The study introduced foreign and domestic situation of wireless sensor network technology in precision agriculture in detail. Applications of wireless sensor network are universal in foreign precision agriculture, however in its beginning stage in domestic agriculture. The function of domestic system based on wireless sensor network is usually positioning measurement and processing of agriculture elements, which does not meet final requirement of precision agriculture. The study designed a universal wireless sensor network for M2M combined intelligent communication technology and big agriculture machinery. The key technologies of wireless sensor network for M2M include development plan of ISA SP100.11a, spectrum technology based on DSSS, network technology based on net routing and low power radio frequency design, which can meet the real-time character, reliability, robustness and low energy consumption requirement of wireless communication in precision fruits. Moreover, the study presented several typical applications in precision fruits (including farming machine, water-saving irrigation machine and picking machine). With development of precision fruits in breadth and depth, integration application of wireless sensor network would have a widen prospect in the future.


Stellite 6 is cobalt based super alloy and is used extensively in applications requiring good wear, corrosion and heat resistance properties. Due to poor machinability and non-availability of machining processes design parameters Stellites are grouped as difficult-to-machine materials. Inadequate machined surfaces of stellite hard-faced components suffer immature fatigue failure. This paper concentrates on theoretical and experimental investigation of phenomena of reflection of cutting tool nose radius and effect of different nose radii of coated carbide inserts on surface roughness obtained in turning operations of Stellite 6. A possible theoretical model correlating nose radius and certain tool geometry to peak height (h) of surface texture has been discussed. The research finally reveals the carbide cutting tool with best suitable nose radius for the best possible output in machining Stellite 6 on the basis of surface roughness. A series of turning operations relevant to theoretical analysis have been carried out on a conventional lathe using each nose radius of coated carbide insert under various cutting conditions. Surface roughness (Ra) was evaluated for each sample by Stylus type Surtronic3+ instrument. The values of surface roughness were plotted against different cutting speeds, feed rates and depths of cut in graphical form and best values of surface roughness were recognized for each nose radius. The best values of surface roughness for feed rate, cutting speed and depth of cut were plotted against different nose radius to display the results in graphical forms. Optimal nose radius has been revealed using the optimum cutting regimes (previously published and some unpublished works of authors) which were recognized against the best values of surface roughness obtained. The final result representing a combination of optimal data has been created, which demonstrates a zone of optimal nose radii of carbide inserts that can be economically and effectively used for machining Stellite 6 with the best output. The output of this research may contribute for the machine manufacturing industries to achieve the best results in difficult-to-machine materials like Stellites.


Objective To evaluate segmental right ventricular (RV) dysfunction in pulmonary hypertension (PH) using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). Design Cross-sectional analysis in a retrospective cohort of consecutive adult patients. Setting Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Patients 192 patients with known or suspected PH undergoing right heart catheterisation and CMR. PH was defined as mean pulmonary artery pressure ≥25 mm Hg. Abnormal RV ejection fraction (RVEF) was defined as <50%. Patients were classified into: group 1 (no PH, normal RVEF; n=40), group 2 (PH, normal RVEF; n=41) or group 3 (PH, abnormal RVEF; n=111). Interventions CMR and right heart catheterisation within a 2-week interval. Main outcome measures On cine CMR images, the stack of RV short-axis views was divided into two equal halves. Basal and apical RVEF were calculated using Simpson's method, and a ratio of basal-to-apical RVEF (RVEFratio) was derived. Results Basal RVEF did not differ between groups 1 and 2 (63±8% vs 64±8%; p=1); however, patients in group 2 had significantly lower apical RVEF (46±13% vs 58±10%; p<0.01) and higher RVEFratio (median 1.4 vs 1.1; p<0.01). Both apical and basal RVEF were reduced in group 3 compared with groups 1 and 2 (p<0.01), and the RVEFratio increased with increasing PH severity (p<0.01 for trend). An apical RVEF <50% was more sensitive than global RV dysfunction for the detection of PH. Conclusions Apical dysfunction appears to occur before global RVEF decreases in chronic PH, potentially constituting an early and sensitive marker of RV dysfunction in this setting.


Variation in the relationship between gestation length and body mass can arise because different types of tissue require varying amounts of energy to build, and not all species build such tissues in the same proportions. Given that a pregnant female has a finite amount of energy, trade‐offs between investment in different tissues may occur. Here we examine if dental precocity accounts for variation in primate gestation length. If true, this could explain why folivorous species with precocial dentition have longer gestation lengths than predicted by neonatal brain and body mass. We compiled data on gestation length, neonate and adult female body and brain mass from the literature. We used published postcanine eruption schedules at 4 months of age and measured the total occlusal area as dental endowment to approximate dental precocity at birth. Species with embryonic delay in growth or altricial neonates were not considered because they represent grade shifts regarding gestation length. Consequently, our data were biased toward Simiiformes and Old World monkeys, specifically. We performed a phylogenetic generalized least squares regression (pGLS) of neonate brain mass in relation to neonate body mass, and a second pGLS with dental endowment as an additional predictor variable. Including dental endowment in the pGLS did not improve the model. Dental endowment did not systematically impact primate gestation length. Concordant with results from previous studies, this indicates that the energetically expensive period of tooth mineralization may occur postnatally. More data are required to examine if the results are typical across primates.


The Tevatron combination of searches for BEH boson and studies of its properties will be presented.
The searches use up to 10 fb-1 of Tevatron collider Run II data. We observe a significant excess of events in the mass range between 115 and 140 GeV/c2. The local significance corresponds to 3.1 Gaussian standard deviations at the mass of 125 GeV/c2. Furthermore, we separately combine
searches for BEH boson decaying to bbbar, tau pairs, W pairs, and photon pairs.
The observed signal strengths in all channels are consistent with the expectation for the
coupling of a SM Scalar boson of 125 GeV/c2.


Summary.  Introduction: Evaluation of modulators of the phenotypic expression of hemophilia may benefit from a scoring system that reflects several aspects of the clinical severity instead of only one dimension. Methods: We describe here how we constructed a composite Hemophilia Severity Score (HSS) and performed validation. The items in the HSS are annual incidence of joint bleeds, World Federation of Hemophilia Orthopedic joint score, and annual factor consumption. The latter two were adjusted for age at start of prophylaxis and body weight. Data for 100 adolescent or adult patients with hemophilia A or B in the mild, moderate or severe form without inhibitors were collected for the 1990–1999 period. We evaluated the reliability (multidimension property, test–retest) and validity (content, convergent, discriminant and known groups) of the score. Results: The HSS ranged from 0 to 0.94 and was higher in severe hemophilia A than severe hemophilia B (median 0.50 and 0.24; P = 0.031). The validation indicated that the HSS is reliable and reflective of the clinical severity of hemophilia. The presence of factor V G1691A or prothrombin G20210A polymorphisms was found in 13 patients. The clinical severity, measured as the HSS or each of the three components, appeared to be modified by prothrombin G20210A but not by FV G1691A. Conclusion: The HSS is a well‐defined tool that provides a comprehensive representation of the clinical severity of hemophilia in adults. It would be useful in larger studies on the assessment of modulators of the phenotypic expression of hemophilia.


- The paper describes issues in adopting inclusive growth policies in transition of economy in Sri Lanka. It assess the impact of various inclusive growth policies on sustainable development. Inclusion of all the segments of the society has accepted as a required factor of sustainable development and thus all the nations follow inclusive growth strategies as broad based growth, shared growth and pro-poor growth policies. As an emerging market economy, the successive governments of Sri Lanka followed this ideology and implemented various policies and programs in view of assuring growth with equity and equality of opportunities in production process. Broadly it includes various programs such as social and physical infrastructure development, agricultural development, industrial and institutional changes made under protective, liberal and neoliberal policy frameworks since independence in 1948. However, the impact of policy interventions on economic growth were not fascinating in terms of stability and sustainability due to various setbacks. The paper expects to review the outcome of policy interventions in terms of receiving stable GDP growth rate, equity, equality of opportunity and protection in market and employment transitions along with identifying policy implications on sustainable development. The analysis was based on counterfactual evaluation method of comparing key economic indicators at different policy regimes during 1960-2016 period. It includes key indicators i.e. GDP growth rate, per capita income, savings, poverty, employment and equity. The analysis based on ttime series data revealed that growth policies had an impact on increasing. GDP growth rate and per capita income with sufficient improvement in human development indices. Nonetheless the pace of GDP growth rate insufficient to boost the economy as in other developed economies. Continues budget deficit and imbalances in BOP, Low savings and reliance on foreign capital, deteriorating terms of trade and political instability led to peg the country with debt trap, that cussed as the main hinder for inclusive growth..


The asymptotic stability is investigated for a class of time-delay Cohen-Grossberg neural networks, either with or without parameter uncertainties. By introducing a novel Lyapunov functional with the ideal of delay fractioning, a new criterion of asymptotic stability is derived in terms of a linear matrix inequality (LMI), which can be efficiently solved via standard numerical software. The criterion proves to be less conservative and the conservatism could be notably reduced by thinning the delay fractioning. Two examples are provided to demonstrate the less conservatism and effectiveness of the proposed stability conditions.


