parity data, consistence maintenance, online extension of RAID group, error detect and rebuild and small write optimization in BW-FILERAID. According to the testing results, the writing performance of BW-FILERAID is better than Linux soft RAID about 5%~50%, and the reading performance is equivalent to the RAID0. And it also has excellent extensibility.


This paper explores how great ideas become "great works". The paper explores the process used by Frederick Taylor to "spread the gospel" of scientific management – one of management's great works. The paper takes this example, dissects it and applies current theory and models to explain how the concept of scientific management was created, refined, disseminated and ultimately used throughout the world in diverse industries and both public and private organizations. Ideas must be created, tested, evaluated, modified, and put back through the process of what Nonaka and Takeuchi call the "spiral of knowledge". Once an idea becomes great, it needs an evangelist to spread the good word – this person is a knowledge activist. The knowledge activist uses his/her social networks to reach a wide variety of groups. This illustration and explanation demonstrates that both academia and the popular press are essential for great works to happen.


In the past decade, the therapeutic choices for patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) have not changed, except for the introduction of rituximab. There have been three placebo-controlled randomized trials in the past fifteen years, namely, those on azathioprine (AZP), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and tacrolimus. The trial for AZP was carried out on a relatively small number of patients (AZP, 15; placebo, 19), and its outcome showed the therapeutic effectiveness of AZP. The MMF trial was carried out on a large number of patients (MMF, 88; placebo, 88). The result showed no effect on primary and secondary endpoints. The tacrolimus trial was carried out in Japan on a relatively large number of patients (tacrolimus, 40; placebo, 40). Although the study could not reveal an effect on the primary endpoint, several secondary endpoints turned out to be affected. In all three studies, the therapeutic drugs were used in combination with steroid, and the safety and tolerability of the drugs were shown. In diseases with a relatively small affected population, such as MG, successful execution of well-designed clinical trials is difficult. We have to learn how to collect pieces of valuable information wisely from previous studies. The utilization of clinical literacy will be important in this medical practice.


The Neretva Delta region is a predominantly rural area of approximately 20,000 hectares, shared by Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The region supports the livelihoods of approximately 60,000 people living in nine municipalities - seven on the Croatian side and two in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This study represents the preliminary assessment analysis of one of the six project sites of the project "Environment for People in the Dinaric Arc". The purpose of this assessment was to feed the project with necessary information and provide directions towards an increased level of transboundary collaboration by taking advantage of the opportunities and overcoming the difficulties identified in this report.


Studies on exosomes -nano-sized vesicles containing nucleic acids, proteins and lipids- have increased over the past years due to their newly recognized role in cell-cell communication. While biogenesis and composition of exosomes from mammalian origin have been the focus of several studies, others demonstrated usage of these vesicles both as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Recently, it has been shown that nanoparticles isolated from plant cells have very similar characteristics and secretion pattern with mammalian cells. These exosomes were isolated from different types of edible plants such as grapefruit, grape, ginger, lemon, and broccoli. Exosome-like nanoparticles from edible plants demonstrated to be the effective drug carrier which have role in decreasing liver damage and intestinal diseases. In this review, aspects of exosomes derived from edible plants, including their biogenesis and molecular composition as well as their therapeutic effects will be discussed in detail.


The accurate characterization of the location, hydraulic properties, and connectivity of major fracture zones is essential to model flow and solute transport in fractured media. Cross‐borehole flowmeter tests, which consist of measuring changes in vertical borehole flows when pumping a neighboring borehole, were shown to be an efficient technique to provide information on the properties of the flow zones that connect borehole pairs. The interpretation of such experiments may, however, be quite uncertain when multiple connections exist. In this study, we explore the potential of flow tomography (i.e., sequential cross‐borehole flowmeter tests) for characterizing aquifer heterogeneity. We propose a framework for inverting flow and drawdown data to infer fracture connectivity and transmissivities. We demonstrate that successively exchanging the roles of pumping and observation boreholes improves the quality of available information and reduces the under‐determination of the problem. The inverse method is validated for several synthetic flow scenarios. It is shown to provide a good estimation of connectivity patterns and transmissivities of main flow paths. It also allows the estimation of the transmissivity of fractures that connect the flow paths but do not cross the boreholes, although the associated uncertainty may be high for some geometries.


