This report provides the findings of the Synthesis Study of the CAPTURED Evaluation and is produced as part of the overall CAPTURED End Evaluation. After five years of support by the CAPTURED project the three CAPTURED partners have achieved commendable results. Ten lessons learned are formulated that emerged from the CAPTURED experience and can guide future similar initiatives. The main conclusions of the End Evaluation are that the CAPTURED project provided a clear return on investments, illustrated the emergence of innovative trans-disciplinary research practices, established three PhD Research Programs that are grounded in endogenous frameworks, managed to design and conduct innovative educational programs, and institutionalised the practice area of endogenous knowledge and related EE and ER in their respective organisations and networks. The Evaluation also noted that whereas in the South the interest for endogenous development related higher education is increasing, the interest in the North is weak, which risks to loose valuable endogenous knowledge. The main recommendations are: consolidate with external academia and accredit research protocols, create a 18 months transition phase to design an up-scaling phase, expand the group of actors in a next phase, formulate a research program that deepens and validates the material produced by CAPTURED, build on the CAPTURED practice of transdisciplinarity, and acknowledge the role of constructivism in science for innovation. Specific recommendations are formulated for nine potential different actors that could engage in a next phase. Report number CDI-12-021


Trigate silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs have been measured in the 5-400 K temperature range. The device fin width and height is 45 and 82 nm, respectively, and the p-type doping concentration in the channel is 6/spl times/10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/. The subthreshold slope varies linearly with temperature as predicted by fully depleted SOI MOS theory. The mobility is phonon limited for temperatures larger than 100 K, while it is limited by surface roughness below that temperature. The corner effect, in which the device corners have a lower threshold voltage than the top and sidewall Si/SiO/sub 2/ interfaces, shows up at temperatures lower than 150 K.


It is of great importance to minimize the number of disaster casualties while at the same time maximizing the quality of saved lives. That is why potential disaster threats should be eliminated if possible. To achieve this goal, personal, organizational, national, and global awareness and preparedness levels should be developed. In this study, 529 participants of "Nursing Services in Disasters Symposium" were asked what they thought of the symposium and what they thought about the disaster studies made in Turkey. The answers from 231 participants are discussed based on scientific criteria.


Background BASHH Guidelines recommend a biopsy to exclude premalignant conditions in persistent balanitis. PIN is a well recognised condition that can be difficult to identify. In UK GUM clinics, the incidence of reporting of PIN is rare compared to international studies raising the possibility of under-diagnosis. Locally, our clinic guidelines and policies have changed in line with BASHH guidance. Aims We describe the clinical presentation, diagnostic process and management of PIN cases presenting to the sexual health clinic. Results Five cases were identified from August 2010 to March 2011. The median age was 38 years (range 31–52). 1/5 was an HIV infected MSM. Duration of symptoms ranged from 3 months to 18 years. 3/5 were initially managed inappropriately; having a delayed biopsy. In each case the condition manifested differently; with clinical appearances ranging from solitary hypertrophic lesions to multiple verrucous and leukoplakic lesions. The HIV positive patient had the most atypical and florid lesions. All of the men were uncircumcised; 2/5 were current smokers and 2/5 were previous smokers. One case had possible previous exposure to agricultural chemicals. Histologically: all biopsies had evidence of HPV infection, 4/5 had PIN3 and 1 had PIN1. 2/5 also had anal intraepithelial neoplasia; 1 presented to the surgeons with an anal lesion, but his penile lesion was missed. All were referred to local urology and three were reviewed further at a tertiary centre. 1/5 was treated with topical imiquimod only, 2/5 were treated initially with topical imiquimod then subsequent surgery with resolution of lesions and two had a surgical intervention as first line treatment. Discussion Men presenting with atypical penile lesions should have a penile biopsy in line with BASHH guidance and a high index of suspicion for other genital dysplastic conditions, for example, AIN and clear local pathways for referral should be in place.


This guide is designed to assist individuals and groups who wish to use the approx. 240,000 maps and 5,500 atlases and gazetteers, held in the Harold B. Lee Library Map Collection. Also included is a large assortment of online geographic resources


Cluster managers have less authority compared to managers in companies, with the work of cluster managers based rather on negotiation than on issuing instructions. Nevertheless, dynamic changes regarding environment and customer needs in general have taken place, and ensuring that employees have adequate knowledge and skills has become necessary for companies to gain a competitive advantage. Thus, the development of competencies in cluster management is more relevant in terms of the changing nature of competencies in order to enhance competitiveness. A research gap, however, has emerged in terms of studies analyzing developmental activities to increase the skills and knowledge of cluster managers, including their abilities to support cluster development and related competitiveness issues. The main objective of the present paper is to identify possible methods of developing cluster managers competencies in order to increase the competitiveness of cluster organizations. To accomplish these research goals, the paper employs semi-structured interviews with Czech cluster managers, with primary data analyzed via coding based on thematic analysis and codes subsequently grouped into categories for conceptualization. The findings indicate that development of cluster managers lags behind in terms of lack of motivation enhancement and time, lack of finance, idleness, negative experiences, administrative tasks as well as personal traits. The main criteria for developing competencies in cluster organizations are reflected in activities focused on the ability to innovate, lead and protect in terms of trust building, all skills essential for enhancing the competitiveness of cluster organizations. Cluster managers select development activities based on topics and references to educational activities which they estimate mainly from practical experience based on recommendations by experienced practitioners. Finally, the study puts forth practical guidelines regarding self-development methods recommended by the respondents for developing competencies in cluster development and competitiveness.


The term proliferative lesion refers to the increase in the amount of connective tissue and in the number of small blood vessels and mesenchymal cells with both phagocytic and synthetic functions, characterizing the rheumatoid synovium. This type of lesion is probably responsible for most of the joint destruction and synovial tissue fibrosis seen in this disease. In vitro data indicate that not only factors inducing bone resorption, for instance osteoclast activating factor and prostoglandins, but also connective tissue-degrading enzymes, can be produced locally in the joint, which suggests that these factors play a role in the destruction of articular structures. D-Penicillamine suppresses the immuno-inflammatory process of rheumatoid arthritis, which indirectly may lead to a depression of the stimuli perpetuating the proliferative lesion. As yet, there are no unequivocal clinical data indicating that D-Penicillamine has a direct suppressive effect on the proliferative lesion.


The Crithidia luciliae test was compared with the radioimmunoassay technique for n DNA antibodies on 93 randomly selected sera submitted for antibody testing, and was found to be a highly specific, reproducible and economical test. It appeared to be less sensitive than the radio-immunoassay technique in sera from some of the patients, but analysis of the clinical findings showed that the C. luciliae test correlated better with the clinical assessment of these patients.


Based on statistics members of the correspondence training are mostly people who are working, so in most cases this decision for them is forced. The least of them choose this because of personal reasons (for example: unfinished full-time trainings, individual researches, living far away from school, etc.). Nowadays most of the universities offer classic full time-training as well as correspondence trainings. There is no difference between the diploma earned with full-time training and correspondence training. Compared to the full-time training there are less members of the correspondence training, so the lecturers can attend to somebody more individually. Most universities require from students in correspondence training to complete internships where they gain experience. Based on their experience, they prepare their diploma works.
It often happens that correspondence training provides less valuable education than full-time education. However, this is already denied by the trainers, and employers do not raise this issue. Both type of trainings has valuable people with different benefits. Correspondents usually stand out for their purposefulness and life experience, which makes them unique not only at university but also later in the workplace. Because contact hours are on Friday afternoons and weekends, they are usually blocked.
In this article we present the results of a research where we examine the exam results of correspondents and full-time students for several years. In the research we analyze the exam results of hundreds of students from which we draw conclusions. We want to show you what the students of the correspondence training are better and where their results are worse.


In the recent years, it has become clear that septic shock is characterized by the simulta- neous production of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators; the primary role of the latter is to counterbalance the former, thus limiting the severity of their systemic effects. However, in a number of patients, the anti-inflammatory substances can cause a downregulation in both the innate and adaptive immune capabilities, leading a second phase characterized to secondary infections caused by opportunist germs and the reacti vation of latent viruses, muscle wasting; altogether, these abnormalities set the stage for a chronic critical condition. This condition, whose identification is relatively recent, is called immunoparalysis. Unfortunately, the current approach to septic shock is focused much more on the inflammatory phase than in the ensuing immunoparalysis, whose diagnosis can be challenging. In this chapter, the role played by both classes of mediators, the monitoring of the immune system, and the possible current and not yet available therapeutic strategies of immunoparalysis are reviewed and discussed.


The component distribution of adiabatic shear banding during high speed cutting(HSC) is important to understand the phase transformation during formation of adiabatic shear band and mechanism of serrated chip formation. This paper analyzed element distribution inside and near the adiabatic shear bands formed during HSC of 30CrNi3MoV high strength steel using electronic probe. It was found that there is no obvious element segregation, but carbon element tends to gather towards adiabatic shear band's boundaries. The density of carbon inside the shear bands tends to increase with the increase of cutting speed. The results indicated that the diffusion and gather of carbon may occur during formation of adiabatic shear band. The diffusion mechanism may be short-range diffusion driven by high-speed deformation and high temperature rise.


