This paper examines the control of Single-Input, Single-Output Feedback Linearizable nonlinear systems that are either (i) subject to periodic disturbances or (ii) tracking periodic reference trajectories. The key concept is the straightforward combination of well known Differential Geometric techniques with the Internal Model Principle resulting in a nonlinear repetitive control strategy. A formulation is presented for the case of Input-State Linearizable and Input-Output Linearizable systems in continuous time. The potential benefits of the nonlinear repetitive controller are given. It is shown that while the standard nonlinear control techniques can be made robust to known disturbances, the nonlinear repetitive technique has desireable charateristics in that it does not require knowledge of the disturbance magnitude and does not need an increased loop gain to accomplish robustness. The procedure is applied to a numerical simulation example with the resulting benefits being clearly shown.


Introduction to research resources that will help students become better acquainted with the culture and times surrounding the plot of "To Kill a Mockingbird".


Two main components of Procrustes Shape Analysis (PSA) are adopted and adapted specifically to address gait recognition under small viewing angle change: 1) Procrustes Mean Shape (PMS) for gait signature description; 2) Procrustes Distance (PD) for similarity measurement. Pairwise Shape Configuration (PSC) is proposed as a shape descriptor in place of existing Centroid Shape Configuration (CSC) in conventional PSA. PSC can better tolerate shape change caused by viewing angle change than CSC. Small variation of viewing angle makes large impact only on global gait appearance. Without major impact on local spatio-temporal motion, PSC which effectively embeds local shape information can generate robust view-invariant gait feature. To enhance gait recognition performance, a novel boundary re-sampling process is proposed. It provides only necessary re-sampled points to PSC description. In the meantime, it efficiently solves problems of boundary point correspondence, boundary normalization and boundary smoothness. This re-sampling process adopts prior knowledge of body pose structure. Comprehensive experiment is carried out on the CASIA gait database. The proposed method is shown to significantly improve performance of gait recognition under small viewing angle change without additional requirements of supervised learning, known viewing angle and multi-camera system, when compared with other methods in literatures.


Rh-Catalyzed alkyne–isatin decarbonylative coupling provides an effective method for cleavage of C–C bonds in unstrained five-membered ring compounds. The challenge in this transformation is activation of the less-strained C–C bond, while avoiding competitive C–H activation. We performed DFT calculations to clarify this process to facilitate expansion of this strategy. The calculations show that chemoselectivity switching (C–C versus C–H functionalization) depends on the substituent on the phenyl ring of isatin. The coordination properties of the ligand significantly affect the alkyne insertion step. Dissociation of a strong σ-donor phosphine ligand from the Rh center to enable alkyne coordination is unfavorable, therefore the subsequent alkyne insertion step has a high energy barrier. Our calculations also explain the experimentally observed regioselectivity, which mainly arises from the interaction energy.


Studies have been made of the effect of single or multiple injections of ethionine, alone or in combination with vitamin B12 and/or choline, on carcass weight, tumor growth, and/or the concentration of apparent free amino acids in the liver of tumorous and nontumorous rats of the Wistar strain.

There was a progressive decrease in carcass weight with increase in ethionine dosage in tumorous male rats.

The growth of Sarcoma R-1 was inhibited by 22 per cent and that of Walker carcinoma 256 by 20 per cent, in male rats receiving multiple injections of high levels of ethionine, while comparable treatment inhibited the growth of these tumors by 73 per cent and 84 per cent, respectively, in female rats. It was concluded that these tumors were similar in their response to ethionine treatment but that there was a marked difference in the response observed in male or female animals.

The concentration of apparent free arginine, lysine, and methionine in the liver increased with increased ethionine dosage following a single injection into either tumorous or nontumorous male rats. Consecutive daily injections of ethionine into tumorous male rats induced higher concentrations of apparent free methionine in the liver with increase in ethionine dosage.

The addition of vitamin B12 and/or choline to the ethionine injected had no significant effect on the carcass or tumor weight in male rats, although the presence of B12 improved the physical appearance of the rats. While vitamin B12 had no apparent effect on the liver amino acid levels, the addition of B12 plus choline to the injected ethionine markedly increased the liver serine concentration.

It was concluded that tumorous Wistar rats have a higher tolerance to ethionine than tumorous Long-Evans strain rats.


In Vietnam, the upland and the low land regions have long been characterised by not only the differences in topographic conditions but also the differences in state policies. Over the last decade, while the agricultural land tenure has been among the major concerns of the lowlands, forest land tenure has been in the centre of interest for upland region policy. Among various efforts being taken with regard to the upland development, forest devolution policy has been tried in different places. While how far forest devolution policy has contributed to the development process in the uplands is yet to be answered, an important question that arises is what effects the implementation of forest devolution policy has on the differentiation in the upland rural area. Put it differently, it is important to know if the implementation of this policy at the local level contributed to widen the (existing) differentiation among local households or whether it reduced this differentiation. This paper subjects this question to empirical research on the effects of forest devolution in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. In this paper, I discuss the major processes through which forest endowments and entitlements were differentiated or undifferentiated among local households. I also discuss the connection between differentiation in benefits from forest devolution among local households and the process of agrarian change. Findings from the paper are interesting. Empirical analysis shows that there existed processes that widened the differentiation in benefits from forest devolution at the same time with those that alleviated this differentiation. More interestingly, it is shown that the processes of benefit differentiation were not fixed but changing through different stages of time, instead. Furthermore, the paper shows that political power had various effects on the household's derivation of benefits from devolved forest. Forest devolution programme accentuated an interesting relationship between the state and households with political power through which both parties tried to pursue their long term goals.


1 Cholinergic terminals in the rat spinal cord were revealed by immunohistochemical detection of the vesicular acetycholine transporter (VAChT). In order to determine the relationships of these terminals to Renshaw cells, we used dual immunolabelling with antibodies against gephyrin or calbindin D28k to provide immunohistochemical identification of Renshaw cells in lamina VII of the ventral horn. 2 A total of 50 Renshaw cells were analysed quantitatively using a computer‐aided reconstruction system to provide accurate localization of contact sites and determination of somatic and dendritic surface area. Dendrites could be traced for up to 413 μm from the soma in calbindin D28k‐identified Renshaw cells and up to 184 μm in gephyrin‐identified cells. 3 A total of 3330 cholinergic terminals were observed on 50 Renshaw cells, with a range of 21–138 terminal appositions per cell (mean 66.6 ± 25.56 contacts per cell). The vast majority (83.5%) of the terminals were apposed to dendrites rather than the soma. The overall density of cholinergic contacts increased from a little above 1 per 100 μm2 on the soma and initial 25 μm of proximal dendrites to 4–5 per 100 μm2 on the surface of dendritic segments located 50–250 μm from the soma. Single presynaptic fibres frequently formed multiple contacts with the soma and/or dendrites of individual Renshaw cells. 4 VAChT‐immunoreactive terminals apposed to Renshaw cells varied in size from 0.6 to 6.9 μm in diameter (mean 2.26 ± 0.94; n= 986) and were on average smaller than the cholinergic C‐terminals apposed to motoneurones, but larger than VAChT‐immunoreactive terminals contacting other ventral horn interneurones. 5 The high density and relatively large size of many cholinergic terminals on Renshaw cells presumably correlates with the strong synaptic connection between motoneurones and Renshaw cells. The fact that the majority of contacts are distributed over the dendrites makes the motoneurone axon collateral input susceptible to inhibition by the prominent glycinergic inhibitory synapses located on the soma and proximal dendrites. The relative positions and structural features of the excitatory cholinergic and inhibitory glycinergic synapses may explain why Renshaw cells, although capable of firing at very high frequency following motor axon stimulation, appear to fire at relatively low rates during locomotor activity.


Both scientists and normal users face enormous amounts of data, which might be useless if no insight is gained from it. To achieve this, visualization techniques can be used. Many datasets have a dimensionality higher than three. Such data is called "hypervariate" and cannot be visualized directly in the three-dimensional space that we inhabit. Therefore, a wide variety of specialized techniques have been created for rendering hypervariate data. These techniques are based on very different principles and are designed for very different areas of application. This paper gives an overview of six representative techniques. For most techniques a rendering of a common dataset is provided to allow an easier comparison. Furthermore, an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each technique is given. As an outlook, two papers dealing with quantitative analysis of visualization methods are presented.


It is often difficult for youth to recognize and share their construct systems let alone to discuss how these systems guide their thoughts and behaviours. The purpose of this methodological article is two-fold: Firstly, it aims to present and detail four interview techniques we adapted from Personal Construct Psychology, to use in a physically co-located or in an online approach, with 42 participants between 16 and 24 years-old from a variety of North American and European countries affected by the Syrian refugee influx; secondly it presents a five-step approach to data analysis, with the aim to develop an in-depth understanding of the participants' construct systems. Our objective was to explore how this youth construed online interactions about the Syrian refugee crisis and how they anticipated the influence of social media content on the resettlement of Syrian refugees in host countries.


In this paper, we present global and local convergence results for an interior-point method for nonlinear programming. The algorithm uses an `1 penalty approach to relax all constraints, to provide regularization, and to bound the Lagrange multipliers. The penalty problems are solved using a simplified version of Chen and Goldfarb's strictly feasible interior-point method [6]. The global convergence of the algorithm is proved under mild assumptions, and local analysis shows that it converges Q-quadratically. The proposed approach improves on existing results in several ways: (1) the convergence analysis does not assume boundedness of dual iterates, (2) local convergence does not require the Linear Independence Constraint Qualification, (3) the solution of the penalty problem is shown to locally converge to optima that may not satisfy the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions, and (4) the algorithm is applicable to mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints.


