St. Joseph Health System (SJHS), Orange, CA, has been committed since the mid-1990s to acting as an advocate for the housing needs of low-income people. In 1997, for example, SJHS became a founder, with Mercy Housing and six other Catholic health care organizations, in creating the Strategic Health Care Partnership, an investment pool designed to bring affordable housing to the most vulnerable. In 1999, SJHS supported Mercy Housing's construction of an 81-unit development for very limited-income senior citizens in Orange County, CA. Two years later, SJHS supported Mercy Housing's creation of a 23-unit development in the county for homeless people with HIV/AIDS. In the same year, SJHS and other local groups formed the Kennedy Commission, a group devoted to improving housing in Orange County. Just last spring, the commission persuaded the city council of Anaheim, CA, to vote unanimously for an ordinance that would offer incentives to developers who set aside portions of their housing projects for low-income renters.


Traveling wave tube (TWT) technology, first described by Rudolf Kompfner in the early 1940s, has been a key component of space missions from the earliest communication satellites in the 1960s to the Cassini probe today. TWTs are essentially signal amplifiers that have the special capability of operating at microwave frequencies. The microwave frequency range, which spans from approximately 500 MHz to 300 GHz, is shared by many technologies including cellular phones, satellite television, space communication, and radar. TWT devices are superior in reliability, weight, and efficiency to solid-state amplifiers at the high power and frequency levels required for most space missions. TWTs have three main components -an electron gun, slow wave structure, and collector. The electron gun generates an electron beam that moves along the length of the tube axis, inside of the slow wave circuit. At the same time, the inputted signal is slowed by its travel through the coils of the helical slow wave circuit. The interaction of the electron beam and this slowed signal produces a transfer of kinetic energy to the signal, and in turn, amplification. At the end of its travel, the spent electron beam moves into the collector where its remaining energy is dissipated as heat or harnessed for reuse. TWTs can easily produce gains in the tens of decibels, numbers that are suitable for space missions. To date, however, TWTs have typically operated at fixed levels of gain. This gain is determined by various, unchanging, physical factors of the tube. Traditionally, to achieve varying gain, an input signal s amplitude has had to first be modulated by a separate device before being fed into the TWT. This is not always desirable, as significant distortion can occur in certain situations. My mentor, Mr. Dale Force, has proposed an innovative solution to this problem called direct digital modulation . The testing and implementation of this solution is the focus of my summer internship. The direct digital modulation of a TWT removes the need for a separate amplitude modulation device. Instead, different levels of gain are achieved by varying the electron beam current. The lower the current, the less kinetic energy is available to be transferred to the signal. To vary the current, a grid is placed in-between the electron gun and the slow wave circuit. By changing the voltage across the grid, the electron beam current can be controlled. Grid technology has mostly been used in pulse applications such as radar, where only two voltage states are necessary. For direct digital modulation, however, a continuous range of voltages is required.


Aim: The aim of the study was to determine if the tissue Doppler imaging (TDI)-derived myocardial acceleration during isovolumic contraction (IVA) of tricuspid lateral annulus could be used in early detection of RV systolic dysfunction in patients with mitral stenosis (MS), before the clinical signs of systemic venous congestion occur and to compare between IVA and conventional echocardiographic parameters in detecting early RV systolic dysfunction in patients with MS .
Methods: Ninety-six patients with severe rheumatic MS without relevant regurgitation were enrolled in the study. Conventional echocardiographic parameters (mitral valve area, transmitral diastolic gradients, pulmonary artery pressure, RV fractional area change, pulmonary flow acceleration time, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion) and TDI-derived systolic velocities of tricuspid annulus (isovolumic myocardial acceleration: IVA, peak myocardial velocity during isovolumic contraction: IVV, peak systolic velocity during ejection period: Sa and RV MPI) were recorded from all patients.
Results: TDI-derived IVA, IVV, Sa were significantly decreased in patients with MS and RV MPI is increased in patients with MS. IVA was the only parameter which had a significant negative correlation with the traditional echocardiographic parameters and RV Tei index in patients with MS.
Conclusion: TDI-derived right ventricular IVA may be used as an adjunctive, reliable, noninvasive parameter for the early detection of right ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients with MS but without signs of systemic venous congestion. RV IVA negatively correlate with RV MPI, positively correlate with IVV and Sa. RV IVA shows positive correlation with RVFAC and negative correlation with PAP, LA size. IVA shows no correlation with TAPSE.
University Heart Journal 2022; 18(2): 80-86


Library Linked Data Model is an important topic for librarianship and it is equally of interest to the many organizations that provide products and services to that community. Ex Libris, as one of those organizations, frequently gets asked: "Where do we see it fitting into our plans?". In order to be able to answer questions like this, we need to ask: "What exactly are the problems being solved for the profession by this technology that can only be solved with the Library Linked Data model?" What most developers/providers of products analyzing the potential of library linked data would see is that at this stage, this technology is very much in the research stage. The presentation talks about the research ExLibris is involved in and how this can be utilized by innovative libraries to help defining the actual use cases in which the potential of the Library Linked Data Modell is indeed exploited.


In an attempt to explore the mechanism by which antigenic stimulation alters gene expression in lymphoid cells in vivo, three different hybridization techniques have been used to compare the complexity of the genome of lymphoid cells from normal and from immune BALB/c mice. RNA/DNA hybridization experiments at a DNA excess of 1000 demonstrated that normal RNA and immune RNA hybridized identically with DNA extracted from mouse spleen cells before and after immunization and with liver DNA. These findings indicate that DNA sequences complementary to immune RNA or to normal RNA are represented in a number of copies not significantly different in the genome of normal lymphoid cells and in that of immune lymphoid cells. Hybridizations of normal and of immune RNA with normal and immune pulse-labeled DNA, done at RNA excess, detected no differences between these two DNA. However, significant differences were observed in the percentage of DNA hybridized with normal and immune RNA; 3 to 4% of the DNA hybridized with normal RNA and 8 to 9% with immune RNA. This indicates that more DNA sequences are transcribed 48 hr after immunization than before immunization. The RNA exhaustion rates caused by normal and immune DNA were found to be identical, indicating that antigenic stimulation did not induce major changes in the number of DNA base sequences complementary to the RNA tested. However, when normal and immune pulse-labeled RNA were compared by exhaustion with DNA, the immune pulse-labeled RNA obtained 48 hr after immunization displayed a slower exhaustion rate than normal RNA or RNA extracted 72 hr after immunization. These results suggest the temporary synthesis, at a higher frequency, of certain RNA sepcies 48 hr after immunization, as compared to the RNA synthesis in normal, nonimmune cells, or that occurring 72 hr after immunization. Thus, the three experimental approaches used lead to the conclusion that antigenic stimulation does not induce major gene amplification; it does, however, change the transcription rate of certain RNA species.


The purpose of this article is to examine how accurate pessimistic accounts of the school-to-work transition are, given the substantial decline in unemployment since the 1991/93 recession. This examination is limited to young people who did not go to university, a group which is more likely to be experiencing problematic school-to-work transitions. The analyses use data from the first eight waves of data from the 1995 Year 9 cohort in the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) project. In the years after leaving school, an increasing majority are in full-time work and there is considerable movement into full-time work from part-time work and unemployment. Furthermore, each year full-time workers show increases in job status and earnings. Only a small minority of non-university bound youth have problematic school-to-work transitions. These analyses also suggest that the policy emphasis on increasing participation in vocational education is misplaced. Except for apprenticeships and then only among males, vocational education does not appear to promote full-time employment.


Objective
To describe midwives' and obstetricians' experiences on the level of support from colleagues and managers in Danish labor wards following adverse events.

Design, setting and participants
A 2012 National survey of Danish obstetricians and midwives was conducted to assess the level of support received in the workplace.

Main outcome measures
Scales on social community at work, social support from colleagues and immediate superiors, and use of support mechanisms on labor wards after serious adverse events were assessed.

Results
2098 midwives and obstetricians were invited to complete the survey (response rate 59%), and the analyses were carried out on the 593 respondents who had been involved in at least one traumatic childbirth at their current place of work. Respondents experienced high levels of social support from colleagues and social community at work, midwives significantly higher than obstetricians, and 95% of respondents had talked to colleagues about an adverse event. Respondents generally experienced low levels of social support and feedback from immediate superiors, and only 49% had talked to their immediate superior about an adverse event. Fifty% believed that the hospital had a clear process through which they could report adverse events, and 44% knew how to access the necessary confidential emotional support at work.

Conclusions
Midwives and obstetricians experienced high levels of social support and feedback from colleagues who are the most frequent individuals to consult after adverse events. We strongly suggest developing second victim support programmes with a focus on offering peer support from qualified and trained peers.


