This article elaborates on the activities developed by various actors from the civil society in favour of non-deported refused asylum seekers (NDRAS) through the lens of 'de-bordering solidarity'. Drawing on qualitative data collected in two small Italian cities ruled by anti-immigrant coalitions, this study explores the rationales and outcomes of migrant supporters' actions in providing help to NDRAS, thus deepening the action of pro-immigrant civil society in small urban centres. The findings show that, while civil society's engagement in the provision of basic needs to vulnerable people is unconditional, legal advice and practical help for access to regular status can be more selective and reflect lack of human and financial resources available, the low probability of a part of NDRAS to achieve legal status, low demand in local labour markets, and social workers' and volunteers' subjectivities. Despite recognizing such limits in solidarity activities, this article shows that civil society in practice challenges deportation policies through practical and daily solidarity that assumes political and cultural meanings. Based on these findings, this article suggests durable solutions for addressing the issues connected with the presence of NDRAS.


Background Many people who might benefit from specialist palliative care services are not using them. Aim We examined the use of these services and the reasons for not using them in a population in potential need of palliative care. Methods We conducted a population-based survey regarding end-of-life care among physicians certifying a large representative sample (n = 6188) of deaths in Flanders, Belgium. Results Palliative care services were not used in 79% of cases of people with organ failure, 64% of dementia and 44% of cancer. The most frequently indicated reasons were that 1) existing care already sufficiently addressed palliative and supportive needs (56%), 2) palliative care was not deemed meaningful (26%) and 3) there was insufficient time to initiate palliative care (24%). The reasons differed according to patient characteristics: in people with dementia the consideration of palliative care as not meaningful was more likely to be a reason for not using it; in older people their care needs already being sufficiently addressed was more likely to be a reason. For those patients who were referred the timing of referral varied from a median of six days before death (organ failure) to 16 days (cancer). Conclusions Specialist palliative care is not initiated in almost half of the people for whom it could be beneficial, most frequently because physicians deem regular caregivers to be sufficiently skilled in addressing palliative care needs. This would imply that the safeguarding of palliative care skills in this regular 'general' care is an essential health policy priority.


The form and formlessness of histories, regions, races, ballads, fictions, lists, characters, and mountains are among the topics of concern in Colson Whitehead's John Henry Days, and they pose a real challenge to conveying what this novel is like. Caroline Levine's Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network advocates considering forms in terms of their affordances, "the potential uses or actions latent in materials and designs" (6). This depends, however, on the reliable identification of forms in a particular text, activity, or material; and the critical response to John Henry Days gives us evidence that, while we can analyze forms the novel deploys and contains, it remains a challenge to identify the novel's form as a whole. In a different vein, Heather Love's work on description is explicitly concerned with "forms of analysis," but not with the analysis of form per se. The present examination of John Henry Days attempts to bridge such valuable conversations about form and description. This article argues that as John Henry Days grapples with describing forms that constantly remake themselves, it takes a position akin to science and technology studies scholar Michael Lynch's theoretical agnosticism with respect to capital-O Ontology. Refusing anything like a full-blown theory of form, John Henry Days both practices and advocates provisional taxonomy—touching and moving on—as a way of knowing its ever-changing material. This article's analysis of the describer's nightmare is thus a case study for Lynch's claim that "particular descriptions—including descriptions of ontologies—can make sense, apparently even to others who do not share our grand theories."


A national constitution or other statute typically specifies restrictions on executive power, often including a limit to the number of terms the chief executive may hold office. In recent decades, however, some presidents of newly established democracies have extended their tenure by various semilegal means, thereby raising the specter and in some cases creating the reality of dictatorship. Alexander Baturo tracks adherence to and defiance of presidential term limits in all types of regimes (not only democratic regimes) around the world since 1960. Drawing on original data collection and fieldwork to investigate the factors that encourage playing by or manipulating the rules, he asks what is at stake for the chief executive if he relinquishes office. Baturo finds that the income-generating capacity of political office in states where rent-seeking is prevalent, as well as concerns over future immunity and status, determines whether or not an executive attempts to retain power beyond the mandated period. "Democracy, Dictatorship, and Term Limits" will appeal to scholars of democratization and executive power and also to political theorists."


Mineralogic problems involved in the Fe--Ni-S System are listed and a critical review of both mineralogic and metallurgical data on the system is given. New experimental data obtained from melts of FeS and NiS are presented together with results of an experiment to test the immiscibility of these sulphides. For low-sulphur, iron-nickel melts confirmation is obtained that FeS (pyrrhotite) enters into a peritectic reaction with a nickel-rich liquid to form a ternary solid solution which on final cooling is equivalent to pentlandite. Though natural pentlandite appears to have a constant composition (Fe, Ni) 9 S 8 with Fe: Ni = 10:11, synthetic pentlandites have been prepared from melts ranging in composition in one series of experiments from 45FeS-55NiS to 10FeS-90NiS. In another series, with probably lower sulphur, a compound, close to 30FeS-70NiS, approximating the compound (FeS) 2 Ni 3 S 2 (in Fe:Ni) and indistinguishable from pentlandite by x-ray methods, was obtained. Cooling curve data suggest that while the peritectic type of crystallization may occur with low sulphur, a solid solution series between iron and nickel sulphides may form over a still wider range. Confirmation of this will be presented in a later paper by Colgrove.The textural relations of natural pyrrhotite and pentlandite are reviewed and new evidence for a natural, nickeliferous-pyrrhotite solid solution given. On the basis of studies of natural ores and experimental data, the mode of crystallization of non-aqueous, iron-nickel, sulphide liquids is traced and the importance of sulphur content stressed. No evidence is found that such sulphide liquids are immiscible.


Today grid infrastructures are increasingly required to handle complex service requests requiring configuration and deployment of customized solutions. Existing tools and technologies are labor intensive and result in inefficient and wasteful use of both human and IT resources. In this paper, we describe Harmony II - an architecture for delivering customized solutions using an approach that is policy driven and is amenable to a high degree of automation. Our approach is modular, which facilitates customization using building blocks of IT resources. Lower level raw IT resources are virtualized allowing flexible and policy-based resource sharing. Flexible resource sharing reduces wasteful use of expensive IT resources and allows business goals to dictate how the resources are to be used. Cost savings in IT management are achieved not only by the automation in service delivery, but also by the novel use of building blocks and solution templates


By splitting a complex ray-casting process into different tasks performed on different processors, Voreen provides a lot of flexibility because users can intervene at different points during ray casting. Voreen's object-oriented design lets users easily create customized processor classes that cooperate seamlessly with existing classes. A user-friendly GUI supports rapid prototyping of visualization ideas. We've implemented several applications based on our library. In the future, we'd like to further extend Voreen's capabilities to make visualization prototyping even easier on all abstraction levels. Thus, we plan to realize a set of dedicated processor skeletons, which are solely configured through shader programs and can thus be modified at runtime.


The economic crisis has had an influence on all aspects of life, from economic to social life, from national security to governance, and from politics to sports. The consequences of the economic crisis of 2008 could shape the future of global governance. Also, the appearance of new players in influencing and restructuring the global political system, such as private and state-owned Transnational Corporations (TNCs), makes us rethink the ways in which we need to approach human development issues such as fighting corruption, supporting human rights and higher living standards, and maintaining good governance practices worldwide. Thus, this article addresses the influence of the economic crisis of 2008 on formal and informal governance. The focus of this article is addressing the increasing of economic and political power of TNCs, especially state-owned TNCs, and their influence on the global political system. The conclusion reached is that International Organizations (IOs), civil society organizations, people, and even TNCs need to work together to reorganize the political scene with new international agreements and IOs, because institutions and international agreements that initiated after WWII are not working affectively anymore.


Activity-Based Computing (ABC) is a way working with computers based on activites rather than just applications and documents. This thesis covers the use of Activity-Based Computing concepts in current software products. Several groups of software products have been analyzed in a product analysis, including cloud computing services and web browsers. This analysis reveals that most products have functionality similar to some of the ABC concepts. It also shows that some product groups includes more ABC concepts than others, and different products have similarities with different ABC concepts. Suggestions for improvements to enable ABC in web browsers and cloud computing services are also included in this thesis. A concept development approach have been used to propose possible solutions and improvements to web browsers. Web browsers are a good starting point for implementing ABC for use with cloud services and web applications. The concept development is based on the analysis of the five currently largest web browsers, and provides suggestions for functionality required to fully implement Activity-Based Computing.


INTRODUCTION
Development of hypocalcaemia is a serious complication to total thyroidectomy (TT). The measurement of intact plasma parathyroid hormone (iPTH) has been internationally described as a good predictor of hypocalcaemia. Despite this, consensus in the field has yet to be reached among clinicians. We aimed to evaluate if measurement of iPTH 24 hours post-operatively (24-iPTH) can identify patients who do not subsequently develop clinically significant hypocalcaemia (CSH), thereby allowing for early discharge after TT.

METHODS
This was a historic cohort study of all patients who had a TT in the period from January 2013 to March 2014 at the Department of Oto-rhino-laryngology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. Only patients with 24-iPTH measurements were included. Post-operative treatment with calcium or activated vitamin D analogue was defined as CSH. Data were collected from medical records.

RESULTS
A total of 69 patients were included, 80% were women, the median age was 47 and 83% had a malignant disease. A total of 35% developed CSH and the median hospitalisation period was four days. The sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of 24-iPTH ≥ 2.8 pmol/l to exclude CSH were 76%, 92% and 94%, respectively. In addition, we found that a body mass index > 25 kg/m(2) significantly increased the risk of developing CSH.

CONCLUSIONS
The measurement of 24-iPTH ≥ 2.8 pmol/l can be used to predict patients who will not develop CSH after TT and allow for early discharge of more than 50% of the patients.

