This chapter explores the legal principles and rules that govern the use of shared groundwater resources. The different characteristics and behavior of groundwater would seem to justify stricter standards and more stringent protection than is applicable to surface water. The current legal regime governing surface water, as expressed in the United Nations Watercourses Convention, may be sufficiently flexible to be capable of adaptation to the particular requirements of groundwater, but this situation should prevail only until a special regime can be tailored for international groundwater. The legal regime applicable to so-called confined transboundary groundwater is even less clear than that applicable to international groundwater that is related to surface water, but there is support for applying the same rules to the former type of groundwater as to the other forms discussed in this chapter.


Vasopressin (AVP) is a cyclic nonapeptide hormone that exhibits many physiological effects including free water reabsorption, vasoconstriction, cellular proliferation and adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) secretion. In a healthy organism, AVP plays an important role in the homeostasis of fluid osmolality and volume status. However, in several diseases or conditions such as the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of AVP (SIADH), congestive heart failure, arterial hypertension, liver cirrhosis, nephrotic syndrome, dysmenorrhoea and ocular hypertension, AVP may play an important role in their pathophysiology. Recently, orally-active non-peptide AVP receptor antagonists were developed by random screening of chemical entities and optimisation of lead compounds. These include agents specific for the V1-vascular and V2-renal AVP receptor subtypes. Dual V1/V2 AVP receptor antagonists are also being studied. Some of these non-peptide receptor antagonists have been studied extensively, while others are currently under investigation. Potential therapeutic indications for AVP receptor antagonists comprise (1) The blockade of V1-vascular AVP receptors in arterial hypertension, congestive heart failure, Raynaud's syndrome, peripheral vascular disease and dysmenorrhoea. (2) The blockade of V2-renal AVP receptors in the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of vasopressin, congestive heart failure, liver cirrhosis, nephrotic syndrome and any state of excessive retention of free water and subsequent dilutional hyponatraemia. (3) The blockade of V3-pituitary AVP receptors in ACTH-secreting tumours. This review examines the pharmacology of orally-active non-peptide AVP receptor antagonists and their clinical applications.


The concept of a socially constructed space of human activity in areas of everyday actions, as initially proposed in the field of anthropology by Tim Ingold, has actually been much more applied in archaeology. In this wide-ranging collection of 13 papers, including a re-assessment by Ingold himself, contributors show why it has been so influential, with papers ranging from the study of Mesolithic to historic and contemporary archaeology, revisiting different research themes, such as Ingold's own Lapland study, and the development of landscape archaeology. A series of case studies demonstrates the value and strength of the taskscape concept applied to a variety of contexts and scales across wide geographical and temporal situations. While exploring new frontiers, the papers contrast British, Nordic and Mediterranean archaeologies to showcase the study of material culture and landscape and conclude with an assessment of the concept of taskcape and its further developments.... Download ebook, read file pdf 20 years of Taskscapes in archaeology


Abstract Differences in species richness at different elevations are widespread and important for conservation, but the causes of these patterns remain poorly understood. Here, we use a phylogenetic perspective to address the evolutionary and biogeographic processes that underlie elevational diversity patterns within a region. We focus on a diverse but well-studied fauna of tropical amphibians, the hylid frogs of Middle America. Middle American treefrogs show a "hump-shaped" pattern of species richness (common in many organisms and regions), with the highest regional diversity at intermediate elevations. We reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among 138 species by combining new and published sequence data from 10 genes and then used this phylogeny to infer evolutionary rates and patterns. The high species richness of intermediate elevations seems to result from two factors. First, a tendency for montane clades to have higher rates of diversification. Second, the early colonization of montane regions, leaving less time for speciation to build up species richness in lowland regions (including tropical rainforests) that have been colonized more recently. This "time-for-speciation" effect may explain many diversity patterns and has important implications for conservation. The results also imply that local-scale environmental factors alone may be insufficient to explain the high species richness of lowland tropical rainforests, and that diversification rates are lower in earth's most species-rich biome.


The last years of the 19th century in Turin are marked by the project of the General Italian Exhibition of 1898, whose coordina- tion is entrusted to Ceppi, Gilodi and Salvadori. The closure of this Exhibition however does not terminate their experience in designing exposition spaces: in a sort of passing of the baton, some of the Turin pavilions, before being demolished, housed the laboratories where the pavilion, intended to represent Italy in Paris in 1900, was prefabricated. The Italian pavilion for the French exhibition was highly in- novative; new materials and solutions make the project an iconic example of contemporary architectural culture and industrialization of the construction site. One of the highlights is the re-elaboration of Venetian Gothic, a fine example of Ceppi's ability to master and combine stylistic codes of the past and modern innovative techniques.


Obesity and depression are two major public health concerns that involving a huge population around the world. This study investigates the mutual causality relation between obesity and depression for both males and females. Data for this study are drawn from the 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and an ordered probability simultaneous equation system is developed to accommodate the ordinal nature of body weight categories and its relation to depression. Results suggest body weight is positively associated with the risk to be depressed while depression in return, has positive effects on body weight for both males and females, and females are more sensible to the effects of depression on body weight. In addition, socio-demographic factors are found to vary significantly between gender, and factors of age, income, race, education, employment, marriage and health status play important roles in affecting body weight.


A major challenge in neuroscience is to understand neural coding - how sensory stimuli, or motor actions controlling the behaviour of an animal, are represented by the activity of neurons in the nervous system. Information theory provides a powerful tool for investigating such codes; a rigorous non-parametric theoretical framework for quantifying the properties of noisy communication channels. By viewing various stages of the nervous system as such channels, we can use information theory to obtain meaningful quantitative results about the information capacity of the system, the sensory stimuli or features that are represented, as well as the performance of different candidate codes.In this thesis, we first develop an open source neuroinformatics toolbox implementing robust estimators and bias-corrections for a range of information theoretic quantities. This also includes a novel implementation of an algorithm for numerically obtaining distributions with maximum entropy over discrete probability spaces subject to marginal equality constraints. These maximum entropy distributions provide a powerful tool for investigating the effect of interactions on information transmission by neural population codes.These neuroinformatics tools are then used to explore population coding of the velocity of sinusoidal whisker stimulation in the cortex of anaesthetised rats. We show that both with a pooled model (assuming the neural population is homogenous) and with a labelled line model, interactions are present and affect the information transmission in the system. We show that interactions of order higher than two have a measurable but minor effect on the information capacity of the neural population. This is the first direct quantification of the effect of high order interactions on information transmission in a neural system, and is one of the first studies for which the data lie outside of the perturbative regime in which pairwise models are guaranteed to perform well.We then consider results from a novel experimental preparation, recording from populations in VPm thalamus under both white noise and naturalistic whisker stimulation. We show that sub-millisecond precise spike timing, previously observed with white noise stimuli, is also present with naturalistic stimuli, and that the diverse feature selectivity previously observed across different single unit recording sessions is also present with neurons simultaneously recorded within a single barrelloid. We use a novel information theoretic approach to probe the kinetic selectivity of the recorded cells, showing that they encode combinations of position, velocity and acceleration and that of these, velocity is the best encoded feature. We also quantify the information available to cortex under both a count code and a labelled line code, showing that a simple pooling of the population by a downstream decoder results in a large loss of information, but that this loss may be ameliorated by choosing more carefully the subpopulations over which to pool activity. Finally, we again apply the maximum entropy tools to quantify the effect of interactions, including a novel calculation of the maximal information available to a downstream decoder neglecting correlations of different orders, and find that, similar to the results in cortex, high order correlations do have a measurable effect on information transmission.


In the context of the Semantic Web, many ontology-related operations, e.g. ontology ranking, segmentation, alignment, articulation, reuse, evaluation, can be boiled down to one fundamental operation: computing the similarity and/or dissimilarity among ontological entities, and in some cases among ontologies themselves. In this paper, we review standard metrics for computing distance measures and we propose a series of semantic metrics. We give a formal account of semantic metrics drawn from a variety of research disciplines, and enrich them with semantics based on standard Description Logic constructs. We argue that concept-based metrics can be aggregated to produce numeric distances at ontology-level and we speculate for the usability of our ideas through application example areas.


Aim: To evaluate the therapeutic effects of Lodhradi Kashaya Ghanvati (LKGV) in Type II diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. Materials and Methods: Forty-five patients of Type II DM were registered from the Outpatient Department of Rasa Shastra, Sir Sunderlal Hospital, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Patients were randomly divided into three groups for the treatment of three different medicine groups (Group A - trial drug only [LKGV 500 mg TID] before meal; Group B - trial drug [LKGV 500 mg TID] before meal + glimepiride [1 mg OD] after meal; Group C - glimepiride treated [1 mg OD]). The treatment was given for 3 months. Fasting blood sugar, postprandial sugar, serum creatinine, blood urea, lipid profile, and serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase and serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase levels were estimated biochemically. Results: The results of the present study reveal that LKGV can be safe and effective, alternative or adjuvant to the conventional oral hypoglycemic agent. Conclusion: The ayurvedic herbal formulation along with the modern drug is the need of hour to take more benefits for the human society suffering from lifestyle disorders.


The science of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is motivated by a translational goal - the discovery and exploitation of knowledge about the nature of ADHD to the benefit of those individuals whose lives it affects. Over the past fifty years, scientific research has made enormous strides in characterizing the ADHD condition and in understanding its correlates and causes. However, the translation of these scientific insights into clinical benefits has been limited. In this review, we provide a selective and focused survey of the scientific field of ADHD, providing our personal perspectives on what constitutes the scientific consensus, important new leads to be highlighted, and the key outstanding questions to be addressed going forward. We cover two broad domains - clinical characterization and, risk factors, causal processes and neuro-biological pathways. Part one focuses on the developmental course of ADHD, co-occurring characteristics and conditions, and the functional impact of living with ADHD - including impairment, quality of life, and stigma. In part two, we explore genetic and environmental influences and putative mediating brain processes. In the final section, we reflect on the future of the ADHD construct in the light of cross-cutting scientific themes and recent conceptual reformulations that cast ADHD traits as part of a broader spectrum of neurodivergence.