Primary crystallization is the key reaction that controls the synthesis of nanostructured bulk volumes comprised of a high density (10 21 -10 23 m -3 ) of nanocrystals (7-20nm) within an amorphous matrix. The primary crystallization kinetics in response to the annealing and the deformation of amorphous Al alloys are assessed in specific sample types and selected thermal treatments to evaluate primary nanocrystallization reactions. All amorphous Al alloy compositions are hypereutectic so that the initial phase selection of primary Al proceeds at a reduced driving free energy compared to thermodynamically favored intermetallic phases. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies on powders and melt spun ribbon (MSR) samples based upon thermal cycling and annealing below the glass transition, Tg, demonstrate a strong sensitivity of the primary crystallization onset and reaction enthalpy to thermal history and the as-quenched state. Microcalorimetry investigations and careful analysis of nanocrystal size distributions for Al 92 Sm 8 MSRs following sub-Tg anneals reveal a partial nanocrystallization reaction resulting from a transient, decaying nucleation rate and a limited supply of heterogeneous nucleation sites. While crystallization is generally thought of as a thermally activated process, it can also be induced in response to external forcing such as irradiation or mechanical alloying. Intense deformation of amorphous Al 88 Y 7 Fe 5 MSR, for example, yields a distribution of Al-nanocrystallites in the amorphous matrix without thermal annealing. Moreover, the results of cold-rolling experiments with melt-spun amorphous Al 85 Ni 10 Ce 5 ribbons show that the deformation process can alter the phase selection upon annealing. These results suggest that the shear process during rolling effects a local rearrangement of atoms in the amorphous matrix. The kinetics behavior highlights the important role of the as-synthesized amorphous structure, reaction pathways and transient conditions on the evolution of nanoscale microstructures during primary crystallization.


The Geographic Information System is a collection of located, collected, stored and managed geographic data with the use of the computer, data which can be used to perform various spatial analyses. The special GIS operations over the spatial information make from these instruments more than just efficacy instruments for making maps, but especially, irreplaceable instruments for analyzing the information that refer to the terrestrial surfaces. GIS maps must be made exploiting all available resources based on rigorous analysis of their content and the costs involved, seeking assurance required with maximum efficiency. The information obtained from remote sensing is contained by the cosmic or aerial images, which can be interpreted for many purposes. Building these images is based on detection and registering of electromagnetic energy reflected or issued by the surface of the objects present on the visual field of the sensors, which interacted with the electromagnetic energy issued by a natural source (e.g. Sun, Moon) or an artificial one (e.g. radar). The response of the objects from nature to various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation is different, depending on their physical and chemical properties, configuration and surface roughness, its illumination intensity and angle of incidence. These responses recorded via sensors translate the image by the emergence of patterns (features), based on which objects can be distinguished and identified. The remote sensing data is public, meaning it can be acquired from any area of the world and by anyone, with some restriction. The images used in this study were taken from Landsat 8 satellites.Landsat 8 consists of three key mission and science objectives:Collect and archive medium resolution (30-meter spatial resolution) multispectral image data affording seasonal coverage of the global landmasses for a period of no less than 5 years;Ensure that Landsat 8 data are sufficiently consistent with data from the earlier Landsat missions in terms of acquisition geometry, calibration, coverage characteristics, spectral characteristics, output product quality, and data availability to permit studies of landcover and land-use change over time;Distribute Landsat 8 data products to the general public on a nondiscriminatory basis at no cost to the user.


The data on the interrelationship of diabetes mellitus and atherosclerosis are shown. To characterize the frequency of cardiovascular lesions and their different character according to age in patients with diabetes, the results of clinical analysis of 2,540 patients and the findings of thorough clinical and laboratory examination of 1,154 individuals, 20.1% of whom were over 60, are presented. The high frequency of angiopathies (84.6%) confirms the "atherogenics" effect of diabetes mellitus. The age differences consist in the predominance of organic lesions among elderly persons. The frequent occurrence of a disturbed glucose tolerance test and the development of diabetes mellitus in these patients are evidence of the "diabetogenic" effect of atherosclerosis. Some hormonal and metabolic mechanisms are investigated for the interpretation of the pathogenesis of cardiovascular lesions in diabetes. The contribution of contrainsular hormones (somatotrophic hormone, adrenal hormones) and hyperlipidemia to the development of diabetic angiopathies is substantiated. The difference between diabetic macroangiopathies and atherosclerosis in nondiabetic individuals is discussed on the strength of the results of electron microscopy of the mucle capillaries. It is concluded that these two diseases, which are widely encountered among elderly individuals, have hormonal, metabolic, and genetic developmental mechanisms in common.


The corrosion inhibition of Zn-Al alloys are the subject of tremendous technological importance due to the increased industrial applications of these materials. This paper reports the results of weight lossmeasurements on the corrosion inhibition ofZn-Al, [(Zn-Al+2%Si) (Zn-Al+4%Si) (Zn-Al+6%Si)] alloys in 1.0 M HCl in the lab temperature using sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate as an anionic surfactant (AS) inhibitor. The results showed that the addition of the surfactant inhibits the hydrochloric acid corrosion of the FourZn- Al samples. The inhibition occurs through adsorption of the surfactant on the metal surface without modifying the mechanism of corrosion process. The surfactant acts predominately as cathodic inhibitor. The inhibition efficiency increases with an increase in the surfactant concentration. Maximum inhibition is observed around its critical micelle concentration (CMC). The inhibition efficiency for the FourZn- Al samples decreases in the order: (Zn-Al+6%Si)> (Zn-Al+4%Si)> (Zn-Al+2%Si) >Zn-Al. (Al+6%Si)>(Al+6%Cu)>Al.. Results obtained from the this method are in good agreement.


In this paper, we apply minimum variance method for removing automatically ground and intermittent clutter (airplane echo) from wind profiler radar data. Using the concept of discrete multi-resolution analysis and non-parametric estimation theory, we develop Doppler echo power spectral, which allow us to identify the coefficients relevant for clutter and to suppress them in order to effectively restrain and remove clutter and increase the wind profile radar detection range and accuracy; must be on the air back to the effective spectrum of the spectral moments estimation. Using MATLAB simulation analysis , compared with the conventional method of analysis to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithm, also, try the algorithm is applied to the complexity of the weather with a strong interference case of precipitation particles; Data analysis showed that the actual detection, from the library in the lower spectrum moment estimation has been improved significantly.


A model is described which throws light on the mechanism of accumulation. In the model used an external aqueous phase A is separated by a non-aqueous phase B (representing the protoplasm) from the artificial sap in C. A contains KOH and C contains HCl: they tend to mix by passing through the non-aqueous layer but much more KOH moves so that most of the KCl is formed in C, where the concentration of potassium becomes much greater than in A. This accumulation is only temporary for as the system approaches equilibrium the composition of A approaches identity with that of C, since all the substances present can pass through the non-aqueous layer. Such an approach to equilibrium may be compared to the death of the cell as the result of which accumulation disappears. During the earlier stages of the experiment potassium tends to go in as KOH and at the same time to go out as KCl. These opposing tendencies do not balance until the concentration of potassium inside becomes much greater than outside (hence potassium accumulates). The reason is that KCl, although its driving force be great, moves very slowly in B because its partition coefficient is low and in consequence its concentration gradient in B is small. This illustrates the importance of partition coefficients for penetration in models and in living cells. It also indicates that accumulation depends on the fact that permeability is greater for the ingoing compound of the accumulating substance than for the outgoing compound. Other things being equal, accumulation is increased by maintaining a low pH in C. Hence we may infer that anything which checks the production of acid in the living cell may be expected to check accumulation and growth. This model recalls the situation in Valonia and in most living cells where potassium accumulates as KCl, perhaps because it enters as KOH and forms KA in the sap (where A is an organic anion). In some plants potassium accumulates as KA but when HCl exists in the external solution it will tend to enter and displace the weaker acid HA (if this be carbonic it can readily escape): hence potassium may accumulate to a greater or less extent as KCl. Injury of the cell may produce a twofold effect, (1) increase of permeability, (2) lessened accumulation. The total amount of electrolyte taken up in a given time will be influenced by these factors and may be greater than normal in the injured cell or less, depending somewhat on the length of the interval of time chosen.


Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical effects and feasibility of using flexible bronchoscopy intervention in cases of malignancy that causes central airway stenosis and respiratory failure. Methods The clinical data of patients who were admitted to the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and underwent treatment of a malignant tumor with central airway stenosis and respiratory failure by flexible bronchos-copy from February 2010 to May 2013 were analyzed using a retrospective method. The age, gender, location, extent of airway stenosis, interventional therapy, efficacy, and complications for 12 patients were collected and analyzed using the SPSS 13.0 software. Results After interventional therapy, the dyspnea index for all the patients improved signifi-cantly, and compared with before treatment, the difference was statistically significant (t=13.40, P<0.01). Eleven patients with respiratory failure were corrected, and only one patient was treated via tracheal intubation with mechanical ventilation. There were no severe complications, such as massive hemorrhaging or cardiac arrest in any case. Conclusion Flexible bronchoscopy interventional treatment for central airway stenosis and respiratory failure caused by malignant tumors is an effective and safe method. It should be applied in clinical work.


There is no standard of care in elderly classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) patients. ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine), the standard chemotherapy for younger patients, is also used in elderly patients but little is known about toxicity and efficacy. We retrospectively analysed 147 patients aged 60 years and over treated with ABVD in three French haematological centres. Treatment regimen modification was applied in 56 patients for toxicity or HL progression. Bleomycin was removed or reduced in 53 patients, mainly for pulmonary toxicity. Neither initial characteristics nor treatment characteristics were found to correlate with lung toxicity. One hundred and seventeen patients achieved a complete remission, 6 a partial remission, 16 had refractory disease and 8 were non‐evaluable. Five‐year overall survival was estimated at 67%. With a median follow‐up of 58 months, 51 patients died and 14% of deaths were related to lung toxicity. Our study confirms the efficacy of ABVD in elderly patients even if results are inferior to those obtained in younger patients with the same regimen. ABVD can be proposed as front‐line chemotherapy in selected elderly cHL patients. The frequency of pulmonary events leads us to propose to either reduce the dose of bleomycin or to remove it from the regimen.


