Recent interest in pulsar B0809+74, well known for its highly accurate drifting subpulses and 'memory across nulls' has raised questions about the adequacy of the rotating subbeamcarousel or/and non-radial oscillation models to describe this phenomenon. The success of the subbeam-carousel model in explaining the drift modes and periodic nulls in B1918+19 has encouraged us to revisit the application of this model to B0809+74. Pulsar B0809+74 is a complicated object, as are many pulsars where our sightline grazes the conal beam edge obliquely. Its subpulses also exhibit complex modal polarization, and only analysing the total power paints an incomplete picture of emission from the star. This remarkable pulsar has, however, been studied in great detail for over three decades, and many of the earlier controversies about its characteristics have largely been resolved. In this paper, we demonstrate that the carousel model is highly successful in reproducing the behaviour of B0809+74 in every heuristic and geometric manner. In addition, Rosen and Demorest have quantitatively fitted a non-radial oscillation model to B0809+74 at a single frequency, and we discuss how this model can reproduce the behaviour of B0809+74 across a much larger band.


The surgical treatment of movement disorders has attracted widespread attention in the past few years. Better understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms, and also the refinement of neurosurgical, neuroradiological and neurophysiological methods and techniques have contributed to the redefinition of surgical treatment. With appropriate selection criteria, symptomatic and functional benefit can be achieved in the majority of patients. Functional neurosurgical procedures nowadays are performed most frequently in patients with Parkinson's disease or cervical dystonia. Functional neurosurgery today has the choice of a variety of different surgical options. The most appropriate operative technique is chosen with regard of the clinical presentation of the individual patient. The different operative procedures and the postoperative results are briefly described.


An iterative method of solution of an integral equation arising in electromagnetic scattering from penetrable bodies is presented. The solution method, first discussed by C. Lanczos (1950), is valid for all values of the dielectric constant, and is similar to the Liouville-Neumann series. The series resulting from this method does not have the convergence difficulties associated with the Liouville-Neumann series. Results for several cases are presented to illustrate the utility of the method. >


Hope. A Philosophical Outlook
The »Concept of Hope« has been established as a central idea in Philosophy not earlier than in the Philosophy of Enlightenment by Kant. In Kant's Philosophy, the concept of hope is describing a constitutive dimension of »Reason« in its »practical use« which is mediating Political Philosophy with Kant's Philosophy of Religion. As we can see Kant is following much more the biblical tradition on hope than the former understanding of hope as a virtue in Philosophy. From the insight of Kant, Philosophy today is able to learn about the fundamental importance of the concept of hope for a contemporary theory of public reasoning.


In many applications, observed data are influenced by some combination of latent causes. For example, suppose sensors are placed inside a building to record responses such as temperature, humidity, power consumption and noise levels. These random, observed responses are typically affected by many unobserved, latent factors (or features) within the building such as the number of individuals, the turning on and off of electrical devices, power surges, etc. These latent factors are usually present for a contiguous period of time before disappearing; further, multiple factors could be present at a time. This paper develops new probabilistic methodology and inference methods for random object generation influenced by latent features exhibiting temporal persistence. Every datum is associated with subsets of a potentially infinite number of hidden, persistent features that account for temporal dynamics in an observation. The ensuing class of dynamic models constructed by adapting the Indian Buffet Process --- a probability measure on the space of random, unbounded binary matrices --- finds use in a variety of applications arising in operations, signal processing, biomedicine, marketing, image analysis, etc. Illustrations using synthetic and real data are provided.


The climate of the Wester Ross region of NW Scotland is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the strength and latitude of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream. This was particularly apparent during the last deglaciation (14.7-12.9 ka), when overall climatic amelioration was interrupted by periods of cooling, the most significant being a 1.2 ka return to glacial conditions during the Younger Dryas (12.9-11.5 ka). Glacial readvances during these cooling episodes left behind numerous geomorphological features, which have been mapped and interpreted through a variety of methods, including fieldwork observations, aerial photography and digital elevation models, to form a detailed reconstruction of the style and timing of deglaciation. These methods were augmented by the study of 3D digital models, produced by combining 5cm resolution, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scans with colour photography, leading to the production of a detailed geomorphological map of a cirque formation in Torridon, Wester Ross, which was covered by an ice-sheet at the Last Glacial Maximum, and experienced localised ice flow during subsequent deglaciation and readvances. Six statistically comparable cosmogenic 10Be bedrock exposure ages give a Younger Dryas age for sites in Torridon and Applecross (Wester Ross), and have also been used to constrain the vertical extent of these ice fields. Reconstructions of these ice bodies revealed that the Torridon ice field (mean ELA, 482m) covered ~100km2, over twice the surface area covered by the Applecross ice field (~43km2). This could have resulted from the survival of ice in Torridon prior to the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling, and is tentativelty supported by pre-Younger Dryas cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from this study and previous studies, which imply that ice existed close to the Wester Ross coastline and within central Torridon between 14-13ka. The Applecross ice field mean ELA (361m) was lowered by the presence of independent glaciers, which formed in low-lying troughs as snow was efficiently transferred to the NE by prevailing SW winds. Using empirical values from a global dataset, average annual Younger Dryas palaeoprecipitation values for the Torridon and Applecross ELAs are 2010 � 266 and 2312 � 534 mm a-1 respectively, suggesting a wetter climate than today. Palaeoprecipitation calculated using equations based on a climate model of NW Scotland, yield lower values between 1005 � 67 mm a-1 and 1758 � 118 mm a-1 for the Torridon ELA and 1205 � 233 mm a-1 to 2109 � 407 mm a-1 for the Applecross ELA, perhaps a more reliable estimate which reflect enhanced continentaility, promoted by the formation of sea ice on the NE Atlantic seaboard during the Younger Dryas.Despite the rapid warming observed in palaeotemperature proxies, studies of glacial geomorphology and basal shear stress suggest that initial deglaciation was slow, oscillatory and warm-based, leading to the formation of prominent retreat moraines in the lower valleys. This prolonged transition can be related to the northward migration of sea ice and the gradual reintroduction of a Gulf Stream-dominated maritime climate. Ice remaining in the central area down-wasted in-situ as the regional ELA increased, creating hummocky landscape. Finally, cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages indicate that glaciers (probably characerised by a polythermal regime) retreated into the high north-facing corries at approximately 11.8ka, depositing a series of flutes.


Community development, especially in developing societies, has focused on mobilizing community members for collective action. Little attention has been paid to creative efforts of individuals engaged in transformative activities that improve their lives and from which other members of a community can learn. This paper examines how individuals creatively engage in activities that improve their households. The research, done in a rural area of northern Malawi, Africa, involved in-depth unstructured qualitative interviews of a number of individuals and careful observations of what was going on in their households. The analysis reveals evidence that creative individuals improved their households' well-being through meaning-making, learning, and acting while navigating structural imperatives. Some of their actions were counter to social and cultural expectations, others were behavioral outliers, but all were driven by choices each made. Community development facilitators ought to consider identifying creative individuals (could be Christians) in a community, enhancing their agency, and organizing communities of practice around these individuals for other members of a community to learn from or for them to engage in the spreading of the Good News. I term this constructivist community development / evangelism and argue that it is particularly relevant in subsistent, substantive, and allocentric communities where group norms are a significant factor in people's behavior. These group norms are important for collective action but can stifle individuals' creativity.


For sensor networks deployed to monitor and report real events, event source anonymity is an attractive and critical security property, which unfortunately is also very difficult and expensive to achieve. This is not only because adversaries may attack against sensor source privacy through traffic analysis, but also because sensor networks are very limited in resources. As such, a practical tradeoff between security and performance is desirable. In this paper, for the first time we propose the notion of statistically strong source anonymity, under a challenging attack model where a global attacker is able to monitor the traffic in the entire network. We propose a scheme called FitProbRate, which realizes statistically strong source anonymity for sensor networks. We also demonstrate the robustness of our scheme under various statistical tests that might be employed by the attacker to detect real events. Our analysis and simulation results show that our scheme, besides providing source anonymity, can significantly reduce real event reporting latency compared to two baseline schemes.


Our study considers both the methodological issues, and potential solutions to these issues, that have plagued research into the OHS of migrant workers, and also the currently available information about this population in five countries, wherein we hope to apply our own proposed methodology. We specifically note the influence of cultural and institutional divergences on this research, and accept that, because of these divergences, no one "best way" can necessarily apply to the study of migrant workers. Our research sits within a number of intersecting concerns, all of which we can document in our cross-national comparison: Globalisation and the increasing movement of people; The vulnerability of migrant workers and their tendency to cluster at the periphery of the labour market; The precarious and unregulated nature of this peripheral labour market; The consequent over-representation of migrant workers in data on workplace illness and injury rates; The difficulty researchers face in attempting to fully determine the extent of the problem; The methodological issues with identifying an "invisible" group


Commentary and analysis of five procedure decisions issued by the Supreme Court during the 1993-94 Term. The article discusses the holdings and implications of the Court's decisions in J.E.B. v. Alabama; United Mine Workers v. Bagwell; Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg; Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Insurance Co.; and Ticor Title Co. v. Brown. In J.E.B. v. Alabama, a Seventh Amendment right-to-jury trial case, the Court extended its holdings in Batson v. Kentucky to prohibit gender-based challenges during jury selection. The Court utilized equal protection analysis to reach this conclusion. In United Mine Workers v. Bagwell, the Court that the UMW's contempt of a state court injunction issued during a strike in Virginia, which resulted in fines against the union, constituted a criminal penalty that entitled the union to a jury trial before the imposition of this type of sanction. In Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg, for the third time in four years, the Court revisited the problem of punitive damages. The Court, in a 7-2 decision, held that an Oregon law that prohibited the appellate review of punitive damages constituted a denial of due process. The Honda decision raises the question whether it may open the door to other procedural due process challenges to other states' statutory punitive damage schemes. In Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co., a unanimous Court decided that if parties agree to settle and then subsequently come to grief, they should take their dispute to state courts and not bother federal courts unless their settlement agreement specifically provides for such action. Federal courts neither have inherent power nor ancillary jurisdiction to assume continuing supervisory authority over settlement agreements. Finally, in Ticor Title Co. v. Brown, the Court declined to adjudicate the Shutts issue concerning the due process requirements for non-opt-out monetary damage classes. The Court concluded that certiorari had been improvidently granted, leaving the Shutts issue unresolved, and for some future case.


