Background: There are great geographical differences in the incidence of type I diabetes mellitus. Aim: To determine the incidence rate of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2004 and to observe the distribution of cases in the different counties of Santiago. Material and methods: All the cases diagnosed with DM1 in the Metropolitan Region who fulfilled the following requirements were included in the study: age of onset <15 years, insulin treatment from onset, permanent residency in the area, and a diagnosis made between January, 2000 and December, 2004. Results: The incidence of DM1 was 6.58/ 100.000 inhabitants/year, and showed a significant increase from 2001 to 2004 (5.44 and 8.33 inhabitants/year, respectively, p <0.04). The incidence of DM1 also increased significantly in children younger than 4 years old. The incidence by counties exhibited large differences, ranging from 1,5 to 26,6/100.000 inhabitants. Counties with higher income, urbanization and low aborigine component showed a high incidence rate of type 1 diabetes. Conclusions: In the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, an increase of the incidence of DM1 has occurred in the period 2000-2004, especially in children younger than 4 years old. Large differences among counties were observed (Rev Méd Chile 2006; 134: 1258-64). (


In an increasingly competitive conditions, companies are required to develop strategies to create competitive advantage. Miles and Snow devide firm's strategy into four types, which are prospector, defender, analyzer and reaction, with prospector and defender as the two extremes strategies.The determination of the company's strategy both prospector and defender will have an impact on corporate performance, especially the company's financial performance. The objectives of this research are to empirically examine the differences in financial performance between prospector and defender firms. Financial performance are measured by sales growth, income growth, dividend payout ratio, and return on investment. The definite selection between prospector and defender firms using 3 (three) control variables are employee growth to total net sales ratio (EMPSAL), price to book value ratio (PBV), and capital expenditure to total asset (CAPTA). Population of this research are the manufacturing firms listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2010 to 2012 which number of population that used were 136 firms. The samples are collected using purposive sampling method. Selection of sample types prospector and defender analyzed using cluster analysis of the three variables that exist. Financial performance data in this study were analyzed using Mann-Whitney test with the help of software SPPS 17.0. The result of this research show that 38 firms become the samples, 21 firms are categorized as prospectors and 17 firm are categorized as defenders. Average sales and income growth of prospector firms are higher than defender firms, the result is significant. Dividend payout ratio and Return On Investment of prospector firms are smaller than defender firms, the result is significant. Keywords: Prospector and Defender, Sales Growth, Income Growth, Dividend Payout, Return On Investment


Bioasay-guided fractionation of the antiemetic constituents of Alpinia officinarum was performed, and eight compounds (1-8) including a new compound were isolated. Among the seven known compounds, two flavonoids (1, 2), four diarylheptanoids (3, 5, 6, 8), and one sterol (4) were obtained, with five (2-6) of those compounds showing antiemetic activity in a copper sulfate induced emesis assay in young chicks. The structure of the new compound 7, which also showed antiemetic activity, was determined as 5-hydroxy-7-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3-heptanone. The structure of 7 was established on the basis of spectroscopic data interpretation.


Reaction of N-phenyl-pivalohydroxamic acid with Ce(III) precursors leads to a homoleptic hydroxamate complex: Ce(IV)[(t)BuC(O)N(O)Ph]4. Electrochemical experiments indicate a significant stabilization of the Ce(IV) cation at Ep,c = -1.20 V versus SCE in the hydroxamate ligand framework. The spontaneous oxidation of Ce(III) in a hydroxamate ligand field is discussed in the context of beneficiation of the light rare earths from the fluorocarbonate mineral bastnäsite.


Background Certain salivary proteins of phlebotomine sand flies injected into the host skin during blood-feeding are highly antigenic and elicit strong antibody-mediated immune responses in repeatedly-exposed hosts. These antibodies can be measured by enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assays (ELISAs) using salivary gland homogenates (SGHs) as the source of antigens and serve as a markers for exposure to biting sand flies. Large-scale screening for anti-sand fly saliva antibodies requires replacement of SGH with recombinant salivary proteins. In East Africa, Phlebotomus orientalis is the main vector of Leishmania donovani, a trypanosomatid parasite causing visceral leishmaniasis. We tested recombinant salivary proteins derived from Ph. orientalis saliva to study exposure of domestic animals to this sand fly species. Methodology/Principal Findings Antigenic salivary proteins from Ph. orientalis were identified by immunoblot and mass spectrometry. Recombinant apyrase rPorSP15, yellow-related protein rPorSP24, ParSP25-like protein rPorSP65, D7-related protein rPorSP67, and antigen 5-related protein rPorSP76 were tested using ELISA with sera of domestic animals from L. donovani foci in Ethiopia where Ph. orientalis is present. Our results highlighted recombinant yellow-related protein rPorSP24 as the most promising antigen, displaying a high positive correlation coefficient as well as good sensitivity and specificity when compared to SGH. This recombinant protein was the most suitable one for testing sera of dogs, sheep, and goats. In addition, a different antigen, rPorSP65 was found efficacious for testing canine sera. Conclusions/Significance Recombinant salivary proteins of Ph. orientalis, specifically rPorSP24, were shown to successfully substitute SGH in serological experiments to measure exposure of domestic animals to Ph. orientalis, the vector of L. donovani. The results suggest that rPorSP24 might be a suitable antigen for detecting anti-Ph. orientalis antibody-mediated reactions also in other host species.


Improvement of performance has become ever more critical to construction project success and has been subject to a considerable amount of research and attention over the past two decades. In this regard, the Saudi Ministry of Interior (SMoI) has adopted a new approach - Standard Design Model (SDM) - for the development of its construction programme to successfully manage its complex project portfolio and improve project performance. The SMoI-SDM approach is based on the standardisation of design, material specifications, contract documents and processes. It is anticipated that many lessons will be learnt due to the re-use of SDMs for future projects as well as sharing learning between on-going projects, thus leading to continuous project performance improvement. The aim of this research is to develop a framework for improving the performance of SDMs in SMoI projects. A qualitative case study approach was adopted to provide an in-depth insight into the current performance of SDM projects and identify critical success factors (CSFs) affecting the process of improvement of SDMs project performance. Four case studies were selected involving two on-going and two completed projects. Three key themes were identified from the case studies analysis; these are: adaptability of SDMs to context; contract management; and construction management. Consequently, a framework was developed to improve SDM projects performance as well as the expected performance improvement curve that results from the cumulative learning and experience. The framework validation was conducted through a workshop involving the same stakeholders who participated in the case studies, in which the feedback on possible improvements to the framework was obtained. The framework demonstrated its practicality, clarity and appropriateness for use across the SDM projects.Significantly, this research has the potential to direct standardisation of design and process in construction projects in particular in the public sector and could help achieve a sustained project performance improvement in the Saudi construction industry.


For the holonomic nonconservative system, by using the Noether symmetry, a non-Noether conserved quantity is obtained directly under general infinitesimal transformations of groups in which time is variable. At first,the Noether symmetry, Lie symmetry, and Noether conserved quantity are given. Secondly, the condition under which the Noether symmetry is a Lie symmetry under general infinitesimal transformations is obtained. Finally, a set of nonNoether conserved quantities of the system are given by the Noether symmetry, and an example is given to illustrate the application of the results.


: Regulations, reimbursement battles, collaboration efforts, financial difficulties and the reform process all helped make 1991 a watershed year for health care issues--and an eventful one for executives. News media attention to health care policy, financing and delivery issues was intense: television, radio and print coverage focused on overcrowded emergency departments, uninsured pregnant women with no access to obstetrical care, employers demanding cost-efficient care and the pluses and minuses of foreign health care systems. The close of 1991 left hospital executives dealing with the effects of issues like the Medicare capital payment fold-in, physician payment reform, hospitals' geographic reclassification and the push for national health care reform. Below are brief summaries of some of the year's top issues.


Can corporate moral degeneration be countered through higher education? In the wake of reported unethical conduct of corporations and multinationals worldwide this article explores the challenges facing ethics education in the world of accountants and business leaders. A short overview is provided with regard to the development of and relationship between ethics and corporate governance in South Africa. Legislation, codes of ethics and regulatory frameworks do, however, not seem to provide sufficient guarantees that corporations will abide by them. Cognisance of the latest legislation is already a part of the curriculum of all Master of Business Administration (MBA), ?? (CTA) graduates and business degrees. Yet, it does not seem to stop corporate moral degeneration. The role higher education can play to prepare business and corporate leaders for ethical, responsible and sustainable business practices are investigated. Any educational strategy not taking into account the paradoxes and complexities which accountants and business leaders face will be in vain. Teaching accountability and ethical conduct, therefore, needs to be critical of the meta narratives in society in their shaping of the value systems of individuals and corporations.


Inter-organizational collaboration (IOC) supported by information and communication technologies (ICTs) faces challenges on many fronts in 21st century England as well as globally. Between the somewhat desirable ideal of 'joined up' systems providing efficient services to customers and clients on one side of the continuum, and the costs and risk factors associated with integrating data or constructing large databases on the other side, a fundamental tension exists.

This paper addresses this issue in two parts. Firstly, it argues that there is a way forward for information sharing among heterogeneous organizations which does not involve the integration of systems, interoperability, joined up recordkeeping, database linkage, or construction of yet another large database. Transactions in Real Time© (TRT©), the transaction by transaction information sharing approach, satisfies all the requirements of each collaborating organization for information sharing.

Secondly, this paper briefly considers the future of IOC among health and social care and possible pathways forward through this uncertain area. The health and social care information sharing transaction is often unique among the particular transaction situation, and the micro and macro environments.