Analyzing the dynamic changes of cellular morphology is important for understanding the various functions and characteristics of live cells, including stem cells and metastatic cancer cells. To this end, we need to track all points on the highly deformable cellular contour in every frame of live cell video. Local shapes and textures on the contour are not evident, and their motions are complex, often with expansion and contraction of local contour features. The prior arts for optical flow or deep point set tracking are unsuited due to the fluidity of cells, and previous deep contour tracking does not consider point correspondence. We propose the first deep learning-based tracking of cellular (or more generally viscoelastic materials) contours with point correspondence by fusing dense representation between two contours with cross attention. Since it is impractical to manually label dense tracking points on the contour, unsupervised learning comprised of the mechanical and cyclical consistency losses is proposed to train our contour tracker. The mechanical loss forcing the points to move perpendicular to the contour effectively helps out. For quantitative evaluation, we labeled sparse tracking points along the contour of live cells from two live cell datasets taken with phase contrast and confocal fluorescence microscopes. Our contour tracker quantitatively outperforms compared methods and produces qualitatively more favorable results. Our code and data are publicly available at https://github.com/JunbongJang/contour-tracking/


Scaling CMOS device towards deep sub-30nm gate length generation requires innovations in a device design and technologies for improving short channel effect (SCE) control and drive current / off state current (I/sub on/ / I/sub off/) ratio. In this paper high performance 27 nm gate length CMOS devices and 36 nm gate length 32 CMOS frequency dividers are demonstrated successfully. The offset S/D extension structure, Ge pre-amorphization implantation (PAI) combining low energy implantation (LEI) for ultra-shallow S/D extension induce a large uniaxial compressive strain in the channel region, 1.4 nm EOT gate oxynitride by oxidation of nitrogen-implanted silicon substrate, super steep retrograde channel doping with heavy ion implantation, 20 nm poly-Si gate patterning with high selectivity, high anisotropy and accuracy; and Co/Ti dual refractory metal SALICIDE feature the device. By these innovations, very good SCE control and I/sub on//I/sub off/ ratio are achieved. At power supply voltage V/sub DD/ of 1.5V, 27 nm gate length CMOS device with drive current I/sub on/ of 850 A/m for NMOS and 506 A/m for PMOS are achieved at off-state leakage W of 7.3 nA/m for NMOS and 4.2 nA/m for PMOS.


War tools and materials, which are an indicator of war strategy and development, vary with the technology. Modern Warfares in the information age, where near space and the space being used as a tool, differ from both the agricultural era wars, in which arrows and bows had been used as a tool, and industrial era battles, in which machine guns and tanks were employed. These characteristics influence this area of interest and area of influence in the area of responsibilities, and affect the ability and the necessity of modern armies as well. Being able to perform reconnaissance and surveillance missions in the most effective and efficient way is reliant on not only having the knowledge to create and invent them as well as having them in the inventor but also the ability of planning these systems with a modern scientific approach. Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), encountered during the assignment of Unmanned Aerial Systems\Vehicles (UAS\V) which is being used at the strategic level, can lead to elevated costs in the defense sector as well as other sectors. For this reason, the efficient solution of route planning is a very important issue to provide major cost savings and to observe the targets timely. This study investigates the literature in "dynamic" route planning "solution" methods and defines the approaches for future "dynamic solution" studies of strategic UAVs which are being recently used in Turkey. Using this approach will increase the efficiency of usage of the UAVs and decrease the operating and project costs of them as well.


The challenge of improving evidence-based therapy adherence in the secondary prevention of coronary artery disease: the next frontier of cardiac rehabilitation. S. Scardi, C. Mazzone, P. Umari. Non-adherence to prescribed drug regimens is an in- creasing medical problem affecting physicians and patients and contribute to negative outcomes, such as the increased risk of subsequent cardiovascular events. Analysis of va- rious patient populations shows that the choice of drug, its tolerability and the duration of treatment influence the non-adherence. Intervention is required toward patients and health-care providers to improve medication adheren- ce. This review deals about the prevalence of non-adheren- ce to therapy after medical and surgical cardiac event, the risk factors affecting non-adherence and the strategies to implement it. Interventions that may successfully improve adherence should include improved physician compliance with guidelines, patient education and patient reminders, frequent visits or telephone calls from staff, simplification of the patient's drug regimen by reducing the number of pills and daily doses. Since single interventions do not ap- pear efficaceous, it is necessary to establish multiple inter- ventions simultaneously addressing a number of barriers to adherence.


The article analyzes and classifies the meters used in Thai and Burmese poetry. Though both poetic traditions have a rich literary heritage and an advanced repertoire of poetic meters, their structural properties have not received significant scholarly attention. Along with summarizing preexisting scholarly research on the subject, the article provides description of meters used in traditional Thai poetry and their typological classification. The analysis of meters in Burmese poetry is based on the 18th century long drama "Maniket" by Padethayaza as well as on a collection of short Burmese classical poems. The article describes and classifies the five meters of Thai classical poetry (klon, chan, khlong, kap and rai). Burmese traditional poetry used one or two syllabic meters as well as other meters, which have not yet been classified in the scholarly literature. The article concludes with a comparative analysis of rhyme in Thai and Burmese poetry.


PURPOSE
We propose a novel technique for in-vivo and real-time range verification based on the unique temporal dependence of prompt-gamma produced by passively modulated proton beams Methods: For passively modulated proton beams, the dose delivered to a medium is periodic with the period of the Range Modulator Wheel (RMW) rotation. It has been confirmed experimentally that such periodic dose-rate functions, measured inside a medium, have a unique correlation with their point of measurement along a Spread-Out Bragg Peak (SOBP). Therefore, also the time-structure of prompt-gammas, generated by proton induced nuclear interactions in the target and detected outside the medium, is expected to be periodic and correlated with their source-location along the SOBP. To verify such correlation, we employed the Monte Carlo method using TOol for PArticle Simulation (TOPAS). The simulated detection system is constituted by a single-slit collimated detector placed at 90° from the beam direction. Discrimination of prompt-γ from background radiation is done trough energy and time-of-flight (TOF) selectionResults: We verified that the time-pattern of prompt-gamma rate functions (i.e. gamma-counts vs. RMW rotation-time) is periodic and correlated with the detection depth along the SOBP. Utilizing this feature it is feasible to predict the range of a SOBP within few millimeters with a single point of prompt-gamma measurement. The influence of the prescribed dose and collimation setup over the detection statistics is discussed in order to assess the potential clinical application of the technique. TOF selection and background subtraction can significantly increase the signal to noise ratio Conclusion: Our results show that the range of a SOBP can be determined, with a single point of measurement, by analyzing the time-pattern of prompt-gamma detected with a single-slit detection system. This novel technique potentially represents a powerful tool for real-time range verification for passively modulated proton therapy systems.


Background: Climate change and global warming have significant effects on human health. This systematic review presents the effects of the climate changes on pregnancy outcomes. Materials and Methods: The search process was conducted in electronic databases including ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar using key words of "environmental temperature" "pregnancy" "low birth weight (LBW)" "pregnancy outcome," "climate change," "preterm birth (PTB)," and a combination of them. We did not consider any time limitation; English-language papers were included. The related papers were selected in three phases. After quality assessment, two reviewers extracted the data while the third reviewer checked their extracted data. Finally, 15 related articles were selected and included in the current study. Results: Approximately all studies have reported a significant relationship between exposure variable and intended outcomes including eclampsia, preeclampsia, cataract, LBW, PTB, hypertension, sex ratio and length of pregnancy. According to conducted studies, decrease in birth weight is more possible in cold months. Increase in temperature was followed by increase in PTB rate. According to most of the studies, eclampsia and preeclampsia were more prevalent in cold and humid seasons. Two spectrums of heat extent, different seasons of the year, sunlight intensity and season of fertilization were associated with higher rates of PTB, hypertension, eclampsia, preeclampsia, and cataract. Conclusion: Climate change has unfavorable effects on eclampsia, preeclampsia, PTB, and cataract. The findings of this review confirm the crucial importance of the adverse health effects of climate change especially in the perinatal period.


We discuss the influence of different initial conditions for the stress tensor and the effect of bulk viscosity on the expansion and cooling of the fireball created in relativistic heavy ion collisions. In particular, we explore the evolution of longitudinal and transverse components of the pressure and the extent of dissipative entropy production in the one-dimensional, boost-invariant hydrodynamic model. We find that a bulk viscosity consistent with recent estimates from lattice QCD further slows the equilibration of the system; however, it does not significantly increase the entropy produced.


This paper presents a new method to improve the disturbance management of electricity networks and mobile networks with a situation awareness system that was developed in this study. The system is based on combining the disturbance information from electricity and mobile networks. Both of the networks provide useful information for disturbance management: electricity outage areas from the electricity network systems and coverage outage areas from the cellular network operators. The outage information from an electricity network is received through the Distribution Management System (DMS) service and combined with customer identification codes to find out whether mobile network base stations lack electricity. This information is combined with operational mobile network coverage areas calculated beforehand with an empirical Okumura-Hata path loss model in order to visualize coverage outage areas. A situation awareness system that combines these parts provides new disturbance management insights and shows the disturbances of both networks with one glance. Thus, the restoration plans for both networks can be sped up and critical areas can be more easily prioritized since a clear visual presentation of the situation is easy to comprehend. Therefore, this new method improves the resilience of society, especially during major disturbances.