FUNDING
none.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
not relevant.


In Higher Education, science and health degree programmes involve significant practical elements.  In many cases, students spend as much time in practical or clinical skill sessions each week as they do in classroom based lectures.  These hands-on sessions engage students, develop both soft and technical skills, while allowing theory to be put into practice.  However, in many cases, the design, assessment and feedback aspects of practical sessions has not received the attention warranted, with traditional approaches often persisting. This paper discusses a nationally funded, multi-institution enhancement project focused on implementing and evaluating digital technologies to enhance assessment in science and health practical sessions.  Via an initial baseline analysis, four thematic areas were identified for pilot development: [1] Pre-practical videos combined with online/app quizzes, [2] Electronic lab notebooks, [3] Digital Feedback and [4] Rubrics.  In collaboration with student partner groups, employers and academic staff, the TEAM (Technology Enhanced Assessment Methods) project designed and implemented 42 pilots in practical sessions across the four partner colleges, engaging almost 1,600 students.  In this paper, the key lessons identified during the baseline analysis which informed the project, as well as those from the subsequent survey and focus group evaluation of participants' pilot experiences, will be presented.  Overall, the implementation of TEAM has represented a major success across the partner colleges, providing a strong foundation for continuous, iterative improvements in this field.


The corrosion layer Formed in the contact between the cathode and the current collector is one factor limiting the cathode performance in molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC). In order to investigate the contribution to the total polarization of the contact resistance, electrochemical experiments were performed in a laboratory-scale fuel cell unit with a specially designed current collector. Two cathode materials, NiO and LiCoO2, were investigated to elucidate the impact of the cathode material on the formed corrosion layer. Polarization measurements as well as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used. The method works well for NiO electrodes. However, due to the poor electronic conductivity in the LiCoO2 electrode, the experimental results become difficult to evaluate due to a nonuniform potential distribution. The contact resistance between the cathode and the current collector contributes with a large value to the total cathode polarization. The corrosion layer in case of the LiCoO2 cathode was iron-rich and has a thickness of about 20 mum after 8 weeks operation of the fuel cell. Ln the case of the NiO cathode, a nickel-rich corrosion layer of about 15 mum was formed after 5 weeks operation of the fuel cell.


This paper presents an application that allows the generation of virtual terrains interactively, using augmented reality markers. This application also allows the user to navigate in the generated virtual environment. To demonstrate how the process is done, a terrain generation scenario was chosen. Virtual objects were augmented using markers and the detection is done through the ARToolKit framework. A particle system was used to simulate deformation to better incorporate the needs of terrain generation. The deformation itself follows an interparticle force between the particles attached to a movable physical marker and the particles attached to a fixed multi-marker representing the mesh. A viscous force is also used to generate a plastic material effect ensuring permanent deformation. The resulting application although conceptually simple and easy to use, can produce an immersive output environment that the user can freely navigate.


The attention devoted to quality in health care has focused primarily on hospitals. With the shift in care from hospitals to outpatient clinics and physicians' offices, there has emerged a need to consider how quality should be approached in these settings. This article explores the structural barriers in the typical medical practice that must be removed in order to improve the many dimensions of quality. The typical practice must concentrate on enhancing clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and practice productivity. One effective strategy is to form teams of physicians and other staff to work on relevant issues. Another is to focus on how the practice can be defined to better meet the needs of patients.


Alloying a ternary monovariant Ni-Al-Mo eutectic alloy with vanadium and rhenium has been investigated as a means to increase the creep strength at elevated temperature. The creep properties of directionally solidified eutectic gamma/gamma'-alpha alloys with nominal composition Ni-31Mo-6A1, Ni-32Mo-6Al-1.4V and Ni-30Mo-6A1-1.6V-1.2Re (wt.%) have been determined using strain rate change test. The tests were conducted under vacuum at temperatures between 1223 and 1323 K. Comparison of the stress-strain rate behaviour to that for directionally solidified Ni-Al-Mo eutectic alloy has revealed that the additions of vanadium and rhenium increase the steady-state stress at given creep rate and temperature by 11 to 20%. This improvement is higher at higher temperatures and lower creep rates. The steady-state stress has been found to depend strongly on creep rate and temperature. The measured power law exponents varied between 6.7 and 7.9 over the studied temperature range. The activation energies for creep were calculated to range between 471 and 517 kJmol(-1). The ductility of these eutectic composites was high, typically ranging from 40 to 60% reduction of area and from 15 to 38% elongation..


In this paper, we propose a system for user directed real time view synthesis for hand-held devices. Stored image frames with corresponding depth maps are used as input to the system. Users view point choice is captured using a GYRO based system. OMAP3530 microprocessor is used as the main processor which processes suggested view synthesis algorithm with occlusion handling and frame enhancement techniques. Proposed algorithms are implemented on DSP core and ARM core of OMAP3530 separately and their performances are evaluated through experiments. In addition, two daughter cards are designed for user view point determination. First daughter card handles communication process with EVM board and calculates view point according to the input from the second daughter card with single axis response GYRO sensor (ADIS16060).


In order to analyze the effect of subsoil liquefaction on the seismic response of pile foundation, typical computation model in liquable ground was set up. Based on different constitutive models of the foundation soil before and after liquefaction and considering the nonlinear relation of pile-soil interaction, the dynamic finite difference analysis of group piles was carried out by using FLAC3D. The dynamic response characteristics of pile foundation considering liquefaction during earthquake are studied. Results show that the peak value of pore pressure ratio is different in different depth of the soil around pile, and the arriving time of the peak value of pore pressure ratio is later than that of the peak value of earthquake acceleration. At any time during the earthquake whether before or after the liquefaction the top moment of pile are larger than that of the pile shaft when the top pile is solidly embedded.


CAAT/enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBPs) play an important role in the regulation of gene expression in insulin-responsive tissues. We have found that a complex containing C/EBPbeta interacts with an insulin response sequence in the insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) gene and that a C/EBP-binding site can mediate effects of insulin on promoter activity. Here, we examined mechanisms mediating this effect of insulin. The ability of insulin to suppress promoter activity via a C/EBP-binding site is blocked by LY294002, a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor, but not by rapamycin, which blocks activation of p70(S6 kinase). Dominant negative phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and protein kinase B (PKB) block the effect of insulin, while activated PKB suppresses promoter function via a C/EBP-binding site, mimicking the effect of insulin. Coexpression studies indicate that insulin and PKB suppress transactivation by C/EBPbeta, but not C/EBPalpha, and that N-terminal transactivation domains in C/EBPbeta are required. Studies with Gal4 fusion proteins reveal that insulin and PKB suppress transactivation by the major activation domain in C/EBPbeta (AD II), located between amino acids 31 and 83. Studies with E1A protein indicate that interaction with p300/CBP is required for transactivation by AD II and the effect of insulin and PKB. Based on a consensus sequence, we identified a PKB phosphorylation site (Ser(1834)) within the region of p300/CBP known to bind C/EBPbeta. Mammalian two-hybrid studies indicate that insulin and PKB disrupt interactions between this region of p300 and AD II and that Ser(1834) is critical for this effect. Signaling by PKB and phosphorylation of Ser(1834) may play an important role in modulating interactions between p300/CBP and transcription factors and mediate effects of insulin and related growth factors on gene expression.


The multiplication of fowl-plague virus was studied in cultures prepared with suspensions of isolated cells of chick embryo tissues. Under favourable conditions, virus infectivity increased exponentially for 20 hr., after a latent period lasting 4 4 hr. Virus haemagglutinin production varied linearly with the number of cells added to the cultures, the regression line of this relationship showing a; slope of approximately 1 when the cell concentration was kept constant and a slope higher than 1 when the number of cells was varied together with the cell concentration. Haemagglutinin production was decreased by increasing the size of the virus inoculum. A simiIar decrease was observed in cultures in which the depth of the fluid layer was increased. Cultures incubated a t 32" for 2 days showed no haemagglutinin titres. The titres reached in cultures incubated a t 35, 37 and 39" did not differ significantly. Cultures kept a t 37' maintained their capacity to support virus multiplication at an approximately constant level for a t least 3 days. At 22" and a t 4' this capacity decreased progressively with time of storage, the decrease being more pronounced at the lower temperature. Virus multiplication was inhibited by horse serum.


Recebimento do artigo 06-set-10 | Aceite 01-dez-10 Abstract In most arts and sciences - from astronomy to zoology - the Renaissance represents a qualitative watershed in human history, and historians are generally united in considering it a period of unprecedented intellectual ferment. Echoes of da Vinci, Galileo, and Machiavelli still resound in the way we approach art, science, and human coexistence, and it is noticeable how these developments came 'out of Italy' (Braudel, 1991). As a precondition for this, the Renaissance was also a period when the productive powers of small European city states allowed a large part of the population to live free from poverty. Where feudalism had provided wealth for the very few and misery for most, the city states of the Renaissance for the first time witnessed a situation where artisans, merchants and public employees filled the ranks of a new middle class. Keywords Mercantilism, Economic Develop-


Captive as well as free-ranging wolves, which are currently recolonizing Germany, may harbor a variety of gastrointestinal parasites. This study investigated endoparasites in captive European gray wolves (Canis lupus lupus) using coproscopical methods. Fecal samples were collected monthly between October 2012 and November 2013 from 18 wolf enclosures in 14 German zoological gardens, representing 72 individual wolves. In total, 1,041 fecal samples including 26 bulk samples were analyzed by the sedimentation and flotation method. The most frequently detected egg morphotypes included five nematodes [Ancylostomatidae (Ancylostoma or Uncinaria spp.), Toxocara canis, Toxascaris leonina, Trichuris vulpis, and Capillaria/Eucoleus spp.], one cestode (Taeniidae) and one trematode (Alaria alata). 44.76% of all samples were positive for at least one of these egg morphotypes. Overall, Ancylostomatidae showed the highest frequency (30.84% of all samples), followed by Capillaria/Eucoleus spp. (19.88%), Toxocara canis (5.19%), taeniids (3.75%), Trichuris vulpis and Alaria alata (3.65% each), and Toxascaris leonina (1.25%). As fecal samples were collected from the environment and could not be assigned to individual wolves, sample results were combined per zoo and month. General linear mixed models were employed to analyze the effect of season and management factors on the occurrence of Ancylostomatidae, Capillaria/Eucoleus spp., Toxocara canis and taeniids. No statistically significant effect of season was found, whereas anthelmintic treatment negatively affected Ancylostomatidae egg excretion. Detected parasites and their prevalences are comparable to previous studies on wolf parasitism conducted elsewhere in Europe. As many of the most prevalent helminths are of zoonotic importance, routine anthelmintic treatment of captive wolves should be recommended.


