With a bit of effort, any technically skilled person can learn the latest information in their industry. That is so whether it concerns the design for a product, such as Apple's iPod, or involves demand for a newly deployed service, such as municipal Wi-Fi in a distant city. Although industry conferences, consulting reports, and trade magazines have always informed market participants, today these sources are supplemented by Web pages and community or industry forums. Any reasonably sized product market attracts an abundance of product reviewers and bloggers who track gossip about business initiatives and point out design flaws or triumphs. This article focuses on market experiment phenomenon: commodifying and accumulating lessons must go hand in hand. While that observation may sound excessively abstract, it is grounded in the experience of many markets


In the digital world, search engines have been proposed as one of challenging research areas. One of the main issues in search engines studies is query processing, which its aim is to understand user's needs. If unsuitable spatial query processing approach is employed, the results will be associated with high degree of ambiguity. To evade such degree of ambiguity, in this paper we present a new algorithm which depends on rule-based systems to process queries. Our algorithm is implemented in the three basic steps including: deductively iterative splitting the query; finding candidates for the location names, the location types and spatial relationships; and finally checking the relationships logically and conceptually using a rule based system. As we finally present in the paper using our proposed method have two major advantages: the search engines can provide the capability of spatial analysis based on the specific process and secondly because of its disambiguation technique, user reaches the more desirable result.


Objective: To identify mutation among Turkish individuals who demonstrated deficiency of glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase(G 6 P D). Design: Laboratory based experimental study. Setting: The molecular diagnostic laboratory of the Royal Postgraduate medical school Hammersmith Hospital, London Subject: Six DNA samples from Turkish males confirmed to have G-6-PD deficiency where available for the study. Results: One subject was found to have an abnormal mobility shift on SSCP in exon 9 and subsequent direct gene sequencing of exon 9 revealed a single base change at position 1003 G>A. This causes an amino acid substitution Alanine > Threonine at position 335: This mutation is G6PD chatham. All the other 5 DNA samples did not show any abnormal mobility shift on SSCP Conclusion: The stepwise PCR-SSCP and direct gene sequencing is a faster and more convenient method of identifying mutations. In this study the yield was low. Only one of the six Turkish DNA samples confirmed as G6PD deficient showed abnormal mobility shift on SSCP and was identified as G6PD Chatham on gene sequencing.


This thesis argues that while simplifications are a necessary part of the modelling process, there is a lack of empirical research to identify which types of variability should be included in our models, and how they should be represented. This research aims to develop methodologies to undertake empirical analyses of variability on the road network, focusing specifically on traveller behaviour. This is particularly timely given the emergence of rich new data sources.
Firstly, a method is proposed for examining predictable differences in daily link flow profiles by considering both magnitude and timing. Unlike previous methods, this approach can test for statistically significant differences whilst also comparing the shapes of the profiles, by applying Functional Linear Models to transportation data for the first time.
Secondly, a flexible, data-driven method is proposed for classifying road users based on their trip frequency and spatial and temporal intrapersonal variability. Previous research has proposed methodologies for identifying public transport user classes based on repeated trip behaviour, but equivalent methods for data from the road network did not exist. As there was not an established data source to use, this research examines the feasibility of using Bluetooth data. Spatial variability is examined using Sequence Alignment which has not previously been applied to Bluetooth data from road networks, nor for spatial intrapersonal variability. The time of day variability analysis adapts a technique from smart card research so that all observations are classified into travel patterns and, therefore, systematic and random variability can be measured.
These network- and traveller-focused analyses are then brought together using a framework which uses them concurrently and interactively to gain additional insights into traveller behaviour. For each of the methods proposed, an application to at least one year of real world data is presented.


The main objectives of this paper have been to analyze the emotional dependency in battered and non-battered women when they are involved in lasting relationships with the Partner's Emotional Dependency Scale (SED; Camarillo et al., 2020). The relationship was examined between emotional dependency and clinical and personality variables (anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and impulsivity), and cut-off points were established to detect the risk of intimate partner violence according to emotional dependency. The sample consisted of 257 people, 144 battered women in treatment and 113 non-battered women with the same demographics. Battered women scored much higher than non-battered women on all dimensions of emotional dependency. In turn, emotional dependency in battered women was significant and positively associated to depression, anxiety, and impulsivity and negatively to self-esteem. Some cut-off points have been suggested to detect the risk of intimate partner violence according to emotional dependency. Lastly, implications of this study for future research in this field are commented upon.


Reproducible low resistance lumped element Josephson junction arrays are desired for many microwave applications. Using our established process of electron beam lithography and ion damage, we have fabricated and demon- strated high quality superconductor-normal superconductor-superconductor (SS'S) in-plane Josephson junc- tions. Single junctions and multiple junction arrays with as many as 50 junctions in series have been investigated. These junctions are in close proximity and offer several possible applications. Current—voltage characteristics for single junctions are consis- tent with the resistively shunted junction model. Junction in pairs have been fabricated which show nearly identical characteristics. Rounding near the critical current occurs for larger number arrays which we attribute to junction nonuniformity. Microwave measurements reveal sharp giant Shapiro steps for junction pairs and 10 junction arrays, rounded steps appear for larger arrays. Index Terms—Arrays, ion damage, Josephson junctions, stan- dards, YBCO.


Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks make great impacts on various applications of the Internet. It disrupts the service provided by the target through consuming the target's CPU, memory or network bandwidth. In this paper, we give a brief summary on traditional DoS, DDoS attacks and defense schemes first. Then, we point out the possibility of DoS, DDoS attacks on streaming media application by analyzing the characteristics of streaming media application and RTSP protocol, show the evidences about DoS, DDoS attacks on streaming media application and analyze all the reasons by simulating attack scenarios, finally point out these serious security issues for streaming media application.


The distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) are important optical components in a wide range of applications, such as Fabry-Perot optical resonators, hyperspectral sensors, micro-cavity structures, and waveguide lasers. In this thesis, we have developed, designed, and fabricated highly reflecting, and mechanically stable DBRs comprised of electron-beam deposited zinc selenide (ZnSe) and barium fluoride (BaF2) thin films and explored its use in optical filtering and hyperspectral sensing applications. Most published results are in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) and near-infrared (NIR) with limited results in the mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR). In this work, we have fabricated ZnSe/BaF2-based DBRs in the MWIR region. The fabricated DBRs showed a central wavelength of 4 µm and reflection exceeding 93%.
A Fabry-Perot optical filter, that is comprised of two parallel DBR mirrors with half-wavelength optical cavity thickness was used to partially transmit and reflect the incident light at the target wavelength. The assembled fixed-cavity Fabry-Perot optical filters achieved a full-width half maximum (FWHM) of ~ 450 nm. We further showed that the FWHM of the optical filters can be reduced by ~ 50 % with the addition of nano-thick silicon monoxide (SiO) interface grading layer between every pair of the quarter-wave optical thick (QWOT) layers in the stack. The SiO interface grading layer acts as an anti-reflection coating layer to reduce reflection loss in the DBR multilayer structure. The SiO interface grading layer, ~ 80 nm thick, also has the potential to stop atomic inter-diffusion between the layers to minimize free carrier absorption loss.
The principal thesis goal is to design and assemble fixed-cavity interface-graded Fabry-Perot optical filters (with SiO interfacial layers) that optimized optical transmission and spectral resolution. The thesis also proposes a low-cost micro-cavity structure that can be formed by embedding two-dimensional atomic crystals, such as black phosphorous into a DBR cavity structure. The proposed design can be used to increase absorption in 2D materials, which has the potential to increase the efficiency of next generation MWIR photodetectors and infrared sensors.


Case reviews of maternal death have revealed a concerning pattern of delay in recognition of hemorrhage, hypertensive crisis, sepsis, venous thromboembolism, and heart failure. Early-warning systems have been proposed to facilitate timely recognition, diagnosis, and treatment for women developing critical illness. A multidisciplinary working group convened by the National Partnership for Maternal Safety used a consensus-based approach to define The Maternal Early Warning Criteria, a list of abnormal parameters that indicate the need for urgent bedside evaluation by a clinician with the capacity to escalate care as necessary in order to pursue diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. This commentary reviews the evidence supporting the use of early-warning systems and describes The Maternal Early Warning Criteria, along with considerations for local implementation.


: Twenty-three male patients who had chronic nonspecific low-back pain were asked to record the amount of pain they felt on an arbitrary scale while lifting light weights in different directions. During the lifts their intraabdominal pressures were recorded with an intragastric transducer. The patients who experienced extra pain during the lift had higher rises of pressure than both normal controls and those patients who did not experience extra pain. The available evidence suggests that this pressure rise may be a response to low-back pain and may be used as a method of objectively measuring that pain.


The convection-permitting Harmonie model is considered as a modeling component of the atmosphere-sea system. The role of the atmospheric model in the system is to create upper boundary conditions for marine environment model with high spatial (1-2.5 km) and temporal (from one minute to one hour) separating capacity. The research offers description of major modules which govern the configuration, spatial-temporal parameters of the atmospheric model and the way they are implemented in the High Performance Computing Facilities System (the HPCFS) of the European Center for Medium-Range Forecasting (the ECMWF). The use of the HPCFS and direct connection to global output data of the Integrate Forecasting System (the IFS) allows online performance of numerous calculations. The research shows the results of a numerical experiment for the north-western part of the Black Sea and neighbouring continental regions during severe weather conditions with strong wind speeds in January 2018. The high resolution modeling demonstrated high performance parameters of the model when reproducing mesoscale features of the atmospheric circulation. They are as follows: division of two lower-level jets in the north-western atmospheric flow along the coast line; mesoscale offshore patterns associated with thermal contrast and wind shear over different surface types along the coastal area; weaker circulations over regional bays on lee sides. The advantages of the Harmonie model comparing other modeling systems when determining the upper boundary conditions for modeling of the marine environment over offshore regions are listed. In particular, the model has direct access to the ECMWF archive and IFS operational global model output data; assimilation methods use all data available for observation; numerous parameterization schemes can be tuned for different climate zones and specific areas; post-processing provides more than two hundreds of physical, dynamical and chemical output variables at different types of levels, such as isobaric surfaces, model levels, geometric altitudes; output format list includes grib, netcdf and simple text which allows use of results both for their further direct introduction into the marine model and plotting fields, cross-sections and profiles in the metview visualization package.


