It is being conducted by Haraguchi et al.1) that study of ultra-high insulation housing that combination of Air circulation type whole building air conditioning system and Passive active heating method. In the studied houses of 6 buildings on 6 regions with different climatic characteristics were verified by simulation has been performed. There is effective in reducing cooling and heating load in each studied houses of each area. However, the model of studied house built in Miyazaki city that is the warmest region of the six regions is the air conditioning load reduction rate is smaller than the model in other areas.  This study actually measures and simulates how much energy-saving effect can be demonstrated ultrahigh insulation houses in areas with high external heat load during the summer. During the winter, even after the air conditioner has stopped, LDK temperature is less likely to decrease compared to the outside temperature. In the daytime, room temperature rises without air conditioning by heat in double skin and heat acquisition by solar radiation. During the summer, despite the whole air conditioning depends on one air conditioner, very stable room temperature is maintained. Regions where the external thermal load of the summer season is larger than that of Miyazaki City like a Naha city also annual air-conditioning load is reduced as heat insulation performance improves


We provide a uniform upper bound on the minimal drift so that the one-per-site frog model on a $d$-ary tree is recurrent. To do this, we introduce a subprocess that couples across trees with different degrees. Finding couplings for frog models on nested sequences of graphs is known to be difficult. The upper bound comes from combining the coupling with a new, simpler proof that the frog model on a binary tree is recurrent when the drift is sufficiently strong. Additionally, we describe a coupling between frog models on trees for which the degree of the smaller tree divides that of the larger one. This implies that the critical drift has a limit as $d$ tends to infinity along certain subsequences.


Objective
Recently we developed the Rasch Everyday Activity Limitations (REAL) generic item bank for measuring physical function. In this study we evaluate the REAL item bank in 209 RA patients and demonstrate how computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and Optimal Test Assembly methods can be used to derive measures from the REAL item bank with superior measurement performance compared with the HAQ Disability Index (HAQ-DI).

Methods
Structural validity of the item bank was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. The validity of the REAL score metric in RA was evaluated by examining differential item functioning against the general population calibration sample. Besides the REAL-CAT, a 6-item short form (REAL-6) was developed using Optimal Test Assembly that was optimized with respect to common disability levels in RA, content and reading ease. Measurement precision of the different instruments was examined using item response theory methods. Construct validity was evaluated by testing hypothesized correlations with external measures.

Results
Good model-data fit was observed for a one-dimensional model and only two items showed differential item functioning of substantial magnitude. The REAL-CAT had superior measurement precision compared with HAQ-DI and REAL-6. REAL-6 outperformed HAQ-DI across all but the very lowest level of physical function. All three instruments demonstrated good construct validity (>75% of hypotheses affirmed) and only HAQ-DI had a ceiling effect (23.9%).

Conclusion
This study supports the validity of the REAL item bank and illustrates the potential of CAT and OTA applications based on the REAL item bank for assessing physical function in RA.


The aim of this research is to determine the effects of different salting and preservation techniques on the quality of kasar cheese. Physical, chemical, and microbiological analyses were performed on days 1, 7, 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 of the maturation of 270 samples of kasar cheese produced for this research. Additionally, sensory analyses were performed on days 30, 60, 90, and 120 of maturation. The total number of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, Lactococcus, Staphylococcus-Micrococcus, and psychotropic bacteria was lower and the number of yeast-mold and lactobacilli was higher in cheese examples salted in a boiler than those salted in brine. Salting in brine can be used alongside salting in a boiler. The cheese salted in a boiler can be preserved for 90 days by waxing it with respect to sensory features. Vacuum-packed cheese can be preserved for 60 days, whereas cheese salted in brine can be preserved for 60-120 days. It has been determined that vacuum-packed and wax-covered cheese does not have a negative effect on the quality of the cheese, nor is maturation delayed. It has been concluded that cheese wax can be used as an alternative packaging material along with vacuum packaging.


Decision sets and decision lists are two of the most easily explainable machine learning models. Given the renewed emphasis on explainable machine learning decisions, both of these machine learning models are becoming increasingly attractive, as they combine small size and clear explainability. In this paper, we define size as the total number of literals in the SAT encoding of these rule-based models as opposed to earlier work that concentrates on the number of rules. In this paper, we develop approaches to computing minimum-size "perfect" decision sets and decision lists, which are perfectly accurate on the training data, and minimal in size, making use of modern SAT solving technology. We also provide a new method for determining optimal sparse alternatives, which trade off size and accuracy. The experiments in this paper demonstrate that the optimal decision sets computed by the SAT-based approach are comparable with the best heuristic methods, but much more succinct, and thus, more explainable. We contrast the size and test accuracy of optimal decisions lists versus optimal decision sets, as well as other state-of-the-art methods for determining optimal decision lists. Finally, we examine the size of average explanations generated by decision sets and decision lists.


Busseola fusca (Fuller) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is an important pest of maize and sorghum in sub-Saharan Africa whose larvae exhibits oligophagic than polyphagic feeding habits. The host plants for this species are primarily maize and sorghum though some populations appear to be restricted on wild sorghum. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of oligophagy of larvae of this species based on (i) the sensory abilities to discriminate among different host plants (ii) feeding behaviour and growth on different Poaceae plant species present in its natural habitat (iii) plant stimuli that influence larval growth and feeding and (iv) the physiological adaptations to various host plant diets. The potential existence of genetically determined host-plant associated populations was also investigated. The results obtained from scanning microscopic preparations, selective silver nitrate staining and dose response electrophysiological experiments indicate that larval sensory structures present on the maxillae and the antennae are typical of other lepidopteran species and consist mainly of multiporous olfactory and uniporous gustatory sensilla. These sensorial equipments are thought to be involved in discriminating amongst chemical cues important for larval host recognition and selection. The gustatory role of both sensorial equipments was confirmed from the significant and positive dose-response electrophysiological tip recording tests, for the antennal sensillum (F1,56 = 41.637, P<0.0001) and for the maxillary palp (F1,58 = 32.124, P<0.0001) using increasing concentrations of sucrose. Moreover, this study demonstrated for the first time the presence of antennal taste receptors on a lepidopteran larva key to host choice, explaining the ability of larvae to quickly evaluate the phago-suitability of the host plant following landing on its surface.Among the selected Poacaeae plant species used and which form the natural feeding repertoire of B. fusca, only Zea mays and Sorghum arundinaceum supported the highest larval performance. Endogenous silica which is thought to negatively influence feeding behaviour of many herbivorous insects, varied significantly among the plant species studied. The amount of silica found among the plant extracts studied ranged between 20μg/mg-55μg/mg of dry leaf weight following spectrophotometric determination of each of the plant leaf samples digested with dilute hydrofluoric acid. The silica levels in the plants's digests correlated negatively with both larval feeding and growth rates, hence confirming the importance of silica as a significant barrier to dietary adaptation by B. fusca larvae. All the polar and methanol-soluble plant extracts tested elicited feeding of third instar larva as compared to the non-polar hexane extracts both in choice and in non-choice bioassays. Methanol extracts of Z. mays, S. arundinaceum and Arundo donax were however the most phagostimulatory. Plant sugar content as identified by HPLC also varied among plants tested with sucrose contributing the highest (22μg/mg to 65μg/mg of dry leaf weight), which was an equivalent of between 25%-38% of the total sugar content of each plant leaf extract analysed. Larval feeding positively correlated with sucrose content but negatively with turanose, the most variable sugar fraction (5-36μg/mg dry leaf weight) of the plant extracts analysed. However, additional bioassays indicated that whereas turanose and sucrose play a phagodeterrent and phagostimulant roles respectively, a balance between the two (probably in the ratio of 3:1 respectively) appeared to be an important factor in host acceptance for larval feeding. Therefore, the level of silica and the balance between the two sugars in the plant leaves seem to be keydeterminants of host plant choice and acceptance for feeding and growth by B. fusca larvae.Larvae fed on Z. mays and S. arundinaceum; plants that supported the highest larval survival and growth rates had pronounced levels of sugar than amino acid degrading enzymes, indicating the general over reliance of larvae on carbohydrates over proteins for survival. However, esterase enzymes were also highly induced in homogenates of larvae that consumed leaves of their least preferred host plants that included P. maximum P. desteum and S. megaphylla. These three plant species had also the highest total phenolic content in their leaf tissues following spectrophotometric determination of the same in their leave tissues. Therefore, the induction of esterase in larvae fed on the three high phenolic containing plants could possibly indicate the accompanying physiological responses of larvae to a specific or a number of deterrent phenolic glycosides in the particular plant leaf tissue. Finally, no conclusive evidence was deduced for host associated genetic differentiation among individuals of B. fusca larva found on wild plants (A. donax) or cultivated crops (Z. mays) as was inferred from genetic analysis of two fragments of the gene coding for cytochrome b.


The paper presents a methodology for the assessment of interpersonal and institutional trust measured at the level of Local Action Groups of the LEADER Approach and based on the use of indicators and on Social Network Analysis (SNA). From the theoretical point of view, the indicators can be used in longitudinal studies to assess if the relation between individual trust and social networks is verified with regard to specific organizations promoting rural development at local level. From the operative point of view, the indicators of trust represent a useful and relative simple instrument to be used in the monitoring and evaluation activities of the LEADER Approach.


