- Developmental stuttering involves a disruption in the smooth connection of sounds or syllables that is characterised by multiple interruptions within a word, such as repetitions of sounds, syllables and parts of words, elongation of words and blockades. - During the course of the past fifty years, three phases can be distinguished in the management of developmental stuttering, characterised by a shift in stress from the environmental factors to the role of the organic, i.e. non-psychological, factors. - Initially, the parents of toddlers and pre-school children were advised to pay no attention to stuttering behaviour. Then the problem would disappear the quickest of its own accord. - After I985, the stress came to be placed on reducing the level of expectations, for example by speaking to the child more slowly and using shorter and less complex sentences. Another new aspect was that the parents learned to discuss stuttering with the child in a sympathetic and accepting manner. - Since 2000, an approach has been introduced in the Netherlands in which parents are taught to respond verbally to both fluent and non-fluent speech. Emphasis is given to rewarding fluent speech, such as in the Australian Lidcombe Program, but the parents are also taught to react to stuttered speech once in a while. - At present, early treatment is accepted as a way of preventing chronic stuttering, even if this means that some children will be treated that would have recovered in any case and even though the exact yield is not yet clear. Clinical practice shows that early treatment almost always succeeds in limiting the severity of stuttering to a mild form.


BACKGROUND
Increasing dietary fat intake is expected to improve α-tocopherol bioavailability, which could be beneficial for improving α-tocopherol status, especially in cohorts at high cardiometabolic risk who fail to meet dietary α-tocopherol requirements.

OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to assess dose-dependent effects of dairy fat and metabolic syndrome (MetS) health status on α-tocopherol pharmacokinetics in plasma and lipoproteins.

DESIGN
A randomized, crossover, double-blind study was conducted in healthy and MetS adults (n = 10/group) who ingested encapsulated hexadeuterium-labeled (d6)-RRR-α-tocopherol (15 mg) with 240 mL nonfat (0.2 g fat), reduced-fat (4.8 g fat), or whole (7.9 g fat) milk before blood collection at regular intervals for 72 h.

RESULTS
Compared with healthy participants, those with MetS had lower (P < 0.05) baseline plasma α-tocopherol (μmol/mmol lipid) and greater oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, and C-reactive protein. Regardless of health status, d6-α-tocopherol bioavailability was unaffected by increasing amounts of dairy fat provided by milk beverages, but MetS participants had lower estimated d6-α-tocopherol absorption (±SEM) than did healthy participants (26.1% ± 1.0% compared with 29.5% ± 1.1%). They also had lower plasma d6-α-tocopherol AUC from 0 to 72 h, as well as maximal concentrations (Cmax: 2.04 ± 0.14 compared with 2.73 ± 0.18 μmol/L) and slower rates of plasma disappearance but similar times to Cmax. MetS participants had lower d6-α-tocopherol AUC from t = 0-12 h (AUC0- t final) in lipoprotein fractions [chylomicron, very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), LDL, high-density lipoprotein]. Percentages of d6-α-tocopherol AUC0- t final in both the chylomicron (r = -0.46 to -0.52) and VLDL (r = -0.49 to -0.68) fractions were inversely correlated with oxidized LDL, IL-10, IL-6, and C-reactive protein.

CONCLUSIONS
At dietary intakes equivalent to the Recommended Dietary Allowance, α-tocopherol bioavailability is unaffected by dairy fat quantity but is lower in MetS adults, potentially because of greater inflammation and oxidative stress that limits small intestinal α-tocopherol absorption and/or impairs hepatic α-tocopherol trafficking. These findings support higher dietary α-tocopherol requirements for MetS adults. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01787591.


Today, third generation networks are consolidated realities, and user expectations on new applications
and services are becoming higher and higher. Therefore, new systems and technologies
are necessary to move towards the market needs and the user requirements. This has driven the
development of fourth generation networks.
"Wireless network for the fourth generation" is the expression used to describe the next step
in wireless communications. There is no formal definition for what these fourth generation
networks are; however, we can say that the next generation networks will be based on the
coexistence of heterogeneous networks, on the integration with the existing radio access network
(e.g. GPRS, UMTS, WIFI, ...) and, in particular, on new emerging architectures that are obtaining
more and more relevance, as Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks (WASN). Thanks to their
characteristics, fourth generation wireless systems will be able to offer custom-made solutions and
applications personalized according to the user requirements; they will offer all types of services
at an affordable cost, and solutions characterized by flexibility, scalability and reconfigurability.
This PhD's work has been focused on WASNs, autoconfiguring networks which are not based
on a fixed infrastructure, but are characterized by being infrastructure less, where devices have to
automatically generate the network in the initial phase, and maintain it through reconfiguration
procedures (if nodes' mobility, or energy drain, etc..., cause disconnections). The main part of
the PhD activity has been focused on an analytical study on connectivity models for wireless ad
hoc and sensor networks, nevertheless a small part of my work was experimental. Anyway, both
the theoretical and experimental activities have had a common aim, related to the performance
evaluation of WASNs. Concerning the theoretical analysis, the objective of the connectivity
studies has been the evaluation of models for the interference estimation. This is due to the
fact that interference is the most important performance degradation cause in WASNs. As a
consequence, is very important to find an accurate model that allows its investigation, and I've
tried to obtain a model the most realistic and general as possible, in particular for the evaluation of
the interference coming from bounded interfering areas (i.e. a WiFi hot spot, a wireless covered
research laboratory, ...). On the other hand, the experimental activity has led to Throughput and
Packet Error Rare measurements on a real IEEE802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Network.


Total quality management (TQM) has been recognised and used during the last decades by organisations all over the world to develop a quality focus and improve organisational performance. In spite of this, TQM implementation is still problematic for many organisations. In this perspective important factors to succeed with the organisational change that TQM implementation implies will be discussed in this paper. Also presented is a multiple‐case study of TQM implementation processes in small organisations with a focus on core value aspects. An overarching implementation model is presented based on the multiple‐case study analysis and the theoretical frame. This model implies that TQM implementation will start with core values committed leadership, everybody's commitment and customer orientation.


The Investment Company Act of 1940 (ICA) and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (IAA) prevent an investment adviser from contractually limiting liability to its advisees through three main routes: statutory anti-waiver prohibitions, the IAA's anti-fraud provisions, and limitations on indemnification by registered investment companies of their investment advisers. This article focuses on one of these three area, the IAA's anti-fraud provisions, and specifically, the SEC's expansive interpretations of those anti-fraud provisions to cover exculpatory "hedge clauses" - caveats or cautionary statements - by investment advisers purporting to limit their liability to their advisees. Hedge clauses remain very common in the investment adviser industry. In the first half of 2013, hedge clauses that triggered a finding of a contractual deficiency were commonly found in state and Canadian provincial examinations of investment advisers.


ABSTRACT The very identity of cultural policy rests on a long-standing and widely accepted tension between "proper research" and policy advocacy, which has often resulted in resistance to the idea that robust, critical research can – or even should – be "useful" and have impact on policy discourse. This paper tries to navigate a third route, which sees policy relevance and influence as a legitimate goal of critical research, without accepting the pressures and restrictions of arts advocacy and lobbying. This is accomplished by exploring the journey "into the real world" of preliminary findings emerging from the Understanding Everyday Participation project: a segmentation exercise based on Taking Part data which showed that the wealthiest, better educated and least ethnically diverse 8% of the English population are the most engaged in culture. This data fed into the consultation and evidence gathering process of the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value, and was eventually cited in its final report Enriching Britain. The paper charts the increasing prominence of "the 8%" statistic in English cultural policy debates and argues that, despite the researchers' limited control over the use/misuse of their data, policy influence is nonetheless a realistic objective if understood as "conceptual influence".


ABSTRACT Adsorption fixed bed models are of paramount importance in chemical and environmental engineering research. Although the related literature is rich, the vast majority of models employed are either phenomenological, based on chemical reaction kinetics, or limited to systems that obey simple equilibrium isotherms (favorable, unfavorable, linear, and rectangular) combined to linear driving force (LDF) for the solid-phase mass transfer kinetics and ideal plug flow. This paper complements the existing studies by presenting and analyzing a versatile nondimensional fixed bed model equipped with diffusion-based mass transfer kinetics and nonideal flow terms and adapted to deal with S-shaped (sigmoidal) isotherms. A discussion is conducted on the rather unusual fixed bed dynamics produced by systems that follow S-shaped isotherms, a subject which has been rarely and nonsystematically discussed in the related literature. Thus, this study aims at providing better understanding of the interactions of S-shaped isotherms, mass transfer, and axial dispersion on the shape of adsorption fixed bed breakthrough curves and comes to clarify and complement previously published results, especially on the unexplored effects of the isotherms' inflection point on the breakthrough curves.


Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars are the living fossils with records of chemical enrichment history at the early epoch of galaxy formation. By the recent large observation campaigns, statistical samples of EMP stars have been obtained. This motivates us to reconsider their classification and formation conditions. From the observed lower-limits of carbon and iron abundances of Acr(C) ~ 6 and [Fe/H]cr ~ -5 for C-enhanced EMP (CE-EMP) and C-normal EMP (CN-EMP) stars, we confirm that gas cooling by dust thermal emission is indispensable for the fragmentation of their parent clouds to form such low-mass, i.e., long-lived stars, and that the dominant grain species are carbon and silicate, respectively. We constrain the grain radius r_i^{cool} of a species i and condensation efficiency f_{ij} of a key element j as r_C^{cool}/f_{C, C} = 10 um and r_Sil^{cool}/f_{Sil, Mg} = 0.1 um to reproduce Acr(C) and [Fe/H]cr, which give a universal condition 10^{[C/H]-2.30} + 10^[Fe/H] > 10^{-5.07} for the formation of every EMP star. Instead of the conventional boundary [C/Fe] = 0.7 between CE- and CN-EMP stars, this condition suggests a physically meaningful boundary [C/Fe]_{b} = 2.30 above and below which carbon and silicate grains are dominant coolants, respectively.


