Complex 1 [(N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-bis(2-sulfanylethyl)ethylenediamine)nickel(II)], previously shown to react with H(2)O(2) to produce the fully oxygenated disulfonate 5 [diaqua(N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-bis(2-sulfonatoethyl)ethylenediamine)nickel(II)], has been explored in detail to explain the observed reactivity of this compound and to discern intermediates in the oxygenation reaction. Reaction of 1 with 1 equiv of methyl iodide results in the monomethylated square-planar nickel complex 2 [[(N,N'-dimethyl-N-(2-sulfanylethyl)-N'-(2-methylthioethyl)(ethylenediamine)nickel(II)] iodide], while a slight excess of methyl iodide results in the dimethylated complex 3 [diiodo(N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-bis(2-methylthioethyl)ethylenediamine)nickel(II)], an X-ray structure of which has shown that the nickel ion is in an octahedral N(2)S(2)I(2) environment. Crystal data of 3: monoclinic, a = 8.865(3) A, b = 14.419(4) A, c = 14.389(6) A, beta = 100.19(3) degrees, V = 1810.2(12) A(3), space group P2(1)/n, Z = 4. The equatorial positions are occupied by the two cis-amine N-atoms and the coordinated iodides, while the axial positions are occupied by the thioether sulfur atoms. In organic solvents, the dithiolate complex 1 reacts with molecular oxygen or H(2)O(2) to produce the mixed sulfinato/thiolato complex 4 [(N,N'-dimethyl-N-(2-sulfanylethyl)-N'-(2-sulfinatoethyl)(ethylenediamine)nickel(II)], and the fully oxidized product 5. X-ray analysis of complex 4 reveals a square-planar geometry in which the nickel ion is coordinated by two cis-amine nitrogens, one thiolate sulfur donor, and one sulfinato sulfur donor. Crystal data of 4: orthorhombic, a = 11.659(2) A, b = 13.119(3) A, c = 16.869(3) A, V = 2580.2(9) A(3), space group Pbca, Z = 8. This complex is the only intermediate in the oxygenation reaction that could be isolated, and it is shown to be further reactive toward O(2) to yield the fully oxidized product 5. For a better understanding of the reactivity observed for 4, DFT calculations have been undertaken, which show a possible reaction path toward the fully oxidized product 5.


Abstract Background Echoing international trends, the most recent United Kingdom reports of infant and maternal mortality found that pregnancies to women with social risk factors are over 50% more likely to end in stillbirth or neonatal death and carry an increased risk of premature birth and maternal death. The aim of this realist synthesis was to uncover the mechanisms that affect women's experiences of maternity care. Methods Using realist methodology, 22 papers exploring how women with a wide range of social risk factors experience maternity care in the United Kingdom were included. The data extraction process identified contexts (C), mechanisms (M), and outcomes (0). Results Three themes, Resources, Relationships, and Candidacy, overarched eight CMO configurations. Access to services, appropriate education, interpreters, practical support, and continuity of care were particularly relevant for women who are unfamiliar with the United Kingdom system and those living chaotic lives. For women with experience of trauma, or those who lack a sense of control, a trusting relationship with a health care professional was key to regaining trust. Many women who have social care involvement during their pregnancy perceive health care services as a system of surveillance rather than support, impacting on their engagement. This, as well as experiences of paternalistic care and discrimination, could be mitigated through the ability to develop trusting relationships. Conclusions The findings provide underlying theory and practical guidance on how to develop safe services that aim to reduce inequalities in women's experiences and birth outcomes.


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Our study aimed to evaluate a group of patients who in the period from 2005 to 2014 underwent a four-corner arthrodesis of the wrist in our department. We also wanted to verify the hypothesis as to whether the use of conventional dorsal plate without the application of bone grafts leads to comparable results as the use of dorsal locking plates and routine application of bone grafts. MATERIAL AND METHODS Throughout the years 2005 to 2014 the four-corner arthrodesis of the wrist was performed in our department in a total of 62 patients, in two cases bilaterally. The indication was the diagnosis of SLAC/SNAC grade III. Normed RondoFix implant was used in all the cases. Following the surgery, the wrist was immobilized by a volar plaster splint for the period of 2 weeks and subsequently orthosis was applied for additional 4 weeks. The wrist mobilisation started in week seven when the orthosis was removed, the patients were allowed full load on the wrist 3 months after the surgery. Our group of patients was evaluated retrospectively, a total of 53 operated wrists in 51 patients were assessed. The assessment was carried out based on a radiograph of the wrist, range of motion, Mayo Modified Wrist Score, DASH Score and grip strength test. RESULTS The mean range of motion in sagittal plane was 63.7°, in frontal plane the mean value was 32.1°. According to the Mayo Modified Wrist Score 37 patients were rated "excellent" or "good". Due to the presence of moderate pain, the result in other 10 patients was assessed as "satisfactory". In a total of 4 patients the result was assessed as "weak", in two of them for a presence of non-union and in other two for severe pain under load. One of these patients underwent bilateral surgery and reported severe pain in both the wrists. Regarding DASH score, the best result equalled 0, the worst 65.83, with the mean of 20.5. The grip strength ranged from 8 to 54 kg, with the mean value of 27.5 kg. In two patients, a non-union occurred. In the first case the extraction of implant and re-arthrodesis was performed due to severe pain and screw migration. The patient is now 22 months after the surgery and the radiographs show that the arthrodesis has healed and the patient has no clinical difficulties. The second patient did not report any difficulties, therefore he is only subject to follow-up. No cases of screw or plate breakage were reported. In one case, the patient reported pain in the region of radial styloid process. A revision was indicated with radial styloidectomy and decompression of tendons of m. extensor pollicis brevis and m. abductor pollicis longus. As a result the patient had no clinical difficulty. One case of wrist radial deviation was recorded. It was managed by corrective wedge osteotomy and reosteosynthesis using a circular dorsal plate. In one patient dorsal impingement occurred, accompanied by limited range of motion and pain. Extraction of OS material was indicated and the patient was relieved of any difficulties. We have recorded aseptic necrosis of lunate bone in one case. DISCUSSION When comparing the functional results such as the range of motion and grip strength, our results are fully comparable to previously published papers. In papers where DASH was referred to, its value ranges from 13 to 29.82, which is fully consistent with our observations with the final value of 20.5. The incidence of non-union and the degree of complications is not deviating from the values included in other publications either. In all the mentioned publications the authors refer to routine use of bone grafts. The publications evaluating the use of locking plates do not report different results either. CONCLUSIONS In case of correct indication, the four-corner arthrodesis of the wrist represents a very good solution. In our group of patients, we confirmed the hypothesis that equally good results as with the use of locking plates can be achieved when using a non-locking plate system. Essential is the proper correction of DISI and primary good congruence between fused carpal bones instead of the use of bone grafts. Key words: SLAC wrist, SNAC wrist, four-corner arthrodesis, partial wrist fusion.


This paper analyzes Walt Whitman's American Civil War poems in his collection Drum-Taps in comparison with the poetry written by British soldier-poets of WWI. These poems present Whitman as a problematic model for future generations of war poets since he hardly ever questions the meaninglessness of bloodshed in the battlefield, a trait which is almost a defining characteristic of WWI poetry, anti-war poems that question and criticize bloodshed rather than celebrating it. Whitman the poet encourages people to take part in the war without making it clear what one is supposed to fight for or against. His poems divest individuals of their personality and turn them into parts of the war machine. The poems in Drum-Taps depend heavily on the use of visual images that suggest distance, while his British successors opt for a variety of images that imply proximity. Whitman's poetry suggests lack of involvement since he was not a soldier-poet, which to some extent renders him a questionable role model for future poets. Therefore, though some of his elegiac pieces may serve as models for future poets, Whitman's legacy as a war poet on the whole poses a problem for his British antecedents with its artistic, ethical and political implications.


The clinical syndrome of depression and the problem of suicidal behavior do not usually coincide in adolescents, and consequently the author reviews each individually. Both are the subject of much current research, and new findings suggest that management of both problems will incorporate more and more biological information in the coming years.


Adaptive modulation can improve the performance of OFDM systems significantly. In Power Line Communication systems, impulsive noise has to be considered due to its severe effect in the system performance. This paper deals with the effect of impulsive noise in adaptive power loading in OFDM-based PLC systems. We present a simple power loading algorithm with uniform bit allocation and nonuniform BER distribution and test it by means of computer simulations in a widely-accepted power line channel model impaired with impulsive noise. Closed form expressions for BER and power allocation in the presence of impulsive noise are presented. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a considerable improvement over conventional OFDM with uniform power allocation.


Despite their allegiances to 47 different nations, 87 ethnic groups, and countless football teams, Europeans have a lot in common. Most speak closely related languages that are members of the great Indo-European language family. A new study uses ancient DNA to suggest that a massive migration of herders from the east shaped the genomes of most living Europeans—and that these immigrants may have been the source of Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the mysterious ancestral tongue from which the more than 400 Indo-European languages sprang. Based on DNA gathered from dozens of ancient skeletons, the study, described last week in a preprint posted on the bioRxiv server, reveals when and where different groups of people arrived in Europe and interbred with each other. One surprise is that a migration of herders from the steppes of today's Russia and Ukraine about 4500 years ago significantly shifted the genetic makeup of today's Europeans. Many living Europeans retain traces of this influx, which the authors link to an ancient culture of steppe herders known as the Yamnaya. The team behind the study further suggests that the Yamnaya people spoke either PIE or an early form of Indo-European language and brought it to central Europe, coming down on one side of a long-standing debate about the origins of PIE. That idea is supported by a second paper published this week in Language , which uses changes in words instead of genes to claim that the steppelands were the likely homeland for the origins of many Indo-European languages. But some researchers aren't convinced and say the genetic data aren't strong enough to connect ancient people known by their DNA to any particular language.