Cecocentral scotomas are a hallmark of toxic, metabolic, and hereditary optic neuropathies, but are rarely associated with compressive processes. Acute visual loss due to a compressive optic neuropathy by a benign tumor is unusual unless intratumoral hemorrhage or infarction occurs. A case of acute, severe, remitting, symmetrical visual loss with cecocentral scotomas, initially thought to be of toxic etiology, proved to be due to a typical suprasellar meningioma originating in the olfactory groove. A history of olfactory disturbance with visual loss should prompt neuroradiologic investigation despite atypical neuro-ophthalmic features.


Sentiment classification is one of the most extensively studied problems in sentiment analysis, and supervised learning methods, which require labeled data for training, have been proven quite effective. However, supervised methods assume that the training domain and the testing domain share the same distribution; otherwise, accuracy drops dramatically. Although this does not pose problems when training data are readily available, in some circumstances, labeled data is quite expensive to acquire. For instance, if we want to detect sentiment from Tweets or Facebook comments, the only way to acquire is to manually label it, and this is prohibitively burdensome and time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach that integrates the sentiment information from source-domain labeled data and a set of preselected sentiment words to solve this problem. The experimental results suggest that our method statistically outperforms the state of the art and even, in some cases, surpasses the in-domain gold s...


In this paper, four different system topologies for dynamic voltage restorers (DVRs) are analyzed and tested, with particular focus on the methods used to acquire the necessary energy during a voltage sag. Comparisons are made between two topologies that can be realized with a minimum amount of energy storage, with energy taken from the grid during the voltage sag, and two topologies that take energy from stored energy devices during the voltage sag. Experimental tests using a 10-kVA DVR show that the no-energy storage concept is feasible, but an improved performance can be achieved for certain voltage sags using stored energy topologies. The results of this comparison rank the no-storage topology with a passive shunt converter on the load side first, followed by the stored energy topology with a constant dc-link voltage.


ENSURING SERVICE EXCELLENCE BY REALISING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF POLICE OFFICIALS A new day has come for South Africa after the election of the first democratic government in April 1994. Citizens of a country vote the government to power and it is now for the government to live up to their election promises. All over the world the general public's perception of government is based on the nature and quality of the services i t receives from public servants. These public servants are the frontline service providers to the citizens of South Africa, the " face" of the government. The government published the Batho Pele White paper as an init iative, to improve the lives of the People of South Africa by transforming the public service. The government adopted a client-orientated approach and placed the citizen in the centre of service delivery. This great initiative has overshadowed the public servants and government neglected the unlocking of the ful l potential of these public servants who are responsible to keep Batho Pele initiative alive. An empirical research was conducted to determine a relationship between the level of unlocked potential of employees and the level of service delivery. The local community of Carletonville were requested to rate the service quality of the police officials working in the Community Service Centre (CSC) at Carletonville police station. The research revealed that the community has high expectations of these police officials and that there is a service gap due to these unmet expectations. A total of 37 CSC police officials were subjected to this research to determine their level of unlocked potential. It was revealed that the majority of these police officials' potential were unlocked potential, but was never managed due to lack of encouragement, support, recognition, active mentoring and coaching from their immediate supervisors/ commanders at the station management resulting poor service delivery to the local community. The study was concluded with a proposed model of the relationship between unlocked/ unleashed potential and the poor service delivery and recommendations to manage the unlocked potential of these police officials to improve service delivery to the local community of Carletonville.


Abstract After the Sputnik shock of 1957, the United States initiated education reform, based in part on the hope that technology could facilitate efficient school learning. This development was largely driven by the confrontation between the eastern and western Blocs: on both sides of the Iron Curtain, reformists promoted educational technology for the purpose of better instruction so as to improve the performance capacity of their own societies. The first section of the article focuses on this circulation of knowledge, after which the second section, drawing on the example of Germany, argues that, due to the constellation of interests in the 1960s, substantial organisational and financial resources could be mobilised to promote educational technology. However, when support from political and pedagogical circles dwindled in the 1970s, it became detached from its previous objectives, but was pragmatically advanced in the private sector.


Four cases of T-cell lymphoma occurring in the setting of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have been reported previously. We describe a 46-year-old man with AIDS in whom a cutaneous T-cell lymphoma with lymph node involvement developed. Immunohistochemical staining of the skin revealed the lymphoid infiltrate to be CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, and T-cell antigen receptor alpha/beta positive. Co-infection with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I was not detected by polymerase chain reaction. Human immunodeficiency virus infection may have contributed to the development of this patient's lymphoma. This case represents the rare occurrence of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and AIDS.


The large slow‐moving landslide of Maca is located in the upper Colca valley (southern Peru), a region characterized by a well pronounced rainy period, and intense and recurrent sustained seismicity. The landslide, developed in deep lacustrine deposits, has recently accelerated, threatening the Maca village. This work aims at understanding the rupture mechanism and the causes of the recent landslide reactivation/acceleration. We present a multidisciplinary characterization of the Maca landslide that includes: (i) geological and morphological mapping in the field; (ii) remote sensing analysis using an historical aerial photograph of 1955 and the Pléiades satellite images (2013); (iii) global positioning system (GPS) including time‐series of surveys over 13 years, and continuous measurements over 14 months; (iv) a geophysical campaign with deep electrical resistivity tomography profiles acquired across the landslide mass. Our study shows that this 60 Mm3 landslide, which can be classified as a clay/silt compound landslide, moved by 15 m between 2001 and 2014 with a large inter‐annual velocity variation (up to a factor of 500) depending on the rainfall intensity. We suggest that these dramatic changes in velocity are the result of the combination of a threshold mechanism and the short intense rainy season in Peru. This study reveals three main driving factors acting at different timescales: (i) over several decades, the river course has significantly changed, causing the Maca landslide reactivation in the 1980s due to the erosion of its toe; (ii) at the year scale, a minimum amount of rainfall is required to trigger the motion and this amount controls the landslide velocity; (iii) transient changes in slide velocity may occur anytime due to earthquakes. This study particularly highlights the non‐linear behaviour of the motion with rainfall. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Pathological involvement of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus occurs early in Parkinson's disease, and widespread noradrenaline reductions are found at post-mortem. Rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) accompanies Parkinson's disease and its presence predicts an unfavourable disease course with a higher propensity to cognitive impairment and orthostatic hypotension. MRI can detect neuromelanin in the locus coeruleus while 11C-MeNER PET is a marker of noradrenaline transporter availability. Here, we use both imaging modalities to study the association of RBD, cognition and autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson's disease with loss of noradrenergic function. Thirty non-demented Parkinson's disease patients [16 patients with RBD and 14 without RBD, comparable across age (66.6 ± 6.7 years), sex (22 males), and disease stage (Hoehn and Yahr, 2.3 ± 0.5)], had imaging of the locus coeruleus with neuromelanin sensitive MRI and brain noradrenaline transporter availability with 11C-MeNER PET. RBD was confirmed with polysomnography; cognitive function was assessed with a neuropsychological test battery, and blood pressure changes on tilting were documented; results were compared to 12 matched control subjects. We found that Parkinson's disease patients with RBD showed decreased locus coeruleus neuromelanin signal on MRI (P < 0.001) and widespread reduced binding of 11C-MeNER (P < 0.001), which correlated with amount of REM sleep without atonia. Parkinson's disease with RBD was also associated with a higher incidence of cognitive impairment, slowed EEG activity, and orthostatic hypotension. Reduced 11C-MeNER binding correlated with EEG slowing, cognitive performance, and orthostatic hypotension. In conclusion, reduced noradrenergic function in Parkinson's disease was linked to the presence of RBD and associated with cognitive deterioration and orthostatic hypotension. Noradrenergic impairment may contribute to the high prevalence of these non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease, and may be of relevance when treating these conditions in Parkinson's disease.


Interleukin-2 (IL-2)-like immunoreactivity and IL-2 receptor immunoreactivity have been reported in different brain regions, under normal and pathophysiological conditions. IL-2 stimulates hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) release and that of pituitary adrenocorticotropin. The amygdala, known to contain high levels of CRF, is involved in stress-related reactions, including regulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis. IL-2 will release AVP from both the hypothalamus and the amygdala, which further supports a role for cytokine effects in the amygdala in neuroimmune interactions. In the present study, we compared the effects of IL-2, acetylcholine and norepinephrine on the in vitro release of CRF from the amygdala or hypothalamus. In addition, we used these release systems to evaluate the possible involvement of nitric oxide (NO)-mediated signaling in CRF release. IL-2 stimulates CRF release in both regions, in a calcium- and dose-dependent manner. Nitroprusside, an NO generator, also induces CRF release. This IL-2-induced CRF release is antagonized by Ng-methyl-L-arginine and hemoglobin, known NO antagonists. Finally, norepinephrine and acetylcholine induce CRF release. The norepinephrine-induced CRF release is antagonized by phentolamine and propanolol and the acetylcholine-induced release by atropine and mecamylamine, which suggests the involvement of both alpha and beta adrenergic receptors and both muscarinic and nicotinic receptors. The acetylcholine-induced CRF release is antagonized by Ng-methyl-L-arginine, but the norepinephrine-induced response is not. These data support the suggestion that the amygdala may participate in communications between the neuroendocrine and immune systems.


This paper describes the control and localisation design and implementation status of the ISePorto robotic football team for participation in Robocup Middle Size League (F2000). The objectives guiding the project were the applications and research in hybrid control and coordination systems. The system has also an educational support role. A special attention is made to the custom design to allow the execution of complex manoeuvres and team coordinated behaviours. The robot has different pass, shot, and manoeuvre capabilities providing high level tactical and strategic planing and coordination.


