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BACKGROUND
Menthol cigarettes, preferred by African American smokers, have been conjectured to be harder to quit and to contribute to the excess lung cancer burden among black men in the Unites States. However, data showing an association between smoking menthol cigarettes and increased lung cancer risk compared with smoking nonmenthol cigarettes are limited. The Food and Drug Administration is currently considering whether to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes in the United States.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective study among 85,806 racially diverse adults enrolled in the Southern Community Cohort Study during March 2002 to September 2009 according to cigarette smoking status, with smokers classified by preference for menthol vs nonmenthol cigarettes. Among 12,373 smokers who responded to a follow-up questionnaire, we compared rates of quitting between menthol and nonmenthol smokers. In a nested case-control analysis of 440 incident lung cancer case patients and 2213 matched control subjects, using logistic regression modeling we computed odds ratios (ORs) and accompanying 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of lung cancer incidence, and applied Cox proportional hazards modeling to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of lung cancer mortality, according to menthol preference.

RESULTS
Among both blacks and whites, menthol smokers reported smoking fewer cigarettes per day; an average of 1.6 (95% CI = 1.3 to 2.0) fewer for blacks and 1.8 (95% CI = 1.3 to 2.3) fewer for whites, compared with nonmenthol smokers. During an average of 4.3 years of follow-up, 21% of participants smoking at baseline had quit, with menthol and nonmenthol smokers having equal odds of quitting (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.89 to 1.16). A lower lung cancer incidence was noted in menthol vs nonmenthol smokers (for smokers of <10, 10-19, and ≥ 20 cigarettes per day, compared with never smokers, OR = 5.0 vs 10.3, 8.7 vs 12.9, and 12.2 vs 21.1, respectively). These trends were mirrored for lung cancer mortality. In multivariable analyses adjusted for pack-years of smoking, menthol cigarettes were associated with a lower lung cancer incidence (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.47 to 0.90) and mortality (hazard ratio of mortality = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.49 to 0.95) than nonmenthol cigarettes.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that menthol cigarettes are no more, and perhaps less, harmful than nonmenthol cigarettes.


With the growing need for efficiency, cost reduction, reduced disposition of outdated electronics components as well as scalable electronics components, and also reduced health effects of our daily usage of electronics components. Recent trend in technology has seen companies manufacturing these products thinking in the mentioned needs when manufacturing and virtualizations is one important aspect of it. The need to share resources, the need to use lesser workspace, the need to reduce cost of purchase and manufacturing are all part of achievements of virtualization techniques. For some people, setting up a computer to run different virtual machines at the same time can be difficult especially if they have no prior basic knowledge of working in terminal environment and hiring a skilled personnel to do the job can be expensive. The motivation for this thesis is to help people with little or no basic knowledge on how to set up virtual machine with Ubuntu operating system on XEN hypervisor.


IT IS COMMON knowledge that the pancreas may be involved in a number of infectious diseases, among which epidemic parotitis and scarlet fever are the best known. In addition to these, different conditions affecting the digestive tract, such as dysentery, typhoid, spirochetal jaundice, atrophy and infantile diarrhea, and recently uremia, have been reported to cause pancreatic lesions and dysfunction. However, the true nature of the lesions and the underlying morphologic changes still constitute a problem. According to some authors,1these changes consist of hemorrhages and necrosis of the parenchyma. Degeneration of the parenchyma with ensuing fibrosis2has also been described, as well as atrophy and disorganization of acini3and acinar dilatation, leading to a picture similar to cystic fibrosis.4 When one considers the number of observations on surgical and autopsy material and the apparent contradictions in the findings, it is astonishing that data relating functional disturbances with


1. write a reaction sequence to show a convenient method for preparing a given conjugated diene from an alkene, allyl halide, alkyl dihalide or alcohol (diol). 2. identify the reagents needed to prepare a given diene from one of the starting materials listed in Objective 1, above. 3. compare the stabilities of conjugated and nonconjugated dienes, using evidence obtained from hydrogenation experiments. 4. discuss the bonding in a conjugated diene, such as 1,3-butadiene, in terms of the hybridization of the carbon atoms involved. 5. discuss the bonding in 1,3-butadiene in terms of the molecular orbital theory, and draw a molecular orbital for this and similar compounds.


Featuring more than 10,000 references and a text lavishly complemented by over 700 illustrations, DNA Repair and Mutagenesis, 2nd Edition, is a timely update to the original edition published in 1995. The addition of three new authors, including an expert in the field of structural biology, ensures a comprehensive review of the most current research in diverse subject areas. An ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, the book is also an essential resource for all scientists researching cellular responses to DNA damage.
Completely reorganized, the new edition presents a significant overhaul of the existing chapters and introduces important new material, reflective of the major changes and developments that have occurred in the field over the last decade. As with the first edition, this new volume presents the field within a strong historical framework and all aspects of biological responses to DNA damage are detailed.
The book consists of 30 chapters divided into five main parts, covering: sources and consequences of DNA damage; correcting altered bases in DNA: DNA repair; DNA damage tolerance and mutagenesis; regulatory responses to DNA damage in eukaryotes; and disease states associated with defective biological responses to DNA damage. Basic principles are appropriately stressed; however, the book focuses on the significant progress to date and future research directions.
Hardcover, 1,118 pages, two-color throughout with full-color insert, illustrations, index.


The views herein are solely the responsibility of the author and
do not represent the official position of the U.S. Navy, the
Naval Postgraduate School or the Department of Administrative
Sciences.


Six sigma programs are raging through corporations worldwide, with some corporations citing savings in the $US billions resulting from six sigma implementation. Six sigma has both proponents and detractors with some arguing that nothing new is involved and others identifying it as revolutionary. The view espoused herein argues for six sigma as a methodology within the larger framework of total quality management – a blend of old and new in the sense that the tools of six sigma are often familiar ones, but are applied with an eye that is more strategically focused than historic use of those tools ordinarily indicates.


Passengers flying with Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok Airport may not be in too much of a hurry to board their plane once they see what the airline's high-tech departure lounge has to offer. The major IT element within the lounge is a unique state-of-the-art passenger 'infotainment' network that allows passengers to access a multitude of services via custom-built desktop units. The system is based around asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networking technology, which provides a high-speed switching capability for multimedia sources such as video, graphics, text and audio. Passengers access services via a touch screen by swiping their boarding pass through a built-in boarding pass/credit card reader. This immediately personalises the display according to records stored in a customer database, and the passenger is presented with a customised graphical user interface that allows them to navigate through a number of different menu levels with four simple, colour coded 'hot' buttons: forward, backward, main menu and restart. At a touch they can find flight information, choose from a large number of TV channels, obtain the latest share price information, view travel facts about their destination, or perhaps listen to a selection of radio channels. Looped video material similar to traditional in-flight entertainment is also provided.


With the publication of three short tales in the 1840s, Poe "invented" the detective story. Then his own sudden and bizarre death, still unsolved after 150 years, created a real-life mystery as tantalizing as any of his famous stories. Was it epilepsy? Lawless thugs? A diabetic coma? His heart? Alcohol? Poe departed this life in the best mystery-novel style. While travelling alone from Richmond, Virginia, to New York City, he disappeared for nearly a week. When seen again, he was terribly drunk and nearly dead in the Baltimore. Taken to a hospital, he never said what happened to him, where he'd been all that time, or who he'd been with. A few days later, after alternating periods of silence and raving delirium, he died. The immediate cause of death given was "congestion of the brain" or "inflammation of the brain", serviceable phrases in a day that knew little of internal medicine. At first no one seriously questioned the verdict that the culprit was liquor, that Poe died as a result of complications arising form drunken debauchery. Inevitably, as the years passed and his fame grew, efforts were made to clear him of what seemed weak, wanton self-destruction. While many theories of a physical nature about precipitating causes have been suggested - ranging from rabies to a blow on the head - no one has seriously probed the mystery of that missing week. This volume examines the last days of one of America's most admired authors, aiming to untangle more than a century of speculation and finally putting to rest on its 150th anniversary what may be the greatest Poe mystery of all.


Users interact with online news in many ways, one of them being sharing content through online social networking sites such as Twitter. There is a small but important group of users that devote a substantial amount of effort and care to this activity. These users monitor a large variety of sources on a topic or around a story, carefully select interesting material on this topic, and disseminate it to an interested audience ranging from thousands to millions. These users are news curators, and are the main subject of study of this paper. We adopt the perspective of a journalist or news editor who wants to discover news curators among the audience engaged with a news site. We look at the users who shared a news story on Twitter and attempt to identify news curators who may provide more information related to that story. In this paper we describe how to find this specific class of curators, which we refer to as news story curators. Hence, we proceed to compute a set of features for each user, and demonstrate that they can be used to automatically find relevant curators among the audience of two large news organizations.