Purpose: To investigate the association of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and systemic hypertension in patients referred to Farabi Eye Hospital Methods: In this case-control study in Farabi Eye Hospital. One hundred patients were selected randomly from POAG patients of glaucoma clinic, Farabi Eye Hospital. Control group consists of 100 patients, candidates for cataract surgery. History of any anti-hypertensive agent consumption was recorded for all participants. A complete set of systemic and ophthalmologic examinations, including several blood pressure measurements, was performed for each subject. Systolic blood pressure above 140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure above 90 mmHg and/or any history of antihypertensive usage in each group were considered as hypertensive status. Results: Diastolic blood pressure was significantly higher in POAG patients than control group (P=0.003). Systolic blood pressure was also higher in POAG patients than control group; however, the difference was only marginally significant (P=0.07). No association between POAG and hypertension was found. Conclusion: POAG was found to have a strong positive association with diastolic blood pressure in our patients.


This thesis examines the changing identity, spaces and fortunes of English public libraries in the context of 21st-century austerity and neoliberal reform of local government services. It interrogates what we can understand the practices and values of public libraries to mean at a time when the very notions and forms of what is 'public' and what is 'a library' are up for grabs.

Since their inception in the mid-nineteenth century, public libraries developed with a mission to enable social change through providing free and equal access to learning resources and knowledge spaces for all. This thesis asks how far public libraries can maintain this foundational identity as institutional agents of social change, while simultaneously being forced to change their organisational forms in present conditions of crisis. It reveals what is getting both lost and gained through this double valency of change and articulates how reading library crises at the local level sheds light on a wider national condition of crisis.

Based on multi-sited ethnography and interviews in London and Birmingham between 2013-2017, it examines what kinds of publics, values, and arguments for public value are produced and contested in these different library contexts. An analysis of the social and infrastructural relations between 'local' and 'central' forms of power and (counter)publics connects the case studies. A temporal skein also threads the cases together, using a conjunctural analysis approach to trace how historical moments of social and political change are embedded within emergent organisational and cultural transformations in the unfolding present.

Scholarship on the practices of public libraries is scarce in sociology. This thesis bridges this gap and develops existing knowledge with a lively ethnographic imagination, addressing the urgent need to articulate and make visible the multi-dimensional value of these quickly-disappearing public infrastructures. By exposing the practices that make and un-make the public library, the thesis argues that the state of the country's libraries can be read as a critical diagnostic barometer for the life and death of municipal England. It also argues that the public library's future survival as an enabler of social change depends upon mobilising political conversations across sectors and academic disciplines with a view to bridging activist and professional practice.


Subtitling is one of the modalities or modes of language transfer like dubbing, voice-over and audiodescription which are used in the area of screen translation or audiovisual translation (AVT). It has a fairly long history and is an ever-growing specialisation across the globe. It is firmly established in such European countries as Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway and Sweden, in Israel, in Australia, and in a few countries of Asia such as Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan and of South America such as Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. In Africa, subtitling is an emerging university discipline in the field of Translation Studies (TS). It is gaining ground in such countries as Cameroun, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Egypt, Zambia, and South Africa. While research in subtitling is far advanced in Europe and other parts of the world, Africa is lagging so far behind that it is always under-represented at international AVT conferences. It is against this background that the present paper deals with the status of subtitling as a new research genre in Africa. The purpose of this paper is thus to sensitise the students and other researchers in translation to the potentialities that subtitling offers in the African context. The hypothesis underlying the paper is that subtitling is both a burgeoning and captivating area of study and that it opens new avenues in AVT research.


Background: Hyperlipidemia is one of the leading causes of death in developed as well as in developing countries like Bangladesh. Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor for early development of atherosclerosis and its cardiovascular complications. The objective of the study was to evaluate antihyperlipidemic, antiathersclerotic and cardio-protective activities of the leaves (LE) and aerial root (AR) extracts of Heritiera fomes (Family: Malvaceae, local name: Sundari) which is a common species in the world's largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans, major part of which is located in Bangladesh. Methods and findings: Extracts of the powdered LE and AR of Heritiera fomes were obtained using methanol, and the extracts were applied at doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg of body weight, to treat the diabetic rats. Alloxan Monohydrate was used to induce diabetic condition in Sprague dawley rats. Metformin Hydrochloride was also used as a standard drug to treat the diabetic rats in order to compare the efficacy of the plant extracts with that of the standard drug. After 21 days of treatment, the animals were sacrificed and lipid profiles were estimated. The lipid levels were elevated in alloxan-induced diabetic rats as compared to the control rats. Total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL and VLDL were increased in diabetic rats and the HDL level was significantly (P<0.001) decreased. After treatment with Heritiera fomes (LE and AR), the lipid levels of diabetic rats were returned to normal level and this reduction was dose-dependent, whereas HDL level was significantly (P<0.001) increased. LE and AR extracts also reduced atherosclerotic index and increased cardio-protective index as compared to the diabetic rats. Conclusion: Conventional drugs available for the treatment of hyperlipidemia carry the risks that may lead to many adverse effects such as weight loss, hypoglycemia, muscle pain, muscle damage, liver damage etc. So, medicinal plants having antihyperlipidemic, antiathersclerotic and cardio-protective properties should be given importance to avoid the adverse effects associated with modern allopathic lipid-lowering drugs. This study demonstrated that Heritiera fomes can be an excellent medicinal plant for the treatment of hyperlipidaemia, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular complications.


Adipose tissue is an easily accessible source of stem cells for use in tissue regenerative medicine. In the literature, different methods have been used to stimulate acquisition of neuronal characteristics by adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC). Herein we study the growth and neuronal differentiation potential of ADSC seeded onto a porous polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that PCL can be used as a scaffold to support reconstruction of new nervous tissue using adipose stem cells. We have previously shown that undifferentiated ADSC adhere and grow on PCL. Herein we show that, after culture on PCL in neuronal differentiation medium, ADSC expressed molecular markers characteristic of neuronal cells (β-tubulin-III, Neuron-Specific Enolase (NSE), Nestin) and secrete brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF). This study suggests that PCL can be used as a scaffold to generate nervous tissue in vitro. PLC has excellent mechanical properties and a slow degradation rate. Moreover, on the basis of our results, we propose that PCL could be used for to make in vitro, scaffold coated with neuronal cells derived from Adipose stem cells (ADSC). Neuronal cells-coated PCL could find several applications to replace damaged area of the body; for example, a possible use could be the generation of nerves.


In the face of higher costs of operation and increasing pressures from customers for better service, the logistics organization must adapt to meet the challenge. An understanding of the factors that make organizations effective, and a knowledge of how these factors interrelate, are the first steps towards developing the system for a firm's customers. Logistics organizations must of necessity become more cost and service efficient. An understanding of the factors that affect a firm's organizational effectiveness, along with strategies to reveal weaknesses or deficiencies, can help create more efficient logistics systems. Organizational changes form the basis for procedural modifications that can reduce costs or improve service. Many firms have shown significant improvements in their logistics cost-service mix as a result of organizational changes. Logistics organizations are generally structured along the following lines: strategic versus operational, centralized versus decentralized and line versus staff, in various combinations. There is no single ideal organizational structure, but there are important elements that comprise an effective organization. In general, the factors contributing to organizational effectiveness can be categorized as organizational characteristics, environmental characteristics, employee characteristics, and managerial policies and practices.


In the Appalachian piedmont region of the eastern United States, the proliferation of milldams and their ponds greatly altered the landscape during early American settlement. Widespread upland deforestation coupled with other land clearing processes increased sedimentation behind the milldams. This sediment, referred to as legacy sediment, buried the original valley bottom topography, soils, plants, and deposits. The focus of this research is to reconstruct the Holocene landscape that existed in part of the Little Falls watershed, northern Maryland, before it was buried by millpond sediment. The stratigraphy, sedimentology, and spatial relations of sedimentary units exposed in stream banks along Little Falls, now a deeply incised channel due to 20-century milldam breaching, are the basis for this reconstruction. Radiocarbon dates from organic material in the sediment provide age control, while magnetic susceptibility indicates whether or not sediments were disturbed by anthropogenic activities. Historic and recent air photos, combined with light detecting and ranging (LIDAR) data, reveal the incision and subsequent stream bank erosion that have occurred since 1952. Five distinct sedimentary units overlying bedrock are exposed along Little Falls. From bottom (oldest) to top (youngest), these are: 1) late Pleistocene (?) cobbleto boulder-sized rubble of angular to sub-angular schist with some quartz; 2) a thin (0.2 to 0.6-m) layer of late Pleistocene sandy cobble gravel that consists predominantly of oxidized, sub-angular to subrounded quartz; 3) a Holocene organic-rich loam that contains wetland seeds (primarily sedges) and varies in thickness from 0 m near valley margins to 1 m in the lowest parts of the valley bottom; 4) a midto late-Holocene(?) light grey sandy loam with occasional angular pebbles and cobbles that fines upward and varies in thickness from 0 to ~1 m; and 5) historic laminated silt loam that coarsens upward to sandy loam. The quartz-rich sandy cobble gravel is older than ~10,500 yrs based on two radiocarbon dates of wood at the top of the gravel. The organic-rich loam is a wetland soil with radiocarbon ages that range from ~5000 yrs BP to 1700 AD. The sandy loam is rich in kaolinite and thickest near valley margins, supporting the interpretation that it is derived from upslope erosion of saprolite. In places, this transported saprolite merges down slope with the midto late-Holocene wetland soil. The laminated silt loam has a high magnetic susceptibility, indicating that the sediment has been extensively disturbed by anthropogenic activity. This sedimentary unit has in-filled the pre-existing topography, supporting the interpretation that it is mill pond sediment upstream of a milldam. In places, it overlies Holocene wetlands, whereas in others it overlies the saprolite-derived deposits that mantle the toes of hill slopes. The origin of the rubble layer between bedrock and the sandy cobble gravel is uncertain, but it is likely to be Pleistocene in age, and possibly related to full-glacial climatic conditions. It is proposed here that this rubble might have formed as a result of late Pleistocene para-glacial conditions, whereas latest Pleistocene peri-glacial conditions mobilized the overlying sandy cobble gravel. It also is proposed here that cyclical episodes of cold, dry conditions throughout the Holocene led to intermittent deposition of clay-rich sand derived from eroded saprolite along the toes of hill slopes. Intervening warm, wet intervals resulted in thin brown soils on these clayrich sands. Results of this work indicate that Holocene wetlands began to form and spread along the Little Falls valley bottom after the Younger Dryas (~12,900 to 11,500 yrs BP). For most of the Holocene, the Little Falls valley bottom was occupied by wetlands, and part of it remained a tussock sedge meadow for the entire midto late-Holocene.