The relation between biological processes and social practices has given rise to a sociobiology heavily defined through experimental, cause-and-effect theorizing, applying biology to society, culture, and individual action. Human behaviour is largely understood as the outcome of biological processes, with individual autonomy and survival, and social order and stability, prioritized. Building on an argument first made about selfhood in 1986, and about immunology from 1992 onwards, this paper argues that advances in science reframe our understanding of the boundaries between self and other ('non-self'), and thereby also our awareness of the importance of risk and danger, and the social contexts that encourage or discourage social risks. Because the assimilation of difference is not only crucial to survival, but critical for creation, the argument here for 'a new sociobiology' is for a less biologically determined sociobiology. Difference can destroy, but it is necessary for adaptation and creation. A new sociobiology, therefore, must prioritize organic relatedness over organic autonomy, attraction to 'other' over concern with 'self', if the field is to advance our understanding of creation, survival, and growth.


In previous work [1] we showed how to apply modern sensor fusion and computer vision techniques to obtain a dense 3D reconstruction of a crop for precision agriculture. In this work we consider the case in which we have multiple 3D reconstructions, obtained from sensor data collected over several weeks. From this collection of dense reconstructions, we want to estimate how the size and height of each plant evolve over time. The problem is challenging since the 3D reconstructions may contain very partial views of each plant. Moreover, the presence of multiple plants (and background) requires solving the data association problem, which makes our goal even more challenging. We propose a general probabilistic model to estimate shape and appearance of objects (the plants) using factor graphs. Then, we tailor the formulation to precision agriculture, and we show that the choice of a suitable parametrization and the use of expectation-maximization enables fast inference on plant growth. Our approach provides high-level description of the status of each plant, and this can inform the farm manager and enhance situational awareness. Current results are extremely encouraging, and open several avenues for future research.


A study was carried out to investigate the effect of season on mineral and electrolyte profile of indigenous pig, Zovawk of Mizoram. Blood samples were collected from three different age groups viz. pre-weaning, grower and adult in three different seasons viz. summer, rainy and winter. Minerals and electrolytes viz. calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride and iron were estimated in plasma separated from blood samples after centrifugation. Plasma concentration of phosphorus, sodium, chloride and iron showed significant variations in different seasons. Phosphorus and chloride were found higher in rainy season. Sodium was higher in winter followed by summer and rainy seasons. Iron was found lower in summer. Season had no significant effects on calcium, magnesium and potassium. The study revealed high ranges of plasma iron in indigenous pig, Zovawk of Mizoram indicating its closeness to its wild origin.


A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of bachelor of laws(LL.B) of Strathmore University


Background: Performance monitoring is an important tool which can be used for setting priorities for process improvement. At our centre, we have been monitoring every step in the processes, right from inventory of consumables (both critical and routine) to number of donors reactive for TTI. We conducted a study to measure the impact of monitoring Performance Indicators and how it could be used as a tool for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Materials and Methods: The present study was a retrospective study where the performance indicator (PI) data of blood bank was analyzed for over four years. For certain parameters, benchmarks or thresholds were set that represented warning limits or action limits. The yearly data were collated from monthly data. "Shifts" or "Trends", if any, were identified and Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) taken accordingly. At the end, outcomes of the analysis were charted. Results: After the yearly data evaluation, outcomes obtained were used to plan, correct and amend processes and systems in the blood center. It was observed that the workload of the center showed an upward trend. This helped us to plan for the purchase of consumables and management of manpower. The monitoring of usage and discard of blood helped in the efficient management of blood stocks. The need for any new equipment could also be judged by the trends in workload. Conclusion: Performance indicators are indispensible tools which various stakeholders in the Blood Transfusion centres should implement to improve on quality performance.


The main aim of this article is to design Asynchronous Viterbi Decoder for getting low power consumption and increasing the speed. Fast developments in the stream of communication have increasing demands of low power and high speed decoders with low circuit implementation. In this paper, Asynchronous Viterbi Decoder has been implemented with code rate of r=1/3 and constraint length K=3 and the simulation results are operated by using VHDL in Model Sim SE 6.1f tool. This paper also focuses on the study of different sections of Viterbi Decoder. For the Asynchronous design, Bundled data protocol is used in this paper. Asynchronous designs have many benefits over the Synchronous designs.


The influences of different catalysts added to the activated carbon were studied for reducing energy consumption and enhancing reaction selectivity while microwave irradiate activated carbon for removal of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. It was found that the addition of catalyst can lower the power of microwave needed for the same sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides removal efficiency to a large extent; moreover, different catalysts introduced would cause different effects, in which the zincous catalyst and manganese catalyst had more apparent catalytic effects, about 95% removal efficiency could be achieved under microwave power 420W. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was adopted to have a study of the microstructure of the activated carbon, and it is shown that some catalyst components do exist on the surface of the activated carbon


Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) is one of the Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) tools that has been developed to enable environmentally and economically efficient material usage and thus improve resource efficiency. However, the use of this tool to improve resource efficiency in the South African hotel sector remains unknown. An exploratory study, qualitative in nature, was conducted using a single case study with embedded units approach. A Hotel Management Group that met the selection criteria formed part of this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 participants and additional documents were analysed. The investigated hotels have developed technologies that provide an environmental account in both physical and monetary units which constitute the use of MFCA to improve resource efficiencies. However, the study established a number of factors that affect the implementation of MFCA by the hotel sector in a South African context.


The content of lymphocytic and erythrocytic K -, Na- , Ca++, Mg++ changed in patients with congestive heart failure, related to clinical treatment and prognosis. The longer the course of disease, the more significant the changes, with no relation to the etiology of heart disease. The changes were partically improved after treatment of the heart failure. The content of electrolytes is not significantly different in patients in NYHA Class Ⅲ, compared to those in NYHA Class Ⅳ. The metabolic changes of electrolytes occur on the myocardial cells, skeletal muscle cells and peripheral erythrocytes in patients with congestive heart failure. However, serum electrolyte content does not reflect precisely overall electrolyte metabolism in the body. Whether similar, changes of electrolyte content occur in the peripheral lymphocytes is rarely reported. We studied the lymphocytic and erythrocytic electrolyte content in patients with congestive heart failure, to provide some reference in the clinical treatment and pr


Objective. To describe the incidence of bacteremia in a large multicentric cohort of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and their clinical characteristics and to identify risk factors. Methods. All bacteremic episodes from the Spanish RELESSER registry were included. Clinical and laboratory characteristics concerning bacteremia and SLE status, as well as comorbidities at the time of infection, were retrospectively collected. A comparison with sex- and age-matched SLE controls without bacteremia was made. A logistic regression was conducted. Results. The study included 114 episodes of bacteremia in 83 patients. The incidence rate was 2.7/1000 patient-years. At the time of bacteremia, the median age was 40.5 (range: 8–90) years, and 88.6% of patients were female. The Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment–Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index was 4 [interquartile range (IQR) 8]; 41% had an SLE flare (66% severe); Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index was 3 (IQR 4). A comorbidity was recorded in 64% of cases. At the time of bacteremia, 88.6% received corticosteroids (68.6% > 10 mg/day) and 57% immunosuppressors. Gram-negative bacilli, most frequently Escherichia coli (29.8%), caused 52.6% of the episodes. The bacteremia-related mortality was 14% and bacteremia was recurrent in 27.2% of cases. A dose-response relationship was found between corticosteroids and bacteremia risk. In the multivariate analysis, these factors were associated with bacteremia: elevated creatinine (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.01–1.70; p = 0.045), diabetes (OR 6.01, 95% CI 2.26–15.95; p < 0.001), cancer (OR 5.32, 95% CI 2.23–12.70; p < 0.001), immunosuppressors (OR 6.35, 95% CI 3.42–11.77; p < 0.001), and damage (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.31–2.09; p < 0.001). Conclusion. Bacteremia occurred mostly in patients with active SLE and was frequently associated with severe flares and corticosteroid use. Recurrence and mortality were high. Immunosuppressors, comorbidities, and disease-related damage were associated with bacteremia.