Introduction
The development of developing and underdeveloped countries is a topic discussed at the
highest level of the United Nations. Although for this topic to become a reality, several
economic and social situations are of high importance and need to be contained. To contain
such situations, the working class and manpower of the state is needed to be active in
economical and social activities. It is estimated that untimely deaths due to cardiovascular
disease (CVD) in people of working age 35 - 64 years are expected to increase by 41% between
2007 and 2030. The economic impact is expected to be negatively enormous. This study
investigates using a mathematical programming approach for selecting optimal locations for
new specialized CVD clinics, and/ or improvements to current clinics within optimal locations in
remote regions.
Research Problem, Scope and Objective
Most African states and developing countries have failed to provide an impetus to eradicate
CVD as it mostly affects the poor. Even in some countries where CVD specialized clinics exist
access to these facilities is severely limited. The objective of this research is to utilize a model to
determine the optimal locations of specialized CVD treatment facilities to deal with the
epidemic of the disease. In order to accurately evaluate our model, we select the Western Cape
of South Africa as a case study because it excels at bringing us to an understanding of the
complex issue being tackled. This will also provide a potential insight into the effectiveness of
designing a system to deal with CVD at locations for maximum population coverage.
Research Approach
This research is initiated by analyzing the current state of CVD treatment, location of clinics and
demographics of the Province of the Western Cape (Chapter 2). Based on the information we
executed a stakeholder mapping and established performance measures (Chapter 2). We
followed with a literature review on location theory (Chapter 3). We developed our models
based on p-Median models and variants of the model (Chapter 4) and executed computational
experiments (Chapter 5) and an extensive sensitivity analysis to verify the feasibility of our
model and to test how sensitive our models are to changes that may occur. In (Chapter 6) we
present the conclusions and recommendations to successfully implement our solutions.
Findings
The mathematical model presented in this research is a tool for the location of specialized CVD
clinics. Our developed model is applied to the case of the Western Cape, utilizing
demographical data, such as, population groups, age distribution, disease occurrence rate etc.
that was provided by the ministry of health and private organizations and NGOS partaking in
creating awareness for heart disease. We proceed by estimating the population using a uniform
distribution within each municipality and its density. The traveling distances are computed as
the straight line distances between each population i and potential clinic j. The distance
between point i (1...309) and j (1...309) are computed and inputted into the Advanced
Interactive Multidimensional Modeling System (AIMMS) software used for computational
experiments to obtain the optimal locations (co-ordinates) for CVD clinics. An analysis carried
out on the current situation showed that the current location of the hospitals do not effectively
cover over 36% of the population. Using the mathematical models in this research, we
maximized the total population of the Western Cape being covered within specific distance
limit. We also minimized the distance traveled and also minimized the number of clinics
required to cover the whole population. We obtained different configurations for which
maximum population coverage is possible (See Table 1). Comparing the current situation of
coverage of 64% with 16 CVD clinics, it can be seen from Table 1 that re-locating these clinics to
appropriate co-ordinates as in Chapter 5 of this research leads to maximum coverage of the
population in the Western Cape given a specific distance limit as seen in the table below.
Conclusions
In this research, we propose different mathematical programming models to solve the location
problem for specialized CVD clinics. The models are based on p-Median models and are
objective techniques to identify population not being covered and to identify potential new
CVD specialist treatment facilities. Our findings may also be applicable to patients with other
kinds of diseases that require specialist care. The methods utilized in this research can also be
applied to other types of facilities or resource networks, such as government buildings, schools,
businesses and other service related networks. This can be done with very little adaptations or
changes to the constraints or parameters, such as the population, distance between facilities
and population or other facilities.