Abstract: Tablet PCs are a relatively new format of computer, which seem to offer features which may be beneficial to schools. The uptake of Tablet PCs by schools has been somewhat limited, not least due to their greater cost than laptops of a 'similar' specification. This paper explores the key question of the extent to which schools should be investing in Tablet PCs, if at all, in preference to other formats of fully functional PCs, drawing on evidence from a Becta funded evaluation of the use of Tablet PCs in schools in England conducted in 2004-2005. The Computer Practice Framework was used to develop a set of questions which helped structure a meta-analysis of the data from 12 case studies that formed part of this evaluation. The methodology used and some limitations of the evaluation are outlined, and the key findings are described. The paper concludes that Tablet PCs do appear to offer significant potential to schools, though this potential was not being fully realised in most of the case study schools. A number of specific circumstances in which Tablet PCs do appear to be the most cost effective option are also identified. Editors: Ann Jones, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and Daisy Mwanza.
 Reviewers: Liz Masterman (Oxford), Paul Rudman (Glasgow), Giasemi Vavoula (Birmingham). Interactive demonstrations: A Microsoft tour of a Tablet PC is accessible from the Microsoft website [1].


Herein, the water oxidation activities of two cobalt complexes (cobalt(II) phthalocyanine and N,N′-bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamino cobalt(II)) were studied. The experiments showed that at pH 11, N,N′-bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamino cobalt(II) and cobalt(II) perchlorate were active for water oxidation. On the other hand, for cobalt(II) phthalocyanine as a stable complex, no water oxidation was observed. The role of nanosized particles containing Co, P, and O in the electrochemical oxidation of water by cobalt complexes was investigated by some methods. After the water oxidation reaction, both complexes and the cobalt salt were studied and a relationship between the decomposition of the cobalt complex and water oxidation was proposed. A critical point is that on the surface of the electrode, there are some areas without any detectable nanoparticles, and thus, the detection of such cobalt compounds on the surface of the electrode is not easy even by high-resolution visible spectroelectrochemistry and scanning electron microscopy. Such experiments showed that to propose a molecular mechanism for water oxidation in the presence of metal complexes, careful analysis is necessary to rule out the role of nanoparticles.


Skin collimation is an important tool for electron beam therapy that is used to minimize the penumbra when treating near critical structures, at extended treatment distances, with bolus, or using arc therapy. It is usually made of lead or lead alloy material that conforms to and is placed on patient surface. Presently, commercially available treatment-planning systems lack the ability to model skin collimation and to accurately calculate dose in its presence. The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the use of the pencil beam redefinition algorithm (PBRA) in calculating dose in the presence of skin collimation. Skin collimation was incorporated into the PBRA by terminating the transport of electrons once they enter the skin collimator. Both fixed- and arced-beam dose calculations for arced-beam geometries were evaluated by comparing them with measured dose distributions for 10- and 15-MeV beams. Fixed-beam dose distributions were measured in water at 88-cm source-to-surface distance with an air gap of 32 cm. The 6 x 20-cm2 field (dimensions projected to isocenter) had a 10-mm thick lead collimator placed on the surface of the water with its edge 5 cm inside the field's edge located at +10 cm. Arced-beam dose distributions were measured in a 13.5-cm radius polystyrene circular phantom. The beam was arced 90 degrees (-45 degrees to +45 degrees), and 10-mm thick lead collimation was placed at +/- 30 degrees. For the fixed beam at 10 MeV, the PBRA- calculated dose agreed with measured dose to within 2.0-mm distance to agreement (DTA) in the regions of high-dose gradient and 2.0% in regions of low dose gradient. At 15 MeV, the PBRA agreed to within a 2.0-mm DTA in the regions of high-dose gradient; however, the PBRA underestimated the dose by as much as 5.3% over small regions at depths less than 2 cm because it did not model electrons scattered from the edge of the skin collimation. For arced beams at 10 MeV, the agreement was 1-mm DTA in the high-dose gradient regions, and 2% in the low-dose gradient regions. For arced beams at 15 MeV, the agreement was 1 mm in the high-dose gradient regions, and in the low-dose gradient region at depth less than 2 cm, as much as 5% dose difference was observed. This study demonstrated the ease with which skin collimation can be incorporated into the PBRA. The good agreement of PBRA calculated with measured dose shows that the PBRA is likely sufficiently accurate for clinical use in the presence of skin collimation for electron arc therapy. To further improve the accuracy of the PBRA in regions having significant electrons scattered from the edge of the skin collimation would require transporting the electrons through the lead skin collimation near its edges.


The existence of budgetary slack permeates every level of private sector organisations. Employees (i.e., budget makers) usually request excessive budgetary resources in the budgeting process. Due to its dysfunctional nature, existing researchers had extensively examined the relationship between budgetary slack and employees' performance. This study adopted a survey questionnaire approach to examine the relationship between determinants of psychological ownership and employees' intention to create slack in budgeting. There were 475 budget makers from private sector organisations in the Klang Valley, Malaysia who participated in this study through a questionnaire survey. Preliminary data analysis was performed using normality, multi-collinearity, variance inflation index (VIF), common method variance, and reliability analysis. Multiple regression analysis was also applied to investigate the relationships of each dimension of employees' psychological ownership on budgetary slack. This paper is considered a pioneer empirical study that investigates the determinants of psychological ownership on budgetary slack among budget makers from the psychological perspective in the context of private sector organisations in Malaysia, where slack activities in budgeting existed.


This paper investigates the causal effect of corruption on entrepreneurship. We use staggered anticorruption investigations in China as exogenous shocks to conduct difference-in-differences estimation and find that the country's anticorruption campaign has a sizeable positive effect on entrepreneurship, especially in urban areas, areas with high levels of trust, and areas with short verdict processes after investigation. We discuss four plausible mechanisms for the positive effect of the anticorruption campaign: reduced rent seeking, improved government quality, technology spillover from innovation, and the easing of financial constraints for non-state-owned enterprises. Our results are robust to a battery of tests based on different specifications and alternative measures. Overall, this study provides a timely evaluation of the importance of anticorruption efforts in a typical emerging market.


In this paper, energy-based localization methods for source localization in sensor networks are examined. The focus is on least-squares-based approaches due to a good tradeoff between performance and complexity. A suite of methods are developed and compared. First, two previously proposed methods (quadratic elimination and one step) are shown to yield the same location estimate for a source. Next, it is shown that, as the errors which perturb the least-squares equations are nonidentically distributed, it is more appropriate to consider weighted least-squares methods, which are observed to yield significant performance gains over the unweighted methods. Finally, a new weighted direct least-squares formulation is presented and shown to outperform the previous methods with much less computational complexity. Unlike the quadratic elimination method, the weighted direct least-squares method is amenable to a correction technique which incorporates the dependence of unknown parameters leading to further performance gains. For a sufficiently large number of samples, simulations show that the weighted direct solution with correction (WDC) can be more accurate with significantly less computational complexity than the maximum-likelihood estimator and approaches Cramer-Rao bound (CRB). Furthermore, it is shown that WDC attains CRB for the case of a white source.


Abstract Because they do not require sacrificing animals, body condition scores (BCS), thickness of rump fat (MAXFAT), and other similar predictors of body fat have advanced estimating nutritional condition of ungulates and their use has proliferated in North America in the last decade. However, initial testing of these predictors was too limited to assess their reliability among diverse habitats, ecotypes, subspecies, and populations across the continent. With data collected from mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), elk (Cervus elaphus), and moose (Alces alces) during initial model development and data collected subsequently from free-ranging mule deer and elk herds across much of the western United States, we evaluated reliability across a broader range of conditions than were initially available. First, to more rigorously test reliability of the MAXFAT index, we evaluated its robustness across the 3 species, using an allometric scaling function to adjust for differences in animal size. We then evaluated MAXFAT, rump body condition score (rBCS), rLIVINDEX (an arithmetic combination of MAXFAT and rBCS), and our new allometrically scaled rump-fat thickness index using data from 815 free-ranging female Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain elk (C. e. roosevelti and C. e. nelsoni) from 19 populations encompassing 4 geographic regions and 250 free-ranging female mule deer from 7 populations and 2 regions. We tested for effects of subspecies, geographic region, and captive versus free-ranging existence. Rump-fat thickness, when scaled allometrically with body mass, was related to ingesta-free body fat over a 38–522-kg range of body mass (r2  =  0.87; P < 0.001), indicating the technique is remarkably robust among at least the 3 cervid species of our analysis. However, we found an underscoring bias with the rBCS for elk that had >12% body fat. This bias translated into a difference between subspecies, because Rocky Mountain elk tended to be fatter than Roosevelt elk in our sample. Effects of observer error with the rBCS also existed for mule deer with moderate to high levels of body fat, and deer body size significantly affected accuracy of the MAXFAT predictor. Our analyses confirm robustness of the rump-fat index for these 3 species but highlight the potential for bias due to differences in body size and to observer error with BCS scoring. We present alternative LIVINDEX equations where potential bias from rBCS and bias due to body size are eliminated or reduced. These modifications improve the accuracy of estimating body fat for projects intended to monitor nutritional status of herds or to evaluate nutrition's influence on population demographics.