A study of 270 species belonging to 210 genera of the family Dolichopodidae was conducted to examine their characters of thorax chaetotaxy. The quantity of acrostichal setae series, number of dorsocentral setae pairs, and quantity and degree of developed scutellar setae were studied. The humeral, posthumeral, intraalar, notopleural, supraalar, postalar, and sutural setae were also investigated. Combinations of chaetotaxy characters typical of the family Dolichopodidae were discovered. A detailed analysis of these characters allowed for the determination of the diagnostic characters of the subfamilies. The comparative analysis of Dolichopodidae morphology and outgroup taxa allowed for the identification of apomorphic and plesiomorphic character states of thorax chaetotaxy.


Staff caring for patients in acute hospital settings should have the education and training to ensure that they have the competencies to monitor, measure, interpret and respond promptly and appropriately for the level of care they are providing to the acutely ill patient (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2007). This abstract outlines a learning strategy used to develop vital sign observational skills in undergraduate students accessing a multi-professional module. The module is shared by a range of professional groups that include operating department practitioners, midwives, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nurses from the following branches: learning disability and mental health, child and adult. The module is central to a suite of programmes that have been developed in response to recent changes within the healthcare climate. The drivers for this included such documents as 'Working Together, Learning Together' (Department of Health, 2001) which called for a more flexible and adaptive workforce to meet the current demands for quality healthcare.


Ornamental grasses are popular in urban landscapes in Utah and the Intermountain West United States, one of the driest and fastest growing regions in the United States. This experiment evaluated the responses of five ornamental grass species [blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), indian sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), 'Blue Dune' sand ryegrass (Leymus arenarius), pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris), 'Foxtrot' fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides)] and two ornamental grasslike species [fox sedge (Carex vulpinoidea), common rush (Juncus effusus)] to saline irrigation water in a greenhouse. Plants were irrigated weekly with a nutrient solution at an electrical conductivity (EC) of 1.2 dS·m–1 (control) or saline solutions at an EC of 5.0 or 10.0 dS·m–1. At the first harvest (9 weeks after the initiation of treatment), sand ryegrass, pink muhly grass, and fountain grass irrigated with solutions at an EC of 5.0 and 10 dS·m–1 had good visual quality with no or minimal foliar salt damage; however, the remaining species exhibited slight or moderate foliar salt damage. There were no significant differences in shoot dry weight (DW) among treatments within any species, except fox sedge and fountain grass. At the second harvest (18 weeks after the initiation of treatment), sand ryegrass, pink muhly grass, and fountain grass still had no or minimal foliar salt damage, and indian sea oats and fox sedge exhibited slight or moderate foliar salt damage. Compared with the control, all species irrigated with solutions at an EC of 10.0 dS·m–1 had reduced shoot DWs with the exception of blue grama. However, only common rush and pink muhly grass irrigated with solutions at an EC of 5.0 dS·m–1 had lower shoot DWs than the control. These results demonstrated that seven ornamental grass or grasslike species had a very strong tolerance to the salinity levels used in the 4-month experiment. Although plant growth was inhibited as a result of saline irrigation, plant visual quality of sand ryegrass, pink muhly grass, and fountain grass was still acceptable. These three species appear to be more suitable for landscapes in which saline irrigation water is used. Further research is needed to evaluate more ornamental grasses for landscapes in salt-prone areas and nearby coastal regions.


CONTEXT
Adult patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) are prone to develop obesity, GH deficiency (GHD), and their related complications, with cardiopulmonary failure explaining more than half of PWS fatalities. OBJECTIVE AND STUDY PARTICIPANTS: This study was undertaken to examine the effect of GHD and sleep breathing disorders on cardiovascular risk factors and heart features of 13 PWS (age 26.9 +/- 1.2 yr) and 13 age-, gender-, and body mass index-matched obese individuals (age 26.2 +/- 0.8 yr).

RESULTS
Compared with controls, PWS patients had lower GH response to arginine+GHRH, IGF-I levels, triglycerides, total and LDL-cholesterol, insulin, and insulin resistance measured by a homeostatic model approach. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, abdominal computed tomography scans, and polysomnography revealed a greater fat mass, similar abdominal fat, but greater sleep breathing disorders in PWS than obese subjects. Echocardiography showed no systolic or diastolic alteration, although PWS had lower left ventricle (LV) mass (135.7 +/- 7.7 vs. 163.5 +/- 8.4 g, P < 0.05) and near significantly lower values of LV end-diastole diameter (P = 0.08), compared with obese controls. Baseline radionuclide angiography documented comparable values of systolic and diastolic values between groups. However, adrenergic stimulation with dobutamine caused a lower increase of LV ejection fraction (71.9 +/- 1.9 vs. 76.3 +/- 1.2%, P < 0.05) and heart rate (103 +/- 6.9 vs. 128 +/- 2.8 beats/min, P < 0.05) in PWS than obese individuals. By multivariate analysis, nocturnal oxygen desaturation and IGF-I levels were main significant predictors of LV mass and heart rate in PWS patients.

CONCLUSIONS
PWS differs from simple obesity by a healthier metabolic profile, impaired nocturnal breathing, decreased heart geometry, and systolic and chronotropic performance. GHD and the predictive role of IGF-I on structural and functional heart parameters suggest a GH/IGF-I-mediated control of cardiac risk in PWS.


Symphony Limited, an air cooler company decided to buy International Metal Products Company (IMPCO) in 2009. IMPCO, based in Mexico manufactured industrial coolers that complemented Symphony's product line. Additionally, the acquisition provided Symphony access to the US market. IMPCO, however, was a loss making company and was on the verge of bankruptcy. On taking over IMPCO, Symphony dealt with several issues like financial crisis, operational inefficiencies, low employee productivity, IMPCO's poor brand image, lack of product innovation and weak sales and distribution. This case briefly describes the history of Symphony and outlines the various challenges faced by the organization in turning around IMPCO. The case closes with another opportunity that lands on Symphony's lap - acquisition of Munters Keruilai Air Treatment Equipment Co Ltd (MKE), an air cooler manufacturing company in China. Like IMPCO, MKE was also a loss-making air cooler company. But otherwise, the challenges and the context were starkly different in the two cases. Achal Bakeri, founder and CEO of Symphony wondered how the Symphony team should approach the newest challenge.


: The motoneuron discharge regulating mechanisms of the transmission and conversion of pulse flows in the feedback chains were studied in electronic models of the neuronal network. The Ia and Ib afferent activity were shown to induce unstable oscillations of the motor output. Patterns of the pulse flows seem to circulate in closed circuits and to be homeostatically important for properties of each element in the closed chains.


NEW FINDINGS about cancer's molecular underpinnings are revealing how genetic and environmental factors interact to cause at least one type of cancer and are pointing the way to the detection of other malignancies. As researchers decipher at the molecular level the events that lead to cancer, they're beginning to weave together once independent threads of research. The picture emerging from these efforts is revealing how relationships such as the link between high-fat diets and certain cancers make sense in light of an individual's genetic background, and why some family members with a particular cancer gene develop a malignancy while others do not. One malignancy in which such threads are coming together is colon cancer. Scientists have known that mutations of the human adenomatous polyposis coli gene (APC) are responsible for sporadic and familial colorectal cancers, including familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). In this autosomal dominant inherited disease, family members who inherit


Objectives: Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF) is an acute febrile, zoonotic disease caused by Rickettsia conorii and endemic infectious disease in Mediterranean countries. Patients and Methods: In this study, a retrospective examination of 16 cases (4 females, 12 males; mean age 38.9±13.0; range 18 to 64 years) that were diagnosed with rickettsioses between 1987-2007 was performed. Diagnosis of MSF was based upon epidemiological and clinical features, indirect immunofluorescence antibody (IFA), as well as response to doxycycline therapy. Results: High fever and maculopapular rash were present in all cases. Palmar and plantar rash were evident in 13 (81.3%) and eschar in eight (50%) cases. All cases responded to treatment within 2±0.9 days, and no death was observed. Conclusion: Mediterranean spotted fever should be considered in the differential diagnosis of all patients admitting with fever, maculopapular rash, headache and/or musclejoint pain during spring, summer and autumn.


Ophiolites, and discussions on their origin and signifi cance in Earth's history, have been instrumental in the formulation, testing, and establishment of hypotheses and theories in earth sciences. The defi nition, tectonic origin, and emplacement mechanisms of ophiolites have been the subject of a dynamic and continually evolving concept since the nineteenth century. Here, we present a review of these ideas as well as a new classifi cation of ophiolites, incorporating the diversity in their structural architecture and geochemical signatures that results from variations in petrological, geochemical, and tectonic processes during formation in different geodynamic settings. We defi ne ophiolites as suites of temporally and spatially associated ultramafi c to felsic rocks related to separate melting episodes and processes of magmatic differentiation in particular tectonic environments. Their geochemical characteristics, internal structure, and thickness vary with spreading rate, proximity to plumes or trenches, mantle temperature, mantle fertility, and the availability of fl uids. Subductionrelated ophiolites include suprasubductionzone and volcanic-arc types, the evolution of which is governed by slab dehydration and accompanying metasomatism of the mantle, melting of the subducting sediments, and repeated episodes of partial melting of metasomatized peridotites. Subduction-unrelated ophiolites include continental-margin, midocean-ridge (plume-proximal, plume-distal, and trench-distal), and plume-type (plumeproximal ridge and oceanic plateau) ophiolites that generally have mid-ocean-ridge basalt (MORB) compositions. Subductionrelated lithosphere and ophiolites develop during the closure of ocean basins, whereas subduction-unrelated types evolve during rift drift and seafl oor spreading. The peak times of ophiolite genesis and emplacement in Earth history coincided with collisional events leading to the construction of supercontinents, continental breakup, and plumerelated supermagmatic events. Geochemical and tectonic fi ngerprinting of Phanerozoic ophiolites within the framework of this new ophiolite classifi cation is an effective tool for identifi cation of the geodynamic settings of oceanic crust formation in Earth history, and it can be extended into Precambrian greenstone belts in order to investigate the ways in which oceanic crust formed in the Archean.


