This class is designed for all marketing majors and those students who are planning a career in professional sales. The course focuses on both personal selling and sales analytics. Students will learn how to communicate with prospective customers to understand their needs, match those needs with the appropriate product or service and present an effective sales presentation. In addition, students will develop an in-depth understanding of how to analyze and report on sales data using Microsoft Excel. Lectures, role-playing exercises, mock sales calls, class exercises (using salesforce.com), and case studies are used to reinforce the text. Topics also include the social, ethical and legal issues in selling; handling objections; and closing deals.


The subject of this essay is chosen for the purpose of obtaining a deeper insight into various methodological aspects related to my forthcoming doctoral work; an historical biographical study of the Norwegian nursing pioneer, Bergljot Larsson (1883 – 1968). In the essay I claim that it is of great importance that the interpreter is explicit on the assumptions underlying his interpretations, and is aware of their influence on the theory developed. I further discuss how the Finnish philosopher, G.H. von Wright can affect the development of theory in nursing history by analyzing and evaluation his assumptions on human actions. The analyzes, evaluations and discussions take place within the theoretical framework of the American nurse scientist, Hesook Suzie Kim. Looking at von Wright from Kim's perspective of the nursing knowledge system, makes it obvious that von Wright gives directions to aspects and phenomena of great significance to nursing. Von Wright's combination of explaining and understanding the human action is a very attractive feature from the perspective of developing nursing history. Seeing the interpretation as a result of both describing and understanding is in my view a strength that can be utilized most fruitfully in developing theories within nursing history.


A polaroptimized mesoscale climate model, Polar Weather Research and Forcasting model (WRF), has been used over the Svalbard archipelago for analysing last trends in climate. The climate model has been downscaled by the reanalysis model ERA-Interim to 8 km spatial resolution for the period 1989-2010. Annual and seasonal trends for three sites, scattered across the archipelago, were analyzed for three meteorological parameters, temperature, precipitation and wind. An additional lapse rate were calculated for two glaciers at Nordaustlandet.The analyze shows that the Polar-WRF model suggest an significance temperature increase by 0.67-0.82oC. However, changes in precipitation and wind are harder to prove. The calculated annual lapse rate at Nordaustlandet shows an temperature decrease by 4.2-4.6oC.


Cable-stayed bridges are highly redundant structures that are vulnerable to intentional and accidental extreme events that may lead to cable loss. The potential loss of a major element, which imposes dynamic effects to the structure, can subsequently lead to the collapse of the whole structure. Codes recommend the use of dynamic amplification factors to simulate the response of cable-supported structures to the loss of a cable. Recent research has identified that this method is conservative and there is little or no guidance for carrying out detailed dynamic analysis for cable loss. The loss of one or more cables due to blast and fire using dynamic analysis method is investigated and compared to the code recommended method to account for effect of time and the event leading to cable loss hereby recommending a simplified method of dynamic analysis for cable loss. Three cable-stayed bridge models namely Model A (road traffic bridge with three semi-fan cable arrangements), Model B (road and foot traffic bridge with one single harp cable arrangement) and Model C (footbridge with two symmetrical semi-fan cable arrangement) were modelled and non-linear dynamic analysis carried out for the loss of the backstay and the longest cable using Abaqus 6.13. The effect of the cable loss due to blast and fire on the remaining cables, cable-deck connection, cross beam, longitudinal girder, deck and pylon were examined and compared to the code recommended method. The relationship between cable loss time and the natural period of the bridge was also investigated in this research. A progressive collapse check was then carried out and Dynamic Amplification Factors (DAF) were obtained for the cable loss scenarios considered for the vehicular and pedestrian cable-stayed bridges.
It is therefore of importance to study whether these structures can withstand these accidental/intentional loads, fulfil their economic benefit to society and establish a guideline for carrying out the dynamic analysis not only for road traffic cable-stayed bridges but also cable-stayed footbridges.


Age-sex registers were compiled and updated for the east London general practices participating in a screening study for hypertension. Of 1435 addresses in the registers of two practices that were checked, 228 (16%) were incorrect, according to the return by the post office of the screening invitations and checking the addresses of the non-responders using telephone directories and the medical records. The non-responders to the screening invitation for whom a new address was not found, were visited at the address as recorded on the age-sex register. This showed that the true address error rate from the original age-sex registers was 26% and thus substantially greater than that calculated from returned letters. It is concluded that the non-acceptance rate of screening in general practice might be exaggerated as a result of the lack of a correct address for a substantial proportion of the patients on a general practice list.


If school vouchers bettered the educational opportunities only of children who use the vouchers to attend private schools or schools in another district, many reformers would be left holding cups half empty. For the animating theory of school choice has always been that it will not only serve as an escape hatch from dysfunctional public schools but also will spark public schools to improve. Thus far this theory remains mostly untested. Through caps on enrollment, chronic underfunding, and legal attacks, voucher programs have been kept artificially small, restraining any influence they might have on local districts, The combined enrollment of all the publicly and privately financed voucher programs in the nation was still only 0.1 percent of public school enrollment in the fall of 2000. The statewide voucher program in Florida affected only two public schools directly. Despite the limited data, scholars have found creative ways of teasing out the effects of competition on public schools. Elsewhere in this issue, Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby reports that cities with many low-cost private school options tend to elicit better performance from their public schools. Hoxby also finds that urban areas with a large number of school districts, and therefore many options for families choosing where to reside, tend to have higher test scores than cities like Miami, where one school district covers anyone living close enough to work in the city. However, the options of choosing a private school or locating in a suburb with high-performing public schools are mainly closed to low-income students. Charter schools, by contrast, are tuition free and, in many states, rake per-pupil funding away from local school districts. They therefore present a threat--and a real source of competition--to traditional public schools. As of the spring of 2001, the Center for Education Reform estimated that 1,750 charter schools were educating about 520,000 students in 36 states and the District of Columbia, more than seven times the number of students in all the public and private voucher programs combined. And certain cities and states have been so supportive of charter schools that they have nurtured education markets competitive enough to warrant study. Why Study Arizona? During the past three years, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., have used charter schooling to create somewhat competitive systems at the city level, Arizona alone offers a statewide free market in education, a result of its being the only state that has not placed caps on the number of charter campuses that can be opened. From 1994 to 2000, two state-level boards were each able to issue up to 25 charters annually, and a single charter holder can open multiple campuses. Local school districts could grant a charter to schools operating in other districts, (In 2000 the charter law was amended to remove the 25-charter cap while ending the practice of local districts' chartering schools in other districts.) As of the fall of 2001, Arizona's charter law had spawned about 295 operators with 431 campuses among them. About one in four Arizona public schools is a charter school. Nationwide, only about 1 percent of public school students are in charters. The charter-school share is about 7 percent in Arizona, with some districts losing more than 20 percent of their potential enrollment to charters. One of the main reasons why the charter movement has spread so quickly in Arizona is that per-pupil funding in charter schools is about 95 percent of what traditional public schools receive-- which is still not much in Arizona, but it is at least enough to be competitive with traditional public schools. Moreover, district schools lose state funding equal to 57 percent of their per-pupil funding for every student who leaves the district for a charter school. So traditional schools have incentives to compete for students. In other words, Arizona is a virtual laboratory for researchers looking to study the effects of competiti on on public schools. …


Two operational formats namely mass customization and mass production can be implemented to satisfy customer preference-based demand. The mass customization system consists of two stages: the initial build-to-stock phase and the final customize-to-order phase. The mass production system has a single stage: building products with pre-determined specifications to stock. In each case, the company makes decisions on the number of initial product variants, product specifications, production quantities and product pricing. Under a uniform customer preference distribution, the optimal number of base-product variants resembles the well known economic order quantity solution, and the optimal product specifications are equally spaced. We characterize three possible benefits of mass customization: (i) the gained surplus from offering each customer her ideal product; (ii) extra revenue from price discrimination; and (iii) reduced costs due to risk pooling under stochastic demand.


Many stocks of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) on both sides of the North Atlantic are currently at much reduced levels of biomass, but this situation is not in all instances the result of long, continuous decline. Most Northwest Atlantic stocks declined to low levels during the 1970s, but increased during the 1980s before declining even more severely during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Several of these stocks have shown little recovery despite severe restrictions on directed fishing. Many stocks in the Northeast Atlantic have experienced sustained increases and sustained decreases, but generally not in concert. Among-stock comparisons illustrate that fishing has played a dominant role in the dynamics of all cod stocks, but variability in climate has contributed to variability in recruitment, individual growth, and natural mortality. A cooling event during the last three decades of the twentieth century contributed to the rapid decline of several stocks in the Northwest Atlantic, and changes in life-history traits (growth rate, age and size at maturity) and in the biotic environment (predators and prey) may be contributing to recovery being slow.


Facilitating critical discussions with young men about issues of masculinity is not easy work. Gender transformative programs must engage with difficult conversations about issues such as heterosexism, homophobia, and masculine entitlement. The affective force of these issues tends to be downplayed in the pedagogic approaches within these programs, as does the complex facilitation skills required to engage boys and men in these difficult conversations. This paper draws on interview data gathered from a broader study that sought to identify new educative approaches to gender justice in four different sites in the United States. The data were generated through discussions with facilitators and researchers involved in the delivery and evaluation of a gender transformative program for disadvantaged boys and young men. The paper presents four stories that foreground concerns expressed in the interviews about facilitator bias and the feminist delivery of the program. These stories highlight the affective intensities involved in gender transformative work with young men. The paper brings together important work in the area of critical pedagogies, affect, and feminist theory to offer an actionable framework to support facilitators and participants to critically engage with the affective intensities of gender transformative work.


