Objectives To examine trends in opioid prescribing in primary care, identify patient and general practice characteristics associated with long-term and stronger opioid prescribing, and identify associations with changes in opioid prescribing. Design Trend, cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of routinely recorded patient data. Setting 111 primary care practices in Leeds and Bradford, UK. Participants We observed 471 828 patient-years in which all patients represented had at least 1 opioid prescription between April 2005 and March 2012. A cross-sectional analysis included 99 847 patients prescribed opioids between April 2011 and March 2012. A longitudinal analysis included 49 065 patient-years between April 2008 and March 2012. We excluded patients with cancer or treated for substance misuse. Main outcome measures Long-term opioid prescribing (4 or more prescriptions within 12 months), stronger opioid prescribing and stepping up to or down from stronger opioids. Results Opioid prescribing in the adult population almost doubled for weaker opioids over 2005–2012 and rose over sixfold for stronger opioids. There was marked variation among general practices in the odds of patients stepping up to stronger opioids compared with those not stepping up (range 0.31–3.36), unexplained by practice-level variables. Stepping up to stronger opioids was most strongly associated with being underweight (adjusted OR 3.26, 1.49 to 7.17), increasing polypharmacy (4.15, 3.26 to 5.29 for 10 or more repeat prescriptions), increasing numbers of primary care appointments (3.04, 2.48 to 3.73 for over 12 appointments in the year) and referrals to specialist pain services (5.17, 4.37 to 6.12). Compared with women under 50 years, men under 50 were less likely to step down once prescribed stronger opioids (0.53, 0.37 to 0.75). Conclusions While clinicians should be alert to patients at risk of escalated opioid prescribing, much prescribing variation may be attributable to clinical behaviour. Effective strategies targeting clinicians and patients are needed to curb rising prescribing, especially of stronger opioids.


The majority of carbonate reservoir is oil-wet, which is an unfavorable
condition for oil production. Generally, the total oil recovery after both primary and
secondary recovery in an oil-wet reservoir is low. The amount of producible oil by
enhanced oil recovery techniques is still large. Alkali substances are proven to be able
to reverse rock wettability from oil-wet to water-wet, which is a favorable condition
for oil production. However, the wettability reversal mechanism would require a noneconomical
aging period to reach the maximum reversal condition. An intermittent
flow with the optimum pausing period is then combined with alkali flooding
(combination technique) to increase the wettability reversal mechanism and as a
consequence, oil recovery is improved.
The aims of this study are to evaluate the efficiency of the combination
technique and to study the parameters that affect this method. In order to implement
alkali flooding, reservoir rock and fluid properties were gathered, e.g. interfacial
tension of fluids, rock wettability, etc. The flooding efficiency curves are obtained
from core flooding and used as a major criterion for evaluation the performance of
technique.
The combination technique improves oil recovery when the alkali
concentration is lower than 1% wt. (where the wettability reversal mechanism is
dominant). The soap plug (that appears when high alkali concentration is used) is
absent in this combination as seen from no drop of production rate. Moreover, the use
of low alkali concentration limits alkali loss. This combination probably improves oil
recovery also in the fractured carbonate reservoirs in which oil is uneconomically
produced.
The results from the current study indicate that the combination technique is
an option that can improve the production of carbonate reservoirs. And a less quantity
of alkali is consumed in the process.


Nonmotile mutants of Vibrio cholerae isolated from Ogawa, Inaba, and El Tor strains were less virulent than parent wild types when administered to adult mice intraperitoneally. The cells were suspended in 5% hog gastric mucin. Antitoxic immunity did not protect mice against this type of challenge, but a ribosomally derived vaccine did. Intraperitoneal injection of 10 50% lethal doses of enterotoxin (based on intravenous doses) was without toxic manifestations as were 10(10) heat-killed vibrios similarly administered, regardless of strain. Virulent organisms killed with formalin or ultraviolet irradiation were significantly lethal at a dose of 10(10) cells. Mice made tolerant to endotoxin were protected from death caused by an injection of 3 X 10(10) boiled cells, but they did not survive an injection of formalin-killed cells. It is believed that the cause of death in this animal model of cholera is dependent, at least in part, on a toxic heat-labile moiety closely associated with the vibrios.


This paper presents a potential algorithm based on continuation power flow (CPFLOW) to compute all the Type-1 load-flow solutions. Type-1 solutions are of a single positive real-part eigenvalue associated with Jacobian of load-flow equations and are used in conjunction with techniques such as energy methods and the voltage instability proximity index (VIPI) for assessing system voltage stability. The benefits of the proposed algorithm are the following. The algorithm has the potential to find all the Type-1 load-flow solutions by tracing a small number of homotopy curves. Traditional methods, which can locate some of the Type-1 solutions, suffer from the uncertainty that there might be another Type-1 solution that might be more suitable for voltage stability assessment. This uncertainty is eliminated if all the Type-1 solutions are located. The proposed algorithm has been tested for two example systems, and encouraging results have been obtained.


Abstract— In oblique impacts with an impact angle under 45°, the bilateral shape of the distal ejecta blanket is used as the strongest indicator for an impact vector. This bilateral symmetry is attenuated and is superimposed by radial symmetry towards the crater rim, which remains circular for impact angles down to 10–15°. The possibility that remnants of bilateral symmetry might still be present in the most proximal ejecta, the overturned flap and the crater rim was explored with the intention of deducing an impact vector. A model is presented that postulates bilateral patterns using proximal ejecta trajectories and predicts these patterns in the orientation of bedding planes in the crater rim. This model was successfully correlated to patterns described by radial grooves in the proximal ejecta blanket of the oblique Tooting crater on Mars. A new method was developed to detect structural asymmetries by converting bedding data into values that express the deviation from concentric strike orientation in the crater rim relative to the crater center, termed "concentric deviation." The method was applied to field data from Wolfe Creek crater, Western Australia. Bedding in the overturned flap implies an impactor striking from the east, which refines earlier publications, while bedding from the inner rim shows a correlation with the crater rim morphology.


ABSTRACT The Supertowel is a fabric treated with a permanent antimicrobial bonding and has been designed as a soap alternative in emergency situations. The Supertowel has been shown to be as efficacious as handwashing with soap and water when tested under controlled laboratory conditions. It has also been shown to be a practical, acceptable, and desirable product among crisis-affected populations. The aim of this study was to test whether the Supertowel remains as efficacious when used under conditions which mimic real-world hand cleaning in challenging settings. Two rounds of laboratory tests, with 16 volunteers in each, were conducted to test the efficacy of the Supertowel when used for a shorter duration, when less wet, when used with contaminated water, when visibly dirty, and when dry. Volunteers pre-contaminated their hands with nonpathogenic Escherichia coli. Comparisons were made between hand cleaning with the Supertowel and the reference condition (normally handwashing with soap), using a crossover design. The Supertowel was marginally less efficacious than handwashing with soap when used for 15 seconds (P = 0.04) but as efficacious at 30 and 60 seconds durations. All the other Supertowel conditions were as efficient as their reference comparisons meaning that the Supertowel can effectively remove pathogens from hands when it is wet, damp, or completely dry, when it is used with contaminated water, when visibly dirty with mud and/or oil.


Much recent commentary on citizen media has focused on online platforms as means through which citizens may disseminate self-produced media content that challenges dominant discourses or makes visible hidden realities. This chapter goes beyond a concern with media content to explore the much broader range of socially situated practices that develop around citizen media. Drawing on Couldry's proposal for a practice paradigm in media research, it suggests shifting the focus from 'citizen media' to 'citizen media practices' and demonstrates, through a case study of communication activism in the World Social Forum, how this framework can bring into view a broad range of citizen media practices (beyond those directly concerned with the production and circulation of media content), the different forms of agency that such practices make possible, and the social fabric they can help generate. I conclude by arguing that a practice framework necessitates a rethink of the way that the concept of (counter-) publics is used in the context of citizen media. Citizen media practices of the kind described here can be understood not only as practices of 'making public' previously unreported issues and perspectives, but as practices of public¬-making: practices that support the formation of publics.


It is a well-known fact that nowadays access to sensitive information is being performed through the use of a three-tier-architecture. Web applications have become a handy interface between users and data. As database-driven web applications are being used more and more every day, web applications are being seen as a good target for attackers with the aim of accessing sensitive data. If an organization fails to deploy effective data protection systems, they might be open to various attacks. Governmental organizations, in particular, should think beyond traditional security policies in order to achieve proper data protection. It is, therefore, imperative to perform security testing and make sure that there are no holes in the system, before an attack happens. One of the most commonly used web application attacks is by insertion of an SQL query from the client side of the application. This attack is called SQL Injection. Since an SQL Injection vulnerability could possibly affect any website or web application that makes use of an SQL-based database, the vulnerability is one of the oldest, most prevalent and most dangerous of web application vulnerabilities. To overcome the SQL injection problems, there is a need to use different security systems. In this paper, we will use 3 different scenarios for testing security systems. Using Penetration testing technique, we will try to find out which is the best solution for protecting sensitive data within the government network of Kosovo.