This first special issue of the Journal of Field Robotics (JFR) on vision-based high speed autonomous navigation of UAVs aims to establish a baseline in the field of autonomous navigation of UAVs using vision and IMU as the main sensing modalities. The goal of the research reported in this special issue is to show the improvements and present the most recent state of the art to execute fast autonomous operations with MAVs. The proposed approaches will contribute to inform the community with the most recent and innovative approaches and to extend the capabilities of current and future robotic missions.


RATIONALE
Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen-presenting cells essential for the initiation of T-cell responses. Allergen inhalation increases the number of airway DCs and the release of epithelial-derived cytokines, such as IL-33 and thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), that activate DCs.

OBJECTIVES
To examine the effects of inhaled allergen on bone marrow production of DCs and their trafficking into the airways in subjects with allergic asthma, and to examine IL-33 and TSPL receptor expression on DCs.

METHODS
Bone marrow, peripheral blood, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and bronchial biopsies were obtained before and after inhalation of diluent and allergen from subjects with asthma that develop allergen-induced dual responses. Classical DCs (cDCs) were cultured from bone marrow CD34(+) cells. cDC1s, cDC2s, and plasmacytoid DCs were measured in bone marrow aspirates, peripheral blood, and BAL by flow cytometry, and cDCs were quantified in bronchial biopsies by immunofluorescence staining.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Inhaled allergen increased the number of cDCs grown from bone marrow progenitors, and cDCs and plasmacytoid DCs in bone marrow aspirates 24 hours after allergen. Allergen also increased the expression of the TSLP receptor, but not the IL-33 receptor, on bone marrow DCs. Finally, inhaled allergen increased the percentage of cDC1s and cDC2s in BAL but only cDC2s in bronchial tissues.

CONCLUSIONS
Inhaled allergen increases DCs in bone marrow and trafficking of DCs into the airway, which is associated with the development airway inflammation in subjects with allergic asthma. Inhaled allergen challenge also increases expression of TSLP, but not IL-33, receptors on bone marrow DCs.


Study Design. A randomized, double-blind trial was conducted. Objectives. To test the efficacy of periradicular corticosteroid injection for sciatica. Summary of Background Data. The efficacy of epidural corticosteroids for sciatica is controversial. Periradicular infiltration is a targeted technique, but there are no randomized controlled trials of its efficacy. Methods. In this study 160 consecutive, eligible patients with sciatica who had unilateral symptoms of 1 to 6 months duration, and who never underwent surgery were randomized for double-blind injection with methylprednisolone bupivacaine combination or saline. Objective and self-reported outcome parameters and costs were recorded at baseline, at 2 and 4 weeks, at 3 and 6 months, and at 1 year. Results. Recovery was better in the steroid group at 2 weeks for leg pain (P = 0.02), straight leg raising (P = 0.03), lumbar flexion (P = 0.05), and patient satisfaction (P = 0.03). Back pain was significantly lower in the saline group at 3 and 6 months (P = 0.03 and 0.002, respectively), and leg pain at 6 months (13.5, P = 0.02). Sick leaves and medical costs were similar for both treatments, except for cost of therapy visits and drugs at 4 weeks, which were in favor of the steroid injection (P = 0.05 and 0.005, respectively). By 1 year, 18 patients in the steroid group and 15 in the saline group underwent surgery. Conclusions. Improvement during the follow-up period was found in both the methylprednisolone and saline groups. The combination of methylprednisolone and bupivacaine seems to have a short-term effect, but at 3 and 6 months, the steroid group seems to experience a "rebound" phenomenon.


The Sandage-Loeb (SL) test directly measures the expansion rate of the universe in the redshift range of 2 . z . 5 by detecting redshift drift in the spectra of Lyman-α forest of distant quasars. We discuss the impact of the future SL test data on parameter estimation for the ΛCDM, the wCDM, and the w0waCDM models. To avoid the potential inconsistency with other observational data, we take the best-fitting dark energy model constrained by the current observations as the fiducial model to produce 30 mock SL test data. The SL test data provide an important supplement to the other dark energy probes, since they are extremely helpful in breaking the existing parameter degeneracies. We show that the strong degeneracy between Ωm and H0 in all the three dark energy models is well broken by the SL test. Compared to the current combined data of type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillation, cosmic microwave background, and Hubble constant, the 30-yr observation of SL test could improve the constraints on Ωm and H0 by more than 60% for all the three models. But the SL test can only moderately improve the constraint on the equation of state of dark energy. We show that a 30-yr observation of SL test could help improve the constraint on constant w by about 25%, and improve the constraints on w0 and wa by about 20% and 15%, respectively. We also quantify the constraining power of the SL test in the future highprecision joint geometric constraints on dark energy. The mock future supernova and baryon acoustic oscillation data are simulated based on the space-based project JDEM. We find that the 30-yr observation of SL test would help improve the measurement precision of Ωm, H0, and wa by more than 70%, 20%, and 60%, respectively, for the w0waCDM model. Corresponding author. ar X iv :1 40 7. 71 23 v2 [ as tr oph .C O ] 2 8 N ov 2 01 4


Following conferences in Pignans, Maastricht, Vienna and Cologne and many e-mail exchanges, the participants of the GoSD-research initiative have identified a path for future research that describes not only governance and sustainable development but also how governance can be *for* sustainable development. This concluding paper gives an account of the pre-analytic vision, hypotheses and questions that have so far emerged from this process. Given the difficulty and importance of the task, a first section focuses on methodological questions. Consecutive sections elucidate *for sustainable development*, as well as "governance for". The emerging pre-analytic vision then receives some in-depth treatment and we consider how to measure the *for* of governance for sustainable development through objectives and indicators, taking into account the paradox of change with conservation. This sets the stage for a final section on research hypothesis and questions that give a meaning to governance for sustainable development, and that will allow this research project to develop in a way that makes insight and useful policy recommendations possible.


This paper develops a model of 'governance' as an aid for comparing such
governance structures and applies these to a particular policy arena: policies
on the protection of groundwater and on drinking water quality in the
Netherlands and Florida.
The research questions examined by this paper are:
1. Which elements make up a governance structure?
2. In what ways do these elements influence each other?
3. What are the differences between the multilevel structure of protection for
aquifers in Florida and the Netherlands, and how do these differences
relate to other differences in the governance structure?
The analysis in this paper has shown that 'governance' involves more
elements than policy objectives and the means to implement policy. These
elements are not simply the sum of individual aspects but are closely
interlinked. We have tried to illustrate how these interrelations work. The case
study we used for this was the comparison between the Netherlands and
Florida regarding the protection of the quality of groundwater and drinking
water. The high degree of similarity between both states highlights the
differences, which exist as well. The interrelations between these differences
can be understood by using our hypotheses of the mechanisms by which they
work.


Alloy phases in the as-aged (T6) ZK60 magnesium alloy were investigated. More attentions were paid to types and morphologies of main alloy phases in the as-aged ZK60 magnesium alloy. The experimental results indicated that there was an abundant flower-shaped segregation in the solution-treated ZK60 magnesium alloy. A small quantity of undissolved compounds, MgZn2, was also found. They distributed irregularly in the form of similar parallelogram, with a dimension of 200nm~500nm and not sensitive to heat-treatment. Mg2Zn3 was found to be a main secondary compound in the as-aged ZK60 alloy, which precipitated during aging. Another precipitation phase, MgZn, in the as-aged ZK60 magnesium alloy was also found in the form of long and thin rods with a dimension of 500nm.


By using paired sera the IgM and IgG host responses were analyzed in dogs with ELISA and Western blot techniques. Antibodies in clinical seropositive dogs bound to 4-25 IgM and up to 40 or more IgG antigenic determinants. Early IgM response to the 41-kDa flagellin persisted for at least 9 months and involved as many as seven other peptides. IgG response expanded later in the disease and involved more immunogens than are currently recognized in late human disease. A percentage of asymptomatic dogs that later developed clinical symptoms were seropositive. Immunoblot studies suggested that B. burgdorferi is persistent in both asymptomatic and weakly reactive animals and if untreated could lead to disease expression. Clinical seropositive, asymptomatic seronegative, and experimentally infected horses were similarly studied. In experimentally inoculated animals IgG antibodies were initially bound to flagellin and later to the 34- and 31-kDa polypeptides, even though ELISA values were considered only slightly reactive.


Abstract Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was used for delineating significant subsurface hydrogeological features for sustainable groundwater development in Etioro-Akoko area, Southwestern Nigeria. This study was necessitated by challenges posed on groundwater supplies from wells and boreholes in Etioro-Akoko and the neighbouring fast growing towns and villages. Field data were acquired over the area with ABEM Lund Resistivity Imaging System and were subsequently processed and inverted through RES2DINVx64 software. Results showed four distinct subsurface layers: topsoil, weathered layer, fractured bedrock and fresh bedrock (basal unit). Localised bedrock depressions occasioned by fracturing and deep weathering of less stable bedrock minerals were delineated with resistivity and thickness values ranging from 50 to 650 Ωm and 12 to ---gt--- 25 m, respectively. The localised depressions mirrored uneven bedrock topography and served as the preferential groundwater storage and hydrogeological zones in the area. The two hydrogeological zones significant for groundwater development included overburden-dependent aquifers and fractured dependent bedrock aquifers. It was, therefore, concluded that groundwater storage potential was depended on hydrogeological zones particularly at major localised bedrock depressions where fractures and groundwater recharges/discharges were evident. Wells and boreholes were proposed at bedrock depressions with thickness value not less than 12 and ---gt--- 25 m, respectively, for enhanced groundwater sustainability and quality assurance in the area.


