To evaluate the effect of zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr) on growth and selected physiological traits in barley, a greenhouse trial was performed using four barley varieties that were exposed to different concentration of these metals. The parameters quantified were growth, chlorophyll content, and chlorophyll fluorescence during three phenological stages: flag leaf, anthesis, and grain filling. The metal concentrations in both the plant and soil were also quantified. We determined that the varieties studied were more tolerant to Zn and Cd than to Cr. Treatment with Zn did not negatively affect growth, and only high concentrations of Cd decreased growth by approximately 4% to 8%. Plants treated with the highest Cr concentration stopped growing at the flag leaf stage. The amount of metal that accumulated in the plant increased with increasing metal concentration, and the highest amount of accumulated metal was recorded in the root and shoot. Both the plant height and dry weight were higher in the CB502 variety plants, followed by the Reinette, Pedrezuela, and Plaisant varieties. The same trend was observed for the chlorophyll content and fluorescence, with a significant correlation between the growth parameters and chlorophyll content (p < 0.001). Thus, we determined that barley has variability in the studied traits.


This is a study of the Gargasamhita (GSamh) on divination, astrology or science literature.J. Mitchiner has researched the Yuga Purana which derives from the GSamh. He argues that the original text of the GSamh was written in Brahmi script on the evidence of confusions between stha and scha. There are, however, some confusions between sa and ma. So, we should consider that the GSarph might originally have been written in Sarada script.He infers that MSS. P was copied either directly from MSS. A or else from the same earlier manuscript as that from which A was copied. This inference is supported by the same confusion of folios between A and P (cf. Table).We can notice there may be a close connection among the GSamh, the Brhatsamhita (BrhSamh) and the Atharvavedaparisista (AVParis). For instance, Varahamihira, the author of the BrhSamh, and some Puranas explain that extraordinary natural phenomena (utpata) are caused by person's sin. On the other hand a similar explanation is found in the GSamh: "Extraordinary natural phenomena are caused by the king's sin."I bring forward the text and a Japanese translation of GSamh 39.8 Jayavaikrta.


The rapid development of Internet technology and the significant increase in the number of non-native English speaking college students urge lexicographers working on LSP dictionaries to create better electronic dictionaries to satisfy the needs of these dictionary users. This paper argues that better LSP dictionaries can only be created if lexicographers move from language-oriented to user-oriented lexicographical solutions. This paper shows that the traditional divisions of monolingual, bilingual and semi-bilingual dictionaries have confined the creation of lexicographical solutions that can thoroughly satisfy the needs of the users. The definitions given in monolingual LSP dictionaries are incomprehensible due to the use of difficult vocabulary. The equivalents given in bilingual dictionaries, though considered the quickest way for second language users to know the meaning of a term, do not really help the users when the equivalents relate to different concepts in L1 from the L2 due to cultural differences and when the equivalents are only the transfer of the L2 words. Combining the definitions and the equivalents, as in semi-bilingual dictionaries, may not work well either due to the overload of information presented to the users. Consequently, the shift from language-oriented to user-oriented has to take place in order to produce better lexicographical solutions. Better considerations on users' competences and characteristics are required in creating better electronic LSP dictionaries. In this paper, the implementation of this user orientation is only shown in the on-going project of an English dictionary of finance intended to give help to Indonesian college students to understand financial texts, but the proposed solutions may also be applicable to other LSP dictionaries with a similar type of users.


"Outbreaks of infectious animal diseases represent a major threat to agriculture and can impose significant social and economic costs. The potential for devastating epidemics, such as the recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Asia, Europe, and Africa, has prompted major global investments in animal disease prevention and control, both public and private. However, there has been little research into the effects of alternative public policies on farm-level actions to prevent and control HPAI and the implications for disease impacts. Animal disease management involves both" ex ante "investments to reduce the probability of infection and" ex post "actions to contain the spread of disease once introduced. The public sector can play an important part in disease mitigation through provision of public disease prevention and control. Another vital role for government in mitigating the potential impacts of HPAI is in the development of well-designed policies to induce socially optimal" ex ante "private investment while providing incentives for truthful disclosure of disease status. This study employs an economic epidemiology framework to examine the effects of farmer behavior on disease introduction and transmission and to analyze the effects of public policy decisions under alternative scenarios." Copyright 2007 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.


The objectives of this booklet are twofold. First, to describe in simple terms the state of the art in undertaking economic studies to demonstrate the benefits of new and existing medicines. Second, to remind readers why such analyses are of increasing importance both to individual pharmaceutical companies and to the industry as a whole. The text of the booklet has been prepared in consultation with the newly formed 'Pharmaceutical Industry Health Economics Group' (PIHEG) chaired by Nicholas Wells of Glaxo, as well as with the Editorial Board of the Office of Health Economics. However - as with all OHE Reports - it has tried to avoid the pitfalls of 'Committee drafting' and its ultimate style and presentation remain the responsibility of myself as author. It is hoped that pharmaceutical executives, and medical and research directors in particular, will read the booklet, in order to understand better how health economists can help to achieve an improved awareness, in economic terms, of the benefits of the medicines which their companies develop, manufacture and market.


The influence of a protein-free diet in adult male rats has been evaluated for a 6-week period. Nitrogen retention, hepatic protein and free amino acid content in blood and muscle were determined as adaptation criteria. Long-lasting protein depletion did not modify the pattern of response affering in a shorter period: i.e. sparing of nitrogen and use of endogenous amino acids for protein synthesis. Except for lysine, arginine and histidine, the essential amino acids decreased in blood and the non-essential acids increased. The final effect was a decrease of the essential to non-essential amino acid ratio and a decrease in all amino acids in muscle.


Artificial photosynthesis, i.e., conversion of solar energy into fuels, represents one of the
most promising research fields which could potentially provide clean and renewable sources
of energy for a sustainable development of the future generations. Among several
possibilities, water splitting into molecular hydrogen and oxygen is one of the most
challenging and appealing reaction schemes. Taking inspiration from nature several functional
units are required to this aim: (i) an antenna system, responsible for light harvesting, (ii) a
charge separating system, where the absorbed energy is converted into an electrochemical
potential (electron/hole pair), and (iii) appropriate catalyst units, capable of stepwise storing
the photogenerated electrons and holes in order to drive multi-electron transfer processes at
low activation energy.
In the present thesis several points regarding both the photoinduced oxidation and
reduction of water as well as charge separation are studied. In more detail, three different
classes of water oxidation catalysts are examined, namely tetrametallic polyoxometalate,
tetracobalt cubanes, and single-site cobalt salophen complexes, within light-activated catalytic
cycles involving tris(bipyridine) ruthenium and persulfate as photosensitizer and sacrificial
electron acceptor, respectively. Particular attention is paid to the evaluation of the interactions
between the catalyst and the sensitizer and to the kinetics of both photochemical and thermal
electron transfer steps. Concerning water reduction, the following systems are investigated: a
self-assembling reductant/sensitizer/catalyst triad based on an aluminum pyridylporphyrin
central unit, a cobaloxime catalyst, and an ascorbate electron donor, a cationic cobalt
porphyrin catalyst in the presence of tris(bipyridine) ruthenium as sensitizer and ascorbic acid
as electron donor, and a PAMAM dendrimer decorated with ruthenium polypyridine dyes at
the periphery and inside of which platinum nanoparticles have been grown. Beside the
optimization of the photocatalytic performance, detailed insights into the photoinduced
hydrogen evolving mechanism are carefully provided. Finally, a triad system for photoinduced
charge separation, based on a naphthalene bisimide electron acceptor, a zinc
porphyrin electron donor, and a ferrocene secondary electron donor, connected via 1,2,3-
triazole bridges, is also described. Detailed photophysical investigation of the system will
show an unusual behavior with respect to photoinduced electron transfer.
Results obtained from a side-project in the field of molecular electronics will be also
discussed, where photoinduced electron transfer processes are used to different aims.


Objectives: We sought to analyse and compare the views of pregnant women, midwives and a women's panel on the value and use of ultrasound in labour. Methods: Focus groups involving a short presentation on ultrasound, question and answer session, and a questionnaire were held with groups of pregnant women, midwives at 2 inner city maternity units and an online Women's Panel. Data was collected on attitudes to vaginal examination, ultrasound, predicting Caesarean section and the utility of a digital representation of labour. Results: 19 pregnant women, 21 midwives, and 10 women's panel members participated. 84% (16/19) of pregnant women saw a positive value of ultrasound, compared to 35% (7/20) of midwives and 90% (9/10) of panel members. 84% (16/19) of pregnant women saw positive value in predicting Caesarean section risk, compared to 48% (10/21) of midwives and 70% (7/10) of panel members. The majority of all groups 79% (15/19), 62% (13/21), and 60% (6/10) respectively thought labouring women would want a digital representation of their labour, with the most popular format being on a mobile phone (56%, 20/36). Conclusions: In this first study of its kind, pregnant women and panel members were most and midwives least positive about ultrasound in preference to vaginal examination, indicating a divergence between midwives' perspective of women's need to understand risk and desire to know about their labour. Women found the non-intrusive nature and accuracy of ultrasound valuable while midwives were primarily concerned about their risk of de-skilling. Both groups felt a graphical representation of labour on a device would be helpful.


BACKGROUND
Although parental smoking is clearly one important influence on children's smoking, it is still unclear what are the many mechanisms by which parents influence their children's smoking. Antismoking actions are one potential mechanism.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether parental antismoking actions including having rules about smoking in one's home, using nonsmoking sections of public establishments, or asking others not to smoke in one's presence are associated with adolescents' adoption of smoking.

DESIGN
A cross-sectional survey.