The transient response and frequency response of a constant-temperature platinum film gage are computationally modeled for application to heat flux measurement. The probe consists of a thin platinum film (sensor) deposited on a Pyrex substrate, and coated with aluminum oxide. The probe is exposed to a convective environment, and the power required to maintain the sensor at a constant temperature is a direct indication of the local, instantaneous heat transfer rate. In application, the probe is mounted in a heated, high thermal conductivity material, creating an isothermal heat transfer surface. A two-dimensional numerical model was developed to represent the sensor, the Pyrex substrate and the coating. Ideally, the probe would be operated with the platinum at identically the same temperature as the isothermal surface. In the present study, the effects of non-ideal operating conditions, resulting in differences between the sensor and surface temperature, are examined. Frequency response characteristics are presented in a nondimensional form. The results of this modeling effort clearly indicate the importance of precise control over the sensor temperature in employing the present method for heat flux measurement. With the sensor temperature equal to the isothermal surface temperature, the probe calibration is insensitive to the heat transfer rate over a wide range of heat transfer coefficients. However, a 0.5°C difference between the sensor and surface temperatures yields a change in the calibration of approximately 20 percent over a range of heat transfer coefficient of 500 W/m2 K. At an input frequency of 10 Hz and an average heat transfer coefficient of 175 W/m2 K, amplitude errors increase from 3 percent to 35 percent as the temperature difference changes from zero to 1°C. These results are useful guide to calibration, operation, and data reduction in active heat flux measurement.


Correspondence to Kun Hwang, MD Department of Plastic Surgery, Inha University College of Medicine, 27 Inhang-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon 22332, Korea Tel: +82-32-890-3514 E-mail: email@example.com A famous Japanese politician was recently shot twice in the neck, which caused hypovolemic shock, and he showed no vital signs on arrival to the hospital. The weapon was a hand-made gun (do-it-yourself gun). This case reveals that gun violence cannot be totally eliminated even in countries with tough gun laws, where citizens are prohibited from buying or owning firearms. Gunshot wounds are the second most common cause of penetrating trauma, following stab wounds. Stab wounds occur four times more often than gunshot wounds in the United Kingdom, but the reported mortality rate associated with stabbing is 0% to 4% because 85% of stab wounds only affect subcutaneous tissue [1]. This tragic affair of a penetrating injury reminded me of an unforgettable drawing, "The Wound Man," which I saw years ago in the Wellcome Library, near the British Library (London, UK) (Fig. 1). "The Wound Man" is a surgical diagram that is enigmatic and troubling. A man's skin is covered in bleeding cuts and lesions, stabbed and sliced by knives, spears, and swords of various sizes, many of which remain in the skin. The violence and illness shown on the man's body are all-consuming and total. This diagram first appeared in European medical manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries. The illustration served as an annotated table of contents to guide the reader through various injuries and diseases, the cures for which could be found on the text's nearby pages. The image first appeared in a printed book in 1491, when it was included in the Venetian Fasciculus medicinae, which was likely Europe's first printed medical miscellany. It circulated widely in printed books until well into the 17th century [2]. The basis of "The Wound Man" is thought to be regional anatomy and physiology. Regarding the importance of functional anatomy in gunshot wounds, a story about Ambroise Paré (1510– 1590) has been transmitted. Dr. Paré, in the French army, used a novel technique to aid in bullet extraction. During a battle, a courtier (Maréchal de Brissac, 1505–1563) was shot in the shoulder. When finding the bullet seemed impossible, Dr. Paré had the idea of asking the victim to put himself in the exact position he was in when shot. The bullet was then found and removed [3]. I think this pioneer of modern trauma surgery also read "The Wound Man" and applied it in his practice as a barber surgeon. Trauma surgeons need a handy atlas and manual. If we make a booklet including the regional anatomy for each penetrating wound in a two-dimensional diagram, as well as a three-dimensionpISSN 2799-4317 • eISSN 2287-1683


Reversible chemical and structural changes induced by ionic motion and reaction in response to electrical stimuli leads to resistive switching effects in metal-insulator-metal structures. Filamentary switching based on the formation and rupture of nanoscale conductive filament has been applied in non-volatile memory and volatile selector devices with low power consumption and fast switching speeds. Before the mass production of resistive switching devices, great efforts are still required to enable stable and reliable switching performances. The conductive filament, a bridge of microscopic metal-insulator-metal structure and macroscopic resistance states, plays an irreplaceable part in resistive switching behavior, as unreliable performance often originates from unstable filament behavior. In this Review, departing from the filamentary switching mechanism and the existing issues, recent advances of the switching performance improvement through the conductive filament modulation are discussed, in the sequence of material modulation, device structure design and switching operation scheme optimization. In particular, two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials with excellent properties including and beyond graphene, are discussed with emphasis on performance improvement by their active roles as the switching layer, insertion layer, thin electrode, patterned electrode, and edge electrode, etc.


In order to extend the chronology and validate the five substages of the Wisconsin glaciation recognized in the Cache la Poudre Valley in the Colorado Front Range, a reconnaissance was made of the Southern Rocky Mountains, from southern Wyoming to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The chronology determined in the Cache la Poudre Valley was used to date the culture layer of the Lindenmeier (Folsom) Site in northern Colorado. The earliest or Twin Lakes substage is named for the "early moraine" mapped by Capps at Twin Lakes in the Upper Arkansas Valley. This substage is believed to have been contemporaneous with the Durango glaciation of the San Juan Mountains. Throughout the Southern Rocky Mountains the second, third, and fourth, or Home, Corral Creek, and Long Draw substages, can be readily correlated from valley to valley. The fifth or youngest substage, represented in some cirques by protalus ramparts, is named the Sprague substage. The validity of five distinct substages of Wisconsin ice advance, separated from one another by interstadial ice retreat or complete disappearance, is based on: (1) the character and topographic position of the moraines; (2) the relationship between successive terraces (valley trains) and the terminal moraines, as determined in the Cache la Poudre Valley; (3) the differences in weathering of the tills composing the moraines; and (4) the reported finding of an old soil zone between tills assigned to the Twin Lakes and Home substages.


ISSUE ADDRESSED
Globally and locally, environmental degradation (including climate change) and inequity pose major risks to health. While health promoters recognise the importance of both issues, they may be seen as separate agendas. This study investigated health promotion addressing both issues together.

METHODS
The study was an investigation of health promotion practice addressing environmental sustainability and equity, conducted in 2013, as part of a community-based participatory action research project with three Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs) in Victoria, Australia, during 2009-16.

RESULTS
Thirty-two local health promotion projects addressing both environmental sustainability and equity were identified. Analysis showed clusters of environmental, equity and health themes, particularly around: (i) caring for local environment, food, access to nature and Indigenous participation; (ii) sustainability of housing, thermal comfort and reducing energy costs; and (iii) sustainable and active transport. The study also found a marked decline in the number of PCPs in Victoria identifying environmental sustainability as a priority in 2013, compared to 2009. Analysis of helpful factors and challenges to practice identified by research participants, suggests inter-related political, organisational and discursive factors contributed to this decline.

CONCLUSIONS
The study suggests local health promotion can contribute to the development of societies that are more ecologically sustainable and more equitable. However, the challenges suggest broader advocacy is required to support local action. So what: Environmental degradation and inequity are major threats to human and ecosystem health. This study shows local health promotion can address both issues concurrently, and provides important information about challenges to this work. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Abstract A new generation of photothermal therapeutic agents based on biopolymer dopamine-melanin colloidal nanospheres is described. Benefitting from their naturally wide distribution in humans, dopamine-melanin colloidal nanospheres exhibit robust biocompatibility and biodegradability, and provide up to 40% photothermal conversion efficiency. After administration, they can efficiently damage tumors at low power density and short irradiation time without damaging healthy tissues.


Purpose: The purpose of this work is to generate accurate range‐energy and range‐density tables for therapeuticprotons using Monte Carlo simulation in water phantom. Method and Materials The percentage depth dose and the depth peak dose was calculated using Monte Carlo simulation for protons. The simulation was based on Monte Carlo code, MCNPX in water phantom with protons energy ranging from 40 MeV increasing by 10 to 250 MeV. The calculation of the three dimension dose matrix was performed using a 2 × 2 × 1 mm∧3 voxels in the depth peak range in water phantom. The pencil beam was used and the source was uniformly distributed in area with beam diameter as 20 mm. A 3,000,000 history was used in each individual simulation with uncertainty controlled less than 1.0%. Results: The total 22 data points of simulated depth peak were compared to two widely used proton range‐energy tables from International Commission on Radiological Units and Measurements (ICRU) Report 49 and from Data Nuclear Data Tables (DNDT). The simulated range‐energy curve matches very well with ICRU and DNDT with coefficient of determination equal to 1. The difference of the simulation and measurements is 1.17% at maximum and 0.70% at average compared to ICRU, 1.15% and 0.37% compared to DNDT respectively. The relation of range‐density was determined with water density ranging from 0.4 to 2.0 g/cm^3.The exponential relation of range‐density gives very closely matched estimation to the simulated value with the coefficient of determination as 0.9999. Conclusion: The simulated proton range‐energy matches very well to two widely used measurements. The accurate Monte Carlo simulation provides a close benchmark for existed measurements. The simulation offers the chance to replace the infinite experiments for each detailed energy and density. The simulation also expands the feasibility of accurate simulation in heterogeneity.


