Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne Neglected Tropical Disease, caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania for which there is a shortage of effective and viable non-toxic drugs. There are approximately 1.3 million new cases of leishmaniasis each year with the greatest impact in the poorest communities. Therefore, repurposing is an important strategy as established medicines have cheaper and faster development times.
Leishmania major inositol phosphorylceramide synthase (LmjIPCS) is involved in the biosynthesis of sphingolipids and has been identified as a potential drug target by our group. A set of screens against LmjIPCS and the parasite were performed on a library of 1040 bioactive compounds. The over-the-counter antihistamine clemastine was selected as the most promising compound to develop further. Clemastine has now shown submicromolar activity against species that cause cutaneous (L. major and L. amazonensis) and visceral leishmaniasis (L. donovani and L. infantum) as well as being effective against L. amazonensis intramacrophage amastigotes (EC50 = 0.4 M, SI = 50). Progression of clemastine into a mouse model of L. amazonensis infection showed significant reduction in parasite burden when given via the intralesional (IL) or intraperitoneal (IP) route. In order to optimise the antileishmanial activity, two series of clemastine analogues were synthesised. The first series, named nor-clemastine analogues, lack the clemastine quarternary methyl group. An enantioselective route was developed to show the role stereochemistry plays on antileishmanial activity with greatest activity residing in the (R, R)-configuration of nor-clemastine. The second series, named N-linked analogues, identified a more synthetically accessible and selective analogue against L. amazonensis intramacrophage amastigotes (EC50 value = 0.5 M, SI = 146). This compound was progressed into a mouse model infected with L. amazonensis and significantly reduced the parasite burden when given via the IL route. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the potential of drug repurposing as well as the development of new analogues in the search of a new antileishmanial therapy.


Abstract The present study aimed to understand the effect of filtering on global and regional terrestrial water storage (TWS) signal derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data obtained from Centre for Space Research (CSR), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ). Our results show that the CSR and GFZ solutions were compatible after processing, while for JPL solutions were more challenging to eliminate data noises using filtering techniques. Concerning the effect of changing the Gauss filtering radius on TWS, differences were found to be at a maximum ±5 cm in annual amplitude and ±1 cm/yr in trend sections; mostly apparent in regions where the signal was anomalous. Various destriping methods may led to data misinterpretation, loss of available TWS signal or confusion. Finally, new releases of CSR (RL06) showed an improvement compared to former versions particularly for solutions for the specific time of year chosen in this study.


Abstract In this work, polypropylene/volcanic basalt rock (PP/VBR) thick film composites with different VBR powder mass ratio varying from 0.5 wt.% to 20.0 wt.% were prepared by using the hot press technique. The effects of VBR powder doping on mechanical, structural and dielectric properties of PP were investigated by stress-strain measurements, Fourier transform infrared analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy and dielectric spectroscopy methods. The highest tensile strength, percentage strain and energy at break were achieved for 0.5 wt.% VBR powder doped PP composite. According to the stress-percentage strain curves of the samples, it was observed that 0.5 wt.% VBR powder doping increases the mechanical performance of PP polymer. In addition, regardless of the doping concentration level of basalt powder, the real part of complex dielectric function (ε′) of all PP composites display approximately frequency independent behavior between 100 Hz and 1 MHz. On the other hand, 0.5 wt.% VBR powder doped PP composite has also the lowest dielectric constant at the vicinity of 2.7 between 100 Hz and 1 MHz. The composite also has considerably low dielectric loss which has a crucial importance for technological applications. For these reasons, PP/0.5 wt.% VBR composite with the highest tensile strength can be considered as a suitable candidate for microelectronic devices. Furthermore, the alternative current conductivity mechanism was determined as nearly constant loss due to approximately constant dielectric loss between 10 Hz and 1 MHz.


Abstract This study aimed to use waste acorn of Quercus ithaburensis (WAQI) for biosorption Mn(II) from synthetic wastewater. Parameters such as metal concentration, pH, biosorbent concentration, stirring speed, particle size, and temperature were investigated by using batch kinetic studies. The percent removal of Mn(II) with native WAQI was 66.67%, this rose to 99.97% with activation processing. The mathematical description of the biosorption equilibrium and the adsorption mechanism were examined. Thermodynamic investigations indicate that adsorption reactions are spontaneous and slightly endothermic. ΔH° and ΔS° were found as 2.33 kJ mol−1 and 0.013 kJ mol−1 K−1, respectively. The activation energy of biosorption was calculated as 6.29 kJ mol−1.


In mobile Ad Hoc network, node movement makes the network topology change frequently. In order to improve the stability of routing, a new routing protocol PPC-MAODV (Path Prediction compute based multicast Ad-hoc on-demand Routing Protocol) is proposed in this paper. This protocol takes the path stability into account and reduces the times of route repairing and route reconstructing by selecting the path with the high stability and less hops to transmit data. Simulations show that the PPC-MAODV proposed in this paper is valid and can reduce the packet delivery ratio and end-to-end delay.


Lytic bacteriophages are in development as biological control agents for the prevention of fire blight disease caused by Erwinia amylovora. Temperate phages should be excluded as biologicals since lysogeny produces the dual risks of host resistance to phage attack and the transduction of virulence determinants between bacteria. The extent of lysogeny was estimated in wild populations of E. amylovora and Pantoea agglomerans with real–time polymerase chain reaction primers developed to detect E. amylovora phages belonging to the Myoviridae and Podoviridae families. Pantoea agglomerans, an orchard epiphyte, is easily infected by Erwinia spp. phages, and it serves as a carrier in the development of the phage‐mediated biological control agent. Screening of 161 E. amylovora isolates from 16 distinct geographical areas in North America, Europe, North Africa and New Zealand and 82 P. agglomerans isolates from southern Ontario, Canada showed that none possessed prophage. Unstable phage resistant clones or lysogens were produced under laboratory conditions. Additionally, a stable lysogen was recovered from infection of bacterial isolate Ea110R with Podoviridae phage ΦEa35‐20. These laboratory observations suggested that while lysogeny is possible in E. amylovora, it is rare or absent in natural populations, and there is a minimal risk associated with lysogenic conversion and transduction by Erwinia spp. phages.


The increase of UV-B radiation resulting from ozone depletion is considered to have damaging effects on marine ecosystems. A cutback of marine productivity would tend to reduce the oceanic uptake of atmospheric CO2. Box models of the global oceans based on the distribution of bomb-produced "C are used to evaluate the possible effects of ozone depletion on the atmospheric CO2 concentration. The maximum effect presumably takes place if the ozone hole reduces the marine productivity to zero in the Antarctic Ocean. In a business-as-usual scenario of future CO2 emissions, the atmospheric CO2 partial pressure (pC02) would increase by an additional 37 μatm over the course of the next century. This increase corresponds to 4.6% of the projected atmospheric pC02 in the year 2090. However, if the damaging effect caused by the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer is assumed to lower the productivity over the Antarctic Ocean by 10%, the atmospheric pC02 would rise by less than 3 μatm over the expected atmospheric level in the next century.


Energy analysis plays an important role in developing an optimum and cost effective design of HVAC system for
a building. Although there are different energy analysis methods, which vary in complexity, the degree-day methods are the simplest methods and well-established tools. Energy consumption increases as the number of heating and cooling degree days increases and falls as the number of heating and cooling degree days falls. The value of degree-days is a measure used to indicate the demand for energy to heat or cool buildings. The monthly or annual cooling and heating requirements of specific buildings in different locations can be estimated by means of the degree-days concept. The base temperature is the outdoor temperature below or above which heating or cooling is needed. Cooling degree-days enable better benchmarks to be developed for air-conditioned buildings, allow improved Building Energy Management System operation and produce
better energy estimating methods. These three factors could make real contribution to energy efficiency and CO2 emission
targets. In this study the degree days for period 2008-2012 were calculated for Poland (5 cities) and India (5 cities) in each country. Cooling Degree Days for India were calculated for base temperature from 18 oC till 26oC. The Cooling Degree Days for Poland were calculated for base temperature from 18 till 28oC.The average annual value of CDD18 for Indian cities is CDD18 for Chennai is 4108, for Kolkata CDD18=3360, for New Delhi CDD18=3015, for Mumbai CDD18=3469, for Mangalore CDD18=3449. The average annual value of CDD18 for Polish cities is Suwalki CDD18=99 for Zielona Gora CDD18=75, Zakopane CDD18=43, Gdansk CDD18=62, Warsaw CDD18=182.


A computer network is a group of computer systems which are connected together through various communication channels which make easy use of resource-sharing between the wide ranges of users. Security was not an important and essential issue in early days. But now as billions of ordinary citizens are using networks for banking, shopping, Air Ticket Reservation, Online Examinations, Filling their Income Tax, Business, Marketing, Stock Exchange, hospitals, government organizations, and industries and so on.Computer securityis also known as cyber securityand IT security because it protects the computer system from theft or damage to the hardware, software or the information stored in it.Securityis a techniquewhich is used tomake certain data stored in a computersystem which cannot be read or translated by any persons or individuals without any authorization because it involves data encryption and password.Computer hackingis one of the technique used for modifying or altering computer software and hardware with unauthorized access to the computer system. In short term it can be called as "hackers."This paper provides a review and survey of some of the symmetric and asymmetric techniques used in computer networks. Feature of achieving the effectiveness, flexibility, security, and efficiency.