SETTING
Rural and suburban communities in western Washington State.

PARTICIPANTS
Population-based cohort of 3555 adolescents and their parents.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Daily smoking in 12th grade.

RESULTS
Adolescents of parents who report having rules about smoking in one's home, using nonsmoking sections of public establishments, or asking others not to smoke in one's presence were significantly less likely to smoke than adolescents of parents who did not engage in antismoking actions. This association of antismoking action and reduced smoking was found for children of both smoking and nonsmoking parents.

CONCLUSION
Parents' antismoking actions may help prevent smoking by their teenaged children.


High-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation is too toxic for elderly patients with relapsed or refractory (DLBCL). Therefore, tolerable and efficient salvage regimens for elderly patients are greatly needed. In this study, therapy with rituximab, gemcitabine, dexamethasone, and cisplatin (R-GDP) will be performed every 4 weeks, and an interim evaluation will be performed after the completion of the 3rd course. If a complete response (CR) is achieved at the time of interim evaluation, 1 course of R-GDP therapy and 2 courses of monotherapy with rituximab will be additionally performed. If a partial response (PR) is achieved, 3 courses of R-GDP therapy will be additionally conducted. In patients without a PR or CR by the time of the interim evaluation, treatment will be discontinued. Treatment will also be discontinued at any point if disease progression is observed during protocol treatment. After the completion of the final course of R-GDP therapy, final effects of the regimen will be evaluated. A primary endpoint is the efficacy of R-GDP therapy (CR and response rates). This is the first multicenter phase II clinical study of R-GDP therapy to examine post-treatment activities of daily living in addition to the safety and efficacy of treatment in elderly patients with relapsed or refractory transplant ineligible DLBCL.


The deterioration of hearing in Ménière's disease is known to be dependent on the individual and to be highly variable. In most cases, however, it leads to moderate hearing impairment. In order to be able to predict deterioration, we used multivariable modelling with a source population of definite cases of Ménière's disease diagnosed according to the latest recommended American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery criteria. The records of 205 patients were retrospectively analysed. Their earliest and latest pure-tone air conduction audiograms were used to evaluate the long-term effects of the disease on hearing. The effect of age and the follow-up period were calculated for different frequencies (0.125-8 kHz) and for the pure-tone average over the frequencies 0.5 to 4 kHz (PTA 0.5-4 kHz ). Deterioration in PTA 0.5-4 kHz was , 1 dB/year due to the duration of the disease and 0.5 dB/year due to aging. Hearing impairment in Ménière's disease appeared to increase linearly with the duration of the disease for patients <50 years of age, but in the older subjects the effect of the duration of the disease decreased. Both aging and the duration of the disease affected the hearing level. The duration of the disease did not seem to have any statistically significant effect on the difference between the two ears. The difference that occurred at the onset of the disease remained until presbyacusis in the better ear reached the hearing level of the worse ear. The difference in hearing deterioration between men and women was not significant.


We introduce graded, enriched characteristic cycles as a method for encoding Morse modules of strata with respect to a constructible complex of sheaves. Using this new device, we obtain results for arbitrary complex analytic functions on arbitrarily singular complex analytic spaces.


Context. For computer forensic investigations, the necessity of unmodified data content is of vital essence. The solution presented in this paper is based on a trusted chain of execution, that ensures that only authorized software can run. In the study, the proposed application operates in an UEFI environment where it has a direct access to physical memory, which can be extracted and stored on a secondary storage medium for further analysis. Objectives. The aim is to perform this task while being sheltered from influence from a potentially contaminated operating system. Methods. By identifying key components and establishing the foundation for a trusted environment where the memory imaging tool can, unhindered, operate and produce a reliable result Results. Three distinct states where trust can be determined has been identified and a method for entering and traversing them is presented. Conclusions. Tools that does not follow the trusted model might be subjected to subversion, thus they might be considered inadequate when performing memory extraction for forensic purposes.


INTRODUCTION
Anthropometry and electric impedance methods are widely used for body composition assessment. However the evidence is unclear whether the results obtained from the two methods can be compared.

OBJECTIVE
Two methods are compared for assessment of body composition; anthropometry and electric impedance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Body composition was measured in 70 women; aged 22 to 56 and 53 men; aged 24 to 54, using anthropometry (Durning/Womersley and Jackson/Pollock skinfolds equations) and electric impedance (foot to foot electric impedance) to obtain percentage body fat.

RESULTS
The mean percentage body fat was significant higher with Durning/Womersley (25.2%) than Jackson/Pollock (20.1%) and electric impedance (19.3%) for men (p<0.001). The mean percentage body fat was significant higher with Durning/Womersley (36.9%) than Jackson/Pollock (31.0%) and electric impedance (27.6%) for women (p<0.001). Correlation coefficient was high when two methods were compared (r>0.77) however, the concordance between methods to classify obesity subjects was low (K<0.5).

CONCLUSIONS
The percentages obtained from the anthropometry method were higher than the bioelectrical impedance method. A significant difference was found between methods applied in men and women, and therefore these methods are not comparable.


This paper introduces a dual genetic algorithm (DGA)-based approach for a fast screening process for distributed generations (DGs) connected to a distribution network. The existing deterministic approaches overlook some operation conditions that may give rise to incorrect results and lead to wrong decisions in practical applications. The DGA is an extension of a traditional single genetic algorithm (GA). Owing to complicated distribution system operating states, such as the actual topologies and features, and the load states, it is hard to take all uncertainties into account when the latter is used. Hence, an improved GA-DGA-is proposed to deal with these kinds of uncertainties. The outcomes are of value for a fast screening process for grid interconnection applications in DGs.


Foraging behavior of Piping Plover ( Charadrius melodus ) was studied using a focal animal approach from 1985-1986. Time devoted to foraging decreased as vigilance (time devoted to being alert) increased. Variations in vigilance were explained by beach, reproductive stage, brood size, time of day, and number of people nearby. Overall, Piping Plovers foraged from 46-79 sec., were alert for 14-57 sec., and displayed or ran from people for 1-8 sec. in the 2 min. samples. Plovers at sites less disturbed by people (Little Beach, Holgate) generally devoted more time to foraging and less time to vigilance than birds at the other sites. Time devoted to foraging was generally higher in May, lower in June, and increased again in July. Plovers that were incubating or caring for chicks spent less time foraging than those that had lost their chicks. Chicks spent less time foraging and more time being alert, running, and crouching than did their parents foraging during the same time periods. With increasing brood size, chicks spent less time foraging and more time running or crouching although the number of people nearby did not vary. Behavior was correlated within members of a pair: birds spent less time foraging as their mates increased time devoted to alertness, being off the nest, or displaying. When brooding birds increased alert time, their mates increased their alertness and displaying, and decreased foraging time. As the number of people near foraging plovers increased, time devoted to running and crouching increased and time devoted to feeding decreased. It appears that the presence of people is stressful for breeding adults and chicks, forcing them to spend significantly less time foraging, perhaps accounting for decreased overall reproductive success.


Carbon sequestration is one of the main ecosystem services in today's condition. Estimation of above ground tree biomass and carbon stock is important as it gives ecological and economic benefits to the local people. This study was conducted in the Hasantar Community Forest (HCF) of Nagarjun Municipality, Kathmandu. Concentric circular plots of 12.62m radius were established in five different blocks of HCF for the study of tree species. The main objective of this study was to find out the Important Value Index (IVI), Above Ground Tree Biomass (AGTB) and carbon stocks tree species of HCF. This forest comprises the tree species of families like fagacaeae, moraceae, myrtaceae, fabaceae etc in dominant numbers. Schima wallichii was found ecologically most significant tree species as it possess highest IVI value. The carbon stock of this plant was found as   206.865 t/ha which comprises 27 % of total carbon in HCF. The total above ground tree carbon stock of HCF (55.4 ha.) was found 144.795 t/ha.
Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 7(1): 124-129


Cell cycle checkpoints are reversible in nature, and can prevent progression into the next cell cycle phase if needed. In the case of DNA damage, cells can prevent progression from G1 into S phase, and from G2 into mitosis in the presence of DNA double strand breaks. Following DNA repair, these checkpoints can be silenced, allowing further progression through the cell cycle.
In chapter 2 we review recent literature regarding activation and silencing of the DNA damage response. We describe how checkpoint activation and its reversal are tuned to each phase of the cell cycle, despite shared mechanisms of DNA damage detection. We also describe mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of a reversible checkpoint following DNA damage in G2 phase, which is the main topic of this thesis. Chapter 3 addresses the reversibility of cell cycle checkpoints. We discovered that a DNA-damage-induced arrest in G1 remains reversible for much longer compared to an arrest in G2. This finding led us to identify the sequence of events leading to an irreversible cell cycle withdrawal following excessive DNA damage in G2 phase. In chapter 4 we describe how normal wiring of the cell cycle machinery, after DNA damage, results in loss of DNA damage checkpoint reversibility in prophase. As a result, cells are hypersensitive to DNA damage during prophase, causing cells to exit the cell cycle from prophase in response to relatively mild DNA damage. We show that this mechanism helps to limit the proliferation of cells that have undergone DNA-replication stress. Chapter 5 describes the identification of a novel mechanism contributing to the maintenance of DNA damage checkpoint reversibility in G2 phase. Finally, in chapter 6, we confirm the existence of a mitotic timer that can limit the proliferation of daughter cells when the completion of mother cell mitosis exceeds a certain time-window. We show that time-dependent accumulation of the tumor suppressor p53 in mitosis precedes a cell cycle arrest in G1, and find that mitotic cells lack Mdm2. This suggests that the mitotic timer is controlled through time-dependent accumulation of p53 in mitosis.