Deep learning is very data hungry, and supervised learning especially requires massive labeled data to work well. Machine listening research often suffers from limited labeled data problem, as human annotations are costly to acquire, and annotations for audio are time consuming and less intuitive. Besides, models learned from labeled dataset often embed biases specific to that particular dataset. Therefore, unsupervised learning techniques become popular approaches in solving machine listening problems. Particularly, a self-supervised learning technique utilizing reconstructions of multiple hand-crafted audio features has shown promising results when it is applied to speech domain such as emotion recognition and automatic speech recognition (ASR). In this paper, we apply self-supervised and multi-task learning methods for pre-training music encoders, and explore various design choices including encoder architectures, weighting mechanisms to combine losses from multiple tasks, and worker selections of pretext tasks. We investigate how these design choices interact with various downstream music classification tasks. We find that using various music specific workers altogether with weighting mechanisms to balance the losses during pre-training helps improve and generalize to the downstream tasks.


concentration of the dialysate still gave a negative result. This woman clearly had a massive overdose of tricyclic antidepressants and it was considered that her chances of survival were extremely poor. It seemed to us that haemodialysis was responsible for a dramatic clinical improvement. This does not seem to be supported by the analyses for the drug we were alble to make. In fact the decrease in plasma imipramine level did not approach the half-time of 3hours reported by Ciba-Geigy (N.Z.) Ltd. (personal communication). From our results no increase in the rate of fail of plasma imipramine occurred during dialysis. Unfortunately the lack of samples prior to dialysis leaves some doubt on this point. Our inability to locate any imiprarnine in the dialysate may be explained by the interesting comments of Drs. Asbach and Schuiler (24 August, p. 524) who claim that imirpramine is taken up by the polyvinyl chloride of the extracorporeal blood-line system. Our limited eWerience, that of Harthorne et al.3 and the recent letters from Drs. Asbach and Schuiler have encouraged us to give early consideration to this form of treatment in patients with severe poisoning. However, the recovery of significant amounts of drug by forced diuresis may yet indicate that this method is the most suitable way of eliminating absorbed imipramine and other tricydlic antidepressants.-We are, etc.,


In order to develop an environment-friendly method of forming a chemical conversion coating on 2024 aluminium alloy surface without the toxic hexavalent chromium compounds, in this paper a process with sodium molybdate and potassium permanganate as the main compositions of the treating bath has been investigated. Solution composition and process parameters have been optimized. The chemical conversion coating has good corrosion resistance, evaluated with dropping test. Micro-structure and components of the conversion coating have been studied by various micro-analysis methods, and the growth mechanism of the chemical conversion coating has also been investigated.


Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is a neural inducer in many vertebrate embryos, but how it regulates chromatin organization to coordinate the activation of neural genes is unclear. Moreover, for differentiation to progress, FGF signalling must decline. Why these signalling dynamics are required has not been determined. Here, we show that dephosphorylation of the FGF effector kinase ERK1/2 rapidly increases chromatin accessibility at neural genes in mouse embryos, and, using ATAC-seq in human embryonic stem cell derived spinal cord precursors, we demonstrate that this occurs genome-wide across neural genes. Importantly, ERK1/2 inhibition induces precocious neural gene transcription, and this involves dissociation of the polycomb repressive complex from key gene loci. This takes place independently of subsequent loss of the repressive histone mark H3K27me3 and transcriptional onset. Transient ERK1/2 inhibition is sufficient for the dissociation of the repressive complex, and this is not reversed on resumption of ERK1/2 signalling. Moreover, genomic footprinting of sites identified by ATAC-seq together with ChIP-seq for polycomb protein Ring1B revealed that ERK1/2 inhibition promotes the occupancy of neural transcription factors (TFs) at non-polycomb as well as polycomb associated sites. Together, these findings indicate that ERK1/2 signalling decline promotes global changes in chromatin accessibility and TF binding at neural genes by directing polycomb and other regulators and appears to serve as a gating mechanism that provides directionality to the process of differentiation.


A circuit arrangement for operating a high pressure discharge lamp includes input terminals for connection to a supply voltage source and an apparatus coupled to the input terminals for supplying an alternating lamp current to the high pressure discharge lamp. A device (III) is provided for generating a current pulse in each half period of the lamp current. This current pulse has the same polarity as the lamp current and is superimposed on the lamp current in the latter part of a predetermined fraction of the half periods of the lamp current. The circuit substantially suppresses flickering of the discharge arc during lamp operation.


Qualitative research is an appropriate method for obtaining insight into situations and problems when a researcher
has little knowledge concerning a research question. Applying to a cultural context of health and illness, this method
is commonly used for providing in-depth description of cultural beliefs and local knowledge related to health issues,
or for exploring the reasons for certain health seeking behaviours adopted by research informants. This study
provides a pragmatic approach in examining the various stages of a qualitative data collection process pertaining to
the aboriginal people or the Orang Asli of Malaysia. The research was conducted in three selected Orang Asli
villages in the states of Selangor, Pahang and Perak of Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 55 in-depth interviews were
successfully recorded during the fieldwork duration of July 2013 to January 2015. Employing face-to-face in-depth
interviews and non-participant observations, the research collected data with regard to health and health seeking
behaviors of the Orang Asli. The primary data were used to illustrate how various qualitative data collection methods
could be used to facilitate the data collection process. Several concepts employed in data collection such as
theoretical sensitivity, triangulation and verification were also elaborated.


Nutrition is an important part on the implementation of cancer, both in patients who are undergoing therapy, restoration of the therapy, in a State of remission or to prevent a recurrence. Nutritional status in cancer patients is known to correlate with response therapy, prognosis and quality of life. More or less 30-87% of cancer patients experiencing malnutrition before undergoing therapy. The incidence of malnutrition vary depending on the origin of cancer, for example in patients with pancreatic cancer and gaster are experiencing malnutrition to 85%, 66% in lung cancer, and 35% in breast cancer. One of the problems of nutrients that need attention in cancer patients is the kaheksia. The malnutrition common in advance because the nutrition component of the intake not as recommended.


Abstract. In this paper, we examine variations in climate characteristics near the area of Cortina d'Ampezzo (Dolomites, Eastern Italian Alps), with particular reference to the possible implications for debris-flow occurrence. The study area is prone to debris-flow release in response to summer high-intensity short-duration rainfalls and, therefore, it is of the utmost importance to investigate the potential increase in debris-flow triggering rainfall events. The critical rainfall threshold is agreed to be a crucial triggering factor for debris-flows. Data from a monitoring system, placed in a catchment near Cortina (Acquabona), show that debris-flows were triggered by rainfalls with peak rainfall intensities ranging from 4.9 to 17.4 mm/10 min. The analyses of meteorological data, collected from 1921 to 1994 at several stations in the study area, show a negative trend of annual rainfall, a considerable variation in the monthly rainfall distribution, and an increase in the temperature range, possibly related to global climate changes. Moreover, high-intensity and short-duration rainfall events, derived from data collected from 1990 and 2008, show an increase in exceptional rainfall events. The results obtained in a peak-over-threshold framework, applied to the rainfall data measured at the Faloria rain gauge station from 1990 to 2008, clearly show that the interarrival time of over-threshold events computed for different threshold values decreased in the last decade. This suggests that local climatic changes might produce an increase in the frequency of rainfall events, potentially triggering debris flows in the study area.


Campylobacter jejuni along with C. coli are major cause of human gastroenteritis worldwide. So far, the human immune response against Campylobacter is not entirely clear. We hypothesize that it is coordinated by an interaction between pro-inflammatory and regulatory cytokines which is influenced by bacterial and host-individual differences. Accordingly, we used peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy donors to study the primary systemic immune response to C. jejuni and C. coli. PBMC were stimulated by different strains of C. jejuni and C. coli for three time points (5, 10, 24 hours). The production of the pro-inflammatory (IL-6, IL-8, IFN-γ) and the regulatory (IL-10) cytokines were measured by ELISA. All strains induced higher levels of IL-8 and IL-6 than IFN-γ and IL-10. In contrast to IL-8 and IL-6, IL-10 showed a steeper increase over time. While IFN-γ did not show any further increase between 10 and 24 hours. Interestingly, there was a significant correlation between IL-8 and IL-10 which peaked at 24 hours. Despite the variability of the used bacterial strains, their effect on cytokine production was less pronounced than the inter-person differences. The strongest significant effect of the strain was on the level of IL-10. IL-10 and IL-6 were significantly influenced by strain-person interaction. In conclusion, the systemic immune response to C. coli and C. jejuni is characterized by an early pro-inflammatory reaction with later initiation of regulatory immune response which is influenced mainly by the host, explaining the individual variations in disease severity. Additional work is needed to determine the cellular sources of the produced cytokines as well as the campylobacter molecules that might contribute to this stimulation.