Motivation Normalizing diverse representations of sequence variants is critical to the elucidation of the genetic basis of disease and biological function. NCBI has long wrestled with integrating data from multiple submitters to build databases such as dbSNP and ClinVar. Inconsistent representation of variants among variant callers, local databases, and tools results in discrepancies and duplications that complicate analysis. Current tools are not robust enough to manage variants in different formats and different reference sequence coordinates. Results The SPDI (pronounced "speedy") data model defines variants as a sequence of 4 operations: start at the boundary before the first position in the sequence S, advance P positions, delete D positions, then insert the sequence in the string I, giving the data model its name, SPDI. The SPDI model can thus be applied to both nucleotide and protein variants, but the services discussed here are limited to nucleotide. Current services convert representations between HGVS, VCF, and SPDI and provide two forms of normalization. The first, based on the NCBI Variant Overprecision Correction Algorithm, returns a unique, normalized representation termed the "Contextual Allele" for any input. The SPDI name, with its four operations, defines exactly the reference subsequence potentially affected by the variant, even in low complexity regions such as homopolymer and dinucleotide sequence repeats. The second level of normalization depends on an alignment dataset (ADS). SPDI services perform remapping (AKA lift-over) of variants from the input reference sequence to return a list of all equivalent Contextual Alleles based on the transcript or genomic sequences that were aligned. One of these contextual alleles is selected to represent all, usually that based on the latest genomic assembly such as GRCh38 and is designated as the unique "Canonical Allele". ADS includes alignments between non-assembly RefSeq sequences (prefixed NM, NR, NG), as well inter- and intra-assembly-associated genomic sequences (NCs, NTs and NWs) and this allow for robust remapping and normalization of variants across sequences and assembly versions. Availability and implementation The SPDI services are available for open access at: https://api.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/variation/v0/ Contact: email@example.com


This book addresses an essential gap in the regulatory regime, which provides legislation, statements and guidelines on airlines, airports, air navigation services providers and States in the field of aviation, but is notably lacking when it comes to the rights of the airline passenger, and the average citizen who is threatened by military air strikes. It addresses subjects such as international resolutions on human rights and other human rights conventions related to aviation that impact both air transport consumers and people on the ground who are threatened by air strikes through drone attacks; disabled and obese airline passengers; compensation for delayed carriage and the denial of carriage; noise and air pollution caused by aviation and their effects on human health and wellbeing; prevention of death or injury to passengers and attendant compensatory rights; risk management; relief flights; and racial profiling. These subjects are addressed against the backdrop of real case studies that include but are not limited to instances of drone attacks, and contentious flights in the year 2014 such as MH 370, MH 17 and QZ 8501.


This paper examines the dubbing of the British comedy series A Touch of Cloth into French. Building on existing descriptive theory regarding wordplay translation – particularly the model of translation techniques laid out by Delabastita (1993) – translation patterns are identified. A corpus of instances of wordplay is established, correlations are identified between particular types of wordplay and particular translation results, and a case-by-case examination is undertaken to determine how different factors impacted these results. A wide range of factors are found to contribute to the way wordplay is translated, notably: the languages at hand, the nature of the joke, and the audiovisual features the joke brings into play. Conclusions are then drawn regarding the technique likely to be employed on a given occasion and why, as well as how closely the translation can be expected to reflect the original segment.


Abstract. Ocean-colour remote-sensing products have been used to estimate Chl a trends in European seas. This work aims to develop a new indicator based on ocean-colour data for the European Environment Agency (EEA). The new indicator, called CSI023(+), produced from satellite ocean-colour products from the MyOcean Marine Core Service ( www.myocean.eu ) has been defined and calculated. CSI023 (+) is intended to complement the EEA CSI023 (Core Set of Indicators n.23) indicator for eutrophication, which is based on chlorophyll a (Chl a) in-situ observations. Validation of ocean-colour products has been carried out through comparison with observations of the Eionet EEA database, and we believe that such validation should continue in the future, perhaps with a dedicated data-collection exercise. Ocean colour has a much higher spatial and temporal resolution than the in-situ observations. The ocean-colour observations, however, are based on indirect measurements of the optical properties of the ocean, which are transformed to Chl a using an appropriate algorithm. This algorithm can either be a global algorithm that reproduces the average global Chl a concentrations well or one that is adjusted to specific regional conditions. In our analysis we have used both global and regional (adjusted to specific regional Mediterranean conditions) ocean-colour products, but the results highlight the fact that regional products produced with regional algorithms are recommended for the future. This work proposes a methodology for analysing trends comparable to the method EEA uses for its CSI23 indicator. Analysis has revealed the potential of ocean colour as a CSI023(+) indicator: large-scale, and in some cases even local-scale, changes appear to be captured by the satellite images even though in general the ocean-colour products underestimate the Chl a values. CSI023(+) shows, in the period 1998–2009, decreasing Chl a concentrations throughout the Black Sea, in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the southern part of the Western Mediterranean, in the English Channel and in the north part of the North Sea, whereas large areas with increasing trends are observed in the Bay of Biscay, in the North-East Atlantic regions of Ireland and the UK, in the northern part of the North Sea, in the Kattegat and in the Baltic. Specific analysis has been performed in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea: we first defined Chl a areas and then calculated the CSI023(+) for each of the Chl a areas. This last analysis reveals that about 80 % of Chl a areas do not show significant trends; increasing significant Chl a trends were detected in 3 Chl a areas in the Black Sea and 32 Chl a areas in the Mediterranean. Decreasing significant trends were detected in 6 Chl a areas in the Mediterranean and 2 Chl a areas in the Black Sea.


Recent evidence indicates that corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) acts as a potent stimulator of thyrotropin (TSH) release in the chicken. In this study adrenal and thyroidal feedback mechanisms were studied. Administration of corticosterone 30 min prior to an ovine CRH (oCRH) challenge diminished the in vivo sensitivity of thyrotrophs to oCRH in 19-day-old chicken embryos (E19) (20 micrograms corticosterone; 2 micrograms oCRH) but not in 8-day-old chickens (C8) (40 micrograms corticosterone; 4 micrograms oCRH). At both ages studied, corticosterone (0.01 and 1 microM) did not alter the in vitro TSH response to oCRH (100 nM) indicating that an indirect mechanism is involved at the embryonic stage which is no longer present in posthatch chickens. In vitro, 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3) pretreatment (0.01 and 1 microM) resulted at both ages studied in a dose-dependent drop in the in vitro oCRH-induced TSH release. As recorded previously, corticosterone treatment provoked a rise in plasma T3 in embryonic but not in posthatch chickens. The presence of an indirect adrenal feedback mechanism in chicken embryos may therefore be linked to the increase in plasma T3 which will alter the sensitivity of thyrotrophs to hypothalamic releasing factors. In conclusion, corticosterone does not directly modulate the responsiveness of thyrotrophs to CRH, but its feedback mechanism may be dependent on the evoked increase in plasma T3 which is only present in embryonic chickens. Corticosterone may in this regard play an essential role during embryonic development by coordinating thyroidal feedback mechanisms at the level of the chicken pituitary.


The most accepted theory for the evolution of the Cosmos is the Big Bang theory, which suggests that, at the beginning, the entire mass-energy of the Cosmos was concentrated within an extremely small, dense and hot singularity. Here, we present a new physical formula that, although obtained in an extremely simple way, has significant implications in Cosmology. This equation indicates that the mass of the Cosmos has grown proportionally with time. This growth equates to a Planck mass for each unit of Planck Time, which is, the mass of 200000 suns per second. Finally the total energy of the Cosmos is demonstrated to be zero.


A touch of the hand and this burning would, on the instant, beautifully reverse itself. Eckels remembered the wording in the advertisements to the letter. Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irishblack, wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western skies and set in glorious easts, moons eat themselves opposite to the custom, all and everything cupping one in another like Chinese boxes, rabbits into hats, all and everything returning to the fresh death, the seed death, the green death, to the time before the beginning. A touch of a hand might do it, the merest touch of a hand.


This paper describes two approaches for semantically-assisted design of collaborative business processes in intra-and inter-enterprise application integration scenarios. Both approaches rely on the ENterprise Integration Ontology (ENIO) that resolves structural heterogeneities of different business applications on the data and functional level. Additionally, the ENIO ontology provides a process facet that supports semantically-assisted creation and adaptation of process templates within a hierarchy of business process categories. The proposed solution should provide additional value, in particular for SMEs since the achieved degree of automation is expected to reduce the integration costs significantly.


Conductive polypyrrole (PPy)-coated LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) composites are applied as cathode materials in Li-ion batteries, and their electrochemical properties are explored at both room and elevated temperature. The morphology, phase evolution, and chemical properties of the as-prepared samples are analyzed by means of X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The composite with 5 wt% polypyrrole coating shows a discharge capacity retention of 92% after 300 cycles and better rate capability than the bare LNMO electrode in the potential range of 3.5–4.9 V vs. Li/Li+ at room temperature. At the elevated temperature, the cycling performance of the electrode made from LNMO–5 wt% PPy is also remarkably stable (∼91% capacity retention after 100 cycles). It is revealed that the polypyrrole coating can suppress the dissolution of manganese in the electrolyte which occurs during cycling. The charge transfer resistance of the composite electrode is much lower than that of the bare LNMO electrode after cycling, indicating that the polypyrrole coating significantly increases the electrical conductivity of the LNMO electrode. Polypyrrole can also work as an effective protective layer to suppress the electrolyte decomposition arising from undesirable reactions between the cathode electrode and electrolyte on the surface of the active material at elevated temperature, leading to high coulombic efficiency.


Many clinical and biological effects have been attributed to the presence of mediators in the general circulation of patients after injury, a major operation, or the onset of certain diseases. Often, the term toxin is applied in an attempt to describe these circulating mediators. In the discussion that follows, cutaneous burn toxin is cited as an example and an opinion is ventured concerning the continued acceptance of both the term toxin and the toxic concept in modern medicine.