The purpose of this paper is to describe certain new economic time series which have been
constructed in the course of updating the HERMES-IRELAND model. The updating of the
model involved inter alia the disaggregation of the industrial-and services sectors. Data at
this new disaggregated level is not available in Ireland from a single source. Therefore this
disaggregation exercise involved the collection of a considerable amount of new data from a
variety of sources.
The sources and meihodology used to construct these new data are described in this paper. In
the construction of the new data set, an overriding imperative was to maintain simplicity
since the data set constructed has to be maintained and updated on a regular basis.
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 defines the disaggregated industrial and services
sectors. Section 3 describes the data sources and methodology used in constructing the time
series. Section 4 outlines the mnemonic system used to identify the different variables. Sections
5-12 then describe each set of economic variables derived in turn, each of these sections
includes the computer macro used to generate the variables. The appendices 1-3 give a
complete listing of all the economic series input and derived in the course of this exercise.


O ver the past few centuries, the evolution of the field of microbiology has been largely driven by new technologies that have allowed scientists to explore the microbes that inhabit our world along with ourselves. Included among these technologies has been the development of the principal tool used to explore all forms of microorganisms, the microscope. Microscopes have evolved to keep up with the demands of modern science. Because twenty-first century microscopy is a substantially broad topic, it merits a separate chapter in this series (Chapter 2). In the current chapter, we present the many emerging technologies that are shaping the ways in which we design and perform experiments using microorganisms.


Objectives: The aim of this article is to assess the health behaviors of Polish Army soldiers participating in the National Health Programme 2016–2020 in relation to types of armed forces, BMI and selected demographic factors. Material and Methods: Anthropometric and questionnaire data were obtained in a group of 1229 soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces (PAF) from military units from all over Poland. Health behaviors patterns were assessed using the Health Behavior Inventory (HBI), developed by Juczyński. Results: The HBI of PAF soldiers was 79.9±12.68, indicating an average score. Statistically significant differences were found in the HBI values and in the individual categories of health behaviors according to the type of armed forces. The highest scores in each category of health behaviors were obtained by the Air Force (AF) soldiers. The lowest HBI score was obtained by the Land Forces and Territorial Defence Forces soldiers. Soldiers with higher education obtained significantly higher scores in such health categories as proper eating habits, preventive behaviors and health practices, compared to respondents with secondary education. Soldiers residing in cities had statistically significantly higher health behaviors intensities in all categories, compared to village residents. A significantly higher score in all health categories was noted in soldiers with normal body weight compared to those with diagnosed obesity. There was no significant relationship between the age of the respondents and health behaviors. Conclusions: The study found that factors such as type of armed forces, BMI, place of residence and education level were significant for the adoption of health behaviors by PAF. The level of health practices was significantly higher among AF soldiers compared to other types of armed forces. It seems necessary to further disseminate education on pro-health behaviors, especially among soldiers with obesity through participation in organized training and psychodietetic consultations as part of the National Health Programme. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2023;36(4)


We study the limit of D-series minimal models when the central charge
tends to a generic irrational value c\in (-\infty, 1)c∈(−∞,1).
We find that the limit theory's diagonal three-point structure constant
differs from that of Liouville theory by a distribution factor, which is
given by a divergent Verlinde formula. Nevertheless, correlation
functions that involve both non-diagonal and diagonal fields are smooth
functions of the diagonal fields' conformal dimensions. The limit theory
is a non-trivial example of a non-diagonal, non-rational, solved
two-dimensional conformal field theory.


Research in the area of automatic speaker verification (ASV) has been advanced enough for the industry to start using ASV systems in practical applications. However, these systems are highly vulnerable to spoofing or presentation attacks, limiting their wide deployment. Therefore, it is important to develop mechanisms that can detect such attacks, and it is equally important for these mechanisms to be seamlessly integrated into existing ASV systems for practical and attack-resistant solutions. To be practical, however, an attack detection should (i) have high accuracy, (ii) be well-generalized for different attacks, and (iii) be simple and efficient. Several audio-based presentation attack detection (PAD) methods have been proposed recently but their evaluation was usually done on a single, often obscure, database with limited number of attacks. Therefore, in this paper, we conduct an extensive study of eight state-of-the-art PAD methods and evaluate their ability to detect known and unknown attacks (e.g., in a cross-database scenario) using two major publicly available speaker databases with spoofing attacks: AVspoof and ASVspoof. We investigate whether combining several PAD systems via score fusion can improve attack detection accuracy. We also study the impact of fusing PAD systems (via parallel and cascading schemes) with two i-vector and inter-session variability based ASV systems on the overall performance in both bona fide (no attacks) and spoof scenarios. The evaluation results question the efficiency and practicality of the existing PAD systems, especially when comparing results for individual databases and cross-database data. Fusing several PAD systems can lead to a slightly improved performance; however, how to select which systems to fuse remains an open question. Joint ASV-PAD systems show a significantly increased resistance to the attacks at the expense of slightly degraded performance for bona fide scenarios.


Background: Behavioral Consultation Centers are the main organizations responsible for providing HIV/AIDS patients with services according to the Iranian Ministry of Health guidelines. In this study we assessed provision of these supposed services to Iranian HIV/AIDS patients referring to Behavioral Consultation Centers. Methods: One hundred seventy one clinical files were selected by systematic random sampling from the files of all new HIV/AIDS patients accepted at Imam Khomeini behavioral consultation center who were registered during 2005-2006 and were followed for at least six months. Data were extracted from files and included consultation, vaccination, laboratory and treatment services. Results: Family planning and HIV prevention methods consultation were performed for 32.5% and 2.29% of patients respectively. CD4 count was done for 69% of patients. 65.6% of patients who needed anti-retroviral treatment were given medication. Hepatitis B and T d vaccination were done for 21.7% and 3.5% of patients respectively. Coverage of pneumococal and influenza vaccinations was less than 5% . 79.5% of patients who needs tuberculosis prophylaxis were given medication. TB case finding was 14% during one year and the cure rate for patients under anti TB treatment were 95.8% . Conclusion: Coverage of consultations and vaccination services are very low. Antiretroviral therapy coverage is intermediate. TB case finding and its cure rate are appropriate.


The issue of joint angle and array gain-phase error estimation for a bistatic multiple-input multiple-output array is discussed in this study, and an algorithm for the joint estimation with non-linear arrays is proposed. First, the estimations of the transmit and receive direction matrices can be obtained via trilinear decomposition, then the relationship between the columns of the direction matrices is utilised to eliminate the influence of the gain-phase errors, and the angles can be estimated two by two via least squares. Finally, the array gain-phase error vectors can be estimated for calibration according to the estimated angles and direction matrices. The proposed algorithm requires no eigenvalue decomposition of the received data, and can achieve automatically paired estimations of the angles. Furthermore, no information of the gain-phase error is needed. The simulation results verify the algorithmic effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


Appropriate nutrition is an essential component of intensive care management of children with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and is linked to patient outcomes. One out of every two children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) will develop malnutrition or have worsening of baseline malnutrition and present with specific micronutrient deficiencies. Early and adequate enteral nutrition (EN) is associated with improved 60-day survival after pediatric critical illness, and, yet, despite early EN guidelines, critically ill children receive on average only 55% of goal calories by PICU day 10. Inadequate delivery of EN is due to perceived feeding intolerance, reluctance to enterally feed children with hemodynamic instability, and fluid restriction. Underlying each of these factors is large practice variation between providers and across institutions for initiation, advancement, and maintenance of EN. Strategies to improve early initiation and advancement and to maintain delivery of EN are needed to improve morbidity and mortality from pediatric ARDS. Both, over and underfeeding, prolong duration of mechanical ventilation in children and worsen other organ function such that precise calorie goals are needed. The gut is thought to act as a "motor" of organ dysfunction, and emerging data regarding the role of intestinal barrier functions and the intestinal microbiome on organ dysfunction and outcomes of critical illness present exciting opportunities to improve patient outcomes. Nutrition should be considered a primary rather than supportive therapy for pediatric ARDS. Precise nutritional therapies, which are titrated and targeted to preservation of intestinal barrier function, prevention of intestinal dysbiosis, preservation of lean body mass, and blunting of the systemic inflammatory response, offer great potential for improving outcomes of pediatric ARDS. In this review, we examine the current evidence regarding dose, route, and timing of nutrition, current recommendations for provision of nutrition to children with ARDS, and the current literature for immune-modulating diets for pediatric ARDS. We will examine emerging data regarding the role of the intestinal microbiome in modulating the response to critical illness.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: WMH, associated with cognitive decline and cardiovascular risk factors, may represent only the extreme end of a more widespread continuous WM injury process that progresses during aging and is poorly understood. We investigated the ability of FLAIR and DTI to characterize the longitudinal course of WMH development. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred nineteen participants (mean age, 74.5 ± 7.4), including cognitively healthy elders and subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment, received a comprehensive clinical evaluation and brain MR imaging, including FLAIR and DTI on 2 dates. The risk for each baseline normal-appearing WM voxel to convert into WMH was modeled as a function of baseline FA (model M1) and both baseline FA and standardized FLAIR (M2). Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC for predicting conversion to WMH were compared between models. RESULTS: Independent of clinical diagnosis, lower baseline FA (P < .001, both models) and higher baseline FLAIR intensity (P < .001, M2) were independently associated with increased risk for conversion from normal WM to WMH. M1 exhibited higher sensitivity but lower specificity, accuracy, and AUC compared with M2. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide further evidence that WMH result from a continuous process of WM degeneration with time. Stepwise decreases in WM integrity as measured by both DTI and FLAIR were independently associated with stepwise increases in WMH risk, emphasizing that these modalities may provide complementary information for understanding the time course of aging-associated WM degeneration.