Cryptocurrencies have transgressed ever-changing economic trends in the global economy, owing to their conveyance, security, trust, and the ability to make transactions without the aid of formal institutions and governing bodies. However, the adoption of cryptocurrency remains low among stakeholders, including e-retailers. Thus, the current work explores the intentions of e-retailers in the Asia and Pacific region to adopt cryptocurrencies. This study considers the TAM-based SOR, with a combination of non-cognitive attributes (compatibility and convenience) proposed as stimuli for e-retailers to adopt the examined cryptocurrencies. The findings indicate that the proposed non-cognitive attributes are critical in determining e-retailers' technostress (emotional state). Moreover, it was found that technostress among e-retailers profoundly impacts their intentions to adopt cryptocurrency in business settings. Meanwhile, regulatory support communication can be used to help regulatory bodies and governing institutions control the future economy worldwide. The proposed study offers significant theoretical and practical contributions through its investigation of e-retailers' intentions to adopt cryptocurrency for the first time in the particular context of technostress and regulatory support.


To improve the quality of learning, pedagogues have prescribed different pedagogical approaches (constructivist, cognitivist…). However, the effective implementation of the majority of these approaches has not been possible only after the advent of new forms of learning (E_learning, M-learning...). These forms are closely related to technological development. Later with the emergence of technology (pervasive computing, Artificial Intelligent ...) a new form of learning is established. It is called Pervasive Learning "PLearning". P-Learning is a social process that connects learners to communities of devices, people, and situations in a transparent and independent manner. This learning form goes far beyond the predictions suggested by pedagogue. Learning can then take part outside the learner via technology, which will be an extension of his brain by unloading the cognitive practices he performs. The aim of this paper is to answer the following questions: What alliance is there between pedagogy and technology? Are we in need of a new pedagogical approach in the new learning environment "P-Learning"? What are the new pedagogical challenges to resolve?


In the light of the problems the media industry are struggling with, local news reporting is only one of the challenges the news organizations are facing. When local editors is being moved to the cities the tie with the local community is being severed.The aim of this study has been to analyze how the inhabitants of Vilhelmina municipality talks about their experiences of local journalism. With methodological inspiration from the Critical discourse analysis (CDA) this study examined the discourses of local journalism, social media, journalism's role and municipal policy. The theorectical framework consisted theories of media and democracy, convergence culture and discourse theory.The survey was conducted with four focus groups interviews. The focus groups were divided in different cathegories based on the participants experiences, ages and employment. The groups consisted of politicians, senior citizens, municipal employees and younger students.Results showed that some of the groups put high value in physical presence and that the absence of local editors were seen as a problem. The importance of local journalism were unmistakable and the groups talked about local journalism in similar ways. Different opinions mostly occured when it came to discourses about the importance and effects of social media. Another discourse that were identified were the discourse about the political climate in Vilhelmina. The changing media landscape were seen as one of the main factors when it came to conflicts and misunderstandings that have characterized the debate in the last years.In summary, a changed media landscape can not only be seen as a threat. In fact, in small municipalities like Vilhelmina, technological developments might be one of the solutions when it comes to maintain local journalism. The biggest problem is rather the lack of investigative journalism that occur when local editors is disappearing.


This paper reports a new method for the generation of chiral Lewis superacids by protonation of a non-Lewis acidic oxazaborolidine (1) with triflic acid. The resulting cationic species (3) are powerful and highly enantioselective catalysts for the Diels-Alder reaction of various 1,3-dienes with alpha,beta-enals. An optimization study (see Table 1) led to the selection of reaction conditions and catalysts (6A and 6B) which are very effective. The reactions are simple to conduct, reproducible, and economical, since only ca. 6 mol % of catalyst is required. In addition, the chiral catalyst precursor is readily recovered for reuse (>95% efficiency) and is commercially available. The broad scope of the process is documented by the 14 examples listed in Table 2. The absolute stereochemical course of the Diels-Alder reactions catalyzed by 6A and 6B was successfully predicted on the basis of the mechanistic principles which have recently been formulated for this type of catalytic enantioselective reaction involving re-face attack by the diene on complex 7. The mode of generation of Lewis superacids 6A and 6B allows an approximate comparison (or scale) connecting the catalytic power Lewis and protic acids.


Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) is associated with blunted stress responsivity within the extrauterine environment. This study investigated the association between PCE and diurnal salivary cortisol levels in preadolescent children characterized by high biological and/or social risk (n = 725). Saliva samples were collected at their home. Analyses revealed no group differences in basal evening or morning cortisol levels; however, children with higher degrees of PCE exhibited blunted overnight increases in cortisol, controlling for additional risk factors. Race and caregiver depression were also associated with diurnal cortisol patterns. Although repeated PCE may contribute to alterations in the normal or expected stress response later in life, sociodemographic and environmental factors are likewise important in understanding hormone physiology, especially as more time elapses from the PCE. Anticipating the potential long-term medical, developmental, or behavioral effects of an altered ability to mount a normal protective cortisol stress response is essential in optimizing the outcomes of children with PCE.


Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become a widely used tool in research and engineering for the study of a wide variety of problems. However, confidence in CFD solutions is still dependent on comparisons with experimental data. In order for CFD to become a trusted resource, a quantitative measure of error must be provided for each generated solution. Although there are several sources of error, the effects of the resolution and quality of the computational grid are difficult to predict a priori. This grid-induced error is most often attenuated by performing a grid refinement study or using solution adaptive grid refinement. While these methods are effective, they can also be computationally expensive and even impractical for large, complex problems. This work presents a method for estimating the grid-induced error in CFD solutions of the Navier-Stokes and Euler equations using a single grid and solution or a series of increasingly finer grids and solutions. The method is based on the discrete error transport equation (DETE), which is derived directly from the discretized PDE and provides a value of the error at every cell in the computational grid. The DETE is developed for two-dimensional, laminar Navier-Stokes and Euler equations within a generalized unstructured finite volume scheme, such that an extension to three dimensions and turbulent flow would follow the same approach. The usefulness of the DETE depends on the accuracy with which the source term, the gridinduced residual, can be modeled. Three different models for the grid-induced residual were developed: the AME model, the PDE model, and the extrapolation model. The AME model consists of the leading terms of the remainder of a simplified modified equation. The PDE model creates a polynomial fit of the CFD solution and then uses the original PDE in differential form to calculate the residual. Both the AME and PDE are used with a single grid and solution. The extrapolation model uses a fine grid solution to calculate the grid-induced residual on the coarse grid and then extrapolates that residual back to the fine grid. The DETE and residual models were then evaluated for four flow problems: (1) steady flow past a circular cylinder; (2) steady, transonic flow past an airfoil; (3) unsteady flow of an isentropic vortex; (4) unsteady flow past a circular cylinder with vortex shedding. Results demonstrate the fidelity of the DETE with each residual model as well as usefulness of the DETE as a tool for predicting the grid-induced error in CFD solutions.


Dynamic simulation of integrated AC and DC grids is paramount to address real-time operation challenges in energy control centers, such as available transfer capacities, relieving grid congestion, and taking effective control actions for improving the integrated grid system stability and reliability. This paper proposes a faster-than-real-time (FTRT) dynamic simulation of integrated AC/DC grids on the reconfigurable parallel hardware architecture of the field programmable gate array (FPGA). A fine-grained relaxation algorithm (FGRA) is proposed for a more efficient solution of the nonlinear differential algebraic equations of the integrated system model, including the detailed nonlinear models of the synchronous generators in the AC system which can be solved in parallel without matrix on the FPGA. The system solution is massively parallelized and pipelined in hardware to realize the lowest latencies and minimum utilization of hardware resource. Two case studies are used to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm and demonstrated a closed-loop prediction scenario for improving grid stability. Computational acceleration of up to 134 times faster than real-time are reported for the two case studies, and the accuracy of the dynamic interaction is validated using the off-line transient stability simulation tool TSAT of the DSAToolsTM package.


Article Info Background: Some factors, such as burnout and job satisfaction, may affect patient safety culture. This study aimed to examine the association between burnout, job satisfaction and patient safety culture among medical staff of the Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2020. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-correlative study was conducted on 248 medical staff members of the Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2020. The demographic checklist, the standard hospital survey on patient safety culture (HSOPSO), the Maslach burnout inventory, and the job satisfaction questionnaire were used for data collection. Content validity of the questionnaires was evaluated based on expert judgments. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 78 and 41% for the Maslach burnout questionnaire and the JDI questionnaire, respectively. Besides, the Pearson's correlation coefficient, the independent t-test, and the analysis of variance were used to analyze the data via SPSS software. Results: This study included 40 (16.1%) males and 208 (83.9%) females with the mean age of 32.04 ± 7.9 years. The mean and SD of the HSOPSO, JID, and frequency of burnout scores were 135.4 ± 10.1, 68.07 ± 13.2, and 53.8 ± 4.5, respectively. This study showed that job burnout has a significantly negative association with patient safety culture (r= -0.53, P < 0.000). In contrast, there was a statistically significant positive association between job satisfaction and patient safety culture (r= 0.643, P < 0.000). Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that both factors of job satisfaction and burnout might play a significant role in patient safety. Thus, top medical managers must provide appropriate conditions for employees to improve patient safety.


