PURPOSE
Hevin is a matricellular protein and the result of a gene duplication of SPARC. SPARC-null mice have lower intraocular pressure (IOP). The function of hevin in trabecular meshwork (TM) is unknown. The authors hypothesized that hevin is expressed in TM and has a functional consequence on IOP.

METHODS
Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunoblotting were performed to identify transcription and protein expression in TM and cultured TM cells. Toluidine blue stain was performed to compare anterior segments in wild-type (WT) and hevin-null mice. Confocal microscopy localized the structural distribution of hevin in human TM and hevin/SPARC in mouse anterior segments. IOP was measured in WT (C57BL6 × 129SvJ) and hevin-null mice using both rebound tonometry and cannulation tonometry. Central corneal thickness (CCT) was measured by ocular coherence tomography. Cultured TM cells were treated with TGF-β2 because TGF-β2 is associated with primary open-angle glaucoma.

RESULTS
Hevin mRNA and protein were expressed in TM tissues but not in cultured TM cells. No structural differences were observed in anterior segments of WT and hevin-null mice. IOP between hevin-null (n = 46) and WT (n = 44) mice was equivalent (15.3 ± 1.92 mm Hg and 15.9 ± 2.01 mm Hg, respectively; P = 0.15). CCT was similar between hevin-null and WT mice (107.95 ± 5.06 μm and 106.76 ± 3.46 μm, respectively; P = 0.11). TGF-β2 did not induce hevin, whereas SPARC expression was induced in a dose-dependent manner in human TM cell cultures.

CONCLUSIONS
Hevin does not appear to be critical to regulating IOP. Hevin is expressed in TM but, in contrast to SPARC, does not appear to be regulated by TGF-β2.


To develop care of diabetes further a specialist nurse established contact with general practices in Sheffield Health District and identified difficulties in providing a service for diabetics. One hundred and thirty practices were visited, and full data were collected from 104. Each practice agreed to establish a register of diabetics, and information and support were subsequently provided to help in developing services. In collecting information from each practice the nurse covered specific points on staff, facilities, and organisation. Over two years the service offered in 60 practices considerably improved, allowing a minimum standard of diabetic care to be achieved. This allowed coordinated and effective referral of certain patients from hospital diabetic clinics and improved services to those not attending any clinics.


This guide does not set out to be comprehensive but is intended to list resources for further reading which may be useful as a starting point. Email firstname.lastname@example.com with comments or suggestions.


Prostate cancer is an important type of cancer in males with the highest mortality rate after the lung cancer, especially in industrialized countries. RAS oncogenes, originating from proto-oncogenes with point mutations, play an important role in cancer cell proliferation. The RAS proto-oncogene mutations occur in 25% of human cancers. The aim of the study was to investigate the potential mutation of KRAS gene at exon 2 (codons 12/13), exon 3 (codon 61) and exon 4 (codon 117/146) in Turkish patients with prostate cancer. The case group was comprised of 45 paraffin-embedded prostate cancer tissues. The control group was comprised of 20 healthy samples. The mutation analysis was performed by using PCR-based High Resolution Melting (HRM) analysis. The DNA samples of case and control groups were isolated and evaluated by HRM. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to evaluate the relationship between mutations in KRAS gene and prostate cancer. p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. There were mutations in exon 2 (1 patient) and exon 3 (3 patients) of KRAS. In exon 4, no mutations were determined. The results of this study suggest that exon 2 and exon 3 mutations in KRAS gene may be effective in the development of prostate cancer. In addition, the results of this study may provide insight into the efficacy of anti-EGFR treatment on cases without KRAS mutation. ISSN 2639-8478 Research Article Citation: Hasibe Vural, Ercan Kurar, Ebru Avcı, et al. KRAS Mutations: A Possible Biomarker for Advanced Prostate Cancer. Cancer Sci Res. 2018; 1(4); 1-4.


This essay will explore the image of the Gothic home in Emily Dickinson's poetry using close readings of her poems and historical sources. Analysis of nineteenth century Gothic texts will provide evidence that an admiration of female Gothic authors lead Dickinson to emulate many of the themes, motifs, and symbols they used. Their influence combines with her preoccupation with the space of the home, a predilection reflected in her letters and her poetry. Readings of Dickinson's poems demonstrate that the home may be seen as both a physical space (the house) and a mental space (the mind). These spaces present positive possibilities as well as menacing confinement, a duality fundamental to the Gothic genre. Dickinson also discusses houses in a similar way to Gothic authors—namely, she writes of the house's dual nature, that it can be both familiar and frightening, and that it is an uncanny space. She treats the house as an ambiguous subject and a powerful setting that can indicate a radical differentiation between the meaning and unmeaning of events, and the significance or insignificance of persons. Overall, Dickinson's poetry presents the reader with a phenomenology of home inextricable from the Gothic mode. Tangible constructions in the form of architectural metaphors lend support to her inherently ambiguous and often uncanny subject matter. Behind the doors and the windows, inside the chambers and underneath the gables of the houses in her poems, there exist social values of hospitality, gentility, and distinction, the joy and comfort associated with a happy home, but also anxieties, guilt, and fears. She employs numerous themes and symbols to illustrate the various significances attached to space, but her poems are most Gothic in their use of the loss of the house, which condemns her narrators to a marginal existence, disturbed, and unable to find a place to call "home."


'Regime shift' has emerged as a key concept in the environmental sciences. The concept has roots in complexity science and its ecological applications, and is increasingly applied to intertwined social and ecological phenomena. Yet what exactly is a regime shift? We explore this question at three nested levels. First, we propose a broad, contingent, multi-perspective epistemological basis for the concept, seeking to build bridges between its complexity theory origins and critiques from science studies, political ecology, and environmental history. Second, we define the concept in a way that is consistent with this epistemology, building on previous work on speed, scale, stickiness, and interrelationships, but also emphasising human perceptions and rhetorical uses of the notion. Third, we propose a novel typology of the ways in which the regime shift concept is used in analysing social–environmental phenomena in geography and beyond. These uses are categorised along two axes. On the one side, we distinguish between description of past or present changes and normative prescriptions for the future. On the other side, we distinguish between whether the focus is on material shifts (social and ecological) or conceptual shifts (discourses and ideas). We illustrate the typology with reference to social–environmental changes in landscapes around the world that are dominated by plantations or the widespread naturalisation of Australian Acacia species. We conclude that the regime shift concept is a boundary object with value as both an analytical and communicative tool in addressing social–environmental challenges.


This thesis investigates the standardisation of Modern Scottish Gaelic orthography from the mid-eighteenth century to the twenty-first. It presents the results of the first corpus-based analysis of Modern Scottish Gaelic orthographic development combined with an analytic approach that places orthographic choices in their sociolinguistic context.
The theoretical framework behind the analysis centres on discussion of how the language ideologies of the phonographic ideal, historicism, autonomy, vernacularism and the ideology of the standard itself have shaped orthographic conventions and debates. It argues that current spelling norms reflect an orthography that is the result of compromise, historical factors and pragmatic function.
The research uses a digital corpus to examine how three particular features have been used over time: the dialect variation between and ; variation in s + stop consonant clusters (sd/st, sg/sc, sb/sp); and the use of the grave and acute accents. Evidence is drawn from the Corpas na Gaidhlig electronic corpus created at the University of Glasgow: the sub-corpus used in this study includes 117 published texts representing a period of over 250 years from 1750 to 2007, and a total size of over four and a quarter million words. The results confirm a key period of reform between 1750 and the early nineteenth century, and thereafter a settled norm being established in the early nineteenth century. Since then, some variation has been acceptable although changes and reform of some features have centred on increasing uniformity and regularisation.


In this paper, the fluid flow and heat transfer of liquid cooled foam heat sinks (FHSs) were experimentally investigated. Eight Open-celled copper foam materials with two pore densities of 60 and 100 PPI (pores per inch) and four porosities varying from 0.6 to 0.9 were bonded onto copper base plates to form the FHSs, which were then assembled on flip chip BGA packages (FBGAs) with a common thermal grease as the thermal interface material. A liquid cooling test loop was established to obtain the pressure drops and overall thermal resistances. For the four 60 PPI FHSs, the one with the lowest porosity of 0.6 is found to possess the lowest thermal resistance level with the largest pressure drop. Generally the FHSs with 100 PPI had slightly lower thermal resistances at the same flowrates but much larger pressure drops than those with 60 PPI. In the overall performance assessment, the thermal resistances of the FHSs are plotted against the pressure drop and the pump power, together with a microchannel heat sink of similar unit cell scale and structural dimensions. The thermal resistances of the FHS with a porosity of 0.8 and pore density of 60 PPI were identified to be the lowest among all the FHSs, which outperformed the microchannel heat sink at large pressure drop and pump power. The reduced heat sink thermal resistance and Nusselt numbers for the present FHSs and microchannel heat sink are also presented and compared with the FHS reported in the literature.


Sidescan Sonar has become a widely used and often indispensable tool for seafloor engineering and survey activities in the oil industry This acoustic technique has the ability to create a wide and continuous 'picture' of the 3-dimensional seafloor features and contours, and therefore permits quick and economical acquisition of seafloor information which is not readily available through other types of acoustic instrumentation. The accuracy of mapped objects interpreted from this method has been limited by the fact that the fish is towed a distance from the vessel and its position is affected by different sea states and current conditions resulting in different feathering angles and layback distances. Some present interpretation techniques do take into account the uncertain feathering angles of the fish, but they assume no errors in both the layback distances. The object-chord method takes into account both the feathering angle and layback errors and in certain circumstances, due to good field practices, eliminates them, resulting in more accurate positions mapped.