Almond [Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb] is one of the most important cultivated fruit trees in Iran. Late frost in spring is a key limiting factor for almond productivity given that almond trees flower early in the spring in comparison with other temperate fruit trees. To decrease frost injury in "Mamaei" cultivar, this study was carried out in factorial randomized complete block design (CRBD) with four replications. Almond trees were sprayed with 5%, 10% and 15% concentrations of Volck ® mineral oil mixed with a constant 3 g.l -1 concentration of Copper Oxychloride at two separate times, before swelling bud stage and at the swelling bud stage. The control almond trees were sprayed with pure water. The parameters such as phenological development stages of flower bud, amount of frost injury, bud abortion, fruit set and yield were measured. The results indicated that the trees treated with Copper Oxychloride and Volck ® mineral oil did not show significant effects on blooming time but had a significant effect on other parameters. The result of the mean comparison indicated that the highest percentage of bud abortion (1.84%) occurred by using 15% oil concentration and the lowest bud abortion (0.49%) occurred in the control trees. The highest yield (7.9 kg/tree) was achieved by the use of 5% Volck ® mineral oil plus 3 g.l -1 Copper Oxychloride during the swelling bud stage.


Objective: An increased hepatic artery (HA) flow has been described in 2nd trimester compromised growth retarded fetuses. A similar increase in HA artery flow was coincidentally observed in 1st trimester fetuses referred to our FMU in view of an increased nuchal translucency (NT). Aim of this study was to systematically investigate possible trends in HA flow in 1st-early 2nd strimester fetuses and its relationship to outcome. Methods: 1st-early 2nd trimester fetuses referred in view of an enlarged NT or for 1st trimester risk assessment were included. In all cases CRL, NT, ductus venosus (DV) PIV, HA PI and pregnancy outcome were known. Results: 50 fetuses fulfilled the criteria. NT was enlarged (>P95) in 35. DVPIV was abnormal in 41(>p95 neg/rev a wave). There were 18 trisomy 21, 3 trisomy 18, 1 trisomy 13. In 28 fetuses the karyotype was normal. In 4 the pregnancy was terminated due to hydrops or structural anomalies and in one Noonan syndrome was diagnosed in infancy. The outcome was normal in 22 fetuses. NT and HAPI and DVPIV and HAPI were significantly correlated in the whole group (r = −0, 48; −0, 49, respectively p<0,001. DVPIV was significantly(p<0,001) higher and HAPI significantly lower in fetuses with adverse outcome(AO) [median and ranges DVPIV Normal outcome: 1,4 (0,79–2,78); Adverse outcome: 2,5 (1,5–3,50)] [median and renges HAPI Normal outcome: 1,8 (1,20–2,9); Adverse outcome: 1,4 (1,25–2)]. Conclusion: In fetuses with enlarged NT and adverse outcome there is a trend for an increased flow in the hepatic artery. The pathophysiological background of this observation and its clinical implications deserve further investigation.


ABSTRACT Land supply for new housing in the established middle-suburbs (greyfields), where much urban infill potential exists, is "locked up" due to restrictive land-use regulation. As a result, most residential infill is occurring as fragmented, sub-optimal small lot subdivision. This paper outlines critical aspects in implementing a new development model – greyfield precinct renewal – which requires transformative change in municipal strategic planning, new zoning development schemes, innovative medium-density dwelling designs, and clusters of property-owners who can be motivated to capitalise on lot-consolidation value-uplift to overcome the negative externalities of small lot, fragmented, infill.


This study explored the behavior of laboratory-synthesized tricalcium aluminate (C3A) in alkaline media. In all the trials, the C3A was hydrated with water containing a certain percentage of alkali activators (4% Na2CO3, 4% Na2SO4, or 8% Na2SO4 by weight of C3A). Two- and 28-day mechanical strength values were determined and the products were characterized with XRD, DTA, and NMR. The compressive strength of the C3A pastes rose in the presence of the alkaline activators used in this study. The alkalis induced the formation of calcium monocarboaluminate (C4ACH11) as the main hydration product in all cases. In addition, when Na2SO4 was added, a sodium calcium sulfoaluminate, phase U (C4ASNH16), formed. The presence of this mineral, whose formation is associated with high pH values, furnished indirect information on the alkalinity in the medium.


Decision trees and random forests are well established models that not only offer good predictive performance, but also provide rich feature importance information. While practitioners often employ variable importance methods that rely on this impurity-based information, these methods remain poorly characterized from a theoretical perspective. We provide novel insights into the performance of these methods by deriving finite sample performance guarantees in a high-dimensional setting under various modeling assumptions. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of these impurity-based methods via an extensive set of simulations.


One of the standard principles of rationality guiding traditional accounts of belief change is the principle of minimal change: a reasoner's belief corpus should be modified in a minimal fashion when assimilating new information. This rationality principle has stood belief change in good stead. However, it does not deal properly with all belief change scenarios. We introduce a novel account of belief change motivated by one of Grice's maxims of conversational implicature: the reasoner's belief corpus is modified in a minimal fashion to assimilate exactly the new information. In this form of belief change, when the reasoner revises by new information p ∨ q their belief corpus is modified so that p∨q is believed but stronger propositions like p∧q are not, no matter what beliefs are in the reasoner's initial corpus. We term this conservative belief change since the revised belief corpus is a conservative extension of the original belief corpus given the new information.


We present an end-to-end supervised based system for detecting malware by analyzing network traffic. The proposed method extracts 972 behavioral features across different protocols and network layers, and refers to different observation resolutions (transaction, session, flow and conversation windows). A feature selection method is then used to identify the most meaningful features and to reduce the data dimensionality to a tractable size. Finally, various supervised methods are evaluated to indicate whether traffic in the network is malicious, to attribute it to known malware "families" and to discover new threats. A comparative experimental study using real network traffic from various environments indicates that the proposed system outperforms existing state-of-the-art rule-based systems, such as Snort and Suricata. In particular, our chronological evaluation shows that many unknown malware incidents could have been detected at least a month before their static rules were introduced to either the Snort or Suricata systems.


Second-instar larvae of Rhodnius prolixus will gorge on washed human erythrocytes suspended in Ringer, but not on plasma, either with or without platelets. The ED 50 of erythrocytes is 4.5 vol of packed cells per 1000 vol of Ringer. Erythrocyte 'ghosts' are non-stimulatory, whereas the haemolysate induces gorging. Phagostimulation by 'ghosts' is restored by resealing them in 1 mM adenosine triphosphate. Evidence is presented that Rhodnius responds to blood via a release of ATP from a few erythrocytes close to the epipharyngeal sense organs.


This article combines uniquely detailed household-level tax assessments with reconstituted family histories for an eighteenth-century agricultural village near Paris. The tax records reveal substantial diversity in income among taxpayers despite the exemptions given privileged landowners. High-income households had significantly lower levels of infant and adult mortality, earlier age at marriage of the wife, and slightly lower rates of emigration by their surviving children. Marital fertility was high at all income levels. These classic Malthusian patterns were found at the household level more than a generation after the last great subsistence crises and resulted in a much higher local rate of replacement for the better-off families.


The population of the elderly is raising in the improved countries with the death age becoming later in life due to the improvement of contemporary therapy approaches and socio‐economic and cultural levels. Most older people with major disability of recent onset have the potential to benefit from geriatric rehabilitation. Rehabilitation for older people should have specific goals. Rehabilitation of elderly people involves an active process, delivered through a coordinated multidisciplinary team approach, aiming to improve function and enable subjects to live their lives to the whole potential. The major goal of rehabilitation programs for older people is to assist them to manage personal activities of daily living without the assistance of another person. Occupational therapy facilitates optimal occupational performance and community participation across the full spectrum of ability. In this chapter, there is information on the principles of occupa‐ tional rehabilitation for elderly people and evaluation and different therapy approaches in occupational therapy.


Introduction Provision of clinically assisted hydration (CAH) at the end of life is one of the most contentious issues in medicine. The aim of the 'CHELsea II' trial is to evaluate CAH in patients in the last days of life. The objectives are to assess the effect of CAH on delirium, audible upper airway secretions, pain and other symptoms, and overall survival, as well as the tolerability of CAH, and the health economic impact. Methods and analysis The study is a cluster randomised trial, involving 80 sites/clusters (mainly hospices) and 1600 patients. Sites will be randomised to an intervention, and this will become the standard of care during the trial. Intervention 'A' involves continuance of drinking (if appropriate), mouth care and usual end-of-life care. Intervention 'B' involves continuance of drinking, mouth care, usual end-of-life care and CAH, that is, parenteral fluids. The fluid may be given intravenously or subcutaneously, the type will be dextrose saline (4% dextrose, 0.18% sodium chloride) and the volume will be dependent on weight. Participants will be assessed every 4 hours by the clinical team. The primary endpoint is the proportion of participants who develop delirium determined using the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale (using a cut-off score of ≥2). A mixed-effects logistic regression will be used to assess the difference in the odds of developing delirium between the interventions. Ethics and dissemination Ethical committee approval has been granted by the Brighton and Sussex Research Ethics Committee (REC) (main REC for the UK: reference—IRAS 313640), and by the Scotland A REC (REC for adults with incapacity in Scotland: reference—22/SS/0053-IRAS-317637). The consent process follows the Mental Capacity Act: if the patient has capacity, then consent will be sought in the normal way; if the patient does not have capacity, then a personal/nominated consultee will be approached for advice about the patient entering the study. The consent process is slightly different in Scotland. The results of the trial will be published in general medical/palliative care journals, and presented at general medical/palliative care conferences. Trial registration number ISRCTN65858561.


: 1. O-6-Deoxy-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-O-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-D-glucopyranose, O-6-chloro-6-deoxy-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-O-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-D-glucopyranose, O-6-bromo-6-deoxy-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-O-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-D-glucopyranose, and O-6-deoxy-6-iodo-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-O-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 leads to 4)-D-glucopyranose were prepared, taking advantage of the substrate specificities of Taka-amylase A and glucoamylase, and the action of Taka-amylase A on these substrates was investigated. 2. The Michaelis constant Km and the molecular activity ko were determined at 37 degrees C and pH 5.2 using the modified maltotrioses. The values of Km and ko decreased upon modification of maltotriose and those of ko/Km were in agreement with the comparative initial rates for the corresponding derivatives of phenyl alpha-maltoside at low substrate concentrations. This result suggested that a subsite of the enzyme may have a specific interaction with halogen atoms in the substrate. 3. All halogenomaltotrioses examined showed substrate inhibition at high substrate concentrations.