M term as the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC) ended on 31 December 2007. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many individuals who have contributed to the success of TMC. First, I would like to thank all of the Associate Editors who have served on the editorial board of TMC. We could not have maintained the high standards of the journal and the timeliness of the review process without their conscientious work. My thanks to Jennifer Carruth, whose help as the Transactions Assistant has been invaluable. Her contributions to TMC have helped us in maintaining a relatively short submission-to-decision time for the submitted manuscripts, and also in making the review process a positive experience for the authors. The TMC Steering Committee, chaired by Rajesh Gupta, offered useful advice throughout my tenure as EIC. Their guidance has been important in setting editorial policies for the journal. Many IEEE Computer Society staff members were also of signifi cant assistance during my tenure. In particular, I would like to thank Alicia Stickley, Suzanne Wagner, Kimberly Sperka, and Angela Burgess for their support. Last but not least, my thanks to all of the authors who submitted their manuscripts to TMC and all of the reviewers without whose help we could not maintain the high quality of TMC. Since its inception in 2002, with Tom La Porta as the fi rst EIC, TMC has grown signifi cantly. TMC was published quarterly in 2002 and has been published monthly since 2006. Along with the increasing reputation of TMC, the number of submissions has also increased signifi cantly. Despite the increase in volume, we have been able to maintain high quality due to the hard work of our editors and reviewers. I believe that TMC has now established itself as a leading journal in the area of mobile computing and wireless networking. It is with great pleasure that I welcome Mani B. Srivastava as the new EIC of TMC. Mani has previously served in leadership roles for other publications, and also on the TMC Editorial Board. I have no doubt that TMC will continue to grow under his leadership. I trust that our readers and authors will continue supporting TMC over the years to come.


A very fast and intuitive approach to generate the metamorphosis of two genus 0 3D polyhedral models is presented. There are two levels of correspondence specified by animators to control morphs. The higher level requires the animators to specify scatter features to decompose the input models into several corresponding patches. The lower level optionally allows the animators to specify extra features on each corresponding patch for finer correspondence control. Once these two levels of correspondence are established, the proposed schemes automatically and efficiently establish a complete one-to-one correspondence between two models. We propose a novel technique called SMCC (Structures of Minimal Contour Coverage) to efficiently and robustly merge corresponding embeddings. The SMCC scheme can compute merging in linear time. The performance of the proposed methods is comparable to or better than state-of-the-art 3D polyhedral metamorphosis. We demonstrate several examples of aesthetically pleasing morphs, which can be created very quickly and intuitively.


The point of this paper is to make social-philosophical insights regarding subjective identity-formation fruitful for a normative and empirically grounded conception of intercultural understanding. Recent critical social theory has shown individual identity to emerge from intersubjective processes of recognition. Personal identity thus becomes inseparable from cultural identity, which is always bound by concrete contexts. However, by reconstructing that the social sources of identity are essentially mediated by linguistic forms of self- understanding, we can argue for an ethos of hermeneutic dialogue that makes a situated transcendence of the contextual boundaries of understanding possible. Normatively, the linguistic mediation of identity allows us to reconstruct (a) the general respect for another speaker, (b) the hermeneutic sensitivity for another's context, and (c) the reflexive analysis of structural component's of the other's objective context as value-orientations of intersubjective understanding. Empirically, this means that those attitudes including respect, context-sensitivity, and critical reflexivity can be seen as grounded in a universally available linguistic competence. The social roots of recognition that make identity possible thus reveal the potential for a hermeneutic dialogue that can challenge power-based and ethnocentric forms of cultural encounters.


Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) accounts for about 40% of all nephrotic syndrome cases in adults. The presence of several potential circulating factors has been suggested in patients with primary FSGS and particularly in patients with recurrent disease after transplant. Irrespectively of the nature of the circulating factors, this study was aimed at identifying early glomerular/podocyte-specific pathways that are activated by the sera of patients affected by FSGS. Kidney biopsies were obtained from patients undergoing kidney transplantation due to primary FSGS. Donor kidneys were biopsied pre-reperfusion (PreR) and a subset 1–2 hours after reperfusion of the kidney (PostR). Thirty-one post reperfusion (PostR) and 36 PreR biopsy samples were analyzed by microarray and gene enrichment KEGG pathway analysis. Data were compared to those obtained from patients with incident primary FSGS enrolled in other cohorts as well as with another cohort to correct for pathways activated by ischemia reperfusion. Using an ex-vivo cell-based assay in which human podocytes were cultured in the presence of sera from patients with recurrent and non recurrent FSGS, the molecular signature of podocytes exposed to sera from patients with REC was compared to the one established from patients with NON REC. We demonstrate that inflammatory pathways, including the TNF pathway, are primarily activated immediately after exposure to the sera of patients with primary FSGS, while phagocytotic pathways are activated when proteinuria becomes clinically evident. The TNF pathway activation by one or more circulating factors present in the sera of patients with FSGS supports prior experimental findings from our group demonstrating a causative role of local TNF in podocyte injury in FSGS. Correlation analysis with clinical and histological parameters of disease was performed and further supported a possible role for TNF pathway activation in FSGS. Additionally, we identified a unique set of genes that is specifically activated in podocytes when cultured in the presence of serum of patients with REC FSGS. This clinical translational study supports our prior experimental findings describing a potential role of the TNF pathway in the pathogenesis of FSGS. Validation of these findings in larger cohorts may lay the ground for the implementation of integrated system biology approaches to risk stratify patients affected by FSGS and to identify novel pathways relevant to podocyte injury.


Nowadays one of the biggest barrier to the TRIZ dissemination in SMEs concerns the time to develop ideas. For overcoming this problem, we involved companies to participate to a one-day problem solving activity, aimed at developing at least one patentable idea. In the first part of the meeting, the company guided by TRIZ experts reformulate technical problems, market requirements and business model. In the second part identifies alternative solutions and generates ideas for the most promising directions (also taking into account a preliminary patent analysis for identifying white space opportunities). At the end of the day the company gets a technical report with a list of new ideas, including some potentially patentable (even if a secondary deeper patent analysis is needed).


The phase and amplitude responses of a high power amplifier have a significant role in linearity performance. Analytical analysis of a high power solid-state device at linear and saturation regions can provide initial information about the overall performance before design and implementation. This study presents the analytical analysis of the amplitude and phase sensitivity of a GaN HEMT. The single-parameter and first-order analysis was considered to calculate sensitivity functions regarding the nonlinear components of the transistor. A simplified equivalent circuit model was used for the analysis. The analytic results were verified with a high power Class-AB amplifier at X-band while the maximum output power of 37 dBm at 8.2 GHz. The results show that the single-parameter and first-order sensitivity analysis can be used to evaluate the phase response of the amplifier to estimate the initial parameters before the final design and implementation of the amplifier.


For lack of general algorithmic methods that apply to wide classes of logics, establishing a complexity bound for a given modal logic is often a laborious task. The present work is a step towards a general theory of the complexity of modal logics. Our main result is that all rank-1 logics enjoy a shallow model property and thus are, under mild assumptions on the format of their axiomatisation, in PSPACE . This leads to a unified derivation of tight PSPACE -bounds for a number of logics including K, KD, coalition logic, graded modal logic, majority logic, and probabilistic modal logic. Our generic algorithm moreover finds tableau proofs that witness pleasant prooftheoretic properties including a weak subformula property. This generality is made possible by a coalgebraic semantics, which conveniently abstracts from the details of a given model class and thus allows covering a broad range of logics in a uniform way.


Here, a filter with series of pools and dams structures was designed and fabricated, utilizing size difference between tumor and blood cells. The cell mixtures were successfully filtrated out by the filter, and separation efficiency was up to 99.9%. To evaluate the filter, physical models were made to describe the behaviors of different cells in microfluidic systems. As the ability of cell deformation depends on both cells' size and excess surface index (ESI), we measured the excess membrane area of different cells, and got tumor cell's ESI is 61.7% ~ 81% comparing with red blood cell (RBC) (44%) and white blood cell (WBC) (84%~137%). Then from the formulas we deduced, we get the filtering limitations of RBC, WBC, and tumor cell are respectively, around 1.8 mum, 1.0-1.6 mum and 3.7-4.4 mum for dam structure; and 1.3 mum, 0.9-1.3 mum and 3-3.4 mum radius for pipes, which actually show conditions for separation. The accuracy and high flux of the filter provide possibilities to isolate cancer cells directly from the blood in real-time, which could become a potential therapy to cancers


BACKGROUND
For highly selected patients with peritoneal metastases (PM) from colorectal cancer (CRC), an aggressive surgical approach with intraperitoneal chemotherapy may be beneficial. This management may prolong overall survival, which is well documented by the results of a number of clinical trials. In the Czech Republic, five specialized centers of surgical oncology are able to perform cytoreductive surgery (CRS) in combination with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). All of these centers provided accurate information on the number of CRS procedures in 2018 in the PM CRC indication. The estimation of the prevalence of peritoneal metastases from CRC is based on data from the Czech National Cancer Registry.

PURPOSE
To determine the number of cytoreductive procedures performed in patients with peritoneal metastases from CRC in the Czech Republic in 2018, and to compare it with the number of patients who could hypothetically benefit from this procedure according to statistical data.

RESULTS
Twenty-five CRS/HIPEC procedures were performed on patients with peritoneal metastases from CRC in 2018 in the Czech Republic. However, based on the prevalence of peritoneal metastases from CRC in the Czech Republic, cytoreduction with intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC) could probably bring benefit to a minimum of 150 patients a year in the Czech Republic.