Herein, an efficient carrier assisted electromembrane extraction coupled with capillary electrophoresis has been proposed for the quantitation of basic drugs (pseudoephedrine and tramadol) in urine samples. Nonionic lipophilic surfactants in the supported liquid membrane act as carriers and promote the migration of ionic analytes toward the acceptor phase. The volumes of the sample and acceptor solutions were 4000 and 20 μL, respectively. All variables affecting the extraction efficiency were investigated for the proposed method. Optimal extractions were accomplished with 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether, containing 0.25 mM Span 80 as the supported liquid membrane, with 200 V as the driving force and with pH 5.0 in donor and pH 1 in acceptor solutions. Extractions were obtained after 30 min of operation with the whole assembly agitated at 1000 rpm. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the linear range was 10–2000 and 5–2000 ng mL−1 for pseudoephedrine and tramadol, respectively (R2 ≥ 0.99). The limits of detection were calculated to be 3.03 and 1.51 ng mL−1 for pseudoephedrine and tramadol, respectively. The relative standard deviation was lower than 4.1%. The enrichment factors were in the range of 178 to 188. The method was successfully applied for the analysis of these drugs in urine samples.


Investigation of crystal structure and magnetic properties of the diamagnetically- substituted Bi1-xAxFeO3-x/2 (A= Ca, Sr, Pb, Ba; x= 0.2, 0.3) polycrystalline samples has been carried out. It has been shown that the heterovalent A2+ substitution result in the formation of oxygen vacancies in the host lattice. The solid solutions have been found to possess a rhombohedrally distorted perovskite structure described by the space group R3c. Magnetization measurements have shown that the magnetic state of these compounds is determined by the ionic radius of the substituting elements. A-site substitution with the biggest ionic radius ions has been found to suppress the spiral spin structure of BiFeO3 giving rise to the appearance of weak ferromagnetism.


Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is world's most widely cultivated food crop. At initial decades of 21st century, one probability of a great famine appeared in the world due to long drought in tropics and subtropics and at the same time it appeared more dangerously because of the climate change threat. System of Wheat Intensification (SWI) which is based on the principles of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a new wheat cultivation technique which might act as a significantly new weapon as a part of climate-smart farming. It is one of the promising technologies to increase productivity which ultimately contributes to the household level food security of rural marginal farmers. The present study was conducted in Samastipur district of Bihar state in India. 4 panchayats (Thahara, Morsand, Indarwara, Sarangpur) were selected from 2 blocks of Samastipur based on assumption that these blocks have the largest number of adopters of SWI technology. The total number of respondents (beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries) selected for the study was 60. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and t-test were used as the statistical tools. As the result, it was found that majority of the adopters (50%) had medium level of adoption followed by high level of adoption (40%) whereas; majority of the non-adopters (60%) had low level of adoption. The adopters have significantly higher mean adoption scores (46.96) than that of non-adopters (29.73). The computed t-value (13.61) was found to be highly significant which referred a significant difference in the mean adoption scores of adopters and non-adopters. Moreover, it was discerned that maximum number of respondents in partial adoption was due to lack of information source (80%) and maximum number of respondents in non-adoption was due to non-availability of labourers as well as lack of delivery system at village level (100%).


A 17-year old female presented at the Oral Medicine Clinic with the complaint of persistent swelling of the upper lip and anterior attached gingiva, causing her discomfort when eating and talking. The swelling started approximately ten months earlier. At the time she was seen by her physician who prescribed an antibiotic that gave mild symptomatic relief, but no clinical resolution. She was also seen by an oral hygienist on three occasions with no improvement of the gingival swelling. The patient also reported that she had been diagnosed with depression and type 2 diabetes approximately two years ago and was currently using Citalopram (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) and Glucophage® (metformin hydrochloride, an anti-hyperglycemic drug). Extra-oral examination revealed a firm, swollen and superficially cracked upper lip with a red granular appearance. No enlarged cervical lymph nodes could be palpated. Intra-orally, the anterior maxillary and mandibular gingivae were hyperplastic and erythematous, with a granular surface. The differential diagnosis included contact allergy and granulomatous disease, including mycobacterial infection.


It is often argued that the observed trend towards early retirement is due mainly to the implicit tax imposed on continued activity of elderly workers. We study the relevance of such a distortion in a political economy model with endogenous age of retirement. The setting is a two-period overlapping generations model. Individuals di¤er in their productivity. In the ...rst period they work a ...xed amount of time; in the second, they choose when to retire and then receive a ‡at rate pension bene...t. Pensions are ...nanced by a payroll tax on earnings in the ...rst and in the second period of life. Such a tax is non distortionary in the ...rst period; it is in the second period. We allow for some rebating of the second period tax. Individuals vote on the level of the payroll tax given the rebate which can range from 0 (biased system) to 100% (neutral system). We provide su¢cient conditions for the existence of a voting equilibrium and study its properties. Under these conditions, high tax rates are supported by all the old and by low productivity young individuals. We show that the pivotal voter is a young individual. The number of young individuals who have higher wage than the pivotal voter equals half the total population. Finally, we study the simultaneous determination of the bias and the tax rate through a voting procedure and show that the equilibrium (if any) implies a bias which is always positive and may or not be larger than one.


A possible usage of fine waste ceramic powder coming from precise brick cutting in production of blended cement is analyzed in the paper. For the studied ceramic powder, chemical and mineralogical composition is measured by X-Ray Fluorescence and X-Ray Diffraction. The particle size distribution of ceramic powder is accessed on laser diffraction principle. The ceramic powder is used in cement based pastes composition in cement mass replacements of 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40%. For the tested pastes, monitoring of strength development is done using measurement of time dependent mechanical parameters. Bulk density, matrix density, and total open porosity are measured for 28 days cured samples. In order to obtain information on the rate of hydration process, the formation of pastes' solid structure is monitored using measurement of pore size distribution at chosen times of hydration. Application of waste ceramics is found to give the most promising mechanical properties of the cement-based paste for 8 and 16% cement replacement levels what makes good prerequisites for future research that will be focused on design and development of new types of cement-based composites with incorporated ceramic waste powder. However, also other tested mixtures provide acceptable results. This knowledge can be used for instance in the production of lower strength composites.


Cetaceans (whales and dolphins) always excrete urine with an osmolality markedly higher than that of plasma. Although the mechanisms by which cetaceans concentrate urine have not been elucidated, data support a role for medullary urea accumulation in this process, as is the case for terrestrial mammals. Therefore, we hypothesized that facilitated urea transporters are present in the kidney of cetaceans. Using 5'/3'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends, we cloned a 2.7-kb cDNA from the kidney of the short-finned pilot whale Globicephala macrorhynchus. The putative open-reading frame encoded a 397-amino acid protein [pilot whale urea transporter A2 (whUT-A2)] that has 94% amino acid sequence identity to the A2 isoform of the human urea transporter (hUT-A2). Heterologous expression of whUT-A2 cRNA in Xenopus oocytes induced phloretin-inhibitable urea transport. Although Northern analysis and RT-PCR indicated that whUT-A2 was exclusively expressed in kidney, Western blotting using a polyclonal antibody to rat UT-A1/UT-A2 detected various immunoreactive proteins in kidney and other tissues. Furthermore, RT-PCR analysis suggested the presence of alternatively spliced UT-A transcripts in the kidney as well as extrarenal tissues. We conclude that renal urea transporters are highly conserved among mammals inhabiting terrestrial and pelagic environments. A urea-based concentrating mechanism, presumably evolved to meet the demands of an arid terrestrial environment, may have contributed a fortuitous preadaptation that enabled the ancestors of cetaceans to reinvade the sea.


The world economic downturn, global warming debates and natural disasters have led to questioning of societal and cultural values and priorities. In 2009 Martine Postma launched the first Repair Cafe in Amsterdam, aimed to curb the attitude prevalent in a consumerist society that disposal and replacement is preferable to repair, and the associated loss of skill. Repair Cafe's have since emerged internationally. The emergence in 2011 of the Occupy Wall Street movement, its persistence, and then subsequent spread of the movement internationally, has been read as symbol of dissatisfaction with the contemporary world economic structure. The proliferation of online and real 'craft' outlets for home made, hand made, allowing purchases direct from the maker, and the emergence of movements like guerilla knitters and sewing circles all suggest a reconnection with making, people, networks and materials.

On a personal level, my values and systems of thinking as a maker and an artist have similarly gone through a transition in motivation and process. This paper traces the transition in thinking as informed by the response to materials and a changing awareness of the responsibility and role of the artist. Ideas that have informed this way of rethinking practice include observations of the emergence of international grass roots initiatives such as mentioned above and the writings of Architect William McDonough, Chemist Michael Braungart, Academic Glenn Adamson, Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art and Critical Theory Howard Risatti, Sociologist Richard Sennett, Environmentalists Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, Academic and Activist Raj Patel and Academic Philosopher Michael Crawford. This paper addresses practice as thinking and thinking as practice.


