Liver damage due to paracetamol hepatotoxicity is a major health challenge worldwide. It is against this background that this study was designed to determine the hepatoprotective effects of the increasing dosage of Allium cepa methanolic extracts on paracetamol induced hepatotoxic rats. Fifty-four (54) adult male albino rats comprising of nine normal and 45 paracetamol hepatotoxic rats were used for this study. The experimental design was the three by three Latin square design. Paracetamol hepatotoxicity was induced by single administration of paracetamol at 750 mg/kg ip on the first day of the experiment. The different biochemical parameters assessed were determined before the start of the study and subsequently monthly for the duration of the study. Blood samples were collected from the rat through the eye monthly for analysis and serum was obtained by centrifugation (5000 rpm for 10 min) and stored at -20°C prior to analysis. The effects of duration and increasing dosages (200, 300 and 450 mg/kg) of A. cepa methanolic extracts produced a duration dependent significant (p < 0.05) reductions in the alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and total serum bilirubin (TSB) of paracetamol hepatotoxic rats after the duration of study when compared with those of the paracetamol, normal and silymarin control rats. A. cepa reduced alanine aminotransferase and total serum bilirubin in a dose dependent fashion whereas it reduced aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase level in a dose independent manner. A. cepa extracts studied showed potent hepatoprotective properties. It was evident that A. cepa extracts was able to reduce significantly all the elevated biochemical parameters due to paracetamol hepatotoxicity and this was collaborated by results of histopathological studies. Keywords: Allium cepa, paracetamol, hepatoprotective effects, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, lactate dehydrogenase, total serum bilirubin African Journal of Biotechnology , Vol 13(26) 2679-2688


A Boolean Finite Synchronous Dynamical System (BFDS, for short) consists of a finite number of objects that each maintains a boolean state, where after individually receiving state assignments, the objects update their state with respect to object-specific time-independent boolean functions synchronously in discrete time steps.
The present paper studies the computational complexity of determining, given a boolean finite synchronous dynamical system,
a configuration, which is a boolean vector representing the states
of the objects, and a positive integer t, whether there exists another configuration from which the given configuration can be reached in t steps. It was previously shown that this problem, which we call the t-Predecessor Problem, is NP-complete even for t = 1
if the update function of an object is either the conjunction of
arbitrary fan-in or the disjunction of arbitrary fan-in.

This paper studies the computational complexity of the t-Predecessor Problem for a variety of sets of permissible update functions as well as for polynomially bounded t. It also studies the t-Garden-Of-Eden Problem, a variant of the t-Predecessor Problem that asks whether a configuration has a t-predecessor, which itself has no predecessor. The paper obtains complexity theoretical characterizations of all but one of these problems.


Time-domain modelling of single-reed woodwind instruments usually involves a lumped model of the excitation mechanism. The parameters of this lumped model have to be estimated for use in numerical simulations. Several attempts have been made to estimate these parameters, including observations of the mechanics of isolated reeds, measurements under artificial or real playing conditions and estimations based on numerical simulations. In this study an optimisation routine is presented, that can estimate reed-model parameters, given the pressure and flow signals in the mouthpiece. The method is validated, tested on a series of numerically synthesised data. In order to incorporate the actions of the player in the parameter estimation process, the optimisation routine has to be applied to signals obtained under real playing conditions. The estimated parameters can then be used to resynthesise the pressure and flow signals in the mouthpiece. In the case of measured data, as opposed to numerically synthesised data, special care needs to be taken while modelling the bore of the instrument. In fact, a careful study of various experimental datasets revealed that for resynthesis to work, the bore termination impedance should be known very precisely from theory. An example is given, where the above requirement is satisfied, and the resynthesised signals closely match the original signals generated by the player.


This research studies Mass Customization as an operations strategy and model. Opinions differ over whether MC should be a label for a specific business model in which customers select from pre-engineered product options, or whether it should be interpreted as a performance goal that has wider relevance. In this research it is viewed as the latter and a manufacturing enterprise is considered to be a mass customizer if it gives its customers the opportunity to have a product any time they want it, anywhere they want it, any way they want it and in any volume they want it, and at the same time brings the benefits that are associated with mass operations, in particular those of price and quality.

In the literature MC is not one operations strategy but a family of sub-strategies and there are several classification schemes, most of which delineate the sub-strategies by the point along the value chain that customization takes place. Other than for one scheme for which correlations between technologies and MC types has been sought by means of a survey, no progress has been made in developing operations configurations models.

Through the study of primary and secondary case studies several classification schemes are appraised and a new framework of five fundamental operations Modes is developed. The Modes are the kernel of a theory of MC, with the other elements being:

- A model for Mode selection that uses four factors to determine when a Mode is suitable;
- Indicative models of the information infrastructures of two Modes that demonstrate the Modes to be different and that they can be a foundation for configurations models;
- A set of product customizable attributes that reveals the multifaceted nature of customization and extends the terminology of customization;
- The delta Value concept that links the motivation for customizing attributes to differences between customers.
A theory of MC is proposed, which postulates:
- An MC strategy is relevant when there are differences across customers in how they value the configurations of customizable attributes;
- There are five operational sub-strategies of MC;
- The choice of sub-strategy for an enterprise is contingent on its organisation and its business environment.

One of the five modes, Catalogue MC, is the Mode that is commonly associated with MC. It is the Mode in which all product variants are fully engineered before being ordered. A diverse set of order fulfilment models of relevance to this Mode are reviewed and organised into four types: fulfilment from stock; fulfilment from a single decoupling point; fulfilment from several decoupling points; and fulfilment from a floating decoupling point. The term floating decoupling point is coined to describe systems that can allocate a product to a customer wherever the product lies, whether it be a finished product in stock, a part processed product or a product that does not yet exist but is in the production plan. In the automotive sector this system has been called Virtual-Build-to-Order (VBTO) and in this research the generic characteristics of VBTO systems are described and key concepts developed, in particular the concept of reconfiguration flexibility.

Discrete event simulation and Markov models are developed to study the behaviour of the VBTO fulfilment model. The non-dimensional ratio of product variety / pipeline length is identified to be a fundamental indicator of performance. By comparing the VBTO system to a conventional system that can fulfil a customer from stock or by BTO only, the role of pipeline fulfilment is identified and a surprising observation is that it can cause stock levels and average customer waiting time to be higher than in a conventional system. The study examines also how customer differences, in particular their willingness to compromise and their aversion to waiting, affect fulfilment and how fulfilment is dependent on reconfiguration flexibility.


This paper examines different evacuation strategies for systems where several rooms evacuate trough the same means of egress, using microscopic pedestrian simulation.As a case study, a medium-rise office building is considered. It was found that the standard strategy, whereby the simultaneous evacuation of all levels is performed, can be improved by a sequential evacuation, beginning with the  lowest floor and continuing successively with each one of the upper floors after a certain delay. The importance of the present research is that it provides the basis for the design and implementation of new evacuation strategies and alarm systems that could significantly improve the evacuation of multiple rooms trough a common means of escape. Received: 9 October 2014,  Accepted: 13 November 2014;  Edited by: G. C. Barker;  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4279/PIP.060013 Cite as: D R Parisi, P A Negri, Papers in Physics 6, 060013 (2014)


This comparative study analyses the verb phrase ellipsis phenomenon in English and in Swedish, which exhibit both similarities and differences. In this analysis, VP ellipsis –an elided verb phrase whose meaning is recovered by that of another, semantically identical verb phrase in its surrounding– is treated as a full-fledged syntactic structure that is omitted in the Phonological Form as a result of a [E] feature. This syntactic structure is the same in English and Swedish in contexts of VP ellipsis, which occur when the ellipsis licensor head is a modal or an auxiliary in Swedish, adding to the case of English infinitival to and pleonastic do, both of which are potential licensors of English VP ellipsis. The most striking dissimilarity between these two languages is due to the nature of the support verbs. English do and Swedish göra are different in both semantic and syntactic nature and do not merge in the same position. Göra is not a licensor of VP ellipsis in Swedish, as do is in English, but a licensor of VP pronominalization. When göra is present the verb phrase is pronominalized instead of elided. Moreover, the Swedish support verb can coexist with auxiliaries and modals since it may be nonfinite. This is because it behaves similarly to a main verb. In the case of English, do is completely grammaticalized and need to be finite which makes it incompatible with auxiliaries and modals. The study also looks at the V2 effect in verb second languages that has consequences in the extraction of arguments from the ellipsis site. In English both subjects and objects can move out from the elliptical structure simultaneously. In Swedish, which is a V2 language, this is impossible in cases of both VP ellipsis and VP pronominalization due to competition for the landing site when a sentence is projected.


Sets are all around us. A bag of potato chips, for instance, is a set containing certain number of individual chip's that are its elements. University is another example of a set with students as its elements. By elements, we mean members. But sets should not be confused as to what they really are. A daughter of a blacksmith is an element of a set that contains her mother, father, and her siblings. Then this set is an element of a set that contains all the other families that live in the nearby town. So a set itself can be an element of a bigger set. In mathematics, axiom is defined to be a rule or a statement that is accepted to be true regardless of having to prove it. In a sense, axioms are self evident. In set theory, we deal with sets. Each time we state an axiom, we will do so by considering sets. Example of the set containing the blacksmith family might make it seem as if sets are finite. In truth, they are not! The set containing all the natural numbers {1, 2, 3, · · · } is an infinite set. Our main goal for this paper will be the discussion of Axiom of Choice (AC) and its equivalents.


