This study tries to address a research question on what effects Chinese patriotic education has on Chinese youths' perceptions of Japan. The question is raised from a recent discussion on the issue of whether the "patriotic education campaign" since 1989 has led to anti-Japanese sentiments in China. Guided by the research question, this study particularly looks at the impacts of patriotic education in schools on Chinese students' perceptions of Japan. While aware of the theoretical arguments and the focus on Chinese historical narrative of Japan in previous research, this study instead serves as an empirical examination on the topic and emphasizes the importance of students' reactions in determining the effects of Chinese patriotic and history education in schools. This study thus is primarily based on the empirical data collected from fieldworks and surveys. Comparative and content analyses were also employed to examine relevant official documents and the history textbooks in secondary schools. Based on these empirical and comparative examinations, this study on the one hand concludes that the historical narrative of Japan in Chinese patriotic curriculum, though it has been more negative than positive, has been consistent since 1989, when the Chinese government attempted to reform and strengthen its patriotic education and emphasized on the history of the "Chinese humiliation century." In addition, a more comprehensive view of Japan has been introduced to students with a reformed history curriculum since 2001. This study, on the other hand, also discovers that nowadays Chinese youths tend to perceive Japan in a multi-faceted and rational way, that their understandings of Japan and Sino-Japanese relations are not necessarily identical with the historical narrative of Japan presented in the school patriotic curriculum, and that Chinese youths today tend to resist the message likely embedded with the political-ideological indoctrination in the school curriculum. Due to the stronger influences from the Internet and other mass media, the conflicting effects of textbooks and teachers as well as Chinese students' superficial receptions and "digestion" of the information from schools, this study reveals the weak effects of Chinese patriotic education on Chinese youths' perceptions of Japan.


Early studies estimate that 5% to 10% of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas overexpress p16 but are unassociated with transcriptionally-active high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). Patients with discordant HPV testing may experience clinical outcomes that differ from traditional expectations. To document the rate of p16 and HPV mRNA positivity, characterize patients with discordant testing, and identify features that may warrant selective use of HPV-specific testing after p16 IHC, a multi-institutional, retrospective review of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma patients with p16 IHC and HPV mRNA testing by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was performed. Of the 467 patients, most had T1 or T2 tumors (71%), 82% were p16 positive, and 84% were HPV mRNA positive. Overall, most tumors were nonkeratinizing (378, 81%), which was strongly associated with p16 and HPV positivity (93% and 95%, respectively). Overall, 81% of patients were double positive, 14% double negative, and 4.9% discordant (3.4% p16 negative/HPV mRNA positive and 1.5% p16 positive/HPV mRNA negative). The survival rates of these discordant patient groups fell squarely between the 2 concordant groups, although in multivariate analysis for both disease-free survival and overall survival, discordant patients were not found to have statistically significantly different outcomes. Reclassifying patients by applying HPV mRNA testing when p16 results and morphology do not match, or when p16 results are equivocal, improved prognostication slightly over p16 or HPV mRNA testing alone. Patients with discordant testing demonstrate a borderline significant trend toward survival differences from those with concordant tests. When evaluated independently, patients who were p16 negative but HPV mRNA positive had a prognosis somewhat closer to double-positive patients, while those who were p16 positive, but HPV mRNA negative had a prognosis closer to that of double-negative patients. We suggest an algorithm whereby confirmatory HPV mRNA testing is performed in patients where p16 status is not consistent with tumor morphology. This captures a majority of discordant patients and improves, albeit modestly, the prognostication.


Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted great interdisciplinary interest due to their peculiar structural, mechanical and electronic properties. Applications of CNTs in biomedical research are being actively explored by many scientists worldwide. However, manipulation of CNTs is impeded by several problems, such as 1) formation of complex and entangled bundles; 2) very low solubility of CNTs in organic solvents and water; 3) inert properties of pristine CNTs under many chemical reaction conditions, etc. Chemical modification of CNTs has partly solved the above issues and is still one of the most effective means of manipulating and processing CNTs. Many bioapplications of CNTs rely on successful outer/inner surface functionalizations. This Feature Article is comprised of two main parts. In the first part, we briefly review the covalent surface chemistry for the CNT functionalization; in the second part, we focus on the biomedical applications of surface chemistry for CNTs, in particular, the chemistry for controlling biomedical functions and meanwhile lowering nanotoxicity of CNTs. We also analyze the underlying factors that led to the controversy in the previous experimental data of safety studies of CNTs.


Background and purpose: HIV testing among pregnant women can reduce the risk of mother to child HIV transmission. The implementation of prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) program in Bangli District is suboptimal. This study aims to explore challenges and opportunities for implementing PMTCT program from both user and provider perspectives.Methods: A qualitative approach was conducted in Bangli District between April and May 2016. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with 18 informants. All informants were purposively selected and covered of 10 pregnant women, two counsellors, two laboratory analysts, two head of community health centres, one disease control officer from Bangli District Health Office and one officer from Bangli District AIDS Commission. Data were analysed using thematic method.Results: Pregnant women chose to have ANC service at private midwife and obstetrician instead of public health centre. From health providers' perspectives barrier of PMTCT implementation included lack of health human resources and a high level of stigma and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS in the community. This study revealed that there was an opportunity for PMTCT implementation in Bangli District due to positive attitudes and supports from husband and health provider toward HIV testing. Another opportunity is to involve village health cadres and community leaders in promoting HIV testing among pregnant women.Conclusions: Implementation of PMTCT program in health centre should include network of private practitioner and enhance village health cadres' and community leaders' participation.


The Demarco Archive is a cultural institution characterized by a complex profile. The unstoppable dynamism of its founder, Richard Demarco, and the dense network of artistic events he organized against the backdrop of the historic Edinburgh International Festival make slippery any attempt at a definition; placing it within precise geographical and disciplinary limits would in fact risk offering a partial idea of it. The objective of this article is therefore to propose a possible reading through two conceptual nodes: the journey, intended as the discovery of the 'spirit of the place' (genius loci), and the role of the artist as explorer. Both are the points on which Demarco for over fifty years has oriented his career as a teacher, impresario, curator and artist. Undertaking this direction will allow us to touch some of the main initiatives of the archive, such as Strategy-Get Arts and Edinburgh Arts Journey, and to retrace the political, aesthetic, philosophical and pedagogical credo of its founder, whose goal is to re-establish a relationship between ethics and aesthetics as well as restoring the original regenerative function of art.


OBJECTIVE
The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is rapidly increasing in Africa with a projected increase in diabetics from 12.1 million in 2010 to 23.9 million in 2030, predominantly type 2 DM (T2DM). The major consequence of diabetes is cardiovascular (CV) disease. T2DM occurs with a constellation of other CV risk factors (RF). Awareness and control of all risk factors is therefore critical in reducing the burden from diabetes. The rising burden has hitherto been an urban phenomenon; however there is evidence of rising burden in rural areas. We studied diabetic patients attending a rural hospital in Kenya.

DESIGN AND METHOD
Ambulatory T2DM patients on follow up at Nyeri level 5 hospital were consecutively sampled. BP measurement was taken as per the standard protocol. Height and weight for body mass index (BMI) calculation was measured and waist and hip circumference for waist hip ratio (WHR). Measurements for HBA1c, albuminuria, serum creatinine and fasting lipid profile were done.

RESULTS
385 patients were studied, age 63.3 years, 65.5% female. 60.5% had HBA1c above 7%. 76.6% were hypertensve while only 37.4% had BP of < 140/90 mmHg. 77.1% had LDL cholesterol above 1.7 mmol/L. 40% were overweight and 33% were obese, while 92.7% had undesirable WHR.32% had albuminuria while 39% had chronic kidney disease stage 3 and above.

CONCLUSIONS
There is an extremely high prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in the cohort of diabetics from a rural community. This suggests an extension of the epidemiologic transition to rural Africa. This poses a challenge as health systems in rural Africa are designed around communicable diseases and are usually ill equipped to handle non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This data calls for reorientation and strengthening of the health system to be able to handle the increasing burden of NCDs.


Background While health providers consistently use malaria rapid diagnostic tests to rule out malaria, they often lack tools to guide treatment for those febrile patients who test negative. Without the tools to provide an alternative diagnosis, providers may prescribe unnecessary antibiotics or miss a more serious condition, potentially contributing to antibiotic resistance and/or poor patient outcomes. Methods This study ascertained which diagnoses and treatments might be associated with poor outcomes in adults who test negative for malaria. Adult patients for rapid diagnostic test of malaria seen in mobile health clinics in Mulanje and Phalombe districts were followed for 14 days. Participants were interviewed on sociodemographic characteristics, health-seeking behaviour, diagnosis, treatment and access to care. Mobile clinic medical charts were reviewed. Two weeks (±2 days) following clinic visit, follow-up interviews were conducted to assess whether symptoms had resolved. Results Initially, 115 adult patients were enrolled and 1 (0.88%) was lost to follow-up. Of the 114 adult patients remaining in the study, 55 (48%) were seen during the dry season and 59 (52%) during the wet season. Symptoms resolved in 90 (80%) patients at the 14-day follow-up visit (n=90) with the rest (n=24) reporting no change in symptoms. None of the patients in the study died or were referred for further care. Almost all patients received some type of medication during their clinic visit (98.2%). Antibiotics were given to 38.6% of patients, and virtually all patients received pain or fever relief (96.5%). However, no anti-malarials were prescribed. Conclusions Mobile clinics provide important health care where access to care is limited. Although rapid tests have guided appropriate treatment, challenges remain when a patient's presenting complaint is less well defined. In rural areas of southern Malawi, simple diagnostics are needed to guide treatment decisions.