Abstract Two orogenic belts have been recognized in south-east Brazil, which are interpreted to have been formed as a product of diachronous collisions between three continental plates. Wide crustal-scale shear belts have developed both between and inboard of the collided and amalgamated plate borders. These shear belts record frontal, oblique or lateral displacements during oblique plate converence and A-type subduction. The overall structural style of each belt depends on the angle subtended between the plate boundary and the convergence vector. The E-W branch between the São Paulo and Brasília plates, the Campo do Meio strike-slip shear belt, has undergone dominantly sinistral wrench dominated transpression along a set of folds and shear zones dipping southwards. The NE-SW branch between the São Paulo and Vitória plates, the Paraíba do Sul strike-slip shear belt, has undergone a partitioned dextral transpression, whereas the north-south branch between the Brasília and Vitória plates, the Paraíba do Sul strike-slip shear belt, has undergone a partitioned dextral transpression, whereas the north-south branch between the Brasília and Vitória plates is essentially a frontal thrust system with only a weak component of dextral strike-slip. These complex structural patterns, formed at deep to mid-crustal levels, reflect temporal and spatial partitioning at all scales between flattening and non-coaxial deformation, and down-dip and strike-slip shearing, in tangential as well as in transcurrent structural domains. Additionally, this area demonstrates that regional flower structures, lateral extrusion and other secondary deformations across the yz sections of transpressional belts are important in accommodating shortening in obliquely convergent orogens.


Infertility is a burdensome experience for women which requires high levels of emotional adjustment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of cognitive emotional regulation strategies on the relationship between attachment styles and ego strength with adjustment to infertility in women. A total of 275 women with primary infertility who were referred to Valie-Asr Reproductive Health Research Centre (Tehran Imam Khomeini Hospital) participated in this study. Data was collected via Demographic Information Questionnaire, Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI), Ego-Strength Scale (ESS), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), and Adjustment to Illness Scale (AIS). Secure attachment style, ego strength and adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies revealed significant positive associations with adjustment to infertility. Avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles as well as nonadaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies showed significant negative correlations with adjustment to infertility in women. Results of path analysis revealed that cognitive emotional regulation strategies mediated the relationship between ego strength and adjustment to infertility. Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that adjustment to infertility might be predicted by psychological factors. The results of the present study can be helpful in identifying high risk patients and planning psychological interventions.


This article explores the drivers of product development performance in a rapidly changing environment. Effective product developers in turbulent environments, such as Silicon Graphics and NEC, provide a contrast to traditional product development. They exhibit a development process characterized by extreme flexibility and responsiveness. This, in turn, hinges on the capability to gather and rapidly respond to new knowledge about technical and market information as a project evolves. Instead of focusing on execution and implementation, these companies' development process emphasizes the importance of the concept development stage, while keeping the product's specification fluid as late as possible in a project. This ensures the best match between system and component technologies, as well as the maximum flexibility to respond to changes.


Gold-bearing mineralization at Anomaly A occurs in polydeformed Ordovician turbidites of the Kendall Mountain Formation of the St. Croix belt in southwestern New Brunswick, and is hosted by WSW-trending, shallow-dipping, brittle–ductile high-strain zones associated with the latest stage of the second of four regional deformation events. Gold-bearing syn-deformational stockwork, massive, and multiply brecciated quartz-sulfide veined zones form irregular pods and sheets up to several meters thick, which contain arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, stibnite, and a variety of rare minerals that are gold-bearing. Mineralized zones are enveloped by locally auriferous, weakly to intensely altered wall rock. Vein paragenesis includes: (1) early (pre- to syn-D 2 ) quartz-chlorite veins that are largely the product of migration of quartz by pressure solution; (2) crosscutting, multiphase, vuggy quartz-sulfide veins that contain most of the gold and are interpreted to be structurally controlled; (3) late, crosscutting, nondeformed, non-gold-bearing veins containing laumontite, chlorite, muscovite, quartz, fluorite, and base metal sulfides. Carbonate-poor alteration associated with zones of gold mineralization is lithology-specific, and appears to reflect overprinting of multiple events. Major elements removed during alteration include Si, Na, Mn, and Mg. The minor and trace elements removed include Co, Li, Sc, and possibly Sr, Ni, and Zn. Minor and trace elements added include Au, Ag, As, Sb, S, and possibly F, Cu, Pb, and Zr. On the basis of proximity, time constraints, and a similar ore mineral assemblage, gold mineralization at Anomaly A is interpreted to be a distal equivalent of the intrusion-related gold mineralization at the nearby Clarence Stream Main zone deposit.


This is a letter from the Charles B. Moore Collection. It was written by Adelitia "Dinkie" McGee and Matilda Dodd. In this letter, Dinkie and Matilda update the Moore family and Alice on the goings-on in Gallatin, Tennessee. The news includes: community news, a dialogue about the weather, a discussion on the health of family and friends, and details on Dinkie's butter and egg venture. She closes her letter by mentioning Bettie's dress as well as her own dress and details that she is sending a swatch. She also states that Birdie is upset with Alice for not writing her and only writing the boys. In Matilda's letter, she informs the Moore family of the happenings in Sumner County and the news includes: updates on the weather, news about the hogs, a dialogue about the health of family and friends, a discussion about Matilda's new bed springs, and details about Alice, Linnet, and Birdie. She closes this brief letter by noting that the Moore family and Alice should write soon. The envelope is included with the letter.


There is a wealth of information about the nutritional and medicinal properties of honey. However, honey may contain compounds that may lead to toxicity. A compound not naturally present in honey, named 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), may be formed during the heating or preservation processes of honey. HMF has gained much interest, as it is commonly detected in honey samples, especially samples that have been stored for a long time. HMF is a compound that may be mutagenic, carcinogenic and cytotoxic. It has also been reported that honey can be contaminated with heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium. Honey produced from the nectar of Rhododendron ponticum contains alkaloids that can be poisonous to humans, while honey collected from Andromeda flowers contains grayanotoxins, which can cause paralysis of limbs in humans and eventually leads to death. In addition, Melicope ternata and Coriaria arborea from New Zealand produce toxic honey that can be fatal. There are reports that honey is not safe to be consumed when it is collected from Datura plants (from Mexico and Hungary), belladonna flowers and Hyoscamus niger plants (from Hungary), Serjania lethalis (from Brazil), Gelsemium sempervirens (from the American Southwest), Kalmia latifolia, Tripetalia paniculata and Ledum palustre. Although the symptoms of poisoning due to honey consumption may differ depending on the source of toxins, most common symptoms generally include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, headache, palpitations or even death. It has been suggested that honey should not be considered a completely safe food. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This article analyses the reasoning of the European Court with respect to the interpretation of the e-commerce directive and the free movement of goods provisions to the Internet sale of medical devices as goods in the Ker-Optika case. It draws conclusions from that analysis for e-commerce in medical devices as goods in the EU, which are extrapolated to the sale of medical devices as services such as apps for home treatment or monitoring in the context of eHealth services. The article finds that eHealth services constituting medical devices are regulated identically under EU law to physical medical devices and analyses the consequences of this.


OBJECTIVES
Azathioprine (AZA) is a purine antimetabolite, prodrug widely used as a disease modifying drug in several rheumatic conditions. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of TPMT genetic polymorphisms in a cohort of Italian Caucasian patients affected by rheumatic diseases and treated with AZA, and to establish correlations with the tolerability of AZA treatment.

RESULTS
Seventy-eight Caucasian patients, 16 males and 62 females, median age 41 years (min-max: 24-76) were enrolled. At the time of evaluation, the median duration of treatment with AZA was 8 months (min-max: 2-150 months); the median dose of AZA per kg of body weight was 1.42 mg (min-max: 0.5-2). Among the 78 patients evaluated, 76 presented a wild type genotype (TPMT *1), while polymorphic alleles were identified in 2 patients (2.6%). Twenty-five patients (32%) experienced different types of adverse events (AE) under AZA treatment. Eighteen patients (23.1%) discontinued AZA because of AE. No correlation was observed between polymorphic TPMT alleles and the development of AE.

CONCLUSIONS
Our analysis supports the view that TPMT genotyping alone is not sufficient to adequately personalize the AZA dosage in rheumatic patients. Further studies based on phenotypic analysis of TPMT enzyme and assay of AZA metabolite appear to be required.


SIR,-The facts involved in the Rh nomenclature question are still being distorted, even at the present time; therefore this brief note is submitted in order to crystallize and clarify the issues involved. Shall the facts of Rh-Hr serology and genetics be established in the laboratory and the genetic theory and nomenclature based on the findings, or shall the genetic theory and nomenclature be devised first and any unpleasant facts which fail to conform be suppressed or distorted to fit one's preconceived ideas ? Individuals using the C-D-E notations are necessarily committed to the latter position, as is shown by their publications and pointed out in the references given below.`7 Shall we have a single uniform nomenclature for the RhHr types or 20 or more different designations for the same thing? Again, users of the C-D-E notations have been forced into the latter position, as can be seen by consulting their most.recent publications.-I am, etc.,


The connecting thread of this thesis is the idea that philosophy is essentially dialectical or a matter of conversation. Plato's idea of philosophy plays a pivotal role insofar as one of his main preoccupations throughout his work is to define the essence of philosophy. For him philosophy and dialectic are interchangeable terms. Plato's idea of dialectic is that of a philosophical conversation. This is not a judgement that is accepted by many other philosophers; I consider objections that Aristotle, Descartes and Husserl address to this idea of the nature of philosophy. In the first main part I discuss the etymology and origins of the word dialectic and its possible literary antecedents in Greek epic, lyric and tragedy. I then offer, in the second part, a historical approach to the philosophical roots of dialectic with the aim of grasping its genesis and evolution. I deal with the different ancient ideas of dialectic as represented by the figures of Plato, Aristotle, Zeno (and some Sophists), and the Stoics, then moving on to the medieval understanding of dialectic. Finally I describe its modem versions through representative figures such as Kant, Hegel, Marx and Engels. Finally, in the third part, I turn to the Socratic-Platonic understanding of dialectic. In this part I discuss the nature of the Socratic-Platonic method and some different perspectives on Platonic dialectic. As a test case, and especially with the aim of showing how dialectic operates in Plato, and how he contrasts the figures of the Philosopher and the Sophist I focus on the Sophist.