Background: Plant growth generally requires both macronutrients and micronutrients. One of the most important micronutrients for plants is zinc. Zinc is an essential nutrient for every life form, including plants. In particular, zinc aids enzymatic processes and many biochemical reactions. When plants receive an inadequate amount of zinc, it leads to the loss of imperative biochemical reactions, which is also related to inhibition of plant growth. Therefore, the yield of the plant is relatively low. Interestingly, some scientific evidence have demonstrated a positive relation between zinc intake and the amount of essential oil and yield of plants. Mentha cordifolia Opiz., kitchen mint, is one of the top seven vegetables consumed in Thailand. The increase of some essential minerals in plants or biofortification during plantation has resulted in the increase of essential oils and chlorophyll. The bioactive compounds of essential oil provide antibacterial benefits. Additionally, chlorophyll can be utilized for against sinusitis, purifying the blood, and cleansing of toxins from intestines. Objective: Our study aimed to evaluate the effects of fortifying zinc into plantation soil on growth characteristics, essential oil droplets, and overall quality of Mentha cordifolia Opiz. Methods: Mentha cordifolia Opiz were planted in soil fortified with ZnSO 4 at 0 (control), 100, and 200 ppm and grown for 3 months. During the growth period, physical characteristics were observed. After harvesting, proximate analyses were conducted as well as determination of minerals, and chlorophyll content, were conducted. Microbiological and sensory tests were also performed. Results: The increase of growth characteristics correlated with the increase of zinc concentration. The sizes of mint leaves were larger, the stalks were plumper, and the length of the roots were longer—although not significantly different—and the production of essential oil significantly increased. The approximate composition contents including protein, fat, ash, and fiber of plants grown in fortified ZnSO 4 soil, increased when compared to the


In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Paris was home to scores of bronze foundries making it the primary European center for the production of artistic bronzes, or bronzes d'art. These foundries were competitive, employing different casting methods—either lost-wax or sand casting—as well as closely guarded alloy and patina recipes. Recent studies have demonstrated that accurate measurements of the metal composition of these casts can provide art historians of early 20th-century bronze sculpture with a richer understanding of an object's biography, and help answer questions about provenance and authenticity. In this paper, data from 171 20th-century bronzes from Parisian foundries are presented revealing diachronic aspects of foundry production, such as varying compositional ranges for sand casting and lost-wax casting. This new detailed knowledge of alloy composition is most illuminating when the interpretation of the data focuses on casts by a single artist and is embedded within a specific historical context. As a case study, compositional analyses were undertaken on a group of 20th-century posthumous bronze casts of painted, unbaked clay caricature portrait busts by Honoré-Victorin Daumier (1808–1879).


Primarily, three groups of cases were selected for blood studies: cases (1) of milk rickets; (2) of typical severe rickets, and (3) of active tetany showing rachitic changes. The cases covered prematurely born, full-term, breast-fed and artificially fed infants. The majority of the infants were between 4 and 12 months of age. The calcium and inorganic phosphorus content of the blood plasma was determined before treatment, and in some cases after treatment. The studies were started with a possibility in mind that rickets might be classified into low phosphorus and low calcium groups, and a third intermediate group; and that certain clinical manifestations might be anticipated by a study of the blood in infants. Howland and Kramer 1 determined the inorganic phosphate of the serum in a series of normal children. They found the concentration to average 5.4 mg. per hundred cubic centimeters, with a minimum of 4 mg. and


Nigerian consumers are increasingly becoming uneasily satisfying especially when it comes to deriving utility from consumption of products hence the need for producers to roll out advertising messages which will help induce consumers to make purchases. Effective communication of the existence of products will definitely ensure prompt patronage from consumers. This study aims to investigate the effects of advertisement on the patronage of new products and also to find out if budget allocations for advertising have any significant effect on sales volume of Nestle Nigeria Plc. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study in which a structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the target respondents who are employees and customers of Nestle Plc. Primary data was collected and processed in the study. 250 questionnaires were administered to respondents and results showed that there is relationship between advertising and consumer patronage just as it depicts that budget allocation to advertising will have effect on sales volume. It is recommended that Advertising strategy or tool cannot be overlooked in the business organization as it is pivotal to the success of Nestle Plc.


A route from epoxy alcohols to cis- and trans-trisubstituted vinylaziridines has been developed. The vinylaziridines have been used as substrates in the base induced aza-[2,3]-Wittig rearrangement to substituted 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines. The influence of the anion-stabilising group on the reaction outcome has been investigated and it was found that tert-butyl ester enolate promotes a clean conversion to the cis-2,6-disubstituted tetrahydropyridine whereas the use of a TMS-alkyne as anion-stabilising group gives a poor trans-2,6-selectivity. A study on the rearrangement outcome when using disubstituted alkenes as substrates was perused and it was found that the stereochemical information in the substrate alkene moiety is transmitted to C3 in the 2,3,6-trisubstituted tetrahydropyridine product. The scope and limitations of this transformation has been investigated. The mechanism of this reaction has been probed to some extent and it reveals a complicated picture. Enantioselective total synthesis of (-)-indolizidine alkaloids 209B and 209D with the aza-[2,3]-Wittig rearrangement as key transformation is described. Vinylaziridines undergoes a thermal homodienyl-[1,5]-hydrogen shift to the corresponding allylic imine. The scope and limitations of this rearrangement has been investigated. The rate of the rearrangement is influenced by the N-substituent and the substitution on the alkene moiety of the substrate. The result of these rearrangements could be explained by invoking a chair-like transition structure for this reaction.


The superiority of deeply learned pedestrian representations has been reported in very recent literature of person re-identification (re-ID). In this paper, we consider the more pragmatic issue of learning a deep feature with no or only a few labels. We propose a progressive unsupervised learning (PUL) method to transfer pretrained deep representations to unseen domains. Our method is easy to implement and can be viewed as an effective baseline for unsupervised re-ID feature learning. Specifically, PUL iterates between 1) pedestrian clustering and 2) fine-tuning of the convolutional neural network (CNN) to improve the original model trained on the irrelevant labeled dataset. Since the clustering results can be very noisy, we add a selection operation between the clustering and fine-tuning. At the beginning when the model is weak, CNN is fine-tuned on a small amount of reliable examples which locate near to cluster centroids in the feature space. As the model becomes stronger in subsequent iterations, more images are being adaptively selected as CNN training samples. Progressively, pedestrian clustering and the CNN model are improved simultaneously until algorithm convergence. This process is naturally formulated as self-paced learning. We then point out promising directions that may lead to further improvement. Extensive experiments on three large-scale re-ID datasets demonstrate that PUL outputs discriminative features that improve the re-ID accuracy.


BACKGROUND
MicroRNAs have been postulated as potential biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Exosomes are nanovesicles which transport microRNAs, proteins, and other cargos. It has been hypothesized that the exosome traffic might be increased in neurodegenerative disorders.

OBJECTIVE
i) To assess the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) microRNA profile in a group of AD patients and control subjects and to validate a group of microRNAs previously reported by other authors. ii) To compare microRNA levels in whole CSF and in the exosome-enriched fraction in AD patients.

METHODS
A panel of 760 microRNAs was analyzed in the CSF of 10 AD patients and 10 healthy subjects. Among microRNAs differently expressed, we selected those that had been previously reported by other authors. Candidates were validated in a larger group by individual qPCR assays. MicroRNA expression was also evaluated in exosome-enriched CSF samples of patients with AD and controls.

RESULTS
Fifteen microRNAs were differently expressed in AD. MiR-9-5p, miR-134, and miR-598 were selected as candidates for further analysis. MiR-9-5p and miR-598 were detected in 50 and 75% of control CSF samples, respectively, while they were not detected in any AD CSF samples. We observed an opposite pattern when we evaluated the microRNA expression in the exosome-enriched CSF AD samples. No pattern variations were noted among healthy subjects.

CONCLUSION
These data propose miR-9-5p and miR-598 as potential biomarkers for AD. Further studies in plasma and other body fluids will confirm their potential role as easily accessible biomarkers. In addition, our data suggest that exosome trafficking is different between AD and control subjects raising the need to take this phenomenon into consideration in future studies of AD biomarkers.


Over the last few years, as they evolve with business needs and technology, enterprises are faced with the need to adapt their business processes to work in open settings. In such settings, the automation and the interoperability of business process and applications become a key concern. The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is introduced as an approach to cope with this challenge. MDA specifies four levels of abstraction, most of the existing studies focus on modeling and transforming the Platform-Independent Model (PIM) to Platform-Specific Model (PSM) levels, while the more conceptual level, the Computation-Independent Model (CIM) is often presumed as present and is not further studied. In this paper, we propose an approach for transforming a CIM into a PIM using the core modeling concepts of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). One important characteristic of this approach is that it provides a method to capture and describe the requirements of the business process using a use cases model. The other important characteristic is proposing an architecture of the PIM based on the classes model. The execution of the transformation is programmed by the Query View Transformation (QVT) language.


In Double Patterning Lithography (DPL), conflict and stitch minimization are two main challenges. Post-routing mask decomposition algorithms [1–4] may not be enough to achieve high quality solution for DPL-unfriendly designs, due to complex metal patterns. In this paper, we propose an efficient framework of WISDOM to perform wire spreading and mask assignment simultaneously for enhanced decomposability. A set of Wire Spreading Candidates (WSC) are identified to eliminate coloring constraints or create additional splitting locations. Based on these candidates, an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation is proposed to simultaneously minimize the number of conflicts and stitches, while introducing as less layout perturbation as possible. To improve scalability, we further propose three acceleration techniques without loss of solution quality: odd-cycle union optimization, coloring-independent group computing, and suboptimal solution pruning. The experimental results show that, compared to a postrouting mask decomposition method [2], we are able to reduce the number of conflicts and stitches by 41% and 23% respectively, with only 0.43% wire length increase. Moreover, with proposed acceleration methods, we achieve 9x speed-up.


