The aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of stroke in terms of numbers of people affected psychologically, from the cases in our reference center, the National University Hospital, koutoukou Hubert Maga (CNHU, HKM ), Cotonou, Benin, to see if the stroke is a public health problem in the Beninese context or not. Therefore, our methodology has been first to conduct an investigation CNHU, HKM, in order to know the number of cases of stroke recorded year by year, and the number of deaths recorded in these cases, taken on 12 consecutive years, from 1998 to 2009. We then conducted a field study around fifteen people affected by stroke, taken in different occupational categories, to estimate the number of affected psychologically behind each stroke cases and categorized in Cotonou people. This survey, conducted on the basis of a questionnaire, was done on a representative sample of 300 persons, with an average of 20 people around each of the 15 selected victims. These 20 people were taken both in the family of the victim in his other preferred as relations requires the African context because of the legendary Solidarity and interactions due to reports of vital interests. The results show that, on the one hand, people psychologically affected behind each stroke cases are for sentimental reasons (strong family ties, solidarity, empathy) and or reasons of interest (moral interests, material financial or other). On the other hand, the number of people affected psychologically evolves into three classes (between 20 and 50, between 100et 200 and between 300 and more) as and when the interests represented by the victim are more important. The discussion of these results, we can say that strokes are rare in Benin. In fact, they are not a major cause of death among us. They therefore can not be considered a public health problem according to the criteria that attribute their character in industrialized countries. Only one stroke behind in Benin, more than 181.6 average people are psychologically affected. The socio-economic cost of all cumulative impacts of this situation is such that we are forced to recognize that stroke is a major public health challenge in Benin.


The construction industry is one of the largest solid waste generators all over the globe. Because waste generation from both new construction works, as well as renovation works has been on the increase, it is absolutely necessary for the construction industry to adopt ecologically sound planning and construction practices for the purpose of creating a healthy and sustainable built environment. This is the focus of this paper. It appraises the management of construction waste in Nigeria and Akure in particular. A survey of selected construction sites in Akure is used as a case study to demonstrate the magnitude of poor management level of construction waste generation observed and the implications on the built environment. Research findings reveal that the Ondo State Waste Management Board is responsible for the management of solid waste in the city and over 78% of the construction waste is disposed indiscriminately or burnt on site, since the mandate of the board does not cover construction waste. Contractors were observed to cart away a sizeable junk of the waste for other uses. The paper suggests a wide range of measures for minimisation of waste on construction sites. These include modularisation of design, standardisation of building components, industrial production of building materials, efficient specification writing, retraining of building professionals, reuse and recycling among others. The paper concludes that there is colossal deficiency in the management of construction waste in the study area and recommend ways of ameliorating it.


This thesis addresses the identification of children with expressive speech difficulties with a focus on stuttering. It is based on theoretical work that investigated the symptoms associated with stuttering (Howell, 2013). It also has a practical goal: The procedures that have been developed should help determine the risk of a child acquiring some form of speech difficulty. The children examined had just entered school (4-year-olds). To ensure reliable results were obtained, large, representative samples of children were required. Most of the children do not have speech difficulty. A sample of speech was obtained and analysed. The approach taken in analysis was to use an instrument that has been standardised and is currently used in research (Riley, 1994) and to apply it to the assessment of speech difficulty. Howell (2013) showed that this instrument is effective in screening for stuttering. The background to the screening work with stuttering is given in the literature review in Chapter 1. The challenges that arise when screening (a form of risk factor modelling) a real-world sample are discussed. Definitions and general features of stuttering are presented and various theories concerning how stuttering symptoms arise are reviewed. Chapters 2 to 6 report background studies, fieldwork and analyses that were conducted. Chapter 2 reports the results of a survey that was conducted to determine whether there was a need for a screening instrument and, if so, what form it should take. Chapters 3 and 4 report studies that were conducted to balance the need to keep assessments in schools short with ensuring the procedures are reliable and valid when used to identify children with speech difficulty. The assessments were based on Riley's (1994) Stuttering Severity Instrument. Chapter 3 determined the minimum length a sample of speech needed to be and whether a spontaneous speech sample was sufficient when using Riley (1994) for assessing children for speech difficulty. The Stuttering Severity Instrument has three components (percentage of syllables that are not fluent, duration of selected long stutters and a measure of physical concomitants to stuttering). Chapter 4 addressed whether all three components are required to identify children with speech difficulty, since assessing fewer components would keep the procedure simple for use in schools. Chapter 5 reports an extensive field study that used Riley (1994) for identifying children with speech difficulty. Chapter 6 examined whether adding additional symptoms to those available in the Stuttering Severity Instrument that are appropriate for other common paediatric forms of speech difficulty would enhance accuracy of screening performance. Chapter 7 summarizes the work, draws conclusions and identifies future directions this research should take.


Classical search algorithms such as A* or IDA* are useful for computing optimal solutions in a single pass, which can then be executed. But in many domains agents either do not have the time to compute complete plans before acting, or should not spend the time to do so, due to the dynamic nature of the environment. Extensions to A* such as LRTA* address this problem by gradually learning an exact heuristic function, but the learning process is quite slow. In this paper we introduce Partial-Refinement A* (PRA*), which can fully interleave planning and acting through path abstraction and refinement. We demonstrate the etfectiveness of PRA* in the domain of real-time strategy (RTS) games. In maps taken from popular RTS games. we show that PRA* is not only able to cleanly interleave planning and execution. but it is also able to do so with only minimal losses of optimality.


The pandemic caused by COVID‐19 is affecting populations and healthcare systems worldwide. As we gain experience managing COVID‐19, more data become available on disease severity, course, and treatment in patients infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). However, data in pregnancy remain limited. This narrative review of COVID‐19 during pregnancy underscores key knowledge gaps in our understanding of the impact of this viral infection on reproductive health. Current data suggest that pregnant people have similar disease course and outcomes compared to nonpregnant people, with the majority experiencing mild disease; however, pregnant people may have increased risk of hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Among patients who develop severe and critical disease, major maternal morbidity and mortality have been described including cardiomyopathy, mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and death. Many questions remain regarding maternal severity of disease in COVID‐19. Further research is needed to better understand disease course in pregnancy. Additionally, the inclusion of pregnant patients in therapeutic trials will provide vital data on treatment options for patients. As we continue to treat more patients affected by SARS‐CoV‐2, multidisciplinary care and continued research are both needed to achieve optimal outcomes for mother and fetus.


We analyze the MOA-2020-BLG-208 gravitational microlensing event and present the discovery and characterization of a new planet, MOA-2020-BLG-208Lb, with an estimated sub-Saturn mass. With a mass ratio q=3.17−0.26+0.28×10−4 , the planet lies near the peak of the mass-ratio function derived by the MOA collaboration and near the edge of expected sample sensitivity. For these estimates we provide results using two mass-law priors: one assuming that all stars have an equal planet-hosting probability, and the other assuming that planets are more likely to orbit around more massive stars. In the first scenario, we estimate that the lens system is likely to be a planet of mass mplanet=46−24+42M⊕ and a host star of mass Mhost=0.43−0.23+0.39M⊙ , located at a distance DL=7.49−1.13+0.99kpc . For the second scenario, we estimate mplanet=69−34+37M⊕ , Mhost=0.66−0.32+0.35M⊙ , and DL=7.81−0.93+0.93kpc . The planet has a projected separation as a fraction of the Einstein ring radius s=1.3807−0.0018+0.0018 . As a cool sub-Saturn-mass planet, this planet adds to a growing collection of evidence for revised planetary formation models.


Ability of mitochondria and submitochondrial particles (SMP) to generate a membrane potential on the addition of unpenetrating electron donors and acceptors and trimethylhydroquinone was used for specification of organization of the electron transfer chain. Ferri- and ferrocyanide added to mitochondria induce the membrane potential generation exchanging electrons only with cytochromes c or c1. Ferricyanide added to SMP induces the membrane potential taking electrons in three places: from NAD-H dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase and in the presence of antimicyne A from cytochrome beta region. The difference of two sides of mitochondrial membrane is in agreement with the chemielectric hypothesis. According to this hypothesis protons from internal part of mitochondria are taken up to input H+-channel after electrons. That is why electrons come near the inner surface of the membrane and can be transferred from respiratory chain to water soluble acceptors. In output channels protons move under the action of intramembrane electrostatic field and in the direction of rising polarization of the medium. Protons are released to output channels while electrons are transferred to next carrier within the hydrophobic part of the membrane far from external surface of the membrane and cannot be transferred to water soluble acceptors.


Antithyroid drugs have been used for more than 50 years for the management of hyperthyroidism. Most patients tolerate treatment well but some may develop life-threatening side effects such as agranulocytosis, aplastic anemia and cholestatic hepatitis. A 45-year-old female was diagnosed with severe hyperthyroidism. Treatment with Carbimazole 30 mg/day was initiated. Within six weeks following the start of therapy, patient developed potentially life-threatening acute cholestatic hepatitis and agranulocytosis as adverse effects to carbimazole. The patient's symptoms and laboratory abnormalities resolved following withdrawal of offending drug. Agranulocytosis and cholestatic hepatitis together is an extremely rare idiosyncratic side effect of Carbimazole treatment and considered to be dose and age-related. Antithyroid drugs are deceptively easy to use, but because of the variability in the response of patients and the potentially serious side effects, all practitioners who prescribe the drugs need to have a working knowledge of their complex pharmacology.