Background: There has been extensive research on the behavioural effects of caffeine, with most studies being conducted in the laboratory. Epidemiological studies have examined the effects of regular consumption patterns, but often the accuracy of measurement of caffeine consumption is low. There is a need to examine the effects of caffeine consumption in free-living participants, and that was the aim of the present study. Methods: Twenty three participants completed a cross-over study where they were provided with decaffeinated coffee and tea on one day and caffeinated products on the other. The caffeine manipulation was double-blind. After consuming their normal breakfast, the participants visited the laboratory at 08.00 and carried out alertness ratings and a simple reaction time task. They also collected the coffee and tea at this time. Participants recorded their consumption of the coffee and tea and returned to the laboratory at 17.00. Results: The alertness and reaction times scores were transformed to per cent change from baseline. On the day consuming caffeinated products, the percentage increase in alertness was significantly higher than on the day consuming decaffeinated products. On the decaffeinated day, volunteers had a greater increase in simple reaction time than on the caffeine day. The beneficial effect of caffeine was greater in the high consumers. Alertness at the start of the day predicted subsequent consumption of caffeinated beverages, with lower alertness at that time being associated with greater subsequent consumption. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that when individuals are free to consume as many caffeinated or decaffeinated cups of coffee and tea, the caffeinated products lead to higher alertness and faster simple reaction time in the late afternoon. Those who consumed higher amounts of caffeine showed greater benefits than the low consumers. Lower alertness in the early morning led to greater consumption of caffeinated beverages. Overall, these results confirm that consumption of caffeine reduces the build-up of fatigue over the day, which has strong implications for safety-critical activities.


A long-standing issue in the accounting literature is whether corporate managers exercise their accounting discretion to influence reported earnings. This paper extends this research by investigating whether managers manipulate the 'valuation allowance' for deferred tax assets. This account has several features that recommend it as a good place to look for earnings management. First, since this account is fairly 'new' (1992), there are no well-established formulae, or even any clear guidelines, for deciding on the appropriate level for this allowance. Second, the appropriate level of the allowance depends on managers' expectations about future earnings. For both of these reasons managers must exercise an unusual amount of discretion in choosing the appropriate level for this account. Finally, for many firms this provision is large enough to effect material adjustments to accounting earnings. We find that there is a good deal of variation across firms in the level of the valuation allowance. Part of this variation is explained by factors that appropriately reflect managers' expectations about whether their firms' deferred tax assets will be realized. In addition, after controlling for these factors, we find support for two earnings-management hypotheses: both the debt/equity hypothesis and income-smoothing have empirical support.


The determinants of the oesophageal alkaline pH environment are poorly understood. Saliva (pH 6.4-7.8) may be a major contributor, although some argue the importance of refluxed alkaline duodenal contents. Acid and alkaline reflux parameters were studied over 2 days in 30 subjects (control, oesophagitis and Barrett's patients; 10 each) using glass pH electrodes. In phase 1, one pH electrode was placed 1 cm below the upper oesophageal sphincter to assess the influence of saliva and the other 5 cm above the lower oesophageal sphincter. Phase 2 was identical except that one pH probe was 5 cm below the lower oesophageal sphincter to record duodenogastric reflux. Patient groups spent, on average, 50 fold more time during the upright and supine periods at acidic pH than controls. Saliva was responsible for the percentage of time the pH > 7 and contributed significantly to the percentage of time the pH > 6 in both the proximal and distal oesophagus of control subjects, as shown by an absence of pH > 7 and a significant (p < 0.001) fourfold decrease in pH > 6 during sleep. A similar pattern was seen in the proximal oesophagus of both reflux groups. The reflux and Barrett's patients, however did not show a significant decrease in the percentage of time the pH > 6 at night in the distal oesophagus suggesting a relative increase in 'alkaline' exposure from another source. This was not because of duodenogastric reflux as the corresponding pH rises in the fundus of the stomach were non-existent. Although this was not studied specifically, it is believed to be a protective meachanism, the result of alkaline secretion produced by submucosal oesophageal glands.


Communications for Telemedicine requires substantial bandwidths to provide timely transmission of large data sets. To provide rural America with modern Telemedicine requires very high bandwidth resources that may take decades to appear. Satellites provide the natural choice for communication between the rural primary care centers and the tertiary care hospital. However there are problems if TCP, as required for Internet access, is to be the protocol of choice. Analysis of multi-station satellite access clearly argues for distributed non-random methods and hence for appropriate handling of TCP data streams.


SUMMARY
Mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC) is a well-documented extrahepatic
manifestation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
MC is a systemic vasculitis of small to medium-sized vessels
due to vascular deposition of circulating immune-complexes
and complement; it is characterized by the presence
in the cooled serum of one or more mono- or poly-clonal
immunoglobulins that precipitate at temperature below 37�
C and redissolve on rewarming. MC is clinically characterized
by a triad of purpura, arthralgia and asthenia and
sometimes may involve peripheral nerves, the kidneys and
the development of B-cell non-Hogkin's lymphoma. The discovery
of the relation between HCV infection and MC shows
the association between a viral infection, and an autoimmune
disease and, thus, a potential link between the systemic
autoimmune and lymphoproliferative disorders. The
eradication of HCV, by alfa-interferon, is associated with
improvement or disappearance of MC-associated clinical
manifestations.
Key-words: Mixed cryoglobulinemia, Hepatitis C Virus, non-
Hogkin's lymphoma, interferon alfa.


Genetic diversity in a set of 20 improved bread wheat cultivars released in Morocco since 1980s, along with 8 exotic bread wheat cultivars, were characterized by employing 14 polymorphic microsatellite markers. A total of 59 alleles (Mean=4.21) in Moroccan cultivars and 53 alleles (Mean=3.78) in exotic cultivars were detected. Genetic diversity at 14 microsatellite loci varied from 0 to 0.895 (Mean=0.576) for 20 Moroccan cultivars and from 0.25 to 0.928 (Mean=0.683) for the exotic cultivars. The genetic distance among the cultivars ranged from 0.143 to 1.00. Using the 14 microsatellite markers, all the bread wheat cultivars could be distinguished for reliable identification, characterization, and diversity analysis. Total number of alleles decreased in the cultivars developed during 1990s (8.3%) compared with that of 1980s. The AMOVA results suggest that change in the cultivar genetic diversity among different decadal groups of bread wheat was very small and non-significant, indicating no significant reduction in over all genetic diversity due to breeding in recent times.


Intrinsically disordered proteins are characterized by long regions lacking 3‐D structure in their native states, yet they have been so far associated with 28 distinguishable functions. Previous studies showed that protein predictors trained on disorder from one type of protein often achieve poor accuracy on disorder of proteins of a different type, thus indicating significant differences in sequence properties among disordered proteins. Important biological problems are identifying different types, or flavors, of disorder and examining their relationships with protein function. Innovative use of computational methods is needed in addressing these problems due to relative scarcity of experimental data and background knowledge related to protein disorder. We developed an algorithm that partitions protein disorder into flavors based on competition among increasing numbers of predictors, with prediction accuracy determining both the number of distinct predictors and the partitioning of the individual proteins. Using 145 variously characterized proteins with long (>30 amino acids) disordered regions, 3 flavors, called V, C, and S, were identified by this approach, with the V subset containing 52 segments and 7743 residues, C containing 39 segments and 3402 residues, and S containing 54 segments and 5752 residues. The V, C, and S flavors were distinguishable by amino acid compositions, sequence locations, and biological function. For the sequences in SwissProt and 28 genomes, their protein functions exhibit correlations with the commonness and usage of different disorder flavors, suggesting different flavor‐function sets across these protein groups. Overall, the results herein support the flavor‐function approach as a useful complement to structural genomics as a means for automatically assigning possible functions to sequences. Proteins 2003;52:573–584. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Within this article our goal is to underlineelements of the organizational/corporate cultureregarding the social responsibility attitudes andpractices of companies from the Romanian –Hungarian trans-border region, with a focus onpolicies regarding the environment and the involvementwithin the community. The researchhas been carried out within a European fundedproject concerning the establishment of a sustainabledevelopment business center (The surveycarried out within the project: 'BHB – SustanaibleDevelopment Business Center' contractHURO/1101/175/2.1.1). Data was collected viaface-to-face interviews conducted in 405 Romanianand Hungarian companies from a proportionalquotas sample.While for most items there were no signifi -cant differences recorded between the two countries,Romanian companies display a strongerconcern for waste management and the Hungarianones discuss more often with their neighboringcommunities critical common issues. Statisticalchecks performed largely reject the possibilitythat these differences are due to the dissimilarindustry structure of the two countries.


BACKGROUND
The aging work force makes sustainable employability (SE) of workers a priority. However, it is unknown to what extent employees use implemented SE measures.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the utilization of 1) SE measures offered by employers, 2) employee SE strategies, and 3) to identify barriers and facilitators of SE strategies.