This article presents the results of an eye-tracking experiment concerning a part of "My Little Pony" cartoon. The aim of the research was to find out the ways of watching animated auditions for children by adults, and how those ways differ among men and women. The text includes the description of the research procedure and the results of the research in terms of the most important measurements and also with the results of t-Student test and ANOVA which were used for directional determining whether the results compared and the relationship between them is uncoincidental. Authors tried to present a new perspective of using the high-tech research tools (enabling behavioral research) and, in further perspective, triangulation of different analysis methods.


Oxygen isotope variations in Chinese stalagmites have been widely interpreted as a record of the amount of East Asian summer monsoonal rainfall. This interpretation infers decreasing monsoonal rainfall from the mid‐Holocene and large, dipolar rainfall oscillations within glaciations. However, the speleothem δ18O variations conflict with independent palaeoclimate proxies (cave δ13C, loess/palaeosol magnetic properties, δ13C alkanes), which indicate no systematic decline in rainfall from the mid‐Holocene, and no glacial rainfall maxima. Using mass balance calculations (which incorporate seasonality effects in both δ18O concentration and amount of precipitation), we demonstrate that the cave δ18O variations cannot be accounted for by summer rainfall changes, or rainfall seasonality or winter cooling, but instead reflect changes in moisture source. A possible driver of the δ18O variations in Chinese stalagmites is precessional forcing of inter‐hemispheric temperature gradients, and resultant shifts in the position and intensity of the subtropical pressure cells. Through such forcing, Indian monsoon‐sourced δ18O may have dominated at times of high boreal summer insolation, and local Pacific‐sourced moisture at low insolation. Suppression of summer monsoonal rainfall during glacial stages may reflect diminished sea and land surface temperatures and the radiative impacts of increased regional dust fluxes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


It is generally accepted that complement may be split into a mid-piece and an end-piece. The mid-piece is thought to be in the globulin fraction, and the end-piece in the albumin fraction. The restoration of complement activity by putting together the albumin and globulin fractions does not prove, however, that each fraction contained a part of the complement, for the albumin fraction can be reactivated in the absence of the globulin fraction. Complement-splitting as brought about by hydrochloric acid, carbon dioxid, and dialysis, is really an inactivation of the whole complement by certain acids or alkalis, either added in the free state to the serum, or liberated as a result of the dissociation of certain electrolytes. That the whole complement, and not a part only, is present in the albumin fraction of the serum can be demonstrated by the removal of the inhibitory action of the acid or alkali. This can be effected by the addition, not only of alkali or acid, but also of any amphoteric substance. When hydrochloric acid, carbon dioxid, or dialysis are employed to produce the phenomenon known as complement-splitting, the complement is merely inactivated, not split.


This paper considers a model of the human cardiovascular-respiratory control system with one and two transport delays in the state equations describing the respiratory system. The effectiveness of the control of the ventilation rate V̇A is influenced by such transport delays because blood gases must be transported a physical distance from the lungs to the sensory sites where these gases are measured. The short term cardiovascular control system does not involve such transport delays although delays do arise in other contexts such as the baroreflex loop (see [46]) for example. This baroreflex delay is not considered here. The interaction between heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output, and blood vessel resistance is quite complex and given the limited knowledge available of this interaction, we will model the cardiovascular control mechanism via an optimal control derived from control theory. This control will be stabilizing and is a reasonable approach based on mathematical considerations as well as being further motivated by the observation that many physiologists cite optimization as a potential influence in the evolution of biological systems (see, e.g., Kenner [29] or Swan [62]). In this paper we adapt a model, previously considered (Timischl [63] and Timischl et al. [64]), to include the effects of one and two transport delays. We will first implement an optimal control for the combined cardiovascular-respiratory model with one state space delay. We will then consider the effects of a second delay in the state space by modeling the respiratory control via an empirical formula with delay while the the complex relationships in the cardiovascular control will still be modeled by optimal control. This second transport delay associated with the sensory system of the respiratory control plays an important role in respiratory stability. As an application of this model we will consider congestive heart failure where this transport delay is larger than normal and the transition from the quiet awake state to stage 4 (NREM) sleep. The model can be used to study the interaction between cardiovascular and respiratory function in various situations as well as to consider the influence of optimal function in physiological control system performance. J.J. Batzel: SFB "Optimierung und Kontrolle", Karl-Franzens-Universität, Heinrichstraße 22, 8010 Graz, Austria. e-mail: email@example.com F. Kappel: Institute for Mathematics and Scientific Computing and SFB "Optimierung und Kontrolle", Karl-Franzens-Universität, Heinrichstraße 36, 8010 Graz, Austria. e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com S. Timischl-Teschl: Fachhochschule Technikum Wien, Hoechstaedplatz 5, 1200 Vienna, Austria. e-mail: email@example.com Supported by FWF (Austria) under grant F310 as a subproject of the Special Research Center F003 "Optimization and Control" Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 92C30, 49J15


Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-scale radio pulses, which originate in distant galaxies and are produced by unknown sources. The mystery remains partially because of the typical difficulty in localising FRBs to host galaxies. Accurate localisations delivered by the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) survey now provide an opportunity to study the host galaxies and potential transient counterparts of FRBs at a large range of wavelengths. In this work, we investigate whether the first three FRBs accurately localised by CRAFT have supernova-like transient counterparts. We obtained two sets of imaging epochs with the Very Large Telescope for three host galaxies, one soon after the burst detection and one several months later. After subtracting these images no optical counterparts were identified in the associated FRB host galaxies, so we instead place limits on the brightness of any potential optical transients. A Monte Carlo approach, in which supernova light curves were modelled and their base properties randomised, was used to estimate the probability of a supernova associated with each FRB going undetected. We conclude that Type Ia and IIn supernovae are unlikely to accompany every apparently non-repeating FRB.


Author(s): Que, Richard Alan | Advisor(s): Wang, Szu-Wen; Da Silva, Nancy A | Abstract: As the most abundant protein in humans, collagen has been utilized as a tissue engineering scaffold. However, it exhibits the same limitations as other natural substrates, such as the inability to decouple the modulation of mechanical and biofunctional properties. The properties of the cell microenvironment guide cell fate, making it advantageous to modulate the properties of the microenvironment. In this work, we employed a modular collagen platform to produce recombinant collagen variants with prescribed functionalities to independently tune the properties of collagen. Collagen variants with two to eight non-native cysteines were synthesized to form hydrogels of varying stiffness while holding protein and functional site concentration constant. The variants were characterized by circular dichroism and found to be triple-helical with melting temperatures near 37°C. Hydrogel gelation characteristics and stiffness were measured through microrheology and bulk rheology. Non-native cysteines were also utilized as specific covalent anchoring sites for TGF-β, which induced myofibroblast differentiation of fibroblasts that were cultured on these substrates. We also manipulated integrin-binding sites, which are known to affect cell fate. Using a collagen variant with its integrin-binding sites removed, we tested the effects of the α2β1 integrin-binding sequence GFOGER from collagen I. By introducing GFOGER at up to four locations throughout the polymer, we demonstrated that the location at which GFOGER was introduced affected cellular adhesion. One location resulted in 39% of the cells adhered compared to native collagen III, while other locations along the polymer restored native levels of cellular adhesion. This variation hints at the importance of local context on the functionality of the inserted bioactive sequences and that additional modulation of properties can be achieved by placing the functional sequences at different locations throughout the polymer. Furthermore, modulation of cellular adhesion levels was achieved through mixing collagen substrates at different ratios. We also demonstrated that the modular collagen platform also allows for the mixing-and-matching of fragments with distinct functionalities. Non-native cysteines and GFOGER were introduced within the same collagen protein to test the effect of GFOGER sites in 3D culture. NHLFs were successfully encapsulated within collagen-variant hydrogels. NHLFs remained spherical when encapsulated with a non-cell adhesion supporting collagen variant, while introduction of GFOGER into this variant resulted in NHLFs invading the gel. This research demonstrates the ability to produce full-length collagen variants with customizable functionalities to tune hydrogel stiffness and integrin-binding site presentation for potential tissue engineering applications such as vascularization.


We estimate the effect of acquisition performance and acquisition activity on CEO compensation for the full set of CEOs of large public U.S. corporations in the Execucomp database over the period 1992–2016. Most previous work has focused on publicly traded acquisition targets. We focus on the comparison between public and private targets, showing significant differences between the two. One primary finding, based on panel data regressions (using both fixed and random effects) is that the performance of private acquisitions, as measured by abnormal announcement returns, has a statistically significant positive effect of plausible economic magnitude on CEO compensation. Public acquisitions exhibit a smaller positive effect that is statistically insignificant. For both, acquisition activity (number of acquisitions) has a statistically significant positive effect on compensation. Our main results suggest that agency considerations are important for both public and private acquisitions but are more important for public acquisitions.


