Nanotechnology is considered pervasive enabling technology, resulting in novel applications of nanomaterials that promise radical improvements in various spheres of life (Dhingra, Naidu et al. 2010). It is all about getting more function on less space, emphasizing on clean technology, using renewable energy and also facing facts about years of massive industrialization. It has the potential to make a big impact on sustainability. Today, Sustainability is the biggest challenge that human face. The main issue is, to be sufficiently intelligent not to destroy the fundamentals on which our life and our ecosystem are based on while improving quality of human life. Awareness from new technologies and their effect will help in this issue. Nowadays, nanotechnology has been reviewed in most sciences but the technology less has been introduced to urban planners or its usage had not been significant. The aim of this paper is to identify this technology and its role on the urban sustainability. The method used for this purpose was an analysis of data gathered through library study, so, first the concept of nanotechnology and its main ideas have been represented while simultaneously the concept and indicators of urban sustainability have been reviewed. After that, applications of this new technology in environmental sustainability have been expressed. Then to indicate clearly applications of this new technology in urban area an idea was represented and analyzed; Nanocity. In the result of analyses it has been indicated that nanotechnology with its advantages, and disadvantages can change urban environment in order to achieve sustainability but in cities it should be considered logically not idealistically besides social and cultural dimensions. Also its harmful effects on the environment should be considered. Potential solutions are seen in the form of greener nanosynthesis methods, which are called ―Green Alternatives.


Fluorophore probes are widely used for bioimaging in cells, tissues, and animals as well as for monitoring of multiple biological processes in complex environments. Such imaging properties allow scientists to make direct visualizations of pathological events and cellular targets. Conventional fluorescent molecules have been developed for several decades and achieved great successes, but their emissions are often weakened or quenched at high concentrations that might suffer from the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect, which reduces the efficiencies of their applications. In contrast to the ACQ effect, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (AIEgens) display much higher fluorescence in aggregated states and possess various advantages such as low background, long-term tracking ability, and strong resistance to photobleaching. Therefore, AIEgens are employed as unique fluorescence molecules and building blocks for biosensing applications in the fields of ions, amino acids, carbohydrates, DNAs/RNAs, peptides/proteins, cellular organelles, cancer cells, bacteria, and so on. Quite a few of the above biosensing missions are accomplished by modular peptide-modified AIEgen probes (MPAPs) or modular DNA-modified AIEgen probes (MDAPs) because of the multiple capabilities of peptide and DNA modules, including solubility, biocompatibility, and recognition. Meanwhile, both electrostatic interactions and coupling reactions could provide efficient methods to construct different MPAPs and MDAPs, finally resulting in a large variety of biosensing probes. Those probes exhibit leading features of detecting nucleic acids or proteins and imaging mass biomolecules. For example, under modular design, peptide modules possessing versatile recognition abilities enable MPAPs to detect numerous targets, such as integrin αvβ3, aminopeptidase N, MMP-2, MPO, H2O2, and so forth; MDAP could allow the imaging of mRNA in cells and tissue chips, suggesting the diagnostic functions of MDAP in clinical samples. Modular design offers a novel strategy to generate AIEgen-based probes and expedites functional biomacromolecules research. In this vein, here we review the progress on MPAPs and MDAPs in the most recent 10 years and highlight the modular design strategy as well as their advanced biosensing applications including briefly two aspects: (1) detection and (2) imaging. By the use of MPAPs/MDAPs, multiple bioanalytes can be efficiently analyzed at low concentrations and directly visualized through high-contrast and luminous imaging. Compared with MPAPs, the quantities of MDAPs are limited because of the difficult synthesis of long-length DNA strands. In future work, multifunctional of DNA sequences are needed to explore varieties of MDAPs for diverse biosensing purposes. At the end of this Account, some deficiencies and challenges are mentioned for briging more attention to accelerate the development of AIEgen-based probes.


Rodent‐associated Bartonella species have shown a remarkable genetic diversity and pathogenic potential. To further explore the extent of the natural intraspecific genomic variation and its potential role as an evolutionary driver, we focused on a single genetically diverse Bartonella species, Bartonella krasnovii, which circulates among gerbils and their associated fleas. Twenty genomes from 16 different B. krasnovii genotypes were fully characterized through a genome sequencing assay (using short and long read sequencing), pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and PCR validation. Genomic analyses were performed in comparison to the B. krasnovii strain OE 1–1. While, single nucleotide polymorphism represented only a 0.3% of the genome variation, structural diversity was identified in these genomes, with an average of 51 ± 24 structural variation (SV) events per genome. Interestingly, a large proportion of the SVs (>40%) was associated with prophages. Further analyses revealed that most of the SVs, and prophage insertions were found at the chromosome replication termination site (ter), suggesting this site as a plastic zone of the B. krasnovii chromosome. Accordingly, six genomes were found to be unbalanced, and essential genes near the ter showed a shift between the leading and lagging strands, revealing the SV effect on these genomes. In summary, our findings demonstrate the extensive genomic diversity harbored by wild B. krasnovii strains and suggests that its diversification is initially promoted by structural changes, probably driven by phages. These events may constantly feed the system with novel genotypes that ultimately lead to inter‐ and intraspecies competition and adaptation.


The availability of permanent streams of sewage-contaminated wastewater emanating from the twin city of Hubli–Dharwad in India has enabled small-scale farmers to diversify their cropping practices. Close to the cities, farmers have adopted a year-round, intensive vegetable horticultural system. Not only do the nutrients in the wastewater increase crop yields, but this practice is particularly lucrative during the dry season when wholesale market prices rise between two- and six-fold. Further away from the cities, less intensive farming systems are used, but the wastewater still confers advantages in terms of early-season irrigation and increasing production from fruit trees in agroforestry systems. However, there are adverse health implications, including bacterial contamination of vegetables and intensive application of pesticides to combat the insect pests that infest these crops. Ways of managing these adverse effects are discussed.


Although four-coordinate square-planar geometries, with a formally 16-electron counting, are absolutely dominant in isolated Pt(II) complexes, three-coordinate, 14-electron Pt(II) complexes are believed to be key intermediates in a number of platinum-mediated organometallic transformations. Although very few authenticated three-coordinate Pt(II) complexes have been characterized, a much larger number of complexes can be described as operationally three-coordinate in a kinetic sense. In these compounds, which we have called masked T-shaped complexes, the fourth position is occupied by a very weak ligand (agostic bond, solvent molecule or counteranion), which can be easily displaced. This review summarizes the structural features of the true and masked T-shaped Pt(II) complexes reported so far and describes synthetic strategies employed for their formation. Moreover, recent experimental and theoretical reports are analyzed, which suggest the involvement of such intermediates in reaction mechanisms, particularly C–H bond-activation processes.


The authors have performed combined therapy of 300 patients with acute and subacute neurosensory hypoacusis varying in etiology, 45 patients with acute and subacute disorders of the olfactory analyzer caused by previous infections, emotional stress, inhalation of irritants. The treatment included a 10-day course of reflex therapy, antihypoxic and vasoactive drugs. As a result, a positive trend was observed in acoustic, vestibular and olfactory functions in the majority of cases. The scheme is proposed for routine otorhinolaryngological practice.


ABSTRACT
 Evidence shows that the application of problem-oriented policing can be effective in reducing a wide range of crime and public safety issues, but that the approach is challenging to implement and sustain. This article examines police perceptions and experiences regarding organisational barriers to and facilitators of the implementation and delivery of problem-oriented policing. Drawing on surveys of (n = 4141) and interviews with (n = 86) police personnel from 19 police forces in England and Wales, we identify five key barriers and facilitators to problem-oriented policing: leadership and governance, capacity, organisational structures and infrastructure, partnership working and organisational culture. These factors provide important indicators for what police organisations need to do, or need to avoid, if they are to successfully embed and deliver problem-oriented policing. The article generates critical information about the processes that drive change in police organisations and offers recommendations for police managers who may wish to implement or develop problem-oriented policing. The paper also proposes a research agenda aimed at addressing evidence gaps in our understanding of the implementation and sustenance of problem-oriented policing.


This Article explores the tension between (and within) feminism and culture/religion in the efforts to improve the lives of women and how that seemingly intractable divide continues to complicate activism transnationally. I revisit the question of multiculturalism but in the broader context of global feminist action in order to suggest a way to bridge the divide and to foster greater solidarity among transnational feminists. In order to do so, we have to come to terms with our own positions of authority and exercises of power. The Article proceeds in five parts. First, culture (and its religious analog) is often used as a justification for avoiding gender law reform by cultural relativists and traditionalists who hold state power. However, what is often hidden behind such usage is a highly particular and discreet set of political choice about how to arrange the rights and obligations within society. These choices are not determined a priori by a cultural script. The article argues that cultural relativists and traditionalists strategically employ culture as a smokescreen for political choices where other choices are just as defensible. Second, both those who tend to use culture to justify doing nothing or doing very limited reforms as well as those who seek sweeping reforms against culture view culture itself similarly as determinate and unmutable. This mirroring of relativists and universalists is an old construction that has roots in the colonial period and this history is important in understand the present dilemmas of feminism. That dynamic also reflects a seemingly intractable oppositional tension between multi-culturalist/relativists who seek to preserve culture and the universalists who seek to overcome it. This tension is very present in legal feminist thought and activism making transnational coalitions and support more complicated. In order to be effective, we have to see culture and religion as contested and take women's dissenting views seriously.Third, I explore how these assumptions about culture play into a global narrative in the War on Terror. In particularly, I explore how liberal feminist notions of culture exacerbate the negative stereotypes of Islam and Muslim males in particular. I suggest that the easy stereotyping that the War on Terror has made ubiquitous pervades liberal feminist understandings of the "problems" of Muslim women. While these may actually be quite accurate, the overall narrative of superiority of the War on Terror and its "clash of civilization" rhetoric makes transnational coalition building much more difficult.In Part Four, I delve deeper into the constructions of authority and agency in liberal feminism and question how power is distributed among women. Using the examples of the veil debate and the topless jihad by Femen, I explore the who has the power to speak and what they are able to convey to suggest that the assumptions of positions of epistemological authority and power are very problematic. By grounding the theoretical observations in these two practical phenomena, I hope to show that unless the impasse is overcome, the full potential of emancipatory feminist thought and activism will never be realized.Finally, I suggest a few approaches to bridge the divide among feminists by acknowledging the cultural valence of seemingly neutral rights, taking difference seriously and engaging on more equal footing.