ABSTRACT The current research aims to address the concern of high attrition rate in MOOCs via exploring factors underlying learners' acceptance of MOOCs. Despite the plethora of studies on technology acceptance, few have discussed the role of time in technology acceptance. Given that time was reported as an important factor influencing learners' decision of MOOC completion/dropout in the previous studies, the current study is conducted to fill in the literature gap by extending technology acceptance model (TAM) with a new construct: Perception of Time. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the reliability and validity of the hypothesized model with data collected from Chinese university students. The results showed that the extended TAM could explain 45% of the variance in Chinese university students' MOOCs acceptance. Perception of Time did not directly associate with attitude and intention, but it was a significant predictor for perceived usefulness. Gender did not moderate the perception of time in explaining university students' MOOCs acceptance as expected. This study yields insights into the understanding of time' role in the acceptance of MOOCs, which contributes to the development of technology acceptance theory in educational context and adds value to MOOC teaching and learning practice.


In this thesis, several aspects of the relation between hand-preference and language lateralization were investigated by employing meta-analytic, neuroimaging and genetic techniques. To achieve this, we tested whether there is a difference between left- and right-handers with regard to spatial ability, verbal ability and schizotypal thinking through meta-analysis of the available literature. The possible link between handedness and cognitive function assumes a difference in cerebral function between left- and right-handers. This functional difference may result from the slightly higher prevalence of atypical (right-hemispheric and bilateral) lateralization that left-handers show in comparison to right-handers. To investigate the phenotypic and genotypic relation between handedness and language lateralization, we collected data from large, multigenerational families with multiple left-handers from a town in the Netherlands that used to be an island. By selecting for left-handedness, we aimed to enrich the sample for atypical lateralization. In this sample, we investigated the relation between degree of hand-preference and degree of language lateralization. We further performed a genetic linkage analysis of left-handedness and atypical language lateralization to find loci related to the two traits in the sample. Language lateralization was measured with functional transcranial doppler (fTCD). Before applying this device in our studies, we estimated the correlation between language lateralization indexes measured with fTCD and those measured with fMRI. Meta-analysis of the available literature demonstrated that left-handers show slightly lower spatial skills than right-handers. In a second meta-analysis it was shown that non-right and especially mixed-handers show higher schizotypy than right-handers. We confirmed that fTCD is a reliable technique to measure language lateralization by comparing it to fMRI. In our study of the relationship between degree of language lateralization and degree of hand-preference, it was demonstrated that the prevalence of right hemispheric and bilateral lateralization peaks in strong left-handers. This indicates that strong left-handedness is associated with an increased randomness in the development of cerebral lateralization. It is argued to be unlikely that such contrasting phenotypes are determined by a single genetic mechanism. Indeed, our subsequent linkage analysis of left-handedness and atypical lateralization did not show evidence of a major locus. Instead, both traits should be considered complex genetic traits. The results in this thesis show that handedness and language lateralization are not as related as has been assumed thus far.


In more recent years, customer lifetime value(CLV) has been a popular research topic in the field of customer relationship management. Many models, methods and approaches have been used to predict CLV. However, there are no readily available integrated guidelines for its prediction. This paper proposes an iterative approach for predicting CLV, which highlights the common causes of success and failure in terms of business performance management. An initial computer-assisted template is proposed for CLV prediction and related research.


This paper proposes institutional innovations to advance a transparent monitoring system for the environmental impacts from mineral development on the deep seabed beyond national jurisdictions managed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Using a literature review, ISA's regulations, and five cases of other environmental monitoring of the deep sea, this study observes that ISA's environmental monitoring system for exploration and exploitation currently lacks critical elements to facilitate transparency. Insufficient compliance reporting and review systems, as well as limited access to information by stakeholders, lower the system's effectiveness. ISA has not developed adequate mechanisms to support effective multinational collaboration in monitoring. The ISA monitoring system without these characteristics may not be sufficiently adaptive to allow detection and management of environmental changes in the deep seabed. This study suggests 15 institutional recommendations to ISA in order to enhance transparency for monitoring nodule mining in the Central Pacific deep seabed. Principal recommendations include establishing compliance review committees independent of ISA governing bodies, implementing collective monitoring and reporting by adjacent contractors, and reconsidering the centralized decision-making authority by the Secretary-General to improve confidentiality.


The subculture of street-level sex work including the social environment, drug use and abuse, and violence was examined. Personal interviews were conducted with 43 women involved in streetwalking prostitution. Data were analyzed using Phenomenological Descriptive Analysis (Colaizzi, 1978). Several participants reported developing emotional relationships and having children with clients, former clients, or pimps; some participants were married to men who pimped them. Supportive relationships with other streetwalkers were largely nonexistent; streetwalking constitutes a solitary business for most. The majority reported drug addiction, although less than half entered prostitution to support an already established drug habit. Financial need propelled many into the streets. Victimization and subjection to multiple forms of abuse were commonly reported but did not constitute justification for leaving the streets. Implications of this investigation are discussed.


In the practical design of a transmission cable, the characteristic impedance and the number of twists per meter in twisted cables are variables that are dependent on imperative conditions, with the disadvantage that these variables are strongly depending to each other. Cable manufacturing companies aim to provide customers' products with very well known physical characteristics. For this reason, a methodology to achieve accurate design of twisted pair cables based on the geometry of wires, before going to the manufacturing process is very desirable. In a previous paper, the deformations and irregularities that can occur in the twisted pair during the manufacturing process and their effects on the geometry of the twisted pair were studied by the authors. This paper describes an improved model for estimating the characteristic impedance of a twisted pair that allows an accurate electrical design. Two methods for a fast design of a cable, in agreement with the demanded specifications (characteristic impedance or number of twists per meter) are developed. Furthermore, a software program that automates all necessary calculations has been made. Thanks to the improved model, the design and production of a cable can be done faster, without the need of a big set of production samples. Results showed in this paper are a part of a larger research project carried out in association with the research and development department of a cable manufacturing company, and these results are being applied into the design department of this company.


FACTORS EFFECTING SURVIVAL OF TEETH WITH NONSURGICAL ROOT CANAL THERAPY INCLUDING A MULTI-STATE OUTCOME ANALYSIS Alex C. Moore, D.M.D. Marquette University, 2017 Objective: To study the factors effecting the survival of teeth with non-surgical root canal therapy (NS-RCT) and to compare the transitions between failure states for teeth treated with NS-RCT based on initial provider type. Methods: Insurance claims were analyzed for 438,487 initial NS-RCT procedures to determine the effect of provider type, patient age, tooth position, presence of post/core, and crown at 90 days on tooth survival. Kaplan Meier survival estimates were evaluated for 1, 3, 5, and 10 years and adjusted hazard ratios (aHR's) were calculated. A multi-state model with six transitions was created using the 'mstate' R package. Results: Overall survival was 98.2% at 1 year, 94.4% at 3 years, 90.8% at 5 years, and 82.8% at 10 years. Ten-year survival rates were 84.5% and 81.9% for teeth treated by endodontists and other providers, respectively. In the multiple regression analysis, significant differences in survival were found comparing NSRCT provider (other provider vs. endodontist, aHR 1.31 [1.27, 1.35]) and tooth location (molar vs. anterior, aHR 1.26 [1.21, 1.31]). Increasing age at NS-RCT was significantly associated with a greater hazard of extraction. Placement of core/post and crown within 90 days were each significantly associated with a reduced hazard of extraction (aHR = 0.74 [0.72, 0.76] and aHR = 0.53 [0.51, 0.54]). Most teeth treated by NS-RCT had no subsequent treatment interventions. Teeth that were retreated were more likely to be extracted than teeth that did not have such an intervention. Teeth were more likely to be extracted than retreated. If a tooth had a non-surgical retreatment and subsequently a surgical retreatment, then it was more likely that the surgical intervention occurred during the first year of treatment. Conclusion: Survival rates of NSRCT treated teeth are higher among teeth treated by endodontists, when a crown was placed within 90-days of NSRCT and among younger patients. NS-RCT failures are most likely to result in tooth extraction. When retreatment is performed, it is more likely to be non-surgical and retreatment in any form increases the likelihood for future extraction. NS-RCTs initially performed by non-endodontists also have a greater chance for non-surgical retreatment or extraction.


The situation of buildings degradation is very severe in many cities in the world. The case of a degraded building is studied in this article. The building becomes ruined because owners do not agree about what to do with the building and no one can use it without the consent of the others. Besides, time makes the building become with a lower value. After a long period of degradation, the question "what doing now?" is posed. Considering the situation of many degraded buildings, the present study aims to analyze a possible cause and work a situation of anti-commons concerning a building owned by several holders having each one exclusion rights. We use SWOT Analysis to build strategies for this anti-commons' real estate case. Then Fuzzy DEMATEL model is applied to understand the relations between strategies for a final decision. Conclusions allow understanding the relations between strategies and how they influence each other to get a final decision for this problem. For our case, we recommend a concrete strategy to the owners after evaluating the preferences of the decision makers.


