Summary: Vascularized omentum lymphatic transplant is frequently used for the treatment of lymphedema due to demonstrated efficacy, a reduced complication profile, and, in particular, negligible risk of donor site lymphedema. Historically harvested by open laparotomy, more recent techniques involve laparoscopic omental harvest. Although effective and reproducible, laparoscopy may be limited by reduced visualization, minimal tactile feedback, multiple port sites, and imprecise instrumentation. Therefore, we employed the da Vinci Single-Port (SP) surgical robot system for vascularized omentum lymphatic transplant. A 52-year-old man with a 3-year history of progressive left lower extremity swelling and lymphoscintigraphy and magnetic resonance lymphangiogram consistent with lymphedema of unknown etiology underwent vascularized omentum lymphatic transplant to the left groin. A 2.5-cm infraumbilical incision was used for placement of the primary trocar, through which the camera and operating instruments were passed. Following robotic harvest, the omental lymph node flap was transferred to the left groin for microsurgical anastomosis. The procedure was uneventful, and the patient was discharged on postoperative day 1. At 6 weeks, there were no complications. Here, we show for the first time the safety and feasibility of robotic omental lymph node flap harvest for extremity lymphedema using the da Vinci Single-Port robotic system. The benefits of this technology include a minimally-invasive approach that allows for flap dissection and removal through a single 2.5-cm incision. Further investigation is necessary to characterize the indications and limitations of this technique in plastic surgery.


Africa has a very low doctor-to-patient ratio. At very busy clinics, doctors could see 30+ patients per day -- a heavy patient burden compared with developed countries -- but productivity tools such as clinical automatic speech recognition (ASR) are lacking for these overworked clinicians. However, clinical ASR is mature, even ubiquitous, in developed nations, and clinician-reported performance of commercial clinical ASR systems is generally satisfactory. Furthermore, the recent performance of general domain ASR is approaching human accuracy. However, several gaps exist. Several publications have highlighted racial bias with speech-to-text algorithms and performance on minority accents lags significantly. To our knowledge, there is no publicly available research or benchmark on accented African clinical ASR, and speech data is non-existent for the majority of African accents. We release AfriSpeech, 200hrs of Pan-African English speech, 67,577 clips from 2,463 unique speakers across 120 indigenous accents from 13 countries for clinical and general domain ASR, a benchmark test set, with publicly available pre-trained models with SOTA performance on the AfriSpeech benchmark.


This case study describes the organisation inherent in the initiation and development of a counselling service in the Church of England Diocese of Gloucester. The aim was to provide counselling for clergy and their families which was based on professional standards of counselling psychology for both the client and the organisation of the diocese. The history of the situation in the diocese and the author's prior involvement which had led to this initiative are recorded in the background to this study in Appendix 1. This describes how the need for an organised professional counselling service had become increasingly evident as a result of-, [i] a vacuum left by the breakdown of the previous network of professionally unqualified helpers [ii] the growing incidence of clergy client work [iii] the bishop's need for clergy psychological assessment to assist in his decision making [iv] the lessons learned from the experience of the Diocese of Sheffield. [v] the need for competent practice by professionally qualified and supervised counsellors. The author became increasingly aware that such a counselling service needed to be formally and clearly structured, easily accessible, and reflect both high standards of counselling from the profession of counselling psychology for the client and also the theory and research which was currently emerging about counselling in organisations. The clergy counselling service aimed to be tailor-made to suit the size, culture, ministry, location and workforce of the diocese. The Dioceseo Gloucester is a predominantly rural diocese. It comprises a large part of the Cotswolds with their traditionally wealthy farming communities, the Forest of Dean which is an impoverished former mining area, and the large towns of Cheltenham and Gloucester between the two. The diocese has 325 parishes 238 licensed clergy and 225 licensed( lay) Readers.


Current techniques for deciding when to pull out worn bits are based on speculation rather than reliable engineered methods. Two concepts have been previously reported in the literature to incorporate the effects of drilling parameters on forecasting the life of drill bits. Bit tooth flatness and specific energy approaches were used for assessing the bit tooth wear and predicting the rock formation and its properties being drilled. However, drilling shale formations as well as encountering abnormal geologic formations especially unconformities, reduces the reliability of these methods. In this paper, a modified technique based on combined bit dullness and specific energy have been used as trending tools for determining the status of the drill bit even in cases where drill torque data is unavailable. As case studies, currently producing oil wells from southern Iraq are analysed for bit wear. Estimated results of bit wear for each bit run were correlated with the qualitative field bit tooth flatness revealing a successful key index for the suitable time to pull out worn bits. Furthermore, literature values of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the drilled formations were compared with the computed mechanical specific energy (MSE) to validate the obtained results. Good agreement was observed making the study encouraging. The analysis is promising for evaluating drill bit selection and predicting the type of formation being drilled.


An atypical virus, cytopathic for human and animal fibroblasts, was repeatedly cultured from a patient with chronic fatigue syndrome. Viral particles, suggestive of cytomegalovirus (CMV) were seen by electron microscopy. Infected cells did not, however, stain with antisera specific for CMV, herpes, simplex virus, or human herpes-virus-6. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for these viruses were also negative. Two distinct products of approximately 1.5 kilobase pairs were amplified from virally infected cells using the human T lymphotropic virus-II tax gene reactive primer, SK44, in low stringency PCR. Sequencing of one of the amplified products showed a region of highly significant partial homology with the UL34 gene of CMV. The sequence of the other PCR product did not correspond with CMV or any other virus. DNA was extracted from the material pelleted by ultracentrifugation of filtered culture supernatants. It migrated in agarose gels as a single band of approximately 20 kpb. The banded DNA was digested with EcoRI and cloned. A 2.2 kbp plasmid containing the CMV-related sequence identified within the PCR product was recovered. Sequencing of this plasmid extended the region of partial sequence homology with CMV to include a portion of the UL35 gene of CMV. Initial sequencing of additional plasmids has confirmed the partial relatedness to CMV. The data indicate a novel type of CMV-related "stealth" virus that is able to establish a clinically persistent human infection.


Sperm competition occurs when the sperm of two or more males concurrently occupy the reproductive tract of a single female and compete to fertilize an egg. This can be costly if the woman's social partner loses the competition and, as a consequence, invests in offspring that are not genetically his own, a situation known as cuckoldry. Previous research suggests that men may have evolved tactics such as mate retention behaviors that reduce the risk of sperm competition and cuckoldry. The current research provides new evidence that men at greater risk of partner infidelity and sperm competition, measured as having spent a greater proportion of time apart from their partner since the couple's last in-pair copulation, more frequently perform a variety of mate retention behaviors, such as calling unexpectedly to check up on their partners, monopolizing their partners' time when around other men, and threatening other men who show an interest in their partners.


Subjective measurement is another important aspect of poverty and wellbeing measurement method. The estimation through self assessment is another non monetary poverty that takes into consideration the monetary and non monetary aspects. The self assessment is estimated taking into consideration qualitative and quantitative measure. In this paper there are estimated three dimensions of subjective poverty, qualitative one, estimated with minimum income needed and two others expressed with categories, happiness and assessment in scale. The research aim to study and to find the best methods of the subjective measurement, as an important dimension of non monetary poverty is to analyze trend and correlation with objective poverty and to define factors that influence in the probability of feeling poor. It is supposed that this assessment is influenced by different socio-economic indicators like household characteristics, income declared, education, employment, etc. The analyses is based on data from the Living standard Measurement Survey and there are presented methods how to calculate different dimensions of subjective assessment in order to update further on with other sources.


This paper describes the optimization, parallelization, and simulated execution performance of a software double-binary turbo decoder implementation supporting the WiMAX standard suitable for software-defined radio (SDR). Turbo codes offer excellent error-correcting performance, but they introduce significant computational demands in a communication system. In order to enhance execution performance for SDR, software for a turbo decoder based on the maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm was first adapted from the open-source Coded Modulation Library. Optimization and parallelization of the adapted software were then pursued and assessed with a multiprocessor version of the SimpleScalar simulator. Simulation results show that serial optimizations of the original adapted stand-alone C decoder software improve performance by more than 200%. The use of special instructions to accelerate important functions provides a further benefit of nearly 40% relative to the new baseline for performance. Exploiting the parallelism available in the MAP algorithm then yields a speedup of 10.8 on 12 processors. Simulation also shows that cache effects do not have a significant impact on parallel execution times.


Development of sound-baited traps for insects has lagged behind that of light- and chemical-baited traps. The principal successes for acoustic traps have been with mole crickets (Gryllotalpidae), field crickets (Gryllidae), and ormiine flies (Tachinidae). The crickets are attracted to the conspecific calling song and the flies to the calling songs of their hosts. Electronic sound synthesizers facilitate routine operation of acoustic traps, and increasing the intensity of the sound far above the levels of the natural call greatly increases the numbers trapped. Acoustic traps are most likely to be useful for species that exhibit long-range phonotaxis under natural conditions. Acoustic traps are unlikely to be cost-effective for control but have proved valuable in studying behavior and ecology, collecting specimens, and monitoring populations.


An entity, either a legal or the non legal "entity'' which all were discussed in the same outline of corporate crime responsibility. It was often, though, in several laws aside from the Penal Code of Indonesia (KUHP), both in Criminal Law and Administrative Law with criminal sanction,that corporate is defined as a collection of organized people and or wealth, either as a legal or the non legal entity. The definitions in those laws are really different from those of law experts, especially those of criminal law who basically identify corporate as a legal entity, however the same is not true for those of the non legal entity. Such differences of the legal and non legal entities would bring their own legal consequences, therefore they could not and would not be treated the same referring to corporate criminal responsibility. Keywords : corporate criminal responsibility, legal entity, non legal entity.