Study of sustainable horticulture, environmental design, plant propagation and growth, soils, landscape architecture and design, greenhouse maintenance, the horticulture industry and landscape iinstallation, construction and maintenance.


The C‐type lectin receptor (CTLR), Clec4d (MCL, CLECSF8), is a member of the Dectin‐2 cluster of CTLRs, which also includes the related receptors Mincle and Dectin‐2. Like Mincle, Clec4d recognizes mycobacterial cord factor, trehalose dimycolate, and we recently demonstrated its key role in anti‐mycobacterial immunity in mouse and man. Here, we characterized receptor expression in naïve mice, under inflammatory conditions, and during Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection using newly generated monoclonal antibodies. In naïve mice, Clec4d was predominantly expressed on myeloid cells within the peritoneal cavity, blood, and bone marrow. Unexpectedly, basal expression of Clec4d was very low on leukocytes in the lung. However, receptor expression was significantly upregulated on pulmonary myeloid cells during M. bovis BCG infection. Moreover, Clec4d expression could be strongly induced in vitro and in vivo by various microbial stimuli, including TLR agonists, but not exogenous cytokines. Notably, we show that Clec4d requires association with the signaling adaptor FcRγ and Mincle, but not Dectin‐2, for surface expression. In addition, we provide evidence that Clec4d and Mincle, but not Dectin‐2, are interdependently coregulated during inflammation and infection. These data show that Clec4d is an inducible myeloid‐expressed CTLR in mice, whose expression is tightly linked to that of Mincle.


All of middlewares of modern wireless sensor networks has this weakness that many of these middlewares have the ability to simultaneous support from limit amounts of quality of service parameters. Our aim is simultaneous and dynamic support from several quality of service measure in middleware layer with obtained weight coefficients. In this paper, we add a layer of Quality of service management to middleware, in which this layer has duty of service of Quality of service management and control. This layer answers demanded Quality of service improvement from application by wireless sensor network.


The contest about the vitrified forts of Scotland having for some time ceased from an apparent want of new matter, it may be deemed superfluous to revive it by the description of any more of these extraordinary structures. But some appearances which seemed to have been overlooked having occurred to me in examining these works, I thought it might yet be interesting to those who took a part in the former discussion, to receive any additional remarks which might assist in clearing up the points in dispute.

As far as archaeology is concerned in the question, I deem it useless to enquire to what aera they are to be referred. That they belong to a people who had not learned the Roman arts is probable, since they contain no calcareous cement. But that this is a certain conclusion I am not inclined to admit, as the knowledge of a simple fact among a savage people does not necessarily imply the power to direct it to use. The ability to detect calcareous stones, the means of quarrying, them in certain situations, and the power of transporting them from great distances to places where they do not naturally exist, must have been possessed by these people before they could have directed to any useful purpose this naked truth derived from their conquerors. To instance only those vitrified forts which are found in Galloway. There is no limestone to be procured in that country but by a very distant land carriage, or a


Certain individuals are more susceptible to stress and trauma, as well as the physical and mental health consequences following such exposure, including risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This differing vulnerability is likely to be influenced by genetic predisposition and specific characteristics of the stress itself (nature, intensity and duration), as well as epigenetic mechanisms. In this review we provide an overview of research findings in this field. We highlight some of the key genetic risk factors identified for PTSD, and the evidence that epigenetic processes might play a role in the biological response to trauma, as well as being potential biomarkers of PTSD risk. We also discuss important considerations for future research in this area.


This paper deals with the principle of tolerance in our contemporary society in the attempt to highlight limits and paradoxes in the various aspects of minority issues. From this point of view, the first part of the paper discusses Kymlicka's contribution to multiculturalism with regard to national minorities and immigrant communities, while the second part confronts his Theory of Minority Rights with Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony and circle of humanity. Therefore, this paper aims at shifting the discourse over tolerance-related minority issues from a top-down approach toward an analysis of how tolerance is allowed to be performed. Thus, Gramsci's philosophy of praxis is employed to disentangle moral and cultural set of values and norms within which both principle of tolerance and performativity of toleration are established and, in parallel, to reflect on reasons why others are not allowed to be performed.


For χ−tests with increasing number of cells, Cramer-von Mises tests, tests generated L2norms of kernel estimators and tests generated quadratic forms of estimators of Fourier coefficients, we find necessary and sufficient conditions of consistency and inconsistency for sequences of alternatives having a given rate of convergence to hypothesis in L2-norm. We provide transparent interpretations of these conditions allowing to understand the structure of such consistent sequences. For problem of signal detection in Gaussian white noise we show that, if set of alternatives is bounded closed center-symmetric convex set U with deleted "small" L2 – ball, then compactness of set U is necessary condition for existence of consistent tests.


The miscibility between hydrophobic and hydrophilic biopolymers has been of significant challenge. This study used a novel simplified chitin modification method to produce phthalic chitin using phthalic anhydride in a substitution reaction. The FT-IR functional group analysis was used to confirm the substitution reaction. The modified chitin was used as compatibilizer in polylactic acid (PLA)/starch biocomposite to enhance its properties. The biocomposite was prepared using melt extrusion and compression moulding technique. The biocomposite's morphological, thermomechanical and water absorption properties were characterized using scanning electron microscope, tensile test, dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetry analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, thickness swelling and water absorption test. The FT-IR study shows a successful substitution reaction of the amine hydrogen ion present in the chitin as opposed to substituting the hydrogen ion in the hydroxide group. The tensile and impact properties of biocomposite incorporated with modified chitin showed better results compared with other samples. The SEM images showed uniform miscibility of the modified biocomposite. The dynamic mechanical analysis showed improved modulus value with the incorporation of modified chitin. The thermal properties showed improved thermal stability of the modified biocomposite. Furthermore, the percentage of water absorbed by biocomposite with modified chitin is reduced compared with the PLA/starch biocomposite. The produced biodegradable ternary blend can be used as a substitute for plastics in industrial applications.


In this article, we present and analyze a new family of fixed-point data formats for signal processing applications. These formats represent compressed two's complement data formats where compression on the sign bit is undertaken on a sample by sample basis. The extra room provided by sign-bit compression is utilized to retain more bits of precision for each individual sample. Compressed two's complement data formats are shown to provide greater dynamic range and improved noise performance over traditional fixed-point data formats such as sign-magnitude, offset binary, and traditional two's complement. Traditional two's complement is shown to be a member of the compressed two's complement family where the compression factor (CF) is equal to one. The dynamic range of a compressed two's complement data format is shown to approach the dynamic range of a non compressed data format raised to the power of the CF. Improved performance for digital signal processing (DSP) applications such as digital filters and transforms is presented for specific instances of this family.


OBJECTIVE
To compare longitudinal adolescent and adult reproductive outcomes after pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).

DESIGN
Secondary analysis of longitudinal data from the Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Evaluation and Clinical Health study.

SETTING
A large multicenter randomized clinical trial assessing PID treatment strategies in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS
Eight hundred thirty-one female patients aged 14 to 38 years with a diagnosis of PID.

MAIN EXPOSURE
Adverse longitudinal outcomes were compared in adolescents (≤19 years) and adults (>19 years).

OUTCOME MEASURES
Primary outcome measures included recurrent sexually transmitted infection at 30 days, recurrent PID, chronic abdominal pain, infertility, pregnancy, and times to recurrent PID and pregnancy. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to examine the effect of young age on times to pregnancy and recurrent PID.

RESULTS
Adolescents were more likely than adults to have positive results of sexually transmitted infection testing at baseline and at 30 days. There were no significant group differences in chronic abdominal pain, infertility, and recurrent PID at 35 or 84 months, but adolescents were more likely to have a pregnancy at both time points. Adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) also demonstrated that adolescents had shorter times to pregnancy (1.48 [1.18-1.87]) and recurrent pelvic inflammatory disease (1.54 [1.03-2.30]).

CONCLUSION
Adolescents may require a different approach to clinical care and follow-up after PID to prevent recurrent sexually transmitted infections, recurrent PID, and unwanted pregnancies.


This article analyses the construction of authenticity in three sites commemorating oppression under state socialism. I demonstrate that each of the sites aims to incorporate the physical involvement of the visitor as part of its educational programme. This observation is linked to the political potential of 'prosthetic memory', that is, bodily memory of events one has not experienced. The methods used to achieve this immersive visitor experience are assessed in each site and the potential impact on the individual consuming the exhibit is considered. I argue that the success of prosthetic memory depends not, or not only, on the authenticity of the artefacts, but also on the nature of the interpretation that accompanies them. An overpoliticised narrative, which does not allow the individual to make meaning for him or herself, is likely to focus attention away from the objects and may result in 'disinheritance' of particular visitor groups.