METHODS
Survey data were collected among 731 blue collar and 879 white collar workers to determine the utilization of employer SE measures. Focus groups were held with 16 blue collar and 17 white collar workers to identify employee SE strategies and their barriers and facilitators.

RESULTS
Utilization of employer SE measures was highest for personal development measures. Strategies applied by blue collar workers included using equipment, suggesting improvements of their working conditions, and seeking promotion to a less physically demanding job. White collar workers named engaging in leisure time physical activity and seeking an adequate work-life balance. Implementation of these strategies was influenced by employee awareness and self-efficacy, the accessibility and costs and benefits of the strategy, management support and company culture.

CONCLUSION
Usage of employer SE measures was generally low and recommendations are given for both blue and white collar workers to improve SE strategies.


Exosomes are nanosized extracellular vesicles that can be released by almost all types of cells. Initially considered as the garbage bins acting to discard unwanted products of cells, exosomes are now recognized as an important way for cellular communication by transmitting bioactive molecules including proteins, DNA, mRNAs, and non-coding RNAs. The recent studies have shown that exosomes are critically involved in human health and diseases including cancer. Exosomes have been suggested to participate in the promotion of tumorigenesis, tumor growth and metastasis, tumor angiogenesis, tumor immune escape, and tumor therapy resistance. Increasing evidence indicate that exosomes play important roles in gastric cancer development and progression. In this review, we summarized the current understanding of exosomes in gastric cancer with an emphasis on the biological roles of exosomes in gastric cancer and their potential as biomarkers for gastric cancer diagnosis as well as potential targets for gastric cancer therapy.


Printed circuit board (PCB) interconnect test and reliability is addressed. The boundary scan test methodology proposed in the IEEE standard 1149.1 is reviewed, and its limitation is critically analyzed. Based on this, a technique is proposed to automate the interconnect wiring test, which is performed as part of the power-on self-test. Essential to the idea is the use of a walking sequence for test stimulus, and response compression by the multiple input signature registers (MISRs). The salient feature is its simplicity of operation. Unlike the existing boundary-scan methodology, interconnects are tested via on-site test generation; faults are detected by comparing the content of the MISR with the anticipated response. Formal analysis shows that the technique has a high test-coverage for the most common defects. As a result, PCB interconnect testing can be accomplished as part of the power-on self-test without external test fixtures. >


Compared to cell suspensions or monolayers, 3D cell aggregates provide cellular interactions organized in space and heterogeneity that better resume the real organization of native tissues. They represent powerful tools to narrow down the gap between in vitro and in vivo models, thanks to their self-evolving capabilities. Recent strategies have demonstrated their potential as building blocks to generate microtissues. Developing specific methodologies capable of organizing these cell aggregates into 3D architectures and environments has become essential to convert them into functional microtissues adapted for regenerative medicine or pharmaceutical screening purposes. Although the techniques for producing individual cell aggregates have been on the market for over a decade, the methodology for engineering functional tissues starting from them is still a young and quickly evolving field of research. In this review, we first present a panorama of emerging cell aggregates microfabrication and assembly technologies. We further discuss the perspectives opened in the establishment of functional tissues with a specific focus on controlled architecture and heterogeneity to favor cell differentiation and proliferation.


In recent years, the need to monitor for Deformation in Engineering Structures such as Dams, Bridges and Tall buildings have become more necessary as a result of reported failures of many of these structures with catastrophic consequences globally. Global Positioning System (GPS) is highly automated and less labour intensive than other conventional techniques used in structural deformation monitoring. For most applications, such as National Geodetic Control Network, Urban Control Network and other Engineering Control Network, an accuracy in the cm level for most GPS work is quite adequate. For Structural deformation monitoring however, the required accuracy is in millimeters. In this paper, the use of Static Differential GPS method with multiple receivers for high precision measurement was investigated using the monitoring Stations at Ikpoba Dam as case study Scenerio. Four units of LEICA 300 Dual Frequency GPS receivers were deployed for code and carrier phase measurements with observation session of 1hr at a sampling rate of 15 sec. Baseline Processing and Least Squares Adjustment of observation was carried out in WGS 84 and NTM reference frames using the LEICA SKI-PRO Processing software and Move. Analysis of the results revealed that the number of outliers in the observation were <5% and the accuracy of horizontal and vertical coordinates were 4mm maximum for horizontal and 2mm maximum for vertical. The study revealed that in areas with favourable satellite constellation and appropriate reduction or elimination of multipath and other noise like errors, Static Differential GPS techniques with a combination of code and carrier phase measurement gives good results for structural deformation monitoring.


As mobile computing applications have become commonplace, it is increasingly important for them to address end-users' privacy requirements. Mobile privacy requirements depend on a number of contextual socio-cultural factors to which mobility adds another level of contextual variation. However, traditional requirements elicitation methods do not sufficiently account for contextual factors and therefore cannot be used effectively to represent and analyse the privacy requirements of mobile end users. On the other hand, methods that investigate contextual factors tend to produce data which can be difficult to use for requirements modelling. To address this problem, we have developed a Distillation approach that employs a problem analysis model to extract and refine privacy requirements for mobile applications from raw data gathered through empirical studies involving real users. Our aim was to enable the extraction of mobile privacy requirements that account for relevant contextual factors while contributing to the software design and implementation process. A key feature of the distillation approach is a problem structuring framework called privacy facets (PriF). The facets in the PriF framework support the identification of privacy requirements from different contextual perspectives namely actors, information, information-flows and places. The PriF framework also aids in uncovering privacy determinants and threats that a system must take into account in order to support the end-user's privacy. In this work, we first show the working of distillation using qualitative data taken from an empirical study which involved social-networking practices of mobile users. As a means of validating distillation, another distinctly separate qualitative dataset from a location-tracking study is used, in both cases, the empirical studies relate to privacy issues faced by real users observed in their mobile environment. To my parents Thomas & Mariarose, my wife Rebeca and son Timothy


The response of multisensor capacitance probes (MCPs) to water content depends on multiple soil properties including temperature. The goal of this study was to evaluate a new temperature-dependent scaled frequency algorithm to correct for the temperature effect on the performance of MCPs. Plastic columns with MCPs and thermocouples in the middle were filled with air, deionized water, or quartz sand at different water contents (0.0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.12 and 0.38 m 3 m -3 ) and placed in a water bath with temperature varying between 5 and 45°C. Scaled frequency (SF) readings in saturated sand (0.38 m 3 m -3 ) were negatively correlated with temperature. There were positive correlations observed, however, between isothermal SF readings and media temperature for air and unsaturated quartz sand. Temperature effects in the unsaturated sand decreased with increasing water content; observed SF for quartz sand at 0.0 and 0.12 m 3 m -3 water contents increased 58 and 4%, respectively, when temperature increased from 5 to 45°C. A hysteretic temperature effect was observed in all tested media. A new temperature-dependent SF calibration methodology that we developed mitigated the increase in apparent water content caused by the use of the isothermal SF calibration equation. Our experimental data indicate that quartz sand temperature effects on apparent volumetric water content measured with MCPs can be mitigated using this new temperature-dependent SF methodology.


A chondroma rodens involving the superficial medial aspect of the right orbit was diagnosed in a 9-year-old dog referred because of chronic unilateral epiphora. Examination revealed several ophthalmic abnormalities attributable to a space-occupying mass in the superficial medial aspect of the orbit. The mass was excised; however, regrowths at the primary site necessitated additional surgical interventions. The dog was given radiation therapy, which provided encouraging results. Subtle histologic differences as well as differing epidemiologic features suggest that chondroma rodens is not analogous to the human entity of juvenile aponeurotic fibroma, to which it has been compared in the past.


The Ehlers–Danlos syndromes (EDS) are a heterogeneous group of heritable connective tissue disorders characterized by joint hypermobility, skin extensibility, and tissue fragility. This communication briefly reports upon the neurological manifestations that arise including the weakness of the ligaments of the craniocervical junction and spine, early disc degeneration, and the weakness of the epineurium and perineurium surrounding peripheral nerves. Entrapment, deformation, and biophysical deformative stresses exerted upon the nervous system may alter gene expression, neuronal function and phenotypic expression. This report also discusses increased prevalence of migraine, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, Tarlov cysts, tethered cord syndrome, and dystonia, where associations with EDS have been anecdotally reported, but where epidemiological evidence is not yet available. Chiari Malformation Type I (CMI) has been reported to be a comorbid condition to EDS, and may be complicated by craniocervical instability or basilar invagination. Motor delay, headache, and quadriparesis have been attributed to ligamentous laxity and instability at the atlanto‐occipital and atlantoaxial joints, which may complicate all forms of EDS. Discopathy and early degenerative spondylotic disease manifest by spinal segmental instability and kyphosis, rendering EDS patients prone to mechanical pain, and myelopathy. Musculoskeletal pain starts early, is chronic and debilitating, and the neuromuscular disease of EDS manifests symptomatically with weakness, myalgia, easy fatigability, limited walking, reduction of vibration sense, and mild impairment of mobility and daily activities. Consensus criteria and clinical practice guidelines, based upon stronger epidemiological and pathophysiological evidence, are needed to refine diagnosis and treatment of the various neurological and spinal manifestations of EDS. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Space use and habitat selection of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) has been well studied in various upland landscapes, but information within bottomland hardwood systems is lacking. Turkeys in bottomland systems face unique situations (e.g., flooding) and turkey behavior observed in upland systems may not directly apply to bottomland systems. Therefore, we evaluated seasonal (pre-incubation, incubation, brood rearing, and fall-winter) space use and multi-scale habitat selection of adult female wild turkeys in a bottomland hardwood forest in south-central Louisiana during 2002–2004 and 2007–2010. Space use varied with the largest home ranges during pre-incubation and the smallest during brood-rearing. Female turkeys selected dry, upland forests relative to available habitat types at all spatial scales. Because upland forests are free of flooding and have adequate understory vegetation, they likely provide consistent foraging opportunities and suitable nesting habitat. Turkeys did not select forest stands managed with selective cutting likely because of dense woody understory growth. Our results indicate that forest management strategies that promote understory growth may not be useful to female turkeys and managers should concentrate on ensuring the presence of mature forests in areas not prone to flooding within bottomland hardwood systems.