In this paper we address the problem of optimizing p2p systems for enterprise bandwidth cost savings. Consider a scenario where an enterprise uses p2p swarming to deliver content to its clients. A content may be a file or a package (bundle) of files. For popular and large content, our work finds that enterprise servers can exclusively rely on the cooperation among the peers in the form of a swarm to disseminate the files. We introduce the idea of self sustaining swarms, i.e., swarms where the presence of the server is not necessary for the content to be efficiently transmitted. We characterize, under different scenarios, the concept of self sustainability. We then focus on swarms that are not always self sustaining, and propose a scheme for the server to decide how much bandwidth to allocate to a swarm as a function of the arrival and departure rate of the peers. To show the applicability of our controller, we deploy BitTorrent clients in PlanetLab and in a local cluster. Our emulations confirm that the controller leads to significant improvements in terms of cost savings without degrading the download time for the clients. Finally, we analyze the case of an enterprise providing content through multiple swarms, and present an optimization framework that can be used to determine how much bandwidth should be allocated for each of the swarms.


Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic, metabolic disorder in which concomitant insulin resistance and β-cell impairment lead to hyperglycemia, influenced by genetic and environmental factors. T2DM is associated with long-term complications that have contributed to the burden of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The objective of this manuscript is to conduct an Exome-Wide Association Study (EWAS) on T2DM Emirati individuals to improve our understanding on diabetes-related complications to improve early diagnostic methods and treatment strategies. Methods This cross-sectional study recruited 310 Emirati participants that were stratified according to their medically diagnosed diabetes-related complications: diabetic retinopathy, diabetic neuropathy, diabetic nephropathy, and cardiovascular complications. The Illumina's Infinium Exome-24 array was used and 39,840 SNPs remained for analysis after quality control. Findings The analysis revealed the associations of various genes with each complication category: 1) diabetic retinopathy was associated to SHANK3 gene in locus 22q13.33 (SNP rs9616915; p=5.18 x10-4), ZSCAN5A gene in locus 19q13.43 (SNP rs7252603; p=7.55 x10-4), and DCP1B gene in locus 12p13.33 (SNPs rs715146, rs1044950, rs113147414, rs34730825; p=7.62 x10-4); 2) diabetic neuropathy was associated to ADH4 gene in locus 4q23 (SNP rs4148883; p=1.23 x10-4), SLC11A1 gene in locus 2q35 (SNP rs17235409; p=1.85 x10-4), and MATN4 gene in locus 20q13.12 (SNP rs2072788; p=2.68 x10-4); 3) diabetic nephropathy was associated to PPP1R3A gene in locus 7q31.1 (SNP rs1799999; p=1.91 x10-4), ZNF136 gene in locus 19p13.2 (SNP rs140861589; p=2.80 x10-4), and HSPA12B gene in locus 20p13 (SNP rs6076550; p=2.86 x10-4); and 4) cardiovascular complications was associated to PCNT gene in locus 21q22.3 (SNPs rs7279204, rs6518289, rs2839227, rs2839223; p=2.18 x10-4,3.04 x10-4,4.51 x10-4,5.22 x10-4 respectively), SEPT14 gene in locus 7p11.2 (SNP rs146350220; p=2.77 x10-4), and WDR73 gene in locus 15q25.2 (SNP rs72750868; p=4.47 x10-4). Interpretation We have identified susceptibility loci associated with each category of T2DM-related complications in the Emirati population. Given that only 16% of the markers from the Illumina's Infinium Exome chip passed quality control assessment, this demonstrates that multiple variants were, either, monomorphic in the Arab population or were not genotyped due to the use of a Euro-centric EWAS array that limits the possibility of including targeted ethnic-specific SNPs. Our results suggest the alarming possibility that lack of representation in reference panels could inhibit discovery of functionally important loci associated to T2DM complications. Further effort must be conducted to improve the representation of diverse populations in genotyping and sequencing studies.


In this study, the photoelastic experiment hybrid method was introduced and applied to the fracture problems of the isotropic polycarbonate plate with a central crack under the uniaxial and equibiaxial tensile load. The influences of equibiaxial tensile load on the isochromatic fringes and stress fields, stress intensity factors near the mixed mode crack-tip were investigated. As the results, without relation to the inclined angle of crack, the asymmetric isochromatic fringes around the crack propagation line under uniaxial tensile load has become symmetric and the slope of isochromatic fringe loop has inclined toward crack surface when an equal lateral tensile load was added. Furthermore, the distribution of all stress components have changed from asymmetric shape to symmetric shape, and only the range of compressive stress of σχ/σ0 have changed as compared with the mode I condition under unaxial load with β = 0°. When an equal lateral tensile load was added to uniaxial load, the value of stress intensity factors are little changed when β = 0° but the values of KI /K0 are increased and KII /K0 are become zero, that is, mode I situation when β = 15°~45°.


For more than a century, communities across the United States legally employed strategies to create and maintain racial divides. One particularly widespread and effective practice was that of "sundown towns," which signaled to African Americans and others that they were not welcome within the city limits after dark. Though nearly 1,000 small towns, larger communities, and suburbs across the country may have engaged in these practices, until recently there has been little scholarship on the topic. Drawing from qualitative and quantitative sources, this article presents a case study of a midwestern rural community with a sundown history. Since 1990 large numbers of Mexican migrants have arrived there to work at the local meat-processing plant, earning the town the nickname "Little Mexico." The study identifies a substantial decline in Hispanic-white residential segregation in the community between 1990 and 2000. We consider possible explanations for the increased spatial integration of Latino and white residents, including local housing characteristics and the weak enforcement of preexisting housing policies. We also describe the racialized history of this former sundown town and whether, paradoxically, its history of excluding nonwhites may have played a role in the spatial configurations of Latinos and non-Hispanic whites in 2000. Scholars investigating the contemporary processes of Latino population growth in "new" destinations, both in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, may want to explore the importance of sociohistorical considerations, particularly localities' racialized historical contexts before the arrival of Mexican and other Latino immigrants. Language: en


Changes in the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been implicated in some neuropsychiatric disorders. Several antipsychotic drugs affect the expression of BDNF mRNA in different areas of the rat brain. We examined the effect of single or repeated administration of 4-[4-fluorophenyl]-1,2,3,6-tetra-hydo-1-[4-{1,-2,4-triazol-1-il}butyl]pyridine citrate) (E-5842), a sigma1 receptor ligand and putative atypical antipsychotic drug on the expression of BDNF mRNA in rats. Acute treatment with E-5842 induced a down-regulation of BDNF mRNA levels in the frontal cortex and hippocampus, while a chronic treatment had no effect. Levels of another neurotrophin, nerve growth factor (NGF), remained unaltered after either acute or chronic treatment. The effects suggest that any therapeutic properties of E-5842 are not mediated by stimulation of BDNF or NGF, whereas the regulation of these trophic factors may be part of the mechanism of action of sigma1 receptor ligands.


The site-selective thio-allylation of electron-deficient 1,2-dienes is documented under scandium catalysis. The methodology enables the realization of α-β unsaturated, β-thio, γ-allyl carboxylic acid derivatives via a one-pot Lewis acid promoted Michael addition/[3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement sequence (20 examples) in high yields (up to 95%). Full rationalization of the reaction mechanism and stereochemical outcome is provided via DFT simulations.


This research examines visual field differences in the detection and identification of a peripheral stimulus for deaf and hearing subjects, as a function of concurrent foveal stimulation. Deaf and hearing subjects were presented with peripheral target stimuli (simple geometric shapes) presented tachistoscopically to the left or right visual fields under four conditions of foveal stimulation: (a) no stimulus; (b) simple geometric shapes; (c) pictorial shapes (outline drawings); and (d) orthographic letters. Dependent measures were detection response latency and peripheral shape recognition (errors). With error data, hearing subjects showed a right field advantage under foveal conditions of no stimulus and simple shape stimulus, but a left field advantage with pictorial and letter foveal stimuli. Deaf subjects showed the opposite effect, with a left field advantage under foveal conditions of no stimulus and simple shape stimulus, but a right field advantage with pictorial and letter foveal stimuli. Latency data revealed the same pattern of results for hearing subjects, but no significant visual field differences for deaf subjects. Results are interpreted in terms of differences in hemispheric visual processing used by deaf and hearing subjects, as affected by varying conditions of foveal load.


For the first time, Raman and IR studies were performed on new double tungstates Li2MII(WO4)2 (M = Co, Ni and Cu) crystallizing in the wolframite-type structure. The observed vibrational modes were assigned to the respective motions of atoms in the unit cell. The vibrational properties of the Cu derivative differ significantly from those of the cobalt and nickel derivatives. The differences were attributed to the differences in the crystal structures. A comparison of the results with literature data for MIIWO4 and LiMIII(WO4)2 (MII = Zn, Fe, Cu; MIII = Fe, In, Sc), crystallizing in the wolframite-like structure, revealed a very large splitting for a few bridging modes and large shifts of the low-wavenumber modes towards higher wavenumbers in the case of Li2MII(WO4)2. These features were assigned to different arrangements of tungsten–oxygen interactions within the infinite chains, which results in the formation of two non-equivalent oxygen bridges in the structure of the compounds studied. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ADDITIVITY and SCALARITY, linguistically encoded by alternative-sensitive operators, are in principle independent of each other: There are additives which are not scalars (e.g. also / too ), as well as scalars which are not additives (e.g. only -like particles). In this course, we intend to focus on two types of expressions where additivity and scalarity co-exist (sometimes referred to as 'scalar additives'). The first is illustrated by English even , and the second by English additive more . We will introduce observations, analyses, and debates in the literature, regarding similarities and differences between these types of expressions with respect to, e.g., types of scales, 'norm-related' effects, accentuation patterns, anaphoricity, and discourse structure. We will take a cross-linguistic stance including, e.g., data from Hebrew, German, Chinese, Russian and African languages. Finally, we will broaden the picture beyond the domain of alternative-sensitive operators considering additivity in the context of expressions of sameness, similarity and difference.