English vocabulary acquisition is a major challenge for English as a second or foreign language learners to become proficient in English. It is also a major challenge for English speakers who are at risk. With the increasing use of various mobile devices (e.g., iPad) for educational purposes we have a new opportunity to support vocabulary learning. Mobile devices have considerable potential for enhancing vocabulary acquisition and English learning among English learners. This article focuses on how mobile devices can be used to facilitate vocabulary learning for English learners. While there is a paucity of research on mobile platforms that enhance learning, we believe that a theoretical approach coupled with studies in vocabulary acquisition can point to relevant practices for all teachers and students. Based on these theories, we discuss how various mobile apps can be used to enhance vocabulary acquisition with four research-based vocabulary learning strategies: dictionary use, phonological analysis (i.e., learning words by analyzing the sound parts), morphological analysis (i.e., learning word meanings by analyzing the componential word parts), and contextual analysis (i.e., learning word meanings by referring to learning context).


The Blue Card directive is an EU policy instrument aimed at attracting highly skilled workers to the EU. After difficult negotiations, it was agreed upon by 24 EU member states; however, the transposition and implementation of the directive showed divergent levels of commitment towards this tool. In this PhD dissertation, cooperation between EU member states in the field of highly skilled migration policy is viewed as a game of cooperative competition. Under conditions of strong interdependence, states are driven not only by the need for strategic flexibility (competition), but also by the need of cost and risk sharing (cooperation). This dissertation researches (using the theoretical framework of coopetition) the underlying limits of cooperation between EU member states in a policy area where national systems compete to attract a globally scarce number of highly skilled workers. The dissertation, apart from making a diligent analysis of the directive's negotiations, gives a birds-eye-vie of the modes of its transposition and implementation in 24 member states and examines three cases closely: the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.


Secondary immunoglobulin diversification by somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination in B cells is instrumental for an adequate adaptive humoral immune response. These genetic events may, however, also introduce aberrations into other cellular genes and thereby cause B cell malignancies. While the basic mechanism of somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination is now well understood, their regulation and in particular the mechanism of their specific targeting to immunoglobulin genes is still rather mysterious. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the mechanism and regulation of secondary immunoglobulin diversification and discuss known mechanisms of physiological targeting to immunoglobulin genes and mistargeting to other cellular genes. We summarize open questions in the field and provide an outlook on future research.


Background: Public health programs are charged with implementing evidence-based interventions to support public health improvement, however, to achieve long term population based benefit these interventions must be sustained. Empirical evidence suggests that program sustainability can be improved through training and technical assistance, but few resources are available to support public health programs in building capacity for sustainability. Methods: This study sought to build capacity for sustainability among state tobacco control programs through a multiyear, group-randomized trial that developed, tested, and evaluated a novel Program Sustainability Action Planning Model and Training Curricula. Using Kolb's experiential learning theory, we developed this action-oriented training model to address the program-related domains proven to impact capacity for sustainability as outlined in the Program Sustainability Framework. We evaluated the intervention using a longitudinal mixed-effects model using Program Sustainability Assessment (PSAT) scores from three time points. The main predictors in our model included group (control vs intervention) and type of dosage (active and passive). Covariates included state level American Lung Association score (proxy for tobacco control policy environment) and percent of CDC-recommended funding (proxy for program resources). Results: Twenty-three of the 24 state tobacco control programs were included in the analyses: 11 received the training intervention and 12 were control. Results of the longitudinal mixed-effects linear regression model, where the annual PSAT score was the outcome, showed that states in the intervention condition reported significantly higher PSAT scores. The effects for CDC-recommended funding and American Lung Association smoke-free scores (proxy for policy environment) were small but statistically significant. Conclusion: This study found that the Program Sustainability Action Planning Model and Training Curricula was effective in building capacity for sustainability. The training was most beneficial for programs that had made less policy progress than others, implying that tailored training may be most appropriate for programs possibly struggling to make progress. Finally, while funding had a small, statistically significant effect in our model, it virtually made no difference for the average program in our study. This suggests that other factors may be more or equally important as the level of funding a program receives. Trial registration: NCT03598114, Registered on July 26, 2018 (clnicaltrials.gov/NCT03598114)


Manganese zinc ferrite nanoparticles (MZF NPs) were synthesized by using a direct, efficient and environmental friendly hydrothermal method. To improve the colloidal stability of MZF NPs for biomedical applications, NPs were coated with chitosan by ionic gelation technique using sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as crosslinker. The synthesized NPs were characterized by X ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and the dynamic light scattering (DLS) methods. The results confirmed the spinel ferrite phase formation without any calcination process after synthesis. Mean particle size of bare NPs was around 14 nm. Moreover, certain molar ratio of chitosan to TPP was required for encapsulation of NPs in chitosan. Coated NPs showed hydrodynamic size of 300 nm and polydispersity index about 0.3.


BACKGROUND
Patient-centered assessments are increasingly important. Patients repeatedly emphasize the importance of trust in health care institutions and personnel.

OBJECTIVES
(1) Develop a conceptual framework for trust in health care organizations and a comprehensive, reliable measure of trust in health insurers. (2) Examine predictors and correlates of trust in insurers.

STUDY DESIGN
A conceptual framework for trust in health organizations based on theory and empirical studies was used to develop items for a structured telephone survey, which also included measures of health and utilization, doctor-patient trust, and satisfaction with care. Principal components factor analyses identified hypothesized domains of trust in health insurers and identified items for scales. Internal consistency assessment used Cronbach's alpha. Univariate analyses used Pearson's r or Student's t-tests.

SAMPLE
Insured residents of Southeastern Michigan (n=400).

RESULTS
Respondents were diverse in age, gender, ethnicity, health, and socioeconomic status. One dominant factor (eigenvalue>10) included hypothesized domains: administrative competence, clinical competence, advocacy and beneficence, fairness, honesty and openness, and one global item. Multidimensional scales were reliable (long version 13 items, alpha=0.95, short: 9 items, alpha=0.91). Insurer trust correlated strongly with trust in doctors (r=0.49 and 0.46) and satisfaction with care (r=0.70 and 0.66), and with an item assessing overall worry about health insurance (r=-0.37 and -0.35). Those with less trust in their insurer were more likely to say that they would change insurance plans (p<.001).

CONCLUSIONS
This well-grounded, reliable measure of enrollee trust in insurers can be a useful patient-centered assessment tool.


Milk samples from 45 halves were collected from lactating ewes to evaluate the effect of freezing and incubation of the whole milk on the qualitative results of bacteriologic culture. Thus, these milk samples were submitted to the following treatments: standard culture technique (T1), incubation for 18h at 37°C (T2) and thawing at -20°C for 24h (T3). After these periods, the milk samples from T2 and T3 were submitted to standard culture technique. The T2 showed an increase in the proportion of coagulasenegative staphylococci (CNS) recovery compared to T1, although the same cannot be predicted by T3. Conversely, the T2 allows the growth of some bacteria present in clinically healthy teats ducts as Bacillus spp.. The results of the present study indicated that the incubation of the whole milk can be applied to detection of CNS in ewes' milk in attempt to reduce the false-negative culture milk samples that can lead to a more ef?cient use of laboratory resources and reduce costs to herd owners.


This paper presents a neural network-based end-to-end clustering framework. We design a novel strategy to utilize the contrastive criteria for pushing data-forming clusters directly from raw data, in addition to learning a feature embedding suitable for such clustering. The network is trained with weak labels, specifically partial pairwise relationships between data instances. The cluster assignments and their probabilities are then obtained at the output layer by feed-forwarding the data. The framework has the interesting characteristic that no cluster centers need to be explicitly specified, thus the resulting cluster distribution is purely data-driven and no distance metrics need to be predefined. The experiments show that the proposed approach beats the conventional two-stage method (feature embedding with k-means) by a significant margin. It also compares favorably to the performance of the standard cross entropy loss for classification. Robustness analysis also shows that the method is largely insensitive to the number of clusters. Specifically, we show that the number of dominant clusters is close to the true number of clusters even when a large k is used for clustering.


We present a comparative study of transition-, graph- and PCFG-based models aimed at illuminating more precisely the likely contribution of CFGs in improving Chinese dependency parsing accuracy, especially by combining heterogeneous models. Inspired by the impact of a constituency grammar on dependency parsing, we propose several strategies to acquire pseudo CFGs only from dependency annotations. Compared to linguistic grammars learned from rich phrase-structure treebanks, well designed pseudo grammars achieve similar parsing accuracy and have equivalent contributions to parser ensemble. Moreover, pseudo grammars increase the diversity of base models; therefore, together with all other models, further improve system combination. Based on automatic POS tagging, our final model achieves a UAS of 87.23%, resulting in a significant improvement of the state of the art.


BACKGROUND
Fluid management guided by oesophageal Doppler monitor has been reported to improve perioperative outcome. Stroke volume variation (SVV) is considered a reliable clinical predictor of fluid responsiveness. Consequently, the aim of the present trial was to evaluate the accuracy of SVV determined by arterial pulse contour (APCO) analysis, using the FloTrac/Vigileo system, to predict fluid responsiveness as measured by the oesophageal Doppler.