As universities worldwide are being required to be more responsive to the needs of their customers, the literature has focused on identifying exactly who is the customer in the higher education industry. It is common to view the student as the customer but this notion is not universally accepted. This paper reviews the debate in the education and marketing literature about students as customers and reveals the difficulty in using the word customer to describe the student/university relationship. The author argues that the debate must move away from identifying the customer and focus on the university as a service provider. An emerging perspective on market orientation suggest that strategic insights may be gained when firms take into account their customers' view on the organization's level of market orientation. Recent research offers evidence on the applicability of a customer- defined market orientation construct. This study extends this line of research by exploring the customer- defined orientation antecedents and outcomes in higher education institutions. This paper accentuates the subject by initially reviewing a number of theoretical viewpoints as to why a customer perspective should be sought when assessing organizational phenomena such as market orientation. Consequently, a number of hypotheses were put forward followed by the results of this study. Correlation analysis and regression analysis among other statistical tools were used in this study. The result using regression analysis showed that all the proposed relationship were significant. The result further demonstrated that service quality acts as a partial mediator where customer satisfaction was not derived completely by service quality. This paper eventually concludes by elaborating the various conclusions derived from the study.


Extremely long coherence times, excellent single-qubit gate fidelities, and two-qubit logic have been demonstrated with silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor spin qubits, making it one of the leading platforms for quantum information processing. Despite this, a long-standing challenge in this system has been the demonstration of tunable tunnel coupling between single electrons. Here we overcome this hurdle with gate-defined quantum dots and show couplings that can be tuned on and off for quantum operations. We use charge sensing to discriminate between the (2,0) and (1,1) charge states of a double quantum dot and show excellent charge sensitivity. We demonstrate tunable coupling up to 13 GHz, obtained by fitting charge polarization lines, and tunable tunnel rates down to <1 Hz, deduced from the random telegraph signal. The demonstration of tunable coupling between single electrons in a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor device provides significant scope for high-fidelity two-qubit logic toward quantum information processing with standard manufacturing.


Import demand equations are estimated in order to identify the own-, cross-price, and volume elasticities that can be used to determine the best marketing strategy to increase U.S. orange juice gallons in the Canadian import market. This study uses the firm's version of production differential, AIDS, CBS, and NBR models. An expansion of total Canadian orange juice import gallons using advertising favors the U.S. much more than it does the other three origins investigated— Brazil, Mexico, and ROW. A 1% increase in imported gallons of orange juice due to advertising will increase U.S. imports by 1.20% and Brazil's gallons by 0.60%.


OBJECTIVE
To review evidences on the management of patients with motor neuron disease.

DATA SOURCES
PubMed literature searches from January 1982 up to January 2011.

STUDY SELECTION
Key words for literature search were "motor neuron disease review (MND)". Only the articles which concentrated on the ventilation, nutrition, cognitive or multidisciplinary approaches for motor neuron disease were included. Case reports were not included in the review. In addition, publications were identified using the World Wide Web from references in these papers. Only articles in English were considered.

DATA EXTRACTION
A total of 782 articles were retrieved using the key word search, of which 72 concentrated on ventilation, nutrition, cognitive or multidisciplinary approaches. From these, 43 articles were eventually included and formed the basis of this review.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Motor neuron disease is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease that leads to weakness of limb, bulbar, and respiratory muscles. It displays an ethnic variation in incidence; 90% of cases are sporadic and 10% are familial. New diagnostic criteria have been proposed to increase diagnostic sensitivity. Proper clinical studies, electrophysiology, and neuroimaging are necessary before reaching a diagnosis of motor neuron disease. Riluzole remains the only disease-modifying drug approved for this disease; it prolongs life by 3 to 4 months. Multidisciplinary care units are important in the management of motor neuron disease patients. Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation prolongs life in motor neuron disease patients with respiratory failure. Enteral feeding is usually recommended for affected patients with malnutrition. Cognitive impairment is common in these patients, for whom a formal neuropsychiatric assessment is recommended. Appropriate palliative care is needed for these patients in order to improve their quality of dying.

CONCLUSION
Motor neuron disease is an incurable disease, for which a highly effective treatment is still pending. Symptomatic treatment remains the mainstay of management. A multidisciplinary approach embracing advances in non-invasive ventilation and gastrostomy can improve quality of life and extend the survival of motor neuron disease patients.


The X chromosome has a large effect on hybrid dysfunction, particularly on hybrid male sterility. Although the evidence for this so-called large-X effect is clear, its molecular causes are not yet fully understood. One possibility is that, under certain conditions, evolution proceeds faster in X-linked than in autosomal loci (i.e., faster-X effect) due to both natural selection and their hemizygosity in males, an effect that is expected to be greatest in genes with male-biased expression. Here, I study genome-wide variation in transcript abundance between Drosophila yakuba and D. santomea, within these species and in their hybrid males to evaluate both the faster-X and large-X effects at the level of expression. I find that in X-linked male-biased genes (MBGs) expression evolves faster than in their autosomal counterparts, an effect that is accompanied by a unique reduction in expression polymorphism. This suggests that Darwinian selection is driving expression differences between species, likely enhanced by the hemizygosity of the X chromosome in males. Despite the recent split of the two sister species under study, abundant changes in both cis- and trans-regulatory elements underlie expression divergence in the majority of the genes analyzed, with significant differences in allelic ratios of transcript abundance between the two reciprocal F(1) hybrid males. Cis-trans coevolution at molecular level, evolved shortly after populations become isolated, may therefore contribute to explain the breakdown of the regulation of gene expression in hybrid males. Additionally, the X chromosome plays a large role in this hybrid male misexpression, which affects not only MBG but also, to a lesser degree, nonsex-biased genes. Interestingly, hybrid male misexpression is concentrated mostly in autosomal genes, likely facilitated by the rapid evolution of sex-linked trans-acting factors. I suggest that the faster evolution of X-linked MBGs, at both protein and expression levels, contributes to explain the large effect of the X chromosome on hybrid male sterility, likely mediating widespread autosomal misexpression through the preferential recognition of cis-regulatory elements by conspecific trans-acting factors (i.e., cis-trans conspecific recognition).


The paper examines Vietnamese learners' reflections on and perceptions of the application of computer-mediated communication (CMC) into collaborative learning. Data for analysis included an evaluation questionnaire, consisting of 24 4-point Likert scale items, appended with six open-ended questions, and transcripts of 15, out of 30, teacher trainees from a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class who volunteered to participate in informal interviews. Several inferences were drawn from the results. The majority of participants enjoyed the technology-enhanced class in general. There were approximately equal numbers of students who preferred synchronous CMC, asynchronous CMC, or a combination of both. The students reported that the course helped improve their computer skills and collaborative experience, while they remained sceptical about improvements to their English language skills. More involvement in learning was observed during and after the course. In addition, the participants expressed confidence that they would attend similar courses in future and were willing to recommend this technology-embedded course to the next generations of students.


The peculiar features of magnesium diboride make it suitable for many potential applications. In the last four years of investigation of MgB2, the scientific community's research was mainly motivated by features such as low cost, compatibility with straightforward processing methods, relatively high critical temperature, and absence of weak links between grains. Other applications suggest the accentuation of other MgB2 properties. In particular its very low mass density makes it attractive for space activities, where the cost per kilogram for orbiting is still a huge obstacle, e.g. the cost of transport to low Earth orbit can reach 15 k$ kg−1. In order to promote the use of this compound for space activities, we tested titanium as a sheath material. Titanium is non-magnetic and its alloys are almost half the weight of steel but with yield stresses up to three times higher. We fabricated Ti-sheathed MgB2 through the powder-in-tube process. These wires show similar results to those sheathed with Fe. At 4 K the critical current density Jc is well above 7 × 105 A cm−2. The interface between the superconducting intermetallic compound and the lightweight sheath does not show any evidence of reaction and diffusion up to 900 °C. An analysis was carried out using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive spectrometer, and electron microprobe analysis.


Toxicity and horizontal transmission of 1% fipronil dust of activated carbon were measured using the subterranean termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki in laboratory conditions. 1% fipronil dust of activated carbon has delayed toxicity towards C. formosanus compared with 0.5% fipronil dust of French chalk; knockdown times KT 50 and KT 90 were delayed by >9 and >15 h respectively. Furthermore, 1% fipronil dust of activated carbon showed excellent primary and secondary horizontal transfer levels. In primary horizontal transfer, recipient mortalities reached 100% by 24, 48 and 72 h at donor-recipient ratios of 1:1, 1:5 and 1:10, respectively. High transfer efficacies were also found if donor-recipient ratios were greatly increased: mortality reached 100% at 9 d at ratio 1:25 and >90% at 12 d at 1:50. In secondary horizontal transfer, the toxicant transmitting ability of C. formosanus was greater when the primary horizontal transfer ratio was lower, and the highest transfer efficacy was found with a donor-recipient ratio of 1:1 - recipient mortalities reached 100% at 5 d and 11 d, respectively. Application of 1% fipronil dust of activated carbon overcomes the problem that that too high a concentration kills termites before they can contaminate their nestmates, while a lower concentration may not supply a sufficient dose for effective transfer from treated to untreated termites; this preparation has delayed toxicity, dose-dependent toxicity in horizontal transfer and high efficacy to control C. formosanus .