A series of unsymmetrical imidazolinium bromides (3a-d) bearing naphthyl and benzyl groups (R' = CH$_{2}$C$_{6}$H$_{2}$(CH$_{3})_{3}$-2,4,6 (a); CH$_{2}$C$_{6}$H(CH$_{3})_{4}$-2,3,5,6 (b); CH$_{2}$C$_{6}$(CH$_{3})_{5}$ (c); CH$_{2}$C$_{6}$F$_{5\, }$(d)) at the N$^{1}$ and N$^{3}$ positions were successfully synthesized. [RuCl$_{2}$(NHC)($p$-cymene)] (NHC= N-heterocyclic carbene) complexes (4a-d) were prepared by the reaction of [RuCl$_{2}(p$-cymene)]$_{2}$ with imidazolinium salts (3a-d). The new salts (3a-d) and their ruthenium(II) complexes (4a-d) were characterized by $^{1}$H, $^{13}$C, $^{19}$F NMR, and elemental analysis. The ruthenium(II) complexes (4a-d) were employed as catalysts for the transfer hydrogenation (TH) of ketones in the presence of KOH using 2-propanol as a hydrogen source and the results were compared. The best results in the transfer hydrogenation of ketones were obtained with 4b. [MCl(NHC)L] (M = Ir, L = Cp$^{\ast })$ (5b), cod (6b); M = Rh, L= Cp$^{\ast}$ (5b'), and cod (6b') complexes were prepared and investigated in the TH of ketones. The reactivity of Rh complexes in comparison to those of Ir also appears to be somewhat better. The catalysis appears to be homogeneous.


The present paper analyzes some previously unexplored aspects of motion estimation that are fundamental both for discrete block matching as well as for differential `optical flow' approaches à la Lucas-Kanade. It aims at providing a complete estimation-theoretic approach that makes the assumptions about noisy observations of samples from a continuous signal of a certain class explicit. It turns out that motion estimation is a combination of simultaneously estimating the true underlying continuous signal and optimizing the displacement between two hypothetical copies of this unknown signal. Practical schemes such as the current variants of Lucas-Kanade are just approximations to the fundamental estimation problem identified in the present paper. Derivatives appear as derivatives to the continuous signal representation kernels, not as ad hoc discrete derivative masks. The formulation via an explicit signal space defined by kernels is a precondition for analyzing e.g. the convergence range of iterative displacement estimation procedures, and for systematically chosing preconditioning filters. The paper sets the stage for further in-depth analysis of some fundamental issues that have so far been overlooked or ignored in motion analysis.


A switch to decompressive shunt procedures is mandatory if endoscopic therapy fails to control recurrent variceal hemorrhage. Surgical shunt procedures continue to be safe, highly effective and durable procedures to control variceal bleeding in patients with low operative risk and good liver function (Child A). In cirrhotics, elective operations using portal flow preserving techniques such as a selective distal splenorenal shunt (Warren) or a partial portocaval small diameter interposition shunt (Sarfeh) should be preferred. Rarely, end-to-side portocaval shunt may serve as a salvage procedure if emergent endoscopic treatment or TIPS insertion fail to stop bleeding. Until definitive results from randomized trials are available patients with good prognosis (Child-Pugh A and B) can be regarded as candidates for surgical shunts. For patients with noncirrhotic portal hypertension, in particular with extrahepatic portal vein thrombosis, portosystemic shunt surgery represents the only effective therapy which leads to freedom of recurrent bleeding and repeated endoscopies for many years, and improves hypersplenism without deteriorating liver function or encephalopathy. Gastroesophageal devascularization and other direct variceal ablative procedures should be restricted to treat endoscopic therapy failures without shuntable portal tributaries.


Emerging high-speed networks will allow machines to access remote data nearly as quickly as they can access local data. This trend motivates the use of c operative caching: coordinating the file caches of many machines distributed on a LAN to form a more ef f ctive overall file cache. In this paper we examine four cooperative caching algorithms using a trace-driven simulation study . These simulations indicate that for the systems studied cooperative caching can halve the number of disk accesses, improving file system read response time by as much as 73%. Based on these simulations we conclude that cooperative caching can significantly improve file system read response time and that relatively simple cooperative caching algorithms are suf ficient to realize most of the potential performance gain.


This paper discusses parallel bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing using chirp scaling algorithm. The key step is to use an analytical form of the signal spectrum derived by the geometry-based bistatic formula (GBF) method. With the above formula, a chirp scaling (CS) algorithm is proposed for azimuth-shift-invariant bistatic SAR processing. The presented algorithm can well resolve the range variation of motion through range cell(MTRC) for bistatic SAR, and requires no interpolate; it requires only FFTs and complex multiplies, these attributes lead to efficient implementations of FFT-based signal processors and high speed parallel processors; it can be used for high resolution image formation.