Despite the fact that South Africa has remained an economic powerhouse, it is striking to come into grips with the reality that millions are swimming in a sea of poverty, while a larger percentage are food insecure, not knowing where their next meal will come from. This is due to an array of challenges such as unemployment and individuals' unemployability due to lack of skills. The aim of this article is, through a review of literature, to discuss the state of poverty in South Africa and suggesting possible strategies to mitigate the effect. The article recognizes the following groups of people as most vulnerable and prone to immense poverty: the children, women, the aged, and the disabled. It has also identified the following efforts that can avert poverty in South Africa: discharge of social welfare grants, implementation of free housing programmes such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), and free and accessible education. The article has also identified the following possible handicaps to poverty alleviation: dependence syndrome, state of crime and corruption, polarization between the rich and the indigent, and the discharge of social welfare grants. The article suggests the following as possible solutions to poverty alleviation: tightening the loopholes to annihilate criminality, promote women and youth empowerment, and foster a collaboration between the governments and communities. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n15p449


The Gaussian approximation that is typically used to estimate single-mode fiber microlens performance is investigated. It is applied to hemispheric lenses on two types of tapered single-mode fiber. Theoretical and experimental results are compared. The first type of taper, which is fabricated by pulling a fiber while it is melted, has a tapered core and a tapered cladding. The second type of taper, which is fabricated by etching the cladding, has a tapered cladding only. For a tapered-core fiber, coupling to the cladding-guided modes and the finite radius of curvature of the wave front before the lens must be considered to predict the lens spot size accurately, whereas the spot size of a tapered-cladding lens can be predicted from the lens diameter alone. Thus the spot size of a lens on a tapered-cladding fiber is easier to predict and control than that of a lens on a tapered-core fiber. It is also shown that the usual theory used to predict the spot size gives accepted values for tapered-cladding lenses but not for tapered-core lenses.


In recent years, UK summer heatwaves have resulted in thousands of excess deaths, with both extreme temperatures and high humidity increasing health risks. Here, the UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) are compared to observational (HadUK-Grid) and reanalysis data (ERA5) to quantify model performance at capturing mean, extremes (95th to 99.5th percentiles) and variability in the climate state and heat stress metrics (simplified wet bulb global temperature, sWBGT; Humidex; apparent temperature). Simulations carried out for UKCP18 generally perform as well as or better than CMIP5 models in reproducing observed spatial patterns of UK climate relating to extreme heat, with RMSE values on average ∼30% less than for the CMIP5 models. Increasing spatial resolution in UKCP18 simulations is shown to yield a minor improvement in model performance (RMSE values on average ∼5% less) compared to observations, however there is considerable variability between ensemble members within resolution classes. For both UKCP18 and CMIP5 models, model error in capturing characteristics of extreme heat generally reduces when using heat stress metrics with a larger vapour pressure component, such as sWBGT. Finally, the 95th percentile of observed UK summer temperature is shown to have ∼60% greater interannual variability than the summer mean over the recent past (1981–2000). This effect is underestimated in UKCP18 models (∼33%) compared to HadUK-grid and ERA5. Compared to projected future changes in the global mean temperature, UK summer mean and 95th percentile temperatures are shown in increase at a faster rate than the global mean.


A key source of economic growth in China has been the abundance of household savings, especially in rural regions. In this paper, we estimate saving functions for urban and rural areas in China, paying particular attention to the role of demographic structure. Our results confirm other researchers' finding that saving rates vary inversely with both the elderly and youth dependency ratios, but that the former effect is more significant. This suggests that prospective demographic trends in China will put downward pressure on household savings. Combining our estimation results with reasonable assumptions about economic growth and U.N. population projections, we predict that household savings in China will begin to decline about 2025. A significant shortage of "ex ante" savings could develop as a result. These results confirm the results and reinforce the concerns expressed by Heller and Szymansky (1997) about the long-run prospect for savings in the East Asian region and possible implications for the global economy.


Herbal medicine and nutritional supplements are suggested to treat premenstrual somatic and psycho-behavioural symptoms in clinical guidelines; nonetheless, this is at present based on poor-quality trial evidence. Hence, we aimed to design a systematic review and meta-analysis for their effectiveness in alleviating premenstrual symptoms. The published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were extracted from Google scholar, PubMed, Scopus and PROSPERO databases. The risk of bias in randomized trials was assessed by Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. The main outcome parameters were analysed separately based on the Premenstrual Symptom Screening Tool and PMTS and DRSP scores. Secondary parameters of somatic, psychological, and behavioural subscale symptoms of PSST were also analysed. Data synthesis was performed assuming a random-effects model, and standardized mean difference (SMDs) was analysed using SPSS version 28.0.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). A total of 754 articles were screened, and 15 RCTs were included (n = 1211 patients). Primary results for participants randomized to an intervention reported reduced PSST (n = 9), PMTS (n = 2), and DSR (n = 4) scores with (SMD = −1.44; 95% CI: −1.72 to −1.17), (SMD = −1.69; 95% CI: −3.80 to 0.42) and (SMD = 2.86; 95% CI: 1.02 to 4.69) verses comparator with substantial heterogeneity. Physical (SMD = −1.61; 95% CI = −2.56 to −0.66), behavioural (SMD = −0.60; 95% CI = −1.55 to 0.35) and mood (SMD = 0.57; 95% CI = −0.96 to 2.11) subscale symptom groupings of PSST displayed similar findings. Fifty-three studies (n = 8) were considered at low risk of bias with high quality. Mild adverse events were reported by four RCTs. Based on the existing evidence, herbal medicine and nutritional supplements may be effective and safe for PMS.


Equine infectious anemia caused by equine infectious anemia virus is an important disease due to its high severity and incidence in animals. We used a phage display library to isolate peptides that can be considered potential markers for equine infectious anemia diagnosis. We selected peptides using IgG purified from a pool comprised of 20 sera from animals naturally infected with equine infectious anemia virus. The diagnostic potential of these peptides was investigated by ELISA, Western blot and dot blot with purified IgG and serum samples. Based on the results, we chose a peptide mimetic for glycoprotein gp45 epitopes of equine infectious anemia virus, with potential for use as an antigen in indirect diagnostic assays. Synthesis of this peptide has possible applications for the development of new diagnostic tools for this disease.


Since 2003, we have strived to determine the most appropriate method for improving students' programming skills. One reason for this research is that the evaluation of programs requires sufficient time and careful consideration of correctness, fairness, and appropriateness. Another reason is that programming should always be evaluated on the grounds of not only compilation and testing but also correctness of the algorithm and validity of the model. Due to various factors, even if students submit their programs electronically, it does not contribute to improving the correctness of the evaluation in terms of marking their programs. Moreover, a lack of concrete assessment items and criteria for the programs implies that the marked results will depend on the instructor's assessment. To reduce the extent to which assessment results depend on the instructor, we propose the introduction of subject design in our programming exercises. We have developed a marking support tool that enables us to evaluate programs on one screen where we can readily compile and test the program, browse the code, record the student's marks, and analyze assessment results. This research sought to improve the assessment of programming exercises using support design and the marking support tool that we developed.


Has inflation targeting (IT) conferred benefits in terms of economic growth on countries that followed this particular monetary policy strategy during the crisis period 2007-12? This paper answers this question in the affirmative. Countries with an IT monetary regime with flexible exchange rates weathered the crisis much better than countries with other monetary regimes, predominantly countries with fixed exchange rates. Part of this difference in growth performance reflects differences in export performance during the initial years of the crisis, which in turn can be explained by real exchange rate depreciations. However, IT seems also to confer other benefits on the countries above and beyond the effects from currency depreciation.


Nigerian victims of human trafficking often fear revenge of voodoo spirits after escaping from their offenders. Human traffickers usually tell them that voodoo spirits will disturb their sleep and their peace of mind and eventually drive them crazy in case the victim would break the contract. In the Nigerian context, this fear is real and threatening. Western health care professionals should not consider this fear of voodoo as an anxiety disorder, especially because treatment would improperly challenge the validity of deeply rooted religious beliefs. We describe the case of a 35-year-old Nigerian male victim of human trafficking, who was sent to our Dutch treatment facility because of a disabling fear of voodoo. We refused treatment, but instead had an open dialogue about explanations for his symptoms. This made him aware of the way in which human traffickers abuse Nigerian religion and it relieved him from most of his anxiety.


The growing importance of the electricity sector in many economies, and of energy and environmental policies, requires a detailed consideration of these sectors and policies in computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, including both technological and temporal aspects. This paper presents the first attempt to our knowledge at building temporal disaggregation into a CGE model, while keeping technological detail. This contribution is coupled with some methodological improvements over existing technology-rich CGE models. The results of the case study clearly show the enhanced capability of this model for assessing complex policies with load shifting, demand profile changes and technology substitution. The model is able to account for the indirect effects characteristic of CGE models while also mimicking the detailed behavior of the electricity operation and investment present before only in bottom-up detailed models. The present paper is part II out of II and it focuses on an applied policy assessment using such model.


Air Asia was established on 12th December 2001 by a determine guy name Tony Fernandes. He begins to involve airline business by creatinga new company named Tune Air with three of his partners. During the 3rd quarter of 2001, his company willing to purchase Air Asia company for the unbelievable price of RM 1 but he must take over 50% of Air Asia's net liabilities around the RM 40m worth of debts together. The company grows slowly from time to time to be one of the successful low cost airlines in the industry. By using a simple yet strong slogan "Now Everyone Can Fly", it makes their brands positioned in most of the customer's mind as the cheap and affordable airline fare. Nowadays, Air Asia has over 20 routes around the globe in its network and it will continue to increase to conquer the low cost airline industry through its innovative solutions, efficient processes and appropriate strategy to business. The biggest achievements they earn are being awarded as the world's best airline company by Skytraxx for four consecutive years which is from 2009 until 2012. This achievement shows that Air Asia must maintain their business and find the new strategy to attract more people to use their service.