Alkynes are a key component of click chemistry and used for a wide variety of applications including bioconjugation, selective tagging of protein modifications, and labeling of metabolites and drug targets. However, challenges still exist for detecting alkynes because most 1,2,3-triazole products from alkynes and azides do not possess distinct intrinsic properties that can be used for their facile detection by either fluorescence or mass spectrometry. To address this critical need, a novel brominated coumarin azide was used to tag alkynes and detect alkyne-conjugated biomolecules. This tag has several useful properties: first, it is fluorogenic and the click-chemistry products are highly fluorescent and quantifiable; second, its distinct isotopic pattern facilitates identification by mass spectrometry; and third, its click-chemistry products form a unique pair of reporter ions upon fragmentation that can be used for the quick screening of data. Using a monoclonal antibody conjugated with alkynes, a general workflow has been developed and examined comprehensively.


The theory of universal grammar relies predominantly on the biolinguistic concept of natural endowment and innate knowledge of the general principles of language. It postulates that all humans are naturally endowed with the general rules and configurations of language and to this extent, all natural languages have similar structural features. The theory of universal grammar as hypothesized by Chomsky and propagated by other linguists not only recognizes the universality of the general principles of language but also the existence of language-specific idiosyncratic features that constitute parametric variations among languages. These are the parameters of universal grammar. The most prominent parameters that create distinctions between languages are head directionality, pro-drop or null-subject and wh- parameters. This paper reviews the null-subject parameter in English and juxtaposes its occurrence or non-occurrence in the Ịzọn language. The aim of the paper is to characterize the parametric choices by English and Ịzọn languages in the derivation of grammatically convergent sentences with null-subject constituents. The study is competence-based and used data from tokens of sentences in conversation among competent native speakers of Ịzọn language. Data from each language were translated into the other via a gloss and comparatively analysed. The study reveals that null-subject constituent is not a characteristic feature of English syntax but a feature of Ịzọn syntax. The study is significant because it contributes fresh linguistic data for the principles and parameter theory.

 Key words: Universal grammar, principles and parameters, parametric variations, null-subject, English, Ịzọn, syntactic.


A self-driving perception model aims to extract 3D semantic representations from multiple cameras collectively into the bird's-eye-view (BEV) coordinate frame of the ego car in order to ground downstream planner. Existing perception methods often rely on error-prone depth estimation of the whole scene or learning sparse virtual 3D representations without the target geometry structure, both of which remain limited in performance and/or capability. In this paper, we present a novel end-to-end architecture for ego 3D representation learning from an arbitrary number of unconstrained camera views. Inspired by the ray tracing principle, we design a polarized grid of"imaginary eyes"as the learnable ego 3D representation and formulate the learning process with the adaptive attention mechanism in conjunction with the 3D-to-2D projection. Critically, this formulation allows extracting rich 3D representation from 2D images without any depth supervision, and with the built-in geometry structure consistent w.r.t. BEV. Despite its simplicity and versatility, extensive experiments on standard BEV visual tasks (e.g., camera-based 3D object detection and BEV segmentation) show that our model outperforms all state-of-the-art alternatives significantly, with an extra advantage in computational efficiency from multi-task learning.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge about the phenomenon of the inner child in relation to health and well-being as reflected in play experienced by schoolchildren. Design/method: Participants were 20 schoolchildren recruited from a primary school in a medium-size city in central Sweden. The children who agreed to participate were 14 girls and 6 boys aged between 9 and 10 years old in grade 3. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to analyse the data consisting of the schoolchildren's drawings and transcribed interviews. Participants' verbal reflections on their drawings enabled deeper insight into their lived experiences of play. Results: Findings from this study demonstrate how schoolchildren are influenced by the inner child in childhood to handle conflicts, to cope, to make choices, to build relationships to connect and to dream about the future. The schoolchildren in this study developed their coping skills in conflict situations as part of friendship making. Conclusion: The value play offers for health and well-being reveals how schoolchildren are influenced by the inner child in childhood. Gaining knowledge from schoolchildren's own voices about play makes a worthwhile contribution to research. In addition, the value play provides to schoolchildren's health and well-being suggest that play can be an important tool as part of health education.


type="main" xml:id="acfi12030-abs-0001"> This paper contributes to the debate on the impact of accounting measurement rules for financial assets. We examine the association between fair value accounting for financial assets and market price volatility for nonfinancial firms in an experimental setting. One group of participants was provided with financial statements where held-for-trading securities were reported at fair market value (FVA). Another group received financial statements with investments reported at historical cost (HCA). Controlling for accounting data, we find no systematic difference between FVA and HCA for three different measures of market price volatility, despite higher earnings volatility and marginally heavier trading under FVA.


The two main proximate causes of intratree variation in individual seed mass of lodgepole pine [Pinus contorta var. latifolia (Dougl. ex Loudon)I were space constraints within cones and between-branch position effects. Cone scales get smaller near the distal tip of the cone. Seed predation has selected for the production of the fertile zone in the distal tip of the cone where cone scales are smaller. Thus, seed and wing size were constrained by cone scale size, and decreased from the base to the tip of the cone. Heavier seeds had larger seed wings, but wing loading (fruit mass/ wing area) was independent of seed mass. Although it is possible that seed mass variation might be selected because it increases dispersal effectiveness, several factors the consistent within-cone positional variation in seed mass, wing area, and wing loading; the dependence of seed mass, wing area, and wing loading on cone size; and the positive relationship between seed mass and wing area suggest that variation is caused by constraints by scale size. Key-words: Morphological constraints, position effects, seed mass variation, wing loading


To test the variation and transport of soil salinity in saline-alkali land under water storage and drainage treatments, an experimental model was established in Fuping, Shaanxi Province, 2009. The variation of soil salinity during 0—160 cm soil depth under the two treatments was determined and analyzed. Results showed that the average soil water content under water storage treatment was 4.47% higher than that under drainage treatment, which means that the water storage treatment could help to improve soil moisture to satisfy the crop's growth needs. The profile distribution of soil soluble solids (TDS), anion (Cl-, HCO3-, SO42-) and cation (Ca2+, Na+, K+) content and the variation of soil pH were also measured and analyzed. PCA (Principal Component Analysis) was used to explore the relationship between the soil salinity and its ions, which showed that the water storage treatment could significantly decrease the surface salinity of soil and accelerate the desalination of topsoils, and finally, the soil quality was improved significantly, demonstrating that the water storage treatment has a remarkable effect on soil salinity management.


In the article, I discuss the importance of the figuration "the woman-identified woman" to lesbian feminists in Sweden during the 1970s and 1980s. I examine which idea based content the figuration was given, as well as the different ways it was manifested, depending on whether it was shaped by socialist radical lesbian feminists, lesbian cultural feminists or lesbian postmodern feminists. The concept figuration should be associated with a material and political mapping of situated and bodily positions. Theoretically, I'm inspired by the social movement researchers Verta Taylor and Nancy E. Whittier, who are working with the concepts "boundaries," "consciousness," and "(re)negotiation." The article states that the figuration "the woman-identified woman" becomes important for lesbian feminists, as it (re)negotiates the ways in which lesbian women understood their identities. The figuration contains ideas that politicizes lesbianism and associate it with political solidarity between women. The 1970s socialist radical lesbian feminists shaped "the woman- identified woman" through creating boundaries towards an older generation of homosexual women. By identifying with and desiring the figuration, they speak of themselves as women identified, conscious feminist and socialist. During the 1980s two new generations of lesbian feminists appear – the lesbian cultural feminists and the lesbian postmodern feminists. The former downplay the socialist element in the figuration, and connect it to a women- identified body, celebrating the female and goddess-like, which only can exist beyond the patriarchy. The latter view "the woman-identified woman" as hostile towards sexuality, and distance themselves from the figuration.


Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) undergo hypertrophy when exposed to thromboxane A2 and hyperplasia when exposed to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) or platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). Each of these three agonists stimulate rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of numerous VSMC proteins. The current studies were undertaken to identify proteins that are specifically tyrosine phosphorylated in one or the other growth response. All three agonists increased the phosphotyrosine content of multiple proteins. In Western analysis of phosphotyrosine immunoprecipitates, the hyperplastic agents PDGF and PMA increased tyrosine phosphorylation of phospholipase C-gamma 1 (PLC-gamma 1), GTPase-activating protein (GAP), and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI-3-kinase), while the hypertrophic agonist thromboxane failed to tyrosine-phosphorylate either of these three substrates. Tyrosine kinase inhibition with herbimycin A (5 microM) prevented agonist-stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC-gamma 1, GAP, and PI-3-kinase. In growth studies, herbimycin A inhibited PMA- and PDGF-induced hyperplasia but not thromboxane-stimulated hypertrophy. These results indicate that tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC-gamma 1, GAP, and PI-3-kinase are specific responses for VSMC hyperplasia but not thromboxane-stimulated hypertrophy.


Comparisons were made of bovine mammary tissue at 12 and 24 hours after 5,000 colony-forming units of Staphylococcus aureus 305 was injected into the mammary parenchyma with control tissue from the contralateral udder half. A mild form of staphylococcal mastitis was induced routinely. Generally, S aureus was found in udder tissue removed centrally from the site of injection. Varied degrees of tissue damage were found in infected quarters from alveolar epithelium without damage (similar to control) to extremely swollen epithelium which were typical of cells undergoing disruption. Infected tissues frequently displayed areas of swollen stroma and areas of diminished alveolar lumens. Cellular debris was often found in lumens, and neutrophils frequently filled the alveolar lumen in areas of greatest damage. Thus, a parenchymal injection of bacteria induced early forms of staphylococcal mastitis at the alveolar level.