Reinforced PHC piles make use of nonprestressed steel bars to reinforce the initial steel cage, with the intent being to invent novel piles that have better flexural properties than the conventional PHC piles. In this study, a comprehensive test program was carried out with 12 full-scale test piles to compare the flexural properties of two different types of PHC piles. The flexural stiffness of the reinforced PHC pile is greater than the flexural stiffness of the conventional PHC pile. The Reinforced PHC pile and the conventional PHC pile exhibited similar axial stress development, planar section remained in pile mid-span during the initial period and the neutral axis shifted upward after concrete cracking. The cracking patterns and failure modes for two different types of PHC piles are evidently different. The moment capacities for reinforced piles were significantly higher than the values for the conventional piles, and the improvements increase in order from the pile specification of B to the AB to the A.


Polyglot Medical Questionnaire by S Chalmers Parry MA MRCS LRCP DPH 2nded ppvii+88 £5 London: William Heinemann Medical 1972 in association with The Royal Society ofMedicine This book gives a translation into 27 languages, including Bulgarian, Finnish, Serbo-Croat, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese, of questions commonly asked when taking a medical history. All are so constructed that a relevant reply should be 'yes', 'no', 'I do not know', or a number. This greatly limits the scope of the questions. The physician obtains a code number for the particular question from the English section and then points to the same numbered question in the appropriate language version; the patient answers by the same method, using one of the replies noted above, or by writing a numeral or counting on his fingers. Model schemes are given of questions for suspected smallpox, for bowel symptoms, and for pain. In each language the text is divided into five sections dealing with past medical history, family history, drugs, diet, general medical vocabulary. The author, who has been a ship's doctor, port medical officer and medical inspector of aliens, has found his system very useful and I have no doubt that doctors working in these fields will also do so. For others it seems to be a very expensive small book for probably occasional use only. M H PAPPWORTH


Mental model (Johnson-Laird, 2001) and probabilistic theories (Oaksford & Chater, 2009) claim to provide distinct explanations of human reasoning. However, the dual strategy model of reasoning suggests that this distinction corresponds to different reasoning strategies, termed counterexample and statistical, respectively. There is clear evidence that most people have a preference for a given strategy, and that this predicts performance on a variety of forms of reasoning and judgment (Thompson & Markovits, 2021). To date, however, the evidence for this conclusion has been correlational in nature; in the current studies, we manipulated strategy use. To this end, we gave people (N = 885) explicit instructions to reason either using a counterexample strategy or a probabilistic strategy. In two studies, we observed that the ability to follow these instructions was constrained by people's spontaneous strategy use, and that the effect of instructions carried over to two subsequent forms of reasoning (a) belief-biased inferences and (b) base-rate judgments. Finally, the ability to follow instructions was correlated with reasoning accuracy on both tasks. These results provide strong evidence for the underlying reality of the dual strategy model and show that explicit instructions to reason differently can modify performance on different forms of reasoning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).


In text categorization, term weighting methods assign appropriate weights to the terms to improve the classification performance. In this study, we propose an effective term weighting scheme, i.e. tf.rf, and investigate several widely-used unsupervised and supervised term weighting methods on two popular data collections in combination with SVM and kNN algorithms. From our controlled experimental results, not all supervised term weighting methods have a consistent superiority over unsupervised term weighting methods. Specifically, the three supervised methods based on the information theory, i.e. tf.χ2, tf.ig and tf.or, perform rather poorly in all experiments. On the other hand, our proposed tf.rf achieves the best performance consistently and outperforms other methods substantially and significantly. The popularly-used tf.idf method has not shown a uniformly good performance with respect to different data corpora.


The inhibition of the corrosion of mild steel in hydrochloric acid solution by the leaves Extract of Melia Azedarach (MA)has been studied using weight loss, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and Potentiodynamic polarization techniques. Inhibition was found to increase with increasing concentration of the extract. Results indicate that MeliaAzedarach leaves Extract was an efficient natural corrosion inhibitor in the acidic solution. Polarization measurements showed that the studied inhibitor acts as mixed inhibitor in 1N HCl acid with significant reduction of cathodic and anodic current densities. The electrochemical impedance study further confirmed the formation of an adsorbed film on the mild steel. The SEM morphology of the absorbed protective film on the mild steel surface has confirmed the high performance of inhibitive effect of the plant extract.


This paper is devoted with numerical solution of the system fractional diffe rential equations (FDEs) which are generated by optimization problem using the Chebyshev collocation method. The fractional derivatives are presented in terms of Caputo sense. The application of the proposed method to the generated system of FDEs leads to algebraic system which can be solved by the Newton iteration method. The method introduces a promising tool for solving many systems of non-linear FDEs. Two numerical examples are provided to confirm the accuracy and the effectiveness of the pro posed methods. Comparisons with the fractional finite difference method (FDM) and the fourth order Runge-Kutta (RK4) are given.


Cigarette smoking leads to large healthcare and morbidity costs, and mortality losses, and smoking cessation plays a key role in reducing health risk and economic costs. While medical evidence suggests that some smokers are more likely to respond to medication treatment than others depending on genetic markers, it remains unexplored whether pharmacogenetic testing is cost-effective in treating potential quitters of smoking. We address this knowledge gap by developing a lifecycle model in which individuals make smoking, health investment and consumption-savings decisions. Depending on an individual's genotype, smoking may bring enjoyment but deteriorates one's health, and the dynamic evolution of health capital determines life expectancy. In addition to heterogeneous genotypes, individuals also differ in demographics. We calibrate this model to fit key economic and medical observations in the U.S. We then propose three smoking cessation policies, two with standard treatments and one personalized depending on genetic markers, all under the same program costs. We construct two unified measures of effectiveness and subsequently compute the cost-effectiveness ratio. We find that personalized treatment is the most cost-effective: for each dollar of program cost, it generates $8.94 value in effectiveness, which is 22-45% higher than those under standard treatments.


To evaluate the effect of methotrexate on collagen-induced arthritis, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and histopathological analyses were used in male Wistar rats. Rats were divided randomly into three groups. Group 1 was treated with 0.9% saline, and groups 2 and 3 were boosted with type Ⅱ collagen. From day 21 to 42, groups 1 and 2 were orally treated with 0.9% saline and group 3 was orally treated with 1.5 mg/kg methotrexate. All rats were sacrificed at day 42 after the first collagen treatment. Micro-CT analyses showed bony parameters, such as bone volume and trabecular number, were decreased in group 2 compared to group 1, and these parameters were recovered in group 3. Histopathological examination and pathological parameter scoring showed that the knee joints of rats in group 2 had severe joint destruction, showing cartilage and bone erosion, enlarged cavities with inflammatory cell infiltration and activation of synovial fibroblasts. By contrast, these changes were reduced in group 3. Taken together, methotrexate treatment showed therapeutic potential in male rat collagen-induced arthritis model, and micro-CT analysis and histopathological tools could be integrated to assess the quantification/qualification of arthritic lesions.


This paper discusses picture logic, a visual language for the specification of diagrams and diagram transformations. Formal specification techniques for diagrammatic or visual languages have previously mainly been targeted towards static diagrammatic languages. For reasoning about certain types of diagrams, however, formalizing a notion of change is inevitable. This is particularly true of visual mathematical notations whose evaluation rules or consequence relations correspond to visual or graphical transformations. The paper presents constraint-based extensions of picture logic which render it suitable for the specification of such diagram notations and the required transformations.


This article seeks to explain variation in news sharing patterns on social media. It finds that news editors have considerable power to shape the social media agenda through the use of "story importance cues" but also shows that there are some areas of news reporting (such as those related to crime and disasters) where this power does not apply. This highlights the existence of a social "news gap" where social media filters out certain types of news, producing a social media news agenda which has important differences from its traditional counterpart. The discussion suggests that this may be consequential for perceptions of crime and engagement with politics; it might even stimulate a partial reversal of the tabloidization of news outlets.