OBJECTIVE: To obtain indicators for the setup and further development of appropriate provisions for relatives of long-term schizophrenia patients in Tyrol (Austria), the quality of life of the main caring relatives of these patients was assessed and compared to that of a control group from the general population. In addition we were interested in identifying variables that may be useful predictors of the relatives' quality of life. METHOD: Fourty-four relatives of long-term schizophrenia patients and 90 controls of the general population were included in the study. To assess their quality of life we employed the generic questionnaire WHOQOL-100, complemented by own questions reflecting the special situation of the relatives. RESULTS: The quality of life of the relatives was significantly lower than that of the general population in almost all domains assessed. Fear of discrimination, concern about the care of the patient in later life and the feeling of a lack of security because of the patient correlated significantly with a reduced quality of life of the relative. Living in separate households went along with a higher quality of life of the relative. The association between the relatives' quality of life and their involvement in self-help groups or patient participation in social-psychiatric rehabilitation was unexpectedly low. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our investigation indicate in which domains there is a need to improve mental-health services and to develop and extend efforts of self-help groups in order to raise the quality of life of relatives of long-term schizophrenia patients.


Considered as an acting feature, presence is generally approached from the actor's perspective. Disrupting this conception, this work intends to grasp presence as a relational, not a personal quality. For this purpose, two performances will be analyzed: Heiner Goebbels's Stifters Dinge and Claude Regy's Variations on death . Created as landscapes, both performances develop a non-anthropocentric aesthetics of the scene and allow envision presence as a perception phenomenon and from the point of view of the audience activity.


As we are moving towards nano level devices, there is a greater need to miniaturize resonators. Miniaturization of resonators helps to attain higher sensitivity, lower power consumption, higher resonance frequency along with lesser requirement of space. Since graphene is strong and stiff and has various other exceptional mechanical properties, graphene based resonators are of interest. Most of the garphene resonators in the past have been measured using optical setup. In order to get rid of this large and bulky setup, we aim to integrate it with an actuation electrode. The main goal of this thesis is to fabricate an electrostatically actuated graphene resonator. For the graphene membrane to work as a resonator, it needs to be suspended. In this work, various samples of different shapes, sizes and gap sizes have been analyzed using different experiments. Some samples are found to be collapsed. Whereas the other samples show corrugations and wave like structure. We observe clear differences between the SEM and AFM images of the collapsed and likely suspended samples. This is followed by the fabrication of graphene resonator with a buried electrode. This work presents all the failed attempts to fabricate suspended graphene membrane on a buried electrode before realizing the suspended graphenes membrane on p doped polysilicon and niobium electrode. To find the resonant frequency of the graphene membrane, experiments such as DC tuning and nonlinearity have been performed on the samples. We found a high frequency peak becoming much more non linear at high oscillation amplitudes than the low frequency peak. We suspect it to be graphene's resonant frequency. In the later part of this work, the cause of the collapse of membranes is analyzed. Using stress measurements and observations from various samples, some hypothesis have been proposed for the collapsing graphene membranes. We also observed bubble like structures on graphene samples which formed suspended membranes after release. We have found the cause of collapse of membranes but the exact mechanism of suspension is still unknown. The EDX analysis on the bubbles show that the bubble area has significant amount of more oxygen than the other area of graphene. To use graphene membranes as a resonator, it needs to be fully suspended. Hence, it is crucial to understand the process of suspension of graphene in more detail.


We study theoretically how to produce and detect the ultracold ground-state Cs2 molecule from Feshbach state. Numerical calculations are performed by solving the quantum Liouville equation based on multilevel Bloch model. The producing efficiency reaches 55% and the detecting efficiency is 31%. The producing and detecting efficiencies are closely related to the Rabi frequencies of laser pulses. The decay of relevant electronic and vibrational states obviously reduces the producing and detecting efficiencies.


Brand personality of media brands has not attracted considerable attention from researchers despite media industry being a trillion dollar industry with most brands riding on it for success. There exist four scales that measure media brand personality. They are focused on measuring brand personality of print media, news media, television news media and websites. Such scales that focus on single-mode content delivery, like print media have become irrelevant due to convergence led by technology. Business media has developed as one of the largest segments within media however research has so far focused on media holistically and not on segments within, even though the segments on their own are large and peculiar enough to merit dedicated research output. This paper seeks to create a brand personality scale for business media brands. It follows a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to identify factors that contribute to business-media brand personality and later groups them into dimensions through principal component factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses. The resultant business-media brand personality scale has 14 dimensions and is expressed in a hub and spoke structure.


In fall 2009, the UC Botanical Gardens completed a restoration project on Winter Creek, a tributary to Strawberry Creek. The creek is located in the Redwood Grove on the north side of Centennial Drive, opposite the main gardens. The project was completed in response to severe erosion caused by a pipe culvert that carried runoff from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) and other development in Strawberry Canyon. For this term project we conducted a post-project appraisal of the Winter Creek restoration to determine whether the restoration achieved its objectives. We obtained relevant project information from the project proponents via interviews and email communication. On three days in October and November 2010, we conducted cross sections, longitudinal profiles, and vegetation surveys. In order to learn more about the Winter Creek watershed upstream of our project site, we conducted a hydrological analysis. Although we only received draft pre-project data, our results show that the cross sections and longitudinal profile have not changed significantly over the first winter since the project construction was completed. Furthermore, we did not detect any significant erosion within the project site. These results are not surprising due to the substantial rock armoring that was utilized in this restoration plan. The planting plan we received from the project partners was preliminary and the UC Botanic Gardens negotiated changes in order to balance the restoration effort with its educational goals to teach visitors about California's redwood ecosystems in this part of the Botanical Gardens. Our vegetation assessment was inconclusive. Our survey revealed that some species of plants, such as California azalea (Rhododendron occidentalis), were experiencing low survival at the project site. Other species, such as alumroot and wild ginger are annual species, which could not be observed in November. In conclusion, as of its first winter after installation, this project has been successful in reducing erosion and bank failure on Winter Creek in the Redwood Grove. As development continues upstream of the project site with the LBL's continued expansion, additional runoff may cause additional erosion problems in the future. We would recommend that the UC Botanical Gardens and Campus Capital Projects continue on-going monitoring as well as work with LBL to mitigate its stormwater runoff through the implementation of low-impact design, such as bioswales, retention basins, and flow-through planters.


Objective: This study is an attempt to examine the transdifferentiation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) into tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactive cells in parkinsonian rats associated with angiogenesis. Materials and Methods: In this study, Sprague-Dawley rats received unilateral stereotaxic injections of 6-hydroxydopamine(6-OHDA) into the left corpus striatum and then were divided into two groups. One group, the negative control, received only medium while the other group was treated with BMSCs. BMSCs were harvested from femur bones, labeled with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and then transplanted into parkinsonian rats, where a behavioral study and immunohistochemistry were used to evaluate the treatment. Results: The results showed statistically significant improvement in rotational behavior. Anti-BrdU antibody showed engraftment of the transplanted cells at the transplantation site. Additionally, double immunolabeling confirmed that these cells were positive for neurofilament-200 and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). Conclusion: It may be concluded that BMSCs transplants could engraft and differentiate into TH immunoreactive cells which may cause recovery from motor deficits. Also, BMSCs may contribute to angiogenesis at the transplantation site.


Diversity in T cell recognition of antigens is determined by diverse usage of T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire. TCR repertoire analysis provides fundamental information for understanding T cell immune responses in the pathogenesis of various diseases. In the present study, we examined the TCR repertoire in various tissues in normal BALB/c mice. The TCR alpha chain variable region repertoires were consistent among the spleen, lymph nodes, and the thymus. The TCR beta chain variable region (TCRBV) repertoires were consistent between the spleen and lymph nodes, but different in the thymus. The TCR repertoires also differed in the lungs and the intestinal tract. The TCR repertoires were consistent between male and female mice, except for TCRBV15-1. TCR repertoire was almost similar in 3- and 7-week-old mice, except for TCRBV1-1, 8-3, and 14-1. The present findings suggest that the TCR repertoire of mice varies according to tissue type, sex and age. Additional analysis of the TCR repertoire, i.e., the effect of hydrocortisone (HC), was carried out. After the HC treatment, although the thymic T cells decreased to one-tenth, only a small fraction of CD4(+)CD8(+) T cells survived the treatment. Furthermore, the percentages of thymic T cells bearing TCRBV3-1, 5-1, 5-2, and 16-1 substantially decreased, but the percentage of cells bearing TCRBV12-1 did not decrease. The present findings suggest that the HC susceptibility of immature thymic T cells is different between TCR families.


WHITNEY, 1 in 1953, introduced the mercury-in-rubber strain gauge in the study of the peripheral circulation; this instrument was later modified by Celander and Thunell 2 in 1961 for measurements of blood pressure and peripheral circulation in newly born infants. The purpose of this report is to give our results with the use of a similar mercury-in-silicone-rubber strain gauge to determine blood pressure in premature and full term infants for whom there is currently rather fragmentary information. Studies of the peripheral circulation were also made and have been reported in another communication. 3 Material and Methods The present strain gauge is a silicone rubber tube, id 0.015" × od 0.045" filled with mercury, which is attached circumferentially to the limb. The ends of the tube are closed by copper plugs which are in electrical continuity with the mercury. A Wheatstone bridge, the characteristics of which are given in Fig 1,


In current terminology, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is a disease involving the disruption of the temporal coding of acoustic signals in auditory nerve fibres, resulting in the impairment of auditory perceptions that rely on temporal cues. There is debate about almost every aspect of the disorder, including aetiology, lesion sites, and the terminology used to describe it. ANSD is a heterogeneous disease despite similar audiological findings. The absence of an auditory brainstem response (ABR) and the presence of otoacoustic emissions (OAE) suggest an ANSD profile. However, to determine the exact anatomical site of the disorder, more in-depth audiological and electrophysiological tests must be combined with imaging, genetics and neurological examinations. Greater diagnostic specificity is therefore needed to provide these patients with more adequate treatment.