A program is developed that includes two hydrodynamic models, a 2D depth-averaged (2DH) and a Quasi-3D (Q3D), and a pollutant transport model that uses a 1 st order upwinding and a 3 rd order QUICKEST numerical schemes. Several tests were performed in two test basins in order to examine the performance of the above models. The Q3D model is successfully applied to Lake Ontario, using a 4-km-square grid, to simulate the wind-induced circulation. Simulations of pollutant transport show that the 1 st order upwinding scheme can be used for estimating pollutant concentrations near the pollutant source in the case of continuous point source. However, numerical diffusion affects the estimates further downstream the pollutant source. Therefore, higher order schemes such as the third order QUICKEST scheme are required for estimating pollutant concentration at these locations.


The purpose of the study is to explore whether a post-military service organization builds community and ultimately improves the reintegration process for veterans. Transitioning from military service to civilian life is an inevitable shift that veterans often endure without ease. Significant attention has been paid to the mental and physical health, employment status, and family situation of OEF and OIF veterans, however there is a lack of focus on the role their own service on the home front can play in their successful reintegration. This study investigates the efficacy of Team Rubicon, an international disaster relief organization, as a community-building model between veterans and civilians, while asking whether veterans who engage in skills-based civic engagement transition better from military to civilian life. Specifically, a survey was distributed to Team Rubicon Region VI veterans. The survey data was utilized in order to identify participants for two focus groups. The qualitative data obtained from the focus groups was thematically analyzed and then triangulated with McMillan and Chavis' (1986) sense of community framework. Several themes emerged that were consistent between both groups, as well as with the four elements that comprise McMillan and Chavis' (1986) theory of sense of community: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection. These findings provide evidence of the efficacy of Team Rubicon as a communitybuilding model and offer a basis for future research to explore this claim on a national scale.


This paper shows that several typologically unrelated languages share the tendency for voiced sibilant affricates to be infrequent or missing altogether. Phonological processes examined in the paper illustrate that (1) voiceless stops undergo affrication more readily than voiced ones, and (2) voiced affricates deaffricate more commonly than voiceless ones, thereby contributing to the asymmetry in frequency between voiced vs. voiceless affricates. Phonetic properties of the sounds may explain these patterns. Affricates in general require complex control over supralaryngeal apertures, and they appear to have long durations in many languages. Long duration and complete oral closure at the beginning of affricates contribute to a buildup of intraoral pressure which impedes phonation. An aerodynamic experiment of obstruents, including affricates, was carried out for Polish and German, languages which differ in their r ealization of the stop voicing contrast (viz., voicing vs. aspiration). Voiced affricates in Polish had significantly longer voicing than in German; in medial position, they also had shorter durations and lower peak pressure values. We suggest that languages having voiced affricates in their phoneme inventory may tend to limit duration and intraoral pressure buildup in these sounds to allow vocal-fold vibration to continue.


Purpose: To date, there are few longitudinal studies on the COVID-19 pandemic ' s ongoing impact on youth drinking. This study examines the changes in drinking during two phases of the pandemic in a sample of Canadian youth. Methods: We used four-year longitudinal data from the COMPASS study, including 14,085 secondary school students from Quebec and Ontario, Canada who provided linked data for any two consecutive years between 2017/18 and 2018/19 (pre-pandemic) waves, and 2019/20 and 2020/21 (during the initial and ongoing pandemic). A difference-in-difference (D-I-D) model was used to compare changes in the frequency of drinking and binge drinking between pre-COVID-19 to initial-and ongoing-pandemic period, while adjusted for age-related effects. Results: The expected escalation in the frequency of drinking and binge drinking from the pre-pandemic wave (2018/19) to the initial pandemic (2019/20) was less than the changes seen across the 2017/18 to 2018/19 waves among sex and age groups. However, the second year of COVID was associated with an increase in the frequencies of both drinking and binge drinking. Male and younger students (aged 12 e 14) differentially increased their consumption. Discussion: After a reduction in the initial pandemic period, the


Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of male body mass index (BMI) on the retrieval of sperm from azoospermic patients who were undergoing testicular sperm extraction (TESE). Material/Methods The study included retrospective data of male patients suffering from non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). Age, BMI, testicular volumes, the serum concentration of the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone, and prolactin were investigated and collected. Results A total of 75 azoospermic males were evaluated between 2014 and 2019, including 35 patients (46.7%) with positive sperm retrieval. The majority of patients (57.3%) had normal BMI (between 20 kg/m2 and 25 kg/m2) or first degree obesity (from 25 kg/m2 to 30 kg/m2). No statistically significant correlation between BMI and positive sperm retrieval or hormone levels (LH, FSH, SHBG, prolactin) were found. However, lower serum testosterone levels were observed in patients with higher BMI (P=0.035). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that none of the hormones could potentially predict the positive outcome of TESE. Conclusions The hormonal levels or patient's BMI could not predict positive sperm retrieval outcome, however a negative correlation between serum testosterone and BMI levels was calculated implicating influence on fertility.


A specific computer program for the intermediate and final stages of a lens design problem is described. The program is based on an orthonormal aberration theory as defined in Part I of this paper. The program is intended to run unattended from input data to conclusion. The program has been used successfully and results are described qualitatively.


Money laundering activities related to the cryptocurrency market have seen an exponential increase over the last fifteen years as a consequence of technological developments and economic distresses, as the 2008 crisis and the 2020 pandemic. This essay will analyse the European Union legislation created in order to tackle this phenomenon, dwelling on the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive and its similarities among international laws. In particular, it will be displayed the importance of intermediaries, such as money mules and mixing services, to ease money laundering and increase the anonymity. In this framework, the European Union finds itself almost powerless: the legality of the virtual currency source is assessed only when entering and exiting in the virtual market and not during in-market transactions as well as a complete lack of legislation on mixing services activities. Therefore, how can the European Union steam the misuse of such intermediaries with ex-ante and ex-post interventions? And, finally, are the European privacy policies so important to outrank the risk related to money laundering activities? This paper shows that one way to prevent cryptocurrency money laundering pullulation is launching sensitization and awareness programmes since young age through educational institutions and, most importantly, a narrower legislation is required, implementing those laws that proved to be effective in other countries, in defiance of privacy policies.


We classify the cohomology classes of Lagrangian 4-planes P in a smooth manifold X deformation equivalent to a Hilbert scheme of 4 points on a K3 surface, up to the monodromy action. Classically, the Mori cone of effective curves on a K3 surface S is generated by nonnegative classes C, for which (C,C) ≥ 0, and nodal classes C, for which (C,C) = −2; Hassett and Tschinkel conjecture that the Mori cone of a holomorphic symplectic variety X is similarly controlled by "nodal" classes C such that (C,C) = −γ, for (·, ·) now the Beauville–Bogomolov form, where γ classifies the geometry of the extremal contraction associated to C. In particular, they conjecture that for X deformation equivalent to a Hilbert scheme of n points on a K3 surface, the class C = ` of a line in a smooth Lagrangian n-plane P must satisfy (`, `) = − 2 . We prove the conjecture for n = 4 by computing the ring of monodromy invariants on X, and showing there is a unique monodromy orbit of Lagrangian 4-planes.


To mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of Martin Opitz on 23 December 1597, a colloquium took place in Gorlitz involving a list of speakers as international as it was interdisciplinary. In line with the occasion, the conference essayed as comprehensive an account as possible of Opitz' work and the impact it had in its day. The guiding principle underlying the papers presented here was a concept of 'life-world' as -perceived reality in which social groups and individuals not only act and behave but also themselves produce reality through their thinking and actions- (Rudolf Vierhaus). In the context of the early modern age, however, such construction of reality took place in text varieties of a highly circumscribed nature, structured by traditional and normative concepts. The textual and perceptive patterns themselves are not however geared to concepts of 'reality' or 'authenticity' such as those formulated later in history but to a form of reality represented by binding standards. The various contributions range from systematic studies to the history of genres and perennial themes, while others concentrate on individual works. Common to them all is a concern to cast new light on the keynote subject of the conference. As such they open up new avenues for exploring the life and work of this 'father of German literature'. "


In order to survive and develop, firms have developed different strategies to achieve their competitive advantages. One of the most important strategies is to implement the sustainable development. Therefore, different scholars and experts propose different viewpoints and criteria. The purpose for the paper means to explore the determinants of the sustainable development in Mexican and Taiwanese firms. This analyzes sustainable development interrelationships by applying the Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (Fuzzy-DEMATEL) method. Based on the literature reviews and Fuzzy Delphi method, thirteen criteria have been extracted and then validated by sixteen scholars and experts. Additionally, a questionnaire is constructed and evaluated by thirty practitioners from Taiwan and Mexico. Then the Fuzzy-DEMATEL method is applied to analyze the importance of the criteria and the casual relations among the criteria have been constructed. The result has shown that "the senior executives' abilities to execute strategies" are the most important criterion and influence the other criteria. Consequently, the senior executives' abilities to execute strategies are the crucial factors to maintain the competitive advantages for an enterprise.


The paper presents the results of calculating doses from space ionizing radiation for a modeled orbital station cabin outfitted with an additional shield aimed to reduce radiation loads on cosmonaut. The shield is a layer with the mass thickness of -6 g/cm2 (mean density = 0.62 g/cm3) that covers the outer cabin wall and consists of wet tissues and towels used by cosmonauts for hygienic purposes. A tissue-equivalent anthropomorphic phantom imitates human body. Doses were calculated for the standard orbit of the International space station (ISS) with consideration of the longitudinal and transverse phantom orientation relative to the wall with or without the additional shield. Calculation of dose distribution in the human body improves prediction of radiation loads. The additional shield reduces radiation exposure of human critical organs by -20% depending on their depth and body spatial orientation in the ISS compartment.