This paper reviews semileptonic decays of B-mesons to states containing charm mesons, i.e., D, D, D and possible non-resonant Dnπ states as well. The paper covers measurement of branching fractions, form-factors and, most importantly, the magnitude of the CKM matrix element Vcb. I will not attempt a comprehensive review, but will concentrate on reasonably fresh results and consider mostly exclusive measurements. I will also comment on the consistency of the results and what needs to be done to resolve the apparent conflicts.


Background: Epidemiologic reports on dental or oral health in Mali West Africa are rare. The prevalence of periodontal disease (PD) has not been well established among pregnant women in this sub-Saharan nation. Aim: The purpose of this study was three-fold: to describe oral health self-care behaviors; to measure the prevalence of PD; and to determine predictors of PD among pregnant women in southeastern Mali. Methods and Subjects: In this cross-sectional, correlational study, the Ramfjord Periodontal Index (PDI) and the Community Periodontal Index (CPI) were used to assess levels of PD. Seventy-four pregnant women were surveyed for oral self-care behaviors and examined for PD. Results: Almost all women said they brushed their teeth daily. Years of schooling was a statistically significant predictor of brushing frequency (P=0.005). 81% of the women had never had a professional dental exam. Based on the PDI, 24% were diagnosed with gingivitis and 49% with periodontitis. According to the CPI, 47% had pathological pockets in the periodontium. A history of previous oral/dental problems was a predictor of the severity of periodontal disease (P <.001). Conclusion: The presence of periodontal disease among this sample of Malian women was high; oral hygiene behaviors and use of dental professionals were low. Screening for PD should be included as a routine part of antenatal care. Research is needed in Mali to determine if PD is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes.


Existing research has focused on the extent to which transnational interventions compel recalcitrant governments to reduce levels of domestic repression, but few have considered how such interventions might also provoke new forms of repression. Using a longitudinal study of repression against AIDS activism in China between 1989 and 2013, the author proposes that transnational institutions' provision of material resources and reshaping of organizational rules can transform a domestic repressive apparatus in specific policy areas. The intervention of transnational AIDS institutions not only constrained traditional violent coercion but also generated new forms of "diplomatic repression" through (1) changing repressive motives by moving AIDS from the margin to the center of mainstream politics and (2) supplying resources, networks, and models of action that enabled government organizations to reformulate health social organizations as new repressive actors with innovative repertoires of strategies inside and outside China's territory.


Diseases of the paranasal sinuses (DPN) are the most common pathology in otorhinolaryngology.
According to the literature, it is known that cystic sinusitis is an infectious and allergic disease, and the
formation of cysts is considered as the result of an allergic reaction to infection in sensitized patients. Adverse
environmental impact on the immunological system of the human body, reducing natural resistance, increasing
the degree of allergization of the population contributes to increased rate of respiratory diseases. In this regard,
it is relevant to study the indicators of immunity in patients with chronic cystic sinusitis. We examined 138
patients with chronic cystic sinusitis aged 17 to 64 years. Conducted immunological study of the state of
cellular and humoral immunity in accordance to recommendations of the Institute of Immunology. A
comprehensive immunological examination revealed a sharp imbalance of immunological parameters in
serum, nasal flushes and cystic fluid in patients with chronic cystic sinusitis. In addition to etiological and
pathogenetic treatment in patients suffering from chronic cystic sinusitis, it is necessary to include
immunodulators and immunostimulators.


Purpose : It is known that post-concussive symptoms may persist after mild head injury. However, the majority of those patients are denied follow-up or support. A minor head injury clinic was thus established in North Staffordshire Hospital in 1993 to address these problems. Methods : Patients 16 - 65 years old attending hospital with minor head injury were invited to attend the clinic two weeks after presentation. A specialized brain injury nurse and/or assistant clinical psychologist assessed them. Patients with persistent symptoms were invited to a second assessment four weeks later. Results : One thousand two hundred and fifty-five patients were invited for first assessment, the most common cause of head injury was assault (454) followed by road traffic accident (334). Six hundred and sixteen patients did not attend the first assessment; most of non-attendees were those who had been assaulted (281). Six hundred and thirty-nine patients attended, (472) were male, their mean age was 33. Forty-three per cent of them had history of recent alcohol intake. One third had had a previous head injury. Although 391 attendees were in regular employment, 219 patients were unable to return to work 2 weeks after discharge (56% ), and 49 people were still off sick 6 weeks after the injury. The most common complaints at both assessments were fatigue, headache, dizziness, irritability, sleep disturbances, poor concentration and poor memory in that order. Conclusion : This study shows a significant number of patients with minor head injury still complaining of post concussive symptoms, which may contribute to a delay in return to work. The high incidence of non-attendance among the assaulted victims may indicate that this group needs to be more effectively targeted. Further study to look at the longer-term consequences of minor head injury is required in view of these findings.


Amifostine (Ethyol) is an analog of cysteamine that selectively protects normal tissues in multiple organ systems against the toxic effects of radiation and various cytotoxic drugs while preserving the antitumor effects of these therapies. Amifostine was evaluated in a multicenter, multinational phase III clinical trial that enrolled women with stage III/IV ovarian cancer. Its effects have also been studied using normal human bone marrow and human breast cancer cells, as well as leukemia cells. Additional clinical trials have shown that amifostine can protect normal tissues from the toxic effects of alkylating agents, organoplatinums, anthracyclines, taxanes, and radiation. Other laboratory and clinical investigations indicate a potential role for this cytoprotective agent in the treatment of the ineffective hematopoiesis characteristic of the myelodysplastic syndromes.


Free samples are an expensive but effective method of targeting customers, with conversions to sales which may peak 90%. Hence, it is not surprising to learn from a paper recently published in JAMA Dermatology, that free drug samples can alter the prescribing habits of physicians with an increasing prescription of branded and branded generic drugs, away from the use of less expensive generic medications. The costs of prescriptions increase as well. Several institutions have banned or sharply restricted drug sampling, in the United States, a similar policy should be adopted in Italy within the National Health Service.


By incorporating regret minimization, double oracle methods have demonstrated rapid convergence to Nash Equilibrium (NE) in normal-form games and extensive-form games, through algorithms such as online double oracle (ODO) and extensive-form double oracle (XDO), respectively. In this study, we further examine the theoretical convergence rate and sample complexity of such regret minimization-based double oracle methods, utilizing a unified framework called Regret-Minimizing Double Oracle. Based on this framework, we extend ODO to extensive-form games and determine its sample complexity. Moreover, we demonstrate that the sample complexity of XDO can be exponential in the number of information sets $|S|$, owing to the exponentially decaying stopping threshold of restricted games. To solve this problem, we propose the Periodic Double Oracle (PDO) method, which has the lowest sample complexity among regret minimization-based double oracle methods, being only polynomial in $|S|$. Empirical evaluations on multiple poker and board games show that PDO achieves significantly faster convergence than previous double oracle algorithms and reaches a competitive level with state-of-the-art regret minimization methods.


In the last decade numerous research has been done in the area of Isogeometric Analysis (IGA). The intention of this rather new technology is the wish to have a stronger integration of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Its basic idea is to use the same mathematical description for the geometry as well in the design process (CAD) as in the later analysis (FEA). One of the wide spread geometry description methodology in CAD-systems is the usage of Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) as basis functions. NURBS-based finite elements have been proven to be very well suited for computational analysis leading to qualitatively more accurate results in comparison with standard finite elements based on Lagrange polynomials. Therefore continuous development of Isogeometric Analysis has been added to LS-DYNA in the last years. The present contribution will give an overview about the current possibilities in LS-DYNA to use NURBS-based CAD-geometry description for numerical simulation and outline future plans for their enhancements.


This is a densely illustrated and comprehensive introduction to an art form that is enjoying a boon in popularity due to its links with pop culture, fashion, and music. This engaging and unpretentious introduction to contemporary dance explores the discipline in all its facets, from opera to hiphop and from circus skills to fashion. A chronology of the key dates in the history of dance, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, provides context on how the art form has evolved over time. This book is completed by profiles of contemporary dances thirty most influential exponents and choreographers from Merce Cunningham to William Forsythe, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker to Akram Khan, and Trisha Brown to Pina Bausch. An explanatory chronology and a glossary of key vocabulary complete this essential resource; the only book of its kind on the market.


• Processes allowing the recycling of organic nitrogen and export to young leaves and seeds are important determinants of plant yield, especially when plants are nitrate-limited. Because autophagy is induced during leaf ageing and in response to nitrogen starvation, its role in nitrogen remobilization was suspected. It was recently shown that autophagy participates in the trafficking of Rubisco-containing bodies to the vacuole. • To investigate the role of autophagy in nitrogen remobilization, several autophagy-defective (atg) Arabidopsis mutants were grown under low and high nitrate supplies and labeled with at the vegetative stage in order to determine (15) N partitioning in seeds at harvest. Because atg mutants displayed earlier and more rapid leaf senescence than wild type, we investigated whether their defects in nitrogen remobilization were related to premature leaf cell death by studying the stay-green atg5.sid2 and atg5.NahG mutants. • Results showed that nitrogen remobilization efficiency was significantly lower in all the atg mutants irrespective of biomass defects, harvest index reduction, leaf senescence phenotypes and nitrogen conditions. • We conclude that autophagy core machinery is needed for nitrogen remobilization and seed filling.