The authors describe two cases that developed organizing pneumonia (OP) associated with novel influenza A(H1N1) virus. These patients were admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) because of severe respiratory failure. After initial clinical improvement, both patients worsened their condition during their second week of ICU stay, presenting fever, increasing in inflammatory parameters and worsening in oxygen exchange and respiratory mechanics. Chest x-rays and computed tomographies showed an increment on lung infiltrates, given by areas of consolidation and ground glass opacification. Although broad-spectrum antibiotics were administered, patients showed no improvement. All cultures, including bronchoalveolar lavage samples, were negative. In both cases, an open lung biopsy was performed, and histopathological examination of the specimen was compatible with OP. Both patients were successfully treated with high-dose corticoids. The aim of this report is to alert about the possibility of OP associated with novel influenza virus in patients with severe respiratory failure.


In decision problems, frictions as well as constraints play an increasingly important role. Especially, optimal timing problems can be affected by potentially "non-rational" behavior of the decision maker which is not incorporated in the standard theory. A relevant problem of this kind is the real option to abandon a project. Limited cognitive resources and external restrictions to option exercise may result in a suboptimal outcome. The term inattention can summarize such frictions and constraints. In this paper, we address this issue by proposing a Markovian model to value American-style contracts of agents who are temporarily inattentive. Exercise decisions maximizing the contract's payoff are not admissible continuously but at random intervention times arriving with possibly state and time dependent intensities. An optimal stopping problem provides the contract value. It is converted to optimal control which, given sufficient regularity, induces a characterisation in terms of a partial integro differential equation. We consider three numerical approaches, forward improvement iteration, least squares Monte-Carlo and finite differences, each corresponding to one particular characterization of the contract value. Our adapted least squares Monte-Carlo method can treat complex and possibly multi-dimensional settings.


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Patients with chronic helminth infections, despite having abundant basophils and mast cells specifically sensitized with antiparasite IgE and often exposed repeatedly to parasite Ag, rarely manifest allergic symptoms. This control of clinical allergic reactivity likely results from Ag-specific IgG "blocking antibodies" shown previously to be abundant in the sera of such patients. In the present study we used two approaches to determine in which of the four IgG subclasses this blocking activity was localized. First, specific antifilarial antibodies of each of the four IgG subclasses were quantified in the sera of 28 patients with Bancroftian filariasis and correlated with the levels of blocking activity in these sera (determined by histamine release assays). A significant correlation with blocking activity was seen only for antibodies of the IgG4 subclass, and, indeed, the correlation was especially strong in the group of totally asymptomatic patients (but with microfilariae circulating in the blood) in whom blocking antibody levels were highest. Interestingly, however, if the analysis excluded these asymptomatic microfilaremic patients and focused instead on those with lymphatic inflammatory pathology (who had relatively low levels of both serum blocking activity and specific IgG4 antibodies), then the small amount of blocking activity found in these sera correlated only with the levels of IgG1 subclass antibodies. The second approach utilized selective depletion of IgG4 (by anti-IgG4 affinity columns) from the sera of three microfilaremic patients with high levels of blocking activity and demonstrated clearly that removal of IgG4 abolished the majority of the blocking activity in these sera (53, 78, and 81%). These two sets of findings demonstrate a predominant role for specific IgG4 antibodies in blocking IgE-mediated allergic responses to the parasite Ag in vitro, but they also indicate that in some situations IgG1 antibodies can block such reactions. Furthermore, the correlation demonstrated between patients' clinical presentations and the levels of both their specific IgG4 antibodies and serum blocking activity suggests that these antibodies play a similar role in vivo as well.


There is an ongoing clinical dilemma of how best to treat patients who present themselves with visceral crisis. The time needed to undo the state of visceral crisis is the most relevant outcome for this patient group. We describe four patients treated with CDK4/6 inhibitor plus endocrine therapy for HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer who presented themselves with a visceral crisis. Two of them are male and three of them had synchronous metastatic breast cancer. Two patients had lymphangitis carcinomatosis of the lungs, one extensive disease of the eye and one of the liver. Time to first clinical response was observed within a few weeks in three patients. For one patient a switch to chemotherapy was needed. These cases show that treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors can achieve a rapid response in patients experiencing visceral crisis. We conclude that chemotherapy is not the sole possibility in visceral crisis, and that CDK4/6 inhibitors can be considered as well.


English as a foreign language is taught as a school subjects for the purpose of providing the students with the skills of comprehending reading materials in various subjects. In this study the writer intends to observe the techniques used by the teacher in teaching reading comprehension, and their strengths and weaknesses. Technique of teaching reading used by the teacher is one of the factors that may determine the success of instruction. To strategize the current issue, an English teacher should have appropriate techniques to teach English reading more effectively and purposefully. In this study, the writer used descriptive research. The accessible population of this study was the first year students and the English teacher at SMK-NU MIFTAHUL HUDA Kepanjen-Malang. The writer took the English teacher and the number of students involved in this research is 39 students as sample, and it was equal with the needed percentage of the research which is accounted 25% from the population. The used methods to collect the data were observation, interview and questionnaire. Observation was used to collect the data about teacher's activities in using the techniques of teaching reading comprehension, and the students' condition at the time. Interview was applied in order to know what the techniques were exactly used by the teacher, and their strengths and weaknesses. The last method was questionnaire. It was given to the students purposefully to get the data about the students' perception with the applied techniques. And those methods of research synergized each others. The result of the study shows that in general the techniques of teaching reading comprehension applied by the English teacher at SMK-NU MIFTAHUL HUDA Kepanjen-Malang are: description/explanation, group discussion and discovery techniques. there are some points in favor and some points against the use of these applied techniques as well. Those techniques are used under deep consideration of what really happened in the class. What the students need is an intensive handling of the teacher to overcome their problems about word- recognition skills and comprehension skills.


Background Main sexual partners are an important source of new HIV infections among MSM. Additionally, receptive (compared with insertive) anal intercourse carries considerably greater risk of HIV transmission. We investigated younger MSM's (YMSM, aged 16–29) condom use in New Zealand by main partner type and anal modality. Methods The study included 1,221 YMSM who reported anal intercourse with a main partner (boyfriend or fuckbuddy) in the last six months from 2006, 2008 and 2011 rounds of the Gay Auckland Periodic Sex Survey and Gay men's Online Sex Survey. Condom use for both receptive and insertive anal intercourse was categorised into three levels: high (always/almost always), medium (about half the time), or low (very rarely/never). Associated factors were identified with four backward stepwise multivariate multinomial logistic regression models retaining at p < 0.05. Results The majority of YMSM classified their main regular partner as a boyfriend (59.5%). Overall, high condom use (receptive and insertive) was more likely with a fuckbuddy (59.2% and 59.4%) than a boyfriend (35.8% and 37.5%). Condom use was lower among YMSM in a relationship longer than one year, and was more common among those who used them more with casual partners. YMSM who only had insertive anal intercourse with their boyfriend were more likely to report high condom use compared with YMSM who also had receptive anal intercourse. However, compared with YMSM who were both insertive and receptive with casual partners, YMSM who were exclusively insertive with casual partners were less likely to report high condom use during insertive anal intercourse their boyfriend. YMSM who believed condoms reduce sensitivity were less likely to report using condoms. Conclusion Condoms remain the leading STI primary prevention tool for sexually active YMSM. Sexual health education to improve condom use and discussions about extra-relational sex should be provided with consideration to anal modality.


After the introduction of a preannounced crawling peg exchange rate regime in Hungary in March 1995, forward and futures rates of more than six months maturity exceeded the upper edge of the projected target zone of the Forint. This paper examines whether this fact reflects an additional devaluation expectation or whether it might be attributed to other factors, e.g. risk aversion or market inefficiency. Though in recent years the average premium on Forint assets was close to zero, past performance of the interest rate differential, as an indication of exchange rate movements, was poor; there is no real cointegrating relationship to be found. By calculating implicit probabilities of additional devaluations for the present situation, the conditions of risk neutrality and rational expectations can be rejected because the implied probabilities seem to be 'too large'. The main conclusion of the paper is that uncovered interest parity does not hold for the present Hungarian foreign exchange market; forward rates falling outside the projected band do not necessarily reflect lack of credibility in exchange rate policy.


In this paper, we propose a novel and efficient algorithm to reconstruct the 3-D structure of a human face from one or a number of its 2-D images with different poses. In our proposed algorithm, the rotation and translation process from a frontal-view face image to a nonfrontal-view face image is at first formulated as a constrained independent component analysis (cICA) model. Then, the overcomplete ICA problem is converted into a normal ICA problem by incorporating a prior from the CANDIDE 3-D face model. Furthermore, the CANDIDE model is employed to construct a reference signal that is used in both the initialization and the objective function of the cICA model. Moreover, a model-integration method is proposed to improve the depth-estimation accuracy when multiple nonfrontal-view face images are available. An important advantage of the proposed algorithm is that no frontal-view face image is required for the estimation of the corresponding 3-D face structure. Experimental results on a real 3-D face image database demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method.