Bolivia is one of the largest developing countries in South America that has been received the aid from the international cooperation since the seventies. Many programmes and projects were implemented across the territories of the country in the aim to reduce the poverty. However, the experiences claim that despite of some important results obtained, the international cooperation is one of the main actors responsible for the external dependence on the territories and their commitment to build up a sustainable model of rural development that can overcome the problem of poverty fails. At the same time, it is demonstrated that the most successful experiences of local producers' organizations are heavily depended on the external aid showing the economical fragility on local organizations to face the market competence without the external aid. This research, based on Samaritan's dilemma behaviour in the powerful organization, tries to answer how the rural producer organization performance is influenced by international cooperation? This investigation focuses on the analysis of the patterns of interactions of both organizations. The case study considers a dairy farming association in the country that was funded for almost 15 years and their economical sustainability remains vulnerable despite the efforts bring to make the organization competitive. The main results remark that the unequal distribution of power in both organizations is one of the factors that cause the strong influence of the international cooperation on rural producers' organizations, and consequently the international cooperation is co-responsible in the external dependence on the local organization, as well as, to be responsible of the influence on the cultural factors in the community.


Previous research has shown that persons with long-term mental illness who require prolonged treatment and social support wish to, yet find it difficult to, find meaning or quality in life. A descriptive qualitative design using self-photography and in-depth interviews was used for data collection. The aim of this study was to explore basic attitudes to life as expressed by nine persons with long-term mental illness living in the community. The findings provide insight into the values of relationships, work, and the home for persons with long-term mental illness and indicate that they are cognizant of social norms yet have difficulty integrating these in their daily lives. The study also illuminates the informants' difficulties in creating satisfying and supporting relationships with others.


Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam
and the second largest city of the country, just behind Ho Chi Minh City.
During the last two decades, Hanoi developed fast and expanded steadily. Since
the city acquired large parts of the surrounding provinces in 2008, Hanoi
tripled its size and doubled its population. The new development aims to spread
the concentrated population and economic activities to alleviate the stress
caused by pollution and the decreasing quality of life of the residents. Hanoi
has a very fast growing fleet of motor vehicles, at the rate of 12% - 15% annually. The fast transition from
bikes to motorcycles and to cars results in a most serious environmental burden
in particular on the air quality and human health. This paper overviews the air
quality and pollution caused by road traffic in central Hanoi (5 old districts)
and the related health outcomes due to particulate matters (PM10 and
PM2.5). It uses dose-response functions to quantify the number of
extra deaths resulting from traffic-related particulate matters. The results
are compared with those of other studies to assess the impacts of air pollution
on human health in large, crowded and fast developing cities in Southeast Asia.
Assessment of the health risk caused by traffic shows that mobility in Hanoi
causes a high health burden. In 2009, mobility caused 3200 extra deaths by
traffic related PM10. The result shows that health impacts due to
air pollution are by far larger than the number of fatalities due to traffic accidents.


We present spectral and timing analyses of the X-ray emission from the pulsar wind nebula DA 495 and its central object, J1952.2+2925, suggested to be the pulsar, using archival Chandra and XMM-Newton data. J1952.2+2925 has a pure thermal spectrum which is equally well fitted either by the blackbody model with a temperature of $\approx 215$ eV and an emitting area radius of $\approx 0.6$ km or by magnetized neutron star atmosphere models with temperatures of 80-90 eV. In the latter case the thermal emission can come from the entire neutron star surface which temperature is consistent with standard neutron star cooling scenarios. We place also an upper limit on the J1952.2+2925 nonthermal flux. The derived spectral parameters are generally compatible with published ones based only on the Chandra data, but they are much more accurate due to the inclusion of XMM-Newton data. No pulsations were found and we placed an upper limit for the J1952.2+2925 pulsed emission fraction of 40 per cent. Utilizing the interstellar absorption-distance relation, we estimated the distance to DA 495, which can be as large as 5 kpc if J1952.2+2925 emission is described by the atmosphere models. We compiled possible multi-wavelength spectra of the nebula including radio data; they depend on the spectral model of the central object. Comparing the results with other pulsar plus wind nebula systems we set reasonable constraints on the J1952.2+2925 spin-down luminosity and age. We suggest that the Fermi source 3FGL J1951.6+2926 is the likely $\gamma$-ray counterpart of J1952.2+2925.


Medicare is on the cusp of announcing the rules of the road for its value-based purchasing (VBP) incentive payments, which will become effective in fiscal year 2013 (beginning on October 1, 2012). However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin computing scores on July 1, 2011, for the nation's 3,800 hospitals that receive Medicare payments (minus a few categories of hospitals, such as critical-access facilities).

Mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the health care reform bill passed last year by Congress, the plan is an "incentive," in the same way that a mother might threaten to deny her children nightly cookies if they don't do their homework. In fact, the Medicare VBP is even more punitive than that: all 3,800 hospitals will lose 1% of their Medicare reimbursement in fiscal year 2013, and those funds will create a bonus pool of approximately $1 billion. Only the highest scorers will receive that 1% back as an incentive payment, and they might not receive any more than that. Lower-performing hospitals will definitely not get their 1% back—hence the irony of calling this an incentive program.

Which facilities will receive how much for what score has not yet been determined. On January 13, 2011, the CMS issued a proposed rule that did not address the bonus pool redistribution formula, which is based on an arcane algorithm called a linear exchange function.

Gunter Wessels, a partner and health care practice principal based in Tucson at Total Innovation Group (with headquarters in Tampa) calls the algorithm "funny money magic math." The purpose is to maintain an incentive for the best-performing hospitals (which are already doing about as well as anyone could hope, with little room for improvement expected) and to offer some money to the laggards so that they don't simply throw in the towel.

Medicare plans to use hospital quality data from its Hospital Compare database for the nine-month period starting July 1, 2011, to determine the size of the payments that will be doled out beginning on October 1, 2012. Hospitals have been sending data to the Hospital Compare database since November 2003. The number of measures that Medicare has had to report on has increased from 10 initially to 45 in fiscal year 2011 (the current year).

The VBP program is a whole other order of magnitude. Hospitals are losing 1% of the their total inpatient revenue from Medi care, not just a 2% decrease in any annual market basket increase—a ding to an otherwise small inflation adjustment, which is what hospitals lose when they do not report to Hospital Compare. The failure to recoup that 1% loss would be a big blow to most hospitals. Undoubtedly, hospitals that are in the top tier of VBP scores will get that 1% back, although the CMS has not yet announced this. The final rule will clarify that.

Scores will be based on how hospitals perform on 25 of the 45 Hospital Compare reporting measures. The 25 measures comprise 17 clinical process-of-care measures and eight measures from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health-care Providers and Systems (HCAHPS).

The 17 clinical measures include the hospital's treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, and health care–associated infections (HAIs) as well as individuals undergoing surgery. For example, in the case of one HAI measure, did the patient receive a prophylactic antibiotic within one hour before the surgical incision was performed? Some of the 17 measures also involve medication administration and discharge instructions, which are often numerous.

Drugs will play an even larger role in the eight HCAHPS measures. These include pain management, communications about medications, and discharge from the facility.

The problem with the VBP program is that hospitals that are bottom-tier performers are going to have to spend considerable dollars to improve their scores. But will they want to?

William O. Cleverley, PhD, President of Cleverley & Associates in Worthington, Ohio, has tweaked the data on hospital costs and their yield in terms of improved quality. He says that hospitals that improve the quality of their care, ironically, will also see a spike in costs.

"This finding implies that hospitals might face a trade-off between increased payments resulting from higher quality scores and increased costs necessary to reach those levels," he said.

He noted a clearer relationship between improved mortality rates (which the CMS will add to the scoring system for fiscal year 2014) and reduced hospital costs. Even so, he admits that the relationship was clear with only some of the Medicare severity-adjusted Diagnosis-Related Groups that he used as yardsticks.

Private payers will undoubtedly be watching the Medicare VBP incentive program closely, and no one will be surprised if the CMS follows suit. The indications are that many hospitals, based on current managed care data, will score poorly.

VHA Inc., a health care alliance based in Irving, Texas, calculated that the national median VBP score was 53; however, hospitals will probably need scores higher than 70 to maximize their Medicare reimbursements. If VHA's calculations are correct, a lot of hospitals will have to improve their quality, and fast, or suffer the consequences.