A compact heat integrated reactor system (CHIRS) of a steam reformer, a water gas shift reactor, and a combustor were designed for stationary hydrogen production from ethanol. Different reactor integration concepts were firstly studied using Aspen Plus. The sequential steam reformer and shift reactor (SRSR) was considered as a conventional system. The efficiency of the SRSR could be improved by more than 12% by splitting water addition to the shift reactor (SRSR-WS). Two compact heat integrated reactor systems (CHIRS) were proposed and simulated by using COMSOL Multiphysics software. Although the overall efficiency of the CHIRS was quite a bit lower than the SRSR-WS, the compact systems were properly designed for portable use. CHIRS (I) design, combining the reactors in a radial direction, was large in reactor volume and provided poor temperature control. As a result, the ethanol steam reforming and water gas shift reactions were suppressed, leading to lower hydrogen selectivity. On the other hand, CHIRS (II) design, combining the process in a vertical direction, provided better temperature control. The reactions performed efficiently, resulting in higher hydrogen selectivity. Therefore, the high performance CHIRS (II) design is recommended as a suitable stationary system for hydrogen production from ethanol.


BACKGROUND
Chronic lung disease (CLD) remains an important cause of mortality and morbidity in preterm infants despite the administration of antenatal corticosteroids, surfactant replacement therapy and other advances in neonatal intensive care. There is increasing evidence from cellular and biochemical research that inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of CLD. Thus, interventions aimed at reducing or modulating the inflammatory process may reduce the incidence or severity of CLD. Theoretically, the use of inhaled corticosteroids may allow for beneficial effects on the pulmonary system without concomitant high systemic concentrations and less risk of adverse effects.

OBJECTIVES
To compare the effectiveness of inhaled versus systemic corticosteroids, started within the first two weeks of life, in preventing CLD in ventilated very low birth weight infants.

SEARCH STRATEGY
Randomized and quasi-randomized trials were identified by searching the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2002), MEDLINE (1966 - September 2002), EMBASE (1980 - September 2002), CINAHL (1982 - September 2002), reference lists of published trials and abstracts published in Pediatric Research (1990 - April 2002) from the Society of Pediatric Research/ Pediatric Academic Society's annual meetings.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomized or quasi-randomized clinical trials comparing inhaled versus systemic corticosteroid therapy (regardless of the dose and duration of therapy), started in first two weeks of life in very low birth weight preterm infants receiving assisted ventilation.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Data regarding clinical outcomes including CLD at 28 days or 36 weeks corrected gestational age (CGA), mortality, combined outcome of death or CLD at 28 days or 36 weeks CGA, other pulmonary outcomes and adverse effects were evaluated. All data were analyzed using RevMan 4.1. When appropriate, meta-analysis was performed using relative risk (RR), risk difference (RD), and weighted mean difference (WMD) along with their 95% confidence intervals (CI). If RD was significant, number needed to treat (NNT) or number needed to harm (NNH) was calculated.

MAIN RESULTS
Two trials qualified for inclusion in this review. There was an increase in the incidence of CLD at 36 weeks CGA in the inhaled steroid group amongst all randomized infants, which was of borderline statistical significance: [RR 1.45 (95% CI 0.99, 2.11); RD 0.11 (95% CI 0.00, 0.21), p = 0.05, 1 trial and n = 278]. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of CLD at 36 weeks amongst all survivors [RR 1.34 (95% CI 0.94, 1.90); RD 0.11(95% CI -0.02, 0.24), 1 trial and n = 206]. There were no statistically significant differences for oxygen dependency at 28 days (2 trials and n = 294), death by 28 days (2 trials and n = 294) or 36 weeks (2 trials and n = 294) and the combined outcome of death or CLD by 28 days (2 trials and n = 294) or 36 weeks CGA (1 trial and n = 278). The duration of mechanical ventilation was statistically significantly longer in the inhaled as compared to the systemic steroid group (WMD 3.89 days, 95% CI 0.24, 7.55; 2 trials and n = 294). The duration of supplemental oxygen was statistically significantly longer in the inhaled as compared to the systemic steroid group (WMD 11.10 days, 95% CI 1.97, 20.22; 2 trials and n = 294). There was a significantly lower incidence of hyperglycemia in the group receiving inhaled steroids (RR 0.52, 95% CI 0.39,0.71; RD -0.25, 95% CI -0.37, -0.14; 1 trial and n = 278). The NNT was 4.0 (95% CI 2.7, 7.14) to avoid one infant experiencing hyperglycemia. There was a statistically significant increase in the rate of patent ductus arteriosus (RR 1.64, 95% CI 1.23, 2.17; RD 0.21, 95% CI 0.10, 0.33; 1 trial and n = 278) in the group receiving inhaled steroids. The NNH was 4.8, 95% CI 3, 10. There were decreases of borderline statistical significance in the incidences of gastrointestinal hemorrhage and gastrointestinal perforation in the inhaled as compared to systemic steroid group: for gastrointestinal hemorrhage, RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.16, 1.02; RD -0.06, 95% CI -0.12, 0.00, p = 0.05 (1 trial and n = 278); for gastrointestinal perforation, RR 0.16, 95% CI 0.02, 1.29; RD -0.04, 95% CI -0.07, 0.00, p = 0.05 (1 trial and n = 278). The incidence of other side effects was not statistically significantly different in the two groups. No information was available on long term neurodevelopmental outcomes.

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS
This review found no evidence that early inhaled steroids confer important advantages over systemic steroids in the management of ventilator dependent preterm infants. Neither inhaled steroids, nor systemic steroids, can be recommended as a part of standard practice for ventilated preterm infants. Because they might have fewer adverse effects than systemic steroids, further randomized controlled trials of inhaled steroids are needed which address risk/benefit ratio of different delivery techniques, dosing schedules and long term effects, with particular attention to neurodevelopmental outcome.


The electronic-book (e-book) is one of the new technological changes that has significantly influenced the publishing industry in the last century. This has forced publishers to reconsider their distribution channels, since the Internet has provided a new means with which to serve readers. In this paper, a strategic market analysis is proposed from the perspective of a traditional publisher that needs to decide whether to switch to e-publishing business. The analysis model determines the publishing market equilibrium in three different market scenarios. Besides, it shows the impact of readers' choices and price sensitivities on the publishers' profits. The proposed decision support model has its basis on game theory and it is built in an oligopoly setting to reflect the severe market competition. The readers' utilities and demands are modeled using the multinomial logit (MNL) model. Although the first scenario possesses a global optimum solution, in the remaining two market scenarios genetic algorithms (GAs) are used in order to find the solutions of the oligopolies. Numerical applications reveal the industry equilibrium point, where the sum of the profits of all publishers in the market is maximum.


This article presents a theory of how section 7 of the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms protects life, liberty and security of the person. On the basis of a
purposive and contextual interpretation, it is argued that section 7 is concerned
with legal means rather than social ends. It confers a right not to be deprived
of life, liberty or security except by means in accordance with the principles of
fundamental justice. It requires that the standards ofthe rule of law be observed
in the design of rules of conduct. It also permits judicial review of mechanisms
of enforcement such as sanctions. It does not, however, permit judicial review
of the substantive content of law in a sense which would cover the social objectives which the law is designed to achieve. It is argued that this interpretation fits well with what has been said in the leading decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.


Most fluvial and lacustrine landforms on Mars are thought to be old and have formed more than ~3.8 Gyr ago, in the Noachian period. After a major climatic transition, surface liquid water became less abundant and finally disappeared almost completely. Recent work has shown that observational evidence for Hesperian and Amazonian aqueous processes is more common than previously recognized, but their nature is poorly understood. Moreover, it is not clear how the paleoclimate of Mars can be constrained by this activity. Here we report our investigation of a population of deltas around the ancient impact basin Chryse Planitia. To test whether the results are globally applicable, we also studied selected deltas with similar morphologies in the eastern hemisphere and found that the results are consistent. We compared the morphology of deltas, feeder channels, and receiving lakes, dated deltas by crater counting and searched for alteration minerals in hyperspectral images. The valleys and associated late‐stage deltas were formed by short‐lived aqueous processes, as suggested by their morphology and the general lack of associated aqueous alteration minerals. The likely source of water was neither widespread precipitation nor a regionally connected groundwater aquifer, but water mobilized locally from the cryosphere. Delta formation in our study areas occurred from the Early Hesperian to the Late Amazonian and did not require sustained periods of global climatic conditions favoring widespread precipitation. Liquid surface water has been locally present on Mars even after the Noachian, although only episodically, for transient intervals, and widely separated in space.


This study investigates the use of on-line information sources in Federal Universities' Medical Libraries in North West Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria. Survey research method was adopted for the study and the total populations studied were three thousand five hundred forty-five (3545). Three research questions. A proportionate stratified procedure was used to select 405 respondents out of the total of 3545 population, 405 copiesof questionnaires were administered out of which 374 were duly completed and returned. The instruments used for data collection were close ended questionnaires which was categorised into two (for users and staff).The study revealed that online information sources provisions such as online databases and electronic alert were not adequately provided and therefore are not commonly used. The study therefore recommends that medical libraries should provide facilities that will enhance the use of online information source.


Phrase localization is a task that studies the mapping from textual phrases to regions of an image. Given difficulties in annotating phrase-to-object datasets at scale, we develop a Multimodal Alignment Framework (MAF) to leverage more widely-available caption-image datasets, which can then be used as a form of weak supervision. We first present algorithms to model phrase-object relevance by leveraging fine-grained visual representations and visually-aware language representations. By adopting a contrastive objective, our method uses information in caption-image pairs to boost the performance in weakly-supervised scenarios. Experiments conducted on the widely-adopted Flickr30k dataset show a significant improvement over existing weakly-supervised methods. With the help of the visually-aware language representations, we can also improve the previous best unsupervised result by 5.56%. We conduct ablation studies to show that both our novel model and our weakly-supervised strategies significantly contribute to our strong results.