METHODS
Patients undergoing major abdominal surgery received intraoperative fluid management guided by oesophageal Doppler monitoring. Fluid boluses of 250 ml each were administered in case of a decrease in corrected flow time (FTc) to <350 ms. Patients were connected to a monitoring device, obtaining SVV by APCO. Haemodynamic variables were recorded before and after fluid bolus application. Fluid responsiveness was defined as an increase in stroke volume index >10%. The ability of SVV to predict fluid responsiveness was assessed by calculation of the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

RESULTS
Twenty patients received 67 fluid boluses. Fifty-two of the 67 fluid boluses administered resulted in fluid responsiveness. SVV achieved an area under the ROC curve of 0.512 [confidence interval (CI) 0.32-0.70]. A cut-off point for fluid responsiveness was found for SVV > or =8.5% (sensitivity: 77%; specificity: 43%; positive predictive value: 84%; and negative predictive value: 33%).

CONCLUSIONS
This prospective, interventional observer-blinded study demonstrates that SVV obtained by APCO, using the FloTrac/Vigileo system, is not a reliable predictor of fluid responsiveness in the setting of major abdominal surgery.


In this article I will argue first that if ignorance poses a problem for valid consent in medical contexts then framing effects do too, and second that the problem posed by framing effects can be solved by eliminating those effects. My position is thus a mean between two mistaken extremes. At one mistaken extreme, framing effects are so trivial that they never impinge on the moral force of consent. This is as mistaken as thinking that ignorance is so trivial that it never impinges on the moral force of consent. At the other mistaken extreme, framing effects are so serious that their existence shows that consent has no independent moral force. This is as mistaken as the idea that ignorance is so serious that its existence shows that consent has no independent moral force. I will argue that, instead of endorsing either of these mistaken extreme views, we should instead endorse a moderate view according to which framing effects sometimes pose a serious challenge for the validity of consent, just as ignorance does, but one which we can solve by eliminating the effect, just as we can solve the problem of ignorance by eliminating it.


High-level functional (or behavioral) simulation models are difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to develop. We report on a method for automatically generating the program code for a high-level functional simulation model. The high-level model is produced directly from the program code for the circuit components' functional models and a netlist description of their connectivity. A prototype has been implemented in LISP for the SIMMER functional simulator.


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) is investigating revolutionary and advanced universal, reliable, always available, cyber secure and affordable Communication, Navigation, Surveillance (CNS) options for all altitudes of UAS operations. In Spring 2015, NASA issued a Call for Proposals under NASA Research Announcements (NRA) NNH15ZEA001N, Amendment 7 Subtopic 2.4. Boeing was selected to conduct a study with the objective to determine the most promising candidate technologies for Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) air-to-air and air-to-ground data exchange and analyze their suitability in a post-NextGen NAS environment. The overall objectives are to develop UAS CNS requirements and then develop architectures that satisfy the requirements for UAS in both controlled and uncontrolled airspace. This contract is funded under NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorates (ARMD) Aviation Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) Safe Autonomous Systems Operations (SASO) project and proposes technologies for the Unmanned Air Systems Traffic Management (UTM) service.


African Chrysops are less studied than their European and American counterparts. The bionomics of only Chrysops silacea and Chrysops dimidiata is frequently reported. These two species feed on mammals in general but humans remain their main host. From the resting place in the canopy of the natural and secondary forest, they locate their hosts as they move but smoke of wood is a much better attractant than the movement. Other species live either in the rain forest or in the wooden savannah feeding on mammals and reptiles. Chrysops are biological and mechanical vectors of diseases in human and live- stock. They also cause painful bites often resulting in open wounds, which can serve as open door for bacterial infections. In the past, control relied on the use of insecticides and clearing of vegetation around the habitations. Nowadays, recourse to repellents, trappings and destruction of the canopy around houses is recommended. The detailed geographical distribution of African Chrysops is still to be elucidated, as well as any genetic variability within and among species. The aims of the chapter are to provide the reader with the state-of-the-art knowledge on African Chrysops , and to present the gap in knowledge of this genus species.


Variational methods provide a powerful method for determining the behavior of complex physical systems without needing to solve the equations of state or satisfy the boundary conditions exactly. This technique has been widely applied in the areas of structural vibration and scattering, but has not been used much in the areas of transduction and array modeling. The advantage of this method over many others is that the answers obtained from variational principles are always significantly better than the inputs to them. A totally general method for deriving stationary variational principles from the equations of state and the boundary/initial conditions will be shown. Techiniques for choosing the inputs, or trial functions, judiciously will be discussed. The method will be illustrated using two examples: Determining the resonance frequencies of a clamped vibrating string and of a string with an attached point mass. The results of the variational treatment will be compared with exact analytical solutions of t...


Interdisciplinary working is often understood as involving individuals or teams from different disciplines to engage with common problems, but this has proved to be an enduring challenge. An alternative framing of interdisciplinary working is Hall's 'culture of inquiry', in which it is conceptualised as narrative creation in an environment of formative critique. This paper explores the relevance and applicability of this idea to educational research and development, specifically in the context of purportedly interdisciplinary TEL projects. It draws on the author's experience in projects in which multiple narratives — pedagogical, technological and social — have the potential to contribute to both to individual and collective understanding and the development of new practice.


Objective: To evaluate the clinical effects of single femoral nerve block (sFNB) combined with general anesthesia on geriatric patients receiving unilateral total knee arthroplasty (UTKA). Methods: Sixty geriatric UTKA patients who were treated in The First People's Hospital of Changzhou from January 2015 to August 2015 were randomly divided into an sFNB + laryngeal mask airway (FLA) group, an sFNB + tracheal intubation (FGA) group and a tracheal intubation (GA) group. Their clinical parameters and indices were recorded. They were scored by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Results: All patients completed this study. FLA and FGA groups used less propofol, remifentanil and fentanyl than GA group (P<0.01), with shorter recovery time and extubation time (P<0.05). Compared to GA group, FLA and FGA groups had lower systolic blood pressures at T3, T4 and T5 (P<0.05), and lower heart rates at T5 (P<0.05). FLA and FGA groups had fewer cases of adverse reactions after extubation (P<0.01). FLA group was less prone to irritating cough after extubation and pharyngeal pain than FGA and GA groups (P<0.01). The postoperative six hour and 24 hour VAS scores in resting state as well as the postoperative 24 hour and 48 hour scores in training state of FLA and FGA groups were lower than those of GA group (P<0.05). FLA and FGA groups used significantly lower times and total doses of patient-controlled intravenous analgesia pump. Conclusion: sFNB combined with general anesthesia, especially that using laryngeal mask, were superior to general anesthesia alone, which reduced recovery and extubation times, and decreased intraoperative and postoperative drug uses, postoperative early VAS score and adverse reactions.


This paper assesses the distributive impacts of alternative agricultural policies in a SAM (social accounting matrix) framework. A SAM of the Italian economy has been properly modified in order to focus on agriculture. In doing so, a new method for disaggregating the institutional sectors and the production factors in a SAM framework has been proposed. Two types of analysis have been carried out: (i) a multiplier analysis, and (ii) an assessment of the distributive impacts of different sector policies. The main results can be summarised as follows: (i) 'fully' decoupled agricultural household income supporting schemes (transfers to agricultural households) are the most equitable interventions and determine a perfect target of the distributive effect on the relevant institutional sectors; (ii) 'partially' decoupled income supporting interventions, such as the ones implemented under the CAP before the Mid Term Review, are more effective than others (i.e., through multiplier effects) in indirectly generating positive impacts on the income of agricultural households; (iii) agricultural price support interventions show less desirable effects in terms of their distributive impacts: they are less effective as agricultural income-increasing policies and their distributive impacts are biased against poorer households both in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.


This is a cool way to learn … and teach: have your students investigate a geometry activity – hands-on, interactively, self-paced; then have them test and generate their hypotheses; and then have them prove their results using CAS. They are still doing the thinking, the logic, the investigating, the problem solving, but let CAS assist them to do the difficult mathematics. Lots of great mathematics in these activities. And some surprising, but fascinating results. We will do as many investigations as time permits using the TI-Nspire CX CAS handheld. Here are the activities that I will choose from: 1.    The Square Problem. Given a square with both diagonals drawn. Find the midpoints of the 4 "half-diagonals". Draw the 4 segments connecting each vertex with a different midpoint. a) Of what type is the resulting figure? b) What is the relationship between the area of the original square and the resulting figure? 2.    Midpoint Polygons an Investigation. Given a regular polygon, calculate its area and perimeter. Then construct the polygon by connecting consecutive midpoints of the sides of the original polygon. Is there a relationship between the: a. ratios of the perimeters of the two polygons?  b. ratios of the areas of the two polygons? Is so, state and prove those relationships. 3.    Other Square Problem. Given a square. Construct the midpoints of each side. Draw segments connecting each vertex to the 2 midpoints not on the sides that contain the vertex. a) What is the best descriptor of the type of polygon that is formed. b) Is there a relationship between the area of the square and the area of the polygon? If so, what is it?


The Bcr-Abl oncogene, found in Philadelphia chromosomepositive myelogenous leukemia (CML), activates Ras and triggers the stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK or Jun NH2-terminal kinase [JNK]) pathway. Interruption of Ras or SAPK activation dramatically reduces Bcr-Abl–mediated transformation. Here, we report that Bcr-Abl through a Ras-dependent pathway signals the serine/threonine protein kinase GCKR (Germinal Center Kinase Related) leading to SAPK activation. Either an oncogenic form of Ras or Bcr-Abl enhances GCKR catalytic activity and its activation of SAPK, whereas inhibition of GCKR impairs Bcr-Abl–induced SAPK activation. Bcr-Abl mutants that are impaired for GCKR activation are also unable to activate SAPK. Consistent with GCKR being a functional target in CML, GCKR is constitutively active in CML cell lines and found in association with Bcr-Abl. Our results indicate that GCKR is a downstream target of Bcr-Abl and strongly implicate GCKR as a mediator of Bcr-Abl in its transformation of cells. This is a US government work. There are no restrictions on its use.


Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus and Hook,) is an ornamental Asteraceae of great commercial value, and pests can affect adversely its cultivation. More than 20 species of arthropods cause economic damage on gerbera, among them the two spotted mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, 1836 (Acari: Tetranychidae), considered a key pest for this and other ornamental plants. In this work, some life-cycle aspects of T. urticae on gerbera, considered important for the knowledge of its population dynamics and for pest management programs, were studied. Mites were reared on 3-cm diameter arenas of gerbera leaf discs maintained on distilled water in Petri dishes, under laboratory conditions of 25 masculineC, 70 +/- 10% RU and 14-hour photophase, with only one egg left per arena, in a total of 262 arenas. Egg viability was 96.5% and 97.1% for unmated and mated females, respectively. Unmated females originated larvae which lived for 3.2 days and the stages of protonymph and deutonymph, 1.9 and 1.6 days, respectively; those from mated females lived 3.5 days and for protonymphs and deutonymphs, 2.0 and 1.6 days, respectively. Except for the duration of one generation (T), with similar values, 18.6 and 19.7 days, respectively for unmated and mated females, the net reproductive rate of increase (R masculine), the innate capacity to increase in number (r m) and the finite rate of growth (lambda) were different for mated and unmated females, respectively 11.5 and 24.6 for R0; 0.12 and 0.17 for r m and 1.13 and 1.19 for lambda.


We previously showed that the use of a tool for remote analysis of continuous glucose monitor data, Timely Interventions for Diabetes Excellence (TIDE) , was associated with improved glucose management for patients with type 1 diabetes. To facilitate the deployment of TIDE at two partner institutions, we developed an operational planning tool.
 We designed an interactive dashboard to match capacity and demand with a variety of operational, population, and workforce parameters. To improve the dashboard's accessibility, simplicity, and interpretability, we performed iterative design based on feedback from users and two partner institutions. We set parameter values based on the first deployment of TIDE and conducted sensitivity analyses of the capacity-demand match.
 The dashboard (Figure 1) contains seven modifiable parameters; generates a table illustrating the match between capacity and demand; displays a timeseries plot of capacity and demand; and calculates three alternative capacity plans that satisfy annual patient demand. It is available online (www.bit.ly/surf-tide) . Small absolute reductions in per-patient review time produced the most significant changes in clinic capacity.
 We developed an interactive dashboard that facilitates data-driven operational planning for clinics seeking to deploy algorithm-enabled telemedicine-based diabetes care.
 Figure 1. Capacity Planning Dashboard

 A.Chang: None. M.Z.Gao: None. J.Ferstad: None. D.M.Maahs: Advisory Panel; Abbott Diabetes, Eli Lilly and Company, Medtronic, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Consultant; Aditx Therapeutics, Inc., Biospex. P.Prahalad: None. R.Johari: None. D.Scheinker: None.

 NIH R18DK122422


Green roofs provide a myriad of environmental and financial benefits to a building and its owner. They can provide a pleasing outdoor aesthetic in an urban environment, as well as provide stormwater management and energy savings in an arid climate. California State University San Marcos completed a new University Student Union in 2014 that included a 2,540 square foot Live Roof system on its upper terrace. Supplier, contractor, and facilities team members were interviewed to analyze the success of the project from several viewpoints. The green roof was found to meet the University's goals on aesthetic design, energy, and stormwater management through its selection of material and local flora. Challenges for the implementation of the green roof included design coordination and installation logistics. A net present value of $946 was calculated based on figures provided by the University, representing a cost-benefit over a standard white roof. This project demonstrates a successful implementation of a green roof in an arid climate.


Alkali metal–O2 batteries, by coupling high‐capacity alkali metal anodes with gaseous oxygen, possess extremely high gravimetric energy density that is comparable to gasoline and are potential energy storage technologies beyond lithium–ion batteries. The development of alkali metal–O2 batteries has achieved great progress in recent years, from materials to prototype devices and on fundamental mechanisms. The stability of alkali metal–O2 batteries is still poor, however, leading to a huge gap between laboratory research and commercial applications. A series of parasitic reactions result in the instability, which occur during electrochemical discharging and charging. The ubiquitous active oxygen species attack both the organic electrolyte and the carbon cathode, triggering various parasitic reactions. Meanwhile, dendrite growth and volume expansion upon repeated plating/stripping and O2 crossover severely limit the reversibility of alkali metal anodes. Here, an overview of the strategies against these issues is given to improve the stability of nonaqueous alkali metal–O2 batteries, which is discussed from three aspects: air cathodes, alkali metal anodes, and aprotic electrolytes. Furthermore, perspectives for future research of stable alkali metal–O2 batteries are outlined.


Although numerical welding simulation is now commonly used in the nuclear industry to predict residual stresses in reactor vessels and associated piping components, there are currently no universally accepted guidelines for performing such analysis. Moreover, due to the complexity of the calculations and varying analytical procedures among analysts, there remains a need to validate predictions of residual stress against benchmark studies. As part of an industry initiative to manage the degradation of dissimilar metal welds in pressurized water reactor piping that are susceptible to primary water stress corrosion cracking, the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission embarked on a multi-phased program to validate welding residual stress models. The aim of Phase II of this program is to obtain measured residual stresses from a pressurizer surge nozzle dissimilar metal weld mockup for use in comparisons with numerically predicted stresses. This paper presents results of finite element analysis for various stages during the fabrication of a 14–inch pressurizer surge nozzle mockup, including an Alloy 82 dissimilar metal weld between a stainless steel safe end and carbon steel nozzle, an inside surface weld repair (back weld) and fill-in weld (weld build-up), and a stainless steel "field" weld attaching a section of straight pipe to the safe end. The NRC validation program was structured to allow participants to first calculate results using their own material properties, and then tune their welding simulations to thermocouple data. This was followed by reanalysis using NRC-supplied material properties. The program was conducted as a round robin analysis among an international group of participants and formatted as a blind validation project wherein results were submitted to the NRC prior to receipt of thermocouple and material property data. Results were obtained for both kinematic and isotropic hardening rules to study the effect of these two extreme measures of material characterization on the development of residual stress. Predicted stresses are then compared to measured stress data obtained by the deep-hole drilling technique at multiple locations through the thickness of the weld. The NRC residual stress model validation project serves as a valuable contribution to the understanding of how residual stresses are developed in dissimilar metal welds. The correlation of calculated residual stresses with measured data from a relevant mockup also serves to increase confidence in predicting crack growth in these primary pressure boundary welds by removing much of the uncertainty previously associated with residual stress input to crack growth analysis.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Research indicates that by a phenomenon called neuroplasticity, the brain is capable of rewiring as a result of continuous and persistent practice which manifests itself as a change in behaviour of the person.  It can be inferred that a similar condition can be brought about by regularly following a 'Thought Diet'. Going by the maxim, 'We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think', consciously and persistently having optimistic and proactive thoughts, one can change the brain wiring and attain a default positive orientation towards life which can have numerable benefits in all phases of life. A brief review of literature on neuroplasticity and the effects of negative and the positive thoughts have been included. The importance of spirituality in youngsters has been addressed. The article implies the importance of evolving training modules of 'Thought Diet' for youngsters and school children.   The article includes recommendations for areas of future research and for current applied practice.


According to laboratory accelerated test data, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in structural metal materials occurs by initiation and coalescence of micro cracks, subcritical crack propagation and multiple large crack formation or final failure under the combination of materials, stress and corrosive environment. In this paper, a Monte Carlo simulation for the process of SCC has been proposed based on the stochastic properties of micro crack initiation and fracture mechanics concept for crack coalescence and propagation. The emphasis in the model is put on the influence of the semi-elliptical surface cracks. The numerical examples for a sensitized stainless steel type 304 indicate the applicability of the present model to the prediction of the SCC behavior in real structures.


Early recognition of prostate cancer (PC) based on biological markers could be helpful in identification of differences in benign and malignant lesions and facilitate further precise indication for more aggressive treatment. Therefore, the aim of our study was to assess expression of hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase, a catalytic subunit of telomerase) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), both considered to be markers of tumor aggressiveness. 140 low advanced PC specimens from patients who underwent radical prostatectomy were studied. Protein expression was assessed immunohistochemically on tumor sections and expressed as labeling index (LI), i.e. the percentage of positively stained cells. In case of telomerase, only nuclear staining and in case of PSMA, membrane and cytoplasmic staining, were considered as positive. The mean age of the patients was 62.9 ± 6.2 years. There were 75 (53.6%) well differentiated tumors (Gleason score ≤ 6), 52 (37.1%) moderately differentiated tumors (Gleason score of 7) and 13 (9.3%) poorly differentiated tumors (Gleason score 8-10). The mean pre-operative serum PSA was 9.9 ± SE 5.5 ng/mL, and the mean LI were 18.0 ± 1.5% and 44.1 ± 1.9%, for hTERT and PSMA, respectively. With increase of pathological tumor stage and tumor grade statistically significant increase of PSA serum concentration (P < 0.011) and PSMA (P < 0.004) expression was noticed, however, for expression of telomerase the relation was opposite one. The observed in higher pTNM stages and tumor grades decrease in nuclear expression of hTERT was caused by translocation of the subunit to the cytoplasm, what may indicate extranuclear telomerase activity independent of telomere lengthening, hence, it cannot be considered as a marker of malignancy. Higher PSMA expression in higher pTNM stages and tumor grades suggest that PSMA may be a good marker of biological aggressiveness suitable for patients' selection for more aggressive treatment.