Complex brain disorders like schizophrenia may have multifactorial origins related to mis-timed heritable and environmental factors interacting during neurodevelopment. Infections, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases are over-represented in schizophrenia leading to immune system-centered hypotheses. Complement component C4 is genetically and neurobiologically associated with schizophrenia, and its dual activity peripherally and in the brain makes it an exceptional target for biomarker development. Studies to evaluate the biomarker potential of plasma or serum C4 in schizophrenia do so to understand how peripheral C4 might reflect central nervous system (CNS)-derived neuroinflammation, synapse pruning and other mechanisms. This effort, however, has produced mostly conflicting results, with peripheral C4 sometimes elevated, reduced or unchanged between comparison groups. We undertook a pilot biomarker development study to systematically identify sociodemographic, genetic, and immune-related variables (autoimmune, infection-related, gastrointestinal (GI), inflammatory), which may be associated with plasma C4 levels in schizophrenia (SCH; n=335) and/or in non-psychiatric comparison subjects (NCs; n=233). As with previously inconclusive studies, we detected no differences in plasma C4 levels between SCH and NCs. In contrast, levels of general inflammation, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), were significantly elevated in SCH compared to NCs (ANOVA, F=20.74, p<0.0001), suggestive that plasma C4 and CRP may reflect different sources or causes of inflammation. In multivariate regressions of C4 gene copy number variants (CNVs), plasma C4 levels were correlated only for C4A (not C4B, C4L, C4S) and only in NCs (R Coeff=0.39, CI=0.01-0.77, R2=0.18, p<0.01; not SCH). Other variables associated with plasma C4 levels only in NCs included sex, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) IgG, tissue-transglutaminase (TTG) IgG, and cytomegalovirus (CMV) IgG. Toxoplasma gondii IgG was the only variable significantly correlated with plasma C4 in SCH but not in NCs. Many variables were associated with plasma C4 in both groups (body mass index (BMI), race, CRP, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) NR2 subunit IgG, TTG IgA, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding protein (LBP), and soluble CD14 (sCD14). While the direction of most C4 associations was positive, autoimmune markers tended to be inverse, and associated with reduced plasma C4 levels. When NMDAR NR2 autoantibody-positive individuals were removed, plasma C4 was elevated in SCH versus NCs (ANOVA, F=5.16, p<0.02). Our study was exploratory and confirmation of the many variables associated with peripheral C4 require replication. Our preliminary results point toward autoimmune factors and exposure to the pathogen, T. gondii, as possibly significant contributors to variability of total C4 protein levels in plasma of individuals with schizophrenia.


We consider a vector of independent normal random variables with unknown means but known variances. Our problem is to reduce the total variance of these random variables by exploiting the a priori information that a significant proportion of them have "small" means. We show that thresholding is an effective means of solving this problem and propose two schemes for threshold selection: one based on a uniformly most powerful unbiased test and another on a Bayesian information criterion selection rule. Reduction of the total variance of estimated spectra, obtained by cepstral analysis, can be cast in the above mathematical framework, and we use it as an example application throughout this paper. We show via numerical simulation that the use of the simple thresholding method, proposed here, in cepstral analysis can achieve significant reductions of total variance


Many recent works in video-based face recognition involved the extraction of exemplars to summarize face appearances in video sequences. However, there has been a lack of attention towards modeling the causal relationship between classes and their associated exemplars. In this paper, we propose a novel Exemplar-Driven Bayesian Network (EDBN) classifier for face recognition in video. Our Bayesian framework addresses the drawbacks of typical exemplar-based approaches by incorporating temporal continuity between consecutive video frames while encoding the causal relationship between extracted exemplars and their parent classes within the framework. Under the EDBN framework, we describe a non-parametric approach of estimating probability densities using similarity scores that are computationally quick. Comprehensive experiments on two standard face video datasets demonstrated good recognition rates achieved by our method.


Background and Aim: The G‐quadruplex ligand RHPS4 is known to induce a rapid activation of DNA damage response at telomeres and poly (ADP‐ribosyl)ation is involved in the regulation of many cellular processes such as DNA damage repair. We recently showed that the combination of RHPS4 with camptothecins has a strong synergistic interaction in vitro on colon cancer lines and produced a marked antitumor activity on xenografts. Unfortunately, this combination failed to cure animals as no complete remissions were reported. So, based on the observation that PARP inhibitors sensitize tumor cells to camptothecins and in the attempt to search for a more effective anticancer therapy, we evaluated a multicomponent strategy based on the addition of the PARP inhibitor GPI 15427 to the previously established camptothecins/ RHPS4 combination. Material and Methods: PARP activity and poly(ADP‐ribose) formation have been evaluated in cells upon RHPS4 treatment. Moreover, the presence of poly(ADP‐ribose) at the telomeres has been investigated by coimmunofluorescence experiments using an anti‐TRF1 antibody to mark telomeres. The involvement of PARP activity in the cellular response to RHPS4 has been studied by treatment with the PARP inhibitor GPI 15427 followed by analysis of the formation of TIFs (Telomeres Disfunction Induced Foci) and evaluation of the clonogenic ability of the human colon carcinoma cells line HT29. In vivo experiments were performed on HT29 xenografts to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of GPI 15427/Irinotecan/RHPS4 combination. Results and Conclusions: RHPS4 produced a rapid induction of PARP activity and, interestingly, most of the ADP‐ribose polymers induced by RHPS4 were localized at telomeres. Consistently with these results, the PARP‐1 protein was found to be localized at telomeres upon drug treatment, thus providing a rational for RHPS4 and PARP inhibitors combination. Indeed, RHPS4/GPI 15427 combination strongly increased the number of TIFs/cell and reduced the survival of HT29 cells compared to the treatment with RHPS4 alone. The in vivo experiments confirmed these results and demonstrated the high efficacy of GPI 15427/Irinotecan/RHPS4 combination as this multicomponent strategy produced an impressive inhibition of tumor weight and a marked tumor growth delay. Notably, after the triple combination a complete regression of tumors was observed in most of the mice treated accompanied by a significant increase of overall survival. Finally, a complete cure of about 50% of mice was observed. Interestingly, this treatment remained effective even when started at a very late stage of tumor growth. In conclusion, these data suggest that the integration of a PARP inhibitor with Irinotecan/RHPS4 combination could be a promising strategy to improve the response of solid tumors to antitumoral agents. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):C170.


Objective. We report an occult primary papillary serous carcinoma of the endocervix that was encountered in a woman whose mother and identical twin sister died of papillary serous carcinomas (PSCs) of the peritoneum and ovary, respectively. Methods. The medical records and the histologic material belonging to the patient, her sister, and her mother were reviewed. Results. The cervical PSC was histologically similar to the peritoneal and ovarian carcinomas. The patient has recurred with peritoneal carcinomatosis 24 months following surgery and postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Conclusions. Primary papillary serous carcinoma of the cervix is a very rare adenocarcinoma variant; there have been approximately 30 such cases reported, and, to our knowledge, this is the first documented case of familial peritoneal/ovarian/uterine papillary serous carcinoma. The prophylaxis achieved through bilateral oophorectomy in individuals with a family history of ovarian cancer does not address the risk of PSCs arising in the uterus, cervix, or peritoneum. © 1998 Academic Press


AIMS
Prevalence of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among alcoholics is thought to be higher than in the general population, although prevalence rates reported are quite variable. Our study is aimed to analyze HCV prevalence in a cohort of alcoholics and to perform a systematic review on this topic.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A total of 396 alcoholic patients consecutively referred to our Alcoholism Unit were included. HCV infection status and other clinical variables were recorded for each patient. Variables associated with HCV infection were analyzed by means of logistic regression. Additionally, we performed a systematic review focused on previous studies on this topic.

RESULTS
Among our alcoholic patients, 14 of them (3.53%) had chronic HCV infection. Variables independently associated with HCV infection were female gender, injection drug use (IDU) and the presence of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Twenty-four studies analyzing HCV prevalence in alcoholic patients were included in our systematic review, showing prevalence rates of HCV infection ranging from 2.1 to 51% and an average weighted prevalence of 16.32%.

CONCLUSION
In our series, the prevalence rate of chronic HCV infection among alcoholic patients is lower than previously reported, which is probably explained by the relatively low number of patients with ALD or IDU in our sample. Prevalence rates previously published are quite different and the presence of ALD and/or IDU can act as confounding factors for HCV prevalence among alcoholics.


We study the approximate nearest neighbour method for cost-sensitive classification on low-dimensional manifolds embedded within a high-dimensional feature space. We determine the minimax learning rates for distributions on a smooth manifold, in a cost-sensitive setting. This generalises a classic result of Audibert and Tsybakov. Building upon recent work of Chaudhuri and Dasgupta we prove that these minimax rates are attained by the approximate nearest neighbour algorithm, where neighbours are computed in a randomly projected low-dimensional space. In addition, we give a bound on the number of dimensions required for the projection which depends solely upon the reach and dimension of the manifold, combined with the regularity of the marginal.


Rayleigh backscattering (RB) and Fresnel reflection (FR) effects can cause severe degradation on the performance of a WDM-PON system utilizing loop-back schemes that provide colorless upstream transmitters. We proposed cross-seeding schemes to overcome these problems and also to improve the utilization efficiency of the seeding lights. The operation principles of two types of cross-seeding schemes: mutual seeding and shared seeding are discussed in detail for different applications. A generalized formulation of the crosstalk from the RB and FR effects is derived for comparing the performance between a conventional WDM-PON and a cross-seeding WDM-PON. It is found that the cross seeding schemes can be most beneficial for the system with low loop-back gain or low reflection at the distribution fiber or drop fiber. This is especially advantageous for the shared seeding scheme in which the seeding light can be transmitted along a separate fiber with high power or by optical amplification such that the gain of the loop-back transmitter can be kept small. Application examples are used to demonstrate the merits and feasibility of the cross-seeding schemes.


