On November 22, 1910, Rio de Janeiro was convulsed by the four-day Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash). Approximately half of the predominantly Afro-Brazilian sailors stationed in the nation's capital—likely fifteen hundred to two thousand men—seized four modern battleships, removed their officers, and besieged the city. They complained of mistreatment, forced recruitment, low pay, and meager food, but their only demand in their first communication to the president was the cessation of corporal punishment in the Brazilian navy. Three of the four ships seized had been recently obtained by the Brazilian government from British shipyards; two were the first all-big-gun dreadnought-class battleships ever sold by the British to any foreign navy. Their 12-inch guns could near-simultaneously launch twelve 850-pound explosive shells at targets miles away, meaning that should they fire almost every part of the Brazilian capital city was under threat.
 Their second communique to the president demanded an end to the "slavery as practiced in the Brazilian navy." The institution's nearly century-long traditions of forced conscription, systematic and ritualized lashing, long-term forced labor, and the conspicuous malnourishment of Afro-Brazilian men tempts comparison to the exploitation of the enslaved in preabolition Brazil, but other than a brief policy of purchase and subsequent freeing of enslaved men to serve in the armed forces during the Paraguayan War (1864–1870), naval service did not draw on the exploitation of the enslaved. Instead, it conscripted Brazil's free Afro-descendant population; citizens who represented a 47 percent plurality of Brazil's population, larger than either the free white or enslaved Black populations at the time of Brazil's first national census in 1872.
 The Brazilian navy was just one part in a series of institutions and legislative controls created and used to control Brazil's free Afro-Brazilian population both before and after abolition in 1888. The freedom and citizenship of free Black men, women, and children was often ephemeral and regulated. Although Brazil lacked institutionalized racial segregation such as apartheid or Jim Crow, controls such as restriction on land ownership, police policies, military conscription, the manipulation of orphans, forced apprenticeship, and incarceration were implemented in such racialized ways that the overall outcome for Afro-Brazilians was similar. The navy's acquisition of cutting-edge weapons of war created an opportunity for powerless Afro-descendant men to challenge the generally unacknowledged state systems of racial oppression and hierarchy.


Objective:We evaluated the thickness of the facial alveolar bone wall at the maxillary incisors based on cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Materials and Methods:The CBCT images of 60 patients were collected. We measured the distance between the cemento-enamel junction to alveolar bone crest (CEJ-ABC) and the facial alveolar bone width at levels 1 (P1), 2 (P2) and 5 (P3) mm apical to the bone crest. Results:The P2 and P3 scores had a statistically significant negative relationship with age, and the CEJ-ABC scores had a statistically significant positive relationship with age for all samples. Regarding the CEJ-ABC scores, there were no statistically significant differences between genders. However, the P1 values of tooth 11 and 21 were statistically significantly greater for female patients, and the P2 value of tooth 22 was statistically significantly greater for male patients. Conclusion:The bone in the anterior maxillary area is very thin, only rarely meeting the minimum of 2 mm necessary for optimal aesthetic and functional results. Thus, for most patients, adjunctive augmentation procedures may be needed for implant treatment.


The provision of public services and infrastructure has evolved over the years and currently, the ever-increasing demand for public services and the greater levels of required renewal and repair of infrastructure have created unsustainable strains on limited public sector resources, leading to a resurgence of private sector involvement in such projects, to a much larger degree than ever before. The key to the success of such privately financed projects is the structure of the financing package.

This thesis traces the evolution of project financing, exploring the financial engineering of funding packages using debt and equity instruments by way of financial modelling. This research derives a generic health sector project for which a fmancial model is subsequently
developed, based on actual project finance modelling practice and incorporating various financial instruments for funding and credit enhancement. Using this financial model, different permutations of financial structure are simulated and investigated; the use of bank loans versus
fixed and index-linked bond issues, debt repayment profiles and blended equity structures, are some of the areas examined, as are gearing, credit enhancement, and the sensitivity of different financial structures to inflation.

This thesis offers insightful knowledge on the process of financial engineering for project finance, and on the various instruments and mechanisms that can be employed for project profitability and financial robustness. The development and manipulation of a detailed financial
model highlight the role and importance of optimisation of the financial package during modelling and overall, afford the reader a better understanding of the dynamic that exists
between the components of a project's financial structure.


The concept of a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) as a power-saving technology for home appliances has received much attention. Most of current HEMSs based on the Smart Energy Profile (SEP), KNX, or ECHONET standards are implemented as closed systems within a Home Area Network (HAN); therefore, cost is a serious problem in the large-scale deployment of HEMSs. One possible way to reduce the overhead is to implement a HEMS as a cloud-based Application Service Provider (ASP) service. In such setup, a HEMS server is located in the cloud, and it monitors and controls home appliance devices over the Internet. We propose here a novel HEMS architecture using a cloud-based ASP service. We describe an overall architecture and some potential interactive Web communication technologies that realize a HEMS over the cloud-based ASP services. We also present a mathematical analysis and experimental results for estimating protocol overheads and server loads. These show that the WebSocket protocol is the most suitable protocol, allowing accommodation of twice as many households as other protocols. Finally, we describe our prototype implementation of the proposed architecture with the WebSocket protocol.


Being homeless negatively impacts health in diverse ways, especially for those experiencing chronic homelessness.1 Such persons are at higher risk for multiple infectious diseases, traumatic injuries, interpersonal violence, conditions related to extreme heat or cold, and death due to alcoholism and drug overdoses. They are more likely than housed persons to use hospital emergency departments for health care and to be admitted to the hospital for health problems, because they are less likely to have health insurance and because their conditions cannot be appropriately cared for without safe and secure housing. Thus, there are compelling reasons to know whether interventions aimed at reducing homelessness also reduce the adverse health consequences associated with it.


The experiment was conducted in glazed 3-gallon pots in the greenhouse, using Kirvin clay soil, limed and not limed, treated with red clover, wheat straw, and Juniper wood residues. An application of 59.5 mg. of nitrogen per 100 g. of soil was made at the beginning, and again after 15 months. Soil samples were taken from each treatment before planting the first crop, after 15 months, and again after 48 months. Ten crops were grown during the 4-year period. There was a marked loss of nitrogen from all soils during the experiment, but loss from limed soil was greater than from unlimed soil. The highly carbonaceous materials retarded nitrogen loss. There was a tendency for nitrogen to accumulate in the silt fraction, especially in unlimed soil. The amount of organic matter retained by the soil was not affected by lime content and there was no difference in organic matter and total nitrogen contents of the wheat straw and red clover treatments after 48 months, although the organic matter/nitrogen ratio was 21.0 for the red clover treatment and 34.4 for the wheat straw treatment when the experiment started. Only the Juniper wood had a significant effect on aggregate stability after 48 months.


The East German uprising and the downfall of Lavrentii Beria had profound short- and long-term effects on Soviet policy toward Germany and on the political configuration of the Eastern bloc. This article, the final segment of a three-part analysis of SovietEast European relations in the early post-Stalin era, discusses the changes in the Soviet bloc at some length. It then ties together the three parts of the analysis by exploring the theoretical implications of the linkages between internal and external events in the Soviet Union and East-Central Europe in 1953, drawing on recent theoretical literature about the connection between domestic and international politics.


Cognitive radio systems can utilize dispersed spectrum, and thus such approach is known as dispersed spectrum cognitive radio systems. In this paper, we first provide the performance analysis of such systems over fading channels. We derive the average symbol error probability of dispersed spectrum cognitive radio systems for two cases, where the channel for each frequency diversity band experiences independent and dependent Nakagami- fading. In addition, the derivation is extended to include the effects of modulation type and order by considering M-ary phase-shift keying (-PSK) and M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation -QAM) schemes. We then consider the deployment of such cognitive radio systems in an ad hoc fashion. We consider an ad hoc dispersed spectrum cognitive radio network, where the nodes are assumed to be distributed in three dimension (3D). We derive the effective transport capacity considering a cubic grid distribution. Numerical results are presented to verify the theoretical analysis and show the performance of such networks.


This research investigates and tests two satellite communication links for application to real-time seismic survey operations. The research includes an investigation of satellite system physical characteristics, a cost model and the software and system integration required to integrate satellite communications with real-time geospatial operations. After intensive investigation of different satellite systems, Iridium and Orbcomm were chosen as candidates for experimental validation. An XML cost model was developed to estimate costs for various seismic survey operational scenarios involving Iridium and Orbcomm satellite systems. Both satellite systems were tested to determine their operational characteristics. Three different experiments transmitting packets of 108 bytes (simulating helicopter GPS information) were carried out at different frequencies, time of day and transceiver movement (static and dynamic). Satellite communication system cost is about 10 times less per unit of data transmitted for Orbcomm compared to Iridium. Orbcomm has a much higher latency and lower update rate than Iridium. Our experiments determined an average latency for Iridium of 1465 ms while Orbcomm's average latency was 12 minutes 45 seconds given the same data transmission parameters. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) was also explored in this research for its possible role in satellite link geospatial information systems. Our results show that SOAP has good potential for use in client – server web applications for satellite cost estimation as part of satellite-based field operations. iii Acknowledgments