This paper introduces a new, fully automated modelbased approach for effective testing of Android apps. Different from existing model-based approaches that guide testing with a static GUI model (i.e., the model does not evolve its abstraction during testing, and is thus often imprecise), our approach dynamically optimizes the model by leveraging the runtime information during testing. This capability of model evolution significantly improves model precision, and thus dramatically enhances the testing effectiveness compared to existing approaches, which our evaluation confirms.We have realized our technique in a practical tool, APE. On 15 large, widely-used apps from the Google Play Store, APE outperforms the state-of-the-art Android GUI testing tools in terms of both testing coverage and the number of detected unique crashes. To further demonstrate APE's effectiveness and usability, we conduct another evaluation of APE on 1,316 popular apps, where it found 537 unique crashes. Out of the 38 reported crashes, 13 have been fixed and 5 have been confirmed.


Most of the scholarship on teaching children's literature has focused on teaching fiction in university literature courses (Bedford & Albright, 2011; Butler, 2006). While there is a vast literature associated with online teaching dating back more than 20 years (e.g., Palloff & Pratt, 2005), and there is increasing use of online teaching in university contexts (Rapanta et al., 2020), there are very few published descriptions or analyses of the online teaching of children's literature.  In this article we document and discuss the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to be delivered in mid-2021 focusing on picturebooks developed at a university, in partnership with a popular MOOC provider. The development of the MOOC is analysed with respect to supporting the presence of the educators, creating clarity in the delivery of the content, providing spaces for reflection and interaction, and generating human connections in an online environment. These features are linked to the notion of storytelling (Bietti, Tilston & Bangerter, 2019). The contribution of picturebooks to supporting these aspects of effective online teaching is also discussed.


Optical modeling was applied for obtaining absorbance spectra and band gap values for different morphology of ZnO semiconductor. In optical modeling, the relative permittivity scalars of zinc oxide coral like nanorods were calculated using the Bruggeman homogenization formalism. ZnO nano rods (ZONRs) as a nucleus layer were fabricated on the Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) by chronoamperometry (CA) in aqueous solution containing different concentration of zinc nitrate. Reduction of nitrate anion is a good resource for hydroxyl ion that with zinc anion results ZnO. The orientation and morphology of both the nucleus layer and successive coral like ZONRs were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD).


In the past decades, Monte Carlo methods have shown their ability to solve PDEs, independently of the dimensionality of the integration domain and for different use-cases (e.g. light transport, geometry processing, physics simulation). Specifically, the path-space formulation of transport equations is a key ingredient to define tractable and scalable solvers, and we observe nowadays a strong interest in the definition of simulation systems based on Monte Carlo algorithms. We also observe that, when simulating combined physics (e.g. thermal rendering from a heat transfer simulation), there is a lack of coupled Monte Carlo algorithms allowing to solve all the physics at once, in the same path space, rather than combining several independent MC estimators, a combination that would make the global solver critically sensitive to the complexity of each simulation space. This brings to our proposal: a coupled, single path-space, Monte Carlo algorithm for efficient multi-physics problems solving. In this work, we combine our understanding and knowledge of Physics and Computer Graphics to demonstrate how to formulate and arrange different simulation spaces into a single path space. We define a tractable formalism for coupled heat transfer simulation using Monte Carlo, and we leverage the path-space construction to interactively compute multiple simulations with different conditions in the same scene, in terms of boundary conditions and observation time. We validate our proposal in the context of infrared rendering with different thermal simulation scenarios: e.g., room temperature simulation, visualization of heat paths within materials (detection of thermal bridges), heat diffusion capacity of thermal exchanger. We expect that our theoretical framework will foster collaboration and multidisciplinary studies. The perspectives this framework opens are detailed and we suggest a research agenda towards the resolution of coupled PDEs at the interface of Physics and Computer Graphics.


3). This deals with the time of onset of local compared with distant recurrence and the effect of radiotherapy on the time of onset of local recurrence. The error, which we acknowledge and for which we should like to apologise, is to have excluded from the life-table analysis patients who did not have recurrence. We should like to present amended data, dealing with these points, derived from a further analysis. Firstly, the time to onset of local recurrence is slightly longer than that to distant metastasis. The actuarial relapse rates for local recurrence at 2, 4, and 6 years are 15%, 23%, and 270% respectively, while for distant recurrence the rates are 23%/, 36%O, and 40%. For both groups there was a constant risk ofrelapse during the period of observation. Secondly, a slight, but not significant (P = 0 06), delaying effect of radiotherapy on the time of onset of local recurrence was observed. The actuarial local recurrence rates, at 2, 4, and 6 years were 13%O, 212o, and 250o for those receiving radiotherapy and 210/%, 300o, and 33",O for those who had not had radiotherapy. Survival after recurrence is essentially the same as reported in our original figure 4. Fiveyear actuarial survival of distant and local recurrence was 50,, and 32°o respectively. The effects of menopausal status, age, and site of tumour on onset of local and distant recurrence and survival after recurrence are unaffected by further analysis, as is the lack of effect of prior radiotherapy on survival after recurrence. The main conclusion of our paper is unchanged. Local recurrence is an event which implies a relatively poor prognosis. Since these patients, who have measurable disease, have presumably a smaller tumour mass than those with distant metastasis they are a group of patients in which to consider trials of cytotoxic chemotherapy for later use in adjuvant chemotherapy trials. ROBERT SOUHAMI C G CLARK


Groundwater samples were collected from 35 locations in Ranipet, Vellore district; Tamil Nadu was assessed in the Monsoon, Post Monsoon and Pre Monsoon season from July 2012 to May 2013. Water quality assessment was carried out for the parameters like pH, Total hardness, Total dissolved solids, Total alkalinity, Electrical conductivity, Chloride, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Nitrate, sulfate, Phosphate, Iron, Chromium. The Water Quality Index values and Correlation coefficient values were calculated to check the exceedingly allied and interconnected with water quality parameters (WQPs). The Regression equations involving these known and linked with parameters were formulated for greatly correlated WQPs. Assessment of experimental and predictable values of the different WQPs parameters reveals that the regression equations developed in the study can be very well used for making water quality monitoring by observing the above parameters alone. The result of examination has been used to recommend a model for predicting water quality, the investigation reveals that the ground water of the area desires some extent of treatment before utilization, and it also needs to be confined from the perils of pollution.


Rogan, J. M., Attfield, M. D., Jacobsen, M., Rae, S., Walker, D. D., and Walton, W. H. (1973).British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 30, 217-226. Role of dust in the working environment in development of chronic bronchitis in British coal miners. In the course of a long-term prospective study of chronic respiratory disease in British coal miners the effects on pulmonary ventilatory function of exposure to airborne dust, of simple pneumoconiosis, and of chronic bronchitis have been examined in a group of 3581 coalface workers. The men were employed in 20 collieries throughout the British coalfields. Their cumulative exposures to coal mine dust in the respirable range (1-5 μm) were calculated from detailed dust sampling results at their work places during a 10-year period and from estimates of earlier exposures based on records of their industrial histories. A progressive reduction in FEV1·0 with increasing cumulative exposure to airborne dust has been demonstrated. This effect was evident also in a subgroup of the men studied who reported no signs of mild bronchitic symptoms (cough and phlegm for at least three months in a year). Among men with pneumoconiosis there was no evidence of a reduction of FEV1·0 in excess of that attributable to their dust exposures, smoking habits, age, and physique. Increasing severity of bronchitic symptoms was associated with a loss in FEV1·0 greater than that expected from the effects of dust exposure as measured, smoking, age, and physique. Possible explanations for this phenomenon are discussed. It is suggested that the results may indicate that once early bronchitic symptoms are present the disease may progress and ventilatory capacity may deteriorate independently of factors initiating the disease process.


A 50-year-old man underwent inferior vena cava ligation because of repeated pulmonary emboli despite adequate heparin therapy. His immediate postoperative course was complicated by the development of massive edema in the lower extremities, leading to a compromised arterial blood flow with the resulting ischemic myopathy and acute myoglobinuric renal failure. Although massive pooling of body fluids in the lower extremities with fatal consequences has been reported as an immediate complication of the sudden mechanical obstruction of the venous return, to our knowledge this is the first case of myoglobinuric acute renal failure due to rhabdomyolysis reported in association with inferior vena cava ligation. (Arch Intern Med138:1548-1549, 1978)


Situs inversus totalis is an autosomal recessive congenital anomaly, seen at 1/7000-8000 ratio. It is quite a rare condition characterized by asymmetric placement of abdominal and thoracic organs. In our case, in the cause of acute abdomen, an emergency operation was planned for a twenty-one years old patient diagnosed with situs inversus. Based on a detailed examination and patient history, it was established that there were no additional diseases. The patient was taken to the operation room and was routinely monitored. After anesthesia induction, surgical laparoscopic surgery was applied and during the exploration situs inversus totalis was observed in the patient. Appendectomy was applied to the patient. The patient whose vitals were stable during the operation was extubated postoperatively and sent to the service. Situs inversus totalis is an isolated case, and doesn't carry additional pathology with it, however we would like to remind that it may collocate with heart, spine, and airway borne structural and functional malformations.