Trust Management (TM) systems are frameworks for managing security in decentralized environments. However computing the trust value is a challenge when the source entity has no experience of previous direct interaction with the sink. A popular way to estimate the trust value in this case is trust propagation. It suggests evaluating the trust value between two nodes based on the information received from intermediate nodes between them. As we often use a number between 0 and 1 to represent the trust value, the Iterative Multiplication Strategy (IMS) is usually used to estimate the value of propagated trust. In this paper we introduce RTBIMS, an accuracy-enhanced version of IMS. In our algorithm, we first calculate recommendation trust for each intermediate node based on its trustworthiness in judgments and similarity between its views and the source ones. We then use these values in the multiplication chain. We have examined RTBIMS on a popular trust dataset (Advogato) and the results show that its accuracy in evaluating trust is much higher than the basic IMS.


This study investigates the types and frequency of supportive moves in Yemeni Arabic as used by female speakers in the same gender and cross gender. The respondents of the study were 336 undergraduate students from Sana'a University, aged 20-23. All of the participants are relatively homogeneous in terms of their cultural background. The data were collected by using Discourse Completion Test (DCT).The analysis of the data is based on Blum-Kulka et al's (1989) CCSARP (Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Project) coding scheme. The results showed that Yemeni females showed greater use of external supportive moves when interacting with females more than to males. Regarding the use of external supportive moves according to direct head act of requests and indirect head of requests, in general, female respondents in F-F, F-M interactions have a great tendency to employ external supportive moves with direct and indirect head act of requests. In other words, it was observed that female respondents convey polite request by using external supportive moves regardless of directness or indirectness.


Currently, water utilities are facing monetary crises to maintain and expand services to meet the current as well as the future demands. Standard practice in pipeline infrastructure asset management is to collect data and predict the condition of pipelines using models and tools. Water utilities want to be proactive in fixing or replacing the pipes as fixing-when-it-fails ideology leads to increased cost and can affect environmental quality and societal health. There is a number of modeling techniques available for assessing the condition of the pipelines, but there is a massive shortage of methods to check the reliability of the results obtained using different modeling techniques. It is mainly because of the limited data one utility collects and absence of piloting of these models at various water utilities. In general, water utilities feel confident about their in-house condition prediction and failure models but are willing to utilize a reliable methodology which can overcome the issues related to the validation of the results. This study presents the methodology that can enhance the reliability of model results for water pipeline performance analysis which can be used to parallel the output of the real system with confidence. The proposed methodology was checked using the dataset of two large water utilities and was found that it can potentially help water utilities gain confidence in their analyses results by statistically signifying the results. METHODOLOGY TO ENHANCE THE RELIABILITY OF DRINKING WATER PIPELINE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS


Dewey rejects any idea of a universal good or a supreme good in his ethics. The reason is that the good is realized only in the individual situation. Thus only the individual good is real and has adverbial meaning. The idea of relatively universal good is just an idea, generalized from the individual good through the intellectual action. The idea of universal good is recognized as an instrument in solving the individual condition. Because a new situation is occurring at all times, the real good is determined in the continuing conduct of an individual situation. Good, thus, is determined in the continuing growth and not in the fixed condition. Thomas Aquinas explains good and evil in terms of human nature. The human nature as an image of God [Imago Dei] is not changed ontologically but changed at the phenomenal dimension of self-realization in time and space, that is, environment. Therefore in the theory of ethics of Thomas Aquinas, natural law [lex naturalis], the highest (supreme) good, ultimately guide human ethics. I wish to use Aquinas to point out the weak points of Dewey's ethics. I will also appeal to the universal elements of Confucianism and Buddhism.


This article reveals the problems of creating a monitoring system to assess the ecological state of the environment of the selected area. An information model of the system has been developed, which takes into account the parameters of air, surface water, and soil pollution. The main components of the system, including the logical model of the database, have been designed and implemented. To assess the state of the environment according to the selected pollution parameters, the fuzzy logic model is constructed.


Abstract The 2021–2030 Neglected Tropical Diseases road map calls for intensified cross-cutting approaches. By moving away from vertical programming, the integration of platforms and intervention delivery aims to improve efficiency, cost-effectiveness and programme coverage. Drawing on the direct experiences of the authors, this article outlines key elements for successful integrated surveys, the challenges encountered, as well as future opportunities and threats to such surveys. There are multiple advantages. Careful planning should ensure that integration does not result in a process that is less efficient, more expensive or that generates data driving less reliable decisions than conducting multiple disease-specific surveys.


Though the details of face-to-face talk and interaction have been studied in Anglo American and British courtrooms, few attempts have been made to extend similar analyses to the study of contemporary indigenous and (post)colonial legal institutions that continue to employ legal processes informed by both Anglo-style adversarial notions of law and ''local'' notions of law, culture, and tradition. Using methods of legal discourse analysis and language ideology studies, this article investigates how interlocutors in a hearing before the courts of the Hopi Indian Nation construct discourses of tradition and Anglo American jurisprudence in multiple and competing ways, and for significant sociopolitical effect. An argument is thus made for attending to the microdetails of sociolegal interactions as an important site for exploring the complex articulations between the contemporary lives of indigenous peoples and the laws with which they are imbricated.


This article examines the influence of internal factors (such as decision-making processes, political culture, and the connection between government and society) on Russia's foreign policy toward the European Union in the context of neoclassical realism. Excessive personalization and a closed decision-making structure do not encourage effective reactions to emerging challenges and affect the possibility of cooperation in the post-Soviet space. Institutional mechanisms and their impact on a country's foreign policy are extremely important in the theory of neoclassical realism. This article also analyses EU-Russia relations over major periods and the role of internal factors in Russian policy.Despite an orientation toward long-term cooperation between the EU and Russia, a contradiction remains between Russia's over-centralized decision-making structure and the EU's decentralized system. In addition, political leaders and elites play less of a role in the EU, where there is a real separation of powers and competencies. These factors hamper EU-Russia cooperation because Russia prefers to establish bilateral relations with each state. As a result of all these factors, long-term relations may be at risk. However, the decentralization of power, increased efficiency of political institutions and the active participation of civil society will improve the level of mutual trust and overcome the current issues in EU-Russia relations.


Caralluma europaea have been used recently as a remedy in Morocco folk medicine, health foods and in numerous other purposes. In the present study, the antioxidant activity of C. Europaea roots extracts from morocco cultivar Zouiatcheikh harvested, using solvents of increasing polarity (hexane, chloroform, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, acetone, ethanol and methanol) was evaluated using DPPH radical-scavenging assay. The total ascorbic acid, pigment and anthocyanins as well as total phenolics and flavonoids from roots of C. Europaea cultivar were also evaluated. The extracts were found to have different levels in antioxidant proprieties in the test solvent used. The efficiency of the solvents used to extract phenolic compounds from the C. Europaea roots varied considerably. Total polyphenol contents were significantly higher in methanol extract than chloroform and ethanol fractions (p<0.05). Ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts in roots was found to be rich in flavonoids (834.7 and 844.2 CEQ/100g DW, respectively). No relationship was observed in the potential antioxidant activity and total phenolic levels of the extracts mean that further investigation on the antioxidant activity of C. Europaea roots was needed.


STUDY OBJECTIVES: To assess the poliomyelitis trend, including study of the epidemiological features, and to correlate this with the immunisation coverage of infants. DESIGN: Three annual lameness surveys in children aged 0-60 months employing cluster sampling methods and a series of five cross sectional surveys of immunisation coverage in children aged 12-23 months of age were undertaken. SETTING: Pondicherry, India, 1988-92. SUBJECTS: More than 10,000 children in the age group of 0-60 months took part in the three annual lameness surveys and samples of 210 children aged 12-23 months were covered each year in immunisation coverage surveys. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Altogether 50 of 11,461, 24 of 10,093, and 17 of 11,218 children surveyed during 1989, 1990, and 1991 respectively had become lame as a result of poliomyelitis, giving prevalences of 4.4, 2.4, and 1.5 per 1000 children for the three surveys. The corrected prevalences of poliomyelitis were 5.9, 3.2, and 2.0 per 1000 children during 1989, 1990, and 1991 respectively. The proportion of cases aged up to 36 months fell from 48% in 1989 to 12.5% in 1990 and 6% in 1991. The age at onset was less than 1 year in most. The median age at onset was 10.7 months. About 54% of the affected children had received three doses of oral poliomyelitis vaccine (OPV) before the onset of paralysis. In 1988 immunisation coverage for the third dose of OPV was 91% and in 1992 it was 97.6%. The drop out rate for the first versus the third dose of OPV fell from 6.3 in 1988 to 1.9% in 1992. CONCLUSION: Three successive annual lameness surveys showed that poliomyelitis was declining between 1989 and 1991. Five immunisation coverage surveys conducted from 1988 to 1992 showed high initial coverage followed by an improvement in the form of almost universal coverage for OPV.


miRNA have been known to regulate diverse cellular and molecular functions. In the earlier study, we have reported that adipocytes differentiated from human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) on 72hr chronic insulin (CI) treatment exhibit insulin resistance (IR). Present study has further explored above model to investigate the role of early expressed miRNAs within human adipocytes to modulate differential adipokine expression as observed during IR. Our results highlight that miR-876-3p regulate glucose homeostasis and its dysregulation lead to IR. We found that miR-876-3p level is a critical determinant of adiponectin expression by virtue of its target within adiponectin 3'UTR. Regulatory effect of miR-876-3p impacts crosstalk between adiponectin and insulin signaling. Rosiglitazone treatment in CI induced IR adipocytes drastically reduced miR-876-3p expression and increased adiponectin level. In line with this, lentiviral mediated inhibition of miR-876-3p expression ameliorated CI and high fat diet (HFD) induced insulin resistance in adipocytes differentiated from hMSC and C57BL/6 mice. Our findings thus suggest that modulating miR-876-3p expression could provide novel opportunities for therapeutic intervention of obesity-associated metabolic syndrome.