The effects of dietary mugwort and pine needle powder supplementation on growth performance, serum cholesterol, and meat quality of broilers were evaluated in a 35 days feed trial. 200 one day old broilers were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments (0, 1 and 2% mugwort or 1 and 2% pine needle powder) with four replicate pens of 10 birds per treatment. During the experimental period, growth performance did not differ among treatments (P > 0.05). The additives with mugwort and pine needle showed lower crude fat content of thigh muscle compared with the control (P < 0.05); however, no significant differences were detected for moisture, crude protein and crude ash content of thigh muscle. Compared with the control, total phenol content and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity were significantly increased (P < 0.05) with the inclusion of mugwort and pine needle powder level in the broilers' diets, whereas pH values decreased (P < 0.05). Serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) by the increased mugwort and pine needle powder level in the diet, except for high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations. For thigh meat color, inclusion of mugwort and pine needle powder decreased L* and b* values and increased a* values in thigh muscle of broilers compared with the controls (P < 0.05). Overall, the present study indicates the beneficial effect of using 1 or 2% mugwort and pine needle powder in reducing serum cholesterol and improving meat quality.


The Korean Treebank Annotations Version 2.0 is a second volume of The Korean Treebank Annotations (Palmer et al., 2002; Han et al., 2002). It contains new texts that are from the news domain: the original corpus for the Korean Treebank 2.0 was extracted from The Korean Newswire corpus published by LDC, catalog number LDC2000T45. The Korean Treebank Annotations Version 2.0 consists of 647 news articles in 112 files which contain 132,040 words and 5,010 sentences. There are 40,252 unique words and 13,844 unique morphemes (12,681 unique morphemes excluding foreign characters and arabic numbers). The annotated text measures about 8.5MB in size. While annotating the new texts, many new linguistic constructions and phenomena were encountered which called for setting additional guidelines. Furthermore, a few guidelines used for the first volume of the Korean Treebank were re-examined and modified in the second volume. This document outlines the guidelines that were newly introduced for the second volume of the Penn Korean Treebank, as well as the ones that have been revised since the publication of volume 1.0. Therefore, this is not a self-contained document, but is rather an addendum to the two previously published guidelines for the Penn Korean Treebank (Han and Han, 2001; Han et al., 2001). Comments University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-5-03. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/7 Guidelines for Penn Korean Treebank Version 2.0 Na-Rae Han, Shijong Ryu


In 2000, President Bill Clinton vetoed a bill that would have criminalized all unauthorized leaks of classified information.1 In his veto message, Clinton agreed that "unauthorized disclosures can be extraordinarily harmful to United States national security interests and that far too many disclosures occur." But the bill failed, in his view, to balance national security interests with "the rights of citizens to receive the information necessary for democracy to work." The bill threatened to chill even "appropriate public discussion [or] press briefings" by Government officials. Similarly, it could have "restrain[ed] the ability of former government officials to teach, write, or engage in any activity aimed at building public understanding of complex issues." Clinton called these risks "unnecessary and inappropriate in a society built on freedom of expression and the consent of the governed," and "particularly inadvisable in a context in which the range of classified materials is so extensive."2


The series of β-Ca3(PO4)2-type phosphors Ca9.5-1.5xMgEux(PO4)7 were synthesized by a solid-state route. Observation of the proper Eu3+ ion distribution in the Ca9.5Mg(PO4)7 host matrix was made by a direct method using 151Eu Mössbauer spectroscopy in combination with X-ray analysis and dielectric and luminescent spectroscopy. The photoluminescence properties were studied in detail. The samples exhibit an exceptionally narrow-band red emission according to the dominant 5D0 → 7F2 transition and fulfill the industrial requirements for high-energy-efficiency red phosphors. The contribution of Eu3+ ions in different crystal sites to the luminescent properties is discussed in detail. The difference of the excitation of Eu3+ in the M1 and M2 sites was revealed by photoluminescence excitation spectra in accordance with structure refinement. The temperature dependence of the luminescence intensity was studied. Different tendencies in the thermal behavior of emission lines allow one to consider the studied compounds as phosphors suitable for luminescence thermometry. The measured quantum yield for Ca9.5-1.5xMgEux(PO4)7 shows excellent results and reaches 63%.


Temperature dependencies of saturated vapor pressure for the monoclinic modification of paracetamol (acetaminophen), acetanilide, and phenacetin (acetophenetidin) were measured and thermodynamic functions of sublimation calculated (paracetamol: DeltaGsub298=60.0 kJ/mol; DeltaHsub298=117.9+/-0.7 kJ/mol; DeltaSsub298=190+/-2 J/mol.K; acetanilide: DeltaGsub298=40.5 kJ/mol; DeltaHsub298=99.8+/-0.8 kJ/mol; DeltaSsub298=197+/-2 J/mol.K; phenacetin: DeltaGsub298=52.3 kJ/mol; DeltaHsub298=121.8+/-0.7 kJ/mol; DeltaSsub298=226+/-2 J/mol.K). Analysis of packing energies based on geometry optimization of molecules in the crystal lattices using diffraction data and the program Dmol3 was carried out. Parameters analyzed were: (a) energetic contribution of van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonding to the total packing energy; (b) contributions of fragments of the molecules to the packing energy. The fraction of hydrogen bond energy in the packing energy increases as: phenacetin (17.5%)<acetanilide (20.4%)<paracetamol (34.0%). Enthalpies of evaporation were estimated from enthalpies of sublimation and fusion. Activity coefficients of the drugs in n-octanol were calculated from cryoscopic data and by estimation of dilution enthalpy obtained from solubility and calorimetric experiments (for infinite dissolution). Solubility temperature dependencies in n-octanol and n-hexane were measured. The thermodynamic functions of solubility and solvation processes were deduced. Specific and nonspecific solvation terms were distinguished using the transfer from the "inert" n-hexane to the other solvents. The transfer of the molecules from water to n-octanol is enthalpy driven for paracetamol; for acetanilide and phenacetin, entropy driven.


INTRODUCTION
Patients with end-stage renal disease are at a high risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Elevated level of homocysteine is an important risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients. There are some strategies for reduction of serum homocysteine level in these patients, including folate and vitamin supplementation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of omega-3 supplementation on serum homocysteine level in patients on hemodialysis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In a randomized controlled trial, 100 hemodialysis patients were assigned into two groups to receive omega-3 (oral capsule, 3 g/d) or placebo for 2 months. Complete blood count, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, serum lipids, and serum homocysteine levels were measured before the study and after 2 months at the end of study.

RESULTS
Of 100 patients, 6 in each group were excluded, and 44 patients in each group completed the study. There were no significant differences regarding the age, sex, and the number of dialysis sessions per week between the two groups. No difference was observed between the two groups in the laboratory investigations at the end of the study, except for a significant reduction in serum homocysteine level in the omega-3 group as compared to the placebo group (P = .03).

CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed a significant reduction regulated by omega-3 supplementation in serum homocysteine level which is a cardiovascular risk factor among hemodialysis patients. Omega-3 can be considered as another homocysteine-reducing agent in this population.


Respiratory home care is an important aspect of rehabilitation programmes designed for patients needing long-term mechanical ventilation. Many differences have emerged between countries in the long-term care of these patients, depending on the different ways of supplying material, managing patients and providing equipment. The results of analysis of the data obtained in a preliminary survey carried out in 1995-1996 among 115 Italian centres operating in the field of home mechanical ventilation are presented. A questionnaire (all closed-circuit items) consisting of two sections (the first epidemiological, and the second methodological and economic) was sent to all centres. Fifty-seven out of 115 (50%) centres responded to the questionnaire, with a prevalence of responses from the north of Italy (37 centres). The responding centres had been working in this field for a mean period of 6 +/- 3 yrs, and a total of 1,842 patients were surveyed. The analysis focuses on the prevalence of treated diseases, methods of mechanical ventilation, regulation of prescription, evaluations carried out during follow-up, supply of equipment, costs and reimbursement, and relations with volunteer associations. A more thorough approach to all the problems emerging from this Italian survey regarding candidates for home mechanical ventilation is warranted. A more detailed comparative analysis of indications, management and costs vis-à-vis other countries should contribute towards achieving maximum uniformity of standards throughout Europe.