Plant chloroplast genes are usually co-transcribed while its posttranscriptional splicing is fairly complex and remains largely unsolved. On basis of sequencing the three complete Camellia (Theaceae) chloroplast genomes for the first time, we comprehensively analyzed the evolutionary patterns of ycf15, a plastid gene quite paradoxical in terms of its function and evolution, along the inferred angiosperm phylogeny. Although many species in separate lineages including the three species reported here contained an intact ycf15 gene in their chloroplast genomes, the phylogenetic mixture of both intact and obviously disabled ycf15 genes imply that they are all non-functional. Both intracellular gene transfer (IGT) and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) failed to explain such distributional anomalies. While, transcriptome analyses revealed that ycf15 was transcribed as precursor polycistronic transcript which contained ycf2, ycf15 and antisense trnL-CAA. The transcriptome assembly was surprisingly found to cover near the complete Camellia chloroplast genome. Many non-coding regions including pseudogenes were mapped by multiple transcripts, indicating the generality of pseudogene transcriptions. Our results suggest that plastid DNA posttranscriptional splicing may involve complex cleavage of non-functional genes.


Release of arachidonic acid (AA) from 1-stearoyl-2-[14C]arachidonyl-glycerophosphoinositol (PI) by plasma membrane-bound enzyme(s) is a calcium-dependent reaction and is markedly activated at 4 x 10(-4) M CaCl2. In the presence of Ca2+, the agonist of the cholinergic receptor (carbachol) enhances, in a dose-related manner, AA release. Moreover, GTP and its non-hydrolysable analogs GTP gamma S and GppNHp and also NaF additionally increase the carbachol-mediated liberation of AA from PI. On the contrary, in the absence of Ca2+ carbachol and GTP gamma S have no stimulatory effect on AA release. Guanosine-5'-O-2-thiodiphosphate GDP gamma S, which inhibits the function of GTP-binding proteins, also suppresses carbachol-mediated activation of AA release from PI. The stimulatory effect of carbachol and guanine nucleotides was observed exclusively in the brain plasma membrane (there was no effect on mitochondria, microsome and cytosolic enzymes). Quinacrine, the inhibitor of phospholipase A2, completely inhibits carbachol- and guanine nucleotide-activated AA release and greatly (by about 60-70%) decreases Ca(2+)-dependent AA liberation from phosphatidylinositol. These results indicate that GTP-binding protein(s) are involved in the regulation of carbachol-mediated AA release. The main pool of this acid is liberated from phosphatidylinositol by phospholipase A2 and only a small pool of AA may be released indirectly as the result of PI hydrolysis by sequential action of phospholipase C and diacylglycerol lipase.


The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how libraries, as organisations, may adapt to the introduction of automation, specifically the use of computing technology. The study focusses on the effects on the organisation of work. The thesis commences with an overview of libraries, their organisation, structure and environment, placing the development of automation in context. The nature of work in libraries is described and a categorisation of selected tasks drawn up, divided into four functional areas: acquisition, organisation, exploitation and administration. The question of whether librarianship is a profession is addressed. The relationship between the 'professional' and 'non-professional' is raised. Reviews of published research into the job preferences of library workers and the characteristics of library work are undertaken. The development of automation in libraries is described, followed by a review of library experiences of automation, with specific reference to the impact on organisational structure and the nature of work. Theories of job design are described and their use within libraries examined. The potential application of contemporary approaches to job redesigns is investigated. Field research undertaken involved administering a questionnaire to a group of library workers whose libraries were members, at that time, of the Scottish Libraries Cooperative Automation Project (SCOLCAP). Questions covered job preferences and characteristics, and attitudes to automation. The various facets of the topic are brought together in a final discussion. The future of libraries and librarians is explored. Some recommendations for further research are made. The major conclusions are that automation is a catalyst for change in libraries rather than an instigator of change; that there are strategic choices involved in the change process, including choices in the capabilities of the technology used, why it is used and how work is organised around it. A model outlining the consequences of automation in libraries is presented.


Climate change is subjecting many ecosystems to novel environmental conditions, including unprecedented extremes of drought that may push communities beyond critical ecological thresholds. Stream ecosystems may be particularly prone to catastrophic responses, due to a dependence on flowing water and continued exposure to other major threats to their ecological integrity. However, a lack of gradient-based approaches that explore beyond the limits of current disturbance regimes constrains our ability to predict the impacts of future droughts. This study used artificial channels (mesocosms) as perennial headwater stream analogues to simulate a broad gradient of drought intensity, ranging from flowing controls through fragmented pools to dewatered streambeds. Drought intensification pushed macroinvertebrate communities over structural and functional thresholds, and eroded complex food webs from the top down and the bottom up. Moreover, important exceptions to some established 'rules' in disturbance ecology emerged, with population collapses not biased to larger body sizes or higher trophic levels, and community responses not buffered by high functional redundancy. Benthic algae, macroinvertebrates and fish were all sensitive to relatively low intensity drought, suggesting that pool fragmentation, and not streambed drying, may be the most crucial stage of habitat loss for many running water ecosystems.


Research on learning has proposed various models for learning. However, generally, there has been an inadequate research of the application of these models for learning for example the Kolbâ??s experiential learning cycle or the Jarvisâ??s model of reflection and learning to the development of e-learning materials. This is more so especially due to lack of effective yet practical design model for designing interactive e-learning materials. Having this in mind, the TSOI Hybrid Learning Model can be used as a pedagogic model for the cognitive design of e-learning. This Model represents learning as a cyclical cognitive process. A major feature is to promote active cognitive processing in the learner for meaningful learning proceeding from inductive to deductive. Design specificity in science and chemistry education is illustrated in terms of instructional storyboarding and the research-based e-learning product developed. Learnersâ?? cognitive abilities will be addressed as part of the research data collected.


We describe a method for assessing the visualization literacy (VL) of a user. Assessing how well people understand visualizations has great value for research (e. g., to avoid confounds), for design (e. g., to best determine the capabilities of an audience), for teaching (e. g., to assess the level of new students), and for recruiting (e. g., to assess the level of interviewees). This paper proposes a method for assessing VL based on Item Response Theory. It describes the design and evaluation of two VL tests for line graphs, and presents the extension of the method to bar charts and scatterplots. Finally, it discusses the reimplementation of these tests for fast, effective, and scalable web-based use.


Service literature indicates that both service failure and service recovery have a strong impact on the business relationships between service providers and their customers. The purpose of this research is twofold: to explore and analyze the most common service failures and implemented recovery strategies in Turkish third party logistics service industry and examine their impact on business relationships. Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was used. Thus, information on critical incidents were collected from both third party logistics service providers (3PLs) and their customers, failures and recovery strategies were categorized and the impact of service failures and recovery strategies on future relationships between customers and 3PLs examined. The findings indicate that service failures are most frequently encountered in customer services and port operations and that symbolic service recovery is the most common recovery strategy implemented by third party logistics service providers. The findings also show that third party logistics service providers and carriers are the most common sources of failure in third party logistics services.


The displacement reaction (in situ reaction) is an effective process to solve the interfacial problem between Al matrix and ceramic particles in Al alloy matrix composites. In this study, an Al alloy matrix composite powder containing nanometer was produced by using high energy ball milling, and a bulk Al alloy matrix composite reinforced with nanometer and submicrometer sized Al2O3 particles was obtained by sintering the ball milled composite powder at 950 °C for 2h. It was found that the Al2O3 particles were homogeneously distributed in the Al matrix after sintering. Some of the Si particles have lots of fine Al2O3 particles distributed homogeneously in the Al matrix. The hardness of the sintered specimen produced using as-milled composite powder is higher than that of the sintered specimen produced using as-mixed powder.


DC is proposed for use in data centers as an alternative to AC distribution primarily based on publicized claims of efficiency improvements and energy savings. This paper shows that the most widely cited values for quantitative improvements are wrong and grossly overstate the efficiency differences between AC and DC, and that the latest AC and DC systems provide effectively the same efficiency. This paper compares the results of four different publicized studies and explains the assumptions and mistakes that have led to erroneous but widely circulated beliefs about the efficiency benefits of DC power distribution. Executive summary >


In this dissertation I analyze internal transitions in nuclei and their potential effects on s-process branching and on accelerated β-decay in cosmochemical samples. To accomplish my analysis, I have constructed a number of computational tools, which I have publicly released or make available through this thesis. I apply my analysis to the question of s-process branching at 186Re and study the implications for the osmium isotopes in mainstream presolar SiC grains. My essential conclusion is that the problem of the large neutron flux inferred from the SiC osmium isotopic abundances cannot be solved by branching through an out-of-equilibrium isomer of 186Re. I also consider the possibility of accelerated β-decay by 176Lu. Measurements of 176Hf excesses in bulk meteorite samples lead to a 4% over-estimate of the age of the solar system when compared to Pb-Pb dating. I confirm that excitation of 176Lu in rocky matter may lead to accelerated β-decay due to the existence of a short-lived metastable state at 123 keV. I conclude that enhanced β-decay of 176Lu is a possible and plausible explanation for the age discrepancy observed between various dating methods. Finally I provide a short list of possible s-process branchings which may benefit from similar treatments to that of 186Re, and in the appendices I present some related projects that I have also carried out.