Background: Family Center Care (FCC) is an approach to nursing care based on a mutually beneficial partnership between the patient and family.
Objective: This study aimed to describe the experience of the nurse and the family in nursing care support: Family-Centered Care in hospitalized children.
Method: This research was a qualitative descriptive-analytic study, with key informants and snowball sampling techniques through inclusion obtained research subjects 3 nurses and 3 families, data analysis techniques using an interactive model that includes reduction, data display and conclusions ketch.
Results: the result of this study showed six themes, namely: determinants of family support,efforts of nurses to achieve treatment goals, supporting factors for family involvement,family experience in the hospital,family dependence and family trust. In family-centered patient care, patients and families determine how they willparticipateincareanddecisionmaking.FCCasastandardofpracticecanproduce high-quality services. The FCC provides care based on mutual trust, collaboration or partnerships that work together with families by paying attention to aspects (bio, psycho, socio, and spiritual) respecting diversity and recognizing the family is a source in children's lives.
Conclusion: Provides an illustration that the themes in the research results prove family-centered care is realized through mutually beneficial cooperation through partnerships between nurses and patients.


Abstract A decade of exoplanet search has led to surprising discoveries, from giant planets close to their star, to planets orbiting two stars, all the way to the first extremely hot, rocky worlds with potentially permanent lava on their surfaces due to the star's proximity. Observation techniques have reached the sensitivity to explore the chemical composition of the atmospheres as well as physical structure of some detected gas planets and detect planets of less than 10 Earth masses (MEarth), the so-called super-Earths, among them some that may potentially be habitable. Three confirmed non-transiting planets, and several transiting Kepler planetary candidates, orbit in the habitable zone (HZ) of their host star. The detection and characterization of rocky and potentially Earth-like planets is approaching rapidly with future ground and space missions that can explore the planetary environments by analysing their atmosphere remotely. This paper discusses how to characterize a rocky exoplanet remotely.


An efficient highway infrastructure network is a determining factor in promoting the socio-economic development of countries and regions. Highway planning activities are highly important because their results ensure that projects are delivered within budget, schedule, and scope. Therefore, academics and professionals have promoted various methodological and technological advances focused on improving highway planning processes, evidenced by many scientific documents that address the topic. Despite progress, few studies have focused on analyzing the state of the knowledge structure and the technological and methodological trends of the highway planning topic. Considering this gap, this study presents trends in highway planning and its knowledge structure based on a bibliometric analysis from January 2015 to September 2021. The research method is based on a bibliometric analysis composed of five main stages: (1) scope definition, (2) selection of bibliometric analysis techniques, (3) data collection, (4) bibliometric analysis execution, and (5) evidence analysis and synthesis. Information from 1703 journal papers was collected and analyzed. The findings show that the main trends of highway planning focus on life cycle analysis, computational tools, smart cities, sustainability issues, construction processes, new equipment and materials, and multi-objective optimization, among others. Thus, the findings of this study allow the reader to identify the methodological and technological trends in highway planning and their knowledge gaps to guide future studies in the field.


To lower cost and increase the utilization of Cloud Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), researchers have recently been exploring the concept of multi-tenant FPGAs, where multiple independent users simultaneously share the same remote FPGA. Despite its benefits, multi-tenancy opens up the possibility of malicious users co-locating on the same FPGA as a victim user, and extracting sensitive information. This issue becomes especially serious when the user is running a machine learning algorithm that is processing sensitive or private information. To demonstrate the dangers, this paper presents a remote, power-based side-channel attack on a deep neural network accelerator running in a variety of Xilinx FPGAs and also on Cloud FPGAs using Amazon Web Services (AWS) F1 instances. This work in particular shows how to remotely obtain voltage estimates as a deep neural network inference circuit executes, and how the information can be used to recover the inputs to the neural network. The attack is demonstrated with a binarized convolutional neural network used to recognize handwriting images from the MNIST handwritten digit database. With the use of precise time-to-digital converters for remote voltage estimation, the MNIST inputs can be successfully recovered with a maximum normalized cross-correlation of 79% between the input image and the recovered image on local FPGA boards and 72% on AWS F1 instances. The attack requires no physical access nor modifications to the FPGA hardware.


The original Recent Developments in Pig Nutrition appeared in 1985 and brought together a selection of reviews on pig nutrition which had appeared up to that time in the series Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition, the proceedings of the Nutrition Conference for Feed Manufacturers, held annually by the University of Nottingham. As this Conference includes contributions on a wide range of species and topics it is very useful to anyone interested specifically in pigs to have a collection of the most important articles on pig nutrition reproduced in one volume. This new book, which contains a completely new selection of reviews from the Conferences since 1985, will serve an equally useful purpose. There are 24 reviews on important and topical issues by leading authorities from all over the world. Each summarizes the state of knowledge on a partieular topic, drawing together research findings from the authors' own work and that of others. There are three reviews on carcass and meat quality, including consumer issues, six on amino acids, two on dietary energy and protein, one on dietary fibre, four on water, minerals and electrolytes, four on gastrointestinal physiology, two on growth promoters and three on the nutrition of sows and boars. The book will be a valuable and convenient source of information to research workers, teachers and practising animal nutritionists. It will also be valuable to students of animal nutrition, particularly at the postgraduate level, who will find in these specialist reviews a convenient means of supplementing and updating their standard textbooks. They should be aware, however, that the distribution of subject matter does not reflect so much the . inherent importance of the different subjects as current concerns with the issues involved. One addition that would have been useful is a note of the year in which each article originally appeared, so that readers could know from what year they should begin to examine other literature in order to update these reviews.


University students' achievements in organic chemistry depend on cognitive variables. In addition, non-cognitive variables such as anxiety levels also have an impact on students' organic chemistry achievements. The aim of this study was to develop a measurement tool assessing the anxiety levels of university students in organic chemistry lessons. In this study, the Organic Chemistry Anxiety Scale (O-CAS) consisting of 24 items was developed, its validity and reliability was analysed. All the items are positively worded to indicate increased anxiety. Factor analytic evidence from a sample (n=340) of university organic chemistry students indicated that the O-CAS measured three constructs. Additional analysis with a second sample (n=297) showed that scores on these anxiety constructs were internally consistent, with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.87 to 0.92 and were 0.95 for the overall scale. Further, the result of analysis of the third sample (n=195) indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between organic chemistry anxiety and organic chemistry achievement of students. According to these results, the O-CAS can be used as a valid and reliable instrument in chemistry education.
Key words: anxiety, chemistry education, organic chemistry, reliability, and validity.


On an international basis, coal is used extensively for power generation and this is likely to remain the case well into this century. Although many standard tests are currently used to assess and select coals for combustion purposes, these have proven to be unable to predict coal burnout behaviour. For a power station based on coal combustion, a clear knowledge and understanding of the coals offered in the market is essential to achieve optimum conversions and to meet environmental constraints. There is, therefore, a need to develop suitable and efficient methods and techniques to characterise coals so that the combustion plant performance can be predicted more effectively.

In the present work, a series of experiments were conducted to characterise chars obtained from a Drop Tube Furnace (DTF) and a 1 MW combustion rig from which the effect of particle size distribution on coal reactions during devolatilisation and combustion of pulverised coal have been studied. The effect of temperature on coal pyrolysis in the DTF was also assessed. The coals used in this study were mainly from South America whose coals are widely traded internationally, and were characterised by standard tests and a novel automated image analysis technique called the Reactivity Assessment Program (RAP). The morphology of the chars were examined manually and using an automated image analysis technique and thermogravimetric analysis.

The aim of this study was to provide a better understanding of the RAP and the automatic image analysis of chars, particularly related to South American coals. The results indicated that temperature significantly influences the coal behaviour during devolatilisation, and hence, the reactivity and morphology of the char generated. The structure and morphology of the char were found to play a significant role in burnout of the residual char, with a significant effect of coal type and particle size.
Multiple linear regressions of char properties, such as intrinsic reactivity, morphology, and burnout, against particle size and maceral content of the feed coal were performed. The results showed that there was only a good correlation of high temperature volatiles with macerals. Subsequently when rank was included in the regressions, the correlation remarkably improved in all cases. However, when a novel approach which involved the correlations of char properties with bands of the grey scale histogram (RAP profile) of the coals was performed, much better correlations were achieved. The initial improvement is related, evidently, to the inclusion of the variation of vitrinite structure with rank. The grey scale histogram of coal takes this stage further by including the variation in reflectance for all the macerals. Therefore, the results indicate that the RAP analysis provides a simple and objective technique to predict the combustion behaviour of coals.