Single and dual crop coefficient methods are used in conjunction with grass reference evapotranspiration ( ET o ) to estimate actual crop evapotranspiration ( ET c ). However, the impact of soil surface residue cover on the accuracy of ET c estimated with these methods is not well understood. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the accu racy of the FAO-56 single crop coefficient (single- K c ) and dual crop coefficient (dual- K c ) methods for estimating soy bean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] ET c in a partially residue covered field. The study was conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, South Central Agricultural Laboratory (SCAL), Nebraska, during the 2007 and 2008 growing sea -sons. The field was under reduced-tillage (ridge till) on a silt loam soil and irrigated using a subsurface drip irrigation system. Evapotranspiration flux ( ET m ) above the crop canopy was measured using a deluxe version of a Bowen ratio energy balance system (BREBS) and ET o was calculated with the Penman–Monteith method. The single- K c and dual-K c -estimated ET c values, both unadjusted for residue cover, were compared to ET m . The unadjusted FAO-56 K c values performed poorly as the single- K c underestimated ET m during the initial crop growth stage by 21% in 2007 and 33.6% in 2008 while the dual- K c overestimated ET m during the same growth stage by 16.8% in 2007 and 16.5% in 2008. Extended simulations were conducted to determine the magnitude by which ET c is reduced for each 10% of soil sur face covered with crop residue. Downward adjustments in soil water evaporation ( E s ) for every 10% of the soil surface covered with crop residue improved the accuracy of ET c estimated by the dual- K c method. The largest changes in ET c due to adjustments in E s occur during the initial stage of the growing season. The best estimates for seasonal ET c were obtained by reducing E s by 5% for every 10% of surface covered with residue in 2007 ( R 2 = 0.77, RMSD = 0.87 mm d −1 , E = 0.94) and 2008 ( R 2 = 0.83, RMSD = 0.84 mm d −1 , E = 0.95). Greater improvements in the accuracy of estimated sea sonal ET c were obtained by reducing E s by 2.5% for each 10% of surface covered with residue during the initial stage and by 5% during the rest of the crop growth stage. These results suggest that the more computationally-involved dual- K c method with adjustments in E s for each 10% of surface covered with residue improves the prediction of ET c in fields with soil surface residue cover, especially during the initial growth stage. Inaccurate selection of percentage re duction in E s can result in substantial overestimation or underestimation of seasonal ET c by the dual- K c method.


In this paper, we analyze the evolution of Certificate Transparency (CT) over time and explore the implications of exposing certificate DNS names from the perspective of security and privacy. We find that certificates in CT logs have seen exponential growth. Website support for CT has also constantly increased, with now 33% of established connections supporting CT. With the increasing deployment of CT, there are also concerns of information leakage due to all certificates being visible in CT logs. To understand this threat, we introduce a CT honeypot and show that data from CT logs is being used to identify targets for scanning campaigns only minutes after certificate issuance. We present and evaluate a methodology to learn and validate new subdomains from the vast number of domains extracted from CT logged certificates.


The stresses resulting from wind gusts can exceed the limit value and may cause large-scale structural deformation or even failure. All certified airplanes should therefore withstand the increased loads from gusts of considerable intensity. A large factor of safety will make the structure heavy and less economical. Thus, the need for accurate prediction of aerodynamic gust responses is motivated by both safety and economic concerns. This article presents the efforts to simulate and model air vehicle aerodynamic responses to various gust profiles. The computational methods developed and the research outcome will play an important role in the airplane's structural design and certification. Cobalt is used as the flow solver to simulate aerodynamic responses to wind gusts. The code has a user-defined boundary condition capability that was tested for the first time in the present study to model any gust profile (intensity, direction, and duration) on any arbitrary configuration. Gust profiles considered include sharp edge, one minus cosine, a ramp, and a 1-cosine using tabulated data consisting of gust intensity values at discrete time instants. Test cases considered are a flat plate, a two-dimensional NACA0012 airfoil, and the high Reynolds number aero-structural dynamics (HIRENASD) configuration, which resembles a typical large passenger transport aircraft. Test cases are assumed to be rigid, and only longitudinal gust profiles are considered, though the developed codes can model any gust angle. Time-accurate simulation results show the aerodynamic responses to different gust profiles including transient solutions. Simulation results show that sharp edge responses of the flat plate agree well with the Kussner approximate function, but trends of other test cases do not match because of the thin airfoil assumptions made to derive the analytical function. Reduced order aerodynamic models are then created from the convolution integral of gust amplitude and the time-accurate responses to sharp-edge gusts. Convolution models are next used to predict aerodynamic responses to arbitrary gust profiles without the need of running time-accurate simulations for every gust shape. The results show very good agreement between developed models and simulation data.


: The analysis of morbidity in tick-borne infections for many years indicates that in the 1960s-1990s in the total structure of the clinical forms of tick-borne encephalitis the erythematic form amounted to 1.4-20.9, which 1.9- to 3.1-fold exceeded the morbidity characteristics for the whole of Russia. The epidemiological analysis of morbidity at the territory for the period of 1992-2001 is indicative of the presence of the combined foci of tick-borne encephalitis and Ixodes tick-born borrelioses (TBB) in 42 regions of the territory. The cyclic character of morbidity and the irregularity of its spread in different regions of the territory can be observed. Among the TBB patients, town dwellers constitute, on the average, 75.8%. These tick-born infections exhibit regional differences connected with landscape variations and the patients age. However official statistics does not reflect the real epidemic situation at the territory: hypodiagnostics is primarily due to the absence of reliable laboratory confirmation in remote regions of the Krasnoyarsk territory.


Purpose of review The speed of dietary protein digestion influences postprandial amino acid availability which is crucial for improving altered anabolic response of skeletal muscle one feature of sarcopenia during aging. Recent findings By analogy with carbohydrate and in reference to their absorption rate, dietary proteins can be classified as 'fast' or 'slow' proteins depending on matrix food structure and technological processes, which can influence amino acids availability and their subsequent metabolic actions. 'Fast' digestive proteins have been shown to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and to improve muscle function in several recent studies involving older patients. These new aspects may be applied for improving health through preservation or restoration of muscle protein mass and function in clinical situations (obesity, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer cachexia). Summary Using fast digestive proteins is of major interest to overcome 'anabolic resistance' of aging for limiting sarcopenia. Fast proteins' action on muscle anabolism may be stimulated by other nutrients like vitamin D or omega 3 fatty acids or by combination with exercise. The beneficial impact of the 'fast' protein concept beyond the amount of dietary protein on muscle preservation is a promising therapeutic perspective to improve mobility and quality of life of older patients affected with chronic disease.


ABSTRACT Variation in gene expression underlies inter-individual variability in immune response. However, the mutations responsible for gene expression changes remain largely unknown. In this work, we searched for transposable element insertions present at high population frequencies and located nearby immune-related genes in Drosophila melanogaster. We identified 12 insertions associated with allele-specific expression changes in immune-related genes. We showed that transgenically induced expression changes in most of these genes are associated with differences in survival to infection with the gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas entomophila. We provide experimental evidence suggesting a causal role for five insertions in the allele-specific expression changes observed. Furthermore, for two insertions we found a significant association with increased tolerance to bacterial infection. Our results showed for the first time that polymorphic transposable element insertions from different families drive expression changes in genes that are relevant for inter-individual differences in immune response.


In this paper, an optimal solution method is proposed for determining the location of change, i.e. damage, within a perturbed system utilizing a nonlinear pseudo-second order search algorithm based on function evaluations and gradient information. This method is applied to damped vibrating systems and utilizes stiffness matrix sensitivities to determine the direction of search within the estimation. The site of damage (location of change) is the solution which minimizes the error between the predicted and measured change. A by-product of the Levenberg- Marquardt algorithm is an estimation of the magnitude of the change within the system which correlates to damage extent. A second-order model of a dynamic system is used, and an approximation is developed to describe small perturbations within the system.


Genetic algorithms (GA) have been shown to be very effective optimization tools for a number of engineering problems. Genetic algorithms which are based upon the principles of Darwinian evolution explores the region of the whole solution space and can obtain the golbal optimum. This paper introduces the standard GA and the forward-and-back search algorithms (FBSA) and demonstrates the use of improved genetic algorithms (IGA) for structure optimization of discrete variables. The mathematical model of structural optimization is derived. A 10-bar benchmark example is studied, the result shows that IGA, as an efficient method,can be applied to structure optimization of discrete variables.


This survey paper aims at critically discussing the recent literature on firm formation and survival and the growth of new-born firms. The basic purpose is to single out the microeconomic entrepreneurial foundations of industrial dynamics (entry and exit) and to characterise the founder's ex-ante features in terms of likely ex-post business performance. The main conclusion is that entry of new firms is heterogeneous with innovative entrepreneurs being found together with passive followers, over-optimist gamblers and even escapees from unemployment. Since founders are heterogeneous and may make "entry mistakes", policy incentives should be highly selective, favouring nascent entrepreneurs endowed with progressive motivation and promising predictors of better business performance. This would lead to the least distortion in the post-entry market selection of efficient entrepreneurs.


Static VAr compensator (SVC) with thyristor-controlled reactors (TCR) are used to control the voltage at bus SVC, while the nonlinear harmonic source is connected to the TCR busbar. This specific situation requires special treatment of the voltage control characteristic in the iterative harmonic analysis (IHA). A voltage control characteristic reduced to the TCR busbar is proposed. Under this condition, the operating point of the TCR in the IHA is treated in a way so the firing angle is adjusted to satisfy the voltage regulation characteristic. In this paper, a frequency domain TCR model is presented by means of a set of analytical expressions for harmonic currents and their sensitivities with respect to the harmonic voltages. An additional nonlinear equation is also derived for obtaining the firing angle under distorted voltage. A scheme of checking coherent operating points of TCR is also included for IHA.