The picosecond optical limiting characteristics of the optical limiting dyes hexamethylindotricarbocyanine iodide (HITCI) and chloroaluminum phthalocyanine (CAP) are compared and contrasted at 532 nm. From single pulse transmittance experiments, HITCI is shown to possess a serious limitation in its optical limiting behavior, where the regime of induced absorption becomes one of induced transmission for high irradiances. CAP, on the other hand, although possessing a smaller ratio of the excited-state to ground-state absorption cross-section, continues to exhibit optical limiting over a much broader dynamic range. From cross-polarized time-resolved excitation-probe measurements, HITCI exhibits a sharp negative spike around zero delay which originates from orientational coherent grating effects, while CAP does not exhibit any spike. These nonlinearities are explained theoretically as a complex interplay between a series of excited manifolds for the dyes and the radiation properties of the interacting laser p...


The objective of this work is to establish the importance of speaker information present in the glottal regions of speech signal. In addition, its robustness for degraded data and significance for limited data is sought for the task of speaker verification. An adaptive threshold method is proposed to use on zero frequency filtered signal to get the glottal activity regions. Feature vectors are extracted from regions having significant glottal activity. An i-vector based speaker verification system is developed using NIST SRE 2003 database and the performance of proposed method is evaluated in degraded and limited data condition. Robustness of proposed method is tested for white and babble noise. Further, short utterances of test data are considered to evaluate the performance in limited data condition. The proposed method based on the selection of glottal regions is found to perform better than the baseline energy based voice activity detection method in degraded and limited data conditions.


[ 1 ] A comprehensive data set for young lavas erupted along the Alaska-Aleutian arc is used to examine how fluid and sediment transport rates and melting processes vary in response to systematic changes in subduction rate and dip along the arc and across the ocean-continent boundary. Positive correlations between convergence rate, volcano volume, and 238 U excesses suggest that magmatic output is closely linked to the size of the fluid flux which occurred <10 kyr prior to eruption. Sediment-sensitive tracers like Th/Nb, Ce/Ce*, and 10 Be/ 9 Be also increase with convergence rate. However, the inferred 10 Be/ 9 Be ratio of this component is low relative to that in the incoming sediments, and this could reflect either sediment removal by accretion or storage in the mantle wedge for (cid:1) 0.5–1 Myr. Th/Nb and Th/Nd ratios exceed those expected from bulk sediment addition in the center of the arc suggesting that the enhanced sediment signal reflects transfer in a partial melt phase, whereas partial melts from the subducted oceanic crust appear to be restricted to the western tear in the Pacific plate. Therefore the thermal structure at the slab-wedge interface in the center of the arc must lie close to, and possibly between, the sediment and basalt solidii and is thus constrained to be in the region of 670–740 (cid:1) C at 3 GPa. Elevated ( 230 Th/ 232 Th) ratios, the occurrence of 230 Th excesses and only modest 226 Ra excesses in many of the lavas are modeled as the products of dynamic melting effects superimposed upon a fluid-fluxed mantle wedge. The transition from oceanic to continental lithosphere seems to play an important role in determining the relative effects of fluid addition and partial melting upon U-Th disequilibria. We infer that the change from fast and steep plate subduction in the Aleutians to shallow


Excessive grazing pressure on rangeland vegetation reduces the basal area value of vegetation and also changes the botanic composition. This study examined the piosphere effects of livestock grazing on rangeland vegetation based on distance from a natural water source. The piosphere effects were evaluated around Karagol Lake, which is a natural water-source in Mediterranean region of Turkey. The changes in vegetation were determined within three different sites where sample plots were located at 0-1000 m, 1000-3000 m and 3000-5000 m away from the lake. The mean values of basal area in the study area were 10.71%, 14.46%, and 22.16% for three sites, respectively. The average oven-dry hay yield was 639.0 kg ha-1, 1542.9 kg ha-1, and 2146.3 kg ha-1, respectively. The vegetation similarity indices of the sites indicated that the botanic composition changed with respect to increasing distance from the lake. The lowest similarity index was encountered between the site one and site three (30.31%).


The main focus of this thesis is the study of the burned bones from Uppgarde, Vallstena, on the island of Gotland. Vallstena is a place where artifacts, graves and other activities are dated from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age. This indicates that Vallstena was a place humans frequently used for a long period of time and a prominent remain is a Stone Ship Setting that once was placed here but when excavations were carried out in the 1970s only the depressions of the stones became visible. The purpose of this study is toco-analyse osteological and archaeological material found, to obtain a clearer image of the place and contribute to the existing research of this area. The goal study is to determine the nature of the activities seen in relationship to the analysis of the cremated bones found here and how they were connected to the surrounding landscape. The basis for this analysis is a combination of thorough examinations of the osteological material, archaeological features as well as relevant literature.


Ancient Egyptians are thought to have been the only people in the Old World who were practising mummification in the Bronze Age (c. 2200-700 BC). But now a remarkable series of finds from a remote Scottish island indicates that Ancient Britons were performing similar, if less elaborate, practices of bodily preservation. Evidence of mummification is usually limited to a narrow range of arid or frozen environments which are conducive to soft tissue preservation. Mike Parker Pearson and his team show that a combination of microstructural, contextual and AMS 14C analysis of bone allows the identification of mummification in more temperate and wetter climates where soft tissues and fabrics do not normally survive. Skeletons from Cladh Hallan on South Uist, Western Isles, Scotland were buried several hundred years after death, and the skeletons provide evidence of post mortem manipulation of body parts. Perhaps these practices were widespread in mainland Britain during the Bronze Age.


Microdrills were deposited by Cr-N based and TiN coatings using a magnetron sputter technique. A flexible printed circuit board was used to evaluate the drilling lives. SEM observation was employed to reveal the wear and local welding. A special pin-on-disc tester was designed to assess the interaction between coatings and against materials. Drilling test indicated that the number of drilling holes increased significantly when the minidrill was coated Cr-N based film than TiN. Failure model of microdrill was studied for cutting this copper rich printed circuit board. Results demonstrated that welding produced between TiN coating and rich copper counter material, but welding did not occur between Cr-N based film and copper material.


In Myanmar, the Citizenship Law of 1982 made the Rohingya "stateless." The Rohingya consider Bangladesh a haven and take to the sea on rickety boats to cross borders. If they do, however, they become "illegal migrants." Considering such laws unjust, local and international NGOs have been leading struggles to uphold the Rohingyas' rights in Bangladesh. This article registers the struggles of these organizations against the production of illegality and statelessness. It discusses how they contest and negotiate the thick mix of politics, the local labor control regime, laws, and national regulations, and how in turn the refugees assert their agency through resilience and resistance, individually and collectively.


A series of systematically modified vanadyl-beta-diketone complexes, VO(beta-diketone)(2), bearing substituent groups with different electron inductive properties were synthesized and evaluated as inhibitors against calf-intestine alkaline phosphatase (APase). A combination of biochemical and quantum mechanical techniques were employed to identify structure-activity relationships relevant for rational design of phosphatase inhibitors. Kinetic parameters and activation free energy, enthalpy, and entropy for calf-intestine APase-catalyzed dephosphorylation of para-nitrophenylphosphate were also determined along with the inhibition constants (K(i)) for the VO(beta-diketone)(2) complexes. Increased positive charge on the vanadyl group increases the inhibition potency of the complex while the absence of an available coordination site on the complex decreases its inhibition potency. These findings correlate well with the results of ab initio electron density calculations for the complexes.


We claim that the standard methodology to study the effects of the reallocation of factors on growth is not adequate in the presence of biased innovations. Labor-saving innovations increase output per worker and may decrease the marginal productivity of labor. Therefore, a reallocation of labor from a sector with higher output per worker to a sector with lower output per worker may be productivity enhancing.


To improve the biocompatibility of PP monofilaments used for pelvic reconstruction mesh, natural pearl powders were introduced as fillers in the preparation of modified PP monofilaments. The mechanical properties the modified PP monofilaments were analyzed, followed by characterization by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Then, the biocompatibilities of these samples were investigated by MTT assay. The results revealed that the tensile strength and elongation of the as-prepared PP monofilaments can satisfy the requirement. According to the SEM images, masses of pearl powder were observed on the surface of monofilaments, which may favor the cell growth. The MTT results and the confocal microscopical images indicated that the presence of pearl powder in PP monofilaments led to improved proliferation and growth of L929 and PIEC cells under the same conditions, suggesting that PP monofilaments modified by pearl powders have a great potential in the applications of pelvic reconstruction.