Panic breeders due to outbreaks of bird flu disease that occurs at the end of 2003 caused the sudden death of millions of chickens and caused mixed reactions from the public, much less known that the disease could spread bird flu in humans. This condition causes the chicken farmers are reluctant to continue his efforts for fear of disease outbreaks. Technology for society (TfS) is done to address the problems of farmers who are reluctant to raising chickens back from the outbreak of disease. This is due not already know: 1) how sanitary cage (biosecurity) for prevention, 2) various poultry diseases, 3) the type and stage vaccine to prevent bird flu vaccination, 4) how to diagnose the disease through surgical clinical symptoms and death, 5) how to control the disease. TfS's goal is to improve human resources in raising chickens. TfS method involves the local Animal Husbandry Services, an independent veterinarian, Animal Husbandry laying hens and broiler, private parties and senior students of veterinarian through education and training. The material given is about the cultivation of laying hens. TfS's results are the increase in HR to adopt science and technology in the prevention, treatment and know the bird flu disease for farmers, students, and local governments in the use of technology for production. Conclusion TfS is the involvement of cooperation between UKM, universities and local governments in the use of technology for the prevention of bird flu disease that attacks chickens and humans disturbing.


We construct an early warning system for detecting banking crises that could be used for the macroprudential policy conduct in France. First, we select macro-financial risk indicators among a large number of candidates by considering their performances both over a panel of ten euro area countries and at the French level, for the 1985:Q1 to 2009:Q4. Second, we run all the logit models including four of these indicators, one being necessarily a measure of credit gap to fit the Basel Committee recommendations. We then retain two sets of models: one including those with all coefficients significant and expected signs, another one, obtained by relaxing these criteria. Third, we aggregate the probabilities estimated by the models, by giving each a weight proportional to its usefulness at predicting crises either at the panel or the country-level. The simulations performed both over and out of the sample show that aggregating more models yields better results than relying on one single model or only a few. Performance is also enhanced by aggregating models' results with country-specific weights relatively to common panel-weightings.


BACKGROUND: Acute myeloblastic leukemia is the most common acute leukemia in adults, with both diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. It has a poor treatment outcome both locally and internationally. The aim of this study was to investigate some epidemiological aspects and treatment outcome of AML patients treated in single center. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective observational study extended from February 2013 to February 2018 and included 98 patients who referred to Hiwa Hematology Oncology Hospital in Sulaymaniyah city. All patients had met the diagnostic criteria by flow cytometry for de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Electronic records of all patients were reviewed carefully. RESULTS: Ninety-eight patients (46 females and 52 males) with a mean age of 42 years were included the study, with new diagnosis of AML, most of the patients were below the age of 60 years (81%), while only 19% were 60 years of age or older. The most frequent subtype is AML M3 (n = 25; 25.5%) of patients, followed by M1, M2 (n = 16; 16.3%) each, and M5 (n = 15; 15.3%) with M4, M0, M6, M7, and acute leukemia of ambiguous lineage comprising the remainder, respectively. The clinical features at the diagnosis of the 98 patients included pallor in 91 patients (92.9%), easy fatigability in 82 patients (83.6%), while bleeding tendency was present in 46 patients (46.9%) in the form of ecchymosis, petechial hemorrhage, epistaxis, or abnormal vaginal bleeding. Fever was present in 85 patients (86.7%), while pain in the form of headache, generalized body ache, or bone pain was initially manifested in 29 patients (29.6%). The survival of our patients at 1 year is (88%) M3 patients, while it was (58%) for non-M3 patient. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical and epidemiological characteristics were different in some aspect, while comparable in other when compared to published studies. treatment outcome and survival data were comparable to international data.


Among the various books written to inform the consumer on how to get his money's worth this work is distinct in that it is intended for the use of school children. It is written in a simple style and is illustrated. The author, while wishing children to become skeptical of the claims made by advertisers and merchants, does not resort to the invective that is common to many books of this type. Thus in discussing advertising she refers to the large sums that are spent by manufacturers and others but says "Customers pay for advertising, yet because of.a~vertis ing the article may cost less than If It were not advertised" (page 39). However, she feels that "it is too easy for business men to exaggerate, too easy for them to use little words which make you believe things that are not true" (page 59). Separate chapters are devoted to buying hints on such goods as candy, sporting goods, school supp~ies, cosmetics, and foods, and much useful mformation is given. A final chapter is entitled, "Teamwork for Customers." The author is not anti-business but stresses the buyer's point of view. Regarding profits, she writes "The storekeeper is entitled to a profit for his work of running the store. The business man who owns a factory is also entitled to a profit for his work. But either one or both may be greedy and demand a bigger profit than that to which they are justly entitled" (page 224)' She holds that "In the game of buying, the customer himself must be skillful; he must know how to get his money's worth" (page 225). ARTHUR E. ALBRECHT College of the City of New York


In this research, we propose NTC (Neural Text Categorizer) as the approach to text categorization. Traditional approaches to text categorization require encoding documents into numerical vectors which leads to the two main problems: huge dimensionality and sparse distribution in each numerical vector. In this research, documents are encoded into string vectors instead of numerical vectors, and a new neural network called NTC which receive a string vector as its input vector is used for text categorization. The goal of this research is to avoid the two main problems by encoding documents into alternative structured data to numerical vectors. We will validate the performance of NTC by comparing it with other machine learning algorithms on the standard test bed, Reuter 21578.


In 1991, AlliedSignal was in poor shape: morale was low, operating margins were lower than 5%, return on equity was only 10.5%, and--most troubling--the operating management team was weak. But by 1999, when AlliedSignal merged with Honeywell, it was a strong and thriving business. Operating margins had tripled, return on equity stood near 28%, and it had a top-notch management group. How did the company right its course? Larry Bossidy, CEO of AlliedSignal from 1991 through 1999, believes the turnaround was made possible by a dramatic improvement in people processes. And the extraordinary amount of time and emotional energy he put into evaluating, recruiting, and developing great managers-tasks that most CEOs delegate--was the key to this process improvement. In this First Person article, Bossidy explains why he believes the interview "is the most flawed process in American business." He talks candidly about how he assesses candidates and what types of questions he asks references. He also describes the four leadership traits he looks for when evaluating job candidates: first, the ability to execute--that is, being able to turn ideas into reality. The second trait is what Bossidy calls "a career runway." When Bossidy hires someone, he wants to hire him or her for this job and the next job, never for the person's final position. A third quality is a team orientation--good leaders are able to work well with others. And the fourth quality is having a wide range of experience. To build their skill sets, Bossidy tries to ensure that up-and-coming executives sit in many seats en route to leadership roles.


The structural presence of young migrants leads us to investigate the different levels and practices through which inclusion and exclusion pro cesses are declined in daily life also considering the persistence of apparent and concealed barriers affecting the construction of new forms of political, social and cultural cohesion. Drawing on life stories of young people who arrived in Italy from the country of origin at different stages of t heir educational formation and socialization process and on fieldwork, this ethnographic paper e xplores the material and symbolic consequences engendered by the tension existing between Italian educational policy and norms regulating the status of migrants and more in general the effects of immigration policies. A case study conducted in the city of Genoa provides evidence of discrepa ncies between the aims of some institutions, in particular schools, which even if with lots of cont radictions try to valorize multiple belongings and to adhere to international Conventions on human rig hts, and an "outside" context which ties the permit of residence in Italy to the sphere of labou r or to the involvement in the education system provided that the family of a dependent major stude nt have the required income. This fact limits the opportunities and redefines the rights both of seco nd generations and adult migrants educated elsewhere and migrated in search for a new or bette r life. The expectations of young migrants with multiple id entities are thus betrayed because they have to confront walls and barriers which distance them from citizens, citizenship and connected rights.


A new method for nearshore wave simulating is introduced. Firstly, parabolic mild-slope equations are set up according to the simulation area and input waves. After solving the equations, the integral wave parameters such as the root mean square wave height, the peak wave period and the mean wave direction can be calculated. Instantaneous surface elevations can also be obtained from the model. Then, the integral wave parameters and an instantaneous surface elevation are composed into a float texture. Finally, a viewpoint-dependent sea surface is rendered using this texture as wave parameters. Experimental results show that this method can be applied to simulate large area nearshore wave in real-time with realistic effect. It is suitable for the application of real-time simulation, particularly for marine simulator.


To minimize the adverse side effects of conventional chemotherapy, a targeted micellar drug carrier was investigated that retains hydrophobic drugs in its core and then releases the drug via ultrasonic activation. This paper compares the percent drug release from folated versus non-folated micelles by insonation at 70 kHz and different acoustic power densities. The encapsulated drug is Doxoru- bicin (Dox). A physical model of zero-order release with first-order re-encapsulation was used to fit the experimental kinetic data. Additionally, the acoustic activation power density and Gibbs free energy were introduced and calculated for folated and non-targeted micelles. The data suggests an important role of inertial cavitation in drug release and the presence of a power density threshold for inertial cavitation.