CGE models are widely used for policy evaluation and impact analysis especially with respect to trade reforms, tax reforms, energy sector reform and development policy analysis. However, the results of such models are often argued to be sensitive to the choice of exogenous parameters such as trade elasticities. Several authors show that the choice of the so-called Armington elasticities in the import demand function has a strong influence on the simulation results. Most existing estimates of Armington elasticities are only for the US. The few studies for other countries find substantially differing results. Nevertheless, many CGE modelers simply adopt the elasticities from the literature. This paper aims at providing estimated elasticities based on recent data for a larger group of European countries. Using cointegration and panel fixed effects analyses we estimate the first order condition resulting from cost minimization or utility maximization subject to the CES sub-utility or cost function in imports and domestic goods. The results show a rather large variation across sectors and countries and the magnitude is only partly comparable to the US elasticities. Moreover, in a small CGE application we are able to show that changing the elasticity set has a quantitative and even qualitative impact on CGE model results, which confirms the concern that one might end up with biased results due to a misspecification of the elasticities.


Education paves way to sustain human life. Its chief focus is to teach the human values, develop Education paves way to sustain human life. Its chief focus is to teach the human values, developintellect, emotions, empathy, extricate opportunities to rise to the occasion and contribute to theoverall growth of the society. Ultimately this should provide an individual, an all-round developmentt o observe, understand and to be a part of the larger community. This education is obtained formally, non-formally and informally. Informal learning occursin a variety ofplaces, such as athome, work and through daily interactions and shared relationships among members of society. For many learners, this includes language acquisition, cultural medians and manners. Formal learningis commonly divided into different stages such as Pre-School, Elementary School, High School, Higher Secondary School and then College/University orApprenticeship through various industries.The School Education systemin India has 4 distinct levels such as Lower Primary (ages 6-10) Upper Primary (age 11 & 12) High (13 – 15) and Higher Secondary (17 &18). Then we have the Tertiary Education which is the threshold to employment. This Tertiary level includes 3 years of Under Graduation and 2 years of Post-Graduation and then Research Activities which are optional.
All these lay foundation to one's career for sustenance or "Survival of the Fittest" as told by theAll these lay foundation to one's career for sustenance or "Survival of the Fittest" as told by the English Naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in his Origin of Species Theory. The college-level focused education in due course determines the career prospects of the young graduates.
After 1990s there is a paradigmatic shift in the employment in India, that instead of the candidates running helter-skelter for employment, the employers knock at the door of Higher Institutions. Campus Interviews bridge the gap between the Employers and the prospective Employees. In ourcontext, the final year UG/PG students are the Prospective Employees who are eligible for Campus Interviews. Campus Interviews offer final year UG/PG students a great opportunity to get a suit-able job during the course of their academic pursuits and provide them a secure future before the completion of their course itself. This process includes the various stages such as: Pre-Placement Talk, Aptitude Test, Technical Test, Group Discussion, HR Interview and Personal Interviews.
This paper purports the role of various Employing Agencies who consistently contact the colleges/Universities through Campus Interviews to select their prospective employees. Also it brings tolimelight the various top notch companies in Chennai which absorb the creamy layer among theeligible students.


The perovskites RNiO3 (R rare earth ≠ La) are classified as a phase transition metal-insulator. The transition temperature is modulated by the size of the rare earth. The use of compound R1-xR'xNiO3 can vary transition temperature on a wide thermal range depending on the concentration of the two rare earths. The Sm1-xNdxNiO3 (x = 0.45) thin layers have been carried out on (100) silicon substrates by KrF laser ablation (λ = 248 nm, 25ns) at two different fluences 2 and 3 Jcm-2. The oxygen pressure and the target-substrate distance have been maintained at 0.2 mbar and 4 cm respectively. The deposition temperature has been set at 500 ° C. The obtained layers were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and Rutherford back scattering diagnostics. The resistivity Measurements were carried out by the conventional four-probe method. The XRD spectra revealed the presence of an ideal cubic perovskite phase. The RBS analysis showed that the deposited layers are rich in oxygen. A correlation between the morphology properties of the deposited layers and the plasma dynamics studied by fast imaging has been found.


Purpose of review This report reviews recent aspects of pancreatitis immunology and environmental factors that link to development and progression of disease. Recent findings Limited human and animal model studies have recently attempted to understand immune mechanisms that lead to the pathogenesis of acute and chronic pancreatitis. Based on these studies innate immune responses emerge as critical elements in disease pathogenesis and severity of inflammation. The immune basis for environmental factors such as smoking, which are highly associated with disease progression highlight novel cross talk mechanisms between immune and nonimmune pancreatic cells such as the pancreatic stellate cells. Summary Better understanding of immune responses and signaling pathways are emerging as important contributors in pancreatitis development and progression. Such mechanisms are likely to offer future targetable therapies that can either halt or reverse disease progression.


Visual transduction in Drosophila is a G protein-coupled phospholipase C-mediated process that leads to depolarization via activation of the transient receptor potential (TRP) calcium channel. Inactivation-no-afterpotential D (INAD) is an adaptor protein containing PDZ domains known to interact with TRP. Immunoprecipitation studies indicate that INAD also binds to eye-specific protein kinase C and the phospholipase C, no-receptor-potential A (NORPA). By overlay assay and site-directed mutagenesis we have defined the essential elements of the NORPA-INAD association and identified three critical residues in the C-terminal tail of NORPA that are required for the interaction. These residues, Phe-Cys-Ala, constitute a novel binding motif distinct from the sequences recognized by the PDZ domain in INAD. To evaluate the functional significance of the INAD-NORPA association in vivo, we generated transgenic flies expressing a modified NORPA, NORPAC1094S, that lacks the INAD interaction. The transgenic animals display a unique electroretinogram phenotype characterized by slow activation and prolonged deactivation. Double mutant analysis suggests a possible inaccessibility of eye-specific protein kinase C to NORPAC1094S, undermining the observed defective deactivation, and that delayed activation may similarly result from NORPAC1094S being unable to localize in close proximity to the TRP channel. We conclude that INAD acts as a scaffold protein that facilitates NORPA-TRP interactions required for gating of the TRP channel in photoreceptor cells.


This study investigates risk factor disclosures under the voluntary, incentive-based disclosure regime provided by the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the SEC's subsequent disclosure mandate. Firms subject to greater litigation risk disclose more risk factors, update the language more from year-to-year, and use more readable language than firms with lower litigation risk. These differences in the quality of disclosure are pronounced in the voluntary disclosure regime, but converge following the SEC mandate. Consistent with these findings, the risk factor disclosures of high litigation risk firms are significantly more informative about systematic and idiosyncratic firm risk when disclosure is voluntary but not when disclosure is mandated. Overall, the results suggest that for some firms voluntary disclosure of risk factors is not a substitute for a regulatory mandate.


Context. RCW 120 is a well-studied, nearby Galactic H ii region with ongoing star formation in its surroundings. Previous work has shown that it displays a bubble morphology at mid-infrared wavelengths, and has a massive layer of collected neutral material seen at sub-mm wavelengths. Given the well-defined photo-dissociation region (PDR) boundary and collected layer, it is an excellent laboratory to study the "collect and collapse" process of triggered star formation. Using Herschel Space Observatory data at 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm, in combination with Spitzer and APEX-LABOCA data, we can for the first time map the entire spectral energy distribution of an H ii region at high angular resolution. Aims. We seek a better understanding of RCW 120 and its local environment by analysing its dust temperature distribution. Additionally, we wish to understand how the dust emissivity index, β, is related to the dust temperature. Methods. We determine dust temperatures in selected regions of the RCW 120 field by fitting their spectral energy distribution (SED), derived using aperture photometry. Additionally, we fit the SED extracted from a grid of positions to create a temperature map. Results. We find a gradient in dust temperature, ranging from >∼30 K in the interior of RCW 120, to ∼20 K for the material collected in the PDR, to ∼10 K toward local infrared dark clouds and cold filaments. There is an additional, hotter (∼100 K) component to the dust emission that we do not investigate here. Our results suggest that RCW 120 is in the process of destroying the PDR delineating its bubble morphology. The leaked radiation from its interior may influence the creation of the next generation of stars. We find support for an anti-correlation between the fitted temperature and β, in rough agreement with what has been found previously. The extended wavelength coverage of the Herschel data greatly increases the reliability of this result.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
The aim of the current study was to evaluate the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and exercise capacity in middle-aged women.

METHODS
Consecutive middle-aged female subjects without cardiovascular disease, aged 45 to 65 years, from two gynecological clinics underwent detailed clinical evaluation, portable sleep study, and treadmill exercise test.

RESULTS
We studied 232 women (age: 55.6 ± 5.2 years; body mass index [BMI]: 28.0 ± 4.8 kg/m2). OSA (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 5 events/h) was diagnosed in 90 (39%) and obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2) in 76 (33%) women, respectively. Participants with OSA were older, had a higher BMI, and an increased frequency of arterial hypertension compared to women without OSA. Multiple logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between OSA and exercise capacity, controlling for traditional risk factors including BMI, age, hypertension, diabetes, and sedentary lifestyle. In multivariate analysis, the presence of obesity without OSA was associated with low exercise capacity (odds ratio [OR] 2.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-8.11, P = .045), whereas the presence of OSA without obesity was not (OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.31-3.69, P = .912). However, the coexistence of obesity and OSA increased markedly the odds of reduction in exercise capacity (OR 9.40, CI 3.79-23.3, P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
Obesity and OSA are common conditions in middle-aged women and may interact to reduce exercise capacity. These results highlight the importance of obesity control programs among women, as well as the diagnosis of comorbid OSA in older women.