3-(2-Hydroxyphenoxy)phthalide is an intermediate in the hydrolysis of OO′-(2-carboxybenzylidene) catechol in aqueous buffers of pH 2·9–5. This reaction is general acid catalysed by carboxylic acids and also occurs spontaneously in a reaction which probably involves water as a general acid catalyst. The catalytic constants for the reactions catalysed by acetic and formic acids are similar to those of the analogously catalysed hydrolyses of OO′-(4-carboxybenzylidene) catechol, but the catalytic constant for the spontaneous reaction is ca. 30 times greater than that for spontaneous hydrolysis of the latter compound. This is attributed to nucleophilic assistance in reaction of OO′-(2-carboxybenzylidene) catechol. In the pH range 2–5, 2,3-OO′-(2-carboxybenzylidene)-2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid is converted into 3-(3-carboxy-2-hydroxyphenoxy)phthalide. The pH-rate profile is bell-shaped but at the maximum the reaction occurs only ca. three times faster than the hydrolysis of 2,3-OO′-(4-carboxybenzylidene)-2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid. The neighbouring carboxylate group of the aldehyde moiety of this acid does not provide appreciable anchimeric assistance in the intramolecularly catalysed opening of the dioxolan ring.


For wireless real-time multimedia applications, the excessive packet loss rate suffered at the receiver, especially when the packets are transported on UDP, is a major issue to resolve. The previously proposed UDP-Lite project was designed to replace traditional UDP, so that erroneous UDP payloads could be passed up to the application layer instead of being discarded. The main argument of UDP-Lite is that many real-time multimedia applications actually prefer damaged packets over lost ones because of their error resilience capabilities. The major drawback of UDP-Lite is the backward incompatibility against traditional UDP stacks in numerous UDP devices. In addition, applications have no choice but to accept UDP-Lite packets as normal ones. This paper introduces another approach, UDP-Liter, which makes use of the concept of UDPLite, and yet maintains 100% backward compatibility. Better yet, UDP-Liter will give applications the flexibility to handle normal packets and corrupted packets differently. Keywords-UDP-Lite; UDP; Multimedia Applications; Wireless;


Story of Benzene and Leukemia: Epidemiologic Approach of Muzaffer Aksoy: Fusun Yaris, et al. Karadeniz Technical University, School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Turkey—In 1974, Professor Muzaffer Aksoy established a link to leukemia in humans as a result of occupational exposure to benzene. The aim of this study is to evaluate his epidemiological approach for his investigation on the effects of benzene and to bring attention to the benzene problem in Turkey. Dr. Aksoy observed that a large group of leukemic patients were shoemakers, or they worked in leather manufacturing. In the 1960s, benzene was a popular solvent in the leather industry. Dr. Aksoy conducted a field investigation in Gedikpasa‐ Istanbul, where the shoemakers worked so that he could draw his key observations from actual environmental conditions. With a gas detector, he found the concentration of benzene in these work places to be 150–210 ppm and up to 650 ppm on rare occasions. He performed an epidemiological study and health education among 28,500 shoe, slipper and handbag workers during the period from 1967 to 1974. He published these data, establishing an association between benzene and leukemia. The incidence of leukemia among the shoe workers was decreased by screening, health education, and legislative actions in Turkey, but it began to increase again because of lack of an occupational health policy and underestimation of the problem. These results suggest the importance of primary prevention of occupational cancers. Dr. Aksoy's epidemiologic approach may highlight the necessity for detailed investigations of the occupational status of patients who need medical aid in order to diagnose the real underlying factor.


The experience in surgical treatment of 402 men with inguinal hernias according to the original method (aponeuroplasty of posterior wall of inguinal canal "without tension") is analyzed. Long-term results were evaluated in 374 patients. There were no recurrences of hernias. Problems of pathogenesis of inguinal hernias are discussed.


This paper presents a new control approach with prediction to minimize the effects of time delays while ensuring stability and system performance. Two predictors at the slave and master sides are constructed assuming that the time delays in both transmission channels are measurable. Simulation and experimental results are compared with the scheme without prediction to show the effectiveness of this approach. The influence of data dropout to the proposed teleoperation system is studied in the experiment.


ABSTRACT This article analyses water, food, and energy security in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus approach. The innovative focus is on identifying past and future development-based drivers of water-energy-food integration in the region. The study presents a critical review of WEF nexus in the Gulf region and identifies links to sustainable development in this area. It concludes that integrating water, energy, and food resources within the nexus is crucial for GCC nations to accomplish resource security and sustainable development.


Endotoxic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with potent immunostimulatory activity is recognized by the receptor complex of MD-2 and Toll-like receptor 4. Crystal structures of human MD-2 and its complex with the antiendotoxic tetra-acylated lipid A core of LPS have been determined at 2.0 and 2.2 angstrom resolutions, respectively. MD-2 shows a deep hydrophobic cavity sandwiched by two β sheets, in which four acyl chains of the ligand are fully confined. The phosphorylated glucosamine moieties are located at the entrance to the cavity. These structures suggest that MD-2 plays a principal role in endotoxin recognition and provide a basis for antiseptic drug development.


Today, military combat medical care is the best it has ever been. Regulated U.S. Air Force aeromedical evacuation (AE) is one important reason. The Theater Validating Flight Surgeon (TVFS) validates that a patient is ready for flight. Two TVFSs' experiences, successively deployed in 2007, are the focus of this study. A unique operational worksheet used to manage the AE queue was used for approximately 5 months. A descriptive analysis of the worksheet's 1,389 patients found the majority male (94%), median age 30 years, and mostly Army enlisted soldiers (63%). U.S. civilians made up 9%. Battle Injury (55%) surpassed Disease, Non-Battle Injury (45%); most frequently seen were extremity injuries (73%) and cardiac illness (31%), respectively. Common to both Battle Injury and Disease, Nonbattle Injury were several TVFS prescriptions including no "remain overnights" (79%), head of bed elevation (78%), cabin altitude restriction (57%), no stops (44%), Critical Care Air Transport Team (27%), and supplemental oxygen (22%). This study is a first look at the TVFS experience and it offers up an initial accounting of the TVFS clinical and prescriptive practices. It is also a jumping point for future TVFS investigations using the available AE databases.


Regenerating codes provide an efficient way to recover data a t failed nodes in distributed storage systems. It has been shown that regenerating codes can be designed to minimize the per-node storage (called MSR) or minimize the communication overhead for regeneration (called MBR). In this work, we propose new encoding schemes for [n,d] error-correcting MSR and MBR codes that generalize our earlier work on error-correcting regenerating codes. We show that by choosing a suitable diagonal matrix, any generator matrix of the [n,�] Reed-Solomon (RS) code can be integrated into the encoding matrix. Hence, MSR codes with the least update complexity can be found. By using the coefficients of generator polynomials of [n,k] and [n,d] RS codes, we present a least-update-complexity encoding scheme for MBR codes. An efficient decoding scheme is propose d that utilizes the [n,�] RS code to perform data reconstruction for MSR codes. The proposed decoding scheme has better error correction capability and incurs the least number of node accesses when errors are present. A new decoding scheme is also proposed for MBR codes that can correct more error-patterns.


Background: We are at the beginning of a new era where regenerative medicine is really starting to take hold. An appreciation of adult stem cells and their role in tissue maintenance have heralded novel insight into endometrial remodelling. The idea that human endometrium could be a plentiful source of adult stem/progenitor cells (ASPCs) has captured the imagination of many stem cell biologists. Not only that, they are also hypothesised to be involved in endometrial proliferative diseases, such as endometriosis. However, work remains preliminary and is stunted by a lack of specific endometrial stem cell markers. Recently, stage specific embryonic antigen -1 (SSEA-1) was proposed as a candidate epithelial ASPC marker in adult endometrium. In order to validate this, stem cell assays are required. These assays include measurements of clonogenicity, prolonged self-renewal and differentiation potential.

Aim: To assess the differentiation potential of SSEA-1+ cells in vitro.

Methods: All endometrial culture samples were collected from pre-menopausal women undergoing surgery for benign disease at Liverpool Women's Hospital (LWH). Epithelial cells were cultured in 3D MatrigelTM to produce gland-like structures. Gland-like structures were characterised via immuno-histochemistry, to validate their resemblance to glands in endometrial tissue in vivo. To assess multi-potency, magnetic cell sorted (MACS) SSEA-1 enriched and depleted cell fractions were cultured in adipogenic and osteogenic inducing media. In order to assess pluripotency, SSEA-1 enriched and depleted fractions were cultured in neurogenic media.

Results: SSEA-1 enriched cell fractions had a greater propensity to produce gland-like structures in 3D culture than SSEA-1 depleted cell fractions. Gland-like structures best resembled glands in post-menopausal (PM) endometrium. Non-gland like structures also formed in 3D culture from endometriosis samples, which stained exclusively and intensely for CK5/6. SSEA-1 enriched and depleted fractions were unable to differentiate into other cell types of mesodermal lineage. However, both enriched and depleted fractions were able to produce ectodermal derived neural-like PGP9.5 positive cells.

Discussion: This work confirms SSEA-1 is a reliable epithelial ASPC marker in adult endometrium. SSEA-1+ cells possess an increased ability to produce gland-like structures, reminiscent of in vivo endometrial glands. This therefore confirms unipotency. The presence of CK5/6 in non-gland-like structures from endometriosis samples suggests a potential role in endometriosis aetiology, and warrants further work. SSEA-1 enriched and depleted cells were unable to undergo multi-lineage differentiation, but were capable of producing neural-like cells. As both cell populations were unable to demonstrate multipotency, it unlikely SSEA-1 enriched/depleted cells are pluripotent. More likely, a neural progenitor may exist in adult endometrium, one that has been included in both cell populations. Given the close proximity of endometrial glands to the placenta, the commitment of epithelial stem cells could be an ancillary mechanism to prevent maternal microchimersim in offspring, which is associated with a number of pathologies.