We report a simple synthetic route to novel symmetrical alkylated and acylated amphiphilic 4,4'-diaminoazobenzene dyes, with their optical axis perpendicular to the amphiphilic direction of the molecule. Three different substitution patterns are reported, two of which are highly amphiphilic. At the air-water interface, the amphiphilic azobenzenes form noncrystalline but stable Langmuir films that display an unusual reversible monolayer collapse close to 35 mN/m. The structures and phase transitions were studied by X-ray reflectivity (XR) and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction, both utilizing synchrotron radiation. Compression beyond the collapse point does not change the XR data, showing that the film is unchanged at the molecular level, even at areas less than half of that of the collapse. This leads to the conclusion that few macroscopic collapse sites are responsible for reversibly removing large amounts of material from the interface.


Abstract. It has been proposed that ocean acidification (OA) will interact with other environmental factors to influence the overall impact of global change on biological systems. Accordingly we investigated the influence of nitrogen limitation and OA on the physiology of diatoms by growing the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin under elevated (1000 μatm; high CO2 – HC) or ambient (390 μatm; low CO2 – LC) levels of CO2 with replete (110 μmol L−1; high nitrate – HN) or reduced (10 μmol L−1; low nitrate – LN) levels of NO3- and subjecting the cells to solar radiation with or without UV irradiance to determine their susceptibility to UV radiation (UVR, 280–400 nm). Our results indicate that OA and UVB induced significantly higher inhibition of both the photosynthetic rate and quantum yield under LN than under HN conditions. UVA or/and UVB increased the cells' non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) regardless of the CO2 levels. Under LN and OA conditions, activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase activities were enhanced, along with the highest sensitivity to UVB and the lowest ratio of repair to damage of PSII. HC-grown cells showed a faster recovery rate of yield under HN but not under LN conditions. We conclude therefore that nutrient limitation makes cells more prone to the deleterious effects of UV radiation and that HC conditions (ocean acidification) exacerbate this effect. The finding that nitrate limitation and ocean acidification interact with UV-B to reduce photosynthetic performance of the diatom P. tricornutum implies that ocean primary production and the marine biological C pump will be affected by OA under multiple stressors.


Image-guidance for radiosurgical treatment of intracranial tumor has been introduced in clinical practice about 20 years ago. Initially, this was an attempt to deliver radiations to tumors with high precision without the necessity of a stereotactic frame invasively applied to the patient head. However, the introduction of CyberKnife has many and more relevant merits. Actually, with the Cyberknife, image-guidance for radiotherapy has reached new standards, much more advanced than previously conceived. Actually, after the Cyberknife the concept of stereotactic radiosurgery could be applied to the extracranial pathology. Initially to the spine, then to any other district in the body. For the intracranial pathology, the Cyberknife has another merit: the absence of a frame provided the opportunity to deliver the radiation dose in a limited number of sessions (generally 3-5 fractions). This multisession radiosurgery has yet the same efficacy of single fraction radiosurgery, being far better tolerated by the normal tissues around the tumor. This means that larger tumors or tumor in direct contact with critical structures, such as the optic apparatus or the brainstem, could be treated effectively and safely with this technique. Actually, this has remarkably expanded the opportunity of the radiosurgery treatment for brain tumors. Benign tumors of the skull base, which represents usually a category of challenging tumors, are particularly suitable for this treatment. Long-term results of their treatment are now available. These results demonstrate how tumor control for acoustic Schwannomas or meningiomas is extremely satisfactory and not inferior to that of conventional microsurgery, but with an inferior rate of complication and an overall excellent quality of life and compliance to the treatment modality. Furthermore, the rapid expansion of availability of neuroimaging is changing the characteristics of tumors at the first diagnosis with many tumors precociously diagnosed and treated when they still have limited size which translated into more patients who will be shifted from the operating room to an outpatient radiosurgery treatment. Further technological advancements are currently ongoing and it is predictable that brain radiosurgery will be the first fully automated surgical procedure in humans. We present our results after 12 years experience with CyberKnife radiosurgery for benign intracranial tumors. Open Access Abstract


Purpose: The paper investigates how sustainable city development factors impact housing price levels in subregional cities, on basis of 14 thousand real transactions in three Polish cities in the years 2006–2014. Design/Methodology/Approach: The multiple regression analysis with hedonic approach was used. Findings: The three-equation model has proven that economic development factors affect housing price levels in subregional cities while social progress and environmental responsibility do not always explain the change in the housing prices. Additionally the analysis of data allowed to conclude that the smaller the local market is, the more it is responsive to changes in external conditions. Practical implications: The housing market in subregional cities is different to big cities, prices change slower and do not respond to changes in the macro-environment factors as quickly and strongly as in large cities. Moreover, the situation on the local housing markets depends largely on the scale of sustainable development of the city. The study outcomes can be readily used to help more accurately plan housing investments for real estate developers or planning authorities responsible for housing policy. Originality/ value: We indicated what types of sustainable development factors affect the level of housing prices in subregional cities.


An archaeological identification survey of the mountainous region on the north-western edge of the Snowdonia massif (SH 570 580 centred), near Llanberis, North Wales was undertaken between June 2007 and January 2008, by Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) on behalf of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) as part of the Uplands Initiative. The project comprised an initial archaeological desk-based study, followed by a field identification survey for the study area. The survey area of Snowdonia (North-West) covers an area of 27.2 sqkm and consists of the northern flank of mount Snowdon and the outlying foothills at the north-west end of the Snowdonia massif. The study area consists of sloping open moorland, which rises from approximately 300m to over 840m on the plateau below the summit of mount Snowdon, with the moorland being fringed by semi-improved enclosure on the lower slopes. In total, 91 sites were established by the desk-based study as being recorded within the HER and NMR, all of which were updated and 70 were given new NMR numbers. In total, 510 new sites were identified by the field survey, representing a substantial numerical increase in the number of sites within the study area.


Aloe vera is used both traditionally and packaged commercially in many regions of the world for several medicinal and or cosmetic purposes. It is claimed to have rejuvenating, moisturizing, healing or soothing properties on the skin and gastrointestinal tract. This study focused on assessment of the safety of A. vera on blood parameters: packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell count (RBC), haemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, white blood cell count (WBC), its differentials neutrophils, lymphocytes and platelet counts. Thirty Wistar rats were equally and randomly divided into 3 groups and A. vera extract solution was administered to 2 groups for 12 or 24 h respectively, for 7 days consecutively. The third group served as control for the experiment. Blood samples were collected on day 8 to determine changes in the haemogram as a basis for toxicity. Rats administered with A. vera extract, particularly for 24 h showed increased levels of PCV (47.42±4.32%), RBC (9.26±0.60 X10 6 /μL), WBC (12.61±0.45 X10 3 /μL) and its differentials. Platelet count was also significantly increased (150.25±4.77 X10 9 /L). The results from this study showed that A. vera stimulated increased production of all blood cell types. In conclusion, protracted consumption of the extract of A. vera cause stimulation of haematopoiesis which may induce or encourage the progression of haemoproliferative disorders. Keywords: Aloe vera , Haematology, Wistar Rat


Porous structure is an important component in C/C composites, which directly affects the fatigue behavior of materials. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the evolution of porous structure in C/C composites under the fatigue loading. In present work, the character of porous structure in original C/C composites was summarized and the evolution of porous structure after fatigue loading was analyzed. The positive effect of the porous structure evolution after fatigue loading on the reinforcing behavior of fatigue was proposed as well, which could provide a basis for further studies on the fatigue mechanisms of C/C composites.


Email email@example.com Abstract Higher education institutions have taken to redesigning high-enrollment, introductory courses to improve student learning outcomes, student success, and degree completion. This paper presents findings from the assessment of course redesign by focusing on the case of developmental math at a large community college. The college adopted modularization, a common course redesign method in which concepts are disaggregated into modules and delivered through computer software. Preliminary results from the quantitative analysis of student performance in redesigned courses have been mixed. The study discusses faculty and student views and experiences with modular math redesign in order to complement and help illuminate the results from the quantitative analysis. Using evidence from five focus groups, one with faculty and four with students, the paper provides insights on how to help faculty and students ease into their new roles and reshape those roles for an enhanced, more engaging, and more effective teaching and learning experience.


Magnetoelectric(ME) effect in magnetoelectric laminate materials have potential application in many fields. In this paper, Fe78Si9B13 amorphous ribbons /PZT/amorphous ribbons sandwich structure laminate materials were fabricated. By theoretical analysis and experimental verification, we studied systemically on the characteristics of the magnetoelecric laminate materials, such as optimized bias magnetic field of the ME effect, ME voltage coefficient at low frequency and the resonant frequency of the magnetoelecric laminate element. ME effect can be used to develop new ac magnetic sensor and other devices.


Novel diphoshinoamine(PNRNP) ligands have been used in ethylene oligomerization with Cr(III) compounds and cocatalyst. The results indicate that the catalyst system can yield 1-octene in selectivities up to 80%. Another novel diphoshinoamine ligands (((Ar2P)2N)2R)(R=cyclopropylamine) also were synthesized and characterized. Factors which affect the result of ethylene tetramerisation, such as cocatalyst, temperature, pressure and the molar ratio of Al/Cr were examined. Steric effects and electric effects were also considered in this report.