End_Page 556------------------------------The Upper Cretaceous Point Lookout Sandstone separates the Cleary Coal Member of the Menefee Formation from the Gibson Coal Member of the Crevasse Canyon Formation in much of the Chaco slope and southwest San Juan basin. These coal-bearing members merge as the intervening Point Lookout Sandstone pinches out to the southwest in the direction of the Nutria monocline and Gallup coal field. The deposits of the merged coal interval supported widespread mining activity northwest and north of Gallup, New Mexico, near the turn of the century; however, renewed mining of these coals for the past few years has concentrated northwest of the town. Closely spaced outcrop sections provided data from which to infer the depositional settings of the merged coals. Northwest of Gallup (Enterprise mine area), an alluvial facies of channel sandstones, deposited by northward-flowing streams is complexly interspersed with interfluvial siltstones and with laterally discontinuous coal deposits. North of Gallup (Gibson and Heaton mine areas), better integrated sandstones deposited in north-to-northeast flowing distributary channels, subordinate crevasse-splay sandstones, more widespread coal zones, and common bioturbations in laminated carbonaceous siltstones suggest coal accumulation in a deltaic to lagoonal transition environment. Further northeast of Gallup, where the Nutria monocline changes to an easterly strike toward the Chaco slope, well-developed coals remain associated with the deltaic and lagoonal environments. However, these coal-forming en ironments grade northeastward into the Point Lookout back-barrier to lagoonal transition environments, where coal deposits are poorly developed. End_of_Article - Last_Page 557------------


Following from the analysis of unstructured interviews conducted with members of the first AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power's (ACT UP!) New York contingent to visit Puerto Rico with expressly activist aims, this presentation traces some linkages and disconnects between HIV/AIDS activism in New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Reflecting on the use of ethnographic methods in dissertation research, this essay produces one account of some of the links between different communities struggling with the appearance and entrenchment of HIV/AIDS and some of the ways in which anthropology can engage with the untold or unaccounted for histories that inform this activism and the political frame of HIV/AIDS in San Juan today. This paper analyzes and engages with the configurations of power and responsibility that brought ACT UP! New York to San Juan and explores how ethnography may bring an historical focus to the communal and individual experience of activism in order to better see its effects and different manifestations in the present.


As modern computation platforms become increasingly complex, their programming interfaces are increasingly difficult to use. This complexity is especially inappropriate given the relatively simple core functionality that many of the computations implement. We present a new approach for obtaining software that executes on modern computing platforms with complex programming interfaces. Our approach starts with a simple seed program, written in the language of the developer's choice, that implements the desired core functionality. It then systematically generates inputs and observes the resulting outputs to learn the core functionality. It finally automatically regenerates new code that implements the learned core functionality on the target computing platform. This regenerated code contains boilerplate code for the complex programming interfaces that the target computing platform presents. By providing a productive new mechanism for capturing and encapsulating knowledge about how to use modern complex interfaces, this new approach promises to greatly reduce the developer effort required to obtain secure, robust software that executes on modern computing platforms.


Background The immune system plays an important part in recognising infection and diseases including cancer. Malignant cells express specific proteins on their cell surface. It is widely believed that it is these proteins that the immune system uses to recognise tumours and eventually eradicate them. When this process goes wrong, a tumour forms. The immune response to cancers in general is widely accepted to play an important role in control of tumorigenic processes, by using tumour infiltrating lymphocytes. How this process works is still being established, however there remains a potential target for cancer specific immunomodulatory treatment regimens. Aim (1) To identify tumour specific MHC class I phosphopeptide antigens on lymphoblastoid cell lines LCL's (an in vitro model for PTLD) as well as hepatic tumour tissues. (2) T-cells are immune cells which are notoriously difficult to maintain in long–term culture and as a result it is difficult to establish an 'off the shelf' T-cell product, however the aim of this project was to explore potential modalities for capturing the T-cell receptor (TCR), important in recognising tumour specific antigens and the resultant product could be used to establish a non patient–specific, but tumour specific product. Patients and methods Paediatric and adult patients were identified with hepatic malignancy and consented as per current policy. Cells were isolated and tumour specific phosphopeptide antigens were identified. These provide the targets for T-cells, and more specifically TCR's. Having identified these antigens, modalities have been explored for expanding these cells. Hybridoma technology is long established in immortalising B-cells, and this study aims to explore its potential with immortalisation of T-cells. Results A number of novel phosphopeptide antigens have been identified both in vitro as well as on patient tissues. This information has been used to identify potential T-cell targets and by formation of hybridomas we have established a method for expanding specific T-cell's in vitro. Although these hybridomas are currently unstable due to their tetraploid status, we aim to modify this protocol further to allow for stable expansion of hybridoma cells which possess the relevant TCR motif. Conclusions Identifying a modality for expanding cells with a specific TCR repertoire clearly allows us to target tumour specific phosphopeptide antigens and has the potential to be developed as an immunomodulatory therapy in patients with hepatic tumours or PTLD.


The financial crisis of the late 2000's highlighted the importance of strengthening risk management systems in financial markets. Consequently, an increasing interest in strategies to quantify risk under extreme scenarios has spawned. One of such techniques is CrashMetrics, a methodology for estimating the exposure of a portfolio to severe market movements. Using daily data, we find that CrashMetrics complements more traditional stress testing techniques, providing not only a stringent loss scenario, but one that is cemented on an observed market shock and on the estimated sensitivities of the change in portfolio value during periods of financial turmoil. Given that correlations between assets are stronger during a market crash, our findings indicate that financial institutions seem relatively more exposed to market risk under this methodology than using other market risk measures. Thus, results indicate that CrashMetrics provides vital information from a prudential perspective, alerting policymakers of significant individual or sector-specific exposures to market risk and thus, allowing preemptive action to be undertaken in a timely and efficient manner.


In this thesis, we discuss various aspects of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) model in D-dimensions. Firstly, we generalize the DGP model, which consists of a delta-function type 3-brane embedded in an infinite volume bulk-space by allowing the 3-brane to have a finite thickness. We calculate the graviton propagator in the harmonic gauge both inside and outside the brane and discuss its dependence on the thickness of the brane. We obtain two infinite towers of massive modes and tachyonic ghosts. In the thin-brane limit, we recover the four-dimensional Einstein gravity behavior of the graviton propagator which was found in the delta-function treatment. We then examine the 4D worldvolume momentum dependence of the tensor structure. Secondly, we address the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov (vDVZ) discontinuity of the 5D DGP model which arises from the breakdown of the perturbative expansion at linear order. Following a suggestion by Gabadadze [hep-th/0403161], we implement a constrained perturbative expansion parametrized by brane gauge-like parameters. We obtain the solution for the metric perturbations, explore the parameter space and show that the DGP solution exhibiting the vDVZ discontinuity corresponds to a set of measure zero. Thirdly, we discuss the weak-field Schwarzschild solution in the DGP model. By keeping up to second-order off-diagonal terms of the metric ansatz, we arrive at a perturbative expansion which is valid both far from and near the Schwarzschild radius. We calculate the lowest-order contribution explicitly and obtain the form of the metric both on the brane and in the bulk. As we approach the Schwarzschild radius, the perturbative expansion yields the standard four-dimensional Schwarzschild solution on the brane which is non-singular in the decoupling limit. This non-singular behavior is similar to the Vainshtein solution in massive gravity demonstrating the absence of the vDVZ discontinuity of the DGP model.


Abstract This study examines the relationship between financial innovation and financial sector development by exploiting Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) framework and time series annual data over the period between 2000 and 2015. Financial innovation was measured by three indexes: currency-money ratio (CMR), e-money (EM) and e-payment (EP), whilst financial sector development was measured by four indicators: financial deepening (FDP) stock market development (SMD), domestic credit (DCR), and foreign direct investment (FDI). Based on the empirical results, evidence shows significant impact of financial innovation (except for CMR) on financial deepening, stock market development and domestic credit. However, there is insignificant effect of financial innovation on foreign direct investment (FDI). The reason of significant effect of these innovations is the case of high adoption rates and high market efficiency in the financial sector. On average, financial innovations have significant influence on financial sector development, hence boosting market efficiency. Financial innovation indicators can work for or against developmental effect via the transmission mechanism, hence impacting financial development. Rapid innovations as a phenomenon in the past decades have changed the array of financial services available to customers and increased the efficiency of the financial system and are becoming an important factor in the development of the banking sector. Financial institutions (i.e. banking sector) are faced with a number of important questions, for example, how to take full advantage of new innovations and technologies, and how e-developments can change the ways in provision of better financial services and remain competitive in the long-run. Therefore, the concerned authorities should be able to implement essential reforms (financial-economic), critical measures and forward-looking policies in order to combat implications associated with the changing financial environment for a viable and sustainable financial development. Key words: Financial innovation, financial system, development indicators, GMM, approach, Kenya


The six limb leads are normally presented in a format the logic of which is traditional rather than anatomical and does not allow visual interpolation such as is customary with the six chest leads. The sequence: a VL, I, -aVR, II, aVF, III was suggested years ago, and is used in some European countries, particularly Sweden. It provides a better impression of the extent of the changes of inferior infarction and makes the rather neglected lead aVR much more useful, though reversed in polarity. It also provides a more direct indication of the electrical axis, and simplifies comparisons with the frontal plane vectorcardiogram. Because modern digital electrocardiographs can provide the sequenced format, this seems a good time to review the advantages of adopting it.


A novel valence bond based automatic diabatisation method by compression, called valence bond based compression approach for dibatization, VBCAD, is presented in this letter. It is a "black-box" type method that provides an automatic diabatisation from a classical valence bond (VB) perspective. In VBCAD, a model space projection is performed by an eigenvalue decomposition algorithm followed by dimensional reduction based on a sequence of Householder transformations. Our diabaticity criterion is implemented in a way that maximizes the diversity of VB structure weights between different diabatic states. Owing to the rigorous Householder transformations employed in this entire procedure, the invariance of the target eigensubspace is preserved. This is illustrated on two prototypical examples.