A leading scholar of constitutional law delivers an incisive and brilliant new account of the Bill of Rights and explodes conventional wisdom about our most basic charter of liberty. Akhil Reed Amar not only illuminates the text, structure, and history of the 1789 Bill but also argues that its present character owes more to antislavery activists of the Reconstruction era than to the Founding Fathers who created the Bill.


: Methods of interventional radiology have achieved a significant importance for the treatment of acute iliac artery occlusion if either local or general clinical controindications preexclude routine surgical means of vessel repair. The newly developed balloon-expandable metal mesh vascular endoprosthesis is shown to accomplish percutaneously a definitive reconstruction of heavily diseased iliac artery vessel segments which very well compares with the hemodynamic and morphologic aspect of surgical treatment such as thrombectomy combined with TEA or bypass surgery. Both, short and long-term results one year after the implantation of two balloon-expandable metallic vascular stents reflect a much higher efficacy in functional treatment of iliac artery related claudication than a routine percutaneous transluminal angioplasty alone. In addition, it is shown that local lysis based on a standard protocol of selective intrathrombus instillation of urokinase helps to clear totally clogged iliac arteries.


This article explores the linkages between the local and the global in the case of the increasing dependence on cotton in West African economies. It argues that West African states are too poor to engage in the wide spread extremely damaging environmental practices the former Soviet republics or Latin American states have followed and then suffered from. This article demonstrates that this poverty leads to relatively minor environmental damage on the one hand and, on the other hand, is caused to a large extent by external forces. Cotton is a key export crop and the region is vulnerable to price fluctuations on world markets and to domestic consequences of cotton farming such as environmental and social problems. This article explores the structural origins and environmental consequences of cotton farming in West Africa from a holistic perspective, thus outlining the position of cash-crop dependent states in the global political economy from a social and environmental perspective. Although West Africa's subordinate role in the globalization process also means that problems arising out of the privatization of nature are not as acute as elsewhere, the lack of opportunity for higher-level integration perpetuates and aggravates West Africa's position in the world, leaving little room for ecological, social and welfare improvement. It is an ideal illustration of the classic sustainable development dilemma: poverty means relatively low environmental damage but the way out of poverty can only be achieved with substantial environmental sacrifices, thus making sustainable development an oxymoron.


A secure computing module (SCM) is configured for connection with a host device. The SCM includes a processor for performing secure processing operations, a host interface for coupling the processor to the host device, and a memory connected to the processor wherein the processor logically isolates at least some of the memory from access by the host device. The SCM also includes a proximate-field wireless communicator connected to the processor to communicate with another SCM associated with another host device. The SCM generates a secure digital signature for a financial transaction package and communicates the package and the signature to the other SCM using the proximate-field wireless communicator. Financial transactions are performed from person to person using the secure digital signature of each person's SCM and possibly message encryption. The digital signatures and transaction details are communicated to appropriate financial organizations to authenticate the transaction parties and complete the transaction.


Johnson-Cook (JC) constitutive model is extensively used in the simulation of metal machining. There are several different sets of JC material constants for titanium alloy Ti6Al4V fitted by split-Hopkinson bar (SHPB) tests. However, few researches have been done to study their sensitivity on the behavior of cutting. In this work, four different sets of material constants were performed in a 2D numerical model to simulate the cutting process of titanium alloy Ti6Al4V. The effects of the four sets of material constants on the predicted cutting forces, chip morphology and temperature were studied. It is shown that all the considered process outputs are very sensitive to material constitutive constants. Some quantitive comparisons with experimental results reported in the literature were also made.


Abstract We show that Bayes' rule provides an effective mechanism for creating document translation models that can be learned from only parallel sentences and monolingual documents a compelling benefit because parallel documents are not always available. In our formulation, the posterior probability of a candidate translation is the product of the unconditional (prior) probability of the candidate output document and the "reverse translation probability" of translating the candidate output back into the source language. Our proposed model uses a powerful autoregressive language model as the prior on target language documents, but it assumes that each sentence is translated independently from the target to the source language. Crucially, at test time, when a source document is observed, the document language model prior induces dependencies between the translations of the source sentences in the posterior. The model's independence assumption not only enables efficient use of available data, but it additionally admits a practical left-to-right beam-search algorithm for carrying out inference. Experiments show that our model benefits from using cross-sentence context in the language model, and it outperforms existing document translation approaches.


We address the problem of fair scheduling of packets in Internet routers with input-queued (IQ) switches and unity speedup. Scheduling in IQ switches is formulated as tracking the behavior of an output-queued (OQ) switch that provides optimal performance. We present the notion of ¿lag¿ as a performance metric that measures the difference between a packet's departure time in an IQ switch over that provided by an OQ switch. We prove that per-packet mean lag is bounded for a maximum weight-matching scheduling policy that uses lag values for its weights and derive a bound on the mean lag value using a Lyapunov function technique. Furthermore, we propose a simple heuristic tracking scheduling policy and evaluate its performance by simulation.


The dairy and food industry is now highly automated, from the raw material production to the processing and manufacture of products. The implementation of automation in the dairy and food sector offers great potential for improved safety, quality and profitability by optimizing process monitoring and control. Presently, the technology is becoming more affordable and intelligent. It may be feasible to automate many of the complex and repetitive tasks that are carried out in the dairy industry through robotics. The field of robotics is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary as robots are amazingly complex systems comprising of mechanical, electrical and electronics hardware and software. Dairy industry has been lagging behind other industrial sectors in implementing robots, as dairy and food products by virtue of their nature differ significantly in consistency and shape. However, there is a broad range of potential applications for robotics in dairy industries. Automatic milking systems or milking robots are one of the most successful and important application of robotics in the dairy industry. Robotics find its application in packaging and palletizing of dairy food products. Its potential application in various sections in dairy processing plant is yet to be explored.


This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of diminazene diaceturate (Sequzene®) on serum biochemistry and associated histopathological changes of New-Zealand white rabbits experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei brucei. A total of thirty New-Zealand white rabbits weighing between 0.1 and 0.7 kg of both sexes were divided into six groups A to F of five rabbits each. Group A was infected with T. brucei brucei only but untreated while Group B was uninfected untreated control. Group C was infected with T. brucei brucei but treated with Sequzene® at 3.5 mg/kg, while Group D was infected with T. brucei brucei and treated with Sequzene® at 7.0 mg/kg. Group E was uninfected but treated with Sequzene® at 3.5 mg/kg while group F was uninfected and treated with 7.0 mg/kg of Sequzene®. Physical signs were monitored daily and blood samples were taken every 7 days and analyzed for serum biochemical and associated histopathological changes according to standard laboratory techniques. Physical signs manifested were dullness, weakness, anorexia, weight loss, increased respiration, starry hairs with corneal opacity. Rabbits in infected untreated group (A) showed nervous disorder (convulsion) at the point of death. There were significant (p 0.05) throughout the study. The mean values of parameters evaluated in treated groups (C and D) were completely restored to their pre-infection values by day 21 post infection. Histopathological changes include thickened interstitium infiltrated by leucocytes and an inflamed bronchiole in the lungs, degenerative and necrotic renal tubules in the renal interstitium in the kidney, degenerative hepatocytes in the liver and congested blood vessels and neuronal cells in the brain. It is therefore recommended that diminazene diaceturate be used for effective treatment of T. brucei brucei in animals suffering from trypanosomosis.

 Key words: Serum biochemistry, diminazene diaceturate


The aquatic ape hypothesis for human evolution can account for all the traits that distinguish humans from chimpanzees. This scientific paradigm has been considered impossible. It would require that human ancestors maintained a semiaquatic lifestyle for millions of years, whereas hominin fossils indicate relatively dry terrestrial environments. Here I propose a marine aquatic evolution that is speculative, but compatible with all the fossil and genetic evidence. In this hypothesis, hominins evolved from chimpanzee-like apes that became stranded on proto-Bioko — new volcanic islands with no terrestrial foods available. The apes were forced to eat shellfish and seaweed. From wading in water on two legs to obtain food, their bodies evolved to become bipedal. Naked skin, blubber, and protruding noses were also aquatic adaptations. Brain-size increase resulted from marine fatty acid DHA. Some of these hominins escaped to mainland Africa and their bipedal descendants are recorded at the famous fossil sites. The volcanic islands grew and evolved into Bioko, and the hominins that remained there evolved into Homo sapiens. They gave up their marine diet and semiaquatic habitat after food became available on the evolving island. Then, during one of the low sea-level stands in the Pleistocene epoch, humans walked to the mainland on the emergent Bioko land bridge. Unlike earlier aquatic ape ideas, the Bioko scenario can be tested by DNA. If the human genome includes a retrovirus that is otherwise only found in endemic animals on Bioko, it would show that our ancestors came from there. Unfortunately, Bioko and west-central Africa are not interesting to traditional paleoanthropologists, because they do not contain fossils.