Prydz Bay Antarctica is an embayment situated at the ocean-ward end of the LambertGlacier/Amery Ice Shelf complex East Antarctica. This study aims to document thepalynological assemblages of 58 surface sediment samples from Prydz Bay, and tocompare these assemblages with ancient palynomorph assemblages recovered fromstrata sampled by drilling projects in and around the bay.
Since the early Oligocene, terrestrial and marine sediments from the Lambert Grabenand the inner shelf areas in Prydz Bay have been the target of significant glacialerosion. Repeated ice shelf advances towards the edge of the continental shelfredistributed these sediments, reworking them into the outer shelf and Prydz ChannelFan. These areas consist mostly of reworked sediments, and grain size analysisshows that finer sediments are found in the deeper parts of the inner shelf and thedeepest areas on the Prydz Channel Fan. Circulation within Prydz Bay is dominatedby a clockwise rotating gyre which, together with coastal currents and ice bergploughing modifies the sediments of the bay, resulting in the winnowing out of thefiner component of the sediment.
Glacial erosion and reworking of sediments has created four differing environments(Prydz Channel Fan, North Shelf, Mid Shelf and Coastal areas) in Prydz Bay whichis reflected in the palynomorph distribution. Assemblages consist of Holocenepalynomorphs recovered mostly from the Mid Shelf and Coastal areas and reworkedpalynomorphs recovered mostly from the North Shelf and Prydz Channel Fan. Thepercentage of gravel to marine palynomorph and pollen counts show a relationshipwhich may reflect a similar source from glacially derived debris but the percentageof mud to marine palynomorph and pollen counts has no relationship.
Reworked palynomorphs consist of Permian to Eocene spores and pollen and Eocenedinocysts which are part of the Transantarctic Flora. Holocene components are avaried assemblage of acritarchs, dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts), prasinophyte algae,red algae and large numbers of Zooplankton sp. and foraminifera linings. In situdinocysts are dominated by the heterotroph form Selenopemphix antarctica and none of the Holocene dinocyst species found in Prydz Bay have been recorded in theArctic. In contrast acritarchs, prasinophytes and red algae are all found in the Arcticand reflect a low salinity and glacial meltwater environment. Comparison withmodern surface samples from the Arctic and Southern Ocean show there is a strongcorrelation to reduction in the autotroph:heterotroph dinocyst ratio with increasinglatitude.
Todays assemblage of marine palynomorphs are more complex than those recordedin ancient assemblages and there is a lower level of reworked material. Acritarchs(Leiosphaeridia spp. Sigmopollis sp.) and prasinophytes (Cymatiosphaera spp.
Pterospermella spp. Tasmanites spp.) are recorded in the ancient record in Antarcticaas well as surface sediments in Prydz Bay, but there are very low numbers ofLeiosphaeridia spp. and Sigmopollis spp. present today in comparison to the ancientrecord. Dinocysts in situ and recovered in Prydz Bay are endemic to the Antarcticbut have not been recorded in the ancient record.


The two most commonly used criteria for assessing causal model discovery with artificial data are edit-distance and Kullback-Leibler divergence, measured from the true model to the learned model. Both of these metrics maximally reward the true model. However, we argue that they are both insufficiently discriminating in judging the relative merits of false models. Edit distance, for example, fails to distinguish between strong and weak probabilistic dependencies. KL divergence, on the other hand, rewards equally all statistically equivalent models, regardless of their different causal claims. We propose an augmented KL divergence, which we call Causal KL (CKL), which takes into account causal relationships which distinguish between observationally equivalent models. Results are presented for three variants of CKL, showing that Causal KL works well in practice.


The charging of the traveling wave resonator (TWR) of a microwave compressor by a relativistic S-band magnetron that generates microwave pulses with power ≤ 250 MW and duration of ~ 100 ns is described. The short pulse duration determining the resonator charging time and traveling electromagnetic wave increases the electric strength of the resonator. The short duration of the input pulse determines the coupling and Q-factor of the TWR, and it is not necessary to apply an interference switch for energy release. A scheme for releasing energy at a microwave power of ≥ 1 GW using a ferrite circulator is discussed.


Quick Direct-method Controlled (QDC) isa stochastic simulator based on the direct method version of Gillespie's Stochastic Simulation Algorithm(SSA). It has been specifically designed to simulate experiments performed on metabolic networks, when external operators can act on the system, modifying its spontaneous behaviour. Users of QDC can simulate different experimental controls:i.e.,add or remove chemical species at a given time; change the rate of a reaction at a given moment; and describe reactions with complex stoichiometrythat take place once the stoichiometric condition is verified (here called immediate reactions). Moreover, even though QDC is not designed to manage compartments, it can simulate up-take and excretion reactions. QDC represents a useful tool for the specific field of interest thanks to its computational performances and simple input language.


To compare the effects of local myocardial ischaemia on the dynamics of different portions of the interventricular septum (IVS), pairs of miniature ultrasonic crystals were implanted across the anterior and posterior portion of the IVS and the left ventricular free wall (LVFW) to measure wall thickness changes in open chest dogs. Following left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) occlusion, the end-diastolic wall thickness decreased in all areas indicating significant chamber dilation. Systolic thickening was reduced from 19.2% to 0.8% in the anterior LVFW and from 16.0% to 4.1% in the anterior IVS, while a significant increase in thickening occurred in the posterior LVFW (from 17.1% to 21.0%) and in the posterior IVS (from 13.6% to 16.5%). Left circumflex artery (LCx) occlusion produced a greater distension of the ischaemic free wall and the magnitude of responses tended to be less in the IVS than in the free wall (percentage thickening being reduced from 15.3% to 7.2% in the posterior IVS, and from 17.4% to -4.4% in the posterior LVFW). Enhancement of the systolic thickening of the normal perfused area was more marked with LCx occlusion than with LAD occlusion. Percentage thickening increased from 19.0% to 26.9% in the anterior LVFW and from 17.2% to 28.6% in the anterior IVS. These findings indicate that the ischaemic responses of the IVS, as induced by ischaemia differed in the anterior and posterior portion of the septum. Thus, when attempting to assess clinical echocardiographic findings of an ischaemic septum, one should take into account these regional differences with regard to which area of the septum the ultrasonic beam had passed.


Ambient air and soil samples were taken in Istanbul between November 2012 and May 2013 in order to determine polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations. A high volume air sampler was operated to collect air samples. Soil samples were taken from top of bare land. Air PCB concentrations ranged from 201 to 705 pg m−3 with an average of 360 pg m−3. The dry weight soil PCB concentrations varied from 3.4 to 13.6 ng g−1 with an average of 8.3 ng g−1. The fate of PCBs was investigated through gas/particle partitioning. Further investigation was made between soil and air phases by fugacity fractions. Effect of wind direction was revealed by conditional probability function (CPF). Potential source contribution function was employed to determine the likely distant PCB sources. Di-chlorinated biphenyls (Di-CBs) tended to accumulate in soil while 5-, 7-, and 8-CBs volatilized from the soil. According to CPF, 3-CBs were likely to be released from the Marmara Sea. Additionally, SW wind direction was dominant for Σ-, 2-, 5-, 6-, 7-CBs, and concentration of 9-CBs increased for the winds of NW, N, NE directions. Previously reported hot-spot zones for iron-steel manufacturing industry were identified to contribute to PCBs in air masses, arriving from SW direction. Additional contribution was detected when air masses arrived from the north. These sources were from the south of the Ukraine.


Introduction In India HIV/AIDS rates are almost stable in high risk groups except among Men who have Sex with Men (MSMs). There are scarce data available on MSMs. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, practices and risk behaviours and self-reported STIs among MSMs. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three non-governmental organisations working with MSM in Delhi. 250 MSMs were interviewed over a period of one year. This study examined MSM in the last six months. Results The mean age of study participants was 24.6 years (SD ± 5.8); 20% were adolescents. Most of the participants were well aware of the various routes of transmission of HIV/AIDS. However only half were using condoms. The number of sexual partners ranged from 1 to 20 per month. Nearly one-third (38.4%) of participants were involved in sex for pay. The prevalence of self-reported STIs was 41.2%. Discussion A substantial proportion of participants were young, literate, often married. Reported knowledge in this study was higher than that in previous studies which was reflected in the practice of participants. NGOs have played a significant role in promoting safer sexual practices. Conclusion The participants had adequate knowledge about HIV prevention. However, prevention practices were poor. A significant proportion of the MSM experienced one or more episode of the STIs. Perceived risk of getting HIV was high.


There is ongoing controversy concerning the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on physicians, research publications, medical societies, and disease advocacy groups (1–7). Nowhere is the potential influence of industry more concerning than in development of clinical practice guidelines (8), which are designed to improve and standardize patient care yet also have enormous economic implications. As outlined herein, industry has provided major financial support to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), the principal organization that develops and promulgates management guidelines in nephrology, and honoraria and/or research support to many participants who are involved in nephrology guideline development. Opinion-based recommendations have benefited some industries and harmed others. If not managed appropriately, then these relationships have the opportunity to undermine the guidelines and harm industry's reputation. They also may reflect poorly on the renal community in general and threaten our independence. Major changes are necessary to limit the influence of conflicts of interest and the appearance of undue influence. The recent 2006 Kidney and Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) anemia guidelines highlight many of these issues.

The recent 2006 KDOQI anemia guidelines increased the target hemoglobin range from 11 to 12 to 11 to 13 g/dl for all patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) (9). Because of the tight relationship in patients with CKD between target hemoglobin and erythropoietin-stimulating protein (ESP; epoetin or darbepoetin) dosage (Figure 1), this undoubtedly will increase ESP use and cost to the health care system.

 Figure 1.
US hemodialysis prevalent patient mean weekly epoetin dosage (dashed line) and hemoglobin (solid line) from 1993 to 2004. Rate of deaths per 1000 patient-years (–•–) in prevalent US hemodialysis patients, adjusted for age, gender, race, and primary renal disease. Adapted from reference (10), pp 16, 26.