: Most patients who suffer from symptomatic Gaucher disease will benefit from enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with imiglucerase. The safety profile is excellent, only a small percentage of those exposed developing antibodies; similarly, very few patients require pre-medication for allergic reactions. Within 3 to 5 years of imiglucerase therapy, best docu-mented at doses of 30 to 60 units/kg/infusion, hepatosplenomegaly can be expected to be reduced so that the liver volume will be maintained at 1 to 1.5 times normal (30% to 40% reduction from advent of ERT) and spleen volume to  2 to 8 times normal (50% to 60% reduction from advent of ERT). For anemic and thrombocytopenic patients, with 2 to 5 years of imiglucerase, hemoglobin levels are expected to be  11 g/dL for women and children and  12 g/dL for men; and platelet counts in patients with an intact spleen, depending on the baseline value, should approximately be doubled. Bone crises and bone pain but not irreversible skeletal dam-age will improve in most patients. Nonetheless, some features and some symptomatic patients apparently do not respond equally well and/or perhaps inadequately. The benefit for patients with the neuronopathic forms is primarily in improved visceral and hematological signs and symptoms. There are still several unresolved issues, the high per-unit cost being an important one, which have spurred the development of biosimilar enzymes as well as chaperone therapies currently


Data from 18 272 births were used to determine the seasonality of calving amongst unimproved cattle in three ecologically distinct regions of Swaziland. Cattle were of the Nguni breed; bulls had access to cows throughout the year. In both the Highveld and Middleveld, there was a pronounced unimodal distribution in calving pattern with peak calving occurring during the period October – December (57.0 and 54.9% of births, respectively). In the Lowveld, the main calving period was November – January (51.0%) but there was also a smaller peak lo July (8. 9%). Monthly calving frequency was correlated with previous monthly rainfall records and most variation was accounted for by rainfall 10 months earlier in both the Highveld and Middleveld (79 and 50% of variation, respectively). No significant relationships between calving frequency and rainfall could be demonstrated in the Lowveld data. These findings are discussed in the context of the nutritional characteristics of the forage available in the three regions.


The objectives of this research are to understand the determining methods of inpatient hospital services rates and to analyze the unit costs of inpatient hospital services by the ABC system approach. This study uses qualitative research with case study research approach. As the public service institution (BLU), public hospitals are required to perform the unit cost analysis in determining the rates of its services. ABC system is considered as the quite accurate costing approach and it can minimize the distortion at determining unit cost of the products. According to this study, the components of inpatient hospital services cost consist of administrative costs, consumption costs, costs of laundry, salaries of nurses, cleaning fee, costs of water, electricity costs, building maintenance costs, equipment maintenance costs, buildings depreciation and equipments depreciation. While the cost drivers consist of the number of patients, long of stay, the amount of nurses, and the spacious of rooms. Based on these study, it was found that the management of Dr. Haryato Public Hospital did not perform the unit cost analysis to determine the hospital's services rates. The unit cost of each of these classes has a considerable margin compared with the hospital rates. The hospital management should consider the application of the ABC system in the calculation of unit costs so that the application can be more accurate rates in accordance with the consumption cost of each class. Key Words: Unit Costs, Hospital Rates, ABC System


The study aims to examine the factors that affect smallholder rice farmers' market orientation tendencies, market participation decision and the extent of rice marketing. A total sample of 352 rice farming households is drawn from the National Panel Survey Data of 2014/2015. A tobit model is used to analyse the factors that influence market orientation tendencies, then a double hurdle model is used to analyze the drivers of the choice and extent of rice marketing by the smallholder rice farmer. Findings reveal that the age of the household head, education level and receiving input vouchers negatively affect market orientation while access to marketing extension services, inorganic fertilizers application, use of animal traction, use of hired-labor, land fragmentation and household wealth positively influence market orientation inclinations among smallholder farmers. Moreover, the quantity harvested and household wealth were found to positively influence both decision and extent of market participation. The age of the head, household size and access to extension services influenced the decision to participate in marketing while distance to the nearest market and market orientation influenced the extent of market participation among smallholder rice farmers in Tanzania. Widening extension services and improving infrastructure supporting marketing are called for.


Recombinant antibodies represent a more sensitive and specific detection tool for immunoanalysis. The research carried out for this thesis describes the production of genetically-derived single chain antibody fragments to detect illicit drugs.

A variety of novel recombinant antibody fragments against morphine-3-glucuronide, a metabolite of heroin has been produced. A monomeric, dimeric and enzyme-labelled scFv were characterised with respect to their binding abilities and cross reactivities. Monomeric scFv was successfully applied to a competitive ELISA format for the detection of morphine residues in saliva. The assay was used to positively identify morphine residues in the saliva of drug addicts attending a rehabilitation clinic. An inhibition assay to detect morphine in saliva was also developed using the BIAcore 3000 instrument, a surface plasmon resonance-based biosensor for detection of biomolecular interactions in 'real-time'. A novel sol particle lateral flow immunoassay was generated using monomeric and dimeric scFvs for the detection of M3G.

Recombinant antibody fragments against tetrahydrocannabinol were isolated from a naive human library by a process known as biopanning. Phage-displayed antibodies have been fully characterised with respect to their binding capabilities and were successfully applied to an immunoassay for the detection of marijuana residues in saliva.


This research is to probe the epistemological beliefs, learning attitudes and conceptual understanding towards learning Physics among the first year and final year Physics Education undergraduates (N = 68) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for 2009/2010 session. This is a descriptive quantitative research. Data are collected by using Physics Epistemological Beliefs & Attitudes Test and Force Concept Inventory. The data analysis indicates that generally the undergraduates hold high sophistication of epistemological beliefs and favorable attitudes in learning Physics. The t-tests also show that there are statistically significant differences in mean scores between first and final year undergraduates for epistemological beliefs and learning attitudes. Higher mean scores in both aspects are in favor of final year undergraduates. However, poor conceptual understanding due to misconceptions is detected among them. Gender differences are detected in both epistemological beliefs and learning attitudes tests which are in favor of female undergraduates. Pearson correlations show that there are some significant relationships between epistemological beliefs, learning attitudes and conceptual understanding. Significant correlation coefficients of .607 at alpha level .01 are detected between epistemological beliefs and conceptual understanding whereas (r = .563) between epistemological beliefs and learning attitudes.


The development of intellectual property (IP) protection in plant breeding brought much needed private investment into canola research in the 1980s, but at the same time, fragmented research and IP ownership. In the 1990s, the biotechnology industry tried to addressed the growing IP fragmentation through a series of mergers and aquisitions. As we show through a survey of canola breeders, these changes reduced the sharing of knowledge in both the public and private sector, significantly increasing the cost of conducting breeding research. In the past decade, firms have clearly moved away from mergers and acquisitions and towards cross-licensing of IP. What remains to be seen, is whether these agreements get to the root of the freedom to operate (FTO) problem that exists in agricultural biotechnology.


Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases among women worldwide and is highly associated with cancer-related mortality. Of the four major molecular subtypes, HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) comprise more than 30% of all breast cancers. While the HER2-positive subtype lacks estrogen and progesterone receptors and overexpresses HER2, the TNBC subtype lacks estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptors. Although advances in molecular biology and genetics have substantially ameliorated breast cancer disease management, targeted therapies for the treatment of estrogen-receptor negative breast cancer patients are still restricted, particularly for TNBC. On the other hand, it has been demonstrated that microRNAs, miRNAs or small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression are involved in diverse biological processes, including carcinogenesis. Moreover, circulating miRNAs in serum/plasma are among the most promising diagnostic/therapeutic tools as they are stable and relatively easy to quantify. Various circulating miRNAs have been identified in several human cancers including specific breast cancer subtypes. This review aims to discuss the role of circulating miRNAs as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as therapeutic targets for estrogen-receptor negative breast cancers, HER2+ and triple negative.


To evaluate the clinical features of headache in stroke, a prospective study was carried out in 240 consecutive patients with acute stroke who had intact expressive function. Headache occurred in 38%: 32% of 195 patients with ischemic stroke and 64.5% of 45 patients with hemorrhagic stroke (p < 0.0001). Headache patients were younger (mean age 62 ± 15 vs 67 ± 11.5 years) than non-headache patients (p < 0.01). A history of previous vascular or tension-type headache was found in 40.5% of the headache group, but in only 23.5% of the non-headache group (p < 0.01). In ischemic stroke, headache was observed in 41% of thrombotic infarcts, in 39% of cardioembolic infarcts, in 23% of lacunar infarcts and in 26% of TIA. Headache was significantly more common in thrombotic than lacunar infarcts (p < 0.05). In hemorrhagic stroke, headache was observed in all subarachnoid hemorrhages and in 58% of intraparenchymal hemorrhages. In ischemic stroke, the mean duration of the headache was 25 ± 28 h and in hemorrhagic stroke 64.5 ± 36.5 h (p < 0.00001). In ischemic stroke the headache was focal in 74% and mild or moderate in intensity in 74%. In hemorrhagic stroke, it was diffuse in 52% and the pain intensity was incapacitating in 70%. Headache was more common in vertebrobasilar stroke (59%), in comparison with carotid stroke (26%) or stroke of unclear vascular topography (33%) (p < 0.00001). Fifty-six and a half percent of patients with cortical stroke had headaches, as opposed to only 26.5% of patients with subcortical stroke (p < 0.005). Ten percent of the patients presented with sentinel headache.


The C̃ (1)B2 state of SO2 has a double-minimum potential in the antisymmetric stretch coordinate, such that the minimum energy geometry has nonequivalent SO bond lengths. However, low-lying levels with odd quanta of antisymmetric stretch (b2 vibrational symmetry) have not previously been observed because transitions into these levels from the zero-point level of the X̃ state are vibronically forbidden. We use IR-UV double resonance to observe the b2 vibrational levels of the C̃ state below 1600 cm(-1) of vibrational excitation. This enables a direct characterization of the vibrational level staggering that results from the double-minimum potential. In addition, it allows us to deperturb the strong c-axis Coriolis interactions between levels of a1 and b2 vibrational symmetry and to determine accurately the vibrational dependence of the rotational constants in the distorted C̃ electronic state.


Nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to be the endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), and its impairment contributes to a variety of cardiovascular disorders. Recently, it has been recognized that nitrite can be an important source of NO; however, questions remain regarding the activity and mechanisms of nitrite bioactivation in vessels and its physiological importance. Therefore, we investigated the effects of nitrite on in vivo hemodynamics in rats and in vitro vasorelaxation in isolated rat aorta under aerobic conditions. Studies were performed to determine the mechanisms by which nitrite is converted to NO. In anesthetized rats, nitrite dose dependently decreased both systolic and diastolic blood pressure with a threshold dose of 10 microM. Similarly, nitrite (10 microM-2 mM) caused vasorelaxation of aortic rings, and NO was shown to be the intermediate factor responsible for this activity. With the use of electrochemical as well as electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy techniques NO generation was measured from isolated aortic vessels following nitrite treatment. Reduction of nitrite to NO was blocked by heating the vessel, suggesting that an enzymatic process is involved. Organ chamber experiments demonstrated that aortic relaxation induced by nitrite could be blocked by both hemoglobin and soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) inhibitor 1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxaline-1-one (ODQ). In addition, both electrochemical and EPR spin-trapping measurements showed that ODQ inhibits nitrite-mediated NO production. These findings thus suggest that nitrite can be a precursor of EDRF and that sGC or other heme proteins inhibited by ODQ catalyze the reduction of nitrite to NO.


Politics in the Fiji Islands is characterised by competitive processes that draw on and reshape ethnic cleavages. Indigenous Fijians and Indian indentured labourers were incorporated separately into the colonial state and political economy under British rule. Institutionalised ethnic divisions were not significantly restructured during Fiji's negotiated independence in 1970. In the process of building a national polity, these institutions embody a tension, being both a means to integrate ethnic groups into the state and a means to perpetuate ethnic cleavages. Throughout the Twentieth Century, ideologies of Indigenous paramountcy and individual equality have competed in Fiji's political dialogue. They represent different conceptions of political rights for ethnic groups and individuals; differences not yet resolved into a conception of common national citizenship with wide acceptance. The ideology of paramountcy and its ostensible incompatibility with equality has structured the rhetorical shape of military and civilian coups overthrowing democracy in 1987 and 2000. This political instability has severely impeded Fiji's social, political and economic development. This thesis focuses on contests between ideologies of Indigenous paramountcy and individual equality in political dialogue in Fiji. It asks whether the concepts are necessarily incompatible. In showing that they are not, it seeks mutual ground on which to base a conception of shared citizenship of an inclusive national polity. This search invokes the idea that the centrality of paramountcy and equality to existing political identities means political inclusiveness may be better achieved by building on these concepts, rather than dismissing either. The thesis argues that notions of paramountcy and equality contain the potential for an inclusive national polity that respects all its citizens and is attuned to the importance of protecting Indigenous culture and socio-economic wellbeing. Although many political actors in Fiji share this vision, ethnic polarisation in the wake of the 2000 coup enabled extremism to triumph in the 2001 national elections. The thesis draws its analysis from this election campaign, as an intensified debate on paramountcy and equality. It emphasises the interconnections between political dialogue and historical, cultural and socio-economic contexts. In particular, the state threatens to impede social forces towards political inclusiveness. Its increasing role in advancing individual economic and political opportunities according to ethnic membership is fostering an Indigenou s middle and elite class reliant on and promoting values of Indigenous privilege and political exclusion.


This article reports results from a 1992 Gallup survey conducted in six nations (Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal and Russia) that explored public perceptions of global warming in some detail. Overall the results tend to support those of the small-scale but in-depth studies on which the present study built: Lay publics in these six nations see global warming as a problem, although not as serious as ozone depletion or rain forest destruction. Most people acknowledge that they do not understand global warming very well, and results from questions about the perceived causes and consequences of global warming illustrate their limited understanding. While often confusing global warming with ozone depletion and air pollution, majorities of respondents in all but Russia believe that it is already occurring and large majorities within all nations believe that it will occur within their lifetimes. Furthermore, as discussions of the `risk society' suggest, public perceptions of global warming do not vary consistently across differing social strata within the nations. The article ends by discussing implications of the results, and questions whether detailed public understanding of highly complex issues like global warming is feasible or even necessary for effective policy-making.


: Computational Thinking represents a terminology that embraces the complex set of reasoning processes that are held for problem stating and solving through a computational tool. The ability of systematizing problems and solve them by these means is currently being considered a skill to be developed by all students, together with Language, Mathematics and Sciences. Considering that Computer Science has many of its roots on Mathematics, it is reasonable to ponder if and how Mathematics learning can be influenced by offering activities related to Computational Thinking to students. In this sense, this article presents a Systematic Literature Review on reported evidences of Mathematics learning in activities aimed at developing Computational Thinking skills. Forty-two articles which presented didactic activities together with an experimental design to evaluate learning outcomes published from 2006 to 2017 were analyzed. The majority of identified activities used a software tool or hardware device for their development. In these papers, a wide variety of mathematical topics has been being developed, with some emphasis on Planar Geometry and Algebra. Conversion of models and solutions between different semiotic representations is a high level cognitive skill that is most frequently associated to educational outcomes. This review indicated that more recent articles present a higher level of rigor in methodological procedures to assess learning effects. However, joint analysis of evidences from more than one data source is still not frequently used as a validation procedure.


How to Hit the Ground: Motion and Measurement in Moving Pictures before The Great Crash Will Schmenner Karen Redrobe, Advisor On December 21, 1914, the Keystone Film Company released Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Mack Sennett. Roughly seven weeks later, depending on where one lived in North America, D.W. Griffith released The Birth of a Nation (1915). For cinema and media studies, this moment launched the form of the classical Hollywood feature-length narrative—the roughly ninety-minutes to three-hour film that since became ubiquitous. The two movies, despite sharing a longer-than-normal duration, could hardly be more different. The Birth of a Nation purports to be history. President Woodrow Wilson was famously quoted as saying, "It's like writing history with lightning." Griffith carefully designed his broad overarching themes about race and gender so that they would drive the narrative. On the other hand, Tillie's Punctured Romance pieces together a narrative that is often seen as secondary, at best, to the slapstick comedy animating the picture. My dissertation delves into this difference, which cannot be solely contributed to slapsticks desire to burlesque Griffith. By building up an argument from the forms that bodily motion took in the shots, across the edits, and in the narrative structure of Buster Keaton's 1920s features, I argue that cinema and media studies needs to reconsider how it thinks about so-called non-narrative techniques and passive audiences. In short, Keaton worked with the visual habits of his audiences to create a set of non-narrative techniques that make up the very narrative structure of his movies. By engaging with the bio-politics of bodily motion in the 1920s, Keaton was able to take the well-established visual habits of an industrializing America and tactically alter them to critique how bodies are moved and monitored, who controls the moving of those bodies, and who sets the understanding of efficient, permissible, and effective motions. In the context of The First Red Scare (1920 – 1921) and what John Dos Passos called "the deportations delirium," Keaton's comedy offered a more realistic depiction of how disjointed, contingent and chaotic the experience of everyday life could be. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History of Art This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2571 First Advisor Karen Redrobe


Blood backspatter pattern analysis provides important evidence in firearm-related crime scenes. The mechanisms behind particular patterns have attracted significant recent attention in forensic sciences, in general, and in forensic-science-motivated fluid dynamics, in particular. However, investigations on the secondary atomization of blood drops in flight and its effects on trajectories and the corresponding blood stain distributions were scarce. The present work is especially concerned with the effect of secondary atomization on the blood backspatter interaction with muzzle gases at short-range shooting, where it can be very significant. A secondary breakup model is incorporated into the blood backspatter model accounting for interaction with a self-similar vortex ring formed by muzzle gases and moving with high speed in the direction opposite to that of the initial motion of blood drops. The behavior of blood drops of different sizes is investigated, and different scenarios are identified. The secondary atomization stems from high relative velocities of drops and air/muzzle gases and results in the formation of small blood droplets, which are swept easier by muzzle gases and even turned around toward a target. Overall, the secondary atomization in the presence of muzzle gases results in blood stains deposited on the floor closer to the target or even behind the target. It is revealed that in the cases of short-range shooting, the predicted blood stain locations on the floor without accounting for the secondary atomization could be misleading for realistic drop sizes observed experimentally.


ZnFe2O4 modified g-C3N4 was successfully synthesized by a simple one-pot method. The visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of g-C3N4 was significantly enhanced due to spatial engineering of the photo-active sites via ZnFe2O4 modification and Pt loading. It is proposed that ZnFe2O4 does not function as visible light sensitizer but as oxidation active sites. In the present ZnFe2O4/g-C3N4 photocatalysts, the photo-induced holes in g-C3N4 tend to transfer to ZnFe2O4 due to the straddling band structures (Type I band alignment), while the photo-induced electrons in g-C3N4 prefer to transfer to the loaded Pt cocatalysts, which can function as reduction active sites for hydrogen production. As a result, the photoinduced electrons and holes in g-C3N4 are efficiently separated by spatial engineering of the photo-active sites, and hence enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen generation activity is obtained.