End-point methods such as Linear Interaction Energy (LIE) analysis, Molecular Mechanics Generalized Born Solvent Accessible Surface (MM/GBSA) and Solvent Interaction Energy (SIE) analysis have become popular techniques to calculate the free energy associated with protein-ligand binding. Such methods typically use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to generate an ensemble of protein structures that encompasses the bound and unbound states. The energy evaluation method (LIE, MM/GBSA or SIE) is subsequently used to calculate the energy of each member of the ensemble, thus providing an estimate of the average free energy difference between the bound and unbound states. The workflow requiring both MD simulation and energy calculation for each frame and each trajectory proves to be computationally expensive. In an attempt to reduce the high computational cost associated with end-point methods, we study several methods by which frames may be intelligently selected from the MD simulation including clustering and address the question how the number of selected frames influences the accuracy of the SIE calculations.


The study uses a variant of the geocritical methodology combined with humanistic mining studies. It was pointed out that in Dante's poem there were numerous references to the realities of real space (the Alps and the Apennines, which, appearing as a separate part of the mountain world, in the poem at the same time constitute a kind of props room of mountain motifs, used in the construction of Purgatory Mountain). Also, the journeys of the heroes, Dante and his guide Virgil, can be perceived realistically as an actual journey, made in a difficult mountain terrain. It was specified in the realities of Hell, Purgatory Mountain, and Paradise. In this way, using specific Earth realities, Dante created a powerful vision largely made of mountain realities. Mount Purgatory, the target of Dante's ascent, created when Lucifer, thrown from the heavens, struck the depths of the Earth deep into its center, which changed the hemisphere and pushed up the land masses, throwing them over the surface of the ocean covering the southern hemisphere. Locating the Mount of Purgatory in the center of the southern hemisphere, and at the antipodes of Jerusalem, as a mountain rising on a small island from the vastness of the seas covering this part of the world, Dante used elements of the Muslim tradition (perhaps known to him) with its notions of a lofty, pyramidal shape, which is considered to be the holy Mount of Adam (2243 m) in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The poet, however, never once described the Purgatory Mountain as a whole, creating a vision of its enormity seen from under its steep walls, but he introduced into the poem numerous details about the surface of this mountain and how to climb it. He filled his abstract vision with real details. From the very first songs of Purgatory, the narrative runs in the order of the characters' ascent towards the summit Paradise. The work hypothesized that the famous poet Bismantova became the prototype of the Dante Mountain of Purgatory, such a judgment is almost universally approved. That Dante saw this mountain is certain: he was in Lunigiano and Casentino (Bismantova rises right next to it) in 1306, and certainly before 1315, at the time when Divine Comedy was being written. For the accuracy of this hypothesis, the shape of this vast rock mass (culmination in 1047), rising above the level of the surrounding valleys by about 400 m in height with almost vertical rock walls, is of great importance for the accuracy of this hypothesis. The peak landscape largely corresponds to the ideas of an ancient idyllic grove. These realities of the mountain landscape meant that the thought about them found literary expression in the pages of Dante's poem, which prompts me to share my opinion that the sight of the boatswain and his presence in it gave Dante a vision of the Purgatory Mountain as a "hybrid" creation, partially a description of a real landscape and in part a fantastic, syncretic vision based on elements of ancient literary tradition. The description of climbing this mountain leads us through a narrow chimney, overhang, and other rock formations, forming terraces in the structure of the mountain. The conclusion of the work are the words of Italian literary researcher Filippo Zolezzi, who wrote that "Mount Purgatory appears as an absolute ideal of a mountain, because on its top there is an earthly Paradise — a space of direct contact with the divine, hence even the most beautiful earthly mountains are merely a copy of them. However, the very fact that a poet — a man — to reach this summit, has to climb, climb, makes it an ideal prototype for mountain climbing".


Background and Objective: Curcumin (CUR), is an active ingredient isolated from Curcuma longa Linn. Although CUR has been described as a strong antioxidant, its effect on renovascular hypertension has not been investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of CUR on the reduction of blood pressure and oxidative stress status in renovascular hypertensive rats. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were underwent 2-kidney-1-clip (2K-1C) or sham operation. Three days after operation, 2K-1C and sham operated rats were recovered and divided into five groups (N=6/group). Group 1 and 2 are sham operated rats receiving propylene glycol (PG), a solvent of CUR, and CUR (100 mg/kg/day) continuously for 6 weeks, respectively, Group 3-5 are 2K-1C hypertensive rats receiving PG and CUR at doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg/day respectively, for six weeks. Blood pressure was measured weekly. Superoxide production in carotid arteries, plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and plasma protein carbonyl were assessed at the end of experimental period. Results: Chronic treatment with CUR significantly decreased blood pressure of the 2K-1C hypertensive rats (p<0.05). The levels of superoxide production and oxidative stress markers of hypertensive animals were also reduced after CUR treatment (p<0.05).  All parameters studied were not affected after CUR treatment in normotensive animals. Conclusion: Our data suggest that chronic treatment with CUR reduces blood pressure and oxidative stress in rats with renovascular hypertension. The plausible mechanisms might be attributable to the antioxidant property of CUR.


In design for forming, it is becoming increasingly significant to develop surrogate models of high-fidelity finite element analysis (FEA) simulations of forming processes to achieve effective component feasibility assessment as well as process and component optimizations. However, surrogate models using traditional scalar-based machine learning methods (SBMLMs) fall short on accuracy and generalizability. This is because SBMLMs fail to harness the location information available from the simulations. To overcome this shortcoming, the theoretical feasibility and practical advantages of innovatively applying image-based machine learning methods (IBMLMs) in developing surrogate models of sheet stamp forming simulations are explored in this study. To demonstrate the advantages of IBMLMs, the effect of the location information on both design variables and simulated physical fields is first proposed and analyzed. Based on a sheet steel stamping case study, a Res-SE-U-Net IBMLM surrogate model of stamping simulations is then developed and compared with a baseline multilayer perceptron (MLP) SBMLM surrogate model. The results show that the IBMLM model is advantageous over the MLP SBMLM model in accuracy, generalizability, robustness, and informativeness. This article presents a promising methodology in leveraging IBMLMs as surrogate models to make maximum use of information from stamp forming FEA results. Future prospective studies that are inspired by this article are also discussed.


The primary objective of this report is to develop a CUDA simulation framework (simCUDA) that effectively maps the existing application written in CUDA to be executed on top of standard multi-core CPU architectures. This is done by specifically annotating the application at the source level itself, and making the relevant changes required for the application to run in a similar and functionally equivalent manner on a multi-core CPU as it would run in a CUDA-supported GPU. The simulation framework has been developed using C++11 threads, which provides an abstraction for a thread of execution, as well as several classes and class templates for mutexes, condition variables, and locks, to be used for their management. As an extension to the simulation framework, the basic block sequence of execution on a per thread basis is also computed for analysis. This information can in turn be used to derive the basic block sequence of execution on a per warp basis, and thus emulate and replicate real-world behavior of a GPU.


When exercising in a cold environment, fluid losses can occur via sweat, cold induced diuresis and respiration but failure to replace lost fluid is common in the cold due to a blunted thirst response (Kenefick et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2004;36;1528–34). This study assessed voluntary fluid intake and measures of hydration status following moderate intensity exercise in the cold. Ten healthy males (age 22±2 years, mass 67.8±7.0 kg, height 1.77±0.06 m, VO2peak 60.5±8.9 ml.kg.min-1) completed two trials following familiarisation separated by 7–14 days. In each trial, subjects sat for 30 min before cycling at 70% VO2peak for 60 min in either 25.0±0.1°C, 50.8±1.5% RH (warm) or 0.4±1.0°C, 68.8±7.5% RH (cold). Subjects then sat for 120 min at 22.2±1.2°C, 50.5±8.0% RH. Ad libitum drinking was allowed during the exercise and recovery periods. Urine volume, body mass, serum osmolality and Na and K concentrations and sensations of thirst were measured at baseline, postexercise and after 60 and 120 min of the recovery period. Sweat loss was lower in the cold trial (0.48±0.15 l vs 0.96±0.18 l) (p<0.0001) but body mass losses over the trials were similar: 1.15±0.34% versus 1.03±0.26% for cold and warm trials respectively. More fluid was consumed in the warm trial (0.81±0.42 l) compared to the cold (0.50±0.49 l) (p=0.001) replacing 51±17 and 33±27% of the total fluid lost respectively (p=0.013). Cumulative urine output was greater in the cold trial (0.81±0.46 vs 0.54±0.31 l) (p=0.036). Serum osmolality, Na and K concentrations, thirst sensations and plasma volume changes were not different between trials (p>0.05). Postexercise serum osmolality was higher compared to baseline in the cold (292±2 vs 287±3 mOsm.kg-1, p<0.0001) and warm trials (288±5 vs 285±4 mOsm.kg-1; p=0.048). Voluntary fluid intake was less in the cold environment, however in both the warm and cold environment, ad libitum fluid intake, combined with fluid losses, resulted in similar changes in body mass.


Introduction: The main goal of Orthodontic treatment is to achieve optimal occlusion. To achieve this goal maxillary and mandibular tooth should be proportional in size. Hence the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the anterior tooth size discrepancy in three dental malocclusion groups. Material and Methods: It was a cross sectional study, which included 119 pretreatment casts (86 Male and 33 Female) of patients. Patients with fully erupted permanent anterior teeth in both arches were distributed into three dental malocclusion groups: Angle Class I(45), Class II(59) and Class III(15). The mesio-distal width of each tooth from right canine to left canine was calculated with a manual caliper on the study casts. Anterior tooth size (3-3) ratios were calculated by applying Bolton's formula. To compare the mean anterior tooth size ratios among the three malocclusion groups, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied. The results of the test were considered significant at p≤ 0.05. Results: The mean anterior tooth size ratios, in Class I patients were 1.34 mm, Class II patients were 1.39 mm and Class III patients were 1.91 mm. Comparison of anterior tooth size ratios among the three dental malocclusion groups showed insignificant difference (p=0.08). Comparison of anterior tooth size ratios between male and female patients in three malocclusion group were also found to be insignificant (p=0.06). Conclusions: Comparison of mean anterior tooth size ratios among the three dental malocclusion classes revealed insignificant results.