The enteric pathogens and oxidative stress are known to generate intestinal inflammation, chronic gut ailments and oncogenesis. Modulation of the gut microbial peak populations through herbal agents, offers a promising therapeutic modality. Tribulus terrestris Linn. (Tt), a widely documented medicinal herb in Ayurveda, was investigated for antioxidant, antiinflammatory and antimicrobial activities in vitro. Fruit extract of Tt and quercetin, evaluated for free radical scavenging by DPPH method, revealed IC50 values as 98.83 and 24.77 μg/mL, respectively. Anti-inflammatory attributes of Tt fruit extract and indomethacin, a known anti-inflammatory drug, rendered IC50 values as 10.8 and 12.9 μg/mL against protein denaturation. MTT assay on HCT-15 cells revealed a decrease in viability from 78 to 22% against 30 and 70 μg/mL of Tt fruit extract, respectively. Zone of inhibition against E. coli increased from 0.19 to 9.82 cm at 200 and 1000 μg/mL of Tt, respectively. The fruit extract of Tt enhanced the growth of probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus (L.rh) by 19, 44 and 50 % over the control at 100, 150 and 200 μg/mL, respectively. This study indicated the potential of Tribulus terrestris fruit extract against inflammatory, oxidative and microbe generated pathogenic ailments in the digestive system.


A case report is presented of a woman with nine previous spontaneous abortions. At the beginning of her tenth pregnancy a high amount of anti-nuclear antibodies was found. The patient was given prednisolone and pregnancy and the puerperium were uncomplicated. The newborn infant had complete heart block.


To the Editor: Despite Bernadt's criticism, I stand by my support for the use of clinical practice guidelines. As a busy clinician, I do not enjoy the luxury of time to read all the specialised information on the breadth of topics which are part of general practice. Therefore, I use current, well researched, and properly weighted guidelines, or abstracts, as aidesmemoire for conditions I do not treat every day. They are also an invaluable aid to informed consent. Their use by experienced, sceptical, and particularly by compassionate, practitioners will enhance patient confidence, compliance, and clinical outcomes.


Current developments in wave energy conversion have focused on locations where the wave energy resource is the highest; using large devices to generate hundreds of kilowatts of power. However, it is possible to generate power from low power waves using smaller wave energy devices. These lower rated wave energy converters can form arrays to supply power to remote coastal or island communities which are off-grid. This study introduces wave-to-wire modelling of wave energy arrays for off-grid systems using low power permanent-magnet linear generators (PMLGs). Offshore energy storage at the DC link is added to keep the voltage constant along with a current controller for the inverter in order to supply constant low harmonic power to the residential load connected off-grid. Simulation results produced in MATLAB/Simulink environment show that the wave energy array can generate power independently from the residential side by keeping the system stable using offshore storage. In addition, two different types of controllers for wave energy devices that use PMLGs are compared based on the power captured from the waves.


This study investigates how social representations and consumers' identification with organic food consumers affects intentions to buy products that make environmental and ethical claims. For the purposes of the study, an online panel study was conducted on a representative sample of consumers (n=1006) in the United Kingdom. The results demonstrate that consumers who are adherent to natural foods or technology and do not perceive food as a necessity are more willing to buy environmentally friendly and ethical products. There seems to be no relationship between perceptions of food as a source of enjoyment and intentions to buy sustainable products. Finally, social identification with the organic consumer is positively related with the intentions to buy products that make environmental and ethical claims. The current research demonstrates that both individual perceptions of food and consumers' perceptions of the social environment play an important role in promoting environmentally friendly and ethical behaviour.


A subset of colorectal cancers (CRCs) harbor the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP), with concurrent multiple promoter hypermethylation of tumor-related genes. A serrated pathway in which CIMP is developed from serrated polyps is proposed. The present study characterized CIMP and morphologically examined precursor lesions of CIMP. In total, 104 CRCs treated between January 1996 and December 2004 were examined. Aberrant promoter methylation of 15 cancer-related genes was analyzed. CIMP status was classified according to the number of methylated genes and was correlated with the clinicopathological features, including the concomitant polyps in and around the tumors. The frequency of aberrant methylation in each CRC showed a bimodal pattern, and the CRCs were classified as CIMP-high (CIMP-H), CIMP-low (CIMP-L) and CIMP-negative (CIMP-N). CIMP-H was associated with aberrant methylation of MLH1 (P=0.005) and with an improved recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate following curative resection compared with CIMP-L/N (five-year RFS rate, 93.8 vs. 67.1%; P=0.044), while CIMP-N tumors were associated with frequent distant metastases at diagnosis (P=0.023). No concomitant serrated lesions were present in the tumors, whereas conventional adenoma was contiguous with 11 (10.6%) of 104 CRCs, including four CIMP-H CRCs. CIMP-H was classified in CRCs by a novel CIMP marker panel and the presence of concomitant tumors revealed that certain CIMP-H CRCs may have arisen from conventional adenomas.


Several computer vision applications such as object detection and face recognition have started to completely rely on deep learning based architectures. These architectures, when paired with appropriate loss functions and optimizers, produce state-of-the-art results in a myriad of problems. On the other hand, with the advent of "blockchain", the cybersecurity industry has developed a new sense of trust which was earlier missing from both the technical and commercial perspectives. Employment of cryptographic hash as well as symmetric/asymmetric encryption and decryption algorithms ensure security without any human intervention (i.e., centralized authority). In this research, we present the synergy between the best of both these worlds. We first propose a model which uses the learned parameters of a typical deep neural network and is secured from external adversaries by cryptography and blockchain technology. As the second contribution of the proposed research, a new parameter tampering attack is proposed to properly justify the role of blockchain in machine learning.


It is a wonderful grope for integrating wireless sensor network which acts as an infrastructure of sensing environment around with open grid computing. The combination of the two systems poses many challengers. This paper has analyzed the key characters of the connecting platform for integrating sensor network with grid. We also designed and developed such a connecting platform which supports communication & collaboration between sensor network and grid. The advantage of the connecting platform is that it is based on Web service resource framework, with the ability of integrating multiple sensor networks with grid; also it supports interoperability among multiple sensor networks. The simulation results show that the notification mechanism which is restricted by the running resource is the key factor for getting sensor data successfully.


Abstract This research is an application of machine learning in medical sciences. The purpose of this research was to use machine learning through the simulated data to study the association of age, body mass index, cigarettes smoked per day, alcohol consumed per week, diastolic blood pressure, and systolic blood pressure on hypertension and coronary heart disease. The Structural Equation Modelling using Partial Least Square Method was used for the analysis of data. The results have revealed that except for age, body mass index and systolic blood pressure all the rest of the factors had a significant positive association with hypertension and coronary heart disease. The results can be of use for medical practitioners as well as researchers in machine learning, as it adds to the repository of earlier studies, which have attempted to seek relationships between these variables.


Mosques are among the most important building types for any community, where Muslims gather for their prayers and social activities. Mosque architecture has developed over history and faced several dramatic changes. This raises a question regarding the reality of mosque architecture and how it should look like today. This paper discusses this issue through a historical overview and some critical observations. Firstly, the paper discusses the historical functional role of mosque basic elements. Validity of these elements within the context of modern architecture has been argued considering the contemporary inputs that have a significant impact on mosque architecture. Several cases are presented and discussed in this regard. The study concluded that there is a great symbolic and spiritual value of these elements that should be maintained. The analysis carried out of several contemporary cases revealed that there is a wide margin to revive and reintroduce these elements in the light of the modern architectural trends. In addition to their functional roles, mosque architectural elements could be used as identity elements of the Islamic city, microclimatic modifiers, and linking tools between the past and the present.


This paper has examined pest management practices in four important vegetable crops, viz. chillies, cauliflower, brinjal and bhendi using farm level cross-sectional data. Average pesticide usage has been estimated at 5.13, 2.77, 4.64 and 3.71 kg active ingredient per hectare on chillies, cauliflower, brinjal and bhendi crops, respectively. On an average, cauliflower and brinjal are each given 15 applications, chillies is given 13 and bhendi is given 12 applications. The study has suggested that for reducing pesticide-use, farmers need to be educated about different nonchemical control methods and should be encouraged to adopt integrated pest management (IPM) practices.


The tyrosine kinase BMX may act as a global promoter of maximal receptor tyrosine kinase activity. This Podcast features an interview with Steven Balk, senior author of a Research Article that appears in the 28 May 2013 issue of Science Signaling. BMX (bone marrow tyrosine kinase gene on chromosome X) is a protein tyrosine kinase that can be activated downstream of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and the kinase Src, but not much is known about its substrates. In a study by Chen et al. published this week in Science Signaling, Steven Balk's group reports that BMX preferentially phosphorylates other tyrosine kinases on primed tyrosines, which are unphosphorylated tyrosine residues that are located next to phosphorylated tyrosine residues. The authors demonstrate that BMX promotes maximal signaling by the receptor tyrosine kinase FAK and the insulin receptor. Several other tyrosine kinase receptors contain such primed tyrosine motifs, implying that BMX may regulate signaling through various signaling pathways.


Background: Ward rounds serve as a forum for sharing information between the patient and health care professionals. In order to ensure the multiprofessional nature of the rounds, the nurse's expertise and knowledge of the patient's situation is needed. The nurse's presence during the ward rounds is necessary to ensure patient satisfaction and the quality of the patient's treatment, even though nurses rarely participate in discussions during the ward rounds.
Aim: To describe how active nurses are as discussion openers during ward rounds and to compare the activity of nurses working in different specialities as discussion openers, in addition to investigating the significance of background factors.
Methods: The data were collected in a Finnish university hospital in 2012-2013 by observing ward round situations with patients (N=365) on different speciality wards using an observation form.
Results: The nurses were fairly passive in initiating discussions about the patient's physical status and passive in opening a discussion on the patient's psychological status. The nurses were passive in opening discussions concerning the planning or evaluation of the patient's treatment. Nurses specializing in gastric surgery or internal medicine in gastroenterology initiated discussions more actively than nurses in other specialties. Nurses opened discussions more often in the context of emergency care patients than in connection with patients who had arrived at the hospital for an elective procedure.
Conclusion: Nurses should use their expertise in opening discussions on the patient's physical and psychological state, as well as decision-making regarding the planning and evaluation of treatment. Support from managers in different professional groups is important for increasing the participation of nurses during ward rounds. In the future, it would be interesting to study the shared experience of nurses, physicians and patients regarding the ward rounds, as well as the patients' own experiences.