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Several extraction methods are used to determine plant available Phosphorus (P) that affect for growth and yield of plants. This study was conducted to evaluate the different available P extraction methods for reddish brown earth (RBE) soil in dry zone of Sri Lanka. The experiment was conducted as a randomised complete block design (RCBD) with four replicates at Kahatagasdigiliya in Anuradhapura district during Maha (2013/2014) season. Seven extraction methods, i.e., Olsen"s, Bray 1, Borax, Mehlich III, Modified Kelowna, ammonium chloride and distilled water were tested. Soil samples were collected at the tasseling stage of maize plants (Zea mays L.) treated with four fertiliser rates: 0 (T1), 20 (T2), 30 (T3) and 40 (T4) kg of P ha-1. Soil samples were analysed for pH, available P and total P apart the initial chemical characterisation. The effect of extraction methods for soil available P and the P recovery, interactions among the P levels with different extraction methods were evaluated. Available P extraction and P recovery using Modified Kelowna method was significantly greater than other methods (p 0.05) in available P determination. The extraction methods and fertiliser levels were significantly different (p<0.05) with soil available P. The P extraction in T4 was comparatively higher than other methods except distilled water extraction. Modified Kelowna method was most appropriate in available P extraction under experimental conditions in RBE soil. Keywords: Phosphorus, P extraction methods, P recovery, RBE


The Canadian Fuel Cell Cluster began its integration in the eighties in response to military intelligence policy recommendations, but its particular configuration and dynamics have been changing over time. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of its development. Fieldwork was done through interviews conducted in 2005 and 2007-8. Results show some ways in which the role of the main actors, linkages and processes responsible for the cluster formation and evolution change over time. We provide a brief history of the fuel cell cluster and a description of its current characteristics and dynamics. We make particular reference to factors that they respond to, such as policies, market expectations, industry structure, and government economic support, for example, in order to explain the current cluster configuration as an open international innovation network, rather than as a local or regional one, a fact that challenges previous knowledge in this field.


Objective: Our objective was to evaluate temporal trends in outcomes at our institution in the context a more heterogenous application of fenestrated/branched endovascular aneurysm repair (F/BEVAR). Methods: Patient and aneurysm characteristics, procedure details, and postoperative outcomes were collected for consecutive patients undergoing F/BEVAR between 2002 and February 2019 at our institution. Outcomes were compared between tertile 1 (T1, 2002–2010, n=47), T2 (2011–2014, n=47), and T3 (2015-February 2019, n=47). Results: We included 141 patients (74.8 ± 8.1 years, 83% male) with a mean follow-up of 28.0 ± 31.6 months. Proportion of patients with hypertension (63.8% T1, 85.1% T3, p=0.009), diabetes (6.4% T1, 29.7% T3, p=0.005), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; 27.6% T1, 42.5% T3, p=0.07), and history of stroke (4.2% T1, 17% T3, p=0.07) increased over time. Aneurysm diameter (65.3±11.4mm) and extent (56.0% juxtarenal/pararenal, 22.0% type IV, 22.0% type I-III) did not differ between groups. Custom made devices were implanted in 96.5% of cases with 3.4 ± 0.7 vessels reimplanted/case. There was a trend toward increased history of aortic surgery (p=0.008) and less custom made devices (p=0.007) in T3. Total procedure time (383.5±119.2 minutes T1, 316.2±88.4 T3, p=0.02), contrast volume (222.8±109.1 mL T1, 139.2±62.7ml T3, p<0.0001), and estimated blood loss (601.3±458.1 mL T1, 413.3±317.7 mL T3, p=0.02) decreased over time. Overall 30-day mortality was 6.3%, 10.6%-T1, 6.3%-T2, and 2.1%-T3 (p=0.09). We noted significant improvement in survival over time; 1- and 3-year survival was 79% and 56%, 89% and 83%, and 90% and 90%, for T1, T2, and T3, respectively (p=0.007). In all, 467 of 480 target vessels were revascularized (97.3% success). Reintervention rate (30-day: 13.5%, follow-up: 34.7%) and reintervention free survival was not significantly different between groups. Any major adverse event (MAE) occurred in 36.9% of patients overall with a significant decrease from early (51.1%), mid (34.9%), to late in our experience (25.5%, p=0.03). In multivariate analyses, increasing institutional experience (T3), procedure time, age, and sex were independent predictors of major adverse events. Conclusion: We have shown improvement in F/BEVAR outcomes including mortality, MAEs, and procedural metrics with increasing institutional experience. We postulate that a combination of advancements in technique, surgical team and postoperative care experience, graft design and stent technologies, and patient selection contributed to improvement in outcomes.


This thesis deals with the application of wavelet bases for the numerical solution of operator equations, as boundary value problems and boundary integral equations. The use of suitable wavelet bases has the advantage that the arising stiffness matrices are well-conditioned uniformly in their sizes, allowing for an efficient iterative solution, and, for integral equations, that they allow for a compression of the in that case densely populated stiffness matrices to truly sparse ones without reducing the convergence rates. In this way, even for integral equations, a method of optimal computational complexity is obtained, in the sense that the work spent per degree of freedom is bounded, uniformly in their number.

One part of this thesis, viz. Chapters 3 and 4, is devoted to the construction of suitable wavelet bases on the domains, or manifolds, on which the equations to be solved are posed. Due to the generally nontrivial geometry of these domains, we can not rely on the classical construction of wavelets by means of shifts and dilates from one 'mother' wavelet. In Chapter 3, we follow another approach, introduced in [DS99], to construct wavelet bases on an important class of domains, viz. polytopes in IRn. Here, the idea is to construct wavelet bases for Lagrange finite element spaces. By a careful quantitative analysis of the statements from [DS99], we develop a theoretical framework which identifies in which way the available freedom in the wavelet construction can be used to obtain better conditioned finite element wavelet bases, yielding better conditioned stiffness matrices. The modified wavelets that we construct along these lines turn out to be relatively well-conditioned, where in comparison to the original construction, the condition numbers are up to a factor one thousand smaller.

A problem with this approach when constructing wavelets on manifolds is that, generally, it only yields locally supported wavelets when some modified L2 -inner product is used. When doing so, however, some of the obtained wavelets generally will not have vanishing moments, or more accurately, cancellation properties. What is more, generally the obtained wavelets cannot generate Riesz bases for Hs for s ≤ - ½. To tackle both problems, in Chapter 4 we follow an approach from [Ste04], that improves upon the construction from our paper [NS03], to construct well-localized 'approximate wavelets' that inherit all properties concerning cancellation properties and generation of Riesz bases for the range of Sobolev spaces obtained with truly L2 -biorthogonal space decompositions. Our numerical results demonstrate that these approximate wavelet bases are similarly conditioned as their counterparts on domains.

The other part of this thesis, viz. Chapters 2 and 5, deals with the application of wavelets for solving operator equations, where in particular we focus on matrix compression for integral equations. In Chapter 2, for general elliptic operator equations, we study which convergence rates can be expected for the Galerkin approximations. Based on the pioneering work [Sch98], and as a preparation for matrix compression, thinking of the stiffness matrix as being partitioned into blocks corresponding to the subdivision of the wavelet basis into levels, we derive precise conditions which errors can be allowed in the individual blocks without reducing the maximum possible rate. In Chapter 5, we study an important class of singular integral operators, containing the well-known operators resulting from the application of the boundary integral method. Based on two decay estimates for the entries of the stiffness matrix, and the aforementioned conditions from Chapter 2, we derive precise rules which entries have to be computed and which ones can be discarded without reducing the convergence rates. Partly because of our use of a new decay estimate from [Ste03], our dropping rules are simpler than and quantitatively improve upon those known from the literature. Our findings are numerically illustrated in a simple model example.


Abstract Residues of hydrocarbons (bitumens sensu lato) are found in a wide range of settings in addition to reservoir porosity, including microfractures, megafractures, and several types of vein porosity. Paragenetic relationships between hydrocarbons and inorganic minerals provide information on the relative timing of hydrocarbon migration and the migration of other fluids. Hydrocarbons in reservoir rocks and mineralized fractures are paragenetically late as they are in pre-existing fluid pathways. Some other types of hydrocarbon occurrence are paragenetically earlier, especially proximal to the source rock. Different types of ore mineralization (notably base metal and uranium) in which hydrocarbons occur exhibit varying parageneses which represent distinct burial/thermal histories responsible for the ore types. Co-migration of hydrocarbons and silicon-bearing fluids is evinced by the occurrence of large quantities of authigenic silicate minerals within hydrocarbon residues. Interactions between metals and hydrocarbons may be exploited in the exploration for both metals and hydrocarbons. Metal-rich fossil fuels can preserve a signature of anomalous metal concentrations in the vicinity of ore deposits. Hydrocarbons precipitated by irradiation-solidification processes about radioelement-bearing phases help to identify hydrocarbon migration pathways and in some circumstances allow isotopic dating of migration.