The Power Systems Reliability Subcommittee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society recently initiated a survey of the reliability of large motors in industrial and commercial installations in keeping with its commitment to support or update results of the survey published in 1973 and 1974. Moreover, the new survey has emphasized and expanded on one type of electrical equipment only. The previous survey results were heavily biased by one class of motors in the motor category and contained some results that appeared unreasonable and were considered questionable. The results of this new survey are presented here and intended to expand failure data to additional influencing categories and at the same time be oriented to the more common types in use today. A restriction to a lower limit in size also distinguishes the results to motors in relatively critical applications. A further explanation of the reasons for this survey and intended results is presented in a subcommittee report included for reference in the Appendix.


We propose a fast texture-segmentation approach to the problem of 2D and 3D model-based contour tracking, which is suitable for real-time or interactive applications. Our approach relies on detecting texture boundaries in the direction normal to the contour boundaries and on using a hidden Markov model to link these boundary points in the other direction. The probabilities that appear in this computation closely relate to texture entropy and Kullback-Leibler divergence, a property we use to compute and update dynamic texture models. We demonstrate results both in the context of interactive 2D delineation and fast 3D tracking


Crosstalk and vergence-accommodation rivalry negatively impact the quality of experience (QoE) provided by stereoscopic displays. However, exploiting visual attention and adapting the 3D rendering process on the fly can reduce these drawbacks. In this paper, we propose and evaluate two different approaches that exploit visual attention to improve 3D QoE on stereoscopic displays: an offline system, which uses a saliency map to predict gaze position, and an online system, which uses a remote eye tracking system to measure real time gaze positions. The gaze points were used in conjunction with the disparity map to extract the disparity of the object-of-interest. Horizontal image translation was performed to bring the fixated object on the screen plane. The user preference between standard 3D mode and the two proposed systems was evaluated through a subjective evaluation. Results show that exploiting visual attention significantly improves image quality and visual comfort, with a slight advantage for real time gaze determination. Depth quality is also improved, but the difference is not significant.


In this paper, vermiremediation, a biological technique was utilized in order to clean-up soil contaminated with gasoline, diesel and spent engine oil using an earthworm - Eisenia fetida . The contaminated soils were analyzed for the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) level every 24 hours over a period of 120 hours using gas chromatography. It was observed that at each sampling time, the soils samples without the earthworm had more quantity of TPH than the corresponding samples with the earthworms. Pentadecane, 2,6,10, trimethyl had 100% reduction after 120 hours followed by octadecane with 67.30 % reduction and tetracosane with 50.28% reduction. In all sampling time, the initial octadecane level was significantly higher than the final octadecane level in soil with E. fetida (P<0.05). Also, the initial hexadecanoic acid methyl ester level was significantly higher than the level of the hydrocarbon in the soils with E. fetida after 96 hour incubation and soil without the earthworm after 72 hours incubation (P<0.05). After the 24 hours incubation the octadecane level in soil with E. fetida was significantly lower than the initial level and the level in soil without the earthworm (P<0.01).The results showed that E. fetida enhances the degradation and reduction of TPH levels in soils and therefore can be used for cleaning up of soils contaminated with mixture of petroleum products. This is useful in reclaiming mechanic workshop soils for agricultural purposes hence increase in food production. Keywords: Vermiremediation, petroleum, contamination, earthworm, Eisenia fetida


We analyzed data from the historic population of the Krummhörn (Ostfriesland, Germany, 1720-1874) to determine the effects of grandparents in general and grandmothers in particular on child mortality. Multilevel event-history models were used to test how the survival of grandparents in general influenced the survival of the children. Random effects were included in some models in order to take the potentially influential effect of unobserved heterogeneity into account. It could be shown that while maternal grandmothers indeed improved the child's survival, paternal grandmothers worsened it. Both grandfathers had no effect. These findings are not only in accordance with the assumptions of the "grandmother hypothesis" but also may be interpreted as hints for differential grandparental investment strategies.


Localization of gastrointestinal tumors by means of labeled monoclonal antibodies is a new, sensitive and suitable technique currently used in several centers. Encouraging results have been documented with several monoclonal antibodies by different authors. This article reviews our experience with radioimmunoscintigraphy in 59 patients with colorectal cancer in follow-up, using 131I and 111In labeled B72.3, and in 16 patients with primary gastrointestinal tumors using 99mTc anti-CEA monoclonal antibody (type F023C5). The sensitivity of both B72.3 and anti-CEA was greater than 70% either for primary tumors and abdominal recurrences or distant metastases except hepatic ones. A significant gradient in antibody uptake was measured on surgical biopsies between tumors and normal tissues allowing a good in vivo contrast for gamma detection. We have defined the impact of some factors affecting in vivo tumor targeting. In fact, pharmacodynamics of MAbs, percentage of injected dose bound to tissues were measured, and in particular antigenic content in tumor nodules was quantified. Furthermore, the results of RIS were compared to those obtained by CT and other imaging modalities.


Xiaomi is the leading company in the fitness tracking industry. Successful attacks on its fitness tracking ecosystem would result in severe consequences, including the loss of sensitive health and personal data. Despite these relevant risks, we know very little about the security mechanisms adopted by Xiaomi. In this work, we uncover them and show that they are insecure. In particular, Xiaomi protects its fitness tracking ecosystem with custom application-layer protocols spoken over insecure Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) connections (ignoring standard BLE security mechanisms already supported by their devices) and TLS connections. We identify severe vulnerabilities affecting such proprietary protocols, including unilateral and replayable authentication. Those issues are critical as they affect all Xiaomi trackers released since 2016 and up-to-date Xiaomi companion apps for Android and iOS. We show in practice how to exploit the identified vulnerabilities by presenting six impactful attacks. Four attacks enable to wirelessly impersonate any Xiaomi fitness tracker and companion app, man-in-the-middle (MitM) them, and eavesdrop on their communication. The other two attacks leverage a malicious Android application to remotely eavesdrop on data from a tracker and impersonate a Xiaomi fitness app. Overall, the attacks have a high impact as they can be used to exfiltrate and inject sensitive data from any Xiaomi tracker and compatible app. We propose five practical and low-overhead countermeasures to mitigate the presented vulnerabilities. Moreover, we present breakmi, a modular toolkit that we developed to automate our reverse-engineering process and attacks. breakmi understands Xiaomi application-layer proprietary protocols, reimplements Xiaomi security mechanisms, and automatically performs our attacks. We demonstrate that our toolkit can be generalized by extending it to be compatible with the Fitbit ecosystem. We will open-source breakmi.


The innovations in the educational policy of Ukraine are closely connected with global changes in all spheres of human activity: geopolitical problems, migration and emigration, interpersonal and professional contacts. The humanity is in the process of interconnection, interdependence and mutual influence of different countries, peoples and their cultures, religions. Consensus and conflict, cooperation and war make peculiar dialectical pairs, direction and intensity of which determine the viability of any human society. Today these processes in different ways have touched almost every country. Nearly all national and ethnic communities felt the influence of other peoples' cultures both in positive and negative way. This is the influence of cultural exchanges' quantity, direct contacts between state institutions, social groups, public movement and definite individuals of different countries and cultures. The significant increase of migrants and refugees caused by military actions and economic crisis creates additional social problems – ignorance of language and disrespect for the norms and traditions of countries in which they are located. Thus, in the center of intercultural interaction there is a person as a carrier of general human universals and national and cultural peculiarities, which requires certain knowledge, skills of intercultural communication. So, the ability of multilingual personality successfully communicates with representatives of other cultures is very important for today. It is the main task of intercultural training of pupils and student youth. That's why the question as for forming of intercultural communicative competence is very actual, after all it will allow representatives of national communities to adapt more successfully and also to work in the polyethnic environment of Ukraine. The priority directions of education development have been defined in legislative and normative documents which provide successful interaction in all spheres of life. In the proposed article we focus attention on understanding the problem of forming of multilingual personality and its social adaptation in the conditions of modern polycultural society, the cultivation of the culture of tolerant relationships through the forming of intercultural communicative competence at lessons of foreign language in general educational establishments of Ukraine.


Based on optimal families of FH sequences derived from m-sequence over GF(p), a construction of families of FH sequences with given minimum gap is presented to overcome the shortcoming of dual sub-bands method. The Hamming auto-correlation and cross-correlation properties of the FH sequences are theoretically studied and simulation experiments are performed. Results show that the correlation properties of these FH sequences are acceptable.


Background Autoreactive CD4+ T cells are essential participants in the pathogenesis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Immune substrate utilisation, including glucose metabolism, plays a central role in dictating the effector functions of CD4+ T cells. We hypothesised that 1) SLE T cells have metabolic defects that enhance their pro-inflammatory functions, and 2) Inhibiting glycolytic metabolism in CD4+ T cell may normalise CD4+ T cell functions and reduce disease symptoms in SLE mice and in CD4+ T cells from SLE patients. Materials and methods We utilised four models of spontaneous lupus, B6.NZM2410.Sle1.Sle2.Sle3 Triple Congenic (TC), BWF1, BXSB.YAA and B6.lpr that differ in their genetic background as well as mechanisms of autoimmune activation. C57BL/6 (B6) served as a non-autoimmune control strain. CD4+ T cells obtained from lupus-prone mice and controls, as well as from SLE patients and healthy controls (HC) were treated with metabolic inhibitors, including metformin, which inhibits mitochondrial complex I and activates AMPK, and the glycolytic inhibitor 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2-DG). Lupus-prone mice were treated with these drugs, either before or after disease onset. Glycolysis, oxygen consumption, activation and effector subset distribution were measured in CD4+ T cells. Disease progression was assessed by measuring standard lupus biomarkers. Gene profiling was performed on CD4+ T cells from SLE patients and HCs. Results CD4 T cells from lupus mice and patients have a significantly higher metabolism as well as an enhanced mTOR activity as compared to controls. A combination of inhibitors and gene expression studies showed that glucose oxidation rather than aerobic glycolysis is a major metabolic pathway of lupus T cells. In vitro, both metformin and 2-DG blocked IFNγ production and metformin increased IL-2 production. In vivo, a combined treatment with metformin and 2-DG normalised T cell metabolism and reversed disease phenotypes in all four lupus mouse models. Remarkably, the number of TFH cells, which correlates with disease severity in patients, was normalised by the combination treatment in every model. Further, excessive IFNγ production by CD4 T cells from SLE patients was also normalised by metformin. Finally, CD4+ T cells from lupus patients showed a metabolic signature with over-expression of genes promoting glucose utilisation, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and sterol synthesis. Conclusions The combination of a glucose inhibitor with metformin restores T cell function and reverses disease across diverse mouse models of SLE, and metformin treatment normalises the function of T cells from SLE patients. We propose that T cell metabolism may serve as a biomarker of disease activity and provides a novel target for immune intervention in SLE. Acknowledgements This work was supported by NIH grants R01 AI045050 and ALR-TIL 0000075018 to L. Morel.