A description is given of SIS, an interactive tool for synthesis and optimization of sequential circuits. Given a state transition table or a logic-level description of a sequential circuit, SIS produces an optimized net-list in the target technology while preserving the sequential input-output behavior. Many different programs and algorithms have been integrated into SIS, allowing the user to choose among a variety of techniques at each stage of the process. It is built on top of MISII and includes all (combinational) optimization techniques therein as well as many enhancements. SIS serves as both a framework within which various algorithms can be tested and compared and as a tool for automatic synthesis and optimization of sequential circuits.<<ETX>>


The Phaistos disk was made in the time following the expedition to the country of Punt, organized by Queen Hatshepsut. That is, in the Middle Kingdom, which coincides with the conclusions of other researchers of the artifact. The country of manufacture was most likely Egypt, which can be assumed, given the similarity of the disk signs and Egyptian hieroglyphs, as well as the presence of an outstanding sculptural and ceramic tradition in the country of the pharaohs. The manufacturing technology was the same for the disk, as for other clay products of the time, and there is no reason to consider the issue of seals (stamps) as a special form of processing this unique subject. Purpose of the disk: with caution, we assume that it was an object that serves to receive predictions. The signs most likely represent pictographic records, so the question of the language of the disc does not arise. For the same reason, it does not seem significant to consider the problem of the direction in which characters are read: in logograms, the order of the icons may not matter.


Effective communication creates a positive working environment and thus increases the job performance of the staff. However, the absence of proper communication between the members of an organisation or a company would result in failure to achieve the agreement while working. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how perceptual factors, verbal, and non-verbal communication can be barriers to effective communication in the workplace. A set of questionnaires is used and distributed to workers of various industries in different companies. It consists of five parts: the demographic profile, verbal communication, non-verbal communication, work environment, and organisational values. A total of ninety-four (94) responses are received and recorded. Findings reveal how perceptual, verbal, and non-verbal factors influence the flow of communication in the workplace. Consequently, the findings of this study can help employers and employees to improve communication at all levels for the betterment of the work performance of all workers.


Abstract Whether or not word sense disambiguation (WSD) can improve information retrieval (IR) results represents a topic that has been intensely debated over the years, with many inconclusive or contradictory conclusions. The most rarely used type of WSD for this task is the unsupervised one, although it has been proven to be beneficial at a large scale. Our study builds on existing research and tries to improve the most recent unsupervised method which is based on spectral clustering. It investigates the possible benefits of "helping" spectral clustering through feature selection when it performs sense discrimination for IR. Results obtained so far, involving large data collections, encourage us to point out the importance of feature selection even in the case of this advanced, state of the art clustering technique that is known for performing its own feature weighting. By suggesting an improvement of what we consider the most promising approach to usage of WSD in IR, and by commenting on its possible extensions, we state that WSD still holds a promise for IR and hope to stimulate continuation of this line of research, perhaps at an even more successful level.


Adult intussusception due to Meckel's diverticulum (MD) is an uncommon cause of intestinal obstruction. However, the surgeon should still be suspicious of this condition since the non specific symptoms and the rarity of it make a preoperative diagnosis uncertain. Considering the secondary nature of adult intussusception and the necessity of early surgical intervention to avoid morbidity and mortality, we report two cases of intussusception due to MD in adults. A diverticulectomy using a TA stapler was performed in the first patient. In the second patient extensive fibrosis of the adjacent mesentery and thickening of jejunal mucosa were observed, so a segmental resection of the small bowel or affected ileal part and a hand-sewn anastomosis was performed. The postoperative period along with the long term follow-up was uneventful for both patients. The decision between diverticulectomy vs bowel resection can be based on the intussuscepted bowel condition. Early surgical intervention may ensure a favorable outcome.


The purpose of this research is to explore spirituality in relation to the negative impacts of unemployment, such as depressive symptomatology and loneliness in connection with the five factor personality model. In particular, we wanted to investigate whether the unemployed individuals with higher levels of spirituality have lower depressive symptomatology and loneliness, but also to examine how these variables are related to personality factors. Our sample consisted of 133 unemployed individuals who completed the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, the Assessment of Spirituality and Religious Sentiments (ASPIRES), the UCLA loneliness scale and the Questionnaire of self evaluated Depressive Symptomatology. The results showed that there was no significant association between depressive symptomatology and spirituality, while concerning loneliness and spirituality, a significant negative correlation was found, only in relation to the spirituality dimension of universality. Significant correlations were also shown between spirituality and personality factors, such as openness to experience and agreeableness, whilst significant correlations arose between personality factors and the three dimensions of spirituality. Finally, results are discussed.


During the last decades there has been an increased interest regarding socially responsible stock indexes. However, there is a limitless literature body regarding the factors that affect these types of indexes. For this reason, this paper intends to investigate whether consumer sentiment, US dollar value to major currencies and gold prices affecting the returns of Dow Jones sustainability index (DJSI) US from September 1999 to September 2016 using monthly data. The generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model is used and revealed that consumer sentiment affect positively the DJSI US, while gold prices and the US dollar value have a negative effect on it. The results of this study add to the international literature by providing important implications for investors and policy makers along with business manager forecasting and planning.


: This paper reports a case of cervical vertebral body deformation with gradually worsening posterior paresis in a Great Dane. The ventrocranial part of the body of the seventh cervical vertebra was severely eroded and deformed. This vertebra was tilted in relation to the sixth cervical vertebra producing a stenosis of the spinal canal which was demonstrated by myelography. Spondylolisthesis of the second type of G e a r y's classification was diagnosed. 99mTc-polyphosphate showed no concentration in the affected vertebra as would be found where bony tissues of different maturities are present, indicating the lack of effective repair. Dorsal hemilaminectomy resulted in no improvement.


Sustainable development is a complex societal problem belonging to the field of societal complexity and must be handled according to the scientific ideas of this field. Sustainability includes agricultural and industrial production as well as production ways. Capitalism tolerates differences in power, wealth and work. To reach a more sustainable society, capitalism should be socially based and democratically controlled by international organisations. Whether it is possible to develop a sustainable world should be carefully explored in multidisciplinary workshops using the concept of quality of life operationalised by cultural, social and economic capital. The complex process of organising societies towards a sustainable world can be guided by using the Compram methodology. The Compram methodology is developed to analyse, define, guide and evaluate complex societal problems. By using the guidelines of this methodology, one can find the causes of complex problems and suggests directions for change.


The evaluation of complex systems-wide public health interventions requires evaluation research that is underpinned by theory. This article presents and discusses the trans-disciplinary evaluation research framework developed to support the evaluation of a South Australian program called OPAL (Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle). The aim is to provide insights into the research design, methods and implementation of the evaluation and contribute to the debate on how to evaluate community-based interventions with complicated and complex aspects. In an attempt to capture the complexity of childhood obesity and the intervention, the OPAL evaluation research employs post positivist, interpretive and critical epistemologies, valuing epistemological pluralism. Each component of the multi-phase mixed methods evaluation captures different yet complementary information concerning the context, process, cost effectiveness and outcomes providing a more complete understanding of the impacts of the complex program. Evaluation research is not without challenges. Some of the tensions and challenges that arose in the establishment, planning and conduct of the OPAL program and evaluation are discussed.


Multiple description coding (MDC) has emerged as a powerful technique for reliable real-time communications over lossy packet networks. In its basic form, it involves encoding media into m substreams that are routed independently towards a given destination. Each substream can be decoded independently and with every successful reception of a substream, the overall quality of the decoded signal is improved. In this paper, we consider the problem of placing a set of servers in the network such that a desired QoS can be provided to a community of clients that request MDC coded traffic. Specifically, we consider the server placement (SP) problem where the goal is to identify the "optimal" server positions and associated set of client-server paths such that if MDC content is placed at these servers a cost function that is a linear combination of average delay and path disjointness is minimized. We propose an MILP formulation and a highly efficient heuristic to solve the SP problem. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm and compare it with the optimal solution obtained by using the MILP solution.


A vertical Kelvin test structure, which can be used to measure the true specific contact resistivity of a metallization system, is proposed and studied. For this test structure, the driving current flows "vertically," thus the sheet resistance and current crowding effects are eliminated and measurement on the true specific contact resistivity becomes possible. Experimental works show that this test structure gives a more linear relation between resistance and contact area than the conventional six-terminal test structure.


This course is a survey of the history of America from the colonial era to the Civil War and Reconstruction period. Emphasis is placed on the origins of American political system & the social, cultural, economic, and diplomatic development of the U.S.