[Extract] India, a nation with the second largest population in the world with a population of 1.22 billion (India's Population, 2012). is a country of enormous diversity not just in terms of culture but also standard of living, technological sophistication, extent of coverage of government programs, urbanization and industrialization and the quality of service sector. There are striking contrasts among different states, regions and even within each state with reference to quality of life, prevalence of morbidity and access to basic health care including mental health care. Even though India is characterized as one of the world's largest industrial nations, most of the negative characteristics of poor and developing countries arc found in India too. According to the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (2011), the population is predominantly rural (68.84%) and one-third of India's population (roughly equivalent to the entire population of the United States) lives below the poverty line. India being home to one-third of the world's poor people (Wikipedia). Besides, there is a continuous migration of rural people into urban slums creating major health and economic problems.


: An RP-HPLC method for determination and detection of sotalol hydrochloride is described. The baseline separation was achieved on ODS column within 15 minutes by using 0.1% HAc-acetonitrile (80:20, V/V) as mobile phase at a flow rate 1.5 mL/min, and the wavelength was set at 227 nm. The linear range was 5-45 mg/L (r = 0.9991) and the limit of detection was 1 mg/L(S/N > 3). The intra-day and inter-day RSDs were 0.20% and 0.93% respectively.


For decades, physicists had claimed that the detection of gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime set off by cataclysmic events deep in space—would usher in a new type of astronomy and reveal new wonders. Last week, the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) delivered on that promise, as physicists announced the first detection of a gravitational signal—and, with it, a stellar surprise. The waves came from a pair of black holes spiraling together and colliding in space 1.3 billion light-years from Earth. Computer models showed that each was about 30 times as massive as our sun. That's about twice as massive as they should be, according to current theories of how black holes form from stars. Physicists hope more waves detected in the next few years will help them explain what is going on. LIGO should also provide new, rigorous tests of Einstein's general theory of relativity, and—working with other gravitational wave detectors due to come online in the near future—pinpoint precisely where in the sky the waves are coming from.


SUMMARY The Woo Dale Limestones Formation is the oldest of the exposed shelf limestone units on the Derbyshire Block. It occurs in four inliers: Peak Forest, Wye Valley, Hartington and Alstonfield. Three members are recognised; the lowest, the Vincent House Member, is present throughout the area and consists of packstones and grainstones with a diverse bioclast assemblage. It represents deposition in a shallow open shelf environment. The Topley Pike Member comprises principally mudstones and wackestones with a restricted fauna. Fenstrate fabrics, desiccation cracks and pseudoanticlines indicate deposition and early diagenesis in a tidal flat environment. The uppermost member, the Dam Dale Member consists of dark-coloured packstones and grainstones with a bioclast assemblage intermediate in diversity between the Topley Pike and Vincent House Members. It represents deposition in a partially restricted lagoon. Tidal flat deposits occur higher in the sequence to the south (Wye Valley, Hartington) than in the north (Peak Forest). This is thought to indicate that tidal flats migrated roughly southwards with time as a result of progradation. The contact of the Woo Dale Limestones with the overlying Bee Low Limestones appears conformable at Peak Forest but unconformable at Wye Valley and Hartington. The relationship at Alstonfield is uncertain.


Recent studies have indicated that Spanish-speaking Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients perform more poorly than English-speaking patients on the Digit Span subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised (WAIS-R). In the current investigation, the performance of English-speaking and Spanish-speaking Alzheimer's disease patients ( N = 119) and normal elderly controls ( N = 91) were compared with regards to their capacity to remember digit strings of different lengths. Subjects were administered the standard version of the Digit Span subtest of the WAIS-R as well as a modification of the test (chunking task) in which the numbers were presented in pairs (e.g. 27, 41, 46, 12, etc.). Results indicated that both English-speaking groups, AD patients as well as normal controls, had significantly higher scores on all aspects of the standard Digit Span tasks relative to their Spanish-speaking counterparts (forward, backward, and total scores). In contrast, English-speaking and Spanish-speaking AD groups did not differ with regards to their performance on the two digit chunking task forward score. Similar performance on all aspects of the chunking task was evidenced in the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking normal elderly control groups. These findings have important implications for the development of more culture and language appropriate cognitive test batteries for AD patients and the normal elderly.


A voluntary organization called the Green December Movement was established in December 1983 to make better use of the resources available at the community level for the prevention and reduction of drug abuse in the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan. As a result, two major treatment and rehabilitation centres have been set up, one in Peshawar and another in Mardan, that provide free treatment for drug addicts, including those from other parts of the province. To cope with the recent increase in heroin abuse in the province, the Green December Movement has succeeded in involving both men and women in community efforts to reduce drug abuse. Emphasis has been placed on the involvement of religious leaders in drug abuse prevention activities, particularly in alerting the population to drug problems, as well as in providing spiritual and psychosocial support for detoxified addicts, which helps them to stay away from drugs. The Green December Movement has recently gained national status, and branch offices have been established in Karachi and Quetta. In addition, the Green December Movement provides drug information adapted for various target groups and encourages students, teachers and out-of-school youth to participate in community activities aimed at preventing drug abuse. To this end, the Green December Movement closely co-operates with government agencies and non-governmental organizations concerned with drug problems in the community and has undertaken research on various aspects of the nature and extent of drug abuse, as well as on its prevention and treatment. An evaluation of the Green December Movement activities carried out so far has revealed positive results.


This article joins with others in this special issue to examine the evolution of our understanding of how the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic impacted policy ideas and routines across a wide variety of sectors of government activity. Did policy ideas and routines transform as a result of the pandemic or were they merely a continuation of the status quo ante? If they did transform, are the transformations temporary in nature or likely to lead to significant, deep and permanent reform to existing policy paths and trajectories? As this article sets out, the literature on policy punctuations has evolved and helps us understand the impact of COVID-19 on policy-making but tends to conflate several distinct aspects of path trajectories and deviations under the general concept of "critical junctures" which muddy reflections and findings. Once the different possible types of punctuations have been clarified, however, the result is a set of concepts related to path creation and disruption—especially that of "path clearing"—which are better able to provide an explanation of the kinds of policy change to be expected to result from the impact of events such as the 2019 coronavirus pandemic.


UNLABELLED
Activation of fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR) is a common oncogenic event. Little is known about the determinants of sensitivity to FGFR inhibition and how these may vary between different oncogenic FGFRs. Using parallel RNA interference (RNAi) genetic screens, we show that the EGF receptor (EGFR) limits sensitivity to FGFR inhibition in FGFR3-mutant and -translocated cell lines, but not in other FGFR-driven cell lines. We also identify two distinct mechanisms through which EGFR limits sensitivity. In partially FGFR3-dependent lines, inhibition of FGFR3 results in transient downregulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling that is rescued by rapid upregulation of EGFR signaling. In cell lines that are intrinsically resistant to FGFR inhibition, EGFR dominates signaling via repression of FGFR3, with EGFR inhibition rescued by delayed upregulation of FGFR3 expression. Importantly, combinations of FGFR and EGFR inhibitors overcome these resistance mechanisms in vitro and in vivo. Our results illustrate the power of parallel RNAi screens in identifying common resistance mechanisms to targeted therapies.

SIGNIFICANCE
Our data identify a novel therapeutic approach to the treatment of FGFR3-mutant cancer, emphasizing the potential of combination approaches targeting both FGFR3 and EGFR. Our data extend the role of EGFR in mediating resistance to inhibitors targeting a mutant oncogene, showing that EGFR signaling can repress mutant FGFR3 to induce intrinsic resistance to FGFR targeting.


In recent years, developing countries under fiscal pressure have increasing recognized significant weaknesses in their intergovernmental mechanisms for financing local infrastructure. Many countries are in the process of rationalizing poorly coordinated and subjectively allocated grant systems as well as loans. Such efforts, however, are typically undertaken independently of each other, often providing conflicting incentives for local fiscal behavior. I argue that the reform of grant and loan mechanisms should be explicitly linked to improve the overall effectiveness of the infrastructure finance system. The potential complications involved in designing grant-loan linkages, however, are considerable. I illustrate some key issues by examining the water sector in Indonesia, concluding with suggestions for how to think about creating such linkages in other sectors and countries.