``Clusters of galaxies are the largest virialised systems in the Universe'' is one of the most common statements in the framework of galaxy clusters research. This occurs because such gravitationally bound structures become ideal laboratories to directly study their baryon content (intracluster medium and galaxies) and to indirectly measure their dark matter content. In the present thesis we focused our attention on the galaxy population of clusters in order to shed some light about the process or processes that act on galaxies producing morphological transformations, enhancement/truncation of the star formation activity, colour changes, etc. We investigated the physical properties of the galaxy population of two distant clusters with the aim of constraining the physical mechanisms governing the evolution of clusters and their galaxies.
For this purpose, we have used the innovative observational technique of the OSIRIS/GTC tunable filters (TF) to detect galaxies with emission--lines. In particular, we presented the mapping of two emission--lines: the Halpha line in the Cl0024+1654 cluster at z~0.4 and the [OII] line in the RXJ1257+4738 cluster at z~0.9. Since it is an unusual technique, we included in this thesis a complete description of the procedures we have performed from the raw data until achieving the final cluster catalogues. The catalogues finally derived demonstrate the powerful of the TF tomography technique to obtain a reliable cluster membership sample. Our results proved that we are able to determine with high accuracy the line position, which allows us to compute radial velocity values comparable to low resolution spectroscopy measurements, and to derive efficiently the line flux, which allows us to estimate the star formation activity.
Moreover, in the particular case of Cl0024, we have revealed the potential of the emission--line galaxies to estimate, using the caustic method of Diaferio et al. (1997), the cluster total mass. For this cluster, the TF data also allow us to deblend the Halpha and [NII] lines, enabling the study of the active galactic nuclei population.
The analysis of the RXJ1257 cluster, the main target of this thesis, was made in three steps: the infrared view, the [OII] emission--line mapping, and the morphological characterization. We have also taken advantage of the TF technique, but the full study of RXJ1257 was possible through the use of a complete multi--wavelength dataset covering the range from the optical to the FIR. This multi--wavelength dataset is comprised by g'r'i'z' broad--band imaging from OSIRIS/GTC, J--band imaging from LIRIS/WHT, the four bands imaging of IRAC/Spitzer, 24um--band imaging of MIPS/Spitzer, the 100 and 160um bands imaging of PACS/Herschel, and the three bands imaging of SPIRE/Herschel. First, we built a cluster membership catalogue with ~300 cluster galaxies by fitting the multi--wavelength dataset to spectral energy distribution templates. Then, we analysed the FIR-- and the [OII]--emitter populations. As a result, we observed a filamentary--like substructure distribution with the population of emitters preferentially located at medium densities, suggesting that the RXJ1257 cluster is still under the process of formation. We found that an average star--forming galaxy forms the same stellar mass per unit time in all local density regions, but that the relative number of star--forming galaxies is significantly higher at medium-- to even high--density environments. Therefore, for this cluster, we noticed that the quenching of the star formation activity in the densest regions has not happened yet. Since the FIR and [OII] cluster populations do not completely overlap, we investigated the three star--forming samples ([OII]--only, FIR--only, and [OII]+FIR emitters) and obtained that the most plausible explanation to the lack of [OII]--emission in the most massive and reddest FIR--emitters is the attenuation by dust.
Finally, this thesis includes a detailed morphological classification of the RXJ1257 cluster members. This work used the non--parametric methods implemented in the galSVM code (Huertas-Company et al. 2008) to prove the feasibility of the partial classification of galaxies in clusters at z~0.9 with data from ground--based telescopes, such as the GTC. The analysis of the morphologically classified cluster galaxies indicated that even in such a young and distant cluster the early--type galaxies are concentrated in the densest regions, while the late--type tend to be located at some distance from the cluster centre.


Test coverage criteria, including logical coverage, such as Modified Condition / Decision Coverage (MC/DC) have been increasingly used in safety-critical or mission-critical domains, complementing the more popularly used structural coverage criteria such as branch coverage. However, existing automated test-generation approaches such as concolic test generation often target at branch coverage for test generation and selection. Therefore, they do not support testing against logical coverage. Existing test-generation approaches fail to strategically choose input values to achieve high or complete logical coverages. To
address these issues, we propose some source code pre-processing (program transformation) techniques to generate test inputs that achieve logical coverage for the program under test. In Particular, we use code instrumentation to assist an existing test-generation approach(Concolic Testing) that targets, at achieving logical coverage such as MC/DC.

We present code transformation techniques that enable concolic testing execution to achieve increased MC/DC percentage. The transformation techniques introduce several new branches in the program under test. However, we do not modify any existing code of the program. We only insert nested conditional statements with empty branches in the program. These new branches contain constraints that need to be satisfied to achieve an increase in MC/DC. We then supply the transformed program to the concolic tester for dynamic symbolic testing. The generation of input values for the transformed program achieves an increase in MC/DC for the program under test. We have proposed our first code transformation technique named Program Code Transformer (PCT). We use Boolean logic simplification techniques that help generate equivalent simple conditional statements. The equivalent simple conditions for a predicate are inserted in the program under test with empty branches before the particular predicate. We use Boolean algebra properties to solve the Boolean expressions to frame into the Sum of Product (SOP) form. Then, the Boolean expression may become complex. To address this issue, we have applied Quine-McCluskey(QM) technique. After using PCT, MC/DC percentage is still low and insufficient. Hence, it requires some more test input values to achieve an increase in MC/DC percentage. Therefore,we propose another transformer named Exclusive-NOR Code Transformer (EX-NCT). We use Boolean derivative method to generate additional conditional statements for the complex Boolean expressions in the program. These additional conditions contain constraints which show the independent effect of component conditions on the evaluation of a complex condition. The additional conditional statements are inserted in the program under test with empty branches before the particular predicate. We have fused PCT and Ex-NCT to get some more test data, and observed that it really works. We have named this third type of code transformer as Double Refined Code Transformer (DRCT), due to its double transformation nature. We have set up a client-server mesh-topology of the computer systems and executed distributed concolic testing to generate more number of useful test cases. Since, now-a-days many programs are written in object-oriented programming languages, so we have extended our proposed techniques to handle object-oriented language such as Java. We have also extended our proposed techniques to handle multithreaded Java programs.

During experimentation using concolic testers, we found that there are some test inputs with large integer values. We have replaced those values with "0"(Zero) a neutral value and created new test inputs. Then, we observed significant increase in MC/DC percentage. Subsequently, we propose a technique to minimize the number of test cases and another technique to prioritize the test cases.

We have developed some tools to measure MC/DC percentage of the program under test.From the experimental results, it is observed that we have achieved higher MC/DC than that of the existing methods/approaches.


By 1956, the Newark, New Jersey–based, art team of Marshall S. Simpson (1900–1958) and Roslynn E. Middleman (1929–2003) had produced a large and important series of abstract paintings that depicted various interpretations of space and the night sky. Eleven of these works were featured in employment advertisements placed over the next two years by the Boeing Airplane Company (now the Boeing Company) in Scientific American and elsewhere. Signed "Simpson-Middleman," the paintings combined science, mathematics, and art into a single medium. Only one of the original works used by Boeing can now be located. This article tells for the first time the story of the unusual Simpson-Middleman art collaboration and the Boeing ad campaign, then documents in an illustrated checklist their paintings with related captions used in each of the seventeen Scientific American advertisements that incorporated them.


Introduction road traffic injuries are the eighth cause of mortality globally, killing about 1.35 million people and leaving more than 50 million others with permanent injuries and disabilities yearly. In Tanzania, the impact of road traffic crashes is still high despite a noticeable reduction in the number of associated injuries. This paper seeks to lay the foundation for promoting multisectoral actions and collaborations in dealing with public health concerns due to increased consequences caused by road traffic deaths and injuries Methods in 2015, a multisectoral approach was adopted to implement a 5-year (2015-2020) road safety program that aimed to advocate for amendment of the Road Traffic Act of 1973, Chapter 168 Revised Edition 2002. A series of consultative sessions were held between government and non-state actors, including different committees formed to feed each other on the agenda. The program was implemented through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Home Affairs in collaboration with World Health Organisation and civil society organisations. Results it has been noted that there is a direct relation with a set of combined policy-level interactions seeking to improve the legal environment for road safety. The program committee, civil society organisations, and parliamentarians' forum were solicited as essential stakeholders in advancing policy reform. Together they conducted a series of consultative meetings, resulting in having a Bill tabled in the Parliament as a first draft. This informed policymakers and raised their attention to the magnitude of road traffic crashes and the country's social and economic burden. Conclusion efforts still need to be expanded to analyse the existing data to understand the extent to which risk factors contribute to road crashes, injuries, and deaths. There is a need to have a strong Government involvement in strengthening ownership and sustainability of any public health intervention, such as road safety.