Organintion, MIS, and media choice theories all try to describe how information flows through a business organization. Organization theory concentrates on the use of interpersonal methods of communications. MIS theory focusses on computer-based technologies for communications. Media choice theory concentrates on factors that contribute to selection of communication medium. Each research area tends to ignore the others. The result is conflicting and often irreconcilable conclusions. One important subset of business communication is the flow of information to coordinate the activities of various units of a company. In this study, the selection of coordination methods for one type of job is analyzed. Based on a case study of equity traders, a theory of information coordination is hypothesized for future empirical evaluation. The hypotheses synthesize and reconcile the organization, MIS, and media choice literature. The case results presented in this work exemplify the hypothesized relationships.


The aim is to determine the integration between risk factors for the occurrence of depressive disorders and to develop an algorithm for assessing the degree of risk of post-infarction depression. This study included patients with MI admitted to a cardiological hospital (754 patients). To achieve this goal, patients with depressive disorders were selected from this cohort. Of the total number of patients, 31% (233) had symptoms of depression (main group). For comparative analysis, the control group included patients with MI without depressive disorders 108 observation units. Statistical data processing was carried out in two stages: 1) preparation for statistical analysis; 2) the actual statistical analysis. To distinguish persons with different risk probabilities, the range is divided into three intervals: the smallest, average, and largest. Accordingly, the prediction groups are also distinguished according to the ranges: a group with a relatively favorable prognosis, a group of attention, a group of an unfavorable prognosis. The use of the prognostic table allows us to identify the degree of probability of the risk of developing DS among patients with MI. It will enable cardiologists as well as primary care physicians to identify the symptoms of DS at earlier stages of myocardial infarction. The development of criteria for assessing the risk of developing DS among patients with MI will allow timely detection of DS and adjust the treatment of patients with MI, taking into account DS. Thus, in the first hours after myocardial infarction after the patient is admitted to the clinic, it is necessary to carry out measures to assess the risk of depressive disorders with the determination of anxiety states, low mood and predisposing factors by a cardiologist, possibly with the appointment of tranquilizers with a pronounced anxiolytic effect. In the first week after myocardial infarction, in the presence of depressive symptoms in patients, it is necessary to consult a psychiatrist for the clinical diagnosis of depression and to determine its severity using the Mothgomery-Asberg scale. If depressive disorders are detected, it is necessary to determine the clinical characteristics (the leading component of the depressive triad, the type of affect, the presence of suicidal components, the severity) of depression and the appointment of appropriate antidepressant treatment, with the agreement of a cardiologist and a psychiatrist at the same time.


Studies focusing on the application of Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Indonesia are limited. Taxes as the largest source of state revenues shall ideally consider the issue of gender equality, in fact the policy tends to overlook gender issue, for instance income tax law only consider men as a head of family, instead of women. Earmarking tax can be used as an instrument to allocate state revenues for certain expenditures to achieve certain interests expected by the government. One of the earmarking tax policies in Indonesia is applied to cigarette tax that is imposed by provincial government. This study aims to analyze the earmarking tax on cigarette taxes in the perspective of GenderResponsive Budgeting. This research applied a qualitative approach through literature study and in-depth interviews to collect the data. The findings show that the implementation of earmarking tax on cigarette taxes has not paid attention to the aspect of Gender-Responsive Budgeting. Due to different interpretations between the stakeholders involved both at the central and regional government levels, the allocation of state revenues tends to be equated with other allocations without paying attention to the concept of earmarking tax. Furthermore, the state and regional financial management systems have not accommodated the earmarking tax concept. It is essential to build a framework of study regarding new policies on sensitive-gender tobacco control, particularly GenderResponsive Budgeting, specifically concerned with the allocation of tax revenues for empowering women.


Using CO2 as a carbonyl building block to synthesize valuable chemicals is an important issue in the field of green and sustainable chemistry. Herein, the conversion of CO2 with glycerol to glycerol carbonate was investigated in the presence of 2-cyanopyridine. It was found that 2-cyanopyridine not only acts as the dehydrating agent to break the thermodynamic limit of the reaction, but also activates the carbonyl bond of CO2 to catalyze the present carbonylation as confirmed by FTIR experimental spectra. Moreover, the activation closely depends on the stereo-structure of cyanopyridine, in that 3-cyanopyridine and 4-cyanopyridine do not have such activating function. The theoretical calculation demonstrated that 2-cyanopyridine could bond CO2 through the conjugating nitrogen to form a five-membered ring, thus CO2 is activated and then reacts with glycerol to produce glycerol carbonate. The reaction parameters were examined and evaluated for the reaction catalyzed with 2-cyanopyridine in the absence of any metal catalysts and additives. With increasing CO2 pressure, the yield of glycerol carbonate increases, and under the optimum conditions an 18.7% yield is obtained which is one of the best results reported up to now. The present work provides a new way for activation of CO2.


Abstract Imidazolium-based metal and halogen-free Brönsted acidic ionic liquid (BAIL) (3,3′-(hexane-1,6-diyl)bis(2-methyl-1-(3-sulfopropyl)-1H-benzimidazolium) hydrogensulfate [HbMBIM-PS][HSO4] was synthesized. The physicochemical properties of this BAIL were investigated using a variety of different analytical and spectroscopic techniques such as 1H and13C-NMR, FT-IR, mass, UV–vis and TGA spectra. A porous silica matrix has been synthesized using BAIL and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as silica source by nonhydrolytic sol–gel method. The properties of IL confined silica gel matrix have been studied using FTIR, TGA, SEM, N2-sorption measurement (BET characterization for determining pore parameters), and NH3-TPD techniques. From the N2-sorption measurement, it has been found that BET surface area decreased while pore volume, average pore size and porosity decreased. The thermal stability of the IL has been found to increase upon confinement in silica gel matrix. The results suggested that IL had been successfully confined on silica gel. This IL confined silica gel catalyst is environment friendly and useful for alkane isomerization and esterification reactions.


Spatial distributions of individuals are conventionally analysed by representing objects as dimensionless points, in which spatial statistics are based on centre-to-centre distances. However, if organisms expand without overlapping and show size variations, such as is the case for encrusting corals, interobject spacing is crucial for spatial associations where interactions occur. We introduced new pairwise statistics using minimum distances between objects and demonstrated their utility when examining encrusting coral community data. We also calculated the conventional point process statistics and the grid-based statistics to clarify the advantages and limitations of each spatial statistical method. For simplicity, coral colonies were approximated by disks in these demonstrations. Focusing on short-distance effects, the use of minimum distances revealed that almost all coral genera were aggregated at a scale of 1-25 cm. However, when fragmented colonies (ramets) were treated as a genet, a genet-level analysis indicated weak or no aggregation, suggesting that most corals were randomly distributed and that fragmentation was the primary cause of colony aggregations. In contrast, point process statistics showed larger aggregation scales, presumably because centre-to-centre distances included both intercolony spacing and colony sizes (radius). The grid-based statistics were able to quantify the patch (aggregation) scale of colonies, but the scale was strongly affected by the colony size. Our approach quantitatively showed repulsive effects between an aggressive genus and a competitively weak genus, while the grid-based statistics (covariance function) also showed repulsion although the spatial scale indicated from the statistics was not directly interpretable in terms of ecological meaning. The use of minimum distances together with previously proposed spatial statistics helped us to extend our understanding of the spatial patterns of nonoverlapping objects that vary in size and the associated specific scales.


In order to select the optimal location points for automated drilling and riveting process, an optimization method selecting the location points of Aircraft's Wing Panel in Automatic Drilling and Riveting System is presented. This method includes three steps: 1) building the matching model based on the multiplicity; 2) presenting the matching method based on scatter search algorithm; 3) selecting the optimal location points according to the minimal deviation based on linear programming method. This method was applied in a panel to match the mathematical surface and the fitting one of this panel perfectly and select the optimal location points. The efficacy and quality during the process of drilling and riveting of this panel was improved greatly.


In 1992 the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) funded a three year grant to investigate the questions related to large-scale, distributed, digital libraries. The award focused research on Computer Science Technical Reports (CS-TR) and was granted to the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) and five research universities. The ensuing collaborative research has focused on a broad spectrum of technical, social, and legal issues, and has encompassed all aspects of a very large, heterogeneous distributed digital library environment: acquisition, storage, organization, search, retrieval, display, use and intellectual property. The initial corpus of this digital library is a coherent digital collection of CS-TRs created at the five participating universities: Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, MIT, Stanford, and the University of California at Berkeley. The Corporation for National Research Initiatives serves as a collaborator and agent for the project. This technical report summarizes the accomplishments and collaborative efforts of the CS-TR project from a librarian''s perspective; to do this we address the following questions: 1. Why do librarians and computer scientists make good research partners? 2. What has been learned? 3. What new questions have been articulated? 4. How can the accomplishments be moved into a service environment? 5. What actions and activities might follow from this effort?