Drag-reducing solutions exhibit simultaneous friction and heat transfer reductions, yet it has been widely believed that there is no direct coupling between the two. In this work, we have conducted a study to re-examine this issue, using measurements of friction and heat transfer over a wide range of flow conditions from onset to asymptotic, various pipe diameters, and several polymer and surfactant solutions. Contrary to some earlier suggestions, out tests show that no decoupling of the momentum and heat transfer mechanisms was seen at the onset of drag reduction, nor upon departure from the asymptotes, but rather that the friction and heat transfer reductions change simultaneously in those regions. For asymptotic surfactant and polymer solutions, the ratio of heat transfer and drag reductions was seen to be constant over a large range of Reynolds numbers, if modified definitions of the reduction parameters are used. In the nonasymptotic region, however, the ratio of heat transfer to drag reductions is higher and is a function of the reduction level, but is approximately the same for polymer and surfactant solutions


OBJECTIVE: To estimate whether menopause transition stage is independently associated with the development of incontinence symptoms. METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal analysis, using discrete proportional hazards models, of women who were continent at baseline in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a multicenter, multiracial, multiethnic prospective cohort study of community-dwelling midlife women transitioning through menopause. At baseline and each of the six annual visits, SWAN elicited frequency and type of incontinence in a self- administered questionnaire and classified menopausal stage from menstrual bleeding patterns. RESULTS: Compared with premenopause, being in the early perimenopause (incidence 17.8 per 100 woman years) made it 1.34 times and in the late perimenopause (incidence 14.5 per 100 woman years) made it 1.52 times more likely for women to develop monthly or more frequent incontinence. In contrast, women in postmenopause (incidence 8.2 per 100 woman years) were approximately one half as likely to develop this degree of incontinence. This pattern of association across the menopausal transition was similar for stress and urge incontinence. However, menopausal stage was not associated with developing more frequent incontinence (leaking several times per week or more). Worsening anxiety symptoms, a high baseline body mass index, weight gain, and new onset diabetes were associated with developing more frequent incontinence. CONCLUSION: Menopausal transition stage was associated with developing monthly or more frequent but not weekly or more frequent incontinence, suggesting that only infrequent incontinence symptoms were attributable to the perimenopause. Because modifiable factors such as anxiety, weight gain, and diabetes were associated with developing more frequent incontinence, determining whether healthy life changes and treating medical problems can prevent incontinence is a priority. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II


INTRODUCTION
the abuse of steroid hormones administered in chronic form may cause alterations in the lypidic profile, conveying na increase in the levels of LDL, and reduction in the levels of HDL. In average, 53.44% of the lypidic composition of the avocado core is composed of oleic acid (which is a phytosterol) and the study of the hypolipemiating effect of these substances has been performed aiming at the prevention and control of dislypidemias.

OBJECTIVE
to assess the potential hypolipemiant power of the avocado oil on the lypidogram of adult male Wistar rats submitted to prolonged androgenic hiperestimulation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
twenty eight Wistar rats were divided in 4 groups of 7 animals: the control group (CG); Avocado Oil Group (AOG) fed with a staple based on Avocado Oil; Induced Grupo (IG); and the Induced Grupo fed with a staple based on Avocado Oil (AOIG). The inducing was performed through surgery to subcutaneously implant sillicon pellets suffed with 1 ml of testosterone propionate which were replaced at every 4 weeks.

RESULTS
VLDL (AOIG: 28.14 ± 4.45; IG:36.83 ± 5.56 mg/ml); Triglicerides (AOIG: 140.07 ± 22.66; IG: 187.2 ± 27 mg/ml); HDL (AOIG: 40, 67 ± 1.2; GI: 35.09 ± 0.8; AOG: 32.31 ± 2.61 e CG: 32.36 ± 4.93 mg/ml) Testosterone (AOIG:1.42 ± 0.46; GI: 2.14 ± 0.88; AOG: 2.97 ± 1.34 e CG:1.86 ± 0.79 ng/ml).

CONCLUSION
avocado Oil exerted a direct regulating effect on the lypidic profile, acting efficiently on animals submmited to androgenic stimulation through a prolonged period.


We deal with two complementary questions about approximation properties of ReLU networks. First, we study how the uniform quantization of ReLU networks with real-valued weights impacts their approximation properties. We establish an upper-bound on the minimal number of bits per coordinate needed for uniformly quantized ReLU networks to keep the same polynomial asymptotic approximation speeds as unquantized ones. We also characterize the error of nearest-neighbour uniform quantization of ReLU networks. This is achieved using a new lower-bound on the Lipschitz constant of the map that associates the parameters of ReLU networks to their realization, and an upper-bound generalizing classical results. Second, we investigate when ReLU networks can be expected, or not, to have better approximation properties than other classical approximation families. Indeed, several approximation families share the following common limitation: their polynomial asymptotic approximation speed of any set is bounded from above by the encoding speed of this set. We introduce a new abstract property of approximation families, called $\infty $ -encodability, which implies this upper-bound. Many classical approximation families, defined with dictionaries or ReLU networks, are shown to be $\infty $ -encodable. This unifies and generalizes several situations where this upper-bound is known.


RATIONALE
Healthy aging is associated with cognitive deficits similar to those found in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). As in OSA, older adults show compensatory cerebral activation during cognitive demands in the face of neurocognitive decline.

OBJECTIVES
The current study examines whether the combination of increasing age and sleep apnea will lead to a stronger compensatory response than either factor alone, or overwhelm the brain's capacity to compensate.

METHODS
A total of 14 treatment-naive patients with sleep apnea (aged 25-59 yr) and 14 age-matched healthy control subjects were each divided into two age groups of young (<45 yr) and middle-aged (> or = 45 yr). All underwent a sleep study, followed the next morning by a functional magnetic resonance imaging session that included a sustained attention and a verbal encoding task. A priori contrast analyses compared middle-aged patients with OSA to young patients, young control subjects, and middle-aged control subjects.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Middle-aged patients with OSA showed reduced performance for immediate word recall and slower reaction time during sustained attention compared with the other three groups (middle-aged control, young sleep apnea, and young control). For both tasks, decreased activation was detected for middle-aged sleep apnea relative to the other groups in task-related brain regions.

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the presence of both sleep apnea and increasing age overwhelmed the brain's capacity to respond to cognitive challenges with compensatory recruitment and to maintain performance. The findings that sleep apnea impairs performance and brain function at a younger age than what might ordinarily be expected underscore the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea.


An analysis has been made of the effects of exposure of more than 200 human subjects to active viruses of influenza (the PR-8, F-99 and, in a small series, the F-12 strains of influenza A, and the Lee strain of influenza B). The results of the experiments, which were conducted for a number of purposes, may be summarized as follows: All four strains of influenzal virus caused febrile reactions upon inhalation of atomized allantoic-fluid cultures, but very rarely upon intranasal instillation.A febrile response was obtained in susceptible subjects with regularity only when undiluted infected allantoic fluids were atomized. Upon ten- or hundredfold dilution of the viral preparations the incidence of fever decreased markedly.The incubationary period between exposure to the virus and onset of temperature differed with the different strains. It was shorter, as a rule, with the PR-8 and Lee strains (less than 24 hours), and usually more extended (30 to 48 hours) with the F-99 virus. Previous exposure to the F-99 strain seemed to influence the incubationary period in that subjects who were re-exposed after 9 months reacted with fever within 24 hours in contrast to control individuals exposed for the first time, who became febrile generally in 30 to 48 hours.All four strains caused similar clinical manifestations except for the degree of change in the white blood cell picture. When the F-99 strain was employed leucopenia and relative lymphocytosis were frequently marked.Following inhalation, virus was re-isolated from over 50 per cent of the febrile subjects and from about 15 per cent of the afebrile subjects in the cases of the F-99 and F-12 strains, but from only one subject in the Lee series and from none in the PR-8 series. After intranasal instillation the Lee and F-12 viruses were recovered from most of the subjects but not the F-99 strain. The PR-8 virus has not been studied in this respect. Virus was re-isolated under the various conditions in some instances as late as 72 to 96 hours after exposure. Re-isolation was successful most frequently 48 hours after inhalation and 24 hours after intranasal instillation.There was no correlation between the pre-inhalation titer of antibodies and the febrile response in the PR-8 and Lee series. With the F-99 strain a definite inverse relationship was noted in two separate experiments. Thus, fever was observed in almost all subjects who showed a titer of 1:16 as measured by inhibition of agglutination of chicken erythrocytes. With increasingly higher titers the incidence of febrile reactions decreased, and finally no fever was noted in individuals with initial levels higher than 1:128.After exposure to the influenzal viruses most subjects responded with the production of homologous antibodies, i.e., after inhalation of influenza A virus an increase in anti-influenza A antibodies was noted, and conversely in the case of influenza B. A few subjects who inhaled preparations of PR-8 virus showed a rise in anti-influenza B antibodies either with or without a homologous antibody response. A number of febrile cases did not respond with formation of antibodies. The lack of a serological response in febrile cases was not limited to subjects with high titers of antibodies, but was observed also in some cases with low levels. The implications of these findings are discussed in regard to serological observations made during certain epidemics of influenza.Calculation of the geometric mean antibody response in the various groups showed that inhalation or intranasal instillation of active, or of concentrated inactivated virus as a means of immunization does not offer an advantage when compared with the serological results of subcutaneous vaccination. Irradiated allantoic-fluid cultures caused only slight or no rises in antibodies upon inhalation.The clinical data and laboratory findings are discussed in regard to the nature of the febrile response and the suggestion is made that the effects of exposure of human subjects to influenzal viruses may be the composite result of three factors: infection, with propagation of the virus, toxic manifestations, and accelerated reactions in partially immune subjects.


This study discusses whether Russia fs economic growth following the 1998 financial crisis is pro-poor. Using Russia fs regional data pertaining to 1995-2002, we estimate the elasticity of poverty to real per capita GRP (gross regional product). The analysis reveals that the elasticity of poverty to growth after the crisis substantially falls at both the national and regional levels. Our results also suggest that inequality increases between and within the richer and poorer regions. We conclude that it is quite necessary to formulate pro-poor policies rather than growth-enhancing ones, in order to alleviate poverty in Russia.