ABSTRACT This paper uses a case study approach to explore issues of social work policy and practice in three sites of political conflict in Europe: Northern Ireland; Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Cyprus. It begins with a review of the international literature on social work and political conflict and then discusses the strengths and limitations in engaging with comparative case study approaches. The authors explain how they view the writing of the paper as an intellectual encounter that helped establish the beginning stages of their comparative analysis. This starts with an analysis of the existing knowledge base about the three case studies that each share similar patterns of colonial histories, political and community conflict and the social work response. The second part of the paper extends this analysis to a critique of the impact of neo-liberal social and economic policies that often adversely impact upon the role of social workers in resolving conflict and building peace. The paper concludes with an appeal for social work to rediscover its rights-based role in working with victims and survivors of political conflict, what the authors describe as: 'social work for critical peace'.


The integration process is increasingly politicized across the member states of the European Union (EU). While this phenomenon has been analyzed from many perspectives, this article aims to look at a so far neglected aspect—how increased levels of politicization of the EU might have impacted on the role small states play in the EU decision-making process. Using the case of Brexit negotiations, the article starts from the hypothesis that higher levels of politicization could increase the influencing capacity of smaller states. As national sovereignty concerns may become more relevant due to politicization, it can be expected that small states become more active in EU-level negotiations, especially in cases where the future of the integration is also at stake. However, looking at the cases of Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the article concludes that the behavior of these countries is still determined by their small-state character. Interestingly, different levels of EU politicization did not determine their bargaining strategies in Brexit negotiations. Consequently, while we see a slight variation in the level of engagement, the article argues that the influencing capacity of the member states under scrutiny was mainly driven by their small state characteristics.


Now available in paperback, the Encyclopedia of International Sports Studies is the most authoritative and comprehensive single-volume reference work ever published on sport. With over one million words of text arranged into more than 1000 entries and articles, it covers the full range of sub-disciplines within sports studies; including scientific, social scientific and medical approaches. The encyclopedia is alphabetically organized and consists of: * principal articles covering key disciplinary areas, such as sports economics and sports history * large topical entries on central subjects such as resistance training and the diagnosis of sports injuries * smaller topical entries on subjects such as cross training and projectile motion * short overviews of other important terms and concepts, from metabolism and motivation to muscle tension-length relationship. With over 150 contributing authors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong and continental Europe, the Encyclopedia of International Sports Studies is an unparalleled work of sports scholarship. Accessibly written, facts-fronted and including full cross-referencing and guides to further reading throughout, this is an essential addition to the bookshelf of any student, researcher, teacher or professional working in sport.


OBJECTIVE
Recently, the use of pentavalent antimony compounds for Leishmaniasis treatment has been associated with disease recurrence, drug resistance, and severe side effects. Therefore, there is a need to develop alternative treatment strategies. This study investigates the in vitro effects of Zingiber officinale on promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica.

METHODS
Promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica were cultured and mass-produced in an RPMI1640 medium enriched with other necessary compounds. The MTT colorimetric method and calculating the IC50 value were used to evaluate the anti-leishmania activity of hydroalcoholic extract of Zingiber officinale.

RESULTS
The hydroalcoholic extract of Zingiber officinale inhibited the growth of Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica promastigotes in 24, 48, and 72 hours after in vitro incubation. The IC50 of hydroalcoholic extract of Zingiber officinale was 56 μg/mL for Leishmania major and 275 μg/mL for Leishmania tropica promastigotes after 72 hours. The IC50 of hydroalcoholic extract of Zingiber officinale was 75 μg/mL for Leishmania major and 325 μg/mL for Leishmania tropica amastigotes after 72 hours.

CONCLUSION
The results showed that hydroalcoholic extract of Zingiber officinale has cytotoxicity properties, and Leishmania tropica has a higher resistance to hydroalcoholic extract of Zingiber officinale than Leishmania major. Further research is recommended.


The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program has sought to transform education by developing and distributing to low-income children around the world an inexpensive computer with an innovative interface and applications. This article investigates the implementation of OLPC in Birmingham, Alabama, where some 15,000 of the group's XO laptops were distributed to all first- through fifth-grade public school students and their teachers. Surveys were collected from a representative sample of children before and after they received their laptops, supplemented by observations and interviews in a Birmingham school. The use of the XOs by teachers and schools, the ways social and technical infrastructure affected program implementation, and the types of XO use by students are examined. The disappointing results of the Birmingham program, which has been discontinued, are analyzed in relationship to OLPC's technocentric approach, the organization's principle of child ownership, and the design elements of the XO hardware an...


Regular aspirin intake may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by 50%. However, the mechanism of this chemopreventive effect is not known. The effect of the aspirin metabolite salicylate on the growth of human colorectal tumor cell lines was determined. Salicylate showed dose-dependent inhibitory effects on all of the cell lines (IC50, 1.65 +/- 0.36 to 7.38 +/- 1.08 mM), yet carcinoma and in vitro-transformed adenoma cell lines were more sensitive than adenoma cell lines. Salicylate caused all cell lines to accumulate in G0-G1 and induced apoptosis in carcinoma and in vitro-transformed adenoma cell lines but not in all adenoma cell lines. In those adenoma lines that did show salicylate-induced apoptosis, the extent was considerably less than that in the more transformed cell lines. The ability of salicylate to induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis and, in particular, the increased sensitivity of cells at later stages of neoplastic progression may be mechanistically important in the chemopreventive action of aspirin toward colorectal cancer.


In Economic view, COVID 19, forced ustomake3+3=NINE. The logic of this slogan is to create a new economy for our country. The first '3' implies the Agriculture, Industry and Service sectors and the second '3' indicates Public, Private and Foreign sector. These two 3s combined together make New India New Economy (NINE). Chapter one narrates few classical theories to reconcile demand and supply. Chapter two enlists the review of literature. Chapter three pronounces the economic impact of current pandemic situation. Chapter four elucidates the government initiation towards the recovery of economy. Chapter five enumerates how to create a New India New Economy (NINE). The final chapter summaries the future changes required for the Indian economy.


The theoretical ideas underpinning the evolution of seed dormancy and seed mass are briefly reviewed. Comparative tests of these theoretical ideas are then presented; all tests use modern comparative methods to allow accurate, meaningful comparisons across species. The comparative analyses of seed dormancy demonstrate that species that average the environment across time, by having long-lived adults or space as a result of clonal growth, typically have less dormant seeds. Amongst species with seeds unspecialized for spatial dispersal, seed mass is not related to dormancy. However, in species with wind- or animal dispersed seeds those with heavy seeds typically have less dormancy. This is consistent with heavy seeds having better establishment success and /or suffering higher levels of herbivory. The relationships between seed mass and plant height, lateral spread and adult longevity are explored using the Sheffield dataset. The complex pattern of relationships between these variables is interpreted in terms of dispersal limitation, escape from competition with clonal ramets and differences in establishment conditions. Some of the problems that are frequently encountered in the interpretation of comparative data are briefly discussed.


The extended mind thesis is attractive and important to the extent that it expresses a deep metaphysical truth; that is, to the extent that it gives us a new and somewhat surprising account of the nature of mental phenomena. However, as I will argue in this paper, one cannot find a set of plausible criteria to single out the class of extended systems or processes; any choice of criteria appears indeed to be conventionalist and arbitrary. Therefore, the extended mind thesis is metaphysically insubstantial. At most it could amount to an epistemological plea for dynamicist models in cognitive science, albeit in a few, limited cases.


This paper reports on a voltage controlled ring oscillator fabricated in a 130nm CMOS technology. The oscillator was obtained cascading three delay cells. The schematic of the single delay cell was kept as simple as possible by avoiding the use of cross-coupled pairs. The achieved low phase noise makes the presented ring VCO useful for the design of a correlation radar to be used in medicine for short distance vital signal detection.


Traffic signals at intersections have a significant effect on traffic emissions. They interrupt traffic flow and create additional acceleration and deceleration driving modes. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to perform the optimization process of vehicle delay and exhaust emissions at isolated signalized intersections. Three-leg intersection located in Kafr El-Sheikh City, Egypt was selected in this study. Field delay times were estimated based on vehicle speed and acceleration profiles using GPS device. On-road measurements of vehicle speeds and emissions were collected simultaneously for all movements of all approaches at the selected intersection. The micro-simulation software VISSIM was used to model and analyze the selected intersection. The model was calibrated and validated using the collected data. Signal timing model was developed for the selected intersection and used for optimization of delay time and vehicle emissions. It was found that the changing of signal timing was effective in improving the operational and environmental performance of the traffic signal under study. Also, the results indicated that when the traffic flow rate is higher, the optimal cycle time corresponding to the performance index function increases. Optimization of the delay times and exhaust emissions gives traffic engineers the option of minimizing vehicle emissions in the designing of the signalized intersections or timing a signal system.


: As the Web enters its third decade of existence, I draw attention to the need to better understand the Web as a potential reference case for how an information system transforms through incremental innovations, with particular focus on the Web's advancement as a communication media platform. As a necessary research step in this quest, I critically examine whether one can use existing media capacity theories and media-related buzzwords (such as rich media, multimedia, hypermedia, social media) to characterize Web innovations as media. I examine and clarify these buzzwords' origins, meanings, and relationship with media capacity theories. I also elucidate discrepancies between them. Via inductive reasoning, I synthesize three media capacity dimensions (sensibility support, interactivity support and logistical support) as potential framework for objective media characterization. Each dimension could metamorphize into individual theories or one theory (e.g., sensibility interactivity and logistical support theory (SILST)). I present these dimensions' indicators and demonstrate three-dimensional typology of Web innovation milestones anchored on the three dimensions—a step forward in substantiating the framework's applicability to media capacity characterization.