The uptake of zinc, which is vital in trace amounts, is tightly controlled in bacteria. For this control, bacteria of the Streptococcaceae group use a Zn(II)-binding repressor named ZitR in lactococci and AdcR in streptococci, while other bacteria use a Zur protein of the Ferric uptake regulator (Fur) superfamily. ZitR and AdcR proteins, characterized by a winged helix-turn-helix DNA-binding domain, belong to the multiple antibiotic resistance (MarR) superfamily, where they form a specific group of metallo-regulators. Here, one such Zn(II)-responsive repressor, ZitR of Lactococcus lactis subspecies cremoris strain MG1363, is characterized. Size Exclusion Chromatography-coupled to Multi Angle Light Scattering, Circular Dichroism and Isothermal Titration Calorimetry show that purified ZitR is a stable dimer complexed to Zn(II), which is able to bind its two palindromic operator sites on DNA fragments. The crystal structure of ZitR holo-form (Zn(II)4-ZitR2), has been determined at 2.8 Å resolution. ZitR is the fourth member of the MarR metallo-regulator subgroup whose structure has been determined. The folding of ZitR/AdcR metallo-proteins is highly conserved between both subspecies (cremoris or lactis) in the Lactococcus lactis species and between species (Lactococcus lactis and Streptococcus pneumoniae or pyogenes) in the Streptococcaceae group. It is also similar to the folding of other MarR members, especially in the DNA-binding domain. Our study contributes to better understand the biochemical and structural properties of metallo-regulators in the MarR superfamily.


Renowned for his role in the Iranian Embassy siege and the Falklands War, General Sir Michael Rose now tells the inside story of one of the toughest challenges of his career, as Commander of the UN Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994. Having inherited a mission that was sliding into chaos, Rose's brief was to sustain the people of Bosnia in the midst of a devastating three-sided war and to try to prevent the conflict escalating. Facing scenes of inhumanity not witnessed in Europe since 1945, he describes how he dealt with individuals who would stop at nothing to fulfil their personal and political agendas. When General Rose left Bosnia at the end of the year the military conflict had been stabilised, aid convoys were reaching their destinations and civilians were once again able to walk the streets. How this turnaround was achieved is the subject of this plain-speaking, controversial account of a complex and bloody war.


In Tanzania, tourism industry employed about one million people which is 11.2 percent of total work force in Tanzania. This is due to the fact that Tanzanian is having many distinct natural features that attract tourists such as Kilimanjaro Mountain which is the roof of Africa. Among those one million jobs in tourism industry, porters and guides of Mount Kilimanjaro are included. COVID-19 has impacted tourism industry negatively to the point that the industry was shut down in 2020 and all jobs and employment were cut off. Among the most affected groups are porters and guides in Mount Kilimanjaro their jobs are temporary and depend on seasons. This study sought to explore the economic impact caused by COVID-19 pandemic to porters and guides and the strategies that they used to survive amidst the difficult period of COVID-19 to make a living and fulfill their family's basic needs. Learning from these porters and guides the study revealed the major negative economic impact they faced was reduction in the individual and family income caused by decrease in the number of visitors due to COVID-19 pandemic. The study further revealed that, there are number of aspects that made them survive amidst COVID-19 pandemic such personal saving, gifts and grants from once served tourists, subsistence allowances from their employers and engaging in other income generating activities such as subsistence small scale farming, sedentary livestock keeping, seeking for alternative employment and engaging in small business and entrepreneurship. The study recommends that porters and guides have to develop some plans that can make them well prepared to cope up with the negative economic impacts that will be caused by any other disasters to the industry in future time.
Keywords: COVID-19, Economic Impacts, Porters, Guides


Functional modeling is often covered as a critical element of the engineering design process in engineering design texts, but little empirical data clearly demonstrates that functional modeling improves engineering designs or that teaching functional modeling makes students better designers. The overall objective of this project is to determine the impact of teaching function on engineering students' design synthesis abilities. Two studies are being performed as a part of this project: (1) a longitudinal study following students through their sophomore, junior, and senior year following some being taught functional modeling, while others not, and (2) a yearly study looking at capstone project quality of students from cohorts either taught or not taught functional modeling. This paper focuses on preliminary data collected as a part of the longitudinal study using a functional modeling skills quiz to assess students' ability to understand and represent a system. In particular, a functional modeling skill assessment quiz is being investigated for its ability to discern the extent of a student's function knowledge. Two student groups are studied, one taught functional modeling along with function enumeration, and a second taught only function enumeration. The results provide promise that the skills quiz is working as desired; however, work is yet needed to develop an adequate scoring technique.


ABSTRACT Martín-Antón, M.; del Campo, J.M.; Negro, V.; Luengo Frades, J.; Moreno Blasco, L.J., and Jiménez Verdejo, J.R., 2020. Land use and port-city integration in reclamation areas: A comparison between Spain and Japan. In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 278–282. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Land reclamation is an increasingly widespread practice, especially in Asia in recent years as a means to provide land above sea level in cities with land shortage. This is the case of Japan, especially in the populated bays of the south coast (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka-Kobe). After a worldwide research on this subject (Martín-Antón et al., 2016), a more specific study of the reclaimed areas in Spain and Japan, with their respective land uses, is made in this work to show the needs of growth of the port cities of each country. Two representative bays have been analyzed in detail, namely Algeciras-Gibraltar Bay in Spain and Osaka-Kobe Bay in Japan. The Algeciras Bay has a total reclaimed area of 5.6 km2 whereas Osaka Bay has almost 160 km2 built over the centuries. In the latter, a large percentage of the new land is currently dedicated to residential use (17%), about 28 km2. Much of the housing land is next to, or even surrounded by, industrial zones, which add up to more than 60 km2 (almost 40%), compared to 24% in Algeciras. In Gibraltar (Algeciras Bay), the reclaimed area with residential use is 0.5 km2. It is remarkable the land areas in disuse: 8% of the total in Osaka Bay and 22% in Algeciras Bay. However, more and more land reclamation works are being built, including unfilled water areas surrounded by breakwaters (some of them to be filled with solid waste), such as the 2.6 km2 in Osaka Bay. Another use is energy production, with 0.6% of the total reclaimed area in Osaka Bay dedicated to solar power plants (0.89 km2). This article aims to make a reflection on current urban needs in port areas, port-city integration and the impact on the landscape of large maritime works.


The microscopic polymer reference interaction site model theory is generalized and applied to study intermolecular pair correlation functions and collective structure factors of dense solutions and melts of spherical nanoparticles carrying a single tethered chain. The complex interplay of entropy (translational, conformational, and packing) and enthalpy (particle-particle attraction) leads to different structural arrangements with distinctive small and wide angle scattering signatures. Strong concentration fluctuations, indicative of aggregate formation and/or a tendency for microphase separation, occur as the total packing fraction and/or particle-particle attraction strength increase. In analogy with block copolymers, the microphase spinodal curve is estimated by extrapolation of the inverse of the amplitude of the small angle scattering peak. For nanoparticles that are twice the diameter of monomers, the microphase separation boundary spinodal occurs at higher particle-particle attraction strength (or lower temperature) as compared to the macrophase demixing curve for nanoparticles with no tethers when the packing fraction is below 0.45, while the opposite trend is observed above 0.45. Increasing nanoparticle diameter results in a reduction in the microphase spinodal temperature and a qualitative change in its packing fraction dependence.


We have developed a novel multisource electron‐beam evaporator to prepare high‐quality multicomponent, multilayer thin films. The essential parts of the evaporator consist of three electron guns, a shutter turntable, and a multisubstrate turntable; the latter can be loaded with up to 20 substrates. A very attractive feature of the system is the implementation of computer control over the movement of the stepping motors. The two turntables are driven by separate stepping motors with optical encoders, and are used to: (i) position a selected substrate over a specified electron gun, and (ii) gate the flux for a desired time. With a suitable programming of the movement of the stepping motors, up to 20 different thin films, with individually tailored layers deposited sequentially from the three sources, can be prepared in a single run. The deposition rate and the sublayer thickness of the three constituents of a multilayer film are individually monitored by three film deposition controllers which communicate directly to the computer and the electron‐gun power supply. Predictable and reproducible deposition of thin films is accomplished by accurate, digital control of the deposition process. High‐quality films of YBaCuO have been prepared with this system.


ABSTRACT Large tidal current ridges (tidal sand banks) in the southwestern Yellow Sea are located offshore of northern Jiangsu Province, China. These ridges radiate to a depth of 20-30 m. The dimensions of the ridge system are about 200 km long and 90 km wide. Their morphology indicates the strong influence of tidal currents. The ridges are composed of well-sorted fine sands (size range is 2-4 ). The grain size distributions of the sands show that the sands are transported and deposited by tidal currents. The ridge system formed on the abandoned Yellow River and ancient Yangtze River deltas has an abundant sand supply from the former deltas. Of particular importance is the existence of two tidal wave systems in the Yellow Sea: the rotary ti al wave system in the southern Yellow Sea and the Pacific progressive tidal wave system propagated into the southern ridge area of the southwestern Yellow Sea. Under the interaction of the two tidal wave systems, the huge tidal current system in the southwestern Yellow Sea has formed.


By using specially constructed nanometer tips of sharpened Pt-Ir wire in a wax sheath, small numbers of molecules (1−10) can be trapped between the tip and a substrate. Repeated electron transfers of an electroactive molecule as it shuttles by diffusion between tip and substrate produce a current (∼0.6 pA/molecule) that can be used to detect the trapped molecules. The tip electrode size and shape can be found from the electrode approach curves (current vs tip-to-substrate distance) based on approximate equations and digital simulations. Analysis of the observed fluctuating currents by autocorrelation, spectral density, and probability density functions is also described.