This paper investigates an extension to description logic based knowledge reasoning by means of decomposing and rewriting complicated hybrid concepts into partitions. An approach which automatically decomposes the whole knowledge base into description logic compatible and constraints solver, is presented. System architecture for knowledge reasoning is two-fold. First, complex description logics with powerful representation ability and Second, how to reason with the combination of inferences from distributed heterogeneous reasoner.


Proximal gradient method has been playing an important role to solve many machine learning tasks, especially for the nonsmooth problems. However, in some machine learning problems such as the bandit model and the black-box learning problem, proximal gradient method could fail because the explicit gradients of these problems are difficult or infeasible to obtain. The gradient-free (zeroth-order) method can address these problems because only the objective function values are required in the optimization. Recently, the first zeroth-order proximal stochastic algorithm was proposed to solve the nonconvex nonsmooth problems. However, its convergence rate is O(1/√T) for the nonconvex problems, which is significantly slower than the best convergence rate O(T1) of the zerothorder stochastic algorithm, where T is the iteration number. To fill this gap, in the paper, we propose a class of faster zeroth-order proximal stochastic methods with the variance reduction techniques of SVRG and SAGA, which are denoted as ZO-ProxSVRG and ZO-ProxSAGA, respectively. In theoretical analysis, we address the main challenge that an unbiased estimate of the true gradient does not hold in the zerothorder case, which was required in previous theoretical analysis of both SVRG and SAGA. Moreover, we prove that both ZO-ProxSVRG and ZO-ProxSAGA algorithms have O(T1) convergence rates. Finally, the experimental results verify that our algorithms have a faster convergence rate than the existing zeroth-order proximal stochastic algorithm.


We interviewed Philip G. Zimbardo on April 19, 2011, in anticipation of the 40th anniversary of the Stanford Prison Experiment in August 2011. While Zimbardo's name is mentioned often in tandem with the experiment, he has distinguished himself in many other areas within psychology before and after the experiment, beginning with an accomplished early career at New York University in which he took interest in social psychology research on deindividuation. We discussed the Stanford Prison Experiment in the greater context of his varied and illustrious career, including recent pioneering work on heroism, the establishment of The Shyness Clinic at Stanford University, and the iconic Discovering Psychology series. We also addressed his adroit and candid approach to the experiment itself over the years.


The Higher Education (HE) landscape in England has changed dramatically in the last two decades. There is a political drive to improve accessibility and transparency of information available to current and prospective students. This combined with the new funding structure is placing more demand on HE intuitions to ensure students receive a positive experience and value for money. Employability by its very nature can only be assessed after graduation. However, developing strategies for enhancing student employability skills is a key area in HE. Traditional methods of teaching and learning however limit the development and evaluation of employability skills. Active learning strategies in contrast offer educators the opportunity to embed skill enhancement. It is imperative that graduates have developed life skills of problem solving, teamwork, communication and an enthusiasm for their selected career in addition to discipline knowledge. This paper details the development of employability skills within an apparel product development unit at level 6. The unit employed an active learning strategy using an operational framework. It was delivered over a period of 24 weeks for two consecutive years. It was found that there was evidence to suggest that active learning encouraged the development of employability skills.


The challenges that companies face in their internationalization strategy are naturally demanding. If we think that this strategy is no longer exclusive to large companies, we can easily understand all the research that has been carried out on this subject and more specifically on the approach to SMEs. Even so, little has been discussed about the relationship that can be established between the different strategic approaches to internationalization and the factors that entrepreneurs most value in this entrepreneurial process. Based on an exhaustive literature review, in addition to determining the driving factors of the internationalization strategy that Portuguese entrepreneurs most value, this research aims to assess, through a comparative study between the entrepreneurs' perspectives in 2014 and 2019, the possible oscillations in the international strategies of Portuguese entrepreneurs during the period of economic crisis (2014) and a post-crisis period (2019). To achieve these objectives, we used data from a questionnaire sent to "exporting companies and/or companies interested in exporting" from the AICEP Portugal Global Database, in 2014 and later in 2019.


Poly(methylhydrosiloxane) [PMHS], prepared by siloxane equilibration reaction, was used for the hydrosilylation with 1-decene to obtain poly(methyldecylsiloxane) [PMDS]. Pt(0)-1,3- divinyltetramethyldisiloxane complex was used as a catalyst for hydrosilylation reaction. In order to investigate the kinetics of the formation of PMDS, a series of experiments was performed at different reaction temperatures (from 48 to 64 °C) with catalyst concentrations of 7.0 · 10-7 mol of Pt per mol of CH=CH2. All reactions were carried out in bulk, with equimolar amounts of the reacting Si-H and CH=CH2 groups. The course of the reactions was monitored by following the disappearance of the Si-H bands by quantitative infrared spectroscopy. The obtained results show that an induction period occurs at lower reaction temperatures and that the rate of Si-H conversion follows the first-order kinetics.


Diet can play a vital role in cancer prevention. Studies have shown that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with a reduced risk of cancer. Apigenin is a non-toxic and non-mutagenic natural flavonoid. Our previous studies demonstrated the effects of apigenin on angiogenesis in CAM model is by two distintic parallel PI3K/AKT and jak/STAT pathways. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most important of all known inducers of angiogenesis and in many cancers this protein is over-expressed. Studies confirm Apigenin efficient on reduction VEGF expression. In this study, as first time, effect of Apigenin is evaluated by oral administration on angiogenesis decreasing and VEGF expression levels were measured in creatures. After infection of mice9s ovarian by A2780 cancer cell line, Apigenin (75/mg/kg/day) were fed once a day for 30 days to the animals and angiogenesis measured in vivo. Histological methods were used for counting blood vessels, ELISA analysis was used to measurement of VEGF protein in infected tissues. to confirm the effect of oral administration of Apigenin on VEGF expression, A2780 cells were infected by VEGF promoter reporter vectors then injected to the mice. Studies have shown that taking these orally, Apigenin reduced VEGF expression and ultimately leads to reduced angiogenesis. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):C7. Citation Format: Majid Alipour. Inhibitory effects of flavonoid Apigenin by oral administration on angiogenesis of ovarian cancer through decrease VEGF expression in mouse model. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2013 Oct 19-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):Abstract nr C7.


ABSTRACT The ability to selectively disrupt gene function remains a critical element in elucidating information regarding gene essentiality for bacterial growth and/or pathogenesis. In this study, we adapted atet regulatory expression system for use inStaphylococcus aureus, with the goal of downregulating gene expression via induction of antisense RNA. We demonstrate that this system exhibits a 50- to 100-fold dose-dependent level of induction in bacterial cells grown in culture (i.e., in vitro) and also functions in mice (i.e., in vivo) following oral administration of inducer. To determine whether induced antisense RNA could interfere with chromosomally derived gene expression, we cloned a fragment of theS. aureus alpha-toxin gene (hla) in antisense orientation downstream of the tet promoter system and introduced the construct into S. aureus. Induced antisensehla RNA downregulated chromosomally derived hlagene expression in vitro approximately 14-fold. Similarly, induction ofhla antisense RNA in vivo dramatically reduced alpha-toxin expression in two different murine models of S. aureusinfection. Most importantly, this reduction completely eliminated the lethality of the infection. These results indicate that thetet regulatory system functions efficiently in S. aureus and induced antisense RNA can effectively downregulate chromosomal gene expression both in vitro and in vivo.


Roping was investigated in two 6016 aluminium alloys that exhibit different levels of susceptibility to its occurrence. The level of roping is lower, as manifested by the less pronounced (roping) lines on the surface, in the GR material compared to the BR case. Through-process characterization of GR and BR materials by means of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) reveals similarities in the grain size, (grain) orientation texture and the spatial distribution of {100} <001> Cube grains up to, but not including the T4 state. Cube grains in the T4 state are spatially banded in the BR material but more uniformly distributed in the GR case. It was found that the thermo-mechanical treatments prior to the T4 state account for the difference in spatial distributions of Cube grains and hence, the different roping behaviours exhibited by these materials.


Bilateral renal arteriovenous (AV) fistulas were discovered in a patient with refractory hypertension. The lesion in the right kidney appeared to be congenital, whereas the etiology of the left-sided lesion could not be determined. Ablation of both fistulas effected a significant decrease in blood pressure. The angiographic appearance of a renal AV fistula often reveals its cause. These fistulas can cause significant morbidity. A review of 49 cases of congenital renal AV fistulas reveals that most are found in women and in the right kidney. Bilateral renal AV fistulas have not been previously described. Hypertension commonly develops in patients with renal AV fistulas and may resolve or improve upon fistula ablation. Improvement in blood pressure after fistula ablation occurs more frequently in traumatic fistulas than in congenital ones. Although the pathophysiology of hypertension is felt to be the shunting of the blood flow by the fistula from the renal parenchyma and subsequent stimulation of the renin system, renal vein renin sampling may be of little diagnostic value.


The development objective of the Tanzania-Zambia Transmission Interconnector Project for Africa is to establish cross-border transmission capacity between the Southern African Power Pool and the Eastern Africa Power Pool to enable regional power trade. Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures are includes : (i) prepare and implement erosion and sediment control plans,particularly in areas identified as having high erosion potential; (ii) hazardous materials must be stored in a manner that prevents interaction with each other or with the environment or from being tampered accidentally; (iii) Contractor will protect all soil stockpiles subject to winderosion using a barrier, windscreen or vegetation; (iv) all trucks that cart away excavated soils will be covered using a tarpaulin sheet; (v) minimize construction impacts on receiving water bodies by implementing an erosion and sediment control plan and following best management practices; (vi) The Project Contractor will minimize vegetation clearing of the ROW, access roads and substation areas to only what is required for the construction phase processes; (vii) identified bat roosts such as those identified in tree holes, banana trees and rock cliffs should be avoided; (viii) all PAPs should be compensated for agricultural crops and fruit treesat the most current and applicable market rates; (ix) Contractor will procure and erect road traffic furniture for communicating with motorists about the construction works. Such road furniture will be erected after acquiring the necessary permits from the appropriate authorities; (x) Contractor will develop and implement an organizational Gender Policy that will ensure employment and business opportunities are accorded to men and women equally, and where necessary, affirmative actions are applied to bridge gender gaps that may exist; (xi) Contractor shall ensurethat separate accommodation and ablution facilities are provided for women.