This article proposes an interactional approach to the question of Russian language maintenance through the activity of bedtime story-reading in Russian-French bilingual families in French speaking Switzerland. Reading stories appears to be a language maintenance strategy commonly employed by the Russian speaking parent. The ritual and recreational moment of story-reading therefore becomes an opportunity for language learning. Drawing upon a language socialization perspective, this paper proposes an interactional analysis of the language use in the activity of story-reading. It shows how the language choice of the participants may be requested, negotiated and challenged during the interaction. The analysis further informs us about the language choice pattern and the bilingual competences in these families. We will gain insight into (Russian) language maintenance as a daily social and linguistic practice.


This study evaluated whether the time course of left ventricular (LV) pressure decay is consistent from beat to beat in the normal heart under tightly controlled experimental conditions. We determined the variability of LV isovolumic relaxation and compared it with that of other hemodynamic parameters. Pressure decay was evaluated using a monoexponential time constant (T), a half-time (T1/2), and an average rate (Ravg) in nine chronically instrumented dogs. To eliminate physical factors that could lead to variability, the dogs were studied at paced heart rates after autonomic blockade and during apnea. At a heart rate of 160 beats/min the coefficient of variation (SD/mean, expressed as a percent) was higher for T (4.7%, P < 0.005), T1/2 (5.0%, P < 0.005), and Ravg (3.2%, P < 0.005) than for dP/dtmax (1.9%), as well as for end-diastolic volume (1.2%), end-systolic volume (1.2%), or end-systolic pressure (1.8%). Similar differences were present at 200 beats/min. Pressure decay was also assessed during major loading shifts induced by rapid caval occlusion. Surprisingly, comparison of first and last beats did not show significant differences for T or T1/2 but did for all standard hemodynamic parameters and for Ravg. While the best correlation with a relaxation parameter and hemodynamic parameters during changing loading conditions was for Ravg, the correlations were not consistent in every case. We conclude that LV pressure decay shows marked variability, unrelated to the algorithm used to assess it. Ravg, a model independent parameter, may be a useful way to quantify LV pressure fall.


The side-effects of a new sustained release oral ferrous sulphate preparation have been evaluated in three separate double-blind studies. Each tablet contained 100 mg of ferrous iron and the dosage employed in all studies was 2 tablets daily.

In a large series of blood donors randomly divided into three groups the frequency and type of side-effects were compared to ferrous sulphate tablets and placebo.

In two series of pregnant women the side-effects were studied with a cross-over technique using ferrous sulphate tablets as reference. Placebo was also included as a reference in one of these studies.

In all series the frequency of nausea and epigastric pain was about the same for the sustained release preparation as for placebo. In all series ferrous sulphate tablets gave a significantly higher frequency of nausea than the sustained release tablets and placebo. Also the frequency of epigastric pain was found to be higher in blood donors but this could not be verified in pregnant women.


: Purpose: The main objective of this paper is to develop the I4 necessity index for quantification of process improvement exigency related to I4. Design/Methodology/Approach: Based on literature review and previous research, we decided to develop a new I4N index. This index is not intended to identify the current state of Industry 4.0 or the company's readiness for this concept, but to assess the need to implement I4. By implementing I4 we mean mostly the deployment of intelligent technologies, informatization and automation of business processes. Our philosophy is to develop a simple design for a minimum number of factors that may give rise to an internal or external need to implement I4. The secondary output of the I4N index is the quantification of the level of process improvement potential related to the selected production and logistic processes. Findings: We emphasize, it as a demand or more specifically, an exigency, rather than a readiness for Industry 4.0. We developed an Industry 4.0 necessity index (I4N index). We assigned weights to individual factors in order to quantify the process improvement exigency related to I4 and we used the list of manufacturing and logistic processes from previous research. We did not apply the list of intelligent technologies, although most indexes of the I4 readiness also take these technologies into account. Practical Implications: The basic approach of our research was to create a mathematical model that could easily quantify the potential for improving business processes related to Industry 4.0.


Large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) systems have advanced significantly due to the ability to handle extremely large problem spaces in fairly small amounts of memory. The article introduces the search problem, discusses in detail a typical implementation of a search engine, and demonstrates the efficacy of this approach on a range of problems. The approach presented is scalable across a wide range of applications. It is designed to address research needs, where a premium is placed on the flexibility of the system architecture, and the needs of application prototypes, which require near-real-time speed without a great sacrifice in word error rate (WER). One major area of focus for researchers is the development of real-time systems. With only minor degradations in performance (typically, no more than a 25% increase in WER), the systems described in this article can be transformed into systems that operate at 10/spl times/RT or less. There are four active areas of research related to this problem. First, more intelligent pruning algorithms that prune the search space more heavily are required. Look-ahead and N-best strategies at all levels of the system are key to achieving such large reductions in the search space. Second, multi-pass systems that perform a quick search using a simple system, and then rescore only the N-best resulting hypotheses using better models are very popular for real-time implementation. Third, since much of the computation in these systems is devoted to acoustic model processing, fast-matching strategies within the acoustic model are important. Finally, since Gaussian evaluation at each state in the system is a major consumer of CPU time, vector quantization-like approaches that enable one to compute only a small number of Gaussians per frame are proven to be successful. In some sense, the Viterbi (1967) based system presented represents only one path through this continuum of recognition search strategies.


Abstract. Including radiative transfer processes within the urban canopy layer into microscale urban climate models (UCMs) is essential to obtain realistic model results. These processes include the interaction of buildings and vegetation with shortwave and longwave radiation, thermal emission, and radiation reflections. They contribute differently to the radiation budget of urban surfaces. Each process requires different computational resources and physical data for the urban elements. This study investigates how much detail modellers should include to parameterize radiative transfer in microscale building-resolving UCMs. To that end, we introduce a stepwise parameterization method to the Parallelized Large-eddy Simulation Model (PALM) system 6.0 to quantify individually the effects of the main radiative transfer processes on the radiation budget and on the flow field. We quantify numerical simulations of both simple and realistic urban configurations to identify the major and the minor effects of radiative transfer processes on the radiation budget. The study shows that processes such as surface and vegetation interaction with shortwave and longwave radiation will have major effects, while a process such as multiple reflections will have minor effects. The study also shows that radiative transfer processes within the canopy layer implicitly affect the incoming radiation since the radiative transfer model is coupled to the radiation model. The flow field changes considerably in response to the radiative transfer processes included in the model. The study identified those processes which are essentially needed to assure acceptable quality of the flow field. These processes are receiving radiation from atmosphere based on the sky-view factors, interaction of urban vegetation with radiation, radiative transfer among urban surfaces, and considering at least single reflection of radiation. Omitting any of these processes may lead to high uncertainties in the model results.


In March 2014 the UK Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal in two seminal co-joined cases (P v Cheshire West and Chester Council, P & Q v Surrey County Council [2014] UKSC 19). The implications of this co-joined judgement signify a wake-up call to all those involved in safeguarding adults at risk. It will dictate the proper test for determining what constitutes a deprivation of liberty, when an individual assessed as lacking mental capacity is required to reside at a particular place for the purpose of receiving care and treatment. This judgement provides essential and necessary protections for many thousands of adults, subject to high levels of restrictive practice, supervision and control.


Marine vegetation plays an important structuring role, delivering key functions and services to coastal systems the extent of which depends on the foundation species and their architecture. In increasingly urbanised coastlines, turf-forming macroalgae are replacing frondose morphotypes. Trophic relationships within these systems can be studied through stable isotope analysis of the different food web compartments. In the present study, we investigated trophic pathways in two distinct macroalgal assemblages: one dominated by small brown frondose algae, and one dominated by low-lying turf-forming species. N and C isotopic signatures were determined for selected macroalgae and sedentary animals from distinct trophic levels, collected from two habitats on São Miguel Island (Azores, Portugal). In frondose habitats macroalgae appeared to make up the primary carbon source for the entire food web, whilst in turf-dominated habitats there was a decouple between macroalgae and higher trophic levels. Because canopy replacement by algal turf may affect the structure of the littoral food webs, coastal biodiversity conservation strategies should give priority to natural areas rich in canopy-forming algae.


Quintus was a poet who lived at Smyrna some four hundred years after Christ. His work, in fourteen books, is a bold and generally underrated attempt in Homer's style to complete the story of Troy from the point at which the Iliad closes. Quintus tells us the stories of Penthesilea, the Amazonian queen; Memnon, leader of the Ethiopians; the death of Achilles; the contest for Achilles' arms between Ajax and Odysseus; the arrival of Philoctetes; and the making of the Wooden Horse. The poem ends with the departure of the Greeks and the great storm which by the wrath of heaven shattered their fleet.


The blade coating process, which exhibits the merits of rapid film growth and less consumption of materials, has been regarded as a promising method for the fabrication of scalable perovskite films. However, achieving controllable film growth with a high quality is still a challenge. Herein, a rotating magnetic field (RMF) is proposed to manipulate the crystallization of perovskite thin-films during blade coating in air. Improved film quality with good surface coverage and efficient charge transportation has been successfully accomplished in the as-produced smooth, uniform and dense perovskite layers. Thus, an enhanced photovoltaic performance with an average increase of ∼15% in power conversion efficiency was realized in devices configured on the RMF-manipulated perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) thin-film when compared with that of the conventional devices. This work well demonstrates a novel strategy to physically manipulate the crystallization of perovskite films with the purpose of a controllable and low-cost fabrication of high performance PSCs.