The lasting popularity of many social Q&A websites, such as Yahoo! Answers and ResearchGate, has become valuable knowledge repositories for people to search for answers to questions in various aspects in life. Finding the most relevant questions is often a non-trivial task, and a fine-grained classification system of questions will be an important aid. Existing work mainly focused on classifying questions into different major categories (e.g., "Health","Computer", etc.) without further dealing with the fine-grained categories (e.g., "Dental","Skin Conditions", etc.). Identifying questions' finegrained categories is challenging due to the limited length of a question and insufficient content information available in these social Q&A websites. In this work, we propose a novel framework to classify questions into fine-grained categories based on enriching the related topics of questions. We leverage word embedding feature representation with topic modelings to determine the extended feature terms, i.e., terms that do not appeared in original question content. The enriched features then are used for fine-grained category classification. Extensive experiment results based on three large data collections showcase the effectiveness of our proposed approach.


As a result of genomics initiatives worldwide, it has become increasingly easy to obtain cDNA clones representing the 3 ends of many human genes. This unit describes methods that allow these clones to be used as hybridization detectors in a highly parallel assay of gene expression. Protocols are provided for preparing cDNA microarrays, extracting RNA from cells of interest and preparing fluorescently labeled cDNA representations of the message pools, and hybridizing the labeled cDNAs to the microarrays.


The education transformation generally begins with DIGITISATION in education, involving the way how knowledge is taught and preserved. Today, more than ever, the learning materials are converted into digital formats. The larger the amount of information is available through digital learning using various technical tools, the greater number of data can be displayed, and numerous creative animated learning materials covering theoretical knowledge such as science and engineering concepts are presented more interestingly and interactively.


IL-17 in Toxoplasma gondii infection has an important role in miscarriage and low birth weight with many negative effects. This study explains the effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) administration on fetal body weight and IL-17 pregnant female rat levels. Rattus norvegicus were divided into four groups. IL-17 concentration was measured by serum ELISA. There was statistically significant reduction of IL-17 levels (79.42±30.36, 125.46±60.05, 201.17±70.33, 158.76±58.48, p = 0.001 for pregnant rats infected by Tachyzoite with HBO2 group, pregnant rats non-infected by Tachyzoit with HBO2 group, pregnant and infected without HBO2 group, and negative control, respectively). Although, there was no significant difference in the number of fetuses among groups (p = 0.096). The HBO2 treatment group had the heaviest of fetal weight among groups (0.98 [0.30 – 6.22] gram, p = 0.046). The results of the Spearman correlation test showed that only group B had a significant negative relationship between IL17 concentration and the mean fetal weight (p = 0.001). HBO2 therapy was found to be able to reduce IL-17 levels and result in rising of fetal weight in pregnant Rattus norvegicus and might prevent the occurrence of abortion.


Abstract. Quantitative evaluations of the impacts of climate change on water resources are primarily constrained by uncertainty in climate projections from GCMs. In this study we assess uncertainty in the impacts of climate change on river discharge in two catchments of the Yangtze and Yellow River Basins that feature contrasting climate regimes (humid and semi-arid). Specifically we quantify uncertainty associated with GCM structure from a subset of CMIP3 AR4 GCMs (HadCM3, HadGEM1, CCSM3.0, IPSL, ECHAM5, CSIRO, CGCM3.1), SRES emissions scenarios (A1B, A2, B1, B2) and prescribed increases in global mean air temperature (1 °C to 6 °C). Climate projections, applied to semi-distributed hydrological models (SWAT 2005) in both catchments, indicate trends toward warmer and wetter conditions. For prescribed warming scenarios of 1 °C to 6 °C, linear increases in mean annual river discharge, relative to baseline (1961–1990), for the River Xiangxi and River Huangfuchuan are +9% and 11% per +1 °C respectively. Intra-annual changes include increases in flood (Q05) discharges for both rivers as well as a shift in the timing of flood discharges from summer to autumn and a rise (24 to 93%) in dry season (Q95) discharge for the River Xiangxi. Differences in projections of mean annual river discharge between SRES emission scenarios using HadCM3 are comparatively minor for the River Xiangxi (13 to 17% rise from baseline) but substantial (73 to 121%) for the River Huangfuchuan. With one minor exception of a slight (−2%) decrease in river discharge projected using HadGEM1 for the River Xiangxi, mean annual river discharge is projected to increase in both catchments under both the SRES A1B emission scenario and 2° rise in global mean air temperature using all AR4 GCMs on the CMIP3 subset. For the River Xiangxi, there is substantial uncertainty associated with GCM structure in the magnitude of the rise in flood (Q05) discharges (−1 to 41% under SRES A1B and −3 to 41% under 2° global warming) and dry season (Q95) discharges (2 to 55% under SRES A1B and 2 to 39% under 2° global warming). For the River Huangfuchuan, all GCMs project a rise in the Q05 flow but there is substantial uncertainty in the magnitude of this rise (7 to 70% under SRES A1B and 2 to 57% under 2° global warming). Differences in the projected hydrological changes are associated with GCM structure in both catchments exceed uncertainty in emission scenarios. Critically, estimated uncertainty in projections of mean annual flows is less than that calculated for extreme (Q05, Q95) flows. The common approach of reporting of climate change impacts on river in terms of mean annual flows masks the magnitude of uncertainty in flows that are of most importance to water management.


Each homologous lobe of human serum transferrin (hTF) has one Fe(3+) ion bound by an aspartic acid, a histidine, two tyrosine residues, and two oxygens from the synergistic anion, carbonate. Extensive characterization of these ligands in the N-terminal lobe has been carried out. Despite sharing the same set of ligands, there is a substantial amount of evidence that the N- and C-lobes are inequivalent. Studies of full-length hTF have shown that iron release from each lobe is kinetically distinguishable. To simplify the assessment of mutations in the C-lobe, we have created mutant hTF molecules in which the N-lobe binds iron with high affinity or not at all. Mutations targeting the C-lobe liganding residues have been introduced into these hTF constructs. UV-visible spectral, kinetic, and EPR studies have been undertaken to assess the effects of each mutation and to allow direct comparison to the N-lobe. As found for the N-lobe, the presence of Y517 in the C-lobe (equivalent to Y188 in the N-lobe) is absolutely essential for the binding of iron. Unlike the N-lobe, however, mutation of Y426 (equivalent to Y95) does not produce a stable complex with iron. For the mutants that retain the ability to bind iron (D392S and H585A), the rates of release are considerably slower than those measured for equivalent mutations in the N-lobe at both pH 7.4 and pH 5.6. Equilibrium binding experiments with HeLa S(3) cells indicate that recombinant hTF, in which Y426 or H585 is mutated, favor a closed or nearly closed conformation while those with mutations of the D392 or Y517 ligands appear to promote an open conformation. The differences in the effects of mutating the liganding residues in the two lobes and the subtle indications of cooperativity between lobes point to the importance of the transferrin receptor in effecting iron release from the C-lobe. Significantly, the equilibrium binding experiments also indicate that, regardless of which lobe contains the iron, the free energy of binding is equivalent and not additive; each monoferric hTF has a free energy of binding that is 82% of diferric hTF.


Research on NKT cells has been greatly stimulated by the discovery that the synthetic glycolipid, alpha-galactosyl ceramide (α-Gal Cer) is presented on CD1d molecules to the invariant T cell receptor on mouse and human NKT cells. We find that the presentation of α-Gal Cer on dendritic cells (DCs) favors the mobilization of NKT cells that produce IFN-γ and exert CD1d-restricted cytolytic activity on tumor targets, thus providing an adjunct resistance role against tumors. Importantly, NKT cells can also serve as adjuvants for adaptive T cell immunity, by bringing about the full maturation of antigen capturing DCs in vivo. When mice are given a single dose of α-Gal Cer together with dying tumor cells, strong and specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity develops. We will discuss the latter findings, since they suggest ways to induce anti-tumor immunity without the need to genetically modify tumor cells with surrogate antigens or other means. We have targeted irradiated, MHC negative, J558 plasmacytoma cells to DCs. According to the findings of Iyoda et al. (1) and Liu et al. (2), this is best achieved when the tumor cells are injected intravenously, whereupon a subset of CD8α+ spleen DCs selectively take up tumor cells or their fragments. In collaboration with Dr. Yang Liu, we find that the uptake of tumor cells is followed by antigen processing and presentation, as monitored with CD8+ TCR transgenic T cells specific for the classical P1A tumor antigen. To induce DC maturation, which is necessary to avoid the normal function of DCs in inducing peripheral tolerance, we have compared ligands for toll like receptors (polyIC and LPS), agonistic anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody, and NKT lymphocytes mobilized by the CD1d binding glycolipid, α-Gal Cer as described by Fujii et al. (3, 4). Mice injected simultaneously i.v. with tumor cells and glycolipid develop protective immunity. After one vaccination, immunity is long lived (>2 months), specific for MHC class I bearing J558 tumor cells and not other tumors from BALB/c mice, and requires both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. TLR ligands and anti-CD40 antibody do not by themselves elicit protection, even though they do induce many surrogate markers of DC maturation. Protective immunity can also be generated to A20 lymphoma cells, but there is no cross protection observed to A20 in J558 immune mice, or vice versa. DCs from mice injected with irradiated tumor and α-Gal Cer transfer immunity to naive recipients. Therefore DCs which capture tumor cells in vivo, if they also mature in response to innate NKT lymphocytes, initiate strong adaptive tumor immunity. This abstract was published in Cancer Immunity, a Cancer Research Institute journal that ceased publication in 2013 and is now provided online in association with Cancer Immunology Research.