Poverty is deep, widespread and severe in Malawi. 65.3 percent of the population is poor, representing 6.3 million people with 28.2 percent living in dire poverty and women constituting 52 percent of the poor. In this context, the importance of social security cannot be overemphasised. For most poor people, their survival depends on a mixture of plural social security systems which provide varying degrees of access. Within this context, the recognition of social security as a right and the availability of legal mechanisms for claiming such a right have formed an essential part of poverty alleviation measures. However, much as human rights principles have proven critical and contributed to increased access to social security for the poor, this article argues that, in the context of Malawi, there is a need to go beyond the human rights approach to social security to embracing 'umunthu' as a foundational principle. An analysis of poor people's lived realities and articulations of survival mechanisms shows that 'umunthu' is an important local value which could contribute to and facilitate the empowerment of the poor in accessing social security and therefore alleviating poverty, and probably needs to be formally and explicitly recognised not only as a core value in poverty alleviation efforts but, more importantly, also as a constitutional principle.


The neoclassical transport of impurities is investigated for a plasma without toroidal rotation nor anisotropic ion temperature. It is shown that a natural poloidal asymmetry of the impurity density exists in this case, and that it can be described with a simple analytical model. The poloidal asymmetry tends naturally to cancel as the impurity profile evolves towards its steady state, so that the main effect of the poloidal asymmetry is to slow down the impurity flux compared to its predicted value without poloidal asymmetry. The contribution of the asymmetries of the electrostatic potential and of the main ion density can be included in the analytical derivation, thus forming a self-consistent description of the neoclassical impurity flux together with its poloidal distribution. Numerical simulations with a non linear fluid code confirm the analytical findings, showing that the neoclassical transport of impurities is strongly modified by its natural poloidal distribution.


Background: The existing JPEG error analysis schemes do not offer agreeable results particularly when the duplicated area is small. Region duplication is an uncomplicated and efficient process to produce digital image forgeries, where a constant segment of pixels in an image, following feasible geometrical and illumination transformations are copied and pasted to a different location in the same image. Methods: In this research work, JPEG error analysis scheme is introduced for the purpose of consistent recognition of duplicated and distorted areas in a JPEG digital image forensics. Here, presented a new Multi-directional Curvelet Transform with Fourier Transform matching Invariant Rotation (MCFTIR) region duplication detection scheme to identify duplicated regions for JPEG images. This scheme begins with estimating the overlapping blocks of a JPEG image and it is organized in accordance with the statistics of multiple curvelet sub-bands. During the second phase, the amount of candidate block pairs of JPEG images has been significantly diminished by means of spatial distance between each pair of blocks for JPEG image. For duplicate region removed images theoretically analyzing the effects of these errors on single and double JPEG compression, with five major phases like Shape-Preserving Image Resizing (SPIR) scheme for the purpose of image resizing, noises are appended to image and eliminated with the help of Hybrid Non-Local Means Filtering (HNLMF) denoising framework, Image compression through Discrete Cosine Transform – Singular Value Decomposition (DCT-SVD) was computed for single and double image compression, images were quantized by means of numerous quantization matrices, quantization matrix results are estimated with Mamdani model based Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System (MANFIS) and detecting the quantization table of a JPEG image. Findings: The proposed MCFTIR methods significantly outperform existing techniques in terms of the parameters like Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Mean Square Error (MSE) especially for the images of small sizes. It also show that the new MCFTIR method can consistently identify JPEG image blocks which are as tiny as 8x8 pixels and compressed through quality factors as elevated as 98. This performance is significant for the purpose of analyzing and locating small tampered regions inside a composite image.


"The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the construction industry is swiftly growing worldwide. UAVs are changing the way construction companies do business. Contractors are increasingly using camera-mounted UAVs to monitor the full range of activities. Rapid advances in camera, sensing, aeronautics, battery and autopilot navigation technologies have helped make UAVs affordable, reliable and easy to operate. The US Federal Aviation Administration predicts that UAVs hold tremendous promise and commercial drone sales could increase from 600,000 to 2.7 million over the next four years. On the one hand, UAVs are extremely cost-effective in conducting aerial surveys, worksite surveillance, real-time inspections, and monitoring jobsite safety. On the other hand, with UAV ownership rapidly rising, the number of reported UAV safety, risk, and liability incidents is increasing. With this new technology use in the construction industry, construction companies must be aware of all regulations, legislations, privacy liability, and risks for construction related businesses. Operating a drone or hiring a subcontractor to operate it is not something to do on the spur of the moment. Emphasis and effort should be placed on safety, risk control, training and education. The goal of this paper is to provide construction professionals with timely and pertinent information on UAV use with a focus on risk management based on current industry practice, experience and literature review."