Debris flows are water-laden masses of sediment that move rapidly through channel networks and over alluvial fans, where they can devastate people and property. Episodic shifts in the position of a debris-flow channel, termed avulsions, are critical for debris-flow fan evolution and for understanding flow hazards because avulsions distribute debris-flow deposits through space and time. However, both the mechanisms of flow avulsion and their effects on the long-term evolution of debris-flow fans are poorly understood. Here, we document and analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of debris-flow activity obtained by repeat topographic analyses, dendrogeomorphic and lichenometric reconstructions, and cosmogenic radionuclide dating on 16 fans from Japan, USA, Switzerland, France, and Kyrgyzstan. Where possible, we analyze the observed spatio-temporal patterns of debris-flow activity in conjunction with high-resolution topographic data to identify the main controls on avulsion. We identify two main processes that control avulsions on debris-flow fans, operating over distinct time scales. First, during individual flows or flow surges, deposition of sediment plugs locally blocks channels and forces subsequent flows to avulse into alternative flow paths. Plug deposition is a stochastic process but appears to depend in part on the sequence of flow volumes, the geometry of the channel, and the composition of the flows. Second, over time scales of tens of events, the average locus of debris-flow deposition gradually shifts toward the topographically lower parts of a fan, highlighting the importance of topographic compensation for fan evolution. Our documented debris-flow avulsions often, but not always, follow a pattern of channel plugging, backstepping of deposition toward the fan apex over one or more flows, avulsion and establishment of a new active channel. Large flows can have contrasting impacts, depending on whether or not they follow smaller flows that have deposited channel plugs. These results suggest that avulsions and spatiotemporal patterns of debris-flow fan formation strongly depend on both the magnitude-frequency distribution and the sequence of the flows feeding a fan. While individual avulsions are generally abrupt and difficult to predict, the presence of debris-flow plugs and patterns of backstepping may be useful as indicators of impending avulsions. Over longer time scales, the compensational tendency of flows to avulse into topographic depressions on the fan may also be used to identify sectors of the fan that are at risk of future inundation.


The experimental determination of slice profiles excited by applying radiofrequency pulses in the presence of a gradient generally results in magnitude profiles. The conditions necessary to obtain a phase‐sensitive picture of the profile of a slice are discussed. A distinction is made between the "excitation profile" (distribution of the transverse magnetization immediately after the RF pulse) and the "slice profile" (distribution after refocusing by gradient reversal and/or imperfect gradient switching). Methods are presented that allow one to obtain either the excitation profile or the slice profile. It is shown that phase encoding along the direction of the slice selection gradient provides a convenient protocol for obtaining the distribution of both the real and imaginary parts of the slice profile. The phase sensitive excitation profile can be obtained by frequency encoding. These methods were used to evaluate the performance of various shaped pulses.


We construct a monetary model of financial crises that can explain two characteristic features of the global financial crisis in 2008/2009, namely, the widespread freeze of asset transactions and a sharp contraction in aggregate output. We assume that the assets, such as real estate, work as media of exchange on a de facto basis in the goods market. In the financial crisis, excessively indebted investors hoard the assets hoping for a miraculous rise in their value (risk-shifting behavior), although the asset hoarding hinders the assets from working as media of exchange in the goods trading. Accordingly, the asset hoarding causes the disappearance of a significant portion of broad "money," which directly results in a contraction in aggregate production. Since the root of the problem is an external diseconomy caused by excessive indebtedness of investors, fiscal and monetary policies and debt reduction for investors have almost equivalent effects in terms of recovery efforts in a financial crisis.


Sesuvium portulacastrum (L.) L. (sea purslane, cenicilla) is a pantropical, perennial, trailing herb (Aizoaceae) with pink-purple or occasionally white flowers that grows on coastal beaches of five continents and many islands. Herein we present a review of the biology of S. portulacastrum . It is an important pioneer species on sandy beaches in the subtropics and tropics, where its stoloniferous, mat-forming growth habit promotes embryonic dune formation in belts parallel to the shoreline. Colonies act as barriers to intercept and hold water and wind transported sand. Sesuvium portulacastrum's success as a colonizing species is related, in large part, to its ability to be propagated by vegetative fragments and the tolerance of these fragments to salt water. Indeed, it has apparently reached nearly all locations in which it occurs by drifting segments in the sea. Other factors contributing to its success as a pioneer species include its tolerance of salt spray, sand scouring and burial, high substrate temperatures and low levels of soil nutrients. Its northern and southern distribution limits appear to be limited by the frequency, duration and severity of freezing temperatures.


Purpose: As people age, they are at greater risk of injurious falls. Falling has a significant impact not only on the individual but also the wider community. Undertaking physical activity is effective in reducing the rate of falls in this population. Therefore, providing targeted education during group-based falls prevention programs may increase the awareness and amount of physical activity older people undertake to assist in reducing their risk of falling. Methods: A longitudinal cohort design involving a pre-post intervention survey was conducted over an eight-month period with community-dwelling older adults who participated in a fall-prevention program. Participants were N = 161 (123 female and 38 male), aged 65 years and over, with the most common age bracket being 75 to 84 years. Demographic information was collected at baseline. It included falls history and self-reported physical activity levels. Immediately post-intervention, self-reported changes in the awareness of the role of physical activity and awareness of falls risks were measured. Six months post-intervention, participants self-reported their physical activity levels and post-program fall history. Results: An increase in awareness of the role of physical activity in reducing falls risk as well as falls risk factors was reported in most participants after completing the program. Despite this, only around a third of participants increased their physical activity levels during the six months after the program even though a decrease in falls rates was noted. Conclusions: The targeted education within the falls prevention program demonstrated an increase in awareness of falls risk factors and the importance of regular physical activity to minimise the risk of falling. However, this awareness did not seem to result in an increase in the amount of physical activity participants undertook after the program, even though falls rates across the participants reduced. Further research is needed to explore why older people who understand the benefits of undertaking regular physical activity did not increase their activity levels.


Atrio-ventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) is a rare supra-ventricular tachycardia (SVT) in children and becomes more frequent in adolescents. Most of children with an AVNRT have a healthy heart thus rarely experiencing severe symptoms. Because of haemodynamic instability or risk of complications, recurrences of SVT may require a chronic therapy. Interruption of dual atrio-ventricular nodal physiology is the basic mechanism to terminate AVNRT. This may be achieved by using anti-arrhythmic drugs or through Radiofrequency catheter ablation (RF). We aim to review the literature on the use of anti-arrhythmic drugs for the management of AVNRT in children aged more than 1 year and discuss the recommended dosages and the duration of a long term therapy. In the absence of comparative trials of risks and benefits between pharmacological therapy and RF and because of a greater clinical experience with anti-arrhythmic drugs, these last but not the least continue to be first-line therapy in the management of most SVT in children. Trials on pharmacotherapy in children with SVT in general and AVNRT in particular are lacking, use of anti-arrhythmic drugs being extrapolated from adult literature. Although Adenosine is becoming more used since it is the safest and effective drug in the acute setting, Digoxin continue to be the drug of first choice. Beta-blockers and Class I anti-arrhythmic are the second choice drugs with Flecainide being the preferred anti-arrhythmic drug for treatment failures. Amiodarone is rarely used as a chronic therapy in resistant cases. With the new advances in the RF technology, this therapy is becoming more safe and effective for AVNRT in children. Therefore, additional well-designed controlled trials are needed to further evaluate the comparative efficacy of anti-arrhythmic drugs in the management of AVNRT in children, as well as to evaluate dosing and toxicity in various age groups and determine the duration of a chronic therapy as compared to a potential RF.


This article overviews the 2016 developments concerning the status and rights of European minorities with respect to administrative and judicial proceedings, with special focus on language rights. The longest section of the article is devoted to the activities of the Council of Europe, including the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the implementation of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, as well as the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Furthermore, the relevant legal developments in the activities of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union are presented.


In the previous papers (Pupeikis, 2000; Genov et al., 2006; Atanasov and Pupeikis, 2009), a direct approach for estimating the parameters of a discrete-time linear time-invariant (LTI) dynamic system, acting in a closed-loop in the case of additive noise with contaminating outliers uniformly spread in it, is presented. It is assumed there that the parameters of the LQG (Linear Quadratic Gaussian) controller are unknown, as well as known beforehand, too. The aim of the given paper is development of a minimum variance control (MVC) approach for a closed-loop discrete-time linear dynamic system when slowly or suddenly time-varying coefficients of the transfer function of such a system as well as that of a minimum variance (MV) controller are not known and ought to be estimated. The recursive parametric identification of an open-loop system and determination of the coefficients of the MV controller are performed in each current operation by processing observations in the case of additive noise at the output with contaminating outliers uniformly spread in it. The robust recursive technique, based on the S-algorithm, with a version of Shweppe's GM-estimator and with discounting previous data, used in the estimation, by introducing a constant as well as time-varying forgetting factors in the abovementioned estimator, is applied here in the calculation of estimates of the parameters of a dynamic system. Then, the recursive parameter estimates are used in each current iteration to determine unknown parameters of the MV controller. Afterwards, the current value of the MV control signal is found in each operation, and it is used to generate the output of the system, too. The results of numerical simulation by computer are presented and discussed.