A 20-24 GHz, fully integrated power amplifier (PA) with on-chip input and output matching is realized in 0.18 mum standard CMOS process. By cascading two cascode stages, the PA achieves 15 dB small signal gain, 10.7% power added efficiency, 16.8 dBm output saturation power and high power density per chip area of 0.137 W/mm2, which is believed to be the highest power density to our knowledge. The whole chip area with pads is 0.35 mm2, which is the smallest one compared to all reported paper.


In this paper I investigate the vivid discussions among Muslim theologians and philosophers about the relationship of reason and religion from the 11th to the 14th centuries – which continue to be used as points of reference today. I argue that the idea of Islam as a religion which is in harmony with reason was one of the key postulates of the dominant thinkers of that period, regardless of their school of thought or their attitude towards literal or allegorical ways of understanding the Coran. In consequence, religion has been rationalized or even intellectualized to a high degree while philosophy in turn has been deeply coloured by religious images and concepts. Yet the understanding of religion as well as of reason and its instruments has been so heterogeneous that rationalization could bear very different, even conflicting meanings, thereby undermining the postulated harmony. In seven theses I foreground several striking similarities and differences between theologians and philosophers who diverge in their usage and understanding of reason as well as of the nature of religion.


In this study, aerodynamic forces on a bridge pylon are investigated by three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics using Large eddy simulation (LES) technology. The main objective is to identify the wind load parameters of the pylon and examine the accuracy of LES model applied to the bluff-body flows. The numerical results were compared with the available wind tunnel test results. Also, a comparison between using LES and Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the RNG model have been made. It is found that the LES model competes the RNG model in accuracy for predictions of aerodynamic forces on the pylon.


T he value of return on stock in mining companies keeps increasing annually during the research period of 2012 to 2014. The increase in return indicates that mining companies are able to either increase the profit or decrease the loss. Despite the increase in return, the Current Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Net Profit Margin, Return on Assets, and Total Asset Turnover fluctuate annually during the research period.  This study aims to determine the influence of Current Ratio (CR), Debt To Equity Ratio (DER), Net Profit Margin (NPM), Return on Assets (ROA) and Total Asset Turnover (TATO) to return stock in mining companies listed on the Stock Exchange at 2012-2014. T he sample contains mining companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the period 2012-2014 using purposive sampling. There are 30 companies that qualify as research samples. The analysis method used in this research is autocorrelation test, normality test, multiple regression analysis and analysis of kindness models. Based on the results of the study indicate that the Current Ratio (CR) has no effect on stock returns, Debt To Equity Ratio (DER) has no effect on stock return, Net Profit Margin (NPM) has positive effect on stock return but not significant, Return on Assets (ROA) does not effect on stock returns and Total Asset Turnover (TATO) does not effect on stock returns.


The need to revive indigenous languages in any society is germane. The place of a native language in a society, like Nigeria, where there are multi-ethnic nationalities with many languages, cannot be overemphasised. The fact remains that Nigerian indigenous languages can be veritable media to engender unity, cultural identity, and national pride in the people. They can also impact positive values in the children and youths, in addition to facilitating and sustaining national development. Thus, non-revival of indigenous languages in the Nigerian context means their gradual extinction. There have been attempts by successive governments to make the teaching and learning of indigenous languages compulsory in the Nigerian educational system. But, sadly, government has been paying lip-service to such policies, just as parents are not encouraging their wards to speak their mother tongue at home, to the effect that there have been no visible impacts. This paper examines the poor state of Nigerian indigenous languages and documents the initiative of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) to ameliorate the situation through the Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme (NILP) platform. The submission is that, if there is political will, on the part of government, to give vent to the implementation of the Language Policy, the situation will be ameliorated. Reviving the Use of Indigenous Languages in the Contemporary Nigerian Society: The National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) initiative Barclays Foubiri AYAKOROMA, PhD


The cycloaddition of CO2 to epoxides to form cyclic carbonates is very promising and does not generate any side products. Metal-free, heterogeneous organocatalysts offer an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional metal-based catalysts. Herein two triazine-based covalent organic frameworks (COF-JLU6 and COF-JLU7) were successfully synthesized under solvothermal conditions. The structural and chemical properties of COFs were fully characterized by using powder X-ray diffraction analysis, structural simulation, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 13C solid-state NMR spectroscopy, electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and nitrogen adsorption. The two COF materials combine mesopores, high crystallinity and good stability, as well as a large number of hydroxy groups in the pore walls. They possess a high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area up to 1390 m2 g−1 and a large pore volume of 1.78 cm3 g−1. The COF-JLU7 displays a high CO2 uptake of 151 mg g−1 at 273 K and 1 bar. Importantly, COF-JLU7 was found to be a highly effective catalyst to convert CO2 into cyclic carbonate through the cycloaddition reaction with epoxides under mild conditions. The effect of reaction parameters, such as reaction temperature, reaction time and CO2 pressure, on the catalytic performance was also investigated in detail. Moreover, the new framework-based catalyst can be recovered and reused five times without a significant loss of catalytic efficiency.


The purpose of this study is to estimate the elastic- and viscous-like properties of the human upper arm using the pushing method. Healthy male subjects put their upper arms horizontally on a table. Their arms were fixed to the table with tapes. An indenter was placed 1-2 mm over the upper arm. When the indenter was moved vertically with a robot arm, the displacement y of the indenter and the force f was measured. The relationship between the displacement y and the force f was modeled with an elastic component, a viscous component and the friction of the indenter using the simplex method. In the authors' model, an elastic coefficient k and a viscous coefficient d are expressed with a polynomials of the indentation depth x. The elastic coefficient and the viscous coefficient were well modeled with the third and the first order polynomials of the depth, respectively. The relationship between the elastic coefficient and the depth were independent of the indentation velocity. However, the viscous coefficient decreased with increasing indentation velocity.


A high prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis is observed in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).The aim of our study was to investigate the prevalence of bone loss, bone remodeling and risk factors in Tunisian patient with IBD.The study included 40 patients with IBD and 32 age- and sex-matched healthy controls subjects. All participants underwent bone densitometry by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry at the femoral neck and lumbar spine. Serum levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D), parathyroid hormone (PTH), osteocalcin(OC), and urinary degradation products of C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTXI) were measured in all participants to assess the bone metabolism status.Twelve (30%) patients were normal, 32.5% were osteopenic and 37.5% were osteoporotic. Osteoporosis was more frequent in IBD patients than controls (p=0.0001). Age and inflammation were associated with low bone mineral density (BMD). Mean calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase levels were similar in both groups. Median 25(OH) D levels were significantly lower in IBD patients compared with controls (p=0.0001). Median urinary CTXI levels were significantly higher in IBD patients compared with healthy controls (p=0.007). No significant differences between IBD patients and controls concerning the median serum OC and PTH levels were found.In our study, there is a high prevalence of low BMD in IBD patients and an increase in bone resorption without a change of bone formation. Low BMI and hypovitaminoses D were identified as risk factors for low BMD.


Study Design:A retrospective comparative study. Objective:The purpose of this study was to compare the stability and outcomes of a hybrid technique with those of a 3-vertebra corpectomy in the management of 4-segment cervical myelopathy. Summary of Background Data:Patients with primarily ventral disease and loss of cervical lordosis are considered good candidates for anterior surgery. Cervical corpectomy is commonly performed in patients with multilevel cervical myelopathy. Corpectomies including >3 vertebraes entail an extremely high risk of reconstruction failure. To avoid the need to perform a 3-vertebra corpectomy, we use a hybrid decompression and fixation technique. This hybrid technique is a technique to obtain optimum decompression and fixation in patients with multilevel cervical myelopathy. Methods:A total of 81 patients with multilevel cervical myelopathy who underwent 4-segment cervical fixation with a minimum 2-year follow-up were included. Results:The hybrid technique involved combining a plated 2-vertebra corpectomy and single-level discectomy with stand-alone cage fixation. This technique was performed in 39 patients, and the plated 3-vertebra corpectomy was performed in 42 patients. Nine patients (21%) who underwent the plated 3-vertebra corpectomy were treated with halo immobilization, but no patient in the hybrid group required this treatment (P=0.002). There were fewer instances of reconstruction failure in the hybrid group than in the 3-vertebra corpectomy group (0% vs. 10%, respectively; P=0.048) and fewer instances of C5 palsy (3% vs. 17%, respectively; P <0.0001). The incidence of postoperative C5 palsy was 25% for C3–C5 corpectomy, 19% for C4–C6 corpectomy, and 11% for C4–C5 corpectomy+C6–C7 discectomy. Conclusions:The hybrid technique has the following advantages over 3-vertebra corpectomy for 4-segment cervical fixation: a shorter graft bone and plate are required; the fixed segment has greater initial stability; postoperative external immobilization is simplified; and the risk of reconstruction failure and postoperative C5 palsy is reduced markedly.