The alcoholic liver cirrhosis usually causes overall immunological changes which might be attributed to either the hepatic disease itself, to ethanol action and/or to malnourishment of the patient. These immune abnormalities comprise both cellular and humoral immunity, consisting of increased immunoglobulin levels, depressed late-skin response to antigens, lowered proliferative response of lymphocytes to mitogens, lower plasma levels of complement proteins (C3 and C4) and by either lower (IL2 and gamma IF) or increased (IL1, TNF, IL6 and IL8) cytokine levels. Parallel to the systemic immune suppression found in most patients, there is also a concomitant local, genetically based, immune stimulation at the liver level which leads to hepatic self-aggression. The systemic immune-suppression could be responsible for periodical infections or neoplasia found in these patients. The possible factors for the immune exhaustion are: a) lower hepatic clearance of toxins and/or bacteria; b) lower hepatic synthesis of complement components; c) cytokines (IL2 and gamma IF) deficiencies, and d) deficiencies of nutrients related to the antioxidant and/or immune defense mechanisms. The immune stimulation of the liver self aggression is characterized by the preferential migration of cytotoxic T cell and neutrophils to the liver, following stimulatory factors such as Mallory bodies, acetaldehyde and/or antibodies. Moreover, the local increase of cytokines (IL1, TNF, IL6 and IL8) levels would be liable for the local phagocyte chemotaxy (IL8) or part of liver injury (TNF) eased by the lower antioxidant defense of the cirrhotic liver.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Abstract The relationship between nitrogen efficiency (NE), defined as seed yield per unit nitrogen (N) application, and seed quality was examined in two oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) varieties at 5 N application levels, 0.6, 3, 6, 12, 15 mmol L−1, N1, N2, N3, N4 and N5, respectively. Seed yield, oil yield and protein content were increased with the increase in N application level, but NE and oil content were decreased, and the fatty acid composition in seed was hardly changed. Analysis of seven fatty acids revealed aslight decrease in the contents of erucic acid and arachidonic acid with the increase in N application level, but no obvious change in the contents of palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Compared with the low NE variety H29, the seed yield and contents of erucic acid and arachidonic acid in the high NE variety bin270 were more markedly increased with the increase in N application level, and the oil content was hardly changed. The seed yield, oilcontent and oil yield were higher in the high NE variety than in the low NE variety at all 5 N application levels. There were no significant differences in protein, palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid contents between the varieties at any of the 5 N application levels, but there were slight differences in the linoleic acid and linolenic acid contents between the two varieties. In brief, N application improved oil yield more greatly in the high NE variety than in the low NE variety, but hardly affected the fatty acid composition. Therefore, the seed quality and oil content of oilseed rape may not be decreased by breeding of a high NE variety with a high N absorption efficiency and high N use efficiency.


ABSTRACT Background: Country-specific data on resource use and costs associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) help inform governments about the increasing need for medical and financial support as the disease increases in prevalence. Methods: GERAS II, a prospective observational study, assessed resource use, costs, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with AD and their caregivers in Spain. Community-dwelling patients aged ≥55 years with probable AD, and their primary caregivers, were recruited by study investigators during routine clinical practice and assessed as having mild, moderate, or moderately severe/severe (MS/S) AD dementia based on patient Mini-Mental State Examination scores. Costs of AD were calculated by applying costs to resource-use data obtained in caregiver interviews using the Resource Utilization in Dementia instrument. Total societal costs included patients' health and social care costs and caregiver informal care costs. Baseline results are presented. Results: Total mean monthly societal costs/patient (2013 values) were €1514 for mild (n = 116), €2082 for moderate (n = 118), and €2818 for MS/S AD dementia (n = 146) (p value <0.001 between groups). Caregiver informal care costs comprised most of the total societal costs and differed significantly between groups (€1050, €1239, €1580, respectively; p value = 0.013), whereas patient healthcare costs did not. Across AD dementia severity groups, patient HRQoL (measured by proxy) decreased significantly (p value <0.001), caregiver subjective burden significantly increased (p value <0.001) and caregiver HRQoL was similar. Conclusions: Societal costs associated with AD in Spain were largely attributable to caregiver informal care costs and increased with increasing AD dementia severity.