Histamine plays important physiological roles in the upper gastrointestinal             tract and acts via the H2 receptor. The -1018 G>A (rs2067474) in an enhancer             element of the promoter and non-synonymous rs79385261 (Asn46Thr) were identified             in HRH2. We attempted to clarify the associations of these polymorphisms with             gastric carcinogenesis. The study was performed in 321 patients with gastric cancer             and 599 subjects with no evidence of gastric malignancies on upper gastroduodenal             endoscopy. The genotypes were determined using a one-tube multiplex PCR-SSCP method.             The degree of gastritis was assessed in 496 subjects and serum pepsinogen (PG)             I/II levels were measured in 124 subjects without gastric cancer. The minor allele             of Asn46Thr could not be detected. The frequencies of the -1018 A allele in the             non-GC and GC groups were 13.5% and 8.26%, respectively (p=0.00077). Overall,             -1018 GG homozygotes had an increased risk for developing gastric cancer (OR 1.68;             95% CI 1.17-2.42; p=0.0052), especially intestinal type cancer (OR 1.94; 95% CI             1.23-3.08; p=0.0047). In subjects aged >60 years, the adjusted risk for gastric             cancer among individuals who were -1018 GG homozygotes was 1.87 (range 1.19-2.93;             p=0.0065) compared with A carriers. In the gastric cancer cases located in the             antrum and at comparative advanced stage, -1018 GG homozygosity was a significantly             increased risk factor. In subjects >60 years, the metaplasia score was significantly             higher in -1018 GG homozygotes than A carriers. Both atrophy and metaplasia scores             were significantly increased with age only in -1018 GG homozygotes. The PG I/II             ratio was significantly decreased in H. pylori positive GG homozygotes than negative             GG homozygotes and positive A carriers. Our results suggest that -1018 GG homozygosity             of HRH2 may be associated with the severity of gastric mucosal atrophy. This genotype             has an increased risk for the subsequent development of gastric cancer, especially             intestinal type, at advanced age.


Giving credit to where it is due is common across cultures. In research, researchers widely express their gratitude to those who would have contributed to their studies in one way or the other under the acknowledgements section. In most cases, the selection of who to acknowledge remains the prerogative of the author. The purpose of this study was to review acknowledgements in Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) with a special focus on the acknowledgement accorded to the library and librarians at the North-West University in South Africa. This was done in order to determine the perceived value of librarians as partners in the research process by postgraduate students. The study followed a two pronged approach in which bibliometrics and survey research methods were used. In the case of the bibliometrics, ETDs completed between 2012 and 2018 were reviewed. Regarding the survey, both print and online questionnaires were used to gather data from postgraduate students. Excel spreadsheets and QuestionPro software were used to analyse the data. The study findings indicate that supervisors of research work topped the list of acknowledgees followed by family, friends and colleagues. The library/librarian acknowledgements, were among the least with only 15% of ETDs giving gratitude to the library/librarians. However, like in previous studies, it was observed that library/librarians were mentioned in other parts of the ETDs, apart from the acknowledgements section. The results further indicate that the majority of the surveyed participants, held acknowledgements in high esteem. The paper will go a long way in adding value to a body of existing literature which is largely from the developed world. It may also stimulate interest for related studies in other developing countries.


The Caltech–Jodrell Bank very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) Surveys give detailed 5 GHz VLBI images of several hundred milliarcsecond (mas) radio sources, and the full width at half-maximum angular sizes of the corresponding compact cores. Using the latter, I have constructed an angular-diameter/redshift diagram comprising 271 objects, which shows clearly the expected features of such a diagram, without redshift binning. Cosmological parameters are derived which are compatible with existing consensus values, particularly when the VLBI data are combined with recent Baryon Acoustic Oscillations observations; the figures are presented as indications of what might be expected of larger samples of similar data. The importance of beaming and relativistic motion towards the observer is stressed; a model of the latter indicates that the emitting material is close to the observer's line of sight and moving with a velocity which brings it close to the observer's rest frame. With respect to linear size, these objects compare reasonably well in variance with the absolute luminosity of type Ia supernovae; the efficacy of the latter is improved by the brighter-slower and brighter-bluer correlations, and by the inverse-square law.


The generation of Thermal Donors in Si is a nucleation process controlled by several mobile On clusters. The rate-limiting transitions are found to be O1  O2 and O4  O5. The individual transition rates G12 and G45, and also G23 and G34 are deduced from the experimental data. From the transient variation of the generation rate G(t), the equilibrium concentration of the dimers is found, and with it the dimeric diffusivity is also defined. In samples pre-treated at high T, the G(t) dependence has a maximum, due to quenched-in fast-diffusing oxygen monomers (FDMs). The concentration and diffusivity of FDMs were determined.


The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes and perceptions of Generation Z of Jharkhand, India towards careers in the tourism industry. The study is exploratory and based on a quantitative approach. A total of 196 respondents have been selected by random sampling from all the districts of Bihar and Jharkhand for this study. Areas that students have concerns over include respondent's relationship with their managers, promotion opportunities, career paths, and the pay and conditions offered within the industry. The study also focuses about the awareness of Gen Z about the Indian Tourism Development Programs, Jharkhand Tourism and the various regulations implemented in tourism sector. The data was collected by with the help of Google forms. The analysis has been done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software.  The research shows that the Gen Z is good tourists but they have their doubts on taking up career in tourism sector. Though, they are inclined in doing so if this sector is more digital savvy, have good career development opportunities and if the tourism sector in Jharkhand is improved.


To achieve better performance, we adopt a Heterogeneous Sensor Network (HSN) model. In many applications, the locations of some sensor nodes are controllable. In this paper, first we propose a novel density-varying deployment scheme for high-end sensors (H-sensors) in an HSN. The scheme solves the bottleneck problem in typical many-to-one sensor networks. We then study the optimal placement of H-sensors whose locations are controllable. The goal is to use the minimum number of H-sensors for ensuring successful data delivery, coverage and connectivity in a network for a given lifetime. We present an effective H-sensor placement scheme that can simultaneously achieve coverage, connectivity and data relay requirements while uses a small number of H-sensors. Both theoretical proofs and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed H-sensor placement scheme achieves very good performance.


Paleomagnetic data from 89 equatorial deep-sea sediment cores indicate that the configuration of the time-averaged geomagnetic field depends strongly on polarity state but that it remains within 1 degree of axial symmery throughout the Pliocene and Pleistocene (last 5 million years). The relative magnitude of the nondipole field was greater by almost a factor of 2 during reverse than during normal polarity intervals. These results thus support earlier suggestions that there may be a standing (nonreversing) component of the geomagnetic dynamo.


Abstract : This thesis focuses on the development and demonstration of silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) quantum dots (QDs) for spinbased quantum information processing. Firstly, by measuring the transport current through a MOS quantum dot, its multi-electron spin state was determined as the electron occupancy was reduced from twenty-seven electrons down to the single-electron limit. In particular, kinks observed in the electron addition energy as a function of magnetic field demonstrated that a valley-orbit excited state existed 100 mu-eV above the ground state. Secondly, by incorporating a silicon single-electron transistor (SET) charge sensor next to a quantum dot, the electron occupancy of the dot was probed via the sensor output signal. By applying a digitally-controlled dynamic feedback loop to the charge sensor, robust detection of the QD charge state was achieved, even in the presence of charge drifts and random charge upset events. Next, the excited states of a silicon MOS quantum dot were studied in detail. The electron occupancy and excited-state energy levels were detected using a SET charge sensor, with the aid of pulsed-voltage spectroscopy. The energy of the first orbital excited state was found to decrease rapidly as the electron occupancy increased from N = 1 to 4. By monitoring the sequential spin filling of the dot a valley splitting of approximately 230 mu-eV was extracted, which was found to be independent of electron number. Finally, by performing single-shot spin readout on a silicon MOS quantum dot, spin lifetimes were extracted for different electron occupancies and valley splitting configurations, with a maximum one-electron spin lifetime exceeding 2 seconds. We also demonstrated the ability to tune the valley splitting energy via electrostatic gate control, with a splitting that increased linearly with applied electric field over the range 0.3 - 0.8 meV. The spin relaxation rates were found to be highly dependent on the valley splitting energy,


In this study, nonwoven selvedges served as core yarn which was wrapped with stainless steel wires. Core yarn was added with functional materials such as stainless steel wires or copper wires or both. Functional polypropylene nonwoven selvedges (PNS) complex ply yarns were made using a rotor twister machine. The wrapped density of stainless steel wires was changed as 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 turns/cm and the speed of rotor twister was set at 8000 rpm. Shown in the mechanical property test of complex ply yarn, when speed of rotor twister was at 8000 rpm; wrapped density was 2.5 turns/ cm; and functional materials were copper wires and stainless steel wires, complex ply yarns made of polypropylene nonwoven selvedges (PNS) had the maximum breaking force as 47.76N and maximum breaking elongation as 47.93%.


The ventrolateral hypothalamus in female guinea pigs includes an estrogen receptor dense region adjacent to the ventromedial hypothalamus. This region is reciprocally connected with other estrogen receptor-containing areas suggesting that steroid hormone receptor-containing cells may be directly linked. Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin, an anterograde tract tracer, was specifically placed in this region with the aim of labeling some projections from estrogen receptor-containing neurons. These projections were colocalized immunocytochemically with the distribution of estrogen receptor-containing cells. Dense ventrolateral hypothalamic innervation was observed in some regions also containing a high concentration of estrogen receptor-containing cells. These regions included the medial preoptic area, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the ventrolateral hypothalamus anterior and posterior to the injection site, and the midbrain central gray. A low density of ventrolateral hypothalamic fibers and terminals was observed in two regions rich in estrogen receptors, the amygdala and the arcuate nucleus. In general, ventrolateral hypothalamic fibers and terminals were present in all regions where estrogen receptors were found except the medial thalamus and habenular region. Labeled terminal boutons and perineuronal baskets were found around estrogen receptor-containing cells in most regions which contained estrogen receptor-containing cells. These close appositions were suggestive of synaptic contacts, suggesting that the ventrolateral hypothalamus may influence steroid-dependent behaviors via the modulation of estrogen receptor-containing cells. Furthermore, ventrolateral hypothalamic projections may include direct connections with estrogen receptor-containing cells, suggesting the presence of a network of interconnected estradiol-sensitive neurons involved in the regulation of estradiol-dependent functions.