This paper presents a compact modeling methodology for inductors and capacitors based on transmission-line theory. Using continued fractions approximation, second- and third-order intrinsic inductor and capacitor models are demonstrated. With the second-order model, one can accurately predict inductor and capacitor behavior up to their first resonance frequencies. With the third-order model, one can match the measured inductor or capacitor response beyond the first resonance frequency. Wideband accurate passive models developed here are essential for transient and harmonic-balance analysis where out-of-band frequencies are important. The model parameters are extracted directly from S-parameter measurement without a need for optimization. Furthermore, the frequency-dependent nonlinear effects of spiral inductors and metal-insulator-metal capacitors are expressed based on simple models without resorting to frequency-dependent parameters


Abstract Wave propagation around and inside a harbor is conventionally studied by numerically solving a representative equation of short-wave progression or by taking actual measurements on a physical model. Although the numerical schemes yield workable solutions, underlying assumptions as well as noticeable difference between the resulting estimations and actual measurements leave scope to employ alternative approaches. The current study is an attempt in that direction and is based on the approach of neural networks. Modeled to imitate the biological neural network prevalent in human brains, an artificial neural network represents interconnection of computational elements called neurons or nodes, each of which basically carries out the task of combining inputs, determining their strength by comparing the combination with a bias (or alternatively passing it through a non-linear function) and firing out the result in proportion to such a strength. The network is first trained with examples, the strengths of interconnections (or weights) are accordingly fixed and then it is readied for application to unseen inputs. The applications of neural networks have now spread across all disciplines of ocean engineering, namely, harbor, coastal, offshore and deep-ocean engineering, and are directed towards function approximation, optimization, system modeling including parameter predictions. Advantages of the ANN schemes are improved accuracy, ease in application, reduced data requirement and so on. In the present work a feed forward modular neural network was developed in order to estimate attenuation of wave heights along the approach channel of a harbor starting from seaward boundary and ending at the harbor entrance. The trained network was found to satisfactorily follow the expected trend of wave height attenuation along the harbor channel. When tested for unseen input it yielded values of wave heights close to the numerical and physical models. The network also properly simulated the effect of variation of wave period as well as that of angle of wave attack on wave attenuation.


Laser drilling is a well-established manufacturing process utilised to produce holes in various aeroengine components. This research presents an experimental investigation on the effects of laser drilling process parameters on productivity (material removal rate), hole quality (hole taper) and drilling cost. Single-pulse drilling was employed to drill a thin-walled Inconel 718 superalloy plate of 1 mm thickness using pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The experiments were designed using Box-Behnken statistical approach to investigate the impacts of pulse energy, pulse duration, gas pressure and gas flow rate on the selected responses. Multi-objective optimisation was performed using response surface methodology (RSM) based grey rational analysis (GRA) to identify optimal drilling conditions aiming to maximise the MRR and minimise hole taper and drilling cost. The optimal combination of drilling parameters was found as pulse energy of 20 J, pulse duration of 6 ms, gas pressure of 100 psi and gas flow rate of 40 mm3/s. A detailed cost analysis identified labour cost, gas consumption and machine costs as the major cost elements of the laser drilling process.


New gait planning using a nonholonomic model with difference equation constraints is proposed for biped robot walking. A model of a pivoting telescopic segment is used as the kinematic foothold selection model of a bipedal robot. The repetitive and discontinuous constraints of pivoting, expanding, and contracting make up the set of walking trajectory data. The k-step reachable region is defined as the set of the k-th state that the system can reach from the initial state, and the motion planning is solved using the Jacobian matrix of the state with regard to the input series. The difference equation constraints can be discussed as a digital control of continuous-time nonholonomic systems. The gait planning is modified based on the limiting condition for the HRP-2 humanoid robot. Energy consumption is evaluated based on the linear-pendulum model and the gait planning is optimized. The feasibility of the proposed walking planning is demonstrated through a numerical simulation and an experiment involving the HRP-2 humanoid robot.


This paper aims at understanding the traditional fishermen's profile in Manado and the accessibility of working capital and investation by identifying business strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This research method uses descriptive statistical, SWOT, and financial analysis. Traditional fishermen in Manado have the power (S) of experience and high coaching skills, training from the government, and the access of large local markets. The weaknesses (W) are boat is simple; lack of business development capital, have no access to financial institutions, and not using technology. Opportunities (O) are high potential of fish; ships do not operate on the coast, and government assistance. The threat (T) are weather is uncertain, and coastal reclamation. Improvement of fisherman's welfare is done through business development that is implementing tool from pelang ship to pajeko ship. Through financial analysis of working capital and investment then this is worth doing because the investment return is around 1.1 years. To access working capital and investment, government and financial instituion help and assistance are needed. This study shown that fishermen business is potential to be deveoped, with the help of capital investment and goverment assistance, training from higher education institution such as business management and technology implementation.


Remote sensing imagery is capable to provide a solution to overcome the difficulties associated with field mapping in the Antarctic. Recent generation of high resolution multi-platform satellite sensors with various spectra-spatial imagery in shortwave infrared to long wavelength thermal and radar regions of the electromagnetic spectrum could be investigated to extract geological information for Antarctic environments. The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) contains a variety of well-exposed lithologies and areas that have not been mapped. The different geological history and environmental conditions suggest that Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is one of the more likely places in Antarctica for significant base-metal deposits and possible associated gold and silver due to analogy with the Andes Mountain Range of South America. In this scientific research, the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) was selected to conduct satellite remote sensing investigations. Landsat-7 Thematic Mapper (TM), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Advanced Land Imager (ALI) data were used to extract the information in different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The improvised image processing algorithms and systematic GIS techniques were implemented to detect structural elements and geological features for producing detailed geological maps of the Antarctic Peninsula. The outcomes of the investigation demonstrated that new revisions of geological maps with high accuracy of the Antarctic Peninsula could be produced using recent remote sensing satellite data. The results could be extended to map coverage of non-investigated regions further east and validated previously inferred geological observations concerning other rocks and mineral deposits throughout the Antarctica.


The reason for the postnatal changes of action potential duration in rat heart cells is still a matter of controversy. We have examined mRNA expression levels of Kv1.2, one of the K(+)-channel genes, in neonatal (1 week) and adult (8 weeks) rat cardiac ventricles. For analysis of mRNA expression, we used the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction method. The level of Kv1.2 mRNA expression in adult rats was significantly higher than that in neonatal rats. This result suggests that the levels of ion channel gene expression may be responsible for the postnatal changes of the action potential duration.


Blameworthiness, in the criminal law context, is conceived as the carefully calculated end product of discrete judgments about a transgressor's intentionality, causal proximity to harm, and the harm's foreseeability. Research in social psychology, on the other hand, suggests that blaming is often intuitive and automatic, driven by a natural impulsive desire to express and defend social values and expectations. The motivational processes that underlie psychological blame suggest that judgments of legal blame are influenced by factors the law does not always explicitly recognize or encourage. In this Article we focus on two highly related motivational processes – the desire to blame bad people and the desire to blame people whose motive for acting was bad. We report three original experiments that suggest that an actor's bad motive and bad moral character can increase not only perceived blame and responsibility, but also perceived causal influence and intentionality. We show that people are motivated to think of an action as blameworthy, causal, and intentional when they are confronted with a person who they think has a bad character, even when the character information is totally unrelated to the action under scrutiny. We discuss implications for doctrines of mens rea definitions, felony murder, inchoate crimes, rules of evidence, and proximate cause.


This article considers the dynamics of structural changes in the political elite of the Republic of Lithuania in the post-Soviet period through analysing the role of the so-called «moral politicians» intellectuals, artists, and cultural figures, who played the decisive role in the period of communist system disintegration and further development of the country's policy. The role of the political elite, understood according to R. Putnam and J. Higley's definition, is considered in the conditions of political instability and uncertainty typical of transformation processes. In this context, the role of key actors is interpreted on the basis of the methodological structure of the so-called Stanford model developed by G. Almond and P. Bourdieu's theory of capital. This article reconstructs the course of political changes in the Republic of Lithuania at the initial stage of its independence, in the framework of which the key role was played by «moral politicians», most of whom subsequently retired from politics. Focusing on the situation in Lithuania, this research sets out to show the continuous dependence of today's policies of the Baltic States on the key choices made by the authorities at the turn of 1980s-1990s. Today, Russian political science lacks concrete regional studies into the problems of changes of elites in the context of research on the processes of postcommunist transformations. This work addresses the scientific interpretation of the content of «new» political elite development mechanisms in postcommunist societies under the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors in the course of transformation. The stabilisation of elite formation processes in Lithuania, the assessment of patterns and tendencies, the identification of power centres and the character of intra-elite interaction, and a profound understanding of the functioning of Lithuanian political system in general will allow Russia to formulate a more efficient policy towards the Baltic States, which would promptly respond to emerging challenges.


In-situ observation of the fatigue crack growth and 90o domain switching was carried out for BaTiO3 ferroelectric single crystals under alternating electric field. It is shown that during the electric cycling, the crack propagates continuously. Parallel lines of 90o domain boundaries can be seen and they flip at each reversal of the alternating electric field. The width of the 90o domain switching zone grows with the number of cycles and its frontal always lies ahead of the crack tip. It is suggested that the cyclic stress field induced by the repeated 90o domain switching at the crack tip, as well as the stress field caused by the electrically activated material between the electrode and the material under the electrodes contribute to the observed fatigue crack growth.