The U/Pb isotopic system of zircons is a powerful tool to date rocks. Nevertheless interpretation of discordant U/Pb ages is again and again subject of discussions. We focussed our study on the mobilisation of U and Pb under the hydrothemal influence of Ca-dominated basement brines. Electron microprobe studies on discordant zircon fractions from different localities in Sweden, the German Fichtelgebirge and Erzgebirge show considerable influence of percolating Ca-rich fluids. Incorporation of Ca is restricted to disordered metamict zones with high U-content and accompanied by enrichment of Na, Al and Fe. Zones with low U-content remained nearly unaffected by the fluids. Accompanying U/Pb-analyses show that the varying share of zircon substance susceptible to alteration is responsible for strong diffences in degree of discordances. To determine the degree of influence of these reactive fluids on the U/Pb-systematics of zircons we carried out a sereis of hydrothermal eyperiments using NaCl-CaCl2-solutions. Experiments lead to considerable changes in the 207Pb/235U and 206Pb/238U ratios of the treated zircon fraction. Due to varying changes in the experimetnal conditions we were able to create artificial discordias. Leaching is not only restricted to Pb. U an! d the light and heavy rare earth elements are also mobilised during hydrothermal alteration. Furthermore studies on zircons of the Fichtelgebirge show U enrichment within hydrothermally altered areas which lead to geologically meaningless U/Pb-ages. This phenomenon is probably in close connexion with widespread U-ore-mineralisations formed during the intrusion of young variscan granites.


Four compounds were isolated from the fruit of cultivated Panax ginseng and identified as beta-sitosterol,20(R)-protopanaxatriol, daucosterine and 20(R)-ginsenoside-Rg3 on the basis of physicochemical constants and spectral evidences.


We tested a novel way of encouraging the adoption of improved maize seeds in Benin. In the treatment group, farmers were provided with intensive agricultural-extension support and a full package of inputs to test on one of their plots. In the control group, farmers were offered improved seeds, and agricultural-extension agents gave them only limited support. Our treatment was designed to encourage farmers to experiment with improved seeds by providing intensive technical support and free inputs throughout the maize crop season. Using a cluster randomized design and data on farmers' experimental plots, we found a 23% increase in maize yields with our intervention as compared to the less resource-intensive policy solution. Further analyses suggested that it was not enough to expose farmers to a one-time resource-intensive model because the impact on their production was not long-lasting.


This paper reports the results of an extensive project to model interregional migration within England and Wales. The project took place over a two-year period and was sponsored by the UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (formerly the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions). The results of the study are reported in three separate papers. In this paper we present an overview of the project and then describe in detail both the process of modelling out-migration rates from origins across England and Wales and the calibration results from this modelling stage. The results yield important information on the determinants of out-migration and population re-distribution within England and Wales. In paper 2 we describe the modelling of the destination choices of migrants and the calibration results from such models. In paper 3 we tie both the out-migration and the destination choice results together into a mapping and visualisation system (MIGMOD) which can be used to assess the impacts of various policies on population movements in England and Wales. The simple policy scenarios reported in this third paper are illustrative and indicative of the model's potential, rather than necessarily being a true reflection of the effects of policy changes. The three papers contribute substantially to the existing migration literature because they present the most exhaustive analysis of the determinants of both out-migration and destination choice that has ever been undertaken. The number of variables in both modelling processes is far larger than has ever been assembled before and the results therefore provide much greater insight into the role of various attributes in determining out-migration rates and in-migration rates than has previously been possible. The papers also provide an interesting lesson in a problem rarely encountered—that of having too much data.


The presence of a conductive layers of hot-formed oxide on the surface of bars for pre or post-compressing structures can promote localized attacks as a function of pH. The aggressive local environment in the occluded cells inside localized attacks has as consequence the possibility of initiation of stress corrosion cracking. In this paper, the stress corrosion cracking behavior of high strength steels proposed for tendons was studied by means of Constant Load (CL) tests and Slow Strain Rate (SSR) tests. Critical ranges of pH for cracking were verified. The promoting role of localized attack was confirmed. Further, electrochemical tests were performed on bars in as received surface conditions, in order to evaluate pitting initiation. The adverse effect of mill scale was recognized.


Background: Camptothecin (CPT), a pentacyclic alkaloid isolated by Wall et al. in 1958 from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata, was reported to possess an interesting antitumor activity. Late in 1985, it was reported by Liu et al. that the cytotoxic activity of CPT was attributed to a novel mechanism of action involving the nuclear enzyme classified as type I DNA topoisomerase. Since the explanation of the unique mechanism of action, many derivatives have been synthesized and some of them are in various stages of preclinical and clinical development. Among them, two derivatives, topotecan and irinotecan, have successfully entered into the market and are used as topoisomerase I poisons in clinical practice. Objective: The main focus of the present review is to describe the development of CPT derivatives over the years dividing them by decades according to the date of discovery and focusing attention on molecules that were published in patents. Results/conclusion: To summarize, > 150 patents have been deposited over the past 30 years. Structure–activity relationship studies suggest that substitutions at the 7-, 9or 10-positions of most CPT derivatives enhance their antitumor activity, but at the 11or 5-position usually lead to activity decrease.


For the final running period of HERA, a recoil detector was installed at the HERMES experiment to improve measurements of hard exclusive processes in charged-lepton nucleon scattering. Here, deeply virtual Compton scattering is of particular interest as this process provides constraints on generalised parton distributions that give access to the total angular momenta of quarks within the nucleon. The HERMES recoil detector was designed to improve the selection of exclusive events by a direct measurement of the four-momentum of the recoiling particle. It consisted of three components: two layers of double-sided silicon strip sensors inside the HERA beam vacuum, a two-barrel scintillating fibre tracker, and a photon detector. All sub-detectors were located inside a solenoidal magnetic field with a field strength of 1T. The recoil detector was installed in late 2005. After the commissioning of all components was finished in September 2006, it operated stably until the end of data taking at HERA end of June 2007. The present paper gives a brief overview of the physics processes of interest and the general detector design. The recoil detector components, their calibration, the momentum reconstruction of charged particles, and the event selection are described in detail. The paper closes with a summary of the performance of the detection system.


Creating visual narrative art (VNA) of stories that consumers and brands tell achieves several objectives. First, creating VNA revises and deepens sense making of the meaning of events in the story and what the complete story implies about oneself and others. Second, creating VNA surfaces unconscious thinking of the protagonist and other actors in the story as well as the storyteller (recognizing that in many presentations of stories an actor in the story is also the story teller); unconscious thinking in stories relating to consumer and brand experiences reflect one or more archetype (Jung, 1916/1968) fulfillments by the protagonist and the storyteller; given that almost all authors agree on a distinction between processes that are unconscious, rapid, automatic, and high capacity (System 1 processing) and those that are conscious, slow, and deliberative (System 2 processing; see Evans, 2008), VNA enables and enriches processing, particularly relating to System 1 processing—enabling more emotional versus rational processing. Third, creating VNA of stories is inherently and uniquely fulfilling/pleasurable/healing for the artist; using visual media allows artists to express emotions of the protagonist and/or audience member, to vent anger, or to report bliss about events and outcomes that words alone cannot communicate; VNA provides a tangible, emotional, and holistic (gestalt) experience that is uniquely satisfying and does so in a form that many audience members enjoy over and over again. This article elaborates on the rationales for its central proposition, briefly reviews relevant literature on VNA, and illustrates one mode of VNA for the complementary stories told by a consumer and brand. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Sam R. Lloyd is president of SuccessSystems, Inc., of Boulder, Colorado. He is a past director of the Management Center of Southern Methodist University and has been Assistant Dean of the School of Business at University of Missouri, St. Louis. For the past 25 years, Mr. Lloyd has trained tens of thousands of individuals in many major organizations, including Motorola, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hewlett-Packard, Frito-Lay, and Procter & Gamble, among others. Coverage includes- To improve relationship skills To explain aggressive, assertive, and nonassertive speech and body language To show assertive behavior according to personality type


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To examine the extent to which the findings from an integrative review regarding perioperative patient advocacy could be empirically supported, and to describe Swedish registered nurse anaesthetists' patient advocacy actions and interactions during the perioperative period.

BACKGROUND
Patient advocacy is practiced by various healthcare professionals in promoting the well-being of patients. It is complex, and in a general healthcare context, it has been described as supporting the patients both physiologically and psychologically. During general anaesthesia, the patient enters an unconscious state, and the registered nurse anaesthetist safeguards patient privacy and autonomy.

DESIGN
Qualitative descriptive.

METHODS
Individual, nonparticipant observations (n = 16) with eight registered nurse anaesthetists. The observer followed the nurses unobtrusively by shadowing them during the perioperative phase on two separate occasions. The analysis was conducted with a directed content analysis in the light of four predetermined categories, identified in a previous integrative review of patient advocacy in the perioperative setting: protecting, value preserving, supporting and informing.

RESULTS
The predetermined categories were empirically supported. They were further refined by identifying 11 new subcategories leading to a conceptual extension of the theoretical frame. The registered nurse anaesthetists interacted with the patient and all members of the surgical team when practicing perioperative patient advocacy and the actions were mostly initiated by the registered nurse anaesthetists themselves.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings offer a new insight into the registered nurse anaesthetist's professional role. The observations deepen the understanding of the registered nurse anaesthetists' perioperative patient advocacy actions and can contribute to a more reflective and theory-oriented view of practice.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The results from this study could be used to help registered nurse anaesthetists and their students understand practice in a more complete and insightful way.