Gas cyclic-pressure pulsing is an effective improved-oil-recovery (IOR) method in naturally fractured reservoirs. A limited number of studies concerning this method in the literature focus on specific reservoirs, yet the optimum operating conditions have not been broadly investigated. In this study, we present a detailed parametric study of the process from both operational and reservoir perspectives. Incremental oil production, discounted incremental oil production, and net present value (NPV) are considered as the important markers for the performance criteria. The necessary analyses are performed using a single-well, dual-porosity, compositional reservoir model. In the first part of the study, parametric studies are conducted to develop a better understanding of the operational parameters affecting the process performance in the shallow, naturally fractured, and depleted reservoir of Big Andy field in eastern Kentucky, USA. These include analyses of various design parameters (e.g., soaking period, cycle rate limit, number of cycles, cycle, and cumulative injected-gas volumes). In the second part of the study, reservoir characteristics are investigated. Comparative discussions are presented between cases with CO 2 and N 2 as the injected gas on reservoir fluids of different compositions (heavy, black, and volatile oils). Influences of area, thickness, fracture/matrix permeabilities, initial reservoir pressure, and temperature on the process are studied. It is observed that N 2 , as a lower-cost gas, would be a better choice than CO 2 in the Big Andy field. With the oil price used in this study, the cost of injected gas becomes relatively insignificant in economic considerations. Increased income from increased oil production overcomes the increased costs with higher volumes of gas. The way reservoir characteristics affect the process performance is similar in cases with CO 2 and N 2 , but differs significantly with different reservoir fluids. Thicknesses ranging between 20 and 50 ft produced more favourable results than thicker reservoirs. A higher efficiency was observed with smaller drainage areas (5 to 8 acres) in the presence of heavy oil. For the cases with volatile and black oil, it is observed that the process efficiency is not altered significantly by the area. The phase behaviour of the reservoir fluid is important for the performance of the process. Initial pressure/temperature of the reservoir and, therefore, the initial fractions of gas/liquid phases affect the process efficiency in a more pronounced manner.


Arabic Subject Markers are interface phenomena (specifically between morphology and syntax). In this paper, I describe them briefly, I give my linguistic analysis within the framework of the Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar and I show how I implement them in the LKB system. I show that this system, despite its strength, does not allow for a proper implementation of these units.


This study examined the effect of nitrogen source and iron availability on growth rates, electron trans- port system (ETS) activity and growth efficiency for the marine gamma-proteobacterium Vibrio harveyi. We found that all 3 parameters increased with increasing iron concen- tration and varied as a function of nitrogen source (amino acids, ammonium, and nitrate). At low iron concentrations, growth rates were highest and lowest in the amino acid and nitrate media, respectively. Rates were similar for the amino acid and the ammonium plus glucose media with sufficient iron (>20 nM). Growth rates were lowest when nitrate was the nitrogen source, regardless of iron concentration. ETS activity per cell in the different media mostly followed the pattern in growth rates, although ETS activity for cells using nitrate was even lower than would have been predicted from the growth rate data. Growth efficiencies for iron-sufficient cells did not vary substantially among cells using the 3 nitro- gen sources (45 to 55%), but they were substantially higher than growth efficiencies of iron-depleted cells ( 2-fold lower than iron-stressed cells using ammonium or amino acids as nitrogen sources. Although results from any single cultured bacterium should be applied cautiously to natural microbial assemblages, our data may help explain the low growth efficiencies and growth rates in iron-limited oceanic regimes with high nitrate but low chlorophyll concentrations.


Summary Need for capacity building is an immediate priority for many universities in emerging economies in which resource extraction is presumed to accelerate economic growth. A novel approach is developed between University of Dar-es-Salaam (UDSM) and University Aberdeen (UA) to give immediate growth to the pre-existing local content in petroleum geoscience and, to accesses a large number of indigenous students and academics. Appointment of dedicated lectureships at UA are tasked with developing geological programmes at UDSM. The geological programmes are research driven and, include teaching key undergraduate and post-graduate courses relevant to the hydrocarbon industry. A critical component of our approach is that, the lecturers spend approximately half the academic year in the host country. As such, they are not visitors but fully integrated academic staff in the host university, while enjoying similar status at UA. Appointments were funded by sponsorship from BG Tanzania, now part of the Shell Group. Thus far student feedback is very positive and is accompanied by strong support from the UDSM academic staff. The UA lecturers are "part of the UDSM team" and were completely integrated into the UDSM environment from day 1 thus, barriers to progress with teaching and research collaboration were effectively eliminated.


The involvement of dynorphin on Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and morphine responses has been investigated by using mice with a targeted inactivation of the prodynorphin (Pdyn) gene. Dynorphin-deficient mice show specific changes in the behavioral effects of THC, including a reduction of spinal THC analgesia and the absence of THC-induced conditioned place aversion. In contrast, acute and chronic opioid effects were normal. The lack of negative motivational effects of THC in the absence of dynorphin demonstrates that this endogenous opioid peptide mediates the dysphoric effects of marijuana.


The effects of cannabinoids on the baroreflex have been investigated in the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS). In urethane-anesthetized rats, microinjection of the cannabinoid (CB) receptor agonist WIN 55212-2 (100 mM) into the NTS produced a short lasting decrease in arterial pressure (from 95.2 ± 2.9 to 76.2 ± 1.5, n=5, P<0.05) but no change in the heart rate. Another cannabinoid agonist, CP 55940 (100 mM) also caused hypotensive responses (from 90.2 ± 11.3 to 66.4 ± 12.3 mmHg, n=5, P<0.05). Simultaneous sympathetic nerve discharge recordings showed suppression prior to the arterial pressure lowering effect of these agonists. Microinjection of the cannabinoid receptor antagonist, AM 281 (70 mM) did not cause any significant change in arterial pressure (from 100.8 ± 12 mmHg to 108.1 ± 12.8 mmHg, n=5, P>0.05) though it inhibited the agonist-induced responses. The non-NMDA receptor antagonist, DNQX (4 mM) microinjections antagonized the actions of CB agonist WIN 55212-2. Furthermore, sinoaortic denervation attenuated the responses to CB agonists suggesting an intact baroreflex arc is necessary to elicit CB-mediated effects. Neither WIN 55212-2 nor AM 281, altered baroreceptor reflex activation by bolus phenylephrine (25 microg//kg) injections. These data suggest that cannabinoid receptors in the NTS are not involved in the tonic regulation of the arterial pressure but may have a modulatory role in the baroreceptor reflex integration.


In modern China, the objectives of science communication and popularization can be classified into four broad categories: popularizing scientific knowledge, establishing scientific thought, advocating scientific method and promoting scientific spirit. Some refer to these as 'Four S', for short. The 'Four S' (scientific knowledge, scientific method, scientific thought, scientific spirit) embodies the characteristics of contemporary Chinese science communication and popularization, which also largely stems from the context of science entering into and spreading throughout China since the late 19th century. At the same time, the 'Four S' encounters a few challenges in the ever-changing environment. It is argued that scientific thought and scientific spirit will determine the direction of science communication and popularization in the future, and thus also regulate the relationship between science and society in China.


The project sought to minimize water use, improve water use efficiency and improve crop productivity for greenhouse crops. A flexible plant based automated irrigation system was designed and implemented for a tomato crop in a greenhouse at the Biological Science Department, University of Zimbabwe. The system used stem heat balance sap flow gauges to measure the transpiration rate and the information was sent to a computer program via a K8000 Velleman interface card. The computer program used this information to calculate the daily crop water requirements and time to replace the lost water for the greenhouse crops. The performance of the automated system was evaluated by comparison of the leaf temperatures and amount of water used against an existing scheduling technique in which the crop water requirements were calculated using the Penman-Monteith equation. In order to find typical values for water lost during the day under different conditions, a ten-day monitoring of sap flow rates on the tomato crop was done and typical daily sap flow rates were varying from 0.11 to 0.98 L m-2 d-1 with an average sap flow rate of 0.53 L m-2 d-1. Corresponding external daily total solar radiation ranged from 9.19MJm-2d-1 to 26.56 MJm-2d-1, with an average of 20.05 MJ m-2 d-1, while air temperatures ranged from 27.25 Degrees Celsius to 14.73 Degrees Celsius, with an average of 20.99 Degrees Celsius. In addition, a control treatment was established, in which the plants were subjected to drought stress by withholding water for a number of days and the transpiration rates again measured using sap flow gauges as before in order to find typical values for water lost during the day under different drought stress conditions. Typical values were ranging from 0.1 L m-2 d-1 to 0.45 L m-2 d-1. In a separate six-day monitoring period, the average ETo values were 2.16 mm d-1 and 2.15 mm d-1 for the Penman-Monteith based treatment and the automated treatment, respectively. Total water replaced over the six days by the automated system was 88.03 L and by the Penman Monteith based method was 171.84 L and the total irrigation time used was 73.5 minutes and 180 minutes, respectively. For the six consecutive days, the automated irrigation system supplied the least amount of water daily and thus avoided under irrigating or over irrigating, cut on total working hours of the irrigation system, labour and energy costs and had good response time and was flexible. Leaf temperature ranged from 12.55 Degrees Celsius to 31.94 Degrees Celsius with an averaged value of 22.28 Degrees Celsius. We can conclude, therefore that the physiological response of the crop was not negatively affected by this reduction in water through the use of the automated scheduling.