Primates are confronted with an array of constraints in feeding on fruit, including the removal of adhesive, energy-rich pulp from seeds. In this paper, I discuss how primates meet this challenge and present data on the fruit-processing and seed-handling behavior of chimpanzees and redtail monkeys in Kibale National Park, Uganda. These data are then related to these species' services as seed dispersers. Particular attention was paid to the methods by which primates removed pulp from seeds, the density of seed clumps that they deposited (by spitting, dropping, or defecating) to the forest floor, and the distance seeds were moved from parent trees. Distance and density differences in chimpanzee and redtail seed dispersal resulted from distinct fruit-processing and seed-handling methods. It was observed, in general, that redtail monkeys engaged in fine oral processing and were seed spitters: most seeds were dispersed in close proximity to parent trees (84% of spat seeds < 10 m of parent tree), and deposited singly (100% seeds spat singly). In contrast, chimpanzees were coarse fruit processors and seed swallowers: seeds were defecated in denser clumps (e.g., a mean of 149 large seeds/dung sample and hundreds of small seeds/dung sample), far from parent trees. I evaluate the factors that shape patterns of fruit processing in hominoids and cercopithecines, and argue that the observed seed handling differences can be attributed to differences in digestive retention times, oral anatomy, and alternative mechanisms by which to avoid the cost of seed ballast.


Two important components of a global scheduling algorithm are its transfer policy and its location policy. While the transfer policy determines whether a task should be transferred, the location policy determines where it should be transferred. Based on their location policies, global scheduling algorithms can be broadly classified as receiver-initiated, sender-initiated, or symmetrically-initiated. The relative performance of these classes of algorithms has been shown to depend on the system workload. We present two adaptive location policies for global scheduling in distributed systems. These location policies are general, and can be used in conjunction with many existing transfer policies. By adapting to the system workload, the proposed policies capture the advantages of both sender-initiated and receiver-initiated policies. In addition, by adaptively directing their search activities toward the nodes that are most likely to be suitable counterparts in task transfers, the proposed policies provide short transfer latency and low overhead, and more important, high probability of finding a suitable counterpart if one exists. These properties allow these policies to deliver good performance over a very wide range of system operating conditions. The proposed policies are compared with nonadaptive policies, and are shown to considerably improve performance and to avoid causing system instability. >


In the Republic of Korea, research on staged-combustion cycle liquid propellant rocket engines (LPRE) is proceeding to improve efficiency of rocket engines. Recently oxidizer-rich preburner using single triplex injector is developed in relation to the main injector development and combustion tests have been performed. This preburner is designed to operate in nominal conditions with the combustion pressure of 10 MPa, OF ratio of 60. For a stable ignition, LOx is fed in two steps. Triethylaluminum-Triethylborane (TEAB) is used as hypergolic fuel for ignition, supplied through a fuel injector.Despite the small amount of fuel flow rate and high pressure condition, the combustion pressure was stably maintained around 10 MPa as designed. As a result of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the combustion chamber dynamic pressure, 1L mode frequencies related to the acoustic instability and hydraulic resistance exist in the combustion chamber. But their amplitudes are less than 1% of the combustion pressure and it does not affect the combustion. Therefore combustion test is stably completed.In the near future, coupled tests with uni-element triplex injector preburner and uni-element gas/liquid injector main combustion chamber will be carried out.Copyright © 2015 by KSME


ABT‐418 was functionally characterized as a neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) channel agonist using preparations that contain nAChRs characteristic of the ganglionic subtypes. In PC12 cells, ABT‐418, like (−)nicotine, activated an inward current that decayed within seconds in the continued presence of agonist. ABT‐418 was 4‐fold less potent than (−)nicotine (EC50 = 214 ± 30 μM and 52 ± 4 μM, respectively) while the efficacy of ABT‐418 was not significantly different from (−)nicotine when the peak response amplitude was measured. Responses to 300 μM ABT‐418 were reversibly inhibited 81 ± 3% by 10 μM mecamylamine, 38 ± 1% by 10 μM dihydro‐β‐erythroidine, and 82 ± 2% by 100 μM dihydro‐β‐erythroidine. These nAChR antagonists affected the response to (−)nicotine similarly. Furthermore, responses to maximal concentrations of ABT‐418 (3 mM) and (−)nicotine (1 mM) were not additive, consistent with ABT‐418 and (−)nicotine acting through the same receptor(s). However, the Hill coefficient for ABT‐418 (1.18 ± 0.20) was smaller than that for (−)nicotine (1.77 ± 0.18), and high concentrations of ABT‐418 appeared to elicit a more rapidly decaying response than did (−)nicotine. In the rat superior cervical sympathetic ganglion also, ABT‐418 was 2.5‐fold less potent than (−)nicotine in blocking nicotinic transmission, presumably through nicotinic receptor desensitization. These studies provide the most direct evidence that ABT‐418 activates nicotinic cholinergic channels, and suggest that ABT‐418 would have reduced potency compared to (−)nicotine in peripheral ganglia, consistent with the reduced side effect liability of this novel nAChR agonist. © Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The U.K. government has recently committed itself to an ambitious 80 per cent employment rate target. Recognising that achieving this aspiration will require significant numbers of the economically inactive to (re-)engage with the labour market, the government has enacted various policy reforms seeking to encourage those on the fringes of the labour market to do so. The present paper uses unique survey data to examine three factors relevant to these issues, namely the desire to work, minimum acceptable wages and the distance the inactive are prepared to travel to work for a given minimum acceptable wage offer.


Background : The nutrition role of phosporous to macroscopic and microscopic plants is well known. Discharge a source of phosphorous to surface water sources ultimately results in eutrophication. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of electrochemical process on phosphorous removal from activated sludge effluent. Samples were collected from wastewater treatment plant effluent of Kashan University of Medical Science Campus. Materials and methods : The study was carried out as a bench scale experimental type using batch system and the effects of electrical current, type of electrodes, reaction time and initial characteristics of samples (temperature, pH, and electro conductivity) were investigated. Ineach run, 1500ml secondary effluent was placed in an electrolytic cell equipped with magnetic stirrer. The anode and cathode was each made of 4 pieces of still (or aluminium) 1.5cm apart, which both were submerged in the sample. The total effective area of used electrodes was 336cm 2 and the input power was controlled by an ammeter and voltmeter. Reduction of total phosphorous to less than 1mg/L-P (as standard) was considered as the desired removal. Results : The results showed that by increment in direct current and reaction time the phosphorous removal efficiency will increased and the still electrodes are slightly more efficient than aluminum ones. Adjustment of temperature, pH and electroconductivity of samples, each in a special range, improve s the efficacy. To obtain best results the required electrical current density and reaction time are recommended to be in the range of 1.78-3.57 mamp/cm 2 and 10-30 minutes, respectively. Conclusion : Electrochemical process by using steel electrode can successfully remove total phosphorous that is remained in activated sludge effluent, of course, there is no need to adjust temperature, pH, and electro conductivity.


Redistributive grants schemes, such as fiscal equalization, are a common characteristic of local public finance in several countries. However, large and small jurisdictions are treated differently by the respective fiscal equalization schemes that often tend to favour larger jurisdictions. This paper provides a theoretical analysis showing that efficiency considerations might justify a preferential treatment of large jurisdictions. More specifically, we show that an efficient grant scheme would enable large jurisdictions such as cities to provide more public services. Under some conditions, the resulting budget of cities will exceed that of small towns in per-capita terms. Moreover, in a setting with local capital taxation we find that an efficient equalization scheme would also allow cities to retain a larger share of own funds.


Herein, four pyridine-based chelating ligands, including 1,10-phenanthroline, 4,4'-bipyridine, 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (Bphen) and pyridine, are used as surface treatment agents for improving the electronic properties of perovskite materials. The results of the steady-state photoluminescence (PL), time resolved PL and hole-only devices made of CH3NH3PbBr3 thin films suggest that the traps are effectively passivated after post-deposition surface treatment with bidentate chelating ligands, including 1,10-phenanthroline and 4,4'-bipyridine. Furthermore, the coordination capability of Bphen was suppressed which is probably due to its two additional phenyl groups, resulting in a steric hindrance effect. When compared with mono-dentate chelating pyridine, bidentate chelating ligands are more active in the current study. Finally, perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) are fabricated and the devices exhibit a nearly doubled device efficiency after passivation with 1,10-phenanthroline. It is anticipated that the approach proposed here is a general method for improving the photonic properties of perovskite materials and the device performance of PeLEDs.


TaggedP he COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in publications (with high percentages of retractions), nevertheless, after three years, we still need reproducible randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on several issues, especially to evaluate strategies and tools to manage individuals with COVID-19-associated acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure such as non-invasive respiratory support (NRS), high flow nasal cannula or awake prone positioning. This latter has gained attention as a potential intervention since the early phase of the pandemic, and despite the limited RCTs evidence, it has been widely used as a co-intervention even in mild hypoxaemia. It has been reported that awake prone positioning has been used in one in six critically ill individuals with COVID-19, has been started early, and sessions lasted long but were often discontinued because of need for intubation. TaggedEnd TaggedP rone positioning may promote more homogeneous ventilation, improving the ventilation-to-perfusion ratio by "recruiting" dorsal non-aerated but perfused lung units, reducing ventral hyperinflation, and increasing airway clearance resulting in relevant improvement in oxygenation. Early TaggedEndTaggedPobservational studies, with relatively small sample sizes, showed conflicting results with beneficial effects on oxygenation not sustained over time. However, due to the limited treatment option, many clinicians have used this modality as a tool to improve oxygenation. Several predictors of its success have been proposed, including duration of intervention > 8 h/day, respiratory rate at enrollment 25 breaths/min, improvement in ROX index > 1.25 and lung ultrasound score 2 within the first 3 days.TaggedEnd TaggedPA meta-trial by Ehrmann et al. combining six independent RCTs, with 1126 participants with PaO2/FiO2 300 mm Hg in mixed settings, showed significant improvements in the composite outcome of intubation or death rate within 28 days using awake proning as compared to standard treatment, with a number needed to treat (NNT) of 15 to avoid treatment failure. This outcome was primarily driven by a decrease in the need for tracheal intubation and awake proning did not reduce mortality as compared with usual care. However, uncertainty remains about the magnitude of a survival benefit left by the included studies that were underpowered for this outcome and heterogeneous in the severity of study population, settings, and type of NRS used. TaggedEnd TaggedPAnother RCT failed to show a reduction in endotracheal intubation rate at 30 days using awake proning compared to usual care. Musso et al. showed that this modality, combined with NRS strategies, reduced the intubation rate. TaggedEnd * Corresponding author at: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy, Respiratory Medicine Unit. Policlinico G. Rodolico-San Marco University Hospital, Via S. Sofia, 78 95123 Catania, Italy. E-mail address: email@example.com (C. Crimi).