Superconducting YBCO c-axis oriented thin films have been grown by MOMBE (metalorganic molecular-beam-epitaxy). Growth of the films on different substrates [100] (Y,Nd)AlO/sub 3/, [100] SrTiO/sub 3/ and [100] MgO has been investigated by in situ monitoring the reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). The paper discusses our results suggesting significant differences in films growth on the three presented substrates. The highest quality (high uniformity, epitaxy and low roughness) has been attained for the films prepared on SrTiO/sub 3/. All films, regardless substrates, have shown values between 81 and 84 K for zero resistance critical temperature T/sub c0/.


In this paper we present a novel illumination model that takes into account multiple anisotropic scattering in a layer bounded by two rough surfaces. We compute the model by a discrete-ordinate solution of the equation of radiative transfer. This approach is orders of magnitude faster than a Monte Carlo simulation and does not suffer from any noisy artifacts. By fitting low order splines to our results we are able to build analytical shaders. This is highly desirable since animators typically want to texture map the parameters of such a shader for higher realism. We apply our model to the important problem of rendering human skin. Our model does not seem to have appeared before in the optics literature. Most previous models did not handle rough surfaces at the skin's boundary. Also we introduce a simple analytical bidirectional transmittance distribution function (BTDF) for an isotropic rough surface by generalizing the Cook-Torrance model.


Dynamic slope stability in open-pit mines still remains a challenging task in the computational mining design. Earthquake and blasting are two significant sources of dynamic loads that can cause many damages to open-pit mines in active seismic areas and during exploitation cycles. In this work, the effects of earthquake and blasting on the stability of the NW slope of Chadormalu mine are compared by a numerical modeling method. The dynamic results show that the maximum displacement under earthquake and blasting loads within the slope are 844 mm and 146 mm, respectively. According to the shear strain results, both the earthquake and blasting waveforms are destructive, while the earthquake waveforms cause more damages to the slope. Moreover, the deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard analyses are carried out to assess the seismicity of the mine area. The experimental results indicate that the maximum values for the vertical and horizontal accelerations are 0.55 g and 0.75 g, respectively. The maximum calculated acceleration is then scaled to the selected earthquake accelerograms. In order to show the effective impact of the established scale, the model is executed using the original accelerograms. The results obtained show that the established scale prevents overestimation and underestimation of the displacement and strain. Therefore, applying scaled accelerograms in a dynamic slope stability analysis in mine slopes leads to more reliable and robust results. The overall results show that a strong earthquake causes plenty of damages to the slope, and consequently, interrupts the mining cycle. Hence, the seismic study and dynamic slope stability should be considered as a part of the computational mining design.


Wladyslaw K. Welfe was one of the most prominent Polish statisticians, econometricians, economists, widely known also in the world. He originated Lodz's and Polish school of modeling and forecasting Polish national economy and its sectors as are understood by Polish Central Statistical Office. He was graduated in 1949 at the University of Lodz Faculty of Law and Economics. He was active in many fields, i.e. science, education, administration. His participation in many national committees (for research grants, scientific prizes), organization of new scientific institutions (Research Group for Modeling National Economies), AMFET – society were internationally well recognized. Great long-run achievement of his origin is 40-years existing international conference "Macromodels" gathering researches from Poland and other East-European countries, as well as their western counterparts. He was very effectively fulfilling Deans duties (4 times), and pro-Rector's of the University of Lodz duties. From his initiative originated Department of Econometrics was headed by him from 1965 till 1966 and Institute of Econometrics and Statistics of which he was director in the period 1966-1999. He was also the Chairman of the Econometrics and Statistics Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, active member- correspondent of PAN, member of Ukraine Academy of Sciences, EEA, AESAL, IIOA, EES, ŁTN. Scientific recognition brought him the titles of  doctor honoris causa Uppsala Univ., Lyon II Univ., Economic Academy of Cracow, University of Lodz. He promoted 150 M.Sc, 37 Ph.D, 16 habilitation theses. He was author or coauthor of 68 monographs over 300 articles and 4 textbooks. He was distinguished by Polish Government giving him many prizes, medals crossers (including officer, and commodore crosses with star).


To evaluate surgical and medical treatment of GH-producing pituitary tumors and GH supplement to GH-deficient patients, we determined the reference values for serum IGF-I in Japanese adults. The serum IGF-I concentration in 454 apparently healthy subjects (246 men aged 21-70 years and 208 women aged 21-72 years) was measured with a commercial RIA kit after acid-ethanol extraction. The concentration of serum IGF-I decreased with age in both sexes. The IGF-I in females was significantly higher than that in males in the group aged 21-30 years and lower in the group aged 61-72 years. We conclude that an ageor sex-related standard is necessary for comparing IGF-I values in patients.


BACKGROUND
Patients with multiple sclerosis practice help-seeking behaviors largely because of the progression of this physically exhausting disease, which has far reaching psychosocial consequences and requires hospitalization during severe disease exacerbations.

PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to describe the perspectives and experiences of Iranian patients with multiple sclerosis regarding help-seeking behaviors.

METHODS
A qualitative design, based on the content analysis approach, was used. Data were drawn from unstructured interviews that were held with 23 participants, who were referred from two teaching hospitals and from the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Ahvaz, Iran.

RESULTS
During the data analysis, four main themes emerged, including "reliance on God and recourse to the imams," "striving to gain caring knowledge," "a need for comprehensive support," and "attention to spiritual care."

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Healthcare team members, especially nurses, should pay attention to perspectives of patients with multiple sclerosis and try to address these patients' help-seeking behaviors to provide high-quality care.The authors hope that the findings of this study will inform the construction of interventional strategies to improve nursing care and facilitate the provision of better support services for people with MS.


In this paper, some final results of 25-year investigations carried out in Scientific Centre for Radiation Medicine and Burns MH RA (SCRMB) on the Armenian cohort of the Chernobyl accident consequences liquidators are shown. These results show that health conditions of the liquidators became worse during the whole observation period. A considerable development of both pathological states atypical of radiation damages and diseases, which may be considered as radiation-induced ones, was determined. Rise of the sickness rate of almost all organism systems, first of all, nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive ones, was observed. In 70% of liquidators the main disease was primarily detected after working on CNPP. In the intervening years, the average number of diagnoses per 1 liquidator increased from 1.5 in 1987 to 7-8 in the recent time. In addition to the detected diseases, particular functional shifts in neuropsychological and vegetative status of the liquidators were observed. The overwhelming majority of them have increased tonicity of the sympathetic vegetative nervous system, asthenic and depressive syndromes occurring in the form of weakness, somnolence, mood instability, mental capacity decrease, and memory defects. In the paper, the results of investigations aimed at clarification of changes in biological aging processes of the liquidators and assessment of their "life quality" features in terms of physical, psychical and social welfare are considered. Biological aged-related passportization in a definite part of liquidators elucidated an accelerated aging rate. The studies were performed with the help of SF-36 inquirer and indicated that health status aggravation of the liquidators also affected their life satisfaction. The "life quality" indices of the liquidators significantly concede the overall average standards by both physical health and psychical and social welfare scales.


Phenomenology is a descriptive approach to obtaining knowledge that focuses on capturing the essence of human experience through the point of view of a distinct individual. As a form of qualitative nursing research, it provides a perspective apart from that of empirical sciences which see the human mind and body as a physical-material object only open to study through empirical science and treatable through physical remedies. This "how-to" book for novice researchers and specialists alike describes the foundations of phenomenology and the specifics of how to conduct nursing research using phenomenological designs. It is part of an innovative series for novice researchers and specialists alike focusing on state-of-the art methodologies from a nursing perspective. Authored by international scholars of qualitative nursing research, the book elucidates the theoretical rationale for using phenomenology, describes its components, and delineates a plan to conduct studies that includes appropriate methods, ethical considerations, and potential pitfalls. The book provides guidance for writing a research proposal that justifies the importance or potential impact of a study and describes how to conduct interviews that best elicit information. It focuses on achieving rigor in phenomenological research in regard to accuracy and replicability, and discusses different types of data collection and analysis and when to use them. Each chapter provides objectives, competencies, review questions, critical thinking exercises, and links to web resources. Appendices include a list of qualitative research journals, textbooks, and other resources for more in-depth study as well as examples of research proposals and interviewing techniques. The book will be of value to novice and experienced nurse researchers, graduate teachers and students, in-service educators and students, and nursing research staff at health care institutions. Key Features: * Comprises the first "how-to" guide to conducting qualitative phenomenological research from a nursing perspective* Presents a comprehensive plan for conducting studies and appropriate measures, ethical considerations, and potential challenges* Guides readers in writing a research proposal that justifies the importance or potential impact of a study* Provides examples of interviews that best elicit information* Written by international phenomenology scholars


This paper presents a study of the radio channel characteristics between a capsule endoscopy and a multi on-body antenna system on ultra wideband wireless body area networks (UWB-WBAN). Multiple on-body antennas are required to provide reliable communication link between the capsule and the on-body device, but also essential for capsule localization. The main aim is to study the variation of the frequency and time domain channel characteristics for the selected on-body antennas in different capsule locations, including the most challenging capsule locations deep inside the tissues or far away from most of the antennas. This study also evaluates whether five of selected type directive on-body antennas is enough to cover the intestine area thoroughly. The study is conducted with CST Studio Suite simulations and one of its anatomical voxel models. A simplified capsule model and a directive on-body antenna designed for low-band UWB in-body communications are used in this study. It is found that five of this type directive on-body antennas provide sufficient coverage over the intestine area even in the most challenging capsule locations. In certain capsule locations, the variation between the channel attenuations can be significant, over 40 dB within the frequency range of interest, if the capsule is located deep inside the tissues without smooth access to outer fat layer through which the signal could travel easily to different on-body antennas. Instead, if the capsule is located close to the subcutaneous fat layer, the channel attenuation is moderate even for the antennas which are located far from the capsule.


Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) can range in spectrum from simple hepatic steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is characterized by lipotoxicity, hepatocellular ballooning, and inflammation and can progress to cirrhosis. Weight loss is the cornerstone treatment for NAFLD and NASH. Various randomized controlled trials have shown that weight loss of ≥5-10% leads to significant improvements in hepatic steatosis. Diets high in sodium and fructose have been implicated in the pathogenesis of NAFLD. Although some clinical studies suggest that an isocaloric high-fructose diet does not worsen NAFLD, these clinical studies are often short in duration. More recently, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet, a sodium-restricted diet, has been associated with less prevalence of NAFLD and has been shown to improve NAFLD. In addition, the Mediterranean diet has been promising in improving hepatic steatosis, and a larger randomized controlled trial is currently enrolling subjects. For those who are unable to pursue weight loss through dietary approaches, bariatric surgery has been shown to improve hepatic steatosis and steatohepatitis. This method has been variable in improving hepatic fibrosis. In conclusion, weight loss is crucial to the improvement of NAFLD and NASH, and patients should attempt various diets in an attempt to achieve weight loss.


Free vibration of a beam with multiple arbitrarily placed lateral viscous dampers is investigated to gain insight into the intrinsic dynamic features of non-proportional damped systems. In terms of virtual boundary condition method, complex modes of a damper-beam system are achieved, and the solution is also suitable for the beams that have different boundary conditions. The features of the wave numbers satisfying the frequency equation were discussed in theory. The orthogonality analysis conducted in this paper provides two orthogonality conditions for complex modes. Pseudoundamped natural frequencies, damping ratios and complex modes are surveyed via numerical study. The analysis on the evolution of complex modes shows that the increasing damping would lead to over damped modes, and the mode shape that corresponds to the small one of a pair of real-valued natural frequencies is close to the static deformation shape of a beam subjected to static forces located at the positions of the dampers. For the rest modes that would never be over damped with increasing damping, the mode shapes and corresponding psuedoundamped natural frequencies will converge to that of a beam with rolling supports located at where dampers are placed. The exact solution of free vibration of a multiple-span beam is presented in addition.


High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharges often use a single pulse, when a negative voltage (0.5 - 1.5 kV typically) and very high currents (several hundred A) are applied to the cathode during the plasma on time. Such 'single pulse' HiPIMS (s-HiPIMS) discharges have several limitations, first of all in terms of the ion control, and HiPIMS supporting multiple pulse operation such as bipolar HiPIMS (b-HiPIMS, or BPH) or multi-pulse HiPIMS (m-HiPIMS) have been proposed several years ago. In our study, the effects of variation of the applied power, plasma pulse duration, pulse positive voltage (b-HiPIMS case), delay between the plasma pulses and their number (m-HiPIMS case), as well as the other effects were examined. As a result, the beneficial effect of bipolar HiPIMS pulsing is shown. The ion acceleration and altering film microstructure are evident in this case. Along with this, the effect of an optimum pulse number for better ionization control in the m-HiPIMS case is also demonstrated. This phenomenon is related to a proper synchronization between the wave of ions propagating from the cathode and the following m-HiPIMS pulse.


To provide event-driven services in IoT, scalable methods of topic-based pub/sub messaging are indispensable. Methods using structured overlay networks are promising candidates. However, existing methods have the problem of wasting network resources, because they lack adaptivity to "exhaust data," which have low or no value most of the time. The problem contains two aspects. One is that each publisher node continues to forward data to a relay node even if there are no subscribers. The other is that excessively large multicast trees are constructed for low value data, which will be received by only a small number of subscribers. In this paper, we formulate the desirable design of overlay networks by defining a property called "strong relay-free" as an expansion of relay-free property. The property involves publishers and subscribers composing connected subgraphs to enable detecting the absence of subscribers and autonomously adjusting the tree size. We also propose a practical method satisfying the property by using Skip Graph, and evaluate it through simulation experiments. We confirmed that the proposed method can suspend publishing adaptively, and shorten the path length on multicast trees by more than 75% under an experimental condition with 100,000 nodes.


—Spatial modulation (SM) is a new transmission technique for multi-antenna systems in which the transmit antennas are used to modulate the signal. In this paper, the symbol error rate (SER) performance of SM is investigated. In SM, a signal domain modulation (i.e. amplitude-phase modulation) and an antenna domain modulation (i.e. space shift keying) are combined together to achieve a certain transmission rate while exploiting the properties of two independent modulation domains. A key question is the fine balance between the constellation sizes in the two domains when a constant rate is targeted. For a fixed rate, there are many ways to assign constellation vectors to the spatial and signal domains. In this paper, we investigate optimal constellation breakdown between space and signal domains. The analysis is based on the union bound of the error probability of SM with two typical APM schemes, i.e. phase-shift keying (PSK) and square quadrature amplitude modulation (S-QAM). It is shown that, at any transmission rate, there exists an optimal APM dimension in which the SER is minimized. Furthermore, a trade-off between the number of transmit antennas and the transmit power is introduced.


The present study entitled Hero Construction Narrative in A Bug's Life , The Film aims to investigate the film narrative of hero construction. The study employs a descriptive qualitative study with textual analysis approach. The present study adopted Hourihan's (1997) theory as its major theoretical framework and the language of film theory (Heintz and Stracey, 2006). The study found that the hero construction in the film is presented through three phases there are the initiation phase, the conflict phase and the resolution phase. These phases are also analyzed through the language of the film. They are crafted through the pattern of cause and effect where film characters become the agent of causality. These characters are put in binary opposition to construct the hero in the narrative which is mediated through the language of film, such as camera shots, camera movement and mise en scene . The uses of binary opposition support the delivery of the didactic message in the film, since animation films that focus on hero's journey are often directed to children. Keywords : Film, Animation Film, Narrative Cinema, Hero Construction, Children's Literature


Hilmi Mizani: The Views of Salafy Islamic Boarding School Leaders on Pesantren Modernization (A Study at Ibnul Amin, Al Mursyidul Amin, and Yasin Islamic Boarding Schools South Kalimantan), Advisors: 1. Prof. Dr. H. Syaifuddin Sabda, M.Ag, 2. Dr. H. Husnul Yaqin, M.Ed, Dissertation, Doctorate Program IAIN Antasari Banjarmasin (2016).

The modernization has influenced the lives of Muslims in many different aspects, including education. As modernization has negative and positive effects, Indonesian Islamic boarding schools responded contradictorily at beginning toward the modernization and its development in education. Some boarding schools accept modernization by doing various adjustments in the system of education, while others keep their traditional education system. These kinds of schools are known as salafy Islamic boarding schools.
This phenomenon also occurred at Islamic boarding schools in South Kalimantan, which currently has three different systems. The first is modern pesantren, another is the one that integrates conventional system and modern education system, and the last is pesantren which tends to preserve the conventional culture educational system (salafy). Since there are a number of criticisms dealing with the salafy education system and its weaknessess, the researcher is interested to conduct the research on this aspect with focuses on Kiai as senior leaders and decision makers.
This research emphasizes primarily on how salafy leaders view pesantren modernization in South Kalimantan. This is then specified into four aspects including the modernizing curriculum, instruction, assessment, and school management.
This research used a qualitative research method. The subjects of the research were three senior leaders of Salafy Boarding Schools in South Kalimantan; Ibnul Amin, Al Mursyidul Amin and Yasin boarding schools. In depth interviews, participant observation and documentation were used for collecting the data. The data was analized through data reduction, data presentation, drawing conclusion and verification.
The result shows that thesenior leaders of Salafy Boarding schools in South Kalimantan realize that modernization in education is important to meet the new demand of society. However, not all aspects can be modernized since the salafy boarding schools have their own peculiarities and different from other educational institutions. Therefore, the leaders of salafy receive modernization in the education system within certain limitations.
It is also found that there are some aspects of education that need to be modernized in the boarding school including modernizing curriculum, learning instruction, assessment, and pondok pesantren management
In modernizing curriculum, Salafy Pesantrens should develop the new forms of curriculum, integrate general subjects, and extra curricular activities as well as vocational education into their current curriculum.The second aspect is modernizing learning instruction which includes well-prepared lesson plans, the use of appropriate strategies, teaching methods and modern teaching media. It is also the fact that the Salafy pesantrens still mantain their traditional learning system in which both teachers and students read and learn the same books at the same time. In addition, the boarding schools do not have modern instructional media such as laptops, LCD and internet facilities.
The next aspect is modernizing assessment. The leaders of Salafy Boarding schools recognize the importance of formal assesment to evaluate the success of the educational process. More over, the assessment is also carried out to determine the students'stage in reading the book, their grade and to determine whether they pass or no.
 The last aspect is modernizing in boarding school management. The leaders believe that educational process should be performed effectively and efficiently. This management involves modernization of curriculum management, students management, personal management, classroom management, financial management and the management of realtionship with public boarding school.