Along with the development of technology, the quality of education is a benchmark to produce graduates who have knowledge and skills who are able to be competitive in the world of industry according to their fields of expertise. One of the supporting factors that can improve the quality of education is the presentation of quality and innovative teaching materials to trigger students' interest in learning. The I-Spring application is the solution because this application is able to combine audio, video, music and practice questions in one file, then convert the power point format into an html format that can be presented online at local hotspots. Based on this background, the Balikpapan State Polytechnic Electrical Engineering Department carried out Community Service activities with a training method for making multimedia-based teaching materials. The activity took place in Balikpapan State Middle School 15 and State Vocational High School 6 Balikpapan with 32 participants. The purpose of this training is to improve the competence of the teachers in making interesting and innovative teaching materials, thereby increasing students' interest in learning. The final results in the form of the work of the teachers can present the teaching materials based on I-Spring applications with a success rate of 85%.


Background: Neutering cats and dogs is the most common elective procedure undertaken in small animal practice. Neutering is often at the request of an owner but may be carried out on unowned animals as a policy decision in a charity practice, or as a life-saving intervention in cases such as testicular torsion or pyometra. Considerations influencing the decision to neuter include owner, animal and veterinary factors. Aim of the article: Here, we consider the timing of the procedure, the risks and benefits and technicalities of performing prepubertal gonadectomy in the dog and cat. Traditionally, cats and dogs are neutered from six months old; in contrast, prepubertal neutering is defined as ovariectomy/ovariohysterectomy or castration at six to 16 weeks of age in both species. It should be noted that large dog breeds may not reach puberty for many months after this period.


This paper aims, to investigate the shunts in multi-crystalline (m-c) Si solar cells by lock-in infrared thermography (LIT) technique and to study their effect on the cell performance by PSpice simulations. LIT provided useful information about the location and nature of shunts which was used in the simulation. Based on the shunt location and shunt resistance of the cell obtained experimentally from the I-V characteristic of the cell, shunt resistance at the shunted region have been estimated by simulation using the distributed diode model approach of solar cell by fitting. Based on these values of shunts, simulation has been performed to obtain the information about the deterioration in cells performance caused by the shunts. This type of simulation is useful to study different types and severity of shunts at different locations of cells. Solar cells which have been used in this study show a power reduction in the range of 3% to 15% due the shunts. This reduction was more severe for the shunt which was on the bus-bar compared to the edges.


Purpose Corpus analyses of spontaneous language fragments of varying length provide useful insights in the language change caused by brain damage, such as caused by some forms of dementia. Sample size is an important experimental parameter to consider when designing spontaneous language analyses studies. Sample length influences the confidence levels of analyses. Machine learning approaches often favor to use as much language as available, whereas language evaluation in a clinical setting is often based on truncated samples to minimize annotation labor and to limit any discomfort for participants. This article investigates, using Bayesian estimation of machine learned models, what the ideal text length should be to minimize model uncertainty. Method We use the Stanford parser to extract linguistic variables and train a statistic model to distinguish samples by speakers with no brain damage from samples by speakers with probable Alzheimer's disease. We compare the results to previously published models that used CLAN for linguistic analysis. Results The uncertainty around six individual variables and its relation to sample length are reported. The same model with linguistic variables that is used in all three experiments can predict group membership better than a model without them. One variable (concept density) is more informative when measured using the Stanford tools than when measured using CLAN. Conclusion For our corpus of German speech, the optimal sample length is found to be around 700 words long. Longer samples do not provide more information.


Recently, it has been proposed to relate properties of primordial scalar perturbations to the conformal invariance of some very early Universe models. A concrete realization of this idea is given in the context of the conformal rolling scenario. The main ingredient of the latter is the complex scalar field conformally coupled to gravity and rolling down the negative quartic potential. During the conformal rolling, phase perturbations acquire flat power spectrum, which can be converted into adiabatic perturbations at some later epoch by one of another mechanism. There are two sub-scenarios of the model depending on the behavior of the cosmologically interesting modes by the end of the rolling: one with superhorizon modes and the other with subhorizon ones. In the latter case, phase perturbations proceed to evolve at the intermediate stage between conformal rolling and conventional epoch. This evolution results into the small negative tilt, statistical anisotropy of all even multipoles starting from quadrupole of general structure and non-Gaussianity of the peculiar form. The signatures of the former sub-scenario are the quadrupole statistical anisotropy of both general and quadrupole types and the non-Gaussianity with a (fairly mild) singularity in the folded limit. We review analogous predictions in the context of the inflation and conclude that the conformal rolling scenario can be descriminated from the inflation in future experiments. We also discuss the novel cosmological scenario of the early Universe, where the potential role of conformal symmetries is understood from a much broader prospective. In this picture, proposed by Hinterbichler and Khoury, conformal rolling scenario is just a particular case in a myriad of possible models. We review the main novelties and assumptions of the general setup, and show that predictions made in the framework of the conformal rolling scenario hold for a broad class of models, e.g. the Galilean Genesis. Starting from the particular prediction, the statistical anisotropy, we constrain the unique parameter h of the conformal rolling scenario. For this purpose, we employ the quadratic maximum likelihood method, and apply it to the search of the statistical anisotropy in the seven-year WMAP data. We confirm the large quadrupole anisotropy detected in V and W bands, which has been argued to originate from systematic effects rather than from cosmology. We construct an estimator for the parameter h. In the case of the sub-scenario with the intermediate stage we set an upper limit h < 0.045 at the 95% confidence level. The constraint on h is much weaker in the case of another sub-scenario, where the intermediate stage is absent. We also comment on the statistical anisotropy recently detected in the CMB low multipoles. This anomaly is unlikely to be explained by the primordial physics. On the other hand, the uncounted foregrounds appear to be a natural source of the low multipoles correlations. We show that the strong quadrupole-octupole anomaly is, in principle, resolved by the account of the Kuiper belt. Simultaneously, the latter can provide the resolution to the parity asymmetry.


Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) fabricated in 3 C-SiC are receiving particular attention thanks to the material physical properties: its wide band gap (2.3 eV), its ability to operate at high temperatures, its mechanical strength and its inertness to the exposure in corrosive environments. However, high residual stress (which is normally generated during the hetero-epitaxial growth process) makes the use of 3 C-SiC in Si-based MEMS fabrication techniques very limited leading to a failure of micro-machined/sensor structures.

In this paper, micro-Raman characterizations and finite-element modeling (FEM) of microstructures realized on poly and single-crystal (100) 3 C-SiC/Si films are performed. Transverse optical (TO) Raman mode analysis reveals the stress relaxation on the free standing structure (796.5 cm−1) respect to the stressed unreleased region (795.7 cm−1). Also, microstructures as cantilever, bridge and planar rotating probe show an intense stress field located around the undercut region. Here, the TO Raman mode undergoes an intense shift, up to 2 cm−1, ascribed to the modification of the Raman stress tensor. Indeed, the generalized axial regime, described by diagonal components of the Raman stress tensor, cannot be applied in this region. Raman maps analysis and FEM simulations show the 'activation' of the shear stress, i.e. non-diagonal components of the stress tensor. The stress-Raman modes shift correlation, in the case of fully non-diagonal stress tensors, has been investigated. The aim of future works will be to minimize the stress field generation and the defects density within the epitaxial layer. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective: To prepare a novel molecularly imprinted materials for protein recognition. Methods: Konjac glucomannan was used as fundamental materials, after swollen, added 3-Chloro-1,2- epoxypropane and glycerol cross-linked for 3 h at 40 °C. Then added bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution, agitated 1 h at room temperature. Natural dried. Results: After eluted, the imprinted efficiency of the imprinted membrane were (59.27±3.53) % (n=6) with blank membrane as control. The adsorption rate increased from 2 h to 20 h, and reached saturation at 22 to 24 h. The selectively recognition experiment indicated the BSA imprinted membrane have significant selectively recognition abilities for the template protein. Conclusions: konjac glucomannan-based imprinted membrane shows great possibilities to be a promising material for protein molecularly imprinted recognition.


OBJECTIVE
Distal nerve blocks are used in the event of unsuccessful blocks as rescue techniques. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the sufficiency for anesthesia of distal nerve block without the need for deep sedation or general anesthesia. The secondary purpose was to compare block performance times, block onset times, and patient and surgeon satisfaction.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients who underwent hand surgery associated with the innervation area of the radial and median nerves were included in the study. Thirty-four patients who were 18-65 years old and American Society of Anesthesiologists grade I-III and who were scheduled for elective hand surgery under conscious nerve block anesthesia were randomly included in an infraclavicular block group (Group I, n=17) or a radial plus median block group (Group RM, n=17). The block performance time, block onset time, satisfaction of the patient and surgeon, and number of fentanyl administrations were recorded.

RESULTS
The numbers of patients who needed fentanyl administration and conversion to general anesthesia were the same in Group I and Group RM and there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). The demographics, surgery times, tourniquet times, block perfomance times, and patient and surgeon satisfaction of the groups were similar and there were no statistically significant differences (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in block onset times between the groups (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Conscious hand surgery can be performed under distal nerve block anesthesia safely and successfully.