There are many challenges regarding indoor navigation in unknown areas, and the difficulty is higher for the visually impaired. One significant question is the amount of information needed for visually impaired to independently and successfully navigate through complex buildings. In this study, a prototype application initially developed by MazeMap was further developed and maintained. This application was then used to test the amount of information needed and how this information should be presented to the user, and in what detail. An experiment, a survey and interviews were conducted with three participants. The experiment consisted of having the participants testing the prototype application while navigating through a building at Gløshaugen, a campus at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). In the survey and during the interviews, they provided feedback on the application and answered questions regarding their challenges for indoor navigation. The application was evaluated using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), focusing on Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use. Based on the TAM evaluation, this thesis concluded that the most important issue that need to be addressed is allowing the user to verify that the instructions are followed correctly. This can be executed by making use of electronic compass and precise indoor positioning systems in the application. Another possibility is using objects such as walls, doors, pillars or other structures as the endpoints in each instruction, since these are detectable with a white cane or guide dog. The research also stresses the importance of giving control to the users regarding the amount of information presented. This is important as different situations and users need different amounts of information.


Background: Coordination training of younger school children increases the level of coordination abilities and improves the performance of short-term and long-term memory, especially if physical education classes with children use a differentiated approach, which is based on the strength of the nervous system. Aim of the study: To determine the effect of coordination training on the development of short-term and long-term memory in younger school children with different typologies. Subjects and methods: The study involved children 7-8 years old from a regular school. Prior to the study, all school children were differentiated into 3 groups of 20 people. Results: During the 7 months of the study, the following changes in indicators occurred. In KG, school children worsened their performance in the test "shuttle run" from 10.3 ± 0.6 to 10.4 ± 0.6 (p>0.05) and in the test for long-term memory, the result deteriorated by 0.1 (p>0.05). In the short-term memory test, the results improved slightly from 6.1 ± 0.5 to 6.3 ± 0.4 (p>0.05). In EG-1 performance in all tests were improved. Short-term memory improved by 0.8 (p>0.05) and long-term memory improved by 0.6 (p>0.05). The EG-2 indicators have improved significantly in all tests. In short-term memory tests, the values were higher by 3.5 (p<0.05) and long-term memory improved by 2 points (p<0.05). Conclusion and recommendations: If physical education classes in children of 7-8 years develop coordination of movements, the indicators of coordination abilities improved and indicators of the properties of memory also increased, especially in those children who were engaged in differentiated taking into account the strength of the nervous system.


Purpose: Patterns of resistance to first-line osimertinib are not well-established and have primarily been evaluated using plasma assays, which cannot detect histologic transformation and have differential sensitivity for copy number changes and chromosomal rearrangements. Experimental Design: To characterize mechanisms of resistance to osimertinib, patients with metastatic EGFR-mutant lung cancers who received osimertinib at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and had next-generation sequencing performed on tumor tissue before osimertinib initiation and after progression were identified. Results: Among 62 patients who met eligibility criteria, histologic transformation, primarily squamous transformation, was identified in 15% of first-line osimertinib cases and 14% of later-line cases. Nineteen percent (5/27) of patients treated with first-line osimertinib had off-target genetic resistance (2 MET amplification, 1 KRAS mutation, 1 RET fusion, and 1 BRAF fusion) whereas 4% (1/27) had an acquired EGFR mutation (EGFR G724S). Patients with squamous transformation exhibited considerable genomic complexity; acquired PIK3CA mutation, chromosome 3q amplification, and FGF amplification were all seen. Patients with transformation had shorter time on osimertinib and shorter survival compared with patients with on-target resistance. Initial EGFR sensitizing mutation, time on osimertinib treatment, and line of therapy also influenced resistance mechanism that emerged. The compound mutation EGFR S768 + V769L and the mutation MET H1094Y were identified and validated as resistance mechanisms with potential treatment options. Conclusions: Histologic transformation and other off-target molecular alterations are frequent early emerging resistance mechanisms to osimertinib and are associated with poor clinical outcomes. See related commentary by Piotrowska and Hata, p. 2441


PURPOSE
To examine the consistency of hearing aid use by infants. A goal was to identify maternal, child, and situational factors that affected consistency of device use.

METHOD
Maternal interviews were conducted using a nonvalidated structured interview (Amplification in Daily Life Questionnaire) that included 5-point Likert scale items and open-ended questions. Participants were mothers of 7 infants with mild to moderately severe hearing loss who were enrolled in a longitudinal study. Data were collected at 4 intervals (10.5-12, 16.5, 22.5, and 28.5 months old).

RESULTS
Consistency of amplification use was variable at early ages but improved with age. By age 28.5 months, toddlers used amplification regularly in most settings. Selected daily situations (e.g., in car or outdoors) were more challenging for maintaining device use than contexts where the child was closely monitored. Only 2 families established early, consistent full-time use across all contexts examined. Qualitative results were used to identify familial, developmental, and situational variables that influenced the consistency of infant/toddler device use.

CONCLUSION
Families may benefit from audiologic counseling that acknowledges the multifaceted challenges that arise. Audiologists can work in partnership with families to promote consistent device use across a variety of daily situations.


The resistive switching behavior of Ta2O5-ZrO2based metal-insulator-metal devices was studied. Asymmetrical and repetitive current-voltage loops were observed. Excellent control of admittance parameters in the intermediate states between the high and low resistance ones was achieved, demonstrating suitability to analog and neuromorphic applications. Admittance memory cycles provide relevant information about the switching mechanism, in which the existence of two different metallic species in the dielectric seems to play an important role. Keywords—Resistive memories, admittance memory cycles, Ta2O5:ZrO2 ALD films


One of the shortcomings of the postmodern and poststructuralist intellectual movements is the decentering of the subject, which privileges structuralist and semiotic analyses over human agency and historical changes. This essay aims to provide a remedial theoretical and person-centered interventional scheme which I call frontier governmentality . With respect to existing approaches of Philippine politics and Foucault's relevant work on subjectivity, frontier governmentality refers to the uncertain state-self contact zone where the arts of governing the self, the others and the state meet. Through an ethnographic biography of Tuguegarao city mayor Delfin Ting, I will argue that the art of caring for the soul is the often neglected but deeper form of human agency which would enable a more comprehensive understanding of Philippine postcolonial state formation. Frontier governmentality calls attention to the soulful agency – the often spiritual working of searching, identifying and caring for the soul to discern one's fate, as the underlying guide for the postcolonial art of government. In the light of one's fate, the courage and freedom to renounce the earthly self and attached interests would be instructive for grooming political talents needed to build a stronger Philippine state.


This article describes a numerically inexpensive composite model for the microwave Doppler spectrum of sea clutter. The model is based on the small perturbation method, includes the contribution of specular reflections and uses a linear description of the sea surface to provide an analytically tractable description of the Doppler spectrum. The analytical model is tested by comparison with direct simulation. The model results are found to be in reasonable agreement with measured data and with recently published results produced using the considerably more complex and numerically challenging second-order small-slope approximation.


Two separate investigations were conducted to develop an objective self-report instrument, the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ), designed to measure four personality tendencies associated with sexual awareness and sexual assertiveness: sexual-consciousness (attention to internal private sexual cues), sexual-monitoring (sensitivity to others' evaluation of one's sexuality), sexual-assertiveness (self-reliance in sexual decision making), and sex appeal-consciousness (awareness of one's own public sexiness). Factor and reliability analyses from both studies confirmed the factorial validity and reliability of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire. Other results provided evidence supporting the convergent and discriminant validity of the SAQ. All four SAQ subscales tended to be negatively related to measures of sex-anxiety and sex-guilt for both males and females, and sexual-consciousness was directly related to erotophilic feelings. Other findings indicated that men's and women's responses to the four SAQ subscales were related in a predictable fashion to their sexual attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors. Research and clinical applications are discussed.


Indonesia signed CEDAW 1980 and ratified it in 1984 making it one of the first countries in South East Asia to do so. Despite legislation and governmental efforts women are still discriminated against in areas such as access to education, resources and credit. Income generation and women´s empowerment have been recognized on an international level as important strategies to enhance gender equality and in the process of alleviating poverty. By using the method of the focus group interview this study examines the process of empowerment for a group of women who take part in an income generation program in South Lombok, organized by a local NGO which uses the CAF methodology of self funded communities. Using Jo Rowlands (1997) empowerment model to analyze the collected data the study identifies encouraging and inhibiting factors to the empowerment process and the changes the process have generated. The study finds that the income generation program provides an important motivation for the women to join and the women experience some empowering impacts due to access to resources. However, it is the educational aspects of the program as well as the social support system that the self-help groups provide that contain the most empowering elements.


All of the methods for predicting traffic conditions at intersections provide default values for saturation flow rates and their adjustment factors, lost times, and other parameters. Because these parameters are difficult to measure, the use of the default values is a common practice and it can cause significant bias in the results if the actual local values are different. The main objective of this research was to investigate the variability of capacity and delay parameters used in engineering tools for predicting delays and for determining level of service (LOS) at signalized intersections in Indiana. The variability investigation produced Indiana default values that better reflect the behavior of Indiana drivers at signalized intersection than the default values recommended in the existing engineering tools and based on arbitrary assumptions or nationwide studies. Traffic was observed at 19 intersections. A procedure combining Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) methodology and linear regression was used to estimate the capacity parameters. Variability was investigated using weighted linear regression. Although the state-average values for Indiana are similar to the HCM-recommended values, the base saturation flow rate and PHF exhibit strong variability depending on population size and other local factors. On average, the saturation flow rate in medium towns was 8% and in small towns it was 21% lower than large towns. These results confirm the findings for Florida and particularly for Kentucky. A table with the recommended base saturation flow rates is presented. The start-up lost time, green time extension and heavy vehicle equivalency factor were very close to the HCM values. The population size, morning/afternoon rush hour, and volume considerably affected the PHF. The improvement of delay estimation when using local capacity parameters instead of default values was assessed using Highway Capacity Software 2000 (HCS2000) by comparing the results to the measured delays. The average mean error for the default parameter values was slightly higher than for local values. Also, the standard deviation of the estimate for local parameter values was also lower.