Poster Presentation Purpose for the Program Early pregnancy loss (EPL) is a common pregnancy complication. Historically, surgical dilation and curettage in the operating room setting has been the standard of care for EPL. Evolving knowledge and research have led to a paradigm shift in which three alternatives have been recognized as safe and effective treatment options. Reviews of the research have concluded that women's preferences should be key determinants of management when one option is not medically superior to another. Miscarriage Management Training Initiative (MM‐TI) is an evidence‐based intervention designed to facilitate the woman‐centered approach to EPL by expanding the range of safe and effective options available, including the use of the manual vacuum aspirator (MVA), for office‐based management. Designed as a systems change approach, this intervention stresses training a cross‐section of primary care disciplines in hospital and clinical settings. Proposed Change Training registered, advance practice nurses, and allied healthcare staff to provide comprehensive care for EPL in an office‐base setting has the potential to reduce costs, provide evidence‐based and community standard services, and expand access, especially for underserved women. By practicing patient‐centered care, it also has the potential to address the myriad of emotions women experience after EPL. Implementation, Outcomes, and Evaluation The MM‐TI was first implemented with physicians, nurses, and allied healthcare staff in family medicine residency programs in Washington State. Our primary outcome was self‐reported practice of MVA after the training. The evaluation demonstrated a significant program effect (preintent and postintent to practice MVA, controlling for individual and site‐level confounders). The evaluation also showed a significant correlation between clinical and administrative support staff knowledge of MVA and the physician intent to practice MVA. The MM‐TI has now expanded to other states and broadened the scope to include obstetrician‐gynecologists, nurse managers, nurse–midwives, nurse practitioners, and allied healthcare staff. Our preliminary qualitative assessment with stakeholders in Washington State pointed to the importance of clarifying scope of practice for miscarriage management and for MVA usage in particular. Implications for Nursing Practice Nurses play key roles in caring for women who experience EPL. These roles include providing direct services for EPL, education, counseling, systems management, training staff, assisting the healthcare provider, and providing patient‐centered care.


This paper presents a distributed coverage algorithm for a network of mobile agents. Unlike previous work that uses a simple gradient descent algorithm, here we employ an existing deterministic annealing (DA) technique to achieve more optimal convergence values since typical coverage objective functions contain many local minima. We replicate the results of the classical DA algorithm while imposing a limited-range constraint to sensors. As the temperature is decreased, phase changes lead to a regrouping of agents, which is decided through a distributed task allocation algorithm. While simple gradient descent algorithms are heavily dependent on initial conditions for such non-convex coverage objective functions, annealing techniques are generally less prone to this phenomena. The results of our simulations confirm this fact, as we show in the manuscript.


A prescreening program including microbiological and cytological assays was employed in search of potential cancerostatic antibiotics in crude extracts of mushrooms. The microbiological tests based on agar diffusion techniques consist of prophage induction test and BIP-test. All active compounds selected by these microbiological models are potential inhibitors of nucleic acid metabolism. Cytological assays on leukemia L 1210 cells have been carried out by microscopic examination and by evaluation using an electronic particle counter. Activity was expressed as decrease of the number of single cells caused by agglutination or lysis of cells, changes in cell surface area, dye exclusion, and increase of cell volume. A wide variety of mushrooms was demonstrated to exhibit interesting activities in some of these screening systems. The influence of primary metabolic products of mushrooms on microbiological models was studied additionally. In vivo assays have not yet been accomplished.


Background: It is now widely acknowledged that pain acceptance predicts a wide range of functional outcomes in chronic pain patients. Whilst there has been considerable research into individual factors that contribute to acceptance, little is known about the impact of social relationships on this process.
Aims: This thesis aims to explore how spouse's beliefs about pain, and their responses to patients when in pain, impact on patient acceptance. Second, the role of catastrophic thinking and acceptance will be explored in relation to psychological distress.
Method: A cross-sectional survey design was used with 61 patients and their partners recruited at a specialist chronic pain service. Patients completed the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire, the Pain Catastrophising Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in addition to measures of pain severity, functional disability, and socio-demographic information. Partners completed the spouse version of the Pain Catastrophising Scale which explores their beliefs about their partner's pain.
Results: Both depressive and anxious symptoms were common in this sample, with 49% and 58% respectively experiencing at least mild symptoms. Pain catastrophising and acceptance scores were significantly correlated with psychological distress, functional disability and pain severity. After adjusting for confounders, the CPAQ was a significant predictor of depression but not anxiety. Pain catastrophising was a significant predictor of both depression and anxiety. The addition of spouse catastrophising significantly improved the model for the prediction of anxiety. Patient and spouse catastrophising scores were both significant independent predictors of acceptance after adjusting for confounders. There was a significant effect of the interaction between patient and spouse catastrophising on acceptance, such that when patient catastrophising was low, low catastrophising in spouses was associated with greater acceptance, but when patient catastrophising was high, catastrophising in spouses had no effect. Neither the CPAQ total score nor its subscales were significantly correlated with spouse responses to pain.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that spouse catastrophising can impact on both patient acceptance and psychological distress. Understanding a spouse's beliefs about their partner's pain may be an important factor in achieving greater acceptance in patients.


The application of shunted piezoelectric elements to provide passive structural damping is investigated by means of a series of experiments performed in the Purdue Annular Cascade Research Facility. An array of piezoelectric elements is bonded to an airfoil in the stator row. This airfoil is excited in a chordwise bending mode by the wakes generated by an upstream rotor. As the wakes drive the airfoil vibrations, the piezoelectrics experience a strain and in response produce an electric field. Tuned electrical circuits connected to the piezoelectrics as shunts dissipate this electrical energy, with multiple shunting techniques utilized. This electrical energy dissipation and the corresponding reduction in the airfoil mechanical energy result in a reduction in the magnitude of the resonant vibrations.


the present epidemic of influenza. This advice has allayed much of the panic that was arising and so has helped me by reducing the large number who have sought my advice, and has facilitated my treating of others by telephoned advice, notices in my surgery waiting-rooms, etc. Thus my visits have been kept within normal limits for the time of year, and I have been able to give adequate attention to those patients who have appeared to need a visit. I understand some doctors have been visiting up to 50 patients a day. This, to my mind, ensures that those who really need a little time spent on them cannot receive it, and also that the doctor will be so exhausted that his work will suffer and he may well become ill himself. Had those doctors made use of the advice of the Ministry and of the local M.O.H., and passed it on, modified according to circumstances, to their patients, they might have saved themselves from exhaustion and been in better condition to treat those patients who really needed attention.-I am, etc.,


To study the structural organization and histogenesis of the cardiac muscle tissue in the walls of human caval and pulmonary veins, the heart was examined in 3 human embryos (at weeks 6-7 of development) and 20 fetuses (at weeks 9-10, 16, 19, 22 and 24 of development), as well as segments of caval and pulmonary veins of adult men and women (n = 50) located at various distances from the heart. The methods of light and electron microscopy were used in this work. To obtain the isolated cells from the walls of caval and pulmonary veins, the method of tissue alkaline dissociation was used. An immunohistochemical study with the monoclonal antibodies against cardiac troponin T was performed. It was found that the cardiomyocytes in humans were located in the middle and outer tunics of caval and pulmonary veins, where they formed thick layers. In the pulmonary veins of the adult humans, cardiac muscle fibers did not reach the intrapulmonary areas, in the inferior vena cava their layer did not extend beyond the pericardium, in the superior vena cava, its length was 2.5-3.0 cm. The formation of the pulmonary vein orifices occured by sequential inclusion of the wall of the common pulmonary vein, and later--of the right and left pulmonary veins into the wall of the left atrium. During the formation of the orifices of the caval veins, the gradual inclusion of the wall of the venous sinus in the wall of the right atrium was observed, resulting in caval veins opening directly into the cavity of the right atrium. The veins studied were referred to the veins of the muscular type with the strong development of muscular elements containing the myocardial component.


Although first-line therapy for bronchial asthma has changed over the past decade to anti-inflammatory medication such as inhaled corticosteroids and cromolyn with possible addition of beta-agonists, theophylline is still useful and therefore widely used. However, several studies have raised serious questions regarding its efficacy in acute asthmatic exacerbations. These studies, the narrow therapeutic range of the drug, the frequency of side effects and interactions with common drugs, and individual variation in clearance and metabolism, have prompted its reevaluation in the management of asthma. Therapeutic serum levels of theophylline are between 10 to 20 mcg/ml. Most adults achieve these concentrations with daily slow-release oral theophylline preparations, 200-400 mg (approximately 10 mg/Kg) twice a day. However, when such a patient presents to the emergency room (ER) in an asthmatic attack, immediate intravenous theophylline is often given, regardless of maintenance treatment. Since the rationale for this common therapeutic approach has been challenged, the current study was undertaken. Serum theophylline levels were measured in 23 consecutive asthmatics presenting to the ER in an acute attack. 15 (68%) had therapeutic levels (above 10 mcg/ml) and 2 had toxic levels (above 20 mcg/ml), prior to receiving the standard intravenous theophylline dose given for an attack. These data indicate that most patients with bronchial asthma on oral maintenance theophylline do not require additional intravenous theophylline when in an attack. It probably will not benefit them and may even induce serious theophylline toxicity.


Incinerator ash was investigated for its potential use as a replacement for sand and cement in concrete interlocking bricks. The physical characteristics of the raw materials were examined. Two sets of mixes were prepared. For the first set, sand and water quantities were fixed while incinerator ash was used at 0% to 100% replacement by weight for cement in steps of 10%. In the second set, incinerator ash was used at 0% to 100% replacement by weight for sand while cement and water quantities was fixed. The mixing proportions for cement, sand and water were 1:3:0.7, respectively. Compressive strength and leachability tests were performed on the specimens. Results showed that the replacement of sand by incinerator ash up to 40% exhibited higher compressive strength than the control mix (0% incinerator ash) after 28 days curing. Maximum compressive strength of 33.33N/mm2 was obtained after 28 days curing using using 20% incinerator ash substitution for sand. Replacement of cement by incinerator ash up to 20% exhibited higher compressive strength than the control mix. Compressive strength of 28.2 N/mm2 was achieved after 28 days curing period using a 20% ash substitution for cement. Leaching of heavy metals (Pb and Cd ) present in the ash was observed in concentrated nitric acid.