Exponential gains in school enrolment in Afghanistan since 2001 have resulted not only from the efforts of the Ministry of Education, but also from the efforts of communities. Community participation in education in Afghanistan is formalized through school management shuras, parent-teacher councils that have been established and/or strengthened by the MoE through the Education Quality Improvement Program.This research aimed to determine the level of participation of women in school shuras. Empirical research was conducted at 18 schools in Kabul City, in conjunction with the management councils in each school community. Through structured observations and focus group discussions, the research found that women's participation in school management shuras is more limited than men's participation and almost negligible in the boys' schools sampled. This suggests that women's voices are not much heard concerning the education of their children. The phenomenon may be attributed to prevailing cultural and traditional norms in patriarchal Afghan society, in which men have an upper hand over women in the decisions about schooling, among others.The major recommendation to the Ministry of Education based on this research is that any attempts to increase women's participation in school management should take into account the existing social framework of Afghan religious and cultural norms. For example, female-only shuras may be elected for girls' schools, with meetings held in a private home rather than the very public school setting.


Circularly polarised (CP)-photons at six different energies (six wavelengths) were irradiated to non-photochromic, highly photoluminescent poly[(9,9-di-n-octylfluoren-2,7-diyl)-alt-bithiophene] (PF8T2) as μm-sized particles in chloroform–methanol cosolvents. This approach led to the capability of photophysically controlling all chiroptical polarisation, depolarisation, inversion, retention and switching in the ground and/or photoexcited states, as proven by circular dichroism (CD), optical rotation dispersion (ORD) and circularly polarised luminescence (CPL) spectroscopy. By optofluidically tuning the refractive index of the cosolvents at 589 nm (nD), these CP-photon induced CD signals were resonantly enhanced at a specific nD of ≈1.40. Surprisingly, regardless of the same l- (and r-) CP hand, the choice of higher and lower CP-photon energies led to a swapping of signs in chiroptical polarisation of the particles. The CP-photon hand, l- and r-, was not a deterministic factor for the induced chiroptical sign of the PF8T2 particles. This anomaly originates from CD inversion characteristics between lower and higher energy regions, supported by ZINDO calculations of PF8T2 model oligomers. Finally, controlled CP-photon sense and irradiating energy successfully allowed CPL-silent PF8T2 particles (quantum yield of 15%) to change to CPL-active particles of the order of |gCPL| = (1.9–4.3) × 10−3 at ≈535 nm whilst almost keeping the quantum yield of 8%.


In this paper, we propose a low-latency virtual reality (VR) delivery system where an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) base station (U-BS) is deployed to deliver VR content from a cloud server to multiple ground VR users. Each VR input data requested by the VR users can be either projected at the U-BS before transmission or processed locally at each user. Popular VR input data is cached at the U-BS to further reduce backhaul latency from the cloud server. For this system, we design a low-complexity iterative algorithm to minimize the maximum communications and computing latency among all VR users subject to the computing, caching and transmit power constraints, which is guaranteed to converge. Numerical results indicate that our proposed algorithm can achieve a lower latency compared to other benchmark schemes. Moreover, we observe that the maximum latency mainly comes from communication latency when the bandwidth resource is limited, while it is dominated by computing latency when computing capacity is low. In addition, we find that caching is helpful to reduce latency.


The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of radiofrequency radiation emitted from cellular phones on: (1) trace elements such as manganese, iron, copper, zinc, (2) T1 relaxation times in serum, and (3) rectal temperature of rats exposed to microwave radiation emitted from cellular phones. Sixteen Spraque–Dawley rats were separated into two groups of eight, one sham-exposed (control) and one exposed (experimental). The rats were confined in Plexiglas cages and a cellular phone was placed 0.5 cm under the cage. For the experimental group, cellular phones were activated 20 min per day, 7 days a week, for 1 month. For the control group, a cellular phone placed beneath the cage for 20 min a day was turned off. Rectal temperatures were measured weekly. For 250-mW-radiated powers, the whole body average specified absorption rate (SAR) (rms) is 0.52 W/kg and 1-g-averaged peak SAR (rms) is 3.13 W/kg. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical comparisons of groups. T1 relaxation time and the values of iron and copper in the serum of the experimental group were not changed compared to the control group (p > 0.05). However, manganese and zinc values in the serum of the experimental group were significantly different from the control group (p < 0.05). The difference in rectal temperature measured before and after exposure in the experimental groups was not statistically different from control (p > 0.05).


Abstract:This article offers a primer on identifying what the author calls "know-your-place aggression" as well as the violence of white mediocrity being treated as merit. The author argues that gaining clarity about these hostile tendencies is a form of self-care. Examples include experiences with racism, (hetero)sexism, trans antagonism, ableism, and Islamophobia. Understanding know-your-place aggression and white mediocrity can prevent marginalized communities from wasting energy by worrying about the opinions of people who use objective standards to judge everyone but themselves. The author encourages this form of self-care because she believes it can empower members of marginalized groups to save their energy for what matters most, the quality of their lives and their contributions to research.


SIR,-On the night of Friday, 9 June, I viewed a television programme entitled "Escape from Sanity" from beginning to end. As nearly everyone will know, the subject dealt with was schizophrenia, and I regret to say that I consider the presentation to have been an appalling exercise in bad taste. In my opinion it also sailed very near the wind ethically, for I remain to be convinced that all the patients shown were in a condition to give free and comprehending consent to taking part. As a medical officer of health I am concerned with health education, but the public exhibition of personal suffering and anguish has no place in my concept of this subject. The programme as shown appeared to me to be of very little practical value as an educational project directed towards the lay public, and should never have been mounted on a medium where it is impossible to divorce education from entertainment. One .of the less pleasing features was towards the end, when an apparent member of our profession made a public confession of almost complete ignorance of the subject, which was surely quite unnecessary, and can hardly have done much to improve our image in the eye of the man in the street, or to increase his faith and confidence in us. Lest any of our more " progressive " colleagues, or members of the staff of the B.B.C., may think that this was an enlightened venture I would remind them that in the eighteenth century lunatic asylums (Bedlam) were opened to the populace for their entertainment by our barbarous and reactionary forebears. Now in the second half of the twentieth century we put patients suffering from mental disorders on television for the edification of the citizens of the Welfare State-such is progress.-I am, etc.,


Most plate heat exchangers (PHEs) have hydraulic diameters in the range of 2∼5 mm and show characteristics of both macro-channels and micro-channels. Both gravity and surface tension have non-negligible influences and determine the heat transfer and frictional pressure drop.
 This paper investigates NH3 condensation in a PHE with a hydraulic diameter of 2.99 mm. The large surface tension of NH3 enhances the micro-channel characteristics. The heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) are compared with homogeneous and separated models, respectively. Both models have been previously compared with the experimental data of HFCs, hydrocarbons and HFOs. The prediction for NH3 is generally good since the deviations are small, while the sensitivity to mass fluxes and vapor qualities cannot be estimated properly. The data of frictional pressure drop are predicted by a correlation of two-phase Fanning friction factor, which is based on homogeneous flow and includes the influences of mass fluxes, vapor qualities, hydraulic diameters, chevron angles, etc. The fluid properties of NH3 are significantly different between liquid and vapor phases, and the averaged density derived from homogeneous flow is under-estimated. The prediction is improved by calculating the averaged density from the void fraction models of separated flow.


Alexander is arguing that our responsibility for what we do () is grounded in the fact that a man is the of his own actions (cf. Aristotle, E.N. 3. 1111a21, 1112b31, etc.). The opponents of this view, he says, hold that nothing performed by a man is such that at the time when he does something he also has the possibility of not doing it, (190. 24–6). One who believes this, he argues, cannot make any moral judgements or do any of the things 'which ought reasonably to be brought about by those who have believed the possibility also of doing each of the things which they do'. My translation has, I hope, shown the need for a negative in the last clause: 'the possibility also of not doing' is the point needed; so insert between and . For omission of the negative elsewhere in De fato cf. 165. 1; 179. 21; 189. 6; 195. 26; 202. 12; 207. 19; 211. 18.


Coral reef ecosystems are seriously threatened by changing conditions in the ocean. Although many factors are implicated, climate change has emerged as a dominant and rapidly growing threat. Developing a long‐term strategic plan for the conservation of coral reefs is urgently needed yet is complicated by significant uncertainty associated with climate change impacts on coral reef ecosystems. We use Modern Portfolio Theory to identify coral reef locations globally that, in the absence of other impacts, are likely to have a heightened chance of surviving projected climate changes relative to other reefs. Long‐term planning that is robust to uncertainty in future conditions provides an objective and transparent framework for guiding conservation action and strategic investment. These locations constitute important opportunities for novel conservation investments to secure less vulnerable yet well‐connected coral reefs that may, in turn, help to repopulate degraded areas in the event that the climate has stabilized.


An edge-ranking of a graph G is a labeling of the edges of G with positive integers such that every path between two edges with the same label γ contains an edge with label λ > γ. In the on-line edge-ranking model the edges e1, e2 . . . , em arrive one at a time in any order, where m is the number of edges in the graph. Only the partial information in the induced subgraph G[{e1, e2, . . . , ei}] is available when the algorithm must choose a rank for ei. In this paper, we present an on-line algorithm for ranking the edges of a tree in time O(n), where n is the number of vertices in the tree.