With new technology, people can share information about everyday places they go; the resulting data helps others find and evaluate places. Recent applications like Dodgeball and Sharescape repurpose everyday place information: users create local place data for personal use, and the systems display it for public use. We explore both the opportunities -- new local knowledge, and concerns -- privacy risks, raised by this implicit information sharing. We conduct two empirical studies: subjects create place data when using PlaceMail, a location-based reminder system, and elect whether to share it on Sharescape, a community map-building system. We contribute by: (1) showing location-based reminders yield new local knowledge about a variety of places, (2) identifying heuristics people use when deciding what place-related information to share (and their prevalence), (3) detailing how these decision heuristics can inform local knowledge sharing system design, and (4) identifying new uses of shared place information, notably opportunistic errand planning.


A silicon-on-insulator-based adiabatic waveguide taper with a high coupling efficiency and small footprint is presented. The taper was designed to reduce the incidence of mode conversion to higher-order and radiation modes inside the waveguide. In connecting a 0.5-μm-wide output waveguide and a 12-μm-wide input waveguide of a grating coupler, a compact 120-μm-long taper was demonstrated, achieving a transmission of 98.3%. Previously, this transmission level could only be achieved using a conventional linear taper with a length of more than 300 μm.


Schistosomes are parasites of considerable medical and veterinary importance and, therefore, all aspects of their biology have been intensively studied. In contrast, our knowledge of species of the largest genus, Trichobilharzia, is insufficient. Because morphological characterization of Trichobilharzia species provides a limited number of criteria for species determination, molecular data are required. In the present paper, we sequenced internal transcribed spacers ITS1 and ITS2, and 5·8S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes of 3 European Trichobilharzia species (T. regenti, T. szidati and T. franki). We showed that ITS1 and ITS2 sequences can be used in species identification. Repetitive elements were found in ITS1 of all 3 Trichobilharzia species; their number and length varied depending on the species. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the visceral T. franki is more related to the nasal T. regenti, than to the visceral T. szidati. The newly designed primer, which is specific for T. regenti, might be used as a tool for diagnosis of this potential pathogen.


Assessment of perfusion adaptation in muscle during exercise can provide diagnostic information on cardiac and endothelial diseases. Power Doppler Ultrasound (PDUS) is known for its feasibility in the non-invasive measurement of moving blood volume (MBV), a perfusion related parameter. In this study, we show how PDUS can be used to assess the MBV kinetics in muscle, before, during, and after exercise. In a volunteer study, PDUS signal was obtained continuously on the gastrocnemius muscle and rectus femoris muscle, during calf raise (N=11) and leg extension exercises (N=11), respectively. To test reproducibility, the measurements were repeated on two different days. A clear increase of PDUS signal was obtained in both exercises. MBV kinetics during leg extension and after calf raise are assessed by linear and mono-exponential fitting of the data. The reproducibility of the obtained slope and time constants of the signal increase and decay were moderate to good between measurement days, with intra-class correlations (ICC) values of 0.6 - 0.8. Future studies will focus on protocol standardization and the monitoring of muscle perfusion during whole body exercise.


This paper is concerned with an application of ICA for a possible improvement of iris recognition by replying to the question: does ICA perform well for such purpose? To achieve this, the hypotheses and the theoretical concepts of ICA methods used are handled so that coherence with iris authentication application is guaranteed. Our contribution is not in the development of new theoretical concepts of ICA but it is in adapting its basic ideas for our application. Also, it consists of deploying its powerful and its efficiency for iris recognition, and consequently; it's potential to embed it on smart cards for increasing application domains of secure biometric-based individual identification systems. We have developed a comparative study between the implemented ICA algorithms and other recent and popular methods of iris recognition. We have demonstrated our experimental results using some mathematical criteria. Three different subsets of international certified CASIA iris image databases are used for testing the different implemented methods. The conclusion of such comparative study is that the ICA-based approaches are more effective and more practical than other existing methods.