Introduction. Osteoporosis has a major influence on the quality of life because of its impact on bone strength. Osteoporosis and fractures are frequent in patients with multiple sclerosis, decreased mobility being an important risk factor in these patients.
Objectives. This paper presents a case of severe osteoporosis in a patient with multiple sclerosis, to emphasize a correlation between this two pathologies.
Material and Methods. We present the case of a female Caucasian patient, aged 65 years, known with progressive multiple sclerosis, on long-term use of glucocorticoids, and severe osteoporosis, who is investigated for mechanical pain and functional deficiency in the lumbar spine and the right hip, motor deficit, predominantly on right limbs and walking disorders. The patient was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis treated with raloxifene and bisphosphonates, with multiple vertebral fractures and vitamin D deficiency. During hospitalization the patient followed myorelaxant therapy and an individualized rehabilitation program.
Results and discussion. During follow-up, there was a significant increase followed by a recent decrease in bone mass density in the lumbar spine and hip. The patient was recommended a loading dose of cholecalciferol for three months and initiation of teriparatide therapy after restoring 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels.
Conclusion. In patients with multiple sclerosis,screening and early management of osteoporosis and osteopenia are essential.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis, glucocorticoid therapy, osteoporosis,


This paper proposes a new system for taxing capital that can collect the same amount of revenue as the existing system with much lower administrative and compliance costs, and with somewhat lower distortionary impact. Its pillar is a flat annual tax assessed on the market value of publicly traded securities paid by an issuer. Wealth represented by a string of publicly traded securities is taxed once by giving an issuer a credit for amounts remitted with respect to publicly traded securities it owns. The securities tax will cover around 75 to 80 percent of income producing capital that is presently subject to the individual and corporate income taxes.Income producing capital held by households and nonprofits that is not subject to the securities tax, e.g. interests in closely held businesses and real estate held for investment, is covered by a complementary tax. The complementary tax is paid on the estimated value of an asset assuming an investment yields a normal return in cash or appreciation. An entity is required to estimate value and remit the tax on an interest in the entity. If an interest is of a class, such as a unit in a private equity fund, then an entity is required to revalue all interests in a class when there is a redemption or trade of any interest in the class. This brings the incidence of the complementary tax roughly into line with the incidence of the securities tax with respect to relatively liquid assets, like interests in hedge funds, through periodic revaluations.The securities tax and the complementary tax are intended to replace the entire existing patchwork system for taxing capital income. With an annual rate of .8 percent (.008) the securities tax and the complementary tax will impose a tax burden on capital roughly comparable to the burden imposed by the existing patchwork system for taxing capital that the two taxes are intended to replace. If the average real rate of return on capital is 4 percent, then the tax is equivalent to an income tax with a rate of 20 percent on the average real rate of return. From the perspective of a firm the tax raises the cost of capital by .8 percent or 80 basis points. A companion article will address the taxation of global capital under the two taxes.


In the chronic phase of coarctation hypertension (CH) we have shown both reduction in baroreceptor sensitivity (Hypertension. 1992;19[suppl II]:II-198-II-201.) and normalization of the depressed baroreceptor reflex control of heart rate, even with the persistence of hypertension in losartan-treated animals (Am J Physiol. 1995;269:H812-H818). In the present study we analyzed the effects of angiotensin II blockade on afferent aortic nerve activity of CH and sham-operated groups treated chronically with vehicle or losartan (10 mg/kg per day p.o.). CH was induced by subdiaphragmatic aortic coarctation, and the treatments lasted 8 days (4 control and 4 experimental days). Aortic pressure (conscious rats) and aortic nerve activity simultaneous to pressure (anesthetized rats) were recorded on the fourth day of the experimental period. Losartan-treated rats showed reduced tail pressure (104+/-3 versus 117+/-3 mm Hg in the vehicle group). In both groups, aortic coarctation caused a significant increase in pressure (25% and 28%, respectively) and a depression of the aortic nerve activity/pressure relationship when compared with sham-operated coarcted animals. In the physiological range of pressure changes, the depression was significantly smaller after losartan treatment (3.30+/-0.33 versus 2.18+/-0.37%/mm Hg in the losartan- and vehicle-treated CH groups, respectively, versus 5.05+/-0.33%/mm Hg in the sham-operated vehicle-treated group). Angiotensin type 1 (AT1) receptor blockade was also accompanied by reduced variability of the afferent discharge. The data suggested that apart from its pressure effect, angiotensin II acts at AT1 receptors to decrease the sensitivity of aortic afferents during physiological (+/-10 mm Hg) increases and decreases in pressure. Thus, angiotensin II may contribute to reductions of baroreceptor gain in chronic hypertension.


The detection and characterization of exoplanets has come a long way since the 1990's. For example, instruments specifically designed for Doppler planet surveys feature environmental controls to minimize instrumental effects and advanced calibration systems. Combining these instruments with powerful telescopes, astronomers have detected thousands of exoplanets. The application of Bayesian algorithms has improved the quality and reliability with which astronomers characterize the mass and orbits of exoplanets. Thanks to continued improvements in instrumentation, now the detection of extrasolar low-mass planets is limited primarily by stellar activity, rather than observational uncertainties. This presents a new set of challenges which will require cross-disciplinary research to combine improved statistical algorithms with an astrophysical understanding of stellar activity and the details of astronomical instrumentation. I describe these challenges and outline the roles of parameter estimation over high-dimensional parameter spaces, marginalizing over uncertainties in stellar astrophysics and machine learning for the next generation of Doppler planet searches.


This paper presents the extraction and separation of nickel (II) fromsulfate solutions using the extractants 2-amino-3-(4- (X) phenyl azo)-8,9-dihydro- 8,8-dimethyl-7H-pyrazolo [1,5-a] quinazolin-6- one (H2NXPQ)/benzene (X= Br, Cl or CH3) that have been previously prepared by the authors. Several experiments were performed to optimize the extraction controlling factors. The maximumextraction efficiency was achieved froma synthetic aqueous solution of pH 2.5 and assaying 20 mg/l Ni (II) ions by using 2.42×10-3 M concentration of (H2NXPQ)/benzene at (1/1)A/O ratio for 10 min. contact time at roomtemperature. Themaximumloading capacity remained constant after the four loading cycle fromthe synthetic acidic solution. The values of pH1/2 and Kex as well as the values for the thermodynamic parameters AG, AH, and AS have been calculated. The extracted Ni (II) was effectively stripped from the organic phase using 0.5M HCl solution. The optimized extraction conditions have then been applied for Ni (II) extraction fromthe uranium- bearing leach liquor of El Sela mineralization.


The purpose of this study were (1) to determine the types of anxiety a experienced by students, (2) factors that cause anxiety asiswa, (3) counseling approach applied Teacher BK in overcoming the anxiety of students, and (4) to know the assessment of students to counseling services that do counseling teacher at the school as perceived by the counseling teacher at the school. This research is qualitative obtained from the informant and the subject's behavior is observed. Instruments are students and teachers BK with a sample size 6 students and 4 teachers BK SMA Makassar. Data collection through direct interview to the informant. The results showed that (1) the types of anxiety experienced by students who studied are anxiety is psychological in the form of dizziness, anxiety, and could not sleep, (2) factors that cause anxiety students are learning achievement that is not in line with expectations, could not adjust to the subject, had no educational aspirations, and worried about the future, (3) a tutor in overcoming anxiety academic in students, not using the obvious approach in dealing with students who have anxiety problems of academic, approach still partial, incidental, routines, and tend to be behavioristik, (4) counseling service approach used by teachers in handling anxiety BK students have not been effective, both in the eyes of students and teachers BK itself.


It is interested with the integration of services requiring different quality of service abilities from the underlying packet-switched network. Hence, the problem does not become only that of, effectively using the bandwidth available but also that of differentiating the received quality for different classes of traffic. To this end, the book is a composition of original research as well as of material that provides an extensive review of the research carried out in WDM local and metropolitan networks during roughly the last decade. Due to the single-hop nature of the topics covered, the underlying topology is well defined, namely star or ring. In particular, the scope is passive-star topologies with wavelength-tunable transceivers (passive s tar couplers and arrayed waveguide grating multiplexers, AWGMs) and slotted WDM metro rings. Included is also a review of traffic models, but the analysis technique is quickly narrowed to the use of semiMarkov processes. Since many books already exist on WDM technology, the distinguishing feature of this book is its emphasis on QoS support, and a unifying quantitative approach and comparative study of the presented protocols. For passive star protocols attention is focused on Earliest Available Time Scheduling (EATS), Distributed Queue (DO) protocols, and AWGMbased protocols. The novel protocol introduced is Convergence of RealTime and Data Services (CONRAD), which is a distributed reservation-based online scheduling algorithm. For WDM rings, the emphasis is placed directly on slotted version with multiple transceivers per node, effectively becoming a multichannel slotted ring, and subsequently refined to include QoS support. ,


State-owned enterprises' unchecked resource exploitation and the Chinese state's GDP-dominated mentality have played pivotal roles in causing and perpetuating social and environmental problems in the country's resource-rich provinces. The authors propose a "resource curse theory with Chinese characteristics" to analyze the role of the state and the impacts of state-owned enterprises.