This research reexamines the equivocal relationship between top management team (TMT) diversity and firm performance. Combining upper echelons theory with insights from institutional theory, we establish a new, timely dimension of TMT diversity—nationality diversity—and develop an integrated multilevel framework explaining how its performance implications vary across contextual settings. We find that nationality diversity is positively related to performance; and this effect is stronger in (a) longer tenured teams, (b) highly internationalized firms, and (c) munificent environments. More generally, our research demonstrates that the consequences of TMT diversity depend on the (1) specific attributes of diversity being considered and (2) firm and industry conditions under which strategic decisions take place. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Southern Great Basin Digital Seismic Network (SGBDSN) has been designed for monitoring high-frequency (1–40-Hz) local events at and near Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the designated site for the national high-level nuclear-waste repository. We find that the network is also effective as a large-aperture teleseismic array for monitoring events in and close to North Korea, the recent location of an underground nuclear test that occurred on 9 October 2006, 01:35:28 coordinated universal time (UTC), National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) m b 4.3. We explain this by (1) low ambient noise, (2) energy-efficient propagation paths (the nuclear explosion and deep earthquakes on nearly the same ray path show dominant frequencies between 0.9 and 2.5 Hz), and (3) coherent signals across the SGBDSN. The network, when used as an array, provides a particularly good beam signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the nuclear explosion. Estimated beam SNR is 20 dB at frequencies between 0.9–2.5 Hz.

Between January 1996 and December 2006, 58% (11 of 19) of the events with 7.1> m b>3.3 located within 300 km of the North Korean nuclear explosion by NEIC are considered large enough to be confidently picked by an SGBDSN analyst. The first-arrival of the North Korean event itself is apparent on 25 of the 29 SGBDSN unfiltered recordings. The direct P phase is confidently identified using slowness and back azimuth estimated with cross-correlation and frequency-wavenumber methods. Static time corrections for beamforming are estimated using 11 deep earthquakes within 300 km of the nuclear explosion. With the statistical regression model named two-way layout, we estimate the event first-arrival time offset and the mean station effects. The resulting relative time delays are used to calibrate the nuclear explosion single-array location to the NEIC location, using the delays derived from 11 earthquakes. With magnitude substituted for time, the same method is used to estimate magnitude corrections. The SGBDSN magnitude estimate is 4.3 using the Veith–Clawson body-wave magnitude formula.


Objective To compare the performance of the new ESGO-ESTRO-ESP (European Society of Gynecological Oncology-European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology-European Society for Pathology) 2020 risk classification system with the previous 2016 risk classification in predicting survival and patterns of recurrence in the Danish endometrial cancer population. Methods This Danish national cohort study included 4516 patients with endometrial cancer treated between 2005 and 2012. Five-year Kaplan–Meier adjusted and unadjusted survival estimates and actuarial recurrence rates were calculated for the previous and the new classification systems. Results In the 2020 risk classification system, 81.0% of patients were allocated to low, intermediate, or high-intermediate risk compared with 69.1% in the 2016 risk classification system, mainly due to reclassification of 44.5% of patients previously classified as high risk to either intermediate or especially high-intermediate risk. The survival of the 2020 high-risk group was significantly lower, and the recurrence rate, especially the non-local recurrence rate, was significantly higher than in the 2016 high risk group (2020/2016, overall survival 59%/66%; disease specific 69%/76%; recurrence 40.5%/32.3%, non-local 34.5%/25.8%). Survival and recurrence rates in the other risk groups and the decline in overall and disease-specific survival rates from the low risk to the higher risk groups were similar in patients classified according to the 2016 and 2020 systems. Conclusion The new ESGO-ESTRO-ESP 2020 risk classification system allocated fewer patients to the high risk group than the previous risk classification system. The main differences were lower overall and disease-specific survival and a higher recurrence rate in the 2020 high risk group. The introduction of the new 2020 risk classification will potentially result in fewer patients at high risk and allocation to the new high risk group will predict lower survival, potentially allowing more specific selection for postoperative adjuvant therapy.


Background: During endovenous laser ablation (EVLA) of the great saphenous vein, patients often involuntarily mention an uncomfortable "burnt" smell and taste. When applying intense heat to proteins and carbohydrates, it is inevitable that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed. This group of PAH includes the human carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P). This study determined the serum concentration of B[a]P just before and after EVLA. Methods: A total of 20 patients were included. The B[a]P serum concentration was determined just before and directly after EVLA. Results: In 18 patients, B[a]P was determined before and after EVLA. In 2 patients, EVLA was not possible. In this study, no elevated serum concentration of B[a]P was found before and after EVLA. Conclusion: It remains to be established which heat products cause the burnt smell and taste sensation in patients during EVLA. Further research is needed to determine whether EVLA can be considered as a safe procedure.


The largest E3 ubiquitin-ligase complex, known as anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C), regulates the proteolysis of cell cycle regulators such as CYCLIN B and SECURIN that are essential for sister-chromatid separation and exit from mitosis. Despite its importance, the role of APC/C in plant cells and the regulation of its activity during cell division remain poorly understood. Here, the Arabidopsis thaliana APC/C subunit APC10 was characterized and shown to functionally complement an apc10 yeast mutant. The APC10 protein was located in specific nuclear bodies, most probably resulting from its association with the proteasome complex. An apc10 Arabidopsis knockout mutant strongly impaired female gametogenesis. Surprisingly, constitutive overexpression of APC10 enhanced leaf size. Through kinematic analysis, the increased leaf size was found to be due to enhanced rates of cell division during the early stages of leaf development and, at the molecular level, by increased APC/C activity as measured by an amplification of the proteolysis rate of the mitotic cyclin, CYCB1;1.


Background: Worldwide, microbes are becoming more challenging by acquiring virulent skills to adapt and develop antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This is a concern as AMR increases morbidity, mortality, and costs. Consequently, physicians need to be trained on appropriate antimicrobial prescribing, starting as medical students. Objective: To evaluate medical students' confidence in antimicrobial prescribing and AMR. Methods: Cross-sectional study assessing medical students' knowledge, perception, and confidence in prescribing antimicrobials and AMR in a Malaysian University. A universal sampling method was used. Results: Most responding students believed that educational input regarding overall prescribing was sufficient. Regarding the principle of appropriate and accurate prescriptions, female medical students had less knowledge (odds ratio (OR) = 0.51; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.25–0.99; p = 0.050). Year-IV and Year-V medical students had more excellent knowledge than Year-III students regarding confidence in potential antibiotic prescribing once qualified. Year-V students also showed an appreciably higher confidence in the broad principles of prescribing, including antibiotics for infectious diseases, compared to those in other years. Conclusion: Overall, medical students gain more knowledge and confidence regarding the potential prescribing of antimicrobials as their academic careers progress. This is important given concerns with the current excessive use of antimicrobials in Malaysia.


In this study, the thermo physical properties of the nanofluid obtained with prepared solution by adding as basic fluid 1.3% the diatomite nanoparticles into water were determined. Many researchers are working to improve the performance of heat transfer fluids. One of the methods used, if we want to increase the overall thermal conductivity of the fluid, the high thermal conductive materials such as metal oxides, metals and carbon should be added to heat transfer fluids as nano‐sized particles. In this study, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluid obtained with diatomite nanoparticles in order to increase the fluid's thermal performance and not found in the literature were investigated experimentally.


The standard prescription for calculating a Wilson loop in the AdS/CFT correspondence is by a string world-sheet ending along the loop at the boundary of AdS. For a multiply wrapped Wilson loop this leads to many coincident strings, which may interact among themselves. In such cases a better description of the system is in terms of a D3-brane carrying electric flux. We find such solutions for the single straight line and the circular loop. The action agrees with the string calculation at small coupling and in addition captures all the higher genus corrections at leading order in α'. The resulting expression is in remarkable agreement with that found from a zero dimensional gaussian matrix model.


To examine the role of autologous IgG in the induction of murine rheumatoid factors (RF) we have analyzed the allotypic specificity of anti-IgG2a RF in recombinant inbred strains derived from 129/Sv (Igh- 1a) and C57BL/6 (Igh-1b) mice. In five of six Igh-1a strains, anti- IgG2a RF reacted with IgG2aa but failed to react with IgG2ab. In contrast, isotype-specific RF, which reacted equally well with a and b allotypes of IgG2a, represented the major RF species in one Igh-1a and all five Igh-1b strains tested. An additional form of RF specific for IgG2ab and not reactive with IgG2aa was detected in one Igh-1b strain. RF specific for a give allotype was thus only found in the presence of that allotype, which strongly suggests the involvement of autologous IgG in the induction of mouse RF synthesis. The specificity of RF was apparently further controlled by genes linked to but different from the Igh-C locus, as indicated by the absence of IgG2aa-specific RF in one of the 6 Igh-1a strains tested. Because this strain, 129XBG, has been shown to express idiotypic markers characteristic of Igh-1b mice, it is likely that the genes, which in the presence of a given allotype induce the production of isotype rather than allotype-specific RF, are identical to those that control the expression of idiotypes. Evidence was also obtained to indicate that Igh-1-linked genes influence the isotypic specificity and the isotype of RF itself: IgA anti-IgG2a predominated in Igh-1a strains and IgM anti-IgG1 in Igh-1b strains. Interestingly enough, total IgA and IgG2a levels also were higher in Igh-1a than in Igh-1b strains.