This paper revisits Indonesia's sources of economic growth using the Growth Accounting Framework with education adjusted employment for period 1971-2007. The study estimates contribution of growth in capital stock, human capital and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) during the period before and after the crisis. TFP played positive but minor role in Indonesia's economic growth before the crisis. Growth in capital stock had been the main driver, attributing between 50-70% of growth. Growth in human capital accounted for another 30%. The pattern of sources of growth has changed substantially post crisis. TFP growth has played a more significant role, whereas capital stock growth has been increasing but at a meager pace. Human capital has consistently contributed about 30% to the overall growth. The roles of capital stock growth, human capital growth and TFP have been on a more equal footing after post-crisis. If this trend persists, it will have profound implication on the driver of Indonesian economy's growth in the future and its trajectory projection towards 2030.


The scholarly library of Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. compiled in the course of his Editorship of the journal Nestor (founded in 1957). The collection includes scholarly publications (offprints) and manuscripts sent by prospective authors to Dr. Bennett. Includes a Finding Aid (PDF and Word) and Catalog (an Excel document for each of two record groups: offprints collected up to 1995, and offprints collected from 1995-2011). Both the Finding Aid and Catalog are provided to facilitate researchers' searches for offprints by author, title, journal, year, and subject.


Here we present a magnetically recoverable palladium catalyst prepared by immobilization of palladium over silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles. The catalyst reduced by molecular hydrogen contains palladium nanoparticles well distributed and stabilized in the magnetizable support surfaces and converts cyclohexene to cyclohexane under mild reaction conditions (75 °C and 6 atm) with TOF of 11 500 h−1. The catalyst was easily recovered with a permanent magnet in the reactor wall and reused for up to 20 recycles of 2500 TON each without any significant loss in catalytic activity, demonstrating an efficient recycling process for hydrogenation reactions.


Context: This study examined the effect of biological and organic fertilizers on the growth parameters of an herb named Salvia officinalis. Settings and Design: Its characteristics include germination, number of leaves, length, and dry weight of root and shoot. A total of 11 treatments (4 replications) including a vermicompost treatment and a cow manure treatment (both at 25% and 50% levels); four vermicompost treatments of 25% and 50% levels mixed with Azotobacter and Azospirillum and three treatments of Azotobacter, Azospirillum, and control constituted the focal point of the study. Results: The results obtained from the statistical analyses performed at P ≤ 0.05 are as follows: (1) Azospirillum and 50% cow manure treatments had the most and least significant effects on germination and root length, respectively; (2) once combined with Azospirillum, 25% vermicompost treatment affected the length of the root and shoot more significantly compared to the vermicompost and Azospirillum treatments delivered individually; (3) the number of leaves and dry weight of root and shoot were not significantly different across the treatments; and (4) 25% vermicompost and 50% cow manure and Azospirillum treatments exerted the maximum influence upon the number of leaves and the dry weight of shoot and root. Conclusion: Although treatments had different effects, they were not significantly different. The 25% vermicompost treatment had a better effect than its 50% level counterpart.


Antifungal azoles are the most widely used antifungal drugs in clinical and agricultural practice. Fungi can mount adaptive responses to azole stress by modifying the transcript levels of many genes, and the responsive mechanisms to azoles are the basis for fungi to develop azole resistance. ABSTRACT Antifungal azoles are the most widely used antifungal drugs in clinical and agricultural practice. Fungi can mount adaptive responses to azole stress by modifying the transcript levels of many genes, and the responsive mechanisms to azoles are the basis for fungi to develop azole resistance. In this study, we identified a new Zn(II)2Cys6 transcription factor, ADS-1, with a positive regulatory function in transcriptional responses to azole stress in the model filamentous fungal species Neurospora crassa. Under ketoconazole (KTC) stress, the ads-1 transcript level was significantly increased in N. crassa. Deletion of ads-1 increased susceptibility to different azoles, while its overexpression increased resistance to these azoles. The cdr4 gene, which encodes the key azole efflux pump, was positively regulated by ADS-1. Deletion of ads-1 reduced the transcriptional response by cdr4 to KTC stress and increased cellular KTC accumulation under KTC stress, while ads-1 overexpression had the opposite effect. ADS-1 also positively regulated the transcriptional response by erg11, which encodes the azole target lanosterol 14α-demethylase for ergosterol biosynthesis, to KTC stress. After KTC treatment, the ads-1 deletion mutant had less ergosterol but accumulated more lanosterol than the wild type, while ads-1 overexpression had the opposite effect. Homologs of ADS-1 are widely present in filamentous fungal species of Ascomycota but not in yeasts. Deletion of the gene encoding an ADS-1 homolog in Aspergillus flavus also increased susceptibility to KTC and itraconazole (ITZ). Besides, deletion of A. flavus ads-1 (Afads-1) significantly reduced the transcriptional responses by genes encoding homologs of CDR4 and ERG11 in A. flavus to KTC stress, and the deletion mutant accumulated more KTC but less ergosterol. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the function and regulatory mechanism of ADS-1 homologs among different fungal species in azole responses and the basal resistance of azoles are highly conserved.


JPL planetary ephemeris development has been very active assimilating measurements from current planetary missions and supporting future missions. The NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission with launch in 2009 requires knowledge of the Earth and Mars ephemerides with 30m accuracy. By comparison, the accuracy of the Mars ephemeris in the widely used DE405 ephemeris was about 3 km. Meeting the MSL needs requires an ongoing program of range and very-long baseline interferometry measurements of Mars orbiting spacecraft. The JPL ephemeris DE421 was released three months before the landing of the Phoenix mission on Mars, and has met the 300m requirement. Continued measurements are planned to support the MSL landing.


The dc and ac conductive properties of ZnO QDs-SiO2 and ZnO QDs-SiO(x)N(y) nancomposite films prepared by the target-attached sputtering method are investigated. Both two nanocomposite samples reveal a typical characteristic of a metal-oxide varistor (MOV) on the J-E plots with distinct threshold electric fields (E(th)) which are affected by the molecular bonding configurations in the matrix and at the dot/matrix interfaces. The two systems exhibit dissimilar dependences of dc conductivity (sigma(dc)) on the ZnO content, revealing the limitation of conventional percolation models in which the surface interaction term is usually ignored. The ac conduction behaviors of the two nanocomposite systems were also analyzed and their percolation concentrations V(c) (22.75% for ZnO QDs-SiO2 and 20.78% for ZnO QDs-SiO(x)N(y)) are determined by the construction of master curves. Analytical results illustrated that the dielectric matrix type indeed affects the defect configuration and transport behaviors inside ZnO dots. Hence, manipulation of dielectric matrix type can possibly achieve various optical and electrical properties in ZnO QDs-dielectric nanocomposite systems.


The study of the evolution of international cooperation for development in the United Nations (UN) system from 1946 to 2000 reveals that political and ideological contradictions and priorities exerted significant influence on the system's construction, creating barriers to negotiating resolutions and forging decisions and constraining progress in development cooperation.This article reviews the USSR's initiatives and positions on concrete areas of cooperation, drawing on an analysis of the resolutions and records of the meetings of the UN General Assembly (GA) and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It highlights the main trends and cases reflecting the Soviet Union's priorities and its role in the evolution of cooperation for development under UN auspices.Content analysis of meeting records helps to trace the official positions of delegations, problems in advancing cooperation, opportunities for building coalitions, difficulties forging compromises and constraints stemming from the failure to pursue an integrated and comprehensive approach to the resolution of development and international financial/economic problems.The USSR actively contributed to deliberations and decision-making on a wide range of cooperation for development issues, promoting the primacy of the principles of national policy, developing countries' sovereignty over their natural resources and the right of their exploitation, development of countries' economic potential through support for industrialization, technology transfer, agricultural and national cadre development, and the creation of the necessary external conditions for the mobilization of developing countries' own resources.These principles, the pursuit of change in the international balance of economic power and the drive for an expansion of influence defined the Soviet Union's initiatives and its support for developing countries on such issues as global negotiations aimed at the establishment of a new international economic order as proposed by the Group of 77 (G77) - this call was blocked by the Group of 7 (G7) using the Versailles formula to safeguard the independence of the specialized agencies. Inability to allocate substantial amounts of funding significantly weakened the USSR's influence on decisions defining the parameters of development support mechanisms. Telling examples include the failure to promote the establishment of the UN capital development fund or to counter the assertion of the dollar monopoly in the UN cooperation for development system.The solidarity of the USSR and the U.S. with their respective allies frequently led to opposition on issues which did not contradict either of the opponents' interests. A case in point is the struggle around the participation of the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany in the UN conference on human environment in Stockholm.Distrust and tough opposition caused multiple lost opportunities, including a chance to generate additional resources for development through the conversion of resources released by disarmament to peaceful needs.At the end of the 1990s, following the economic crises of the previous decades, a series of external debt crises and assessment of accumulated data on aid effectiveness and donor fatigue, the principles promoted by the USSR in the first decades of cooperation for development were reflected in the Agenda for Development and the Millennium Declaration.