Cervical cancer is caused by the persistent infection of certain types of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and is a leading cause of female mortality particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). Visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid (VIA) is a commonly used technique in cervical screening. While this technique is inexpensive, clinical assessment is highly subjective, and relatively poor reproducibility has been reported. A deep learning-based algorithm for automatic visual evaluation (AVE) of aceto-whitened cervical images was shown to be effective in detecting confirmed precancer (i.e. direct precursor to invasive cervical cancer). The images were selected from a large longitudinal study conducted by the National Cancer Institute in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. The training of AVE used annotation for cervix boundary, and the data scarcity challenge was dealt with manually optimized data augmentation. In contrast, we present a novel approach for cervical precancer detection using a deep metric learning-based (DML) framework which does not incorporate any effort for cervix boundary marking. The DML is an advanced learning strategy that can deal with data scarcity and bias training due to class imbalance data in a better way. Three different widely-used state-of-the-art DML techniques are evaluated- (a) Contrastive loss minimization, (b) N-pair embedding loss minimization, and, (c) Batch-hard loss minimization. Three popular Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (ResNet-50, MobileNet, NasNet) are configured for training with DML to produce class-separated (i.e. linearly separable) image feature descriptors. Finally, a K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifier is trained with the extracted deep features. Both the feature quality and classification performance are quantitatively evaluated on the same data set as used in AVE. It shows that, unlike AVE, without using any data augmentation, the best model produced from our research improves specificity in disease detection without compromising sensitivity. The present research thus paves the way for new research directions for the related field.


ABSTRACT:Since the implementation of the LMO Law in Korea, the importance of the design qualification of BSL3 lab. is emphasizing. In this study, multizone simulation for three kind of biohazard scenarios using CONTAM is performed for design qualification of BSL3 lab. Also, in the case of unexpected spread of contaminants such as Influenza A virus(H1N1) in BL3 zone, the design qualification is carried out for diffusion and decontamination of contaminants according to differential pressure of BSL3 anteroom and door area of BSL3 lab. Also, in this study, appro-priateness of laboratory room differential pressure and air flow rate to maintain pressure difference between laboratory rooms, and energy consumption due to air change rate variation according to door area in BL3 lab. Simulation results show that these approach methods are used as a tool for the design and verification of BL3 lab.Keywords:BSL3:Biosafety level 3 lab.(생물안전 3등급 연구시설), Biohazard scenario(생물재해 시나리오), Influenza A:H1N1(인플루엔자 A), Multizone simulation(멀티죤시뮬레이션), Energy consumption(에너지 소비량)


Shrinking access cycle times and the employment of dynamic read/write assist circuits have made the use of standard static noise margins increasingly problematic for scaled SRAM designs. Recently proposed dynamic noise margins precisely characterize dynamic stability using the concept of stability boundaries, or separatrices, and provide elegant separatrix tracing algorithm. However, the present separatrix characterization method is only efficient in the two-dimensional state space and hence not practically applicable to fully extracted SRAM designs with additional parasitics. We present a rigorous system-theoretical approach for computing the tangent approximation to the separatrix in the high-dimensional space. Using this as a basis, we develop fast method based on tangent approximation and exact iterative-refinement method for analyzing SRAM dynamic stability. The proposed algorithms have been implemented as a SPICE-like CAD tool and are broadly applicable to efficient computation of dynamic noise margins.


A scheme for realizing two-dimensional atom localization in the sub-wavelength domain is proposed in a microwave-driven five-level hyper inverted-Y atomic system in which the atom interacts with a weak probe field, two control fields together with two orthogonal standing-wave fields. Because of the spatially dependent atom-field interaction, the information about the position of the atom can be extracted directly from the absorption and gain spectra of a weak probe field. It has been found that the probe detuning, the intensities of two control fields, and the relative phase of the driving fields can significantly improve the localization precision. Moreover, the maximal probability of finding the atom at an expected position in the sub-wavelength domain of the standing-wave field can reach unity via properly adjusting the system parameters.


This paper discusses the concept of 'the public' as used in public archaeology, and by doing so, considers the aims of public archaeology and their specific application to a Roman villa in Somma Vesuviana, Italy. Public archaeology emerged in the 1970s, departing from the traditional view of archaeology by looking outside the academic discipline and the social framework and structures underpinning archaeology. Although it is essential to define clearly 'the public' in considering the aims of public archaeology, there seem to be two different concepts of 'the public': one associated with the state and another with the people, though both are used interchangeably. In order to overcome this difference, Habermas' idea of the public sphere is considered, since it may potentially encourage 'private' non-archaeologists to engage in an open, democratic debate about archaeology. If public archaeology is to strive for the realisation of an 'archaeology for the public', its aim should be to create an open, participatory and rational-critical debate, which is presumably the only way to integrate public opinions into decisions about archaeology. Although managing this debate would not be easy, a case study explores how archaeologists might do so.


Federal election law has long prohibited corporate and union spending in federal elections, but distinctions in statutes and judicial rulings have opened avenues by which these groups have been able to spend money in the electoral process. Business groups make particular use of political action committee (PAC) donations to candidates and soft money donations to parties. Unions made prominent use of issue advocacy in 1996, but labor's political strength lies in exempt activity communications with members. This report explains these tools and their use in today's elections.


This report documents data and other information gathered from a survey of urban households in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, China. The survey was conducted as part of a research project aimed at understanding the evolution of dairy markets in Asia and the implications for dairy product trade. The survey data provide insights into the purchasing behavior and attitudes of urban consumers in China with respect to dairy products. The report describes the survey and collection process, summarizes selected data from the survey, and provides anecdotal information about the development of dairy production, processing, and product marketing in China.


This paper is proposed, an efficient complex event-processing framework, designed to process a large number of sequential events on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Unlike conventional structured query language based approaches, our approach features logic automation constructed with a new C-based event language that supports regular expressions on the basis of C functions, so that a wide variety of event-processing applications can be efficiently mapped to FPGAs. Evaluations on an FPGA-based network interface card show that we can achieve 12.3 times better event-processing performance than does a CPU software in a financial trading application. Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm was introduced to resist classical methods of cryptanalysis (i.e.) from linear or differential attacks. The cryptographic strength of the AES depends strongly on the choice of S-box. The result shows that the new nonlinear implementation of the AES S-Box by using C-Based Complex Event Processing provides enhanced security with good enough speed for encryption and decryption.


In the last two decades Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has gained an important position in radiology mainly due to its unsurpassed performance in anatomical, functional, and physiological imaging of soft tissues in the human body. The favorable diagnostic properties of MRI have caused a steady rise in the number of MRI exams performed each year. Because of this growth, there is a need for efficiency in MRI exams, by accelerating the imaging process and/or by increasing the utility of the MRI scans. In this work we address both acceleration of MRI and increasing utility of MRI by performing accurate localization of metal devices in MR images. We approached this by incorporating prior knowledge in the imaging process, following a basic principle: the more is known about a problem beforehand, the easier and faster it will be to solve the problem. Acquiring less data than typically required is a common method to accelerate MRI. We found that prior knowledge is useful in selecting the data points that are acquired in an undersampled acquisition. Even when using only a single scan of a certain anatomy as prior knowledge this approach resulted in better MR images. Simulation of MRI is an important tool in characterizing imaging artifacts resulting from the presence of metal objects in MRI. We show that with some assumptions about the MR signal, simulation of metal artifacts can be greatly accelerated. These fast simulations allowed us to characterize the artifacts around a metal device in varying orientations in reasonable time, with a model of the device as prior knowledge. By using these simulations as templates in a template matching method, this allowed us to accurately localize arbitrary metal devices in MRI scans. Automatically localizing metal devices has applications in detecting markers, tracking interventional devices, and possibly for correcting artifacts around larger implants. We applied this method to the localization of brachytherapy seeds in the prostate for dosimetry in low dose rate brachytherapy. Despite the large number of seeds that are present in a relatively small region, we were able to correctly localize 96% of the seeds in 25 patients. Finally, we combined the principle of undersampled MRI with metal device localization to achieve real-time tracking of interventional devices. By providing anatomical images simultaneous with the device localization, the device can be visualized in a real-time anatomical reference image. We demonstrated this method for tracking of multiple metal spheres and an MRI compatible biopsy needle, which showed the method accurately localized the devices, even when moving rapidly. Together, these results show that the use of prior knowledge can help accelerate MRI and provide clinically relevant information about the location of metal devices in MRI.


Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) to forecast the probability of system failure. The type of logic for the top
event is usually limited to AND and OR gates which leads to a coherent fault tree structure. In noncoherent
fault trees components' working states as well as components' failures contribute to the failure
of the system. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of non-coherent fault trees can introduce
further difficulties over and above those seen in the coherent case. It is shown that the Binary Decision
Diagram (BDD) method can be used for this type of assessment. The BDD approach can improve the
accuracy and efficiency of the quantitative analysis of non-coherent fault trees. This article
demonstrates the value of the Ternary Decision Diagram method (TDD) for the qualitative analysis of
non-coherent fault trees.
A fault tree is converted to a BDD which is a representation of the system structure function (SFBDD).
A SFBDD can then be used for the quantification of system failure parameters but is not sufficient for
the qualitative analysis that gives prime implicant sets. Established methods for the analysis of noncoherent
fault trees require an additional BDD form that encodes all prime implicant sets. The process
of applying some of the conversion methods can be time consuming.
The aim of the method reported in this paper is to perform both qualitative and quantitative analyses on
a fault tree converted to a BDD/TDD logic form. The analysis can be used to provide information to a
decision making process for future actions of an autonomous system and therefore must be performed
in real time. In these circumstances fast processing and small storage requirements are very important.
The method provides a fast processing capability. Small storage could be achieved if a single structure
was used for both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Hence a new approach, the Ternary Decision
Diagram method, is proposed in this paper. A fault tree is converted to a single TDD structure that
enables the complete analysis. The efficiency of the TDD method is discussed and compared to the
performance of the established methods for analysis of non-coherent fault trees.


Thermally-assisted ultra-fast magnetization reversal in a DC magnetic field for magnetic multilayer thin films with perpendicular anisotropy has been investigated in the time domain using femtosecond laser heating. The experiment is set-up as an optically pumped stroboscopic Time Resolved Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect magnetometer. It is observed that a modest laser fluence of about 0.3 mJ/square-cm induces switching of the magnetization in an applied field much less than the DC coercivity (0.8 T) on the sub-nanosecond time-scale. This switching was thermally-assisted by the energy from the femtosecond pump-pulse. The experimental results are compared with a model based on the Landau Lifschitz Bloch equation. The comparison supports a description of the reversal process as an ultra-fast demagnetization and partial recovery followed by slower thermally activated switching due to the spin system remaining at an elevated temperature after the heating pulse.


According to CDC, the public is being bombarded with ads for cleansers, soaps, toothbrushes, and hand lotions, all containing antibacterial agents. Nanoparticles, which are materials at length scales less than 100 nm, have previously demonstrated antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. One of the hardiest bacteria is a Ralstonia pickettii species isolated from an ultrapure water (UPW) facility. These bacteria survive in water that only contains parts per trillion levels of organic and inorganic contaminants. The focus of this article is to demonstrate the effects of silica and titania nanoparticles on Ralstonia pickettii bacteria in term of growth and yields. Solutions of nanoparticles and calcium fluoride were researched for their effects on the growth rate and cell yield of Ralstonia sp. bacteria in a protein‐rich and protein‐poor media. The collective effect of CaF2 and 15 nm silica nanoparticles reduces the growth rate by 57% and the cell yield by 29% in protein‐rich media. Titania nanoparticles returned similar results, where in nutrient‐poor environments little to no growth occurred but in nutrient‐rich media, the titania and CaF2 reduced the growth rate by 64% and the cell yield by 34%. Conversely, larger silica nanoparticles in nonprotein‐rich media have negligible effects on cell yield and growth rate. The diminished bacterial growth rate provides paralleled insight into the long‐term effects of nanotechnology effluent on the United States' wastewater treatment processes, which utilize several species of bacteria. Extrapolation of these results to current toxicological studies suggests that unregulated industrial nanoparticles' expulsion may lead to degradation in water quality. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 279‐284, 2013


The article discusses the United Kingdom's engagement with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW. It considers the context of the United Kingdom's signing and eventual ratification of CEDAW and includes analysis of the United Kingdom's reservations to CEDAW, the application of CEDAW to its Overseas Dependent Territories and Crown Dependencies and UK Government interactions with the CEDAW Committee. It concludes that successive UK Governments have been complacent about the country's record with respect to women's equality. When action has been taken to remedy sex-based discrimination, the impetus for change is more often as a result of European requirements or from the personal commitment of key individuals within Parliament than from a desire to comply with the United Kingdom's legal obligations under CEDAW.


In this paper we describe a methodology for detecting preposition errors in the writing of ESL graduate learners. To investigate the nature of errors in the writing skill problems of graduate learners, two fifty graduate male and female learners randomly selected from four colleges and one university were asked to complete two writing skill tasks: Fifth word deletion and open composition test. The study is related to the research question: Why ESL graduate learners commit errors in their writing skills? (a) Prepositions, phrasal verbs and idiomatic phrases. It is detected that preposition overuse and preposition omission are the common problems for ESL. Besides, students deem prepositions quite tricky to use in their writing. So the findings show the wrong use of prepositions specifically 'with, in, of' and unnecessary insertion of prepositions. It is observed that errors are because of the interference of L1 in L2.  Besides, the final results of the two tests showed that Prepositions (prepositional verbs, prepositional phrases, phrasal verbs, zero prepositions) are quite problematic for ESL learners. The learners try to put prepositions on the same patterns of L1 which ultimately leads them towards errors. Keywords: Prepositions, idiomatic phrases, prepositional phrases, zero prepositions and interference of L1 in L2


The navies of China, India and to a lesser extent Japan are expanding rapidly at present. This has the potential to alter the US-dominated naval balance in Asia-Pacific but it also raises a question: are the region's powers involved in a naval arms race? Naval development is and always has been a crucial indicator of economic and political development. It shows the emergence of a significant shift in strategic weight from West to East. But within the Asia-Pacific Region, alongside growing economic and institutional integration, there are geo-political tensions that threaten the regions stability and peace. The balance between the two determines the form that naval development in that region is taking. Some aspects of this suggest the beginnings of a naval arms race that would have profound consequences for the region and the world.


This study presents an approach to the security assessment of the information systems of critical infrastructures. The approach is based on the faithful reconstruction of the evaluated information system in a computer security laboratory followed by simulations of possible threats against the system. The evidence collected during the experiments, stored and organised using a proprietary system InSAW, may later be used for the creation of trust cases which provide valuable information for the end users of the infrastructure. Another new proposal is MAlSim - mobile agent-based simulator of malicious software (viruses, worms, etc). To the best of the authors- knowledge, such a simulator has not been proposed before. The present approach was applied to the verification of the security of industrial control systems and power plants. In the study, one of the experiments related to the security study of an information system of a power plant, a simulation of zero-day worm attack, is described.


Aerial object tracking approaches based on discriminative correlation filter (DCF) have attracted wide attention in the tracking community due to their impressive progress recently. Many studies introduce temporal regularization into the DCF-based framework to achieve a more robust appearance model and further enhance the tracking performance. However, existing temporal regularization approaches usually utilize the information of two consecutive frames, which are not robust enough due to limited information. Although some methods attempt to incorporate abundant training samples and generally improve the tracking performance, these improvements are at the expense of significantly increased computing consumption. Besides, most existing methods introduce historical information directly without denoising, which means that background noises are also introduced into the filter training and may degrade the tracking accuracy. To tackle the drawbacks mentioned earlier, this work proposes a novel aerial object tracking approach to exploit disruptor-aware interval-based response inconsistency, i.e., IBRI tracker. The proposed method is able to incorporate historical interval information by utilizing responses in the filter training process, thereby obtaining a robust tracking performance while maintaining the real-time speed. Moreover, to reduce the disruptions caused by similar object, partial occlusion, and other challenging scenes, a novel disruptor-aware scheme based on response bucketing is introduced to detect the disruptor and enforce a spatial penalty for the disruptive area around the tracked object. Exhausted experiments on multiple well-known challenging aerial tracking benchmarks demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed IBRI tracker against other 35 state-of-the-art trackers. With a real-time speed of ~32 frames/s on a single CPU, the proposed approach can be applied for typical aerial platforms to achieve aerial visual object tracking efficiently.


Let be an irreducible Hermitian symmetric space of compact type with standard homogeneous complex structure. Then the real symplectic manifold has the natural complex structure . All -invariant Kéhler structures on -invariant subdomains of anticommuting with are constructed. Each hypercomplex structure of this kind, equipped with a suitable metric, defines a hyperkéhler structure. As an application, a new proof of the theorem of Harish-Chandra and Moore for Hermitian symmetric spaces is obtained.


Height of maximum wave runup on coastal structures is typically calculated directly or indirectly from small-scale physical model tests. These tests are conducted in the absence of wind, although strong onshore winds are typically associated with design storms. To study the effects of onshore winds on runup elevations, a series of physical model tests has been conducted in a combined wind/wave flume at Texas A&M University. Low wind speeds were seen to have little effect on runup elevations, but higher wind speeds significantly increased runup elevations on both smooth and rough slopes. Wind effects were greater on steep slopes than on shallow slopes, and greater on smooth slope than on rough slopes. Various mechanisms by which wind may affect runup are discussed.


In August 2017, advanced Virgo joined advanced LIGO for the end of the O2 run, leading to the first gravitational waves detections with the three-detector network. This paper describes the advanced Virgo calibration and the gravitational wave strain reconstruction during O2. The methods are the same as the ones developed for the initial Virgo detector and have already been described in previous publications; this paper summarizes the differences and emphasis is put on estimating systematic uncertainties. Three versions of the signal have been computed for the Virgo O2 run, an online version and two post-run reprocessed versions with improved detector calibration and reconstruction algorithm. A photon calibrator has been used to establish the sign of and to make an independent partial cross-check of the systematic uncertainties. The uncertainties reached for the latest version are 5.1% in amplitude, in phase and 20 μs in timing.