The objectives of this study were to examine the prevalence of assistive technology (AT) use, type of assistance used for each activity of daily living (ADL) limitation, and correlates of AT use among Native Indian aged 55 and older. Data were collected as part of a cross‐sectional study of disability with 505 members of a federally recognized tribe using in‐person interviewer administered surveys. Participants who reported difficulty with ADLs, including bathing, dressing, eating, transferring, walking, toileting, grooming, and getting outside, were asked about AT use. Other measures were demographics, living arrangements, receipt of personal care, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiary status, number of chronic conditions, lower body function, and personal mastery. Results indicated that 22.3% of participants aged 55 and older and 26.0% aged 65 and older reported AT use. Toileting had the largest percentage of participants who relied on AT only and getting outside had the largest percentage of participants relying on a combination of AT and personal care. Multiple variable logistic regression analysis identified receipt of personal care, having more chronic conditions, and poorer lower body function as significantly associated with higher odds of AT use. The results suggest that there is greater AT use in this sample than in same‐aged adults in national samples. This greater use may be reflective of a combination of higher disability rates, cultural factors, and greater access to AT. Clinicians can use this information to identify the activities with which their patients are experiencing the most difficulty and which ones can be addressed with AT versus personal care.


In this study, management of determinant factors on private investment in Iran have been investigated. Investment plays a special role in economic growth and development through creating new job opportunities. Based on the theoretical examination, the results of the Cointegration vectors derived from the Johansen method indicate that the Real Exchange Rate has positive effects on the private investment expenditures. Also, monetary and financial policies have fundamental and important roles in private sector's


In this study, RNA-seq and proteomics, two orthogonal high-throughput technologies, were used to search the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome for new genomic features. RNA-seq data were aligned to the genome with three successively stringent set of parameters for the STAR aligner (Dobin et al., 2013). The varying levels of stringency elucidated some complexities in the RNA-seq data, such as the presence of read alignments that mapped to multiple genomic locations. The RNA-seq alignments indicated the presence of RNA transcripts derived from regions of the genome without annotations (un-annotated regions) in the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD). To ensure that all of the high-quality curated annotations within SGD were accounted for appropriately, these datasets were categorised as either Primary or Secondary Annotations. Annotations of genomic regions where the primary sequence produced a molecule (e.g. snoRNA or peptide) were designated as Primary. Annotations of regions where other types of activity were present (e.g. histone binding sites, double-strand break hotspots) were classified as Secondary. Only the Primary Annotations were used as boundaries for determining locations of un-annotated regions. Open reading frames (ORFs) were present in these unannotated regions. Therefore, the regions were translated in six frames to build a xxii xxiii database of all theoretical peptides. Proteomics tandem mass spectra were then searched against this peptide database to find the presence of any expressed ORFs within the un-annotated regions. Two preliminary target ORFs have been found to contain RNA-seq alignments and were detected by the proteomics analysis, evidence that their transcripts may have been present in the original sample. The next step would be to verify these two preliminary target regions in the experimental laboratory to determine if they are in fact expressed as peptides, and if so, what possible functions the peptides may have. Throughout this study, the Un-Annotated Region Pipeline (UAR-Pipeline) software was constructed to facilitate the analysis of un-annotated regions given a genome sequence, a set of genomic annotations, and RNA-seq data. In addition, a Quickload Site within the Integrated Genome Browser (Nicol et al., 2009) was created to store and effectively visualise un-annotated regions against RNA-seq alignments, annotations, and other tracks of information such as conservation. The vast majority of annotations contained within the Quickload Site are also hosted by SGD; therefore, the Site would serve as a new resource for the research community through anticipated public access. Chapter 1 Literature Review 1.


Spectral-bandwidth constraints to ensure controlled amounts of redundancy are established for a class of two-dimensional partially redundant arrays (PRA's). In the IR, where speckle statistics are poor, the telescope–atmosphere modulation transfer function is determined solely by the PRA geometry. Signal-to-noise-ratio estimates, an optimum aperture criterion, and a six-element PRA example are presented.


This review article deals with Chikitsa told in Ayurveda for Mano Vikaras (mental disorders). Ayurveda has always laid special emphasis on maintaining and promoting health and preventing disease rather than curing disease. In modern science continuous and prolonged use of sedatives, tranquilizers, anxiolytics and hypnotics for treating various mental ailments resulted in rebound phenomenon and drug dependence causing further frustration and decline in mental status. In Ayurveda Chikitsa is classified into 3 types Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa (divine therapy), Yuktivyapashraya Chikitsa (rational therapy) and Satvavajaya Chikitsa (psychotherapy). Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa involvesmeasures to combat Daivakrit diseases. Yuktivyapasraya is treatment based on fundamental principles of Ayurveda. Sattvavajaya Chikitsa is to control the mind by withdrawing it from undesired objects. Ayurveda gives more stress to Sattvvajaya Chikitsa and Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa in managing manovikaras. There is increasing need of Sattvavajaya Chikitsa in examining a patient and treating disease. This article will help readers to understand role of Ayurveda in maintaining Manasika Swasthyam


We introduce a graph-parametric framework for obtaining obstruction characterizations of graph parameters with respect to partial ordering relations. For this, we define the notions of class obstruction, parametric obstruction, and universal obstruction as combinatorial objects that determine the asymptotic behavior of graph parameters. Our framework permits a unified framework for classifying graph parameters. Under this framework, we survey existing graph- theoretic results on most known graph parameters. Also we provide some unifying results on their classification.


The authors propose an optimal structure decision method which can determine cell type, arrangement, degree of freedom, and link length. It can be used for fixed-base and mobile-base manipulators, so that universal/modular manipulators can be made. Simulation results show the differences in evaluation for different candidates and tasks and also demonstrate that the structure decision method works efficiently. With respect to the software structure, optimal knowledge allocation is one of the most important issues for CEBOT. The authors propose a method of optimal knowledge allocation based on the amount of communication among cells. Communication among cells for the control proposed is described.<<ETX>>


Open and distance learning continue to play fundamental role in contributing to the construction of knowledge societies in a lifelong learning context. Despite educational challenges of the 21st century, and notably the Covid-19 global disruption in the education sector, open and distance learning concept has achieved notable recognition. It has had substantial impact on all education delivery systems. The objective of the research project was to assess the impact of open and distance learning approaches on education and empowerment of girls and women in Kenya's Maasai nomadic community. The project was implemented during a fellowship program re-imagining African education in the wake of Covid-19. The research project was carried out in a formal, informal and non-formal setup. Community-led alternative learning model advocates for education practices that match and reflect the needs and circumstances of the excluded/disadvantaged populations. The model integrated open and distance learning concept in a community based learning. The project targeted six local Maasai women groups on house construction skills through purposive sampling technique. Human centered design approach was intensively employed in co-creating and co-designing the ODL-Community based learning approach. Key processes were triggering the community, ideation, prototyping, feedback, iteration and implementation. The instruction and assessment was facilitated virtually (80%), guided by a local translator and site visit by TVET instructors (20%). A community of learning was established with 10 local champions enrolled in instructor support training through blended approaches. Data was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Findings underscored that open and distance learning significantly reduced the constraints of time and place, reduced educational bottlenecks experienced in the traditional face-to-face system. It has significantly shifted knowledge, attitudes and perceptions in girls and women education. There was increased demand for learning and explored flexible and blended learning opportunities in disadvantaged and hard to reach areas. The project recommended affordable technology and digital learning strategies to improve equity and inclusion in education. Strengthen partnerships between communities, public and private sector for an enabling environment that includes digital infrastructure and digital skills user.


A monolithic silicon CMOS optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) is designed and fabricated with standard 0.35 ¿m CMOS technology. This OEIC circuit consists of light emitting diodes (LED), silicon dioxide waveguide, photodiodes and receiver circuit. The silicon LED operates in reverse breakdown mode and can be turned on at 8.5 V 10 mA. The silicon dioxide waveguide is composed of multiple layers of silicon dioxide between different metals layers. A two PN-junctions photodetector composed of n-well/p-substrate junction and p+ active implantation/n-well junction maximizes the depletion region width. The readout circuitry in pixels is exploited to handle as small as 0.1 nA photocurrent. Simulation and testing results show that the optical emissions powers are about two orders higher than the low frequency detectivity of silicon CMOS photodetector and receiver circuit.