CONCLUSION
In the Czech Republic in 2018, the cytoreduction and HIPEC procedures for peritoneal metastases from CRC were performed in significantly fewer cases than would correspond to the estimated number of potentially curable patients.To increase the awareness of this issue and improve the number of potentially curative cytoreductive procedures, there will be necessary better awareness and closer cooperation among specialized centers, general surgeons, and clinical oncologists.


Introduction: The international financial crisis in combination with the aging population and the appropriation of funds of health services impose the management of hospital services as a necessity for the surviving of hospitals. Aim: To examine the perceptions of upper administrative hospital executives (Nursing, Medicine and Administrative services) in the wider region of Attica, on marketing, communication, and public relations in health. Materials and method: The research tool was a questionnaire that was titled "Attitudes and perceptions of health executives on marketing in health". Section I, included 8 questions (questions 1-8) of which 3 collected information on the sex, the age and the level of education of those questioned. Section II, consisted 21 closed questions searching about the attitudes and perceptions of the people in the sample about marketing as activity in the area of health. Population study: Four hundred and fifty (450) higher health executives from the three basic fields of service in health institutions (medical, nursing, administration) constituted the total sample in the research. Results Most executives (n=216, percentage 48%) had favorable perceptions on the application of marketing in health services, quite a few executives (n=193, percentage 42,9%) had mediocre perceptions whereas a comparatively small number of these(n=41, percentage 9,1%) recorded a negative opinion. The women and older executives appeared to have a more positive stance compared to men (p=0,021) and younger executives (p=0,000). Nurses supported more intensely than doctors that the students of nursing had to have knowledge in marketing so that they are more equipped for their career. Nursing more than medical and administration personnel agreed with the perception that supports that marketing will decrease the dominance of the medical profession in the field of health. Conclusions: People in the survey even though they had some reservations they formed a favorable attitude towards marketing and its application in the field of health An extremely high percentage of the participants in the research agreed that marketing is an activity that needs to definitely be applied by health professionals. Also the majority of the people in the sample agreed that marketing will play a major role in the future in the accomplishment of the health organization's goals.


The evolution of geometric objects with respect to a time variable (t) is a field of intense study in the framework of Riemannian Geometry. A good example is the work of Perelman which led to the proof of the geometrization conjecture of Thurston and, consequently, to the Poincare conjecture. In general, two types of geometric objects are distinguished: the intrinsic ones, such as the metric of a manifold, and the extrinsic ones, such as an embedding (or immersion) of a manifold into another one. These two types of objects give rise to two types of flows: the intrinsic ones, such as the Ricci flow, and the extrinsic ones, such as the mean curvature flow. In these particular flows the object that evolves is precisely the metric and the immersion respectively. The mean curvature flow is maybe the most important geometric evolution equation of submanifolds in Riemannian manifolds. Intuitively, a family of smooth submanifolds evolves under mean curvature flow if the velocity at each point of the submanifold is given by the mean curvature vector at this point, that is, the submanifolds move at each point in the direction of the corresponding normal unit vector and with speed equals to its scalar mean curvature. For example, a sphere in the Euclidean space evolves under mean curvature flow by shrinking inward until it collapses in a finite time to a point. In the literature there are different approaches to the mean curvature flow: from the geometric measure theory, from level set flows and from partial differential equations. We will follow the latter approach, which began with the pioneer work of Huisken "Flow by mean curvature of convex surfaces into spheres" published in 1984. The evolution equation can develop singularities, that is, solutions may become non-smooth in finite time. For example, it is known that closed submanifolds (i.e., compact submanifolds without boundary) of the Euclidean space remain smooth for a finite time during their evolution under mean curvature flow and then they develop a singularity. Thus, a particularly interesting topic in this theory is to study the behaviour of singularities. In order to do that two types of singularities are often distinguished: type I singularities, which are those cases with a better control of the growth of the norm of the second fundamental form, and type II singularities, which are all the other singularities. As the definition suggests, type II singularities are more difficult to treat than type I singularities. In the case of hypersurfaces, Huisken and Sinestrari proved that if the initial surface is mean convex (that is, if the scalar mean curvature is nonnegative) and it develops a type II singularity, then the limit surface obtained with a certain technique of rescaling of the flow is convex and satisfies the equation H=v⊥, where H is the mean curvature vector, v is a constant vector and the superscript ⊥ denotes projection onto the normal bundle. A surface whose mean curvature vector satisfies the above equation is called translating soliton of the mean curvature flow. Geometrically it evolves moving in the direction of v with speed |v|, that is, with fixed direction and constant speed given by the vector v. Thus, it does not change its shape during the evolution, it simply translates. Therefore, translating solitons are eternal solutions of the flow, that is, their evolution exists for all times. Translating solitons arise not only in the study of singularities, but also in the general investigation of the mean curvature flow. For example, again in the case of hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space, Hamilton proved that any strictly convex eternal solution to the mean curvature flow where the mean curvature assumes its maximum value at a point in space-time must be a translation soliton. Moreover, translating solitons are interesting examples of the mean curvature flow because they are precise solutions in the sense that their evolution is known, which is very hard to determine in general. In the first chapter of this thesis, after a brief introduction to the mean curvature flow and translating solitons, we present the classic examples of the latter ones. It is well known that translating solitons are related to minimal surfaces. Obviously, this relationship is important because it allows to use classical results of the theory of minimal surfaces to study translating solitons. In this spirit, the maximum principle, stated as its geometric counterpart, the tangency principle, is the main tool of the second chapter of the thesis, which begins with the proof of the results of non-existence of translating solitons. We prove that there are no non-compact translating solitons contained in a solid cylinder. We also rule out the existence of certain compact embedded translating solitons with two boundary components. Then, by comparison with a tilted grim reaper cylinder, we obtain an estimate of the maximum height that a compact translating soliton embededd in the three dimensional Euclidean space can achieve; this estimate is in terms of the diameter of the boundary curve of the translator. Another application to the tangency principle is to study graphical perturbations of translating solitons, which allows us to easily prove a characterization of the translating paraboloid. On the other hand, we use the method of moving planes to show that a compact embedded translating soliton contained in a slab and with boundary components given by two convex curves in the parallel planes determining the slab inherits all the symmetries of its boundary. The main result of the thesis is presented in the third and last chapter and it is a characterization of grim reaper cylinders as properly embedded translators with uniformly bounded genus and asymptotic to two half-planes whose boundaries are contained in the boundary of a solid cylinder with axis perpendicular to the direction of translation. The proof is quite elaborated and heavily uses analytic tools developed by White: a compactness theorem for sequences of minimal surfaces properly embedded into three-dimensional manifolds with locally uniformly bounded area and genus, as well as a barrier principle. As mentioned above, the key ingredient to use these results of White is to consider translating solitons as minimal surfaces in the so-called Ilmanen's metric and to establish the good relation between these surfaces in both (usual Euclidean and Ilmanen) metrics, in particular with respect to their asymptotic behaviour.


Study Design: Retrospective comparative case-control study. Objectives: The objectives of this study are: (1) How preoperative opioid use impacts RTW status after single-level cervical fusion for radiculopathy? and (2) What are other postsurgical outcomes affected by preoperative opioid use? Summary of Background Data: Opioid use has increased significantly in the past decade. The use of opioids has a drastic impact on workers' compensation population, an at-risk cohort for poorer surgical and functional outcomes than the general population. Methods and Materials: Data was retrospectively collected from Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation between 1993 and 2011. The study population included patients who underwent single-level cervical fusion for radiculopathy as identified by current procedural terminology codes and International Classification of Diseases-9 codes. On the basis of opioid use before surgery, two groups were constructed (opioids vs. non-opioids). Using a multivariate logistic regression model, the effect of preoperative opioid use on return to work (RTW) status after fusion was analyzed and compared between the groups. Results: In the regression model, preoperative opioid use was a negative predictor of RTW status within 3-year follow-up after surgery. Opioid patients were less likely to have stable RTW status [odds ratio (OR), 0.50; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.38-0.65; P=0.05] and were less likely to RTW within the first year after surgery (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.37-0.66; P=0.05) compared with controls. Stable RTW was achieved in 43.3% of the opioids group and 66.6% of control group (P=0.05). RTW rate within the first year after fusion was 32.5% of opioids group and 57% of control group (P<0.05). Reoperation and permanent disability rates after surgery were higher in the opioid group compared with the control group (P<0.05). Conclusions: In a workers' compensation, patients with work-related injury who underwent single-level cervical fusion for radiculopathy and received opioids before surgery had worse RTW status, a higher reoperation rate, and higher rate of awarded permanent disability after surgery.


If a small capacity of superconducting magnetic energy storaga (SMES) is developed, it can be expected that the SMES equipped near to the consumer levels the load power fluctuation and compensates the reactive power rapidly. It leads the effective use of the power facilities. In this paper, the authors propose the control strategy of the SMES for levelling the load power fluctuation and compensating the reactive power. Then, the validity of the proposed method is discussed by simulation, The obtained results are summarized as follows.(1) The control method of the SMES is proposed with the estimation function taking account of the energy stored in the SMES and the levelling of load power fluctration.(2) The region of the proper weighting factors of the estimation function and the exponential smoothing method are obaained for the load power fluctuation. The levelling of the power following the sustained component of the load power fluctuation can be achieved by using the obtained weighting factors.(3) The effects of the energy capacity and the current ratings of the SMES on the levelling of the load power fluctuation and the compensation of the reactive power are clarified.