Objective: Breast cancer comprise approximately one third of malignant cases in women and is considered as the most common invasive condition in women at an age range of 15-54 years and as the second most prevalent cause of mortality at an age range of 55-74 years. Tumor inhibiting factor p53 is a vital homeostatic regulator and its inactivation at the related gene or molecule could lead to tumor growth and development in various tissues. Therefore, in this research study it was tried to evaluate the diagnostic methods Ag-NOR and p53 immunohistochemistry in malignancy of mammary gland using cytochemical staining methods and its relationship with tumor grade. Materials and Methods: In this research study, 50 referred breast specimens to Deaprtment of Pathology (Sina Hospital, Hamedan) were studied. They were processed as usual and 3 micrometer sections were prepared from related blocks. Then, staining methods for nucleolus organizing regions (Ag-NOR) and p53 immunohistochemistry were applied. Out of these specimens, 41 had malignancy (40 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma and 1 case of invasive lobular carcinoma) and 9 cases were normal. The latter cases were compared with malignant ones. Tumor grade in studied individuals was I (3 cases; 7.3%), II (23 cases; 56.1%), and III (15 cases; 36.6%) respectively. Results: Statistical analysis of data showed that there is only a significant difference regarding frequency distribution of cluster shape and there is no such difference for satellite shape, satellite size, and cluster size. In addition, staining intensity for p53+, p53++, and p53+++did not show any significant difference in various grades of the disease. Using Spearman regression analysis, it was found out that there was a relationship between p53 negative and p53+ (r = 0.723) (p<0.01) and between p53+ and p53++ (r = 0.78). Furthermore, it was found out that a higher expression of p53 protein is negatively correlated with darklystained granules using silver nitrate method. Conclusion: These findings showed that higher expression of p53 protein is negatively correlated with darkly-stained granules using Ag-NOR method and this may indicate its antitumor activity. It appears that this method is an essential tool for evaluation of normal and malignant cases of breast tissue regarding its replication pattern and intensity and expression of those chromosomal segments which are involved in encoding of ribosomal RNA.


Face recognition is one of the most addressed pattern recognition problems in recent studies due to its importance in security applications and human computer interfaces. After decades of research in the face recognition problem, feasible technologies are becoming available. However, there is still room for improvement for challenging cases. As such, face recognition problem still attracts researchers from image processing, pattern recognition and computer vision disciplines. Although there exists other types of personal identification such as fingerprint recognition and retinal/iris scans, all these methods require the collaboration of the subject. However, face recognition differs from these systems as facial information can be acquired without collaboration or knowledge of the subject of interest. Feature extraction is a crucial issue in face recognition problem and the performance of the face recognition systems depend on the reliability of the features extracted. Previously, several dimensionality reduction methods were proposed for feature extraction in the face recognition problem. In this thesis, in addition to dimensionality reduction methods used previously for face recognition problem, we have implemented recently proposed dimensionality reduction methods on a patch-based face recognition system. Patch-based face recognition is a recent method which uses the idea of analyzing face images locally instead of using global representation, in order to reduce the effects of illumination changes and partial occlusions. Feature fusion and decision fusion are two distinct ways to make use of the extracted local features. Apart from the well-known decision fusion methods, a novel approach for calculating weights for the weighted sum rule is proposed in this thesis. On two separate databases, we have conducted both feature fusion and decision fusion experiments and presented recognition accuracies for different dimensionality reduction and normalization methods. Improvements in recognition accuracies are shown and superiority of decision fusion over feature fusion is advocated. Especially in the more challenging AR database, we obtain significantly better results using decision fusion as compared to conventional methods and feature fusion methods.


Background: The purposes of this simulation study were to evaluate the stresses in the roots of endodontically treated molars with extensive coronal tissue loss which were restored by endocrowns (all-in-one core and crown) and traditional crowns with post-cores, during masticatory simulation using finite element analysis. Methods: A mesio-distal cross-section of a lower right first molar was digitized and used to create 2-dimensional models of the teeth and supporting tissue; different crown designs, viz ., endocrown with 2 mm occlusal clearance, endocrown with 4 mm occlusal clearance and post-core crown; different crown materials, viz ., zirconia (Zr) and lithia-disilicate reinforced glass ceramic (LDRGC), and different post and core materials, viz. , glass fiber (GF), stainless steel (SS) and metal cast (MC). A simulated 100 N vertical occlusal load was applied to the distal marginal ridge of the crown. Results: The root canal inner wall stresses of SS post (maximum 33.7 MPa) and MC post (maximum 36.3 MPa) were higher than that of GF post (maximum 19.1 MPa) and endocrown (maximum 8.9 MPa). Conclusion: Endocrown showed reduced stresses at its root canal inner wall but increased stresses at the coronal cavity inner wall when compared to post-core crowns.


The author briefly describes the development of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Guidelines for the transport of animals by sea. The paper provides details about the membership of the OIE Ad hoc Group on the sea transport of animals, the terms of reference of this group, the process followed and the consultations that were undertaken in developing and reviewing the guidelines. An outline of the guideline contents is also provided. In addition, the author outlines the programme of research undertaken into the causes of sheep and cattle deaths during sea transport from Australia--the world's largest exporter of sheep and cattle by sea. The main findings of these investigations are summarised.


Introduction: Medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of disease in many countries. Traditional medicine has a long history in Iran. Medicinal plants are used to treat some of cancer symptoms, such as pain, which is common with all kinds of cancers. The aim of this study was to explore the medicinal plants prescribed by the traditional herbal sellers in North of Iran, Gorgan. Materials and Methods: The study was undertaken in Golestan province in the North of Iran. We conducted open interviews with all of traditional sellers of medicinal plants in Gorgan. All of the interviews were tape recorded. The data were coded and categorized as it is usual in qualitative methods. Results: The current survey revealed that thirteen medicinal plants and also some of the vegetables and fruits such as carrot, tomato and garlic are prescribed by the traditional sellers for the cancer remedy. Rosemary, Borage, Salix aegyptiaca are wellknown plants for pain remedy of cancer. Milk Thistle, Common Corncokle, Fumitory, Milfoil, Quercus, and Rubra also are recommended for a variety of cancers, such as skin and stomach cancer. Conclusion: The data indicated that the use of herbal remedies is very common. Their use seems to be cultural, rather than attributable to decreased access to health care. Most herbs used pose no threat to health. In some cases, remedies may be blended with traditional medical treatments to ensure better patient compliance.


Traditional methods for salt classification consist of choosing a set of attributes that are sensitive to the characteristics of salt bodies and training a classification algorithm to discriminate between salt and other geological structures. Convolutional neural networks have the advantage of combining attribute extraction and classification in one network. This allows both the attributes and classification to be trainable for the given application. In this work we show how this technique can be applied to salt classification in seismic datasets. The results shows that training a classifier on one labelled inline slice is sufficient to classify other slices in the same dataset.


I explore the sample size in qualitative research that is required to reach theoretical saturation. I conceptualize a population as consisting of sub-populations that contain different types of information sources that hold a number of codes. Theoretical saturation is reached after all the codes in the population have been observed once in the sample. I delineate three different scenarios to sample information sources: "random chance," which is based on probability sampling, "minimal information," which yields at least one new code per sampling step, and "maximum information," which yields the largest number of new codes per sampling step. Next, I use simulations to assess the minimum sample size for each scenario for systematically varying hypothetical populations. I show that theoretical saturation is more dependent on the mean probability of observing codes than on the number of codes in a population. Moreover, the minimal and maximal information scenarios are significantly more efficient than random chance, but yield fewer repetitions per code to validate the findings. I formulate guidelines for purposive sampling and recommend that researchers follow a minimum information scenario.


modes of thinking, by their very nature; they employ reflective thought and analysis more than the first hand perceptual impressions of criticism. Critics and others accustomed to their language of sensibility might object that theoretical concepts are too abstract for discussing dance. But thisfor discussing dance. But this objection applies inappropriately the standards for evaluating criticism to theoretical writing. Instead of establishing criteria for good aesthetics, philosophy, and theory of dance, these writers cry, "abstract" and "removed" when they should be concerned with clarity of concepts, adequacy of explanatory hypotheses, appropriate principles of theory, the quality of reflective thinking, the rigor of reasoning, the adequacy of research, and the appropriateness of research methodologies to particular topics. Fundamental deficiencies in these areas will go unnoticed if the critical examination of concepts of theory remains at the lowest level of name calling. Dance writers and their readers should not confuse the necessity for remaining in direct contact with the facts of dance experience, which is incumbent upon every


Purpose-The purpose of this research is to find out and explore the online business transactions implemented by the Tokopedia application and online business transactions in the Islamic perspective on the Tokopedia application case study.
Methods- This study is a qualitative research method, namely by using the Library Search (Literature Review) field by taking references from several books and sources from websites or the internet.
Findings- From the results of this study, it can be concluded that the transaction of buying and selling online on the Tokopedia application is perfectly legal in Islamic law. As long as there is no element of deception or fraud or the desired item is incomplete or defective (not as expected) that occurs during the transaction process. Even if this happens, the responsible party is obliged to return all buyer's money and the sale and purchase is considered invalid because it does not meet the trading agreement.


No-flow underfill has been invented and practised in the industry for a few years. However, due to the interfering of silica fillers with solder joint formation, most no-flow underfills are not filled with silica fillers and hence have a high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), which is undesirable for high reliability. In a novel invention, a double-layer no-flow underfill is implemented to the flip-chip process and allows fillers to be incorporated into the no-flow underfill. The effects of bottom layer underfill thickness, bottom layer underfill viscosity, and reflow profile on the solder wetting properties are investigated in a design of experiment (DOE) using quartz chips. It is found that the thickness and viscosity of the bottom layer underfill are essential to the wetting of the solder bumps. CSP components are assembled using the double-layer no-flow underfill process. Silica fillers of different sizes and weight percentages are incorporated into the upper layer underfill. With high viscosity bottom layer underfill, up to 40 wt% fillers can be added into the upper layer underfill and do not interfere with solder joint formation.