This study presents an overview of the washing up behaviour of consumers in the UK. Peoples' individual attitudes were observed as were the amount of water and energy used, the time taken and the cleaning performance. Additionally, manual dishwashing was compared with the use of automatic dishwashers. Participants were recruited to represent all geographic regions of the UK as well as forming a representative cross-section of the population. Each of the 150 participants washed a full load of soiled tableware based on the standard EN 50242 'Electric Dishwashers for Household Use – Methods for Measuring the Performance'. For comparison, the best selling dishwasher in the UK in 2007 was tested under the same conditions as those in the consumer trial. Additionally, consumers who owned a full-size dishwasher were asked to load it to the point when they decided that the dishwasher was full.

The study shows that these consumers, on average, used 49 l of water and 1.7 kWh of energy, whereas the dishwasher used 13 l of water and 1.3 kWh of energy on average for the same amount of dishes under the conditions tested. Statistical analysis showed that these differences are significant. The dishes washed by hand were found to be slightly less clean than dishes washed in a dishwasher. For washing a full dishwasher load by hand, the participants needed, on average, 60 min, while they only took 9 min on average to load and unload the same amount of dishes in a dishwasher. The average participants were able to fill almost the full load into the dishwasher (96% of the items as used in a test following EN 50242).


Distribution and changes in sea water temperature and sea level are important items in the hydrographic conditions of the North Sea. The roles played by local air-sea exchange processes and oceanic advection for North Sea temperature variability are investigated in the present study. Furthermore, temperature contributions to sea level changes are evaluated under the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Analyses are based on model results from the HAMSOM model for the entire North Sea system over the period 1948-2010.

For regional ocean models, open boundary conditions (OBCs) are very important and still challenging, especially for long-term simulations. For OBCs, a nudging term added to radiative and/or advective conditions during the wave or slow propagation outward from the model domain of interest is widely used. However, nudging time scales are basically unknown, leading to many empirical selections. In this study, a method for objectively estimating nudging time scales during outward propagation is proposed, by using internal model dynamics near the boundary. We tested this method and other several commonly used OBCs for cases of both an idealized model domain and a realistic configuration, and model results demonstrated that the proposed method improves the model solutions. Many similarities are found between the nudging and mixing time scales, in magnitude, spatial and temporal variations, since the nudging mainly replaces the effect of the mixing terms in this study. However, the mixing time scale is not an intrinsic property of the nudging term because, in other studies, the nudging term might replace terms other than the mixing terms, and thus should reflect other characteristic time scales.

From the investigation of the roles of local air-sea exchange processes and oceanic advection in North Sea temperature variability, we found that the seasonal average of surface heat flux (Qsur ) is larger than that of advective heat flux (Qadv ) over much of the North Sea, with an obvious exception in the region of the Norwegian Trench. On seasonal time scales, the temperature variation is determined by Qsur variability, which is consistent with the fact that the seasonal variability of Qsur is much larger than that of Qadv . On inter-annual time scales, Qsur and temperature changes are also significantly correlated for most parts of the North Sea, with the notable exception of the Norwegian Trench, and Qsur plays an important role in temperature inter-annual variability. On the other hand, along the main pathways of the North Sea circulation, Qadv also makes a considerable contribution to inter-annual temperature variability, especially in the northwestern inflow region, where North Atlantic water enters through the Fair Isle Passage and along the East-Shetland shelf.

In the North Sea, the NAO strongly influences sea level and temperature variability and their linear trends in winter. With respect to the NAO influence, our analysis, consistent with previous studies, has shown that the sea level caused by the local atmospheric pressure effects and winds (wind+pressure) has smaller sensitivity to the NAO index, compared with the observed sea level. In order to explain this discrepancy, we investigated possible contributions, especially those associated with temperature and salinity effects. First, local steric contributions to sea level changes are calculated. It is found that the amplitude of local thermosteric sea level in winter is quite small in shallow areas of the North Sea, in particular off the coast of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark as well as the German Bight. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis (to the NAO index) has demonstrated that local steric contributions cannot explain the discrepancy between the wind+pressure modelled and the observed sea level. Furthermore, we estimated additional effects from the full 3D baroclinic model, which includes non-local steric contributions and large-scale wind field effects due to open boundary forcing by the global reanalysis data (GECCO2). As expected, the baroclinic modelled sea level is in much closer agreement to the observed sea level in the North Sea, compared to the results from the wind+pressure model. This clearly demonstrates that baroclinic processes play an important role as well with respect to sea level changes in the North Sea.


Social work programmes are expected to enable students to work adequately with sexual minorities. In Switzerland, however, curricular content on sexual minorities is lacking in BSW programmes. Potential sexual prejudice is not explicitly addressed. This study aimed to assess the attitudes towards lesbian women and gay men amongst students entering the BSW programme of a university in Switzerland to establish a basis for discussing curriculum development. Students entering the programme from 2015 through 2018 were surveyed using an online questionnaire. Heterosexist attitudes were captured using the 'Multidimensional Scale of Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men'. The responding 955 entering students reported positive attitudes towards lesbians and gay men and evidenced low levels of heterosexist views. However, only 4.3 per cent of the respondents consistently disagreed with all items expressing heterosexist views, whilst 43.3 per cent completely agreed with at least one item. The views expressed by male participants expressed significantly higher levels of heterosexism than did those of female participants. The findings evidence uncertainties and a lack of reflection on unquestioned but heteronormative views. This reflects a need to infuse BSW programmes with sexual minority content, to provide opportunities for critical reflection and to address heteronormative and heterosexist views.


Recent Indian migrants constitute an extraordinary talent reservoir for Australia. They are characterised by high labour market participation, earnings and employment rates. They have the potential to offer a 'productivity premium' given their relative youth, level of English, tertiary training (with many qualified in Australia), and acculturation. At the same time they face significant barriers to securing initial work in their field. The scale of future intakes is also jeopardised by current skilled migration policy changes. These have particular significance for Indian IT workers entering Australian on a temporary sponsored basis.


The development in the field of erbium-doped integrated waveguide amplifiers for the generation of broadband and high-speed optical amplification around 1.5 - 1.6 μm is discussed and current and future potential applications are explored. In erbium-doped amorphous aluminium oxide on a silicon wafer, an internal net gain per unit length of 2.0 dB/cm at the wavelength of 1533 nm and internal net gain over a bandwidth of 80 nm has been demonstrated. Spiral-waveguide amplifiers of different lengths and erbium concentrations have been studied and an internal net gain of 20 dB in the small-signal-gain regime has been achieved. Currently, a highly promising crystalline host material, potassium double tungstate, which provides high emission cross sections to rare-earth ions and has generated an internal net gain per unit length of > 1000 dB/cm when exploiting the ytterbium transition at 1 μm, is doped with erbium ions and tested for amplification around 1.5 - 1.6 μm.


Bicycle sharing systems are rapidly expanding to cities across the globe. Much research has been conducted on transportation and health related benefits purported to occur with bike share implementation, but few studies have sought to understand the economic impacts of bike share. This research builds two hedonic models to estimate changes in single family home prices in Minneapolis, Minnesota based on proximity to the Nice Ride bicycle sharing system. The models suggest that changes in value may be negative in many neighborhoods, though results are not uniform. Other studies have found positive impacts on other types of housing, indicating that further research is necessary to fully understand in what types of circumstances bicycle sharing systems have positive or negative effects on home values.


Artelle et al. (2018) miss the science underlying North American wildlife management. Artelle et al. (2018) conclude that "hallmarks of science" are largely missing from North American wildlife management based on a desk review of selected hunting management plans and related documents found through Internet searches and email requests to state and provincial wildlife agencies. We highlight three fundamental problems that compromise the validity of the conclusions posited: missing information to support selection of "hallmarks of science," confusion about the roles and nature of science and management, and failure to engage effectively with the scientists and managers actively managing wildlife populations in North America.


Objective The aim was to compare clinical outcome and fate of solid cartilage versus diced cartilage in fascia in augmentation rhinoplasty. Back ground Augmentation rhinoplasty can be achieved through many different techniques and materials. There are many different implantable materials available, both autologous and nonautologous. The major limitation of nonautologous material is the limited biocompatibility, which contributes to allergic reaction, excursion, displacement, and infection. Patients and methods This study was conducted in combination of Plastic Surgery and Burn Department of Mansoura University and Plastic Surgery Department of Menoufia University during the period from December 2012 to November 2015. It included 14 patients who underwent augmentation rhinoplasty, aged from 18 to 35 years, with mean ± SD age of 25.7 ± 6 years. In total, five (35.7%) patients were female and nine (64.3%) patients were male. Patients were divided into two groups. Group I underwent augmentation rhinoplasty by solid cartilage graft (septal, conchal, or rib). It included seven patients, with five (71.5%) male and two (28.5%) female patients, with mean ± SD age of 24.5 ± 6 years. Group II underwent augmentation rhinoplasty by diced cartilage graft enveloped in fascia (deep temporal fascia). It included seven patients, with four (57%) male and three (43%) female patients, with mean ± SD age of 27 ± 5 years. Results A total of five (35.7%) patients were female and nine (64.3%) of them were male. Overall, six (42.8%) patients underwent primary rhinoplasty, six (42.8%) patients secondary rhinoplasty, and two (14.2%) tertiary rhinoplasty. In group I, 43% of the patients had satisfactory (excellent) results, 14.25% of patients had intermediate results, and 42.75% of patients had unsatisfactory results. In group II, 71.5% of patients had satisfactory (excellent) results, 14.25% had intermediate results, and 14.25% had unsatisfactory results. Conclusion Diced cartilage graft is becoming a common place in rhinoplasty. The diced cartilage warped in autogenous fascia has good results, with minimal drawbacks, in comparison with solid cartilage.