Internet of vehicles is a promising area related to D2D communication and internet of things. We present a novel perspective for vehicular communications, social vehicle swarms, to study and analyze socially aware internet of vehicles with the assistance of an agent-based model intended to reveal hidden patterns behind superficial data. After discussing its components, namely its agents, environments, and rules, we introduce supportive technology and methods, deep reinforcement learning, privacy preserving data mining and sub-cloud computing, in order to detect the most significant and interesting information for each individual effectively, which is the key desire. Finally, several relevant research topics and challenges are discussed.


This paper examines some of the current obstacles to watershed governance and distributive justice for the diverse ethnic communities in eastern Burma that rely upon the Lancang/Mekong and Nu/Salween Rivers for their economic livelihoods and cultural survival. More than two dozen largescale dams are planned for these two river systems. Nearly all of them will be built and/or financed by the People's Republic of China (PRC), although other non-state actors are also centrally involved. The paper outlines some of the key forces driving the PRC to construct new dams in Yunnan despite mounting evidence that such projects will undermine rather than enhance human security and sustainable development in the region. Three projects are discussed: the Lancang/Mekong and Nu/Salween Cascades as well as the proposed Tasang Dam in northeastern Burma, which the stateowned China Export-Import Bank (CEIB) is considering financing. Special attention is focused on the environmental impacts of impoundment and the future political and economic costs of the PRC's failure to take the interests of downstream countries and their ethnically diverse populations more fully into consideration. The paper concludes with constructive recommendations towards the creation of a collaborative regional plan based on the principles of integrated river basin management.


During the past year, several important studies have strongly supported the use of what we now view as the three-pronged, "standard" approach to the treatment of symptomatic heart failure: diuretics, digoxin, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. New information regarding the latter two agents is reviewed elsewhere in this issue of Current Opinion in Cardiology. However, despite obvious advances in our management of this important clinical syndrome and the substantial body of evidence supporting the beneficial effects of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, the prognosis for patients with symptomatic congestive heart failure remains abysmal. For this reason, new and novel agents for the pharmacologic treatment of patients with heart failure continue to be developed and clinically evaluated. This article reviews the results of recent clinical trials with some of these new investigational pharmacologic agents. To facilitate categorization of these new agents, they will be grouped according to their primary pharmacologic action. However, it should be noted that those pharmacologic actions may not necessarily be responsible for either the beneficial or deleterious effects associated with these agents.


: This paper describes an activity being undertaken by researchers involved in the AUTC funded Project: Information and Communication Technologies and Their Role in Flexible Learning. The project is seeking to investigate and develop generic and reusable frameworks for the provision of technology-enhanced high quality learning experiences in higher education. To achieve this, the researchers have been exploring ways to formalise generic descriptions of some learning designs that foster knowledge construction and problem solving. This paper provides a summary of the work that has been undertaken and describes the generic descriptions that have been developed in this process.


The transmission of digitally encoded speech at 1.2 Kbaud for mobile personal communication networks (PCN) is investigated both analytically and by computer simulations. Speech was encoded at 4.8 Kbit/s using a low complexity transform binary pulse excited LPC codec. A 64-level QAM modem was used having 3 sub channels that operated with different BERs. The sensitivity of the encoded speech bits to transmission errors was identified, and the bits classified into 3 groups. Each group was then individually coded by BCH codec of differing power. The output of the BCH coders were grey coded onto 3 QAM channels. By this arrangement the protection given to the speech bits was dependent on their vulnerability. The 6 bit QAM symbols were transmitted at 1.2 Kbaud over Rayleigh fading channels with pedestrian mobiles travelling upto 4 mile/h. For microcells using a propoagation frequency of 1.9 GHz and operating with channel SNRs in excess 26 dB we achieved good communication quality speech when second-order diversity and AGC were used.


We have identified three areas where language support for operating system extensibility is important: performance, safety, and expressive power. First, an extension language should support pointer-safe casting to avoid unnecessary copying of data. Second, an extension language must allow a caller to isolate untrusted code. Finally, an extension language should provide a vocabulary for describing interfaces, modules, and procedures in a first-class fashion. We present specific examples of these needs, and describe the changes to Modula-3 that we have made for our work in the SPIN operating system.


The risk of tick-borne infection is increasing across the United States, and in Missouri, ticks are expanding into novel regions due to climate change, habitat fragmentation, and biodiversity loss. Regions in which ticks are encroaching experience novel vectors for lineage associated pathogens. Novel tick detection can be low due to sampling practices targeting known ticks, which can lead to unreliable distribution maps and poor predictive distribution models. Such models should account for biotic factors, abiotic factors, and their interactions to provide a dynamic view of their impact on tick abundance and identify variables that can serve as indicators. Further, a simple comparison of sampling methods in different habitats for tick abundance, diversity, and life stage allows for the determination of the most effective sampling technique to gain a holistic view of tick communities. I completed a set of surveys to account for biotic factors, abiotic factors, and sampling design in tick distribution in Southwest Missouri. I used tick drags and sampled the following biotic and abiotic factors: small mammals, ants, ambient temperature, relative humidity, litter depth, and canopy cover. Factors were tested directly on tick abundance using generalized linear models, and indirect relationships, like the effect of location, were analyzed using a linear mixed effect model. To test method efficiency, I executed drags and carbon-dioxide traps in two different habitat types, forest and grassland, and compared captures in terms of abundance, species, and life stages. Indirect relationships and location explained tick abundance more clearly than direct relationship and two methods of sampling resulted in more effective analysis of tick communities. Understanding tick communities and the driving forces behind the movement of tick populations is needed to increase the awareness of public health programs of tick-borne diseases in the region.


In this paper, the physical phenomena of gallium (Ga+) ion impacting monolayer graphene in the nanosculpting process are investigated experimentally, and the mechanisms are explained by using Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Firstly, the MC method is employed to clarify the phenomena happened to the monolayer graphene target under Ga+ ion irradiation. It is found that substrate has strong influence on the damage mode of graphene. The mean sputtering yield of graphene under 30 keV Ga+ ion irradiation is 1.77 and the least ion dose to completely remove carbon atoms in graphene is 21.6 ion/nm2. Afterwards, the focused ion beam over 21.6 ion/nm2 is used for the irradiation on a monolayer graphene supported by SiO2 experimentally, resulting in the nanostructures, i.e., nanodot and nanowire array on the graphene. The performances of the nanostructures are characterized by atomic force microscopy and Raman spectrum. A plasma plume shielding model is put forward to explain the nanosculpting results of graphene under different irradiation parameters. In addition, two damage mechanisms are found existing in the fabrication process of the nanostructures by using empirical MD simulations. The results can help us open the possibilities for better control of nanocarbon devices.


The technical aspects of RT in low‐weight children should be specific, particularly with regard to VA. This retrospective study assesses the main VA options in paediatric RTs and proposes a new strategy for renal artery trajectory when using the Ao and the right iVC. The sample included 81 patients and was categorized into a group of children weighing <16 kg and the other group of children weighing 16 kg or more. The smaller children received the graft predominantly on the Ao and iVC (63%); however, the VA options varied in children weighing more than 16 kg, with anastomoses predominantly to the common iliac vessels (46%). In the first group, when the Ao was the selected vessel for anastomosis on the right side, the trajectory adopted for the transplanted kidney artery was posterior to the iVC. This strategy may reduce the risk of compression of the iVC by the renal artery of the donor kidney and may reconstitute the normal anatomy of the renal artery. Moreover, it did not represent a risk factor for graft loss in this sample.


The thesis, entitled The Pain, Hunger, and Birth of Epiphany in the Novels of Toni Morrison, is divided into three chapters. The introduction discusses some of the traditional uses of the word "epiphany" in literature and then proceeds to define the ways in which Morrison's characters experience epiphanical journeys. Furthermore, Morrison's development of the idea plays a fundamental role in the structure and unification of all of her novels. The first chapter compares the texts Love and Sula and charts the progression of pain from external, communal, and inherited to internal, individual, and isolationist. In both Love and Sula, death and the body are irrelevant, and it is only when characters learn to dispel pain and disregard the body that they can truly experience an epiphany. Chapter two discusses Paradise in detail and describes the role of food in allowing or preventing characters' spiritual awakenings or transcendence. Food and the way it is consumed, prepared, grown, and perceived are inextricably linked to characters' journeys to epiphany. The third chapter compares the novels Jazz and Song of Solomon and illustrates the ways in which perceptions of pain and food are translated to younger generations. It also raises questions of generational sterility and degeneration as well as conveys ideas of stunted or aborted growth and truncated epiphanies.


The different mathematical and physical models of one-dimension or two-dimension for premixed air combustion in the ring porous medium burner are reported in the literatures. In this paper, a case of combustion of methane/air ratio 0.6, the fluid velocity 0.2m/s and the adiabatic wall of burner is simulated by three-dimensional single temperature model. The numerical results show a good agreement with two-dimensional model for combustion characteristics, such as temperature and velocity distributions in burner, which provides important theoretical basis for the development of new porous medium burners.