Some 50,000 German women served behind the lines during the First World War, as nurses, war auxiliaries and in the civilian administrations of Belgium and Russian Poland. After the war only nurses had a place in the collective memory while the women who served in the women's war auxiliary service and those who worked within the occupied territories were forgotten. Although women's war auxiliaries were held in disrepute by some contemporaries, an exploration of the service reveals not only the high regard in which the majority of women and their work were held by their employers but also the class and generational prejudices of the upper- and upper-middle-class women running the service and the tensions in their relationships with the German women working within the civilian administrations, who displayed organisational flair and strong collegiality.


Background Mainstreaming of gender, equity, and human rights (GER) is an important focus of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN organizations. This paper explores the role of action plans in mainstreaming GER. This paper is informed by a theory-driven evaluation lens. Design A theory of change framework explored the following seven dimensions of how action plans can implement mainstreaming of GER: awareness of the foundations of GER; understanding of context; planning to impact GER; implementation for GER; monitoring, evaluation, and learning; planning for sustainability; agenda setting and buy-in. The seven dimensions were used to analyze the action plans. Reviewers also explored innovations within each of the action plans for the seven dimensions. Results GER mainstreaming is more prominent in the foundation, background, and planning components of the plan but becomes less so along the theory of change including implementation; monitoring and evaluation; sustainability; and agenda setting and buy-in. Conclusions Our analysis demonstrates that much more can be done to incorporate GER considerations into the action planning process. Nine specific recommendations are identified for WHO and other organizations. A theory-driven approach as described in the paper is potentially helpful for developing clarity by which action plans can help with mainstreaming GER considerations.


ABSTRACT Digital studies on culture may be distinguished from cultural studies of the digital, at least in terms of method. This lecture takes up the question of the distinctiveness of "digital methods" for researching Internet cultures. It asks, initially, should the methods of study change, however slightly or wholesale, given the specificity of the new medium? The larger digital methods project thereby engages with "virtual methods," the current, dominant "e-science" approach to the study of the Internet, and the consequences for research of importing standard methods from the social sciences in particular. What kinds of contributions are made to digital media studies, and the Internet in particular, when traditional methods are imported from the social sciences and the humanities onto the medium? Which research opportunities are foreclosed? Second, I ask, what kinds of new approaches are worthwhile, given an emphasis on the "natively digital" as opposed to digitization? The goal is also to change the focus of humanities and humanities computing away from the opportunities afforded by transforming ink into bits. The effort is to develop the study of natively digital objects (the link, the tag, etc.) and devices (engines and other recommendation machines) that make use of them. After critically reviewing existing approaches to the study of the digital, which largely import method onto the medium, I subsequently propose research strategies that follow the medium. How can one learn from methods in the medium, and repurpose them for social and cultural research? The lecture launches a novel strand of study: digital methods.


Introduction: Nowadays, potential risks have been well known for human health which associated with toxic heavy metals in environment.Cadmium is one of the most important heavy metals that its presence in aquatic environment have created many concerns due to high toxicity at low concentrations and the ability to accumulate in living tissues. several methods have been studied to remove of heavy metals but, using low prices absorbents has been considered by researchers to remove these metals in recent years . in this research, we will study cadmium removal by natural clinoptilolite zeolite. Material s & methods: The experiments were conducted with natural zeolite discontinuous . To determine the characteristics of zeolite, Scanning Electroni Microscop (SEM) and X-ray diffraction Device (XRD) have been used . effect of some parameters have studied on efficency of cadmium elimination and adssorption isotherms, including: PH (2,4,6,8,10), contact time (30, 60, 90, 120, 150 min), adsorbant dosage (0.2,0.5,0.8,1,2 gr) and mtetal ion concentration (10, 50, 100 mg/L). Findings: According to absorption of cadmium process results, The optimum PH was equal 6 with removal efficencies of 83.3% and equiliberium time of 90 minuts with removal efficencies of 93.1%,. As expected, The amount of absorbed cadmium ereduced by increasing the concentration of cadmium. Between both models Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm, Langmuir model have described cadmium adsorption of cadmium on the adsorbent better than Freundlich. Discussion & Conclusion: The results of current study have indicated that natural linoptilolite zeolite can be used as an efficient and I nexpensive absorbent to elemination of cadmium in aquatic environments.


SUMMARY: Sex incompatible (F -) strains of Escherichia coli have a lower acid agglutination point, a stronger affinity for a basic dye and a greater stability in broth cultures as compared with F + strains of corresponding phenotype. These findings indicate a correlation between some surface properties and sex compatibility. These surface properties and the F + state are transmitted infectively from F + to F - strains at the same time. Screening for cultural behaviour of infected strains yields results fully consistent with screening for sex compatibility.


—Calls of the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus; n = 122) were recorded in wild populations from 15 localities in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Computer-generated audiospectrograms of 20or 30-second samples from a calling bout of each individual were analyzed. Eighteen bark types (distinct forms of the bark call) were identified plus a 19th category that included rarely used, longer bark calls. The frequency of use of each bark type within the sample was recorded for each squirrel. Differences in frequency of use of the various bark types were found among subspecies, within subspecies, and within populations; additionally, the southern subspecies utilized a reduced number of bark types. The large number of different bark types and the variation in bark type usage within populations suggest the potential for communication of such information as individual identification, behavioral states, or gender identification.


Soluble /3-galactoside-specific lectins have been detected in many rabbit tissues and are relatively abundant in certain organs. These lectins are apparently identical to the lectin in rabbit bone marrow, which may be involved in inter-erythroblast associations during differentiation, and are very similar in structure and activity to lectins described in a number of species both in adult and embryonic tissues. The rabbit lectin is a monomer with a relative molecular mass of approximately 12000 and has a low specific activity in the haemagglutination of trypsinized rabbit erythrocytes relative to lectins from other species, which are predominantly dimeric. In addition to the major antigen two minor isoforms of the rabbit galaptin were detected in all tissues. Since these lectins are widely distributed, it seems probable that they are involved in cellular functions that are prominent during development and also maintained in certain differentiated tissues. Experimental evidence currently available suggests that these lectins may be involved in the organization of extracellular matrix components.


Analysis of time series data constitutes an important activity in many scientific disciplines. Over the last years there has been an increase in the collection of time series data in all scientific fields and disciplines, such as the industry and engineering. Due to the increasing size of the time series datasets, new automated time series data mining techniques have been devised for comparing time series data and present information in a logical and easily comprehensible structure.In systems biology in particular, time series are used to the study biological systems. The time series representations of a systems? dynamics behaviour are multivariate time series. Time series are considered multivariate when they contain observations for more than one variable component. The biological systems? dynamics time series contain observations for every feature component that is included in the system; they thus are multivariate time series. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the collection of biological time series. It would therefore be beneficial for systems biologist to be able to compare these multivariate time series.Over the last decade, the field of time series analysis has attracted the attention of people from different scientific disciplines. A number of researchers from the data mining community focus their efforts on providing solutions on numerous problems regarding different time series data mining tasks. Different methods have been proposed for instance, for comparing, indexing and clustering, of univariate time series. Furthermore, different methods have been proposed for creating abstract representations of time series data and investigating the benefits of using these representations for data mining tasks.The introduction of more advanced computing resources facilitated the collection of multivariate time series, which has become common practise in various scientific fields. The increasing number of multivariate time series data triggered the demand for methods to compare them. A small number of well-suited methods have been proposed for comparing these multivariate time series data.All the currently available methods for multivariate time series comparison are more than adequate for comparing multivariate time series with the same dimensionality. However, they all suffer the same drawback. Current techniques cannot process multivariate time series with different dimensions. A proposed solution for comparing multivariate time series with arbitrary dimensions requires the creation of weighted averages. However, the accumulation of weights data is not always feasible.In this project, a new method is proposed which enables the comparison of multivariate time series with arbitrary dimensions. The particular method is evaluated on multivariate time series from different disciplines in order to test the methods? applicability on data from different fields of science and industry. Lastly, the newly formed method is applied to perform different time series data mining analyses on a set of biological data.


Like in all Mediterranean countries, Table olive farming has an important tradition and production potential in western Turkey, and thus it is critical to assess the risk sources and risk management strategies that farmers perceive. This study identifies perceptions of risk sources and managements strategies in the region, clarifying their relative importance, as farmers perceive them, using a survey conducted among 121 selected purposefully farmers. Sociodemographics of farmers and households were identified using basic descriptive statistics, such as arithmetic means and percentages. According to factor loadings, financial and marketing risk sources are most prominent among farmers, and human-induced and production technology issues represent the most important risk management strategies. In table olive production, it will be beneficial to develop strategies such as increasing the number of trees, improving agricultural activities, increasing the awareness level of farmers on issues such as climate change and the use of new technologies.


In this paper we explore the functional form of the risk-certainty effect for deterrence. Using a sample of serious youth offenders, we first estimate a simple linear model of the relationship between the perceived certainty of punishment and self-reported offending. Consistent with previous literature we find evidence of a moderate deterrent effect. We then examined whether, consistent with a linear model, the effect of perceived risk is truly constant at different ranges of the risk continuum. Estimating a nonparametric regression model that makes no a priori assumption about the functional form of the model but allows the data itself to yield the appropriate functional form, we found marked departures from linearity. Our examination showed evidence of both a tipping effect, whereby perceived risk deters only when it reaches a certain threshold (between an estimated risk of .3 and .4) and a substantially accelerated deterrent effect for individuals at the high end of the risk continuum. Perceived sanction threats did, however, have a non-trivial deterrent effect within the mid-range of risk. The implications of our findings for both theory and additional research are discussed.