Children requiring posterior fossa brain tumour surgery form a unique and significant neuro-oncology population. Postoperative vomiting (POV) is a problem for these children. Also, severe vomiting that is refractory to treatment has been seen clinically in these children, but it is not well described in the literature. A subgroup of children requiring surgery for posterior fossa brain tumours (n=153) from a larger six-year retrospective chart audit (n=249) at two Canadian children's hospitals were reviewed for the presence of no, mild, moderate, and severe POV. Inter-rater reliability was established at 94% following a blinded process of comparing POV severity rankings between two data collector/researchers. Discrepancies were resolved through discussion in order to establish a consensus severity score. Findings from multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that when age and intraoperative use of ondansetron were controlled for, the location of a tumour in a midline location had no overall effect (adjusted OR=1.37, 95% confidence interval: 0.64-2.96, p=0.43), but greater odds of severe vomiting (adjusted OR=7.08, 95% confidence interval: 2.56-19.64, p<0.001). These results support theories of modulation of vomiting by the medullary midline and clinical observations that children with midline posterior fossa tumours are at greater risk for severe refractory vomiting. The development of clinical practice guidelines and further research to study the effectiveness of novel, multimodal antiemetic therapies are required for this patient population.


Most research on tax compliance, including research on gender differences in compliance, is based on one of two problematic sources of data. One is surveys enquiring about attitudes and beliefs about taxpaying, or actual taxpaying behaviour. The other is experiments in which people who may or may not have experience of paying different types of taxes are asked to act out roles as taxpayers in hypothetical situations. Much more accurate and reliable research is possible with access to 'tax administrative data', i.e. the records maintained by tax collection organisations. With tax administrative data, researchers have access to tax assessments and tax payments for specific (anonymised) individual or corporate taxpayers. Further, tax administrative data enables researchers to take account of a phenomenon largely ignored in more conventional compliance research. Tax payment is best understood not as an event, but as part of a multi-stage process of interaction between taxpayers and tax collectors. In particular, actually making a tax payment typically represents the culmination of a process that also involves: registering with the tax collecting organisation; filing annual tax returns; filing returns that indicate a payment liability; and receiving an assessment. The multi-stage character of this process raises questions about how we conceptualise and measure tax compliance. To what extent does 'compliance' refer to: registration, filing, accurate filing, or payment? The researchers employed this framework while using tax administrative data from the Uganda Revenue Authority to try to determine gender differences in compliance. The results are sensitive to the adoption of different definitions of compliance and subject to year-to-year changes. Finding robust answers to questions about gender differences in tax compliance is more challenging than the research literature indicates.


Abstract: To non-specialists, academic disciplines invariably seem homogeneous, even monolithic. But even a relatively young discipline such as modem linguistics is more diverse in its procedures and concerns than might appear to those working in other fields. In this paper I attempt to show how certain kinds of linguistic inquiry might be relevant to those whose primary concern is rhetoric. I argue that these practices are often opposed to what I call the dominant paradigm in modern linguistics, with its commitment to abstraction and idealization. I discuss first those strands of linguistics, such as discourse analysis, text-linguistics, and stylistics, which tend to take the social formation for granted; I end by considering recent trends in so-called critical language study. Finally, I offer some thoughts on how linguistics may proceed in order to achieve a more programmatic rapprochement with rhetoric.


ABSTRACT The article describes a novel approach to estimate and calibrate column water vapour (CWV), a key parameter for atmospheric correction of remote-sensing data. CWV is spatially and temporally variable, and image-based methods are used for its inference. This inference, however, is affected by methodological and numeric limitations, which likely propagate to reflectance estimates. In this article, a method is proposed to estimate CWV iteratively from target surface reflectances. The method is free from assumptions for at sensor radiance-based CWV estimation methods. We consider two cases: (a) CWV is incorrectly estimated in a processing chain and (b) CWV is not estimated in a processing chain. To solve (a) we use the incorrect estimations as initial values to the proposed method during calibration. In (b), CWV is estimated without initial information. Next, we combined the two scenarios, resulting in a generic method to calibrate and estimate CWV. We utilized the hyperspectral mapper (HyMap) and airborne prism experiment (APEX) instruments for the synthetic and real data experiments, respectively. Noise levels were added to the synthetic data to simulate real imaging conditions. The real data used in this research are cloud-free scenes acquired from the airborne campaigns. For performance assessment, we compared the proposed method with two state-of-the-art methods. Our method performed better as it minimizes the absolute error close to zero, only within 8–10 iterations. It thus suits existing operational chains where the number of iterations is considerable. Finally, the method is simple to implement and can be extended to address other atmospheric trace gases.


Purpose
This paper aims to present a thematic analysis investigating the experiences and reflections of doctoral students in social work at a Canadian university who were mentored in the development of teaching expertise, including course design, delivery and evaluation, by a senior faculty member. Recommendations to others who are considering engaging in doctoral student teaching mentorship are presented.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the authors' reflections on their experiences of doctoral student mentorship through their involvement in collaboratively designing, teaching and evaluating an online undergraduate course. The inquiry used a qualitative approach grounded in Schon's concept of reflexive learning.

Findings
Based on the results of the thematic analysis of the mentees' reflections, this paper presents the collaborative teaching mentorship model and discusses how receiving mentorship in teaching facilitated the mentees' development as social work educators.

Originality/value
Although quality guidelines in social work education recommend that doctoral students should be adequately prepared for future teaching opportunities, there is limited discussion about doctoral student development as educators within the academic literature, especially from the perspective of doctoral students. There is also limited articulation of specific models of doctoral student mentorship in developing teaching expertise. The authors hope that sharing their reflections on their experiences and describing the collaborative teaching mentorship model will serve to deepen understandings and promote further exploration and development of doctoral student mentorship in teaching.


Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), also known as pseudotumor cerebri is a condition of elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) without laboratory pathology or intracranial structural abnormalities in radiological imaging techniques. Here in, we report a 21 years old patient presented with sudden bilateral vision loss and was treated with vetriculo-peritoneal (VPS) surgery and cured with full recovery. Management of IIH ranges from conservative medical treatment to surgical intervention. Saving the vision and reducing the symptoms are the main goals of the treatment. Severeness of the symptoms and visual impairment are considered when planning the time and type of the treatment. Considering the severeness of the symptoms, early intervention is critical to prevent permanent function loss of visual system.


Several types of inferences are employed in the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with brain injuries and disorders of consciousness. These inferences introduce unavoidable uncertainty, and can be evaluated in light of inductive risk: the epistemic and nonepistemic risks of being wrong. This article considers several ethically significant inductive risks generated by and interacting with inferences about patients with disorders of consciousness, and argues for prescriptive measures to manage and mitigate inductive risk in the context of disorders of consciousness.


The objective of this work, christened "HABA" (Hardware Backdoor Aware) is to collect data samples of series of read time of microcontroller embedded on military grade equipments and correlate it with previously stored expected behavior read time samples so as to detect abnormality or otherwise. I was motivated by the challenges faced by the Nigerian military who have labour onerously to put a stop to the menace of the terrorist group "Boko Haram" but while having achieved some measure of success, are ambushed and killed by terrorists as a result of possible information leakage or intellectual property theft. The methodology adopted is Prototyping and the expected result is a correlation coefficient that will show level of similarity of Hexadecimal codes contained in the microcontroller of the equipments under test.Keywords: Backdoor, Hardware Backdoor, Correlation Coefficient, Read Time Analysis


We consider economies with preferences drawn from a very general class of strongly convex preferences, closely related to the class of convex (but intransitive and incomplete) preferences for which Mas-Colell proved the existence of competitive equilibria [13]. We prove a strong core limit theorem for sequences of such economies with a mild assumption on endowments (the largest endowment is small compared to the total endowment) and a uniform convexity condition. The results extend corresponding results in Hildenbrand's book [8]. The proof, which is based on our earlier result for economies with more general preferences [2], is elementary.


In the article a kind biodegradable drug carrier (glycolide-co-lactide-co-caprolactone) tricomponent copolymer (PGLC) was synthesized by ring opening copolymerization of glycolide (GA), lactide (LA) and ε-caprolactone (CL), and was used to manufacture an implantable drug preparation---Cyclosporine-PGLC drug delivery system (Cs-PGLC DDS).The Cs could slowly release from the Cs-PGLC DDS near linearly and last for a long time in vitro. A clinically significant Cs concentration in the cornea and anterior chamber could be achieved by implanting the Cs-PGLC DDS in anterior chamber. It was demonstrated that the Cs-PGLC DDS is a long-effective intraocular immunosuppressive agent for remaining corneal allograft clear and significantly prolong its survival time.


Multi-channel techniques are introduced to calibrate for effects of antenna shading and crosstalk in wideband, wide-angle full polarisation radar imaging. The system is modelled as a two-dimensional integral operator which includes the transmit pulse function, receive and transmit antenna transfer functions, and response from scattering objects. Existing imaging algorithms provide an approximate inversion of this integral operator, without compensation for the effect of the multi-channel antenna transfer functions. Thus, standard processing yields poor image quality, due to the inherent variation of the antenna response (in magnitude, phase, and polarisation) across the large band of frequencies and wide range of aspect angles. Two techniques are proposed for regularised inversion of the system model. Both techniques require measurements of the antenna transfer function over the look angles and frequency band of interest. The first technique adopts a local approximation to process multi-channel range lines separately and is suitable for imaging small regions. The second technique achieves multi-channel deconvolution of the antenna response in the transform (Doppler) domain and is suitable for large data records. The result is imagery with improved polarisation purity and a more localised point spread function.


The research project explores the potential that exists when infrastructure is used to plan for cities that are experiencing economic restructuring. The North American Rust Belt is used as an example to better understand the process of economic restructuring, the possible consequences of this for municipalities, and for examples of how infrastructure can be used to repurpose, reconfigure and regenerate these places. Planning literature looking at decline and regional disparity informs this. The emerging theory of landscape urbanism and its understandings of infrastructure are used as a potential way of planning infrastructure for places that are experiencing change. Examples of planning initiatives that use infrastructure to plan in innovative ways are presented and analyzed, and a conceptual planning response is developed for Oshawa, Ontario which synthesizes this research.