BHP Minerals discovered the Archean lode gold ULU deposit on the western margin of the High Lake Volcanic Belt in 1989. The greenschist to amphibolite facies mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks on the property are folded into a 5 km-long anticline. There is a close spatial association of Au-As zones to the trace of this F2 ULU anticline. The largest of these auriferous zones, the Flood zone, is localized at the core of the fold. The southeast-trending Flood zone consists of several anastomosing lenses that have been traced for 435 m on surface. Overall, it dips steeply (70° to 80°) to the southwest and has been intersected to depths below 600 m. The hosting high-iron tholeitic basalt displays a lower amphibolite mineral assemblage of ferrohornblende + plagioclase + ilmenite with accessory quartz and epidote. Alteration minerals include biotite, chlorite, hornblende, actinolite-tremolite, and potassium feldspar (microcline) with minor calcite, epidote, tourmaline, and titanite. The highest gold values occur where brecciated basaltic wall-rock clasts are replaced by acicular arsenopyrite + quartz + K-feldspar. BHP Minerals completed 54,783 m of both exploration and resource development drilling before selling the ULU property to Echo Bay Mines in 1995. Development of ULU as a satellite deposit to Echo Bay's Lupin mine began in 1996. A -15% ramp was extended to the 155-meter level, and 16,011 m of underground drilling were completed before the decline in gold prices forced a suspension of activities at ULU in August 1997. The current owners, Wolfden Resources Inc., drilled 18,569 m in 2004 to increase confidence in the resource blocks. Following this drill program, a revised resource calculated by an independent consultant determined that the ULU deposit contains an inferred/indicated mineral resource of 1,130,000 t grading 11.34 g/t gold (373,748 oz) to the 360-m level. The portal was re-opened in 2005 and a prefeasibility study is underway.


to Samuel Iwry, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1985. Pp. xviii + 274. Cloth, $25.00. ISBN 0-931464-23-4. The authors are to be congratulated on assembling 29 articles within reasonable space. But frankly, the quality of the contributions does not match the reputation of the contributors-with some exceptions, of course, which it would be invidious to mention. The Festschrift does not contain a list of Iwry's publications-rightly, for his learning and his influence are not


Purpose The goal was to determine whether interactive book reading outcomes for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) were affected by manipulation of dose (i.e., the number of exposures to the target word during a book reading session) and dose frequency (i.e., the number of repeated book reading sessions) and whether pretreatment factors predicted treatment response variation. Method Thirty-four kindergarten children with DLD (aged 5;0–6;2 [years;months]) were taught 1 set of words using the Dose 6 and Dose Frequency 6 format from a prior study (Storkel, Voelmle, et al., 2017) and taught a different set of words using an alternative format, either Dose 4 × Dose Frequency 9 or Dose 9 × Dose Frequency 4, determined through random assignment. Word learning was tracked for each treatment via a definition task prior to, during, and after treatment. Results Results showed that children with DLD learned a significant number of words during treatment regardless of the dose and dose frequency format but that significant forgetting of newly learned words occurred in all formats once treatment was withdrawn. Individual differences in word learning were related to Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Core Language and Understanding Spoken Paragraphs scores. Conclusion When administered at an adequate intensity, variation in the dose and dose frequency of interactive book reading does not appear to influence word learning by children with DLD. Although interactive book reading continues to show promise as an effective word learning intervention for children with DLD, further development is needed to enhance the effectiveness of this treatment approach. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9745181


Tumor-initiating stem-like cells (TICs) are resistant to chemotherapy and associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) caused by HCV and/or alcohol-related chronic liver injury. Using HCV Tg mouse models and patients with HCC, we isolated CD133(+) TICs and identified the pluripotency marker NANOG as a direct target of TLR4, which drives the tumor-initiating activity of TICs. These TLR4/NANOG-dependent TICs were defective in the TGF-β tumor suppressor pathway. Functional oncogene screening of a TIC cDNA library identified Yap1 and Igf2bp3 as NANOG-dependent genes that inactivate TGF-β signaling. Mechanistically, we determined that YAP1 mediates cytoplasmic retention of phosphorylated SMAD3 and suppresses SMAD3 phosphorylation/activation by the IGF2BP3/AKT/mTOR pathway. Silencing of both YAP1 and IGF2BP3 restored TGF-β signaling, inhibited pluripotency genes and tumorigenesis, and abrogated chemoresistance of TICs. Mice with defective TGF-β signaling (Spnb2(+/-) mice) exhibited enhanced liver TLR4 expression and developed HCC in a TLR4-dependent manner. Taken together, these results suggest that the activated TLR4/NANOG oncogenic pathway is linked to suppression of cytostatic TGF-β signaling and could potentially serve as a therapeutic target for HCV-related HCC.


In most of the optimization models developed to manage airports operations, arrivals and departures capacities are treated as independent variables: that is the number of flights allowed to take off does not affect the number of landings in any unit of time, and vice versa. This assumption is seldom verified in most of the congested airports, where many interactions between arrivals and departures take place. In this paper, we face the problem of finding the optimal trade‐off between the number of arrivals and departures in order to reduce a delay function of all the flights, using a more realistic representation of the airport capacity, i.e. the capacity envelope. Under the assumption of piecewise linear convex capacity envelopes and of the exact interpolation of all the Pareto‐optimal operational points, we show that the problem can be formulated as a linear programming model. For general airport capacity envelopes, we propose a dynamic programming formulation with a corresponding backward solution algorithm, which is robust, easy to implement and has a linear computational complexity. The algorithm performances are evaluated on different realistic scenarios, and the optimal solutions are compared with those computed by a greedy algorithm, which can be seen as an approximation of the current decision procedures. The percentage deviation of the cost of these two solutions ranges from 3.98 to 35.64%


The submandibular salivary gland was histochemically and electron microscopically studied in gnotobiotic and conventional Wistar rats at the age of 15 days--10 months. By the first month of age, the submandibular salivary glands in both groups of animals complete differentiation of their acini, and the gland, according to the type of its secretion, becomes seromucous with predominance of albuminous component in it. Succinate dehydrogenase activity and nonspecific esterase predominate in epithelium of the excretory ducts. At the second month of life some signs of moreasing ductal part of the gland appear in the gnotobiotic rats. This part greatly increases by the 4th--10th month of life, mainly at the expense of twisted granular sections. This increase in number and volume of the twisted granular ducts results in compressing acini and in ultrastructural disorders of granulocytes, with destruction of some mitochondria, increasing number of lysosomes, decreasing size and alterations in character of secretory granules, in structural disorders of the laminar complex. All these manifest depressing secretory function of granulocytes in the gland of gnotobiotic animals.


Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) was applied to evaluate the heterogeneity of a passive film formed on a pure iron electrode in deaerated pH 8.4 borate solution. A probe current image of SECM was measured with a tip-generation/substrate-collection (TG/SC) mode in deaerated pH 8.4 borate solution containing 0.03 mol dm -3 Fe(CN) 4- 6 as a mediator. The difference in thickness of passive films formed on two iron plates at different potentials could be evaluated from the probe current image. The probe current image of the passivated iron surface with distinctive crystal grains was composed of the patch patterns, the shapes of which coincided completely with the shapes of the substrate crystal grains. The probe current flowed above the grain surface oriented to {100} plane was less than that above the grain surface oriented to {110} or {111} plane. The grain orientation dependence of probe current was ascribed to the difference in thickness of passive films formed on the crystal grains.


In order to reduce the influence of magnet vibrations which can cause luminosity reduction in the TESLA Linear Collider, several feedback loops are planned to control the beam orbit and to keep the beams in collision. The complete control system for orbit correction can be divided into three different feedback systems: in the main linac a slow feedback system is intended to cancel perturbations in the low frequency range which are mainly due to ground motion. In the beam delivery section a fast feedback system is to be installed to compensate disturbances containing higher frequency components, mainly from pulse-to-pulse quadrupole vibrations and potentially also due to microphonics and Lorentz-force detuning in the superconducting cavities. At the interaction point a fast feedback system will keep the two beams in collision, using the beam-beam-deflection signal. The paper summarizes design studies for all three orbit correction schemes and the main components are discussed in detail.


Mycobacterium kansasii is an uncommon cause of infection of the hand. Other atypical mycobacteria that cause hand infections are M marinium, M avium, M intracellularis, and M chelonei. Such infections usually occur around aquatic areas, though sometimes the source of infection is elusive. Inoculation of the atypical mycobacterium into the host occurs usually from a traumatic break in the skin. Patients commonly report a history of fish tank cleaning, oyster shucking, swinuning, or other aquatic activities. Several drug regimenshave been suggested and used successfully. Surgical intervention is occasionally required for unresponsive or symptomatic cases. Concomitant hand infection and pulmonary tuberculosis is extremely rare. We present a case report of M kansasii infection of the hand and forearm, with carpal tunnel syndrome complicated by concomitant pulmonary M tuberculosis.