Solid Oxide fuel cells (SOFC), is one of the fuel cell types with a greater potential as a commercial electrical power generator. As a high temperature fuel cell type (600-1000oC), presents one of the biggest opportunity to be integrated in a polygeneration system combining it with existing infrastructure to provide heat and power in a efficient way. Furthermore, unlike other types of fuel cells, SOFC can work using a wide variety of fuels, meaning that with some reformation; most of the commercially available fuels can be utilized, and even some relatively sustainable fuels that are not yet commercial, such as gasified biomass.The main part of this thesis focuses on the design of two gasifier models, one for partial oxidation gasification and other for steam gasification, both models where verified using published experimental results and simulations. Afterwards the models were integrated to work with a SOFC system. Several key parameters where analyzed in other have a complete view of the behavior of the system. The system was studied by changing different parameters like fuel cell operating temperature, fuel cell operating pressure, fuel composition, and moisture content.Finally another part of the thesis is to analyze two different systems, one integrating gasifier and SOFC, and other studying the integration of the gasifier system to a combine cycle system, SOFC-Micro Gas Turbine.The study concludes, as expected, that there is an inverse correlation between the moisture level in the fuel and the efficiencies in all the systems. Also the model shows that increasing the cell operating temperature will reduce the number of cell needed in order to achieve the design power output.


The extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) is an infrastructure that allows to dynamically load and run micro-programs directly in the Linux kernel without recompiling it. In this work, we study how to develop high-performance network measurements in eBPF. We take sketches as case-study, given their ability to support a wide-range of tasks while providing low-memory footprint and accuracy guarantees. We implemented NitroSketch, the state-of-the-art sketch for user-space networking and show that best practices in user-space networking cannot be directly applied to eBPF, because of its different performance characteristics. By applying our lesson learned we improve its performance by 40% compared to a naive implementation.


The basal ganglia and limbic system, particularly the thalamus, putamen, internal and external globus pallidus, substantia nigra, and sub-thalamic nucleus, comprise a clinically relevant signal network for Parkinson's disease. In order to manually trace these structures, a combination of high-resolution and specialized sequences at 7T are used, but it is not feasible to scan clinical patients in those scanners. Targeted imaging sequences at 3T such as F-GATIR, and other optimized inversion recovery sequences, have been presented which enhance contrast in a select group of these structures. In this work, we show that a series of atlases generated at 7T can be used to accurately segment these structures at 3T using a combination of standard and optimized imaging sequences, though no one approach provided the best result across all structures. In the thalamus and putamen, a median Dice coefficient over 0.88 and a mean surface distance less than 1.0mm was achieved using a combination of T1 and an optimized inversion recovery imaging sequences. In the internal and external globus pallidus a Dice over 0.75 and a mean surface distance less than 1.2mm was achieved using a combination of T1 and FGATIR imaging sequences. In the substantia nigra and sub-thalamic nucleus a Dice coefficient of over 0.6 and a mean surface distance of less than 1.0mm was achieved using the optimized inversion recovery imaging sequence. On average, using T1 and optimized inversion recovery together produced significantly improved segmentation results than any individual modality (p<0.05 wilcox sign-rank test).


Characterization of the long‐term cancer risks among liver transplant patients has been hampered by the paucity of sufficiently large cohorts. The increase over time in the number of liver transplants coupled with improved survival underscores the need to better understand associated long‐term health effects. This is a cohort study whose subjects were assembled with data from the population‐based Canadian Organ Replacement Registry. Analyses are based on 2034 patients who received a liver transplant between June 1983 and October 1998. Incident cases of cancer were identified through record linkage to the Canadian Cancer Registry. We compared site‐specific cancer incidence rates in the cohort and the general Canadian population by using the standardized incidence ratio (SIR). Stratified analyses were performed to examine variations in risk according to age at transplantation, sex, time since transplantation, and year of transplantation. Liver transplant recipients had cancer incidence rates that were 2.5 times higher than those of the general population [95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.1, 3.0]. The highest SIR was observed for non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (SIR = 20.8, 95% CI = 14.9, 28.3), whereas a statistically significant excess was observed for colorectal cancer (SIR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.4, 4.4). Risks were more pronounced during the first year of follow‐up and among younger transplant patients. In conclusion, our findings indicate that liver transplant patients face increased risks of developing cancer with respect to the general population. Increased surveillance in this patient population, particularly in the first year following transplantation, and screening for colorectal cancer with modalities for which benefits are already well recognized should be pursued. Liver Transpl 14:1588–1597, 2008. © 2008 AASLD.


We propose RemixIT, a simple and novel self-supervised training method for speech enhancement. The proposed method is based on a continuously self-training scheme that overcomes limitations from previous studies including assumptions for the in-domain noise distribution and having access to clean target signals. Specifically, a separation teacher model is pre-trained on an out-of-domain dataset and is used to infer estimated target signals for a batch of in-domain mixtures. Next, we bootstrap the mixing process by generating artificial mixtures using permuted estimated clean and noise signals. Finally, the student model is trained using the permuted estimated sources as targets while we periodically update teacher's weights using the latest student model. Our experiments show that RemixIT outperforms several previous state-of-the-art self-supervised methods under multiple speech enhancement tasks. Additionally, RemixIT provides a seamless alternative for semi-supervised and unsupervised domain adaptation for speech enhancement tasks, while being general enough to be applied to any separation task and paired with any separation model.


The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have adopted, on 09 March 2011, Directive on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare. This Directive has emerged as a result of the Court of Justice jurisprudence on social security coverage of health care obtained outside the Member State of patient' s social security protection, starting with the well known judgement in Raymond Kohll v. Union des caisses de maladie . The focus of the Court has been on developing a set of patients' entitlements in cross-border health care, emphasising the individual needs and circumstances of patients seeking health care abroad. The aim of the paper is to investigate the Directive and determine whether it will add (once transposed into the national legal systems) to the current set of patient entitlements and make it easier for those patients to obtain socially covered health care outside the state of social protection, and to discuss the Directive's application in Croatia, once the country joins the EU. The paper first briefly describes the most important principles that have evolved through the Court of Justice case-law, concerning both the application of freedoms guaranteed by EU primary law (namely, freedom to provide and receive cross-border health care services) and the secondary legislation on co-ordination of social security systems within the Union. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the Patient Mobility Directive, namely focusing on the issue whether the Directive actually contributes to patient mobility in the EU, as well as on its relationship with national social security legislation, especially the Croatian one (since Croatia is to become a Member State a few months before the end of the transposition period). Emphasis is placed on the interaction between the social aspects of national legal framework and the internal market as the cornerstone of the European integration. In the end, the paper submits that the Patient Mobility Directive's impact on actual movement of patients across borders might prove to be, in some areas, counterproductive. Furthermore, the paper stresses the necessity of clarifying the EU legal framework and the need for closer co-operation and dialogue between the EU and the Member States' relevant authorities, taking into account specificities of individual Member States, and the significance of the Patient Mobility Directive within the described context.


Mutations in the presenilin 1 and 2 (PS1 and PS2) genes cause most cases of early onset Alzheimer's disease. The genes encode two homologous multipass membrane proteins. Since the endogenous expression of PS2 has been poorly analyzed to date, we studied PS2 expression and localization in cultured human neuroblastoma cells and mouse neuronal cells. PS2 was mainly detected as a full-length protein of about 52 kDa in these cells and in brain, in contrast to PS1 that is mainly detected as endoproteolytic N-terminal and C-terminal fragments. Using immunofluorescence we found that like PS1, PS2 colocalized with markers of the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi intermediate compartment, ERGIC-53 and beta-COP. Double labeling for PS1 and PS2 indicated that both proteins are colocalized in neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. To study PS2 expression during differentiation, mouse embryonic carcinoma P19 cells were treated with retinoic acid. We found minimal PS2 expression in undifferentiated cells, an increase from day 2, and a maximum at day 8 after treatment. PS1 expression remained constant during this period. The differential expression of PS1 and PS2 within the P19 cells following retinoic acid treatment indicates different utilization or temporal requirements for these proteins during neuronal differentiation.


The Phillips curve on the trade-off between inflation and unemployment has been debated among economists for more than decades. Several studies have found that Phillips curve is dead in advanced economies and does not exist. Among others, Friedman (1968) stated that Phillips curve does not exist in the long-run because the relationship between inflation and unemployment is a temporary and short-term. On the contrary, Fuhrer (1995) found that Phillips curve is still alive in the United Kingdom; and Malinov and Sommers (1997) found that Phillips curve is still alive and stable in several OECD countries. This paper attempts to investigate whether a long-run Philips Curve exists in China. Using data for the period of 1987-2016 the estimated results of this study indicate that the Phillips curve, which existed during the late 1980s through 2000 in China has been gradually transformed to an almost vertical curve since 2000s, with a correlation of 0.8, indicating the importance of other policy variables including monetary policy and exchange rate regimes.


Collective interaction of light with an atomic gas can give rise to superradiant instabilities. We experimentally study the sudden buildup of a reverse light field in a laser-driven high-finesse ring cavity filled with ultracold thermal or Bose-Einstein condensed atoms. While superradiant Rayleigh scattering from atomic clouds is normally observed only at very low temperatures (i.e., well below 1 microK), the presence of the ring cavity enhances cooperativity and allows for superradiance with thermal clouds as hot as several 10 microK. A characterization of the superradiance at various temperatures and cooperativity parameters allows us to link it to the collective atomic recoil laser.