We performed a long-term (35 to 45 year) follow-up study on patients who underwent surgery for intrathyroidal papillary thyroid carcinoma in order to reveal the natural history of the disease. Forty-nine patients underwent primary surgery for intrathyroidal papillary carcinoma during an 11-year period, 1950-1960. Various primary surgeries were performed, including neck exploration alone, tumor enucleation, hemi-, subtotaland total-thyroidectomy in 2, 7, 21, 5 and 14 instances, respectively. Postoperative external irradiation was performed for most patients during the latter half of the period, and TSH suppression was carried out from 1956 through 1970. Follow-up studies were done in 1958, '62, '66, '69, '76 and currently 1997. Two patients, who had had only neck exploration and external irradiation, subsequently spent nearly normal lives for 10 and 32 years. Of the 28 patients who received hemithyroidectomy or lesser surgery, cancer recurrence in the remnant thyroid occurred in nine, of whom five received reoperation. At present, of all 49 patients, 22 are alive and well, and three are alive with asymptomatic recurrence. Only one male patient who had noted the initial lymph node metastases at age 15 died of bone metastasis 22 years after neck surgery. No other patients died definitely of thyroid cancer, although the causes of three deaths were unknown and one patient was lost after incomplete resection. The results of this study strongly support the idea that the majority of intrathyroidal papillary carcinomas remain non life-threatening for over 40 years and that they can be successfully treated by complete removal of macroscopic tumors by conservative surgery, hemior subtotal thyroidectomy, without associated adjuvant therapies.


I need that like I need a hole in the head" is a colloquialism used to emphasize the fact that someone does not need something. If one examines this saying from an anatomical standpoint, a hole in the skull is referred to as a foramen (pl. foramina). The skull is a crucial osseous structure that houses a network of neurovascular and lymphatic vessels. For these networks to traverse and communicate with the entire body, the foramina must provide passage through the skull. The morphology of the foramina creates a protective enclosure for these neurovascular and lymphatic bundles.[1] This article will cover the major and vital cranial foramina and the contents within them.


Abstract In liquid-metal flows, the predictions of the Nusselt number (heat transfer) by Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models of turbulence that use the assumption of a constant turbulent Prandtl number can be significantly off. Heat transfer analyses were performed with a number of turbulence models for flows in a triangular rod bundle and in a pipe, and model predictions were compared with experimental data. Emphasis was placed on the low Reynolds (low-Re) number k-ε model that resolves the boundary layer and does not use "logarithmic wall functions." The high Reynolds (high-Re) number k-ε model underpredicts the Nusselt number up to 30%, while the low-Re number model overpredicts it up to 34%. For high Peclet number values, the low-Re number model provides better predictions than the high-Re number model. For Peclet numbers higher than 1500, the predictions of the Reynolds stress model (RSM) are in very good agreement with experimental measurements, but for lower Peclet number values its predictions are significantly off. A relationship was developed that expresses the turbulent Prandtl number as a function of the ratio of the turbulent viscosity to the molecular viscosity. With this modified turbulent Prandtl number, for the flow in the rod bundle the predictions of the low-Re number model are well within the spread of the experimental measurements. For pipe flow, the model predictions are not as sensitive to the correction of the turbulent Prandtl number as they are in the case of the flow in a bundle. The modified low-Re number model underpredicts the limited experimental data by 4%.


Since 2007, Boston has made tremendous strides in shedding its designation by Bicycling Magazine as one of the "Worst Biking Cities" (Zezima, 2009, p. A12) by designating over 92 miles of bike lanes throughout the city and introducing bicycle initiatives like Boston Bikes, the Hubway bicycle sharing program. These efforts have resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of cyclists in Greater Boston and a decrease in accidents involving bicycles ((Pedroso, Angriman, Bellows & Taylor, 2016). While the quantitative research has been primarily positive, a 2017 survey initiated LivableStreets and the Longwood Area Cyclists of commuters in the Longwood area of Boston reveal fear and anxiety over the claustrophobic riding conditions with motor vehicles and urban infrastructure in desperate need of updating to improve cyclists' safety (McFarland, 2017). While the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has introduced a public outreach campaign that encourages motorists to be cognizant of the threat they represent to cyclists and pedestrians through the "Scan the Streets for Wheels and Feet" campaign, there hasn't been a serious push to empower cyclists to prepare themselves for riding in aggressive, high-density urban areas and to advocate for improvements to transportation infrastructure that will promote their safety. This paper addresses the development of an online course that addresses urban bicycle commuter preparedness and how it can be an effective resource for both novice and seasoned commuters to connect and further advance a bicycle culture in Greater Boston. It also explores a potential partnership with a bicycle sharing program such as Hubway to encourage their patrons to participate in the course.


As at 27 January 2020, 42 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) cases were confirmed outside China. We estimate the risk of case importation to Europe from affected areas in China via air travel. We consider travel restrictions in place, three reported cases in France, one in Germany. Estimated risk in Europe remains high. The United Kingdom, Germany and France are at highest risk. Importation from Beijing and Shanghai would lead to higher and widespread risk for Europe.


A low dropout voltage regulator that uses a lateral pnp transistor as a pass transistor in the output stage is evaluated for total dose degradation. Degradation occurs from two different mechanisms, one involving gradual degradation due to changes in internal reference voltage resulting in small changes in output voltage saturation characteristics; and the other causing the output voltage to fall to nearly zero because of gain degradation in the lateral pnp output transistor. Additionally, wide variability was observed between two different lots of devices, produced approximately 18 months apart. This illustrates the importance of lot-sample testing when these highly sensitive devices are considered for use in space.


The design procedure, realization and measurements of an implantable radiator for telemetry applications are presented. First, free space analysis allows the choice of the antenna typology with reduced computation time. Subsequently the antenna, inserted in a body phantom, is designed to take into account all the necessary electronic components, power supply and bio-compatible insulation so as to realize a complete implantable device. The conformal design has suitable dimensions for subcutaneous implantation (10 × 32.1 mm). The effect of different body phantoms is discussed. The radiator works in both the Medical Device Radiocommunication Service (MedRadio, 401-406 MHz) and the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM, 2.4-2.5 GHz) bands. Simulated maximum gains attain -28.8 and - 18.5 dBi in the two desired frequency ranges, respectively, when the radiator is implanted subcutaneously in a homogenous cylindrical body phantom (80 × 110 mm) with muscle equivalent dielectric properties. Three antennas are realized and characterized in order to improve simulation calibration, electromagnetic performance, and to validate the repeatability of the manufacturing process. Measurements are also presented and a good correspondence with theoretical predictions is registered.


Background: Condom self-efficacy is an important construct for HIV/STI prevention and intervention. A psychometrically sound measure of the self-efficacy for using condoms that has been designed for Hispanic women to respond in Spanish or English is needed. Objectives: The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief self-report measure of condom use self-efficacy. Methods: We developed a 15-item measure of condom use self-efficacy based on expert knowledge of measurement and HIV/STI prevention with Hispanic women using a translation-back translation approach. Participants were 320 Hispanic women from the Southeastern US. Results: Internal consistency of the full measure was 92. A short form of the instrument with a subset of five items also had acceptable internal consistency, alpha = .80, and was significantly correlated with the full scale, rs = .93, p < .001. A single latent factor explained 9–48% of the variation in these items. Evidence of construct validity of the short form was provided by correlations of the scale with two self-report measures of condom use: rs = .34** with condom use, rs = .37** with condom use during vaginal sex. Conclusions: Either the full measure or the five-item measure could be used in studies where condom use is an important behavioral outcome, such as evaluating prevention interventions, with Hispanic women. Future studies should examine the performance of this measure with other groups, including Hispanic men and members of other ethnic and language groups.


Imagine you've experienced project heat death at least once. The term "heat death" comes from the second law of thermodynamics: entropy within a closed system increases over time without bound until the system collapses. In software, the entropy we experience most is in the design. Most of the code we add increases design entropy. Project heat death occurs when the design rots to the point where starting over is cheaper than continuing. Project heat death seems inevitable, yet when a large-scale project dies, people often stand around, surprised, asking "why us?" To do better next time, you need a sense of what problems to look for, and you need to start solving them before they spiral out of control. The author hopes this department helps in both regards.


Developmental Considerations and Day Care. Psychological-developmental implications of current patterns of early child care. Current research on early day care. Developmental risks associated with infant day care: attachment, insecurity, noncompliance, and aggression. Early day care from an infant mental health perspective. Effects of day care: implications of current knowledge. The Relationship Between Parents and Child Care Providers. Balancing working and parenting. The child care provider: pivotal player in the child's world. A comparison study of toddlers cared for by mothers or substitute caregivers. Understanding children's responses to separation. Pediatric Issues in Day Care. Health and safety in child care. Childhood illness and day care. Child Abuse and Day Care. Sexual abuse in day care. Toward the prevention of child abuse in day care. Working with maltreated children and families in day care settings. National Policy and Day Care. The expanding federal role in child care. Child care law and child care advocacy.