A Na+-dependent neutral and cationic amino acid transport system (B0+) plays an important role in many cells and tissues; however, the molecular basis for this transport system is still unknown. To identify new transporters, the expressed sequence tag database was queried, and cDNA fragments with sequence similarity to the Na+/Cl−-dependent neurotransmitter transporter family were identified. Based on these sequences, rapid amplification of cDNA ends of human mammary gland cDNA was used to obtain a cDNA of 4.5 kilobases (kb). The open reading frame encodes a 642-amino acid protein named amino acid transporter B0+. Human ATB0+ (hATB0+) is a novel member of the Na+/Cl−-dependent neurotransmitter transporter family with the highest sequence similarity to the glycine and proline transporters. Northern blot analysis identified transcripts of ∼4.5 kb and ∼2 kb in the lung. Another tissue survey suggests expression in the trachea, salivary gland, mammary gland, stomach, and pituitary gland. Electrophysiology and radiolabeled amino acid uptake measurements were used to functionally characterize the transporter expressed in Xenopus oocytes. hATB0+ was found to transport both neutral and cationic amino acids, with the highest affinity for hydrophobic amino acids and the lowest affinity for proline. Amino acid transport was Na+ and Cl−-dependent and was attenuated in the presence of 2-aminobicyclo-[2.2.1]-heptane-2-carboxylic acid, a system B0+ inhibitor. These characteristics are consistent with system B0+ amino acid transport. Thus, hATB0+ is the first cloned B0+ amino acid transporter.


Using principal–agent theories, this study examined differences in the perceptions of nonprofit chief executive officers (CEOs) and board chairs on key governance aspects, including board performance, leadership, satisfaction with diversity, and board meetings. Using data from the CEOs and board chairs of 474 nonprofit organizations, we found statistically significant differences in the governance perceptions of these leaders of nonprofit organizations. The findings provide support for an agency theory explanation about the differing interests of principals (board chairs) and agents (CEOs). The findings suggest that these two sets of nonprofit actors frequently operate from different perspectives, potentially affecting the governance of their organizations.


In this paper, the authors study the operation of MOS current-mode logic (MCML) gates at lower-than-nominal supply voltages. The authors show that power can be traded for speed by reducing the supply voltage below the nominal value, while the power-delay product stays nearly constant. The authors propose a negative bias strategy that enables the gates to operate at maximum speed with a reduced supply voltage, thus achieving a power saving of up to 35% at no cost for speed. Comparison with CMOS logic style are presented for three different technology nodes (0.25mum, 0.18mum and 0.13mum CMOS).


Ramon Amaro and Murad Khan turn to Franz Fanon's thoughts on language to challenge general notions of psychic negation and categorical human difference. Amaro and Khan address the wider implications of race as a problem of psychic individuation, self-division, and metaphysical assumptions of a passively representative Black image. They consider the larger impact of race as a hierarchy knowledge domain that forecloses on the full expression of the individual, while overdetermining the process of self-actualization. Ultimately, Amaro and Khan ask whether a re-articulation of the individual, as proposed in Simondon's notion of psychic individual and collective individuation, might bring forth an alternative conception of racial duress as a study in process of Black individuation, and the partial resolution of a more affirmative pre-individual reality.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the vaccination status for hepatitis B and knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding hepatitis B and C among medical students of Karachi and to evaluate the effects of gender and age on the responses, regarding vaccination and KAP for Hepatitis B and C.

METHODS
This cross sectional study was conductedin 7 medical colleges/universities of Karachi. Convenient sampling was used to collect the information. Questionnaire regarding awareness about prevention, transmission, diagnosis, treatment and vaccination availability for hepatitis B and C was completed from each individual. In addition, vaccination status of hepatitis B and the awareness of students regarding post exposure prophylaxis was also documented. One thousand five hundred and nine students participated in this study.

RESULTS
The mean age of medical students (1509) was 20.35 +/- 1.72 years. Female participants were 1075 (71.2%) and 937 (62.1%) of the respondents were studying in public institutions. Eighty five percent of the respondents indicated that they were aware of availability of a vaccine for hepatitis B. Only 57.1% medical students showed excellent knowledge regarding the route of spread of hepatitis B and C. Students showing good knowledge of treatment procedures for hepatitis B and C were 48.2%. Half of the respondents (49.8%) showed good knowledge regarding spread of hepatitis by dental procedures. Seventy six percent of participating medical students did not have any knowledge about the post exposure prophylaxis for hepatitis B and C. Seventy four percent indicated that the hepatitis patients should not be isolated. Seventy nine percent of the students reported that they were vaccinated for hepatitis B and 70.6% of them were completely vaccinated (3 doses). About half of the respondents (49.4%) indicated that they were screened for hepatitis B and only 27.1% were screened for hepatitis C. Half of the students reported that they have had needle pricks in their students career.

CONCLUSION
The overall KAP of studied group showed satisfactory outcomes. However, some areas of knowledge and attitude need to be modified or changed altogether.


The Probabilistic Graphical Models (GM) use graphs for representing the joint distribution of q variables. These models are useful for their ability to capture and represent the system of independences relationships between the variables involved, even when this is complex. This work concerns categorical variables and the possibility to represent symmetric and asymmetric dependences among categorical variables. At this aim we introduce the Chain Graphical Models proposed by Andersson, Madigan and Perlman (2001), also known as Chain Graphical Models of type II (GMs II). The GMs II allow for symmetric relationships typical of log-linear model and, at the same time, asymmetric dependences typical Graphical Models for Directed acyclic Graph. In general GMs II are not smooth, however this work provides a subclass of smooth GMs II by parameterizing the probability function through marginal log-linear models. Furthermore, we apply the proposed model to a data-set from the European Value Study (EVS), 2008.


Waves measured at a few locations along the west coast of India were analyzed to study modification and attenuation of wave energy in the nearshore regions. It has been found that the reduction in wave height is relatively lower (less than 10%) between two nearshore depths off Goa (25 m and 15 m) and Ratnagiri (35 m and 15 m), central west coast of India and is higher (22%) off Dwarka (30 m and 15 m), northwest coast of India. It is observed that the diurnal variation in waves decreases from north to south along the coast, as the intensity of sea breeze decreases from north to south. Swell attenuation due to opposing winds (from NE) is observed along the Ratnagiri coast during NE monsoon. The growth of wind seas (from NE) towards offshore and their modification by opposing swells (from SW/SSW) significantly contributed to the reduction in wave heights at shallow water depths off Dwarka. The role of opposing winds in the attenuation of swells along the west coast of India during NE monsoon season is significant. Numerical simulations were carried out to study the wave transformation between the depths 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 m off Mumbai, Goa and Kochi. Diurnal variation is evident during the pre-monsoon season, and the magnitude of variation decreases from north to south.


An innovative electromagnetic model for the radar echoes received by a
microwave altimeter is proposed: it is based on fractal models employed both to describe the natural surface and to evaluate the surface scattering behaviour. The scattering surface is modelled by means of the fractional Brownian model (fBm) process, whose realizations are obtained by using the band-limited Weierstrass-Mandelbrot (WM) function. The scattering
process is evaluated by means of the Physical Optics solution specifically derived for fractal surfaces. Rationale to apply this solution to the evaluation (in time domain) of the received echoes is provided. Dependence of the return pulse shapes on surface topography at different roughness scales is highlighted: some relevant meaningful examples are presented. Simulation
results are provided to show the potential of the proposed technique that could be the fundamental element to generate an atlas of expected returns from a given radar altimeter.


Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain tumor with limited therapeutic options. Glioma stem cell (GSC) is thought to be greatly responsible for glioma tumor progression and drug resistance. But the molecular mechanisms of GSC deriving recurrence and drug resistance are still unclear. SOX9 (sex-determining region Y (SRY)-box9 protein), a transcription factor expressed in most solid tumors, is reported as a key regulator involved in maintaining cancer hallmarks including the GSCs state. Previously, we have observed that silencing of SOX9 suppressed glioma cells proliferation both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we found that SOX9 was essential for GSC self-renewal. Silencing of SOX9 down-regulated a broad range of stem cell markers and inhibited glioma cell colony and sphere formation. We identified pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1) as a target gene of SOX9 using microarray analyses. PDK1 inactivation greatly inhibited glioma cell colony and sphere formation and sensitized glioma spheres to temozolomide (TMZ) toxicity. In addition, SOX9-shRNA and PDK1 inhibitor could greatly sensitize GSC to TMZ in vivo. Taken together, our data reveals that SOX9-PDK1 axis is a key regulator of GSC self-renewal and GSC temozolomide resistance. These findings may provide help for future human GBM therapy.


PURPOSE AND METHODS
A review of the literature was performed to determine the number of cases of port site recurrences (PSR) after laparoscopy or thoracoscopy. CANCERLINE and MEDLINE were searched, as were citings from retrieved and related papers.

RESULTS
There have been 35 reported cases of PSR after laparoscopic colectomy for colorectal carcinoma, and 23 cases after thoracoscopic procedures for lung neoplasms. All of these have been reported since 1993. Since 1991, 12 cases have been described after laparoscopic cholecystectomy of unsuspected gallbladder carcinoma, and another case after biopsy of a known gallbladder carcinoma. Ten cases of PSR have been reported after laparoscopic procedures for ovarian lesions, often in the presence of peritoneal seeding at diagnosis. Other rare PSRs have been documented after several procedures in various malignancies.

CONCLUSION
Enrollment of patients onto the ongoing intergroup study evaluating open versus laparoscopic resection of colon cancer should be encouraged. Until valid prospective data on PSR frequency are available, laparoscopic or thoracoscopic resection of malignancy off-protocol should be undertaken with circumspection.


Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the chronic diseases that cause detrimental effects if left untreated. One of which is the occurrence of diabetic foot ulcer that may lead to amputation. Therefore, an effort is needed to avoid the aforementioned effects. One of the prevention acts is conducting foot care. In conducting foot care, a guide is needed as a reference. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the components of foot care that serve as a guide in performing foot care. Methode Classic Delphi and 3 Delphi online Rounds (Specific parts of Delphi study) are used in this study along with using 7 panelists from several cities in Indonesia. All panelist that consist of a person from Samarinda, a person from Medan, a person from Makassar, a person from Palu, a person from Tanjung Selor, and 2 people from Pontianak. They are qualified with Enterostomal therapy nurse (ETN) certification. Round 1 is started by using open question (Classic Delphi), round 2 and 3 using Online Delphi sent via WhatsApp application. Delphi 3 rounds produced 5 components which are: foot examination and pre-ulcer sign observation, foot washing, nail cutting, socks wearing and shoes checking (the inside and outside part) before and after use, can be used as a guide in foot care. Analysis of the foot care component through the Delphi study has resulted in a consensus that will be served as a reference for the implementation of foot care.


Epsilon toxin, at relatively low concentrations, killed guinea-pig peritoneal macrophages in vitro. The cells became swollen, the nuclear and cytoplasmic membranes "blistered" and discontinuous, and the cytoplasm appeared structureless. Formalinised epsilon prototoxin was shown to bind closely to the outer surface of the cells and it is concluded that this site represents the location of the receptors for epsilon toxin. In addition the toxin at higher concentrations killed rabbit peritoneal macrophages after increased periods of incubation, but had no demonstrable effect on other cells from guinea-pigs, rabbits, mice and sheep.


The objective of this study was to set up a superovulation protocol in adult cyclic rats by using recombinant human follicle stimulating hormone (rhFSH; Org32489). Good results were obtained by treatment with decreasing doses of rhFSH (2.5 to 0.5 IU) during the dioestrus period. The number of corpora lutea (CL) found in rats treated with this protocol was 43.5 +/- 3.4; this is more than three times the number in saline-treated control rats (13.0 +/- 0.4). Fertilization of oocytes after superovulation was as good as after normal ovulation in terms of number of 2-cell stage embryos found 2 days after mating. The absolute number of implantations was twice the number observed in saline-treated control rats (23.3 +/- 1.8 versus 10.6 +/- 0.5); therefore the number of implantations per CL was lower in superovulated rats. The serum concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH), endogenous FSH and oestradiol-17beta were decreased during rhFSH treatment, while the inhibin serum concentration was increased. The progesterone serum concentration was increased on the days of pro-oestrus and oestrus after treatment. No difference was observed in the testosterone serum concentration. Pretreatment with 10 IU rhFSH at oestrus before giving the decreasing doses of rhFSH during dioestrus reduced the ovulatory response. Finally, treatment with a constant low dose of rhFSH instead of a decreasing dose of rhFSH did not result in spontaneous ovulation. However, ovulation induction by means of a human chorionic gonadotrophin bolus resulted in superovulation in six out of eight rats. It is concluded that superovulation in cyclic rats can be achieved using rhFSH treatment. However, it was found that the type of rhFSH regimen was very important to achieve appropriate stimulation. The optimal protocol was treatment with decreasing doses of rhFSH during dioestrus. The oocytes retrieved could be fertilized as well as oocytes of saline-treated control rats. The results also indicate that treatment with higher doses of rhFSH might induce a desensitization for FSH and LH.


Interest in cloud computing has grown considerably over recent years, primarily due to scalable virtualized resources. So, cloud computing has contributed to the advancement of real-time applications such as signal processing, environment surveillance and weather forecast where time and energy considerations to perform the tasks are critical. In real-time applications, missing the deadlines for the tasks will cause catastrophic consequences; thus, real-time task scheduling in cloud computing environment is an important and essential issue. Furthermore, energy-saving in cloud data center, regarding the benefits such as reduction of system operating costs and environmental protection is an important concern that is considered during recent years and is reducible with appropriate task scheduling. In this paper, we present an energy-aware task scheduling approach, namely EaRTs for real-time applications. We employ the virtualization and consolidation technique subject to minimizing the energy consumptions, improve resource utilization and meeting the deadlines of tasks. In the consolidation technique, scale up and scale down of virtualized resources could improve the performance of task execution. The proposed approach comprises four algorithms, namely Energy-aware Task Scheduling in Cloud Computing(ETC), Vertical VM Scale Up(V2S), Horizontal VM Scale up(HVS) and Physical Machine Scale Down(PSD). We present the formal model of the proposed approach using Timed Automata to prove precisely the schedulability feature and correctness of EaRTs. We show that our proposed approach is more efficient in terms of deadline hit ratio, resource utilization and energy consumption compared to other energy-aware real-time tasks scheduling algorithms.


Since free trade benefits the economy as a whole, it ought to be feasible for the government to provide direct assistance to those hurt by imports. That was the idea behind the initiation of trade adjustment assistance (TAA) in 1962. But TAA proved to be a dismal failure. It did not help affected workers and did not stem protectionist pressures. As a review of the history shows, TAA failed not from conceptual errors but from implementation errors such as insufficient staff and funding. Also, TAA had no solid constituency. The current resurgence of protectionism makes it timely to revive TAA. Recent federal demonstrations provide evidence that training and counseling programs do assist workers in making vocational readjustments. Protectionists have the political advantage of being able to point to the victims of free trade. By implementing TAA, we would enable free traders to offer these victims more lasting help without endangering the world trading system.


Charcot osteoarthropathy or Charcot foot is a disabling complication of diabetes and is associated with poor prognosis and high mortality. Its pathogenesis is not fully understood and its treatment is at best symptomatic. Furthermore, it is not known whether there is a specific type of neuropathy which affects osteoclastic activity, and thereby leads to reduction of bone mineral density and the development of Charcot osteoarthropathy. Recently it has been proposed that there is a difference in the presentation of Charcot osteoarthropathy between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This article reviews the link between underlying osteopenia, abnormal biomechanical forces and type of neuropathy, and their varying interaction in the pathogenesis of Charcot osteoarthropathy in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Further attention is drawn to the newly discovered osteoprotegerin/receptor activator of nuclear factor kappaB ligand (OPG/RANKL) cytokine system, which controls bone resorption. Increased osteoclastic activity in the acute Charcot foot may be associated with altered expression of OPG/RANKL signaling pathway and modulation of the OPG/RANKL equilibrium in Charcot osteoarthropathy may provide additional therapeutical option to manage this difficult condition. Biomed Rev 2005; 16: 43-48.


Abstract This case report describes a rare phenotype of very severe spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in a newborn who presented with reduced fetal movements in utero and significant respiratory distress at birth. The patient was homozygously deleted for exon 7 and exon 8 of the survival motor neuron gene 1. Very severe SMA should be considered in the differential diagnosis of respiratory distress at birth, and more research should be dedicated to investigate the genetic determinants of its widely variable phenotypes.


America has a problem. More than 50 million Americans in low-income working families are financially stressed. Study after study has demonstrated that low-wage working people are struggling to manage their personal finances as incomes and household wealth have stagnated at the bottom of the economic ladder and both income and expense volatility have increased. The most pressing everyday issue for these Americans is managing cash flow—they usually have the resources to pay their regular monthly bills but can't handle small financial shocks or timing mismatches because they lack the savings buffer the more affluent take for granted. Many low-wage workers also can't access reasonably priced and structured small loans to stretch out larger, non-discretionary outflows—like medical, home & auto expenses—over time. The result is a damaging cycle of repeated reliance on payday loans, auto title loans, bank overdrafts and other costly financial products for liquidity and credit support. These products may fill today's urgent financial need, but only at the cost of making tomorrow's financial gap much bigger.

Although there is wide agreement that financial stress is a big problem for much of the U.S. working population, there's no consensus on what to do about it. Because the issue implicates the questions of personal responsibility, income distribution and fairness that are the most politically divisive, the policy discussion has become polarized. Consumer advocates insist that lenders could make reasonably-priced loans to the broad spectrum of consumers with mixed or poor credit histories if they worked harder to help their customers succeed. Lenders counter that the only way they can broaden the spectrum of borrowers and make a decent capital return is to charge very high prices, even if those high prices cause more defaults. So far neither approach has delivered much help for working people.

This paper focuses on one new and different approach to managing financial stress among low-income working Americans: employer-sponsored FinTech benefits. Our research shows that employer-sponsored "Fintech"-based benefits that take advantage of the powerful "salary link" — automatic repayment through salary deduction — can provide more efficient, less costly and more inclusive liquidity and credit solutions for working American families. These FinTech products also show tantalizing potential for significantly reducing employee turnover and savings millions of expense dollars annually at large employers. Importantly, deployment of employer-sponsored FinTech benefits does not require changes in law or government intervention to be successful.


Rats were treated as neonates with either 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) 100 micrograms or vehicle intracisternally. Upon maturation, animals receiving 6-OHDA were assigned to four groups, with two of the four groups receiving intraventricular 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) 75 micrograms bilaterally. At 94 days of age, animals were injected with either SKF-38393 (3.0 mg/kg, intraperitoneally (i.p.)), a dopamine D1 agonist, or m-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) (3.0 mg/kg, i.p.), a 5-HT2C agonist, in an attempt to evoke behaviors such as stereotypical chewing, head-nodding, self-biting and self-mutilation. Both SKF-38393 and m-CPP induced the target behaviors in animals receiving 6-OHDA alone. Animals receiving additional 5,7-DHT treatment did not show any of the target behaviors in response to SKF-38393, but exhibited a much higher sensitivity to m-CPP. Pre-treatment with SCH-23390 in animals receiving 6-OHDA alone was effective in preventing SKF-38393-induced target behaviors, but not those induced by m-CPP. Pre-treatment with mianserin partially antagonized the effects of both SKF-38393 and m-CPP in these same animals. In groups receiving both neonatal 6-OHDA and adult 5,7-DHT, mianserin was effective in reducing m-CPP-induced behaviors, while SCH-23390 was largely ineffective. These data provide evidence of a serial relationship between the D1 and 5-HT2C receptor systems in the neostriatum of animals receiving neonatal 6-OHDA lesions.