Objectives. We considered changes in the geographic distribution of early stage breast cancer among White and non-White women while secular trends in lifestyle and health care were under way. Methods. We aggregated tumor registry and census data by age, race, place of residence, and year of diagnosis to evaluate rate variation across Connecticut census tracts between 1985 and 2009. Global and local cluster detection tests were completed. Results. Age-adjusted incidence rates increased by 2.71% and 0.44% per year for White and non-White women, respectively. Significant global clustering was identified during surveillance of these populations, but the elements of clustering differed between groups. Among White women, fewer local clusters were detected after 1985 to 1989, whereas clustering increased over time among non-White women. Conclusions. Small-area variation of breast cancer incidence rates across time periods proved to be dynamic and race-specific. Incidence rates might have been affected by secular trends in lifestyle or health care. Single cross-sectional analyses might have confused our understanding of disease occurrence by not accounting for the social context in which patient preferences or provider capacity influence the numbers and locations of diagnosed cases. Serial analyses are recommended to identify "hot spots" where persistent geographic disparities in incidence occur. (Am J Public Health. 2015;105:e64‐e70. doi:10.


This paper is based on a microinteraction principle of fabricating a RB-SiC material with a fixed abrasive. The influence of the depth formed on a RB-SiC workpiece by a diamond abrasive on the material removal rate and the surface roughness of an optical component are quantitatively discussed. A mathematical model of the material removal rate and the simulation results of the surface roughness are achieved. In spite of some small difference between the experimental results and the theoretical anticipation, which is predictable, the actual removal rate matches the theoretical prediction very well. The fixed abrasive technology's characteristic of easy prediction is of great significance in the optical fabrication industry, so this brand-new fixed abrasive technology has wide application possibilities.


The Hawaiian Islands are the most geologically studied hot‐spot islands in the world yet surprisingly, the only large‐scale compilation of marine and land gravity data is more than 45 years old. Early surveys served as reconnaissance studies only, and detailed analyses of the crustal‐density structure have been limited. Here we present a new chain‐wide gravity compilation that incorporates historical island surveys, recently published work on the islands of Hawai'i, Kaua'i, and Ni'ihau, and >122,000 km of newly compiled marine gravity data. Positive residual gravity anomalies reflect dense intrusive bodies, allowing us to locate current and former volcanic centers, major rift zones, and a previously suggested volcano on Ka'ena Ridge. By inverting the residual gravity data, we generate a 3‐D view of the dense, intrusive complexes and olivine‐rich cumulate cores within individual volcanoes and rift zones. We find that the Hāna and Ka'ena ridges are underlain by particularly high‐density intrusive material (>2.85 g/cm3) not observed beneath other Hawaiian rift zones. Contrary to previous estimates, volcanoes along the chain are shown to be composed of a small proportion of intrusive material (<30% by volume), implying that the islands are predominately built extrusively.


This article focuses on quantification of the chemical composition of particulate matter (PM) emitted during the injection of biosolids on a farm field near Toledo, Ohio. In the summer of 2009, field sampling was done during the three stages of the biosolids application. The collected filter papers were analyzed to identify the elemental composition. Chemical composition of the PM was determined using ICP‐OES. The receptor modeling using the positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used to identify and characterize the source profiles contributing to the emissions. The chemical analysis showed that the biosolids application enriched the concentration of macronutrients and micronutrients that were essential for growth of vegetation. Industrial source, dust/soil, biosolids, and ambient/background were the sources identified using the PMF modeling. The contribution of each source to the elemental concentration was also determined. The biosolids source contributed significantly to the emissions of aluminum (85%), cadmium (59%), chromium (96%), nickel (45%), lead (49%), and silicon (62%). In the future, the biosolids source profile derived in this study will be helpful when applying these findings in related work. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 1234–1239, 2013


In this paper a double axis planar micro-Fluxgate magnetic sensor is presented. The ferromagnetic core material, the Vitrovac 6025 X, has been deposited on top of the coils with the DC-magnetron sputtering technique, a new type of procedure with respect the existing solutions in the field of Fluxgate sensor. This procedure allows us to obtain a core with the good magnetic properties of the amorphous ferromagnetic material, typical of a core 25 mum thick, but with a thickness of only 1 mum, typical of a core electrodeposited. The micro-Fluxgate has been realized in a 0.5 mum CMOS process using copper metal lines to realize the excitation coil and aluminum metal lines for the sensing coils. Applying a triangular excitation current of 18 mA peak at 100 kHz the magnetic sensitivity achieved is about 0.45 mV/muT, suitable for detecting the Earth's magnetic field (plusmn50 muT), while the linearity error is 1.15% of the full scale. The maximum angle error of the sensor, evaluating the Earth magnetic field, is 3.4deg. The power consumption of the sensor is about 13.7 mW


Hypersensitivity to aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid; ASA) is present in 5–10% of asthmatic patients and is associated with chronic rhinosinusitis and nasal polyposis, a syndrome referred to as the aspirin triad.1 2 The mechanism of the hypersensitivity reaction to aspirin is not immunological, but may be related to the inhibition of cyclo-oxygenase, an enzyme responsible for prostaglandin synthesis, by aspirin.2 A positive history of aspirin hypersensitivity, which is the hallmark of this syndrome, is a significant and reliable indicator of chronic intractable rhinosinusitis, persistent asthma of greater than average severity, and higher than ordinary medication requirements, including dependence on steroids.1 3 In addition to bronchospasm, most aspirin sensitive asthmatic subjects challenged with aspirin develop nasal symptoms including rhinorrhoea, sneezing and nasal obstruction, but the nasal responses to aspirin are superimposed on the existing pathology of the upper respiratory tract. The incidence of sinusitis identified by radiography in aspirin sensitive asthmatics may be up to 96.2% and the frequency of nasal polyps may be as high as 70.8%2 4compared with 6.7% in the general asthmatic population.5A subgroup of aspirin sensitive patients has a reaction exclusively in the upper respiratory tract. They do not have asthma but the clinical picture of nasal disease (hypertrophic rhinosinusitis) in these patients is similar to that observed in patients with the aspirin triad.6

This article reviews the similarities and differences in the severity, pathophysiology, and management of upper airway disease in aspirin sensitive and aspirin tolerant patients with asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis.

It is generally assumed that chronic rhinosinusitis in aspirin sensitive asthmatic patients is more severe than in aspirin tolerant patients. A high recurrence of nasal polyps and frequent need for sinal endoscopic surgery is characteristic of this group of patients.4 7 However, no quantitative study has …


To make accurate perceptual estimates observers must take the reliability of sensory information into account. Despite many behavioural studies showing that subjects weight individual sensory cues in proportion to their reliabilities, it is still unclear when during a trial neuronal responses are modulated by the reliability of sensory information, or when they reflect the perceptual weights attributed to each sensory input during decision making. We investigated these questions using a combination of psychophysics, EEG based neuroimaging and single-trial decoding. Our results show that the weighted integration of sensory information in the brain is a dynamic process; effects of sensory reliability on task-relevant EEG components were evident around 84ms after stimulus onset, while neural correlates of perceptual weights emerged around 120ms after stimulus onset. These neural processes also had different underlying topographies, arising from areas consistent with sensory and parietal regions. Together these results reveal the temporal dynamics of perceptual and neural audio-visual integration and support the notion of temporally early and functionally specific multisensory processes in the brain.


Does encrypting Internet communications create a reasonable expectation of privacy in their contents, triggering Fourth Amendment protection? At first blush, it seems that the answer must be yes: A reasonable person would surely expect that encrypted communications will remain private. In this paper, Professor Kerr explains why this intuitive answer is entirely wrong: Encrypting communications cannot create a reasonable expectation of privacy. The reason is that the Fourth Amendment regulates access, not understanding: no matter how unlikely it is that the government will successfully decrypt ciphertext, the Fourth Amendment offers no protection if it succeeds. As a result, the government does not need a search warrant to decrypt encrypted communications. This surprising result is consistent with Fourth Amendment caselaw: it matches how courts have resolved cases involving the reassembly of shredded documents, recovery of deleted files, and the translation of foreign languages. The Fourth Amendment may regulate government access to ciphertext, but it does not regulate government efforts to translate ciphertext into plaintext.