This paper presents a combined pointer and escape analysis algorithm for Java programs. The algorithm is based on the abstraction of points-to escape graphs, which characterize how local variables and fields in objects refer to other objects. Each points-to escape graph also contains escape information, which characterizes how objects allocated in one region of the program can escape to be accessed by another region. The algorithm is designed to analyze arbitrary regions of complete or incomplete programs, obtaining complete information for objects that do not escape the analyzed regions.
We have developed an implementation that uses the escape information to eliminate synchronization for objects that are accessed by only one thread and to allocate objects on the stack instead of in the heap. Our experimental results are encouraging. We were able to analyze programs tens of thousands of lines long. For our benchmark programs, our algorithms enable the elimination of between 24% and 67% of the synchronization operations. They also enable the stack allocation of between 22% and 95% of the objects.


The RNA hairpin-type pseudoknots and stem-loops structures are essential downstream elements for minus-one ribosomal frameshifting. While frameshifting efficiency and mechanical stability of these structures were investigated in vivo and in vitro, in silico studies were limited. Here, steered molecular dynamics simulations were performed to unfold hTR ΔU177 pseudoknot and its mutants. Microscopic molecular structures and the dynamic unfolding process, which are not observed under experimental conditions, were illustrated. Furthermore, less force was required to unfold the native pseudoknot mutants due to the destabilization of base triples. This suggests that pseudoknot stability is strongly dependent on stem-loop interactions. HIV RNA frameshifting stem-loop was also investigated. The presence of an anti-frameshifting ligand, DB213, was found to slightly stabilize the stem-loops, increasing the force required in our pulling simulations. Taken together, the link between mechanical stability, threedimensional structure and frameshifting efficiency was examined, which may provide a better understanding of minus-one ribosomal frameshifting.


In this paper we aim to recognize scenes in images without using any scene images as training data. Different from attribute based approaches, we do not carefully select the training classes to match the unseen scene classes. Instead, we propose a pooling over ten thousand of off-the-shelf object classifiers. To steer the knowledge transfer between objects and scenes we learn a semantic embedding with the aid of a large social multimedia corpus. Our key contributions are: we are the first to investigate pooling over ten thousand object classifiers to recognize scenes without examples; we explore the ontological hierarchy of objects and analyze the influence of object classifiers from different hierarchy levels; we exploit object positions in scene images and we demonstrate new scene retrieval scenarios with complex queries. Finally, we outperform attribute representations on two challenging scene datasets, SUNAttributes and Places2.


Introduction: The progression and pattern of coronary atherosclerosis in diabetes mellitus (DM) is different from non-DM, leading to a higher rate of vascular complications in DM. Objective: This study aims to assess and compare the high-risk plaque characteristics in the culprit artery of DM and non-DM patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) using virtual histology intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS). Methods: A total of 158 ACS patients were included, 63 of whom were known to have DM. IVUS analysis was done in the de novo target vessel and culprit lesion for which percutaneous coronary intervention was planned. Culprit lesions with a visual-estimate angiographic stenosis of <70% were excluded. Results: The mean age of patients was 52.4 ± 11.6 years. The study group comprised 82% men, 31% with hypertension, and 39.87% with DM. No significant difference was observed between the DM and non-DM groups in relation to quantitative IVUS parameters like lesion length, minimal lumen area, and plaque area. However, there was a significant difference in VH-IVUS parameters like higher necrotic core and dense calcium in the DM patients than in the non-DM patients (p < 0.01). The occurrence of VH-derived thin-cap fibroatheroma (VH-TCFA) in the culprit vessel was significantly higher in the DM group than in the non-DM group (25.3 vs. 5.2%; p < 0.01). Positive vessel-wall remodeling was noted in both groups without any significant difference (p = 0.74). Conclusion: The DM patients had high-risk plaque composition features like a higher necrotic core, which is a marker of plaque vulnerability. Thus, aggressive medical therapy targeting vascular inflammation using high-dose statins would help in the stabilization of unstable plaque morphology and the reduction of major cardiovascular events.


Abrasive jet machining (AJM) is a micromachining process, where material is removed from the work piece by the erosion effect of a high speed stream of abrasive particles carried in a gas medium, which are emerging from a nozzle. Abrasive machining includes grinding super finishing honing, lapping polishing etc. The common nozzle shape presently used in AJM machining process is rectangle and circular shape nozzle which gives a low flow rate and further demands on decreasing the material removal rate (MRR), so this research mainly focuses on designing nozzle geometry to improve flow rate and MRR in AJM machining process. The elliptical shape nozzle has been designed and analyzed using computational fluid dynamics software (CFD). CFD is the most efficient software for flow rate analysis. The result shows the improvement in flow rate about 574.2m/sec and MRR of newly designed nozzle geometry i.e elliptical shape in abrasive jet machining.


This paper analyses the prerequisites for and the results of unanimous monetary policy decisions in a monetary union consisting of heterogeneous members.The analysis is based on a multicountry version of Rogoff's model of the determination of monetary policy in the presence of supply shocks.It is shown that an international transfer system can be designed which creates consensus both on the average rate of inflation and the common response to asymmetric shocks to the participating economies.We conjecture that this kind of transfer mechanisms, institutionalized or informal, supporting joint decisions tend to evolve in contexts where there is strong aversion of disagreement.Monetary policy is arguably such a context, because frequent disagreement within the decision-making body could be harmful to credibility. The transfer system capable of supporting consensus on monetary policy can be based on activity-related, automatic subsidies for countries which would individually prefer lower inflation rates, and activity-related taxes for countries which would prefer higher inflation in absence of the transfer system. It turns out that the common monetary policy created by unanimous decisions under the supporting transfer mechanism can be characterized as a weighted average of the national "stand-alone" inflation rates, i.e. the rates which would prevail without the monetary union.The weights of the countries are not related to the sizes of the national economies, but rather to the national attitudes towards inflation and transfer income.Countries with a low stand-alone rate of inflation get a large weight in the determination of the common monetary policy, as do the countries which have a relatively low marginal valuation of international transfer income. Keywords: Positive inflation theory, monetary union, monetary policy


In attempts to foster sustainable forest management practices, farmers' intention on choosing different forest management models has become widely recognized as a core issue in forest management. This paper analyzed factors influencing farmers' intention on choosing individual household forest management, and joint forest management. Based on date collected through a household survey of 842 farmers in Sanming, Fujian Province using principal component analysis and multinomial logit model. Principal component analysis resulted in a three-factor the level of forest management, policy system and cutting index which accounted for 72.21% of the total variance. The results of multinomial logit model indicated educational level, the dispersion degree of forestland, the proportion of forestry income accounted to family income, the level of forest management, the number of household labor force and policy system were found to be the main factors influencing choosing the forest management model. Therefore, the government should fully respect farmers' intention on forest management model and guide them to choose the suitable management model in local conditions. Strengthen support to joint forest management to promote the development of forestry should also be take into consideration.


This paper investigates the urbanization of the Indian manufacturing sector by combining enterprise data from formal and informal sectors. We find that plants in the formal sector are moving away from urban and into rural locations, while the informal sector is moving from rural to urban locations. While the secular trend for India's manufacturing urbanization has slowed down, the localized importance of education and infrastructure have not. Our results suggest that districts with better education and infrastructure have experienced a faster pace of urbanization, although higher urban-rural cost ratios cause movement out of urban areas. This process is associated with improvements in the spatial allocation of plants across urban and rural locations. Spatial location of plants has implications for policy on investments in education, infrastructure, and the livability of cities. The high share of urbanization occurring in the informal sector suggests that urbanization policies that contain inclusionary approaches may be more successful in promoting local development and managing its strains than those focused only on the formal sector. Ejaz Ghani South Asia PREM The World Bank Washington D.C. email@example.com Arti Grover Goswami World Bank Washington, DC email@example.com William R. Kerr Harvard Business School Rock Center 212 Soldiers Field Boston, MA 02163 and NBER email@example.com


Background: Software product maintainability prediction (SPMP) is an important task to control software maintenance activity, and many SPMP techniques for improving software maintainability have been proposed. In this study, we performed a systematic mapping and review on SPMP studies to analyze and summarize the empirical evidence on the prediction accuracy of SPMP techniques in current research.

Objective: The objective of this study is twofold: (1) to classify SPMP studies reported in the literature using the following criteria: publication year, publication source, research type, empirical approach, software application type, datasets, independent variables used as predictors, dependent variables (e.g. how maintainability is expressed in terms of the variable to be predicted), tools used to gather the predictors, the successful predictors and SPMP techniques, (2) to analyze these studies from three perspectives: prediction accuracy, techniques reported to be superior in comparative studies and accuracy comparison of these techniques.

Methodology: We performed a systematic mapping and review of the SPMP empirical studies published from 2000 up to 2018 based on an automated search of nine electronic databases.

Results: We identified 82 primary studies and classified them according to the above criteria. The mapping study revealed that most studies were solution proposals using a history-based empirical evaluation approach, the datasets most used were historical using object-oriented software applications, maintainability in terms of the independent variable to be predicted was most frequently expressed in terms of the number of changes made to the source code, maintainability predictors most used were those provided by Chidamber and Kemerer (C&K), Li and Henry (L&H) and source code size measures, while the most used techniques were ML techniques, in particular artificial neural networks. Detailed analysis revealed that fuzzy & neuro fuzzy (FNF), artificial neural network (ANN) showed good prediction for the change topic, while multilayer perceptron (MLP), support vector machine (SVM), and group method of data handling (GMDH) techniques presented greater accuracy prediction in comparative studies. Based on our findings SPMP is still limited. Developing more accurate techniques may facilitate their use in industry and well-formed, generalizable results be obtained. We also provide guidelines for improving the maintainability of software.