We introduce a heuristic method for adaptive multichannel restoration of degraded multispectral images when there is limited knowledge about the undegraded images and the noise. The proposed structure aims at reversing the action of the blur function on the image. The system uses number of channels equal to the number of multispectral images L. Each channel consists of L subchannel structures of two parallel adaptive filters with different cutoff frequencies and different DC (zero frequency) gain. The overall structure in each subchannel is equivalent to a filter, which has a combined LP-BP like characteristics. The resulting system has unity gain at the DC, which preserves the image local characteristics. The filter has high gain in the middle (band pass) frequency range, which produces an output image with restored edges. The filter structure gain at the high frequency range is small which reduces the high frequency noise. The adaptive filters are considered for the implementation of the proposed method. This is because they have many desirable properties and able to track the variations in the image characteristics. Multiple channel restoration results are presented and compared with single channel restoration. The results show that the proposed multiple channel restoration is very effective in restoring image details and reduces the noise amplification. Also the fine details are enhanced and preserved.


The Mo surface alloying layer was prepared on Ti6Al4V substrate using the plasma surface alloying technique. The component, structure and hardness of the Mo surface alloying layer were investigated. The impact test was used to determine the fatigue behavior of the Mo surface modified Ti6Al4V. The results showed that the Mo surface alloying layer enhanced the surface strength of Ti6Al4V substrate. The Mo surface alloying layer has a duplex structure with diffusing and coating layers. The diffusing layer in which the component and hardness change gradually could enhance load-bearing capacity to the surface coating and ensure the durability of the coating. In the impact test, the Mo modified Ti6Al4V showed excellent fatigue behavior and the cohesive failure mode was observed.


CV Spirit Wira Utama is a company that develops business model of agricultural (agribusiness) with hydroponic system without using greenhouse (open roof). The aims of this research are: (1) to  identify the Human Resources Development working description in producing lettuce, and (2) to  analyze the ideal number of employees based on employee workloads by counting Full Time Equivalent (FTE). Human Resources Development that supports in production process of lettuce commodity are divided  into the involved in off-farm and on-farm activities. The off farm activities includes technique, production, finance and marketing. Otherwise, on farm activity includes garden employees. The result of the research shows working time of Human Resource Development has not been optimal. Furthermore, to reach the effectiveness and efficiency an  alternative that can be carried out by a company is by combining the technique and production positions, job enlarging of finance and marketing positions, and improving the production phase of lettuce. Keywords : employee needs, FTE, hydroponic, lettuce , workload analysis


Abstract. The vegetation coverage is one of the important factors that restrict the accuracy of remote sensing retrieval of soil moisture. In order to effectively improve the accuracy of the remote sensing retrieval of soil moisture and to reduce the impact of vegetation coverage variation on the retrieval accuracy, the Leaf Area Index (LAI) is introduced to the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) to greatly improve the accuracy of the soil moisture retrieval. In its application on the regional drought monitoring, the paper uses the relative LAI from two places which locate in the north and south of Henan Province respectively (Xin Xiang and Zhu Ma Dian) as indicators. It uses the days after turned-green stage to conduct difference value correction on the Relative Leaf Area Index (RLAL) of the entire province, so as to acquire the distribution of RLAI of the province's wheat producing area. After this, the local remote sensing NDWI will be Modified (MNDWI = NDWI ×RLAI ) to acquire the soil moisture distribution status of the entire province's wheat producing area. The result shows that, the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index of LAI which based on the days after turned-green stage can improve the real time retrieval accuracy of soil moisture under different vegetation coverage.


Histone modifications are 'read' by protein modules which recognise defined modification states and act as scaffolds to attract protein complexes that further alter the epigenetic architecture at a specific location. This leads to enhanced or repressed gene expression. The dogma that it would be impossible to target these protein–protein interactions has recently been overturned, first by the discovery of potent small molecule inhibitors of bromodomains, the readers of acetylated histones, and more recently by inhibitors of methyl-lysine reader proteins of the 'Royal' and WD40r families. This chapter will present case studies of how these inhibitors have emerged from, and the merits of, a variety of hit discovery approaches including phenotypic screening, structure and fragment-based drug design and peptide mimicry. A view of the therapeutic value and biological challenges of targeting reader domains, as well as the utility of emerging biological and chemical tools will also be given.


Most data selection research in machine translation focuses on improving a single domain. We perform data selection for multiple domains at once. This is achieved by carefully introducing instance-level domain-relevance features and automatically constructing a training curriculum to gradually concentrate on multi-domain relevant and noise-reduced data batches. Both the choice of features and the use of curriculum are crucial for balancing and improving all domains, including out-of-domain. In large-scale experiments, the multi-domain curriculum simultaneously reaches or outperforms the individual performance and brings solid gains over no-curriculum training.


Recent trend for membrane bioreactor (MBR) operation was to apply a low sludge retention time (SRT) to decrease the fouling propensity and simplify the overall maintenance. However, the correct control and operation of MBRs under low SRT conditions were not well-established. In this study, modeling of MBR system for municipal wastewater treatment was evaluated using hybrid Activated Sludge Models 3 (ASM3), which helped in determining the control and operating strategies. The experiment-based, manual trial-and-error approach used to calibrate the hybrid ASM3 was verified to be useful for MBR modeling at 30 d sludge retention time (SRT). Furthermore, the consistency relationships among carbon oxygen demanded (COD), soluble microbial products (SMP) and mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) were established in the process of modeling, implying that the accurate simulation of MLSS were the prerequisites for the COD and SMP prediction.


Recently, technological developments in hemodialysis techniques and the continuous renal replacement therapies have limited the indications for peritoneal dialysis (PD) in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). However, PD remains an effective therapy that is easily and simply instituted, especially for infants (weighing less than 2500 g) and children with AKI. Highly trained personnel, expensive and complex apparatus, and systemic anticoagulation, vascular access were not needed, and so the procedure could be simply and quickly initiated. Peritoneal access should be implanted surgically by surgeon (laparascopic technique if possible) or the bedside-placed acute catheter. We can use continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and automated peritoneal dialysis (APD). In practice APD can be performed successfully in infants only when the fill volume is over 100–150 ml. If an infant needs acute dialysis it is important to use low fill volumes (200 ml/m2 or 10 ml/kg) and frequent exchanges after catheter implantation to avoid leakage and continuous dialysis with dwell time of 30–50 min. It is possible to achieve sufficient ultrafiltration and purification in anuric infants with a high glucose concentration dialysis solution. Lower fill volumes are used for 5–7 days, after which the amount is gradually increased to 800–1000 ml/m2, and the exchanges reduced to 8–12 per 24 h. The acute PD catheter needs careful attention, because catheter-related infections continue to be the most common complication of acute PD and the most frequent cause of catheter removal.


A reply We thank Dr Hutter for his interest in our paper, and note his concern. Dr Hutter is correct in saying that the Streptococcus viridans that caused this patient's meningitis might not have come from the mouth of the anaesthetist, who was not wearing a mask when performing her spinal anaesthetic. It might have come instead from the patient by haematogenous spread from her own mouth following her brushing her teeth. It might have come from other foci in her [1]. However, these possibilities would not prove that the streptococcus had not come from the anaesthetist by droplet spread. This event occurred in 2001 and since that time, our obstetric anaesthetic protocol has instructed that the obstetric anaesthetist wears a fresh face mask when performing an obstetric neuraxial block [2, 3].


A novel high-throughput combinatorial library preparation technique for ceramics requiring low levels of dopant is demonstrated and assessed for the case of donor-doped barium titanate (BT) materials with positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PTCR) materials. The droplet-doping process is performed by infiltrating liquid dopant precursors into porous BT disks and viewed by high speed camera. The resulting dopant distribution in the body of the disk shows high uniformity as assessed by energy dispersive (EDS) and wavelength dispersive (WDS) spectroscopies. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements and resistivity-temperature (?-T) curves show evidence of the changes in structure and PTCR profiles with change in composition and are closely matched to previously published data for samples made by conventional ceramic routes. The procedure, thus validated, has the potential to deliver dopant-doped BT-based PTCR libraries rapidly with a very wide range of dopant mixtures and concentrations for electrical property measurement and deserves to be applied to other low level dopant ceramic systems.


Most scholars argue that the decline of citizen participation and confidence in political institutions might be explained as the transformation of traditional forms of political participation to new ones. However, some authors indicate that citizens are not exclusively oriented towards institutionalized or de-institutionalized forms of participation and use all available mechanisms of influence by participating in various forms of action. The focus of this article is an empirical investigation of repertoires of political participation in Lithuania. The article, which is based on the data of the fifth wave of the European Values Study, concludes that repertoires of political participation in Lithuania are diversified and complex. They are significantly associated with gender, age, education, income, place of residence, interpersonal trust, confidence in political institutions, materialist/postmaterialist values, authority orientations, democratic support, autocratic orientations, and family socialization. The repertoires of the all-around activists, the duty-based participants, and the low-involved protesters are mixed and include all forms of political participation. However, there is a slightly noticeable trend toward the repertoire of an assertive citizen among the low-involved protesters and the apolitical volunteers.


In the past decade, much progress has been made in image denoising due to the use of low-rank representation and sparse coding. In the meanwhile, state-of-the-art algorithms also rely on an iteration step to boost the denoising performance. However, the boosting step is fixed or non-adaptive. In this work, we perform rank-1 based fixed-point analysis, then, guided by our analysis, we develop the first adaptive boosting (AB) algorithm, whose convergence is guaranteed. Preliminary results on the same image dataset show that AB uniformly outperforms existing denoising algorithms on every image and at each noise level, with more gains at higher noise levels.