ABSTRACT Scientific literacy is a central aim of science education. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a measure of secondary students' scientific literacy and reported science instruction in 72 countries. Researchers have analyzed PISA data to identify important relationships between science instruction and students' science achievement. The purpose of this study is to further explore these relationships by using PISA 2015 data from a sample of 13 participating countries representing a range of mean science achievement. We use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to explore how students from highest- and lowest-performing profiles characterize the inquiry-based science instruction they experience. We then use cluster analysis to compare patterns in inquiry-based instruction reported by students in the highest-performing profiles in each country and examine relationships between inquiry-based and other instructional practices. Findings from our analysis reveal fundamental differences in the frequency and nature of inquiry-based instruction reported by students associated with the highest and lowest levels of science achievement. For the highest performing profiles of students, results illustrate both consistencies and unique features of science instruction students report across four distinct clusters of countries. We discuss implications of these results for theory, research, and the design of science learning environments.


As the population ages, risk factors commonly shared by chronic degenerative disease can be exacerbated by behaviours and lifestyle choices. There is increasing evidence that those affected by chronic disease (and associated symptoms such as pain), depression and adverse behavioural and lifestyle patterns are at risk of substance misuse. This paper overviews substance use in Baby Boomers, which are defined as people aged between 52–70 years old, and the implications this may have on their mental health and well-being. We provide an overview of the characteristics of the Baby Boomer generation, their health status and what is currently known about their substance use and misuse. A strengthening of older adult mental health outpatient services is recommended to prevent and address substance use among older adults. Further research examining factors that influence substance use among this group could better inform health promotion programs targeting Baby Boomers.


Consumers often rely on an expert's diagnosis to assess their needs. If the expert is also the seller of services, he may use his informational advantage to induce overtreatment, which is a pervasive phenomenon in experts markets. We offer and discuss conditions leading to equilibrium overtreatment in an otherwise purely competitive model. This market failure results from consumers' ability to turn down an expert's recommendation: experts defraud consumers to keep them uninformed, as this deters them from seeking a better price elsewhere.


In this work, we study the peeling of a cylindrical shell attached to a smooth rigid substrate and subjected to a vertical force. A generalized peeling model based on the energy-variational approach is presented, and its numerical solutions characterize the cross-section profile and peeling force. The interfacial interactions are represented by the Lennard-Jones potential. Molecular dynamics simulations are performed for the peeling system with single-walled carbon nanotubes and gold substrates, and simulation results show good agreement with the theoretical predictions. We show that there are three stages (stable peeling stage, line-contact stage, and pull-off stage) in the entire peeling process. A spring-like behavior is observed in the stable peeling stage. With the peeling displacement increasing, the second stage has a marked feature of line contact and the peeling force arrives at a peak pull-off force. Furthermore, we show that the pull-off force strongly depends on the flexural stiffness of cylindrical shell and two Lennard-Jones parameters, but is independent of the initial radius of cylindrical shell. Our findings may help to reveal the interactions between thin-walled nanotubes and substrates.


This paper deals with a scope of issues related to migration process taking place in the Russian Federation. The author focuses on the issues of labor migration and domestic migration. New legislative initiatives in the area of migration were reviewed.


The proliferative potential of 17 intracranial and spinal tumors (six craniopharyngiomas, four chordomas, three mature teratomas, one immature teratoma, one embryonal carcinoma, one choriocarcinoma, and one dermoid tumor) was assessed. The patients received a 30‐minute to 60‐minute infusion of bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) (200 mg/m2 intravenously [IV]) at the time of surgery but before a biopsy of the tumor was performed, to label cells in the DNA synthesis phase. The labeling index (LI) was calculated by determining the percentage of BUdR‐labeled cells. The mean LI of the squamous epithlial elements of mature teratomas, craniopharyngiomas, and the dermoid tumor were 3.1 ± 1.2%, 1.9 ± 0.9%, and 2.9 ± 1.9%, respectively. As in normal epithelium, the labeled cells were located in the basal layer. These results and the clinical findings suggest that the proliferation kinetics of these tumors are similar to those of normal skin and differ from those of rapidly growing malignant neoplasms. The other tissue elements (i.e., respiratory epithelium and cartilage) also demonstrated "organized" proliferation patterns similar to those of the corresponding normal tissues. An immature teratoma, an embryonal carcinoma, and a choriocarcinoma each had a high LI (24.6 ± 5.3%, 32.3 ± 3.8%, and 17.0 ± 4.6%, respectively), and no organized pattern of proliferation was observed. In contrast, the mean LI of the four chordomas varied from 1.5% to 5.8%, and there was an even larger variation in the LI of different areas in individual tumors (from less than 1% to 7.5%). This finding suggests that even "slow‐growing" chordomas sometimes can be locally aggressive and show a high incidence of recurrence, regardless of morphologic similarities. Cancer 62:740–748,1988.