Abstract:  Sedimentary basins throughout the western interior of North America preserve a record of Late Cretaceous through latest Eocene sedimentation derived from flanking Laramide uplifts and Sevier hinterland. In northern and western basins, the strata contain a well-documented record of Laramide-style exhumation. However, the tectonic histories of more southerly basins, such as the Huerfano Basin studied herein, are comparatively poorly known despite being key for understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of Laramide tectonism. In this study we address this issue with a comprehensive analysis of provenance for the Poison Canyon, Cuchara, and Huerfano formations in the Huerfano Basin (south-central, Colorado, U.S.A.). As part of our provenance analysis, we characterized gravel clast composition, petrographic compositions of sandstone bodies (N = 31 thin sections), and U–Pb detrital-zircon age spectra (n = 848 age determinations) from fluvial sandstone units in each of the three formations. The results are used to construct a new unroofing and source history for the sediments in the basin that contradicts previous hypotheses. Diagnostic zircon peaks at 516–517 Ma, 1423–1430 Ma, and 1678–1687 Ma show that sediment delivered to the Huerfano Basin did not originate in the San Luis Highlands or the incipient Sangre de Cristo Mountains, but from the Precambrian crystalline core and associated Cambrian plutons of the Wet Mountains, which were exposed by the time Laramide deposition began in the basin. There are no detected provenance shifts upsection, indicating a largely stable or lithologically uniform sediment source from the Paleocene through at least ∼ 51 Ma. This suggests that the major changes recorded in the rock record were more likely related to variations in tectonic and climatic conditions rather than changes in lithology of the rocks being eroded.


A lame duck session of Congress occurs when legislators meet after an election has been held but before the next Congress has taken office. Lame duck sessions are often criticized by the victorious party in the election, and a common critique is that the lame duck members — undisciplined by electoral constraints — vote irresponsibly. There are subtle but statistically significant differences between voting patterns in regular and lame duck sessions, as revealed by analysis of over 50,000 House and Senate roll call votes.During a lame duck session, members are slightly less likely to side with their own parties and less likely to vote at all. These patterns persist in very lame duck sessions — those that take place following the loss of majority status within a single house. In these sessions, however, a new pattern emerges: House members become more likely to cast bipartisan votes and Senators become less likely to do so. Beyond these voting patterns, it is difficult to say whether members vote more or less "responsibly" during lame duck sessions of Congress. Our analysis supports the primary findings of the existing literature on lame ducks. Past studies have found lame duck legislators to be less likely to indulge most special interests, but others suggest they may be more likely to indulge one particular special interest: their next employers. In this study, we explain how incentives change for lame duck legislators, briefly review past research on lame ducks, and present our statistical findings that support and add to the existing literature.


Purpose: The goal of the study was to determine the influence of cultural differences on entrepreneurship at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. Problem investigated: The Grahamstown National Arts Festival is one of the most important arts festivals on the South African cultural calendar. Diverse entrepreneurs make use of the opportunities created by the festival. However, these entrepreneurs are heavily influenced by their cultural traits. This is because culture has an effect on the general decision making, standards, the behavioural patterns and ways of behaviour in SMMEs (small, medium and micro-enterprises). With the festival's significant annual growth and its economic value in mind, determining the role that culture plays on the individuals' motivation to embark on an entrepreneurial career is essential. How this influences the way they perceive their role at the festival is of vital importance to the festival marketers, organisers and even the South African Government (since it is largely responsible for creating a favourable entrepreneurial climate in the country). Design and methodology: Within the study, a distinction was made between different cultural groups at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival: White entrepreneurs, Black entrepreneurs, Indian entrepreneurs and Coloured entrepreneurs . ANOVAs were used to determine whether there were differences between these cultures. Findings and/or implications: The results of the study showed statistically significant cultural differences between these groups based on their socio-demographic characteristics, entrepreneurial attributes, motivation to attend as well as their perceived role at the festival. Originality and/or value of the research: This was the first time that research of this kind was conducted at a national arts festival in South Africa. The research has shown that by acknowledging and managing entrepreneurs' unique characteristics and traits represented by different cultural subgroups at the festival, a thriving entrepreneurial environment can be ensured. Conclusion: With the aim of achieving a successful entrepreneurial environment, factors that promote cross cultural entrepreneurship need to be an integral facet of entrepreneur-directed education, training and management as this will develop a positive orientation to entrepreneurship.


This note develops a behavioral explanation for the existence of an asymmetric tax treatment of gains and losses when investors are loss averse. We find that loss offset rules should be more restrictive for investors which are (1) more risk averse in case of gains, (2) less risk seeking in case of losses, or (3) more loss averse. Our findings have important policy implications. Tax authorities often implement identical loss offset rules for different investor clienteles. However, there should be specific loss offset rules for investors who differ in risk attitude as well as in loss aversion.


Abstract. Aeromagnetic exploration is an important method of geophysical exploration. We study the compensation method of the towed bird system and establish the towed bird interference model. Due to the geomagnetic gradient changing greatly, the geomagnetic gradient is considered in the towed bird interference model. In this paper, we model the geomagnetic field gradient and analyze the influence of the towed bird system on the aeromagnetic compensation results. Finally, we apply the ridge regression method to solve the problem. We verify the feasibility of this compensation method through actual flight tests and further improve the data quality of the towed bird interference.


Textured arrays of ferroelectric microcrystals of diisopropylammonium bromide were grown from solution at room temperature onto silicon substrates and studied by means of x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, electron microscopy, and piezoresponse force microscopy. The needleshaped crystals had dimensions of approximately 50 μm × 5 μm in the plane and were approximately 200 nm thick, where the dimensions and arrangement were influenced by growth conditions. The observations suggest an Ostwald ripening mechanism of the microcrystal growth. The crystals had the structure of the ferroelectric phase, where the polarization axis was in-plane and parallel to the long axis of the crystals. The in-plane polarization could be switched at will with a scanning probe tip bias of 15 V and could be arranged in stable domain patterns with both charged and uncharged 180° domain walls. P O D D A R E T A L . , J O U R N A L O F P H Y S I C S D: A P P L I E D P H Y S I C S 4 9 (2 0 1 6 ) 2


The Crime Victim's Rights Act has given victims "the right to participate in the system." However, crime victims remain marginalized as their involvement in plea agreements is yet under enforced.This article reveals the largely unnoticed gap between the victim's rights and the disadvantaged reality they experience in plea agreements. Further, the paper identifies the legal causes that led to this gap; namely, the broad discretion and dominance of the prosecution on the one hand, and the victim's lack of enforcement mechanisms to participate on the other.The article provides a solution whose novelty is twofold. First, the solution advocated by this article embodies the nudge theory; a theory, explained in this article, which is unfortunately yet to be adequately utilized in the context of criminal law. Second, the article demonstrates a choice architecture mechanism that leaves the prosecutor's discretion intact; while at the same time nudges the participation of the crime victims.The right-reality gap identified in this article threatens to leave crime victims unheard. This article analyzes the importance of victims' voice in plea bargains, identifies the causes of this entrenched gap, and provides a unique and practical solution to the problem.


The idea of the blue economy has been gaining publicity since the second half of the 20 th . century. Coastal states worldwide are especially aware of the crucial importance of oceans as an economic and ecological resource. Vietnam is a case in point. Occupying a vast area of the South China Sea, Vietnam, a developing state in South-East Asia, has an economy largely depending on marine resources. However, Vietnam faces many troubles in managing maritime spaces. This paper portrays the practices of the maritime spatial management of Vietnam in the South China Sea and then focuses on giving practical suggestions on maritime spatial planning and its implementation.


Advanced architectures for cluster-based services that have been recently proposed allow for service differentiation, server overload control and high utilization of resources. These systems, however, rely on centralized functions, which limit their ability to scale and to tolerate faults. In addition, they do not have built-in architectural support for automatic reconfiguration in case of failures or addition/removal of system components. Recent research in peer-to-peer systems and distributed management has demonstrated the potential benefits of decentralized over centralized designs: a decentralized design can reduce the configuration complexity of a system and increase its scalability and fault tolerance. This research focuses on introducing self-management capabilities into the design of cluster-based services. Its intended benefits are to make service platforms dynamically adapt to the needs of customers and to environment changes, while giving the service providers the capability to adjust operational policies at run-time. We have developed a decentralized design that efficiently allocates resources among multiple services inside a server cluster. The design combines the advantages of both centralized and decentralized architectures. It allows associating a set of QoS objectives with each service. In case of overload or failures, the quality of service degrades in a controllable manner. We have evaluated the performance of our design through extensive simulations. The results have been compared with performance characteristics of ideal systems.


Wood-plastic composites (WPC), a fast growing class of material used by the furniture and building industry for its excellent mechanical performance and functionality. However, WPC is easily combust because the raw material of it, i.e. wood and plastic burns so easily which result in more fire dangers of WPC. Unfortunately, in the case of WPC, few researchers have carried out to reduce its flammability which still has a long way to go. In this paper, the current development of halogen-free flame retardant WPC at domestic and abroad was reviewed. Especially, the fire retarded WPC with phosphorus, nitrogen, boron, silicon and other flame retardant elements, the fire retarded mechanism, the problems, such as poor compatability, bad resistance to heat and limitation of wood adding quantity, and the solution to the problems were emphasized.


In this paper, visco-elastic-plasticity theory is employed to establish a nonlinear finite element model of the asphalt mixture pavement. The influence of pavement structure, the ability of rutting resistance of middle layer and traffic load on shear stress distribution for asphalt pavement are discussed. The numerical results show that shear stress analysis can be used to analyze the rutting of asphalt pavement. The asphalt materials of middle layer have a great impact on rutting and shear stress. Modified asphalt is a useful middle layer material to decrease the rutting, and the hard asphalt is also an economical material to reduce rutting. Overload and overpressure easily cause pavement rutting damage. Pavement longitudinal grade is not the main reason leading to rutting at the long slope, but brake frequently in the long slope is the real cause of rutting.