This dissertation examines integral, challenging contemporary poetry and fiction, and its relationship to notions of the criminal in multiple guises. The present focus on "criminal" excavates not only its literal meaning—the nature of crime, and its specific relation to penal law—but also brings to light how the "criminal" affects the construction of fiction and poetry, and the lives of various individuals (speakers) within the chosen texts. Intricately tied with the criminal are practices that transgress, and this study will also locate specific creations where poets and novelists construct transgressions that challenge contemporary ideas of narrative and poetic modes. This study argues that expanding the term "criminal" opens up not only the current field of "criminal studies," but also examines contemporary poetry and prose. This dissertation argues that a new formulation of the criminal proliferates practices of subjectivities that are forced upon individuals and taken for granted, and that the "criminal" is intricately tied to works that transgress and experiment. The criminal, at its most basic, involves the nature of crime; it relates to the penal law; guilty; characteristic of a criminal. Most studies of "criminality" fall under the term "prison literature," which focuses on individuals who have been incarcerated, and subsequently chronicled their lives in writing. Other studies and novels focus specifically on the struggle of individuals in prison. This dissertation looks to make a distinct break between "prison" writing and "criminal" writing, moving the focus from incarceration to other social boundaries; however, "prison" and "criminal" are two terms that often intersect and overlap. "Criminal" writing does not take incarceration as its jumping off point, though incarceration may play a role; instead, the "criminal" is a spatial way of being in the world that either marks one off from contemporary society, or borders on notions which denote one as outsider. This project looks to expand the field from literatures focusing primarily on incarceration to studies depicting acts of transgression and deviance that may not necessarily land an individual behind bars, but mark one as separate from societal norms, as an outsider. This study envisions the "criminal" as branching out from its basic definition to include a variety of ways individuals "transgress" from their present predicament. This includes but is not limited to illegal acts one partakes in but is not caught, and acts that jeopardize one's place in society. As such, the "criminal" is opaque, nebulous, harder to pin down; it works from the periphery, the margins, interstitial spaces; whereas "prison" writing already denotes the given fact that one is or has been incarcerated, calling to mind a fixed location and trajectory. Both poetry and fiction illustrate this branching out in similar and disparate ways, and the focus on both showcases the plurality and broad reach of these genres. The central objects of study will be a range of contemporary American poetry and fiction: James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room (1956); Rosmarie Waldrop's Driven to Abstraction (2010); Joanna Scott's Arrogance (1990); and C.D. Wright's One Big Self: An Investigation (2007). These texts give voice to the myriad, opaque notions of the "criminal," while at the same time blurring the lines of how poetry and prose function; each text, as well, marks off distinct breaks in the artists' bodies of work. These texts transgress on multiple levels, in turn, mirroring and mimicking the slippery, proliferating term—"criminal."


Background: Training related muscular-skeletal injury (MSKI) is a globally recognised epidemic directly affecting the deployment, retention of personnel and a threat to the effectiveness and productivity of military training organisations. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated injury prevention strategy-Project OMEGA- on MSKI and training outcomes within British Infantry recruits. Methods: An observational retrospective study design was used. MSKI and training outcome in the Project OMEGA cohort was compared with the previous 4 years published data. Total inflow for the OMEGA cohort was Line (n=1230) and Guards (n=220) whilst the total for the previous four years was Line (n=6569) and Guards (n=1614). Injury data, first time pass out and Medical discharge rates were collected and analysed. Results: MSKI incidence for OMEGA Line (20.98%: 95% CI: 18.8-23.34) and Guards (21.82%: 95% CI: 16.87-27.74) was significantly different (p<0.001) compared to four year average for Line (34.22; 95% CI: 33.08-35.38) and Guards (38.48%; 95% CI: 36.14-40.88). Relative Risk (RR) for OMEGA Line compared to four years Line was 0.61 (95% CI: 0.55-0.69) and 0.55 (95% CI: 0.43-0.72) for OMEGA Guards compared to four years Guards. Overuse Injury was significantly different (p<0.001) between OMEGA Line (12.52%; 95% CI: 11.12-14.34) compared to the four year average; Line (21.74%; 95% CI: 20.76-22.75) as well as between OMEGA Guards (11.36%: 95% CI: 7.81-16.23%) compared to the four year average; Guards (25.09%: 95% CI: 23.04-27.29). Combined Medical Discharge (MD) was observed for OMEGA Line and Guards as 4.34% (95% CI: 3.41-5.51) compared to the four years Pan-ITC average of 7.72% (95% CI: 7.22-8.25). First time pass out rate for OMEGA Line (65.25%; 95% CI: 64.57-68.85) and Guards (58.17%; 95% CI: 51.58-64.50) increased compared to the previous four years average Line (64.47%; 95% CI: 63.30-65.62) and Guards (53.78%; 95% CI: 51.34-56.20). Conclusion: Integrated injury prevention strategies-Project OMEGA-have contributed to reduced MSKI and MD within British Infantry recruits. It is recommended that OMEGA strategies could be implemented across military training establishments globally in order to reduce injury and enhance training outcome. Key messages: MSKI are an internationally recognised bi-product of arduous military activity and undisputedly the greatest threat to the efficiency of delivering military training globally. Project OMEGA was designed to reduce the incidence of training related MSKI whilst maintaining mandated standards of physical fitness of Infantry recruits. MSK injuries significantly reduced following the introduction of a strategically designed integrated injury prevention and physical performance programme-Project OMEGA. Project OMEGA may serve to influence the design and delivery of integrated human performance and injury prevention strategies across global military training establishments. Future papers will further describe the theory and design of Project OMEGA as well as the physical performance outcomes.


This study aimed to assess the influence of lamb finishing systems on zootechnical performance, as well as on carcass and meat quality. The experiment was conducted at the APTA's experimental farm. Thirty-three lambs were used – both sexes, initial age of 90 ± 3 days, Texel with Santa Inês, each animal being one experimental unit, with 6 males and 5 females per treatment. Treatments consisted of: lambs finished on pasture, in semi-feedlot or in feedlot. The lambs were slaughtered with average live weight of 35 kg. Weight gain and carcass measures were taken by ultrasound. After slaughter, carcass conformation and yield, pH, temperature, color, water retention capacity and tenderness were measured. Animals finished on pasture had lower weight gain, were slaughtered at an older age, with lighter carcass weight, smaller loin area, lower shank compactness index, besides lighter shoulder and shank weights, compared to the other production systems (p < 0.05). There was no difference between the semi-feedlot and the feedlot systems for the assessed characteristics. In conclusion, production systems affect animal performance, as well as carcass and meat quality, especially when it comes to important production aspects, such as slaughter age and yield of premium cuts.


A simple, sensitive and precise reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method (RP-HPLC) has been developed and validated for the simultaneous estimation of paracetamol and drotaverine hydrochloride in both : bulk drug samples and formulation. The method was carried out on a phenomenex Luna C-18 (250 mm × i.d -4.6 mm, particle size 5 µm) column with a mobile phase consisting of methanol : water (pH adjusted to 3.34 with 0. 1% ortho-phosphoric acid) in the ratio of 52 : 48 (v/v). The flow rate was optimized at 1 mL/min and effluent was monitored at detection wavelength of 246 nm. The total chromatographic run time was 10 minutes and the retention time of paracetamol and drotaverine hydrochloride was 3.18 min and 5.07 min, respectively. The method was proved to be accurate and precise at linearity range of 2-36 µg/mL for paracetamol and 1-60 µg/mL for drotaverine hydrochloride with a correlation coefficient (r2 ) 0.999 and 0.9991, respectively. The method is highly reproducible with recoveries ranging from 99.93-100.2% and 99.90-100.16% for paracetamol and drotaverine hydrochloride, respectively. The method was validated for accuracy, precision, robustness, detection and quantification limits as per ICH guidelines. The intra- and inter- day precision and accuracy values were found to be within the limits. Due to its simplicity, accuracy and economical value, the proposed method can be used for routine quality analysis of these drugs in bulk and combined dosage form.


Massive edema of the ovary, a rare clinicopathologic entity, usually is associated with acute abdominal pain or as a pelvic mass in young women. 1-5 We report the case of a pediatric patient, with acute abdominal symptoms, found to have torsion of a fallopian tube and ovarian edema. This represents the ninth reported case and one of the smallest lesions described. Report of a Case .—The patient, a 16-year-old nulliparous young woman, came to the emergency room complaining of abdominal pain, anorexia, nausea, and vomiting. Pain, localized to the right lower quadrant, was not associated with urinary or other gastrointestinal symptoms. Menarche occurred at age 13 with a 28-day cycle and minimal menstrual discomfort. The last menstrual period had begun six days prior to admission. Physical examination disclosed an afebrile young woman complaining of pain localized to the right lower quadrant; no guarding or rebound tenderness were elicited. There was


Background: Pulsatile tinnitus (PT) is an auditory phenomenon that occurs in the absence of an external stimulus and presents as a humming or whooshing sound synchronous with the subject's heartbeat. PT has many causes, ranging from the benign to the life threatening. In the following report, we focus on defining the most common causes of PT and explore changing approaches to diagnostic radiology used in the assessment of PT patients, with the goal of providing an updated and practical set of guidelines for the assessment of this complicated condition.
 Methods: A collection of case studies, retrospective reviews and technical reports were sourced from PubMed's online database. The initial cohort was filtered by language and content, and then sorted according to patient demographics, presenting symptoms, imaging protocols and relative success of radiological investigations.
 Results: The most common causes of PT include vascular anomalies, benign or idiopathic intracranial hypertension (BIH/IIH), and certain middle ear masses. We recommend using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the primary imaging modality for investigating most cases of PT, due to an increase in sensitivity and decrease in medical risk for the patient compared to computed tomography (CT) and traditional angiography. We detail protocols for both basic and comprehensive MRI studies to be used in the assessment of PT and provide descriptions of common radiological findings with representative images for reference. Finally, we make an argument in favour of foregoing extensive imaging studies in cases of subjective idiopathic PT, where no risk factors can be identified in the patient's medical history or physical examination.
 Conclusions: The diagnosis of pulsatile tinnitus should be guided by comprehensive clinical data and dominated by the conservative use of MRI. In subjective PT where no risk factors are present, we recommend foregoing extensive imaging.