Since 1991, the mean hemoglobin and mean epoetin dosage in dialysis patients have risen steadily. Medicare's …


Objective: A recent review by the United States Secret Service of cases involving threats against the President indicated that about 50 percent of subjects had received mental health care. However, only 12 percent of referrals for investigation came from mental health professionals. This study explored reasons for this discrepancy by examining mental health clinicians' attitudes about reporting threats against the President to the Secret Service. Methods; A questionnaire developed using findings from a series of focus groups was mailed to a stratified sample of 1,200 psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers in four states. The instrument included questions about their experience with threats against the President, factors that influence reporting of threats, and knowledge about the Secret Service and its functions. Results: A total of 592 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 49.3 percent. Therapists know very little about the Secret Service and are unclear about how to appropriately respond to threats against the President by their clients. The majority of respondents (89.9 percent) indicated they would report a threat against the President only if they thought the threat was "real," contingent on situational and patient variables and elements of the threat itself. Most of the respondents (62.4 percent) indicated that regardless of what information was sought by the Secret Service, they would disclose only information they considered clinically relevant to the investigation. Conclusions: Given the importance of clinical information for assessing risk to the President, the Secret Service should consider increased educational efforts to inform the mental health community about the functions and mission of the Secret Service and to clarify professional obligations to report threats against


Background: Calibration of computer navigation for spinal fusion is most commonly conducted using either a preoperative computed tomography (CT) scan or intraoperative O-arm scanning. This study aimed to directly compare patient radiation exposure from intraoperative O-arm use for pedicle screw placement versus typical diagnostic lumbar spine CT studies. Methods: A retrospective review of patients undergoing O-arm navigated lumbar spine fusion procedures was performed to record radiation exposure as the primary outcome, as well as surgical and demographic details. The same was done for a control group of patients undergoing lumbar spine CT scans. Results: A total of 83 patients undergoing lumbar spine fusion with O-arm navigation were included, as well as 105 unique patients who underwent a lumbar spine CT. The 2 groups were similar in terms of average age (60.2 versus 60.5, P1⁄4 .90), average height (170 cm versus 169 cm, P1⁄4 .50), and average weight (92.6 kg versus 90.9 kg, P1⁄4 .62). Dose-length product for O-arm navigated procedures was 798.3 mGy-cm and 924.2 mGy-cm for CT scans (P1⁄4 .064). Subgroup analysis revealed 18 patients who had both an O-arm navigated surgery and a lumbar spine CT. In this group the average dose-length product for O-arm surgeries was 806.2 mGy-cm and 822.1 mGy-cm for CT scans (P1⁄4 .92) Conclusion: This study revealed no statistically or clinically significant differences between patient radiation exposure for O-arm operative navigation compared to lumbar spine CT. Clinical Relevance: Given the similarity in radiation exposure, surgeons should rely on other factors to guide decision making in regard to mode of imaging for navigation. Knowledge of this comparison and total radiation exposure will also be useful for patient education and shared decision making in regard to navigated procedures.


Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies removed information from their websites that they feared could invite attacks on critical public and private infrastructure. Accordingly, the benefits and costs of environmental information disclosure programs have come under increasing scrutiny. This article describes a framework for examining these benefits and costs and illustrates the framework through brief case studies of two information disclosure programs: risk management planning and materials accounting. The article outlines what we know and still need to find out about information disclosure programs in order to appropriately balance benefits and costs.


To analyze datasets like the US Federal Budget or the number of students in a University it is common to look for changes over time. This task can be easier and more fruitful if the analysis is performed by grouping by attributes, such as by Agencies, Bureaus and Accounts for the Budget or by Ethnicity, Gender and Major in a University. We present TreeVersity2, a web based interactive data visualization tool that allows users to analyze changes in datasets by creating dynamic hierarchies based on the data attributes. TreeVersity2 introduces a novel space filling visualization designed to represent changes in trees, that showcase the change on all tree levels, not only the leaves. With this visualization users can explore absolute and relative changes, created and removed nodes, and each node's actual values, while maintaining the context. Moreover, TreeVersity2 includes time-based visualizations that provide the context of the each node's change over time. Finally, TreeVersity2 provides a reporting tool that lists outliers in textual form, which can help users identify what has changed in the data without having to manually setup the filters. We validated TreeVersity2 with 12 case studies with organizations as diverse as the National Cancer Institute, Federal Drug Administration, Department of Transportation, Office of the Bursar of the University of Maryland, and even eBay. Our case studies demonstrated that TreeVersity2 is flexible enough to be used in different domains to reveal useful insights for the data owners. A demo of TreeVersity2 can be seen at https://treeversity.cattlab.umd.edu.


Microelectromechanical resonators are no longer solely a subject of research in university and government labs; they have found a variety of applications at industrial scale, where their market is predicted to grow steadily. Nevertheless, many barriers to enhance their performance and further spread their application remain to be overcome. In this Special Issue, we will focus our attention to some of the persistent challenges of micro-/nanoresonators such as nonlinearity, temperature stability, acceleration sensitivity, limits of quality factor, and failure modes that require a more in-depth understanding of the physics of vibration at small scale. The goal is to seek innovative solutions that take advantage of unique material properties and original designs to push the performance of micro-resonators beyond what is conventionally achievable. Contributions from academia discussing less-known characteristics of micro-resonators and from industry depicting the challenges of large-scale implementation of resonators are encouraged with the hopes of further stimulating the growth of this field, which is rich with fascinating physics and challenging problems. an Open Access Journal by MDPI


Assuming that the solutions of a set of restrictions on the rational expectations of future values can be represented as a vector autoregressive model, we study the implied restrictions on the coefficients. Nonstationary behavior of the variables is allowed, and the restrictions on the cointegration relationships are spelled out. In some interesting special cases it is shown that the likelihood ratio statistic can easily be computed.


Loess is extensive in central Alaska, but there are uncertainties about its source and the direction of paleo- winds that deposited it. Both northerly and southerly winds have been inferred. The most likely sources of loess are the Tanana River (south), the Nenana River (southeast), and the Yukon River (north). Late Quaternary loess in central Alaska has immobile trace-element compositions (Cr/Sc, Th/Ta, Th/Sc, Th/U, Eu/Eu*, GdN/YbN) that indicate derivation mostly from the Tanana River. However, other ratios (As/Sb, Zr/Hf, LaN/YbN) and quantitative modeling indicate that the Yukon River was also a source. During the last glacial period, there may have been a longer residence time of the Siberian and Canadian high-pressure cells, along with a strengthened Aleutian low-pressure cell. This would have generated regional-scale northeasterly winds and explains derivation of loess from the Yukon River. However, superim- posed upon this synoptic-scale circulation, there may have been strong, southerly katabatic winds from expanded glaciers on the northern flank of the Alaska Range. These winds could have provided eolian silt from the Tanana River. Yukon River and Tanana River sediments are highly calcareous, whereas Fairbanks-area loess is not. This suggests that carbonate leaching in loess kept ahead of sedimentation and that late Quaternary loess in central Alaska was deposited relatively


The present paper deals with the effects of oscillation on impact property of mild steel weldments. Mild steel plates we~ewelded at different frequencies and amplitudes of longitudinal and transverse oscillation. Frequencies and amplitudes of oscillations were varied in the ranges of Oto 400HZand Oto 40,im respectively. Impact test specimenswere madeout of the stationary and oscillatory welded workpieces and were tested on lzod testing machine. The absorbed energy of the welds prepared under oscillatory (longitudinal and transverse) conditions showsignificant increase in comparison to absorbed energy of stationary prepared welds. It wasobserved that 80 Hz-40!Im and 400 Hz-5 ,(m oscillatory condition gave best results, at 80 Hzand 400Hz frequencies respectively. At lower frequency higher amplitude and at higher frequency lower amplitude produce maximum percentage increase. However, best results are obtained at 400 Hz-5llm oscillatory condition where the percentage increase in absorbed energy maybe attributed to grain refinement which is caused by the initiation of dendrite fragmentation and grain detachment mechanismsin the weld pool because of its oscillation.


In 2014 Google released a new version of their mobile operating system Android where one of the features was the change from Dalvik to Android Runtime (ART). Dalvik and ART are two runtimes that are used by Android applications and some of the system services. The purpose was to see where ART and Dalvik differs when it comes to applications size, RAM usage and performance. The methods used for deducing there differences where to install multiple applications and then examine the applications size and the RAM usage. Also, benchmark applications was used to measure the performance between ART and Dalvik. The results showed that ART was better when it comes to performance and RAM usage. Interestingly there was a few drawbacks with ART. One of them were that application sizes where larger compared to Dalvik.