The earlier clinical and pathologic studies of certain infectious diseases, among others, pneumonia, typhoid fever, gonorrhea and epidemic meningitis, indicated a marked predilection of the specific excitant to localize in certain definite tissues. The introduction of more accurate methods for clinical investigation, and of additional refinements in bacteriologic technic have afforded substantial evidence that the distribution of the causal agent in such disorders is not so limited as was formerly presumed. Following the identification in 1887 of the Meningococcus intra-cellularis by Weichselbaum 1 as a separate species, and the establishment of its specific relation to epidemic meningitis, investigations were conducted to determine the presence of this microorganism in the blood and in the lesions complicating this disease. The biologic characteristics of the meningococcus rendered such investigations particularly difficult. The susceptibility of the organism to outside influences and its intracellular position made it difficult to cultivate under the


Targeted covalent inhibitor drugs require computational methods that go beyond simple molecular‐mechanical force fields in order to model the chemical reactions that occur when they bind to their targets. Here, several semiempirical and density‐functional theory (DFT) methods are assessed for their ability to describe the potential energy surface and reaction energies of the covalent modification of a thiol by an electrophile. Functionals such as PBE and B3LYP fail to predict a stable enolate intermediate. This is largely due to delocalization error, which spuriously stabilizes the prereaction complex, in which excess electron density is transferred from the thiolate to the electrophile. Functionals with a high‐exact exchange component, range‐separated DFT functionals, and variationally optimized exact exchange (i.e., the LC‐B05minV functional) correct this issue to various degrees. The large gradient behavior of the exchange enhancement factor is also found to significantly affect the results, leading to the improved performance of PBE0. While ωB97X‐D and M06‐2X were reasonably accurate, no method provided quantitative accuracy for all three electrophiles, making this a very strenuous test of functional performance. Additionally, one drawback of M06‐2X was that molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using this functional were only stable if a fine integration grid was used. The low‐cost semiempirical methods, PM3, AM1, and PM7, provide a qualitatively correct description of the reaction mechanism, although the energetics is not quantitatively reliable. As a proof of concept, the potential of mean force for the addition of methylthiolate to methylvinyl ketone was calculated using quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical MD in an explicit polarizable aqueous solvent. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


In the commercial domain, platform-based approaches, in which a set of functions or services are bundled to form the basis of many products, have enabled efficient development of systems and their composition into systems of systems. A successful platform must balance sufficient commonality to support economical reuse, while also providing variability and extensibility to enable innovation in system and system of systems (SoS) capabilities. These commonality/variability tradeoffs for SoS platforms are frequently tacit decisions, since there are no accepted techniques for analyzing such decisions at the scale and degree of requirements uncertainty that characterize most SoSs. The objective of our work is to develop a method for analyzing decisions about requirements for common platforms for SoSs. The method begins with the requirements tasks of identifying and selecting appropriate variabilities (variation points, variation ranges, and variation decision binding times) to support immediate SoS needs, and also enable innovation and controlled evolution. We are currently conducting a workshop and interviews with SoS experts to define the essential technical problems in SoS common platform development and identify solution constraints. We will then define a simplified SoS with limited capability requirements to use as a model problem. We will use the model problem to assess the fit of existing scope, commonality, and variability methods from software product lines to the SoS context, and extend existing economic models using real options and probabilistic models to model uncertainty in evolution requirements. While it is too early to draw firm conclusions about the effectiveness of our approach, it is based on proven technologies from the mature field of software product lines and so we have confidence that we can build successful SoS techniques from this foundation.


An ultra-wideband polarization rotation reflective surface (PRRS) with a high polarization conversion ratio (PCR) is proposed, which can reflect a linearly polarized incident wave with 90° polarization rotation. The unit cell of the proposed PRRS consists of a square and L-shaped patches printed on a substrate, which is covered by a superstrate and backed by a metallic ground. The two patches are connected to the ground using two metallic vias, respectively. Compared with the previously reported PRRS, the polarization rotation bandwidth of the proposed PRRS is enhanced from 49% to 97% with a high PCR of 96%. The frequency responses within the operation frequency band are consistent under oblique incident waves. Furthermore, the designed PRRS is applied to the ultra-wideband radar cross-section (RCS) reduction by forming a checkerboard surface. A 10-dB RCS reduction is achieved over an ultra-wideband of 98%. To validate the simulation results, a prototype of the checkerboard surface is fabricated and measured. A good agreement between the experimental and simulation results is obtained.


Cryosurgery, the minimally-invasive destruction of undesirable tissues by freezing, is an attractive technique for treating diseases where tight control over lesion size and minimal scar tissues are crucial, such as cancer and dermatologic disorders (1, 2). Unlike hyperthermic (high temperature) treatments, cryosurgery maintains the integrity of the extracellular matrix (ECM) while destroying the cells of the tissue. The undamaged ECM results in a unique wound healing process, which, compared to most injuries, leads to a better tissue recovery. Thus, cryosurgery has been of great interest in many clinical fields and has been studied extensively. However, numerous questions remain.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


Abstract Human capital has an impact on economic growth by several channels. This study presents a conceptual research model that we built starting from the economic increase models which explain the way in which the revenue per inhabitant was created taking into account mechanisms, channels and influence factors. I applied this model to the member states of the European Union and the results obtained confirmed the existence of some positive effects of human capital - expressed through education - on economic growth.


This paper aims at illustrating how narrative theories can apply to the analysis of lyric poetry with an example from Korean literature: The Azaleas by Kim Sowol. This poem in seven-and-five-syllable meter as well as with its thematic aspect that is concerned with lamentation or broken heart is considered the most representative of the folkloric tradition in the history of Korean lyric poetry. Based on Huhn's work on "Transgeneric narratology", I proposed here to analyze the so-called mental story of this poem from a narratological point of view that covers, among many others, the following three topics: i) text and norm; ii) story and discourse; iii) thematic and narrative. First, reading a poetic text inevitably leads us to the poetic tradition serving as an interpretative norm, whether it is explicit or implicit. So the image of scattering flowers in this poem, for instance, cannot be fully understood without reference to the Buddhist tradition in which it is interpreted in terms of charity or mercy. Second, the mental story relative to this symbolic act is doubly mediated – put in narrative terms, by a voice that speaks on the one hand and, on the other by eyes that see - so as to manifest itself in the form of a poetic discourse. Third, the narrative strategy at work in this poem, here considered in Greimas' terms, pinpoints the ironic aspect of its thematic: so the story of parting in appearance turns out to be a love returning in the end.


We report closed-form formulas to calculate the incremental-deposition stress, the elastic relaxation stress, and the residual stress in a finite-thickness film from a wafer-curvature measurement. The calculation shows how the incremental deposition of a new stressed layer to the film affects the amount of the film/wafer curvature and the stress state of the previously deposited layers. The formulas allow the incremental-deposition stress and the elastic relaxation to be correctly calculated from the slope of the measured curvature versus thickness for arbitrary thicknesses and biaxial moduli of the film and the substrate. Subtraction of the cumulative elastic relaxation from the incremental-deposition stress history results in the residual stress left in the film after the whole deposition process. The validities of the formulas are confirmed by curvature measurements of electrodeposited Ni films on substrates with different thicknesses.


What are the common characteristics of the founder and CEO succession process at long-lived companies? And how do these characteristics help companies survive long periods of time? This inductive study of 26 Korean long-lived companies led to propositions exploring these questions. Long-lived companies had long-tenured founders, less frequent successions, high ratio of insider succession and a formal succession process to secure management stability and competitiveness. It was also observed that the founding vision had an emphasis on corporate social responsibilities and that founding philosophy has succeeded to current management philosophy in most long-lived companies. The study results imply that the heritage of founding stages may play a crucial role for companies to achieve


Sketching is a vital process in scientific research and procedural learning. In educational contexts, sketching helps students visualize abstract concepts and facilitates communication with their instructors as well as with other students. Inspired by a problem-based learning science class in which students use papers and pens to collaboratively sketch diagrams and equations for given problems, we aim to provide a digital tabletop platform for collaborative learning and customization. Current tabletop systems are unaffordable to be widely adopted in the classroom and are unable to identify multiple pens. We propose a pen-based tabletop system that utilizes a low-cost high-frame-rate infrared camera and HTML5 web canvas programming, making it cheaper and easier to customize for specific uses.


Cantology names an approach to the songish impulses that are a ubiquitous aspect of human cultures. It aims to divert our attention from the more restricted objects of musicological and ethnomusicological scrutiny by discerning song formations, conditions of possibility that define experiences of society and history along songish lines. These formations, local phenomena in cantology's broad purview, emerge from the interactions of levels of cultural production including the performative, the discursive, the metadiscursive, and the archaeological. We outline a cantological theory, then briefly characterize four successive song formations in the West, reaching from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first.


Routine hematoxylin-eosin staining of the biopsy specimens revealed slight epidermal acanthosis, hypergranulosis, and hyperkeratosis (Figure 2). There were characteristic distended keratinocytes with basophilic and finely vacuolated cytoplasm and coarse keratohyaline granules (Figure 3). A biopsy specimen from the right side of the groin was initially interpreted as verruca plana, which was attributed to sampling error. Two additional biopsy specimens from the groin revealed changes consistent with EDV. The results of human papillomavirus (HPV) typing by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses were consistent with HPV-8.


The major structural defects that cause the displacement in rock are discontinuities (fracture-joint-fault) and karstic cavities. Depending on the position and geometry of the karstic cavities, sinkholes occur both within the bedrock and in the cover layers. Occurance of sinkholes primarily depends on existence of carbonate rocks containing sub-surface karstic cavities and loose and weak cover layers. Following the landslides occured in 2011, it was planned to reduce the hydraulic head of the karstic aquifer which lies at the bottom of the coal-bearing layers in order to restart the mining activity in Afsin-Elbistan Coal Basin. For this purpose, dewatering wells were drilled in January 2015. Two weeks after the drilling, the first sinkhole occured at the southwestern edge of the basin and during the following six months four other sinkholes occured close to the first one. The geological, hydrological, hydrogeological and geo-mechanical models of the basin has been composed in order to understand the mechanism of sinkhole occurence in the Afsin-Elbistan Coal Basin. Thematic maps showing the spatial distribution of parameters which determine the formation of sinkholes were obtained by using a Geographic Information System (GIS) based analysis method. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach, which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making analyzes, has been adopted in determining the impact and weight coefficients of each effective parameter which plays a role in occurance of the sinkholes. The Sinkhole Susceptibility Index (SSI) was calculated by using all parameters which were classified and weighted. The SSI refers to the susceptibility of sinkhole occurance. The higher value of the SSI means that the risk of potential occurrence of a sinkhole is high. Calculated SSI in the study area ranges from 9 to 110 and the higher values were obtained for the area corresponding to the margin of the basin where the sinkholes occurred.