At times one feels like a palm tree on Eniwetok—what with all the "explosions" (population, pornography, pollution, etc). Our own drug explosion is real enough, but it must be classified in the kiloton class. There is much bombast about the problems of disseminating information about drugs to physicians, but there is little energy involved. All sorts of people (some with rather checkered credentials in science) and organizations (some with somewhat less than academic interest) are badgering us with "solutions." Most popular of these is the threat of a therapeutic bible (there is almost an occult mystique associated with the term com- pendium). It will be all things to all therapists; it will magically transfer the wisdom between its ponderous covers to all our eager, arid brains. And we will all become master drug users. Well, it won't work; another "big book" is not the answer. There is abundant information about


Accidental gas migration is a problem all drilling engineers are trying to avoid. Good cementing practice between the casing and the wellbore is one of the preventive actions. Shrinkage may lead to insufficient protection against gas migration. This paper has tested various of parameters such as external shrinkage, compressive strength, flexural strength, density and free fluid. The parameters mentioned correlates with good protection against gas migration. Shrinkage and compressive strength was tested over a period of 24 hours. Free fluid was measured after 2 hours of curing. The density was measured immediately after the cement and water had been mixed. All tests were conducted at atmospheric pressure. The method used to measure the shrinkage consisted of a cement-filled condom immersed in a water bath at a temperature of 21 degrees. This experiment was conducted with 6 samples. Three different forms were used to mould specimens for pressure testing. Standardized the testing of compressive strength were used. Twenty-four samples with prism form twelve samples with cubical shape and six samples of cylindrical shape were tested. Concrete specimens were cured at two different temperatures. Half of the samples were cured at 38 degrees, and the other half at 60 degrees The prism-shaped samples were used for testing the bending strength. The experiments were time consuming and rendered during 6 weeks. -Results showed that the outer shrinkage of cement samples were high compared with other measurements performed by the industry. The performance of these tests deviated from normal procedure which affected the result. -Strength testing showed that the cement samples developed enough strength compared to other published work. Anyway, most of the published testing is performed with other conditions, making it difficult to compare. -Density measurements showed a close predicted value. -Test performed to determine the secreted fluid, did not exceed the minimum requirement set by API(2009).


Background: Understanding health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among those who seek treatment for their alcohol use disorder (AUD) and those not seeking AUD treatment is critical to decreasing morbidity and mortality, yet HRQOL in these groups has been little characterized.Objectives: Characterize HRQOL among those who meet diagnostic criteria for AUD, both receiving and not receiving treatment.Methods: This analysis used the NESARC-III database (n = 36,309; female = 56.3%), a nationally representative survey of US adults, to compare four groups: those treated for current AUD; those untreated for current AUD; those with past AUD only; and those who never met criteria for AUD. Multiple regression analysis was used to account for differences in sociodemographic and other behavioral factors across these groups. HRQOL was operationalized using annual quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).Results: Patients treated for past-year AUD had a deficit of 0.07 QALYs/year compared to those who never met criteria for AUD (P < .001). They retained a still clinically meaningful 0.03 QALYs/year deficit after controlling for concomitant psychiatric disorders and other behavioral health factors (P < .001). Those with past-year untreated AUD or past AUD had a near-zero difference in QALYs compared with those who never met criteria for AUD.Conclusion: These findings suggest that previously-reported differences in HRQOL associated with AUD may be due to the problems of the relatively small sub-group who seek treatment. Clinicians seeking to treat those with currently untreated AUD may do better to focus on the latent potential health effects of AUD instead of current HRQOL concerns.