Septorhinoplasty in children carries the risk of growth disturbance of the nose and premaxilla. The open or external approach has the advantage that the cartilaginous nasal skeleton remains intact. This open approach enables the surgeon to excise dermoid cysts and to realign lower lateral cartilages (unilateral cleft) without disturbing the integrity of the cartilaginous skeleton. In our experience, absolute indications for open rhinoplasty in children include dermoid cyst, cleft lip nose, and septal abscess. Relative indications include septal deviations causing severe nasal airway obstruction and or progressive distortion of the nose. In this article, we discuss the indications, advantages, disadvantages, and operative technique of open rhinoplasty in children. Our indications for open rhinoplasty in children and some selected cases are illustrated.


CONTEXT
There is strong consensus that caring for an elderly individual with disability is burdensome and stressful to many family members and contributes to psychiatric morbidity. Researchers have also suggested that the combination of loss, prolonged distress, the physical demands of caregiving, and biological vulnerabilities of older caregivers may compromise their physiological functioning and increase their risk for physical health problems, leading to increased mortality.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship between caregiving demands among older spousal caregivers and 4-year all-cause mortality, controlling for sociodemographic factors, prevalent clinical disease, and subclinical disease at baseline.

DESIGN
Prospective population-based cohort study, from 1993 through 1998 with an average of 4.5 years of follow-up.

SETTING
Four US communities.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 392 caregivers and 427 noncaregivers aged 66 to 96 years who were living with their spouses.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Four-year mortality, based on level of caregiving: (1) spouse not disabled; (2) spouse disabled and not helping; (3) spouse disabled and helping with no strain reported; or(4) spouse disabled and helping with mental or emotional strain reported.

RESULTS
After 4 years of follow-up, 103 participants (12.6%) died. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, prevalent disease, and subclinical cardiovascular disease, participants who were providing care and experiencing caregiver strain had mortality risks that were 63% higher than noncaregiving controls (relative risk [RR], 1.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-2.65). Participants who were providing care but not experiencing strain (RR, 1.08; 95 % CI, 0.61-1.90) and those with a disabled spouse who were not providing care (RR, 1.37; 95% CI, 0.73-2.58) did not have elevated adjusted mortality rates relative to the noncaregiving controls.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests that being a caregiver who is experiencing mental or emotional strain is an independent risk factor for mortality among elderly spousal caregivers. Caregivers who report strain associated with caregiving are more likely to die than noncaregiving controls.


While quite some research has focussed on the accuracy of haptic perception of distance, information on the precision of haptic perception of distance is still scarce, particularly regarding distances perceived by making arm movements. In this study, eight conditions were measured to answer four main questions, which are: what is the influence of reference distance, movement axis, perceptual mode (active or passive) and stimulus type on the precision of this kind of distance perception? A discrimination experiment was performed with twelve participants. The participants were presented with two distances, using either a haptic device or a real stimulus. Participants compared the distances by moving their hand from a start to an end position. They were then asked to judge which of the distances was the longer, from which the discrimination threshold was determined for each participant and condition. The precision was influenced by reference distance. No effect of movement axis was found. The precision was higher for active than for passive movements and it was a bit lower for real stimuli than for rendered stimuli, but it was not affected by adding cutaneous information. Overall, the Weber fraction for the active perception of a distance of 25 or 35 cm was about 11% for all cardinal axes. The recorded position data suggest that participants, in order to be able to judge which distance was the longer, tried to produce similar speed profiles in both movements. This knowledge could be useful in the design of haptic devices.


Background: Oropharyngeal dysphagia is common in individuals after stroke. Taste and temperature are used in dysphagia rehabilitation. The influence of stimuli, such as taste and temperature, on swallowing biomechanics has been investigated in both healthy individuals and in individuals with neurological disease. However, some questions still remain unanswered, such as how the sequence of offered stimuli influences the pharyngeal response. The goal of the present study was to determine the influence of the sequence of stimuli, sour taste and cold temperature, on pharyngeal transit time during deglutition in individuals after stroke. Methods: The study included 60 individuals with unilateral ischemic stroke, 29 males and 31 females, aged 41–88 years (mean age: 66.2 years) examined 0–50 days after ictus (median: 6 days), with mild to moderate oropharyngeal dysphagia. Exclusion criteria were hemorrhagic stroke patients, patients with decreased level of consciousness, and clinically unstable patients, as confirmed by medical evaluation. The individuals were divided into two groups of 30 individuals each. Group 1 received a nonrandomized sequence of stimuli (i.e. natural, cold, sour, and sour-cold) and group 2 received a randomized sequence of stimuli. A videofluoroscopic swallowing study was performed to analyze the pharyngeal transit time. Four different stimuli (natural, cold, sour, and sour-cold) were offered. The images were digitalized and specific software was used to measure the pharyngeal transit time. Since the values did not present regular distribution and uniform variances, nonparametric tests were performed. Results: Individuals in group 1 presented a significantly shorter pharyngeal transit time with the sour-cold stimulus than with the other stimuli. Individuals in group 2 did not show a significant difference in pharyngeal transit time between stimuli. Conclusions: The results showed that the sequence of offered stimuli influences the pharyngeal transit time in a different way in individuals after stroke and suggest that, when the sour-cold stimulus is offered in a randomized sequence, it can influence the response to the other stimuli in stroke patients. Hence, the sour-cold stimulus could be used as a therapeutic aid in dysphagic stroke patients.


In this study, the effect of geogrid on the ultimate bearing capacity of strip footing, which was imbedded on sandy soil and under eccentric loads (VM) was investigated by using PLAXIS 2D finite element software. After numerical verification, the effect of parameters, such as the amount of eccentricity, applied vertical load, the number of reinforced layers and layout of the geogrid layers on the ultimate bearing capacity of strip footing was studied. The results of analyzes were presented in the form of dimensionless graphs. Based on the analyses result, the optimum depth of first geogrid layer from foundation (u), the vertical intervals of the layers (h), the number (N) and layout of the geogrid layers have been determined. The results of the analysis show that by adding the geogrid layers, the bearing capacity of footing under the eccentric load increases significantly. The amount of the effectivity is related to the layout of layers and the amount of the eccentricity. In the optimum layout of the layers, the position of geogrid layers depends on the number of layers. Also, the optimum number of layers for obtaining the maximum bearing capacity at eccentric load condition was obtained to be four layers in the present study. The optimum depth for the first, second, third and fourth layers, at the optimal layout, was 0.5, 0.7, 0.3 and 0.9 meters from the base of the footing, respectively.


Title of Dissertation: TOWARDS A FAST AND ACCURATE FACE RECOGNITION SYSTEM FROM DEEP REPRESENTATIONS Rajeev Ranjan Doctor of Philosophy, 2019 Dissertation directed by: Professor Rama Chellappa Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The key components of a machine perception algorithm are feature extraction followed by classification or regression. The features representing the input data should have the following desirable properties: 1) they should contain the discriminative information required for accurate classification, 2) they should be robust and adaptive to several variations in the input data due to illumination, translation/rotation, resolution, and input noise, 3) they should lie on a simple manifold for easy classification or regression. Over the years, researchers have come up with various hand crafted techniques to extract meaningful features. However, these features do not perform well for data collected in unconstrained settings due to large variations in appearance and other nuisance factors. Recent developments in deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have shown impressive performance improvements on various machine perception tasks such as object detection and recognition. DCNNs are highly non-linear regressors because of the presence of hierarchical convolutional layers with non-linear activation. Unlike the hand crafted features, DCNNs learn the feature extraction and feature classification/regression modules from the data itself in an end-to-end fashion. This enables the DCNNs to be robust to variations present in the data and at the same time improve their discriminative ability. Ever-increasing computation power and availability of large datasets have led to significant performance gains from DCNNs. However, these developments in deep learning are not directly applicable to the face analysis tasks due to large variations in illumination, resolution, viewpoint, and attributes of faces acquired in unconstrained settings. In this dissertation, we address this issue by developing efficient DCNN architectures and loss functions for multiple face analysis tasks such as face detection, pose estimation, landmarks localization, and face recognition from unconstrained images and videos. In the first part of this dissertation, we present two face detection algorithms based on deep pyramidal features. The first face detector, called DP2MFD, utilizes the concepts of deformable parts model (DPM) in the context of deep learning. It is able to detect faces of various sizes and poses in unconstrained conditions. It reduces the gap in training and testing of DPM on deep features by adding a normalization layer to the DCNN. The second face detector, called Deep Pyramid Single Shot Face Detector (DPSSD), is fast and capable of detecting faces with large scale variations (especially tiny faces). It makes use of the inbuilt pyramidal hierarchy present in a DCNN, instead of creating an image pyramid. Extensive experiments on publicly available unconstrained face detection datasets show that both these face detectors are able to capture the meaningful structure of faces and perform significantly better than many traditional face detection algorithms. In the second part of this dissertation, we present two algorithms for simultaneous face detection, landmarks localization, pose estimation and gender recognition using DCNNs. The first method called, HyperFace, fuses the intermediate layers of a deep CNN using a separate CNN followed by a multi-task learning algorithm that operates on the fused features. The second approach extends HyperFace to incorporate additional tasks of face verification, age estimation and smile detection, in All-In-One Face. HyperFace and All-In-One Face exploit the synergy among the tasks which improves individual performances. In the third part of this dissertation, we focus on improving the task of face verification by designing a novel loss function that maximizes the inter-class distance and minimizes the intra-class distance in the feature space. We propose a new loss function, called Crystal Loss, that adds an L2-constraint to the feature descriptors which restricts them to lie on a hypersphere of a fixed radius. This module can be easily implemented using existing deep learning frameworks. We show that integrating this simple step in the training pipeline significantly boosts the performance of face verification. We additionally describe a deep learning pipeline for unconstrained face identification and verification which achieves state-of-the-art performance on several benchmark datasets. We provide the design details of the various modules involved in automatic face recognition: face detection, landmark localization and alignment, and face identification/verification. We present experimental results for end-to-end face verification and identification on IARPA Janus Benchmarks A, B and C (IJB-A, IJB-B, IJB-C), and the Janus Challenge Set 5 (CS5). Though DCNNs have surpassed human-level performance on tasks such as object classification and face verification, they can easily be fooled by adversarial attacks. These attacks add a small perturbation to the input image that causes the network to mis-classify the sample. In the final part of this dissertation, we focus on safeguarding the DCNNs and neutralizing adversarial attacks by compact feature learning. In particular, we show that learning features in a closed and bounded space improves the robustness of the network. We explore the effect of Crystal Loss, that enforces compactness in the learned features, thus resulting in enhanced robustness to adversarial perturbations. Additionally, we propose compact convolution, a novel method of convolution that when incorporated in conventional CNNs improves their robustness. Compact convolution ensures feature compactness at every layer such that they are bounded and close to each other. Extensive experiments show that Compact Convolutional Networks (CCNs) neutralize multiple types of attacks, and perform better than existing methods in defending adversarial attacks, without incurring any additional training overhead compared to CNNs. Towards a Fast and Accurate Face Recognition System from Deep Representations