Aluminum (Al) contaminates total parenteral nutrition (TPN) solutions given to infants, and high levels of Al have been demonstrated in their bone, serum, and urine. However, it is uncertain whether Al at current levels of contamination of TPN solutions is harmful to bone. We report an 8-month-old infant who developed osteopenic bone disease while receiving TPN, which did not respond to large amounts of calcium, phosphate, and vitamin D2. Serum and urine Al levels were greatly elevated and fell after a short course of deferoxamine. However, shortly after treatment began, serum calcium levels fell in the absence of hypercalciuria. We postulate that chelation of Al from this patient's bone permitted increased bone calcium uptake. This would suggest that Al at current levels of contamination of TPN solutions may impair bone calcium uptake and thus contribute to the pathogenesis or exacerbation of TPN-related osteopenia.


We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Chandra imaging, combined with Very Large Telescope MUSE integral field spectroscopy of the counterpart and host galaxy of the first binary neutron star merger detected via gravitational-wave emission by LIGO and Virgo, GW170817. The host galaxy, NGC 4993, is an S0 galaxy at z = 0.009783. There is evidence for large, face-on spiral shells in continuum imaging, and edge-on spiral features visible in nebular emission lines. This suggests that NGC 4993 has undergone a relatively recent ( ≲ 1 Gyr) "dry" merger. This merger may provide the fuel for a weak active nucleus seen in Chandra imaging. At the location of the counterpart, HST imaging implies there is no globular or young stellar cluster, with a limit of a few thousand solar masses for any young system. The population in the vicinity is predominantly old with ≲1% of any light arising from a population with ages < 500 Myr . Both the host galaxy properties and those of the transient location are consistent with the distributions seen for short-duration gamma-ray bursts, although the source position lies well within the effective radius ( r e ∼ 3 kpc), providing an re-normalized offset that is closer than ∼ 90 % of short GRBs. For the long delay time implied by the stellar population, this suggests that the kick velocity was significantly less than the galaxy escape velocity. We do not see any narrow host galaxy interstellar medium features within the counterpart spectrum, implying low extinction, and that the binary may lie in front of the bulk of the host galaxy.


Introductions: Ureteral stones account for 20% urinary stone. Two third of ureteral stones are seen in lower third of ureter. Medical expulsive therapy is effective for such stones. This study was designed to observe the efficacy of 'tamsulosin' a selective alpha-1 adrenoreceptor antagonist in the management of lower ureteric stone. Methods: A cross sectional study of 70 cases of distal ureteral stones of sizes 5 to 10 mm was taken in the Department of Surgery of Shree Birendra Hospital, Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences (NAIHS) from January 2011 to 2013. Patients were randomly divided into tamsulosin and analgesic only groups. Stone expulsion at the end of three weeks was confirmed by X-ray or Ultrasonography. Results: Out of 70 patients, stone clearance rate in tamsulosin group was 28 in 35 cases (80%) and 21 in 35 cases (60%) in group II with analgesic only. The mean time of stone expulsion was 8.3 days in group I and 13.5 days in group II. Conclusions: In this study the use of tamsulosin in treatment of lower ureteral stones less than 10 mm was safe and effective.


Research indicates adolescent adjustment problems are associated with high levels of interparental conflict. This study examined parents' and adolescents' perceptions of interparental conflict and the relationship of these perceptions to adolescent adjustment through a survey of adolescent secondary students and their parents. Sixty-two adolescents and 62 parents participated in the study. Adolescents completed three self-report measures of psychological adjustment, a demographic questionnaire and the Consensus and Cohesion subscales of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). Parents completed the same subscales of the DAS and a demographic questionnaire. There were no significant differences between the levels of interparental conflict perceived by adolescents and parents. However, adolescent perceptions of interparental conflict were a better predictor of adolescent psychological adjustment when compared to parental perceptions of conflict. The results of this study emphasise the importance of adolescent perceptions of interparental conflict, and provide support for both parental and adolescent reports of family functioning to be taken into account in future clinical studies.


In this paper, I explore the way in which people view how the world has changed since they were growing up. This is done both quantitatively and qualitatively, using open-ended responses from the British Household Panel Survey. The theoretical perspective draws on Mannheim's insight that generational location predisposes individuals to characteristic modes of thought and experience and Moscovici's contention that generations may have distinctive social representations. The data largely support the generational hypothesis. The ten most frequent changes mentioned are unemployment, lack of safety, lack of discipline, increased pressure, moral decline, increased crime, drugs, environmental problems, and family breakdown. These social representations of how the world has changed are significant predictors of child-rearing values, especially for women. More generally, I argue that despite the broad consensus concerning the problems facing children born today, the social representations of men and women who grew up in different epochs exacerbate the value clash between generations.


OBJECTIVE--To report on the short-term and long-term results of patients who underwent a third coronary balloon angioplasty for a second restenosis and to identify the correlates of a third clinical restenosis. DESIGN--A retrospective analysis of clinical, angiographic, and procedure related variables of a consecutive series of patients. PATIENTS--62 patients (mean (range) age 53 (31-72) years; 84% men) who underwent a third coronary balloon angioplasty of a single coronary artery segment at which restenosis had occurred after two previous angioplasty procedures between 1986 and 1992. RESULTS--Procedure success was achieved in 56 patients (90%). Complications included one myocardial infarction (2%) and one emergency coronary artery bypass surgery (2%). Complete follow up data were available (median (range) 48 (12-94) months). During the follow up period, four patients (6%) died, two (3%) had a non-fatal myocardial infarction, and five (8%) underwent elective coronary artery bypass surgery. Nine patients (14%) underwent a fourth angioplasty for a third clinical restenosis, and three (5%) had a fourth angioplasty procedure for new coronary lesions. The cumulative probability of survival for all 62 patients was 97% and 95% at 1 and 5 years, respectively. The 1 and 5 year freedom from death, infarction, bypass surgery, and repeat angioplasty was 82% and 66.6%, respectively. At census, of the 58 survivors, 31 (53%) were asymptomatic and only eight (14%) complained of angina grade III or IV (P < 0.001). A third clinical restenosis occurred in 22 (39%) of the 56 patients who had initially successful procedures. Multiple stepwise logistic regression analysis identified the interval between the second and third angioplasty procedure as the only independent predictor of a third clinical restenosis (P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS--A third coronary angioplasty for a second restenosis can be performed safely and effectively and should be considered as an integral part of the overall coronary angioplasty revascularisation strategy. The incidence of a third clinical restenosis remains high, however, and is correlated with the interval between the previous angioplasty procedures.


With the promise of reliability in cloud, more enterprises are migrating to cloud. The process of continuous integration/deployment (CICD) in cloud connects developers who need to deliver value faster and more transparently with site reliability engineers (SREs) who need to manage applications reliably. SREs feed back development issues to developers, and developers commit fixes and trigger CICD to redeploy. The release cycle is more continuous than ever, thus the code to production is faster and more automated. To provide this higher level agility, the cloud platforms become more complex in the face of flexibility with deeper layers of virtualization. However, reliability does not come for free with all these complexities. Software engineers and SREs need to deal with wider information spectrum from virtualized layers. Therefore, providing correlated information with true positive evidences is critical to identify the root cause of issues quickly in order to reduce mean time to recover (MTTR), performance metrics for SREs. Similarity, knowledge, or statistics driven approaches have been effective, but with increasing data volume and types, an individual approach is limited to correlate semantic relations of different data sources. In this paper, we introduce FIXME to enhance software reliability with hybrid diagnosis approaches for enterprises. Our evaluation results show using hybrid diagnosis approach is about 17% better in precision. The results are helpful for both practitioners and researchers to develop hybrid diagnosis in the highly dynamic cloud environment.


There is an increasing demand for cold-formed thin-walled steel structures on the building market nowadays. Owing to the assembly simplicity, materials' cheapness, high ecological standard, recycling, reuse potential, and other numerous advantages of such structures are widely employed in both office and residential buildings. The temperature of thin-walled structures increases rapidly as a consequence of the high section factor (measurement of the fire-exposed area to the heated volume), which creates the demand for a durable fire safety system, one of the fundamental requirements of the building safety. Although, several sufficient researches have been undertaken, there is still no strict performance-based fire design for cold-formed steel systems due to the lack of data. This paper compiles the existing works on the cold-formed thin-walled structures' fire performance, including numerical studies and experiments with mechanical and thermal properties of complete structures, purlins, joints (bolted, screwed, nailed, riveted etc.), plates, tubular structures, new calculation methods, new protective materials that are being used, such as intumescent coatings and etc.