The high speed digital world of today has eased the process of data transmission. Today, large amount of data can be transferred in small amount of time which has raised a big question on the secrecy of data, since it can easily be accessed by any third party. Digital Steganography is the science that involves communicating secret data in an appropriate multimedia carrier such that the existence of communication is hidden.
The art of information hiding has gained much importance in past few years because after having solved the issue of speed and amount of data to be transferred, the other big concern is the security of that data as the information is being transmitted via common channels of communication. Steganography is a technology where data compression, cryptography and information theory like methods are brought together to provide the required amount of secrecy to transfer data.
Classification of steganography techniques into multiple categories is based on the cover modification applied in the embedding process and the type of cover used for secret communication. This is totally a review paper, in which we provide the comparison of available steganography methods of hiding text in an image file, audio file, text file or a video file using some basic techniques namely Substitution System, Transform Domain, Spread Spectrum technique, Statistical Method, Distortions Technique and Cover Generating Methods which are categorised accordingly in their respective domains. These types of files act as a cover file for sending the secret message in embedded form.


We explore the relationship between connections and public transfers in decentralized poverty-targeting programmes. Using panel data from Vietnam we find evidence that households with connections to local government are more likely to be classified as poor, the main determinant of whether households receive public benefits/supports. Social connections play a role by allowing politically connected households to receive supports without being reprimanded by their local community. We identify provision of information as a mechanism through which households use their connections to obtain the poverty classification, suggesting that information campaigns may be an effective means of eliminating local level corruption in poverty-targeting programmes.


This paper presents a summary of a six year study into the design,
implementation and evaluation of a computer-adaptive test (CAT) for the
assessment of Computer Science undergraduates in a UK university. In the
first part of this project, a series of empirical studies were carried out in order
to evaluate the contribution that the CAT approach could make to the
assessment of Computer Science undergraduates. A brief summary of this
research is presented in this paper. It was found in this research that the
developed CAT was effective at tailoring the level of difficulty of the test to the
ability of individual students. The two main groups of stakeholders, students
and academic staff, both exhibited a positive attitude towards the CAT
approach and the user interface. In the main part of this paper, the validity
and reliability of the CAT approach is assessed. Two empirical studies were
undertaken in order test the CAT's validity and reliability and the results of
these studies are presented here. Findings from this research are interpreted
to show that in the context of assessment in Higher Education, the CAT
developed in this research was valid and reliable. In the concluding section
these findings are discussed in relation to other research in this area.


The Climate Change Action Plan describes the IDB Groups progress since 2016 to support the regions need for low-carbon and climate-resilient development finance and its plan to raise climate ambition continuously in the region. The Second Update to the Institutional Strategy specifies that cross cutting issues, including climate change, continue to hamper development and that the IDB Group will renew its commitment to address them. The climate-finance goal set in the Bahamas Resolution has been extended through its inclusion in the IDB Group Corporate Results Framework 2020- 2023 (CRF 20202023).5 At the same time, all MDBs have committed to complement tracking of their financial contributions to climate action with a new approach focused on the consistency of their support with long-term decarbonization and climate resilience efforts. To this end, MDBs have outlined a common approach to support countries to deliver on their commitments under the PA. There has also been increasing recognition of the need to measure the results of the IDB Groups climate action and the complexity it entails.


Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) is now recognized as a treatable cause of dementia. Recent estimates show that it accounts for 1-10% of patients with the diagnosis of dementia.. Although, surgical treatment by inserting a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt is the only known procedure to treat the symptoms, the selection of patients for surgery has always been problematic. Therefore, a pilot project was undertaken to see if by using the method of proteomics biomarkers for NPH could be identified for patients with this condition. Objectives The aim of the project was to use surface enhanced laser desorption ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) to look at the expression of protein in idiopathic NPH and control groups. If there are any changes in the expression of proteins between the two groups, the SELDI-TOF MS and sophisticated biomarker wizard software will detect these and identify the statistical relevance of the biomarker. Once a biomarker has been 'flagged', further studies will be used to obtain the identity of the protein. Methods and materials Sixteen CSF samples were analysed in this study. Five patients with trigeminal neuralgia and four patients with benign intracranial hypertension were used as controls seven patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus comprised the study group. SELDI-TOF MS analysis of all 16 samples was performed using four different ProteinChip arrays. Nine (high molecular mass proteins) potential biomarkers of NPH have been detected by using high mass CM10 proteinChip with significant statistic results. No biomarkers were detected using the other arrays used in this study. Conclusions In this study, the SELDI-TOF MS technique has been used to study the proteins in the CSF of patients with INPH, and compare them with the proteome maps of the control groups. This has resulted in the detection of several significant changes in the CSF proteins of the patients with INPH when compared to the other two groups used as controls.


The cytochrome P-450-dependent drug metabolism system activities of rat colon microsomes are increased by gastroin testinal hormones. Pentagastrin, secretin, and cholecystokinin octapeptide increase the specific content of cytochrome P-450 over control and stimulate /V-demethylation, O-dealkylation, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon hydroxylation to different degrees. Increase in hydroxylation activity by pentagastrin is dose dependent with a stimulation of 250% of control occurring at a dose level of 250 fig/kg body weight. The increase in hydroxylation activity is prevented by cycloheximide treatment showing dependence on protein synthesis. Pentagastrin and cholecystokinin increase the specific content of colon microsomal P-450 77%, while secretin increases cytochrome P-450 content 138% of the control value. Pentagastrin induces a 4fold increase in ethylmorphine demethylation, while the major effect by secretin is on p-nitrophenetole dealkylation activity (2-fold increase), and the major effects of cholecystokinin are on benzphetamine and benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylation (2-fold induction). These hormones induce the hydroxylation of other substrates also, but the pattern of effects varies with the hormone used. Liver microsomal hydroxylation activities are also increased significantly by pretreatment with these hor mones, although to a lesser degree than colon hydroxylation activities. Several tissue substances induce the hydroxylation of specific substrates, although no pattern of inductive effects is evident. For example, reserpine pretreatment doubles the rate of benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylation in liver and colon microsomes but decreases or has no effect on other hydroxylation activities in liver microsomes and induces only ethylmorphine dealkylation in colon microsomes. On the other hand, 16,16dimethylprostaglandin E2 induces benzphetamine hydroxyl ation in the colon but only benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylation in the liver. The gastrointestinal hormones induce drug metabolism with an apparent pattern of specificities and an increase in cytochrome P-450 specific content not seen in animals pretreated with the tissue substances tested.


The effects of putrescine (a polyamine), low temperature and their combinations on the activities of apoplastic antioxidant enzymes were studied in the leaves of two wheat cultivars, winter (Dogu-88) and spring (Gerek-79). Fifteenday-old wheat seedlings were treated with putrescine solutions (0.1, 1 and 10mM) prior to cold treatment (5/3°C). The activities of apoplastic catalase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase were determined in the leaves both under normal and cold conditions at 1, 3 and 5 days. The results indicate that cold treatment significantly increased the activities of apoplastic catalase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase in winter wheat while not generally affecting spring wheat. Under control conditions, the putrescine treatments were more effective in increasing the enzyme activities in winter wheat than in spring wheat. However, under cold conditions, the putrescine treatments surprisingly induced enzyme activities in spring wheat while generally reducing those in winter wheat leaves. The results show that putrescine may act as an agent inducing primary changes in the apoplastic antioxidant system of wheat leaves during reactive oxygen species-mediated damage caused by low temperature stress.


The Nile Delta Basin is a major gas province. Commercial gas discoveries there have been proven mainly in Pleistocene to Oligocene sediments, and most discoveries are within sandstone reservoirs. Three-dimensional seismic data acquired over the basin have helped greatly in imaging and visualization of stratigraphy and structure, leading to robust understanding of the subsurface. Channel fairways serve as potential reservoir units; hence, mapping channel surfaces and identifying and defining infill lithology is important. Predicting sand distribution and reservoir presence is one of the key tasks as well as one of the key uncertainties in exploration. Integrating state-of-the-art technologies, such as including 3D seismic reflection surveys, seismic attributes, and geobody extractions, can reduce this uncertainty through recognition and accurate mapping of channel features. In this study, seismic attribute analysis, frequency analysis through spectral decomposition (SD), geobodies, and seismic sections have been used to delineate shallow Plio-Pleistocene El Wastani Formation channel fairways within the Saffron Field, offshore Nile Delta, Egypt. This has led to providing more reliable inputs for calculation of volumetrics. Interpretation of the stacked-channels complex through different seismic attributes helped to discriminate between sand-filled and shale-filled channels and in understanding their geometries. Results include more confident delineation of four distinct low-sinuosity channelized features. Petrophysical evaluation conducted on five wells penetrating Saffron reservoirs included electric logs and modular dynamic test data interpretation. The calculated average reservoir properties were used in different volumetric calculation cases. Different approaches were applied to delineate channel geometries that were later used in performing different volumetric cases. These approaches included defining channels from root-mean-square amplitude extractions, SD color-blended frequencies, and geobodies, all calculated from prestack seismic data. The different volumetric cases performed were compared against the latest field volume estimates proven after several years of production in which an area-versus-depth input showed the closest calculated hydrocarbon volumes to the actual proven field volumes.


Fidaxomicin, also known as tiacumicin B or lipiarmycin A3, is a novel macrocyclic antibiotic that is used in hospitals for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infections. This natural product has also been shown to have excellent bactericidal activity against multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In spite of its attractive biological activity, no total synthesis has been reported to date. The enantioselective synthesis of the central 18-membered macrolactone is reported herein. The key reactions include ring-closing metathesis between a terminal olefin and a dienoate moiety for macrocyclization, a vinylogous Mukaiyama aldol reaction, and a Stille coupling reaction of sterically demanding substrates. The retrosynthesis involves three medium-sized fragments, thus leading to a flexible yet convergent synthetic route.