We consider prospects for retirement saving for members of the millennial generation, who will be between ages 54 and 69 in 2050. Adequacy of retirement saving preparation among current and near-retirees is marked by significant heterogeneity, a characteristic that will likely hold for Millennials as well. In preparing for retirement, Millennials will have several advantages relative to previous generations, such as more education, longer working lives, and more flexible work arrangements, but also several disadvantages, including having to take more responsibility for their own retirement plans and marrying and bearing children at later ages. The millennial generation contains a significantly higher percentage of minorities than previous generations. We find that minority households have tended to accumulate less wealth than whites in the past, even after controlling for income, education, and marital status, and the difference appears to be growing over time for black households relative to whites. Whether these trends persist is central to understanding how the Millennials will fare in retirement.


: The formation of a defensive conditioned reflex to sound has been studied in rabbits raised from birth up to 30 days of life in dark. It was shown that, as compared with control animals of the same age, elaboration of reflex to sound takes place in them in shorter times periods and with less pairings. This corresponds to changes in electrographic manifestations of conditioning: increased amplitude and reduced peak latency of evoked potentials to acoustic stimuli in the auditory and sensorimotor cortical zones. The data obtained testify to enahcned functional activity of the auditory cortex, apparently due to a compensatory enhancement of impulse activity coming from the intact receptors of the auditory apparatus. It has been assumed that the observed functional changes appearing in the cortical end of the signal analyser (auditory zone); in response to sound, following visual deprivation, are a consequence of an early nature training of synaptic structures with regard to perceptionof impulses of acoustic modality.


This study explores ideological embedding in US presidential rhetoric on aggression and conflict. Specifically, it examines President Obama's first official statement on each of the 2011 popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Syria. The first statements are sampled because they are often carefully timed and phrased to project position and perspective. The objective of the study is to examine how Obama's speeches on the Arab Spring articulate US ideological assumptions about the pro-reform protests (and protestors), the aggressive responses of the embattled regimes and the conflict which developed as a result. The methodology of analysis is constituted by the analytical framework of Critical Stylistics. Findings from the analysis reveal the ways in which value systems and sets of beliefs may be structured in the language of aggression and conflict, and, more specifically, the ways in which Obama's ideological attitudes and assumptions are embedded in the structure of his statements. Obama's construction of the different unrests, for example, is evident in the naming conventions, his evaluation of the revolutionaries and their oppressors is reflected in the transitivity patterns, and the US regional priorities are signposted by the structural subordination options.


The article discusses the analysis of research of attitude of adolescents towards religion and religious identification in light of the need to support socio-cultural space in the country and in light of the questions on the global situation relating to the Central Asian region. Such aspects as attitude towards religion and its role in the society, religious tolerance, interest in any specific religions, knowledge about religious organizations and the significance of citizenship are investigated. Respectively, according to the purpose of the article, the authors raise a question if the problem of formation and strengthening religious identity as a cultural code in the younger generation has a solid foundation. The research results show that religiosity is superficial, with tolerant and neutral-indifferent attitude towards people with distinct religious way of life. This attitude of the younger generation towards religion can lead to poor religious awareness. The civic aspect of identity in adolescents is more pronounced than the religious and ethnic ones. Therefore, they are subordinate to the civic identity, which let us understand the importance of sociohumanitarian education in the development of common values.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this scoping review is to identify, collate, and map the evidence on simulation interprofessional education activities in any setting for the education of health professional students.

INTRODUCTION
Simulation interprofessional education activities comprise in-person and collaborative online learning embedded in formal curricula. Though the number of simulation interprofessional education activities has increased with the knowledge of the importance of effective interprofessional collaboration, the literature still lacks a description of the characteristics of existing activities.

INCLUSION CRITERIA
This scoping review will consider interprofessional education activities taking place within a simulation environment. Included papers will report on activities with two or more types of learners in health professional programs.

METHODS
The proposed scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Databases searched will include PubMed, CINAHL, and ERIC. Results will be limited to English-language publications from 2016 to the present year. Data extraction will be performed using a purposefully developed data extraction tool. Teams of reviewers will screen abstracts and full texts of articles for potential inclusion, and decisions will be determined via consensus of two out of three reviewers. Extracted data will be presented in diagrammatic or tabular form in a manner that aligns with the objective of this scoping review. A narrative summary will accompany the tabulated and/or charted results and will describe how the results relate to the review's objective and questions, and how the results might inform future simulation interprofessional education activities in health professions education.


States are rekindling the trend of broad constitutional amendments that require supermajority approval to create or increase taxes. This trend may inadvertently harm states' already precarious fiscal footing, particularly with several new imminent expenditure demands. States can minimize negative economic consequences, however, through proper supermajority requirement design.

This Article makes three contributions. First, it examines broad constitutional tax supermajority requirements' history, asserted justifications, and effectiveness. This examination concludes that the motivations underlying the first and second supermajority waves differ importantly from those underlying the possible third wave. Recognizing this novel motivation—signaling low-tax competitive advantage—allows this Article to present optimal supermajority provision design principles.

Second, this Article investigates several new sources that can generate immense tax revenue for states, but that will likely be obstructed by tax supermajority provisions if not designed properly. This Article also identifies several expenditure demands that are unlikely to be satisfied without new or increased taxes.

Finally, this Article presents tax supermajority requirement design principles that achieve a strong low-tax signaling function while allowing flexibility to maintain a low-tax competitive advantage. Fundamentally, the constitutional tax supermajority requirement should expressly encompass personal income tax, business taxes, and fees, while excluding transaction taxes. If a state decides to pursue a broad tax supermajority requirement, these design principles will best position a state to attract businesses and wealthy individuals while also achieving fiscal stability.


Interpreting deep learning models typically relies on post-hoc saliency map techniques. However, these techniques often fail to serve as actionable feedback to clinicians, and they do not directly explain the decision mechanism. Here, we propose an inherently interpretable model that combines the feature extraction capabilities of deep neural networks with advantages of sparse linear models in interpretability. Our approach relies on straightforward but effective changes to a deep bag-of-local-features model (BagNet). These modifications lead to fine-grained and sparse class evidence maps which, by design, correctly reflect the model's decision mechanism. Our model is particularly suited for tasks which rely on characterising regions of interests that are very small and distributed over the image. In this paper, we focus on the detection of Diabetic Retinopathy, which is characterised by the progressive presence of small retinal lesions on fundus images. We observed good classification accuracy despite our added sparseness constraint. In addition, our model precisely highlighted retinal lesions relevant for the disease grading task and excluded irrelevant regions from the decision mechanism. The results suggest our sparse BagNet model can be a useful tool for clinicians as it allows efficient inspection of the model predictions and facilitates clinicians' and patients' trust.


The level of prescribing of benzodiazepines in this country reflects the deficiency or absence of other services, in particular counselling, the Chair of the IMO GP Committee has stated.

Limerick GP Dr Mary Gray said: "There is an awareness of the issue of benzodiazepine prescribing, but not an equal awareness of the reason why there is this apparent level of prescribing." Dr Gray was speaking the day after last week's RTE Prime Time programme, which highlighted the high usage of the drug – some 10 per cent of medical cards holders – and the potentially tragic impact that can result from over-prescribing and abuse.Also speaking at a media briefing to highlight the union's forthcoming AGM, IMO President Dr Ronan Boland indicated that while the HSE was collecting data on GPs' prescribing patterns of benzodiazepines, this information was "quite crude", in that it did not correct for the particular GP's practice profile.

"It doesn't correct for the fact that some doctors have young, healthy populations, while other doctors work in deprived urban areas. So it produces data which is of limited value," he said....


Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) is defined as the presence of ischemic rest pain for more than two weeks or ischemic tissue loss associated with an absolute ankle pressure less than 50 mmHg or great toe pressure less than 30 mmHg (Norgren et al., 2007). Patients with CLI experience high amputation rates, significant morbidity and cardiovascular events exceeding those in patients with symptomatic coronary heart disease (Varu et al., 2010). In spite of recent developments in revascularization techniques and wound care centers, amputations continue to be performed, partly because patients with CLI are referred late to vascular surgeons (Varu et al., 2010). However, revascularization when compared with amputation have an overall lower perioperative mortality and enhanced long-term survival (Brosi et al., 2007; Varu et al., 2010). However, CLI is associated with multisegmental complex arterial lesions and consequently with high rates of revascularization failure (Allie et al., 2009). Specific features of the tibial vessels, such as the small caliber, the remote location, the slow flow of the distal bed, and the need of preserving runoff capacity, make this vascular territory particularly challenging for endovascular treatment (Blevins and Schneider, 2010). Meanwhile, continued technical improvements and very encouraging results have changed the paradigm of CLI therapy, until recently based on vein graft bypass. As so, the endovascular approach is, nowadays, the first-line modality for limb-threatening ischemia for a majority of authors (Allie et al., 2009; DeRubertis et al., 2007).


Purpose: To determine if image fusion will reduce contrast volume, radiation dose, and fluoroscopy and procedure times in standard and complex (fenestrated/branched) endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Materials and Methods: A search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases was performed in December 2019 to identify articles describing results of standard and complex EVAR procedures using image fusion compared with a control group. Study selection, data extraction, and assessment of the methodological quality of the included publications were performed by 2 reviewers working independently. Primary outcomes of the pooled analysis were contrast volume, fluoroscopy time, radiation dose, and procedure time. Eleven articles were identified comprising 1547 patients. Data on 140 patients satisfying the study inclusion criteria were added from the authors' center. Mean differences (MDs) are presented with the 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: For standard EVAR, contrast volume and procedure time showed a significant reduction with an MD of −29 mL (95% CI −40.5 to −18.5, p<0.001) and −11 minutes (95% CI −21.0 to −1.8, p<0.01), respectively. For complex EVAR, significant reductions in favor of image fusion were found for contrast volume (MD −79 mL, 95% CI −105.7 to −52.4, p<0.001), fluoroscopy time (MD −14 minutes, 95% CI −24.2 to −3.5, p<0.001), and procedure time (MD −52 minutes, 95% CI −75.7 to −27.9, p<0.001). Conclusion: The results of this meta-analysis confirm that image fusion significantly reduces contrast volume, fluoroscopy time, and procedure time in complex EVAR but only contrast volume and procedure time for standard EVAR. Though a reduction was suggested, the radiation dose was not significantly affected by the use of fusion imaging in either standard or complex EVAR.