Background and Aims: We examined the efficacy of the combined use of L-menthol spraying (L-mentholS) as an antispasmodic agent and carbon dioxide insufflation (CO2I) on the adenoma detection rate (ADR) in a prospective, single-center trial with a 2 × 2 factorial design. Methods: We randomly assigned 611 patients scheduled to undergo colonoscopy to 4 groups: (1) the L-mentholS + CO2I (n = 153), (2) L-mentholS + air insufflation (AI; n = 156), (3) CO2I (n = 153), and (4) AI (n = 149) groups. We used 20 mL of 0.8%-L-menthol solution for the L-mentholS. The primary outcome was the difference in the ADR, and the secondary outcomes were the differences in colonic peristalsis and abdominal pain. Results: The ADRs were not different among the groups: 1/2/3/4; 39.9%/43.6%/41.2%/51.0%. CO2I was associated with a significant decrease in the ADR (OR 0.57; 95% CI 0.35– 0.93) with a multiple logistic regression. The interaction between L-mentholS and CO2I was associated with a suppression of the decrease in the ADR. Both L-mentholS and CO2I were associated with a significant decrease in abdominal pain, and L-mentholS was associated with a significant improvement of peristalsis. Conclusions: The fact that CO2I was associated with significant decreases in the ADR was a problem. The combined use of L-mentholS and CO2I could help to suppress the decrease in the ADR.


Three different scales which have been used to measure perceived prominence are evaluated in a perceptual experiment. Average scores of raters using a multi-level (31-point) scale, a simple binary (2-point) scale and an intermediate 4-point scale are almost identical. The potentially finer gradation possible with the multilevel scale(s) is compensated for by having multiple listeners, which is a also a requirement for obtaining reliable data. In other words, a high number of levels is neither a sufficient nor a necessary requirement. Overall the best results were obtained using the 4-point scale, and there seems to be little justification for using a 31-point scale.


BACKGROUND
There have been few published reports of successful surgical treatment of focal status epilepticus. Surgical intervention is considered a last resort after medical strategies have been exhausted.

OBJECTIVE
To report a case of an adult who was initially seen with de novo, medically refractory, cryptogenic focal status epilepticus and underwent resection of an electrographically defined portion of the left middle frontal gyrus with multiple subpial transections of the adjacent cortex resulting in termination of the electroclinical seizure activity.

DESIGN
Report of a case of successful surgical treatment of cryptogenic focal status epilepticus.

INTERVENTION
After an initial 35 days of oral antiepileptic drug therapy and subsequent 16 days of continuous electroencephalography-guided intravenous antiepileptic drug therapy in an intensive care unit setting, and after extensive preoperative and intraoperative characterization of the epileptogenic zone, a tailored resection of the left middle frontal gyrus with multiple subpial transections of the surrounding cortex was performed.

RESULTS
The restricted surgical resection and multiple subpial transections terminated the seizure activity. Neuropathological examination of the resected tissue revealed moderate inflammatory changes and a few abnormally located neurons without any definitive evidence of dysplasia, which was suspected preoperatively.

CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that focal cortical resection may be an appropriate intervention in medically refractory focal status epilepticus even when an overt structural etiology is not evident preoperatively and should be considered as an option at the onset of intractability.


In the textile industry, recently, it is urgent to develop the recycling system of the polyester fiber waste which results from the manufacturing process of sythetic fabric. However, most of the fiber wastes are destroyed by fire or buried underground. In this paper, the insulating composites which consist of polyester fiber wastes and PLA films are molded by compression molding method. In the process of preforming, the polyester fiber wastes are arrayed in uni-direction, and PLA films are inserted among layers of the polyester fiber wastes as binder. Namely, the polyester fiber wastes layers and PLA films are laminated alternately. In this paper, pitch (distance among the fiber wastes) and number of layers of polyester fiber wastes are varied, and the effect of pitch and number of layers of polyester fiber wastes on mechanical property and thermal insulating propertiy of the composites are discussed. As the result, it is concluded here that the melted state and the thickness of layers of PLA affect largely on the thermal conductivity and the bending strength of the boards.


This article provides an overview of Wisconsin's Mandated Medicaid Managed Care Initiative--the physician network--Wisconsin Independent Physicians Group (WIPG) that provides and manages the medical services for many of these Medicaid recipients and the public and private sector partnership that has helped to make this program successful. Special programs, such as the Prenatal Support Program, implemented by WIPG are described along with detail regarding the successful outcomes resulting from the programs. The article also includes the quality of care, improved outcomes and financial success of the Initiative when compared to the state's Medicaid fee-for-service program counterpart. Additional discussion includes capitation versus fee-for-services payments, mandated versus voluntary enrollment, and combining social services with medical services to improve health outcomes.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Epidural anesthesia is used to improve pain control after major surgery and has been associated with improved survival in some non-urologic cancers. Perioperative epidural use may reduce recurrence of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. However, few data describe the impact of epidural use for bladder cancer patients treated with radical cystectomy. Here, we evaluate epidural use on perioperative and long-term outcomes for patients treated with radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. METHODS: Patients who received radical cystectomy for non-metastatic bladder urothelial carcinoma with epidural (n=1,748) and without epidural (n=6,109) anesthesia from 2002-2014 were identified using Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare data. Radical cystectomy outcomes with and without epidural anesthesia were compared using propensity score weighting. RESULTS: Epidural use at time of radical cystectomy was identified in 1,748 (22.2%) of 7,857 patients who met inclusion criteria. After propensity score weighted adjustment, epidural use was associated with increased 30-day readmission (29.6% vs. 26.2%, p<0.001), increased median length of stay in days (9.0, IQR 7.0-12.0 vs 8.0, IQR 6.0-12.0, p<0.01), and decreased likelihood of being discharged directly to home without need for home health or skilled nursing care (21.6% vs 29.1%, p<0.001). Post operative MI (2.6% vs 1.3%, p<0.001) and stroke (4.7% vs 3.9%, p=0.028 in the first 30 days after radical cystectomy was more common in the epidural group, but perioperative 30-day mortality was similar (3.3% vs 2.9%, p=0.205). Epidural use was not associated with increased cancer specific (HR 0.96, 0.90-1.02, p=0.20) or overall survival (HR 0.99, 0.95-1.04, p=0.73). CONCLUSIONS: Epidural use at time of radical cystectomy is associated with increased risk of perioperative complications, hospital readmission, and longer hospitalization without improving disease specific survival. Table. No title available. Source of Funding: None


Effective particle processing by oysters, in their typically turbid habitats, requires an efficient mechanism of pseudofeces rejection, accomplished by the characteristic oyster mantle rejection tracts. The ontogenetic development of these tracts was studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for late larval, postlarval, and juvenile Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg 1793), using hatchery-reared specimens. Pediveliger larvae had a marginal mantle rejection tract, which becomes the inner fold of the 3 mantle folds in postlarval and adult oysters. An ephemeral, secondary marginal ciliary tract was observed in 1.30 mm early postlarvae; this was absent in later postlarval stages. Specimens 2.70 mm in size had a 'tractless' mantle surface, constituting a potentially critical stage with respect to pseudofeces rejection and hence particle processing. The organization of the much more complex adult system, consisting of multiple radial tracts and a marginal collecting tract comprised of 2 contiguous sub-tracts, was not complete until specimens were 10 to 24 mm. The complete re-organization of the mantle rejection system suggests that this is a phylogenetically new character in the Ostreidae. Furthermore, it points to an additional potentially critical event in the acquisition of particle processing capability, especially when considered in the light of previous data on gill development in this species, notably for individuals recruiting in natural habitats.


Abstract The National Blood Service of Latvia is a set of regional medical institutions and their structural units in Latvia that produce blood components and supply them to medical institutions. The paper characterises the procedures and ways of financing the institutions preparing blood and blood components – the State Blood Donors Centre and the Blood Establishments – that are included in the National Blood Service of Latvia and analyses their cash flow and changes in it during the period 2005-2010. Hierarchically, the State Blood Donor Centre and the Blood Establishments, in which the holder of share of capital stock is the Latvian Ministry of Health, are at the same level of subordination to the Ministry. Yet the procedures of financing the institutions included in the Service are different and the State Blood Donor Centre Statute stipulates that the State Blood Donor Centre methodically manages, organises, and coordinates the production of blood components and supplies them to medical institutions on request, except the medical institutions having their own blood establishment. The monographic and descriptive methods are used to study elements of problems and to synthesize interrelationships or formulate correlations. The inductive method was applied to make general conclusions from several facts or to determine correlations. The deductive method, in its turn, was used to logically systematise and theoretically explain empirical research results. The methods of analysis of balance sheet and financial indicators were applied to assess funding allocated to the organisations that are studied and its use efficiency. It was examined by a disperse analysis whether the funding allocated to preparing blood and blood components differs in various regions of Latvia. In the final part of the research, the authors draw several conclusions on the procedures of financing the regional system of the National Blood Service of Latvia which was affected by both the overall economic situation in Latvia and the structural optimisation of the Service in 2006. The optimisation was based on the "Conception for Optimising the Structure and Operational Principles of the National Blood Service of Latvia in 2006-2010" developed for the State Blood Donor Centre. The change in the system of financing has especially affected the cost of producing blood and its components, as since 2010 the State Blood Donors Centre differentiates funding for the Blood Establishments according to the quantity of blood produced. At the same time, the agreements made between the State Blood Donors Centre and the BEs stipulate particular quantities of blood to be produced. It means that the output of blood at the Blood Establishments is limited; otherwise the medical institution, to which a particular Blood Establishment is subordinated, has to pay for the excess quantity of blood. Given the fact that a single system of distributing blood and its components exists in Latvia, such a model of financing is inefficient, as it does not allow production of blood in towns where more blood donors are available. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.5.1078


People's daily activities in the urban environment are complex and vary by individual. Existing studies using mobile phone data revealed distinct and recurrent transitional activity patterns, known as mobility motifs, in people's daily lives. The limitation in using only a few inferred activity types hinders our ability to examine general patterns in detail. We proposed a mobility network approach with geographic context-aware Twitter data to investigate granular daily activity patterns in the urban environment. We first used publicly accessible geolocated tweets to track the movements of individuals in two major U.S. cities, Chicago and Greater Boston, where each recorded location is associated with its closest land use parcel to enrich its geographic context. A direct mobility network represents the daily location history of the selected active users, where the nodes are physical places with semantically labeled activity types and the edges represent the transitions. Analyzing the isomorphic structure of the mobility networks uncovered sixteen types of location-based motifs, which describe over 83 percent of the networks in both cities and are comparable to those from previous studies. With detailed and semantically labeled transitions between every two activities, we further dissected the general location-based motifs into activity-based motifs, where sixteen common activity-based motifs describe more than 57 percent of transitional behaviors in the daily activities in the two cities. The integration of geographic context from the synthesis of geolocated Twitter data with land use parcels enables us to reveal unique activity motifs that form the fundamental elements embedded in complex urban activities.