Molecular nitrogen, N₂, is the most abundant molecule in the terrestrial atmosphere. Its cation N₂⁺ is therefore prevalent in the earth's ionosphere as well as in nitrogen plasmas produced for reasons varying from lightning strikes to combustion. Any model which seeks to describe plasmas in air must contain a description of nitrogen ion chemistry. Despite this, there is a distinct paucity of data describing electron-N₂⁺ interactions and the resultant bound and quasi-bound electronic structure of N₂. The characterisation of these states is essential for describing dissociative recombination which is the main destroyer of molecular ions in a plasma. This thesis aims to alleviate this problem by performing extensive ab initio R-matrix calculations to create a comprehensive map of the highly-excited electronic structure of N₂ which can the be used to perform a dissociative recombination cross-section calculation. Potential energy curves were found by performing resonant and bound state calculations for all singlet and triplet molecular symmetries of N₂ up to l ≤ 4. The use of a dense grid meant that highly-excited electronic states could be found with an unprecedented level of detail. Many of the states were previously unknown. A new fitting method was developed for the characterisation of resonant states using the time-delay method. It was shown that whilst the R-matrix method is not competitive with conventional quantum chemistry techniques for low lying valence states, it is particularly appropriate for highly-excited states, such as Rydberg states. The data gained from these calculations was then used as an input for a multichannel quantum defect theory calculation of a dissociative recombination cross-section. A description is given of how to prepare the data from the R-matrix calculation for input into a multichannel quantum defect theory dissociative recombination cross-section calculation. Cross-sections were found for v=0-3 including three ionic cores. Whilst previous studies of dissociative recombination using R-matrix data required some empirical intervention, the cross-section found in this thesis is completely ab initio and is in good agreement with experiment.


Introduction: Multimorbidity is the presence of two or more chronic conditions within one individual. Continuity of care and appropriate treatment decisions are essential for these individuals in order to avoid adverse outcomes and preventable healthcare costs. People with multimorbidity (_PMM_) can have multiple treatment options and/or require multiple services concurrently, which often is exasperated by fragmented health systems organised to deliver episodic care for single conditions ("disease silos"). Thus, achieving effective integrated care is a particularly complex task for this population. Yet research to date on how care is coordinated for PMMs has been limited, and extant research tend to focus on formal care delivery and seldom accounts for the "hidden" informal care provided by families and communities. There is a need for research that examines how access to care for this population is shaped by clinician-to-clinician and peer-to-peer interactions and how formal and informal care can be integrated. Aims: We aim to gain a better understanding of how care is coordinated for PMMs both formally and informally, and how this influences their access to health services. Study objectives include: 1. Illuminate the clinical and social support networks that PMMs have with their healthcare providers and with their families and communities; and identify key individuals that broker care for PMMs within these networks; 2. Identify barriers and facilitators that influence PMMs' access to formal healthcare services 3. Evaluate the extent to which PPMs' clinical and social support networks influence their health service utilisation patterns and health outcomes. An hypothesis is that good PMM care coordination results in better access to services, which may manifest as increased healthcare use compared to those with poor care coordination. Methods: Social network analysis (SNA) is chosen as it facilitates the exploration of social interactions on care coordination: 1. Ego-centric SNA. will be performed on a sample of PMMs receiving formal care from a collaborating hospital. Profiles of PMM are being developed based on analysing combinations of chronic illnesses that are most prevalent in Ireland that were captured within "The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing" (_TILDA_) datasets. Social support data on PMMs will be collected via a researcher-administered network survey, and respondent-driven sampling will be used to recruit members of PMMs' informal support networks for data on interactions with formal healthcare providers in accessing care for PMMs. 2.  Socio-centric SNA. will be performed on a sample of clinicians responsible for the formal care of the PPMs recruited in the study. The survey will ascertain the type and frequency of interactions they have with other clinical and social care team members also involved in caring for the PMM cohort. Key individuals involved in coordinating formal care for the PMMs will be identified, along with any gaps that exist in the spectrum of formal care for PMMs, and any barriers / facilitators that impinge on integrated care delivery for PMMs. The survey for these clinical support networks will be based on adapting an instrument already trialled in a number of social network studies conducted in Irish health and social care settings. The SNA measures on the existence and structures of PPMs' support networks will then be correlated with the level and type of health service utilisation by these individuals to determine whether better care coordination may lead to better access and more service use. Results: Visual displays (sociograms) will summarise the structure of the PMMs' support networks. A number of relevant SNA metrics for both ego- and network-level analysis will also be reported, along with measures capturing the respondents' self-reported barriers and facilitators to accessing care across clinical domains. Results from testing hypotheses relating PMMs' clinical and social support networks with their health service utilisation patterns and health outcomes will be reported. Discussion: Behaviours in and outside healthcare settings have been shown to play a key role on health outcomes and on financing healthcare. This research protocol outlines a study employing network research methodologies that will contribute to the evidence base on chronic disease management not only for people with multi-morbidities, but also on the general literature on integrated care and on formal and informal health organisation. Conclusions: This study is one of the first studies of its kind to utilise network research methodologies to explore the coordination and integration of care for people with multi-morbidities. Data from this study will add to our knowledge and understanding about how care is currently organised for and by PMMs, and will inform strategies for developing integrative care models for this population.


The presented comparative analysis of internship systems typical of university stud-ies in the pedagogy of early childhood education in Poland and the United Kingdom aims to indicate the significance of this sphere of practical expertise for the process of future teachers' university education. Theoretical knowledge, which is acquired due to the participation in university lectures and classes, must be supplemented by practical skills that can be only attained due to participant observation and taking relevant ac-tions in educational facilities. The number of hours spent on pedagogy internship for future teachers differs significantly in the Polish and English university education, which becomes evident when one realizes that UK students spend nearly ten times more hours on pedagogy internship than Polish students. Does it mean that a pedagogy student educated in the UK is better prepared for their future vocation than his/her equal in Poland? Since pedagogy internship constitutes a very significant (albeit not the only one) element of university education in pedagogy, the following analyses and considerations aim to initiate a debate concerning the issue. At this point, one has to emphasize that the sheer number of hours spent on pedagogy internship is definitely less significant that the quality, diversity, adequacy and orientation towards practical issues that characterize a given type of traineeship.


Point-of-care diagnostics (PoC) and personalised medicine are highly valuable for the improvement of world health. Smartphone PoC platforms which precisely diagnose diseases and track their development through the detection of several bioanalytes represent one of the newest and most exciting advancements towards mass-screening applications. Here we focus on recent advances in both multiplexed and smartphone integrated PoC sensors.


In this study, it is intended to increase the classification accuracy results of histopathalogical images by evaluating spatial relations. As a first step, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based features are extracted in the original RGB color space of digital histopathalogical images. Training data sets are formed by selecting equal number of different cellular and extra-cellular structures in spatial domain from the images. Classification models of each training data set are obtained by utilizing CNN (as a supervised classifier), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) methods. Visual classification maps and output tables which are obtained from supervised training methods are presented for comparison purpose in the experimental results section.


Background and Hypothesis: Development of realistic, scaffold-free 3D organoids/tubuloids such as renal-like tissue, can serve as models for study of renal drug toxicity/screening, tissue repair, and renal disease. Previous studies utilized urine-derived epithelial cells (UDEpCs) to create viable tubuloid structures suspended in 3D Matrigel, displaying renal epithelial gene expression and functionality. Alternatively, renal proximal tubule epithelial cells (PTECs) with HUVECs were co-cultured in a monolayer to improve the model. Therefore, we hypothesized that the addition of HUVECs will help to establish and optimize growth conditions of UDEpCs in a 3D environment.
Experimental design: UDEpCs were isolated and co-cultured with tdTomatoHUVECs in Matrigel with different combinations of growth media. Cell growth and endothelial cell tube formation were examined daily. PTECs and tdTomatoHUVECs were also used to make spheroids in low-binding plates. Real-time PCR analysis was performed to examine gene expression for epithelial markers (ABCC4, PAX8), an endothelial marker (PECAM1), and TGF-β in spheroids.
Results: A single cell-derived colony was isolated from human urine and was double positive for CD10 and CD13, two renal PTEC markers. Co-culture of UDEpCs and tdTomato-HUVECs in Matrigel dramatically increased the growth, survival, and tubuloid formation of both cell types, for up to 12 days. Total RNA from spheroids showed a decline over time in all conditions. Gene expression was decreased in co-culture conditions, but patterns of gene expression were maintained.
Conclusions and Potential Impact: Future studies will examine gene expression in Matrigel cells, further optimize conditions for growth of UDEpCs, and perform functional assays, such as brush border enzyme activity. Improved methods to develop 3D kidney organoids/tubuloids will produce more accurate models for renal function studies. Developing a functional model mimicking in vivo processes can lead to new applications for creating novel therapies and treatment strategies.


Applying reinforcement learning to robotic systems poses a number of challenging problems. A key requirement is the ability to handle continuous state and action spaces while remaining within a limited time and resource budget. Additionally, for safe operation, the system must make robust decisions under hard constraints. To address these challenges, we propose a model based approach that combines Gaussian Process regression and Receding Horizon Control. Using sparse spectrum Gaussian Processes, we extend previous work by updating the dynamics model incrementally from a stream of sensory data. This results in an agent that can learn and plan in real-time under non-linear constraints. We test our approach on a cart pole swing-up environment and demonstrate the benefits of online learning on an autonomous racing task. The environment's dynamics are learned from limited training data and can be reused in new task instances without retraining.


Handoffs are known to increase the risk of medical error and adverse events. Few electronic tools can support this process effectively, however. Our objective was to describe the relationship between clinical complexity, diagnostic uncertainty, fit with illness script and the content of case presentations by physicians. We observed the handoff of care for150 patients during eleven shift changes at a large urban emergency department (ED). Results indicate that as uncertainty about diagnosis and perceived illness script increased, more descriptive detail was conveyed to the incoming physicians. Physicians were concerned primarily with creating a shared mental model of a patient's clinical state and with describing the expected path to disposition rather than simply passing on data and findings. Electronic tools for ED handoffs should allow adjustment of structure and content to capture complexity and uncertainty appropriately without requiring extra effort for more routine cases that better fit to more standard narratives.