This paper studies the effects of ambiguity on long-run cooperation in infinitely repeated games with strategic players. Using a neo-additive capacities framework, which allows us to work with a utility function that parametrically captures the degree of ambiguity, we determine a critical condition under which players can cooperate in equilibrium. Then, this result is applied to canonical problems of strategic interaction and potential cooperation: the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Cournot and Bertrand duopoly models. The application leads to two main conclusions. First, ambiguity may alter the game structure to schemes where seeking conditions to sustain long-run cooperative agreements stops being desirable. In these cases, non-cooperation is more profitable in expected terms and is achievable as a short-run Nash equilibrium. This happens for parametric combinations usually characterized by large levels of ambiguity. Second, in cases where cooperation between individuals is still desirable, the critical discount factor needed to sustain the equilibrium can vary in very non-trivial ways with the ambiguity parameters. In some cases, games may not accept a feasible discount factor consistent with a cooperative equilibrium, even when the expected payoff of cooperating is larger.


Epidaure is the name of a research project launched in 1989 at INRIA Rocquencourt, close to Paris, France. The research directions of the project were progressively defined around the following topics: volumetric image segmentation, three-dimensional (3-D) shape modeling, image registration, motion analysis, morphometry, and surgery simulation. The author describes and illustrates some of the contributions of the Epidaure team on these different topics.


Asymmetric Incremental Sheet Forming (AISF) is a process for the flexible production of sheet metal parts. In AISF, a part is obtained as the sum of localized plastic deformations produced by a simple forming tool that, in most configurations, moves under CNC control. Flexible processes with low tooling effort like AISF are suitable for sectors with small lot sizes but premium products, e.g. for the aviation and the automotive sector. Four main process limits restrict the range of application of AISF and its take-up in industry. These are: (i) material thinning, (ii) limited geometrical accuracy, (iii) the process duration and (iv) the calculation time and accuracy of process modelling. Moreover, the material spectrum of AISF for structural parts is mostly restricted to cold workable materials like steel and aluminum. This paper presents some new investigations of incremental sheet forming combined with laser heating or stretch forming as possible hybrid approaches to overcome the above mentioned limitations of AISF. These hybrid incremental sheet forming processes can increase the technological and economical potentials of AISF. A possible application is the fabrication of lightweight sheet metal parts as individual parts or small batches, e.g. for the aerospace industry. The present study provides a short overview of the state of the art of AISF, introduces the new hybrid process variations of AISF and compares the capabilities of the hybrid processes and the standard AISF process. Finally, two examples for applications are presented: (i) the production of a part used in an airplane for which the manufacturing steps consist of die manufacture, sheet metal forming by means of stretch forming combined with AISF and a final trimming operation using a single hybrid machine set-up; (ii) laser-assisted AISF for magnesium alloys.


Excessively devaluing delayed reinforcers co-occurs with a wide variety of clinical conditions such as drug dependence, obesity, and excessive gambling. If excessive delay discounting is a trans-disease process that underlies the choice behavior leading to these and other negative health conditions, efforts to change an individual's discount rate are arguably important. Although discount rate is often regarded as a relatively stable trait, descriptions of interventions and environmental manipulations that successfully alter discount rate have begun to appear in the literature. In this review, we compare published examples of procedures that change discount rate and classify them into categories of procedures, including therapeutic interventions, direct manipulation of the executive decision-making system, framing effects, physiological state effects, and acute drug effects. These changes in discount rate are interpreted from the perspective of the competing neurobehavioral decision systems theory, which describes a combination of neurological and behavioral processes that account for delay discounting. We also suggest future directions that researchers could take to identify the mechanistic processes that allow for changes in discount rate and to test whether the competing neurobehavioral decision systems view of delay discounting is correct.


A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of the wave energy grouping and undulating on the sediment suspension in the surf zone at Taichung, Taiwan, in 1995.Instruments were deployed in line with the wave front, including one acoustic current meter, one pressure sensor, and four optical turbidity monitors were arranged in line and perpendicular to the bed. During the experiments he water depth was varied from 0.7m to 3.6m due to the tide level variations. The instruments were fixed to the ground to have data collected throughout the surf zone while the relative position of the station in the surf zone was varied with the tide level. Sediment suspension events associated with the group wave motions reached peak concentrations were 2-3 times larger than that associated with waves without grouping. A new approach using Hilbert transform and Intrinsic Mode Functions(IMF)analysis to explore the effect of energy grouping and undulating on sediment suspension is presented. It gives a close insight to the suspended sediment distribution and wave characteristics in the surf zone. n interesting bursting phenomenon of bed concentration was found dominating in the surf zone, which was closely related to the incident wave groups.


The goal of this manuscript is to establish a novel computational model for stretch-induced skin growth during tissue expansion. Tissue expansion is a common surgical procedure to grow extra skin for reconstructing birth defects, burn injuries, or cancerous breasts. To model skin growth within the framework of nonlinear continuum mechanics, we adopt the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into an elastic and a growth part. Within this concept, we characterize growth as an irreversible, stretch-driven, transversely isotropic process parameterized in terms of a single scalar-valued growth multiplier, the in-plane area growth. To discretize its evolution in time, we apply an unconditionally stable, implicit Euler backward scheme. To discretize it in space, we utilize the finite element method. For maximum algorithmic efficiency and optimal convergence, we suggest an inner Newton iteration to locally update the growth multiplier at each integration point. This iteration is embedded within an outer Newton iteration to globally update the deformation at each finite element node. To demonstrate the characteristic features of skin growth, we simulate the process of gradual tissue expander inflation. To visualize growth-induced residual stresses, we simulate a subsequent tissue expander deflation. In particular, we compare the spatio-temporal evolution of area growth, elastic strains, and residual stresses for four commonly available tissue expander geometries. We believe that predictive computational modeling can open new avenues in reconstructive surgery to rationalize and standardize clinical process parameters such as expander geometry, expander size, expander placement, and inflation timing. & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


In this study, two angular unconformities are found and analysed for the first time in the Mesozoic–Cenozoic succession in the northwestern segment of the Zagros fold–thrust belt (ZFTB) in the Kurdistan Region. The first unconformity exists between Lower Cretaceous and Paleocene– Eocene rocks and the second between the Campanian Shiranish Formation and the Maastrichtian Tanjero Formation. Each of these unconformities is found in two different localities in the Zagros Imbricate Zone (i.e. the highly deformed zone immediately SW of the Zagros Suture) of the ZFTB of the Kurdistan Region near the border with Iran. The study uses recent geological mapping, structural and stratigraphic analyses in addition to using previous biozonation of the stratigraphic units that bound the two unconformities. The first unconformity was initiated with obduction of the ophiolite and Lower Cretaceous radiolarite onto the passive margin of the Arabian plate. This unconformity formed during an early phase of the Zagros orogeny, which is associated with the developing of a foreland basin, and resulted in the folding of the radiolarites and their uplift to form high-relief land. The erosion of this high-relief land resulted in the formation of the Paleocene–Eocene Red Bed Series and their deposition on the folded radiolarite. The timing of the deformation that caused this nconformity is hard to determine; however, its stratigraphic position may suggest that it possibly is related to post-Cenomanian movements. The second unconformity is between the tilted Campanian Shiranish Formation (hemipelagite) and Tanjero Formation (500 m of conglomerate in the more proximal area). These unconformities indicate that deformation and uplift of the sedimentary units was variable during ophiolite obduction in this part of the ZFTB. We argue that deformation, ophiolite obduction and collision are likely to have varied in space and time along the c. 2000 km long ZFTB.


The article begins with a critique of the prevalent interpretation of Platonov's novels from the 1920s. These novels supposedly present a critical depiction of the Stalinist utopia and its catastrophic consequences. The article argues against such an interpretation by demonstrating that the aforementioned novels do not present a critique of Stalinism but rather a critique of the gnostic-materialist utopia against which late Stalinism reacted in the early 1930s. The article critically confronts various aspects of this utopia of "biocosmism" as the forerunner of today's technognosis, focusing primarily on its tendency to surpass sexuality as the last stronghold of the bourgeois counterrevolution. This aspect of the critique of the gnostic-materialist utopia is also at work in Platonov's essay "The Anti-Sexus," conceived as an advertisement for a masturbatory device. The text discusses this device in the context of the proliferation of gadgets (what Lacan called les lathouses), the "undead" organs which are not mere supplements of the human organism but rather provide the key to the sexuation of human beings as beings of language.