Summary An amperometric benzoic acid-sensing inhibitor biosensor was prepared by immobi- lizing mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) tissue homogenate on a Clark-type oxygen electrode. The effects of the quantity of mushroom tissue homogenate, the quantity of gelatin and the effect of the crosslinking agent glutaraldehyde percent on the biosensor were studied. The optimum concentration of phenol used as substrate was 200 M. The bioanalytical properties of the proposed biosensor, such as dependence of the biosensor response on the pH value and the temperature, were investigated. The biosensor responded linearly to benzoic acid in a concentration range of 25-100 M. Standard deviation (s.d.) was ±0.49 M for 7 successive determinations at a concentration of 75 M. The inhibitor biosensor based on mushroom tissue homogenate was applied for the determination of benzoic acid in fizzy lemonade, some fruits and groundwater samples. Results were compared to those obtained using AOAC method, showing a good agreement.


Intrusion detection systems assume a noteworthy job in the provision of security in wireless Sensor networks. The existing intrusion detection systems focus only on the detection of the known types of attacks. However, it neglects to recognise the new types of attacks, which are introduced by malicious users leading to vulnerability and information loss in the network. In order to address this challenge, a new intrusion detection system, which detects the known and unknown types of attacks using an intelligent decision tree classification algorithm, has been proposed. For this purpose, a novel feature selection algorithm named dynamic recursive feature selection algorithm, which selects an optimal number of features from the data set is proposed. In addition, an intelligent fuzzy temporal decision tree algorithm is also proposed by extending the decision tree algorithm and integrated with convolution neural networks to detect the intruders effectively. The experimental analysis carried out using KDD cup data set and network trace data set demonstrates the effectiveness of this proposed approach. It proved that the false positive rate, energy consumption, and delay are reduced in the proposed work. In addition, the proposed system increases the network performance through increased packet delivery ratio.


This essay's thesis is that donor nation's efforts to reproduce their own production contribute to land concentration and class formation in the West African savanna. This is because public investments by certain donor nations encourage two land-appropriation processes and one land-expropriation process. New classes are emerging as a result of these processes, consisting of those gaining and those losing control over land. [land concentration, class relations, development, Africa]


In this paper, an analytical framework is provided to analyze the energy coverage performance of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) energy harvesting networks with clustered user equipments (UEs). Locations of UEs are modeled as a Poisson Cluster Process (PCP), and UAVs are assumed to be located at a certain height above the center of user clusters. Hence, user-centric UAV deployments are addressed. Two different models are considered for the line-of-sight (LOS) probability function to compare their effects on the network performance. Moreover, antennas with doughnut-shaped radiation patterns are employed at both UAVs and UEs, and the impact of practical 3D antenna radiation patterns on the network performance is also investigated. Initially, the path loss of each tier is statistically described by deriving the complementary cumulative distribution function and probability density function. Following this, association probabilities with each tier are determined, and energy coverage probability of the UAV network is characterized in terms of key system and network parameters for UAV deployments both at a single height level and more generally at multiple heights. Through numerical results, we have shown that cluster size and UAV height play crucial roles on the energy coverage performance. Furthermore, energy coverage probability is significantly affected by the antenna orientation and number of UAVs in the network.


Several decapod groups independently colonized freshwater and terrestrial habitats and became independent from the sea. These invasions were accompanied by analogous reproductive and developmental traits such as large eggs and an abbreviated, lecithotrophic development. Here, we present the first empirical study on the evolution of reproductive and developmental traits that accompany the invasion of land by crabs. As crucial steps in the colonization, we identify the transitions of the larval nursery, first, from the marine plankton into landlocked-brackish nurseries and, second, into fresh water. During these invasions, the early life-cycle stages were facing new ecological conditions and selective agents. We test hypotheses on the evolution of egg size and the mode of development in relation to the larval ecology of recent species and draw conclusions on their evolutionary past. As a model we focus on the genus Sesarma, that colonized Jamaica relatively recently and comprises species with a larval development in marine, brackish and freshwater habitats. In addition, we compare representatives of the crab genera Armases, Sesarma and Uca that invaded brackish-nursery habitats independently. The analysis reveals that in each genus the transition from marine to brackish nurseries resulted in fewer and larger eggs, an abbreviated development and higher endotrophic potential of larvae, and a wider tolerance to physicochemical stress (salinity). Size at metamorphosis, however, did not change in brackish species, suggesting that it is constrained. Within the Sesarma-lineage, egg size increases considerably from marine to freshwater species. The duration of embryonic development, the size and endotrophic potential of larvae are positively correlated, but the duration of the larval phase is negatively correlated with egg size. Hypotheses suggesting that large eggs evolved as a response to limited food or intense predation are inadequate to explain the initial egg-size increase in brackish species. We suggest that the specific abiotic environment of the brackish nurseries ultimately selected for increased egg size. These particular larval nurseries of brackish species of Armases, Sesarma and Uca are nutrient rich but ephemeral habitats with unfavourable physicochemical conditions, which strongly favour a swift larval phase and possibly large body size and higher salinity-stress resistance of larvae. The reason for the further and substantial increase in egg size in freshwater species remains unknown. The 'food-limitation' hypothesis derived from laboratory experiments, however, is inadequate to explain this increase. Our results support general life-history hypotheses ('safe harbour' hypothesis) that predict the evolution of large eggs if postembryonic stages face high risk of mortality, but not the predicted positive relationship between egg size and instantaneous egg stage mortality. On the contrary, we find a negative relationship, suggesting that larger eggs are a 'safer harbour' than smaller eggs. We outline a scenario for the invasion of land by crabs and propose a two-step model: as a first step, an instant shift of the larval development from offshore into landlocked-brackish nurseries, and, as a second step, from there into freshwater nurseries.


Previous scholarship on central bank accountability has generally focused on monetary authorities' deeds and words while largely ignoring the other side of the accountability relationship, namely politicians' voice on monetary policy. This raises a fundamental question: what are central banks held accountable for by elected officials? To answer this question, we employ structural topic models on a new dataset of the Monetary Dialogues between the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) from 1999 to 2019. Our findings are twofold. First, we uncover differences in how MEPs keep the ECB accountable for its primary, price stability objective. We show that European politicians also attempt to keep the central bank accountable for a broader set of issues that are connected with, but distinct from, the central bank's primary goal. Second, we show that unemployment is a key explanatory variable for the political voice articulated by individual MEPs in accountability settings. In particular, higher rates of domestic unemployment lead MEPs to devote less voice on issues related to the ECB's primary mission. These findings reveal the existence of a "political" Phillips curve reaction function, which enriches our understanding of the principal–agent accountability relationship between politicians and central bankers.


Th is article focuses on the emergence of a new pattern of black urban insurgency emerging in major US metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia. I locate this pattern in the context of a new securitization regime that I call "antisocial security." Th is regime works by establishing a decentered system of high-tech forms of surveillance and monitory techniques. I highlight the dialectic between the extension of antisocial security apparatuses and techniques into new political and social domains on the one hand and the adoption of these same techniques by those contesting racialized exclusions from urban public space on the other. I end the article with a discussion of how we might adapt the commons concept to consider the centrality of race and racism to this new securitization regime.


In modern web applications, the web client makes a request which takes very little effort to compose, but when it reaches the server, the application has to process lots of data and compose the response with a lot of effort The Denial of Service attack, in particular the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, has become one of the key intimidations to the Internet. In general, attackers launch DDoS attacks by directing an enormous number of attack sources to send worthless traffic to the victim system. The victim's services are interrupting when its host or network resources are engaged by the attack traffic. The threat of DDoS attacks has become even more brutal as attackers can conciliation a huge number of computers by scattering a computer worm using vulnerabilities in the most popular operating systems. To counteract the same problem we consider the Online Auction Model where auctions run concurrently but independently of each other. Each auction has an auctioneer and a number of bidders that could be located anywhere on the Internet. We develop a novel technique for identifying attack traffic based on the connection history at the victim. We present an algorithm to filter attack traffic in a precise and efficient manner. In this algorithm we have to check the vulnerability of the user. If user is valid in that case algorithm has to check the load compiled by the user IP Address and calculate the complete load that is how much time is required by the user to complete the activities also to send and received the request to and from the system. If that load is in between the max_threshold and min_threshold which are two useful parameters to check the DDos attack then also we need to check the user profile for vulnerability issues. If everything is under the threshold values then algorithm will pass the user as a non attacker and allow user to use the system.


Necessary and suucient oscillation conditions are given for a weakly convergent sequence (resp. relatively weakly compact set) in the Bochner-Lebesgue space L 1 E to be norm convergent (resp. relatively norm compact), thus extending the known results for L 1 R. Similarly, necessary and suucient oscillation conditions are given to pass from weak to limited (and also to Pettis-norm) convergence in L 1 E. It is shown that tightness is a necessary and suucient condition to pass from limited to strong convergence. Other implications between several modes of convergence in L 1 E are also studied.


External value measures are the favorite tools of modern investors and managers to assess current and prospective company's ability to achieve the goal of maximizing shareholder value. They provide a market assessment of intrinsic value of a company, and management's performance and strategy. The aim of this paper is to examine the applicability of some external value measures for assessing the success of management to create shareholder value. The paper points out that managers can only partially affect the market share price, hence the amount of these measures. Therefore, a particular problem is to determine the part of shareholder value, which was created thanks to management of a company.