Our aim is to use the logic of public announcements and more generally dynamic epistemic logics as a logic of speech acts. To that end we start from a simple multimodal logic of beliefs and goals (without common belief), and add public announcements. We suppose that announcements do not modify goals. We then consider several variants of speech acts of assertive and directive force and provide a modeling in terms of speech acts.


BACKGROUND
Although a large interarm blood pressure difference is assumed to help identify patients with aortic dissection, the degree of normal interarm blood pressure variation has not been well defined.

METHODS
To determine the normal variation in bilateral upper-extremity blood pressure measurements, we conducted a prospective observational study on a convenience sample of ambulatory patients who were seen at a university hospital emergency department. Bilateral upper-extremity blood pressure measurements were performed with an automated blood pressure monitor at the time the patient was seen. Clinical and demographic data collected included age, sex, race, medical history, chief complaint, cardiac risk factors, pulse, bilateral blood pressure measurements, and discharge diagnosis. The primary outcome measures were the interarm blood pressure differences.

RESULTS
Of 610 patients, 324 (53%) had a systolic or a diastolic interarm blood pressure difference of more than 10 mm Hg, and 113 (19%) had a systolic or a diastolic interarm blood pressure difference of more than 20 mm Hg. The variation in interarm blood pressure measurements was unrelated to age, gender, race, mean arterial pressure, cardiovascular risk factors, or discharge diagnosis. The mean interarm systolic blood pressure difference was significantly greater in patients with known coronary artery disease (14.5 vs 10.4 mm Hg; P = .05, Student t test).

CONCLUSION
Bilateral upper-extremity blood pressure determinations, as measured by automated indirect measurement, have a wide degree of interarm variation.


Background: The impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) on tumour biomarkers and the histopathological response to treatment in breast cancer specimens remains controversial. Chemotherapy and hormonal therapy decisions for breast cancer management are influenced by the expression of tumour biomarkers: estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2). On the other hand, pathological response is an indicator of chemotherapy effectiveness. The study of the effect of NACT in breast cancer is an important issue.Objectives: To assess the changes to biological markers ER, PR, and HER2, and the pathological response in locally advanced breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.Methods: 100 patients with locally advanced breast cancer were assessed with core needle biopsy for biological markers (ER, PR, HER2) and pathological grading. Subsequently they were treated with six cycles of taxane based NACT followed by surgical resection. Biological markers and the pathological response (assessed by the Miller Payne grading system) were re-evaluated to assess changes.Results: The patient mean age was 45.62 ± 7.12 years. Most patients (56%) were postmenopausal. Clinical disease stage ranged between any T N2, T3 N1-2, T4 N0-2. Post NACT, pathological complete response rate was 14%, ER positivity decreased from 80 (80%) to 78 (78%) (p = 0.67). PR positive dropped from 66 to 62% (p = 0.002), and HER2 receptor positivity was increased from 22% to 28% (p-value 0.000).Conclusion: It was observed that biological markers (ER, PR, HER2) and the histopathological response of breast cancer may change after NACT. This change may affect treatment decisions.


This research was carried out in 2004 in the Department of Crop Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The study investigated the anti-quality factors in Panicum maximum under different N-fertilizer application rates and cutting management. The experiment was a 4 × 4 factorial laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments comprised four levels of nitrogen of 0, 150, 300 and 450 kg N ha -1 and four harvesting frequencies of 3-6-9 and 12 weekly intervals, resulting in 16 treatment combinations per block. The grass analyzed in this study had low levels of anti-nutrient constituents such as tannin, phytate, hydrogen cyanide, saponin and alkaloid. The alkaloid, hydrogen cyanide and tannin contents were depressed significantly (P < 0.05) with infrequent cutting interval. Nitrogen fertilizer application significantly (P < 0.05) increased the alkaloid, hydrogen cyanide and phytate content when compared with the control. The 9-weeks cutting interval gave significantly (P < 0.05) lowest alkaloid and phytate contents when 150 kg N ha -1 was applied. The hydrogen cyanide and tannin contents were lower at the cutting interval of 12 weeks when 300 kg N ha -1 was applied. Application of 300 kg N ha -1 produced the lowest saponin content when cutting was done every 6 weeks.


We present the results we have obtained after applying techniques on a basis of genetic methodology to the resolution of problems related with the automatic synthesis of digital circuits. We tackle the minimization of the number of states in incompletely specified finite state machines and the optimal state assignment on two level logic. Both class of problems involves the resolution of NP problems. In the first case, we have used a classical genetic algorithm. In the second one have been used new types of operators and ways of representation to avoid the problems that appear. Finally, we try to find the optimal mutation probability which guarantees the exploration of new regions of solution space without search becoming aleatory.


The present work focusses on the chemical characterization and bioactive properties of Opuntia joconostle F.A.C. Weber ex Diguet and Opuntia matudae Scheinvar fruits. This research showed that xoconostle cv. Cuaresmeño (O. joconostle) and xoconostle cv. Rosa (O. matudae) are a good source of PUFAs and tocopherols. Moreover, both fruits revealed the presence of ten phenolic compounds (e.g., ferulic acid hexoside, quercetin-O-di-deoxyhexosyl-hexoside, and kaempferol-O-(di-deoxyhexosyl)-hexoside), as well as other organic acids (oxalic, malic, ascorbic and citric acids), and two betacyanins (betanin and isobetain). The hydroethanolic extracts of both fruits exhibited antioxidant activity, and inhibited the growth of several bacteria strains and of the yeast Candida albicans. As expected, xoconostle cv. Cuaresmeño was the fruit with highest antioxidant potential, since it was also the one that showed the highest content of bioactive compounds, with the exception of betacyanins. Overall, both fruits are revealed to be a good source of nutritive and bioactive compounds.


Amino acid oxidation (AAO) and peptide hydrolysis (PH) are processes affecting the recycling of organic material and nutrients. We compared extracellular AAO and PH rates to C and N uptake rates along estuarine gradients of salinity, nutrients and productivity in the Pocomoke River, a subestuary of the Chesapeake Bay. This estuary is seasonally depleted in inorganic N, and rich in dissolved organic material (DOM) throughout the year. AAO, PH, and N uptake rates measured in 1999 and 2000 were not limited to particular size fractions measured, or to auto- or heterotrophic groups of organisms. At a station near the turbidity maximum, where chlorophyll a biomass was highest, smaller ( 1.2 μm) size-fraction, except at the least saline station in August of both years. Rates of AAO and PH were not linearly correlated with each other seasonally or spatially. Uptake of NH 4 + dominated total N uptake (>50%) at all but the freshwater station, although uptake of organic compounds was measurable at all sites. Rates of dissolved free amino acid uptake, measured using dually labeled compounds, were substantial (up to 11% of the total N uptake) and contributed both C and N for growth. Dual labels unambiguously demonstrated that uptake rates of amino acid C and N were uncoupled; amino acid N was taken up preferentially to amino acid C even when rates were corrected for N uptake from AAO. Conceptual models of DOM cycling should include the realization that enzymatic processes and uptake of DOM occur in both 'microbial' and larger size fractions. Thus, competition between bacteria and phytoplankton mixotrophs may be an important factor determining the relative uptake of C and N from amino acids and other organic substrates.


INTRODUCTION: Alterations in the composition of the human gut microbiome and its metabolites have been linked to gut epithelial neoplasia. We hypothesized that differences in mucosa-adherent Barrett's microbiota could link to risk factors, providing risk of progression to neoplasia. Methods: Paired biopsies from both diseased and nonaffected esophagus (as well as gastric cardia and gastric juice for comparison) from patients with intestinal metaplasia (n = 10), low grade dysplasia (n = 10), high grade dysplasia (n = 10), esophageal adenocarcinoma (n = 12), and controls (n = 10) were processed for mucosa-associated bacteria and analyzed by 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid V4 gene DNA sequencing. Taxa composition was tested using a generalized linear model based on the negative binomial distribution and the log link functions of the R Bioconductor package edgeR. Results: The microbe composition of paired samples (disease vs nondisease) comparing normal esophagus with intestinal metaplasia, low grade dysplasia, high grade dysplasia, and adenocarcinoma showed significant decreases in the phylum Planctomycetes and the archaean phylum Crenarchaeota (P < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected) in diseased tissue compared with healthy controls and intrasample controls (gastric juice and unaffected mucosa). Genera Siphonobacter, Balneola, Nitrosopumilus, and Planctomyces were significantly decreased (P < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected), representing <10% of the entire genus community. These changes were unaffected by age, tobacco use, or sex for Crenarcha. DISCUSSSION: There are similar significant changes in bacterial genera in Barrett's esophageal mucosa, dysplasia, and adenocarcinoma compared with controls and intrapatient unaffected esophagus. Further work will establish the biologic plausibility of these specific microbes' contributions to protection from or induction of esophageal epithelial dysplasia.