Meagre Argyrosomus regius is a potential candidate for Mediterranean aquaculture diversification, although several health issues still represent important bottlenecks for its sustainable production, including systemic granulomatosis (SG). To evaluate the SG progression in meagre during a 10 mo period of cage ongrowing, a histopathological investigation was carried out on 108 meagre fed 3 different diets (commercial pellets, hydrated commercial pellets and defrosted sardines). Histological sections of the gills and visceral organs were examined and lesions referable to SG scored from 1-3 according to the severity of the granulomatosis. The kidney and liver were the most affected organs, showing the highest percentage of positivity for granulomas and severity of lesions along the whole observation period. Using a statistical mixed model (GLMM) followed by odds ratio analysis, an effect of diet and temperature was found: the severity of liver and digestive tract SG scores decreased in the Cage 3 group (defrosted sardines) and with increasing temperature (p < 0.05, negative estimates, odds ratio <1). These observations, in accordance with the literature, suggest that SG in meagre could be related to nutritional-metabolic factors with the possible influence of environmental factors such as temperature.


Vibration signals is the information carrier of gearbox working, in order to monitor and diagnose the gearbox running states. This paper proposes a method of scale - energy fuzzy clustering based on series wavelet analysis processing gearbox vibration (non-stationary) signals that we draw the energy of the signal under various running states with different measurement as eigenvector. Because vibration signals of gear and roller bearings in the gearbox are not only related to frequency but also to time. Series wavelet analysis is a time-frequency (time-scale) analysis method. It can express both time and frequency in the same time. The eigenvector of scale-energy shows similarity with same state and dissimilarity with different states. So we use the fuzzy clustering methods to detect and diagnose different conditions of gearbox. The diagnosis result is satisfactory. It shows that series wavelet analysis can supply a convincing analysis means for gearbox fault diagnosis.


We propose a framework for classifying the capabilities and behavior of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) models and their precursors. This framework introduces levels of AGI performance, generality, and autonomy. It is our hope that this framework will be useful in an analogous way to the levels of autonomous driving, by providing a common language to compare models, assess risks, and measure progress along the path to AGI. To develop our framework, we analyze existing definitions of AGI, and distill six principles that a useful ontology for AGI should satisfy. These principles include focusing on capabilities rather than mechanisms; separately evaluating generality and performance; and defining stages along the path toward AGI, rather than focusing on the endpoint. With these principles in mind, we propose 'Levels of AGI' based on depth (performance) and breadth (generality) of capabilities, and reflect on how current systems fit into this ontology. We discuss the challenging requirements for future benchmarks that quantify the behavior and capabilities of AGI models against these levels. Finally, we discuss how these levels of AGI interact with deployment considerations such as autonomy and risk, and emphasize the importance of carefully selecting Human-AI Interaction paradigms for responsible and safe deployment of highly capable AI systems.


A Customs Union came into force on 31 December 1995. The Customs Union covers all industrial goods but does not address agriculture (except processed agricultural products), services or public procurement. Bilateral trade concessions are applied to agricultural products. In addition to providing for a common external tariff for the products covered, the Customs Union foresees that Turkey is to align to the acquis communautaire in several essential internal market areas, notably with regard to industrial standards. Following the Commission's proposal on "extending and deepening" the Customs Union, in November 1996 the Council agreed to negotiating guidelines on the liberalisation of services and public procurement between the EU and Turkey. Negotiations were, however, suspended in 2002. The main characteristic of this very dense and complex relationship is the fact that it is handled through a multitude of different modes, forums, and procedures without much consistency among them. And the difficulties encountered in the EU accession process, which is currently stalled, have tended to poison the relationship in other domains. Now, facing a number of shared challenges, the two have a major opportunity to move their relationship to a higher level by working together to deal with short- and long-term issues that are of vital importance for both. As Europe's political and economic weight declines and Turkey is consolidated as a regional power, cooperation on economic issues will be increasingly supplemented by cooperation in other areas in order to maintain a geopolitical balance in the region and limit the presence of external players.


Unveiling the detailed roles of glutathione (GSH) in chemoresistance necessitates a reliable assay for its detection in intact live specimens. Herein, by taking advantage of the susceptibility of electron-poor Csp2–Ssufinyl bond to GSH nucleophilic attack, we developed a naphthalimide–sulfoxide based fluorogenic probe (Na-8) applicable for tracking endogenous GSH fluctuation in live cells. Na-8 features a high degree of sensitivity towards GSH as demonstrated by its utmost 2200-fold fluorogenic response. As a proof of concept, Na-8 has been applied to image GSH in liver cancer HepG2 cells with the normal L02 cell counterparts serving as a control, and elevated GSH level was observed in HepG2 in contrast to L02. Further experiments showed that this elevated GSH level was involved in doxorubicin-resistance but not in cisplatin-resistance. Noteworthy, monitoring GSH change in HepG2 and L02 cells in response to doxorubicin treatment revealed that while normal cells showed a burst of GSH in adaption to doxorubicin treatment, no significant change was detected in HepG2 cells, suggesting that HepG2 cells have been preconditioned by their intrinsic oxidative stress which confers drug-resistance. Given the observed sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution, Na-8 should hold promise for future study on the detailed roles of GSH in drug-resistance.


Three glycoproteins of intact hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) with mol. wt. of 32 000, 30 000 and 28 000 respectively were identified by reaction with 125I-concanavalin A (Con A) after separation by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The antigen was effectively disrupted with Triton X-100 to produce a structure with a sedimentation coefficient of 3.9S. Affinity chromatography of disrupted HBsAg using concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B (Con A-Sepharose) resulted in two fractions. The first contained material which did not bind to the lectin and consisted of a single polypeptide of mol. wt. 64 000. Further studies revealed this component to be serologically identical to serum albumin and to lack any affinity for antibody to HBsAg. A comparison of the tryptic peptide map of this polypeptide with that of purified serum albumin demonstrated identical amino-acid sequences. The second fraction contained material which bound to Con A and contained two polypeptides with mol. wt. of 28000 and 23000 respectively. HBsAg reactivity was associated with this fraction. This procedure allows the prepartion of HBsAg sub-units in milligram quantities for further immunological studies.


Holocaust-related films in Israeli cinema appear in several cycles. The 1980s cycle, which I call Shadow Cinema, expresses ambivalence and guilt and professes a perverse loyalty to a wound that will not heal and to the dead that have never been buried. The analysis of certain junctures in these films brings forth an unexpected analogy between the Sabra new Jew and the Nazi. I argue that these films echo a deeply ingrained recognition that the liquidation of the Diaspora sought by Zionism through immigration of millions of Jews to Palestine, was actually achieved by Nazi Germany through extermination of those same millions. Such inadvertent conflation must have elicited guilt feelings in the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine that had endorsed the "Negation of the Diaspora." The State of Israel, heir to the Yishuv, has inherited these guilt feelings. Israel has unwittingly engulfed itself in guilt for the destruction of the Jews by the Nazis. This tragic sense of Zionism has been in keeping long enough to have sunk in and made Israeli Jews carry indelible guilt vis-à-vis the victims of the Holocaust. Israel lives in a tangled "dead-end future," obsessed with endless bleeding and bloodletting to expiate the six million dead for whose death it innocently and unconsciously puts the blame on itself.


In recent years, the relevance of cybersecurity has been increasingly evident to companies and institutions, as well as to final users. Because of that, it is important to ensure the robustness of a network. With the aim of improving the security of the network, it is desirable to find out which are the most critical nodes in order to protect them from external attackers. This work tackles this problem, named the α‐separator problem, from a heuristic perspective, proposing an algorithm based on the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP). In particular, a novel approach for the constructive procedure is proposed, where centrality metrics derived from social network analysis are used as a greedy criterion. Furthermore, the quality of the provided solutions is improved by means of a combination method based on Path Relinking (PR). This work explores different variants of PR, also adapting the most recent one, Exterior PR, for the problem under consideration. The combination of GRASP + PR allows the algorithm to obtain high‐quality solutions within a reasonable computing time. The proposal is supported by a set of intensive computational experiments that show the quality of the proposal, comparing it with the most competitive algorithm found in the state of art.


Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Objectives The objective of this study was to compare efficacy and adverse events between 100 U and 200 U of onabotulinumtoxinA for 6 months in women with nonneurogenic urgency incontinence. Methods This is a secondary analysis of 2 multicenter randomized controlled trials assessing efficacy of onabotulinumtoxinA in women with nonneurogenic urgency incontinence; one compared 100 U to anticholinergics and the other 200 U to sacral neuromodulation. Of 307 women who received onabotulinumtoxinA injections, 118 received 100 U, and 189 received 200 U. The primary outcome was mean adjusted change in daily urgency incontinence episodes from baseline over 6 months, measured on monthly bladder diaries. Secondary outcomes included perceived improvement, quality of life, and adverse events. The primary outcome was assessed via a multivariate linear mixed model. Results Women receiving 200 U had a lower mean reduction in urgency incontinence episodes by 6 months compared with 100 U (−3.65 vs −4.28 episodes per day; mean difference, 0.63 episodes per day [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.05–1.20]). Women receiving 200 U had lower perceptions of improvement (adjusted odds ratio, 0.32 [95% CI, 0.14–0.75]) and smaller improvement in severity score (adjusted mean difference, 12.0 [95% CI, 5.63–18.37]). Upon subanalysis of only women who were treated with prior anticholinergic medications, these differences between onabotulinumtoxinA doses were no longer statistically significant. There was no statistically significant difference in adverse events in women receiving 200 U (catheterization, 32% vs 23%; adjusted odds ratio, 1.4 [95% CI, 0.8–2.4]; urinary tract infection, 37% vs 27%; adjusted odds ratio, 1.5 [95% CI, 0.9–2.6]). Conclusions A higher dose of onabotulinumtoxinA may not directly result in improved outcomes, but rather baseline disease severity may be a more important prediction of outcomes.