This thesis is clearly discussed on the powder metallurgy process. A product named "Lower Bearing Blank" is chosen to make this thesis more specific. This product is widely used in the air compressor. We select this product because it is the major part produced by Sumitomo Electronic Sintered Components (SESC). For this purpose, we met the manufacturer of this product, SESC, to study and investigate the powder metallurgy process practically. A • couple of months was spent and reserved to accumulate the complete data. Several tests and experiments were conducted for that reason. The powder metallurgy process consists of preparing metal powders, compacting them into shapes and sintering them to impart strength, hardness, and toughness. Although size and weight are limited, the process is capable of producing relative complex parts economically, in net shape form to close tolerance, from a wide variety of metal and alloy powders. Control of powders shape and quality, process variables, and sintering atmospheres are important consideration in product quality. Parts may be subjected to additional metalworking, machining and finishing operation to impart certain geometric features and to improve properties and dimensional accuracy. Density and mechanical and physical properties can be controlled by tooling design and compacting pressure. Some critical parts, such as jet-engines component, are now being made by powder metallurgy technique. By controlling porosity product such as filters and oil impregnated bearing can be made. The powder metallurgy process is suitable for medium to high volume production runs, and has competitive advantages over other methods of production, such as casting, forging, and machining.


TNF-α is known to be an important mediator of tissue damage during allograft rejection and graft-vs-host disease (GVHD), but its role in supporting T cell responses to allogeneic Ags is unclear. We have studied this question by comparing normal mice with those lacking the p55 (p55 TNFR−/−) or p75 (p75 TNFR−/−) TNF-α receptors as donors in well-defined bone marrow transplant (BMT) models. Recipients of p55 TNFR−/− cells had significantly reduced mortality and morbidity from GVHD compared with the other two sources of T cells. In vitro, T cells lacking the p55 (but not the p75) TNF-α receptor exhibited decreased proliferation and production of Th1 cytokines in MLC. This defect was only partially restored by exogenous IL-2 and affected both CD4+ and CD8+ populations. CD8+ p55 TNFR−/− proliferation was impaired independently of IL-2 whereas CTL effector function was impaired in an IL-2-dependent fashion. Inhibition of TNF-α with TNFR:Fc in primary MLC also impaired the proliferation and Th1 differentiation of wild-type T cells. BMT mixing experiments demonstrated that the reduced ability of p55 TNFR−/− donor cells to induce GVHD was due to the absence of the p55 TNFR on T cells rather than bone marrow cells. These data highlight the importance of TNF-α in alloreactive T cell responses and suggest that inhibition of the T cell p55 TNF-α receptor may provide an additional useful therapeutic maneuver to inhibit alloreactive T cell responses following bone marrow and solid organ transplantation.


This study assessed the Development of Electronic Human Resource Management
for public institutions in Tanzania taking the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority as
the case. The study had three specific objectives which were to: assess the
technological environment for e- HRM system development; to measure the extent to
which management supports e-HRM system development; and to examine the
availability and implementation of regulatory frameworks associated with e-HRM
system development. The study involved a total of 97 employees of TCAA from
seven stations. Data was collected by the use of questionnaires designed in a five
points of the Likert Scale. It also made use of observation and documentary reviews.
The findings revealed that government institutions have not put enough efforts in
creating conducive technological environment for general ICT development. There is
poor management support in terms of setting aside budget for e-HRM system, ICT
facilities and skills training of employees. There are also no clear regulatory
framework including laws, regulations, policies and procedures for managing ICTs
within the institution. The study concluded that e-HRM system development is very
important in the contemporary world for efficient and effective performance of
organizations. The study recommends that in order for e-HRM system development
to be successful in organizations, the government should allocate reasonable budget
for investing in ICTs development in its departments for ICT skills training of
experts and employees, facilities and systems that fit the needs of those
organizations. In order to accomplish this, a clear regulatory framework involving
policies which support effective ICTs development within government institution
must be put in place.


Abstract Background: Pneumonia is a common cause of hospitalization in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women. Aim: This article seeks to describe the importance of immunizing against pneumonia in Aboriginal Australians and suggest strategies for screening and follow-up. Method: An integrative literature review, using both published and gray literature was undertaken to identify methods of screening and surveillance strategies for pneumococcus. Results: The literature was summarized under the following themes: Pneumococcal disease; prevention strategies; access to care; improving access to vaccinations; culturally competent interventions and the role of Aboriginal health professionals. Conclusion: Community controlled conditions and the role of the Aboriginal Health Workers are seen as critical to reducing health disparities. Nurses can play a critical role in bridging the gap between mainstream and community controlled organizations. Working to increase the numbers of Aboriginal health professionals is a critical step in improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.


Abstract In this study, nonlinear wave modulation in nanorods is examined on the basis of nonlocal elasticity theory. Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is employed to derive nonlinear equations for the motion of nanorods. The analysis of the modulation of axial waves in nonlocal elastic media is performed, and the reductive perturbation method is used for the solution of the nonlinear equations. The propagation of weakly nonlinear and strongly dispersive waves is investigated, and the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation is acquired as an evolution equation. For the purpose of a numerical investigation of the nonlocal impacts on the NLS equation, it has been investigated whether envelope solitary wave solutions exist by utilizing the physical and geometric features of the carbon nanotubes. Amplitude dependent wave frequencies, phase and group velocities have been obtained and they have compared for the linear local, the linear nonlocal, the nonlinear local and the nonlinear nonlocal cases.


Background: Minimally invasive spine surgery requires placement of the skin incision at an ideal location in the patient's back by the surgeon. However, numerous fluoroscopic x-ray images are sometimes required to find the site of entry, thereby exposing patients and Operating Room personnel to additional radiation. To minimize this exposure, a radiopaque localizer grid was devised to increase planning efficiency and reduce radiation exposure. Results: The radiopaque localizer grid was utilized to plan the point of entry for minimally invasive spine surgery. Use of the grid allowed the surgeon to accurately pinpoint the ideal entry point for the procedure with just one or two fluoroscopic X-ray images. Conclusions: The reusable localizer grid is a simple and practical device that may be utilized to more efficiently plan an entry site on the skin, thus reducing radiation exposure. This device or a modified version may be utilized for any procedure involving the spine.


The aims of this experiment was to study the inhibition effect of betel leaf meal (BLM) addition into concentrate diet on mastitis causing bacteria and on rumen fermentation condition. The study consisted of five dietary treatments of BLM level in concentrate feed, i.e., 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, and 8% and four replicates of each treatment. The treatment diets together with napier grass in ratio of 40 : 60 were fermented using rumen liquor.  All treatments were examined their antibacterial activity before and after fermentation. After four hours fermentation, supernatant of each samples were analyzed for VFA, NH 3, number of bacteria and protozoa. Dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) digestibility were analyzed after 48 h fermentation. The results showed that before fermentation, 8% BLM addition caused the bigest (P<0.05) inhibition diameter of Staphylococcus spp. growth compared to other lower levels. However after fermentation there were no significant differences among the addition levels of BLM.  Two per cent of BLM addition produced higher VFA (P<0.05) than the other addition levels. Ammoniaconcentration, dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) digestibility were not different among the treatments. Addition of BLM significantly (P<0.01) decreased protozoa number, but did not affect bacterial count. It is concluded that the addition of 2% BLM in concentrate feed can be used effectively to inhibit the growth of mastitis causing bacteria ( Staphylococcus spp.) and does not disturb rumen fermentation condition.


ABSTRACT Taxonomic and thematic relations are part of an integrated memory system grounded in the sensory, perceptual and motor systems and distributed across important brain regions. Although essential for human communication and cognition, their neural basis is still a point of controversy. This study used neuroimaging to demonstrate the involvement of the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal regions in comparison to the control (pseudo-word condition). Subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an auditory semantic priming task involving decision-making about similarities of the presented word pairs based on taxonomic and thematic relations. The precise common region was identified as the ventral occipito-temporal cortex. Direct comparison across semantic conditions indicated that the inferior frontal, supramarginal gyrus, medial and anterior temporal poles were involved as key regions for taxonomic relations. Additional regions for thematic relations were not identified, thus implying the possibility of highly variable nature of taxonomic and thematic relation.


Can we teach problem solving in a clinical nursing laboratory? Elfi Ashcroft Technical Officer & Nursing Laboratory Manager University of Wollongong Abstract: The objectives of clinical nursing laboratories are the acquisition of psychomotor skills and the simulation of realistic clinical situations (Reilly and Oerman, 1992). A successful educational experience should also encourage the student to identify their development needs and initiate their own learning response (Neary, 2000). Laboratory classes are congested with factual information and demonstration (show and tell). Students, however, rarely have enough time to explore equipment and to acquire technical problem solving skills. The idea to develop a laboratory session that differed from the usual approach within the department emerged from the laboratory manager's concern for how little skill students initially acquired and ultimately retained when confronted with multiple, complex psychomotor skills and the use of technical equipment. Lecturers supported the development of a different teaching approach and the nursing laboratory manager designed a clinical laboratory session that prompted self directed learning and concentrated on problem solving and critical thinking processes within a simulated clinical scenario. The content was selected to actively encourage second year nursing students to combine psychomotor skills with cognitive skills to solve a given problem. Team working, time management and communication issues were incorporated to achieve a meaningful and challenging scenario.