Behavioural studies are of great importance in increasing our understanding and appreciation of animals. In addition to providing knowledge about the diversity and complexity of behaviour in nature, such studies also provide information crucial to improvements in the welfare of animals maintained in laboratories, zoos and agricultural settings. The use of animals in behavioural research and teaching does, however, raise important ethical issues. While many behavioural studies are noninvasive and involve only observations of animals in their natural habitat, some research questions cannot be answered adequately without manipulation of animals. Studies of captive animals necessarily involve keeping animals in confinement, and manipulative procedures and surgery may be necessary to achieve the aims of the research. Studies of free-living animals in their natural habitats can cause disruption, particularly if feeding, capture, marking or experimental procedures are involved. While the furthering of scientific knowledge is a proper aim and may itself advance an awareness of human responsibility towards animal life, the investigator must always weigh the potential gain in knowledge against any adverse consequences for the animals and populations under study. This is equally true for the evaluation of animal use in animal behaviour teaching activities. In fact, animal behaviour courses provide an excellent opportunity to introduce students to the ethical obligations a researcher accepts when animals are studied. In order to help the members make what are sometimes difficult ethical judgements about the procedures involved in the study of animals, the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour and the Animal Behavior Society have formed Ethical and Animal Care committees, respectively. These committees jointly produced the following guidelines for the use of all those who are engaged in behavioural research and teaching activities involving vertebrate and invertebrate animals. These guidelines are general in scope, since the diversity of species and study techniques used in behavioural research precludes the inclusion of specific details about appropriate animal care and treatment. The guidelines will be used by the Editors of Animal Behaviour in assessing the acceptability of submitted manuscripts. Submitted manuscripts may be rejected by an Editor, after consultation with the Ethical or Animal Care Committees, if the content violates either the letter or the spirit of the guidelines. These guidelines supplement the legal requirements in the country and/or state or province in which the work is carried out. They should not be considered an imposition upon the scientific freedom of individual researchers, but rather as helping to provide an ethical framework which each investigator may use in making decisions related to animal welfare. 1. LEGISLATION Investigators are accountable for the care and well-being of animals used in their research and teaching activities, and must therefore abide by the spirit as well as the letter of relevant legislation. For those who reside in Great Britain, a summary of the laws designed to ensure the welfare of animals is given by Crofts (1989); detailed guidance on the operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 is provided by the Home Office (1990). In the U.S.A., federal, state and local legislation and guidelines may apply. In particular, the care and use of many vertebrate laboratory animals are regulated under the Animal Welfare Act and its amendments and regulations (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 9) and/or the policies of the Public Health Service (PHS 1986; NRC 1996). Guidelines for farm animals used in research and teaching may also be applicable (Guide Development Committee 1988). In Canada, guidance can be obtained from the Guide to the Care and Use of Experimental Animals (Canadian Council on Animal Care 1992). In Britain, lists of threatened species and laws aiming to protect them can be obtained from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Species Conservation Monitoring Unit (219C Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, U.K.). In the U.S.A., information pertaining to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 may be found in the Code of Federal Regulations (Title 50, 1973). Lists of endangered species can be obtained from the Office for Endangered Species, U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service (Room 430, 4401 N Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203), or from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service (Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E7). Investigators working in other countries must familiarize themselves with legislation both on animal welfare and on threatened and endangered species and conform with the spirit and letter of the laws. When submitting manuscripts to Animal Behaviour, all authors must confirm in their cover letter that they have adhered to the legal requirements of the country in which the study was conducted.


Hot phenol-water extraction of smooth Brucella abortus and B. melitensis cells yielded a toxic fraction which was recovered from the phenol phase (fraction 5). Chemically, fractions 5 from both Brucella species were lipid-carbohydrate-protein-2 keto-3-deoxyoctulosonic acid complexes which were stable to heat and resistant to Pronase digestion. Electron micrographs of the Brucella toxins were morphologically indistinguishable from those of enterobacterial endotoxins. Biologically, Brucella toxins were lethal for mice and immunogenic for rabbits. An intravenous injection of Brucella toxin induced severe leukopenia with subsequent leukocytosis in mice. Cross-tolerance experiments with mice demonstrated that pretreatment with B. abortus toxin lessened the hypoferremia produced by challenge with Escherichia coli endotoxin. Furthermore, fractions 5 from B. abortus and B. melitensis were able to form hybrids with E. coli and Salmonella enteritidis endotoxins and also with each other. Although Brucella toxins possess many structural and biological properties in common with endotoxins from the Enterobacteriaceae, some quantitative differences in their biological potencies were observed. Brucella toxins were relatively innocuous in tests for pyrogenicity in rabbits and lethality for chick embryos. In nonspecific protection tests, Brucella toxin had only 1/75 the potency of E. coli endotoxin in protecting mice against challenge with virulent S. typhi. However, on the basis of the data presented and on the work done previously, we concluded that the heat-stable toxins of B. abortus and B. melitensis were endotoxins.


We present the design and the basic features of variable symbol-rate demodulators for digital TV broad- casting by cable and satellite, The demodulators are fully compliant with the DVB Recommendations which were later published as ETSI standards. The satellite demodulator employs the QPSK signal constellation and can handle symbol rates up to 30 Mbaud. The cable demodulator is confgurable to operate with all QAM signal formats from 16-QAM to 256-QAM, and handles symbol rates up to 7 Mbaud which is the maximum possible symbol rate in an 8 MHz channel. Both demodulators employ polyphase filtering for variable symbol rate operation and fully-digital carrier recovery loops with an extended frequency acquisition range. In addition, the cable demodulator includes a blind equalizer with smooth transition to a conventional adaptation algorithm after convergence.


Finite-sample system identification algorithms can be used to build guaranteed confidence regions for unknown model parameters under mild statistical assumptions. It has been shown that in many circumstances these rigorously built regions are comparable in size and shape to those that could be built by resorting to the asymptotic theory. The latter sets are, however, not guaranteed for finite samples and can sometimes lead to misleading results. The general principles behind finite-sample methods make them virtually applicable to a large variety of even nonlinear systems. While these principles are simple enough, a rigorous treatment of the attendant technical issues makes the corresponding theory complex and not easy to access. This is believed to be one of the reasons why these methods have not yet received widespread acceptance by the identification community and this letter is meant to provide an easy access point to finite-sample system identification by presenting the fundamental ideas underlying these methods in a simplified manner. We then review three (classes of) methods that have been proposed so far—1) Leave-out Sign-dominant Correlation Regions (LSCR); 2) Sign-Perturbed Sums (SPS); 3) Perturbed Dataset Methods (PDMs). By identifying some difficulties inherent in these methods, we also propose in this letter a new sign-perturbation method based on correlation which overcome some of these difficulties.


Data on tuberculosis morbidity covering the period 1950-1989 are presented: special features of tuberculosis epidemiology for the studied period are emphasized; grouping of the republics is given by tuberculosis morbidity rates and pattern; difficulties encountered in tuberculosis prevention and detection are discussed which can adversely affect the decline of tuberculosis mortality rates.


Anti-virus software (AVS) tools are used to detect Malware in a system. However, software-based AVS are vulnerable to attacks. A malicious entity can exploit these vulnerabilities to subvert the AVS. Recently, hardware components such as Hardware Performance Counters (HPC) have been used for Malware detection. In this paper, we propose PREEMPT, a zero overhead, high-accuracy and low-latency technique to detect Malware by re-purposing the embedded trace buffer (ETB), a debug hardware component available in most modern processors. The ETB is used for post-silicon validation and debug and allows us to control and monitor the internal activities of a chip, beyond what is provided by the Input/Output pins. PREEMPT combines these hardware-level observations with machine learning-based classifiers to preempt Malware before it can cause damage. There are many benefits of re-using the ETB for Malware detection. It is difficult to hack into hardware compared to software, and hence, PREEMPT is more robust against attacks than AVS. PREEMPT does not incur performance penalties. Finally, PREEMPT has a high True Positive value of 94% and maintains a low False Positive value of 2%.


Objective: To investigate structural and functional alterations of gray matter (GM) and examine their clinical relevance in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) using multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. Methods: A total of 35 NMO and 36 healthy controls (HC) were recruited in this study. Cortical lesions were investigated by double inversion recovery technique. Five voxel-wise MRI measurements were obtained for each participant in the GM including gray matter volume (GMV), fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), and weighted functional connectivity strength (wFCS). Between-group differences, cross-modality relationships, and MRI-clinical correlations were examined. Results: No cortical lesions were found in NMO. Compared to HC, NMO patients exhibited significantly decreased GMV in deep GM and cortical regions involving visual function and cognition. Diffusion GM abnormalities were widespread in the patients. Decreased ALFF and wFCS were observed in the patients in sensorimotor, visual, cognition, and cerebellar sites. GM structural alterations were correlated with cognitive but not physical disability scores of the patients. Conclusion: Despite the lack of focal cortical lesions, patients with NMO exhibit both structural and functional alterations of GM in cerebrum and cerebellum that predominantly involve deep GM, visual, motor, and cognitive regions. GM alterations are associated with cognitive impairment but not physical disability.


ABSTRACT The effects of two cyclic tetrapeptide fungal toxins, apicidin (from Fusarium spp.) and HC-toxin (from Cochliobolus carbonum), on duckweed (Lemna pausicostata L.) were examined. Both toxins inhibited histone deacetylase (HD) activity from duckweed plantlets; the effective concentration (EC(50)) for inhibition of HD was 5.6 and 1.1 muM for apicidin and HC-toxin, respectively. Approximately 65 and 85% of in vitro HD activity was inhibited by 50 muM apicidin or HC-toxin, respectively. Exposing duckweed for 72 h to apicidin or HC-toxin (25 or 50 muM) enhanced cellular leakage, impaired chlorophyll synthesis, and inhibited growth (cell division). At equivalent concentrations, the effects of HC-toxin were more pronounced than those of apicidin. In fronds, 72 h of exposure to 50 muM apicidin resulted in chloroplast deterioration indicated by loss of orientation and excess starch accumulation. In roots, a 72-h treatment with 50 muM apicidin resulted in the loss of the root cap and increased vacuolization and starch accumulation in plastids.


Bangladesh is not lagging behind any more in the current age of global movement towards the modernization of international arbitration law. She has recently enacted a new arbitration law, known as 'The Arbitration Act, 2001.' The Act came into force on 10 April 2001. The Act has repealed The Arbitration (Protocol and Convention) Act, 1937 and The Arbitration Act, 1940 —legacies of the British Raj in India. Such a legislative step was urgent in the face of increasing foreign investment in Bangladesh in various sectors, especially in natural gas and power, and her ever growing export trade with the rest of the world. The new Act, principally based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (1985), consolidates the law relating to both domestic and international commercial arbitration. The new Act thus creates a single and unified legal regime for arbitration in Bangladesh which has also been the trend in recent years elsewhere. The modernization of law relating to international commercial arbitration in Bangladesh by the 2001 Act gives her a facelift as an attractive place for dispute resolution in the field of international trade, commerce and investment. The main purpose of this paper is to highlight certain important aspects in which the new Bangladesh Act deviates from the Model Law.