To control disposition and hence gene expression, we investigated the disposition characteristics of plasmid DNA complexed with the cationic liposomes Lipofectin and LipofectACE after intravenous injection in mice via the tail vein. The optimum ratios of DNA and liposome complexes were selected through in vitro cytotoxicity and transfection studies. The highest transfection was found at the DNA:liposome ratio of 1:5 w/w. Hence, this ratio was used for in vivo disposition studies, and the distribution patterns were compared with that of naked pCAT. Following intravenous injection of [32P] pCAT, radioactivity was rapidly eliminated from plasma and approximately 60% of the dose was taken up by the liver within 1.5 min. In the case of LipofectACE samples, radioactivity elimination from plasma was equally rapid, but its accumulation was observed in both the liver (35%) and the lung (45%). For Lipofectin samples, radioactivity was initially accumulated in both the liver (55%) and the lung (25%), but lung accumulation was not sustained beyond 5 min after administration. Both liposomal samples showed in vivo gene expression in the lung, heart, kidney and spleen, but not in the liver. Thus, the present study demonstrated that disposition and gene expression of pCAT can be controlled by complex formation with liposomes.


This study examines the validity of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and investigates the market integration between The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its major trading partners namely, Japan, United Kingdom, Tunisia, Morocco, Switzerland, Israel, Pakistan, Turkey, Sudan and Iran. Unit root tests, Johansen cointegration test and vector error correction model (VECM) were employed to test the data covering the period of 1990Q1-2006Q4. The unit root tests demonstrated that all variables are integrated of order one. The results of cointegration tests showed that there exists a cointegrating relationship between exchange rate, domestic and foreign price levels for seven countries namely, Japan, UK, Switzerland, Israel, Pakistan, Tunisia and Morocco and other three countries does not have cointegration relationship. For the VECM, it is found that the error correction terms (ECTs) for Jordan-Japan, Jordan-UK, JordanSwitzerland, Jordan-Israel, Jordan-Pakistan Jordan-Tunisia, and Jordan-Morocco carried the expected sign. This suggests that whenever there is a deviation from the equilibrium cointegrating relationship, exchange rate interacts in a dynamic fashion in adjusting to restore long-run equilibrium. Last but not least, all the models passed all the diagnostic checking. As a conclusion, these results provide evidence on PPP model hold in the long run and the Jordanian economy is integrated with these seven countries. * corresponding author: email@example.com


A rapid development of telecommunications technology, and over time, the existing network technologies continue to be developed. To create the latest technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE). With the technology that has a high transmission speed, of course, required new devices that can operate on this network. Antennas are needed on these networks is an antenna that is small and easily integrated. In this case, the right antenna to be used is the microstrip antenna. In this paper, which will be designed antenna is an antenna feed line rectangle shapes that can operate at a frequency of 2.1 GHz.


Extensive investigations have been carried out in recent years on the effects of the presence of small amounts of molecular gases in analytical glow discharges (GDs) using argon as the plasma gas. Complementary studies using neon have shown that, when hydrogen is added to a neon discharge with a copper sample, the intensities of lines from most of the upper energy levels in the Cu II 3d9(2D)4p sub-configuration decrease. However, the 224.700 nm spectral line and other lines from the same upper level (3Po2) increase in intensity and this effect cannot be produced by the excitation processes normally considered. We show that asymmetric charge transfer (ACT) excitation by hydrogen molecules (H2-ACT) is the most likely explanation, the first time this process has been reported for any element in analytical GDs. We also explain why a similar effect is not observed with added nitrogen, although the ionization energies of hydrogen and nitrogen molecules are very similar.


Dynamic performance of current control loop still remains crucial for position-, speed-, and torque-controlled drives. In the study, a current loop solution has been designed for field oriented control of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM). It enhances typical PI controller with an estimator of zero-delay current (ZDC) value. The ZDC estimation allows for selecting substantially higher controller gain. It reduces control loop step response rise time to a single control cycle, which is the shortest technically possible value, while avoiding overshoot. The method does not require any hardware changes and it needs only negligible processing overhead. Both simulations made and experimental results obtained in the study have proved the effectiveness of the proposed solution. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.21.2.11507


This research has its basis in developments within the field of inductive powering and wireless power transfer, WPT, and more specifically one the branch within this field, which is called magnetic resonance coupling. This principle enables efficient power transfer from a transmitting unit to a receiving unit at a distance of some times the unit diameter. The developments within magnetic resonant coupling are together with the possibilities and challenges of today's smart textile industry the starting point to investigate a novel textile-based product concept for WPT by combining both technologies. Multiple textile samples, consisting of cotton and electrically conductive copper yarns, were produced by weaving technique, additional assembling of electronic components were performed manually and several measurements were carried out to investigate the sample characteristics and the sample performance in terms of power transfer. The produced samples showed to behave similarly to conventional inductors and were able to transfer power over some distance.


Microscale polymeric structures with intricate three-dimensional (3D) shapes and nanoscale features were synthesized by using silica-based microshells of diatoms (unicellular algae) as transient scaffolds. Diatom microshells were immersed in dilute solutions of polymer precursors in volatile solvents. After extraction and solvent evaporation, the resulting thin films on the microshells were cross-linked to form rigid polymer coatings. Selective silica dissolution then yielded freestanding polymeric structures that retauned the microshell shapes and fine features. By utilizing bioscaffolds capable of genetically precise and massively parallel replication, enormous numbers of polymeric micro/nanostructures with identical 3D shapes may be generated for various applications.


Introduction The Global Platform for the Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes-SINT1A Study is designed as a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicentre, multinational, primary prevention study aiming to assess whether daily administration of Bifidobacterium infantis from age 7 days to 6 weeks until age 12 months to children with elevated genetic risk for type 1 diabetes reduces the cumulative incidence of beta-cell autoantibodies in childhood. Methods and analysis Infants aged 7 days to 6 weeks from Germany, Poland, Belgium, UK and Sweden are eligible for study participation if they have a >10.0% expected risk for developing multiple beta-cell autoantibodies by age 6 years as determined by genetic risk score or family history and HLA genotype. Infants are randomised 1:1 to daily administration of B. infantis EVC001 or placebo until age 12 months and followed for a maximum of 5.5 years thereafter. The primary outcome is the development of persistent confirmed multiple beta-cell autoantibodies. Secondary outcomes are (1) Any persistent confirmed beta-cell autoantibody, defined as at least one confirmed autoantibody in two consecutive samples, including insulin autoantibodies, glutamic acid decarboxylase, islet tyrosine phosphatase 2 or zinc transporter 8, (2) Diabetes, (3) Transglutaminase autoantibodies associated with coeliac disease, (4) Respiratory infection rate in first year of life during supplementation and (5) Safety. Exploratory outcomes include allergy, antibody response to vaccines, alterations of the gut microbiome or blood metabolome, stool pH and calprotectin. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by the local ethical committees of the Technical University Munich, Medical Faculty, the Technische Universität Dresden, the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, the Medical University of Warsaw, EC Research UZ Leuven and the Swedish ethical review authority. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations and will be openly shared after completion of the study. Trial registration number NCT04769037.


Chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum is well documented in Thailand. Laos, however, continues to use chloroquine (CQ) as the first-line therapy for the treatment of P. falciparum malaria. The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence, in these two areas, of the cg2, pfmdr1 and pfcrt allelic types that have previously been associated with CQ resistance. Isolates of P. falciparum were collected from participants in ongoing treatment studies conducted in Thailand (near the Thai-Cambodian border) and in Laos (Vang Vieng district). The pfmdr1 and pfcrt alleles were characterized by PCR-RFLP and mutations in cg2 were characterized by PCR and single-stranded-conformation-polymorphism (SSCP) electrophoresis. Eight (32%) of the 25 Laotian isolates but only one (4%) of the 25 Thai isolates were found to contain the pfmdr1 mutation N86Y (P = 0.02). In contrast, the cg2 polymorphisms previously associated with CQ resistance were present in only 10 of the isolates from Laos but 24 of those from Thailand (40% v. 96%; P < 0.001). All the samples from both countries contained the pfcrt K76T mutant allele reported to confer resistance to CQ. The results may indicate that drug pressure for the maintenance of the pfmdr1 and cg2 alleles varies in intensity in the Thai and Laotian study areas, probably reflecting differences in the national malaria-treatment policies of Thailand and Laos.


Mantle-derived alkali basalts and their peralkaline differentiates of the late Cenozoic Anahim volcanic belt occur in a 500-km-long, east-west-trending belt that cuts across the predominantly north-northwest structural grain of the accreted terranes in southern British Columbia. Pb and Sr isotopic ratios of these rocks indicate that heterogeneous, suboceanic depleted mantle is present in their source region beneath Alexander, Stikinia, and Kootenay terranes. This widespread suboceanic mantle source is characterized 206Pb/204Pb = 18.62-19.18, 207Pb/204Pb = 15.52-15.63, 208Pb/204Pb = 38.15-38.68, and 87Sr/86Sr = .7026-.7033. These values are similar to those of the source for northeast Pacific Ocean seamounts; that is, the Anahim source is not as depleted as the MORB-source in the northeast Pacific. No evidence exists for the presence of radiogenic, subcontinental mantle in the zone of melting beneath the Anahim belt. Locally, very radiogenic initial isotopic ratios from Bella Bella and King Island centers on the coast, and the Wells Gray-Clearwater centers on the far eastern end of the Anahim belt, reflect contamination from a radiogenic, Precambrian(?) crustal component derived from Alexander and Kootenay terranes, respectively. The mantle source for Anahim belt volcanic rocks appears isotopically continuous with the source for alkali basalts in the Basin and Range of the western United States and distinct from the subcontinental mantle source proposed for some Snake River Plain and Columbia River Basalt Group lavas.