This article aim to know the effrciency of corn production to achieve the maximal corn product in relation using surface of farmland in which can influences the level of production of corn in Kuwolu village of Kecamatan Bululawang of Kabupaten Malang. Result of analysis of farmer com production in the village of Kuwolu showed that there was a relation between production level of corn with the measure of surface of farmland of
famer. The relation be measured with R/C rasio. According to result of analysis of R/C rasio we can understand that the wide surface of farmland of farmer can not improve the level of corn production (Rp. 2.879.114,62 ha-l with R/C rasio 4,00), while narow surface of farmland of farmer could improve the level of corn production (Rp. 3.054.909,12 ha-1 with R/C rasio 3,43). Because on the wide surface of farmland the program of cultivation of corn not done at all of surface of farmland. For the farm of narrow tight agriculture, corn planted at all of its surface. Pursuant to the result of analysis, be suggested to goverment to be can compile the agriculture policy to increase corn production for the narrow farmland and also wide farmland to improve the production of corn further.


This study estimates household demand for finfish in the United States using a limited dependent variable model that accounts for both participation and consumption decisions and also accommodates nonnormal heteroskedastic errors. Results suggest that own-price elasticity is near unitary and income elasticity is small. Price of finfish, shopping frequency, Northeast, Black and other non-Whites, and the life-cycle variable ""young, single, no children"" are they key factors that affect significantly both the probability of participation and the level of finfish consumption. Furthermore, a variable may exert opposite effects on the probability and level of consumption.


Despite its known association with skin cancer, tanning remains popular among young adult women. Indoor tanning behavior has been found to be associated with affective and addictive disorders. To better understand potential psychological and biological mechanisms of tanning behavior, we investigated associations between tanning and medication (psychotropic and other) use among young women. Two hundred and fifty-three women age 18–29 years old were recruited from two northeastern university campus communities. Women self-reported tanning frequency and chronic medication use. In both univariate and multivariate analyses, indoor tanning ≥12 times last year was significantly associated with use of psychotropic medication and anti-depressants in particular. Sunbathing was not associated with medication use. Potential reasons for associations between tanning and psychotropic medication use are discussed. Indoor tanners should be warned that some psychotropic medications are photosensitizing, thus increasing risk for burns and other skin damage from indoor tanning.


This Economics of Climate Change in the Arab World is presents detailed case studies on the impacts of climate change in the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, and the Republic of Yemen that were summarized. The Arab region is already being impacted by climate change through more frequent cyclones, floods, and prolonged droughts. Thousands of rural producers have seen their crops and herds devastated by extreme conditions, and have been forced to abandon their traditional way of life and migrate to crowded urban areas. Those who stay behind in rural areas struggle to cope with shortages of food and water. Climate change affects countries' economies and households through a variety of channels. Rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns affect agricultural yields of both rainfed and irrigated crops, and thus global and local food markets. Adaptation is a process that will take place over decades as new information makes policy makers reevaluate their climate vulnerabilities. Still, by seizing the opportunity to act now and act together, the Arab region can not only meet the immense challenges of climate change but advance the development of its entire people.


Background : Despite exciting progress and growth in the understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms of chronic pain, osteoarthritis (OA) pain remains a challenging clinical entity to treat. There is an emerging diversity of algogenic mechanisms suggesting heterogeneity in pain aetiology in the OA patient population. Objective/methods : This review article summarises key issues in existing therapies for OA pain and highlights the emerging compounds in early and late development. It also highlights where tolerability may be a concern, especially in the older populations in which treatment interactions for co-morbid conditions may further narrow therapeutic index. Importantly, the authors also examine the diversity of biology that underpins OA pain and highlight the opportunities for the future. Results/conclusions : Many emerging therapies are presently in proof-of-concept clinical testing for treatment of OA. A growing understanding of the heterogeneity in the OA patient population, will challenge the ability to accurately understand observed efficacy or safety signals in these relatively small trials and how they may titrate to a broader patient population. We may need to wait several more years to understand whether the need for a differentiated therapy demanded by patients, payors and physicians alike, will be met.


: Artemisinin-based combination therapy has been a vital tool in malaria control and elimination programmes. However, artemisinin resistant P. falciparum parasites have emerged in Southeast Asia, posing a major threat to the effectiveness of ACT. Resistance results in prolonged parasite clearance in vivo and enhanced survival of ring-stage parasites in vitro. Therefore, understanding the genetic basis of resistance would be critical to the success treatment and intervention strategies. This study aimed at identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with artemisinin and Artemisia annua resistance. Genetic analysis was done on P. falciparum lines W2 and D6, previously selected under pure artemisinin and Artemisia annua extracts. Genomic DNA was extracted using QIAamp blood mini kit. Libraries were sequenced on Illumina Miseq platform using 151bp paired-end chemistry. Sequencing read data from each sample was mapped against P.falciparum reference sequence version 3.1. One non-synonymous (NS) mutation K189T was identified in K13 gene. The Pfmdr1 mutation N86Y was detected in W2 parasite exposed to pure artemisinin at IC 50 equivalents and notably, the Pfcrt CQ sensitive CVMNK genotype was retained. The study also identified one background mutation in Pfcrt (I356T) in W2 parasites exposed to artemisinin at IC 50 equivalents. In conclusion, K13 mutation described here has not been linked to reduced parasite clearance or in vitro artemisinin tolerance. Pfmdr1 gene may putatively play a role in artemisinin resistance.


Molecular complexity has been proposed as a potential agnostic biosignature — in other words: a way to search for signs of life beyond Earth without relying on "life as we know it." More than one way to compute molecular complexity has been proposed, so comparing their performance in evaluating experimental data collected in situ , such as on board a probe or rover exploring another planet, is imperative. Here, we report the results of an attempt to deploy multiple machine learning (ML) techniques to predict molecular complexity scores directly from mass spectrometry data. Our initial results are encouraging and may provide fruitful guidance toward determining which complexity measures are best suited for use with experimental data. Beyond the search for signs of life, this approach is likewise valuable for studying the chemical composition of samples to assist decisions made by the rover or probe, and may thus contribute toward supporting the need for greater autonomy.


Introduction. The problem of aspect categorisation in Italian, as well as in other Romance languages, is studied not so profoundly compared to what has been done in Russian linguistics. The Indo-European Presence – Aorist – Perfect in their aspectual meaning, which are the most independent forms, have turned to build the tense system both in Italian and Russian. The brightest aspectual meanings are expressed in the forms of the Past. The different perception of 'completeness' and 'incompleteness' aspects in these forms by the speakers of Italian and Russian is probably connected with the peculiarities of the tense formation on the deep level of the language system. So, additional grammar comments are needed. Methodology and sources. The main language unit is believed to be the semifinitive. Thereby we can facilitate the application of formal logical modelling to the description and explanation of syntactic phenomena. The material of the investigation is the surface structure of a predicate, which is formed, on the deep level, by a verbal semifinitive and a time specifier. Results and discussion. A scheme has been elaborated, demonstrating, how a verbal semifinitive becomes polarised by a time specifier. The whole range of aspectual variants, which may occur in a predicate due to the interaction of its constituents through their charges, has been shown. It is reasoned about a charge on participle II. The notion of polarisation is added to the notions of Indefinite or Perfect aspects to represent traditional grammar tenses more exact. This investigation allows to establish a correspondence of Italian and Russian tenses to different charge states of a semifinitive, touched by a specifier. It is rather admittable that the difference between incomplete and complete aspects in Russian is expressed by participles II, which are in complex semifinitives, and in Italian – by simple semifinitives. Conclusion. A comparative analysis of the verbal aspect category in Indo-European tenses, including the past ones, can be carried out, to our mind, both by stemming from the polarisation peculiarities of verbal semifinitives, and through investigation of literature translations, where correspondence is established on the level of language examples. In this case the genetic identity of Indo-European constructions has a chance to be represented as evidently as possible.


Alloys of CoFe-rich magnetic films are well known as typical soft magnetic alloys. They are used for many kinds of electric and electronic parts such as magnetic recording heads, transformers and inductors. In order to get superior soft magnetic properties of the CoFe-based nanocrystalline thin films, the effect of O2 partial pressure on magnetic properties of Co-Fe-Hf-O nanocrystalline thin films have been investigated. It is found that the soft magnetic properties and electrical property of these films show a dependence on the partial pressure of reactive gases, which presumably changes the microstructure of the films and related magnetic anisotropy. With optimal conditions, thin film exhibit excellent soft magnetic properties: saturation magnetization (4πMs) of 21 kG, magnetic coercivity (Hc) of 0.18 Oe, anisotropy field (Hk) of 49 Oe, and an electrical property is also shown to be as high as 300 μcm. The combination of high 4πMs and relatively high Hk in these films are believed to be partly responsible for the excellent ultra-high-frequency behavior


For the liquid rocket propulsion system using liquid oxygen as oxidizer, helium for pressurizing LOX is usually stored in the LOX tank with cryogenic temperature. For that kind of pressurizing system, cryogenic helium is discharged from the immerged pressurant cylinder and passes through the heat exchanger downstream of gas generator. During the process, helium pressurant is heated from cryogenic temperature to high one and supplied to the ullage of propellant tank. To develop the pressurizing system, a cryogenic heating apparatus is needed to simulate the heat exchanger. In this paper, the cryogenic heating apparatus for development of the pressurization system is presented along with its heating test results with cryogenic helium.


To incorporate the wave properties of light, it was recently proposed to modify the Monte Carlo-based photon transport model to a semi-quantum-mechanical representation by considering each ray as a photon wave packet [Appl. Opt. 39, 5244 (2000)]. It is not clear from the paper whether each photon wave packet is considered representative of an entire plane wave or if each is spatially localized. However, for each interpretation we identify problems with the approach suggested for combining the wave-packet contributions. These include violation of the principle of conservation of energy and the use of a scattering phase function that is incompatible with the suggested way of calculating the intensity values. These issues render the approach impractical.