The two quaestiones to which the philosopher-theologian Pierre d'Auvergne responded during his last Quodlibetal (1301) at the University of Paris are among the rare examples of interest in music in the literature of academic quaestiones disputatae. Pierre's answers to the questions are not restricted to philosophical argument but extend to physiological considerations. His goal is to prove not only that music can arouse passion and promote virtue but to explain how it does so. He will explain how apprehension of a stimulus (music) by the senses is transformed by the circulation of blood, warmth, spirit, and 'first qualities' into a passion that involves the entire body. Music also possesses the power to encourage the practice of virtue through a correspondence between musical proportion and comparable proportions in the human body. For this purpose vocal music is preferable to instrumental music. Boethius is cited but Pierre's proofs do not depend on the proportions of musica instrumentalis and musica humana, but on principles of natural science.


We describe a sensor network deployment method using autonomous flying robots. Such networks are suitable for tasks such as large-scale environmental monitoring or for command and control in emergency situations. We describe in detail the algorithms used for deployment and for measuring network connectivity and provide experimental data we collected from field trials. A particular focus is on determining gaps in connectivity of the deployed network and generating a plan for a second, repair, pass to complete the connectivity. This project is the result of a collaboration between three robotics labs (CSIRO, USC, and Dartmouth.).


This paper derives some optimum transmit and receive antenna coe-cients in wireless multipath channels based on the spherical vector wave multimode expansion of the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel matrix. The derived antenna coe-cients satisfy the following speciflc optimization criteria: (i) maximum MIMO mean efiective link gain (link MEG) based on the multimode channel realizations or (ii) maximum MIMO link MEG based on the multimode correlation matrix or (iii) correlation minimization by diagonalization of the MIMO full-correlation matrix. It is shown that the proposed approach leads to matrix equations belonging to the nearest Kronecker product (NKP) problem family, which in general have no trivial solution. However, we show that exact solutions are provided to the posed NKP problems under the assumption of the Kronecker model for the MIMO full-correlation matrix. The results are illustrated by numerical examples. The proposed approach is a complement to existing antenna pattern analysis methods.


Dwindling retail market share in the developed countries direct attention to a critical appraisal of the potential in emerging markets. While store choice can be an outcome of several interdependent factors, understanding the impact of shoppers' format perception on their decision process helps in analyzing the developing attitude of the Indian retail customers. As organized retail market in India still evolves with notable dominance in categories like apparel, the present paper aims at exploring the formative attitude of the Indian apparel shoppers with respect to the single and multi-brand store format options. Demographic profiles are found to influence format preferences. The survey reveals that the urban Indian middle class, with leisure-oriented shopping motive, desire multibrand stores to satisfy their shop-and-fun needs. Time-constrained urban female population along with senior citizens prefer single brand formats to suit their objective-driven shopping needs. The articulation of the format perception of the Indian apparel shoppers not only aids the existing and prospective retailers in formulating sustainable formats, but also serves as a foundation for a deeper probe into the retail consumer behavior research domain specific to emerging markets.


Background
Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) detects light-induced ultrasound (US) waves to reconstruct the optical absorption contrast of the biological tissues. Due to its relatively deep penetration (several centimeters in soft tissue), high spatial resolution, and inherent functional sensitivity, PACT has great potential for imaging mouse brains with endogenous and exogenous contrasts, which is of immense interest to the neuroscience community. However, conventional PACT either assumes homogenous optical fluence within the brain or uses a simplified attenuation model for optical fluence estimation. Both approaches underestimate the complexity of the fluence heterogeneity and can result in poor quantitative imaging accuracy.

Methods
To optimize the quantitative performance of PACT, we explore for the first time 3D Monte Carlo (MC) simulation to study the optical fluence distribution in a complete mouse brain model. We apply the MCX MC simulation package on a digital mouse (Digimouse) brain atlas that has complete anatomy information. To evaluate the impact of the brain vasculature on light delivery, we also incorporate the whole-brain vasculature in the Digimouse atlas. k-wave toolbox was used to investigate the effect of inhomogeneous illumination on the reconstructed images and chromophore concentration estimation.

Results
The simulation results clearly show that the optical fluence in the mouse brain is heterogeneous at the global level and can decrease by a factor of five with increasing depth. Moreover, the strong absorption and scattering of the brain vasculature also induce the fluence disturbance at the local level.

Conclusions
Both global and local fluence heterogeneity contributes to the reduced quantitative accuracy of the reconstructed PACT images of mouse brain. Correcting the optical fluence distribution can improve the quantitative accuracy of PACT.


ABSTRACT Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was used to investigate the diversity of Streptococcus suis isolates of various serotypes recovered from swine clinical samples in Spain. Capsular types 9 (64.9%) and 2 (14.8%) were the most frequently isolated serotypes followed by serotype 7 (5.9%) and serotype 8 (4.3%). The PFGE results of this study with 60 different pulsotypes indicate a great genetic diversity among the S. suis isolates, which is consistent with the broad distribution of S. suis in the swine population. Forty-five percent of the pulsotypes corresponded to single isolates, no pulsotype was common to all farms, and at least 3 different pulsotypes were isolated in 56% of herds in which more than 3 clinical isolates were analyzed. These results reveal a great diversity both between and within herds throughout the strains of S. suis studied, demonstrating that different strains of S. suis are associated with infection in pigs. Some pulsotypes were more frequently isolated and exhibited a wider distribution over herds than others, and were the unique or predominant strains in several herds, suggesting the existence of a prevalent or a few prevalent clones responsible for a large proportion of clinical cases. Overall, the great genetic heterogeneity of the clinical strains of S. suis, the isolation of different strains within the same herd, and the predominance of particular strains in some herds are evidence that infection by S. suis is a dynamic process and reinforce the idea that the epidemiology of S. suis infection is very complex.


A precise forecast of stock price indexes may return a profit for investors. According to CNN Money, in the same month, as much as 93% of global investors have lost money for trading stock. One of the stock price indexes is the stock composite index. Exact predictions of the stock composite index can be critical for creating powerful market exchanging strategies. In this paper, a modified supervised learning method used to solve regression problems, Fuzzy Support Vector Regression (FSVR) is focused. As the complexity of many factors influences the movement of stock price prediction, the prediction results of Support Vector Regression (SVR) cannot always meet people with precision. Thus, this study implies Fuzzy Support Vector Regression (FSVR) stock prediction model, in which fuzzy membership with mapping function is employed to generate a precise price fluctuation of stock. To assure the use of features on model prediction, Fisher Score is used to find high-quality features that can enhance the accuracy. Indonesia Composite Index or Jakarta Composite Index (JKSE) is considered as input data and the result showed that Fisher Score could be applied as feature selection on Indonesia Composite Index prediction with the best model is eleven out of fifteen features with 80% of training data with 0.043529error.


Medical tape that provides secure fixation of life-sustaining and -monitoring devices with quick, easy, damage-free removal represents a longstanding unmet medical need in neonatal care. During removal of current medical tapes, crack propagation occurs at the adhesive–skin interface, which is also the interface responsible for device fixation. By designing quick-release medical tape to undergo crack propagation between the backing and adhesive layers, we decouple removal and device fixation, enabling dual functionality. We created an ordered adhesive/antiadhesive composite intermediary layer between the medical tape backing and adhesive for which we achieve tunable peel removal force, while maintaining high shear adhesion to secure medical devices. We elucidate the relationship between the spatial ordering of adhesive and antiadhesive regions to create a fully tunable system that achieves strong device fixation and quick, easy, damage-free device removal. We also described ways of neutralizing the residual adhesive on the skin and have observed that thick continuous films of adhesive are easier to remove than the thin islands associated with residual adhesive left by current medical tapes.


An experiment was conducted to determine the apparent (AID) and standardized (SID) ileal digestibility of CP and AA in weanling pigs of 4 soybean products, fish meal, and casein. The 4 soybean products were conventional dehulled soybean meal (SBM), soy protein isolate (SPI), fermented soybean meal (FSBM), and enzyme-treated soybean meal (ESBM). Seven weanling barrows (initial BW: 10.9 +/- 2.3 kg) were individually fitted with a T-cannula in the distal ileum. The barrows were allotted to a 7 x 7 Latin square design with 7 diets and seven 7-d periods. Six cornstarch-based diets were prepared using each of the protein sources as the sole source of CP and AA. An N-free diet was used to measure basal endogenous losses of CP and AA. Results showed that except for Lys, the AID and SID of AA in FSBM was not different from SBM, and with a few exceptions, the AID and SID of most AA in SBM, FSBM, and ESBM were not different from each other and from the AID and SID of AA in fish meal. Likewise, the AID and SID of AA in ESBM and SPI were not different, but the AID and SID of most AA in SPI were greater (P < 0.05) than in SBM and FSBM. The AID and SID of most AA in SPI were not different from the AID and SID of AA in casein. In conclusion, FSBM and ESBM had similar SID of most AA as SBM, but SPI has the greatest SID of AA among the 4 soybean products. Casein had the greatest SID of AA among the protein sources studied.


Double internal mammary-coronary artery bypass in 100 patients with angina was associated with 35 single-vein grafts and four double-vein grafts. Hospital mortality was 8%. Postoperative catheterization revealed patency of 80 of 84 (95%) right internal mammary artery (RIMA) grafts, 82 of 84 (97%) left internal mammary artery (LIMA) grafts, and 36 of 41(88%) vein grafts. At one year, 22 of 23 (96%) RIMA grafts and 22 of 22 LIMA grafts remained patent. There were two late deaths, one late infarction, and three of 23 patients with angina at one year. Five of 45 IMA grafts had diffuse narrowing. The right and left IMA are hemodynamically similar, but the right will usually not reach beyond the acute margin and is smaller than the right coronary artery (RCA) one third of the time. The LIMA graft is the graft of choice for left anterior descending (LAD) reconstruction, but use of the RIMA for RCA or LAD bypass must be based on the age of the patient, the size of the coronary artery, and the distribution of atherosclerosis.


The growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia makes the owner to have an excellent strategies especially marketing strategy to broaden their market share and increase their products or services' quality. Due to SMEs weaknesses of lack in human and financial resources, they need to conduct online marketing to reach their consumers, fasten the transactions and better customer support, thus saving costs for doing marketing campaign, etc. One of the biggest social network in the world, Facebook can be a solution for SMEs by exploited their features i.e. Facebook Profile, Group and Fans Page for marketing purposes. Most of SMEs today have adopted Facebook as their marketing medium but they have not measured the impact and effectiveness of marketing that they have done. In order to better understand the need of online marketing for SMEs and to provide guidelines for Indonesian SMEs in choosing marketing medium, this paper presents the impact analysis of using Facebook in two Indonesian SMEs i.e Inspired 27 and Garlick Store Company.


Cation compositional engineering has revealed a powerful design tool to manipulate the perovskite structural and optoelectronic characteristics with a tremendous impact on device performances. Tuning the bandgap by cation and anion compositional mixing, for instance, is paramount to target different optoelectronic segments, from light emitting applications to tandem solar cells. However, structural and photo instabilities, and phase segregation come along, imposing a severe control on the material composition and structure. Here we develop highly uniform alloy of mixed cation FA(1−x)CsxPbBr3 perovskite thin films pushing for the first time the Cs content up to 30%. In contrast to what has been reported so far, this composition leads to a high quality crystalline film, maintaining a single cubic phase arrangement. In addition, a remarkably high robustness against moisture and phase purity is observed. The experimental finding is also supported by density functional theory simulations, demonstrating at the atomistic level Cs segregation starting from Cs concentration around 37.5%. Beyond that, phase segregation happens, leading to formation of an unstable pure Cs-rich region. Low temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements reveal that the addition of Cs eliminates the non-radiative channel into mid-gap traps, as evident by the lack of the broad emission band, often associated with recombination of self-trapped exciton, present for 0% Cs. This, in turn, reduces the non-radiative recombination losses which manifests as high performance solar cells. Indeed, when embodied in solar devices, Cs incorporation leads to enhanced device performances, with an open circuit voltage beyond 1.33 V.


In this paper we report an analysis of a teaching sequence in which Grade 11 students were asked to produce some graphs corresponding to the relationship between time and distance of a cylinder moving up and down an inclined plane. The students were also asked to carry out the experience using a TI 83+ graphic calculator equipped with a sensor, and to discuss and explain the differences between their own graphs and the ones obtained with the calculator. We analyze the students' processes of meaning production in terms of the way diverse semiotic resources such as gestures, graphs, words and artifacts become interwoven during the mathematical activity. Our findings suggest that a complex relationship between gestures and words allow the students to make sense of the time-space graphic expressions.


In Heredity and Hope, historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan defends modem genetic testing – the new genetics, by distinguishing it from twentieth century eugenics – the old genetics. Cowan maintains that although we rightly recoil from the old genetics, with its coercive methods and hateful motives, we should embrace the new genetics to enhance reproductive choice and promote the well-being of our offspring. This Book Review argues that the analogy between the old and new genetics can be less readily cast aside than Cowan appreciates. I argue that Cowan overlooks a moral similarity between the old genetics and new genetics: namely, whatever the differences between the means by which each is carried out, both are biological approaches to solve what are in large part social ills. I examine two ways in which the new genetics, no less than the old, might undermine social equality for people with disabilities. First, the new genetics threatens to express demeaning judgments about the lives of persons with disabilities. Second, a tendency to treat disabilities as predominantly genetic problems worthy of reproductive prevention could weaken our collective willingness to welcome into the world those whose abilities fail to meet the demands of modern society. My argument draws on comparisons among prenatal screening policy in the United States to contemporary policies from across Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.


Research has repeatedly demonstrated that saving is central to poor people's economic management strategies. Projects such as the financial diaries initiatives in India, Bangladesh, and South Africa; MicroSave in eastern and western Africa; and studies by the International Food Policy Research Institute, for example, have documented savings practices among the poor. What is unclear is how well formal financial institutions satisfy poor savers' needs. Although over 90 percent of adults in industrialized economies typically have accounts in financial institutions, market studies in some areas of the developing world indicate penetration rates as low as 6 percent. Access to savings services for the poor thus varies widely. Understanding this variation and its root causes is the primary goal of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) country-level savings assessments. The assessments explore opportunities and constraints encountered by formal institutions in meeting demand for deposit services among the poor. This focus note summarizes the findings from country- level savings assessments in Benin, Bosnia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Uganda, which suggest five strategies for improving poor people's access to savings services.


The aim of this thesis is to gain insight into the role of social inequalities in explaining the differences in health between the United States and Western Europe. The first part of this thesis assesses the contribution of educational inequalities in health to the explanation of the US health disadvantage. The second part of this thesis assesses the contribution of work and family factors (separately and jointly) in explaining the US health disadvantage.


We illustrate unique examples of low-power tunable analog circuits built using independently driven nanoscale DG-MOSFETs, where the top gate response is altered by application of a control voltage on the bottom gate. In particular, we provide examples for a single-ended CMOS amplifier pair, a Schmitt trigger circuit and a operational transconductance amplifier C filter, circuit blocks essential for low-noise high-performance integrated circuits for analog and mixed-signal applications. The topologies and biasing schemes explored here show how the nanoscale DG-MOSFETs may be used for efficient, tolerant and smaller circuits with tunable characteristics.


In Kenya, biomass energy accounts for 75% of the energy consumed for domestic heating and industrial process applications. This has lead to massive deforestation and environmental degradation. In seeking solutions, this project was undertaken to develop a solar concentrating system for process heat generation in Kenya. The goal of the study was to design, construct and evaluate the thermal performance of the solar tracking concentrator for process heat generation. The solar tracking concentrator was designed, constructed and tested under field conditions in Kenya from February to August 2004. About 70 trials were conducted to investigate its thermal performance. The system components included rotating support structure, tracking unit with cylinders loaded with evaporative solvents, collector assembly (parabolic concentrator and receiver) and heat recovery unit. Locally available materials (including shock absorbers, solvents, square metal tubes & plywood) were used to construct the system. The measured parameters included solar radiation, ambient temperature, wind speed, tracking cylinders temperatures, water inlet and outlet temperatures, water flow, air inlet and outlet temperatures, airflow and tracking angle. The tracking unit utilized solvents for its operation. Three types of solvents used included chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and methylated spirit. The tracking angle was read and recorded manually at a regular interval of 10 minutes. Average process temperature ranging between 41.8 ± 9.7°Cand 59.3 ± 147.7°C was generated with an average insolation of 665 ± 302.1 W/m2 and 684.4 ±147.7 W/m2 for the non-tracking and the solar tracking systems respectively. From 70 field tests conducted in Kenya with system loaded with methylated spirit, chloroform and carbon tetrachloride the following was concluded: (a) Chloroform solvent with an average tracking accuracy of 82+13.2% proved to be better than that of carbon tetrachloride that had tracking accuracy of 74.1± 2.5%. (b) The use of mirrors on the solar concentrator's surface and integration of a solar tracking system increased the thermal efficiency by an average of 9.0 ± 1.5%. (c) Concentrating system loaded with chloroform showed potential to generate 82.5± 5kWh per day when operating with averaged solar radiation of 644.3 ± 30.5 kW/m2. (d) The solar tracking concentrator loaded with chloroform solvent demonstrated great potential for use in process heat generation, industrial and agricultural drying operations in sunny countries.


: As per survey the current e-tendering processes are not open to everybody involved, which means information isn't shared with all parties involved. When a corporation is chosen as the winner of a contract, for example, the information is disseminated as they wish. Organizations that bid on a same tender aren't told why their proposal was rejected or why one company was chosen as the winner. A corporation can request this information, but obtaining it is a time-consuming process, as a fact that checking result papers is possible and reviewing them takes time. A side from not being transparent, the security of these portals is a major worry, as it can lead to fraud and data manipulation in a central database. If a hacker acquires access to this central database, bids can be shared with competitors, resulting in severe financial and strategic losses for a corporation. By and large, the Tenders or agreements are utilized by legislatures and organizations to get labor and products. On account of flawed processes, ill-advised delicate the executives result in critical losses. Contractors are leaned toward, records aren't kept as expected, there's an absence of transparency, there's hacking, information is changed, things like these happens various times. To defeat this issue, we will utilize a straightforward and secure encryption combined with reliable block-based engineering for exchange the executives. For this situation we will utilize block bind exchange-based records alongside exchanges such as to give a totally straightforward offering process, delicate reports, applications, bid recommendations, organization profiles, past records, endorsing official subtleties, furthermore, dismissal subtleties are undeniably required. So, we will implement the system with blockchain along with machine learning algorithm approach for prediction of the best company classification for the tender, we are going to use the dataset from Kaggle and also, we will make our own datasets.


: The disappearance of collective flow effects in heavy ion collisions is investigated using a microscopic optical model formalism for estimating collision momentum transfers. Phenomenological expressions for the balance energy are obtained which agree very well with measurements for various experimental collision pairs and with results obtained from Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck simulations.