Dopamine has been widely utilized in the treatment of acute congestive heart failure, ibopamine, the diisobutyrate ester of N-methyldopamine (epinine), is a novel inotropic agent that, unlike-dopamine, is orally active. In clinical studies at doses that produce favorable hemodynamic responses, ibopamine and dopamine can evoke a slight and transient increase in pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, an effect that is no longer apparent 1 h after administration. We have previously demonstrated in anesthetized dogs that this effect is due to stimulation of alpha-adrenoceptors in the pulmonary circulation by dopamine and ibopamine, as well as by the active form of ibopamine, epinine. The aim of the present investigation was to determine how dopamine, ibopamine, and epinine interact with beta-adrenoceptors in the canine pulmonary circulation, since this activity may serve to offset the alpha-adrenoceptor-mediated pulmonary vasoconstrictor responses. Intraarterial injection of dopamine, ibopamine, and epinine resulted in dose-dependent pulmonary vasoconstrictor responses with a maximum increase of approximately 50-60% above resting pulmonary vascular tone. When animals were pretreated with propranolol (1 mg/kg iv) to block beta-adrenoceptors, pulmonary vasoconstrictor responses to dopamine were unchanged, whereas pulmonary vasopressor responses to ibopamine and epinine were significantly potentiated, especially for epinine. Upon intraduodenal administration of a therapeutically effective dose of ibopamine (i.e. 36 mg/kg) to normal dogs, virtually no pulmonary pressor response was observed. However, administration of this same dose of ibopamine to dogs pretreated with propranolol (1 mg/kg iv) resulted in a marked pulmonary pressor response. These data indicate that epinine, and therefore the parent compound ibopamine, have the capacity to stimulate beta 2-adrenoceptors in the pulmonary circulation to a far greater degree than dopamine, and that this activity serves to offset, at least in part, the alpha-adrenoceptor-mediated pulmonary vasoconstriction that occurs in response to ibopamine.


We propose a simple, yet efficient, patterning technique for Interpenetrated Networks of Conducting Polymers (IPN-CP), which is a class of conducting polymer actuators that are able to work in liquids as well as in the air without delamination. Engineering and integration of IPN-CP in potential systems or devices have not been thoroughly studied, and no solution for patterning has been developed so far. Our method has been evaluated exemplified with two mechatronic applications: (i) built-in wiring of IPN-CP actuators, and (ii) the design of poly-articulated actuators.


About half of the population of Pakistan consists of females who actively participate in social and economic activities. They are not only involved in industrial activities but also in agriculture. Their activities vary a lot. Although, they are functional members of rural societies but still they are not enjoying due socio-economic status in rural communities. Their access to non-formal and extension education is limited.

In the same context, the present study was designed to analyze the obstacles to gender mainstreaming in agricultural extension in the Punjab, Pakistan: A case study of district Muzaffargarh. A multi stage random sampling technique was employed. Five hundred farm families were selected from 20 villages, 5 randomly selected from each tehsil that made a total of 1000 respondents of the study. The officiating staff of Agriculture Department (Extension Wing) and all male and female workers of one randomly selected NGO in the district served as a sample. The data were collected through pre-tested interview schedule and various statistical techniques were used to analyze the data by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Main findings of present case study indicate that mean age of husband respondents was 41.6 and that of wife respondents was 35.5 years. Majority (64.3 and 77.4%) of husband and wife respondents were illiterate, respectively. Husband respondents had various social statuses such as Nazim, Naib nazim, Councillor, Labrour councilor, Numberdar, and Member of political party but only 0.1 % of wife respondents had status of Lady councilor. Women received relatively less benefit from different sources of information that not only hindered them to avail better sources of employment but also made their position pity at home and community level. These women were also neglected by Agricultural Extension Department where all the extension agents were male who were restricted socially, customary and religiously to meet with women farmers which ultimately resulted in quite serious state of gender inequality in the field of extension education.

There was a contradiction regarding the appointments of female extension agents between the view point of husband and wife respondents. The main obstacles to gender mainstreaming in Agricultural Extension were: women were restricted to meet with the males other than blood relations, socio-economic insecurity, inadequate political empowerment, improper transportation and traveling facilities, residential problem for female extension workers, and male ego in respect of their vested dominance.


Despite the prominent success of general object detection, the performance and efficiency of Small Object Detection (SOD) are still unsatisfactory. Unlike existing works that struggle to balance the tradeoff between inference speed and SOD performance, in this paper, we propose a novel Scale-aware Knowledge Distillation (ScaleKD), which transfers knowledge of a complex teacher model to a compact student model. We design two novel modules to boost the quality of knowledge transfer in distillation for SOD: 1) a scale-decoupled feature distillation module that disentangled teacher's feature representation into multi-scale embedding that enables explicit feature mimicking of the student model on small objects. 2) a cross-scale assistant to refine the noisy and uninformative bounding boxes prediction student models, which can mislead the student model and impair the efficacy of knowledge distillation. A multi-scale cross-attention layer is established to capture the multi-scale semantic information to improve the student model. We conduct experiments on COCO and VisDrone datasets with diverse types of models, i.e., two-stage and one-stage detectors, to evaluate our proposed method. Our ScaleKD achieves superior performance on general detection performance and obtains spectacular improvement regarding the SOD performance.


Availability of different types of public facilities within an urban area is required to achieve specific objectives in urban planning. Planning standards are necessary in such cases to help achieve the adequacy and quality in services and facilities. To improve the situation in rapid and unplanned growth of Dhaka city both in terms of population and size, it demands a large amount of public facilities such as open spaces, playgrounds, schools, hospitals etc. School is an important public facility that requires setting standards and choosing appropriate locations. Standard of school facilities in an area depends upon factors such as, density of population, number of per family school going children, road network etc. This paper explores the existing facilities of primary and secondary schools for school going children in Ward 50 of Dhaka City Corporation. A series of field survey were conducted in order to collect information from primary sources, and standards on school facilities were collected from secondary sources. Based on the findings, suggestions on future planning of school facilities have been made in this paper. Finally, to justify the standards for schools facilities, DMDP planning standards are followed. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbip.v2i0.9577 Journal of Bangladesh Institute of Planners Vol. 2, December 2009, pp. 169-178


Abstract Context: Patient counseling is the mainstay for prevention and management of diabetic foot ulcer. Hence, patient information leaflet (PIL) can act as an educational material for imparting patient education regarding diabetic foot care for better patient outcome. Aim: The objective of this study was to develop and to assess the readability of PIL for diabetic foot ulcer. Materials and Methods: Various online resources such as Patient UK and Micromedex data base were used to prepare PILs on diabetic foot ulcer. Physicians were validated the content of the leaflet. Leaflet was designed and modified according to the physician's suggestions. PILs-readability was checked online by using the website www.readability-score.com and calculated Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and Flesch-Kincaid grade level (FK-GL). Layout and design features of the PILs were assessed by using Baker Able Leaflets Design (BALD) method. Results: Readability of the leaflet was assessed by using the FRE and FK-GL scores. After initial assessment leaflets were modified to achieve ideal readability scores. The best FRE score achieved was 69.9 and FK-GL score achieved was 7.1. The BALD score was 27. Conclusions: PILs prepared had ideal readability score and layout design. The leaflet's estimated FRE and FK-GL scores rate showed that it was fairly easy readable.


Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent and malignant cancer types in men, which causes more than three-hundred thousand cancer death each year. At late stage of PCa progression, bone marrow is the most often metastatic site that constitutes almost 70% of metastatic cases of the PCa population. However, the characteristic for the osteo-philic property of PCa is still puzzling. Recent studies reported that the Wnt and Ras signaling pathways are pivotal in bone metastasis and that take parts in different cytological changes, but their crosstalk is not well studied. In this review, we focused on interactions between the Wnt and Ras signaling pathways during each stage of bone metastasis and present the fate of those interactions. This review contributes insights that can guide other researchers by unveiling more details with regard to bone metastasis and might also help in finding potential therapeutic regimens for preventing PCa bone metastasis.


This thesis considers how best to administer redistribution policies. It focuses particularly on the information needed to assess relative circumstances, the implications of the government collecting such information, and processes by which the appropriate information may be assembled and assessed. In New Zealand, as with many other OECD nations, the Government's redistribution policies are administered through a range of different agencies, with duplication in some areas and gaps in others. An integrated approach to redistribution systems may offer a means to improve equity and efficiency. Part One discusses the assessment of relative well-being, and adopts the choice set as the intellectual device for this purpose. The time period for the assessment of income is examined in detail, with the conclusion that a long period should be used except where the individual is constrained to operate under a short time horizon. A new concept of "bankability" is developed as a means of identifying those operating under such constraints. Part Two uses the philosophical foundations of the value of privacy to develop a new statement of the right to privacy, such that everyone should be protected against the requirement to divulge information, unless that information is the "business" of another party. A view on the business of the state depends on one's ideology of the state. Since it is generally accepted in New Zealand in the late twentieth century that the state has a role in redistribution, the state has some right to collect information for that purpose. However, the rights of the state are moderated by the existence of a common law tradition of respect for individuals. A set of criteria for evaluating redistribution systems is devised in Part Three. These criteria, which include consideration of the information to be collected, individual control over personal information, and administrative simplicity, are then used to identify significant weaknesses in the systems currently used in New Zealand. The main problems identified are the collection of inadequate information, duplication, and complex institutional structures; the main virtue of the current systems is that information provided is only used for the purpose for which it was provided. An alternative approach is outlined which would address the problems while retaining the current protection of privacy interests. This thesis is a mix of inter-disciplinary academic enquiry and policy development. Part One is an amalgam of economic and philosophical approaches, Part Two involves philosophy and politics, and Part Three applies the theoretical considerations to issues of public administration.