Summary: Bacillus amyloliquefaciens took up inorganic ions from the medium during growth. Their distribution between the cytoplasmic fraction and the envelope varied from almost exclusively cytoplasmic to completely envelope-bound in the order: K+, 4·7%; Mg2+, 32·0%; phosphate, 60·2%; Na+, 80.4%; Ca2+, 96·1%; and Cl−, 100% envelope-bound. During the transition from minimum to maximum rate of extracellular enzyme secretion the intracellular levels of the following ions were unchanged at K+, 583±54 mm; phosphate, 459±40 mm; Mg2+, 56±6 mm; and Na+ 22±4 mm.


Sedentary behavior (sitting time) has been proposed as an independent risk factor for some cancers; however, its role in the development of prostate cancer has not been determined. We examined the prospective associations of self-reported daily sitting time and daily television/video viewing time with the risk of developing or dying from prostate cancer among 170,481 men in the NIH–AARP Diet and Health Study. We estimated HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using Cox proportional hazards regression. Between 1996 and 2006, there were 13,751 incident (including 1,365 advanced) prostate cancer cases identified; prostate cancer mortality (through 2008) was 669. No strong or significant association with prostate cancer risk was seen in fully adjusted models for either daily sitting or television/video time. There were some suggestions of effect modification by body mass index (BMI; interaction for television/video time and BMI, P = 0.02). For total prostate cancer risk, television/video time was associated with a slightly elevated, but nonsignificant, increase amongst obese men (HR = 1.28; 95% CI, 0.98–1.69); a null association was observed amongst overweight men (HR = 1.04; 0.89–1.22); and, for men with a normal BMI, television/video time was associated with a nonsignificant risk decrease (HR = 0.82; 95% CI, 0.66–1.01). Similar patterns were observed for total daily sitting and television/video time in advanced prostate cancer and prostate cancer mortality. Sedentary behavior seems to play a limited role in the development of prostate cancer; however, we cannot rule out potential effect modification by BMI or the impact of measurement error on results. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(5); 882–9. ©2014 AACR.


In this paper, a preliminary investigation of Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) for algorithmic intraday trading is conducted. CGP is a recent new variant of genetic programming that differs from traditional approaches in a number of ways, including being able to evolve programs with limited size and with multiple outputs. CGP is used to evolve a predictor for intraday price movements, and trading strategies using the evolved predictors are evaluated along three dimensions (return, maximum drawdown and recovery factor) and against four different financial datasets (the Euro/US dollar exchange rate and the Dow Jones Industrial Average during periods from 2006 and 2010). We show that CGP is capable in many instances of evolving programs that, when used as trading strategies, lead to modest positive returns.


Abstract. Tests were carried out to absorb cold lymphocytotoxic antibodies on different types of cells. These included lymphocytes and neuraminidase‐treated lymphocytes from healthy donors, thymocytes from children undergoing open heart surgery, fetal thymocytes, human brain and cultured lymphocytes. The results showed these antibodies to be absorbed on some types of cells and eluted from others. The best absorption was obtained with fetal thymocytes and brain tissue.


This paper is a sequel to the analysis of finite-step approxima- tions in solving controlled Markov set-chains for infinite horizon discounted reward by the author. For average-reward-controlled Markov set-chains with finite state and action spaces, we develop a value-iteration-type algo- rithm and analyze an error bound relative to the optimal average reward that satisfies an optimality equation from the successive approximation under an ergodicity condition. We further analyze an error bound of the rolling horizon control policy defined from a finite-step approximate value by applying the value-iteration-type algorithm. Index Terms—Controlled Markov process, Markov set-chain, rolling horizon, value iteration.


The effects on cellular structures of products of peroxidation of rat liver microsomal lipids were investigated. A system containing actively peroxidizing liver microsomal fraction was separated from a revealing or target system by a dialysis membrane. The target system, contained in the dialysis tube, consisted of either intact cells (erythrocytes) or subcellular fractions (liver microsomal fraction). When liver microsomal fractions were incubated with NADPH (or an NADPH-generating system), lipid peroxidation, as measured by the amount of malonaldehyde formed, occurred very rapidly. The malon-aldehyde concentration tended to equilibrate across the dialysis membrane. When the target system consisted of erythrocytes, haemolysis occurred abruptly after a lag phase. The lysis was greatly accelerated when erythrocytes from vitamin E-deficient rats were used, but no haemolysis was observed when erythrocytes from vitamin E-treated rats were used. When, in the same system, freshly prepared liver microsomal fractions were exposed to diffusible factors produced by lipid peroxidation, the glucose 6-phosphatase activity markedly decreased. A similar decrease in glucose 6-phosphatase activity, as well as a smaller but significant decrease in cytochrome P-450, was observed when the target microsomal fractions were exposed to diffusible factors derived from the peroxidation of liver microsomal lipids in a separate preincubation step. These and additional experiments indicated that the toxicological activity is relatively stable. Experiments in which the hepatic microsomal fractions destined for lipid peroxidation contained radioactively labelled arachidonic acid, previously incorporated into the membranes, showed that part of the radioactivity released from the microsomal fraction into the incubation medium entered the dialysis tube and was recovered bound to the constituents of the microsomal fractions of the target system. These results indicate that during the course of the peroxidation of liver microsomal lipids toxic products are formed that are able to induce pathological effects at distant loci.


Welfare state reform in times of austerity is notoriously difficult because most citizens oppose retrenchment of social benefits. Governments, thus, tend to combine cutbacks with selective benefit expansions, thereby creating trade-offs: to secure new advantages, citizens must accept painful cutbacks. Prior research has been unable to assess the effectiveness of compensating components in restrictive welfare reforms. We provide novel evidence on feasible reform strategies by applying conjoint survey analysis to a highly realistic direct democratic setting of multidimensional welfare state reform. Drawing on an original survey of Swiss citizens' attitudes toward comprehensive pension reform, we empirically demonstrate that built-in trade-offs strongly enhance the prospects of restrictive welfare reforms. Our findings indicate that agency matters: governments and policy makers can and must grant the right compensations to the relevant opposition groups to overcome institutional inertia.


Following the submission by Harrison Pitt Architects of a planning application (reference 1/03/00781/FUL) to redevelop the existing building of Hornby Village Institute, Main Road, Hornby, Lancashire (SD 58556 68296), Lancashire County
Archaeology Service (LCAS) issued a formal brief recommending that an archaeological watching brief be conducted during any associated groundworks.
Following submission and approval of a project design, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned to undertake the watching brief. This was undertaken
in two phases between 15th and 23rd June 2005 and 18th and 25th July 2005 during the
excavation of wall footings and an elevator shaft (OA North 2005). During these works, a possible medieval plough soil, layer 104, was revealed in the garden area to the south of the existing building, from which a number of bulk samples for general biological assessment were taken.
Following the assessment for charred and waterlogged plant remains from plough soil 104, in consultation with LCAS, recommendations were made for full palaeoenvironmental analysis of the material from this context. Very little
palaeoenvironmental work has been undertaken on material from the Lune valley and there is a similar lack of medieval/post-medieval records from the North West in
general; it was, therefore, felt that the further analysis of the plant remains would significantly add to our understanding of the past ecology and economy of the area.


We consider the theory of regression on a manifold using reproducing kernel Hilbert space methods. Manifold models arise in a wide variety of modern machine learning problems, and our goal is to help understand the effectiveness of various implicit and explicit dimensionality-reduction methods that exploit manifold structure. Our first key contribution is to establish a novel nonasymptotic version of the Weyl law from differential geometry. From this we are able to show that certain spaces of smooth functions on a manifold are effectively finite-dimensional, with a complexity that scales according to the manifold dimension rather than any ambient data dimension. Finally, we show that given (potentially noisy) function values taken uniformly at random over a manifold, a kernel regression estimator (derived from the spectral decomposition of the manifold) yields minimax-optimal error bounds that are controlled by the effective dimension.


The aim of the current study is to develop Levofloxacin loaded microemulsion formulated with mustard oil for better skin penetration effect and to obtain combined effect of both the oil and the drug to improve the efficacy with a reduced dose. Primarily we developed a pseudo ternary phase diagrams to find out the region of microemulsion formation zone by using oil (mustard oil), surfactant (Tween 20 and Tween 80), and co-surfactant (propylene glycol) by water titration method. We formulated six different formulations (MM1-MM6) by varying the concentrations of the oil water and surfactant and cosurfactant ratio. The developed microemulsion formulation was characterized for various parameters % Transmittance, viscosity, pH, drug content, surface morphology, zeta potential, and in-vitro drug release study. The selected microemulsion formulation is further converted in to microemulgel by dispersing the ME into 2%w/W Carbopol gel (MM-G) and various parameters are evaluated for the gel. The antimicrobial efficacy was carried out for ME and Microemulgel by well diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC: 737) compared with the standard streptomycin which showed that MM3 and MM-G have a better antimicrobial effect than standard proved that the drug levofloxacin and the mustard oil shows the synergistic effect in the Microemulsion formulation with better skin penetration effect.