Objectives This study aims to determine if obesity is a risk factor for a poor response to anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFα) therapy in Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using the appropriate body mass index (BMI) cut-off points for Asian populations. Patients and methods This retrospective cohort study evaluated 382 outpatients with RA (98 males, 284 females; mean age 54.2 years; range, 18 to 84 years) who had received anti-TNFα therapy between May 2009 and July 2017. Patients were classified according to BMI at baseline as follows: <18.5 kg/m2 (underweight), 18.5-23.0 kg/m2 (normal weight), 23.0-27.5 kg/m2 (overweight), and ≥27.5 kg/m2 (obese). The response variable was defined as Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI) remission after 12 months. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for poor response to the therapy. Results After 87 patients were excluded, 183 (62.0%) of 295 had reached remission at the 12-month follow-up. Compared with normal-weight patients, the multivariate OR for poor response of obese patients was 2.2 (95% CI: 0.5-9.4). Adjusting for the baseline SDAI score, the corresponding OR was 1.8 (0.4-7.6). Conclusion We found no statistically significant association between obesity and poor response to anti-TNFα therapy in Japanese patients with RA. Because this may partly be due to the limited statistical power of our study, further research is warranted to examine the possible effect modification across countries.


Android platform security is an active area of research where malware detection techniques continuously evolve to identify novel malware and improve the timely and accurate detection of existing malware. Adversaries are constantly in charge of employing innovative techniques to avoid or prolong malware detection effectively. Past studies have shown that malware detection systems are susceptible to evasion attacks where adversaries can successfully bypass the existing security defenses and deliver the malware to the target system without being detected. The evolution of escape-resistant systems is an open research problem. This paper presents a detailed taxonomy and evaluation of Android-based malware evasion techniques deployed to circumvent malware detection. The study characterizes such evasion techniques into two broad categories, polymorphism and metamorphism, and analyses techniques used for stealth malware detection based on the malware's unique characteristics. Furthermore, the article also presents a qualitative and systematic comparison of evasion detection frameworks and their detection methodologies for Android-based malware. Finally, the survey discusses open-ended questions and potential future directions for continued research in mobile malware detection.


Cocktail or dinner dress ensemble of pale blue/green satin brocade with design of acanthus and thistle/leaf in dark green and golden yellow, consisting of:

A) Blouse. Short sleeves with 2" rolled cuffs and shawl collar. Center front opening has 4 self-covered buttons above waist, and 6 hook-and-loops below waist on peplum for securing into skirt. Fitted seaming and pleats centered on waist. Unlined.

Label inside top at left side seam: "Made in France / Christian Dior / Paris" and stamped on label: "05456"

B) Skirt of matching brocade. The mid-length skirt is double box pleated from narrow waistband. Center back zipper with hook-and-eyes at waistband. Unlined.

C) Petticoat of ivory moire satin. Mid-length, with narrow waistband. Center back zipper with hook-and-eye at waistband.

E) Belt of green silk-covered ivory leather with rectangular silk-covered buckle. (not in photographs)

D) Purse of green silk.


An application portal has been developed to support the execution of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical model that simulates hydrodynamic flow instability of the coaxial injector in the liquid rocket engine. The CFD application has been integrated into a web-based portal framework so that users can utilize resources available in grid computing environment. The portal provides users with a single sign-on access point that connects grid computing resources available in the users virtual organization. The portal developed in this project is built in the framework of GridSphere and Grid Portlet package. In addition to the default services offered by the GridSphere, extra service modules have been developed in order to provide customized features for the specific needs of the numerical model. The portal development was conducted as an international collaborative research between NCSA and Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI).


This paper presents a bibliographic review of scientific publications in the educational field which addresses teaching and learning processes of school subjects related to different theoretical perspectives of Psychology. This work derives from a broader research which investigated the presence of theoretical support of areas such as Sociology and Psychology in publications of three Brazilian scientific journals over the past three decades, they are, Educação & Sociedade, Revista Brasileira de Educação and Cadernos de Pesquisa. From the findings in the broader research which indicate that the presence of psychological science in these publications has decreased in the last decade, our work focuses on the relationship between the instrumental dimension of learning and psychology. Two assumptions pervade this work. The first regards the prospect that social changes in recent decades accelerate the processes of knowledge production and circulation, which also affect academic institutions. In this context, school knowledge gains a central focus in social processes, which is an important tool for people to have social protection and the conditions to strive for better living standards. The second assumption acknowledges that historically school education represents an important area of influence from psychology, addressing topics such as learning educational contents and student behavior, and the same relationship occurred between Brazil's Research in Education and Psychology. Educational Psychology generated many elements that provided the basis for teaching and learning theories, a contribution we believe may also be put into effect in the current context of society. Given these considerations, this research investigates the theoretical elements generated by Psychology for the discussions about the instrumental dimension of education, in the publications of Cadernos de Pesquisa from 1980 to 2012. The methodology included a bibliographical review of the publications on the study object followed by a Content Analysis of the 70 corresponding articles. The most common themes and the psychological theories were analyzed for each decade. The results showed that in the 1980s school failure was often discussed in the publications analyzed, reporting much concern with regards to the learning of school subjects by children of more disadvantaged classes, mainly based on the theory of Piaget and Social Psychology. In the 1990s, Piaget's theory was influential in the discussions about school learning, as was the comparison of this theoretical chain with postulates of the Historical-Cultural theory. The articles analyzed of the year 2000 exhibit discussions about skills and abilities, other knowledge elements that include education, in addition to classroom contents. In the last decade a decrease in the support to psychology-related discussions was also found. We discuss the progression of the presence of Psychology in the last three decades in the Cadernos de Pesquisa, together with possible theoretical implications when considering the assurance of instrumental learning for all students.


We investigate the complexity of honest provers in interactive proof systems. This corresponds precisely to the complexity of oracles helping the computation of robust probabilistic oracle machines. We obtain upper bounds for languages in FewEXP and for sparse sets in NP. Further, interactive protocols with provers that are reducible to sets of low information content are considered. Specifically, if the verifier communicates only with provers in P/poly, then the accepted language is low for ∑ 2 p . In the case that the provers are polynomial-time reducible to log*-sparse sets or to sets in strong-P/log then the protocol can be simulated by the verifier even without the help of provers. As a consequence we obtain new collapse results under the assumption that intractable sets reduce to sets with low information content.


Leonard Bairstow was born at Halifax in Yorkshire on 25 June 1880 and began his education in the elementary and secondary schools of Halifax. In 1898 he obtained a scholarship at the Royal College of Science, London, where he was a fellow student of H . E. Wimperis, who declared in later years: 'I remember that, for several decades there, the most brilliant student that had been produced by the College was Professor Bairstow. He had an uncanny faculty of making himself acquainted with and making completely original suggestions on subjects which we did not think he knew anything about.' He became a Whitworth Scholar in 1902 and took prizes in mechanics and astrophysics. In 1904 he entered the Engineering Department of the National Physical Laboratory. There he worked under Dr T. E. (later Sir Thomas) Stanton on problem s of fatigue and of aerodynamics. In 1909 he was appointed to the staff of the new section of Aerodynamics (later called the Aerodynamics Division), of which he became the Assistant (or Principal) in charge. During this period he carried out some pioneer investigations into wind-tunnel design, and made important developments and practical applications of the theory of aircraft stability due to G. H. Bryan. This theory he illustrated by the use of small mica models of aircraft, and the necessary measurements of aerodynamic derivatives were made in the wind tunnel. In 1917 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and made a G.B.E. Glazebrook had offered him the post of Superintendent of the Aerodynamics Department at the N.P.L. but Bairstow resigned and was appointed to the Air Board to work for Sir David Henderson on the design of aircraft and on aerodynamics research. There Bairstow worked at the Hotel Cecil as deputy to Alec Ogilvie and, with his wide experience, was able to co-ordinate the departmental work on structural strength, aerodynamics, performance and air screws.


OBJECTIVES
To test the hypothesis that the choice of anesthesia technique for coronary artery surgery influences the degree and magnitude of the subsequent inflammatory response and its consequences.

DESIGN
Prospective, randomized, comparative study.

SETTING
Major university teaching hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Sixty patients undergoing elective surgery.

INTERVENTIONS
Patients were randomized into an alfentanil group, a high-dose remifentanil group, a low-dose remifentanil group, or a thoracic epidural group, in combination with a propofol target-controlled infusion. The study was blinded for the opioid, except in the epidural group. Tight control of perioperative hemodynamic parameters was maintained, and the postoperative management was strictly standardized. Bactericidal permeability-increasing protein as an indicator of the polymorphonuclear neutrophil response, interleukin-6 as an inducer of the acute-phase response, and lipopolysaccharide-binding protein and C-reactive protein as parameters of the acute phase response were determined at regular intervals. Ventilator dependency and analgesia were evaluated as clinical outcome measures.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Interleukin-6 levels increased in all groups. Plasma levels in the epidural group were significantly higher at all time points than in the other groups. The increase in the plasma levels of bactericidal permeability-increasing protein, lipopolysaccharide-binding protein, and C-reactive protein showed the same pattern in all groups, and no significant differences among the 4 groups were observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Supplementation of a fast-track anesthetic technique with epidural analgesia preserves hemodynamic stability and is associated with faster extubation times (p = 0.003) and less postoperative pain (p = 0.045). Thoracic epidural analgesia was associated with significantly higher levels of IL-6 throughout the study period as compared with the total intravenous anesthesia groups. The exact clinical relevance of this finding remains unclear.