Background and Goals Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) is an established treatment of irretrievable biliary and pancreatic stones, but the cost of the shockwave generators limits its widespread use. We revised data about the effectiveness of our treatment for refractory stones using a transportable shockwave generator. Study We retrospectively evaluated the short and medium-term outcomes of patients who underwent ESWL using a transportable electromagnetic shockwave generator between 1998 and 2003 at our unit, for the treatment of irretrievable bile duct or pancreatic duct stones. All patients received intravenous conscious sedation and antibiotic prophylaxis. Results Complete stone clearance was achieved in 70/82 patients (85.4%), in 66 of the patients (94.2%) with 1 session of ESWL. Despite the insertion of a stent in the bile duct, 2 patients had moderate cholangitis, while they waited for the next ESWL session. We did not record any moderate-severe complication of ESWL, but 2 patients underwent surgery owing to perforation/bleeding during endoscopic removal of residual fragments. A symptomatic recurrence of stones was recorded in 10/69 (14.5%) patients, who had been previously cleared and whose follow-up data (median follow-up 29 mo; range 7 to 66) were available. Conclusions We obtained satisfactory stone clearance by using a transportable shockwave generator. Most patients required 1 session. Our experience confirmed the safety of the treatment, even though patients may experience cholangitis while awaiting definitive treatment. The use of a transportable ESWL generator may be a valuable option in centers, while ensuring a sufficient proficiency in biliary endoscopy.


The wide-field synoptic sky surveys, known as the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), will accumulate a large number of known and new RR Lyrae. These RR Lyrae are good tracers to study the substructure of the Galactic halo if their distance, metallicity, and galactocentric velocity can be measured. Candidates of halo RR Lyrae can be identified from their distance and metallicity before requesting spectroscopic observations for confirmation. This is because both quantities can be obtained via their photometric light curves, because the absolute V-band magnitude for RR Lyrae is correlated with metallicity, and the metallicity can be estimated using a metallicity–light curve relation. To fully utilize the PTF and iPTF light-curve data in related future work, it is necessary to derive the metallicity–light curve relation in the native PTF/iPTF R-band photometric system. In this work, we derived such a relation using the known ab-type RR Lyrae located in the Kepler field, and it is found to be (where P is pulsational period and is one of the Fourier parameters describing the shape of the light curve), with a dispersion of 0.118 dex. We tested our metallicity–light curve relation with new spectroscopic observations of a few RR Lyrae in the Kepler field, as well as several data sets available in the literature. Our tests demonstrated that the derived metallicity–light curve relation could be used to estimate metallicities for the majority of the RR Lyrae, which are in agreement with the published values.


One of the key competencies required in modern robots is finding objects in complex environments. For the last decade, significant progress in computer vision and machine learning literatures has increased the recognition performance of well localized objects. However, the performance of these techniques is still far from human performance, especially in cluttered environments. We believe that the performance gap between robots and humans is due in part to humans' use of an attention system. According to cognitive psychology, the human visual system uses two stages of visual processing to interpret visual input. The first stage is a pre-attentive process perceiving scenes fast and coarsely to select potentially interesting regions. The second stage is a more complex process analyzing the regions hypothesized in the previous stage. These two stages play an important role in enabling efficient use of the limited cognitive resources available. Inspired by this biological fact, we propose a visual attentional object categorization approach for robots that enables object recognition in real environments under a critical time limitation. We quantitatively evaluate the performance for recognition of objects in highly cluttered scenes without significant loss of detection rates across several experimental settings.


This research used the Pressurized Liquid Extraction process (PLE) to obtain cambuci extracts rich in phenolic compounds and, consequently, with high antioxidant activity.

 We determined the centesimal composition and the mean particle size of the dried and crushed sample for characterization of the fixed bed extractor. Extractions with pressurized ethanol were performed following a Central Composite Design (CCD) with temperature (60 °C at the center point with ± 10 °C amplitude) and the contact time between the solvent and the matrix (6 min at the center point with ± 2 min amplitude) as independent variables in the process. The Total Phenolic Content (TPC) of compounds and antioxidant activity were determined.

 The mean particle size of the cambuci in the PLE was 263.4 μm with apparent and real densities of 32.42 g/cm3 and 1.62 g/cm3, respectively, resulting in a fixed bed porosity of 0.43. The centesimal composition of the comminuted and dried sample was 12.5 ± 0.1% moisture, 3.2 ± 0.2% ash, 3.35 ± 0.07% crude protein, 10.32 ± 0.08% crude fiber and 0.35 ± 0.04% ethereal extract. The highest extraction yield (41.7%) was obtained by using the binomial 70 ºC with 8 min of solvent contact in three batches. Extracts with the highest TPC (6501.10 mg AGE/100 g sample) were obtained by the binomial 74 °C with 6 min of contact; the binomial 50 °C with 4 min of contact gave rise to the extract with the highest antioxidant activity. The CCD showed high yield extracts with high antioxidant activity and a high total phenolic compound content.

 With the use of the proposed experimental design, it was possible to optimize the extraction of total phenolic compounds from the sample.


The Making 3D games that can provide knowledge not only provide entertainment, but one of them aims as knowledge and give a positive impact for lovers of gaming applications. In this case Bamboo game can introduce more about the Indonesian war tool to fight the former colonizers in the form of bamboo. It can be seen in terms of characters, backround, tools used characters and stories that introduce bamboo used by the fighters as a means of war to fight the invaders.
In making bamboo game writer use unity 3D application where this application facilitate writer in making. In addition to the manufacture of game writers using a combination of software development methodology and multimedia development. Case diagrams, resistance diagrams, sequence diagrams, class diagrams. To find out how interesting the game the author performs a questionnaire analysis and uses T-Test to perform analysis, from the results obtained no changes before and after playing bamboo games.


The article focuses on the origins and early development of the Hare Krishna community in Lithuania until 1989, when the collapse of the Soviet Union began and official registration of religious communities started. Using a historical narrative method, the authors retrace the formation of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and how the movement came to Lithuania from Moscow, Russia through Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia. The community developed within the underground under the threat of the KGB repressions where it existed until the beginning of the Sąjūdis (the Reform Movement of Lithuania), when public community activities became possible, such as public programs, book distributing and founding of official temples. The ideas and practices of ISKCON were a form of resistance to the Soviet regime and the communist ideology, and the Lithuanian ISKCON community played a significant role in the development of ISKCON throughout the Soviet Union, because after the imprisonment of Armenian activists, Lithuanian members organized secret printing and distribution of the ISKCON literature throughout the Soviet region. The article depicts a very different ISKCON that, compared with today, lacked an organizational structure and functioned without the guidance by senior foreign ISKCON members.


OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to evaluate the difference in patient satisfaction, timeliness of reporting, patient recollection of recommendations, and patient anxiety before and after passage of the Mammography Quality Standards Reauthorization Act of 1998, which requires written notification of all mammographic results.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We used a telephone survey with sampling that was stratified to reflect patients with normal and abnormal findings who had screening and diagnostic mammograms. Patients with visits before the mandate became effective (April 1999, n = 298) and after (January 2000, n = 316) were interviewed about the average time to receive results, satisfaction with communication about results, anxiety, and perceived follow-up recommendations. Multiple logistic regression was used to test the association of time period with patient dissatisfaction, controlling for age, anxiety level (considerable or extreme vs none or moderate), examination type (screening vs diagnostic), and examination result (normal vs abnormal findings).

RESULTS
No significant difference was found between periods in anxiety about results or agreement with documented radiology recommendations, but we found a substantial increase in the number of screening patients who reported timely receipt of results. Significantly fewer patients were dissatisfied with mammographic results communication after the mandate (multivariable odds ratio = 0.46, p = 0.006). Screening examination patients and patients who reported considerable or extreme anxiety about test results were more likely to be dissatisfied in both periods.

CONCLUSION
By standardizing results notification, the Mammography Quality Standards Reauthorization Act improved patient satisfaction and reporting timeliness among screening examination patients, but did little to improve anxiety or recollection of recommendations. Future quality improvement efforts should focus on improving patients' understanding of follow-up recommendations.


The study of the religious women of the Order of St. James in Portugal during the period
mentioned in the title of this paper is intended to show the way in which they observed the
vows that they had taken when they donned their habits, how they lived inside the
monastery, how they administered their property, how they related to civil society, and how
they adapted to the new times brought by modernity.
Although the Master of the order Dom Jorge, drew attention in the early 16th century to the
fact that the doors of the monastery should not be opened to women who were not related
to the male branch of the Order i.e. relatives of the friar-knights: daughters, wives or
widows, documentation reveals that some of the religious women did not belong to the
relatives of the members of the Order. Furthermore, it is interesting to understand the
mechanisms that led to the donning of the habit.
These women lived in a monastic house which was consecrated by the Monastery of Santos,
although, over the course of the Middle Ages, they changed quarters at least twice. During
the period covered by this study, they were always supervised by a woman belonging to the
family of the Master Dom Jorge.
With this study, we can gain a better knowledge of a community that existed in Portugal
from the late 12th century onwards.


ABSTRACT "Nubiotics" are a novel class of proprietary protonated nucleic acid-based drugs shown to have potent in vitro antibacterial activities against a number of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. These nubiotics are evaluated here for their in vivo therapeutic efficacy for the treatment of burn wound infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To achieve this, a burn wound infection model was established in mice by using a highly pathogenic burn wound clinical isolate of P. aeruginosa. Lethal doses of the bacteria were determined for two routes of infection (subcutaneous and topical), representing systemic and local forms of infection, respectively. Using this infection model, treatment with nubiotics by various routes of drug administration was evaluated and optimized. A total of 12 nubiotics and their analogues were tested and of these, Nu-2, -3, -4, and -5 were found to be extremely efficacious in the postexposure treatment of burn wound infection (60 to 100% survival rates versus 0% for untreated control [P < 0.05]). These nubiotics were effective when given either systemically by intravenous and/or subcutaneous administration or given locally to the affected site in the skin by topical application. Treatment by these two routes resulted in almost 100% survival rates and complete eradication of the bacteria from infection sites in the livers, spleens, and blood. These nubiotics were found to be as effective as intravenously administered ciprofloxacin, a potent and broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone. These results suggest that nubiotics may be a promising and effective approach for the treatment of burn wound infection caused by P. aeruginosa.