Pheromone-driven sex recognition has been widely documented in crayfish and a great deal of evidence supports the involvement of pheromones in their mating behaviour. This study investigates whether sexual interaction and mating success in the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii are dependent on short-distance chemical communication between sexes, mediated by urine-borne pheromones. We compared the mating behaviour of intact animals that could release urine to chemically communicate in a natural way with that of urine-blocked animal pairs, for which chemical communication was precluded. Our results show that urine-borne pheromones are not critical for the reproductive success of P. clarkii, at least over the short-range distance (<1 m) considered in this study, during which the animals were confined in a restricted tank, facing one each other, and thus able to promptly mate. Under these experimental conditions, a lack of urine release neither precluded the occurrence, nor affected the duration of the different phases of mating behaviour. We conclude that short-distance chemical communication in P. clarkii is not a prerequisite for mating, and suggest that it could be affected by alternative sensory modalities, likely vision and/or acoustic signalling. No n-c om me rci al us e o nly


The vitamin D status of 179 Korean women between the ages of 20 and 75 were measured by the use of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Related biochemical indices such as iPTH, alkaline, phosphatase, creatinine, albumin, Ca, Mg, and P were also measured. Factors such as demographic characteristics, intake of foods containing vitamin D, and proxy measure of sunlight exposure (time spent outdoors) were assessed to determine their effect on vitamin D status and used in the analysis. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to define reference data for the distribution of vitamin D status and to explore the relationship between vitamin D and the variables that affect the vitamin D status in Korean women. The second was to analyze the risk factors of the vitamin D status and the relation between the factors. The results of this study will provide valuable information regarding the role of vitamin D in Korean women. The mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) level was 25.8 ng/ml. Of the total subjects, 16.5% showed vitamin D deficiency (i.e. s-25-OHD < 10 ng/ml). Serum 25-OHD was inversely related to iPTH and alkaline phophatase. There were significant changes in serum 25-OHD level from the pre- to the post-menopausal women with a positive correlation between vitamin D intake and serum at the 25-OHD level. Significant seasonal variation of serum 25-OHD and PTH were noted in 26 of the subjects and the serum 25-OHD level also correlated with sunlight exposure especially at 12.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m. as assessed by the time spent outdoors. The relative importance of the two sources of vitamin D such as dietary intake (33.6% explained) and endogenous production of the time spent outdoors (19.7% explained) in serum 25-OHD were also evaluated. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the effects of aging on serum 25-OHD could largely be accounted for. Both the decline in dietary vitamin D intake and the time spent outdoors were closely related to the decreasing serum 25-OHD level. Among the determinants of low serum 25-OHD were age, dietary vitamin D intake, serum calcium level and dietary calcium intake, and serum alkaline phosphatase.


The items of equipment comprising a radioisotope imaging system are briefly described, namely the Ohio-Nuclear 8100 gamma camera, the Varian 620/10-100 minicomputer, the interface and the colour T.V. display, together with the relevant software. The performance of the imaging system was analysed by line spread functions using 99mTc from which the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) and the Modulation Transfer Functions (M.T.F.) were calculated. In this way spatial frequency response was determined at different distances from the "High Resolution" and "Ultra High Resolution" collimators in air. The effect on overall spatial resolution of the number of computer memory locations used for image storage was investigated by adjusting the gain of the A.D.C. in the X direction to 1, 2, 4 and 16 times normal gain and the M.T.F.'s were calculated. The calculation of the M.T.F. was done by using a program written in BASIC. A study was carried out of the application of the mini-computer interfaced to the gamma camera in improving diagnosis for static images. The simple methods of image processing, namely smoothing and spatial frequency filtering, were used. Smoothing was done on a 3 x 3 matrix (nine point smoothing) by the smoothing function suggested by Nakamura et al (1973). Spatial frequency filtering was done on a 5 x 5 matrix (twenty five point filtering) and the weighting factors were obtained from the 99mTc point source at the appropriate distances from the High Resolution collimator. A liver phantom was made with simulated lesions of various sizes, shapes and activity ratios and pictures were taken on Polaroid and recorded on magnetic tape. A comparison of Black and White Polaroid and two modes of colour T.V. display of the raw data and the effect of smoothing and smoothing plus filtering were obtained from the Receiver Operating Characteristic curves using a group of people to look at these pictures. The program for image processing and image display were written in ASSEMBLY language. The results of the line source studies show that at the surface of Ultra High Resolution collimator the FWHM is 5.8 mm whereas for the High Resolution collimator it is 6.5 mm or in terms of the M.T.P. the spatial frequencies for 10/0 response are 1.4 and 1.25 cycle/cm respectively. The study of the effect of the computer matrix on resolution proves that using a 64 x 64 matrix to record the image is inadequate. The resolution is improved by a 128 x 128 matrix and even better up to 1024 x 1024, if available. The 99mTc point source study proves that smoothing causes some loss of resolution whereas filtering restores the image closer to the original distribution but creates some arte-facts. Prom the results of the "liver" phantom studies, the percentage of true positive against false positive at the confidence level "definite" for each method of display area Polaroid 27/1, T.V. raw data, linear scale 43/2, T.V. raw data statistical scale plus or minus one standard deviation 41/3. T.V. raw data, smoothing 63/3, and T.V. raw data smoothing plus filtering 69/2. When the raw data is displayed in a statistical scale of plus or minus one standard deviation (full band equals two standard deviations), the detestability is slightly less than xiv that of raw data displayed in linear scale. However, the response of the observers to the colour television display is better than Polaroid at all levels of confidence and if either smoothing or smoothing plus filtering is applied to the unprocessed images, the detectability is improved.


Chikitsa is a process which not only aims at the radical removal of the causative factors of the disease, but also at the restoration of the Dhatu Samyata. It is broadly classified into Shodhana and Shamana Chikitsa. Panchakarma considered under Shodhana Chikitsa includes a specially designed five procedures for internal purification of the body. Panchakarma helps in reversal of the pathology by drawing morbid doshas from Shakha to Koshta and eliminating the same through the nearest possible route. In this process, there will be influence of the procedure at both Somatic and Psychological levels. In order to get optimum therapeutic effect of Panchakarma, in order to provide a favorable environment for the procedure to act on the body as well as to ensure the safety of the patient in preventing any complications that may arise either during or after the treatment, a set of rules and regulations pertaining to Ahara, Vihara and Manasika bhavas are to be followed by the client undergoing the Panchakarma. Among these, the Ashtamahadoshakarabhavas also called as Ashtamahavarjyakarabhavas are of paramount importance and creating the awareness in the patient undergoing panchakarma to avoid these eight impediments facilitates the attainment of optimum therapeutic effect without any complications. Henceforth, it is very important to have a thorough knowledge of Ashtamahadoshakarabhavas and its complications as well as its treatment.


A Research Project Submitted to the School of Education in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Education of Kenyatta University. November 2016


Recently, the application field of the pressure measurement technique using pressure sensitive paint (PSP) has been expanding. However, the temperature dependence of PSP is a serious obstacle to accurate pressure measurement in low gauge pressure conditions because PSP is an absolute pressure sensor. Therefore, the temperature information of PSP is indispensably required for accurate pressure measurement, especially in low gauge pressure conditions. As a result, both temperature information and pressure information with a function of temperature are required simultaneously to use the PSP in low gauge pressure conditions. Dual-layer PSP/temperature sensitive paint (TSP) (DL-PTSP) is one solution, but simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature requires two optical filters to separate the luminescence of PSP and TSP, resulting in complex equipment and additional error caused by parallax. To solve the problem, we introduce a lifetime-based method for DL-PTSP that allows simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature. It is a method which separates each component of luminescence with different lifetimes. Firstly, the DL-PTSP developed in this study was optimized by reducing the luminescence intensity of the PSP with a longer lifetime while maintaining the luminescence intensity of the TSP with a shorter lifetime, considering the lifetime measurement method. Secondly, we have clarified the optimum time conditions of the monolayer TSP and the monolayer PSP by analysing their luminescence decay process, by controlling the irradiation delay of the light source relative to the camera shutter. Thirdly, the sensitivity of the DL-PTSP was examined using conditions optimized for mono-layer TSP and PSP. The luminescence decay of the TSP component shows sufficient temperature dependence, while the pressure dependence is very small. On the other hand, the dependence of the luminescence decay of the PSP component on the temperature and pressure is almost equal to that of the mono-layer PSP. The results confirm the feasibility of the simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature using DL-PTSP.