Abstract Sustainable development has now become a popular term, but it often means different things to different people. Operationalization of this concept is still not possible. This paper examines some of the major issues associated with sustainability. The opportunities and constraints of the current environmental assessment approaches for water development are objectively discussed.


Medical imaging plays an important role in clinical procedures related to cancer, such as diagnosis, treatment selection, and therapy response evaluation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most popular acquisition modalities which is widely used in brain tumour analysis and can be acquired with different acquisition protocols, e.g. conventional and advanced. Automated segmentation of brain tumours in MR images is a difficult task due to their high variation in size, shape and appearance. Although many studies have been conducted, it still remains a challenging task and improving accuracy of tumour segmentation is an ongoing field. The aim of this thesis is to develop a fully automated method for detection and segmentation of the abnormal tissue associated with brain tumour (tumour core and oedema) from multimodal MRI images.
In this thesis, firstly, the whole brain tumour is segmented from fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MRI, which is commonly acquired in clinics. The segmentation is achieved using region-wise classification, in which regions are derived from superpixels. Several image features including intensity-based, Gabor textons, fractal analysis and curvatures are calculated from each superpixel within the entire brain area in FLAIR MRI to ensure a robust classification. Extremely randomised trees (ERT) classifies each superpixel into tumour and non-tumour. Secondly, the method is extended to 3D supervoxel based learning for segmentation and classification of tumour tissue subtypes in multimodal MRI brain images. Supervoxels are generated using the information across the multimodal MRI data set. This is then followed by a random forests (RF) classifier to classify each supervoxel into tumour core, oedema or healthy brain tissue. The information from the advanced protocols of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), i.e. isotropic (p) and anisotropic (q) components is also incorporated to the conventional MRI to improve segmentation accuracy. Thirdly, to further improve the segmentation of tumour tissue subtypes, the machine-learned features from fully convolutional neural network (FCN) are investigated and combined with hand-designed texton features to encode global information and local dependencies into feature representation. The score map with pixel-wise predictions is used as a feature map which is learned from multimodal MRI training dataset using the FCN. The machine-learned features, along with hand-designed texton features are then applied to random forests to classify each MRI image voxel into normal brain tissues and different parts of tumour.
The methods are evaluated on two datasets: 1) clinical dataset, and 2) publicly available Multimodal Brain Tumour Image Segmentation Benchmark (BRATS) 2013 and 2017 dataset. The experimental results demonstrate the high detection and segmentation performance of the
III
single modal (FLAIR) method. The average detection sensitivity, balanced error rate (BER) and the Dice overlap measure for the segmented tumour against the ground truth for the clinical data are 89.48%, 6% and 0.91, respectively; whilst, for the BRATS dataset, the corresponding evaluation results are 88.09%, 6% and 0.88, respectively. The corresponding results for the tumour (including tumour core and oedema) in the case of multimodal MRI method are 86%, 7%, 0.84, for the clinical dataset and 96%, 2% and 0.89 for the BRATS 2013 dataset. The results of the FCN based method show that the application of the RF classifier to multimodal MRI images using machine-learned features based on FCN and hand-designed features based on textons provides promising segmentations. The Dice overlap measure for automatic brain tumor segmentation against ground truth for the BRATS 2013 dataset is 0.88, 0.80 and 0.73 for complete tumor, core and enhancing tumor, respectively, which is competitive to the state-of-the-art methods. The corresponding results for BRATS 2017 dataset are 0.86, 0.78 and 0.66 respectively.
The methods demonstrate promising results in the segmentation of brain tumours. This provides a close match to expert delineation across all grades of glioma, leading to a faster and more reproducible method of brain tumour detection and delineation to aid patient management. In the experiments, texton has demonstrated its advantages of providing significant information to distinguish various patterns in both 2D and 3D spaces. The segmentation accuracy has also been largely increased by fusing information from multimodal MRI images. Moreover, a unified framework is present which complementarily integrates hand-designed features with machine-learned features to produce more accurate segmentation. The hand-designed features from shallow network (with designable filters) encode the prior-knowledge and context while the machine-learned features from a deep network (with trainable filters) learn the intrinsic features. Both global and local information are combined using these two types of networks that improve the segmentation accuracy.


This paper reports the findings of a study which involved a critical examination of "race"-related provision on initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England. It draws upon data collected as part of a national survey of ITE provision which included interviews with providers and students, and case studies of ITE providing institutions. The study utilized aspects of Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies as a theoretical framework with which to analyse the data. The paper explores the nature of provision relating to "race," suggesting that teacher educators and student teachers are often ill-equipped to address the complexities relating to this area and, as a result, they can fail to recognize the importance and potential impact of their professional practice, and their pedagogical decisions. It suggests that ITE practices are often underpinned by dysconscious racisms and manifestations of Whiteness, leading to a marginalization of "race" input, with opportunities for deeper interrogation missed, or actively avoided. The paper explores some of the constraints impacting on ITE namely a lack of time; a lack of confidence on the part of a predominantly White teacher educator workforce; a lack of recognition of the importance and significance of "race" on the part of White student teachers, and an emphasis of superficial measures of student satisfaction at the expense of deeper interrogation and deconstruction of hegemonic norms. It makes recommendations relating to how practice can be improved within the current challenging global contexts in relation to "race" equality. It calls for teacher education to aspire to produce novice teachers willing and prepared to embrace "race"-related challenges in their teaching careers, and to contribute to curricula which acknowledge and address inequality.


It has been proposed that the major portion of [3H]GABA released from rat cortical slices upon exposure to high K+ comes from a neuronal pool. Using carrier mediated exchange diffusion of DABA or β‐alanine in the superfusion medium for GABA in the slice as a technique for manipulating neuronal and glial pools of GABA, it was found that DABA but not β‐alanine substantially reduced the K+ stimulated release of [3H]GABA. The present study using synaptosomes as an in vitro model of the nerve ending was undertaken to ascertain whether this neuronal pool of releasable [3H]GABA was associated with a specific transmitter pool in nerve endings. A continuous superfusion system employing a Ca2+ pulse to produce a calcium coupled release (Levyet al, 1973) was used to study the effect of two concentrations (20 μm, 1 mm) of DABA and β‐alanine on the release of [3H]GABA from synaptosomes. In contrast to the results in slices, DABA at both concentrations had no effect on the release of [3H]GABA from synaptosomes in spite of evidence that exchange diffusion was occurring. With protoveratrine as the releasing agent there was no effect of DABA on the release of [3H]GABA from either slices or synaptosomes. The results suggest that the major portion of [3H]GABA released from cortical slices by high K+ comes from a non‐transmitter pool in the neuron. Use of K+ stimulated release of amino acids from cortical slices as a criterion for neurotransmitter function must be viewed with caution.


BACKGROUND
People with learning disability who exhibit challenging behaviour are frequently segregated from services and local teams are often reluctant to receive them back into their care. This situation is worse in those whose challenging behaviour includes a forensic history, but the difference between those labelled as challenging and those treated as offenders is not clear, and there is a lack of evidence about treatment effectiveness.

AIMS
To test between-group differences in aggression and treatment outcome in people with learning disability and challenging behaviour, with and without a forensic history.

METHOD
Clinical records of 86 former in-patients (45 offenders and 41 non-offenders) of a specialist unit were compared on measures of behavioural disturbance and placement outcome.

RESULTS
People in the offenders group were significantly less likely to be aggressive to others and to use weapons, but significantly more likely to harm themselves compared with the non-offenders group. Both groups had a significant reduction in their challenging behaviour during admission, and there was no significant difference in treatment outcome.

CONCLUSIONS
The negative reputation of people with learning disabilities who offend needs to be reconsidered.


The author reviews the comparative and non-comparative studies of cefepime and cefpirome, from which it is evident that both cephalosporins are extremely effective both clinically and bacteriologically. Success rates of about 90% have been reported for both drugs as therapy for complicated urinary tract infections, lower respiratory tract infections of the community as well as of nosocomial origin, including a large number of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae infections, skin and soft-tissue infections, surgical infections, as well as therapy for infections in neutropenic hosts. Cure rates are similar to or better than those obtained with ceftazidime, cefotaxime and ceftriaxone. The author also points out the various precautions necessary in utilizing these two antimicrobial agents.


The development of a high-resolution Positron Emission Tomography (PET) technique with sub-millimeter spatial resolution, which utilizes newly designed reverse-type APD-arrays, is uderway. All the detector blocks are modularized with the overall dimension of each module, including the APD array, LYSO scintillator matrix and Front-End Circuits (FECs), which are only 30 × 30 × 80 mm3. Each APD device also has a monolithic 16 × 16 pixel structure with an active area of 1.0 mm2 per pixel. The FEC includes two identical analog ASICs specifically designed for APDs with a noise characteristic of 560 + 30 e-/pF and a timing resolution of 460 ps (rms), respectively. An energy resolution of 13.7 ± 1.1% (FWHM) with 662 keV gamma-rays was measured using the 16 × 16 arrays. At this stage a pair of module and coincidence circuits has been assembled into an experimental prototype gantry. Spatial resolutions of 0.9, 1.4, and 1.3 mm (FWHM) were obtained from FBP reconstructed images in preliminary experiments with a point source positioned centrally, and 1 and 5 mm off-center, respectively. Comparison with a Monte-Carlo simulation of a fully-designed gantry over a wider range of field-of-view showed good correlation with the experimental data. A simple but conceptual design of a DOI configuration is also proposed as a test example of a future APD-PET scanner.