Modeling is now an essential ingredient in business process management and information systems development. The general usefulness of models in these areas is therefore generally accepted. It is also undisputed that the quality of the models has a significant impact on their usefulness. In the literature we can find any number of quality metrics, but hardly any study that investigates their relation with (perceived) usefulness and none that considers their relative impact on usefulness. We take a look at some of the most frequent quality dimensions and their relative impact on the perceived usefulness of models.


Background: Among Haemophilus influenzae species, H. influenzae type b commonly causes pneumonia and meningitis in infants, whereas nontypeable H. influenzae commonly causes community-acquired pneumonia in adults.
Methods: We investigated the role of H. influenzae type b as a causative agent of pneumonia among adults; hundred blood and serum samples were collected from adult patients with respiratory tract infection and radiologically confirmed pneumonia but with negative results for routinely suspected organisms causing pneumonia. Complete etiological detection was achieved using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for both anti-H. influenzae type b immunoglobulin M and G antibodies and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction.
Results: Seropositivity to anti-H. influenzae type b immunoglobulin G antibodies was observed in 26% pneumonic adult patients, 53.8% of whom also had anti-H. influenzae type b immunoglobulin M antibodies. Confirmatory polymerase chain reaction revealed that all 26 seropositive patients were positive, whereas only 2 of the patients seronegative for both immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G antibodies were positive to H. influenzae type b.
Conclusion: These findings indicated that H. influenzae type b is recently being considered as an important etiological agent of community-acquired idiopathic pneumonia in adults in Iraq; this change in the target population represents a demographic change in H. influenzae type b pathogenicity. Therefore, elderly patients must be included in the immunization schedule and therapeutic prophylaxis against H. influenzae type b infection.


The construction industry believes that Building In
formation Modelling (BIM) is a platform that has th
e potential to promote
collaborative activities in the construction indust
ry. Thus, clients are gradually enforcing the use o
f BIM in their projects, resulting in
many construction companies investing in BIM techno
logy in order to fulfill clients' needs. Therefore,
the goal of this study is to
explore the process and the level of BIM implementa
tion in the Malaysian construction industry. This s
tudy was conducted as an
exploratory study through literature review and int
erviewing the organisations that have had BIM exper
ience. The result reveals that
Malaysian construction industry players are having
difficulties to implement BIM because they do not k
now where, when and how to
start as there is no national BIM standard and guid
eline for them to follow. Lack of government involv
ement worsens the current
situation besides having the resistance to change f
rom people. To reduce the resistance from people, m
ost of the companies came out
with their own strategy such as developing new BIM
unit, developing training and education program, ch
anging management style
and developing new roles and responsibilities. Thes
e activities could facilitate people and the organi
sations in adopting BIM because
BIM is not only a technology but it is also involve
d in changing the current practices and processes i
ncluding changing managerial
function and hierarchy, including roles and respons
ibilities. Small to medium scale pilot projects can
be described as the best practice
to adopt BIM in reducing the risk when migrating fr
om the traditional approach to a new approach. This
study also identified that
BIM Level in the Malaysian construction industry is
between Level 0 and 1.


The analysis of 3-D scenes consisting of nonrigid moving objects using 2-D image sequences is discussed. A parametric description of dynamic objects is extracted, and the time-variant scene parameters are estimated throughout the sequence by employing an analysis-by-synthesis approach. Images are synthesized from the parametric scene description and compared with the original images input to the camera. Frame differences between the synthesized and original images are evaluated to obtain an estimated scene parameter update. The analysis method is applied to videophone scenes in the form of a data compression algorithm, whereby the scene parameters are transmitted and the output sequence is synthesized at the receiver. >


Attic ventilation is a firmly established requirement for residential wood-framed buildings. Attic ventilation is cited to be a benefit for moisture control, reducing cooling loads in hot climates, minimizing ice dams in cold climates, and extending the service life of roof materials by reducing surface temperatures.There is an ongoing debate on the real significance of some of these benefits and mandatory venting requirements. Despite plenty of attention to moisture control and ventilation of attics, there is growing evidence that buildings, which are built to code in cool marine climates, have mold growth in attic spaces. Problems are being reported in marine climates in both Europe and North America. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how cold attic spaces, which are subject to high outdoor moisture levels and are built to code (ventilation area and distribution and ceiling airtightness) can still have moisture problems and to identify the contributing factors leading to mold growth. This paper covers a study in British Columbia, Canada of four attics and a control roof at the same location but not over conditioned space. Testing and measurements included long-term monitoring, air leakage and venting area characterization using dual blower door fans, smoke testing, and tracer gas testing to measure air transfer rates.


Background: Neonates are vulnerable and fragile beings. Many of them would fall sick despite precautions and care, especially in resource poor home settings. The early identification of serious illness and seeking care are key areas in averting neonatal morbidity and mortality. So, if we aware of morbidity and mortality pattern it is helpful to divert resources in proper direction. Aim: Study the morbidity and mortality patterns in a NICU of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: This hospital based retrospective study was carried out in the NICU, at Civil Hospital, Gandhinagar, for a period of 1 year. After tacking ethical permission from Institutional Ethical Committee and administrative permission from medical superintendent, medical files of the neonates were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Male (56.36%) and female (43.36%) neonates ratio was 1.29: 1. Five hundred and fifty seven babies (67.51%) were born in this hospital and 288 (32.49%) babies were referred from peripheral hospitals and nursing homes. The chief causes of admission in NICU were RDS (31.64%) followed by MAS (24%), jaundice (16.73%) and sepsis/pneumonia/meningitis (11.64%). Out of the 86 deaths, 13 deaths (15.12%) occurred in the normal birth weight group, while 73 deaths (84.88%) occurred in the less than 2.5kg birth weight group. Conclusion: Respiratory distress syndrome, Meconium Aspiration Syndrome, neonatal sepsis, neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, and HIE as the major causes of morbidity. With Low Birth Weight and prematurity being the commonest contributors of death, attempts to prolong the pregnancy each week might improve the neonatal outcome considerably. Key words: Neonatal morbidity, Neonatal mortality, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Tertiary care hospital


Some quantum cryptographic protocols can be implemented with specially prepared chocolate balls, others protected by value indefiniteness cannot. Similarities and differences of cryptography with quanta and chocolate are discussed. Motivated by these considerations it is proposed to certify quantum random number generators and quantum cryptographic protocols by value indefiniteness. This feature, which derives itself from Bell- and Kochen-Specker type arguments, is only present in systems with three or more mutually exclusive outcomes.


A recent Cochrane/ Campbell systematic review of interventions for promoting reintegration and reducing harmful behaviour and lifestyles in street-connected children and young people, supported by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), identified 11 studies evaluating 12 different interventions which met the inclusion criteria (Coren et al. 2013). The research studies had to contain a comparison group and look at street-connected children and young people between the ages of 0 and 24. None of the included studies were from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), or involved process evaluations. The current thematic synthesis focused on engagement processes and strategies in studies pertaining to LMICs but excluded from the review on methodological grounds, complemented by studies identified through a search update conducted in March 2013. We included twenty-seven qualitative or mixed methods studies, which examined broad range of interventions and services adopted in 21 LMICs. The synthesis methods were primarily qualitative. On the basis of our findings, we conceptualised engagement as consisting of outreach and sustaining phases. Three separate dimensions emerged in the sustaining phases: meeting multiple needs, relations to adult service users, and community and family engagement. Our synthesis outlines challenges and dilemmas of engagement in each of these areas. The data also highlighted some common shortcomings in the service sector in LMICs, including lack of appropriate professional training and service development, lack of funding, and lack of co-operation with other relevant agencies. Innovative approaches to engagement, such as participatory initiatives and partnerships with universities, are also discussed.