We study the orbital decay of a pair of massive black holes (BHs) with masses and 107 , using hydrodynamical simulations of circumnuclear disks (CNDs) with the alternating presence of sub-grid physics, such as radiative cooling, star formation, supernova feedback, BH accretion, and BH feedback. In the absence of such processes, the orbit of the secondary BH decays over timescales of to the center of the CND, where the primary BH resides. When strong dissipation operates in CNDs, fragmentation into massive objects the size of giant molecular clouds with densities in the range 104–107 amu cm−3 occurs, causing stochastic torques and hits that can eject the secondary BH from the midplane. Outside the plane, the low-density medium provides only weak drag, and the BH return is governed by inefficient dynamical friction. In rare cases, clump–BH interactions can lead to a faster decay. Feedback processes lead to outflows, but do not significantly change the overall density of the CND midplane. However, with a spherically distributed BH feedback, a hot bubble is generated behind the secondary, which almost shuts off dynamical friction. We dub this phenomenon "wake evacuation." It leads to delays in the decay, possibly of . We discuss the non-trivial implications on the discovery space of the eLISA telescope. Our results suggest that the largest uncertainty in predicting BH merger rates lies in the potentially wide variety of galaxy host systems, with different degrees of gas dissipation and heating, yielding decay timescales from to .


Around 1950, when the members of the anti-Nazi alliance found themselves locked into a political and ideological stalemate that none of them could afford to escalate into another 'hot' war, culture assumed unprecedented significance as the domain for the performance of superpower rivalries and the negotiation of detentes. Drawing on unpublished sources from governmental and private archives in the United States, Europe, and Japan, this dissertation reconstructs and assesses the ambitions, successes, and failures of the music festival-conferences organized by Russian emigre composer Nicolas Nabokov in his capacity as the secretary-general of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Founded in West Berlin in June 1950, the Congress presented itself as a non-governmental international coalition of politically engaged intellectuals united by their concern over the expansionist ambitions and evident appeal of the Soviet Union. In reality, the Congress was part of an anticommunist counteroffensive coordinated and subsidized by the American and British secret intelligence agencies, a fact shockingly brought to light in the mid-1960s, at the height of the Vietnam War. Chapters 1-4 analyze and contextualize Nabokov's aesthetical and political positions, tracing his entanglements with the forces that eventually convinced the Truman administration to invest in the promotion of the United States as the paragon of cultural liberalism. Nabokov's ideal of artistic autonomy is brought into dialogue with the views of those who expected socio-political engagement from artists, such as the supporters of the 1948 Manifesto of the Second International Congress of Composers and Music Critics in Prague, or those who welcomed Dmitri Shostakovich as one of the Soviet delegates to the 1949 Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace in New York. Generally construed as Moscow-controlled manifestations aimed at advancing Zhdanovist poetics and politics beyond the Soviet Union, I argue that the Prague and New York assemblies emanated in fact from, and appealed to, widely shared concerns among non-aligned Americans and Europeans about the commercialization and increasing politicization of culture in East and West. Chapters 5-8 investigate the tumultuous rise and consolidation of the Congress for Cultural Freedom as a seemingly civilian association engaged in cultural representation and diplomacy. Detailed case studies of Nabokov's festival-conferences—'Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century' (Paris, 1952), 'Music of the Twentieth Century' (Rome, 1954), 'East-West Music Encounter' (Tokyo, 1961), and 'Tradition and Change in Music' (New Delhi, 1964)—reveal the dissonances between the cosmopolitan values they intended to convey and the local political dissensions in which they invariably became embroiled. Nonetheless, Nabokov's festival-conferences succeeded in forging a global network of music professionals from the 'free' and 'non-aligned' worlds who shared the notion that their respective governments responded inadequately to the corruptive influences of communism abroad and the 'culture industry' at home in what they conceived as the universal, apolitical realm of 'high culture'—a concept proven deceptive by the CCF's covert sponsorship.


The morphology of a shoreline can provide insight into the processes that have modified the coast. This thesis investigates how coastal processes can leave fingerprints on the morphology of a coast in sandy environments (barrier islands) and detachment-limited environments (rocky coasts of Earth and possibly Titan). Barrier islands are dynamic and ephemeral, facing an uncertain future from climate change and anthropogenic redistribution of sediment. To evaluate barrier resilience to sea-level rise, I propose a novel dimensionless metric called the Washover Ratio which compares cross-shore (overwash) and alongshore transport. Using this ratio, I find that decreases in overwash flux within the narrow middle section—possibly representing the effects of development—lead to a diminished response to sea-level rise across the entire barrier, and therefore a more vulnerable barrier overall. Further investigation of the balance between overwash and alongshore sediment transport allows for an evaluation of barrier island stability to overwash-induced breaching, which is applied to barriers in the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond Earth, Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is home to the only other active coastlines in our solar system. However, data is sparse for this icy moon. I investigate the signatures of coastal processes found in the planform shape of its coasts using a combination of landscape evolution models and measurements of shoreline shape. Results show that the coastlines of Titan's seas are consistent with those of both modelled and Earth lakes with flooded river valleys that have been subsequently eroded by waves, particularly when waves saturate (no longer grow in height) at scales up to 10s of km.


ABSTRACT Ultisol dominated about 25% of the total land area in Indonesia. It has the potential to be used as agricultural land and shallot plants have a considerable prospect to be cultivated in ultisol soil.  Ultisol generally has not been handled properly. It needs some specific treatments due to the low nutrient contents, caused by the intensive leaching process. One of the effort to overcome the soil quality problems that occur in ultisol soils (high soil acidity, average pH <4.50, high Al saturation, and low macronutrient content such as P, K, Ca, Mg, and organic material content) is treated by the using the soil conditioner such as the supplying of organic materials in the form of compost and biochar. In this work, the biological organic fertilizer was also applied to increase microorganism activity in the soil. The experimental design used in this work was completely random design which has 8 combinations of soil treatment, compost, biochar and bio-organic fertilizer. Soil parameters measured were pH, C-Organic, P-Available, total bacterial population, soil respiration, and phosphomonoesterase enzyme activity. The agronomy parameters of shallot were also measured. The results showed that treatment of compost, biological organic fertilizer, and biochar have significant effect to increase soil microorganism activity in the form of total population of bacteria, soil respiration, P-Available and pH. The treatment also had a significant effect on supporting plant height at 2 and 6 MST, number of leaves at 2 MST, wet weight and dry weight of tubers. Keywords: biochar, bio-organic fertilizer, soil microorganism activity, shallot, ultisol


The representation of shapes by Fourier descriptors is a time-honored technique that has received relatively little attention lately. Nevertheless, it has its benefits and is suitable for describing a range of medical structures in two dimensions. Delineations in medical applications often consist of continuous outlines of structures, where no information of correspondence between samples exist. In this article, we discuss a Euclidean alignment method that works directly with the functional representation of Fourier descriptors, and that is optimal in a least-squares sense. With corresponding starting points, the alignment of one shape onto another consists of a single expression. If the starting points are arbitrary, we present a simple algorithm to bring a set of shapes into correspondence. Results are given for three different data sets; 62 outlines of the corpus callosum brain structure, 61 outlines of the brain ventricles, and 50 outlines of the right lung. The results show that even though starting points, translations, rotations and scales have been randomized, the alignment succeeds in all cases. As an application of the proposed method, we show how high-quality shape models represented by common landmarks can be constructed in an automatic fashion. If the aligned Fourier descriptors are inverse transformed from the frequency domain to the spatial domain, a set of roughly aligned landmarks are obtained. The positions of these are then adjusted along the contour of the objects using the minimum description length criterion, producing ample correspondences. Results on this are also presented for all three data sets.


The Bengal Fan turbiditic system, supplied by the Ganga–Brahmaputra river system, provides an integrated record of Himalayan system erosion. Thanks to minor inputs of marine organic matter and almost complete preservation of riverine organic carbon, organic matter buried in Bengal Fan sediments is a proxy of Himalayan basin paleo-vegetation. The active channel-levee system of the middle fan documents the last 19 ka and allows the reconstruction of vegetation change in the Himalayan basin since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We measured dC of organic carbon (Corg) in order to track changes in the proportions of C3 and C4 plants in the Himalayan basin. From LGM to mid-Holocene, dC of bulk Corg shifts of 3–4% towards more negative values. Relative abundance of individual n-alkanes reveals that terrestrial higher plant inputs represent a dominant fraction of Corg buried in Bengal Fan sediments. d C of higher plants biomarkers mimic that of bulk Corg showing that the later can be used as continental paleo-vegetation proxy. dC negative shift from LGM to mid-Holocene, mostly indicates the transition from a dominant input of C4 plants to a dominant input of C3 plants and therefore reveals that C4 plants were more abundant in the basin under glacial conditions. Vegetation repartition in the basin simulated using the CARAIB dynamic vegetation model is consistent with Corg data. The model indicates a dominance of C4 plants in the Gangetic plain during the LGM while eastern part of the basin remains dominated by C3 plants. The comparison between our data and proxies of regional paleo-climate suggests that the large decline of C4 plants after the LGM was due to combined increase of atmospheric CO2 and humidity levels. Integrated record of Himalayan basin paleo-vegetation suggests more arid conditions during the LGM than during the mid-Holocene and agrees with reconstructions of the monsoon indicating stronger SW monsoon during interglacial and stronger NE monsoon during glacial periods. & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


The behavior of bake-hardening of the laser weldment was investigated. The bake-hardening steel(BH steel) was welded with Nd:YAG laser followed by plastic deformation and subsequent heat-treatment. Then the influence of laser welding on the behavior of bake-hardening was investigated. The hardness of the laser weld metal significantly increased after welding. After the plastic deformation, both the base metal and weld metal became harder by work-hardening. The heat treatment resulted in more increment of hardness in both the base metal and weld metal by bake-hardening. The amount of bake-hardening reached a maximum value at the plastic strain of 5% or more. We modified a kinetic equation proposed for predicting the strength of a low-carbon bake-hardening steel and applied to the estimation of hardness of the base metal and weld metal. The calculated hardness values agree with the experimental data. The calculated activation energy for bake-hardenig was that for diffusion of carbon and nitrogen atoms in α-Fe. Thus the hardening is thought to be governed by diffusion of these solute atoms.