It has often been suggested in recent years that there is no such thing as mental illness; that the conditions psychiatrists spend their time trying to treat ought not, properly speaking, to be regarded as illness at all, or even to be the concern of physicians. Szasz is the best-known exponent of this viewpoint, and the core of his argument is essentially this: that as prolonged search has never demonstrated any consistent physical abnormality in those regarded as mentally ill, and as their 'illness' consists simply in behaving in ways that alarm or affront other people, or in believing things which other people do not believe, there is no justification for labelling them as ill, and to do so is to use the word illness in a purely metaphorical sense (Szasz, 1960). Schneider had previously been led by the same reasoning to the conclusion that neurotic illness and personality disorders were 'abnormal varieties of sane mental life' rather than disease, but he took care to exempt schizophrenia and cyclothymia by assuming that both would in time prove to possess an organic basis (Schneider, 1950). The argument Eysenck puts forward in the first edition of his textbook, though written from the quite different standpoint of academic psychology, is a similar one. After observing that 'the term psychiatry does not denote any meaningful grouping of problems or subjects of study' he went on to suggest that the traditional subject-matter of psychiatry should be divided into a small medical part 'dealing with the effects of tumours, lesions, infections and other physical conditions' and a much larger behavioural part 'dealing with disorders of behaviour acquired through the ordinary processes of learning', thereby implying that most of what doctors regarded as mental illness was really learnt behaviour rather than disease, and therefore much better understood, and dealt with, by psychologists than by physicians (Eysenck, 1960). A third line of attack is provided by R. D. Laing, and a fourth is exemplified by the sociologist Scheff. Laing argues that schizophrenia, far from being a disease or a form of insanity, is really the only sane or rational way adolescents have of coping with the intolerable emotional pressures placed on them by society and their families (Laing, 1967). Scheff has developed the somewhat similar argument that what psychiatrists call mental illness is largely a response to the shock of being labelled and treated as insane and the expectations this produces; in other words that schizophrenia is created by the people and institutions that purport to treat it (Scheff, 1963).


The effect of electroacupunture at Zusanli (ST36) point in regulating the human pylorus sphincter pressure was investigated in this study by means of the endoscopic manometry. The result showed: After electrostimulating Zusanli point, the amplitude of the low wave of pylorus sphincter pressure was raised and the amplitude of the high wave was reduced significantly while the amplitude of the middle wave did not reveal significant change, compared with the results of the controls and the non-acupuncture point group. It is indicated that Zusanli point may have dual effect on the regulation of the pylorus peristaltic function, which expressed itself as enhancing the hypofunction and weakening the hyperfunction of pylorus peristalsis.


To keep pace with the rapid growth of mobile traffic demands, dense deployment of small cells in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands has become a promising candidate for next-generation wireless communication systems. With a greatly increased data rate from huge bandwidth of mmWave communications, energy consumption should be mitigated for higher energy efficiency. Due to content popularity, many content-based mobile applications can be supported by the multicast service. mmWave communications exploit directional antennas to overcome high path loss, and concurrent transmissions can be enabled for better multicast service. On the other hand, device-to-device (D2D) communications in physical proximity should be exploited to improve multicast performance. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient multicast scheduling scheme, referred to as EMS, which utilizes both D2D communications and concurrent transmissions to achieve high energy efficiency. In EMS, a D2D path planning algorithm establishes multi-hop D2D transmission paths, and a concurrent scheduling algorithm allocates the links on the D2D paths into different pairings. Then, the transmission power of links is adjusted by the power control algorithm. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the roles of D2D communications and concurrent transmissions in reducing energy consumption. Extensive simulations under various system parameters demonstrate the superior performance of EMS in terms of energy consumption compared with the state-of-the-art schemes. Furthermore, we also investigate the choice of the interference threshold to optimize network performance.


Vascular functions, including tissue perfusion and peripheral resistance, reflect continuous structural adaptation (remodeling) of blood vessels in response to several stimuli. Here, a theoretical model is presented that relates the structural and functional properties of microvascular networks to the adaptive responses of individual segments to hemodynamic and metabolic stimuli. All vessels are assumed to respond, according to a common set of adaptation rules, to changes in wall shear stress, circumferential wall stress, and tissue metabolic status (indicated by partial pressure of oxygen). An increase in vessel diameter with increasing wall shear stress and an increase in wall mass with increased circumferential stress are needed to ensure stable vascular adaptation. The model allows quantitative predictions of the effects of changes in systemic hemodynamic conditions or local adaptation characteristics on vessel structure and on peripheral resistance. Predicted effects of driving pressure on the ratio of wall thickness to vessel diameter are consistent with experimental observations. In addition, peripheral resistance increases by ≈65% for an increase in driving pressure from 50 to 150 mm Hg. Peripheral resistance is predicted to be markedly increased in response to a decrease in vascular sensitivity to wall shear stress, and to be decreased in response to increased tissue metabolic demand. This theoretical approach provides a framework for integrating available information on structural remodeling in the vascular system and predicting responses to changing conditions or altered vascular reactivity, as may occur in hypertension.


The environmental damage due to industrial pollution activities to produce the adaptations in the behaviour of economic agents involved: if there is a decrease of environmental quality, it may lead to a negative change in real estate market values, identifying the quantities and the prices of traded goods. Starting from these considerations, a situation analysis was carried out about three municipalities of Apulia Region Brindisi, Bari and Taranto, which are affected by major environmental industrial detractors. In particular the case of Taranto has been studied and the value of the property of the district 'Tamburi' and other neighbourhoods adjacent to the industrial area has been quantified. If they had not been affected by the same pole, thereby, arriving at an estimate of the decrease of the real estate value by the use of damage estimate of the externality on real estate market.


It is our purpose not to cite the numerous opinions to be found in the literature regarding the effect of thiosulfate on urinary excretion of arsenic, since this has recently been ably reviewed by Muir, Stenhouse and Becker, 1 but to attack this controversial problem from an experimental angle. Injections of thiosulfate are given for two purposes: (1) to relieve dermatologic symptoms and (2) to aid in diagnosis, the theory being that a course of thiosulfate will lead to exaggerated arsenic excretion in cases in which this element is stored in the tissues. In some clinics it has been the custom to administer thiosulfate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in 1 Gm. doses and to instruct the patient to collect a twenty-four hour specimen of urine for examination as to arsenic content on the following Saturday. It was this practice which originally interested one of us (M. R. M.) in


In order to investigate the nucleation and growth of after-forging static recrystallization of low-pressure rotor steel 26Cr2Ni4MoV, the thermo-torsion experiment was conducted at 900°C,1000°C and 1100°C, respectively. The outer deformation of the used specimens was 0.21. The specimens were kept under a certain temperature for different periods. Results show that the recrystallization grain grew slowly at 900°C and the grain size became even after 30 minutes. The sizes of most grains were almost constant and only several grains grew bigger after 60 minutes. When the specimens were kept at 1000°C and 1100°C for one minute, static recrystallization was completed and the grain size was even. The said research could provide theoretical base for the controlled forging and after-forging heat treatment.


Purpose: To describe the feasibility and safety of an anterolateral popliteal puncture technique as a retrograde access to chronic total occlusions (CTOs) in the femoropopliteal segment. Methods: Twenty consecutive patients (mean age 75.1±10.9 years; 13 women) with symptomatic femoropopliteal occlusive disease underwent endovascular therapy via a retrograde access using the anterolateral popliteal puncture technique. With the patient supine, the P3 segment of the popliteal artery was accessed with a sheathless technique intended to provide minimally invasive access. Subsequent to a wire rendezvous technique in the CTO, the antegrade guidewire was advanced to the below-the-knee artery. Hemostasis across the P3 segment was secured with balloon inflation alone or combined with thrombin-blood patch (TBP) injection. Results: Both the anterolateral popliteal puncture technique and subsequent revascularization were successful in all patients. Mean hemostasis time for balloon inflation only was 7.73±4.03 vs 4.78±0.78 minutes for balloon inflation with TBP injection. There were no in-hospital deaths or complications, including pseudoaneurysms, arteriovenous fistulas, hematomas, embolic complications, or nerve damage. Conclusion: The anterolateral popliteal puncture technique is useful as an alternative retrograde access vs a conventional transpopliteal approach for CTOs in the femoropopliteal segment if antegrade recanalization has failed. This technique may become one option for retrograde access in patients with severe below-the-knee lesions or with CTOs that extend to the P2 segment of the popliteal artery. Furthermore, this technique has the added benefit of allowing patients to remain in the supine position throughout treatment.


This paper argues that the operations of a 'Universal Turing Machine' (UTM) and equivalent mechanisms such as the 'Post Canonical System' (PCS) - which are widely accepted as definitions of the concept of `computing' - may be interpreted as *information compression by multiple alignment, unification and search* (ICMAUS).
The motivation for this interpretation is that it suggests ways in which the UTM/PCS model may be augmented in a proposed new computing system designed to exploit the ICMAUS principles as fully as possible. The provision of a relatively sophisticated search mechanism in the proposed 'SP' system appears to open the door to the integration and simplification of a range of functions including unsupervised inductive learning, best-match pattern recognition and information retrieval, probabilistic reasoning, planning and problem solving, and others. Detailed consideration of how the ICMAUS principles may be applied to these functions is outside the scope of this article but relevant sources are cited in this article.


We introduce NEM X, an inclusive retail tariff model that captures features of existing net energy metering (NEM) policies. It is shown that the optimal prosumer decision has three modes: (a) the net-consuming mode where the prosumer consumes more than its behind-the-meter distributed energy resource (DER) production when the DER production is below a predetermined lower threshold, (b) the net-producing mode where the prosumer consumes less than its DER production when the DER production is above a predetermined upper threshold, and (c) the net-zero energy mode where the prosumer's consumption matches to its DER generation when its DER production is between the lower and upper thresholds. Both thresholds are obtained in closed-form. Next, we analyze the regulator's ratesetting process that determines NEM X parameters such as retail/sell rates, fixed charges, and price differentials in time-of-use tariffs' on and off-peak periods. A stochastic Ramsey pricing program that maximizes social welfare subject to the revenue break-even constraint for the regulated utility is formulated. Performance of several NEM X policies is evaluated using real and synthetic data to illuminate impacts of NEM policy designs on social welfare, cross-subsidies of prosumers by consumers, and payback time of DER investments that affect long-run DER adoptions.