The magneto-optical Kerr effect is a striking phenomenon whereby the optical properties of a material change under an applied magnetic field. Though promising for sensing and data storage technology, these properties are typically weak in magnitude and are inherently limited by the bulk properties of the active magnetic material. In this work, we theoretically demonstrate that plasmonic thin-film assemblies on a cobalt substrate can achieve tunable transverse magneto-optical (TMOKE) responses throughout the visible and near-infrared (300-900 nm). In addition to exhibiting wide spectral tunability, this response can be varied in sign and magnitude by changing the plasmonic volume fraction (1-20%), the composition and arrangement of the assembly, and the shape of the nanoparticle inclusions. Of particular interest is the newly discovered sensitivity of the sign and intensity of the TMOKE spectrum to collective metallic plasmonic behavior in silver, mixed silver-gold, and anisotropic superlattices.


The array factor of a both geometrically and electrically uniform array is the simple formula for the complex geometric progression sum. This fact, although results in the simplest of all possible analytical designs, obviously does not in the least simplify the complicated practical problem of feeding the array elements using multiple driving points. In order to begin the examination of uniform linear arrays with a single driving point, this paper presents a compact study of the end-fed space arrays with application to geometrically uniform, self-standing linear arrays of parallel dipoles. A number of test array models were simulated, constructed and their radiation pattern was then measured. The experimental and computational results were found to be in good agreement. The developed software applications are available through the Internet as FLOSS Free Libre Open Source Software.


The use of colloid supported lipid bilayers (CSLBs) for assembling colloidal structures has been of recent interest. Here, we use multi-component lipid bilayer membranes formed around anisotropic colloids and show that the curvature anisotropy of the colloids drives a sorting of the lipids in the membrane along the colloids. We then exploit this curvature-sensitive lipid sorting to create "shape-anisotropic patchy colloids" - specifically, we use colloids with six rods sticking out of a central cubic core, "hexapods", for this purpose and demonstrate that membrane patches self-assemble at the tip of each of the six colloidal rods. The membrane patches are rendered sticky using biotinylated lipids in complement with a biotin-binding streptavidin protein. Finally, using these "shape-anisotropic patchy colloids", we demonstrate the directed assembly of colloidal links, paving the way for the creation of heterogeneous and flexible colloidal structures.


Electrical properties tomography (EPT) is a recently developed noninvasive technology to image the electrical conductivity and permittivity of biological tissues at Larmor frequency in magnetic resonance scanners. The absolute phase of the complex radio-frequency magnetic field (B1) is necessary for electrical property calculation. However, due to the lack of practical methods to directly measure the absolute B1 phases, current EPT techniques have been achieved with B1 phase estimation based on certain assumptions on object anatomy, coil structure and/or electromagnetic wave behavior associated with the main magnetic field, limiting EPT from a larger variety of applications. In this study, using a multi-channel transmit/receive coil, the framework of a new general approach for EPT has been introduced, which is independent on the assumptions utilized in previous studies. Using a human head model with realistic geometry, a series of computer simulations at 7 T were conducted to evaluate the proposed method under different noise levels. Results showed that the proposed method can be used to reconstruct the conductivity and permittivity images with noticeable accuracy and stability. The feasibility of this approach was further evaluated in a phantom experiment at 7 T.


Objective To evaluate a new computerized method for recording 7-day food intake. Research Design and Methods Randomized crossover trial was conducted with patients recording the amount and type of every food and drink consumed during a week by either a computerized device (Food-meter) or recording the data in a diary. Each method was applied twice. Twenty-one insulin-dependent diabetic patients (mean ± SD age 25 ± 9 yr) were studied. Results The two methods showed very good agreement in the evaluation of the patients' diets (1792 ± 408 vs. 1764 ± 436 kcal∕day, 84 ± 19 vs. 82 ± 21 g∕day protein, 68 ± 22 vs. 67 ± 23 g∕day fat, 210 ± 60 vs. 207 ± 58 g∕day carbohydrate with the conventional and computerized methods, respectively). The variability between the methods and the variability within each method were of similar magnitude. Conclusions The Food-meter represents a useful tool for computerizing the 7-day food record. The method is easy, reliable, and time saving. Moreover, it minimizes the risk of transcriptional errors.


Using the paradigm of Gary Alan Fine's "folklore diamond," this essay analyzes comedic material of contemporary African American women comics. This comedic material conveys the uniqueness of African American women's position at the intersections of race, gender, and class dynamics, thereby marking the performers as not only Black, not only female, but as Black women entertainers who are changing the face of Black women's comedy.


Modern unsteady (multi-)field visualizations require an effective reduction of the data to be displayed. From a huge amount of information the most informative parts have to be extracted. Instead of the fuzzy application dependent notion of feature, a new approach based on information theoretic concepts is introduced in this paper to detect important regions. This is accomplished by extending the concept of local statistical complexity from finite state cellular automata to discretized (multi-)fields. Thus, informative parts of the data can be highlighted in an application-independent, purely mathematical sense. The new measure can be applied to unsteady multifields on regular grids in any application domain. The ability to detect and visualize important parts is demonstrated using diffusion, flow, and weather simulations.


The correct prediction of flooding in urban areas is an important challenge to secure the values and fulfil public regulations. Traditional sewer simulations deliver the basic information for a rudimental flood protection, but the interaction between sewer and surface runoff can only be considered by a bi-directional modelling. Therefore detailed information about the relevant structures on the surface is necessary, which can partially be delivered by airborne laser scan data. This data have to be refined to get as detailed information about the endangered areas as possible. But the plenitude of information leads to high requirements on computer capacity and performance. This paper shows different approaches to predict the sewer caused flooding in urban areas. The approaches have been checked on two testing areas in Germany and the developed tool will be implemented in a commercial software system soon. This approaches, which partially base on each other, make a stepwise refinement of the model and narrowing of the affected areas possible. The developed algorithms to thin the digital terrain model and the well proven method to parallelize the calculation on more than one processing units secure an effective calculating process.


A Holocaust survivor and sociologist sheds light on, and celebrates, the motivations behind the benevolent actions of ordinary people. A passing motorist stops to help the passengers of a car that has crashed into an embankment. A hospice volunteer begins her shift in hospital ward caring for people with AIDS. A Vietnam chopper pilot stops the brutal execution of innocent civilians at Mylai by American soldiers. A firefighter responds to a routine call. All of these people are considered heroes, but what motivates such brave and altruistic acts, whether by trained professionals or just ordinary people? In Do Unto Others , Holocaust survivor and sociologist Samuel Oliner explores what gives an individual a sense of social responsibility, what leads to the development of care and compassion, and what it means to put the welfare of others ahead of one's own. Having been saved himself from the Nazis at age 16 as the result of one non-Jewish familys altruism, Oliner has made a lifelong study of the nature of altruism. Weaving together moving personal testimony and years of observation, Oliner makes sense of the factors that elicit altruistic behavior - exceptional acts by ordinary people in ordinary times.


This paper deals with a Cuk DC-DC converter as a single-stage power factor correction (PFC) converter for a permanent magnet brushless DC motor (PMBLDCM) fed through a diode bridge rectifier (DBR) from a single-phase AC mains. A three-phase voltage source inverter is used as an electronic commutator to operate the PMBLDCM driving an air conditioner compressor. The speed of the compressor is controlled to achieve optimum air-conditioning using a concept of the voltage control at DC link proportional to the desired speed of the PMBLDCM. The stator currents of the PMBLDCM during step change in the reference speed are controlled within the specified limits by an addition of a rate limiter in the reference DC link voltage. The proposed PMBLDCM drive with the voltage control is designed, modeled and its performance is evaluated in Matlab-Simulink environment. The obtained results are presented to demonstrate an improved power quality (PQ) at AC mains of the PMBLDCM drive system in wide range of the speed and the input AC voltage.


The Commission E Open Meetings papers are a choice between a status report for the Working Group activity or a short presentation of a subject in the area of the respective WG, which seems more relevant for the period between two such Open Meetings. The distribution system power line carrier problem discussed in this short review paper is far from being solved. On the contrary one could say that it has just been put forward and that it will represent a research item for the next few years. It is however typical for the new trend in which power and information technology are closely related. A session dedicated to this item is organized by the Wroclaw EMC 2000 symposium


As a follow-up to the quantitative analysis of data obtained from Google Books published online in Science on 16 December 2010 and in this week9s issue on page 176, one of the study9s authors has been using Wikipedia to analyze the fame of scientists whose names appear in books over the centuries. But his effort has been hampered by the online encyclopedia9s shortcomings, from the reliability of its information to the organization of its content. Several efforts are under way to improve Wikipedia as a teaching and research tool, including one by the Association for Psychological Science that seeks to create a more complete and accurate representation of its field.


Presents original lumped-element models of a large variety of coplanar stripline (CPS) circuits and discontinuities for accurate design and optimization of radiofrequency integrated circuits. These circuit models are extracted by applying a recently proposed deembedding technique called short-open calibration to calibrate the calculated field parameters obtained from the full-wave method of moments (MoM). It is realized by defining the two calibration standards, i.e., short and open elements, to evaluate and remove the error terms existing in the deterministic MoM algorithm, such as the approximation of port discontinuity and inconsistency of two-dimensional and three-dimensional characterizations of CPS external lines. In contrast to the static models, these field-extracted models can account for all the physical effects subject to the core area of CPS discontinuity, including frequency dispersion, high-order modes, and radiation loss. With this scheme, several CPS circuits and discontinuities are investigated over a wide frequency range to formulate their lumped-element models.


Segmental infarction of the omentum is a rare clinical entity that is seldom considered in the differential diagnosis for acute abdominal pain, especially as the clinical findings are so non-specific. Consequently, the diagnosis is usually made intraoperatively. The two cases presented here demonstrate the characteristic appearance of omental infarction on ultrasound and CT, which enables preoperative diagnosis. Preoperative radiological diagnosis may prevent unnecessary surgery.