Line spectra of 68 Taurus T Tauri stars were obtained with the Herschel-PACS (Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer) instrument as part of the GASPS (GAS evolution in Protoplanetary Systems) survey of protoplanetary discs. A careful examination of the linescans centred on the [OI] 63.18 μm fine-structure line unveiled a line at 63.32 μm in some of these spectra. We identify this line with the 818 → 707 transition of ortho-water. It is detected confidently (i.e., >3σ) in eight sources, i.e., ∼24% of the sub-sample with gas-rich discs. Several statistical tests were used to search for correlations with other disc and stellar parameters such as line fluxes of [Oi] 6300 A and 63.18 μm; X-ray luminosity and continuum levels at 63 μm and 850 μm. Correlations are found between the water line fluxes and the [Oi] 63.18 μm line luminosity, the dust continuum, and possibly with the stellar X-ray luminosity. This is the first time that this line of warm water vapour has been detected in protoplanetary discs. We discuss its origins, in particular whether it comes from the inner disc and/or disc surface or from shocks in outflows and jets. Our analysis favours a disc origin, with the observed water vapour line produced within 2–3 AU from the central stars, where the gas temperature is of the order of 500–600 K.


Agglomeration is a size enlargement process in which primary particles stick together to form agglomerates. In past, various techniques have been developed to form agglomerates. One of the aims of this study was to form agglomerates using solvent treated method and traditional wet granulation method of a bulk drug and to study the effect of agglomeration on physical functionality of agglomerated and original bulk powders. Another objective of the study was to prepare compact of the agglomerated powders and bulk powder and to study their compactibility properties. The solvent treated agglomeration process was performed using 5% aqueous ammonia solution at different stirring speed and time. Powder flow and compactibility were considered as functionality parameters. Powder flowability was expressed in terms of – size and shape of particles, static angle of repose, Hausner ratio, Carrs index, porosity and packability. The compacts of agglomerated powders and bulk powder were prepared and tested for compressibility properties. All the powder functional properties of the solvent treated agglomerates were dramatically improved. Compacts by direct compression method could be formed successfully of solvent treated agglomerate powder that was comparable with the wet granules. The original powder of bulk drug failed to be compressed by direct compression method. Thus solvent treated agglomerates provided the requirements needed to convert wet granulated formulations to direct compression formulations, thus avoiding labor and energy intensive of wet granulation processes and is an alternative to develop cost effective formulations.


Background To examine the effect of multicomponent exercise program on memory function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and identify biomarkers associated with improvement of cognitive functions. Methodology/Principal Findings Subjects were 100 older adults (mean age, 75 years) with MCI. The subjects were classified to an amnestic MCI group (n = 50) with neuroimaging measures, and other MCI group (n = 50) before the randomization. Subjects in each group were randomized to either a multicomponent exercise or an education control group using a ratio of 1∶1. The exercise group exercised for 90 min/d, 2 d/wk, 40 times for 6 months. The exercise program was conducted under multitask conditions to stimulate attention and memory. The control group attended two education classes. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that no group × time interactions on the cognitive tests and brain atrophy in MCI patients. A sub-analysis of amnestic MCI patients for group × time interactions revealed that the exercise group exhibited significantly better Mini-Mental State Examination (p = .04) and logical memory scores (p = .04), and reducing whole brain cortical atrophy (p<.05) compared to the control group. Low total cholesterol levels before the intervention were associated with an improvement of logical memory scores (p<.05), and a higher level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor was significantly related to improved ADAS-cog scores (p<.05). Conclusions/Significance The results suggested that an exercise intervention is beneficial for improving logical memory and maintaining general cognitive function and reducing whole brain cortical atrophy in older adults with amnestic MCI. Low total cholesterol and higher brain-derived neurotrophic factor may predict improvement of cognitive functions in older adults with MCI. Further studies are required to determine the positive effects of exercise on cognitive function in older adults with MCI. Trial Registration UMIN-CTR UMIN000003662 ctr.cgi?function = brows&action = brows&type = summary&recptno = R000004436&language = J.


Research Problem: What is the quality of life of the elderly people, as also the available support system, in rural areas?    ■ Objectives: i)             To determine the demographic profile of elderly ii)            To assess the socio-economic, nutritional, health, morbidity and dependency status, and health care utilization. Study Design: Population based cross sectional study. Setting:        Community        Development   Block     - Lakhanmajra Participants: Persons above the age of 65 years. Sample Size: 809 elderly above the age of 65 years. Study Variables: Demographic profile, Literacy, Occupation, Health, Nutrition, Mobility, Dependency, Substance abuse, Support system. Statistical Analysis: By simple proportions. Result: In this study, majority ofthe elderly were self reliant and mobile, being an asset to the family and led socially useful and productive lives. Their predominant problems were visual impairment, joint pains, respiratory diseases and hearing impairment. Joint family and government pension was the major support system to the elderly. However, there is an imperative need to organize education, training and special service programmes for the elderly at the village level.


Abstract Ionophore antibiotics are widely used in veterinary medicine as anticoccidial drugs for poultry and as growth promoters for farm animals. The ionophores, despite their utility, possess a narrow range of safety; several species (horses in particular) appear highly susceptible to the toxic effects of these compounds, compared with other animal species. The purpose of this study was to apply a quantitative high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method to identify monensin and lasalocid residues in feeds. We then applied this method to the determination of liver residues. Our method, slightly modified from literature data, appears to be specific, linear (r 2 > 0.99), repeatable and reproducible, sensitive (limit of detection of 0.2 µg/g in liver for monensin, 1 µg/g for lasalocid), convenient, and simple to use.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive debilitating neurodegenerative disorder clinically manifest by motor, posture and gait abnormalities. Human neurophysiological studies recording local field potentials within the subthalamic nucleus and scalp-based electroencephalography have shown pathological beta synchrony throughout the basal ganglia-thalamic-cortical motor network in PD. Notably, suppression of this pathological beta synchrony by dopamine replacement therapy or deep-brain stimulation has been associated with improved motor function. However, due to the invasive nature of these studies, it remains unknown whether this "pathological beta" is actually stronger than that observed in healthy demographically matched controls. We used magnetoencephalography to investigate neuronal synchrony and oscillatory amplitude in the beta range and lower frequencies during the resting state in patients with PD and a matched group of patients without neurological disease. Patients with PD were studied both in the practically defined drug "OFF" state, and after administration of dopamine replacements. We found that beta oscillatory amplitude was reduced bilaterally in the primary motor regions of unmedicated patients with PD compared with controls. Administration of dopaminergic medications significantly increased beta oscillatory activity, thus having a normalizing effect. Interestingly, we also found significantly stronger beta synchrony (i.e., hypersynchrony) between the primary motor regions in unmedicated patients with PD compared with controls, and that medication reduced this coupling which is in agreement with the intraoperative studies. These results are consistent with the known functionality of the basal ganglia-thalamic-cortical motor circuit and the likely consequences of beta hypersynchrony in the subthalamic nucleus of patients with PD.


Panels, committees, tribunals, referees, adjudicators, commissioners, and other public authorities decide many thousands of disputes each year over (for example) entitlement to benefits, or tax liability, or political asylum, or the detention of a patient in a secure hospital. The massive array of agencies reflects the great variety of benefits and burdens that twenty-first-century government assigns to people. The array had no overall organization until 2007, when Parliament transformed it into a complex system. This chapter explains the benefits of integrating these decision-making agencies in the new system. The law needs to tailor their structure, processes, and decision-making techniques to the variety of purposes they serve. And the law needs to achieve proportionate process, by reconciling competing interests in legalism and informality in tribunal processes.


We live in a world polarized by the ongoing conflict between Muslims, Christians and Jews, but -- in an extraordinary narrative spanning fourteen centuries -- Zachary Karabell argues that the relationship between Islam and the West has never been simply one of animosity and competition, but has also comprised long periods of cooperation and coexistence. Through a rich tapestry of stories and a compelling cast of characters, People of the Book uncovers known history, and forgotten history, as Karabell takes the reader on an extraordinary journey through the Arab and Ottoman empires, the Crusades and the Catholic Reconquista and into the modern era, as he examines the vibrant examples of discord and concord that have existed between these monotheistic faiths. By historical standards, today's fissure between Islam and the West is not exceptional, but because of weapons of mass destruction, that fissure has the potential to undo us more than ever before. This is reason enough to look back and remember that Christians, Jews and Muslims have lived constructively with one another. They have fought and taught each other, and they have learned from one another. Retrieving this forgotten history is a vital ingredient to a more stable, secure world.


CHICAGO-- The idea that the universe as we know it was born in a split second of exponential growth is cosmological gospel. But no one can agree on a single version of the theory called inflation. In fact, there now exist so many approaches, with such a wide range of predictions, that a few cosmologists have suggested inflation could never be disproved by observation. Such concerns have prompted the search for alternative theories of creation, whose predictions could be compared with those of inflation (see sidebar).