We develop a formal logical foundation for secure deductive databases. This logical foundation is based on an extended logic involving several modal operators. We develop two models of interaction between the user and the database called "yes-no" dialogs, and "yes-no-don't know" dialogs. Both dialog frameworks allow the database to lie to the user. We develop an algorithm for answering queries using yes-no dialogs and prove that secure query processing using yes-no dialogs is NP-complete. Consequently, the degree of computational intractability of query processing with yes-no dialogs is no worse than for ordinary databases. Furthermore, the algorithm is maximally cooperative to user in the sense that lying is resorted to only when absolutely necessary. For Horn databases, we show that secure query processing can be achieved in linear time-hence, this is no more intractable than the situation in ordinary databases. Finally, we identify necessary and sufficient conditions for the database to be able to preserve security. Similar results are also obtained for yes-no-don't know dialogs. >


Rat thoracic duct lymphocytes (TDL) were depleted of Fc receptor (FcRL), C'3 receptor (CRL) or surface Ig bearing (IgL) lymphocytes as described in the preceding paper (Parish & Hayward 1974b, part II). The FcRL, CRL and IgL populations were also recovered in pure form and their ability to transfer antibody responsiveness to irradiated recipients was assessed. It was found that TDL from rats primed to DNP, when depleted of IgL, lost their capacity to transfer a secondary 7S antibody response to DNP; in contrast, depletion of FcRL did not affect the 7S response. CRL depletion eliminated the transferred primary 7S antibody response to polymerized flagellin and also reduced but did not eliminate the secondary 7S antibody response to DNP. Cells which are Ig+ CR+ appear to be the main source of secondary 7S precursors in the rat but Ig+ CR- cells can also, under certain circumstances, serve the same function. CRL, IgL and FcRL purified from DNP-primed TDL were unable to transfer secondary responsiveness to DNP. However, the addition of CRL or IgL to TDL depleted of these subpopulations resulted in a reconstitution of the secondary 7S antibody response. By using cytotoxic alloantisera CRL were identified as 7S antibody precursors. In order to mount a 7S antibody response to DNP, CRLs required the collaboration of non-CRLs, the CRL population containing the 7S precursors and the non-CRL population contributing helper (T) cells. Removal of either CRL, IgL or FcRL from TDL had no effect on the 19S anti-DNP response which arose in the irradiated recipients. The same result was obtained whether the 19S and 7S antibodies were characterized by their 2ME sensitivity, by their sedimentation behaviour on sucrose gradients or by their expression of direct and indirect PFC. However, no conclusions could be drawn from these observations about the nature of 19S precursor cells because it was found that virtually all the cells producing 19S anti-DNP antibody originated from the irradiated hosts, indicating that radioresistant 19S precursors exist in the rat. On some occasions radioresistant 7S precursors were also detected. To be activated by antigen both radioresistant populations require the presence of primed helper (T) cells. These results emphasize the extreme caution required in interpreting experiments that involve cell transfers into irradiated recipients.


Since the end of the civil war in May 2009, Sri Lanka's government has continued to consolidate the unitary state and centralize power by combining political reform, patronage, and economic development. However, two forces countering such unity and centralization became evident during the course of the year. First, tensions and contradictions associated with the simultaneous pursuit of political centralization alongside rapid economic development and liberalization. Second, there has been an intensification of external pressures to bring about a political settlement with the Tamils and to address government accountability, including its alleged involvement in war crimes.


Mats of macroalgae can alter nutrient regimes in intertidal communities, such as mudflats, marshes and beaches, by transferring nutrients to the surrounding habitat. Previous work has focused on ephemeral species of macroalgae that decompose in these intertidal environments. However, unlike ephemeral macroalgae, perennial species can be long-lived, resident members of intertidal systems and hence their role in mediating nutrient transfers may therefore be different. In this study, we used a 15N isotope tracer to determine if nitrogen from a perennial, non-native macroalga (Gracilaria vermiculophylla) could be found in other macrophytes and in higher trophic groups on salt marshes and mudflats in shallow coastal bays in Virginia. We found that sediment on marshes and mudflats, marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), and mudflat invertebrates all incorporated nitrogen from G. vermiculophylla, indicating that this perennial alga is important in the transfer of nutrients within, and between, trophic levels.


The paper explores approaches to the use of microtonality in my recent pieces, and aims to define overall conceptual threads linking them together. I will examine the diverse sustained tone pitch structures and notational procedures, explaining what role I want my notation to serve, and how the experimental performance tradition has directed the evolution in my notation through recent years. Interlaced throughout the paper will be many audio examples for clear contextualisation.

I will initially discuss why I was drawn to using sustained tone textures in my own music, and describe how the use of transformational pitch processes creates indeterminate clusters resulting in various acoustic phenomena. I describe how these sustained tone designs initially began as tablature, moving through the use of quarter-tones, until now largely being described in textual formats.

The paper explores how these indeterminate pitch clusters create a particular sonic identity, along with further explanation as to how the listener's perceptual grouping mechanisms process the music's vibrant surface layer. I will also briefly look at how these mechanisms affect our temporal perception of the music, contrasting this with the sustained tone textures of Phill Niblock and Peter Adriaansz.

I then discuss two string quartets which utilise similar gradual harmonic processes, but involving the superimposition of a just intonation tuning system. The use of this tuning system is explored, discussing its particular acoustic relevance to the pitch processes involved.

Finally, I will look at two recent pieces for keyboard, which use tunings from 12 - 24 tone equal temperament in simple harmonic processes. The manner in which these pieces contrast with previous work is explored through use of notation and the specificity of sounding result. However, similarities relating to gradual transformation are discussed, evidencing the compositional thread running through all the works discussed, despite their surface differences.


BACKGROUND
Desmoplastic small round cell tumour (DSRCT) is a rare highly aggressive neoplasm, and clinical studies are scarce.

PROCEDURE
We report six cases of children and adolescents (median age 14 years, range 6.9-17.5) with DSRCT (5 abdominal, 1 paratesticular) registered by the Italian Cooperative Group (ICG) for soft tissue sarcoma over a 9-year period. Patients received a multidisciplinary treatment, including aggressive initial or delayed surgery and radiotherapy. Chemotherapy regimen was based on the use of ifosfamide, vincristine, dactinomycin, and a few doses of antharacyclines (doxorubicin or epirubicin).

RESULTS
Complete surgical resection was possible only for the paratesticular tumour. Among the patients with abdominal lesions, macroscopically radical excision was possible in only one case. All patients received multidrug chemotherapy, and tumour reduction was obtained in the 4 evaluable patients. No relapses were evident in the irradiated fields in the 4 patients who received radiotherapy. Two patients remained progression-free 22 and 63 months after diagnosis, one is in third complete remission, whereas three died 10-25 months after diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS
DSRCT is a chemosensitive tumour, but survival rates remain disappointing despite aggressive multimodality therapy. Our results support surgical tumour removal and radiotherapy to achieve local control. Our experience and a review of the literature suggest that patients with localised abdominal tumours or a paratesticular primary may have a better prognosis.


La Bufadora is a famous water sprout and a tourist spot located about one hour drive south of the city of Ensenada, in the state of Baja California, Mexico. The route to La Bufadora is a narrow curvy road with unstable slopes. On a 4m. stretch, the road continuously subsides, probably due to a sector of the Agua Blanca Fault that crosses the Punta Banda Peninsula. Swarms of small earthquakes have been located in this same section by RESNOM since 1997 (CICESE, RESNOM Online catalog. http://sismologia.cicese.mx/resnom/ catalogo/datain.php) and unstable rocks presuppose a risk that is manifested in the occurrence of slips. In this paper we will show a slope classification made according to the need of attention as well as their remedial options. We document new evidence of an anthropogenic impact: a high pressure of tourist housing development in several places of the peninsula. We registered and identified the causes for the slope instability and landslides in the farthest point of the peninsula finding that they are due to the construction of an access road. The impacts registered and the measures taken by a net of wood stacks to measure slope deforestations by wind, rain and continuous car vibrations show an approximate 5% loss in slope vegetation. This research allows the decision makers to implement a series of recommendations into the regulations they have regarding tourist areas to develop as well as access roads.


An identification technique is described, based on a developed adaptive fuzzy logic network, that enables the recognition of partial discharges (PD) generated by different defects in heat-shrinkable joints and terminations of XLPE insulated power distribution cables. It is shown that different sources of PD can be identified on the basis of fuzzy rules applied to a selection of parameters derived from PD-pulse phase and amplitude distributions. A comparison with other PD pattern recognition techniques based on traditional neural networks is presented and discussed.