Exploring effective electrocatalysts is a crucial requirement for boosting the efficiency of water splitting to obtain clean fuels. Here, a self‐templating strategy is reported to synthesize Ni–Fe mixed diselenide cubic nanocages for the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The diselenide nanocages are derived from corresponding Prussian‐blue analog nanocages, which are first obtained by treating the nanocube precursor with a site‐selective ammonia etchant. The resulting Ni–Fe mixed diselenide nanocages perform as a superior OER electrocatalyst, which affords a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at a small overpotential of 240 mV; a high current density, mass activity, and turnover frequency of 100 mA cm−2, 1000 A g−1, and 0.58 s−1, respectively, at the overpotential of 270 mV; a Tafel slope as small as 24 mV dec−1; and excellent stability in alkaline medium.


As asthma prevalence continues to increase, so does its impact on public health and on health care systems. Despite the prescription of more antiasthma medications than ever before, morbidity and mortality associated with asthma continue to increase. The focus of asthma therapy is changing, with a greater emphasis on control of the inflammatory rather than the bronchoconstrictive component. Several sets of guidelines recently developed by groups of asthma specialists clearly reflect this new focus. While such recommendations are intended to help physicians more accurately diagnose asthma by severity and better manage its symptoms, uniformity in both areas is lacking. Disparities are seen not only among physicians overall but also among primary care physicians compared with subspecialists. New survey data help to illustrate how reality--the clinical approaches of these physician subgroups--differs from current recommendations. Physicians who treat patients with asthma may find that their approaches are in agreement with those of their peers. Nonetheless, they may also find that they deviate from guidelines that could improve clinical outcome for a substantial number of patients with asthma.


OF DISSERTATION VITAMIN D WORKS THROUGH THE LIPID DROPLET PROTEIN PLIN2 TO AUGMENT MITOCHONDRIAL FUNCTION IN SKELETAL MUSCLE Vitamin D has been connected with increased intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle. It is also shown to prevent lipotoxicity in several tissues, but this has not yet been examined in skeletal muscle. Perilipin 2 (PLIN2), a lipid droplet protein upregulated with vitamin D treatment, is integral to managing IMCL capacity and lipid oxidation in skeletal muscle. Increased lipid storage and oxidation is associated with increased tolerance to a hyperlipidic environment and resistance to lipotoxicity. Therefore, I hypothesized that vitamin D increases β-oxidation and lipid turnover though a PLIN2 mediated mechanism, thereby preventing lipotoxicity. This hypothesis was divided into two specific aims: 1) Characterize the effect of vitamin D and PLIN2 on lipid turnover and β-oxidation in mature myotubes, and 2) Determine the role of vitamin D and PLIN2 in regulating key markers of lipotoxicity. To address these aims, cells were treated with or without vitamin D, palmitate, and PLIN2 siRNA in an eight group, 2x2x2 design. Key experiments included quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction for markers of lipid accumulation, lipolysis, and lipotoxicity; Seahorse oxygen consumption assay; 14C-palmitate oxidation assay; and analyses of lipid accumulation and profile. Failure of the palmitate treatment to produce a reliable model for lipotoxicity resulted in negative data for Aim 2 of this dissertation and a focus on vitamin D and PLIN2 knockdown treatments as a four group, 2x2 model. Aim 1 showed that vitamin D reliably increases markers of lipolysis and lipid accumulation. Most of these markers were in turn decreased after PLIN2 knockdown, and DGAT2 exhibited an interaction effect between the two treatments. Contrary to our hypothesis and some published research, PLIN2 knockdown did not prevent lipid accumulation. Vitamin D increased oxygen consumption, especially consumption driven by mitochondrial complex II. PLIN2 knockdown decreased oxygen consumption and demonstrated an interaction effect specific to mitochondrial complex II. Data in this dissertation show that vitamin D increases mitochondrial function, and these effects are at least in part accomplished through a PLIN2 mediated mechanism. However, this work lacks the data required to make specific claims regarding β-oxidation and lipid turnover. This research is some of the first to show that PLIN2 knockdown carries negative impacts for skeletal muscle mitochondria and makes valuable contributions to general knowledge of how vitamin D and lipid storage impact muscle health and function. This ultimately provides additional evidence to advocate for vitamin D supplementation as a means of improving musculoskeletal health and function. Future research should investigate how vitamin D and PLIN2 impact markers of lipotoxicity in skeletal muscle.


The importance of vernacular architecture is increasingly being acknowledged worldwide. This is particularly true of developing economies where the globalization process is progressively being questioned, and where appropriateness of approaches and technologies has become increasingly topical. Ile-Ife, a city in south-western Nigeria, has long caught the world's attention notably for its superlatively naturalistic bronze and terracotta heads, and for its cardinality in ethnological considerations of the Yoruba, a major socio-cultural group locally and in the diaspora. As with several ancient and historically significant Nigerian towns, Ile-Ife is blessed with a rich legacy of heritage buildings ranging from the near-pristine traditional, through the equally typical colonial, to the hybrid vernacular. The traditional heart of Ile-Ife is characterized by dilapidated buildings and out-migration, typical of old cities worldwide (at some point in their historical development). Within a two-kilometre radius of Ife Palace, there are choice buildings typifying the peak in the town's Afro-Brazilian architecture – alas, in a sorry state of maintenance. This paper is an account of the efforts of Faculty and students of the Department of Architecture, Obafemi Awolowo University, to initiate restoration of some of these vernacular buildings. The tentative interventions have highlighted the potential for streetscape upgrading, in the short-term, and renewal of such properties (and ultimately, the inner-core urban fabric) in the long-term. With the government and/or NGOs tapping into such architecture-based tourism potential, not only will these samples of Ife heritage building have their lives extended by proper conservation, but also the economic viability of the ancient city will be further enhanced.


This study examines the ways in which different forms of cultural capital are associated with college students' subjective well-being and social support. Results show that when social capital is accounted for, cultural capital derived from sports participation was positively associated with subjective well-being and social support. Further, the size and density of discussion networks about culture were positively associated with well-being and social support in general, while the heterogeneity of networks was negatively related. Findings from this study extend previous research on cultural capital by (1) drawing attention to the inclusive aspect of cultural capital, (2) examining online cultural participation as well as multiple forms of cultural activities including popular and sporting events, (3) applying the literature on interpersonal discussion networks to the context of culture and demonstrating the value of communicative action about cultural experiences, and (4) understanding the implications of cultural capital in a college setting.


A balanced sampling circuit realized using step recovery and Schottky diodes on coplanar waveguide, coplanar strips, and slotlines is presented for ultra-wideband communications and radar applications. An efficient design was implemented to achieve improved performance. The impulse generator, providing signal for the sampling gate, was designed with a new LO feeding structure. The fabricated circuit shows 16-19 dB conversion loss without amplifier and 1-4 dB conversion gain with amplifier across 9-GHz RF bandwidth with 500-MHz sampling frequency.


Abstract. The increasing availability and precision of digital elevation model (DEM) helps in the assessment of landslide prone areas where only few data are available. This approach is performed in 6 main steps which include: DEM creation; identification of geomorphologic features; determination of the main sets of discontinuities; mapping of the most likely dangerous structures; preliminary rock-fall assessment; estimation of the large instabilities volumes. The method is applied to two the cases studies in the Oppstadhornet mountain (730m alt): (1) a 10 millions m3 slow-moving rockslide and (2) a potential high-energy rock falling prone area. The orientations of the foliation and of the major discontinuities have been determined directly from the DEM. These results are in very good agreement with field measurements. Spatial arrangements of discontinuities and foliation with the topography revealed hazardous structures. Maps of potential occurrence of these hazardous structures show highly probable sliding areas at the foot of the main landslide and potential rock falls in the eastern part of the mountain.


The study was designed to consider the possible relationship between the development and integration of the body-righting reaction and the development of manual midline crossing behavior in learning-disabled and normal children aged 6 to 8 years (23 subjects in each group). A combination of three movement patterns (rolling from supine to prone, transition from supine to standing, and equilibrium in sitting) was used to analyze the body-righting reaction. The Space Visualization Contralateral Use (SVCU) score derived from the Southern California Space Visualization Test was used to measure manual midline crossing behavior. Results of the study found that the learning-disabled subjects exhibited significantly reduced performance on both test measures, when compared to the normal controls. A correlation between scores on the two tests did not reach significance. The findings are described as they relate to sensory integration testing, and the need for further study of the body-righting reaction and manual midline crossing behavior.


Objective: To examine whether the efficiency and equity of cardiovascular risk scores that identify patients at high risk for preventive interventions are compromised by omitting social deprivation, which contributes to risk. Design: Cohort study. Setting: The SHHEC (Scottish heart health extended cohort) study of random sample risk factor surveys across 25 districts of Scotland in 1984–87 and North Glasgow in 1989, 1992, and 1995 Participants: 6419 men and 6618 women aged 30–74, free of cardiovascular disease at baseline, followed up with permission for mortality and morbidity to March 1997. Participants were allocated to population fifths of the Scottish index of multiple deprivation (SIMD) and their observed coronary risk was compared with that expected from the Framingham score for all coronary heart disease. Results: The Framingham score overestimated risk overall and in each SIMD fifth. It seriously underestimated the variation in risk with deprivation. The relative risk of observed 10 year coronary risk (sexes combined) analysed across population fifths had a steep gradient, from least to most deprived, of 1.00, 1.81, 1.98, 2.22, and 2.57. Expected risk, calculated from baseline risk factor values and the Framingham score, had one quarter of that gradient, with relative risks of 1.00, 1.17, 1.19, 1.28, and 1.36. Conclusion: Cardiovascular risk estimated by the Framingham and related scores is misleading in guiding treatment decisions among people at different levels of social deprivation. Such scores foster relative undertreatment of the socially deprived, exacerbating the social gradients in disease, which national policies seek to minimise. Debate and action are needed to correct this anomaly.