House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka will preview the legislative session and the prospects of working together. Minnesota is the only legislature in the country in which one political party does not monopolize power. Can the DFL and GOP leaders work together on the state's most pressing issues such as tax and health reform? MPR political reporter Briana Bierschbach will moderate the conversation.

Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2004. She represents district 36B including Brooklyn Park and Coon Rapids. She served as Minority Leader following the 2016 election and was recently elected to serve as Speaker when the DFL gained control of the House in November 2018. Speaker Hortman has been active in the areas of transportation, K-12 education funding, higher education, energy, and the environment. Before joining the legislature, Speaker Hortman was an attorney and law clerk, having attending law school at the University of Minnesota.

Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka has been a member of the Minnesota Senate since 2010. He represents District 9 in the Brainerd area and has been the Senate Majority leader since 2016. Senator Gazelka has recently served on committees such as Commerce, Finance, and Taxes, and is currently the chair of the Rules and Administration Committee. Prior to the Senate he served for two years in the MN House and worked in various capacities in the insurance industry for State Farm.

Briana Bierschbach is a political reporter for MPR News and adjunct faculty member at the Humphrey School. She got her start in journalism covering city government and transportation for the Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota's campus newspaper. She has also worked with the AP, St. Paul Pioneer Press, and MinnPost.


1. High-throughput screening approaches have been adopted throughout the pharmaceutical industry to aid in the rapid discovery of new chemical entities. Because it is now well recognized that the selection of a robust candidate requires a balance of potency, safety and pharmacokinetics, the role of drug metabolism departments has widened from their traditional one of supporting drug development to include the screening of compounds during the discovery process. To put drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic (DMPK) studies in context, the evolving role of DMPK screening in the drug discovery strategy of pharmaceutical companies will be discussed and a generalized approach will be presented. 2. With the increasing numbers of compounds requiring screening, DMPK optimization methods have had to be adapted for high throughput. There have been many developments in this field over the past decade and this review will focus on the high-throughput DMPK screening methodologies used today and in the recent past. 3. In vitro and in silico (computer-based) methods have proven most amenable to high-throughput approaches and these will firm the bulk of the review, but some advances with in vivo methods will also be discussed. As there has been a vast increase in published material on the topic of high-throughput DMPK methodologies in the past 10 years, it would be impossible to cover every method in detail, so this review will concentrate on the key areas and refer the reader to other, more detailed reviews wherever possible. 4. Most high-throughput methods would not be possible without the enabling technologies of computing, automation, new sample preparation technologies, and highly sensitive and selective detection systems, and these will also be reviewed. 5. The advantages and disadvantages of the screening methods will be presented, in particular the issue of handling the false-positives and -negatives that arise. 6. In concluding the review, future developments in this field will be discussed along with key issues that will need to be addressed.


A healthy 10-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital in diabetic ketoacidosis within three days of onset of symptoms of a flu-like illness. He died seven days later and post-mortem examination showed lymphocytic infiltration of the islets of Langerhans and necrosis of beta cells. Inoculation of mouse, monkey and human cell cultures with homogenates from the patient's pancreas led to isolation of a virus. Serologic studies revealed a rise in the titer of neutralizing antibody to this virus from less than 4 on the second hospital day to 32 on the day of death. Neutralization data showed that the virus was related to a diabetogenic variant derived from Coxsackievirus B4. Inoculation of mice with the human isolate produced hyperglycemia, inflammatory cells in the islets of Langerhans and beta-cell necrosis. Staining of mouse pancreatic sections with fluorescein-labeled antiviral antibody revealed viral antigens in beta cells. Both the clinical picture and animal studies suggested that the patient's diabetes was virus induced.


Cognitive impairments associated with crossed aphasia were investigated in a single case study and a review of the literature. A review of literature identifies 4 main cognitive co-morbidities that are significantly associated with crossed aphasia. We present a case of confirmed crossed aphasia with dyslexia and dysgraphia, in which the latter two cannot be fully explained by the current lesion and are probable developmental disorders (dyslexia/dysgraphia). Extensive longitudinal cognitive investigations and a series of advanced imaging techniques (structural and functional) were used to investigate the cognitive and neuroanatomical basis of crossed aphasia and associated impairments in this patient. Using the results from the literature review and the single case study, we suggest that developmental disorders can be an underlying cause of partial right lateralisation shift of language processes, thereby supporting the theory that developmental disorders can be an underlying cause of crossed aphasia. Highlights Central apraxia, dysgraphia, hemi-neglect & acalculia associated with CA Developmental disorders can underlie partial right lateralisation shift Dysfunction of left hemisphere can cause crossed aphasia Clinically, pre-morbid impairments must be investigated in CA cases


Many businesses are going completely digital with their point-of-sale systems, telling customers they want their money, as long as they do not pay in cash. Unfortunately, some state and local lawmakers have stepped in to halt this move toward a cashless society. In a column for Government Technology, Daniel Castro outlines steps policymakers can take to increase access to non-cash payment options. Non-cash payments are the future, and while policymakers should address issues of equity, they should not hold back progress.


Conventionally designed with quasi-static algorithm, buffer springs of impact mechanism eventually have a short fatigue life. By building a rigid-flexible hybrid model of GCD-1500 cable drill, the main fatigue causes of buffer springs are investigated so as to optimize the design of springs attached to impact mechanism. Dynamic simulation is used to export load spectrum of dynamic responses of springs in conditions of "idle impact" and different bore depths. Nominal stress method is employed in nSoft Software to analyze the fatigue of springs. Some crucial conclusions are drawn: the fatigue damage brought by load spectrum of dynamic response is more severe than that brought by quasi-static mono-pulse circulation; as the bore depth is prolonged, the damage of one impact will increase; the damage of "idle impact" is 25 times as serious as that of one impact when bore depth is 70m.


Background: The improvements in instruments and technique of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) in the last 3 decades have led to expansion in its indications to include even the large and complex renal stone cases. Objective: To determine the efficacy and safety of PCNL in relation to stone complexity. Methods: In this prospective, clinical, interventional study, 51 patients with symptomatic renal stones of different sizes and locations, were admitted in our Urology Unit, fully evaluated and treated by our team with PCNL. For all the patient's data collected were: age, gender, body mass index (BMI), previous renal surgery, pre-operative stone number, stone size, stone position, stone opacity, surgical approach, operative time, stone clearance rate, postoperative residual stones and complications, hospital stay and adjuvant therapy. By using different statistical methods, correlations were made to elicit the impact of stone size, stone position, stone opacity, BMI and previous renal surgery, operative time, stone free rate, complication rate and the need for auxiliary procedures. Results: In this study, the 51 included patients were 31 males and 20 females with a mean age 40.3 year. All the stones treated were over 2 cm in their longest diameter, with 58.8% of them were ≥ 3 cm, and mean stone size was 4.2±0.99 cm. The most prevalent site of stone was the lower calyx (39.2%), followed by (37.3%) as partial staghorn, while complete staghorn calculi constituted (11.8%). The final success rate of treatment was 86.3%. (60.8%) of the cases found to be stone free at immediate postoperative period. Auxiliary procedures were used in (27.5%) patients, to improve the stone clearance. Residual stones were ultimately remained in only (7.8%). Complications occurred in 11 patients (21.6 %). Conclusion: PCNL though demanding, is an effective and reasonably safe procedure for the treatment of different renal stone burdens. Size and position of stones in the calyceal system and past renal surgery were the main determinants of operative time, stone clearance, complication rate and the need for auxiliary procedures. Keywords: Renal stone, PCNL, stone complexity, stone free rate, complications Citation: Al-Azzawi IS, Mohammed Zaki AW, Jwaid HI, Salih SL, Al-Obaidi AA. The efficacy and safety of percutaneous nephrolithotomy in correlation with different renal stone burdens. Iraqi JMS. 2018; 16(4): 385-392. doi: 10.22578/IJMS.16.4.5


: The total quantity of drugs hoarded in a rural village in Israel was established as a result of a comprehensive house-to-house search. In 43 of the 44 houses in the village, hoarded drugs were found. The average number of different drugs found per household was 15.5 and the median number, 9.5. Analgesic and antipyretic drugs, topical skin preparations and antibiotics were found most frequently among a total of 166 identifiable medicines. The drugs found included 5,998 tablets and capsules, 3,327 ml of liquid preparations, 1,290 g of creams and powders and 369 suppositories and pessaries. These findings are discussed in relation to the drug expenditure of the largest Israel health insurance fund, the serious health hazards which they present, and their possible relevance to the total Israel population. The possibility of a "hoarding-prone" personality is raised.


In Reply.— Dr Hoffman's suggestion that one may find many of the visual disturbances that were described in my article1 in non-LSD—using persons is well taken. The diagnosis of the LSD flashback syndrome, like that of epilepsy, is primarily made by carefully obtaining a history. But before drawing such a conclusion, the clinician has the responsibility of excluding the possibility of potentially more dangerous and treatable conditions that appear as visual disturbances. These include anatomic lesions and infections of the brain, toxic and metabolic aberrations, deliria, dementias, disturbances of sleep and consciousness, and entoptic imagery arising from disorders within the eye itself. Among the non-LSD—using subjects in my study, there were two who reported eight and nine different types of visual disturbances, respectively. No diagnostic explanations could be found. The other control subjects reported five or less such disturbances. In addition, one non-LSD—using subject who was interviewed as a control for a