This paper presents a comprehensive method for assessing the technical condition of water treatment plants as part of a set of procedures for assessing the entire water supply system. The proposed method of water treatment plant assessment is based on a system of technical indicators and factors. Based on these, the assessment of the technical condition is carried out as a two-stage process, where the evaluator first determines discrete values of the factors. The point score given to these factors is then aggregated and then used to calculate the values of individual indicators, indicating the overall condition of the water treatment plant. The proposed set of assessment indicators therefore includes two types of indicators: structural–technical and technological–operational. The paper includes a case study demonstrating the use of the proposed technology to assess the technical condition of an actual water treatment plant. This methodology makes it possible to highlight critical parts of the system and, as the case may be, prioritise the elements in terms of their technical condition, which can then be used in the repair and reconstruction planning process.


Heart failure (HF) is a major health disparity that accounts for a vast number of hospitalizations as well as re-hospitalizations. In 2006. the estimated direct cost of HF in the United States (US) was 29.6 billion dollars (American Heart Association [AHA], 2005). HF is not only costly but it also accounts for approximately 287,000 deaths in the US each year (AHA). Significant improvements in patient outcomes are evident when patients are referred to HF clinics. From the literature it appears that referred clients have less frequent re-hospitalizations in addition to improved quality of life. Nurse-led outpatient HF clinics offer behavioral specific knowledge necessary to engage in health promotion. Due to the complexity of the disease, it is appropriate to refer clients diagnosed with HF to nurse-led outpatient HF clinics. The purpose of this project was to validate and possibly expand knowledge about specific aspects of the nursing role in particular that contribute to improved outcomes in nurse-led HF clinics. A nurse interview and nurse-client observations were performed with specific emphasis on the role of the nurse. Scores were assessed on five clients using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure questionnaire. Each demonstrated improvement on questionnaire responses during the six month period, with scores varying in improvement from I 0-12 points at the six month mark. Statistics related to re-hospitalization rates and ER visits were provided for the program evaluation by the clinic. The HF clinic demonstrated a 30 day rehospitalization rate less than the national average of 24o/o, with a percentage of 18.6o/o. Components of a successful program were observed during an evaluation of the program. Recommendations and implications for advanced practice are discussed.


ABSTRACT The factors that regulate the contraction of the CD8 T cell response and the magnitude of the memory cell population against localized mucosal infections such as influenza are important for generation of efficient vaccines but are currently undefined. In this study, we used a mouse model of influenza to demonstrate that the absence of gamma interferon (IFN-γ) or IFN-γ receptor 1 (IFN-γR1) leads to aberrant contraction of antigen-specific CD8 T cell responses. The increased accumulation of the effector CD8 T cell population was independent of viral load. Reduced contraction was associated with an increased fraction of CD8 T cells expressing the interleukin-7 receptor (IL-7R) at the peak of the response, resulting in enhanced numbers of memory/memory precursor cells in IFN-γ−/− and IFN-γR−/− compared to wild-type (WT) mice. Blockade of IL-7 within the lungs of IFN-γ−/− mice restored the contraction of influenza virus-specific CD8 T cells, indicating that IL-7R is important for survival and is not simply a consequence of the lack of IFN-γ signaling. Finally, enhanced CD8 T cell recall responses and accelerated viral clearance were observed in the IFN-γ−/− and IFN-γR−/− mice after rechallenge with a heterologous strain of influenza virus, confirming that higher frequencies of memory precursors are formed in the absence of IFN-γ signaling. In summary, we have identified IFN-γ as an important regulator of localized viral immunity that promotes the contraction of antigen-specific CD8 T cells and inhibits memory precursor formation, thereby limiting the size of the memory cell population after an influenza virus infection.


Veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac has been shown to be the major cause of the collapse of populations of three Gyps vulture species endemic to South Asia. The White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Indian Vulture G. indicus and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris, have declined by more than 98% in the Indian subcontinent since the early 1990s, and are now all listed as 'Critically Endangered' (IUCN 2004). Gyps vultures are exposed to diclofenac through consuming the contaminated carcasses of livestock that have been treated with the drug shortly before death and die from kidney failure, with clinical signs of extensive visceral gout and renal damage. These clinical signs and diclofenac residues have been found in carcasses of wild G. bengalensis and G. indicus, and in G. bengalensis either dosed with diclofenac orally or given tissues from diclofenac treated livestock. Research on White-backed Vultures G. africanus, Eurasian Griffons G. fulvus and Cape Vultures G. coprotheres has established that these three species are about as sensitive to diclofenac as G. bengalensis, with birds dying with the same clinical signs of visceral gout and characteristic renal damage. This experimental testing has established that diclofenac is toxic to four species of vultures in the genus Gyps, but information on the toxicity of diclofenac to other members of the genus is lacking.


Diamond single crystals are synthesized using artificial graphite as carbon source and iron-based alloy as catalyst in a cubic anvil apparatus at high temperature and high pressure (HPHT). Four kinds of catalysts at different synthetic times are adopted in synthetic process. After synthesizing the microstructure of the solvent metal samples are characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that when the synthetic quality is relatively superior, the more primary lathy cementites are well distributed and shows parallel growth of the stripe beams. Besides, the edge of the cementite is more even. So the synthesis time and catalyst composition commonly influence the solvent metal microstructure, especially the quantity and shape of cementite.


The accelerating increase in the biomedical literature makes keeping up with recent advances challenging for researchers thus making automatic extraction and discovery of knowledge from this vast literature a necessity. Building such systems requires automatic detection of lexico-semantic event structures governed by the syntactic and semantic constraints of human languages in sentences of biomedical texts. The lexico-semantic event structures in sentences are centered around the predicates and most semantic role labeling (SRL) approaches focus only on the arguments of verb predicates and neglect argument taking nouns which also convey information in a sentence. In this article, a noun argument structure (NAS) annotated corpus named BioNom and a SRL system to identify and classify these structures is introduced. Also, a genetic algorithm-based feature selection (GAFS) method is introduced and global inference is applied to significantly improve the performance of the NAS Bio SRL system.


The lithostratigraphic terminology of the type Snowshoe Formation of the John Day inlier is revised. The lower member is correlated with and renamed the Warm Springs Member. The middle and upper members are renamed the Schoolhouse and South Fork Members respectively. A local zonal scheme based on ammonites and related to the standard schemes of North America and northwest Europe is applied to the interdigitating units deposited in the Izee basin. Marked diachronism is evident so that the depositional model of the Basey and Silvies Members synchronously providing sediment to the Izee basin must be rejected. It is replaced by a sequential model whereby an early Bajocian Basey-to-Schoolhouse-to-Warm Springs Member lateral transition eastward is followed by a late Bajocian Silvies-to-Schoolhouse Member lateral transition westward. This latter event together with the deposition of the succeeding South Fork Member of Bathonian age is represented south of the South Fork of the John Day River by an unconformity a...


Los Angeles - Laser pretreatment dramatically increases the transdermal delivery of the chemotherapeutic agent 5-FU, according to Dr. Kuo-Hsien Wang, M.D. who presented at the Society for Investigative Dermatology annual meeting. "This method has potential for the treatment of cutaneous malignant diseases and precancerous lesions, such as actinic keratosis, Bowen's disease, and superficial basal cell carcinoma," he said.


Circulating bone marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BM-MSCs) have an innate tropism for tumor tissue in response to the inflammatory microenvironment present in malignant lesions. The prostate is bombarded by numerous infectious & inflammatory insults over a lifetime. Chronic inflammation is associated with CXCL12, CCL5, and CCL2, which are highly overexpressed in prostate cancer. Among other cell types, these chemoattractant stimuli recruit BM-MSCs to the tumor. MSCs are minimally defined as plastic-adhering cells characterized by the expression of CD90, CD73, and CD105 in the absence of hematopoietic markers, which can differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. MSCs are immunoprivileged and have been implicated in tumorigenesis through multiple mechanisms, including promoting proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis, in addition to the generation of an immunosuppressive microenvironment. We have demonstrated that MSCs represent 0.01-1.1% of the total cells present in core biopsies from primary human prostatectomies. Importantly, these analyses were performed on samples prior to expansion in tissue culture. MSCs in these prostatectomy samples are FAP-, CD90-, CD73-, and CD105-positive, and CD14-, CD20-, CD34-, CD45-, and HLA-DR-negative. Additionally, like BM-MSCs, these prostate cancer-derived stromal cells (PrCSCs) were shown to differentiate into osteoblasts, adipocytes, & chondrocytes. In contrast to primary prostate cancer-derived epithelial cells, fluorescently-labeled PrCSCs & BM-MSCs were both shown to home to CWR22RH prostate cancer xenografts following IV injection. These studies demonstrate that not only are MSCs present in sites of prostate cancer where they may contribute to carcinogenesis, but these cells may also potentially be used to deliver cytotoxic or imaging agents for therapeutic and/or diagnostic purposes.


A professor of bioethics discusses the ethics of abortion. Three absolute principles from the tradition of Western moral philosophy constitute the ethical basis for treatment of unwanted pregnancy. The principle of individual freedom guarantees the right to freedom of decision and action. The principle of the common good defines as morally correct the policy or action that most benefits the majority, and the principle of justice establishes that all individuals should have equal access to needed goods and services. Each of these principles is discussed as it relates to abortion, and potential conflicts and controversies are assessed in accordance with the principles. The three principles require application of the moral mandate of tolerance for the beliefs and practices of others, a necessity for coexistence in a pluralistic world. A series of natural and social rights may also be invoked, notably the right to decide freely and responsibly the number and timing of children and the right of access to the information and materials making this possible, which were affirmed in the 1974 World Population Conference at Bucharest in a statement signed by representatives of 136 governments. Universal agreement on ethical matters is unlikely to occur in a plural world. Different persons may recognize different priorities when ethical principles are in competition. The most difficult conflict is probably that between the rights of the woman and those of the fetus. This conflict differs from most others in that the legitimacy of the fetus as a bearer of rights may be questioned. Extremist positions whether motivated by religious or political factors are based on dogmas or doctrines that resist rational analysis. Applying the three principles to the problem of unwanted pregnancy, it is concluded that women have a natural right to reproductive freedom and a social right to family planning and abortion services.