Fine grained data distributions are widely used to balance computational loads across compute processes in parallel scientific applications. When a fine grained data distribution is used in memory, performance of I/O intensive applications can be limited not only by disk speed but also by message passing, because a large number of small messages may be generated by the implementation strategy used in the underlying parallel file system or parallel I/O library. Combining (or packetizing) a set of small messages into a large message is generally known to speed up parallel I/O. However, overall I/O performance is affected not only by small messages but also by other factors like cyclic block size and interconnect characteristics. We describe small message combination and communication scheduling for fine grained data distributions in the Panda parallel I/O library and analyze I/O performance on parallel platforms having different interconnects: IBM SP2, IBM workstation cluster connected by FDDI and Pentium II cluster connected by Myrinet.


Abstract.
 The Flat Rocks locality in theWonthaggi Formation (Strzelecki Group) of the Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia, hosts fossils of a late Barremian vertebrate fauna that inhabited the ancient rift between Australia and Antarctica. Known from its dentary, Qantassaurus intrepidus Rich and Vickers-Rich, 1999 has been the only dinosaur named from this locality. However, the plethora of vertebrate fossils collected from Flat Rocks suggests that further dinosaurs await discovery. From this locality, we name a new small-bodied ornithopod, Galleonosaurus dorisae n. gen. n. sp. from craniodental remains. Five ornithopodan genera are now named from Victoria. Galleonosaurus dorisae n. gen. n. sp. is known from five maxillae, from which the first description of jaw growth in an Australian dinosaur is provided. The holotype of Galleonosaurus dorisae n. gen. n. sp. is the most complete dinosaur maxilla known from Victoria. Micro-CT imagery of the holotype reveals the complex internal anatomy of the neurovascular tract and antorbital fossa.We confirm that Q. intrepidus is uniquely characterized by a deep foreshortened dentary. Two dentaries originally referred to Q. intrepidus are reassigned to Q. ?intrepidus and a further maxilla is referred to cf. Atlascopcosaurus loadsi Rich and Rich, 1989. A further ornithopod dentary morphotype is identified, more elongate than those of Q. intrepidus and Q. ?intrepidus and with three more tooth positions. This dentary might pertain to Galleonosaurus dorisae n. gen. n. sp. Phylogenetic analysis recovered Cretaceous Victorian and Argentinian nonstyracosternan ornithopods within the exclusively Gondwanan clade Elasmaria. However, the large-bodied taxon Muttaburrasaurus langdoni Bartholomai and Molnar, 1981 is hypothesised as a basal iguanodontian with closer affinities to dryomorphans than to rhabdodontids.


In April 2017, the Alabama Senate voted to authorize the formation of a new police department. Like other officers in the state, officers at the new agency would have to be certified by the Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission. These new officers would be "charged with all of the duties and invested with all of the powers of law enforcement officers." Unlike most officers in Alabama, though, the officers at the new agency would not be city, county, or state employees. Instead, they would be working for the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, which Senate Bill 193 authorized to "appoint and employ one or more persons to act as police officers to protect the safety and integrity of the church and its ministries."
The prospect of a private church with its own police department seems like a radical departure from modern practices. The contemporary conception of policing, after all, is that it is a primarily and foundationally governmental activity. That conception is easy to take for granted. After all, "maintaining order and controlling crime are paradigmatic governmental functions." That is certainly the role that most police agencies see themselves as fulfilling, and, by and large, that is also how the public sees policing.
Yet the perception of law enforcement and crime-fighting as exclusively governmental activities is inaccurate as both a historical matter and a modern description. Given the historical, operational, and legal overlap between public and private policing, the Thin Blue Line is neither particularly thin nor exclusively blue. This is not a revelatory observation; Elizabeth Joh and David Sklansky, among others, have written about private policing, and there is a substantial body of literature about what is variously called "plural policing," "joint policing," or "third-party policing." Prior efforts, however, do not fully illustrate the distortions in the line that separates public and private policing. This Article contributes to an on-going conversation about modern conceptions of policing. Perhaps more importantly given the broad consensus that policing is in need of reform, this article explores some of the ways in which the blurred blue line should affect the way we think about police reform.


Maximum values of acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) in Adirondack, New York lake outlets generally occur during summer and autumn. During spring snowmelt, transport of acidic water through acid-sensitive watersheds causes depression of upper lake water ANC. In some systems lake outlet ANC reaches negative values. We examined outlet water chemistry from 11 Adirondack lakes during 1986 and 1987 snowmelts. In these lakes, SO42− concentrations were diluted during snowmelt and did not depress ANC. For lakes with high baseline ANC values, springtime ANC depressions were primarily accompanied by basic cation dilution. For lakes with low baseline ANC, NO3− increases dominated ANC depressions. Lakes with intermediate baseline ANC were affected by both processes and exhibited larger ANC depressions. Ammonium dilution only affected wetland systems. A model predicting a linear relationship between outlet water ANC minima and autumn ANC was inappropriate. To assess watershed response to episodic acidification, hydrologic flow paths must be considered.


This study examined usage of biosand filters amongst 86 families in three different communities in the Region Autonoma Atlantico Sur (RAAS) of Nicaragua. 75% of the families in the study were actively using their filter whilst the remaining 25% no longer used their filter. Pathogen levels (thermotolerant coliforms) were examined in samples of the unfiltered source water, the filtrate and the stored water post-filtration. Average pathogen removal efficiency was 89% and was not significantly higher amongst families who followed the recommended patterns of use of the filter. While the filters in the study typically produced water that was considered safe to drink, recontamination of the stored, filtered water was a significant problem that occurred in 66% of the families. This study affirms the effectiveness of biosand water filters in the field and highlights the need for a focus on prevention of recontamination of the stored, filtered water.


Let M be a Hamiltonian T space with a proper moment map, bounded below in some component. In this setting, we give a combinatorial description of the T -equivariant cohomology of M, extending results of Goresky, Kottwitz and MacPherson and techniques of Tolman and Weitsman. Moreover, when M is equipped with an antisymplectic involution σ anticommuting with the action of T , we also extend to this noncompact setting the "mod 2" versions of these results to the real locus Q := M of M. We give applications of these results to the theory of hypertoric varieties.


We hypothesized that gene expression profiling may discriminate vanadium from zinc in human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs). RNA from HBECs exposed to vehicle, V (50 μM), or Zn (50 μM) for 4 hr (n = 4 paired experiments) was hybridized to Affymetrix Hu133A chips. Using one-class t-test with p < 0.01, we identified 140 and 76 genes with treatment:control ratios ≥ 2.0 or ≤ 0.5 for V and Zn, respectively. We then categorized these genes into functional pathways and compared the number of genes in each pathway between V and Zn using Fisher's exact test. Three pathways regulating gene transcription, inflammatory response, and cell proliferation distinguished V from Zn. When genes in these three pathways were matched with the 163 genes flagged by the same statistical filtration for V:Zn ratios, 12 genes were identified. The hierarchical clustering analysis showed that these 12 genes discriminated V from Zn and consisted of two clusters. Cluster 1 genes (ZBTB1, PML, ZNF44, SIX1, BCL6, ZNF450) were down-regulated by V and involved in gene transcription, whereas cluster 2 genes (IL8, IL1A, PTGS2, DTR, TNFAIP3, CXCL3) were up-regulated and linked to inflammatory response and cell proliferation. Also, metallothionein 1 genes (MT1F, MT1G, MT1K) were up-regulated by Zn only. Thus, using microarray analysis, we identified a small set of genes that may be used as biomarkers for discriminating V from Zn. The novel genes and pathways identified by the microarray may help us understand the pathogenesis of health effects caused by environmental V and Zn exposure.


This original analysis of the representation and self-representation of women in literature and visual arts revolves around multiple early modern senses of "painting": the creation of visual art in the form of paint on canvas and the use of cosmetics to paint women's bodies. Situating her study in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, France, and England, Patricia Phillippy brings together three distinct actors: women who paint themselves with cosmetics, women who paint on canvas, and women and men who paint women-either with pigment or with words. Phillippy asserts that early modern attitudes toward painting, cosmetics, and poetry emerge from and respond to a common cultural history. Materially, she connects those who created images of women with pigment to those who applied cosmetics to their own bodies through similar mediums, tools, techniques, and exposure to toxic materials. Discursively, she illuminates historical and social issues such as gender and morality with the nexus of painting, painted women, and women painters. Teasing out the intricate relationships between these activities as carried out by women and their visual and literary representation by women and by men, Phillippy aims to reveal the delineation and transgression of women's creative roles, both artistic and biological. In Painting Women, Phillippy provides a cross-disciplinary study of women as objects and agents of painting.


After cardiac surgery, patients with low left ventricular ejection fraction probably benefit the most from accurate monitoring of continuous cardiac output. Thirty patients with impaired ventricular function were studied, and intermittent bolus thermodilution and continuous pulse contour (LiDCO plusTM) cardiac output compared. Following lithium dilution calibration, a total of 220 paired results were recorded. Thermodilution and LiDCO measurements ranged from 2.3 to 11.0 and 2.6 to 10.8 l.min−1, respectively. Corresponding means (SD) were 6.1 (1.6) and 6.2 (1.9) l.min−1, with coefficients of variance of 26 and 31%, respectively. The correlation coefficient was 0.82, bias 0.28 l.min−1 with upper and lower limits of agreement 1.96 and −1.41 l.min−1; the percentage error was 27%. LiDCO showed good correlation, marginal bias and acceptable limits of agreement and percentage error. It could therefore potentially replace thermodilution as a means of measuring cardiac output in the ICU, particularly when determination of pulmonary artery pressure is not required.