Guide to discovering datasets with suggested GALILEO materials as well as existing guides on tests & measures, census data and plagiarism.


Flexible thin-film micro combustion-thermoelectric coupled (tf-MTC) device which composed of annular thin-film thermoelectric generator (ATTEG) and catalytic combustor based on Pt nanoparticles shows the potential to provide power for the portable electronic devices. The tf-MTC with in suit heat source directly attached on the ATTEG shows a great reduction of heat loss without the mechanical contact between TEG and heat source. The device shows higer power output for the higher quality temperature input of the catalytic combustion when compared with the flexible thermoelectric device without in situ heat source, and is suitable for various application scenarios for the flexibility and small size. Methanol and ethanol were chosen as the fuel of catalytic combustion for the study of the output performance of the coupled device to find out the appropriate application scenarios. This paper mainly explored the difference of output performances of the coupled device with methanol and ethanol. With the consideration of the characteristics of methanol and ethanol during catalytic combustion based on Pt nanoparticles. Multicycle test with on and off state of the reactant mixture was applied to methanol, and single cycle test with long time use was applied to both methanol and ethanol. The results of multicycle test showed similar repetitive typical temperature and output performance of the tf-MTC device. An obvious increase of output performance was obtained during single cycle test of the tf-MTC device with ethanol when compared with methanol. The output voltage and the maximum output power reached 0.201 V and 2.38 μW, respectively. The results indicates both methanol and ethanol are suitable for the tf-MTC device as power generator, and different output performances paly a guiding role of the choice of the fuel for different application scenarios.


The binding of 125I-insulin to its receptors was investigated with isolated pancreatic acini obtained from diabetic rats under incubation conditions identical to those used to study the effects of insulin on acinar cell protein synthesis. Binding was specific, time dependent, reversible, and linearly related to the acinar protein content. Degradation of insulin after 30 min of incubation was less than 10% of the total hormone present in the incubation medium. 125I-insulin dissociated from acini with a one-half time of 9 min. Unlabeled insulin at 83.5 nM accelerated the rate of dissociation of labeled insulin. 125I-insulin binding to acini was competitively inhibited by insulin and its analogues in proportion to their biological potencies. Scatchard analysis revealed a major class of insulin-binding sites with a Kd of 1.6 nM; maximal stimulation of protein synthesis was observed when > 90% of these high-affinity receptors were occupied. These studies indicate, therefore, that insulin binding to receptors on pancreatic acini can be correlated with subsequent regulation of biological functions.


We consider the failure atomicity problem of distributed transactions in conjunction with the maximization of database availability. We propose a new information-based model for the distributed transaction-execution, which explicitly expresses the information at each stage during a protocol. In addition to rederiving certain existing results, we prove a fundamental relation among the site failures and the network partitioning. We propose a realistic model for site failures under which we show that the costs of commit and termination protocols can be greatly reduced. Finally, we explore the possible recovery strategies for a failed site and show how they are improved under our site failure model.


Previous studies demonstrate that the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators determines the stable or progressive nature of periapical granulomas by modulating the balance of the osteoclastogenic factor RANKL and its antagonist OPG. However, the cytokine networks operating in the development of periapical lesions are quite more complex than what the simple pro- versus anti-inflammatory mediators' paradigm suggests. Here we simultaneously investigated the patterns of Th1, Th2, Th9, Th17, Th22, Thf, Tr1 and Tregs cytokines/markers expression in human periapical granulomas. Methods The expression of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-17A, IL23, IL21, IL-33, IL-10, IL-4, IL-9, IL-22, FOXp3 markers (via RealTimePCR array) was accessed in active/progressive (N=40) versus inactive/stable (N=70) periapical granulomas (as determined by RANKL/OPG expression ratio), and also to compare these samples with a panel of control specimens (N=26). A cluster analysis of 13 cytokine levels was performed to examine possible clustering between the cytokines in a total of 110 granulomas. Results The expression of all target cytokines was higher in the granulomas than in control samples. TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-17A and IL-21 mRNA levels were significantly higher in active granulomas, while in inactive lesions the expression levels of IL-4, IL-9, IL-10, IL-22 and FOXp3 were higher than in active granulomas. Five clusters were identified in inactive lesion groups, being the variance in the expression levels of IL-17, IL-10, FOXp3, IFN-γ, IL-9, IL-33 and IL-4 statistically significant (KW p<0.05). Three clusters were identified in active lesions, being the variance in the expression levels of IL-22, IL-10, IFN-γ, IL-17, IL-33, FOXp3, IL-21 and RANKL statistically significant (KW p<0.05). Conclusion There is a clear dichotomy in the profile of cytokine expression in inactive and active periapical lesions. While the widespread cytokine expression seems to be a feature of chronic lesions, hierarchical cluster analysis demonstrates the association of TNF-α, IL-21, IL-17 and IFN-γ with lesions activity, and the association of FOXP3, IL-10, IL-9, IL-4 and IL-22 with lesions inactivity.


Feature construction is an effort to transform the input space of classification problems in order to improve the classification performance. Feature construction is particularly important for classifier inducers that cannot transform their input space intrinsically. This paper proposes GPMFC, a multiple-feature construction system for classification problems using genetic programming (GP). This paper takes a nonwrapper approach by introducing a filter-based measure of goodness for constructed features. The constructed, high-level features are functions of original input features. These functions are evolved by GP using an entropy-based fitness function that maximizes the purity of class intervals. A decomposable objective function is proposed so that the system is able to construct multiple high-level features for each problem. The constructed features are used to transform the original input space to a new space with better separability. Extensive experiments are conducted on a number of benchmark problems and symbolic learning classifiers. The results show that, in most cases, the new approach is highly effective in increasing the classification performance in rule-based and decision tree classifiers. The constructed features help improve the learning performance of symbolic learners. The constructed features, however, may lack intelligibility.


In this paper, authors will develop the quick and precise remote controller of automatic fire detection equipment (P-type one-class receiver) based on information communication technology (IT). The remote controller detects the fire and disaster in the building automatically and quickly and then activates the facilities to extinguish the fire and disaster, monitoring such situation in a real time through wire-wireless communication network. The proposed remote controller is applied a programmable logic device (PLD) micom. of one-chip type which is small size and lightweight and also has highly sensitive-precise reliabilities. The one-chip type PLD micom. analyzes digital signals from sensors, then activates fire extinguishing facilities for alarm and rapid suppression in a case of fire and disaster. The detected data is also transferred to a remote situation room through wire-wireless network of RS232c and bluetooth communication, and then the situation room sends an emergency alarm signal. The automatic fire detection equipment (AFDE) based on IT will minimize the life and wealth loss while prevents fire and disaster.


A 61-year-old female presented with a history of recurrent chest infections over several years. Episodes were characterised by cough and green sputum without haemoptysis. There was no history of chest pain, shortness of breath, fever, night sweats or weight loss. She had received several courses of antibiotics for this from her general practitioner. Her past medical history included whooping cough as a child and hysterectomy at age 40 years, for reasons unknown. She had smoked 10 cigarettes per week since her teenage years and denied any alcohol intake. There were no pets at home or any history of recent travel.


Gold price forecast is of great importance. Many models were presented by researchers to forecast gold price. It seems that although different models could forecast gold price under different conditions, the new factors affecting gold price forecast have a significant importance and effect on the increase of forecast accuracy. In this paper, different factors were studied in comparison to the previous studies on gold price forecast. In terms of time span, the collected data were divided into three groups of daily, monthly and annually. The conducted tests using new factors indicate accuracy improvement up to 2% in neural networks methods, 7/3% in time series method and 5/6% in linear regression method.


A longitudinal study for six months was conducted to demonstrate the influence of enalapril therapy on microalbuminuria in a group of patients with IDDM without arterial hypertension. An evaluation was also considered of its possible activity on other biochemical parameters, particularly plasma lipid levels. Thirty-four patients with IDDM were selected, with a mean age of 26.1 +/- 7.2 years and a mean clinical course of 11.8 +/- 5.6 years. Arterial blood pressure (ABP) was confirmed lower than 140/85 mmHg in all cases. Patients were administered 5 mg/day of enalapril and if a decrease in microalbuminuria higher than 25% was not achieved at the end of the first month of therapy, the dose was doubled (10 mg/day). No significant differences were found in ABP and in HbA1c throughout the study period. Albumin excretion in the initial period was 125.1 +/- 79.28 mg/24 h, at one month in the follow-up 47.6 +/- 44.1 mg/24 h, at three months 23.8 +/- 18.1 mg/24 h, and at the end of the 6th month 15.33 +/- 6.9 mg/24 h, all differences being significant. Renal function parameters and Na+ and K+ measurements remained unchanged for the follow-up period. No significant changes were detected for lipid and lipoprotein values for the length of the study. We conclude that therapy with enalapril in insulin-dependent diabetic patients without hypertension has an important effect on microalbuminuria during the first month of therapy; a stabilization in the normal range was reached in the third and sixth months of follow-up. No changes in arterial blood pressure nor in renal function were observed. Plasma lipid values were in the normal range throughout the study. Therefore, treatment for microalbuminuria with the ACEI assayed was efficient, in absence of arterial hypertension and irrespective of the metabolic control obtained. Future long-term studies are needed to evaluate the possible delay in the emergence of renal insufficiency.