In this study volatile and non-volatile compounds and several agronomical important parameters were measured in mature fruits of elite sweet pepper breeding lines and hybrids and several genebank accessions from different Capsicum species. The sweet pepper breeding lines and hybrids were chosen to roughly represent the expected variation in flavor of Capsicum annuum in the Rijk Zwaan germplasm. The genebank accessions were either chosen because they were expected to have unique combinations of aromas and flavors, according to experience and/or literature, or were parents of mapping populations. The biochemical profiling allowed visualization of between- and within-species metabolic variation and stability during the year. In general, total soluble solids content (Brix) was genotype-dependent and fluctuated only slightly throughout the growing season, with uncultivated genotypes showing the largest changes. The species C. chinense, C. baccatum var. pendulum and C. annuum could be clearly separated by principle component analysis based on profiles of 391 volatile compounds. Especially for breeding purposes it seems to be interesting to study this variation in more detail, trying to unravel the complex genetics of the different pepper flavor aspects.


Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, local policies embraced the need to respect social distancing and decrease patient and provider contact or exposure in order to minimise the risk of viral transmission and infection. Despite new strategies that strongly impacted patients experience, our survey showed that overall, patients felt protected and safe during their antenatal care. These results were consistent during first and second waves of the pandemic.


Aim
Malnutrition is a concern across all Australian hospitals and is associated with negative clinical outcomes in up to 60% inpatients, with a further 10% exacerbated by the presence of dysphagia. Providing adequate nutrition for patients requiring a texture-modified diet often results in meals that look and taste less appealing and which are nutritionally diluted. This article aims is to review change in oral intake using food moulding techniques within an acute care institution for patients on Texture C—smooth pureed meals.

Methods
This was a 2 week pilot study. Patients were provided smooth pureed lunch either as non-moulded or a moulded meal. Main meal wastage was weighed and reasons for waste were documented. If patients met the inclusion criteria, a short satisfaction survey was also administered.

Results
Analysis using a chi-squared test comparison saw significance in the proportion of patients increasing oral intake from 3/4 meal, when in the moulded form (P = 0.03). Median plate waste was reduced by over 100 g in the treatment group but there was no significant change overall. Limited data for patient satisfaction concluded no significance in meal preference.

Conclusions
The pilot study suggests that using a moulded smooth puree diet can increase mean oral intake and reduce main meal wastage, but a larger sample size is required to demonstrate statistical significance. However, the pilot study effect size (0.55) is large enough to warrant further research interest in this area and results do suggest relevancy in clinical practice for replication.


This paper devoted to propose template match object detection for inertial navigation systems (INS). The proposed method is an image processing technique to improve the precision of the INS for detecting and tracking the ground objects from flying vehicles. Template matching is one of the methods used for ground object detection and tracking. Robust and reliable object detection is a critical step of object recognition. This paper presents a proposed mathematical morphological template matching method for detection and tracking of ground objects. Our focus is on flying systems equipped with camera to capture photos for the ground and recognize it. The proposed method is independent on the altitude or the orientation of the object. The algorithm is simulated using Matlab program and the numerical experiments are shown which verify the object detection for a wide range altitude and orientation. The results show superiority of this method for identifying and recognizing the ground objects.


In DNA based computation and DNA nanotechnology, the design of good DNA sequences has turned out to be an essential problem and one of the most practical and important research topics. Basically, DNA sequence design problem is multi objectives problem, and it can be evaluated using four objective functions, namely, Hmeasure, similarity, continuity, and hairpin. In this paper, this problem is converted into single objective problem, where the weight of each objective is determined systematically using conventional weighted aggregation (CWA). Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to minimize those objective functions, subjected to two constraints: melting temperature and GCcontent. A model is presented in order to solve DNA sequence design problem based on PSO. To assess the utilization of CWA in the problem, the comparison between CWA and user-defined weights and other existing approach are demonstrated. The implementation of the optimization process is presented using 20 particles and the average values for 20 runs are shown.


ABSTRACT Using the 2015 Korean Welfare Panel Study data and a regression discontinuity design, this study examines the effects of the National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) participation on social investment through evaluating its impact on changes in family consumption patterns. We find that NBLSS participation was associated with increased educational expenditures. The effects were larger for households with an elementary or junior-high school student than those with a high school or college student. We also find that NBLSS participation reduced medical expenditures for households with seniors, members with chronic diseases, and members with a physical disability, most likely due to the in-kind healthcare services.


We describe a technique for accurately measuring the ratio between the imaginary and real parts of the third-order nonlinearity in optical waveguides. Unlike most other methods, it does not depend on precise knowledge of the coupling efficiencies, optical propagation loss, or optical pulse shape. We apply the method to characterize a silicon waveguide, a GaAs waveguide, and AlGaAs waveguides with different alloy concentrations.


Objective: The purpose of this paper is to provide informa tion on the technical issues that must be addressed when adapting radiopharmaceuticals for use in children and to review the criteria and formulas currently used to calculate pediatric radiopharmaceutical dosages. Methods: We conducted a phone survey of the nation's top medical facilities for pediatric care to find the criteria em ployed to establish radiopharmaceutical dosing guidelines for children. Technical pediatric dosing considerations were also obtained from the medical literature. Results: The majority of institutions surveyed use body weight as the sole criteria in the determination of pediatric dose and empirically derive their minimum allowable activity limits. Adult dosages, established at 70 kg, are used as the maximum allowable activity limits. Conclusions: Although the medical literature supports the use of body surface area as one of the most reliable meth ods of calculating pediatric radiopharmaceutical dose, the majority of top pediatric health care facilities prefer to use body weight as the only variable in the calculation of optimal pediatric dosage. Given the importance of issues that must be considered to ensure the radiation safety and the phys ical and mental comfort of the child, we believe that all pediatric radiopharmaceutical dosing guidelines and con siderations warrant further attention.


SIR,-We were dismayed by Christopher Bradley and Peter Selby's implication that, in the search for an unknown primary, a biopsy specimen of a cervical node should be obtained, and if it is found to contain squamous cell carcinoma an otolaryngologist should be requested to evaluate the upper aerodigestive tract.t It has long been taught in ear, nose, and throat surgery that a diligent search for a possible primary tumour should be undertaken when a patient presents with a neck mass thought to be metastatic in origin. Martin and Romieu wrote 30 years ago: "The immediate removal of a lymph node for diagnosis is never in the best interests of the patient."2 Premature open biopsy of a cervical lymph node leads to increased morbidity with a higher rate of fungation and wound sepsis3 and may even result in reduced life expectancy.4 Incisions used for open lymph node biopsy may compromise subsequent radical surgical excision ifnot planned to be readily incorporated into an incision suitable for radical neck dissection. Cytological examination of fine needle aspirates, on the other hand, can provide useful histological information and is free of the complications associated with open lymph node biopsy.5 We believe that lymph node biopsy (excluding cytological examination of fine needle aspirates) should be undertaken only after the aerodigestive tract has been examined thoroughly, including by rigid endoscopy and "blind biopsies," by an ear, nose, and throat surgeon. If this fails to detect a primary focus of carcinoma an open biopsy of the neck mass may be undertaken, but only by a surgeon who is able subsequently to perform a radical neck dissection if indicated. M P J YARDLEY


The notion of institutional coherence has dominated the agenda for reform of the United Nations (UN) in this century. Motivated by what he saw as the weakness of the fractured UN system, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan led an ambitious reform program throughout his term of office (1996-2005) seeking to ensure greater UN effectiveness through streamlining institutional functions. This concern has been inherited by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. A significant development in the reform process has been the creation in 2010 of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, known as UN Women, which came into operation on January 1, 2011. UN Women incorporates four existing parts of the UN system dealing with women and has been styled as the new UN "gender architecture." In this article we consider the implications of this new structure for the situation of women worldwide from the perspective of international law. Is UN Women simply a bureaucratic rearrangement or is it greater than the sum of its parts?


Objective Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), which are highly prevalent in all fields of medicine, are difficult to treat. Psychological treatments have shown modest effects, but these are costly, time consuming, and not easily accessible. Self-help interventions might overcome these barriers. The primary aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of self-help interventions for adults with MUS. Method Relevant studies were identified by searching electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL from inception to May 2014) and scanning reference lists of included articles and related reviews. Two researchers independently selected randomised controlled trials comparing self-help to usual care or waiting list in adults with MUS. Data were extracted independently by two researchers using standardised forms. Standardised mean differences (Hedges' g) were pooled using a random-effects model. Studies were critically appraised using the Cochrane 'risk of bias assessment tool'. Outcomes were symptom severity and quality of life directly post-treatment and at follow-up. Results Out of 582 studies identified, 18 studies met all inclusion criteria. Studies were heterogeneous with regard to patient populations, intervention characteristics, and outcome measures. Compared to usual care or waiting list, self-help was associated with lower symptom severity (17 studies, n=1894, g=0.58, 95% CI 0.32–0.84, p<0.001) and higher QoL (16 studies, n=1504, g=0.66, 95% CI 0.34–0.99, p<0.001) directly post-treatment. Similar effect sizes were found at follow-up. A high risk of bias was established in the majority of included studies. However, sensitivity analyses suggested that this did not significantly influence study results. Funnel plot asymmetry indicated potential publication bias. Conclusion Self-help is associated with a significant reduction in symptom severity and improvement of QoL. Due to the suboptimal methodological quality of the majority of included studies, further research is needed to confirm the findings of this study. For future studies we recommend the use of uniform and validated measurement instruments, inclusion of follow-up assessments, and performance of intention-to-treat analyses.