ODA, E., SHIBUYA, T., SATOH, F., AIZAWA, Y., ARAI, Y., OZAWA, T. and SHIBATA, A. Split Atrial Activity in a Man with Brady-T achy Syndrome. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1983, 139 (2), 141-150 A 74-year-old man with brady-tachy syndrome showed split atrial activities in electrophysiologic studies. The split intervals of atrial activities varied spontaneously or in response to electric stimulations. The shorter were the coupling intervals of atrial extrastimuli, the longer the split intervals of captured atrial activities. At a critical timing of atrial extrastimuli, atrial flutter-fibrillation was initiated reproducibly. During atrial flutter-fibrillation, the split activities showed Wenckebach-like phenomenon. These findings seem to result from depressed conductivity. The split atrial activity may reflect a diseased state of the atrium which predisposes to atrial arrhythmias. split atrial activity; diseased atrium; atrial arrhythmia; brady-tachy syndrome; atrial flutter-fibrillation


Ontology engineering involves defining axioms to capture required constraints when modelling a domain of interest. Ontologies arise in many areas, with potentially a diverse range of end users involved in their creation. This leads to the requirement for accessible approaches to ontology engineering, as some stakeholders need not be fluent or trained in symbolic notations such as OWL. This paper summarises concept diagrams and property diagrams which are designed to be an accessible alternative to OWL. The paper reports on two empirical studies, the first of which focuses on how to choose effective concept diagrams for expressing simple OWL axioms. The second study compares these effective diagrams to both OWL and DL, demonstrating that they can bring about significant improvements in task performance for novice users. These results support the incorporation of concept diagrams into ontology engineering tools, such as Prot´eg´e or WebProtege. This is an exciting prospect, allowing more stakeholders to fully engage with the ontology engineering process, leading to more efficiently produced and robust ontologies in the future.


Thanks to the Internet, "high-quality" information is now easier and quicker to obtain than ever before. However, the Internet investing environment fosters overconfidence. As you acquire more information, your confidence in your ability to predict the future rises far faster than your true ability. Online investors have access to vast quantities of data, but information is not knowledge or wisdom. In fact, having loads of data gives you the illusion of knowledge and thus control. Ultimately, this data may give you a false confidence that you can pick stocks.


Background Pharmaceutical Interventions (PI) are part of pharmaceutical care process and aim to reduce drug-related negative results through early detection of drug related problems (DRP). They are mainly focused on renal/hepatic adjustment of drugs, and supervision of medicines with narrow therapeutic windows and unconventional regimen features. Purpose Evaluation of PI in separate departments during the first semester of 2011. This will allow a consistent and uniform record and classification of PI, aiming to raise doctors' awareness for the most frequent prescription-related DRPs. Materials and methods PI's were recorded on a database (Excel 2007) and classified according to the DÁDER method (Third Revision 2005-University of Granada), accepted as a tool to identify DRPs. DRPs are classified according to: Need: DRP1-Need of additional treatment and DRP2-Unnecessary drug; Efficacy: DRP3-Non-quantitative lack of efficacy and DRP4-Quantitative lack of efficacy; Safety: DRP5-Non-quantitative insecurity and DRP6-Quantitative insecurity. Results From a total of 1835 PI, 82% were accepted (AC). The DRP's distribution was: DRP1-17, 4%, DRP2-25, 4%, DRP3-2%, DRP4-16, 1%, DRP5-5, 1%, DRP6-33, 5%. Departments were analysed separately because of different specifications. The medicine department had a total of 795 PI, with an acceptance of 80, 4%. The most frequent DRP's were DRP6 (38%), DRP1 (20%) and DRP2 (19%). The surgical department had 470 PI, with an acceptance of 95, 5%. The most frequent DRP's were DRP2 (42,2%), DRP6 (19,9%), DRP1 (18,6%) and DRP4 (17,2%). Intensive care units had a total of 149 PI with 89, 3% accepted, the most frequent being DRP6 (40,4%) and DRP4 (31, 5%). The emergency department had a total of 421 PI with 67% accepted. The most frequent DRP's were DRP6 (37%) and DRP2 (24%). Conclusions This analysis showed that: ▶ The pharmaceutical interventions had high rates of acceptance (≥80%) ▶ The most frequent DRP were related to quantitative insecurity (DRP6), followed by the prescription of unnecessary drug (DRP2), despite some differences between different departments.


A combination of ground truth, provided by a single exploration well, and geometries apparent on seismic lines, provides new insight on the geologic development of the Maldives. The single exploration well documents the occurrence of more than 2000 m of Tertiary carbonate rock overlying volcanic basement. Seismic lines demonstrate that the shallow water Paleogene part of the drilled section is generally horizontally bedded, whereas the overlying upper Oligocene-Miocene carbonates have a distinctly prograding pattern. Significantly, the prograding pattern is directed inward from the edges of the present platform rather than outward into the thousands of meters of Indian Ocean water depths. The punctuated lateral expansion of the carbonate platforms is therefore bilaterally opposing, i.e., away from either of the Indian Ocean edges of the platform and toward each other. The same opposing directions of expansion are apparent in Saya de Malha bank, where, unlike the Maldives, coalescence has been completed in the form of a large carbonate bank. In both cases, the opposing directions of progradation appear to be the result of a structural change in depositional architecture of the kind usually associated with the thermal contraction development of sag basins.

Within this overall structural and stratigraphic framework, there is evidence that seismic stratigraphic relationships can vary considerably from atoll to atoll, indicating important local variations of the regional stratigraphy.

A second significant depositional change resulted from the onset of Pliocene-Pleistocene glacial fluctuations in sea level.


Objective: To determine whether predictions of suicide risk from machine learning models identify unexpected patients or patients without medical record documentation of traditional risk factors.
Methods: The study sample included 27,091,382 outpatient mental health (MH) specialty or general medical visits with a MH diagnosis for patients aged 11 years or older from January 1, 2009, to September 30, 2017. We used predicted risk scores of suicide attempt and suicide death, separately, within 90 days of visits to classify visits into risk score percentile strata. For each stratum, we calculated counts and percentages of visits with traditional risk factors, including prior self-harm diagnoses and emergency department visits or hospitalizations with MH diagnoses, in the last 3, 12, and 60 months.
Results: Risk-factor percentages increased with predicted risk scores. Among MH specialty visits, 66%, 88%, and 99% of visits with suicide attempt risk scores in the top 3 strata (respectively, 90th-95th, 95th-98th, and ≥ 98th percentiles) and 60%, 77%, and 93% of visits with suicide risk scores in the top 3 strata represented patients who had at least one traditional risk factor documented in the prior 12 months. Among general medical visits, 52%, 66%, and 90% of visits with suicide attempt risk scores in the top 3 strata and 45%, 66%, and 79% of visits with suicide risk scores in the top 3 strata represented patients who had a history of traditional risk factors in the last 12 months.
Conclusions: Suicide risk alerts based on these machine learning models coincide with patients traditionally thought of as high-risk at their high-risk visits.


In order to improve the corrosion resistance, the samples made of Mg-Zn-Zr alloy were immersed in 20% or 40% hydrofluoric acid (HF) aqueous solutions for different intervals to prepare magnesium fluoride (MgF2) coating on the surface. By comparing the surface morphologies, the samples immersed in 20% HF solution for 6 h on which fine particles in nanoscale covered was selected for the further study. Immersion and electrochemical tests showed that the dense MgF2 coating would improve the corrosion resistance of Mg-Zn-Zr alloy. The corrosion current density (icorr) decreased from 2.10 μA·cm-2 to 0.05 μA·cm-2. The influence of HF treatment on the cytocompatibility was evaluated in vitro. There were significant differences in the cell number between the naked and coated samples after culturing for 3 and 5 days (p<0.05). All the results demonstrate that HF treatment is a promising approach to improve the corrosion resistance and in vitro biocompatibility of Mg-Zn-Zr alloy used as intravascular stents.


Food recommendation has become an important means to help guide users to adopt healthy dietary habits. Previous works on food recommendation either i) fail to consider users' explicit requirements, ii) ignore crucial health factors (e.g., allergies and nutrition needs), or iii) do not utilize the rich food knowledge for recommending healthy recipes. To address these limitations, we propose a novel problem formulation for food recommendation, modeling this task as constrained question answering over a large-scale food knowledge base/graph (KBQA). Besides the requirements from the user query, personalized requirements from the user's dietary preferences and health guidelines are handled in a unified way as additional constraints to the QA system. To validate this idea, we create a QA style dataset for personalized food recommendation based on a large-scale food knowledge graph and health guidelines. Furthermore, we propose a KBQA-based personalized food recommendation framework which is equipped with novel techniques for handling negations and numerical comparisons in the queries. Experimental results on the benchmark show that our approach significantly outperforms non-personalized counterparts (average 59.7% absolute improvement across various evaluation metrics), and is able to recommend more relevant and healthier recipes.


Excerpt] Introduction For decades, Las Vegas has been a favorite destination for fun-seekers who yearn for the glitz and glamour that personifies 'The Strip'. While visitors came by the millions, few took the step of making Sin City their permanent residence. Oh, how times have changed! Best known as the gambling center of the world, Las Vegas has grown from a desert way-station situated in one of the harshest climates in the United States to a desert oasis that draws over 70,000 immigrants a year. The rapid expansion of the population in Las Vegas has created one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. Between the second quarter of 2003 and 2004, the price of single-family residences in Las Vegas increased by more than 52%, the greatest 12-month increase ever for any metropolitan area2.


The Irish government is currently drafting the first piece of legislation that would regulate the availability of abortion in Ireland. This follows both the 8th Amendment to the Constitution in 1983 (recognizing equal rights to life of pregnant women and 'the unborn'), the Supreme Court decision in Attorney General v. X (confirming that there is a limited right to access abortion), and the European Court of Human Rights decision in A, B & C v. Ireland (finding Ireland in violation of the ECHR for failing to clearly outline how that right can be accessed). A major point of contention remains how, if at all, to regulate the availability of abortion in cases of suicidal ideation. This paper considers two mooted possibilities — to exclude suicide altogether or to carve out a particular scheme in the legislation for suicide alone — against both legal and practical considerations. Against both of these perspectives the paper argues that the exclusion of suicide and its separate treatment are both problematic; neither appears either mandated or required when measured by means of legal and practical considerations, although a pragmatic perspective may indicate that a separate scheme for suicidality would be introduced.