We present a technique for direct estimation of the conservative and dissipative nonlinearities of symmetric MEMS resonators. The technique is based on measuring the ring-down response, during which the nonlinearities result in an amplitude-dependent frequency and non-exponential decay. Here we show how analysis of the amplitude and phase of the ring-down response allows one to estimate conservative and dissipative nonlinearities, in addition to the linear natural frequency and quality factor, associated with a vibrational mode. The coefficients obtained from the test allow one to predict the nonlinear open and closed loop responses of the resonator.


Our conversation began in two places of happenstance that, like many conversations and many happenstances, slowly wove together. The first was in our graduate class on interpretive discourses in curriculum. There, we had been exploring how the industrial model that breaks things down into meaningless and detached bits and pieces had been inherited by schooling in the early 20 th century. The interpretive traditions were being discussed as an interruption of this inheritance and as a way of recasting the ontology of the topics entrusted to teachers and students in schools. We explored how the interpretive traditions, in multifaceted ways, are founded on the interdependence and interrelatedness of ideas, images, concepts, selves, identities, institutions, schools, and so on. Nothing, in fact, arises as a bit or a piece detached from everything else and simply amassed, post hoc, with other bits and pieces, even though many schools and many classroom practices are organized around this ontological falsehood.


The new Open University course T184 Robotics and the meaning of life: a practical guide to things that think is an introductory course on robotics. It is an undergraduate course taught at a distance over 10 weeks. The course is centred around a web site containing most of the course material, supported by two books: Ruth Aylett Robots: Bringing intelligent machines to life? which is a general survey of the field and Isaac Asimov I, Robot which is used to motivate questions about the relationship between man and machine. On-line conferences provide study support.

There is also a strong practical element to the course. This was originally designed around the use of the Lego Mindstorms robotics kit. Besides mechanical components, the kit includes the Lego RCX brick – a programmable microcontroller with memory and interfaces to input and output devices such as touch and light sensors, motors and an IR channel to communicate with a PC. Students can build and program an autonomous wheeled robot to carry out a range of tasks of increasing difficulty.

A new programming environment was developed at the Open University specifically to support the needs of adult learners with no prior experience of programming. This provided an opportunity to extend the capabilities of the Mindstorms kit. For example, the robot can now 'talk' by sending IR messages back to the PC where they are turned into spoken phrases. This richer environment is highly motivating. The new software can also take on a processing role to escape the limitations of memory and processing power onboard the robot. For example, students develop a two-agent system in which the mobile robot collects data, transmits it back to the PC where it is analysed using a neural network (built and trained by the student) and results are transmitted back to the running robot.

Developing new software also provided an opportunity to produce a simulation of the robot and we can now offer students the choice of carrying out the practical activities with the Lego hardware or as a simulation. We will look at the attitudes and experiences of students who have chosen these different learning approaches.


Tricyclic antidepressant drug overdose is an increasingly frequent cause of serious poisoning. 1 Imipramine and amitriptyline poisonings have been more commonly reported, 2-4 whereas the toxicity of doxepin, a newer drug of this class, is less well described. 5 We present a case of severe doxepin hydrochloride poisoning in a child who survived and in whom the diagnosis was made in an unusual and unexpected manner. To our knowledge, no case of doxepin poisoning in a child has been previously reported. Report of a Case .—A 4-year, 6-month-old, 13-kg girl collapsed for no apparent reason after a morning of normal activity and was taken comatose to her local physician. A grand mal seizure ensued that progressed to status epilepticus during her transfer to the University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City. The history obtained from the parents was negative for metabolic or seizure disorders. The parents did not suspect any drug


This research paper is an empirical investigation of the adoption rates and factors of broadband adoption in a local community (the London Borough of Hillingdon) in the UK. The aim of this research was to identify what are the challenges from the demand side that the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) face when deploying broadband. The study was conducted using a mail survey on a total of 172 household consumers from the London Borough of Hillingdon. The theoretical aspect of the literature was based upon the decomposed theory of planned behaviour (Taylor & Todd, 1995) and a model of adoption of technology in the household (Venkatesh and Brown, 2001). The results of this research found that broadband adoption in the household is driven by relative advantage such as faster access, utility outcomes, such as the uses of broadband for work purposes, and hedonic outcomes that refers to use of broadband for entertainment purposes. The main factors for the nonadopters were identified to be, high costs and lack of needs. The gradual adoption of broadband by the consumers is not only an industry concern, but government aim as well. Therefore this research should offer a substantial contribution to all interested stakeholders including the ISPs and government.


This paper presents the first microwave microfluidic crude oil/water cut sensor. Anhydrous crude oil is been tested and the device provides a measurable frequency shift of 500MHz at 50% (vol.) water content and a 50MHz shift for a 5% (vol.) water concentration. The sensor is realized with a low-cost direct write fabrication method. This involves laser ablation, inkjet printing, laser heating, along with low temperature thermal compression bonding of Poly (methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) sheets. By using localized laser sintering a conductivity of 2.5e6 S/m is achieved for silver nanoparticle ink without the need to heat the entire substrate above its glass transition temperature of (105 °C). The dielectric properties of PMMA are characterized to 1 GHz and a simulation model is offered for analyzing the dielectric properties of crude oil. This work demonstrates that a small form factor and low cost device is capable of precise water-cut measurements.


2,2,6,6-Tetramethylpiperidine (TMP)-catalyzed (1-10%) chlorinations of phenols by SO2Cl2 in aromatic solvents are more ortho selective than with primary and less hindered secondary amine catalysts. Ortho-selective chlorination is successful even with electron deficient phenols such as 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 2'-hydroxyacetophenone. Notably, ortho selectivity increases with the reaction temperature. On the other hand, tetraalkylammonium chloride-catalyzed chlorinations are moderately para selective.


Psychology is a central part of undergraduate nursing curricula in the UK. However, student nurses report difficulties recognising the relevance and value of psychology. We sought to strengthen first-year student nurses' application of psychology by developing a set of digital stories based around 'Talking Head' video clips where authentic patients relate their experiences of illness and nursing care. The aim of this article is to discuss the technological, organisational and pedagogical challenges, student and staff evaluations and our recommendations for the future of Talking Heads. First-year student nurses were shown a video clip of a patient talking about their illness experiences followed by a group learning situation linking main themes to psychology and nursing. Students and staff valued the authenticity of patient's narrative, found the video clip easy to follow, reported a raised awareness of psychological concepts and improved empathetic understanding of chronic illness. Negative evaluations were related to a sanitised, untypical representation and limited internet access. This small-scale study highlighted how patient narrative may enhance students understanding of illness experience. It chronicles the development and evaluation of a Talking Head in a specific context but which may be useful across disciplines. Keywords: Talking Head; student nurses; applied psychology (Published: 18 May 2016) Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2016, 24 : 30891 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.30891


This book presents multivariate time series methods for the analysis and optimal control of feedback systems. Although ships autopilot systems are considered through the entire book, the methods set forth in this book can be applied to many other complicated, large, or noisy feedback control systems for which it is difficult to derive a model of the entire system based on theory in that subject area. The basic models used in this method are the multivariate autoregressive model with exogenous variables (ARX) model and the radial bases function net-type coefficients ARX model. The noise contribution analysis can then be performed through the estimated autoregressive (AR) model and various types of autopilot systems can be designed through the statespace representation of the models. The marine autopilot systems addressed in this book include optimal controllers for course-keeping motion, rolling reduction controllers with rudder motion, engine governor controllers, noise adaptive autopilots, route-tracking controllers by direct steering, and the reference course-setting approach. The methods presented here are exemplified with real data analysis and experiments on real ships. This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in designing optimal or adaptive controllers not only of ships but also of any other complicated systems under noisy disturbance conditions.


In this paper, the problems of stability and tracking control for a class of large-scale nonlinear systems with unmodeled dynamics are addressed by designing the decentralized adaptive fuzzy output feedback approach. Because the dynamic surface control technique is introduced, the designed controllers can avoid the issue of "explosion of complexity," which comes from the traditional backstepping design procedure that deals with large-scale nonlinear systems with unmodeled dynamics. In addition, a reduced-order observer is designed to estimate those immeasurable states. Based on the Lyapunov stability method, it is proven that all the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded, and the system outputs track the reference signals to a small neighborhood of the origin by choosing the design parameters appropriately. The simulation examples are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.


CubeSats have become an attractive platform for university-based spacecraft designs because they are cheaper and quicker to launch than full-scale satellites. One way of keeping costs for CubeSats low is using commercial off-the-shelf parts (COTS) instead of using space-qualified parts. Space-qualified parts are often costly, larger, and consume more power than their commercial counterparts prohibiting their use within a CubeSat. Given typical power budgets, monetary budgets, and timelines for CubeSat missions, conventional radiation hardness assurance, like the use of hardened parts and radiation testing campaigns of COTS parts, is not possible, requiring a system-level approach to radiation effects mitigation. In this thesis an assurance case for the radiation reliability of a CubeSat experiment is expressed using Goal Structuring Notation (GSN), a graphical argument standard. The case specifically looks at three main mitigation strategies for the radiation environment: total ionizing dose (TID) screening of parts, detection and recovery from single-event latch-ups (SEL) and single-event functional interrupts (SEFI). The graphical assurance case presented makes a qualitative argument for the radiation reliability of the CubeSat experiment using part and system-level mitigation strategies and is supported by functional and system models of the system.