In July 2013 the UK's coalition government published "The Civil Service Reform Plan – One Year on", reporting on progress against minister Frances Maude's objectives to shake up the civil service. This followed various reported disagreements between ministers and civil servants over policy implementation, and a research report commissioned by the government from think tank IPPR into lessons from overseas for civil service reform. This trio of short articles reviews the government's proposals from three perspectives: that of the lead author of the IPPR report, a former senior civil servant, and the chair of the House of Commons Public Administration Committee (PASC) which oversees the civil service. The authors take differing views on the proposals, which include introduction of 'extended ministerial offices', and greater control by ministers over choosing their civil servants. Should these be seen as useful next steps, worrying developments, and/or large and important enough to merit a Commission on the civil service, as PASC has suggested?


A worker's compensation benefit is an important part of the compensation package for risky jobs, and excluding it during the estimation of Value of Statistical Life (VSL) and Value of Statistical Injury (VSI) may yield biased estimates of wage-risk trade-off. Besides, many studies from developed countries indicate that there exists a negative trade-off between a worker's compensation benefit and the wage for risky jobs. Therefore, this paper uses information on a sample of 430 workers from the manufacturing industries of Ahmedabad, India to examine the influence of worker's compensation benefits on their wages and Value of Statistical Life. The results of this study show that including an interaction variable between compensation benefit and injury risk in estimation improves the VSL and VSI estimates. These results have important implications for the labour market in developing countries like India. The estimates of VSL and VSI obtained from this study will help policymakers and government agencies to evaluate the existing policies on compensation benefit and occupational safety in India as well as other developing countries.


The usual parametric procedures are valid for the analysis of most caries clinical trials. If the sample sizes are small, non-parametric procedures should probably be used, such as the Wilcoxon two-sample test or the Kruskal-Wallis test. The Wilcoxon test can be expressed in terms of the difference between one of the rank sums and its expected value. This difference is evaluated in terms of its standard deviation. The Wilcoxon test is extended to produce an overall test, which takes the stratification into account. The procedure accumulates the differences between the rank sum of one of the two treatments and its expected value, and the corresponding variances. The Kruskal-Wallis test can be expressed in an analysis-of-variance-like form. The test can also be expressed in terms of the differences between the observed and expected rank sums. To extend the test to two or more strata, we need the variance-covariance matrices of I - 1 of the rank sums. There is presently no test available for interaction. The expected values of the rank sums depend on the sample sizes, and these differ from stratum to stratum. The use of weights, to produce a common expected value for each stratum, may provide a test of interaction. This needs further exploration.


The world of mobile networking is dramatically changing due to the new 5G technologies, which will contribute to the development of a smarter and interconnected planet by means of a ubiquitous and faster network. These ambitious plans will establish new challenges in the networking field. In particular, one of the objectives to pursue is to find a way for increasing the performance of network middleboxes, by means of the virtualization of network functions and the smart orchestration of traffic flows. The introduction of NFV technologies may bring many benefits in terms of scalability and flexibility, but there are some drawbacks too, in terms of performance, compared to the solutions based on purpose-built hardware tightly coupled with network function software. In this context, the problem previously introduced can be mitigated by performing an offload of software-defined network functions, with the aim of reaching the true speed of the underlying hardware. In this work, we will investigate the new technology of a Smart-NIC, that promises to solve this problem by implementing offloading functionalities. In particular, we will focus on the feasibility of offloading eBPF code into the hardware of the Smart-NIC that has been considered in our study. At first, we will start to explore the performance of the Smart-NIC and its functionalities; we will also conduct some network performance tests with the aim of understanding the potentialities and the limitations of the hardware. Then, we will examine the DDoS mitigator use case and we will analyze the advantages introduced by using the Smart-NIC, in terms of dropped traffic, in order to exploit the possibility of reaching a line rate performance without affecting the host system. Finally, we will try to extend our approach in order to individuate a flexible solution that allows offloading a generic eBPF program, which could be a generic VNF. Moreover, the code will be analyzed with the goal of extracting known patterns and stateless decision paths that can be offloaded. The feasibility of performing the offload of stateful paths will be investigated too, focusing on the recognition of the paths determined by userspace inputs.


Entrepreneurship and growth are closely equated with high performance and survivability among entrepreneurs. Growth is also an indication of continued entrepreneurship. Although much has been written about the growth of entrepreneurship, there is no universal theory which can adequately explain it. As entrepreneurs continue on the long and challenging entrepreneurial process towards business growth, they would face many obstacles that could either make or break them. Adopting a case study method, this paper includes in-depth interviews with one Malay entrepreneur to understand how he has successfully grown his business. Two specific lessons learned from the case. First lesson is the importance of risk management among small businesses and second, the religious obligation as driver for business growth. This study is expected to contribute significantly to the wealth of academic literature in the subject of entrepreneurial business growth process. Thus, it can be regarded as a concentrated effort to provide guidance for new and aspiring Malay entrepreneurs to carefully plan their business strategies as well as the projected business growth. This study also plays an essential role to provide recommendations for policy makers to foster and encourage entrepreneurship through targeted policy initiatives by fully understanding the elements that constitute an entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial activity.


This article outlines 5 major challenges facing the US physician workforce that are especially important in the context of health care reform but have not been featured in the reform debate. Without assuring that sufficient numbers of the right types of physicians are available, reform efforts may not result in increased access to health care. Policy options for addressing these challenges are an important national priority in the context of effective reform of the US health care system.


Video-based action recognition with deep neural networks has shown remarkable progress. However, most of the existing approaches are too computationally expensive due to the complex network architecture. To address these problems, we propose a new real-time action recognition architecture, called Temporal Convolutional 3D Network (T-C3D), which learns video action representations in a hierarchical multi-granularity manner. Specifically, we combine a residual 3D convolutional neural network which captures complementary information on the appearance of a single frame and the motion between consecutive frames with a new temporal encoding method to explore the temporal dynamics of the whole video. Thus heavy calculations are avoided when doing the inference, which enables the method to be capable of real-time processing. On two challenging benchmark datasets, UCF101 and HMDB51, our method is significantly better than state-of-the-art real-time methods by over 5.4% in terms of accuracy and 2 times faster in terms of inference speed (969 frames per second), demonstrating comparable recognition performance to the state-of-the-art methods. The source code for the complete system as well as the pre-trained models are publicly available at https://github.com/tc3d.


Empirical studies of the shoe-leather costs of inflation are typically computed using M1 as a measure of money. Yet, official data on M1 includes all currency issued, regardless of the country of residence of the holder. Using adjusted monetary data, we show that the failure to control for currency held by non residents may lead to significantly overestimating the welfare costs for the domestic economy. In particular, our estimates of shoe-leather costs are minimized for a positive but moderate value of the inflation rate, thereby justifying a deviation from the Friedman rule in favour of the Fed's current policy. JEL Classification: E31, E41, E52.


V921 Scorpii is a close binary system (separation 0.″025) showing the B[e]-phenomenon. The system is surrounded by an enigmatic bipolar nebula, which might have been shaped by episodic mass-loss events, possibly triggered by dynamical interactions between the companion and the circumprimary disk. In this paper, we investigate the spatial structure and kinematics of the circumprimary disk, with the aim to obtain new insights into the still strongly debated evolutionary stage. For this purpose, we combine, for the first time, infrared spectro-interferometry (VLTI/AMBER, λ/Δλ = 12, 000) and spectro-astrometry (VLT/CRIRES, λ/Δλ = 100, 000), which allows us to study the AU-scale distribution of circumstellar gas and dust with an unprecedented velocity resolution of 3 km s−1. Using a model-independent photocenter analysis technique, we find that the Brγ-line-emitting gas rotates in the same plane as the dust disk. We can reproduce the wavelength-differential visibilities and phases and the double-peaked line profile using a Keplerian-rotating disk model. The derived mass of the central star is 5.4  ±  0.4 M☉ · (d/1150 pc), which is considerably lower than expected from the spectral classification, suggesting that V921 Sco might be more distant (d ∼ 2 kpc) than commonly assumed. Using the geometric information provided by our Brγ spectro-interferometric data and Paschen, Brackett, and Pfund line decrement measurements in 61 hydrogen recombination line transitions, we derive the density of the line-emitting gas (Ne = (2–6) × 1019 m−3). Given that our measurements can be reproduced with a Keplerian velocity field without an outflowing velocity component and the non-detection of age-indicating spectroscopic diagnostics, our study provides new evidence for the pre-main-sequence nature of V921 Sco.