We investigated the prevalence, patterns, and correlates of past-year DSM-IV hallucinogen use disorders (HUDs) among past-year users of MDMA and other hallucinogens from a sample of Americans 18 or older (n = 37,227). Users were categorized as MDMA users and other hallucinogen users. Overall, one in five (20%) MDMA users and about one in six (16%) other hallucinogen users reported at least one clinical feature of HUDs. Among MDMA users, prevalence of hallucinogen abuse, subthreshold dependence, and dependence was 4.9%, 11.9%, and 3.6%, respectively. The majority with hallucinogen abuse displayed subthreshold dependence. Most with hallucinogen dependence exhibited abuse. Subthreshold hallucinogen dependence is relatively prevalent and represents a clinically important subgroup that warrants future research and consideration in a major diagnostic classification system.


Nuclear Energy and Geoscience Convener:*Koji Umeda(Tono Geoscience Center,Japan Atomic Energy Agency), Hidekazu Yoshida(Nagoya University Museum), Chair:Hidekazu Yoshida(Nagoya University Museum) Tue. Apr 29, 2014 4:15 PM 5:45 PM 411 (4F) Handling of geological hazard assessments represent a major environmental concern in the modern society due to constructing nuclear facilities and their radioactive wastes, and also related to the management of contaminated biosphere after nuclear disasters. The session rational is to provide a forum to deal with various aspects of seismic and volcanic hazards at nuclear facilities, radioactive waste disposal in subsurface storage facilities and dynamic behavior of radionuclides emitted from disabled nuclear plants. It covers the aspects of geology, geophysics, geochemistry and other related geosciences.


Purpose
Disasters and armed conflict often co-occur, but does that imply that disasters trigger or fuel conflict? In the small but growing body of literature attempting to answer this question, divergent findings indicate the complex and contextual nature of a potential answer to this question. The purpose of this study is to contribute a robust cross-country analysis of the co-occurrence of disaster and conflict, with a particular focus on the potential role played by disaster.

Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in a theoretical model of disaster–conflict co-occurrence, this study merges data from 163 countries between 1990 and 2017 on armed conflict, disasters and relevant control variables (low human development, weak democratic institutions, natural resource dependence and large population size/density).

Findings
The main results of this study show that, despite a sharp increase in the co-occurrence of disasters and armed conflict over time, disasters do not appear to have a direct statistically significant relation with the occurrence of armed conflict. This result contributes to the understanding of disasters and conflicts as indirectly related via co-creation mechanisms and other factors.

Originality/value
This study is a novel contribution, as it provides a fresh analysis with updated data and includes different control variables that allow for a significant contribution to the field.


We shall give a new proof of temporally global existence of small solutions for systems of semi-linear wave equations. Our proof uses the Klainerman-Sideris inequality and
a space-time L^2-estimate. We shall also discuss whether the scale-invariant version
of the space-time L^2-estimates can hold, and obtain some related estimates.
Among other things, we prove that the Keel-Smith-Sogge estimate actually holds in all space dimensions.


Studies of titanium and its alloys commonly used as biomaterials aim to improve bone-implant interface related problems, which may determine the quality, bone repairing time and therefore the implant clinical success. The goal of this study was to evaluate, in rats, osseointegration of macroporous implants produced by powder metallurgy (PM) method with controlled addition of gelatin. As control group, samples of commercially pure titanium (cpTi) and Ti-13Nb-13Zr alloy obtained by the PM process were used. To obtaining the porous samples, at most 15% in weight of gelatin was added to metallic powders, the samples were thermally treated in vacuum furnace, and sintered at 1150°C. The osseointegration evaluation was performed in Wistar rats, males, for a 28 days period. The morphological analyses, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), evaluated qualitatively the osseointegration. The PM process modified by addition of gelatin provides with success the obtaining of porous metallic implants. Pore size obtained by this technique allowed the necessary nourishing to cell survival, proving that pores and channels form a high interconnectable network represented by the osseointegration and osteoconduction feature of the porous alloy.


1 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, University of Jeddah, Asfan, P. O. Box: 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia 2 Polymer Materials Research Department, Advanced Technology and New Materials Research Institute, MuCSAT, New Borg El-Arab City 21934, Alexandria, Egypt 3 Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt. 4 Computer-Based Engineering Applications Department, Informatics Research Institute, MuCSAT, New Borg El-Arab City 21934, Alexandria, Egypt * E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Until recently, paternal effects—the influence of fathers on their offspring due to environmental factors rather than genes—were largely discarded or assumed to be confined to species exhibiting paternal care. It is now recognized that paternal effects can be transmitted through the ejaculate, but unambiguous evidence for them is scarce, because it is difficult to isolate effects operating via changes to the ejaculate from maternal effects driven by female mate assessment. Here, we use artificial insemination to disentangle mate assessment from fertilization in guppies, and show that paternal effects can be transmitted to offspring exclusively via ejaculates. We show that males fed reduced diets produce poor-quality sperm and that offspring sired by such males (via artificial insemination) exhibit reduced body size at birth. These findings may have important implications for the many mating systems in which environmentally induced changes in ejaculate quality have been reported.


Postharvest lettuce often lose water, thus affecting both its market value and consumer acceptance. However, the mechanism of the water-loss is still waiting well exploration. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a foliar application of ABA on the fresh weight-loss and the chlorophyll content of postharvest lettuce as well as its association with the regulation of stomata. The present data demonstrated that exogenously application of ABA, in a concentration range of 0 to 100 µM, significantly lowered the fresh weight-loss of postharvest lettuce. ABA also delayed chlorophyll reduction during ambient storage, but this protective effect was ABA concentration-dependent. Among the tested ABA concentrations, 50 µM or lower ABA produced an inhibition effect on chlorophyll degradation in postharvest lettuce leaves. The results demonstrated that the exogenous ABA treatment can obviously reduce the transpiration rate of lettuce leaves by promoting the stomatal closure of postharvest lettuce, therefore eventually delay fresh weight-loss. The present study primarily showed that the application of exogenous ABA, which originated from a naturally-produced phytohormone, has a great potential in retaining the freshness of postharvest lettuce that is stored in an ambient condition, although possible practical application still need to be further evaluated.


Recently, automated video surveillance and related video processing algorithms have received considerable attention from the research community. Challenges in video surveillance rise from noise, illumination changes, camera motion, splits and occlusions, complex human behavior, and how to manage extracted surveillance information for delivery, archiving, and retrieval: Many video surveillance systems focus on video object extraction, while few focus on both the system architecture and video object extraction. We focus on both and integrate them to produce an end-to-end system and study the challenges associated with building this system. We propose a scalable, distributed, and real-time video-surveillance system with a novel architecture, indexing, and retrieval. The system consists of three modules: video workstations for processing, control workstations for monitoring, and a server for management and archiving. The proposed system models object features as temporal Gaussians and produces: an 18 frames/second frame-rate for SIF video and static cameras, reduced network and storage usage, and precise retrieval results. It is more scalable and delivers more balanced distributed performance than recent architectures. The first stage of video processing is noise estimation. We propose a method for localizing homogeneity and estimating the additive white Gaussian noise variance, which uses spatially scattered initial seeds and utilizes particle filtering techniques to guide their spatial movement towards homogeneous locations from which the estimation is performed. The noise estimation method reduces the number of measurements required by block-based methods while achieving more accuracy. Next, we segment video objects using a background subtraction technique. We generate the background model online for static cameras using a mixture of Gaussians background maintenance approach. For moving cameras, we use a global motion estimation method offline to bring neighboring frames into the coordinate system of the current frame and we merge them to produce the background model. We track detected objects using a feature-based object tracking method with improved detection and correction of occlusion and split. We detect occlusion and split through the identification of sudden variations in the spatia-temporal features of objects. To detect splits, we analyze the temporal behavior of split objects to discriminate between errors in segmentation and real separation of objects. Both objective and subjective experimental results show the ability of the proposed algorithm to detect and correct both splits and occlusions of objects. For the last stage of video processing, we propose a novel method for the detection of vandalism events which is based on a proposed definition for vandal behaviors recorded on surveillance video sequences. We monitor changes inside a restricted site containing vandalism-prone objects and declare vandalism when an object is detected as leaving the site while there is temporally consistent and significant static changes representing damage, given that the site is normally unchanged after use. The proposed method is tested on sequences showing real and simulated vandal behaviors and it achieves a detection rate of 96%. It detects different forms of vandalism such as graffiti and theft. The proposed end-ta-end video surveillance system aims at realizing the potential of video object extraction in automated surveillance and retrieval by focusing on both video object extraction and the management, delivery, and utilization of the extracted information


Clinical trials have demonstrated that lifestyle changes can prevent type 2 diabetes, but the importance of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) is still unclear. We carried out post hoc analyses on the role of LTPA in preventing type 2 diabetes in 487 men and women with impaired glucose tolerance who had completed 12-month LTPA questionnaires. The subjects were participants in the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study, a randomized controlled trial of lifestyle changes including diet, weight loss, and LTPA. There were 107 new cases of diabetes during the 4.1-year follow-up period. Individuals who increased moderate-to-vigorous LTPA or strenuous, structured LTPA the most were 63-65% less likely to develop diabetes. Adjustment for changes in diet and body weight during the study attenuated the association somewhat (upper versus lower third: moderate-to-vigorous LTPA, relative risk 0.51, 95% CI 0.26-0.97; strenuous, structured LTPA, 0.63, 0.35-1.13). Low-intensity and lifestyle LTPA and walking also conferred benefits, consistent with the finding that the change in total LTPA (upper versus lower third: 0.34, 0.19-0.62) was the most strongly associated with incident diabetes. Thus increasing physical activity may substantially reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes in high-risk individuals.