This study describes the generation and testing of a reference rainfall product created from field campaign datasets collected during the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Ground Validation Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) experiment. The study evaluates ground-based radar rainfall (RR) products acquired during IFloodS in the context of building the reference rainfall product. The purpose of IFloodS was not only to attain a high-quality ground-based reference for the validation of satellite rainfall estimates but also to enhance understanding of flood-related rainfall processes and the predictability of flood forecasting. We assessed the six RR estimates (IFC, Q2, CSU-DP, NWS-DP, Stage IV, and Q2-Corrected) using data from rain gauge and disdrometer networks that were located in the broader field campaign area of central and northeastern Iowa. We performed the analyses with respect to time scales ranging from 1 h to the entire campaign period in order to compare the capabilities of each RR product and to characterize the error structure at scales that are frequently used in hydrologic applications. The evaluation results show that the Stage IV estimates perform superior to other estimates, demonstrating the need for gauge-based bias corrections of radar-only products. This correction should account for each product's algorithm-dependent error structure that can be used to build unbiased rainfall products for the campaign reference. We characterized the statistical error structures (e.g., systematic and random components) of each RR estimate and used them for the generation of a campaign reference rainfall product. To assess the hydrologic utility of the reference product, we performed hydrologic simulations driven by the reference product over the Turkey River basin. The comparison of hydrologic simulation results demonstrates that the campaign reference product performs better than Stage IV in streamflow generation.


A simplistic quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) based on the maximum risk curve (r = 1) was developed for Legionella within a water distribution system. Both biofilms and a thermophilic isolate of acanthamoebae were shown to increase the resistance of Legionella to conventional thermal disinfection by between one and two logs respectively. The level of risk presented to consumers was shown to exceed the USEPA 10(-4) benchmark in many cases tested. This was caused, in part, by the sensitivity of the risk model but also through a lack of reliable dose-response data for Legionella. Not withstanding this, the current study provided comparative information on the efficacy of conventional disinfection against Legionella. Combined chlorine was shown to reduce the risk of infection by as much as 1-log when compared to free chlorine, although thermal disinfection provided the most effective means of risk reduction. Biofilm detachment and the interaction of Legionella with acanthamoebae were two important ecological factors that significantly increased the risk of legionellosis, and thus should be further considered in the refinement of QMRA models.


Despite continued growth and dispersion of the Latino immigrant population in the United States, the lingering effects of a sluggish national economy and growing anti-immigrant sentiments have contributed to ongoing marginalization and exclusion, further hindering their participation in American civic life. Despite these challenges, Latino immigrants have remained engaged, yet the factors and processes that facilitate participation in American society remain poorly understood. Data from the Latino National Survey and focus groups with Latino immigrants were used to examine how variations in levels of acculturation, demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status (SES), and characteristics of the immigrant experience influence the civic engagement of Latino immigrants in American society. We found that citizenship, length of residence in the United States, and higher SES enhanced civic engagement, while brown skin color, migration for economic reasons, and Mexican ancestry decreased participation. The level of acculturation significantly moderated the effects of these contextual factors.


The degree of insulin receptor kinase activation by in situ stimulation was studied in isolated human adipocytes. Although maximal in situ stimulation increased the kinase activity approximately 10-fold, this activity could again be doubled by subsequent activation in a cell-free system. To investigate how in situ stimulation resulted in incomplete activation, receptors binding or not binding to anti-phosphotyrosine antibody (alpha-PY) were studied separately. Even after maximal insulin stimulation of the cells, approximately 50% of the receptors did not bind to alpha-PY and had low kinase activity. In the cell-free system, however, these receptors reached activity levels similar to the other receptors, suggesting that they were intact and that factors in their cellular environment had prevented their activation. The activity of the alpha-PY-binding receptors could only be slightly increased in the cell-free system, suggesting that almost complete activation had been attained in situ. In situ stimulation with increasing insulin concentrations increased the number of activated receptors rather than their individual activity. We conclude that factors in the in situ environment prevent insulin activation of approximately 50% of the insulin receptors in human adipocytes and might therefore be important regulators of insulin signaling.


A cross-sectional analysis was carried out to evaluate how farmers in Kyuso District have perceived climate change. Data was collected from 246 farmers from six locations sampled out through a multistage and simple random sampling procedure. The logistic regression analysis was carried out to assess factors influencing farmers' perceptions of climate change. The analysis revealed that 94% of farmers in Kyuso District had a perception that climate was changing. In this regard, age of the household head, gender, education, farming experience, household size, distance to the nearest input/output market, access to irrigation water, local agro-ecology, access to information on climate change, access to extension services, off farm income and change in temperature and precipitation were found to have significant influence on the probability of farmers to perceive climate change. Since the level of perception to climate change revealed by the study was found to be high (94%), the study suggests that more policy efforts should thus be geared towards helping farmers to adapt to climate change.


Among important parameters in simulation of earthquake data in high frequencies are the high frequency spectral amplitude decay and the Quality factor. Amplitude spectral decay is determined by the Kappa parameter (K) and the Quality factor (Q) which is usually expressed by a power relation of frequency (f) as Q = Q0 f n, where Q0 is Q at 1 Hz. The 2017 Sarpol-e-Zahab earthquake with magnitude Mw = 7.3 in Kermanshah province near the Iran-Iraq border caused extensive destruction and heavy human loss. Thus, the study of different aspects of this event is of high importance. In this paper an attempt is made to partly explain the attenuation properties of this region in Zagros suture zone by determining the Kappa and the Quality factors in this region. In this study, accelerograph records of aftershocks of the above-mentioned earthquake have been analysed. The best linear fit for the Kappa, based on the distance (R) in km, is estimated as: K = 0.0005R+0.034 for the horizontal component, which exhibits increase with increasing epicentral distance. The correlation of the Quality factor was also found as Q = 88.6 f, which is in accordance with an active tectonic region.


Parameters and models to correlate the cycles to failure of a unidirectional metal matrix composite (SCS-6/Timetal 21S) undergoing thermal and mechanical loading are examined. Three different cycle types are considered: out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue (TMF), in-phase TMF, and isothermal fatigue. A single parameter based on either the fiber of matrix behavior is shown not to correlate the cycles to failure of all the data. Two prediction methods are presented that assume that life may be dependent on at least two fatigue damage mechanisms and therefore consist of two terms. The first method, the linear life fraction model, shows that by using the response of the constituents, the life of these different cycle types are better correlated using two simple empirical relationships: one describing the fatigue damage in the matrix and the other fiber-dominated damage. The second method, the dominant damage model, is more complex but additionally brings in the effect of the environment. This latter method improves the predictions of the effects of the maximum temperature, temperature range, and frequency, especially under out-of-phase TMF and isothermal fatigue. The steady-state response of the constituents is determined using a 1-D micromechanics model with viscoplasticity. The residual stresses due to the CTE mismatch betweenmore » the fiber and matrix during processing are included in the analysis.« less


Background: The Urinary Tract Infection (UTIs) is one of the most widely acquired bacterialinfections in infants. UTI sometimes accompanied by bacteremia. Bacteremia is characterising as thedevelopment of a pathogen within the blood culture. Imaging tests, such as a Renal Ultrasound (RUS)and Avoiding Cystourethrogram (VCUG) use to diagnose UTIs.
Aim: We aimed to describe RUS and VCUG findings in young infants with bacteremic urinary tractinfection and to determine the association between imaging findings and other variables at a tertiaryhospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: We retrospectively studied the medical records of 30 infants from both genders who haddiagnosed with bacteremic UTIs at a tertiary hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Infants were excludedif they had known urologic abnormalities at the time of presentation, required intensive unite care andinfants with immunocompromised diseases. Data was analyzed by SPSS program.
Results: Of the 30 infants, 70% were boys, 50% aged from 0-3 months while the other 50% aged >3months, 14 (46.7%) were Saudis while 16 (53.3%) were non-Saudis, 61.1% were non-febrile, 58.62%had standard creatinine value. All infants 100% underwent RUS, 96.2% of them had RUSabnormalities (18 males and seven females) while only 3.8% (1 male) had typical RUS result. 37.9% ofinfants underwent VCUG, 18.2% (2 miles) of them had normal VCUG, while the majority 81.8% (7males and two females) had abnormal findings. 17.9% presented with VUR. There was no significantassociation between RUS results with sex, age group, creatinine value and urine cultures. On anotherhand, there was a significant association between RUS abnormal result and blood culture. Also, nosignificant association found between VCUG results with sex, age group, creatinine, blood and urinecultures.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the prevalence of RUS and VCUG abnormality in our cohort found to behigher than other studies. There was a significant association between RUS finding and blood cultureresults; on another hand, there was no significant association between RUS and VCUG findings withother variables that could suggest bacteremic risk in UTI infants.


To the Editor .—Kissin and Kark 1 have stated that the valved, saline-inflatable breast prosthesis (Varifil) has an "unblemished record" and does not deflate. However, they contradicted this statement by reporting their own experience wherein there was a deflation rate in such an implant of 16.5% during a 35-month period. Although the overall deflation rate with this particular implant might be significantly lower in a large series, the deflation rate described by the authors is purely unacceptable. It is interesting to note that this implant is made of a platinum-cured silicone. All inflatable implants with a platinum-cured silicone shell are no longer available, probably because the platinum-cured elastomer shells such as the Varifil implant are much more susceptible to the development of pinhole leaks due to friction points where the two walls of the implant rub together. This has been termed fold flaw failure. In contrast, implant shells made of