We examined a collection of 151 strains of the viridans type of streptococci, which were isolated mainly from human oral cavities and included several reference strains, in an attempt to revise and improve the taxonomy of this group of bacteria. Our examinations included determinations of a high number of biochemical and physiological characteristics and serological reactivity. The resulting data revealed several hitherto unrecognized characters of taxonomic significance, and several of the species can now be more accurately defined. A diagnostic key to the taxa is presented. Strains previously identified as Streptococcus sanguis could be divided into two clearly distinct species, Streptococcus sanguis sensu stricto (type strain, ATCC 10556) and a new species, Streptococcus gordonii (type strain, ATCC 10558). Streptococcus mitis was divided into two biovars, consisting of strains possessing group O antigens and strains possessing group K antigen. The group of strains assigned to Streptococcus anginosus was biochemically and serologically heterogeneous, but the data did not allow natural subdivisions. Based on the results of this study, emended descriptions of the species Streptococcus oralis, S. mitis, and S. sanguis are provided. The classification resulting from this study is in complete agreement with previously published genetic data.


The increase in the usage of titanium alloys for micro-engineering applications has driven the demand for improved micromanufacturing processes. Laser-based microfabrication processes such as direct laser ablation (DLA), laser-induced plasma micromachining (LIPMM), and magnetically controlled laser-induced plasma micromachining (MC-LIPMM) are promising technologies to fill this technological gap. In this paper, we evaluate microchannels fabricated in Ti6Al4V substrates using laser ablation, LIPMM, and MC-LIPMM. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and 3D scans of the channels were used to compare the surface morphology and channel geometry for different feed rates and number of laser passes. Wall angle measurements show that the LIPMM processes yield channels with steeper walls and smoother walls in comparison with the channels fabricated using direct ablation. The clear morphological differences on the surface finish of the walls made by direct ablation and using laser-induced plasmas hint at the differences in material removal mechanisms between these manufacturing methods.


The field of special education for people with mental disabilities is a discipline that is constantly evolving and changing as well as being inclusive. Teachers working in this field are guiding the way as long as they improve their professional qualifications. Even if special education processes are under state guarantee, it is always a lifelong process that brings a financial obligation for families. Therefore, the field teachers should be a complementary element for the student in many areas such as development, change, education and rehabilitation. Music elements also find a prominent place among these complementary elements. However, the field teacher can only support this process on the basis of music to the extent that he/she realizes his/her own music-based competence professionally. In this direction, it was aimed to determine the music-based competencies of field teachers and their utilization of music elements in their lessons and the data were collected for this purpose. Because music is present in all areas of special education. However, it is not possible to employ a music professional for every special education institution. Therefore, the field teacher is expected to handle the process within the framework of inclusiveness. Within the framework of this idea, the study was conducted with 10 volunteer teachers who were reached during the 2021-2022 academic year. In order to obtain the data, 26 three-point Likert-type instructions were prepared and online interviews were conducted with each participant teacher. This study is a case study. The data were described on the axis of interpretive paradigm and categorized in the findings section. The validity and reliability of the instructions were ensured in line with the opinions of special education experts. As a result, it was found that the field teachers who participated in the study have music-based competence and consciously utilize music elements in their lessons. However, it was also seen that field teachers need music-based professional development. Therefore, it is an evident that they need professional development trainings on how to use music elements more effectively for non-musical purposes. It is essential to conduct this study with a group of more participants. Nevertheless, it is believed that the findings obtained have a quality that will pave the way for new researchers.


Food habits of Burrowing Owls ( Speotyto cunicularia ) were studied during the breeding seasons of 1990 and 1991 in central Colorado. Concurrent insect availability studies were conducted to determine selection for specific insect families. Analysis of 1445 castings indicated use of only one insect family, the carrion beetles (Silphidae), at a rate greater than expected based on availability in one year. Castings and prey remains showed different dietary components. Prey remains showed greater use of small mammals, moths, amphibians, and passerines, and castings indicated greater use of mice and beetles. Methodology in raptor food habits studies may therefore bias results.


Pond physicochemical characteristics and bottom-up effects were more important than top-down effects in governing ciliate community structure in 2 adjacent intermittent ponds in South- ern Ontario, Canada. The ciliates showed a bimodal seasonal pattern with abundances peaking early and late in the hydroperiods, and the communities showed a strong seasonal succession of species — only 15% of the 162 ciliate species were present throughout the hydroperiods. Less than half of the species occurred in both ponds. Adding riparian leaf litter to large pond enclosures affected several physicochemical variables, increased bacterial abundance, and promoted the appearance of particu- lar species — many of which are known to be associated with nutrient- or organic matter-enriched conditions. This treatment resulted in higher ciliate abundance (mainly small-sized bacterivores) and lower ciliate diversity in mid-hydroperiod in one of the ponds. The removal of plant litter generally produced effects in the physicochemical variables that were opposite to those seen in the leaf litter addition, and resulted in a 15% decrease in the proportion of ciliate bacterivores in one pond. The effects of top-down manipulations (i.e. prevention of aerial colonization of insects) were minor. Many treatment effects were season-, and pond-specific. The measured environmental variables (including pond and treatments) explained half of the variation in ciliate abundance, one-third of the species diversity, and one-fifth of the species composition. Pond characteristics and the leaf litter additions were the most important factors for determining ciliate abundance (together with chlorophyll a), diversity (together with dissolved oxygen), and community composition (together with season).


Menaquinone (vitamin K2)-deficient mutants of Bacillus subtilis, whose growth requirement is satisfied by 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid but not by o-succinylbenzoic acid (OSB), have been analyzed for enzymatic defects. Complementation analysis of cell-free extracts of the mutants revealed that there are two groups, as already indicated by genetic analysis. The missing enzyme in each group was identified by complementation of the cell-free extracts with o-succinylbenzoyl-coenzyme A (CoA) synthetase and dihydroxynaphthoate synthase extracted from Mycobacterium phlei. Mutants found to lack dihydroxynaphthoate synthase, and which therefore complement with dihydroxynaphthoate synthase of M. phlei, were designated as menB; those lacking o-succinylbenzoyl-CoA synthetase, and therefore complementing with o-succinylbenzoyl-CoA synthetase, were designated as menE. The menB mutants RB413 (men-325) and RB415 (men-329), when incubated with [2,3-14C2]OSB, produced only the spirodilactone form of OSB in a reaction that was CoA and adenosine 5'-triphosphate dependent.


Discriminative learning based denoising model trained with Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) performs well on synthesized noise. However, realistic noise can be spatialvariant, signal-dependent and a mixture of complicated noises. In this paper, we explore multiple strategies for applying an AWGN-based denoiser to realistic noise. Specifically, we trained a deep network integrating noise estimating and denoiser with mixed Gaussian (AWGN) and Random Value Impulse Noise (RVIN). To adapt the model to realistic noises, we investigated multi-channel, multi-scale and super-resolution approaches. Our preliminary results demonstrated the effectiveness of the newly-proposed noise model and adaptation strategies.


The effect of ochratoxin A (OTA) on behavioural changes and pathology of brain was studied in seven weeks-old male Wistar rats administered orally with OTA @ 0.25 mg and 0.50 mg /kg body weight (group A and group B, respectively), daily for four weeks. Pathomorphological changes in brain at intervals of 2 days and 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks , while behavioural studies at the end of 4th week post OTA exposure were studied. Behavioural studies in rats of higher dose (0.5mg OTA/kg bw) revealed significant changes in both spontaneous and forced motor activities. OTA-treated rats showed reduced number of both horizontal and vertically directed movements. Rotarod test showed that the OTA-treated rats could remain on the rotating rod for a considerably lesser time than that of control rats. The pathological lesions in brain were more severe in the higher dose group rats which included congestion and a significant increase in relative weight. Histopathological changes in the brain were characterized by degenerative changes with satellitosis of glial cells around the degenerating neurons in group-A rats. Rats in group-B showed engorgement of blood vessels of the meninges and focal gliosis in the cerebellar peduncle with perivascular cuffing. At later stages of ochratoxicosis, cerebrum revealed haemorrhages, extensive neuronal degeneration with neuronophagia and perinuclear vacuolation in the neurons. It was concluded that the effect of OTA on the brain was dose-dependent and the rats exposed to even low levels of OTA exhibited significant behavioural changes suggesting a potential neurotoxic effect of OTA.


Vertical bone augmentation of the posterior mandible followed by delayed implant placement and restoration remains a clinical challenge in dentistry. Commonly, a 2- stage approach is performed where first, a grafting procedure is performed with a typical xenograft/autograft mixture and an expected healing period of 9 months. Only thereafter can implant placement and restoration accomplished with a total treatment time upwards of 1-1.5 years. In the present case report, a novel approach that combines three-dimensional guided implant planning/surgery via digital software, the use of novel atelo-collagen based xenografts/membranes with improved biocompatibility, and immediate implant placement with simultaneous vertical guided bone regeneration (GBR) is described where the patient treatment protocol was significantly reduced. Highlighted within this case report is the effective use of guided surgery via digital software, as well as the use of biomaterials that feature atelo-collagen. Since xenografts are typically devoid of all collagen and growth factor content, the recent development of natural bovine bone mineral containing atelo-collagen type I have been proposed as grafts with greater biocompatibility, thus favoring optimized bone regeneration. This article describes the protocol in detail and emphasizes the necessary requirements to optimize bone regeneration in a predictable manner.