Introduction: Decades of political and social unrest negatively impacted medical education in Iraq. Recently, new opportunities arose for medical schools to engage international education organizations and the World Health Organization to implement medical school curriculum changes, replacing older discipline-based, teacher-focused systems with a systems-based, student-focused reformed curriculum. Methods: A descriptive, cross sectional quantitative study was designed to survey medical students near the beginning (years 2-3) and at near the end (years 5-6) of their six-year program at the Al Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Iraq. Results: A validated questionnaire collected data on thirty-two issues, including student perception of learning, student perception of teachers, academic self-perception and student self-perception. Seven of the thirty-two questions included in this survey resulted in significantly different responses from group 1 (second and third year) vs group 2 (fifth and sixth year) students. Conclusions: This study concluded that the two student groups were significantly different in their awareness of the need for curriculum change, but that student self-perception in both groups was less than ideal at present. In the future, studies are planned to assess student confidence in their professional development, as teaching institutions advance toward broader accreditation and thus opportunities for their students.


This thesis focuses on pro-kurdish activism in Turkey during 2005–2009. It is based on a large number of interviews conducted with activists within the Diyarbakir area. The form of activism that this study seeks to describe is civil and political activism conducted within the legal framework ofTurkey's judicial system and international law.The purpose of this thesis is to examine what kind of resistance strategies are used by pro-Kurdish political activists in Turkey, focusing on how these strategies are reflected in the language used by the respondents. The main question posed in the thesis is: What resistance strategies are used within the pro-Kurdish movement in Turkey? Two additional questions were also posed in order to make it possible to answer the main question. The first of these is: What external conditions influence pro-Kurdish mobilization in Turkey during the study's time frame? In order to answer this question a theoretical framework is used that includes theories about ethnopolitical mobilization and political opportunity structures. The second question is: What resistance strategies are reflected in the language used by the pro-Kurdish activists?An important resistance strategy used by the pro-Kurdish activists is to adapt the language used in public communication to the legal and political environment in which they find themselves. They make linguistic choices in order to convey political messages while minimizing the legal consequences of doing so. The resistance strategies reflected in the interviews with the activists also include efforts to build organizations and cooperations at different levels, ranging from the international to the local level. Resistance strategies also include choices regarding what medium and language to use in promoting pro-Kurdish politics.


The advanced video coding (AVC) standard H.264 achieves better video compression performance compared with the previous standards, and one of major features is variable block sizes based mode decision (MD). However, the computational complexity is one key challenge for the high efficient compression. Taking into consideration the statistical characteristics and the adaptive adjustment, a fast Inter MD algorithm is proposed in this paper. The proposed MD algorithm is effective, and it is easy to implement. The simulation results show that the new algorithm reduces 20% processing time on average. Mostly, the losses of video are around 0.02 dB, and the increase of bitrate can be limited less than 1%.


The aim of the study is to present the influence of quench rate on the artificial ageing response of Al-8%Si-0.4%Mg cast alloy in terms of Brinell hardness and yield strength. The investigated material was produced by a gradient solidification technique and exhibited a microstructure that corresponds to the one of gravity die castings, with a dendrite arm spacing of approximately 25 µm. The study comprises two solution treatment temperatures, five quench rates and artificial ageing times exceeding 100 hours at 170 and 220 °C. The microstructure and concentration profiles of Mg and Si were evaluated using energy and wavelength dispersive spectroscopy. Microstructural examination reveals an increment of solutes in the Al-matrix when higher solution treatment temperatures accompanied with high quench rates are applied and shows how both Si and Mg atoms have diffused towards the eutectic during quenching. Consequently, i.e. by increasing the levels of solutes and vacancies, the highest strength levels were realized. The study confirmed that quench rates above 2 °C /s do not offer substantial strength improvement while quenching at lower rates resulted in a lower peak hardness and longer times to peak


People with a higher level of education are consistently over-represented among cultural participants. According to the instruction model, schools educate students to participate in cultural activities. The higher the level of education, the longer the period that is spent at school. This means that more highly educated people do in fact receive more instruction that enables them to obtain cultural competence. The selection model, on the other hand, argues that students in secondary education are selected by intellectual capacities, cultural interest and parental background. These mechanisms of selection each form (related) explanations for the over-representation of more highly educated people among cultural participants. Empirical support for neither of the models is conclusive. In 1999, of a new form of compulsory arts education was introduced in secondary education in the Netherlands. The course is called 'CKV' (in Dutch: 'Culturele en Kunstzinnige Vorming', which can be translated as 'Cultural and Artistic Education'). CKV is directly aimed at stimulating students' participation in cultural activities. The introduction of CKV offers a unique opportunity to examine the effects of education and schooling on cultural participation, because the course is compulsory for all students. In the past, arts education in the second stage of secondary school was offered only to those students who had chosen arts education as part of their examination courses – in other words, to those who already had an interest in the arts. In the case of CKV, we can more effectively disentangle the instruction and selection effects of arts education. The broad formulation of the examination programme allows schools and teachers much freedom to determine the contents and organization of the course. This provides an opportunity to study the consequences of different didactical approaches. In order to examine the effects of arts education on students' cultural participation and attitude towards arts and culture during and after secondary education, we used a panel study. The study consists of data relating to 3897 students with and without CKV, from one of their parents and from their CKV teachers. The students come from 72 secondary schools in 14 municipalities in the Netherlands. Results show that CKV students do attend more cultural activities than those who are not following the course. This accounts to a large extent for participation in high culture activities such as visiting a museum, theatre, cabaret, classical concert and ballet, and to a lesser extent for participation in popular culture (e.g. films, pop concerts, DJ-VJ events and festivals). Under the influence of CKV, no transformation was seen in the students' attitude towards arts and culture. No instruction effects of CKV on cultural participation have been identified in the period from two to six years after graduating from secondary education, nor were there any effects that can be attributed to variations in instruction by CKV teachers during the course. It seems that the effects of educational level on cultural participation cannot be attributed to arts education in secondary education. However, CKV1 neither reduces nor reinforces social inequalities with regard to cultural participation in society


This article is devoted to the study of foreign criminal law providing for liability for information security offences. The relevance of that problem is driven by the intensifying IT development and globalization, under which both information security of a separate state and international information security may not be achieved by the efforts of a single state. Efforts need to be consolidated, and a uniform approach to the solution of that matter needs to be worked out. The author stresses that in the Russian Federation and in most foreign countries there is no systematic approach to criminal law protection of information security except for the Republic of Poland. In most foreign criminal codes JIBC April 2016, Vol. 21, No.S3 - 2 - (CC), the provisions on information security protection are spread all over Special parts. In most foreign countries, offences against confidentiality of professional and official secrets are criminalized, while in the Civil Code of the RF such provisions are missing. Meantime, foreign criminal law does not specify separate elements of crimes in order to protect tax secrets. Criminal law protection of state secret is solved differently in foreign countries: via detailed regulation for state secret offences and under totally missing respective provisions in CC. Regarding cybercrime, the CIS countries used to apply the uniform approach to criminalization of respective elements of crime as criminal laws of most of them adopted the provisions of Model Criminal Code of the CIS member states. However, in future, due to the amendments of articles providing for liability for cybercrime that approach was lost. In foreign countries, along with the traditional illegal access to computer information, the liability is provided for computer sabotage, computer fraud. The author opines that a systematic approach is required to criminal law protection both in the Russian Federation and in foreign countries. Only uniform, joint, consolidated acts may efficiently serve to fight information security offences.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the mycobiome of the oral cavity in healthy dogs and dogs with various stages of periodontal disease.

ANIMALS
51 dogs without periodontal disease (n = 12) or with mild (10), moderate (19), or severe (10) periodontal disease.

PROCEDURES
The whole maxillary arcade of each dog was sampled with a sterile swab, and swabs were submitted for next-generation DNA sequencing targeting the internal transcribed spacer 2 region with a commercial sequencing platform.