Sunflower [Helianthus annuus var. marcocapus (DC.) Ckll.] acreage has been increasing rapidly in the high elevation region of the central Great Plains. Little work has been done in the region on the effect of planting date and plant population on sunflower production. This study measured the influence of three planting dates (25 May, 10-13 June, and 28 June) and four populations (11 000, 14 000, 17 000, and 20 000 plants/ acre) on seed yield, oil percentage and yield components of two full season sunflower oil type hybrids ('Pioneer brand 707' and 'Sigco brand 475'). The latter is 7 to 8 d later in maturity and 4 in, taller than the Pioneer hybrid. The experiment was performed in three environments (supplemental water following corn [Zea mays L.], dryland following wheat Triticum aestivum L. emend. Thell.], and dryland after 22 month fallow) at the High Plains Agricultural Laboratory near Sidney, NE, in 1993 and 1994. Both years showed similar seed yield across this range of plant populations. Plant populations of 11 000 resulted in 1.2 oz larger heads, 300 more seeds/head, 0.0004 oz larger seed, and 2 Ib/bu lower test weight than populations of 20 000 plants/acre. Sunflower has the ability to compensate for wide population differences to maintain uniform seed yield. Sunflower planted on 25 May resulted in 200 Ib higher seed yield per acre, 0.0003 oz higher weight per seed, 0.5 oz higher weight per head, 2% higher oil, 100 Ib/acre more oil, and 2 Ib/bu higher test weight than sunflower planted on 28 June. Gross income was reduced by $0.76/acre for each day of delay in planting after 25 May.


Background: since early times, the people of Morocco use medicinal plants as traditional medicine to treat diabetes. However, little studies have been made in the past to properly document and promote the traditional knowledge. This study was carried out in the Rif (North of Morocco), it aimed to identify medicinal plant used by the local people to treat diabetic problems, together with the associated ethnomedicinal knowledge.
Materials and Methods: The ethnomedical information collected was from 582 traditional healers using semi-structured interviews, free listing and focus group. Family use value (FUV), use value (UV), plant part value (PPV) and informant agreement ratio (IAR) were employed in data analysis. medicinal plant were collected, identified and kept at the natural resources and biodiversity laboratory, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra.
Results: During the present study 30 medicinal plant species belonging to 14 families has been documented. The most frequent ailments reported were type 1 diabetes. The majority of the remedies were prepared from infusion. Leaves were the most frequently used plant part and Rosmarinus officinalis L. was the specie most commonly prescribed by local herbalists.
Conclusions: The results of this study showed that people Arabs and Imazighen living in the Rif of Morocco are still dependent on medicinal plants. The documented medicinal plants can serve as a basis for further studies on the regions medicinal plants knowledge and for future phytochemical and pharmacological studies.


Sexual dimorphism in body size and leg length was investigated in a common orb-weaving spider of Ireland and northern Europe, Metellina segmentata (Clerck, 1757) (Araneae, Metidae). Univariate and multivariate analyses of sexual dimorphism revealed that a greater proportion of between sex variation (sexual dimorphism) was attributable to variation in shape than in size. Significant differences were found in the scores for males and females for the first two principal components. PC1 (shape) accounted for 44.25% of the variation and PC2 (size) 13.01% of the variation. Although M. segmentata has been attributed with minimal sexual size dimorphism, females were markedly heavier, possibly a reflection of differential reproductive investment between the sexes, but males had markedly longer legs and broader prosoma. The results are discussed with regard to existing theories of natural and sexual selection, particularly those concerning sexual cannibalism and differential life history traits in males and females. Models that attempt to explain the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in spiders and of the web builders in particular, fail to account for the multivariate nature of dimorphism, especially with respect to shape.


This paper focuses on the heterogeneity of female mobility and investigates whether human and social capital play different roles in women's independent versus spousal reunification migration. Using longitudinal data from a recent survey on migration between Africa and Europe, we compare the drivers of mobility of Congolese and Senegalese women. Based on discrete-time hazard models, we find that education and access to migrant networks are especially important in the likelihood of moving independently of a partner. Furthermore, different types of ties (excluding the migrant partner) are influential in the two forms of mobility. Female networks play a crucial role in independent migration but are less instrumental in triggering reunification. The differences between the two types of moves are however, more accentuated in Senegal than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We relate this to the more rigid patriarchal norms restricting female autonomy in Senegal, both in terms of mobility and economic activity.


TRADITIONALLY, absent fraud or collusion, the only parties with standing to sue an attorney for malpractice were those in privity of contract with the attorney, that is, the lawyer's clients. (1) However, over the past several decades, the traditional "privity" doctrine has eroded as courts have begun to allow beneficiaries of an attorney's estate-planning services to bring malpractice claims. (2) The modern trend in the estate-planning context is to recognize the existence of an attorney's duty to those outside the attorney-client relationship. Outside the estate-planning context, the legal landscape is less dear. This article addresses three legal doctrines that have been found to provide non-clients with standing to sue an attorney: the third-party beneficiary rule (outside the context of wills, estates, and trusts), the implications of opinion letters, and the potential exposures that lawyers face to non-clients for fraud, and aiding and abetting the alleged wrongful conduct of their clients. I. Attorney Malpractice Liability to Non-Clients In certain contexts, courts have found that a non-client has standing to sue an attorney for malpractice. They have done so under a number of different theories. The first approach is a multi-criteria balancing test, which originated in California. (3) A related approach adopts a contractual third-party beneficiary analysis, which requires that the non-client be a "direct and intended beneficiary" of the attorney's services before the courts will impose a duty. (4) Another approach is contained in the Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers Section 51(3); (5) however, this approach has been widely criticized as unworkable. (6) A more recent trend has been the recognition of an attorney's duty of care to non-clients outside the estate-planning context. With few exceptions, courts recognizing this duty of care have applied some version of the third-party beneficiary theory, requiring that non-clients be "direct and intended beneficiaries" of the transaction for which the client has engaged the attorney's services. The cases below are some of the most recent and important decisions regarding this issue. They highlight the factual contexts in which courts have recognized, and have refused to recognize, the standing of a non-client in a legal malpractice action. A. McIntosh County Bank v. Dorsey & Whitney, LLP (7) McIntosh provides a good starting point from which to survey the contours of this evolving doctrine. The case involved a syndicated lending transaction and asked whether the attorneys for the lead bank in the transaction could be held liable in malpractice to the banks participating in the loan as investing third parties. Plaintiffs, thirty-two banks participating in a syndicated loan transaction originated by lead bank, Miller & Schroeder ("M & S"), collectively sued legal counsel for M & S--Dorsey & Whitney, LLP ("Dorsey")--alleging that it had committed legal malpractice and breached fiduciary duties owed to the participating banks in structuring the loan. M & S closed two loans to a company (the "Company") formed to develop and manage a casino on the reservation of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe (the "Tribe") in the State of New York. During Dorsey's preparation of the loan documents, a question arose as to whether National Indian Gaming Commission ("NIGC") approval of some of the documentation was required. Dorsey knew that failure to obtain NIGC approval might place the participating banks' interest in the collateral at risk, but advised M & S that NIGC approval was not required. Dorsey failed to advise M & S of the risks to closing without NIGC approval. M & S would not have closed the loans if it had known the risk of closing without NIGC approval. The loans closed without approval from the NIGC. M & S then sold most of the participation interests in the loans to plaintiffs. …


Chinese star anise (Illicium verum Hook f.) is a well-known spice used in many cultures. Many populations use it as a treatment for infant colic. Japanese star anise (Illicium anisatum L), however, has been documented to have both neurologic and gastrointestinal toxicities. Recently, concern has been raised regarding the adulteration of Chinese star anise with Japanese star anise. We report 7 cases of adverse neurologic reactions in infants seen with the home administration of star anise tea. In addition, we have found evidence that Chinese star anise has been contaminated with Japanese star anise. More strict federal regulation of the import of star anise into the United States is warranted. Star anise tea should no longer be administered to infants because of its potential danger in this population.


The Hungarian research group which dealt with some solidification problems have obtained a possibility to work out an space metallurgy project in 1980 during the Hungarian-Soviet joint space mission. The goals of the experiment were to control the developed simulation method and the demonstration of some fundamental effects. The experiments were performed on the SALYUT 6 space station in the SPLAV and KRISTAL furnaces. The materials were Al-4%Cu alloy and pure aluminum rod covered by copper mantle. In case of the Al-4%Cu alloy the details of the solidification (microsegregation, dendritic structure) while in case of copper covered aluminum rod the diffusion in the melt were investigated. The results of the space experiments have confirmed the usability of the developed simulation and have established the further work. The experiences of this work have contributed to the developing of the so called Hungarian Space Furnace (Universal Multizone Crystallizator, UMC).


To investigate the referral patterns of group practice centers in Taiwan, 18 group practice centers were studied. These study sites were sampled in a stratified random method over four districts (eastern, northern, central, and southern) in Taiwan. The study period took place between July 1989 and June 1990. Prospective referral forms were applied in every study site during the 12-month period. A computer-assisted data base for referral contents was established to follow up referral cases. During the study period, 1,647 referrals were generated from 735,534 patient visits, for an overall referral rate of 0.22 percent of all office visits. According to the International Classification of Health Problems in Primary Care, 2nd edition, most of the problems that needed referral were signs, symptoms, ill-defined conditions, digestive system diseases, genitourinary system diseases, circulatory system diseases, neoplasms and musculoskeletal, connective tissue diseases. The top 6 consulting specialties were internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics & gynecology, orthopedics, urology and pediatrics. Periodic evaluation of the dynamic referral contents is a useful method to improve the quality of primary medical care.