Electronic commerce demands different security requirements for its many different applications. In the near future one smartcard may be used for many electronic commerce applications, such as payment systems, access to banking services and financial transactions over the Internet. A role and task based security model (R&T model) can ensure a secure access to many different services through an application based security framework. It can be used and implemented in a multifunctional smartcard in order to ensure both the user's personal need for application based security and his right to informational self determination-as the fundamental right of privacy is defined in the German legal system. A successful application of the model can help the user navigate a secure way through the jungle of electronic commerce.


This study proposes an optimisation method for transformer sizing in power system using ant colony optimisation and a verification of the process by MATLAB software. The aim is to address the issue of transformer sizing which is a major challenge affecting its effective performance, longevity, huge capital cost and power loss. This method accounts for the constraints imposed by the load capacity and the thermal overload that the transformer serves throughout its lifetime. The objective function to be minimised includes the transformer capital cost as well as the energy loss cost. In this paper, the Optimal Transformer Sizing (OTS) problem which is fundamentally the basic routine for the location of transformer was addressed by means of the heuristic Ant System Method using the Elitist strategy, called Elitist Any System (EAS). EAS belong to the family of Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) algorithm. ACO when appropriately applied determines the least cost path, taking into consideration the various essential factors including transformer bid price, growth rate, inflation rate, peak load, thermal deviation and energy loss cost. The study demonstrated a significant saving in capital cost using this approach as evidenced from the changes to the transformer following the initial installed capacity of 190kVA to 320kVA in the second stage and then finally to 630kVA in the third stage which effectively supported the remaining period under consideration. This finding is in contrast to the traditional simplified sizing strategy usually adopted by utilities companies. Keywords: ant colony, optimization, transformer sizing, distribution transformer


We investigate diffusion in three dimensions on a comb-like structure in which the particles move freely in a plane, but, out of this plane, are constrained to move only in the perpendicular direction. This model is an extension of the two-dimensional version of the comb model, which allows diffusion along the backbone when the particles are not in the branches. We also consider memory effects, which may be handled with different fractional derivative operators involving singular and non-singular kernels. We find exact solutions for the particle distributions in this model that display normal and anomalous diffusion regimes when the mean-squared displacement is determined. As an application, we use this model to fit the anisotropic diffusion of water along and across the axons in the optic nerve using magnetic resonance imaging. The results for the observed diffusion times (8 to 30 milliseconds) show an anomalous diffusion both along and across the fibers.


The considerable diffusion of the day surgery has new problems such as the use of antithrombotic prophylaxis, now carried out systematically in major surgery. An the basis of the poor data present in the literature, a protocol of study is proposed to evaluate the real effectiveness of this type of prophylaxis in DS, dividing the patients into 3 groups, according to the patient's risk factors to the intervention and to the disease.


As Caddy noted, "access to and allocation of fish resources remains one of the most
difficult and controversial aspects of fisheries management in Canada and abroad"
(Dooley, 2004). It is generally agreed that access and allocation issues associated with
harvesting rights remains a divisive and contentious issues for participants in the
province's fishing industry. This is particularly true for Aboriginal groups in the
province who have been challenged to capitalize on economic development opportunities
associated with the fishery.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has the challenging responsibility of
responding to the demands of a range of provincial and territorial jurisdictions while at
the same time considering the access/allocation needs of Aboriginal groups throughout
the country. Various mechanisms have been introduced over the past decade to assist
DFO with these access decisions. The Independent Panel on Access Criteria (IP AC)
introduced in 2001 was one of these initiatives. IP AC was tasked with finding a solution
to the decision making process involving access and the associated ranking or weighting,
and defining access criteria. !PAC was successful in identifying various access principles
and criteria but it did not fully address some of the outstanding problems related to
access. It is important to note that the IP AC suggested that the issue of Aboriginal
participation and access to the fishery required special consideration in the Panel's
deliberations, due to the constitutional position of Aboriginal peoples.
The Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy (AFS) was the other initiative designed to respond to
the needs of the Aboriginal people in the country. Introduced in 1992, the AFS was
intended to help DFO manage the fishery in a manner consistent with the Sparrow
decision. It was intended to serve as a bridging arrangement in fisheries management
during the negotiation of comprehensive land claims and self-government agreements. It
applies where DFO manages the fishery and where land claim settlements have not
already put in place a fisheries management framework.
This paper attempts to illustrate how various Aboriginal groups have been marginalized
over decades as it relates to the fishery and presents a series of court decisions to
illustrate this point. The paper also offers a comparison of the access and allocation
criteria associated with the proposed Federal Fisheries Act and those currently in place
under the AFS. A significant part of the paper addresses the historical perspective of how
Aboriginal groups have been treated by the Federal Government, the Courts, and by
society in general. These historical references are essential to fully appreciate the plight
of the Aboriginal people and their frustrations in experiencing their rightful place in the
country and their right to achieve a reasonable livelihood from the fishery.
The paper will also highlight some of the experiences of other Aboriginal peoples in
other parts of Canada, in order to provide a clearer picture of how Aboriginal rights have
evolved in Canada.


In this study, large-eddy simulation combined with a turbine model is used to investigate the effect of vertical wind veer associated with the Coriolis force on the structure and evolution of wind turbine wakes. In order to isolate the Coriolis effect on the wake, two cases are considered. In the first case, atmospheric boundary-layer flow is driven by a geostrophic wind, including the effect of Earth's rotation and the Coriolis force. In the second case, the boundary-layer flow is unidirectional and is forced by an imposed pressure gradient. Both cases have the same mean horizontal velocity and turbulence intensity at the hub height. The simulation results show that the Coriolis force significantly affects the aerodynamics of the wake including the mean velocity deficit, turbulence statistics, and wake-meandering characteristics downwind of the turbine. In particular, when the flow is forced by a geostrophic wind, vertical wind veer causes a skewed spatial structure in the wake. Moreover, the presence of lateral wind shear, in addition to the vertical one, enhances the shear production of turbulent kinetic energy and the turbulent momentum flux. This leads to a larger flow entrainment and, thus, a faster wake recovery compared to the case forced by unidirectional pressure gradient. Consistent with this result, wake meandering is also stronger in both lateral and vertical directions in the case of geostrophic forcing compared to the case with pressure-gradient forcing.


Chronic interstitial nephritis frequently accompanies renal diseases of different etiologies. Far less common is the entity of primary interstitial nephritis wherein the glomerular and vascular structures of the kidney are not the primary focus of the disease process. Using in situ hybridization and the polymerase chain reaction, we detected DNA from the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) exclusively in renal tissue of patients with the idiopathic variety of chronic interstitial nephritis. The EBV genome, but not that of cytomegalovirus or adenovirus, was detected primarily in renal proximal tubule cells. Furthermore, the CD21 antigen, which serves as the receptor for EBV in B lymphocytes, was detected by immunocytochemistry primarily on proximal tubule cells and was markedly upregulated in the EBV-infected tissue. Western blot analysis of primary cultures of normal proximal tubule cells identified a 140-kDa protein, confirming the expression of the CD21 antigen. Colocalization experiments using proximal and distal tubule markers confirmed that EBV DNA and the CD21 antigen are found primarily in proximal tubule cells. EBV infection of renal proximal tubular cells may participate in evoking a cellular immune response that results in a damaged renal interstitium.


I am a Scottish prison sociologist. During the 13 years I have been studying the Russian prison system, first set foot on the territory of the Russian correctional institution in 1998. Since then, I have been able to collect data on the 18 prisons in various parts of Russia. In this article, I have tried to bring the main results of my research on the Russian prison labor. The conclusions to which I came, no way to characterize the entire penal system as a whole. However, they present us with a much broader question about the historical continuity of the practices, which at the time it was vital not only for the infrastructure proper places of detention, but for the whole of Soviet society. In addition, the research project, in which I worked, was connected with the problem of prison management in those days, when the country, which was recently compared with the huge kartserom1, there were violent and quite dramatic changes. In addition, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the Russian audience and show the difficulties and pitfalls encountered and how much pressure is necessary to test a man who, while remaining in the "Western" positions, decided to do research in Russia and trace the history of the prison system to the present day.


Many hypnotics, such as benzodiazepines, are agonistic modulators of gamma-aminobutyric acid(A) (GABA(A)) receptors. Such compounds increase the ability to fall and stay asleep, but inhibit rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep and deep non-REM sleep. However, tolerance to their hypnotic action may develop rapidly. Previous findings in rats and humans demonstrate that the gamma-aminobutyric acid(A) agonist 4, 5,6,7-tetrahydroisoxazolo[4,5-c]pyridin-3-ol (THIP) promotes deep non-REM sleep and increases non-REM sleep continuity. To investigate the effects of repeated administration, we assessed sleep in rats before, during, and after chronic dosing of THIP (3 mg/kg, once daily for 5 days; n = 9) or of placebo (n = 8). The substances were administered i.p. at the onset of darkness. The electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram were recorded during the first 6 h after injection. During baseline recording, the placebo and the THIP group exhibited similar sleep patterns. After the first THIP injection, rats displayed more non-REM sleep, longer non-REM episodes, and higher levels of slow wave activity in the EEG within non-REM sleep than the placebo group rats. The effects were sustained during all treatment days. REM sleep was not affected. After drug withdrawal, the sleep patterns of the THIP and the placebo group were practically identical again. These observations suggest that THIP does not rapidly produce tolerance toward its sleep effects and abrupt drug withdrawal may not be associated with sleep disturbances. These findings confirm and extend the existing information suggesting that THIP may be promising for treatment of insomnia.