The asymptotic theory for the sample autocorrelations and extremes of a GARCH(I, 1) process is provided. Special attention is given to the case when the sum of the ARCH and GARCH parameters is close to 1, that is, when one is close to an infinite Variance marginal distribution. This situation has been observed for various financial log-return series and led to the introduction of the IGARCH model. In such a situation, the sample autocorrelations are unreliable estimators of their deterministic counterparts for the time series and its absolute values, and the sample autocorrelations of the squared time series have nondegenerate limit distributions. We discuss the consequences for a foreign exchange rate series.


Most contemporary fourth-generation languages (4GL) are tightly coupled with the database, and other subsystems provided by the vendor. As a result, organisations that wish to change database vendors are typically forced to rewrite their applications using the new vendor's 4GL. The anticipated cost of this redevelopment can deter an organisation from changing vendors, hence denying it the benefits that would otherwise result, e.g., the exploitation of more sophisticated database technology. If tools existed that could reduce the rewriting effort, the large upfront cost of migrating the organisation's applications would also be reduced, which could make the shift economically feasible. This paper describes two approaches for migrating 4GL-based information system applications and how these approaches are enabled using knowledge-based software engineering (KBSE) technology. Semantic issues identified during the design of the toolset are addressed. These issues are instantiated using examples from the project. The approaches described in this paper were developed as part of an industry-sponsored research project to construct a "real world" software re-engineering toolset. The project represents the first significant attempt to apply KBSE technology to this problem.


"A Report of the Regional Plan Association"The Regional Plan Association is an unofficial nonprofit organization founded to undertake research and recommend policies aimed at improving the environmental and social aspects of the region extending into three states with New York City as its focal point. It is also committed to publishing its findings and proposals. This report was prepared for the association by Regina Belz Armstrong and was edited by Boris Pushkarev and Alan Donheiser.The report indicates that the number of office jobs and the new office space needed will approximately double in the New York region by the year 2000 and will increase even more rapidly for the nation as a whole. An article on the report that appeared in "Business Week" states that it "is aimed at a 31-county, 13,000-sq.-mi. region in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. But it bristles with figures and concepts important to all U.S. metropolitan areas, especially the 25 that have a million or more population. Its message is one of hope strongly laced with somber warnings."Summarizing the report's forecasts and recommendations, the "Business Week" account continues as follows: "Office jobs over the past decade or so have powered whatever growth cities have achieved and moderated any declines. Now, the flight of corporations from Manhattan and other city cores is quickening. In this context, the RPA study raises critical questions about the future shape and vitality of cities and suburbs alike."The essence of the RPA analysis: The coming expansion in office jobs and the resulting office building construction can save cities or destroy the countryside. Directed into central cities, or subsidiary cities and urban centers, new offices could underpin their economy, stimulate mass transit, and provide investment for redesigning downtown areas to make them more efficient and pleasant. But if present trends accelerate, this growth could soak up thousands of acres of valuable suburban land, wipe out what little public transit remains, generate endless miles of highways and parking lots, create unsightly and wasteful commercial strips along roads, ultimately reproduce many of the problems that now afflict the cities."


I. Introduction Suppose Superman is in hock up to his ears.1 As Clark Kent, Superman earns a meager salary reporting the news,2 but it is not nearly enough to get by on, considering that his lifestyle includes an ongoing relationship with Lois Lane,3 frequent travel from Earth,4 and outfitting his Fortress of Solitude.5 To maintain his image, Superman takes out an unsecured loan from Bizarro Creditors. To further alleviate his financial woes and to remedy past wrongs, he decides to sue successful inventor and long-time arch-nemesis Lex Luthor for assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.6 He hires Brainiac as his attorney, who somehow manages to flub the case. Superman defaults on his debt to Bizarro Creditors, and his only remaining asset is his legal malpractice claim against Brainiac. Bizarro wants a piece of that hefty legal malpractice claim. Can Superman give Bizarro a voluntary security interest in his legal malpractice claim? Not under the present Uniform Commercial Code Article 9, but the revised Article 9 would permit it in certain circumstances.7 This Note analyzes the revised Article 9's position on using commercial tort claims as collateral within the context of legal malpractice claims. Generally, the revised Article 9 authorizes the use of commercial tort claims as collateral but does not purport to address the underlying alienability of these claims.8 If a debtor gives a creditor a security interest in a legal claim but that claim is not alienable, the creditor cannot pursue the claim.9 Among the states there is a split of authority on whether legal malpractice claims are assignable.10 This Note addresses the effect of using legal malpractice claims as collateral under Article 9. First, this Note will analyze the new provision permitting commercial tort claims to be used as security. Second, the present split of authority on the assignability of legal malpractice claims is explained. Third, this Note analyzes the effect of section 9-401, which incorporates non-Article 9 determinations of assignability. Finally, this Note concludes by analyzing foreseeable cases that might arise under the revised Article 9 involving legal malpractice claims as collateral. II. Revised Article 9 Permits Commercial Tort Claims as Collateral The American Law Institute and the National Commissioners' Conference on Uniform State Laws have approved a revised version of the widely adopted section in the Uniform Commercial Code on secured transactions. The revised version follows the same general approach of the old Article 9, requiring attachment and perfection by filing.11 But there are significant changes to justify the revision.12 One important change is in the expanded scope of the new Article 9.(13) The new Article 9 will apply to more types of collateral than did the old version.14 Once the revised Article 9 takes effect15 in those states that have adopted it,16 section 9-109(d)(12) will permit debtors to use commercial tort claims as Article 9 security.17 Formerly, Article 9 excluded from its score "a transfer in whole or in part of any claim arising out of tort."18 That exclusion was narrowed during revisions, when the drafters specifically excepted commercial tort claims from the exclusion.19 Naturally, the result of an exception to exclusion is inclusion, if the other requirements of Article 9 are satisfied.20 Thus, security interests in commercial tort claims fall within the scope of the revised Article 9. In addition, the revised Article 9 clearly contemplates that a security interest in the proceeds of a tort claim21 is conceptually distinct from one in the tort claim itself.22 Under the former Article 9, it was unclear whether the two were distinct.23 Under the new Article 9, this distinction between a security interest in the claim (a general intangible) and one in the proceeds of the claim (a payment intangible) clearly manifests itself in the rules relating to attachment, perfection, and priority, in which the two categories differ. …


Back-propagation network (BPN) has the advantage of simulating a nonlinear system that is difficult to describe by a physical model. This study introduces a back-propagation network methodology to estimate the accelerated life reliability. The environmental stresses and failure times are chosen as the input variables. An optimum prediction system is acquired by adjusting the number of neurons in the hidden layer and the output layer of neural networks. For a numerical example, the developed BPN architecture is applied to real accelerated life testing data of the STNLCD modules which are distributed as a Weibull distribution. By the research result, we can have the conclusion that the BPN methodology is practical to make the reliability inference with the advantages of self-learning ability even without mathematics models.


: Partial exchange transfusion is often used to treat neonatal polycythemia. Concern about the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis following the procedure has recently been raised. We report a retrospective analysis of 185 term, polycythemic neonates who received partial exchange transfusion. No evidence of severe gastrointestinal injury was found. The technique for partial exchange transfusion we report consists of removal of blood from the umbilical vein with reinfusion of a commercial plasma substitute through a peripheral vein. Based on our data and a literature review, we offer suggestions for future conduct of partial exchange transfusion in polycythemic neonates.


Breast-feeding is a natural way to feed babies. A good breastfeeding practice is important for a continued growth, health, and nutrients for babies and young children. Therefore, the period of exclusive breast-feeding is one of important health problems in the community. This research used a control group design. The control group is nonpoor household. The collected data from the two groups (poor and nonpoor) and from the two locations, Bogor and Indramayu, (highland and coastal) were compared. Sample was drawn as random. Sample size of poor households are 513 in both location, while nonpoor households are 238. Total sample size are 751 households. The data collected through questionnaires. The results of the studies conducted in Bogor and Indramayu show that most mothers either from poor or nonpoor households do not breastfeed their babies, and they have problems with their excessive breast milk and continuously dripping breast milk. The results of the study reveal that almost all mothers have got the experience of breast-feeding their last babies, either those of poor households or those of nonpoor ones in both Bogor and Indramayu. Most mothers of poor households both in Bogor and Indramayu do not generally understand about exclusive breast-feeding, with the figures reaching 95.6% and 97.7% respectively. The figures for the breast-feeding period of between 12 and 23 months were 27.4% in Bogor, and 30% in Indramayu. Key words : breast-feeding, households, breast milk, mothers, babies


Asiarta Foundation and the Getty Conservation Institute have collaborated in research to study Vietnamese lacquer paintings. The primary aim of the project is to gain a deeper understanding of the materials and techniques used in these unique lacquer paintings through technical analysis of various lacquer samples from paintings and from different sources in Vietnam complemented by in-depth interviews with Vietnamese lacquer artists. The origins and development of Vietnamese lacquer painting are outlined, followed by a description of the typical production processes involved in the manufacture of lacquer paintings. The analytical methods used for the analysis of lacquer samples as well as an outline of the methodology employed are briefly described. The results of the analyses are summarized and discussed. Samples were found to contain ingredients obtained from tree species indigenous to Vietnam and Cambodia, and interestingly some samples contained a combination of the less expensive cashew nut shell liquid lacquer, drying oils, tree resins, and drying additives. In addition, analysis indicated that some samples contained non-Asian lacquer-based ingredients.