We aimed to test the hypothesis that an enhanced level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is primarily responsible for the impairment of nitric oxide (NO)-mediated regulation of arteriolar wall shear stress (WSS) in hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy). Thus flow/WSS-induced dilations of pressurized gracilis muscle arterioles (basal diameter: ∼170 μm) isolated from control (serum Hcy: 6 ± 1 μM), methionine diet-induced HHcy rats (4 wk, serum Hcy: 30 ± 6 μM), and HHcy rats treated with vitamin C, a known antioxidant (4 wk, 150 mg.kg body wt -1 .day -1 ; serum Hcy: 32 ± 10 μM), were investigated. In vessels of HHcy rats, increases in intraluminal flow/WSS-induced dilations were converted to constrictions. Constrictions were unaffected by inhibition of NO synthesis by N ω -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). Vitamin C treatment of HHcy rats reversed the WSS-induced arteriolar constrictions to L-NAME-sensitive dilations but did not affect control responses. Similar changes in responses were obtained for the calcium ionophore A-23187. In addition, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure and serum 8-isoprostane levels (a marker of in vivo oxidative stress) were significantly elevated in rats with HHcy, changes that were normalized by vitamin C treatment. Taken together, our data show that in chronic HHcy long-term vitamin C treatment, by decreasing oxidative stress in vivo, enhanced NO bioavailability, restored the regulation of shear stress in arterioles, and normalized systemic blood pressure. Thus our study provides evidence that oxidative stress is an important in vivo mechanism that is primarily responsible for the development of endothelial dysregulation of WSS in HHcy.


Vegetarian diets have been associated with atherosclerosis protection, with healthier atherosclerosis risk profiles, as well as lower prevalence of, and mortality from, ischemic heart disease and stroke. However, there are few data concerning the possible cardiovascular effects of a vegan diet (with no meat, dairy or egg products). Vitamin B-12 deficiency is highly prevalent in vegetarians; this can be partially alleviated by taking dairy/egg products in lact-ovo-vegetarians. However, metabolic vitamin B-12 deficiency is highly prevalent in vegetarians in Australia, Germany, Italy and Austria, and in vegans (80%) in Hong Kong and India, where vegans rarely take vitamin B-12 fortified food or vitamin B-12 supplements. Similar deficiencies exist in northern Chinese rural communities consuming inadequate meat, egg or dairy products due to poverty or dietary habits. Vascular studies have demonstrated impaired arterial endothelial function and increased carotid intima-media thickness as atherosclerosis surrogates in such metabolic vitamin B-12 deficient populations, but not in lactovegetarians in China. Vitamin B-12 supplementation has a favourable impact on these vascular surrogates in Hong Kong vegans and in underprivileged communities in northern rural China. Regular monitoring of vitamin B-12 status is thus potentially beneficial for early detection and treatment of metabolic vitamin B-12 deficiency in vegans, and possibly for prevention of atherosclerosis-related diseases.


The objective of this study was to determine the chemical and physical changes of chemical modified on poplar wood. The chemical modifier was impregnated into cell lumen space by pulse-dipping machine to improve the dimension stability and mechanical property of timber. The timbers were compressed and dried by the multilayer hot-press drying to produce the modified timber. The modified timber had better dimension stability than the natural wood when they were immerged water continuous eight-hour. Characteristics of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) for modified were studied by the FTIR spectrometer. The intensity of hydroxyl absorption peak in the infrared absorption spectrogram decreased significantly, and that of carbonyl decreased lightly, which due to the bond of the function groups of -NHCH2OH of urea-formaldehyde prepolymer react with the wood carboxyl (C=O) and hydroxyl(-OH). The morphologic models of chemical within wood were discovered by SEM.


Many vision tasks require a multi-class classifier to discriminate multiple categories, on the order of hundreds or thousands. In this paper, we propose sparse output coding, a principled way for large-scale multi-class classification, by turning high-cardinality multi-class categorization into a bit-by-bit decoding problem. Specifically, sparse output coding is composed of two steps: efficient coding matrix learning with scalability to thousands of classes, and probabilistic decoding. Empirical results on object recognition and scene classification demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.


Non-tax revenues and parafiscal charges in most cases represent a limiting factor for the business sector and are an additional burden for citizens. In accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission and the Croatian national strategic documents, a rationalisation of the system of non-tax revenues is necessary to achieve a further lessening of the burden of economic subjects and citizens and to foster economic growth. The aim of this paper is to analyse the non-tax revenues in the Republic of Croatia, analyse their role, their impact on the effectiveness of the system of non-tax revenues and contribute to its understanding, as it represents an important segment for strengthening the competitiveness of the Croatian economy. The study is based on a systematic analysis of non-tax revenues in Croatia. For the purposes of comparative analysis, the following forms of literature were taken into account: different national strategic documents of the Republic of Croatia, the European Commission reports, available statistical indicators and relevant foreign and domestic scientific and professional literature dealing with the problem of non-tax revenue. The time scope of the analysis is the period from 2008 to 2016 and the results were compared with the data obtained from other sources. Croatia has made limited progress in the area of non-tax revenues as one of the components required for the removal of macroeconomic imbalances in the economy.


This thesis is on institutional communication, and focuses in particular on
interactional processes between social workers and prospective adoptive parents in
assessment procedures for adoptive parenthood. These assessments are conducted in
the Netherlands by the Child Protection Board (hereafter CPB). In order to make
recommendations about the suitability of prospective adoptive parents, the CPB is
tasked with assessing 'possible risk and protection factors that might hinder a stable
development of the adoptive child towards adulthood' (CPB, 2001: 62). The
assessment procedure includes a health check, whether or not the candidates have a
criminal record, written life stories of the prospective adoptive parents and four
interviews conducted by a social worker from the CPB. The procedure concludes
with a formal record, including a recommendation, that is sent to the Dutch state
agency. This thesis concentrates on institutional assessments of adoptive parenthood
procedures through text and talk: on assessment in action. It includes an analysis of
the interviews related to the life stories of the prospective adoptive parents and the
reproduction of both in the recommendation record.


Systematic behavioral phenotyping of genetically modified mice is a powerful method with which to identify the molecular factors implicated in control of animal behavior, with potential relevance for research into neuropsychiatric disorders. A number of such disorders display sex differences, yet the use of female mice in phenotyping strategies has been a rare practice because of the potential variability related to the estrous cycle. We have now investigated the behavioral effects of the estrous cycle in a battery of behavioral tests in C57BL/6J and BALB/cByJ inbred strains of mice. Whereas the performance of BALB/cByJ female mice varied significantly depending on the phase of the estrous cycle in the open field, tail flick and tail suspension tests, the behavior of C57BL/6J females, with the exception of the tail suspension performance, remained stable across all four phases of the estrous cycle in all of the tests including open field, rotarod, startle reflex and pre‐pulse inhibition, tail flick and hot plate. We also found that irrespective of the estrous cycle, the behavior of C57BL/6J females was different from that of BALB/cByJ groups in all of the behavioral paradigms. Such strain differences were previously reported in male comparisons, suggesting that the same inter‐group differences can be revealed by studying female or male mice. In addition, strain differences were evident even for behaviors that were susceptible to estrous cycle modulations, although their detection might necessitate the constitution of large experimental groups.


BACKGROUND
The nurse-patient relationship represents a valuable connection in cancer care. Largely studied within inpatient settings, the nature and influence of this central relationship in ambulatory settings remain relatively unexamined. The notable shift to ambulatory settings like infusion centers warrants examination of the nurse-patient relationship in this context.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to develop a grounded theory of the nurse-patient relationship in ambulatory cancer infusion care.

INTERVENTIONS/METHODS
Using grounded theory methodology, 11 nurses were interviewed using a semistructured interview guide. Data collection continued until data saturation occurred with the primary concepts.

RESULTS
The grounded theory, entitled Seeking Common Ground, includes 6 primary concepts. The concepts "we are all human"; "we work in a busy, complex environment"; "we seek common ground with patients"; "we use connections to support meaningful encounters"; "we find meaning in the relationships created"; and "we are governed by the push and pull of time" abstract the nurse-patient relationship from the nurses' perspective, emphasizing fundamental human connections.

CONCLUSIONS
The grounded theory Seeking Common Ground depicts the profound connection that nurses form with their patients in the ambulatory infusion setting. Underscoring the value of the nurse-patient relationship as foundational to the nursing profession must be driven through practice, education, and policy.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Consideration of educational aspects within nursing across all levels to influence clinical practice will remain key.


Objective We evaluated the effects of grape juice (Vitis labrusca L.) on dyslipidemia, resistance to insulin, and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in mice homozygous for the absence of the LDL receptor gene (LDLr -/-) under a hyperlipidemic diet. Methodology We divided 30 male mice (3 months old) into three groups (n = 10); the HL group was fed a high-fat diet, the HLU group received a high-fat diet and 2 g/kg/day of grape juice, and the HLS group was fed a high-fat diet and simvastatin (20 mg/kg/day). We assessed the blood pressure profile of the mice. We also determined the levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and lipid profile, glycemic and insulinemic profiles, and calculated the HOMA-IR. Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, interstitial collagen deposit, and the expression of CD40 ligand (CD40L) and metalloproteinases 2 and 9 were assessed immunohistologically. Results After 60 days, the mice treated with grape juice showed similar results as those of the group treated with simvastatin. The use of grape fruit attenuated dyslipidemia and insulin resistance and significantly increased the levels of high cholesterol density lipoproteins (HDLc). The antioxidant potential of phenolic compounds associated with the increase in HDLc levels in the mice of the HLU group prevented the development of LVH and arterial hypertension since it inhibited the inflammatory response induced by the CD40 pathway and its ligand CD40L. Consequently, there was a lower expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 and lower serum levels of CRP. Conclusion Grape juice has a hypolipidemic and cardiac protective potential, presenting a similar effect as that of simvastatin through a direct antioxidant action of phenolic compounds, or indirectly, via antioxidant action and anti-inflammatory activity of the HDLc. These results suggest that grape juice is a functional food possessing a high potential to prevent cardiovascular diseases.