TO THE EDITOR: I wish to supplement Miwa et al.'s comments on phenothiazines causing hirsutism (DICP 1990;24:365-8). There seems to be a higher prevalence of hirsutism in women with chronic psychiatric illness.' Psychiatric illness and the neuroendocrine axis have complex interactions. 2 The limbic system, 3 hypothalamus, and pituitary gland4 harbor receptors for dopamine and steroids. Therefore, neuropsychiatric illness'·' and/or antipsychotic drugs may cause hormonal imbalance. Antipsychotic drugs raise serum prolactin (PRL) concentrations. PRL is thought to increase the concentration of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and decrease the concentration of serum hormone binding globulin (SHBG), thereby raising the concentration of free testosterone.7 However, antipsychotic drugs also induce obesity. The patients in my study were obese as were the hirsute chronic psychiatric patients reported by others.1•8•9 Obesity is associated with decreased SHBG and a resultant increase in free testosterone, and indeed my patients exhibited both of these features. As outlined by Miwa et al. this could be the mechanism by which phenothiazines induce hirsutism. Interestingly, well before the advent of phenothiazines, Kraepelin remarked that patients with dementia praecox (i.e., schizophrenia) exhibited "abnormal growth ofhair."10 Since then the topic has received only limited attention. The prevalence rate and the pathophysiology of hirsutism in women with chronic psychiatric illness merit further examination, as do other neuroendocrine disturbances in patients with neuropsychiatric disease.


This article extends a novel advanced dynamic calculation method (IDEAS – Inverse Dynamics based Energy Analysis and Simulation) of assessing the controllability of a building and its servicing systems. IDEAS allows confident (i.e. calibrated in SAP) predictions to be made regarding the impact of novel heating and renewable energy systems. IDEAS can be used as a dynamic sizing tool for a heating system in a building and can be used to benchmark control systems performance as it can represent near perfect control. The addition of an air source heat pump model to IDEAS is described. This allows for detailed analysis to be made of air source heat pumps in a SAP-compliant framework, taking into account the dynamic nature of the system efficiency and thermal capacity. Practical applications: ASHPs are still a relatively novel technology in the UK, yet it has been suggested they could play a significant role in efforts to de-carbonise the heating sector. However field trials have found performance varies widely from installation to installation. Whilst some of this variation is due to user behaviour, ASHP systems are also very sensitive to design and commissioning. Fundamental methodologies which can provide detailed analysis of ASHP performance, such as that presented in this article, could contribute to improving system design standards. This would ensure more installations achieve a good level of performance, boosting confidence in the technology.


In this study, interacting crack growth in an infinite plate is analyzed with new, fast and accurate Boundary Cracklet Method (BCM) developed by Phoenix and Yavuz. An interior crack is under consideration to watch its propagation because of cyclic loading which is very common for aerospace, naval and civil engineering structures. BCM is very useful to determine the overall stress field as well as stress intensity factors for crack tips and singular wedges at crack kinks. BCM uses integral equations expressed in terms of unknown edge dislocation distributions along crack lines. These distributions derive from an accurate representation of the crack opening displacements using power series basis terms obtained through wedge eigenvalue analysis, which leads to both polynomial and non-polynomial power series. The process is to choose terms of the series and their exponents such that the tractions on the crack faces are virtually zero compared to the far field loading. Applying the method leads to a set of linear algebraic equations to solve for the unknown weighting coefficients for the power series basis terms to make no use of numerical integrations unlike in other methods. Thats why, solution takes just a few seconds on a PC. A simple crack growth emanating from a triangular hole in an infinite plate is analyzed. The fatigue crack growth is assumed to follow Paris-Erdogan Law. The results are compared to those of other numerical methods. A parametric study is performed via graphs and tables to demonstrate the ability of BCM in analysis of fatigue crack growth.


Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) and nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) have been recognized as key enabling techniques for the envisioned sixth generation (6G) of mobile communication networks. The key feature of RISs is to intelligently reconfigure the wireless propagation environment, which was once considered to be fixed and untunable. The key idea of NOMA is to utilize users' dynamic channel conditions to improve spectral efficiency and user fairness. Naturally, the two communication techniques are complementary to each other and can be integrated to cope with the challenging requirements envisioned for 6G mobile networks. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of the recent progress on the synergistic integration of RISs and NOMA. In particular, the basics of both techniques are introduced first, and then, the fundamentals of RIS-NOMA are discussed for two communication scenarios with different transceiver capabilities. Resource allocation is of paramount importance for the success of RIS-assisted NOMA networks, and various approaches, including artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered designs, are introduced. Security provisioning in RIS-NOMA networks is also discussed as wireless networks are prone to security attacks due to the nature of the shared wireless medium. Finally, the survey is concluded with detailed discussions of the challenges arising in the practical implementation of RIS-NOMA, future research directions, and emerging applications.


Increasing numbers and speeds of vessels in areas with populations of cetaceans may have the cumulative effect of reducing habitat quality by increasing the underwater noise level. Here, we first use digital acoustic tags to demonstrate that free-ranging delphinids in a coastal deep- water habitat are subjected to varying and occasionally intense levels of vessel noise. Vessel noise and sound propagation measurements from a shallow-water habitat are then used to model the potential impact of high sound levels from small vessels on delphinid communication in both shallow and deep habitats, with bottlenose dolphins Tursiops sp. and short-finned pilot whales Globicephala macrorhynchus as model organisms. We find that small vessels travelling at 5 knots in shallow water can reduce the communication range of bottlenose dolphins within 50 m by 26%. Pilot whales in a quieter deep-water habitat could suffer a reduction in their communication range of 58% caused by a vessel at similar range and speed. Increased cavitation noise at higher speeds drastically increases the impact on the communication range. Gear shifts generate high-level transient sounds (peak- peak source levels of up to 200 dB re 1 µPa) that may be audible over many kilometres and may dis- turb close-range animals. We conclude that noise from small vessels can significantly mask acousti- cally mediated communication in delphinids and contribute to the documented negative impacts on animal fitness.


OBJECT
Radiosurgery and radiation therapy represent important but unique treatment paradigms for patients with certain neoplasms, vascular lesions, or functional disorders. The authors discuss their differences.

METHODS
Reviewing the authors' experiences shows how the roles of these approaches vary just as their techniques differ. The distinct differences include the method of target localization (intraoperative compared with pretreatment) and irradiation (focused compared with wide-field), their radiobiology (effects of a single high-dose compared with multiple fractions), the physicians and other health personnel involved in the conduct of these procedures (surgical team compared with radiation team), and the expectations that follow treatment. During the last decade, considerable confusion has grown regarding nomenclature, requisite physician training, and the roles of the physician and surgeon. Ten years ago, two task forces on radiosurgery were created by national organizations in neurosurgery and radiation oncology to address these issues of procedural conduct and quality-assurance requirements. At the present time these guidelines are widely ignored. Currently, many patients, payers, and regulatory agencies are bewildered. What are the differences among stereotactic radiosurgery, fractionated radiation therapy, and stereotactic radiation therapy? Radiosurgery is to radiation therapy as microsurgery is to "microtherapy."

CONCLUSIONS
In this report the authors discuss terminology, training, and physician roles in this expanding field.


The idea for this special issue on ''International Studies on Men, Masculinities
and Gender Equality'' arose somewhat by chance. Several articles arrived on the
editorial desk of the journal around the same time, and as part of my leaving
present after coediting Men & Masculinities for some years I agreed to edit the
special issue.
Although much of the inspiration for critical work on men, masculinities, and
gender equality has come from local, often interpretive, studies that have been seen
as part of ''the ethnographic moment'' (Connell 1998), this is now being challenged.
Yet oddly, from such contingent studies, broad generalizations on men and masculinities
have often been made, often with relatively small-scale data on specifically
aged, classed, and ethnicized, even if often ''unmarked,'' men and masculinities
from the global North. Sometimes those generalizations have been made from studies
of ''marked'' men, such as specific groups of young men or racialized men,
within the broader gender category of ''unmarked'' men.


Purpose: We evaluated the results of second transurethral resections of the bladder (TURB) after pTa high-grade bladder cancer over a 4.5-year period. Patients and Methods: From July 2007 to December 2011, 2,159 TURBs were performed at our institution, of which 1,143 were initial resections for primary bladder tumor or recurrence. Of these, 142 revealed pTa high-grade bladder cancer, and here we investigated tumor characteristics of initial TURB and results of second resection. Results: The incidence of pTa high-grade tumor was 12.4% (n = 142). Of 87 patients who underwent a second resection, tumor was found in 36 (41.4%); tumors were multifocal in 25 (69.4%) and <3 cm in 29 (80.6%). Tumor was detected at the primary site in 38.9%, at other locations in 22.2%, and at both in 38.9%. Histology revealed pTa low-grade in 13 (14.9% of 87), pTa high-grade in 15 (17.2%), and pT1 in 5 (5.7%) patients. No muscle-invasive tumor was detected. A significant association was found for the number of tumors at initial TURB: in patients with tumor at second resection, 55.1% had had multiple tumors at first resection, more than twice those with solitary tumor (23.7%) (0.004). Conclusions: In our study, Ta high-grade tumors show a relevant rate of persistent tumor at second resection, most of them located at the primary tumor site. As recommended by the American and European clinical guidelines, patients with Ta high-grade tumor should undergo second resection.


Use this guide for assistance with all aspects of the research process - from exploring and identifying a topic, recommendations for search strategies, how to evaluate sources, and information on academic integrity.