In this paper, we discuss the sampling problem without a condition that was assumed in conventional sampling theorems. This means that we cannot perfectly reconstruct all functions in the reconstruction space. The perfect reconstruction is possible only for functions in an arbitrary complementary subspace of the intersection of the reconstruction space and the orthogonal complement of the sampling space. We propose a sampling theorem that reconstructs the oblique projection onto the complementary subspace along the orthogonal complement of the sampling space. The sampling theorem guarantees the perfect reconstruction of functions of special interest in the reconstruction space, such as the constant function in image processing applications. In addition, we explain why a conventional sampling theorem is not suitable for the present case.


This doctoral thesis is a collection of four essays in public economics that look at various public policies and their impacts on low-income and otherwise vulnerable individuals. The essays share the general aim of studying the effectiveness of public policies in achieving their stated goals. The first essay is single-authored by the candidate, and the latter three are collaborations with one or more co-authors. In the first essay, I use a unique dataset compiled from Finnish registers and surveys to provide a comprehensive characterisation of the take-up behavior of Finnish welfare benefits (housing allowance and social assistance) using descriptive methods. I provide various stylised facts on take-up and discuss how income dynamics matter for understanding take-up and benefit targeting. The second essay focuses on the impact of information on benefit takeup. We study the information campaign in the context of the introduction of the guarantee pension program in Finland in 2011 and find that receiving a mailed information letter and application form significantly increased take-up compared to non-recipients. In the the third essay, we analyse the impact of employers' disability insurance (DI) contributions on the incidence of disability pensions among their workers. Experience rating is used in DI in Finland in order to increase employers' incentives to prevent disabilities among their workers. We use detailed data and an empirical strategy that allows us to identify the causal effect of experience rating on disability inflow. Our analysis finds that the policy is not effective in reducing disabilities. The fourth essay uses a theoretical framework to provide optimal tax and transfer rules for poverty reduction in developing countries. We modify the standard optimal tax framework by restricting tax instruments to be linear, which are more feasibly implemented in countries with a lower administrative capacity. We show that when we change from the standard objective of welfare maximisation to that of poverty minimisation, which better depicts the concrete objectives of such countries, the optimal tax and transfer rules are changed.


Adult Vaccination Rates in the Severely Mentally Ill Population: An Improvement Project in an Outpatient Setting in Utah Nathalia Williams College of Nursing, BYU Master of Science Background: Adults who suffer with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) rarely access medical care to address basic medical needs, so they are subsequently less likely to receive preventive vaccines. The aim of this project was to increase the rate of vaccines among the SPMI population. This project started in 2011 and still is ongoing. It took place in an outpatient community mental health center (CMHC) which serves about 4,200 SPMI clients. Personnel managing the project included registered nurses from the local health department, staff from the CMHC, and volunteer nursing students. Methods: A review of the literature identified a gap between the general population and SPMI clients in preventive vaccinations. Researchers conducted an initial mixed-method convenience survey at Wasatch Mental Health (WMH), an outpatient CMHC in Utah County. SPMI clients who participated (n=392), provided information on current vaccination status, demographics, beliefs, and interest in receiving vaccines. After review of the data, a vaccination program was developed to address identified barriers and increase vaccination rates in the target population. Finally, post-intervention data were collected through a mixed method convenience survey of SPMI clients (n= 60) who participated in immunizations clinics to evaluate client satisfaction with the program. Interventions: An intervention program was designed that included a collaborative partnership between the local health department and WMH, to deliver a vaccination program in nontraditional sites tailored to the target SPMI population. Vaccines administered included: annual influenza; hepatitis A; hepatitis B; herpes zoster; measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR); pneumococcal; and tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap). Results: Eight months after the non-traditional site vaccination program was implemented over 1,000 vaccines were administered. Overall there was a significant increase in vaccination rates for individual vaccines ranging from 18.75% to 83% when compared to baseline. Herpes zoster vaccines were inconsistently available to participants at no cost, so these vaccines were not actively promoted. The post-intervention survey found a subject satisfaction rate of 95% with the program. Conclusion: Implementation of a vaccination program in a non-traditional site that facilitates access for SPMI clients to vaccines can promote an overwhelming increase in the vaccination rates for this underserved population. It is expected that this increase will ultimately decrease the occurrence of preventable communicable diseases in the target population. The results from this project suggests that the integration of mental health and primary care services can have a profound positive effect on the health of the SPMI population.


A group A acting faithfully on a finite set X is said to have distinguishing number two if there is a proper subset Y whose (setwise) stabilizer is trivial. The motion of A acting on X is defined as the largest integer k such that all non-trivial elements of A move at least k elements of X . The Motion Lemma of Russell and Sundaram states that if the motion is at least 2 log 2 | A |, then the action has distinguishing number two. When X is a vector space, group, or map, the Motion Lemma and elementary estimates of the motion together show that in all but finitely many cases, the action of Aut( X ) on X has distinguishing number two. A new lower bound for the motion of any transitive action gives similar results for transitive actions with restricted point-stabilizers. As an instance of what can happen with intransitive actions, it is shown that if X is a set of points on a closed surface of genus g , and | X | is sufficiently large with respect to g , then any action on X by a finite group of surface homeomorphisms has distinguishing number two.


About 130 kb of sequence information was obtained from the coliphage JS98 isolated from the stool of a pediatric diarrhea patient in Bangladesh. The DNA shared up to 81% base pair identity with phage T4. The most conserved regions between JS98 and T4 were the structural genes, but their degree of conservation was not uniform. The head genes showed the highest sequence conservation, followed by the tail, baseplate, and tail fiber genes. Many tail fiber genes shared only protein sequence identity. Except for the insertion of endonuclease genes in T4 and gene 24 duplication in JS98, the structural gene maps of the two phages were colinear. The receptor-recognizing tail fiber proteins gp37 and gp38 were only distantly related to T4, but shared up to 83% amino acid identity to other T6-like phages, suggesting lateral gene transfer. A greater degree of variability was seen between JS98 and T4 over DNA replication and DNA transaction genes. While most of these genes came in the same order and shared up to 76% protein sequence identity, a few rearrangements, insertions, and replacements of genes were observed. Many putative gene insertions in the DNA replication module of T4 were flanked by intron-related endonuclease genes, suggesting mobile DNA elements. A hotspot of genome diversification was located downstream of the DNA polymerase gene 43 and the DNA binding gene 32. Comparative genomics of 100-kb genome sequence revealed that T4-like phages diversify more by the accumulation of point mutations and occasional gene duplication events than by modular exchanges.


OBJECTIVE
To identify the factors that contribute to the disparity in the number of lymph nodes examined for curative colon cancer resections.

DESIGN
Our prospectively accrued cancer registry was analyzed for all colon cancer resections performed in a consecutive 52-month period (January 1, 2003, through April 30, 2007).

SETTING
The study was performed at an 851-bed community hospital. Seventeen surgeons performed colon resections, with the number of resections varying from 1 to 154. Ten pathologists and 3 pathology assistants evaluated the specimens.

PATIENTS
A total of 430 patients met the inclusion criteria and underwent surgical resection. Only patients with colon cancer were included in the study; patients with rectal cancers, in situ disease only, T4 tumors, and stage IV disease at the time of diagnosis were excluded to ensure a uniform group of patients, all undergoing resection with curative intent.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Age of the patient; the surgeon, pathologist, and pathology technician; stage of disease; and year of surgery were analyzed.

RESULTS
No statistical difference was found in the number of lymph nodes retrieved based on the surgeon (P = .21), pathologist (P = .11), or pathology technician (P = .26). Age of the patient, primary site of the tumor, stage, and year of surgery were all significantly associated with number of lymph nodes retrieved (P <.001).

CONCLUSIONS
The origin of a low lymph node count appears multifactorial. Inadequate lymph node retrieval for colon cancer resections cannot uniformly be attributed to 1 factor, such as the surgeon.


A total of 300 patients with atopic dermatitis were examined for the status of their gastrointestinal tract, liver and pancreas functioning. Besides clinical and laboratory studies, ultrasonic scanning of the liver and pancreas, fibrogastroduodenoscopy, radioimmunoassay of serum trypsin, C peptide, insulin, cholylglycine, radionuclide hepatography, and gamma pancreatoscintigraphy were carried out. Analysis of the findings permit a conclusion that chronic pancreatitis and impaired function of the liver and bile excretion are quite frequent in atopic dermatitis patients.


Join is the most expensive and the frequent operation in database. Significant numbers of join queries are executed in the interactive applications. In interactive applications the first few thousand results need to be produced without any delay. The current join algorithms are mainly based on hash join or sort merge join which is less suitable for interactive applications because some pre work is required by these algorithms before it could produce the joining results. The nested loop joining technique produces the results without any delay, but it needs more comparisons to produce the joining results as it carries the tuples which will not yield any joining results till the end of the join operation. In this paper we present a new joining algorithm called bucket join which will over comes the limitations of hash based and sort based algorithms. In this new joining algorithm the tuples are divided into buckets without any pre-work. The matched tuples and the tuples which will not produce the joining results are eliminated during each phase thus the no. of comparison required to produce the joining results are considerable low when compared to the other joining algorithms. Thus the bucket join algorithm can replace the other early join algorithms in any situation where a fast initial response time is required without any penalty in the memory usage and I/O operations.