It is generally assumed that career‐enhancing strategies are instrumental in the career self‐management process. Yet, there is a paucity of empirical research on the predictors of career‐enhancing strategies. Using a career strategy model as a guiding framework, this paper examined the relationship of motivational attributes and organizational experiences with career‐enhancing strategies (expertise development, self‐nomination and networking). Motivational attributes were conceptualized as advancement motivation and work/career centrality, whereas organizational experiences incorporated advancement prospects and job security. Questionnaire data were collected from full‐time public sector employees (N = 288) in the UK. The results indicated that, according to expectations: advancement prospects were positively and consistently related to all three career‐enhancing strategies; advancement motivation was positively related to expertise development and self‐nomination; and work‐orientated centrality was positively related to expertise development and networking. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, together with avenues for further research.


Five patients, each with a unique disease, illustrate some of the unusual subtleties of interpretation, the challenges of operative approach, the avoidance of pitfalls and the management of complications in local duodenal surgical procedures. A Brunner's gland polyp was resected reversing prior pancreatitis and cardiac alterations. A rare ampullary gangliocytic paraganglioma, hemorrhaging, was managed by duct isolations, resection and papilloplasty. A perforated malignant bleeding ulcer with eventual common bile duct obstruction and mimicking a benign ulcer, was approached with a variety of effective palliative procedures. A complicated duodenoileocolic cutaneous fistula in a patient with a background of granulomatous disease was resected. Finally, an obstructing duodenal stricture, attributable to progressive pancreatitis and presenting two years after bypass for jaundice, was managed by gastrojejunostomy and vagotomy, later converted to a Roux-en-Y preparation because of poor emptying and reflux bile gastritis.


The development of psoriasis is associated with the consequences of oxidative stress and inflammation leading to metabolic changes locally, in the skin cells, and systemically, in the blood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the effect of psoriasis vulgaris (PsV) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) on the basal plasma/keratinocyte levels of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMPs), and angiogenesis factors, as well as to evaluate the effect of CBD on these parameters in keratinocytes isolated from psoriatic/healthy individuals with and without in vitro irradiation by UVB. A quantitative chemiluminescent method of detection based on an ELISA protocol and zymography technique was used during analysis. It was shown that activity levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-2 in PsA plasma were higher than in PsV. Changes in the proteolytic activity were accompanied by an increase in markers of angiogenesis (angiopoietin-2, HGF, VEGF, TNFα, PDGF, FGF), where in the specific case of angiopoietin-2 and TNFα, the overexpression in PsV was significantly stronger than in PsA. CBD application to keratinocytes partially restored levels of MMP-1/2/3/7 and TIMP-1/2 (in an effect which was particularly enhanced by UVB irradiation), as well as levels of the examined angiogenic factors except TNFα (levels of which were increased in psoriatic keratinocytes and decreased in healthy keratinocytes). Presented results indicate that CBD may be suggested as an antiangiogenic factor that reduces the proinflammatory action of UVB in psoriatic keratinocytes and partially has a protective effect for healthy keratinocytes.


Paris L. is a small genus distributed widely in Eurasia. In Vietnam Paris occur in evergreen broad-leaved forests in some mountainous areas of the North and the Central highlands. Due to over-exploitation as well as habitat loss, populations of some Paris species are seriously declining. This genus has not been studied extensively in Vietnam. The aim of this study was to define the morphological characteristics of the genus Paris in Vietnam. Morphological description, dichotomous key for identification, ecology and distributions of the genus in Vietnam are reported. The results show that this genus in Vietnam comprises 8 species and 2 varieties, possesing unilocular ovary with parietal placenta.


major (ORF2) and minor (ORF3) capsid proteins. Noroviruses are very diverse and among the three genogroups (GI, GII, and GIV) that infect humans,>30 genotypes have been described. One genotype (GII.4) causes>80 per cent of norovirus outbreaks worldwide, a new variant of this strain emerges every two to three years, rapidly replaces the circulating variant and then becomes dominant globally. A high mutation rate as well as recombination contributes to high diversity of noroviruses. From April 2009–May 2016, large-scale surveillance, based within the Rotavirus Sentinel Surveillance Programme in South Africa (SA), detected noroviruses in 12.9 per cent of children with severe diarrhoea. Norovirus infections were most frequently detected in children<2 years of age with spring/early summer seasonality. Norovirus genogroup II strains predominated (>80 per cent) and strains were genotyped based on partial RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and capsid nucleotide sequences. To date sixteen RdRp and twenty-two capsid-based genotypes have been identified with GII.4 the overall predominant strain (57 per cent) followed by GII.3. The combined RdRp/capsid genotype was determined for 333 GII strains. Fifteen confirmed recombinant norovirus strains circulated during the study period, including several novel recombinants. The GII.4 New Orleans 2009 variant predominated from 2009 to 2013 after which it was replaced with the GII.4 Sydney 2012 variant. In 2016, the capsid of the Sydney 2012 variant was detected with the GII.P16 RdRp in SA. Phylogenetic analysis based on the capsid gene (1,623 bp) of fifty-two GII.4 variants, circulating between 2009 and 2016, indicated that both pandemic strains (New Orleans 2009 and Sydney 2012) diversified in SA and several sub-clusters within these major variants were identified during the study. In addition, three minor GII.4 variants, restricted to SA were characterised. Continued norovirus surveillance in SA is essential to understand the epidemiology of this diverse group of viruses and to enable further studies on norovirus evolution.


Abstract Deepwater sedimentary basins are attracting increased attention from the hydrocarbon industry and academia as they remain one of the last geological frontiers still to be fully explored and understood. As part of a regional project to understand basin development offshore Ireland, we have developed and tested new ways of improving seismic images, and of incorporating these improvements into geological interpretations. Here we illustrate this methodology using three case histories from the Porcupine, Slyne and Erris Basins. In each case, the first stage of the workflow consists of reprocessing a selection of key seismic data. Processing includes relative amplitude preservation and advanced demultiple and interpretation-driven pre-stack depth imaging. Interpretation of the data is assisted by incorporating products such as multiple models, pre-stack gathers, velocity models and attributes. Finally, we show how a velocity model can be inverted to exhumation estimates. The results and approach developed here can be applied to other deepwater exploration areas.


Active magnetic bearings (AMBs) support a rotating shaft, inside a stator, contactless. Their major benefit in respect to hydrodynamic journal bearings is the possibility of operating in much higher rotational speeds (above 20.000 RPM). This is due to the fact that, their angular velocity is only limited by the strength of the shaft material and always they have stabilized operation without any mechanic contact. Also, AMBs are resulting in long life time, without the use of any lubrication system, eliminating thus the complexity of the lubricant network and promoting green operation of the rotating machines. Furthermore, the electromagnetic bearings are active elements that allow the measurement and the control of the position of the shaft, targeting in most accurate equilibrium positions, in terms of the shaft operation. Therefore, a suitable control system is required for a magnetic bearing, to exploit the above advantageous operational characteristics. In this study, the model of the control system of a Magnetic Bearing in terms of sensors and power amplifiers is presented and its design guidelines are explicitly described. As a first step, the non linear equation of the movement of the shaft inside the magnetic bearing, in one direction (y-axis), is introduced. Then, the linearization of this particular equation in a specific equilibrium point is performed and presented. Consequentially, the linear equation is transformed via Laplace method and the model of the Active Magnetic Bearing is finally developed. In addition to these, the sensor and the power amplifiers are modeled, to simulate the AMB system as a whole. The Matlab software is used to simulate the components that the AMB is consisted of. The P, I and D gains are the result of this simulations, which are produced via robust control method, in SingleInput-Single-Output (SISO) tool module of Matlab. At the end, the Simulink module of Matlab is energized to check the control characteristics of the developed AMB system, taking into account the non-linear equations of the electromagnetic forces and the saturation of the coils. The rotor response, the overshoot, the rotor centre vibration are controlled using the above produced P, I and D gains. Several plots are constructed and presented to show the AMB control possibility with the aforementioned methodology.


In the setting of quasi-static multiple-input multiple-output channels, we consider the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) asymptotic complexity required by the sphere decoding (SD) algorithm for decoding a large class of full-rate linear space-time codes. With SD complexity having random fluctuations induced by the random channel, noise, and codeword realizations, the introduced SD complexity exponent manages to concisely describe the computational reserves required by the SD algorithm to achieve arbitrarily close to optimal decoding performance. Bounds and exact expressions for the SD complexity exponent are obtained for the decoding of large families of codes with arbitrary performance characteristics. For the particular example of decoding the recently introduced threaded cyclic-division-algebra-based codes—the only currently known explicit designs that are uniformly optimal with respect to the diversity multiplexing tradeoff—the SD complexity exponent is shown to take a particularly concise form as a non-monotonic function of the multiplexing gain. To date, the SD complexity exponent also describes the minimum known complexity of any decoder that can provably achieve a gap to maximum likelihood performance that vanishes in the high SNR limit.


The effects of carbon and niobium on solidification cracking susceptibility of Fe-36%Ni alloy (Invar alloy) were investigated to prove the validity of the addition of both carbon and niobium for preventing the solidification cracking as well as the ductility dip cracking. The tests were carried out using the Fe-36%Ni plates containing various contents of carbon and niobium. The solidification cracking susceptibility was evaluated by transverse Varestraint test using gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). The microstructure of weld metal quenched by liquid tin was also observed. The solidification cracking susceptibility decreased with the increase of niobium in a range less than 1.5 mass% in weld metal containing 0.2 mass% carbon. In weld metal with 0.2% carbon, the eutectic microstructure of niobium carbide and austenite was produced in the dendrite space of primary austenite. Additionally, the residual liquid at the final stage of solidification disappeared at a higher temperature in weld metal containing 0.2% carbon and 1% niobium compared with the weld with 0.02% carbon and 1% niobium. From these results, the decrease of solidification cracking susceptibility by the addition of both carbon and niobium is considered to be due to reducing the temperature range, which both solid and liquid exist together, as a result of the decreasing niobium content in residual liquid by the formation of niobium carbide.