The most conservative party in Chile, the Unión Demócrata Independiente, has nominated and elected more women to local-level office than any of the other major parties in the country. In this article, I argue that the candidate selection processes used by this party explain how it has proposed more women candidates for municipal office than parties with defined ideological commitments to increasing women's representation. The party's use of candidate selection procedures that are both exclusive and centralized allow women to avoid important obstacles on the path to obtaining candidacies. The case of the Unión Demócrata Independiente is important, first, because it allows us to understand how a party without a commitment to increasing women's participation can nonetheless do so, and second, because it lays bare the causal mechanisms of candidate selection procedures and increases our understanding of the effects that these processes have on female representation.


The subject of mental health has been discussed for some time in the literature on Australian Aboriginal peoples, although the volume of this work has been relatively small. This literature can be separated into two main approaches. The first has been concerned with documenting and analyzing disorders that are culturally specific to a particular group. The second, more recent body of literature understands mental health issues as resulting from a combination of factors related to the effects of colonization, such as loss of land, poverty, and the destruction of families. This literature is often aimed at diagnosis and the provision of appropriate services for Indigenous people without a comprehensive ethnographic understanding of the cultural specificities of certain mental health disorders. Although mental health problems are discussed, such as suicide, depression, and anxiety, little analysis is undertaken of how such states are locally experienced and understood. This paper reports the complexities involved in understanding mental health from the perspective of youth in a remote Aboriginal community in northern Australia. We argue that it is necessary to understand mental health within the broader context of the lives of Indigenous youth and, in particular, the interaction between their marginalization from participating in the opportunities that globalization offers with issues related to poverty, substance misuse, and specific cultural beliefs.


The scarcity of long-term hydrological data is a barrier to reliably determining the likelihood of floods becoming more frequent and/or intense in a warmer world. Lake sediments preserve characteristic event layers, offering the potential to develop widely distributed and unique chronologies of historical floods. Inferring flood magnitude remains a greater challenge, previously overcome in part by analyzing sharply laminated polar or alpine sequences. Here we demonstrate an approach to obtain flood frequency and magnitude data from an unexploited resource, the largely visually homogeneous, organic sediments that typify most temperate lakes. The geochemical composition and end-member modeling of sediment trap and adjacent short core particle size data for Brotherswater (northwest England) discriminates the signature of infrequent, coarse-grained flood deposits from seasonal and longer term allogenic (enhanced discharge and sediment supply during winter) and autogenic (summer productivity, thermal mixing) depositional processes. Comparing the paleoflood reconstruction to local river discharges shows that hydrological thresholds censor event signature preservation, with 4 yr recurrence intervals detectable in delta-proximal sediments declining to 9 yr in the lake center. Event threshold (discharge) and process characterization are essential precursors to discerning flood magnitude from sediment archives. Implementation of our approach in globally prevalent temperate lakes offers a vast, unique repository of long-term hydrological data for hydrologists, climate modelers, engineers, and policy makers addressing future flood risks.


BACKGROUND Ischemic cholangitis is the main cause of liver failure after transplantation and subnormothermic machine perfusion may represent a better strategy than conventional cold storage, minimizing preservation injury. We compared livers preserved by machine perfusion at 20°C (MP20) or by cold storage at 4°C (CS4) with regard to hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α mRNA expression and protein stabilization in hypoxic conditions. MATERIAL AND METHODS Livers from male Wistar rats were stored on ice at 4°C in UW solution (CS4) or perfused with oxygenated Krebs-Henseleit buffer at 20°C (MP20) for six hours. After preservation, the livers were reperfused for two hours with oxygenated Krebs-Henseleit buffer at 37°C to simulate reimplantation. We collected bile, perfusate, and tissue samples. Transaminases, lactate dehydrogenase, bilirubin, and lactic acid were assayed in the perfusate and bile. ATP/ADP, glycogen, HIF-1α mRNA, and protein expression were measured in the tissue homogenates. RESULTS At the end of preservation, as well as after reperfusion, HIF-1α mRNA expression was significantly higher in the ischemic CS4 livers. Although the hypoxic conditions found in CS4 preservation stabilized HIF-1α protein was significantly higher in the CS4 livers at the end of preservation, no difference was observed after reperfusion, likely because of the oxygen in the reperfusion medium. After reperfusion, the MP20 livers released less transaminases and LDH. The MP20 livers had higher ATP/ADP, glycogen, and biliary bilirubin after both preservation and reperfusion when compared with the CS4 livers. CONCLUSIONS The data demonstrated that MP20 was associated with a lower HIF-1α expression and organ injury with respect to CS4, suggesting that oxygen provided by this preservation setting might approximate the organ request, thus avoiding the ischemic injury usually observed during organ preservation by cold storage.


ABSTRACT Exposure to organomercurials has been associated with harmful effects on the central nervous system (CNS). However, the mechanisms underlying organomercurial-mediated neurotoxic effects need to be elucidated. Exposure to toxic elements may promote cellular modifications such as alterations in protein synthesis in an attempt to protect tissues and organs from damage. In this context, the use of a "proteomic profile" is an important tool to identify potential early biomarkers or targets indicative of neurotoxicity. The aim of this study was to investigate potential modifications in rat cerebral cell proteome following exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) or ethylmercury (EtHg). For MeHg exposure, animals were administered by gavage daily 140 µg/kg/d of Hg (as MeHg) for 60 d and sacrificed 24 h after the last treatment. For EtHg exposure, 800 µg/kg/d of Hg (as EtHg) was given intramuscularly (im) in a single dose and rats were sacrificed after 4 h. Control groups received saline either by gavage or im. After extraction of proteins from whole brain samples and separation by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), 26 differentially expressed proteins were identified from exposed animals by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF). Both MeHg and EtHg exposure induced an overexpression of calbindin, a protein that acts as a neuroprotective agent by (1) adjusting the concentration of Ca2+ within cells and preventing neurodegenerative diseases and (2) decreasing expression of glutamine synthetase, a crucial protein involved in regulation of glutamate concentration in synaptic cleft. In contrast, expression of superoxide dismutase (SOD), a protein involved in antioxidant defense, was elevated in brain of MeHg-exposed animals. Taken together, our data provide new valuable information on the possible molecular mechanisms associated with MeHg- and EtHg-mediated toxicity in cerebral tissue. These observed protein alterations may be considered as biomarkers candidates for biological monitoring of organomercurial poisoning.


Two recent books try to redefine the economic and financial systems bringing them back to documents (Ferraris) and to instinctive drives (Mazzarella). This essay reviews some of the most important novels of the third millennium about entrepreneurs to test the cogency of these concepts. From American Pastoral by Philip Roth to Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk, from The Human Resources Manager by Abraham Yehoshua to Zero K by Don DeLillo, the essay describes the present world as a society of wasted desire and the life of the company as a constant search for meaning.


Internet-based technology, E-commerce, and the rise of networked virtual enterprises have fueled the need for interorganizational workflows. Although XML allows trading partners to exchange information, it cannot be used to coordinate activities in different organizational entities. Therefore, we developed a workflow language named XRL (eXchangeable Routing Language) for supporting cross-organizational processes. XRL uses XML for the representation of process definitions and Petri nets for its semantics. Since XRL is instance-based, workflow definitions can be changed on the fly and sent across organizational boundaries. These features are vital for today's dynamic and networked economy. However, the features also enable subtle, but highly disruptive, cross-organizational errors. On-the-fly changes and one-of-a-kind processes are destined to result in errors. Moreover, errors of a cross-organizational nature are difficult to repair. In this paper, we present XRL/Woflan. XRL/Woflan is a software tool using state-of-the-art Petri-net analysis techniques for verifying XRL workflows. The tool uses eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) to transform XRL specifications to a specific class of Petri nets. The Petri-net representation is used to determine whether the workflow is correct. If the workflow is not correct, anomalies such as deadlocks and livelocks are reported.


Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is a key symptom of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Currently, five PEM-items from the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire (DSQ) were recommended as a first step in measuring this symptom for patients with ME and CFS by the National Institutes of Health/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NIH/CDC) Common Data Elements' (CDE) working group. The second step in this process, as recommended by the NIH/CDC CDE working group, involves assembling information from various sources to confirm the presence of PEM. There have not been any efforts, to date, to standardize this second-step process in the assessment of PEM. The current study examined whether five supplementary items on the DSQ could be used to operationalize the second step of the recommendations made by the NIH/CDC CDE working group. The five supplementary DSQ PEM duration items correctly categorized patients with ME or CFS 81.7% of the time, while incorrectly categorizing multiple sclerosis (MS) and post-polio syndrome (PPS) as ME or CFS only 16.6% of the time. The findings suggested that a PEM second-step process could be operationalized using supplementary DSQ items.


We report on the real space profile of spin polarons in the quasi-two-dimensional frustrated dimer spin system SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2) doped with 0.16% of Zn. The (11)B nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum exhibits 15 additional boron sites near nonmagnetic Zn impurities. With the help of exact diagonalizations of finite clusters, we have deduced from the boron spectrum, the distribution of local magnetizations at the Cu sites with fine spatial resolution, providing direct evidence for an extended spin polaron. The results are confronted with those of other experiments performed on doped and undoped samples of SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2).