Mass Media has a long-standing reputation of influencing perception and affecting behavior and in the age of globalization, investigating its influence in different cultural contexts has become increasingly relevant. Perpetuating unrealistic standards of body types is just one way mediated messages are said to influence negatively an audience. By way of TV, magazines and movies, the media imperialism of the United States is having a strong presence in small countries like Malaysia. The same media effects, on body image and identity, that are found in the US should also be observable. Furthermore, the social comparison theory states that an individual evaluates their own opinions by comparing themselves to others. Exposure to US media, in this case US television shows, offers individuals characters to whom to compare themselves. This study examines how US media imperialism and the social comparison theory through media affects body perception by examining how often college-age young adults watched shows with prominent thin television characters compared to shows that had a diversity of body types in the core cast. Being exposed to programming with only thin characters is expected to correlate positively with body dissatisfaction. The study included distributing 286 preliminary surveys to discover what were the most popular shows being watched by college students (mostly 18 to 25 year olds). After the most popular shows were identified, surveys were circulated to a sample of 240 college-age young adults (120 males and 120 females) to determine if any correlation could be made between their television show preferences and their body dissatisfaction, or lack thereof.


The conversion of pre-consumer solid waste into value added products, and utilisation of this for the treatment of activated sludge into a reusable form without having toxic effects on the environment, is much more in focus in the present day. In the present work, different types of garbage enzyme were produced from pre-consumer waste (pineapple, cauliflower, orange, tomato, and mango dregs) and the characteristics of each garbage enzyme produced were investigated. Sludge solubilization was performed with different types of garbage enzyme at different pH and time. When the treatment time increased from 48–60 hours, a higher reduction of VSS (Volatile Suspended Solids), TSS (Total Suspended Solids) and also a higher increase of the solubility of COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), TKN (Total Kjeldhal Nitrogen) and TP (Total Phosphorus) were obtained for all types of garbage enzyme at pH 7. The pineapple and orange garbage enzyme showed a higher reduction % of VSS and TSS of nearly 20–25% and also increased % solubilization of COD, TKN and TP by nearly 20–25%, 15–20% and 9–11% respectively in treated WAS (Waste Activated Sludge) compared with other garbage enzymes. This significant result showed that a garbage enzyme solution has the capability to solubilize complex (insoluble organic) compounds to soluble organic compounds, which can be subsequently treated by anaerobic microbes to produce methane or hydrogen.


Fosmidomycin is the first representative of a new class of antimalarial drugs acting through inhibition of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate ( DOXP) reductoisomerase (DXR), an essential enzyme in the non-mevalonate pathway for the synthesis of isoprenoids. This work describes a divergent strategy for the synthesis of a series of alpha-aryl-substituted fosmidomycin analogues, featuring a palladium-catalyzed Stille coupling as the key step. An alpha-(4-cyanophenyl)fosmidomycin analogue emerged as the most potent analogue in the present series. Its antimalarial activity clearly surpasses that of the reference compound fosmidomycin.


INTRODUCTION
Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most incident cancer of the biliary tract with only 5-13% of the sufferers surviving for five years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic role of perineural invasion (PNI) and its association with several clinicopathological variables in a cohort of surgically treated patients, and through a comprehensive review of the scientific literature.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty-five consecutive patients submitted to curative surgery for GBC from 2008 through 2016 were enrolled. Demographic, clinical and pathological data were retrieved from medical files, and specimens were re-examined by two experienced pathologists. The Pubmed database was searched for articles reporting on perineural infiltration on gallbladder cancer.

RESULTS
Perineural invasion was observed in 14 (56%) cases, and it was more frequent in higher pathological stages. A statistically significant association was found with high preoperative serum Ca 19-9 levels. Fourteen (56%) patients died during the follow-up; survival was lower in patients with perineural invasion in comparison to those without, but not statistically significant. Twelve English-language articles reporting on PNI were retrieved and discussed.

CONCLUSIONS
Perineural invasion is associated with higher stage and poorer survival in surgically treated GBC patients. In patients with locally advanced GBC resection of the extrahepatic biliary duct and frozen section examination of the distal stump must be taken into consideration, especially in cases of tumor arising from the hepatic side of the gallbladder. In cases without residual disease but with pathological evidence of PNI, a careful follow-up is suggested to early detect recurrences.

KEY WORDS
Adenocarcinoma, Cancer, Gallbladder, Perineural infiltration, Surgery.


Understanding how taxation influences innovation is of central importance to create investment incentives for R&D, yet our knowledge remains limited due to a lack of data, especially covering a long period of time. This column uses newly constructed datasets from the 20th century to examine the effects of both personal and corporate income taxation on inventors, as well as on firms that do R&D. It finds consistently negative effects of high taxes on innovation over time as well as on individual inventors and firms.


Landfast ice is a defining feature among Arctic coasts, providing a critical transport route for communities and exerting control over the exposure of Arctic coasts to marine erosion processes. Despite its significance, there remains a paucity of data on the spatial variability of landfast ice and limited understanding of the environmental processes' controls since the beginning of the 21st century. We present a new high spatiotemporal record (2000–2019) across the Northwest Canadian Arctic, using MODIS Terra satellite imagery to determine maximum landfast ice extent (MLIE) at the start of each melt season. Average MLIE across the Northwest Canadian Arctic declined by 73% in a direct comparison between the first and last year of the study period, but this was highly variable across regional to community scales, ranging from 14% around North Banks Island to 81% in the Amundsen Gulf. The variability was largely a reflection of 5–8-year cycles between landfast ice rich and poor periods with no discernible trend in MLIE. Interannual variability over the 20-year record of MLIE extent was more constrained across open, relatively uniform, and shallower sloping coastlines such as West Banks Island, in contrast with a more varied pattern across the numerous bays, headlands, and straits enclosed within the deep Amundsen Gulf. Static physiographic controls (namely, topography and bathymetry) were found to influence MLIE change across regional sites, but no association was found with dynamic environmental controls (storm duration, mean air temperature, and freezing and thawing degree day occurrence). For example, despite an exponential increase in storm duration from 2014 to 2019 (from 30 h to 140 h or a 350% increase) across the Mackenzie Delta, MLIE extents remained relatively consistent. Mean air temperatures and freezing and thawing degree day occurrences (over 1, 3, and 12-month periods) also reflected progressive northwards warming influences over the last two decades, but none showed a statistically significant relationship with MLIE interannual variability. These results indicate inferences of landfast ice variations commonly taken from wider sea ice trends may misrepresent more complex and variable sensitivity to process controls. The influences of different physiographic coastal settings need to be considered at process level scales to adequately account for community impacts and decision making or coastal erosion exposure.


The use of a transcutaneous ultrasonic Doppler flow detector to identify the supratrochlear and superficial temporal arteries permits the design of narrow-based, thin-tipped forehead flaps for use in medial canthal and eyelid reconstruction. In the 13 cases described, the axial, vascular supply of a proposed myocutaneous forehead flap was determined with a transcutaneous ultrasonic Doppler flow detector permitting narrow-based pedicle widths of 0.8 to 1.2 cm. The design of the distal portion of the flap was determined by the primary defect. The width of the flap varied from 1.5 to 4.0 cm, with the flap's axial length limited only by the hairline. This use of the ultrasonic Doppler flow detector, permitting narrow-based, thin-tipped vascular pedicle flaps, has assisted in refining the concept of forehead flaps and has made these flaps an acceptable primary reconstructive technique in the periorbital region.


Facebook is expected to facilitate more equal participation in civic engagement across genders and countries. With the use of a big data tool (Wisdom), we explored gender disparities in various Facebook liking practices concerning expressions of civic engagement among 21,706,806 Facebook users in ten countries across Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. We observed distinct patterns with regard to civic and political expressions on Facebook, with males drawn more toward politically and informationoriented liking practices as compared to females. Moreover, females (aged 13–28 years) in Europe and the Americas are more likely than males to support humanitarian aid and environmental issues on Facebook. This latter finding was not evident in Asia and Africa, where males are more active in liking all forms of civic expressions on Facebook. In conclusion, this study shows that the gender differences in civic engagement that exist offline to a large degree are replicated and reinforced on Facebook.


SUMMARY: Building Information Modeling (BIM) continues to evolve and grow along with their respective application in practice. One of the key advantages of BIM is that is facilitates the development of detailed information and analysis much earlier in the building process to improve decision making and reduce downstream changes. The increases in cost of construction and combined complexity inherent in healthcare construction projects provides an opportunity to harness the strengths of BIM, and provide much more detailed information early in the development of a healthcare construction project. These case studies present evidence of benefits of BIM upstream in the project lifecycle – such as the programming stage. Two healthcare related projects which implemented BIM in the programming phase are presented in this paper. One project is a trauma hospital in a developing country in conflict, and the other is a medical research laboratory in the United States. Each had unique circumstances, but also similarities which help to identify the strengths and challenges of BIM implementation in healthcare projects regardless of the individual projects' differences. The paper reviews the application of the BIM modeling process for each project. The benefits and challenges from the process used, and the results found are presented. Challenges included data transfer bottlenecks and apprehension due to a lack of knowledge of parametric tools in general. Benefits included visualization, time saved relative to concept updates, and quantity takeoffs. Some basic framing of the strategic implementation of BIM on a construction project are discussed.