Background: Measurement of HbA1c is the standard test for assessment of glycaemic control in diabetic subjects. Using new glucose sensing technology we re-evaluated the significance of HbA1c in terms of the aspects of the blood profile it measures in patients with diabetes. Methods: In a group of 27 patients with type 1 diabetes, interstitial fluid glucose concentrations were monitored for a mean of 2·6 days using the Continuous Glucose Monitoring SystemTM (MiniMed Inc, CA, USA). Results were correlated with an HbA1c measurement taken at the time of sensor insertion. Results: Results were available in 25 subjects, two datasets being lost due to patient error. There was a correlation between mean sensor glucose value, and the HbA1c value (r=0·59, P=0·002). The correlation with standard deviation of the readings was weaker (r=0·3, P=0·15). No other descriptor of the sensor glucose concentration correlated with HbA1c. Conclusion: The mean interstitial glucose concentration recorded with the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System correlates with HbA1c level recorded at the time, but with no other marker of glucose control in diabetic subjects. These results have implications for the interpretation of HbA1c concentrations in type 1 diabetes.


Today, copper pillar bumping now in high volume production for mobile electronics is also a transformative technology for next generation flip chip [1] interconnects which offers advantages in many designs while meeting current and future requirements. With the continuous shrinking dimensions of semiconductor devices, the package's design and size are approaching the dimensions of the singulated die. Moreover, failure analysis involving copper pillar packages would be the major challenges faced by analysts as copper pillar devices in nature hides its solder joints beneath its die causing obstruction in quality inspection as well as judging its solder joint strength. Chemical wet etch or deprocessing [2] by using potassium hydroxide (KOH) to remove all silicon die have disadvantages of over etching on silicon substrate and tin (Sn) surrounding the Cu pillar. Therefore, quality of sample preparation is critical and new methodology is needed.


Selective photocatalytic oxidation of 1-phenyl ethanol to acetophenone using titanium dioxide (TiO 2) raw and doped with Fe or V, prepared by flame aerosol deposition method, was investigated. The effects of metal doping on crystal phase and morphology of the synthesized nanostructured TiO 2 were analyzed using XRD, TEM, Raman spectroscopy, and BET nitrogen adsorbed surface area measurement. The increase in the concentration of V and Fe reduced the crystalline structure and the anatase-to-rutile ratios of the synthesized TiO 2. Synthesized TiO 2 became fine amorphous powder as the Fe and V concentrations were increased to 3 and 5%, respectively. Doping V and Fe to TiO 2 synthesized by the flame aerosol increased photocatalytic activity by 6 folds and 2.5 folds, respectively, compared to that of pure TiO 2. It was found that an optimal doping concentration for Fe and V were 0.5% and 3%, respectively. The type and concentration of the metal dopants and the method used to add the dopant to the TiO 2 are critical parameters for enhancing the activity of the resulting photocatalyst. The effects of solvents on the photocatalytic reaction were also investigated by using both water and acetonitrile as the reaction medium.


The aim of our study is to single out a possible way to the culture of recognition in a world strained by deep social cleavages and a strong conflict between values. The study attempts to answer the desideratum of the recognition culture by developing a model of the political founded on the correlation of certain aspects of the human and of the political. Globalization, multiculturalism, the recrudescence of identity movements, as well as other current social and political, economic, cultural, religious processes ask for comprehensive analyses able to generate reasonable suggestions and realistic solutions. There is a need for research capable of nuanced interpretations, proper adaptation and feasible recom¬mendations regarding the dynamics between identity and alterity, unity and diversity, inovation and tradition etc., within the scope of deliberative and participatory democracy and of the recognition culture.


We investigate the direction of training a 3D object detector for new object classes from only 2D bounding box labels of these new classes, while simultaneously transferring information from 3D bounding box labels of the existing classes. To this end, we propose a transferable semi-supervised 3D object detection model that learns a 3D object detector network from training data with two disjoint sets of object classes - a set of strong classes with both 2D and 3D box labels, and another set of weak classes with only 2D box labels. In particular, we suggest a relaxed reprojection loss, box prior loss and a Box-to-Point Cloud Fit network that allow us to effectively transfer useful 3D information from the strong classes to the weak classes during training, and consequently, enable the network to detect 3D objects in the weak classes during inference. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms baseline approaches and achieves promising results compared to fully-supervised approaches on the SUN-RGBD and KITTI datasets. Furthermore, we show that our Box-to-Point Cloud Fit network improves performances of the fully-supervised approaches on both datasets.


: Recently performed epidemiological studies in the Netherlands did not show statistical significant differences between boys and girls or men and women with regard to the prevalence of caries, periodontal diseases and toothlessness. In adults it was found that the mean number of untreated caries lesions was smaller in women than in men, possibly as a result of the lower percentage of women not attending a dentist regularly. Furthermore, the prevalence of plaque and calculus was lower among women, probably as a result of better oral hygiene habits.


Papers in the March 2018 issue of the Journal cover advances in telecommunications technologies and regulation, historical events, and book reviews. Looking more widely, the Australian Government has responded to the increase in complaints about telecommunications services by ordering yet another review. Telecommunications consumers are rightly concerned that access to reliable and modern telecommunications is a key aspect of life today. Telecommunications consumer protections are vital and there needs to be a timely response to the rapid rise in complaints that was accurately predicted four years ago by industry experts. The Journal would welcome contributions on this and other topics.


The memo consists of six papers on a common theme: applying economic analysis to subjects at the time, 1972, considered noneconomic. The first paper considers changes in preferences. The second considers strategies of a regime and its opposition. The third discusses collective decision making in the light of Arrow's possibility theorem and the voting paradox. The fourth discusses some problems of inefficiency in modern industrialised societies, and the consequences on the welfare of the population. The fifth discusses some aspects of redistributive policies, and the sixth various instances of the conflict between individual and collective rationality, particularly in the case of environmental and population policies. JEL codes: A12, D01, I38 1


NIDDM is characterized by decreased insulin secretory responses to glucose and to nonglucose stimuli, hyperglucagonemia, and decreased tissue sensitivity to insulin. However, it hasbeen unclear which of these abnormalities, if any, precedes the others. Since women with histories of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are at high risk for eventual development of NIDDM, we measured B- and A-cell function and tissue sensitivity to insulin in eight normoglycemic, postpartum women with recent histories of GDM and in eight control subjects pair-matched for age and percent of ideal body weight. Fasting plasma glucose levels in subjects with former GDM tended to be slightly higher than in matched controls (98 ± 3 versus 92 ± 2 mg/dl, P = 0.07). Basal plasma insulin in subjects with former GDM was significantly higher than in controls (22 ± 4 versus 14 ± 2 μUml, P = 0.05). During an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT), relative first- and second-phase insulin responses to glucose were decreased in subjects with former GDM (2316 ± 560 versus 7798 ± 1036% of basal · min, P = 0.004; and 8340 ± 946 versus 14,509 ± 2556, P = 0.04). An index of sensitivity to insulin, S1, calculated from the IVGTT, was also lower in former GDM (1.23 ± 0.69 × 10 4 versus 3.58 ± 0.78 × 10−4 min−1μU/ml, P = 0.001). Acute insulin responses to 5 g i.v. arginine were measured at plasma glucose levels of approximately 95, 215, and 600 mg/dl. The response at 600 mg/dl is termed the AIRmax andis used asan index of glucoseregulated insulin secretory capacity. Insulin responses to arginine at all glucose levels were similar in both groups. However, AIRmax, which was inversely correlated with S1 in controls, appeared low for the degree of insulin resistance informer GDM. Glucagon responses to arginine obtained at normoglycemia and suppressibility of such responses by hyperglycemia (600 mg/dl) were similar in both groups. We conclude that women with histories of GDM, who are predisposed to NIDDM, have impairments both of insulin secretion and of insulin action before the development of overt hyperglycemia.


This paper presents a new method for the power system topological observability analysis using the artificial neural networks. The power system observability problem, related to the power system configuration or network topology, called as the topological observability, is studied utilizing the artificial neural network model, based on multilayer perceptrons using the back-propagation algorithm as the training algorithm. Another training algorithm, quickprop is also applied for training the similar artificial neural network to further check the suitability of other training algorithm also. The proposed artificial forward neural network model has been tested on sample power systems and results are presented.


'On narcissism: An introduction' constitutes a turning point in psychoanalysis. Although narcissism is a concept which has not been explicitly referred to by many important thinkers for decades, it could be said that there is no paper written in psychoanalysis since Freud that does not implicitly take into account the modifi cations in thinking that the work brought about. In this paper, the author contrasts two types of narcissistic confi gurations: in the fi rst, the intolerance of the other is dealt with by expulsion and violence; in the second, by withdrawal. The author contrasts patients who express manifest violent behaviour with patients for whom the violent behaviour is absent but who, nevertheless, present similar background histories, which might have led to a prediction of violence. They are also profoundly different in terms of what they provoke in the countertransference. In addition, this paper argues that the treatment of narcissistic personalities has allowed in recent years the understanding of a modality of depression. Following Green, the author argues that, instead of a fruitless debate that involves evolutionary issues around the concept of narcissism, it is necessary to distinguish the narcissistic aspect in any analytic relationship, to identify the narcissistic transference in different types of psychopathologies.