We use the semi-classical Boltzmann equation to investigate transport properties such as electrical resistivity, thermal resistivity, thermopower, and the Peltier coefficient of disordered metals close to an antiferromagnetic quantum phase transition. In the quantum Griffiths phase, the electrons are scattered by spin-fluctuations in the rare regions. This leads to singular temperature dependencies not just at the quantum critical point, but in the entire Griffiths phase. We show that the resulting non-universal power-laws in transport properties are controlled by the same Griffiths exponent λ which governs the thermodynamics. λ takes the value zero at the quantum critical point and increases throughout the Griffiths phase. We also study some of the "universal" ratios commonly used to characterize Fermi-liquid behavior.


Vacuum-assisted closure (V.A.C.) is an established therapeutic option in the management of acute and chronic granulating wounds. In recent years, little data has been published concerning skin graft transplantation and postoperative V.A.C. therapy. We report a consecutive case series of 54 patients with chronic leg ulcer who received a total of 74 mesh grafts. A postoperative V.A.C. therapy was performed in 28 mesh grafts, and 46 mesh grafts were treated with standard gauze therapy. In the V.A.C. group, 92.9 % grafts showed complete healing. In the treatment group without postoperative V.A.C. therapy, 67.4 % of the mesh grafts had taken. Differential analysis revealed a correlation in patients over 70 years of age or in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus or dermato-lipo-sclerosis. Particularly patients with diabetes mellitus and of greater age exhibited improved take rates in the V.A.C. group. The results of our study demonstrate for the first time the significant benefit of V.A.C. therapy after mesh-graft-transplantation in chronic leg ulcer patients as evaluated in a clinical trial with a control group.


This research proposes a new vehicle speed measuring system based on image processing technique. This system needs only a cheap camera. Ordinarily, it is difficult to take a clear image at night by using a low profile digital camera. Thus the image based vehicle speed measuring system for dark environment was not developed by now. In this research, the disadvantage of low profile camera is used for speed measuring. By controlling the shutter speed of camera, a bright line which comes from the headlamp of a moving vehicle is appeared in the picture. In this work, an algorithm depend on this feature is developed. Experiment result shows a reasonable measuring value.


Parallel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstruction problem can be formulated as a multichannel sampling problem where solutions can be sought analytically. However, the channel functions given by the coil sensitivities in parallel imaging are not known exactly and the estimation error usually leads to artifacts or degraded SNR. In the context of parallel MRI, this work investigates the blind multichannel under-sampling problem where both the channel functions and signal are reconstructed simultaneously under sparseness constraints. We propose a novel algorithm to reconstruct both the coil sensitivities and image simultaneously from randomly undersampled, multichannel k-space data. The algorithm effectively applies the concept of compressed sensing (CS) to solve an underdetermined nonlinear problem, but is different from the conventional CS in that the sensing matrix is not known exactly. The proposed algorithm is shown to improve the reconstruction accuracy of SparseSENSE and L1-SPIRiT when the same number of measurements is used.


Laggera pterodonta (DC.) Sch. Bip. aerial part was extracted successively with hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. The ethyl acetate extract was subjected to chromatography to give a pentacyclic triterpenoid ester which was identified as taraxasteryl acetate based on spectroscopic evidence. The triterpenoid exhibited antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella ozaenae, Bacillus cereus, Shigella dysenteriae, Escherica.coli and Streptococcus faecalis with MICs ranging from 25-50μg/ml. This is the first time taraxasteryl acetate has been isolated from the genus, Laggera.


MILLER, JENNIFER ELIZABETH. Impervious Surface Cover: Effects on Stream Salamander Abundance and A New Method of Classification Using Feature Analyst. (Under direction of George R. Hess) Increasing impervious surface cover associated with urbanization degrades water quality and alters wildlife habitat. Forested riparian buffers are one popular method of mitigating the effects of impervious surface cover. My study was designed to investigate the effects of impervious surface cover and forested riparian buffer width on the abundance of larval southern two-lined salamanders (Eurycea cirrigera). I sampled 50-meter reaches of 43 streams, representing the range of impervious surface cover and forested riparian buffer width combinations across Wake County, North Carolina, USA in 2004. Additionally, I measured physical and chemical stream properties to account for local habitat effects. Percent impervious surface cover in the catchment, percent detritus cover in the stream, percent pebble substrate in the stream, and average water conductivity were significant predictors of larval E. cirrigera abundance. Forested riparian buffer width was not a significant predictor. Larval E. cirrigera abundance was lower than anticipated in several streams that appeared to provide good habitat. I discovered that salamander abundance was low in intermittent streams with substrate that is highly sedimented below the surface layer. I suspect that intermittency combined with filled substrate interstices reduced the ability of salamanders to migrate with the water column during dry periods, resulting in low abundances. My research is consistent with a growing body of literature documenting the negative effects of impervious surface on stream biota. In my study, low flow events significantly affected larval E. cirrigera abundance. My findings also suggest that salamander abundance cannot be predicted by measuring the forested buffer width only at the sampling location. A catchment-wide quantification of the stream buffer system, accounting for culverts and other breaches, might yield a better predictive model. Environmental, economic, and resource management research and decision-making requires current, accurate spatial information. Mapping with aerial imagery can play an important role in providing such information, if it can be done in a cost effective and accurate manner. For my research, I needed an efficient technique for identifying impervious surfaces in urbanizing Wake County, North Carolina, USA. The objectives of my study were to develop an accurate classification of impervious surface using high-resolution aerial imagery and to provide insight into the practical application of Feature Analyst, an object-oriented classification extension within ArcGIS. Feature Analyst utilizes advanced, object-oriented classification algorithms that incorporate spatial context with color and tone to classify high-resolution imagery. I trained Feature Analyst to differentiate pervious and impervious surfaces and classified 111 United States Geological Survey images with a spatial resolution of 33-cm. My classification results yielded an overall accuracy of 92%, with a user's accuracy of 95.2% for the impervious surface class. These results show improvement over historical accuracies of 85% or less. Feature Analyst is most beneficial when spectral value alone will not distinguish classes, object-oriented output is desired, and the time or knowledge for developing complex, customized algorithms is unavailable. I recommend Feature Analyst for classification of high-resolution imagery when object-oriented output is desired and hand-digitizing is impractical. Impervious Surface Cover: Effects on Stream Salamander Abundance and A New Method of Classification Using Feature Analyst.


This paper introduces norm_cast, a toolbox of tactics for the Lean proof assistant designed to manipulate expressions containing coercions and casts. These expressions can be frustrating for beginning and expert users alike; the presence of coercions can cause seemingly identical expressions to fail to unify and rewrites to fail. The norm_cast tactics aim to make reasoning with such expressions as transparent as possible. They are used extensively to eliminate boilerplate arguments in the Lean mathematical library and in external developments.


We describe a new method for representation of an image pattern, which we call the reduced special interval graph (RSIG). Any binary image pattern can be easily converted into a RSIG. Based on the RSIG, we can enlarge the scope of vision and process a much greater zone of the image. This helps us properly extract the feature of the image and identify the image pattern. We apply the RSIG to help us extract the strokes of Chinese characters by incorporating some knowledge about the structure of Chinese characters. We found this method can not only heuristically extract strokes but also heuristically eliminate noises including those added to strokes for the artistic sake. Experimental results reveal that the method based on the RSIG can extract the strokes of Chinese characters effectively and efficiently. Moreover, the RSIG can be applied to many other application areas, and it is an effective representation method in pattern recognition and image processing. >


The binding of 3H-estradiol-17 beta(beta-D-glucuronide) (3H-E2 17G), a cholestatic organic anion, was examined in rat liver plasma membranes, and two saturable, specific binding sites were identified. The binding parameters are Kd1 = 3.9 X 10(-7) M, Bmax1 = 69 pmol/mg of protein; Kd2 = 4.90 X 10(-6) M, Bmax2 = 495 pmol/mg of protein according to Scatchard analysis of equilibrium experiments. Kinetic dissociation experiments showed that 3H-E2 17G binding was reversible and revealed two components. The dissociation rate constants did not vary with the method of dilution of radioligand, i.e., by "infinite" volume, or excess unlabeled ligand, ruling out the possibility of cooperativity. The rate of association of 3H-E2 17G binding was very rapid, so that maximal binding was reached within 15 sec at 4 degrees. Na+ was not required for binding and binding was not decreased in the presence of high osmolarity buffer (125 mM sucrose), indicating that transport into vesicles was not involved. The ability of a series of compounds to inhibit the binding of 3H-E2 17G was also examined. Taurocholate, cholate, taurodehydrocholate, and testosterone glucuronide were identified as ligands selective for the high affinity site (site 1). The A- and D-ring glucuronide conjugates of estradiol and estriol, bromosulfophthalein, dibromosulfophthalein, and the glucuronide conjugates of phenolphthalein, 4-methylumbelliferone, and menthol inhibited binding of 3H-E2 17G to both sites. Morphine glucuronide, estradiol, and glucuronic acid did not inhibit binding to either site. The substrate specificities of binding to the low affinity site (site 2) are consistent with data characterizing the transport of these substrates in hepatocytes and supports the postulate that site 2 represents a non-bile acid organic anion carrier. Site 1 is postulated to represent a carrier shared by the bile acids and non-bile acid organic anions.