Almost all patients with advanced prostate cancer progress to castration-resistant stage with limited treatment options.Oncolytic adenoviruses have been actively pursued as potential agents for cancer treatment. Virtually all clinical trials on oncolytic adenovirus are based on serotype 5. However, viral replication in hepatocytes induces severe liver toxicity and limits its systemic administration for metastatic disease. Moreover, rapid clearance of viral particles injected intravenously further hinders the anticancer efficacy. Adenovirus 6 (Ad6) was previously reported to exhibit less liver toxicity and escape Kupffer cells absorption after systemic administration. To further improve its safety, we generated a novel oncolytic adenovirus Ad6miR, inwhich four copies of binding sites of a liver-specificmicroRNAmiR122were incorporated into E1A gene of Ad6. miR122 regulation significantly decreased Ad6 replication in hepatocytes and consequently hepatotoxicity because of the negative regulation of miR122. Cytotoxicity assay using primary or established prostate cancer cell lines showed robust oncolytic activity ofAd6miR. Systemic treatment of established tumors with Ad6miR showed strong antitumor activity, comparable with that of Ad6 or Ad5. Although Ad6 evaded Kupffer cells, its blood clearance rate was as rapid as Ad5. The vast majority of Ad6 particles intravenously injected localized in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells rather than previously reported Kupffer cells. Elevating Ad6miR injection dose increased circulating Ad6miR concentration and its antitumor efficacy. miR122 regulation of Ad6 significantly improves its safety profile after systemic administration, which allows increasing therapeutic doses leading to improved anticancer efficacy of systemic treatment of castrationresistant prostate cancer. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(11); 1–9. 2012 AACR.


Pipeline commissioning, which is a key link from engineering construction to production operation, is aim to fill an empty pipe by injecting water or oil to push air out of it. For a large-slope crude oil pipeline with great elevation differences, air is fairly easy to entrap at downward inclined parts. The entrapped air, which is also called air pocket, will cause considerable damage on pumps and pipes. The presence of it may also bring difficulties in tracking the location of the liquid head or the interface between oil and water. It is the accumulated air that needed to be exhausted in time during commissioning.This paper focuses on the simulation of liquid-gas replacement in commissioning process that only liquid flow rate exists while gas stays stagnant in the pipe and is demanded to be replaced by liquid. Few previous researches have been found yet in this area. Consequently, the flow in a V-section pipeline consisted of a downhill segment and a subsequent uphill one is used here for studying both the formation and exhaustion behaviors of the intake air. The existing two-fluid model and simplified non-pressure wave model for gas-liquid stratified flow are applied to performance the gas formation and accumulation. The exhausting process is deemed to be a period in which the elongated bubble (Taylor bubble) is fragmented into dispersed small bubbles. A mathematical model to account for gas entrainment into liquid slug is proposed, implemented and incorporated in a computational procedure. By taking into account the comprehensive effects of liquid flow rate, fluid properties, surface tension, and inclination angle, the characteristics of the air section such as the length, pressure and mass can be calculated accurately. The model was found to show satisfactory predictions when tested in a pipeline. The simulation studies can provide theoretical support and guidance for field engineering application, which are meanwhile capable of helping detect changes in parameters of gas section. Thus corresponding control measures can be adopted timely and appropriately in commissioning process.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


BACKGROUND
Resistance to the dinitroaniline herbicide trifluralin in Lolium rigidum (annual ryegrass) is often mediated by the enhanced capacity to metabolise the herbicide to less toxic polar conjugates and/or by functionally recessive target-site mutations in α-tubulin.

RESULTS
In two L. rigidum populations possessing enhanced trifluralin metabolism, resistance was largely reversed by recurrent selection with the thiocarbamate herbicide prosulfocarb (i.e. plant survival was 2- to >20-fold lower). Their ability to metabolise trifluralin was significantly decreased (by approximately 2.3-fold) following recurrent prosulfocarb selection, to levels comparable to those observed in susceptible plants or when trifluralin metabolism was inhibited by treatment with the insecticide phorate.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that trait(s) enabling efficient trifluralin metabolism in L. rigidum are purged from the population under prosulfocarb recurrent selection. The level of trifluralin metabolism in vitro and its inhibition caused by phorate action on trifluralin-metabolising enzyme(s) is equivalent to the effect produced by prosulfocarb selection. The hypothetical link between the two phenomena is that the putative monooxygenase(s) conferring trifluralin metabolic resistance also mediate the activation of prosulfocarb to its toxic sulfoxide. Thus, we speculate that survival to prosulfocarb via a lack of metabolic herbicide activation, and survival to trifluralin conferred by enhanced herbicide metabolism, are mutually exclusive. These findings not only open up a new research direction in terms of the interaction between different herbicide resistance mechanisms in L. rigidum, but also offer strategies for immediate management of the population dynamics of metabolism-based resistance in the field. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


We demonstrate experimentally the control of the polarization (ellipticity and polarization axis) of femtosecond high-order harmonics. The method relies on a two-color (omega - 2 omega) configuration, where both omega and 2 omega generating fields have linear polarizations with a variable crossing angle. We correlate our measurements with the conservation rules of energy and linear momentum accounting for harmonic generation in a two-color field. We evidence that the generation process, and especially the number of omega and 2 omega photons absorbed for generating a given harmonic, strongly depends on the crossing angle. Finally, relying on a simple formalism, we derive analytical formulae for calculating both polarization axis and ellipticity of the separate harmonics. The model corroborates our results and represents a base for future investigations.


This study investigates the preparation of the three main layers of a CdS/CdTe thin film solar cell using a single vacuum system. A Close Space Sublimation System was constructed to deposit CdS, CdTe and CdCl2 solar cell layers. Two hot plates were used to heat the source and the substrate. Three fused silica melting dishes were used as containers for the sources. The properties of the deposited CdS and CdTe films were determined via Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and optical transmission spectroscopy. An J-V characterization of the fabricated CdS/CdTe solar cells was performed under solar radiation. The short-circuit current density, Jsc, the open-circuit voltage, Voc, fill factor, FF and conversion efficiency, η, were measured and yielded values of 27 mA/cm2, 0.619 V, 58% and 9.8%, respectively.


The introduction of effective and durable leaflet repair techniques have enabled repair of the regurgitant aortic valve. Aortic valve repair is favored to avoid the placement of a prosthesis that the patient will likely outgrow. Furthermore, repair has the potential to reduce the incidence of prosthesis-related complications, including endocarditis, thromboembolism, anticoagulant-related hemorrhage, and reoperation. The primary goal of all aortic valve repair is to restore a durable surface of coaptation to the regurgitant valve. The key to successful leaflet repair for aortic insufficiency is a thorough understanding of the mechanism of dysfunction. We have developed a systematic approach to the assessment and repair of aortic insufficiency because of leaflet disease. The combination of leaflet repair and functional aortic annulus annuloplasty can restore the proper geometry of the aortic valve complex and allow for successful repair of aortic insufficiency caused by both restriction and prolapse.


It is always a major demand to provide efficient retrieving and storing of data and information in a large database system. For this purpose, many file organization techniques have already been developed, and much additional research is still going on. Hashing is one developed technique. In this paper we propose an enhanced hashing technique that uses a hash table combined with a binary tree, searching on the binary representation of a portion the primary key of records that is associated with each index of the hash table. The paper contains numerous examples to describe the technique. The technique shows significant improvements in searching, insertion, and deletion for systems with huge amounts of data. The paper also presents the mathematical analysis of the proposed technique and comparative results.


ABSTRACT Recent studies aimed at elucidating the rickettsia-tick interaction have discovered that the spotted fever group rickettsia Rickettsia montanensis, a relative of R. rickettsii, the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, induces differential gene expression patterns in the ovaries of the hard tick Dermacentor variabilis. Here we describe a new defensin isoform, defensin-2, and the expression patterns of genes for three antimicrobials, defensin-1 (vsnA1), defensin-2, and lysozyme, in the midguts and fat bodies of D. variabilis ticks that were challenged with R. montanensis. Bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses of the primary structure of defensin-2 support its role as an antimicrobial. The tissue distributions of the three antimicrobials, especially the two D. variabilis defensin isoforms, are markedly different, illustrating the immunocompetence of the many tissues that R. montanensis presumably invades once acquired by the tick. Antimicrobial gene expression patterns in R. montanensis-challenged ticks suggest that antimicrobial genes play a role during the acquisition-invasion stages in the tick.


Grass pea seeds of 30 varieties from Poland, Slovakia, Czech, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, India, Iran, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Canada, and Chile were investigated. Phenolic compounds were extracted from seeds into 80% (v/v) methanol. The total phenolics compounds content of the extracts was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu's phenol reagent. The antioxidant activity was determined using ABTS and FRAP assays. Total phenolic contents ranged from 2.72 to 10.7 mg/g extract and from 35.9 to 144.7 mg/100 g seeds. The extracts and seeds were characterized using Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity values of 0.014–0.060 mmol Trolox/g extract and 0.188–0.866 mmol Trolox/100 g seeds, and FRAP values of 0.188–0.866 mmol Fe2+/g extract and 0.541–1.398 Fe2+/100 g seeds. The total phenolics content of grass pea extract was correlated with the results of the ABTS (r = 0.854) and FRAP (r = 0.958) assays. A similar correlation existed between the results of both assays (r = 0.890). Phenolic acids were the dominant phenolic compounds of two cultivars of grass pea. Syringic and sinapic acids had the highest amounts while ferulic, p-hydroxybenzoic, protocatechuic, and p-coumaric acids were present in much lower quantities. Phenolic acids were present in the form of free compounds, esters, and glycosides.


Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is closely associated with neuronal plasticity, cognitive function and the etiology of neurological diseases. We previously reported that the standardized ethanolic extract of Prunella vulgaris var. lilacina (EEPV) can be used for the prevention and treatment of cognitive impairments associated with Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia. In the present study, we investigated the effects of EEPV on cognitive ability in normal naive mice and the underlying mechanism(s) governing these effects, including adult hippocampal neurogenesis. In the passive avoidance task, sub‐chronic administration of EEPV (25 or 50 mg/kg, p.o.) for 14 days markedly induced the improvement of cognitive function in mice. In addition, sub‐chronic administration of EEPV (25 or 50 mg/kg) for 14 days significantly increased neural cell proliferation and the number of immature neurons, but not newly generated cell survival, in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Increased ERK, Akt and GSK‐3β phosphorylation levels in the hippocampus were also observed after such administration. Our results indicate that EEPV may enhance cognitive function via the activation of various intracellular signaling molecules and the up‐regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to present supply chain metrics and to propose a fuzzy-based performance evaluation method for lean supply chain. Design/methodology/approach - – To understand the overall performance of cost competitive supply chain the paper investigates the alignment of market strategy and position of the supply chain. Since lean is applicable in many supply chains, the authors propose a set of metrics to evaluate supply chain performance. Moreover, the paper uses a fuzzy model to evaluate the performance of cost competitive supply chains. Fuzzy is an appropriate model method when uncertainty is present. It also allows modelling of a significant number of performance metrics across multiple supply chain elements and processes. Competitive strategy can be achieved by using a different weight calculation for different supply chain situations. Findings - – Research provides optimal metrics for lean supply chains. The proposed method can measure the performance of lean supply chains using a fuzzy approach and competitive strategies. Research limitations/implications - – The metrics which have been selected to measure the performance of lean supply chains is particularly applicable for high volume, low-price products. Practical implications - – By identifying optimal performance metrics and applying performance evaluation methods, managers can predict the overall supply chain performance under lean strategy. By identifying performance for each metric they can also categorize the existing performance and optimise them accordingly. Originality/value - – This study provides a performance evaluation method for supply chain managers to assess the effects of lean tools and competitive strategies.


Contemporary news events indicate the continuing relevance of moral panic analysis. Of two versions one is British, formulated by Stan Cohen, exemplified by the 1970s emergence of mugging. The second is American, formulated by Goode and Ben-Yehuda, exemplified by the 1980s missing children campaign. Each model conceptualises the agents and dynamics of moral panics, their causes and consequences. The models have been applied mainly to seven main areas: AIDS, child abuse, drugs, immigration, media violence, street crime and youth deviance. Empirical data have confirmed basic features of the original models and enabled generalisations about the presence and functions of moral panics in capitalist democracies. Critics express reservations about the models' ambiguous terminology, assumptions of media effects, predetermined dynamics, and vague outcomes. Some advocate revision of the models, others their abandonment. Future development of moral panic analysis requires connection to three important sociological themes: discourse, risk and moral regulation.


The signal based hospital communication system is focused at enhancing effective communication and monitoring of patients by the health officer within the premises of the hospital. It is simple in design, effective and serviceable with the wired logic approach while the use of radio waves for the final link was avoided because of the inherent danger to human health. The various units consisting of power supply, multivibrators, logic gates and indicating system for lighting were designed to specification putting in mind the relevance and availability of parts. The prototype was constructed and testing was made contiguous to the hospital situation.


Bioretention cells are a stormwater treatment technology that uses soil and vegetation to remove pollutants from runoff and improve downstream water quality. While bioretention has been shown to be effective at removing certain stormwater pollutants such as sediment and heavy metals, removal of nutrients has been more variable. Design components of bioretention such as vegetation and soil media amendments can influence pollutant removal performance. In my experiment, I isolate the effects of low-phosphorus compost and a Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) monoculture on bioretention performance. In fall 2016, three bioretention cells were installed at the University of Vermont Miller Research Complex, a mixed-use research and agricultural production facility located in South Burlington, VT. Each bioretention cell had a unique experimental treatment that allowed for the comparison of the presence of the following design components: (1) compost with planted vegetation, (2) no compost and vegetation, and (3) no compost or vegetation. Results suggest that the presence of a low-P compost layer had a small deleterious effect on nutrient removal performance, as the bioretention cell with an added compost layer exported higher concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen and exhibited a higher concentration of water extractable phosphorus in the bioretention media. The bioretention cell with vegetation and no compost was the only treatment to significantly reduce total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations; however, there was no effect on media phosphorus concentration. The presence of low-P compost significantly increased the above-ground biomass growth of Switchgrass, but had no effect on the total number of plants surviving in the first year. Switchgrass proved to be a durable plant, capable of surviving in bioretention media without compost, but was slow to grow and required additional watering through droughty conditions.


Four species of whiting (Family Sillaginidae) were collected from Botany Bay, New South Wales, between 1977 and 1979: Sillago ciliata (sand whiting), S. maculata maculata (trumpeter whiting), S. robusta (stout whiting) and S. bassensis flindersi (eastern school whiting). Sillago ciliata was the most abundant species over-all. Sillago ciliata was caught in greatest numbers in Zostera seagrass and shallow sandy habitats, whereas S. m. maculata, S. robusta and S. b. flindersi were most abundant over deeper muddy and sandy habitats. Sillago ciliata and S. b. flindersi were present mainly as juveniles. Gonosomatic indices and gonadal maturity stages of S. ciliata and S. m. maculata peaked around February. These species probably spawn within the Bay. Length to caudal fork at first maturity was 24 cm for male and female S. ciliata, 19 cm for male and female S. m. maculata, 17 cm for male and 18 cm for female S. robusta, and 14 cm for male and female S. b. flindersi. Although all species fed mainly on polychaetes and crustaceans, there was little overlap in specific dietary items between species. Variations observed in diet were due to fish size and temporal and spatial habitat differences within and among species.


Background: The occurrence of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) has been increasing at an alarming rate worldwide. Despite that increase, there are limited data identifying risk factors. Objective: To evaluate risk factors associated with the acquisition of CRE among hospitalized patients. Methods: We performed a retrospective case-case-control study in 4 community hospitals from June 2007 through June 2012. Case group 1 (CG1) consisted of patients with CRE. Case group 2 (CG2) consisted of patients with carbapenem susceptible Enterobacteriaceae (CSE). CG2 patients were matched to CG1 patients by site of infection and species of Enterobacteriaceae. Hospitalized controls were matched 2:1 by date of admission and hospital location to patients in CG1. Two sets of analyses were conducted comparing demographics, comorbidities, and antibiotic exposures of CG1 and CG2 to controls and then contrasted to identify unique risk factors associated with CRE. Results: Overall, 104 patients (CG1, 25 patients; CG2, 29 patients, control, 50 patients) were evaluated. CRE and CSE consisted mostly of Klebsiella spp. (63%) from a urinary source (28%). In multivariable analyses, intensive care unit (ICU) stay (OR 12.48; 95% CI 1.14-136.62; p = 0.04) and cumulative number of antibiotic days (OR 1.47; 95% CI 1.02-2.16; p = 0.04) were distinct independent predictors of CRE isolation; whereas, cumulative health care exposures (OR 2.03; 95% CI 1.20-3.41; p < 0.01) and vancomycin exposure (OR 6.70; 95% CI 1.15- 38.91; p = 0.03) were predictors for CSE. Conclusions: CRE should be considered in patients requiring ICU admission, particularly those who have received multiple antibiotics. Antibiotic stewardship efforts should be directed at reducing all antibiotic exposures as opposed to any specific antibiotic class to reduce the risk of CRE.


The use of hybrid sources in the field of electronic vehicles becomes very interesting solution to reduce the weight of the source. The asked question using this kind of sources is how we should manage the power and the energy between the two hybrid components in order to ensure an optimal sizing of the source in terms of weight, volume, autonomy, and aging?. This article presents the sizing of hybrids sources composed with battery and supercapacitor packs. In this study, two management strategies are tested: limitation of power strategy, and filtering strategy. The obtained results with the two strategies will be compared in order to know which strategy allows to reduce the size of the source.


Indonesia's long stability of over three decades came to a sudden end after the regional economic crisis of 1997–1998. The economic crisis not only shattered the Indonesian economy but also resulted in political turmoil. The national leadership has changed three times over the last five years. In such conditions, the confidence of foreign investors is very low. The present government has initiated a number of steps to restore political stability and economic recovery. This article provides useful information on the complex business environment, aimed to help foreign investors to develop a good understanding on key background knowledge for being successful in Indonesia. It reviews Indonesian historical development, political structure and climate, regional relations, and economy and foreign trade. Indonesia's infrastructure, legal framework, sociocultural setup, as well as market structure and potential, are also analyzed.


Correlational Research design was adopted to examine the predictive influence of some socio-demographic variables on perspectives of parents towards the inclusion of HIV and AIDS education in Lagos State schools. Four hundred parents of pupils and students of four primary and secondary schools with diverse demographic characteristics within Lagos metropolis were randomly drawn for the study. A 38-item self-report Parents-of-Adolescents HIV and AIDS/Sexuality Education Attitudinal questionnaire (r = 0.71) was adopted for data collection. Descriptive statistics and Multiple Regression analysis were used for data processing.  Results revealed that the eight independent variables jointly predicted parents' perspectives on HIV and AIDS education in schools. However, taken separately, level of education ((β = 2.692, T = 4.157 P <0.05), marriage type (β 1.699, T = 2.703, P < 0.05), sex (β= -1.520, T = 2.414 P <0.05) and occupation (β = -1.322, T = 1.843 P < 0.05) contributed significantly to the prediction whereas, religion, tribe, occupation and social economic status did not. The implications of the findings were discussed and it was suggested that counselling psychologists should take into cognizance variables identified to be significant in this study when designing and implementing HIV and AIDS intervention for parents in Lagos State schools. Keywords: Adolescent Perspective, Daily Interactions and Relationship Quality Socio-Demographic, Predictors, HIV and AIDS Education