Abstract In this paper we show that Guajajara has grammaticalized the distinction between mass and count nouns, but that the coding of this distinction is different from the systems of coding in classifier languages, number-marking languages, and number-neutral languages (Chierchia 1998a, 1998b, 2010; Wilhelm 2008). As a result, we conclude that Guajajara presents a challenge to the tripartite classification of languages proposed in Chierchia's work, since Guajajara number marking is non-inflectional and optional when plural is already expressed by other quantificational expressions. Furthermore, in Guajajara notional mass nouns can pluralize and directly combine with numerals without the mediation of container or measure constructions in contexts where conventional and non-conventional container and units of measurement are implied. This last observation suggests that coercion is not a mechanism that operates in this language.


Aphrodisiac and anti-aphrodisiac pheromone production and composition in the green-veined white butterfly Pieris napi L. were investigated.Aphrodisiac pheromone biosynthesis had different time constraints in butterflies from the diapausing and directly developing generations.Effects of stable isotope incorporation in adult butterfly pheromone, in the nectar and flower volatiles of host plants from labeled substrates were measured by solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.A method to fertilize plants with stable isotopes was developed and found to be an effective method to investigate the transfer of pheromone building blocks from flowering plants to butterflies. The anti-aphrodisiac methyl salicylate was not biosynthesized from phenylalanine in flowers of Alliaria petiolata.Both aphrodisiac and anti-aphrodisiac pheromones in P.napi are produced not only from resources acquired in the larval stage, but also from nutritional resources consumed intheadult stage. Males of P. napi produce the anti-aphrodisiac pheromone from both the essential amino acid L-phenylalanine and from common flower fragrance constituents.


The McKusick syndrome in a female who developed highly malignant lymphoma at the age of 23, with multiple parenchymal lesions involving both kidneys, the lungs and the pancreas and also splenomegaly but without lymphadenopathy, is described together with diagnostic imaging findings. McKusick syndrome is associated with impaired cell-mediated immunity and might, like several other similar syndromes, harbor an increased risk of certain types of lymphoma. To our knowledge, there are no previous reports of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a patient with McKusick syndrome. The increased incidence of lymphoma in certain cases of congenital immunodeficiency raises the issue of a possible relationship between McKusick syndrome and lymphoma and could perhaps serve as one of the primary steps for a further characterization of this syndrome.


Background Subacromial shoulder pain is a common clinical presentation with much diagnostic uncertainty. Some of this uncertainty relates to the involvement of the cervical spine as a source or contribution to subacromial shoulder pain. Currently, there is no accepted method of screening of the cervical spine in the presence of subacromial shoulder pain, which risks patients receiving misguided and/or ineffective interventions. Objective To evaluate approaches used to screen the cervical spine in patients with subacromial shoulder pain. Design Systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Methods Electronic searches of PEDro and MEDLINE to December 2016 were conducted. Randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of interventions within the current scope of physiotherapy comprising of adult patients complaining of subacromial shoulder pain were included. Data relating to the method of cervical spine screening were extracted and synthesized categorically. Results One hundred and two studies were included. Twenty-six (25.5%) were categorized as "No method of screening undertaken or reported," 49 (48.0%) were categorized as "Localized cervical spine symptoms and/or radiculopathy/radicular pain," nine (8.8%) were categorized as "Cervical examination," two (2.0%) were categorized as "Manual testing," two (2.0%) were categorized as "History of cervical surgery," and 14 (13.7%) were categorized as using "Combined approaches." Conclusion Examination of the cervical spine in patients with subacromial shoulder pain is variable in randomized controlled trials. In many instances, no or minimal attempts to screen were undertaken or reported. This has potential research and management implications and further research is indicated to facilitate development of this aspect of examination.


We give an overview of the polarization in the broad lines of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), where we can use the polarization angle for determination of the black hole masses (as given in [1]). Especially, we considered nine AGNs with the strong optical Fe II lines in the spectra, where five of them are typical Narrow Line Sy1 (NLSy1) and four Broad Line Sy1 (BLSy1) AGNs . Comparing the polarization parameters and black hole masses (obtained from polarization) we confirmed that NLSy1 have smaller black hole masses than BLSy1, and seems to have more compact Broad Line Region (BLR) and smaller inner torus radius than BLSy1


As judicial caseloads increase, putting a strain on court budgets and resources and delaying the resolution of cases, solutions are pursued to alleviate this strain. Summary judgment motions present one path that courts may take to more quickly dispose of cases that do not meet certain threshold legal requirements. Nevertheless, there is little research data on the use of summary judgment motions, as well as the success of those motions, particularly at the state court level. To address this important litigation issue, the Hagemann Center for Legal and Public Policy Research at the University of South Dakota conducted a research study of summary judgment motion practice in Minnehaha County – the most populated county in South Dakota. The study evaluated over 477 litigation cases filed in Minnehaha County circuit courts. Although the study covered a three-year time period, it is only an introductory study of a very complicated area of civil litigation practice. As such, this study is intended to serve as a springboard for future studies. Nonetheless, the Hagemann Center study does yield some enlightening insights into how civil litigants use summary judgment motions and how courts deal with such motions.


"The Politics of Arbitration Law and Centrist Proposals for Reform", 53 Harvard J. on Legislation 711 (2016), explained how issues surrounding consumer, and other adhesive, arbitration agreements became divisive along predictable political lines (progressive vs. conservative) and proposed an intermediate (centrist) position to resolve those issues. However, "The Politics of Arbitration Law" did not argue the case for this centrist position. It left those arguments for two more articles: (1) "The Centrist Case against Current (Conservative) Arbitration Law", 68 Florida Law Review 1227 (2016), which argued against the overly-conservative parts of current arbitration law; and (2) this Article, which argues against progressive proposals to repeal, not only the overly-conservative parts of current arbitration law, but also the parts of current arbitration law that should be retained. While progressives would prohibit enforcement of individuals' adhesive arbitration agreements, this Article argues that such agreements generally should be enforced.


Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social communication and social interactions as well as repetitive and restrictive behaviors. Recently, there has been increase interest in studying epigenetic mechanisms operative in ASD etiopathogenesis. These mechanisms involve DNA methylation and histone modifications. Several lines of evidence implicate cerebellum as one of the brain areas involved in the pathology of ASD. Furthermore, postmortem cerebellar studies have consistently reported abnormalities in the expression of genes associated with GABAergic neurons, such as glutamic acid decarboxylase 67 (GAD1) and 65 (GAD2), as well as genes associated with glutamatergic neurons, such as Reelin (RELN). This project focuses on studying epigenetic mechanisms implicated in the transcriptional regulation of the candidate genes in cerebella of ASD, including the binding of Methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2), DNA-methyltransferase 1(DNMT1) and Ten eleven translocator 1(TET 1) to the promoters and gene bodies of GAD1, GAD2 and RELN. For quantification of methylation (5-mC enrichment) and hydroxymethylation (5-hmC enrichment) status of these genes, we performed methyl DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) and hydroxymethyl DNA immunoprecipitation (hMeDIP) assays. Lastly, Tet assisted bisulfite (TAB) pyrosequencing was utilized to validate findings obtained by MeDIP and hMeDIP measurements. The results showed increased binding of MeCP2 and TET1 to the promoter regions of GAD1 and RELN, but not to the corresponding gene bodies in cerebellar cortex of ASD. In contrast, DNMT1 expression and the level of binding to the promoters or gene body regions of corresponding genes did not change in ASD compared to CON. Finally, we detected enrichment in the level of 5-hmC, but not 5-mC, at the promoters of GAD1 and RELN in ASD when compared with CON. In conclusion, increased expression and binding of TET1 to the promoters of GAD1 and RELN facilitates 5-hmC enrichment, which enhances binding of MeCP2 to the same gene domains and ultimately results in reduced expression of the corresponding target genes in ASD cerebella.


Multiple plasma membrane-associated microtubule-organizing centers operate in the cone cells of Drosophila ommatidia. A transcellular array of about 250 microtubules assembles in each cone cell during late pupal ommatidial morphogenesis. While these arrays are assembling, cone cells do not possess conventional centriole-containing centrosomal microtubule-organizing centers. The microtubules are associated with plasma membrane-associated plaques at both the apical and basal surfaces. During assembly of the arrays there is a progressive decrease in the number of microtubules/cell cross section at successively lower levels in each cell which is indicative of apicobasal microtubule elongation. In this respect, assembly of the arrays closely resembles that of transcellular 15 protofilament microtubules in late pupal wing cells (Mogensen et al. J. Cell Biol. 108, 1445-1452 (1989)). However, cone cell microtubules are almost certainly of the 13 protofilament variety as found in eukaryotic cells generally. We suggest that plasma membrane-associated microtubule-organizing centers are widely employed in polarized epithelia in Drosophila during late pupal morphogenesis.