RESULTS
Fungi were detected in all samples, with a total of 320 fungal species from 135 families detected in the data set. No single fungal species was found in all samples. The 3 most frequently found fungal species were Cladosporium sp (46/51 samples), Malassezia restricta (44/51 samples), and Malassezia arunalokei (36/51 samples). Certain fungi, specifically those of the family Didymellaceae, the family Irpicaceae, and the order Pleosporales, were significantly associated with different stages of periodontitis. Mycobial analysis indicated that Cladosporium sp could be considered part of the core oral cavity mycobiome.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results highlighted that fungi are present in the oral cavity of dogs and are characterized by substantial species diversity, with different fungal communities associated with various stages of periodontal disease. The next-generation DNA sequencing used in the present study revealed substantially more species of fungi than previous culture-based studies.


We propose to study hadron-hadron scattering using lattice QCD in an asymmetric box which allows one to access more non-degenerate low-momentum modes for a given volume. The conventional Lüscher's formula applicable in a symmetric box is modified accordingly. To illustrate the feasibility of this approach, pion-pion elastic scattering phase shifts in the I = 2, J = 0 channel are calculated within quenched approximation using improved gauge and Wilson fermion actions on anisotropic lattices in an asymmetric box. After the chiral and continuum extrapolation, we find that our quenched results for the scattering phase shifts in this channel are consistent with the experimental data when the three-momentum of the pion is below 300MeV. Agreement is also found when compared with previous theoretical results from lattice and other means. Moreover, with the usage of asymmetric volume, we are able to compute the scattering phases in the low-momentum range (pion three momentum less than about 350MeV in the center of mass frame) for over a Preprint submitted to Elsevier 2 March 2008 dozen values of the pion three-momenta, much more than using the conventional symmetric box with comparable volume.


The formation of succinimide in proteins has attracted considerable attention in protein aging and biopharmaceutical research. The succinimide formation occurs spontaneously in proteins and is prone to hydrolysis to yield aspartate and isoaspartate, resulting in altered protein functions. Herein, we demonstrated that the coupling reagent 4-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-4-methylmorpholinium chloride (DMTMM) can mediate intramolecular cyclization of aspartic acid to form succinimide efficiently in the LL37-derived short antimicrobial peptide KR12. The formation of succinimide in KR12 was confirmed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. Moreover, the succinimide-containing KR12 displayed decreased antimicrobial activity, helicity, and serum stability in comparison with unmodified KR12. The succinimide formation usually changes the protein structure and function, and only in rare cases, it can help to maintain the protein stability. In addition to succinimide, DMTMM can also mediate intraresidue cyclization of N-terminal glutamate to form pyroglutamate. Our work thus provides a convenient and efficient method for preparation of succinimide/pyroglutamate-containing peptides, which can be used for studying their impact on peptide/protein function.


We propose a hybrid pulse position modulation/ultrashort light pulse code-division multiple-access (PPM/ULP-CDMA) system for ultrafast optical communications. The proposed system employs spectral CDMA encoding/decoding and PPM with very short pulse separation. The statistical properties of the encoded ULP are investigated with a general pulse model, and the performance of the proposed PPM/ULP-CDMA system is investigated. It is shown that we can improve upon the performance of other ULP-CDMA systems, such as those using on-off keying, by employing PPM. It is also shown that we can improve the performance of the proposed system by increasing the effective number of chips, by increasing the number of PPM symbols, and by reducing the ULP duration. The performance analysis shows that the aggregate throughput of the proposed PPM/ULP-CDMA system could be over 1 Tb/s.


In this paper we investigate a hypothesized cognitive bias for isomorphic mappings between conceptual structure and linear order in the noun phrase. This bias has been proposed as a possible explanation for a striking asymmetry in the typology of the noun phrase–linear orders which place the adjective closest to the noun, then the numeral, then the demonstrative, are over-represented in the world's languages. Previous experimental work has provided evidence that an isomorphism bias affects English-speaking learners' inferences about the relative order of modifiers in an artificial language. Here, we use the silent gesture paradigm to explore whether the isomorphism bias influences spontaneous gestures innovated by participants in a modality with which they have relatively little prior experience. We find that gesture string order largely conforms to the same striking pattern found in noun phrase typology, supporting the role of the isomorphism bias in shaping the emergence of language (and language-like) systems.


Motivated by the numerous healthcare applications of molecular communication inside blood vessels of the human body, this paper considers multiple relay/cooperative nanomachine (CN)-assisted molecular communication between a source nanomachine (SN) and a destination nanomachine (DN) where each nanomachine is mobile in a diffusion-advection flow channel. Using the first hitting time model, the impact of the intermediate CNs on the performance of the aforementioned system with fully absorbing receivers is comprehensively analyzed taking into account the presence of various degrading factors, such as inter-symbol interference, multi-source interference, and counting errors. For this purpose, the optimal decision rules are derived for symbol detection at each of the CNs and the DN. Furthermore, closed-form expressions are derived for the probabilities of detection and false alarm at each CN and DN, along with the overall end-to-end probability of error and channel achievable rate for communication between the SN and DN. Simulation results are presented to corroborate the theoretical results derived and also to yield insights into the system performance under various mobility conditions.


Analytic solutions for a sonoluminescing gas bubble have been obtained, which provide density, pressure, and temperature distributions for the gas inside a bubble oscillating under the ultrasonic field. The solutions have revealed that sonoluminescence should occur just prior to the bubble collapse and its duration is less than 300 ps and that increase and subsequent decrease in the bubble wall acceleration induces the quenching of gas followed by the substantial temperature rise up to 100 000 K which can be regarded as a thermal spike. The gas temperature inside the bubble near collapse is determined primarily by the amount of radiation heat loss. Shock formation during the bubble collapse is questionable because gas density, as well as pressure at the bubble center, are much greater than those at the bubble wall during this stage. It also turns out that the number of electrons ionized, the ion species, and the kinetic energy of electrons affect the spectrum of light emission crucially. The spectral radi...


In this article, the authors develop a new method of estimating multi-parameter term structure models using panel data. This technique involves recursively estimating some parameters along the cross-sectional dimension and the rest of the parameters along the time series dimension until convergence is achieved. By breaking down the parameter estimation process into two simpler procedures along these dimensions, the authors are able to isolate and solve common problems plaguing other methods such as quasi-maximum likelihood estimation via the Kalman filter. As a demonstration, they apply this technique successfully to the one-factor Vasicek and two-factor Cox–Ingersoll–Ross models using Fama–Bliss Treasury data. Simulation results indicate that this technique yields reasonable and robust parameter estimates for these models.


The model incorporates an infinite series of auctions for identical items (or close substitutes) ordered over time and bidders with unit demand. The participants of each auction are drawn from a dynamic pool, with losing bidders remaining in the pool of potential bidders. The number of bidders in each auction is unobservable. Risk‐neutral, forward‐looking bidders submit bids below valuation. A novel identification and estimation strategy is used to estimate the valuation distribution from an order statistic of the bids. The model is used to evaluate the efficiency of online auctions for a 60GB Apple iPod Video, compared to a perfect‐competition benchmark.


The skull, along with the pelvic bone, serves an important source of clues as to the sex of human skeletal remains. The frontal bone is one of the most significant sexually dimorphic structures employed in anthropological research, especially when studied by methods of virtual anthropology. For this reason, many new methods have been developed, but their utility for other populations remains to be verified. In the present study, we tested one such approach—the landmark‐free method of Bulut et al. (2016) for quantifying sexually dimorphic differences in the shape of the frontal bone, developed using a sample of the Turkish population. Our study builds upon this methodology and tests its utility for the Czech population. We evaluated the shape of the male and female frontal bone using 3D morphometrics, comparing virtual models of frontal bones and corresponding software‐generated spheres. To do so, we calculated the relative size of the frontal bone area deviating from the fitted sphere by less than 1 mm and used these data to estimate the sex of individuals. Using our sample of the Czech population, the method estimated the sex correctly in 72.8% of individuals. This success rate is about 5% lower than that achieved with the Turkish sample. This method is therefore not very suitable for estimating the sex of Czech individuals, especially considering the significantly greater success rates of other approaches.