Conflict, bullying and harassment are serious concerns in our public schools. This kind of school violence threatens not only students' health and safety, but also their ability to learn and have positive, educational experiences. Numerous individual and environmental factors contribute to students' decisions about how to respond to conflict or seek help for these problems. Conflict mediation is one type of program that has received widespread support and adoption; however, the results of many school-based, anti-violence interventions have been mixed. This study was one of the first to investigate the effects of a mentor-based, conflict mediation program that places undergraduate mediators in several secondary schools of a large, urban school district. This study used mixed research methods to examine adolescent students' exposure to violence and help seeking attitudes and the perceptions of students who participated in the conflict mediation program. Survey results indicated that students in the program schools often reported higher exposure to conflict than national surveys with verbal bullying being the most frequent type. In addition, students generally reported favorable attitudes about help seeking. The small schools and the high schools reported the greatest willingness to seek help, which needs further exploration in future research. Program participants indicated that negative affect was the only measure that decreased significantly from pre- to post-test. However, the student interview data suggested that the most important benefits of the mediation program included reductions in feelings of anger and developing relationships with the undergraduate mediators who acted as mentors to the students. Furthermore, the student interviews revealed several factors in the environment such as peer culture and a school's response to conflict, which, if left unaddressed, may attenuate or even undermine the anticipated benefits of the program. Taking these findings together, the conflict mediation program appears to meet the developmental needs of adolescents by creating safe, confidential spaces for students to work through problems independently with their peers. It also represents a unique approach for reducing conflict by providing an alternative to the top down, disciplinary strategies commonly used to deal with conflict and aggression.


The authors report on a right fronto-singular cavernous angioma which appeared, in a 46 year-old woman, four years after the excision of a right rolandic localization. Diagnosis suggested on radiological findings was confirmed by histological examination. After a review of the literature the authors discuss possible mechanisms of such delayed appearance of intra-cerebral cavernous angiomas. They suggest the possibility of infraradiologic stage corresponding to a micro-malformation characterized by abnormal capillaries, which has not been yet histologically modified by hemorrhages, thrombosis, fibrosis, gliosis and calcifications.


This article considers whether damages may be awarded for the posthumous breach of an author's moral right of integrity, which endures for 70 years post-mortem and, in many common law countries, protects authors against certain conduct in respect of a work which is prejudicial to their honour or reputation. While remedies for infringement ostensibly include damages, this article interrogates whether death defeats the moral right by denying significant damages due to a number of obstacles, principally the apparent conundrum that the dead cannot suffer loss. Has Parliament legislated a puzzle by giving the dead rights that are practically ineffectual? The problem is significant because nonnominal damages mark and deter wrongs, justify the expense and risk of litigation, and support the role of posthumous moral rights and remedies in protecting the public's interest in cultural heritage. The article explains the impediments to posthumous damages awards and advocates reform to facilitate them and enhance the efficacy of post-mortem moral rights.


The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the probability of adopting LPG as the main cooking fuel in Ghana using household level data gleaned from last two nationwide household surveys (GLSS 5 & GLSS 6). Using a flexible semi-parametric specification, the following were uncovered. First, we find socioeconomic and demographic factors such as income, education, access to urban infrastructure, and location of household, as key drivers of households' choice of LPG as main cooking energy source. Again the influences of these factors are stable across time, and with a strong price effect. The evidence shows that urban households with better socioeconomic and demographic factors are likely to adopt LPG as the main cooking fuel relative to households in rural areas and also urban households with poor socioeconomic and demographic factors. Finally, we observe that the imposition of fully parametric structure (functional form) prior to estimation on factors such as age of household head, income, and household size as done in the literature is inappropriate, at least in the case of Ghana and tend to bias the marginal effects. There is strong evidence of variations in the response rate of LPG adoption over the domains of income, household size, and the age of the household head. The results suggest a policy dichotomy between rural and urban dwellers for it to be effective.


Current wireless networks are characterized by a static spectrum allocation policy, where governmental agencies assign wireless spectrum to license holders on a long-term basis for large geographical regions. The operators claim that the spectrum bands for mobile operation are highly occupied. Even then, a significant amount of licensed spectrum remains underutilized. Cognitive radio senses the radio environment with a twofold objective: identify those subbands of the radio spectrum that are underutilized by the primary (i.e., legacy) users and providing the means for making those bands available for employment by secondary (i.e., unlicensed) users. For unlicensed communication, the Quality of Service parameters need to be considered. Quality of Service comprises of channel availability, accessibility, and maintainability. Assessment of vacant channels of licensed band in a geographical region is termed as availability. An analysis of the col- lected data lead to arrive at the conclusion that more than one-eighth part of resources of each band are nearly permanently vacant, which is enough to design in-band common control signaling methods for cognitive radio. Measurement result plot of vacant channels in cities with known population will help to assess availability of vacant channels for any city and hence, measurement complexity can be avoided. The strategy to occupy the vacant channels without disturbing the primary user operation is referred as accessibility (or selection). Accessibility of a channel is dependent on blocking probability (or Quality of Service) measured in duration of minutes instead of hours. Instantaneous blocking probability has been calculated based on current minute occupancy for all available channels as reference. A comprehensive prediction model is employed in the proposed work to compute the instantaneous blocking probability both on immediate minute occupancy basis and its preceding 60 min basis from time of request by SU. Validation through actual data establishes that channelized blocking probability estimation model has lower error value compared to estimation through prediction models of other researchers. It was the expected holding time of the particular Secondary User and to ensure channel main- tainability (or allocation), and it shall predict that the allotted channel shall be able to provide interruption-free service for holding time duration. Minutewise channel occu- pancy traffic is bumpy in nature; hence, the present work predicts call arrival rate using Holt Winter ' s method. Also, at the instant of SU channel request, the channel allocation processor inputs all PU channel status minutewise, calculates actual mean residual life- time (MRL) in minutes for each vacant channel and selects the channel with highest predicted free time. A simulation program runs on data collected from mobile switch of cellular network, which creates pseudo-live environment for channel allocation. The present work has compared the mean residual lifetime (MRL) method with the other researchers using probabilistic method of channel allocation and MRL method has been established as more accurate. The selection and allocation process with defined blocking probability model has been verified retrieving big data from data warehouse.


The merits of fast convergence and potentially better performance of the weight normalization family have drawn increasing attention in recent years. These methods use standardization or normalization that changes the weight W to W′, which makes W′ independent to the magnitude of W. Surprisingly, W must be decayed during gradient descent, otherwise we will observe a severe under-fitting problem, which is very counter-intuitive since weight decay is widely known to prevent deep networks from over-fitting. Moreover, if we substitute (e.g., weight normalization) W′ = W∥W∥ in the original loss function ∑i L(ƒ(xi; W′),yi) + ½λ∥W′∥2, it is observed that the regularization term ½λ∥W′∥2 will be canceled as a constant ½ λ in the optimization objective. Therefore, to decay W, we need to explicitly append: ½λ∥W∥2. In this paper, we theoretically prove that ½λ∥W∥2 improves optimization only by modulating the effective learning rate and fairly has no influence on generalization when the weight normalization family is compositely employed. Furthermore, we also expose several serious problems when introducing weight decay term to weight normalization family, including the missing of global minimum, training instability and sensitivity of initialization. To address these problems, we propose an Adaptive Weight Shrink (AWS) scheme, which gradually shrinks the weights during optimization by a dynamic coefficient proportional to the magnitude of the parameter. This simple yet effective method appropriately controls the effective learning rate, which significantly improves the training stability and makes optimization more robust to initialization.


Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are well researched globally due to their potential as low-cost photovoltaic (PV) devices especially suited for building and automobile integrated PV (BIPV, AIPV) and portable or indoor light harvesting applications. Since 1991, large monetary and intellectual investments have been made to develop DSCs into deployable technologies, creating a wealth of knowledge about nano-interfaces and devices through an increasing number of research reports. In response to these investments, the dawn of the new millennium witnessed the emergence of a corporate sector of DSC development. Advances in their design, their incorporation on flexible substrates, the development of solid state modules, their enhanced stability in outdoor environments, and their scalable fabrication tools and techniques have allowed DSCs to move from the laboratory to real-life applications. Although photoconversion efficiencies are not on a par with commercially available CIGS or single crystalline silicon solar cells, they possess many features that compel the further development of DSC modules, including transparency, light weight, flexibility, conformability, workability under low-light conditions, and easy integration in buildings as solar windows. In fact, DSC panels have been shown to deliver even more electricity than their silicon and thin film counterparts of similar power ratings when exposed to low light operating conditions due to their workability in such conditions; thus, they are potential market leaders in BIPV and indoor light harvesting photovoltaic technology. However, large area dye-solar modules lack in performance compared to their laboratory scale devices and also suffer from long term stability issues. Herein, we discuss the main factors behind their inferior photovoltaic performance and identify possible opportunities for the design of more efficient DSC modules.