The objective of this research is to compare the economic benefits (defined as visitor spending) and costs of a UNESCO World Heritage (WH) designation. The study focuses on two sites in Nova Scotia; Old Town Lunenburg (designated as a WH site in 1995) and Grand Pré National Historic Site (which has applied for a WH status). Pre/post designation visitation data from Lunenburg was used to quantify the impact (6.2%) in the Nova Scotia context. A proportional (to visitation) impact was projected for Grand Pré. The analysis indicates that the level of visitation is important in determining economic viability and that the rising costs of a WH designation further challenge smaller scale attractions.


Social ecological models have been used to study physical activity (PA) influences of rural women across life stages. However, few, if any, studies have used these models in conjunction with qualitative methods to explore rural men's PA perceptions or to concurrently explore rural men's and women's PA perceptions across life stages. This study adopted a social-ecological framework and thematic analysis to explore influences of men's (n = 14) and women's (n = 19) PA across midlife (i.e. ages 44–59) and older age (i.e. ages 60+), within a rural Midwestern community in the USA. The results revealed that social (e.g. family) and cultural influences (e.g. division of labour within the family) affected intrapersonal PA influences (e.g. physical self-perceptions, not having time). These influences had distinct and nuanced meanings for men and women across life stages, a finding that advances understandings of men's and women's rural PA from a social-ecological perspective. PA promotion efforts in a rural setting should view gender and age as complex sociocultural constructions that differentially impact the interplay of social-ecological influences.


Brokers that their daily activities has a specific look for prospective passengers in the use of language. Peculiarity that appears in the use of words or phrases in speech to persuade or influence the
prospective passenger. Type the word and sentence if the review is based on the situation, including regional variations of unofficial or relaxed and including the form of words or sentences are not standardized. Even so that passengers understand what is meant by these brokers. The language used by all brokers are referred to as language brokers. The particular language that touts the background investigators to conduct this research. Language brokers in Terminal Arjosari Malang can be reviewed from the aspect (1) diction, and (2) patterns of speech components. The second aspect is the main problem in this research. From the analysis results are expected to objectively describe the diction and speech patterns of the components used in Terminal Arjosari brokers Malang. The method used is descriptive method Qualitative. This study examines the phenomenon of the use of diction and speech components of the brokers. The data in the study of word, a term which is the variety of language brokers. The data are obtained at random from informants that consists of 5 brokers who hung in Terminal Arjosari Malang. The data is though researchers using data analysis table. The results showed that the review of aspects of diction, brokers seem to use variations (1) the preference: such as Mr., Mrs., Mas, and Sister, (2) perform mixed code like: Come with monggo, monggo with direct budal, lungguh with monggo, monggo with bolt bengi, monggo with not ono Bus, (3) using a word such an invitation: Come, and monggo, (4) perform such shortening: Boyo, Bungur, Boyoseh, Yogya, Linggo, and Nggalek, (5) uses the word seduction (persuasive), such as: last, immediately depart, bolt bengi (trigger night), not ono bus (no bus), empty, ngadek Duwit back (standing money back), lungguh (sitting), ordinary, and ndang budal (fast depart .) While the speech component is the dominant aspect of the participants said (participant). Diction used by brokers, shows characteristics: (1) associated with facilities, such as: blank, lungguh, AC, full of music, most recently, (2) relating to prices, such as: 10.00ae, ngadek need not be paid and (3) associated with timeliness, such as: direct budal, bolt bengi, let ndang budal.


This study investigates whether it is possible to translate Islamic Arabic poetry, as a universal literary religious genre, into English to a high level of quality. A global-local translation framework (Halimah, 2020) is applied to the translation of Imam Ashshafi'ee's[i] poem "الرضا بقضاء الله"/ "Accepting Fate with Pleasure" into English, where a methodological collaboration between a bilingual translator and an English poet manifests a two-stance methodological framework. The results, along with the qualitative and quantitative analysis of poetic extracts used in this paper, indicate that this framework has resulted in improving the quality of Islamic Arabic poetry translation. The translated materials proved to be 'novel and appropriate', achieving a very high 90% of approximation of the original text against ACNCS criteria. This framework can also be applied by translators of other literary and non-literary texts to bring more structure and clarity to the discipline of translation.[i]Muhammad bin Idrees Ashshafi'ee (DoB:150H/767A.D died in 204H/820A.D.) The founder of the Sunni School of Law مذهب الشافعية


The strength of effluent from indigenous textile dye effluent was evaluated. Some basic physico-chemical parameters were determined by use of standard methods for examination of water and wastewater (American Public Health Association). Metal concentrations were determined by use of Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. Trivedi and Dubey method was adopted for acute toxicity to fish by bioassay to determine the LD 50 acute toxicity of the effluent on Tilapia nilotica as a means of estimating  the median tolerance limit (TL M ) of the effluent on the fish. The result revealed that the effluent would have adverse effect if discharged raw into surface waters because of high pollutant concentration levels relative to FEPA standards. Out of the eight dilutions worked upon on toxicity of the effluent to fish, only three dilutions had survivals after 24hrs. Fish behaviour was noted before and after death. The experiment was replicated twice and the average value noted. The effluent diluted hundred times was still found to be lethal to T. nilotica. Hence, the effluent is highly toxic and it is recommended that effluent should not be discharged into the immediate environment in the raw state. Further research on economically feasible "adire" effluent treatment is also suggested.


Many private voluntary organizations (PVOs) are engaged in projects aimed at improving food security and household nutrition worldwide. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supports many of these projects through the provision of Title II food aid to PVOs designated as "Cooperating Sponsors." Increasingly Cooperating Sponsors (CS) are being asked to monitor and evaluate the impact of their interventions and USAID is generating materials to help them in this process. USAID Missions in collaboration with PVOs and technical staff from Regional and Central USAID Bureaus have identified a set of generic impact indicators for household food consumption to facilitate the monitoring and reporting process. This technical guide was developed to systematize this information. It is based around the three impact indicators defined by the PL480 Title II program: increased number of eating occasions increased dietary diversity and increased percentage of households consuming minimum daily caloric requirements. This guide demonstrates how to measure and quantify this information. (excerpt)


Color information can be used as a basic and crucial cue for finding correspondence in a stereo matching algorithm. In a real scene, however, image colors are affected by various geometric and radiometric factors. For this reason, the raw color recorded by a camera is not a reliable cue, and the color consistency assumption is no longer valid between stereo images in real scenes. Hence the performance of most conventional stereo matching algorithms can be severely degraded under the radiometric variations. In this paper, we present a new stereo matching algorithm that is invariant to various radiometric variations between left and right images. Unlike most stereo algorithms, we explicitly employ the color formation model in our framework and propose a new measure called adaptive normalized cross correlation (ANCC) for a robust and accurate correspondence measure. ANCC is invariant to lighting geometry, illuminant color and camera parameter changes between left and right images, and does not suffer from fattening effects unlike conventional normalized cross correlation (NCC). Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms other stereo algorithms under severely different radiometric conditions between stereo images.


EDITOR, We read with interest the article by Verber and Pagan on umbilical cord care. ' As stated by the authors, although doubts have been cast on the need for antiseptic treatment of the cord,2 the use of dry cord care alone leads to an unacceptably high colonisation rate of the umbilicus and exposes the neonate to the risk of infection.' 3 On the other hand, antiseptic treatment may delay cord separation, and no single agent has proved superior in preventing colonisation and disease. We have recently conducted a prospective and controlled clinical study on 76 vaginally born healthy term neonates. Four different regimens for umbilical cord care were tested: ethanol 7000 (n= 19), chlorhexidine 055% in ethanol 700% (n= 20), eosin 2% in ethanol 700% (n= 18), and povidone-iodine I10% (n= 19). The sample size for the study subgroups was established to detect a 50% difference in effectiveness between any two cord treatments, with (x=0 05, I=0-20. While in the maternity unit, the antiseptic agent was applied twice daily by a nurse; after discharge from the hospital, the same antiseptic preparation was applied 2-3 times daily by the parents, until cord detachment. An umbilical swab was taken from the base of the umbilicus on the first hour and the third day of life. All newborn infants were followed up for a one month period. As shown in the figure, the percentage of positive cultures on the third day of life and the time to cord separation show statistically significant differences (p<00001) for the antiseptic agent applied. These results confirm that different antiseptic cord care regimens affect both bacterial colonisation rates and time to cord detachment, in an inverse relation. Chlorhexidine 055% showed the highest antimicrobial activity, with no colonisation by coagulase positive staphylococci nor group B streptococci; however, it was associated with


A self-consistent magnetic recording modeling method is presented which has proven useful in recording channel design on thin media. Improvements in the magnetic model and in the mathematical treatment stabilize the iterative process and reduce computer storage requirements. Major and minor media loops are fitted to quickly computable bipolynomials. Mathematical improvements include using a strong band diagonal demagnetization matrix, analytic integration with quadratic magnetization fitting, and Newton-Raphson iteration, which gives rapid convergence without underrelaxation. Quantitative predictions of timing errors in 16-bit modified frequency modulation (MFM) data patterns on a 350-bit/mm, 20-track/mm disk memory are presented, as well as playback amplitudes and saturation currents. Predictions can also be compared with experimental read/write data to determine system parameters. Two examples are given: the inference of the head efficiency and of the effective high-frequency medium squareness.