Probiotics are defined as microbial food supplements which beneficially affect the host animal by improving its intestinal microbial balance. The probiotics were improved feed conversion for the target species, reduced morbidity or mortality and benefits for the consumer through improved product quality. In this study, we found that a combination of probiotics with different mechanisms of action could amplify the protective range of bio-therapeutic preparations and the potentiated probiotics are more effective than their components separately. Bacterial probiotics were effective in chickens, pigs and pre-ruminant calves, whereas yeasts and fungal probiotics were given better results in adult ruminants. Probiotics were enhanced the growth of many domestic animals improved the efficacy of forage digestion and quantity and quality of milk, meat and egg. Probiotics protected animals against pathogens, enhanced immune response, reduced antibiotic use and shows high index of safety. The trend for future could be focus on basic research to identify and characterize existing probiotics strains, determine optimal doses needed for certain strain and asses their stability through processing and digestion.


Background and Aims: Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) has been postulated to serve an important role in normal breast and breast carcinoma. On the other hand, studies on its common polymorphisms with breast cancer are very limited. In this study, we aimed to assess the presence and frequency of 4 common polymorphisms of the GR gene in the cancerous tissue samples from breast cancer patients in the Turkish population and compare them with healthy individuals. Methods: DNA samples from 86 Turkish female breast cancer patients and 86 healthy controls analysed for BclI, Tth111I, N363S and ER22/23EK polymorphisms of GR gene by PCR-RFLP. Results: N363S polymorphism was not observed in study samples. Frequency of BclI polymorphism did not differ between cases and controls but it associated with family history of cancer. The polymorphic allele frequency of Tth111I and ER22/23EK was found to be higher in cases compared to healthy samples (p<0.05). Also, a haplotype containing polymorphic variants of these two polymorphisms found to be associated with breast cancer. Conclusion: The data presented here suggest that polymorphisms of GR gene may be an important risk factor for breast cancer predisposition.


This article examines visions of cosmopolitanism that emerge in the most recent novels by Michelle Cliff: Free Enterprise (1993) and Into the Interior (2010). While Cliff's earlier works are preoccupied with questions of national political consciousness, her later novels are concerned with probing the possibility of forming transnational affiliations, in particular for members of postcolonial diaspora. Cliff's later work is traversed by a preoccupation with worldly consciousness and the internal conflicts that arise for the diasporic individual when local and global affiliations are at stake. The questions that this body of work explores are part of the ongoing inquiry into the specific nature of postcolonial cosmopolitanism.In Free Enterprise and Into the Interior, Cliff examines the affective conditions necessary for cosmopolitan affiliations not just to emerge but also to last. The figure that emerges in these novels is that of a reluctant cosmopolitan: that is, a subject who acknowledges the limitations of political commitment to a distant political cause that is based on the feeling of sympathy—commonly evoked in cosmopolitan thought—and its cognates: empathy, compassion, and pity. What Cliff suggestively posits, instead, is a form of political enthusiasm that is mediated in two ways: through aesthetic practice and through identification with an international history of resistance. Most notably, Into the Interior raises an important issue that extends beyond her work: namely, whether a particularly volatile affect such as enthusiasm can in fact be a basis for cosmopolitan political affiliations.


The aim of this paper is to particularly define the possibilities of influencing organisational culture by means of employee remuneration. The paper will present the results of research conducted over 2010–2012. The respondent group included 340 organisations operating in the Slovak Republic. The research showed that even though 98% of the interviewed organisations realise the importance and meaning of dealing with the creation and maintenance of organisational culture, only 21–43% have defined an organisational culture strategy in writing within the organisation´s strategy.


Background
This study aims to investigate the effect of time interval between coronary angiography and coronary artery bypass grafting surgery on postoperative acute kidney injury in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Methods
Between December 2013 and November 2016, a total of 421 diabetic patients (274 males, 147 females; mean age 60±9.2 years; range, 31 to 84 years) who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting were included in the study. Data including demographic characteristics of the patients, comorbidities, medical, and surgical histories, previous coronary angiographies, and operative and laboratory results were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into two groups as those with acute kidney injury (n=108) and those without acute kidney injury (n=313). The Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, End-Stage Kidney Disease (RIFLE) criteria were used to define acute kidney injury. The patients were further classified into three subgroups according to the time interval: 0-3 days, 4-7 days, and >7 days.

Results
There was no statistically significant difference in the median time between coronary angiography and coronary artery bypass grafting between the patients with and without acute kidney injury (11.5 and 12.0 days; respectively p=0.871). There was no significant difference in the risk factors for acute kidney injury among the subgroups. Multivariate analysis revealed that previous myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR]: 5.192, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.176-12.38; p<0.001) and the increase in the creatinine levels in the first postoperative day (OR: 4.102 and 95% CI: 1.278- 13.17; p=0.018) were independent predictors of acute kidney injury.

Conclusion
Coronary artery bypass grafting can be performed without any delay after coronary angiography without an increase in the postoperative risk of acute kidney injury in patients with diabetes mellitus.


Introduction In order to provide baseline data on genetic testing as a key element of personalised medicine (PM), Canadian physicians were surveyed to determine roles, perceptions and experiences in this area. The survey measured attitudes, practice, observed benefits and impacts, and barriers to adoption. Methods A self-administered survey was provided to Canadian oncologists, cardiologists and family physicians and responses were obtained online, by mail or by fax. The survey was designed to be exploratory. Data were compared across specialties and geography. Results The overall response rate was 8.3%. Of the respondents, 43%, 30% and 27% were family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists, respectively. A strong majority of respondents agreed that genetic testing and PM can have a positive impact on their practice; however, only 51% agreed that there is sufficient evidence to order such tests. A low percentage of respondents felt that they were sufficiently informed and confident practicing in this area, although many reported that genetic tests they have ordered have benefited their patients. Half of the respondents agreed that genetic tests that would be useful in their practice are not readily available. A lack of practice guidelines, limited provider knowledge and lack of evidence-based clinical information were cited as the main barriers to practice. Differences across provinces were observed for measures relating to access to testing and the state of practice. Differences across specialties were observed for the state of practice, reported benefits and access to testing. Conclusions Canadian physicians recognise the benefits of genetic testing and PM; however, they lack the education, information and support needed to practice effectively in this area. Variability in practice and access to testing across specialties and across Canada was observed. These results support a need for national strategies and resources to facilitate physician knowledge, training and practice in PM.


BACKGROUND
Endoscopic full-thickness resection (eFTR) of the colon using the full-thickness resection device (FTRD) is a novel method for removing lesions involving, or tethered to, deeper layers of the colonic wall. The UK FTRD Registry collected data from multiple centres performing this procedure. We describe the technical feasibility, safety and early outcomes of this technique in the UK.

METHODS
Data were collected and analysed on 68 patients who underwent eFTR at 11 UK centres from April 2015 to June 2019. Outcome measures were technical success, procedural time, specimen size, R0 resection, endoscopic clearance, and adverse events. Reported technical difficulties were collated.

RESULTS
Indications for eFTR included non-lifting polyps (29 cases), T1 tumour resection (13), subepithelial tumour (9), and polyps at the appendix base or diverticulum (17). Target lesion resection was achieved in 60/68 (88.2%). Median specimen size was 21.7 mm (10-35 mm). Histologically confirmed R0 resection was achieved in 43/56 (76.8%) with full-thickness resection in 52/56 (92.9%). Technical difficulties occurred in 17/68 (25%) and complications in 3/68 (5.9%) patients.

CONCLUSION
eFTR is a useful technique with a high success rate in treating lesions not previously amenable to endoscopic therapy. Whilst technical difficulties may arise, complication rates are low and outcomes are acceptable, making eFTR a viable alternative to surgery for some specific lesions.


Health promotion campaigns have advocated for individuals to 'eat a rainbow' of fruits and vegetables (FV). However, the literature has only focused on individual color pigments or individual health outcomes. This umbrella review synthesized the evidence on the health effects of a variety of color-associated bioactive pigments found in FV (carotenoids, flavonoids, betalains and chlorophylls), compared to placebo or low intakes. A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and CENTRAL was conducted on 20 October 2021, without date limits. Meta-analyzed outcomes were evaluated for certainty via the GRADE system. Risk of bias was assessed using the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine critical appraisal tools. A total of 86 studies were included, 449 meta-analyzed health outcomes, and data from over 37 million participants were identified. A total of 42% of health outcomes were improved by color-associated pigments (91% GRADE rating very low to low). Unique health effects were identified: n = 6 red, n = 10 orange, n = 3 yellow, n = 6 pale yellow, n = 3 white, n = 8 purple/blue and n = 1 green. Health outcomes associated with multiple color pigments were body weight, lipid profile, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, mortality, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Findings show that color-associated FV variety may confer additional benefits to population health beyond total FV intake.