This report covers an investigation of the application of the theory of dynamic longitudinal stability, based on the assumption of small oscillations, to oscillations an airplane is likely to undergo in flight. The investigation was conducted with a small parasol monoplane for the fixed-stick condition. The period and damping of longitudinal oscillations were determined by direct measurements of oscillations in flight and also by calculation in which the factors that enter the theoretical stability equation were determined in flight. A comparison of the above-mentioned characteristics obtained by these two methods indicates that the theory is applicable to the conditions encountered in flight.


Clinical documentation can be transformed by Electronic Health Records, yet the documentation process is still a tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone process. Clinicians are faced with multi-faceted requirements and fragmented interfaces for information exploration and documentation. These challenges are only exacerbated in the Emergency Department—clinicians often see 35 patients in one shift, during which they have to synthesize an often previously unknown patient's medical records in order to reach a tailored diagnosis and treatment plan. To better support this information synthesis, clinical documentation tools must enable rapid contextual access to the patient's medical record. MedKnowts is an integrated note-taking editor and information retrieval system which unifies the documentation and search process and provides concise synthesized concept-oriented slices of the patient's medical record. MedKnowts automatically captures structured data while still allowing users the flexibility of natural language. MedKnowts leverages this structure to enable easier parsing of long notes, auto-populated text, and proactive information retrieval, easing the documentation burden.


There are two important aspects that will play important roles in future manufacturing systems: changeability and human-machine collaboration. The first aspect, changeability, concerns with the ability of production tools to reconfigure themselves to the new manufacturing settings, possibly with unknown prior information, while maintaining their reliability at lowest cost. The second aspect, human-machine collaboration, emphasizes the ability of production tools to put themselves on the position as humans' co-workers. The interplay between these two aspects will not only determine the economical accomplishment of a manufacturing process, but it will also shape the future of the technology itself. To address this future challenge of manufacturing systems, the concept of Cognitive Factory was proposed. Along this line, machines and processes are equipped with cognitive capabilities in order to allow them to assess and increase their scope of operation autonomously. However, the technical implementation of such a concept is still widely open for research, since there are several stumbling blocks that limit practicality of the proposed methods. In this paper, we introduce our method to achieve the goal of the Cognitive Factory. Our method is inspired by the working mechanisms of a human's brain; it works by harnessing the reasoning capabilities of cognitive architecture. By utilizing such an adaptive reasoning mechanism, we envision the future manufacturing systems with cognitive intelligence. We provide illustrative examples from our current research work to demonstrate that our proposed method is notable to address the primary issues of the Cognitive Factory: changeability and human-machine collaboration.


Introduction : Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals, Global Goals, Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health 2016-2030, we clarify the interaction between maternal age, parity and birth intervals to examine the effects on child health. Methods : We use Demographic and Health Survey data from 33 sub-Saharan African countries, and apply multivariate Poisson and logistic models to first examine the effect of maternal age (15-17, 18-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-39) on infant mortality and stunting, then modify this relationship by parity and account for the confounding effects of short birth intervals. Results : We find that poor infant mortality outcomes of children born to teen mothers are driven by higher parity children, not first-born children. While first-born children of teen mothers are at a high risk of stunting, they are likely to survive. Short birth intervals have a negative effect on infant survival and stunting outcomes. But controlling for short birth intervals does not completely offset the effect of young age at birth on child survival outcomes. Discussion : High parity children of young mothers are at a high risk of infant mortality, driven in part – but not completely – by short birth intervals. Policies aimed at delaying first birth are warranted, but should not overshadow the need to support adolescent mothers at risk of multiple births that are tightly spaced.


Through a penetrating interview and sixteen essays, this volume explores key intersections of medieval religion and philosophy. With characteristic erudition and insight, Remi Brague focuses less on individual Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers than on their relationships with one another. Their disparate philosophical worlds, Brague shows, were grounded in different models of revelation that engendered divergent interpretations of the ancient Greek sources they held in common. So, despite striking similarities in their solutions to the philosophical problems they all faced, intellectuals in each theological tradition often viewed the others' ideas with skepticism, if not disdain. Brague's portrayal of this misunderstood age brings to life not only its philosophical and theological nuances, but also its true lessons for our own time.


In a visual effects studio for movie production, sky maps play an important role for acting as a sky backdrop to a scene. The backdrop to a scene is often represented using a high-resolution sky map. This motivates the need for a large collection of sky maps to match various moods and lighting conditions. A comprehensive collection of images is not useful however, without a method of searching for desired images within that database. In this paper we define a feature space that supports an interactive search function for HDR sky maps, allowing users to find ideal images based on its appearance. The set of features are automatically extracted from the sky maps in an offline pre-processing step, and are queried in real time for progressive browsing. The system uses unsupervised learning techniques, discarding the need for labelling a large set of existing sky maps.


Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) have attracted extensive attention as ideal candidates for automotive and portable applications owing to the fascinating advantages such as high conversion efficiency, environmental friendliness, safety, wide sources of methanol, and simple cell structure. Electrocatalysts are one of crucial factors limiting the performance of DMFC. Nowadays, precious Pt-based catalyst, in spite of costliness and scarcity, is the most popular catalyst for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) at anode due to the much better performances than those of the non-Pt catalysts. But there exists some shortcomings such as poor CO-tolerance and durability. Pt alloying with other metals, e.g. Ru, is an effective strategy to improve the catalytic performance. In addition, the support with a large specific surface area (SSA), high conductivity and suitable porous structure, such as sp carbon, could lead to high dispersion, high utilization and stability of Pt-based nanoparticles, also favorable for MOR. Recently, by in situ MgO template method, we reported the unique 3D hierarchical carbon-based nanocages featured with ultrahigh SSA, micro-meso-macro-pore coexistence, good conductivity and easy doping, which exhibited excellent electrochemical performances. Herein, taking the advantages of nitrogen-dopant anchoring function and unique mesostructures of hierarchical N-doped carbon nanocages (hNCNC), we report the Pt-Ru electrocatalysts immobilized on hNCNC (Pt-Ru/hNCNC) prepared via modified microwave-assisted ethylene glycol (EG) reduction method. The so-constructed Pt-Ru/hNCNC catalysts with ca. 30 wt% loading and tunable atomic ratio of Pt to Ru have a highly homogeneous dispersion of metal nanoparticles with the average size of ca. 3 nm. The alloying Pt-Ru/hNCNC catalysts demonstrate good CO-tolerance, high MOR activity and durability, superior to those of the counterparts of Pt/hNCNC and commercial PtRu/C. The good electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the synergistic effects of the bifunctional effect due to introduction of Ru, small size and high dispersion of metal nanoparticles induced by the large SSA and nitrogen participation of hNCNC, and multi-scaled hierarchical pore structures beneficial to the mass transportation. These results proposed a potential strategy to develop the high-performance Pt-based MOR catalysts based on the novel mesostructured hNCNC.


The numerical global growth rates of Islamic Finance (IF) have been impressive over the last two decades, albeit a slight slow-down in recent years. As a response to this impressive growth rate, Islamic Finance education boomed during the last decade, with the aim of filling the apparent demand for graduates in Islamic Finance. This presentation will shed light on two specific issues. Firstly, what is the actual demand for human resource in Islamic Finance and is there really an excessive demand for Islamic Finance graduates? Secondly, is there a misallocation of resources between curriculum requirements of a standard Islamic Finance curriculum and the structure of academic talent teaching Islamic Finance? The presentation will share findings from the Malaysian Islamic Finance Education Report 2016 that highlights areas of concern. With the tremendous growth of Islamic Finance education in Pakistan in recent years, it is hoped that these findings will lead to a healthy debate about the curriculum structure and human resource planning that should be given serious attention by all stakeholders involved in Islamic Finance education.


Little is known of injury outcomes among non-hospitalised injured populations. This study examined the occurrence of poor outcomes 3 months after injury among the 2856 participants in the Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study, most of whom had sustained injuries considered of minor severity (by injury severity scoring) and had not received treatment at a hospital facility. The prevalence of poor outcomes was high across all health, physical functioning and social functioning domains and expectation characteristics examined, including for those participants with the 'least severe' injuries. Approximately half of the cohort reported experiencing moderate to high pain or psychological distress and reduced social participation, and three-quarters did not consider themselves recovered. Our findings demonstrate that, to obtain an accurate understanding of injury burden, injury outcome research should not focus only on those injured persons who are hospitalised.


Introduction It was not until 1923 that Leriche 1 first described the syndrome resulting from the arteriosclerotic obliteration of the lower abdominal aorta, and in 1946 dos Santos 2 succeeded in the first direct surgical attack on the obliterative process of the distal aorta through a thromboendarterectomy. Because the surgical methods of handling this condition are still in a developmental stage, it was considered of value to summarize our series of 33 cases treated surgically during the period from 1953 through 1957. Clinical Findings Complete or incomplete occlusion of the distal aorta and the common iliac arteries produces a somewhat varied group of symptoms. The onset is usually gradual, the first symptoms appearing in most of these patients in the fifth decade of life and in a few in the fourth and sixth decades, but in none after 60 years of age (Fig. 1). It is therefore a condition appearing