Adsorption of sulfur dioxide (SO2) onto NiO supported activated carbon (Ni/AC)in fixed bed reactor under different operating conditions was studied. Using 7Ni/AC catalyst, the effect of two process variables: namely gas flow rate(80 ≤ Q ≤ 290l/h equivalent to superficial gas velocity 263 ≤ Vg ≤ 955 cm/min) and bed height(4 ≤ H ≤ 8)cm on the desulfurization activity and the characteristics of mass transfer zone(MTZ) were investigated. Breakthrough curves for SO2 under various adsorption conditions were obtained and some characteristic parameters such as breakthrough time ( τ0.05), exhaustion time(τ0.95)and length of mass transfer zone (LMTZ) were derived from these breakthrough curves. The experimental results revealed that on increasing gas rate for all bed heights two regions are developed.


The aim of this work is to investigate established methods for early detection of seasonal and pandemic influenza, then to develop a new method for routine use. We investigate daily data for influenza-like illness (ILI) General Practice (GP) consultations, collected from all 14 spatially located Health Boards (HBs) in Scotland. We use these real data to generalise their applicability to any number of geographic areas. The National Health Service (NHS) provided data on ILI consultation data from 2009 to 2015. Our work is extending the Weekly Cases Ratio (WCR) method to develop an automatic system to raise an alarm when there is a sudden increase in ILI cases. The WCR method uses two terms: 1) the value of WCR, defined in week w as WCR(w)=ILI GP consultation rate in week w divided by the corresponding rate in week w-1, and 2) the number of health boards N(HB) which report an increase in ILI cases in week w compared to week w-1 (i.e. WCR(w)>1). We initially used the above Scottish data, then extended this to more than 14 HBs, by simulating data with similar structure but from a different number of HBs. We used a constant rate of consultations to determine a joint null distribution for (WCR, N(HB)) to use in a hypothesis testing approach to detect a rise in ILI cases. Using more than 3 million simulations of each data set, we found a relationship in all cases between WCR and N(HB), then modelled the relationship between each of the mean (µ) and standard deviation (σ) of WCR with N(HB) in each dataset to find a general equation for use with any number of HBs. Further work will compare our approach with the Moving Epidemic and Cumulative Sum methods. Some results of this work will be presented.


During the last decades, and probably at least partly triggered by the first Ecological Studies volume on this topic (volume 150), biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have quickly gained increasing interest from many audiences, with well above 100 publications per year published during the last few years. Thus, we found that there is now a wealth of new data covering a wide range of different topics on biocrusts and showing that biocrusts can act as "an organizing principle in drylands." This observation inspired us to use this as the title of this second Ecological Studies volume. This book is divided into seven sections comprising a total of 25 different chapters. When we selected the authors for the different chapters, we had two intentions in our mind. One was to include many scientists from as many regions of the world as possible, who also used different methodological approaches in order to get a thorough and comprehensive view on the different topics. Second, we also wanted to get a good mixture of younger and well-established researchers. With a total of 61 chapter authors and 28 of them being in the doctoral, postdoc, or associate professor stage, ~46 % of the book authors are in a nonfinal/early stage of their career. This second book on biological soil crusts would not have been possible without the help of some people in particular, whom we would like to thank here: first of all, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Otto L. Lange, who gave us the opportunity to be editors of this book, who strongly supported us throughout the whole process of development, from the first ideas to the final editions, and who read and gave highly productive feedback to every single chapter of this book. Thank you so much! Second, we also would like to thank all the authors who contributed to the book. We are well aware of the fact that we sometimes asked for rather profound and time-consuming changes during the development of the book chapters. Despite this, all authors remained highly cooperative and motivated, a fact which cannot be taken for granted and which we deeply appreciate. Third, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr. Andrea Schlitzberger, who coordinated this biocrust book for Springer. She always was extremely patient and helped


..". this study will testify to the nature of Renamo's chaotic search for power as Mozambique moves from Afro-Marxist policies toward a more democratic multiparty state." --Choice..". an invaluable contribution to understanding why things are so bad and providing some glimmering of how a solution might be found... provides a uniquely useful light on Renamo's murky origins and the means by which it manages to sustain itself." --Africa Analysis..". Alex Vines has compiled the most comprehensive and balanced survey to date of the origins and evolution of the Mozambican counter-revolution." --Third World Quarterly"Vines' wide-ranging survey is still the first place to turn for well-documented details on both internal and external aspects of Renamo's war." --International Journal of African Historical Studies..". very informative... it is precisely 'everything you wanted to know about the MNR but were afraid to ask.' " --Terence RangerVines's encyclopedic book provides essential information about this successful rebel movement which continues to be dangerous for the Mozambican government, even though South Africa has disengaged from its day-to-day operations.


Two mediastinal masses were incidentally detected at high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of a 72 year-old male patient, former smoker, affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with worsening dyspnea and 2-year medical history of polycythemia secondary to hypoxia. Integration with a multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) scan after administration of intravenous injection contrast medium showed slightly inhomogeneous increase of enhancement of masses, suggesting in the first case potential malignancy. Diagnosis of extramedullary hematopoiesis was achieved by fine needle aspiration citology (FNAC). Extramedullary hematopoiesis must be considered in differential diagnosis in patients with medical history of polycythemia and severe hypoxia.


A new method for assigning individuals of unknown origin to populations, based on the genetic distance between individuals and populations, was compared to two existing methods based on the likelihood of multilocus genotypes. The distribution of the assignment criterion (genetic distance or genotype likelihood) for individuals of a given population was used to define the probability that an individual belongs to the population. Using this definition, it becomes possible to exclude a population as the origin of an individual, a useful extension of the currently available assignment methods. Using simulated data based on the coalescent process, the different methods were evaluated, varying the time of divergence of populations, the mutation model, the sample size, and the number of loci. Likelihood-based methods (especially the Bayesian method) always performed better than distance methods. Other things being equal, genetic markers were always more efficient when evolving under the infinite allele model than under the stepwise mutation model, even for equal values of the differentiation parameter F(st). Using the Bayesian method, a 100% correct assignment rate can be achieved by scoring ca. 10 microsatellite loci (H approximately 0.6) on 30-50 individuals from each of 10 populations when the F(st) is near 0.1.


Image super-resolution (SR) with generative adversarial networks (GAN) has achieved great success in restoring realistic details. However, it is notorious that GAN-based SR models will inevitably produce unpleasant and undesirable artifacts, especially in practical scenarios. Previous works typically suppress artifacts with an extra loss penalty in the training phase. They only work for in-distribution artifact types generated during training. When applied in real-world scenarios, we observe that those improved methods still generate obviously annoying artifacts during inference. In this paper, we analyze the cause and characteristics of the GAN artifacts produced in unseen test data without ground-truths. We then develop a novel method, namely, DeSRA, to Detect and then Delete those SR Artifacts in practice. Specifically, we propose to measure a relative local variance distance from MSE-SR results and GAN-SR results, and locate the problematic areas based on the above distance and semantic-aware thresholds. After detecting the artifact regions, we develop a finetune procedure to improve GAN-based SR models with a few samples, so that they can deal with similar types of artifacts in more unseen real data. Equipped with our DeSRA, we can successfully eliminate artifacts from inference and improve the ability of SR models to be applied in real-world scenarios. The code will be available at https://github.com/TencentARC/DeSRA.


The distance protection of multi-terminal transmission lines need to be redesigned due to possible changes in the backup protection emanating from probable infeed currents produced from tapped transmission lines. Furthermore, high-resistance fault is another factor that relay become under-reach and cannot correctly identify the fault. In this study, an algorithm is presented based on synchrophasors. In this method, voltage and current signals of buses will be sent to system protection centre (SPC) and in SPC an algorithm based on active power calculation in buses is provided that is able to eliminate the effects of both mentioned factors. In this method, measurement or relay in tapped transmission line location are not required. The study includes analytical analysis and modelling and in modelling results a variety of faults with different fault resistances is considered. Two power systems including teed-feeder system and IEEE 14-bus power system are considered. The results show that in both power systems, and different types of faults, backup distance protection is improved. Simulations are conducted by Electro-Magnetic Transient Program works.


This paper examines the long-term earnings losses of displaced workers in Portugal, using a nationally representative longitudinal linked employeremployee data set. The results show that four years after displacement the earnings of displaced workers remain around 9% (women) to 12% (men) below their counterfactual expected levels. The post-displacement earnings losses are mainly associated with the loss of tenure within the Þrm and, to a lesser extent, to the loss of sector-speciÞc features. Furthermore, workers who experienced a spell of nonemployment are the most affected by job displacement. Finally, this study points to the importance of controlling for employers' characteristics in this type of wages-dynamic analysis, since there are systematic differences in earnings between displaced and non-displaced workers that stem from differences in Þrm characteristics. Ignoring them may confound the evaluation of the earnings losses.


A sample from the Ubatuba fragment collected in Brazil in 1957 was tested with the intent of examining the isotope ratios of its primary element, magnesium, and the trace elements strontium, barium, copper, and zinc. As background, the history of chemical testing of the Ubatuba fragments during the 1960s-1980s at multiple labs with varying capabilities is reviewed and then the remainder of the paper examines recent tests completed in 2017 and 2018 that for the first time used HR-ICPMS techniques to look at the isotopic ratios of the minor constituents as well as the primary magnesium makeup of the sample. The magnesium isotope ratios were found to fall within terrestrial limits while the results on the isotope ratios of the trace elements was inconclusive. Recommendations are made for improving the process of examining the trace elements.
Keywords: Ubatuba, isotope, magnesium, HR-ICPMS, UFO